If only we had the gift of foresight and could have seen marvel this coming! I’m a sucker for all things Asgardian, so to have Heimdall, Executioner and that glorious Malekith model on the horizon is most wondrous indeed. Let’s get into Heimdall’s stats and see what he brings us.
STAMINA – A highly respectable 6, we’ll take it!
MOVEMENT – Medium. Standard.
SIZE – Heimdall’s a big guy, but even so he comes in at a perfectly humanoid size 2.
THREAT – 3, not much more to say.
DEFENCES – 3’s right across the board, perfectly fine for a 3 threat character. Let’s hope for some defensive superpowers!
ATTACKS – Heimdall has 2 attacks, both of which are physical. First he has an attack named Strike which has a range of 2, strength of 5 and power cost of 0. After the attack is resolved Heindall gains power equal to the damage dealt. This is a perfectly standard power generating attack – not much more to say other than use it and bag yourself some green discs!
Attack number 2 is a bit juicier – Hofund has a range of 2, strength of 7 and power cost of 3. If this attack deals damage then after it is resolved Heimdall may push the target character away medium. The best thing about this is the lack of size restriction on the push (apart from the joy of being able to roll 7 dice of course). This means that Heimdall is able to push anyone in the game that can be pushed, not too shabby for a 3 threat character! Is that a Dormammu I see lurking nervously in the corner…?
Pretty basic attacks all in all, but both solid. Let’s move on to superpowers.
SUPERPOWERS – Heimdall’s first superpower is active, has a power cost of 3 and is called Guardian of the Bifrost. This superpower lets you choose either Heimdall or another allied character within range 4 and place it within range 2 of its current position. A character can be placed by this superpower only once per turn. This is like a mini Rainbow Bridge team tactics card, which is fantastic. Out of turn movement is so valuable in this game; granted this costs a decent amount of power to use, but 3 power to get a character or characters into position seems more than worth it. For this superpower alone I think Heimdall will be a great character to splash into other teams.
Next up we have a reactive superpower. All-Seeing Eyes costs 2 power and states that when an allied character within range 3 is attacking, defending or dodging, during the modify dice step the allied character may reroll up to 2 of it’s own dice. This is really really great. This really helps with some of the shortcomings in the defences of certain Asgardians (looking at you Thor), and the fact that this can be used for attacks and dodges as well is superb. But there’s more! Alternatively, when an allied character within range 3 rolls dice for a Crisis Card or Team Tactics card Heimdall may use this superpower. The allied character may reroll up to 2 of its own dice. This is a really fun ability and immediately makes me think of roll to flip objectives such as Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership where you have to get certain dice values to be able to pick up the objective. This really helps with that, that’s for sure! And best of all it’s a wonderful bit of thematic flavour, with Heimdall using his foresight to aid his allies in fulfilling their objective. Again, this superpower is another reason to splash Heimdall into ALL THE OTHER TEAMS!
Next we have another reactive superpower. Forfend costs 2 power and states that when an enemy ends a movement within range 2 of Heimdall he may immediately make a Strike attack against the enemy character, once per turn. I think that due to Guardian of the Bifrost and All-Seeing Eyes Heimdall will more often than not be a priority for your opponent to deal with. Forfend is a nice superpower to have as it forces your opponent to make the decision as to whether they can afford to take the Strike attack on their character as a cost to hit Heimdall. Plus, we’ll take any damage on an enemy character we can get. AND this out-of-turn attack will hopefully generate Heimdall some much needed power.
Last of all we have the old faithful innate superpower Asgardian which means that Heimdall generates and additional 1 power in the power phase. Considering all that Heimdall can do every bit of power helps that’s for sure.
INJURED SIDE – The only change that I can see is that his stamina drops from 6 to 5. Boo! But fine.
SUMMARY – I’m really liking everything I am seeing on Heimdall’s card. For a 3 threat he seems really great with his character movement, rerolls on pretty much everything and his ability to hit back when approached. I think he will be really hungry for power and no matter how much he gets each round he will have ways to spend it. I can really see him showing up in all manner of lists as a splash character.
AFFILIATIONS – He hasn’t been released yet so i’m not 100% but I imagine he will be affiliated with only Asgard, and so far that just means Thor’s leadership (although with ministravaganza coming up who knows, we may get a second leadership). Thor’s leadership will let Heimdall spend a power to remove 1 damage or a special condition, very handy if he ends up with the Poison or Root special condition in particular; but really I think for the most part he will want to be saving his power for spending on his own abilities.
As for other affiliations that he will play nicely in I think he can fit pretty much anywhere. 3 threat is a nice slot for him to take and the mere fact that he can move allies and give them rerolls means any character will be happy to have him along for the ride. I’ll have to give a tip of the cap to Steve’s Avengers though – a 1 power discount on all of Heimdall’s abilities is *chef’s kiss*.
TEAM TACTICS CARDS – Surprisingly Heimdall has no character-specific team tactics cards (although which superpowers such as he has, does he really need them?!). He will, however, benefit from any Asgardian cards. The aforementioned Rainbow Bridge let’s Asgardian characters not holding an objective spend 3 power to place themselves within range 3 of their current location. This would let you get Heimdall into a good position to feed rerolls and movement to his allies, or pull him out of a bad situation if you find yourself in a tricky spot – pretty handy. Heimdall could use Doomed Prophecy but I really think that he’s not the guy you want to be doing all out attacks on enemy characters and having no defences, that’s probably best left to someone else. That being said there will be someone out there who will find a way to pull off some kind of mighty shenanigan with this combo, but it shall not be I. Lastly we need to talk about Odin’s Blessing – it’s so good! When an Asgard character would be damaged by an enemy effect they may spend 3 power to reduce the amount of damage suffered to 1. Amazing for keeping Heimdall in the game doing what he does.
As for unaffiliated cards anything that protects Heimdall would be a most welcome addition. Generically good cards like Brace For Impact and Field Dressing etc would keep Heimdall in the game churning out dice and movement.
Disarm could be a good way of giving Heimdall a little protection. If you have an ally bearing down on him then you could get an ally into range 3 of the enemy and spend a power each to make them roll 2 fewer dice on all attacks this round. Escort to Safety would work too – it costs 3 power but gets Heimdall out of range of an attack.
Bitter Rivals offers a nice little bit of protection for Heimdall as well. If you spot an enemy character making their way to the big H this card will let an allied character spend 3 power to choose an enemy character within range 3 who will roll 1 less die on attack and defence rolls. This isn’t something that I would build Heimdall around, but it could play into a wider strategy so is worthy of consideration I think.
If you find yourself in a situation where Heimdall is about to be blown off the board and it’s really not a good time for it you may wish to consider playing Tactical Manoeuvres. When attacking or defending an allied character can pay 4 power to play this card at the end of the modify dice step to reroll all defence dice. Could come in absolutely critical in a pinch.
Fall Back is a card that particularly stands out. When an allied character is attacked, before damage is dealt it may spend 2 power to advance short away from the attacking character. Granted it doesn’t get you out of the attack, but if you can get out of range of a second hit or into a better position to be aided by your allies etc then it could well be worth it.
Lastly, Red Room Training lets a character spend 2 power at the start of the activation phase to gain the Stealth superpower until the end of the round (characters must be within range 3 to target a Stealth character with attacks). It offers Heimdall a little protection from those pesky ranged attackers and means you can get enemies in close to allow you to trigger other tactics cards that require a bit of enemy proximity.
Before signing off I’d like to just give a shout out to Blackgate Games based in the UK. You want minis, they have minis at the best prices around. If you’re in the market for something new I’d recommend giving them a look over.
And that’s it. What do you make of Heimdall? Will you use him in your lists? Comment below!
