HeroClix Q&A: Big or Small, We Got Them All!

Greetings HeroClix Fans!

How big is a Sentinel? Can Wasp really carry the Hulk? Questions like these have been asked since the days of Infinity Challenge. And, as the game has changed over the years, the answers haven’t always been the same as they are now. Welcome to yet another exciting edition of Rules Article Thursday where we take a Giant look at some Colossal questions and see if we can reduce any confusion to a Tiny fraction of its Standard size…

How Big Is It?

So what exactly is “size” in Heroclix? And how do I know what size my character is supposed to be? Good questions both and let me begin by saying what size is NOT: Size has absolutely nothing to do with how large (or small) the character’s sculpt or base/dial is in relation to other sculpts and bases. For example, due to artistic license with sculpt, we’ve had some characters that look positively massive… and yet they are only standard size characters. Similarly, a lot of actual colossal characters can be found on 2×2 bases, but there are a couple standard sized characters on 2×2 bases, too.

Nope, the only way to know for sure what a character’s size is in Heroclix is to look at its damage symbol.

A character will always have a damage symbol and it is this symbol that determines its size. Currently, there are four different damage symbols in Heroclix: the standard damage symbol , the giant damage symbol, the colossal damage symbol and (the most recent addition) the tiny damage .

The Powers and Ability Card (PAC) tells us exactly how these different sizes stack up against each other:

So we can see that Tiny is the smallest, Colossal the largest, with Standard and Giant somewhere in between those two.

The size of a character can have a lot of influence on how it plays in the game. The two most frequent ways size changes a game are the effect size has on line of fire (LOF) and the Carry ability.

Sizing Up LOF

Let’s take another quick look at that PAC entry:

We can see from that last line that a character will block LOF if it is the same size, or larger, as the characters involved in the process of drawing LOF. Let’s take a look at some specific examples…

Hank Pym and some of the other Avengers are trying to thwart the sinister Stranger’s latest scheme! During the course of the battle, the Avengers find themselves arrayed at various elevations and, unfortunately for Hank, the Stranger has decided to focus his wrath against the doctor! Which of Hank’s various allies can possible save him from certain doom?

Hank has the damage symbol, so he will block Iron Man’s LOF to Stranger: no help there. However, Vision is sitting on a higher elevation than Hank, so he can draw LOF over the poor, about-to-be-squished scientist and shoot the Stranger. Thor, even though he is elevated, can’t draw LOF, either, because of the blocking terrain in the way. Vision is Hank’s only hope!

But what if Hank wants to increase his odds of survival? Let’s say he decides to use his Morph ability and change into Ant-Man. Now he has the damage symbol… he is smaller than Iron Man (and Stranger) and Iron Man will now have a clear LOF to Stranger! Two Avengers can blast away and try to save Ant-Man! Thor is still out of luck, though…

But what if Hank wants to try to fight the Stranger himself? Let’s say he decided to use his Morph ability and change into Giant-Man. Now he has the damage symbol… he is now larger than Stranger (and Iron Man and Vision) and will block both Iron Man’s and Vision’s LOF to Stranger! Oh no! Giant-Man better be able Stranger on his own…

We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat…

The other game effect size can really impact is the Carry ability. Here it is, for review:

We see in that description that a character can’t carry larger characters. So even if a size character could normally use Carry, it couldn’t use that ability to carry a character with the or symbol.

Let’s say Giant-Man has realized Stranger is just too much for him and needs to get out of there fast. Unfortunately for him, even though Iron Man is right next to him and can use Carry, Giant-Man is larger than Iron Man; Iron Man can’t carry Giant-Man. Giant-Man will either have to Morph into a smaller character or get out of there on his own.

Big Things Ahead: Sizes and Combat Abilities

Each damage symbol also comes with its own set of combat abilities. Each of these abilities can also have a large impact on the game, beyond the simple size of the character, and will be the focus of future articles. The PAC describes each symbol and its associated abilities; please see the PAC for more details and keep an eye out for those future articles.

Thanks once again for reading along today. I hope you have found this information useful. If you have any more questions about counter, ignore, or other aspects of the game, please feel free to send an e-mail to HeroClixRules@gmail.com or hit the Rules Deputies up on the forums!

-Rules Representative: Jeff “normalview” Orasky

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