Welcome back to SG Protocol where we continue our Which… series. In this series we take a look at every character that has more than one incarnation in the game and see which version is best for using in every game.
Today we take a look at someone who’s second iteration isn’t quite out yet in the king of Wakanda, T’Challa.
Black Panther is fast, tough on his front side (less so on his backside), and can hit like an absolute truck when you have the power to spare for Mantle of the Black Panther.
His biggest downside is probably that the push on his strike isn’t optional so that it sometimes pushes his targets outside of his strike range. Otherwise he remains one of the best 4 threats in the game in my opinion. He is very flexible in being a potential damage dealer, extract holder, extract chaser, secure holder (especially on his front side) and decent pay to flip character. His Long move plus his pounce means he gets around the board extremely quickly.
Black Panther is affiliated in Wakanda (leader) and Avengers.
Sculpt: C+. It is OK. Not as dynamic as you would like your Black Panther to be.
Upcoming new 5 threat King T’Challa comes with a fantastic Range 3, 6 dice builder that can either pull enemies (size 3 or less) in or reroll two dice if they are in Range 2. It’s also energy which remains the best attack type against most models.
His spender looses the AoE push that Black Panther has but is two dice more and has a throw trigger. It’s a good spender but what you’ll almost always want to use your power for before using it is Bound. King T’Challa looses the Pounce of Black Panther and instead can place himself in Range 2 and then add two dice to his builder bringing it up to 8 dice.
In terms of defensive tech King T. has a 4/4/4 stat line and 7/7 health. His Royal Rebuke superpower can be an attack deterrent and him gaining power whenever an another allied model is damaged by an enemy effect should mean he’ll usually have the power to do his thing.
We don’t know if King T’Challa will be affiliated anywhere else than Wakanda yet and I honestly kind of doubt it. He could also be an Avenger still but that’s really about it.
Sculpt: B+
So which version of T’Challa should you take if you want to play him in every game? First off if you are a fan of the character chances are you could also be a fan of Wakanda and as both versions have leadership for the Wakanda affiliation let’s look at those first:
Black Panther was the first and for the longest time only leader for Wakanda. His leadership gives your team a solid boost in attacking, defending and dodging but it taxes your power economy quite hard. It’s a leadership generally useful for anyone but gets better the later it is in the game as models tend to be much more flush on power. The best affiliated user for the leadership ironically would be King T’Challa who should have no business being able to spare power for it. Funnily enough the same is true the other way around. King T has a pretty unique leadership but not that many good users in affiliation as Black Panther obviously can’t be in his squad. Shuri loves the leadership and M’Baku can at least contribute to it but that’s it.
So for me personally Black Panther is the better option if you want to have T’Challa lead your squad. King T. is a really good 5 threat under M’Baku or Killmonger, Usurper though.
And who should you take if you want to put T’Challa on the table in every game regardless of affiliation?
It depends on what you want him to be in your team. King T. is a high speed killing machine whose value is very much tied to him ripping apart enemy models. The potential for 8 dice reroll 2 energy builders is rather scary for most.
Black Panther on the other hand is a bit less of an investment at 4 threat and as eluded to above can pretty much play the role you want/ need him to. From rather tanky damage dealer over extract carrier to chasing opposing extract carriers Black Panther has you covered for most aspects of the game. He has significantly less reliable damage output than his 5 threat version though (rightly so).
So if you want a killing machine T’Challa and can fit the higher price tag in your list building go for King T’Challa. If you want a generally useful and flexible 4 threat go for Black Panther. To me neither of the two is clearly better or worse than the other one and you should decide based on what you need/ want out of them. Which really is the perfect place to be with these characters with more than one version.
That’s it for today. Next time we’ll take a look at the now three versions of T’Challas fellow Avenger: Steve Rogers.
See you then and Cheers from Germany 🍻
Unsere erste deutschsprachige TTS Liga hat gestartet aber der Beitritt ist weiterhin möglich:
https://www.longshanks.org/event/11208/
AuĂźerdem freuen wir uns ĂĽber alle deutschsprachigen MCP Fans auf unserem Discord Server: