MUMG: Analysis Captain America

Hello everybody.

As it couldn't be less, on the analysis section we are also covering Marvel Universe Miniature Game releases, and who is the best to open this section than the first Avenger (at least as the film states): Captain America.

The first thing to highlight on the Captain is his Power 8, at the level of the best ones such as Thor and Gamora, even he can be above them with Power 9 if he is on the medium zone of his Endurance bar. Regarding his Level he has a medium cost, far away from the 12 and 4 points of his mates Thor and Black Widow respectively.

On the Mobile aspect, although he has the same values as most of the heroes with 4/7, Steve Rogers has something very interesting which will let him for example seek for a good attack position, attack, and "runaway" to stay safe or come close to a mate for protecting him with his Bodyguard. Thanks to be Agile he can make a second movement action.

On the Defensive aspect, the Captain has quite low values compared with the rest of known heroes, with the exception of the Physical Defense:

• Energy Defense: 15, only 1 point above the 14 value of Starlord, and 3 below other heroes such as Nova, Black Panther or Rocket Racoon.
• Supernatural Defense: 15, between the 13 points of his mate Tony Stark and the 17 from Colossus.
• Mental Defense: 15, 13 Colossus and 20 Deadpool, although with 18-17 there are Rogue (18), Tony Stark (18) and Starlord (17).
• Physical Defense: 17, here is where he stands, mainly because only Colossus is above him with 20, as it could be expected.

Focusing on the Physical Defense, that 17 value forces the rival to use Overload if he/she wants to impact him with attacks of that type, it must be considered that characters with the highest Attack value known until today, 7, only have a 33% chances of impact him (76.56% if the attack is Overloaded), and if Steve also uses a Defensive Improvement, with a 19 value this chances decrease to 16% (59.38% when Overloaded). Also, once per round the Captain has an opportunity of trying to block a Physical or Energy, being him the target of the attack or a mate within 8'', attack using his shield (Shield Block) if he succeeds on an Agility Roll, that having 9 value he has a 56% of succeed with option to repeat it due to his Acrobat condition. The other aspect that makes the Captain an enemy hard to deal with is his innate ability to fit blows, not only for the 14 wounds he can withstand (which is an intermediate value between the 9 Endurance hits of Black Widow and the 18 of Thor and Colossus), also because he can repeat Stamina Rolls for being a Soldier (again with a 9 value he has a 56% of succeed on each roll), and having into account that Steve Rogers achieves all his potential being on the middle area of his Endurance bar, this is something to have into account.

Regarding the Offensive skills he has 3 different attacks, although none of them is specially harmful. The most curious about that is that his 7 Attack value is the best value until today:

• Shield Bounce (3): The best attack of the Captain although it only deals 2 damage, but for damaging tasks there are his mates. The good point of that is that it has a 8'' range and ignores Physical Resistances, although the really annoying thing of this attack is its own Overload if it is used: Ricochet, which makes the shield to bounce to a second enemy within 3'' of the objective making a new impact roll (it only bounces once). The good point of Steve is his Attack 7 which still without using the normal Overload, he has good chances to impact if he chooses wisely the target.
• Meteor Kick (2): The worst attack of the 3, and although it deals the same damage as the Shield Strike (1 damage) its range is limited only to close combat and doesn't apply any additional effect. The "good" point of it is than can be used as many times as possible.
• Shield Strike (2): Also limited for close combat range, but it can be the attack to start with due to its Overload makes the enemy to lose 1 POW counter (Stun/1), although it must not be forgotten that only with 2 dices is complicated to impact if the target hasn't been chosen wisely. The difficult of the impact can be reduced using before any skill affecting enemies Defenses. Again it lets the Captain to ignore Physical resistances.

And lastly, in terms of support/control his Leadership/6 skill allows him to empower his partners within 6' with a Power level lower than his, giving to them 1 extra POW at the beginning of their activations. Until today this skill will affect to all his partners with the exception of Thor who has the same Power as him, although at the moment the Captain is on the middle area of his Endurance bar it increases to 9, which will also affect the Asgardian God (as long as he is not on the high area of his Endurance bar because he will also be with Power 9); on the other hand, at the moment he reaches the red area, with Power 6, this skill becomes useless because up to now 6 is the minimum Power value (without applying any modification). He also has a single use Special Power called Avengers Assemble, and as good battlefield leader, for only 1 POW he can make that all his allies within 8'' advance to him up to 4''. Having into account only Captain's profile it has two main uses:

• To bring the mates close enough so they can be protected with his Bodyguard.
• Maybe its most benefit is to bring the mates close enough to empower them with his Leadership/6 skill..

And not for being the last explained skill this is the less important: Bodyguard. Once is well known the endurance of the Captain especially against Physical attacks (and only a few less against the Energy one), Steve is the perfect mate everybody wants to have close because he can redirect to him attacks to partners within 2''. So the protection sequence of the Captain, once the enemy has paid the POW for doing the attack, will be:

• 1 POW to use his Bodyguard and becoming the new target of the attack; or 1 POW for using his Shield Block being him or a mate within 8'' the target of a Physical or Energy attack, with a 56% chances and repeating for being Acrobat (it should be taken into account this skill must be used before the enemy makes the impact roll).
• 1 POW to increase his Defense, and if the received attack has Physical Nature better because it will increase to 19.
• If the rival impacts him, for 1 POW he has one chance per round for trying to stop the attack (only if it is Physical or Energy) with his Shield Block, with a 56% chances of succeed and repeating. Although being limited once per round can seem a little poor, first the Defense of the Captain must be exceed, which is not so easy.

NOTE: It is important to have in mind that only 1 Special Power can be used as a response of an Attack, so using Bodyguard for redirecting the attack to the Captain and then using Block Shield is not allowed.

Summarizing, Captain America doesn't stand out for his offensive power although his Attack 7 invites to that, but he does for being a great support for his mates giving them extra POW or protecting them thanks to his Bodyguard skill in combination with his or his Shield Block. Also, thanks to being able to do up to 2 movements action he can move quite easy among his partners either for joining them, protect them or empower them. His potential is reach when he is on the middle area of his Endurance bar, increasing his power to 9, which will let him even to empower Thor with his Leadership/6. Regarding the use of POW counters, it is not recommendable to spend all of them attacking, 3 2 of them should be saved for protecting tasks (Defensive Improvement + Bodyguard + or Shield Block); for moving he will need from 1 to 4 counters depending on how much he wants to take profit of his ability to move twice. So the most common will be to do a single strike, either throwing the shield or hitting with it because in both cases can apply some interesting effects (Ricochet and Stun/1 respectively).

Greetings and we keep reading in La Biblioteca de Alfred and Reino de Juegos.