~ I do it for ownership purposes too. I put 'em on everything except doubles. It also helps to identify them during a match if we're both using the same piece - say, a rookie Destiny - because they're on the top.

Actually using Vaisher in the manner described on the first turn wouldnt help any at all. Cyborg could still pulse wave , doing a click to every figure adjacent to him and putting the Con's on their sweet spot. one of them boosts itself and attacks , then the other could do this as well. While it is "tying" them up it is not stopping them from using their perplex where it is needed. I think that Vanisher would be better suited to be in front of the Con's , blocking their LOF and making them waste their perplex on them selves to try and eliminate Vanisher. Once Cyborg Pulses his is also worthless being "stuck" behind the "girl" parade, so he wont Pulse again , since that would also defeat the Con's effectiveness. All in all a wonderful article webhead.

as soon as Vanisher bases Cyborg, he cannot pull off a ranged attack, which is what PW is.

In addition, Spy Master, if Vanisher is on front of the Cons he would suffer from the PW as well, and the con artists could dispatch him with ease:

Connie: What we got here, girls?

Carla: Some old perv in a trenchcoat.

Sarah: Hit 'im wif yo shoe, Cawnie!

Vanisher: Slilence, harlots! Cease your prattle lest I...vanish you.

Sarah: Cawla, help Cawnie out. Hit him in the teef.

First entrant in the "Wishful Thinker of 2006" contest

Once they go back on their word the flood gates of unhappy players would open.

Since WK still allows all figures in unrestricted play that have not gone back on their word about banning figures. House rules allow venues/judges that have issues with certain figures the ability to "ban" them.

I do not see why WK should make this rule.

Ultimate con artist killers!

BOOMERANG V
CLINT BARTON LE
BLIZZARD R

Isn't the PULSWAVE a range attack? Why is cyborg based with 3 conartist and doing a pulsewave? Normally, you can't pulswave if you are based with another based figure, right? Correct me if I am wrong.

You cannot make ranged attacks when adjacent to opposing figures. So cyborg can make a ranged combat attack when he's next to those con artists, since their friendly to him.

More like a 7 to 8 percent chance...3....

Mr. Savage

Right. Again, this isn't something you'll be able to pull off all the time, but it is an option. Throwing a tie-up fig into your opponents back row turn one can really throw off their game plan.

Well thats funny... how many of these Cops teams have won tournaments ? So maybe they get hosed... they werent there to begin with

I'm just glad that the board now has some content that entertains and informs me every day. i used to hate coming here three days in a row and finding nothing new. now this is a daily site for me. Thank you Realms, spidy and all the others for keeping me inerested. keep em coming.

Webhead's Memory of the History of Perplex is close but slightly off. This is really how it went:

1> Somewhere around January of 2003 or late in 2002 Wizkids announced that there was a cheap 11 point perplexer coming out in Xplosion. Within hours of reading this announcement posts began flying around that this would ruin the game and possibly replace Firelord as the number one most abused piece. I know this to be true because I was one of the people who started posting this. (don't know if I was the first, but I was certainly in the first wave of complainers.)

2> March 2003 Xplosion was released, and little plastic street walkers started hitting HeroClix maps in bunches. HeroClix hadn't released the "Vice Cop" figure yet, so there was no stopping them. Illicit activities were running rampent on every HeroClix street corner.

3> April 2003 some dork posted a fairly famous (13 thousand reads), thread here on HCRealms called "Test your Might" ( http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...est+your+Might ). In this thread not 2 but a single pulse waver was used to activate 15 Con Artists who in turn used a shortboarding example to demonstrate some serious shortcomings in the rules. These being the perplex rules on the whole, Shortboarding, and the ability to attack your opponent on the first turn before they could put up any kind of defense for themselves or run for cover.

4> In the next FAQ Wizkids addressed 2 of these three problems. Which was not really much of "solution".

First Strike problem - First turn attack was such a problem that Wizkids made a rule against it. There were many ways and still are of attacking across the map even lengthwise on the first turn with devistating effect. Rather than fixing the rules that allowed first turn attacks Wizkids made the rule that attacking your opponent's starting area was illegal. This was not a very elegant solution, it didn't fix the problems it just put a band-aid over them.

Short boarding - Short Boarding was also made illegal. This was a good rule change regardless of it seeming a bit reactionary.

Perplex - Wizkids refused to aknowledge that Perplex was a problem. Many people were posting that there was no problem with perplex , but rather accused Pulse Wave of being the problem. (I'll come back to this point in a minute.)

5> After a Looooooong time, with players having the game soured by Con Artist abuse, Wizkids finally made another sad attempt at fixing thier mistake with "the rule of 3". I don't know who came up with the rule of 3, but the idea was one of the more popular ones discussed on HCRealms prior to Wizkids adopting it. It was not a good solution. (More later.)

6> Wizkids announce "Set retirement", and many people thought "Cool, the reign of the Con Artist is finally over." But that was not to be, as the Con Artist found it's way onto the spurs of the Universe set, and one of the biggest problems in the game could have been cured...at least for restricted play...but it wasn't.

7> A Wizkids rep, I believe it was Brother Magnito addmitted that a mistake was made at Wizkids when the Con Artist was included in the Universe set. They had intentionally meant to retire her, but someone made a mistake and she got put on the Universe mold and it was not noticed until it was "Too Late" and she was already in the production cycle.

I think the above is a more accurate account of the history of the Con Artist. Now on to the problems with Perplex...

The Problem with Perplex -

Perplex was first introdused in HeroClix in the first DC set. I suspect the reason it wasn't thought of as a problem back then was because it wasn't a "glaring problem". There was no universe mixing allowed at that time, and a bigger problem still existed over in the Marvel side that overshadowed the effects of Perplex in the DC side of things. That problem was "Firelord". Probably a more accurately it was "Firelord and Black Panther", but Firelord got most of the attention because...well...he was rediculously powerful for his points under the rules back then.

Then along came the Con Artist on the Marvel side of things and the problems with Perplex became very appearent. And it goes like this:

1 point of perplex, is highly versitle. And it can be used to modify things every turn without the use of an action. Also it can be used to modify "damage" (A number which generally pretty small and is probably the most important number on a figure's dial). There are a bunch of figures who only deal 1 click of damage. Perplex offers a way for these figures to Double their damage...and this all from the safety of 10 squares away. In most of it's uses, and probably it's most effective use, perplex represents 1 extra click of damage delt to the opposing team Every turn for 11 points. Let's do some math:
Let's call the average game of HeroClix a 300 point game. Because of the whole action thing, basically most pieces move every other turn, so on the average you're using 150 points worth of figures to attack your opponent every turn.

How much damage do you normally deal to your opponent each turn? If you manage to attack with KC Superman on a turn (and BTW he costs way more than 150 points) he deals 7 clicks of damage. You're not going to be able to attack every turn for 7 clicks of damage, because he costs too much to have 2 of him on your team......but just for arguement's sake, let's cut KC Superman's cost down by 115 points and say he costs 150 points and you were playing two of him. Okay so for 150 points you're inflicting 7 clicks of damage per turn. Which amounts to 1 click of damage per 21 build points. (and remember here that figure is even based on me giving you a 115 point discount....the reality here is worse than this example) Well for 11 points the Con Artist represents 1 extra click of damage you could inflict on your opponent. This is nearly double the effective cost of the 115 point discounted KC Superman. Without the discount KC Superman's value is really closer to 1 damage per 38 build points. Making the Con Artist's damage to build point ratio around three and a half times more potent than KC Superman. And again the Con Artist's effects can be delt every turn, and from a relatively safe distance. The results of this math is: "Perpex is Way too powerful for it's point cost". It is highly versitile, rarely does a turn go by when you can't find some use for perplex. Perplex and Outwit are two powers which you can almost always find a use for every turn.
No other powers in the game gets used this much. As an extra bonus, perplex is a horrible model for what it's supposed to represent. The whole idea of "perplex" is a "negative effect that should be put on opposing figures", but that's not how perplex gets used in HeroClix. Over 95% of the time Perplex gets used to augment teammates and doesn't even target opposing figures. This was a horrible model of this comic book power.

The rule of 3 came into effect because it was obvious that multiple perplex was out of balance. Well if a single point of perplex was in balance, then multiples of it wouldn't be a problem. You don't hear people complaining that the Hydra Team ability is out of balance. Multiple Hydras aren't ruining games. That's because that TA is balanced. So multiples of it aren't out of balance either. 1 point of Perpex all by itself is a problem, multiple perplex just magnifies the problem to the point where it's obvious it's a problem.

Pulse wave is not the problem with perplex. Perplex on a con artist can be used on turn 2 (and every turn thereafter for the rest of the game) without pulse wave. Just by pushing her.

For Perplex to be fixed properly, the rules for perplex need to be changed. For comic realism's sake, it needs to not be a power that is used to enhance team mates. And for game balance sake, it needs to not be able to effect "delt damage". The Damage value is such a small number that a single point of perplex make too profound of a change to it.