In the Jaws of the Dragon

This battle report, and event overall was a special one, as the evening before it, AMG announced and spoiled a significant change by showing important changes and reworks to over 20 models, with 6 of them being X-Men. I wasn’t originally planning on bringing X-Men to this event as I was uninspired by the Children of the Atom lately. This obviously changed with both Storm and Cyclops’s leaderships rework in addition to the buffs to Colossus, Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cable. So, I scrapped everything I had prepared and built a roster from scratch to test out Cyclops’s new leadership and intended to play changed characters as much as possible.

X-Men Blue now reads:

It gives a whole new direction to the team and builds on a different synergy. My first impression of the leadership pushed me towards a midrange build, where I wanted to be able to pivot to either scenario plays when I needed to or be able to commit to an attrition play against certain teams. So, I went with this

Characters: With Cyclops's new leadership and his rework, an update to Colossus, Wolverine, Jean Grey and Cable. I really want to try the new versions of these characters. When I first saw the new version of X-Men Blue, I thought about building a mostly midrange team, that could pivot well into attrition if needed while still having solid scenario plays. I added Beast, Domino, X-23, Rogue and Psylocke which I thought would round up the team well enough.

Scenarios: I opted for more midrange scenarios, keeping a mainly pay to flip plan for my secures but went for extracts that would mostly be even so I could leverage the extra power and range from Cyclops’s leadership. So I took Mutant Madmen, Sword Base and Deadly Meteors for my Secures and Hammers, Skrulls and Deadly Legacy.

Game #1: X-Men vs GotG, Extremis/Legacy (19)

Cyclops, X-23, Psylocke, Rogue, Wolverine vs Star-Lord, Nebula, Agent Venom, Drax, Gamora, Iron Man

From the get-go, I knew I wanted to field new characters. So, I figured Wolverine and Cyclops would be a good place to start on a D shaped map, as Cyclops could leverage his leadership and Field Leader while Wolverine’s mobility (especially thanks to his spender) would let him pull off a solid attack on round 1. This is pretty much what happened, Wolverine, thanks to No Matter the Cost was able to land a spender on a D point and throw the model that was sitting on it relatively late in the turn to take control of that point. We traded blows during round 2 but thanks to the X-Men Blue’s leadership, my models had an impressive amount of power to spend and keep applying pressure to the opposing team, letting me take a significant VP advantage and close the game on round 4, 17-6.

Game #2: X-Men vs Inhumans, Fisk/Hammers (18)

Cyclops, Beast, Domino, Colossus, Wolverine vs Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Ms. Marvel, Quicksilver

I was pretty pumped to have to face the new version of Black Bolt on a crisis combination that would’ve worried me prior to the character changes, and I figured it would be an excellent opportunity to try new models. With Fisk and Hammers being on the central line, I had good opportunities to have Cyclops use his new and improved builder to move models off one of the Witness tokens while having both Colossus and Wolverine move on the other one, throw Wolverine on a Crystal with Fastball Special to then daze her with an attack, taking control of the second Witness. With Crystal being taken off the board early in round 2 thanks to Wolverine, I was able to shift Colossus towards the rest of the fight on the other Witness where a combination of Domino and Cyclops both holding hammers controlled and dazed most of the Inhumans, locking in the win 18-6 on round 3.

Game #3: X-Men vs Hellfire Club: Deadly Meteors/Legacy Virus (19)

Cyclops, X-23, Domino, Colossus, Psylocke vs Emma Frost, Corvus (Reality), Proxima, Logan, X-23

Going into the game, I wasn't sure what to expect, so I went with models I thought could brawl effectively and apply pressure on the central line as soon as possible. Thanks to Cyclops and Colossus, I manage to gain an early VP lead by grabbing 2 extracts and 2 secures, which I manage to hold on until round 3 where the attrition ramped up. We trade attacks, but I gain the upper hand on the attrition and KO Proxima and Corvus on round 4, while leaving Emma on 1 going into the next round. With X-23 and Logan not being able to chew through an injured Colossus, I manage to close out the game 16-13 on round 5.

Game #4: X-Men vs Asgard: Deadly Meteors/Skrulls (20)

Cyclops, Colossus, Psylocke, Rogue, Wolverine vs Thor, Angela, Hela, Skurge, Heimdall

Heading into the finals and having to play against one of my friends and local always feels pretty good. Unfortunately for me, I made some pretty big errors in my choice of tactics cards and round 1 sequencing which, even though I was ahead on VPs for the first 2 rounds, allowed my opponent to pressure my positional mistakes into his advantage, leaving me both in a bad position on the board and now on VPs. Taking the lead round 3 and consolidating their advantage on round 4 to secure the win 11-16.

Overall I had a lot of fun at this event, X-Men felt like an entirely new affiliation with the changed leaderships and characters. They felt solid to play and open up X-Men to new strategies and synergies I'll be exploring after the event. I was surprised by how X-Men Blue performed, especially considering the changes went into effect only a day before the event. I would also like to thank the organisers and the players for making it such a fun event to attend.

Thank you for taking the time to read this piece and, as always, don't forget to have fun!