How to start the affiliation
Your first pick up has to be Black Bolt and Medusa. Just be sure to get their updated cards from AMGs website or Jarvis Protocol. Black Bolt is currently your only leader so you’ll play him in every Inhumans game you play. Medusa is the best in affiliation 4 threat and will also see the table a lot for you here. Next up I would recommend Ms. Marvel. She is in a singles box and your most well rounder 3 threat choice here. Crystal and Lockjaw are honestly more a “to taste” pick up. Neither is bad but they don’t stand out as particular stars immediately either. For theme reasons you probably do won’t Crystal though since at the moment the rest of the affiliation is made up of her various husbands and boyfriends… All three of them: Beast, Quicksilver and Ronan are definitely worth giving a look at some point in your Inhumans journey but sadly none of their box partners stand out as particularly good additions for Inhumans. Quicksilver and Wanda (unaffiliated) as well as Beast, who is best grabbed in the X-Men affiliation pack, give the option for an easy Avengers dual if you own either core set. Ronan and Drax (unaffiliated) would open up a lane for a Guardians dual but I personally don’t think that’s a route really worth exploring as (little spoiler) Guardians usually have the same primary game plan anyway and Ronan and Drax are more tech pieces than core there, too.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical archetype of the roster
King of the Inhumans is your (currently) only available leadership but that’s not so bad as it is easily in the top 5 leaderships in the game. The amount of possible power manipulation is unparalleled and unlike many other power focused leaderships it is completely unconditional (outside of the Range restriction) and your opponent has no influence on it (like in A-Force). Be careful though as it doesn’t create a single additional power during the game. You “just” get to redistribute power you already have to someone you think needs it more.
In terms of archetype Inhumans sit comfortably at type 3: plan A is murder but the affiliation is wide and objective focused enough that the pivot to scenario focus is absolutely possible if they think out fighting the opponent will not work.
Turning the concept around to type 2 is also very possible.
For type 1 (full on scenario only focus) you lack the tools and your 5 threat leader doesn’t help you with the plan a lot and while he absolutely does for a type 4 (pure murder plan) you lack a couple of additional beaters in affiliation. But that might change soon.
Who could be added to the affiliation, especially as new leaders
Q2 of 2025 will see the release of long awaited Karnak and Gorgon and they’ll come with a new Version of Black Bolt and his brother Maximus, who is confirmed to have a new leadership for the affiliation.
Outside of this big influx of models the one sticking out most to me is Triton. I’m far from an Inhumans expert though so if you have any more suggestions here let me know.
Rating every affiliated TTC and character
Team Tactics (3)
Attilan Rising
A. Your leadership doesn’t create new power. This card does. And potentially a whole lot of it. Don’t hold it back untill it doesn’t help you enough anymore though. If you have two or sometimes even just one injured Inhuman just play the card and enjoy the big influx on power in your affiliated squad members. A card that can only get better with more affiliated characters coming soon.
Inhuman Royal Family
A-. Once again don’t be fooled by the opportunity to play this with every possible character at once. Play this when you really need Bolt to get the necessary damage through for example.
Terrigenesis
B-. Civilian is the lesser represented extract type at the moment (but that might change with the War of Kings pack of course) making the card do nothing in the majority of games. Can be good in the right situation though.
Characters (8)
Beast (3)
B. He’s a fast objective runner that is somewhat defensively capable. His already cheap throw is even easier to get here which is nice.
Black Bolt (5)
A. Bolt is your absolute center piece in the affiliation. He hits like a truck, can bodyguard on his front side and has one of the best spenders in the game on his backside along with a tonne of health. He also gets two power per power phase making him a good candidate to start the power redistribution.
Crystal (3)
B. Crystal is very fast and has the potential for three attack actions per turn. If she lives to activate which is her biggest weakness.
Lockjaw (3)
B-. Lockjaw struggles for a role outside of turn 1 jank a bit. He can be used to teleport your extract carriers back to safety, too though and can guard a back point well. He’s also a very good boy so probably give him a try anyway.
Medusa (4)
A. Medusa got tuned down in her 21 card update but she is still very good overall. Teleporting allies is always good and her no rerolls against me defensive tech is relevant against a lot of popular teams like Asgard.
Ms. Marvel (3)
A-. Kamala is deceptively fast with her transformation and can hit like a truck with her rerolls. You just kind of run out of dice before you run out of rerolls with her.
Quicksilver (3)
B+. Fantastic objective runner especially with Wall Crawler and the Advance on his cheap Spender that’s even easier to fund here if you need it. Also brings a (Assets only) Steal TTC along with him.
Ronan the Accuser (4)
B. Ronan is very much a control piece to use against enemy Kaijus. He has his one job but that he does do well enough to be considered for a roster. With the rotation of Eyes on the Prize I don’t think Power Gem Ronan is worth it personally. He doesn’t really spend the additional power well enough to be worth the extra threat cost to me.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Black Bolt (5)
Medusa (4)
Ronan the Accuser (4)
Beast (3)
Ms. Marvel (3)
Quicksilver (3)
Hulk (6)
Abomination (5)
The Wrecking Crew (4)
Okoye (2)
Team Tactics (10)
Attilan Rising
Brace for Impact (R)
Can I Borrow That?
Fall Back (R)
Inhuman Royal Family
Mystic Menace
Recalibration Matrix
Stronger Together
Terrigenesis
Survival
Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Extract Crisis
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)
That’s it for today. Next Up: Legion of the Lost
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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