Welcome back to SG Protocol.
Today we continue our quick overview of the common play style for every leader in every affiliation.
If you haven’t already be sure to read the 4 roster archetypes article here:
And part one from A-C here:
Dark Dimension:
The Dread Dormammu can have his team be whatever you want him to as every squad he joins automatically becomes Dark Dimension affiliated. Since you are spending no less than 8 threat on your attrition only leader it’s kind of hard to go any other route than full on 4 style attrition. Depending on the rest of your list you might be able to make it into a 3 but don’t expect Dorm to be your leader if you want to play an objective focused game as your main plan.
Defenders:
Daredevil:
Matt Murdock’s Defenders like to be bunched up in the middle to make use of the leadership best. But with a tonne of great affiliated characters the roster can be tuned to be anything from a full on 4 down to a 2. It probably has his best place on being a 3.
Doctor Strange:
Original Doctor Strange has a leadership that, in theory, increases your damage output and survivability but it just doesn’t seem to come together to any real success it seems. His style is probably between 3 and 2.
Guardians of the Galaxy:
These guys are often referred as the best thing you can do if you want to lean into full on attrition. And while this is probably correct they aren’t as one dimensional as Black Order for example. Because they can choose to field a very wide squad building them as a 3 is very possible and probably why they are so much more successful than Black Order. They can adapt to the “running around and stealing stuff” kind of lists much better.
Hellfire Club:
Just like Dark Dimension this can be whatever you like. What made them the most competitively successful affiliation from the September 2023 character updates until the end of last year was the archetype 2 list that focuses on fast and tanky characters that can throw to score points or use as an attrition tool (like Beta Ray Bill and Lizard) .
Hydra:
Baron Strucker:
Strucker is Hydra’s wide archetype 2 leader because of his anti attrition leadership and the cheap and effective Hydra core he allows at only 3 threat himself. The sad part about Struckers very cool leadership is that there are many immunities in the game on popular models and factions like Winter Guard and Asgard can easily get rid of conditions too that it will sometimes just do nothing all game.
Baron Helmut Zemo:
New core set 4 threat Zemo fights the uphill battle against his 3 threat version which is arguably the most cost efficient model in the game. His very unique leadership helps with a type 2 game plan even though he himself isn’t all that great at this kind of play.
Red Skull, Master of Hydra:
Having the best Grunts in the game (the only ones who can contest secures) and coming with a great ramp style leadership Red Skull, Master of Hydra is pretty much your default leader of the faction. While he is a almost a pure attrition piece his team doesn’t have to be build around a full on 4 style game plan. It’s probably best served as a 3 and including fast stealthy objective runners Spider-Woman and Viper if outscoring the opponent is the more likely route to victory.
Inhumans:
With Black Bolt being an immobile pure damage character you might think the Inhumans should be an archetype 4 style affiliation but in reality they pack a lot of speed in their affiliated 3 threats especially making them more of a 3 and closer to a 2 than an actual 4 in my opinion.
Midnight Sons:
The faction of the weirdos of the Marvel universe comes with one of the strongest leaderships in the game and very good affiliated team tactics cards. But they don’t end up being extremely good at any one game plan. Overall, not least because of Immortal Hulk and Blade himself, they probably lean more towards being a 3.
Sentinels:
Having only 3 affiliated models (one of those you can take two of) means the core of the list will always be somewhat of a 2 style only list because it is too slow to go full on 1 and the damage potential of the affiliated characters isn’t high enough to be a reliable 3-4. But here it really depends on who else you bring in.
SHIELD:
Invincible Iron Man:
iTony offers your SHIELD team dice fixing on offense as well as defense making the team straight up stronger if you can pay the power tax. And more often than not you will be. SHIELD under either leader is first and foremost an attrition team but wide enough to shift to scenario play if the game calls for it. So a 3-4.
Nick Fury:
The traditional SHIELD leader, Nick Fury Jr. and his tactics card Eye in Sky are still the absolute core of the team. Even if he isn’t leading the squad himself. He and his leadership represent the classic defensive abilities puzzle that SHIELD is known for. He plays a 3-4 game plan but dares the opponent to come inside his danger zone rather than being the full on aggressor. It’s why the faction under his leadership has traditionally struggled against teams with strong archetype 1 or 2 game plans.
Spider-Foes:
Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist:
The 4 threat leader version of Otto Octavius is now kind of the default leader of the faction. His leadership further increases the inherit core strengths of the affiliation: speed and durability. His two best friends Lizard and Rhino will form the core of almost every squad you’ll build for Ock. They are an archetype 2 roster that is closer to a 1 than to a 3.
Green Goblin:
Norman Osborn is the other, more traditional, Spider-Foes leader. His leadership is attrition focused but the roster of affiliated characters isn’t especially packed with characters who can take good advantage of it. Goblin teams kind of want to be archetype 3 but have to splash in the big damage dealers to do so. He pretty much needs 3 threat Doctor Octopus for the strong TTC Well Laid Plans to stop the opponent from outscoring him.
Speaking of: Sinister Traps is a TTC that should be an absolute lock in every Spider-Foes roster and be, if not in every, in most of the games used.
And that’s it for today. Stay tuned for the upcoming last installment of the series in the next couple of days!
Cheers from Germany 🍻