Xv4

A glowing green meteorite has fallen to earth somewhere on the outskirts of the city. The Fantastic Four rush to the site, hoping that an analysis of the fragments will provide clues in helping them foil Doctor Doom's latest devious scheme.

Professor X is dying of space plague! The X-Men believe that clues to the cure can be found in those fragments of glowing, green meteorite, so Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast and Colossus are sent to investigate them.

And so the scene is set for a classic Marvel Comics hero team vs hero team misunderstanding. Both teams must investigate the five meteorite fragments scattered across the board, whilst also trying to knock out the other team. The winner will be the team which has the highest total of investigated fragments plus downed opponents.

OK, as storylines go it's a bit pants, but I just wanted to play a game of Clobberin' Time on a wet Sunday afternoon, using a couple of new figures - my Marvel Girl conversion, and a Human Torch I made by repainting a model of DC's Red Star which I acquired earlier this week. Now I have a complete Fantastic Four, I couldn't not use it.

The Fantastic Four arrived on site, and Mr Fantastic quickly moved to analyse the nearest fragment. The Torch scouted ahead, whilst the Invisible Woman turned invisible. The Thing rushed towards ...

... the X-Men. Cyclops covered the Beast as the blue-furred mutant moved towards a fragment, keen to analyse it with his finely-honed mind.

Cyclops fired an optic blast at The Thing, but to no effect.

The two teams began to spread out. Mr Fantastic had already analysed one fragment and was out of shot to the right heading towards another. The Torch was looking at a third. meanwhile the Beast was making heavy weather of his fragment and the fifth was still unclaimed.

The Beast decided that this wasn't a day for scientific analysis, and moved to attack The Thing, trusting that his agility would allow him to avoid any damage.

Cyclops fired at the Human Torch, and missed, whilst the Invisible Woman used her force-fields to slow Colossus.

The Invisible Woman then moved to investigate the final meteorite fragment, but was hurled back by Marvel Girl's telekinesis.

The Torch flew to the fragment, and used his flame-blast on Marvel Girl. She blocked most, but not all, of it.

Cyclops used his blasts to hammer away at the Invisible Woman's force-fields, scoring a hit on her.

Colossus and The Torch had words. And exchanged some attacks.

Having investigated his fragment, Mr Fantastic entered the fray. A hastily improvised gadget reflected Cyclops' beams back at him, and the X-Men's leader was down!

Seeing an opening, the Beast dodged under The Things' blows, and bounded over to attack the Invisible Woman.

Surprised she didn't get a force-field up in time, and was down.

Both teams were now down one member, but the Fantastic Four had three fragments analysed to the X-Men's one. The X-Men needed to even things up a little. Marvel Girl used her powers to push the Torch of the fragment he was looking at, then Colossus moved to analyse it instead. Mr Fantastic tried to use a psi-jammer to take down Marvel Girl, but she resisted it.

The Beast returned to tying down Ben Grimm.

The final fragment analysed, Colossus turned his attentions to the Human Torch, and in a whirlwind attack pounded him into the ground.

The Beast had miscalculated how dangerous The Thing actually was, and had taken a serious hit. Breaking free he moved to engage Mr Fantastic instead, whilst Marvel Girl used her telekinesis to push The Thing away from the action.

The Things pushed forward ..

... and the feedback was toomuch for Marvel Girl who fell unconscious.

The Thing and Colossus finally met!

However slowed by his injuries the Beast miscalculated what a slippery opponent Mr Fantastic was, and was taken out.

This left the Fantastic Four with three fragments, plus three opponents neutralised for six points. With only two fragments and two opponents downed, the X-Men couldn't win*. At this point the teams talked and sorted out their misunderstanding. Like they always do.

The stats for the teams were as follows (all characters were Level 3):

Marvel Girl - Telepathy, Telekinesis (M), Ranged (M)
Cyclops - Power Blast (L), Accuracy OR Rapid Fire
Beast - Agility, Charge, Science!
Colossus - Super Strength, Invulnerability

Mr Fantastic - Ranged (M), Gadgets, Science, Superleap
Invisible Girl - Invisibility, Ranged (M), Block
Human Torch - Flight +3”, Power Blast (M), Rage (Power Blast)
The Thing - Superstrength, Invulnerability

Cyclops was given both Accuracy and Rapid Fire, but could only apply one of them in a turn. I tried a new version of Telepathy in this game, which allows the player to see some of their opponents activation cards. I'm working on a few new abilities which work with the cards rather than the on-table action. I shall attempt to write them up in the near future when I release another draft of the rules.

The fragments were treated as Level 2 puzzles, and could be solved by an opposed roll against them. One 'hit' reduced it to Level 1, whereas two 'hits' solved it immediately. A character with Science! rolled an extra dice. In other games the markers could be clues, solved by a Detective! ability. Batman, this is for you.

Finally I included the Jokers in this game. If you are dealt one then you place it face-up in front of you, and draw a card to replace it. During your turn you can play the Joker to give a character that has just acted a second turn, consisting of either a movement or an action (but not both).

*Actually they could if Colossus defeated both Mr Fantastic and The Thing, but I decided that the game had run its course.