Well known teams arrive to MUMG

Hello everybody.

After of this last long month out of the blog, I can confirm that I'm back again with my batteries fully recharged again.

This morning our mate Pepelucho has published a small article about the releases of this month (up to now it is only in Spanish, soon we will also publish it in English). A while ago we have discovered a new interesting concept regarding the team building lists: The well known teams.

Inside The Thing blister it can be found the rules for the 1st of the well known teams: Guardians of the Galaxy. We have always said that the three main factions of the game are Superhumans, Mutants and Cosmics (not Avengers, X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy), despite of the logo of them. Now it make sense why.

On this case, the card contains the following information:

• Name of the team: Guardians of the Galaxy

• Team's Requirements: There must be 5 or more of the following Character in the Team:
• Groot
• Drax
• Gamora Zen Whoberi Ben Titan
• Peter Jason Quill
• Rocket
• Richard Rider
• Benjamin Jacob Grimm
• Level Cost: 1
• Bonus: If the Team's Requirement are accomplished, at the beginning of the game up to 3 of your characters gain +1 to Speed for all the game.

As it can be seen, the requirement is that a serie of characters that gives the name to that peculiar team must be on the list for obtaining that bonus. Also, this is not free, it also has a level cost to be added to the team list.

Now that the first team has been published, it is easy to think in other famous teams as it can be the ones released up to the date: Avengers, X-Men, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Dark Avengers...

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

MUMG: Analysis Starlord

Hello everybody.

Despite have begun with Groot, finally it’s time for the starter of this peculiar group, and as always who better to begin with than their "leader", the looter from the Earth: Starlord. Let’s start with his Level, as this, is even more striking than Cyclops! Among all the Guardians of the Galaxy he has the lowest Level with a (some would say, human) value 6, just above the Black Widow from the Avengers. Regarding his power of 7, he is at the same level as his team mates, with the obvious exception of Gamora who is top dog on 8 (the same as the mighty Thor and the quintessentially American, Captain America), although it decreases to 6 when he is in the red area of his Endurance bar.

Beginning with his Mobility, Peter stands up to most with his ability to Fly, which will let him move freely with the option to arrive at any place on the board, and although his two first tiers have the average value, the third one is 2 points below it for these kind of characters: 4/7/12 (10/17.5/30 cm).

In defensive terms Peter’s another of those characters that can be considered easy to hit due to his low values for Physical, Energy and Supernatural Defence, as all of them come in with a value 14. His Mental Defence of 17 is between that of Deadpool at 20 and Colossus at 13. His Fly skill however not only grants him more mobility as mentioned, but it also gives him a +1 to his Defence against close combat attacks, unless his rival also has this skill. His defensive ace in the hole is his Energy Field (2) which, once per game, lets him reduce the wounds by 2 from all damage coming from either Physical or Energy sources and due to the Resistance/2 he wins, although characters like Wolverine and Captain America will be able to ignore that thanks to the Irresistible trait attached some of their attacks.

His Agility 8 grants him a 44% of chance of success with rolls of this kind, as the needed for reducing to the half the damage from Expansive, Spray or Explosive attacks, as well as the chance to avoid being impacted by throws with him in the firing line. Also it’s worth noting that, while he remains in the top area of his Endurance bar this value, his agility, is increased to 10, so the chances are further increased to 67%. Regarding Stamina he has the same value as his basic Agility, 8 this grants him a 44% chance of not getting KO’d in rolls of this kind as well as being able to recover from it; with Peter KO’d it is almost impossible for the enemy to fail any impact roll as his defences are decreased to 10/10/10/13. His Willpower value of 11 is more encouraging as it grants him a 77% of chance of succeeding in these kinds of rolls, for example avoiding Trick (1).

His 12 Endurance points are closer to the 9 of Black Widow rather than that of the 20 his teammate Groot, distributed in 4 points in each area. While he remains in the top area, as it has been mentioned, his Agility is increased by 2 points up to 10, on the other hand, when he is in the critical zone not only is his Power is decreased to 6, he also loses his Fly ability, as does billionaire playboy, philanthropist Iron Man, and so he becomes a target that can be taken down quite easy.

Offensively talking, Starlord is another character that should stay far from the combat due to, in addition with his low defences, the fact that all his attacks are ranged and he doesn't have the Strength value for throwing objects bigger than human size such as motorbikes. The only difference with his two attacks are the nature of them and the effects they apply (and the 1 more POW on the second one), both have a range of 12' (30 cm) and deal 2 wounds, in addition they are not limited in usage beyond the POW:

• Quad-Laser (2): The real danger of this attack is the combination of its Penetrative trait with Starlord's Total Vision, making impossible to hide from it using cover. Additionally it can destroy elements in its trajectory, or at least deal them some damage.
• Element Gun (3): Interesting for the control it offers on the enemy slowing them by 1 point thanks to the Ensnare/1 it applies if it damages due to its freezing effect, which can be increased even more with the Wall of Roots (3) from his friendly Ent like teammate, Groot.

Lastly, in Support/Control roles, Starlord has some things to offer. In addition his already mentioned Total Vision, making those characters with the Stealth or Invisible skill useless and unable to protect from him by keeping their distance, and the Ensnare trait from his element gun. Peter can decide once per game, which player begins activating thanks to his Perfect Plan. Despite not being good at going toe to toe with the enemy, Starlord can, once per round, try to decrease by 1 point the Physical Defence of a visible target, which in his case could be used against enemies totally hidden! (Total Vision) and so he doesn't have to expose himself to their reprisals, using his Trick (1).

NOTE: The word Target means there has to be line of sight with the objective.

Summarizing, Starlord is other of these characters to use at distance and not expose him too much due to his low defences and how complicated it can be to keep him stood up as, as soon as he leaves the top area of his Endurance bar (4 wounds) he becomes an easy target. His Quad-Laser (2) makes his ranged skills impressive thanks to the combination of the Penetrative trait of the weapon and with Total Vision, which will let him to attack hidden enemies piercing all the scenery in its path, or better, attack enemies while hiding himself behind the scenery.

Regarding the use of POW Peter is a character that has something to offer on the four basic aspects (mobility, attack, defend, support/control):

• If he hasn't used his Energy Field (2), the ideal option would be to save at least 2 POW for reacting to enemies attacks, which will leave him with 5 POW to attack twice with his Quad-Laser (2) (sacrificing at least one Overload), perfect if he is hidden; or attacking once and using the rest of his POW to move, improve his defences, to use Trick (1)...
• Once he has used it, he can use his 7 POW to attack once with each attack in exchange for 5 POW, 7 if Overloading, although if the Ensnare of his Element Gun (3) doesn't impact, his Quad-Laser (2) could be used a second time instead of it, which will leave him with 1 remaining POW.

As is normal, he gives his full potential while he is in good condition, increasing his Agility to 10, although at the moment he leaves this comfort zone his value goes back to 8. In the critical area his power is decreased to 6 and his wings are clipped (he loses Fly).

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

MUMG: Analysis Groot

Hello everybody.

What a better way to begin with Guardians on the Galaxy than with the last of its members to arrive, the one with the highest variety of words on his lexicon: Groot. With 9 Levels he is on the second step with his partner Gamora, and only one step behind the asgardian God Thor with his 12 Levels. Regarding Power he is also in the second step with value 8, on this case even behind Gamora, but while he remains on the top area of his Endurance bar it takes value 9, and considering he can endure up to 10 hits and his regrowing capability (to heal himself) it can be quite difficult to make him abandon it, if this happens his Power will be decreased in 1 point over the base value as it progress on this bar, until a value of 6.

Beginning with his Mobile aspect, it is surprising that despite being a trunk, literally, he has values over the average with 5/8 (12.5/20 cm), and in addition to this he can advance with no penalties while climbing thanks to his Wall Crawler, which will also let him to stop in the middle of an ascension or in places where a normal base won't fit.

Defensively talking is where he must be analysed with more detail. His values are not very remarkable all of them being 16, that means that character with Attack 5/6/7 have 23%/33%/44% (68%/77%/84% if they Overload) chances of impact him, making more difficult this chances if he improves his defenses, with the exception of the Supernatural which is not possible.

Regarding his capability of endure damage, he not only has a value of 20 wounds (the best known up today) being the half of them in the high area. As he progress among zones, his Power will decrease by 1 point changing from bonus to penalty on the first one (Power 8/6/5), having also a penalty on his Movement when he is on the read area, turning it into the most common values (4/7). To all this it must be added his capability of recovering 2 Endurance points once per round thanks to Regrow (2)(A), which means he has a virtual Endurance value of 32 points (in 6 rounds games). As novelty he has a Size 3 which protects him against Grabs of all those character with Strength 1-2, although what makes an utopia even try it, is his ability to anchor himself to the ground with his roots and offering a passive resistance against Grabs thanks to the +3 he obtains by his Scape Artist (0)(P), which except under special rules it means he has a Physical Defense of 19 (21) against this kind of attacks.

But not everything is pure endurance with him, as it can be expected his weakness are the burning attacks (Weakness to fire) which double their damage against him; that forces him to be careful against characters like Rocket Racoon and his RPG (3) with a range of 12' (30 cm) and an area of effect of 3' (7,5 cm), dealing him 6 wounds (8 if critical hit), and even more with Iron Man and his Micro Missiles (3) and not only for being impossible to hide from them within their 10' (25 cm), also because they are not limited to only once time, which means that Groot could be receiving 4 damages during all the rounds (6 if critical hit). One of the particularities of these attacks is their area of effect for being Explosive which, like the Spray and Expansive attacks, can be a serious problem for Groot due to with Agility 7 he only has 33% chances of decreasing that damage to the half, these are the same chances for avoiding to be impacted by a thrown item/character if he is on its trajectory. Regarding Stamina Rolls (9) his chances are a few higher with a 56%, although it can be difficult to make Groot to arrive to his middle area. In terms of Willpower (8) he only has 44% chances of succeeding on this kind of rolls, for example for avoiding the Trick (1) of Deadpool and Starlord.

In offensive terms, Groot has interesting options despite of not being focused for this task. His Attack will remain in 5+1 while he is on the top area of his Endurance bar, which once again will be difficult to see him without that bonus. But all his attacks including the Grab and Throw action are all of the same type: Physical, which can be a problem against enemies with some kind of resistance to it. Other of the positive points is that both attacks have some range, which is always remarkable, specially in the case of the close combat attacks as it is Branch out (2):

• Branch out (2): Groot's standard attack has the particularity of having 4' (10 cm) of range due to his innate skill of enlarge his branches. But this is not its unique advantage, if he is near a KO enemy (-4 to all his Defenses and with no option to improve them) it can suppose his/her death because with 8 POW he can realize this 2 damages attack up to 4 times (without Overload), and thanks to its reach it is not needed to be in touch with him/her. Other of the important readings of this attacks is that its 4' (10 cm) range force most of the enemies in touch with him to spend 2 POW if they want to runaway due to most of them has that same value on their first Movement tier (4').
• Wall of roots (3): It could be compared with Colossus' Titanic Smash (3) due to it is the other Expansive Wave attack known up today. It not only applies the annoying Ensnare/1 in an area of effect of 3' (7.5 cm) surrounding its target, it also deals 3 damages to all of them, 1 more than Colossus. If it is Overloaded, among so many rolls it is possible to obtain any critical hit so the damage will become 4 on this case, but it must not be forgotten that each Overload must be done for each one of the affected (if it is desired), which mean that the minimum cost for this attack is 3+1+1 POW, when it is possible to affect at least to two targets, preferably non Acrobat due to it is easier for them to reduce this damage to the half (1 wound).

As all the characters with Strength 4, Groot can be considered a good Thrower both for scenery items or characters, being able to throw them up to 8' (10 cm) and dealing 2 damages if the thrown is an enemy, in addition to the damage he/she can deal against an impacted enemy which will be up to 4 wounds deppending of the size of the thrown item/character, which/who can be as big as Hulk.

Lastly, in terms of Support/Control his main tasks is protecting his mates thanks to his Advanced Bodyguard (1)(R), whose only difference with the already known Bodyguard (1) is its higher range with 4' (10 cm) instead of 2' (5 cm). Most of his defensive power comes with the combination of this 4' (10 cm) and his Scape Artist (0)(P) which allows him to redirect to him Grabs against mates, with the increase of difficulty it supposes for the rival.

But all his supporting tools are not only defensive, his I am Groot! (2)(A) is even more restrictive than his Ensnare due to it forbids his enemy to move unless he/she succeeds on an Agility Roll, which again and as his Wall of roots (3) is not a good idea to use it against Acrobat characters.

Summarizing, despite not flying he has a good mobility with possibilities of arriving to any place thanks to his Wall-Crawler. But where he really stands out is enduring damage, his 20 wounds should be seen as a virtual value of 32 thanks to his Regrow (2)(A), being half of them in the high area of his Endurance bar (again with a virtual value of 22 wounds). In one side he is weak against burning attacks (Weakness fire), but on the other side he has huge protection against Grabs due to his Scape Artist (0)(P), which can be used also with allies within 4' (10 cm) thanks to his Advanced Bodyguard (1)(R).

Regarding the use of POW, Groot is other of these characters with variety of options, being maybe the most interesting:

• In his most aggressive variant, he could strike up to 4 times with his Branch Out (2), without Overload, for dealing up to 8 wounds. It is perfect to off KO enemies due to the -4 the have on all their defenses and without the need for being in contact with him/her thanks to its 4' (10 cm) of range. Also, if the enemies in contact with him want to runaway from this attack they must pay, normally, 2 POW because 4' are not enough to get out of range. He could also sacrifice one of this attacks for Grabbing an enemy in contact with him and Throw him to a distance still in range for his attacks, in that case he will have a potential damage of 9 wounds, with the advantage he could also damage another enemy if he declares him/her as target of the impact.
• His other attack, Wall of roots(3), is interesting to use it when it can affect at least 2 enemies, which means 3+1+1 POW, and with the remaining 3 he could Overload if there are more targets, or Grabbing and Throwing an enemy. This last point can be done in two different ways, in both supposing Groot begins his activation in touch with an enemy:
• Throw him/her so he/she is still in range of his Wall of roots(3).
• Strike first with his Wall of roots(3) and then Throw that enemy far, to the ground (dealing him/her 3 wounds) or against another enemy for damaging both of them.
• Once viewed his two most offensive variants, maybe the most clever use is to explode his defensive potential, it means, keeping at least 4 POW to use Advanced Bodyguard (1)(R), Defensive Improvement (1 POW) and Regrow (2)(A). The 4 remaining POW could be saved for moving, use Advanced Bodyguard (1)(R) and Defensive Improvements more times, dealing some attacking action or supporting with his I am Groot! (2)(A).

So, it is interesting to activating him the later as possible, so the POW he didn't used can be used now to attack.

As it can be expected, Groot releases all his potential while he is on the top area of his Endurance bar, having his Power and Attack increased in 1 point up to 6 and 8 respectively. At the moment he abandons this area, his Power begins to decrease 1 point per round, going from 8 (7+1) to 6 (7-1) and 5 (7-2) respectively, having his Movement also reduced in 1 point when he is on the critical zone.

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

DataBank MUMG: Guardians of the Galaxy

Gamora 9	Groot 9	Drax 8	Nova 8
Rocket Racoon 7	Starlord 6