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ADVANCE LOOK: WizKids Games Marvel HeroClix Age Of Ultron Storyline Month 4 Prize Kit
Exclusive First Look At Kang The Conqueror’s Limited Edition Figure And Thor’s ID Card...
HeroClix players, this is it, the moment you’ve been waiting for over these last few months... the finale of the Marvel HeroClix Age of Ultron Storyline event! June started it off with the first of two waves of exclusive tournament booster figures and great participation items and competitive prizes like the Avengers Round Table, iconic Avengers ID Cards, and Limited Edition prize figures of Avengers foes. In September your local HeroClix venue will celebrate the end of Ultron with Month 4, and what a month it will be! The prize kit is super-sized with not only the participation Thor Avengers ID Card and Kang the Conqueror LE prize figure, but also the high-flying Quinjet vehicle Grand Prize to be awarded to the player who scored the most event points over all four months. Keep reading for your look at all three items!
Each month we start our look at the next Age of Ultron prize kit by checking out the Avengers ID participation item, and this last time will be no different. The number of ID Cards in players’ hands is growing by leaps and bounds; they first showed up in the Avengers Assemble booster set and then came in Age of Ultron tournament boosters and prize kits, and there are more on the way in the upcoming Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. set and event exclusives. Each card costs 5 points and is tied to a figure on your sideline. Give a character on your force (of equal or higher point value) a Power Action to bring in your I.D. Character for one turn during which it can take an action, absorb some damage, and buff your figures with its Inspiration benefit.
Following original Avengers members Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America is the Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor! Bring the lightning by summoning the deity and get Inspiration in the form of an additional target and a minimum range value of 6, potentially giving you a huge bonus to a close-combat oriented team and saving you from being outgunned at a distance. And note that while the real name listed on the card is “Thor Odinson” because you can utilize an Avengers ID Character based on that or the name on the card you can use the Thor ID Card to summon the new Thor (Jane Foster) from the Nick Fury set! Of course, the card also works with the Avengers Round Table from Month 1.
The Avengers villain parade comes to an end in Age of Ultron Month 4, with yet another classic foe joining the party as a competitive limited edition prize after Grandmaster, Graviton, and High Evolutionary. What better capstone could there be than the time-traveling menace Kang the Conqueror?!? Nathaniel Richards, a power-hungry scientist from the 30th century, devised a fool-proof plan to rule the world: go back in time to ancient Egypt, pose as a divine pharaoh with high tech “powers,” and take over. Well, that was only the first of many complex schemes and plots the Avengers and other heroes would halt, although with his time and dimension-hopping Kang can seemingly never really be stopped for long.
Unlike the previous three Age of Ultron prize figure characters, Kang has had multiple appearances in HeroClix before this event. This will be the fourth set to feature the character after his debut in 2002’s original Infinity Challenge set followed by returns in 2006’s Supernova and 2012’s Chaos War. The very first Kangs were angry little guys, fits raised against the do-gooders constantly shutting him down while later incarnations went on the offensive with sculpts featuring the villain wielding high tech weaponry. This latest Kang the Conqueror follows that trend with Richards wearing his iconic costume and carrying two examples of advanced weaponry! He stands on a rocky base in a swaggering pose, blasting away with one long blaster-like weapon while holding up another at the ready. Kang’s unique time travel jumpsuit has the iconic purple and green color scheme that only the brave and crazy can pull off, and he finishes it off with a blue face mask and white eyes and mouth. The Conqueror’s guns are bright silver, and his Time Bubble removable element is a translucent pink hemisphere with sculpted crackling energy.
Previous Kangs have ranged in points from an old rookie at 87 to a unique at 199 and of course the duo with Doctor Doom at an even 300. The new Kang the Conqueror comes in at a lofty 190 that still allows for strong allies in a standard 300 point game. Right off the bat he brings Flight, Indomitable, a 7 range with one target, both the Masters of Evil and Minions of Doom team abilities, and a detailed trait that governs his use of the Time Bubble removable element. He starts the game with the Bubble attached to the base and the use of Probability Control; for a power action he can place the Bubble on the battlefield and later when he would take damage he can be placed into it and only take 1 unavoidable damage! The Conqueror’s dial has no special powers but solid stats and quite an array of powers. On the movement track his dial starts and ends with Phasing/Teleport to set up attacks and heal from near-KO, and in between runs and guns with mid-dial Running Shot and Sidestep. Attack powers are actually scarce on this dial with only two clicks of Penetrating/Psychic Blast (#1 and #3) and two mid-dial clicks of Pulse Wave. Defensively Kang is protected by three clicks of starting Invulnerability and mid-dial Invincible for two clicks before Regeneration at the end to heal. Lastly Kang’s damage track is full of alternating Outwit and Perplex (to go along with the Prob he gets from the Time Bubble). Find worthy allies for Kang in figures who share his keywords Council of Kangs, Future, Past, and Ruler.
Players in multi-month HeroClix Storyline OP events earn points for attending and winning games/tournaments. The player with the most such points at a venue at the end of Month 4 is crowned champion and gets the Grand Prize, the Avengers Quinjet HeroClix vehicle! Dating back to the late 1960s, the Quinjet was an invention of Black Panther and the Wakanda Design Group. The high tech vehicle (whose five jet engines gives it its name) has served as transportation for the Avengers for decades, getting upgrades and new versions thanks to new technology from Wakanda as well as Tony Stark and others. More recently (and especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) Quinjets have been shown in use by S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as HYDRA.
While over the years Quinjets have been updated with sleeker looks, WizKids went all the way back to a decidedly retro version of the craft for its debut and the very first Marvel vehicle in HeroClix! The jet has a rounded nosecone, a large wraparound windshield (revealing seats inside), and a blocky main fuselage. The rear of the Quinjet is roughly triangular in cross-section, with two stubby wings and a single vertical stabilizer. Like previous HeroClix vehicles in the DC Batman set the Quinjet comes mostly assembled; you just need to plug the flying post into the base and attach the jet. The vehicle is almost entirely a silver color while the windshield is translucent red plastic and the Avengers “A” logo on the stabilizer is red and yellow. What’s really cool about this piece is its exhaust; blasting out of the five engines are translucent orange plumes with really detailed textures that go from combustible to trailing energy. In addition there are lots of cool little details on the jet itself including flaps on the wings, the aforementioned seats visible inside the cockpit, hoses around the engines, and much more. The Quinjet will look awesome on the battlefield or on display with your other vehicles including more Marvel craft coming in the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. set!
The Quinjet has two starting lines so you can play the vehicle at 140 or 70 points, and there’s an additional dial on its base, a Resource dial, that you can add for 5 more points. The jet flies (natch) and has a 6 range with one target, the carrying capacity of four passengers, and a trio of traits that let it occupy different elevations, prevent Mind Control attempts, allow reduction of penetrating damage, provides unpiloted actions, and counts the vehicle as 3 Characters when determining your total possible ID Cards!
The Quinjet’s dial is pretty straightforward, starting with a five-click run of ranged attack focus featuring Running Shot, Force Blast, Precision Strike, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, Invulnerable, Toughness, and a special power granting the use of Defend and the ability to let an adjacent ally use Outwit. The last three clicks of the jet’s top dial section switches gears a bit to some Hypersonic Speed, more Precision Strike, and Energy Shield/Deflection and Enhancement. At the 70 point line Quinjet loses movement powers, has four starting clicks of Smoke Cloud, and progresses through Toughness and Support, Toughness and Empower, and end-dial Super Senses. The Quinjet offers two different “Pilot Abilities” - with an Avenger 50 points or more it has the Avengers keyword and can use Sidestep and the Avengers TA while a S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot 50 points or more gives the jet an additional target and the S.H.I.E.L.D. TA!
The Quinjet’s 5 point Resource Dial further beefs up your Avengers ID Cards, letting you get more out of them. Whenever you use an ID Card and remove it, roll a d6 and turn the dial that many times; you can also turn one click every time the Quinjet clears or takes damage. The big deal here is of course the “I Have Some Time to Help” ability. With it you can give the Quinjet a free action to select an ID Character on your sideline with points equal to or less than the number shown on the Resource dial. That figure joins the game adjacent to the jet while its card is removed and scored, and you spin the dial d6 clicks.
The character newly arrived, meanwhile, is no longer an “ID Character,” can’t ignore pushing damage, and goes back to your sideline when damaged. So, in addition to being a very effective taxi, secondary attacker, and support piece the Quinjet can also give your team a huge amount of flexibility by providing options with bringing in ID Characters in different ways. For more on the new 2015 HeroClix Vehicle rules check out a new Design Insight article here: www.heroclix.com/design-insight/design-insight-under-the-hood/
Hopefully you’ve been participating in your local venue’s Marvel HeroClix Age of Ultron Storyline events and are looking forward to this big finale. It’ll be your last chance to get the awesome figures in the second wave of tournament boosters as well as the Thor Avengers ID Card just for participating, and the Kang the Conqueror LE figure for winning. And of course if you’ve been doing well in the previous tournaments good luck on winning the Quinjet Grand Prize! Thanks for checking out our Age of Ultron previews, and we’ll see you soon with more looks at full HeroClix sets.
Visit HeroClix.com for even more info as well as downloads of rules and maps and a Store Locator, and check Figures.com regularly as we continue our reviews of new HeroClix!
Review and photos by Scott Rubin
Review samples courtesy of WizKids Games
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