Super Mission Force Game Report

Time for another game report, this time at my local club T.C.O.W (That Club Out West), here in Auckland. This was a demo game for a friend of mine, so we kept things simple again with a basic slugfest to see who would come out on top. My opponent took control of the X-Men (and was clearly a fan of the 90s incarnation of the team) and I took Invincible and friends out for a spin (easily my favourite comic series of the last 10 years). The stat cards for all the relevant characters can be found in this post.

I was pleased to get a chance to put my urban setup on the table, as well. I have been working on elements of this for over a year and it features buildings from Worldworks Games’ Swift Scenics range.

The teams:

Dupli-Kate (Street Level), Invincible (Super Brick), Atom Eve (Blaster) and Rex Splode (Wild Card).

Storm (Wild Card), Wolverine (Scrapper), Cyclops (Blaster) and Jean Grey (Mentalist)

And here are some of the highlights of the game.

Invincible and friends’ set up.

The X-Men set up behind a bus for cover, with Storm taking up an overwatch position as she summons fog to obscure the team.

Wolverine goes for a stroll through the park, trying to sniff out some prey.

Wolverine closes in on the enemy, but he’s not going to be alone for long…

Rex Splode and Atom Eve face off against Storm. Rex’s Super Agility came into play in this game, giving him a lot of mobility moving from building to building.

Dupli-Kate starts creating copies of herself and starts moving in on Wolverine’s position.

Jean Grey takes up position and starts threatening Invincible with mental attacks and mind control.

Invincible gets the jump on Wolverine thanks to his speed, but Wolverine’s healing factor is a tough nut to crack. This will prove to be the deciding showdown of the game as the two brawlers slug it out.

Rex Splode skirts around Storm to get a bead on Jean Grey in the park below.

Rex Splode starts raining attacks on Jean Grey, as she is the one most likely to be able to take out Invincible.

Invincible breaks away from combat with Wolverine to deal with the psychic threat, but takes some damage from Wolverine’s attack of opportunity on the way out. Meanwhile, Cyclops tries to get a bead on Rex Splode and Atom Eve, who are still camped on the rooftops.

Dupli-Kate(s) attempt to charge into Wolverine and try to take him out, but the first duplicate is taken out in short order thanks to the scrapper’s damage reflection ability in melee.

Invincible manages to take out Jean Grey, but Wolverine is there to avenge her!

Cyclops runs out to get a line of fire on Rex Splode, but the cover is too much for his optic blasts to overcome. Rex Splode returns fire in spectacular fashion, taking Cyclops out in one shot!

Atom Eve gets a clear shot on Storm and takes her out with a vicious Power Blast.

Wolverine is the last mutant standing but he won’t go down without a fight. The weight of attacks from Invincible and the Dupli-Kates finally inflict damage that Wolverine just couldn’t regenerate fast enough.

So all in all, it was a fairly one-sided affair, with Team Invincible managing to focus their energies on Jean Grey once the effects of her powers became apparent. Mind Control was a scary prospect, and Invincible was a prime target for this, but my opponent had a bit of bad luck that he couldn’t take full advantage of this ability. Jean’s Telekinesis also proved useful in moving Wolverine closer to the action, and her Mental attacks were the most reliable way to get through Invincible’s tough defenses. I did get pretty lucky with some amazing ranged attacks from Atom Eve and Rex Splode taking out Storm and Cyclops in a single turn.

Lessons learned from this game:

• As mentioned, Mentalists are a good hard counter against super-tough bricks, but once the brick is ensconced in combat, it becomes tricky to target them with Mental attacks. Mind Control, however, was a viable option in this case and it could really have ruined my day if Jean was allowed to act with impunity.
• I had previously been playing Enhance wrong. I had assumed extra re-rolls granted went away each turn, but in fact they form a Re-Roll pool of up to 6 dice, which last until used. This made Cyclops a real team player and my opponent took full advantage of that, even after Cyclops had been taken out!
• Duplicate is a fun power, but it is much better to swarm a target in combat all at once than to attack piecemeal. I learned this after a failed charge meant only one copy made it into combat with Wolverine and was cut down instantly. I didn’t make the same mistake later, and the third attacker became quite formidable thanks to the ganging up bonuses.

It was a fun game and good to get a chance to see some different powers in action. I’m keen to play a scenario next time, as I think having an objective will change how the game plays dramatically. I do worry about the impact of flyers and teleporters in objective grab missions, though, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Until next time, happy gaming!