by Patrick Yapjoco
In Bronze Age, Retaliators are the norm. They are effective tertiary attackers with other effects that can increase your Themed Team count for a low cost, and with all of them having Willpower on a 3-6, these types of pieces become even more attractive when building your team. Ranging from 10pts-30pts, these pieces shouldn’t be ignored while on the map, as many games can swing with a retaliator getting in on the action. And with a Giant Reach of 3 for these figures, it isn’t hard for them to retaliate. Today we will look at the Top 5 Retaliators for Bronze Age. Keep in mind that many (if not all) of these figures will have the “Colossal “Retaliation” trait or power. Some are primarily used as a Retaliator, but there are many more uses as you will see below.
Honorable Mentions
Giant-Girl (Avengers Infinity) & The Atom (Superman / Wonder Woman)
These didn’t quite make the cut, but these have some definite uses in the format. Giant-Girl is the cheapest Retaliator in the game at 10pts (along with some others), but she doesn’t have the “If no other Colossal Retaliation has been activated this turn” clause. This means she can retaliate after anyone else has! Sidestep means she has mobility and Close Combat Expert means she is retaliating at an 11/3, which is more than respectable for 10pts. And if you have multiples of her, you can chain Colossal Retaliations! Avengers and Celebrity keywords gives her plenty of options, especially if you put her on Spider-Family teams.
The Atom is a mere 5 more points at 15pts, but he does a lot! Aside from Sidestep and Empower after he gets in, his Colossal Retaliation is a devastating one. An Area of Effect that includes all other characters within two squares of the target is already a great effect. But add in the fact that he deals 2-penetrating damage, and they cannot use Super Senses, Combat Reflexes, or Shape Change(!) and this is borderline broken for the point cost. The only thing keeping him from breaking into the Top 5, in my opinion is his lone useful keyword in Bronze Age: Soldier. Although good, it’s still a bit narrow, even if Spider-Family is now an option.
- Tri-Sentinel (Days of Future Past)
With the hit to Pulse Wave, Tri-Sentinel drops down a notch or two in the rankings. With great keywords like Mystical and Robot, both played in bunches in Bronze Age, this three-headed Sentinel is still a major threat. With a long 9-Range, Sidestep, and great defensive capabilities (ESD and PROTECTED: Mind Control), Tri-Sentinel is still viable. But one of the main reasons you will be using this figure is the power:
THE PRIME DIRECTIVE: Plasticity, Sidestep. When Tri-Sentinel destroys one or more pieces of blocking terrain, after resolutions deal 1 penetrating damage to each opposing character that was adjacent to one or more destroyed pieces.
And Improved Movement: This character can move through Blocking terrain. Immediately after movement resolves, destroy all Blocking terrain moved through.
If you have a map with many blocking terrain, or even just plenty of Barrier, you can deal auto-penetrating damage just by breaking or moving through blocking terrain. Along with his Colossal Retaliation:
COLOSSAL RETALIATION: WHEN NOTHING LESS THAN GENOCIDE WILL DO: FREE: If no other Colossal Retaliation power has been activated this turn, choose an opposing character that attacked Tri-Sentinel or damaged a friendly character since your last turn. Place Tri-Sentinel such that it can target the chosen character using Pulse Wave at no cost, then do so. If it did, after resolutions destroy all blocking terrain within 3 squares.
This means in the right situation, Tri-Sentinel can deal some MASSIVE amounts of damage to many characters at once. A common thing you can pull off is a Pulse Wave retaliation, dealing everyone 1-damage, then all blocking within 3 breaks, dealing more damage if they are by any blocking, then using a move action to move through blocking terrain to deal more damage after it breaks… finally, using Sidestep to break that one last piece of blocking to deal the last bit of damage. All of that for only 30pts!
- Surtur (Mighty Thor)
This might be the ultimate, pure Retaliator in the format. He has the highest Attack value at 12 out of all the Retaliators, and he has one of the best effects for a Retaliator:
COLOSSAL RETALIATION: WATCH THE WORLD BURN: FREE: If no other Colossal Retaliation power has been activated this turn, choose an opposing character that attacked Surtur or damaged a friendly character since your last turn. Place Surtur such that he can make a close combat attack targeting the chosen character, then do so. After resolutions, deal 1 penetrating damage to each opposing character within 2 squares.
TWILIGHT, SWORD OF DOOM: Opposing characters can’t use defense powers if they are the only target of Surtur’s attack.
Yes, you read that right, NO DEFENSE when he attacks. Normally, when you see effects like this, it usually means they must hit first, then they shut off the Defense Powers (ie, Finn Balor and Green Arrow), but this is whenever he attacks a single target. This means no reducers, no rollouts, no Combat Reflexes or Mastermind and most importantly, no STOP Clicks! This works in line perfectly with his Retaliation, and he is doing a base damage of 3, and the after-effects of 1-penetrating damage to opposing characters within 2 squares is just the cherry on top of the sundae. At 25pts, he is right at that sweet spot for Retaliators.
- Dark Phoenix (X-Men: Animated Series)
At 30pts, Dark Phoenix is at the cusp of how many points you want to spend on Retaliators. A couple of reasons why she makes it this high. The first one is that she doesn’t have Colossal Indifference(!). This means she functions like any other character on your team with the BONUS of having Colossal Retaliation. The second reason is that she can heal ABOVE her starting line through KO’ing characters or dealing 4-damage (or both!). This makes her quite resilient as she can use her Sidestep with 10-Range to pick off a little piece and heal right away to make it that much harder to KO her. Oh, I forgot why she is on here in the first place, her Retaliation:
COLOSSAL RETALIATION: CHILD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS: FREE: If no friendly character has been placed this turn, choose an opposing character that attacked Dark Phoenix or damaged a friendly character since your last turn. Place Dark Phoenix such that she can make a close attack targeting the chosen character then do so also targeting all other characters (friendly or opposing) within 3 squares. Hit characters are given an action token and each dealt 2 penetrating damage instead of normal damage.
Note that the wording here is different than your standard Retaliation. Friendly characters can’t be PLACED yet if you want to use this. It’s subtle, but a bit more restrictive. A great Area of Effect retaliation that deals 2 penetrating damage and tokens everyone hit. This is a great way to pick off little dudes when she Retaliates, or at the very least weaken them enough, so that when she actually attacks regularly (remember, no Colossal Indifference!), it is that much easier to KO, and with her 3 bolts, she has the chance to KO multiple pieces to get even more healing. At just 30pts, Dark Phoenix is a low investment, but gives your opponent all kinds of problems as she can run amok if left alone (and moreso if played in multiples). With the X-Men and Cosmic keywords, she is more than viable in Bronze Age.
- Carnage (Mighty Thor)
The cheapest and most efficient Retaliator in the game at a mere 10pts! Great offensive stats with 11/3, Monster keyword, and Plasticity for some Defensive measures (if you want to tie-up a piece). If you slap on the Maximum Carnage ATA then he becomes monstrous (sorry, I had to). All that would be worth his points alone, but then you get this additional effect:
COLOSSAL RETALIATION: SYMBIOTE SPAWN: FREE: If no other Colossal Retaliation power has been activated this turn, choose an opposing character that attacked Carnage or damaged a friendly character since your last turn. Place Carnage such that he can make a close attack targeting the chosen character, then do so. After resolutions, you may generate a Symbiote bystander adjacent to the chosen character.
Interesting to note here, you don’t need to hit to generate the Symbiote, so even if you miss, it’s still good because you get a bystander with Plasticity, Shape Change, Super Senses, and BCF with an 11-Attack to boot! So, you’ll get another chance to hit the target if you miss the first time. Of course, if you KO’d the target, you don’t get the Symbiote… but then again, you KO’d the target… with a 10pt figure. Just an amazing piece for ONLY 10pts.
- Groot (Avengers Infintiy)
Now we come to the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the don of dons… sorry, I got carried away. This 20pt Retaliator is right in-between the 10pt and 30pt range of Retaliators you’d want to play them at, but this tree does SO MUCH MORE for his points. First, let’s look at the great keywords he has: Ruler, Cosmic, and Monster. All three are amazing in Bronze so he will almost always be played on a Themed Team. Next, he has the almost mandatory Leadership power (which currently, is a MUST on all teams). This makes him the cheapest Leadership you’d want to play that does anything else other than just Leadership. On non-Guardians Themed Teams, he is a standard 11/18/3, but it’s his trait that puts him over the top:
PUNY MORTALS, WE WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE AN INSECT: At the beginning of the game, you may generate a Dr. Leslie Evans bystander in an opponent’s starting area that’s friendly to their force. If you do, generate two Walking Wood bystanders. // Whenever Groot hits one or more characters with an attack, after resolutions generate a Walking Wood bystander (maximum 5 on the map).
You basically start the game with 2 amazing bystander tokens (Sidestep, Flurry, Plasticity) that you will not ever get enough of. Add that he can generate more as he keeps hitting and this tree can generate a cascade of branches and leaves falling from him and all over your opponent. The best part is that it is generated next to HIM, which means you can generate it on the other side of Groot if you like, so that they can Sidestep/Flurry someone else. The Leslie Evans drawback isn’t that much of a drawback as he rarely ever gets into the fray (they never plan to have it in the first place).
Well, there you have it. There are plenty of other Retaliators to look at and many have their own uses on certain situations, or on certain types of teams, but just raw “power” and efficiency of these figures is hard to pass up. Whether you just want a pure attacking piece, or a piece with multiple uses, or even just saving points to up the Themed Team, count, consider playing these figures on your teams because you’ll wish you had a retaliator sooner or later.
Thanks for reading, until next time, remember, only bad players blame the dice!
