Welcome to the newest, and one of the most ambitious set of games by Gargantua and I. The Year Without Avengers, which will run parallel to The Year Without the Justice League, is a set of games set to span a year. We imagine it with 12 games total, the first 2 to go simultaneously, the final to be a big showdown and everything is between to just be ....fun. These games have little rules to them, except that the winner of each game banks a bonus 10 pts to use in the final towards a character or feats. Otherwise we're real loose here, planning this to use creatively for different kind of games set up (like our Crazy 8s games, where rolling 8 or 9 involves exchanges of characters). Since our characters are lost outside of time so to speak, we can have any Avenger play an Avenger or 'alternate' choices where Cyclops is a member or the Joker has joined the JLA. On towards the fun!.

Game 3 here, which I call "The Many Faces of Hank Pym". It's really kind of an excuse to figure out which of his figures is best. It's a 400 pt game where 4 versions of Hank are placed next to 4 of his foes and make it duke it out. It's strictly mano-a-mano until a figure falls, then they can move to assist a partner.

Wins out of 4 games (two Avenger, two JLA). Gargantua: 2, flyingicarus: 2

Marvel 2 is the map, I get initiative on the pieces on the upper part of the map, Gargantua on the lower:

Ant-Man V E21
Giant-Man (M & M) T4
Giant-Man (Av) (whom I'll call Goliath) E4
Yellowjacket V T21

There's nothing but smoke and loud, industrial noise. Then he wakes up.

"Where am I? Where the hell am I?". Quickly he sees himself laid across the ground atop a building. To most he's known as Yellowjacket, a stalwart-sometime member of the mighty Avengers. "This can't be good," he adds.

"I'll say it isn't," a voice behind him says. It's his own voice, as the size-growing Goliath, "I'm you, aren't I?'.

"No," Giant-Man says to another Hank Pym, "I'M you."

Ant-Man buzzes behind both giants, "Boys, let's not get too angry here. Let's find out what is going on."

Yellowjacket speaks up, "What's going on is that someone is playing with us. You are all me at some point in my semi-illustrious superhero career. We've been plucked out of time or something. I know I can figure this out."

"Of course you can. You're us," Giant-Man says.

"Come on, Hanks," Yellowjacket jokes, "Follow me. Get me to a lab and I'll get to the bottom of this."

"I'm with you, YJ. Me and my an---". Suddenly Ant-Man vanishes.

"Ant-Man!" Giant-man yells, "Where'd he g---?".

"Giant-Man? This is crazy!" Goliath says, and he too, is gone.

"Crazy, indeed," Yellowjacket says. And just as the last of the Hank Pyms, Goliath, disappears, a strange force appears right next to Yellowjacket.

1. V Ultron-16 E20
2. V Whirlwind T5
3. LE Yellowjacket (IC) E5
4. V Atlas T20

Will we be placing objects?

So how are we going to work this? You start with the pieces on the upper part, then I go with my lower pieces, then with my upper pieces, then you go with your lower pieces?

"Hey, Yellowjacket. I'm called Atlas. Thanks to your Pym particles, I can grow just as big as you. And now I'm going to pound you one."

"Great," Hank said. "Well size isn't everything. And I'm betting I've got the skill to get the upper hand over you."

"Whether you're Ant-Man or Giant-Man, you've put me away a few too many times. You're going to get it this time. You've got Whirlwind's word on that."

"You again?" Giant-Man asked. "How many times do I have to put you in jail before you realize you're nothing but a loser with a dumb costume."

"What's wrong with my costume?"

"I've stolen your costume and I've stolen your name," the tiny female Yellowjacket buzzed around the towering Goliath. "I'm a better Yellowjacket than you ever were."

"What's that?" Goliath asked. "If you're saying something, I can't understand you. I'm getting nothing but a buzz."

"Grrrr," Yellowjacket growled in frustration.

"Hello father," the robot said. "I have come back home to you to kill you."

"Funny," Ant-Man said. "You'd think if I fathered a robot, I'd remember something like that."

"That's right. This is you before you created me. A pity. It's less satisfying
that way, but no matter. After I dispose of you, I will deal with the others."

"But if you kill me before I create you, wouldn't that mean you'd cease to exist."

"We will just have to test that theory, won't we?"

Let's place objects first. Since we both get initiative let's each get one ho and one lo.

HO T22, LO T3

Once you place your objects I get first crack on the upper games.

Then you start with the lower games, then upper....

My second turn starts me with lower, then upper and we go that way every time. Make sense?

BTW you may want to begin thinking of your next JLA game, I should imagine this won't last long.

HO S10, LO E13

I've got a few ideas for the next game. Just trying to decide which of them to use. I'll try to narrow them down soon, so that you can start thinking about teams too.

Yeah, just lemme know.

Alright, since I get first moves on the upper levels at least, here goes:

Giant-Man on Whirlwind. Needs 7, rolls 7. He's junk already..maybe this idea is flawed.

Giant-Man (Goliath) vs. YJ. Needs 11, rolls 5. He will outiwt YJ's incap.

This is probably a flawed concept but it will be short regardless. Also as we're playing it (where after this turn we each take a complete turn for all characters) there is no pushing clicks. Everyone gets a turn each round.

Ant-Man V E21
Giant-Man (M & M) T4
Giant-Man (Av) (whom I'll call Goliath) E4
Yellowjacket V T21

"Get away from me, Yellowjacket, I've got bigger fish to fry. It will probably take all four of us to make a dent on Ultron," Goliath says.

"Maybe," she replies, "But you'll have to make me. Nah na na na na na!".

Despite his strength he simply can't make a dent on the shruken villainess.

Giant-Man, on the other hand.

"The latest buzz on the streets is that I'm gonna cut you to shreds," Whirlwind taunts, "Get it 'buzz?'".

"Stayed up nights coming up with that, did you? " Giant-Man says sarcastically, "It deserves an equally eloquent reply." He pounds Whirlwind on the top of his head, almost knocking him out.

And here I thought by the "Upper games" you meant the ones taking place in row E. (Which is why I was kind of happy that Whirlwind ended up in T, so that he'd at least have a first shot.) But no matter. I can roll with it.

Incidentally, I think you've got your Giant-Men confused. You have the Avengers version in E4 going up against my Yellowjacket and the M&M version in T4. The M&M version is the one with Outwit, so you can't Outwit YJ, you'd have to Outwit Whirlwind. If he had anything worth Outwitting at this point.

First up, Ultron. AV11 on DV18. (I was debating whether to use him, or the Infinity Challenge Ultron, just for that crazy 14AV - knowing full well that if you had taken the 20DV hockey puck Ant-Man I'd have probably needed it. Lucky guess that you'd go with this version.) Gets a 6. He misses anyway.

Atlas on Yellowjacket. AV10 on DV16. Gets 11. YJ takes 2 after Invulnerable.

Whirlwind on Giant-Man. Needs 11 to hit, but a 12 to actually do any damage. Gets 9.

Yellowjacket will try to Incap Giant-man. Hm, you said we get an action each turn with no pushing, but that's absolutely the only way she'll be able to do any damage to him. Shall we say push damage from Incapacitate attacks count, even though normal pushing damage does not? AV8 on DV18. Gets 6. Moot point.

1. V Ultron-16 E20
2. V Whirlwind T5 (3!)
3. LE Yellowjacket (IC) E5
4. V Atlas T20

"Your shrinking will not help you. With my sensors, I can find you no matter how small you are," Ultron told Ant-Man.

"Yeah, but finding and hitting are two different animals," Ant-Man pointed out, getting out of the way of his force beam.

"You're in for a world o' hurt," Atlas said, punching Yellowjacket. The impact could be heard for miles.

"We'll just see about that," Yellowjacket said. "I'm not alone, and your allies don't seem to be doing all that well," he pointed out.

Hmmmmm....maybe I got things confused here. I'd say to start over but not sure if that makes sense either, if you really want to though, I will, no prob.
Also you're right about my mixing Giant-Men, it's now clear in my head. Lastly SURE incap attacks count. Successful incap hits result in a 2nd token and push as well as skipping their next turn, fair?

So I get to move everyone now but have to do the bottom first:

Ant-Man on Ultron. Groan, what a bad match. He'll have to perplex his attack to 10 and hoping to incap. Needs 7, rolls 7. Ultron takes 1 click. If you agree on my incap statement above Ultron can't move next turn, if you don't agree he can. I'm cool w/either.

Now to the battle of the giants. YJ vs. Atlas. Needs 7, rolls 9. Imperv roll is 3. 1 to Atlas and he's still a beast.

Giant-Man vs. Whirlwind. Needs 5, rolls 6. That's a ko. Next turn I can move Giant-Man towards another figure to assist. You can imagine who that'll be.

Last turn---Goliath vs. YJ. Need to break that awful 20. And the 8 I rolled just ain't gonna do it.



Ant-Man V E21
Giant-Man (M & M) T4
Giant-Man (Av) (whom I'll call Goliath) E4
Yellowjacket V (2) T21

"Still no luck with that insect, Hank?" Giant-Man asks as he pounds Whirlwind into unconsciousness.

"None at all. She's pretty slippery. She must have stolen some of my Pym particles, Hank," Goliath replies.

"What is this? Is anyone as confused as I am? How can they NOT know about me? And why do they keep calling each other Hank?" Yellowjacket asks.

"They are all versions of my beloved 'father' from various points in his illustrious career. Being out of different time periods they are not likely to know some of us," Ultron says.

Ultron is then knocked back by a disruption of his own energy field. "What?".

"You got that right, Mr. Roboto. I don't know you from Adam but I'm pretty good at robotics and my ants are real good at getting places most of us can't see. You know, I've been thinking of building some advanced robots. Maybe it's time I got started on that."

"But ...he's Ultron's daddy. And he doesn't know?" Yellowjacket says.

"It kind of feels like being on Jerry Springer for the superhero set, doesn't it?" Atlas asks.

Makes sense. Click of damage and misses his next turn for a successful Incap - though with Ant-Man never having to clear himself, he could conceivably neutralize Ultron completely.

So Ultron must pass.

Atlas on YJ. Gets 4.

YJ on Giant-man, AV8 on DV18. Gets 10. He's Incapped for 1.

1. V Ultron-16 E20 (1!)
2. V Whirlwind KO
3. LE Yellowjacket (IC) E5
4. V Atlas T20 (1!)

ZZZAP!

"Ow!" Goliath said, "that stings. My arm is...numb!"

"Sucks to be you, doesn't it?" Yellowjacket said.