Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
New developments in a new home for HeroClix
ICv2 reports today
Hopefully we'll see this deal progress further before the end of the year.
ICv2 reports today
| Quote: |
| HeroClix Bidders Join Forces Catalyst and Pinata Published: 12/15/2008 01:36am Two companies that were making a play to acquire HeroClix from Topps in the wake of its WizKids shutdown (see “Topps Shuts Down WizKids”) have joined forces. Catalyst Games, which announced that it had made a bid for all of the WizKids properties (see “Catalyst Bids on WizKids Properties”) and Pinata Games, formed for the purpose of acquiring HeroClix (see “Interview with Pinata’s Jake Theis”), have formed a strategic alliance, contingent on Catalyst’s successful acquisition of the WizKids properties. If Catalyst’s bid is accepted by Topps, “Pinata will begin as operator of the HeroClix brand immediately,” according to the statement. If it occurs, the alliance would allow both companies to release new games both together and independently. |
Hopefully we'll see this deal progress further before the end of the year.
Friday, December 5, 2008
December Events are added to the Calender
Wizkids's Sanctioned events:
Arkham Asylum Week 4: This event will be a 3-booster, 500 point event in which two players will form a team and each must make a force of 250 points or less from a combined sealed pool of 3 Arkham Asylum boosters.
Prize: All participants (up to 16) will receive feat card F104 Precision Demolition. Winner, Team-Up Partner & Envoy will receive figure 101 Crispus Allen LE.
Arkham Asylum Week 5:This event will be a 400 point event using the restricted environment in which two players will form a team and each must bring a force of 200 points or less.
Prize: All participants (up to 16) will receive feat card F104 Precision Demolition. Winner, Team-Up Partner & Envoy will receive Event Dial E102 Knightfall.
Team Up rules as run by Wizkids at WWT and clarified by Rules Arbitrator
Force Construction
(Sealed) 1. Each team will open their 3 boosters and verify that all figures are legal (the character number on the dial must match the number on the base).
(Sealed) 2. A 500 point force is to be constructed from the figures available. This force will be made up of 2 “squads” that is each 250 points or less.
(Both Sealed and Constructed) 3. Rules for themed teams and uniqueness apply to the whole force used by both players. So it is not legal to put the same unique on each squad*. In order to qualify for a themed team bonus, all 500 points of figures would need to share the same keyword.
*this will be ignored for venues using a :random Pairing" method
Game Play
1. One player from each team rolls to see who goes first. The first team selects map. The second team selects edge. The entire game is played just like a normal one on one match with a longer time limit of 75 minutes (1:15 hour).
2. On each turn, each player has 2 actions to assign to their squad, giving the team a total of 4 actions in their action pool. A player using Leadership can choose to give the extra action to the other player, but there can still only be one additional action for the team per turn. These actions can take place in any order.
3. Only the player of the squad can give their characters actions, though the other squad is still considered a part of the force. For example, I can give my flier a move action and carry a character from the other squad.
4. Teammates are encouraged to discuss their strategy with one another. The game still needs to be played in a timely manner – discussions should not last much longer than it would normally take a single player to “make up their mind” when faced with a similar decision in a single player game.
Winning
The game ends when one squad is eliminated. This may result in one team winning with less points.
All other events are described in their calendar listings.
Calander Added!
Today I've added a calendar to the blog. It will list all events in the area.
Enjoy!
Monday, December 1, 2008
January Events for Arkham Asylum LE figures.
Last month, after Topps shut down Wizkids, the four local Judges decided that we would keep running events for Arkham Asylum. When Justin Ziran, Managing Director of Wizkids Games, was able to get venues the already produced Prize Support for January events, we decided that we should keep the different weeks of January similar to each other.
Each week a different scenario or event design will be featured for play designed by one of our great Judges from the area. We'll keep these using the Arkham Event Weeks to match the prizes that were sent.
Week 6: "Dent Dementia: The Two-Face Two-on-Two Tournament" by Nick Hartly
Dementia Set-up and Partnering 1st Round: Players will fill out their individual Force cards normally. For Round 1, four players will be assigned randomly to each table (as such, players are encouraged to bring a force that is self-sufficient as well as possibly helpful to a variety of other teams, since you'll have no idea whom you'll be playing with or against each round). If the number of players that arrive to play cannot be divided evenly by 4, see ‘Byes’ below.
Random Partnering: When rolling to determine Player1 in each round, each player rolls individually (any ties must roll off against each other to determine which is ‘higher’ and ‘lower’). The highest roll is determined to be Player1 as usual, and that player chooses the map. The next highest roll is Player2, and that player partners with Player1 (their figures are considered friendly to each other for the match). The third highest roll is Player3, and gets to select his preferred starting area on the chosen map. The lowest of the rolls is Player4 of course; that player’s force is considered friendly to Player3’s, and Player4 uses the starting area to Player3’s left. Player1 uses the starting area to Player4’s left, and Player2 uses the last available starting area. Players should sit corresponding to their designated starting areas, if for nothing more than to remind them of the order in which they’ll take their turns.
Round results: The rule stating, “if only one player has characters left on the board, he is the winner,” is suspended. Wins are based solely on Victory Points, and this will help to determine placement of players in subsequent rounds. Each player must track his Victory Points separately from his friendly partner (Player A is partnered with Player B; Player A's character defeats a 100pt figure, so that 100 points goes only to Player A and not Player B, etc). At the end of each round the 2 players with the highest Victory Points in each match will be awarded a Win of that match, and the 2 players with the lowest Victory Points will be given a Loss. Any ties in Victory Points in a match that would affect Win-Loss ranking will have to roll off to de
termine who is 'higher' or 'lower'.
Subsequent Rounds: To determine table placement for Rounds 2 and 3, the best 4 Win-Loss/points records would all play at the same table; the next 4 best records would play at the next table, and so forth. As you can see, this event could create a situation in which players might be seated at the same table and end up with the same partner and/or opponents from previous rounds. As such, the normal Swiss-pairing rule that states players should not face the same opponent multiple times is suspended to facilitate the randomness of this event.
Byes: It’s hard enough to get an even number of players to show up to a standard event, let alone get a number of players that is divisible by 4 for a special event like this one. Therefore, certain stipulations have been made for each possible number of ‘spare’ players (as always, the Judge should do his very best to make sure that no player has to suffer a Bye more than once). 1 extra player – In this case, that player may choose to take the Win with zero points as normal, or that player may “challenge the Judge” to try to gain more points (the Judge should bring a legal team for the event just in case, of course). If the player takes on the Judge, he will still get a Win for that round (whether he technically won the match against the Judge or not) and score the number of points he was able to defeat on the Judge’s force. 2 extra players – The 2 should face off against each other in a standard 1-on-1 match to determine which should be awarded a Win or Loss, and also their placement in the next round. 3 extra payers – With three ‘extras’, the Judge should join in with them to create a 4-player match like the others are playing.
In this case, the Judge should not participate in the initial roll off, and is automatically considered to be Player4. The Judge is just there to facilitate, of course, making sure no one has to sit around without getting to play, though he can certainly feel free to follow all the rules as if he was a ‘regular’ player (challenge his ‘opponents’ that round, help his friendly ‘partner’, enjoy playing the event, etc). While the Judge gets no standing in the tournament rankings, the number of points the Judge KO’s would be considered for determining the other 3 players’ Win-Loss placement (for example, if the Judge happens to KO the most points in the match, then only the 2nd highest point player would be given a Win, while the other 2 lower-point players would suffer a Loss). Special Rules
Seeing Double: Any roll of doubles (including double 1’s) is considered to be a Critical Hit (therefore, there will be no Critical Misses in this tournament).
The Coin Decides: At the beginning of each round, a single coin should be distributed to each player. Once per game, when any player (opposing or friendly) announces any tokenable action for a figure, you may hold up your coin and say, “The coin decides”. Call which side of the coin you would like to come up, and then flip the coin (coin flip results only count if the coin lands on the table, and coins should not be flipped into anyone’s hand or onto the floor). If the side of the coin you chose does not come up, the coin has no effect and the action continues as announced. However, if the side of the coin you chose does land with its ‘face’ up, instead of the declared action you may consider that figure friendly to your force for the duration of a single action and immediately give that figure any legal, tokenable action you choose. (For example, an opponent announces his figure will use Running Shot to target one of your characters; you decide to flip your coin, choose ‘heads’, and it comes up heads. You may now give the character that was going to do the Running Shot any tokenable action you choose {have it use Running Shot and/or any of its other powers to target a different figure, destroy a wall or object if it’s able, move to a square from which you could target it with attacks on your upcoming turn, etc}.) Only one coin can be used to try to stop any single action; if 2 or more players hold up their coin for the same action, they will have to roll off, with the highest roll determining which single player gets to flip his coin in regards to that action (and whether the coin flip succeeds or fails, no other player may use their coin on that particular action). Once you have flipped your coin in a match (or the round ends), hand your coin back to the Judge (unused coins cannot be carried over to subsequent rounds).
Face 2 Face: After 3 rounds, the 2 players with the best records (determined by the normal Swiss guidelines of Win-Loss records first and then highest points for W-L ties) will be named the "Ultimate Two-Face Team". Naturally though, since the event can only have 1 Winner, those 2 players will have to face each other in a final ‘sudden-death’ match to determine the true victor. This championship round should be played on the smaller, rectangular 2-person style map, following normal HC rules (and the additional ‘Seeing Double’ and ‘The Coin Decides’ special rules above). In this match, when 1 player has suffered the KOs of any 2 of his characters, that player must immediately admit defeat and declare that his opponent is our final Winner. Winner & Fellowship will receive the Arkham Asylum #102 LE, Harvey Dent.
Week 7: Sealed Event by M.D. McNally
Details to be released soon. Since I [Jon] feel like I gave M.D. The least creative of the month, I'm going to ask that he helps design an event for post-January Play. And before you ask why a sealed event, remember that the players weren't the only folks taken by surprise with the closing of Wizkids. We owe it to the Local venues, who have supported this game and Organized Play, to keep a sealed Event in the gaming rotation.
Week 8: 500 point Unrestricted - History Lesson! by Jon Loftus
Dig back into the depths of your collection! Construct a 500 point Unrestricted Team consisting of no more than one Figure, Bystander, Feat or Battlefield condition from any one set. Feats are capped at 5% build for this event (no more than 25 points of Feats). All teams, regardless of keywords will receive one (and only one) theme team Probability Control re-roll for each match. Winner and Fellowship of this event will recieve a copy of the Grodd LE figure from Arkham Asylum!
(Highlander Rules will not apply to this event)
For or final Wizkids Supported Event Judge Ken Andrzejewski went to task to make a memorable scenario that captures the style of the peice that players are competing for, The Riddler.
Week 9: Riddle Me This by Ken Andrzejewski
Build: 600 points
Actions: 1 action for every 2 figures on the player’s team at the start of the game (I.e., 4 figures = 2 actions; 12 figures = 6 actions; etc.) This is to encourage larger teams.
Unrestricted (No Colossal Figures)
Restrictions: No theme team rules are in effect.
Time per round: 60 minutes.
Special Rules: As a fan of the original Batman TV show from the 1960s, I went through the Riddler episodes and harvested the following riddles. (By the way, there were 11 Riddler episodes, plus the movie. I threw out the John Astin episodes and some of the more dated Frank Gorshin ones as well. There were over 50 riddles used in the series.) These riddles have now become bonus Special Powers. Each player gets a sheet of the riddles. These powers can be assigned once (and only once) to any figure on the player’s team during the entire Tourney. Once a power is used, it is crossed off the list. The power/effect may only be used until the beginning of your next turn, and then disappears unless otherwise indicated. Powers may be assigned at any time, except in the middle of another action.
Winner and fellowship will both receive a copy of the LE Edward Nigma from Arkham Asylum.
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