The Ninth season begins with a new Commissioner (That's me!) starting us off with a draft. DarkCorsair's Avengers won, but we have 18 more contenders to join him in this season!

Each new player will start with 500 points and go into a two-tiered draft. The first segment is the core draft, for which you will select up to 250 points worth of figures (at least two figures) representing thematic choices. In the second part of the draft, you'll select figures one-by-one.

Games will be played using the "play by post" format from your pool of characters in one pre-season game and eight regular season games (400-pt games for the regular season and playoffs, 500 for the Championship).

The Pre-Season game doesn't count towards your record but helps in getting experience. After the regular season, the top 4 teams in each division go into the playoffs.

While most of the terminology in this campaign will be the same as in the regular games of Heroclix, there are some new terms that will be used.

• Experience Points (XPs): Much like in sports, certain characters excel at different aspects in the game of Heroclix. While an NBA player can lead the way in rebounds, he may not be particularly useful at making a Three Point shot. The same can be said about Heroclix, Not every hero/villain will be able to land an attack that causes 7 clix of damage. This system allows for characters to gain experience by doing what they do best. Experience Points are what is used to promote a character to a higher level (See Gaining Experience)

• Recruitment Points (RPs): These are the points given at the beginning of the season to allow you to draft figures. You may also convert XPs into RPs.

• Stealing: A system designed to allow thematic characters to be placed on thematic teams from teams that were not thematic. The
team that loses a figure is given a bit of a point supplement.

TEAM BUILDING

Building Your Team, Part 1

• We start with the core draft. The first 250 points (or up to that amount) will be chosen and submitted to the commissioner for approval. These characters must have either a) the "Keyword" of your team on any version of their dials, or b) can be verified to have served on the team you selected. Example: Lex Luthor is on the current version of the Justice League, but does not have the keyword or TA. A player using the current Justice League team would be allowed to include him in his core.
You must have at least 2 characters for your core that fall in one of the two categories.

• Multiple versions of certain large teams (such as the JLA, Avengers, X-Men, Teen Titans, the Green Lantern Corps, the Society or the Skrulls) will be available to select as core. You will simply need to demonstrate your choice represents a different era or specific version of the team and have enough characters to make up a core.

• Characters bought in this initial 250 points are considered "Locked-In" and cannot be stolen by another team this season.

Building Your Team, Part 2

• The second part of the draft is for individual figures. You can draft any character (that falls within your moral alignment) with the rest of your points.

• Marvel can draft Marvel figures, DC can draft DC figures, and Indy can draft Indy pieces. The only way a player can get a figure from another universe is to trade.

• All characters on your team must be morally aligned with your team representation. For example, if you pick the JLA, you can recruit any DC hero. If a character is normally aligned towards a certain morality but was briefly on the opposite side with a certain team, that specific team can draft them. Example: Quicksilver is normally a hero in the comics. However, he started his career with the Brotherhood of Evil. Hence, Quicksilver can be recruited by any heroic team, but the Brotherhood of Evil is the only villainous team that can recruit him. Characters who have consistently bounced between both sides of the law will be ruled “neutral” at the discretion of the refs and will be recruitable by any hero or villain team.

• All characters must begin at one of two versions:
a) the lowest costed pre-carded version
b) the lowest costed carded version

• Alternate reality or faux versions of most characters are not in the same progression of the main version of the character. Example: I recruit Hammer of Thor Captain America, but I do not have access to Rohjaz (Marvel 1602). Marvel Zombies, Black Lanterns and movie versions of characters (such as Jonah Hex) also fall under this rule.

• Once you have drafted your team, the difference in build total you have left is put in your RP bank. For example, if you spent 390 points in the draft, you have 10 points that you can use later in the season.

Midseason Draft

This will be a single round of drafting and draft picks will be sent in with Game 4 teams. So that the draft can happen at the same time.

Stealing

If a drafted character is thematic to another team (determined either by keyword, TA or comic knowledge), that team may steal the character. To do this, the team simply submits a silent bid to the commissioner that is the cost of the character +50% their recruitment cost. If the 56-point Rookie Hawkeye (AV) is drafted by one team but another player who is running the West Coast Avengers would like to "steal" Hawkeye, that player would sent a PM to the commissioner. Current players who also have teams thematic to Hawkeye, such as the Thunderbolts, are notified that someone is trying to steal Hawkeye. If more than one team wants to
steal Hawkeye, the teams will enter a bidding war and submit silent bids. The points from the steal go to the player who originally drafted Hawkeye. That player gets compensation pick at the end in the same round.

The restrictions are you cannot steal:
* "Locked-In" characters (characters from the initial 250 point core)
* Traded characters.

Stealing can occur during the regular or midseason draft, but only during the same round that character was drafted. The steal of a non-core keeper figure can occur, but only at the end of the first round of the draft.

Non-Keywords and ATAs.

A character who does not have the keyword of your team, but could be considered to be in your core, can be counted as theme towards a theme team.

They do not break theme when selecting ATA's for your team, but you cannot put the ATA on them.

For example, I have a SHIELD team with a Hawkeye who doesn't have the SHIELD Keyword. Because he's considered part of my core, he can be considered to have the SHIELD Keyword, and qualifies me for a Theme Team. I can then put the SHIELD ATA on the rest of my team, but not him.

Gaining Experience

There are 4 categories in which a character can earn stats:

Successful Attack [SA]: An SA is earned when a player makes a successful attack. A successful attack is defined as any time one character affects another character as a result of an attack roll. 1 SA is worth 5 XPs.

Knockout [KO]: A character earns a KO when as a result of an SA or use of a power, ability, team ability, trait, or feat a character deals enough damage to another character to Knock it out. 1 KO equals 10 XPs.

Assist [AST]: A character earns an AST when through the use of any of that character's powers, abilities, team abilities, traits, or feats (that has not yet been used to earn a stat previously in that round) allows another character to earn an SA that would have
otherwise been unsuccessful or less effective without the first character's assistance. 1 AST equals 5 XPs.

(Example: I attack someone on their last clix of life. I already do 3 damage. I modify my damage up one with perplex. No AST given, because the attack would have caused the KO normally)

Defend [DFD]: A character earns a DFD when though the use of a power, ability, team ability, trait or feat that character:
a) causes an attack made by an opposing character to not succeed against another friendly character,
b) prevents an opposing character from using a power, team ability, trait or feat that would deal damage to another friendly character,
c) prevents an opposing player from making any attack, or
d) if an opposing character fails a breakaway roll.
1 DFD is equal to 5 XPs.

So for instance, I have Moondragon TK the Hulk who's carrying a Heavy Object, and the Hulk then attacks Blue Beetle and does 6 damage to KO him. Moondragon would earn 1 AST, Hulk would earn 1 SA and 1 KO.

*At the end of each game player’s will receive 5% of the build total in XPs to be distributed evenly among all characters on that game’s squad.
*When a player fields a squad that all share the same Named Keyword, or are thematic for League purposes (would qualify to be in the player’s core), that player receives an additional 5% in XPs.

Upgrades occur at the end of the regular season matches. You may upgrade to a new version of a character, a new feat, or special object by spending a minimum of 50 XPs or the amount equal to the difference between the current maximum point value of the
character and the version to which the player wishes to upgrade. A player must pay the minumum for an upgrade even if the element they are buying costs less than 50 points. A player may use any version of a character for that is worth an equal or fewer amount of
points than the highest version that has purchased.

HEROCLIX MECHANICS AND THE FLE

Team Feats and Upgrading to Feats

• When the draft is complete, you will pick either one feat card or a special object. The feat should be useable by at least two members of your team. This team feat must be approved by the commissioner. You can use the feat on up to two characters during any match.

Feat Restrictions:
ICWO: may only be used with a Batman-themed team, the Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey or a JLA-Morrison era team
Warbound: may only be used with a Warbound team.
Protected, Lucky Break: only one per team build. May not be a team feat.
Contingency Plan, Inside Information: only one per team build.
Nanobots, Nanoarmor, Shellhead: may only be earned by characters with Robot or Armor keywords.

Alternate Team Abilities
These are automatically available to teams whose theme match the card. You should clarify with the commissioner at the beginning of the season which ATA(s) you will be using. ATAs may also be obtained by a character with an upgrade. If a figure upgrades to an ATA and uses it in a game, all friendly characters who qualify for it will be assigned the ATA for that game.

Special objects
In lieu of a team feat, you may select a special object for your team to be played in any game during the season as one of your three objects. The commissioners will approve object requests as long as the request doesn't violate "themeyness" sensibilities. Mjolnir, for example, would not be granted to an Apokalips team.

You may also use a character upgrade to select a special object under the same restrictions. You are not obligated to include the object with your game's team build, but you can indicate at the beginning of the game whether you will be using the object. Keep in mind that if an object has a cost (for example, the 5-pt lantern objects), you will need to have enough points left over in your build to play the object.

Standard objects
Follow the standard rules for using objects on your team. They may include ultra light and ultra heavy objects.

Battlefield conditions and maps

Both game elements are chosen randomly. However, the selections will be tracked in the regular season and the playoff games to ensure no player will play the same map or BFC twice.

Keyword bonuses
With some exceptions, keyword bonuses work the same way in Fantasy League Elite as they do in regular Heroclix. The exceptions are:

1) The option to cancel a battlefield condition can only be used in one game per season.
2) Maps are predetermined, thus there is no opportunity to select a different map.
3) In lieu of using keywords to claim a theme team, you may instead get the same benefits if you use a team completely made up of characters who are thematic to team.

Generics

Certain figures that run in groups have been designated as generics. If a team bought a generic in the draft and the choice was thematic either to the team or a figure on the team, they can buy as many versions as desired.

The statistics collected by each Parademon would be added together for upgrading purposes. For instance, a player used 4 Parademons. Parademon 1 get 1 SA and 1 KO, Parademon 2 gets 2 SAs and Parademons 3 & 4 get nothing. Their stats would look like this:

Parademon (4 Rookie)
SA [3] KO [1] AST [0] DFD [0]

When upgrading, a player could pick either an addititional R Parademon Scout or upgrade one version to its next level (if one is available).

Restrictions for generic selection:

1) A generic drafted by a team not thematic to it would upgrade without the option of recruiting additional generics.

2) If a player wishes to trade a generic, they can only trade one version. If they do so, they lose all other versions bought, which are automatically cashed out for recruitment points.

3) At the end of a season, a player will only get what they originally paid for their generics.

Teams will always be able to draft a generic character thematic to their teams even if the figure has been drafted previously. For example, a Legion of Super Villians team drafts a Man-Bat Assassin. If the League of Assassins drafts after the LSV, the League would still have the option of drafting multiple Man-Bat Assassins.

Bystanders
These figures can be drafted only by teams thematic to them or teams with at least one character connected with that character. For example, only a team with Black Panther can draft Everett K. Ross. No signing bonuses are available for pogs and they do not count towards the two character minimum from your core team rule. If a character has both a bystander and sculpted figure available in Heroclix, the sculpted figure must be drafted. However, the bystander would be available for gameplay. Also, bystanders from the map sets are not available.

Bystanders generated exclusively from a special power do not earn stats.

Duo Figures
You must own both of the original figures to use a duo figure, unless the duo has no other versions available in Heroclix (example, the Wonder Twins or the Metal Men). To play the duo, the two figures must either a) add up to equal or greater than the value of the Duo Figure, or b) the separate figures are each at the same experience level of the duo figure. If only one of the two figures in the duo has been made in Heroclix, the duo in considered part of that existing figure's progression (example: Crisis Hawk and Dove is part of Hawk's progression). Statistics earned by a duo comprised of two characters can be split among the characters by the owner's choice.

Alter Ego, Battlefield Promotion and Morph characters
If you are using the lower point version of these figures, you will be able to use their attributes even if you do not have access to the corresponding figure. For example, a Checkmate Pawn who rolls a critical hit can be replaced during the game by a Checkmate Knight, even if the player does not own any Knights. However, this replacement does not impact the player's actual roster. The player would still need to use an upgrade to earn a Checkmate Knight to field one as part of a starting line-up.

Similarly, the lower point version of an Alter Ego or Morph character can "change" into its other identity during the game. The change itself does not earn you the higher-pointed figure on your roster, however. That will require the appropriate upgrade(s).


Vehicles
Vehicles are treated as figures and are draftable as such. However, they are restricted to teams that own either a thematic pilot or a character that possesses a nongeneric keyword that would allow it to pilot that specific vehicle. The exception will be for a vehicle that does not have a named character or nongeneric keyworded character who would be its pilot (ex. Haunted Tank).

Team Bases
By popular vote, team bases will not be available in Season 8

Resources
By popular vote, the only resource available this season will be the 10-pt. Penguin dial.

ID Cards
ID Cards are allowed, but can only be obtained through the character that they allow into the game. They also must be used by another character to summon that character- no Hawkeye ID card gained by 616 to summon Movie Hawkeye, for example.

Possession
Possession characters are allowed, but must be drafted and used at their highest point-level.

Word Balloons and Constructs
Both are allowed, but can only be picked up by the characters that have that specific trait on their dial.

Heroclix Standard Rules

The league will follow the most current rulebook and rulings as made by the Heroclix rules arbiter and/or his deputies. When a new rulebook comes out during the regular season, the league will begin using any new rules from that rulebook during the first game after its in-store release. Any rules changes that have a unique effect on the league will be discussed in the main thread.

Watch List changes and other errata will be adapted in the first game after they are released. That leads us to...

Errata
To help all players keep up with errata, all team owners will check the player's guide at the beginning of the season and pull out errata for the characters you own. Send the errata to the commissioner, who will gather the information into one post in the main thread. You must also check for errata when you upgrade a character; please grab the corrections for all versions of the character, even if you do not intend to use a certain version.

INJURIES

A character struck by a Critical Hit or rolls its own Critical Miss in a regular season or playoff battle is considered wounded for the next game. If they are used in the next game, they have -1 replacement value to their attack and defense.

Characters who begin a match "injured" will go back to full health if they do not become the victim of another critical hit or critical miss. If a player uses an injured character in the next game and they do receive a critical hit or roll their own critical miss a second time (1 in each of two games consecutively), at the end of the battle the Referees will roll a d6. On the result of 5 or 6, that character is permanently "benched" for the rest of the season.

Also, if a figure receives a critical hit or roll their own critical miss twice in the same game, at the end of the battle the Referees will roll one die. On the result of 6, that character is permanently "benched" for the rest of the season.

Remember, it is not required to play any certain figure. Thus, it would probably be a good idea to take an injured character out rather than leaving him in the squad. That should usually be all it takes to prevent any of your characters from being benched.

If a character has Regeneration anywhere on his dial and becomes injured, the commissioner will roll a d6. If the result is a 4, 5, or 6, the character is not injured for the next game.

If multiple members of your squad are wounded, you can choose to have a no-contest fight. You must declare a "no-contest" before the first turn of the game. The win goes automatically to the opposing team (they earn 400 pts, and you earn nothing) and the game goes on as normal. Stats can be earned. Injuries do not occur during “No-Contest” matches.

ROSTER DECISIONS

Releasing characters
You may also release a single figure after Game 3. A non-benched figure would become available in the midseason draft. A benched figure gives the owner two-thirds of the figure's point value in RPs and will not be available for anyone to draft this season.


Trading Characters
A player can trade a character(s) on their team for a character(s) from another team. You can use accrued Recruitment Points and current draft picks in your trade negotiations. Recruitment points to be earned in the future may not be used for a trade. The midseason draft pick may be traded but not in the beginning-of-season draft.

Both players must send a PM of the trade details to the commissioners to verify the trade.

Traded characters are considered "Locked-in" and can not be stolen by another player. Moral Alignment still restricts trading.

GAME MANAGEMENT

Wins and Losses

Your wins and losses will determine if you make it into the "Post-Season". The top 8 teams in each division will have a play off. The winner in each division of the play-off will compete in a "Super Bowl".

In-Game Etiquette

Regular and post-season games last three weeks, while the pre-season game last two weeks. To play in the league, we ask that you have the ability to post at least one turn a day. In other words, your normal computer access and habitual visitation to HCRealms should be such that you can visit your game thread once per day.

You should also be able to access the Creation Matrix web site ( http://www.creationmatrix.com/Map/newgame.html ) in the same
manner. Note: the maps on the pages cannot be updated on most smartphones or tablets.
Our dice roller typically used is http://pbegames.com/roller

For game management, please use the subscription tool on the Realms so you can be notified of turns and posts made on your game thread through your User CP or your e-mail.

Please communicate with your opponent and/or the commissioners about any anticipated absences, whether it be vacation or computer problems.

Post-Game Etiquette

At the end of each match we ask that each player either PM or post their current XP accumulation for each character and your recruitment points earned thus far. Also note any injured characters and immediately PM the next squad you will play in your next game.

Delay of Games

Real life tends to get in the way and this league tries to be as accomodating as possible.

In Pre-Season and Regular Season games, any lack of turns after a 48 hour period will have a substitute fill in for two turns to keep things moving. If a game has not reached Turn 5 by the end of the first week, the sub will be allowed to play through Turn 5. If the game has not reached Turn 10 by the end of the second week, the sub may finish out the match.

You may request a sub in advance if you anticipate you'll be absent for a significant amount of time. However, if a player has a sub for 3 or more games, they are disqualified for the playoffs. A game will be considered to have needed a substitute when the sub plays for half the game.

In the Post-Season, no one will fill in as a substitute. In lieu of a substitute, a strike can be called on a player if they don't take a turn in 48 hours. Three such delays will result in an automatic loss. If the playoff game ends with a tie but a player has called a strike, that player wins the game.

Scheduling

The preseason game will last 15 turns or two weeks max. Regular Season and Post-Season Games will last 15 turns or 3 weeks max.

All games will end at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time for the deadline date posted. If the game has not reached the end of Turn 15 and a round is not complete, Player B will be granted a 12-hour grace period to take his or her turn for the round (in other words, they'll have until 11:59 a.m. PST). That turn will end the game.

A rolloff made by the commissioner will decide tie games if there has been at least one attack roll made. If no attack rolls were made, the game ends as a tie.

Divisional Draft

The league will be divided into two divisions which will be drafted by two captains. Divison 1 will be drafted by the Season 8 Super Bowl Winner, DarkCorsair. Division 2 will be drafted by the player who wins a secret ballot players' choice vote. People who have been captains in the past are eliminated from this vote.

The Season 8 Schedule will be set up with all games as matchups between Division 1 and Division 2 (except for the Game 5 Grudge Match).

Storyposting and Character Substitution

You will notice some players will post storylines and dialogue recounting the characters' action as the game goes along. You will also notice some
figures are identified as other characters. Players aren't required to storypost or declare certain figures as substitutes; they're extracurricular parts of the league. However, it can be a fun part of the game. If you choose to have a figure fill the role of a substitute, just make sure there's no confusion as to who is who in your game re-cap.

The Freedom Phalanx have arrived!

Nice new home.

Gwach', Thanks for stepping up and all your time and effort in this season.

Indeed, the league will be in good hands with Gwach. Fielding the cores has been fun as always, but it's good to be able to pass the baton after all this time.

Yeah, I just gotta make sure I keep my inbox somewhat empty, hah.. 100 messages fills up quickly!

Where is the list of currently kept figures?

Didn't know if the "Season 8" thread is still up-to-date for this season.