Thanks Krusticlese.
I'll even go a little further and mention that I had even discussed most of my teams strengths with you before playing, so I don't think anything really caught you by surprise either.

Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you publicly for those games. Without them, I don't think I could have written this article. And you were certainly patient when playing against me. It couldn't have been much fun sitting there while I thought out and took 18 actions a turn.
Maybe next time you can play the team, and I'll play Galactus.

As for 1800 and 10 points, hmmm, what do you have up your sleave?

*cough*cough*Nova Blast*cough*


...What?

The only problem I see iss that when Galactus is on his Pulse Wave click, he basically turns off stealth for his opponents, as well ### all their pretty defenses. 1 to 3 clicks of damage will render many of your support staff useless and rob them of Perplex and Probability Control.
Round 1, I move up next to your forces and bash your most powerful piece.
Round 2, Pulse Wave everyone.
Round 3, Repeat if desired.

I like the article, but what made you decide to review it at only 1800 points? Our venue has never run an 1800 point tournament, but we see a 600 point one every so often. And there have been Galacti at the tournaments. In one tournament we saw two players bring him. I also think that Galactus is easier to beat at the 1800 point level than he is at 600 points. In 1800 points you have access to the bigger guns and many more actions per turn. Also access to older LEs makes it much easier. Just perplex up LE Annihilus and LE Doctor Doom and single target pulse wave him down for six and six.

The best way I have found for defeating Galactus is to take rookie Taskmasters, add taunt and ICWO and keep Galactus stuck wishing he could hit them. If you place them in the center of a small rooftop on an object then Galactus can neither base or shoot them. Since the only legal actions he can take have to be moving towards or attacking him, he cannot attack anyone else on your force or run away and win on points. With Taskmaster's 11 attack value, ICWO and copying 2000 AD team from Johnny Alpha he can have a respectable chance of hitting Galactus, just be sure to add probability control. The trick is to make Galactus chase the first Taskmaster. With a few TK and a taxi to move him to the rooftop this can be done. As long as you can consistantly taunt Galactus he cannot take any actions. This leaves him free to be attacked by the rest of your force at your leisure.

Another tactic I have used is a screen of Mary Jane pogs or moloids. By setting up your pieces too close for Galactus's base to fit in between, you can keep Galactus from being able to base your important figures with a tight screen of useless ones. The benefit to Mary Jane is if he hits her he'll take Mystics damage. This really only works if your entire team is stealthed, and requires the use of V Shade, who is the only stealthed mystic I can think of.

Matsu_Mike

That is a clever idea, but keep in mind that Taunt is limited to a range of 6. And since G can move 20 squares, there's a very ~small~ likelihood that he'll ever be in range of taunt.

Plus, he only has to ~attempt~ to move next to the taunting figure. So he can move for one part of his comsmic multi-attack action, and then attack with the remaining 2 actions.



RE: Galactus TA / Pushing / Disbanded BFC -

The mechanic that allows Galactus to act every turn is because he is a Big Fig (see Sentinel and Sinestro.) The mechanic that allows him to push without taking damage is the Power Cosmic Team Ability (see LE Surfer and Nova.)

So if Disbanded is in play, Galactus can still act every turn, but he will suffer push damage.

However, to the person that said this will hurt Galactus, in all likelyhood, it will hurt your team more. Keep in mind that he can move all the way across the board, attack multiple targets, and then move all the way back! So next turn he can either clear, or if you extend your team all the way to him, he can take all 3 action against you in one turn; dealing a potential of 21 clicks of damage, and only taking 1 click for pushing. Disbanded probably won't hurt him nearly as much as it will hurt any other team.

I thought Galactus ignored hindering terrain

I was almost going to say that Power Dampening Field would be a decent counter to Galactus, but then I realized that it’s probably the opposite. Galactus’ damage would be capped at 3, but you wouldn’t be able to deal more than a single click to him at a time. However, with both Psychic Blast and Exploit Weakness, Big G will still ignore damage reducers, and will deal out 3 clicks of damage per hit while only taking one at a time himself.

walls are blocking terrain. Also, Force Galactus can't see through stealth, so in that regard he doesn't ignore hindering terrain either. (though it doesn't hinder him for movement.)


@ Phantom, great point about Power Dampening field.
I think the person that suggested it was intending to use Super Strength and Blades against G, but that will only go so far. Power Dampening also wouldn't help against G's tripple target Energy Explosion, where the splash damage can still add up.

This should be an interesting article. I have seen people play against Galactii before, at a varity of different point levels and it always ends in a win for the Galactus team. Either the opposing force never gets any kind of traction of Big G and is totally wiped out, or the opposing team does a good job, gets some important early hits, and is then wiped out when Big G hits his Pulse Wave clicks. At the 1800 point level it goes sort of like this. Galactus hits his Pulse Wave, uses first action of turn to move near his enemies, and can usually get at least half the survivors in range with his massive base and range. Pulse Wave the other 2 actions. His AV is so high he doesn't miss, Pulse Wave ignores Stealth, Mystics, and PC so he hits everyone for 6. Most figs die, others are no longer a threat to the Devourer of Worlds. The next turn he moves to the next group and repeats. The KEY to beating Big G IMHO is to know his dial well, get him almost, but not quite at his PW clicks, rest, and then use you 18 actions per turn to hit him hard enough to blow past them. You simply cannot allow him to have PW at the start of your turn. It can be hard to pass up a good attack, especially if you think it might actually hit for big damage, but if he's close to PW and you cannot take him past it for sure, wait until next turn. To do otherwise is SUICIDE.

Since MM, darkness really limits what Galactus can do. In a tourny, he can only play Ordinary day once. Now, with deep shadows, a Batman/ Crossgen/ Mystic/ wildcard team can hold their own against the Big G on all point levels.

Looks like I submitted too soon.

Anyway, the main thing about Darkness and Deep Shadows is the reduction of range to 6. That means he can only Pulse wave for a range of 3. That really limits the amount of damage he is dealing to the team as a whole at one time.

With all due respect, I really think you are misinterpretting the rules, azs. According to the force Galactus rules, Galactus ignores pushing damage (making no reference to the TA). Meanwhile, it says nothing about him being immune to Outwit until the very end where the TA is described. Taking those two facts into account, it seems to me that being able to ignore pushing damage is inherent to Galactus himself and not a result of his TA. If he really did take pushing damage when the TA is deactivated, then the rules should not say that ignores damage, anyone who can read the TA description could figure that out (like they can figure out that he is immune to Outwit).

AZS said-
"Plus, he only has to ~attempt~ to move next to the taunting figure. So he can move for one part of his comsmic multi-attack action, and then attack with the remaining 2 actions."

The FAQ for taunt says - If a character affected by taunt is given an action, it must be one that satisfies the condition of Taunt.

This should mean that Galactus has to move towards Taskmaster who is one square away from the edge of elevated terrain on an object. Since Galactus's base is too big to fit on the rooftop he cannot base Taskmaster. So his next action must be one that satisfies taunt as well- which would be a move of zero action. So Galactus would not be able to attack as the only piece he can attack that turn is Taskmaster who is safely hidden in stealth.

The trick is getting Taskmaster set up for this... But enough TK and taxis can do it. Especially if you have 18 actions to do it with.

Matsu_Mike

I heard that if you had more than 32 figures, you were allowed to use squares outside your starting area, but I can't verify the truth of that.

I read that Blades doesn't bypass Power Dampening Field, but superstrength does. Still, it'd be possible to Pulse Wave him for three.

And as for Incapacitate, is Galactus immune? I know the big figures Sentinel and Sinestro Construct are.

Hmm, good article, Az. Interesting read if nothing else. I get so many mixed messages when it comes to Galactus that I don't know what to believe.

I think Taunt was amended to say that the figure had to make thier best effort to move towards (or attack) the figure. If Galactus can neither move, nor attack him, then he has satisfied the conditions of taunt.

However, this is more of an argument about taunt than about Galactus, and I still think that the limit of 6 range for taunt will make it moot. Why would Galactus ever move into range of Task Master to be taunted in the first place? And since the key trick in this is for TM to be on a certain rooftop, then he can move to use the trick either. And thus he just sits there wondering why nobody will play with him.


@Normalview:
You could be right, I don't know. Maybe the real answer is FAQed somewhere.
To the best of my understanding, the Power Cosmic TA grants one thing (Imunity to Outwit and 'willpower') and being a big fig grants something else (the ability to continuously act).
Those two abilitys may have been consolidated in the Galactus rules wording, but I'm pretty sure they're seperate in Dark Phoenix (which could be the clarified version of the rules).

Either way, I still think Galactus has the advantage when Disbanded is in play, because he can still make his Cosmic Multi-Attack. (Move over to your side of the board, KO someone, move all the way back to his side.)