MUMG: Analysis Iron Man

Hello everybody.

Following the line open with the Captain America, this time is time to take a look at the second main character of the Marvel event known as Civil War: The Invincible Iron Man.

Beginning for his Power, Tony Stark is not at the same level as his mates Thor and Captain America both of them with Poder 8, but he is only one step below with a 7 value. Unlike the Captain America who reaches all his potential when he is on the middle area of his Endurance bar, Tony Stark suffer more the effect of the damages because on the middle area his Power is decreased to 6 and in the red area until 5 losing also his Fly skill. Regarding this cost it is the same as the Captain with 7 Levels, again between the 12 of Thor and the 4 of Black Widow.

On the mobile aspect is where he begins to stand out because, probably due to his Fly skill, he has a third movement tier, although his two first values have an average value compared with all the other released heroes (it could also be said that Size 2 is the standard value for that attribute). So he can move until 4/7/14 but with the huge advantage of being considered free movement, so he can even move vertically and ignore ground restrictions.

On the defensive area he has quite different values, distinguishing  specially on the Mental (18) aspect; either Supernatural (13) and Physical (14) are the worst values until today, it means characters with only Attack 5 have 56% chances of impacting him using Supernatural attacks without using Overload, while the Attack 7 characters have 77%. These low values force Tony to use Defensive Improvements if he doesn't want to be an easy target. On the other hand there is his Mental Defense (18), that without being the 20 value from Deadpool is a value to be considered, even if it is increased to 20 once again because of a Defensive Improvement.

But the great defensive bulwark of Iron Man are not these values, it his his Fly skill:

• For beginning it offers to him protection against falls, so it doesn't matter how high the enemy throws him because he won't be affected by the falling damage, but the impact still damages him.
• Combined with all his ranged attacks lets him to stay on a position where most of the enemies couldn't attack him and harass them from the distance.
• He gains a +1 defense bonus against close combat attacks if his rival do not have as well the Fly skill.

His Metallic exoskeleton  absorbs 1 point when he is receiving the Stun effect. Lastly, to increase even more his mental protection, for being Scientific Tony Stark can repeat failed Willpower rolls, that having value 9 grants him a 56% of chances on each roll.

Regarding his Endurance he can receive until 13 injuries, although at the moment he stacks 6 of them he will begin to lose quite enough potential due to on the middle are of his Endurance bar his Power decreases to 6, and at the moment he is on the red zone this not only decreases even more until 5, his Attack also decreases 1 point (5) and he loses his Fly skill, so he becomes a target to be taken down quite easy. At the moment he is on the middle area of the healthy bar not only loses potential, he also has to do Stamina Rolls that having Stamina 8 only grants him a 44% chances of staying up at the end of the round, the same as recovering from a KO.

On the offensive area he has 3 attacks all of them ranged, which has the inconvenience that in close combat Iron Man has no mechanisms for dealing, only Grab and Throwing which is not a bad idea with him. Although he has a base Attack of 6, while he is in a good condition it has the same value as the best ones, 7:

• Unibeam (5): The most powerful of all his attacks, although it has a single use and wastes almost all Iron Man's Power. In fact, in the same round he won't be able to move as fast as possible (3 POW) and use this attack Overloaded (6 POW). Also, having into account that as soon as he reaches the middle area of his Endurance bar his Power will be decreased, maybe is not a good idea to save it so much time because he will probably need some Power left for using it safely, just because he wishes to move too or having chances of using a Defensive Improvement. It has a range of 12' which can be extended 3' more behind the target thanks to its Pierce/3. Joined to the 4 damages it can deal, the other dangerous point of this attack is his capacity of ignoring all Defensive bonus thanks to be Penetrative which for example makes that the scenery covers on the rival to be useless, so as the habilites such as Thor's  Hammer of Storms.
• Micro Missiles (3): The second attack can only be used once per round but is the only one taking advantage of his Total Vision that combined with its Homing makes it to arrive to any place within 10'', and it also has a 1' effect area surrounding his target. Everything impacted suffers 2 damages.
• Repulsor Blast (2): Iron Man's standard attack dealing the same damage as the missiles (2 damages) although with nothing special apart from the option of adding 1 extra damage if it is overloaded instead the extra dice, which with Attack 6+1 can be a viable option is the target is wisely chosen (against Defense 15 enemies there are 56% chances of succeed). Also is the attack with less range of the three he has with 8'.

Finishing with his offensive skills, other of the aspects where Iron Man can be specially useful is grabbing and throwing items/characters thanks to his Strength 4 is over the average, that lets him to throw object such as cars, trees, garden sheds and bus shelters, and dealing 4 damages for impacting with them. Also that value 4 lets him to throw them to a distance of 4*2=8', and having into account that this kind of attack is considered Physical, it gives to him a kind of attack he can't do normally, because all of them are Energies, it also gives him the opportunity of attacking in close combat range.

Special mention to do to his Electricity recharge skill. Iron Man can be empowered attacking him with a mate with electrical damage type, and if the idea is not to let him heavenly wounded, Black Widow and her Widow's Bite with 6' are the best option for triggering that, in exchange of taking 1 damage he can win 3 extra POW (the other candidate to attack him is Thor, but his electrical attack is unique and deals 4 damages, so is not a good idea). This way Iron Man can begin his activation with 10 POW counters (11 if he is within 6' of Captain America and his Leadership grants him 1 more POW at the beginning of Tony's activation), which for example will let him to deal 5 attacks with his Repulsor Blast. Using the hypothesis that Natasha is being used for triggering that, it must be taken into account:

• Iron Man has Energy Defense 16.
• Widow's Bite attack can only be done once per round, although it can be overloaded to increase the chances of impacting. It deals only 1 damage.
• Natasha has a base Attack 6, 7 if she is in a good health condition. So she has 83.59% chances of impact him overloading the attack, if not this chances decrease to 76.56%.

Summarizing, Iron Man is a glass cannon, a character with the ability of dealing a lot of damage in just a moment but with the inconvenience of being taken out quite fast. He also has no close combat attacks, only the Grab and Throw action that everybody can do once per round. On the other hand, it is impossible to hide from his Micro Missiles; and his Unibeam makes to be useless any defensive improvement in addition to all its destructive power (4 damages).

Although Iron Man himself has a cost of 7 Levels, if all his Power wants to be released, Black Widow must be in the same group as him (4 Levels more) to use Tony's Electricity Recharge without having into account if the enemy has any attack that can trigger it, and begin his activation with 10 POW (11 if Captain America is close to him too), but this should be done before Tony begins to suffer any damage because his potential decreases making him to lose Power and even his Fly skill.

The most common will be to attack as much as possible to take all the advantage of his destructive power, although it is recommended to let any POW for using Defensive Improvement if needed, although his free movement capability gives him the opportunity of ending on a strategic position with difficult access for its rival.

He reaches all his potential when he is on the high area of his Endurance bar, at the moment he reaches de middle area he will begin to lose Power, and the Fly skill too when he reaches the red area.

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