Giant Size X-Men is in stores now and boosters are flying off the shelves. Now, you may be one of those folks who enjoys the 5-figure boosters, but for me, I enjoy a game with a gigantic figure on the board. As everyone knows, the Super Boosters have one of 6 colossal figures in it, each one towering over the battlefield.
In any game of HeroClix, actions matter. Whether you are playing 300, 600, 1000 points or more, the number of times per turn that you are doing something matters. Any time that you have can’t do anything with a character, it just feels like you’re missing opportunities. When you are playing with BIG characters that are BIG points, those turns when you have to clear that character feel like you’re about to walk into traffic blind-folded.
To help players understand the rules for 
figures, I thought a quick review of the Colossal Size rules would be in order. If you are a veteran player, it’s not only good to review, but trust me, you don’t know everything there is to know about this combat ability.
Characters with the 
and 
symbol do not block lines of fire to or from this character.
Colossal figures are the biggest thing on the board and other figures might as well not be there when it comes to drawing lines of fire.
A character with this ability ignores the effects of hindering, elevated, and outdoor blocking terrain on movement.
When a colossal figure moves, the only terrain that slows him down is when he has to move around indoors. Those indoor walls and blocking terrain are a bit of a challenge. Also, remember that inside the figure moving will need an opening as wide as the character’s base. So those big bases might need to blow out some walls if they want to get where they want to go.
This character can’t be knocked back and can make ranged combat attacks against non-adjacent opposing characters when they are adjacent to opposing characters.
The knock back part is easy enough, in fact it applies to all multi-base characters. The ranged combat attack is sometimes confusing to people. Normally, a character that is adjacent to an opposing character is prohibited from making ranged attacks. There are some ways around this, such as the Sharpshooter combat ability, but in that case, the ranged attack that the character is allowed to make is still not allowed to be against a non-adjacent target. So when Cyclops is adjacent to The Hellfire Guard, the X-Men leader can still make ranged attacks against The Hellfire Guard, for example, using his Range Combat Expert. But The Hellfire Guard’s boss Magneto few squares away doesn’t have to worry about Cyclops… yet. This is not true if you replace Cyclops, with say, Apocalypse – who happens to be holding a slightly crushed Cyclops, so I think that would be a fair swap.
Colossal figures, like Apocalypse, can make ranged attacks against all non-adjacent characters. Naturally, they still need line of fire and the character needs to be within range. What’s interesting is that, unlike the Sharpshooter, they can’t make ranged attacks against the opposing characters that are adjacent to them, only the ones that are not adjacent. (They have no problems making close combat attacks against those characters though – that’s usually plenty!)
This character and a character on elevated terrain draw line of fire and make ranged combat attacks against each other as if they were both elevated, but terrain effects still apply normally. This character can make close combat attacks against elevated characters, even when this character is grounded.
These lines are just like the rules for characters. A character on elevated terrain would not need to be “on the rim” in order to be able to draw a line of fire to a character, as they can treat the character as if it was elevated (and vice versa). Close combat isn’t a problem across elevation either, as a grounded character can do so regardless of the targets elevation. If the character itself is elevated, while it’s free to make close combat against other elevated characters, it would not be able to make close combat attacks against grounded characters, at least, not through this ability.
This ability can’t be countered.
No one should have any trouble with this line, eh? No outwitting a Colossal Size. What are you going to do, squeeze the Frost Giant into a smaller box?
Now, wasn’t there something new that I was promised earlier? Something to take the edge off of players who hate giving up their turn when they’ve invested 500 points in that one big figure?
When this character has two action tokens, it can be given a non-free action. After the action resolves, deal it 1 unavoidable damage and do not remove action tokens from it at the end of the turn.
You read that right. Colossal characters used in a force – all of them, not just the ones in the Giant Size X-Men Super Boosters – can now be given an action every single turn as a bonus for having the damage symbol. It costs you, to be sure. But as the player, you can now make the choice.
Let’s review this ability in a little detail so that it’s clear how pushing damage and willpower come into play.
It’s round 1 and I need to decide what I’m going to do with my Apocalypse. He’s on his first click, sporting a 10 speed with Charge and 5 damage with Close Combat Expert. I move him the full 10 squares with a standard move action and place a token on him.
On round 2, I see that I have an opposing character just a few squares away. I give him a power action to Charge and he attacks the opposing character, dealing 5 damage! When Apocalypse gets assigned a second action token, he is dealt pushing damage. If he did not have Indomitable, he’d be taking a click of damage himself. But thanks to Indomitable, he can ignore pushing damage and end his turn.
On round 3, Apocalypse is sitting there with 2 tokens. Under previous rules, this would the time when the opponent would come in at Apocalypse full force. They’d be able to attack him knowing that Apocalypse would be powerless to retaliate. To be sure, players still have that option. If you want your Colossal character to rest and clear tokens, that’s a choice you can make.
With the new ability in Colossal Size, opposing characters can never rest easy again. On turn 3, Apocalypse can be given a non-free action. Since he has 2 tokens, he is not assigned a third one. And after the action resolves, he’ll be dealt 1 unavoidable damage. This is different from pushing damage – Indomitable isn’t going to help him this time. What’s more, Apocalypse does not get to clear this turn. So, during round 4, Apocalypse’s player can make the choice again – rest Apocalypse so that he can be given actions that do not cause damage or give him another non-free action, attempt to decimate his opponent, but give Apocalypse another unavoidable click.
It may become a tough choice at times, but you’ll find your figures will be having a better time decimating the opposition!
Giant Size X-Men is on sale now. The colossal figures are in the super booster. I mean, of course that’s where they are – how else are you going to fit that much fun in a box?
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Normal Distribution- Power and Ability Combos Normal Distribution – Lines of Fire Part II: I Can See You From Here Normal Distribution – Drawing Lines Normal Distribution: Crazy Combo Normal Distribution (Rules Q&A 12/17/09) Normal Distribution – PAC Spotlight on… OUTWIT Normal Distribution – Player’s Guide Update Normal Distribution – The Elephant in the Room