How to start the affiliation
To start the best looking affiliation in the game you should own the earth’s mightiest core set for Doc Ock 2 who is one of your two available leaders. The Spider-Foes affiliation pack is a good next buy coming with Green Goblin, 3 threat Doc Ock, Kraven and Lizard. Rhino should be your next purchase, if you can find him. Be sure to use the updated version of the TTC this is a Robbery from Jarvis or AMGs website. The four model pack with Electro, Sandman, Shocker and Vulture should be on your list after that as they come with good models but especially faction defining TTCs like Surprise Webhead and Custom Upgrades. Of the affiliated characters you’re only missing Venom, Kingpin and Mysterio and Carnage then. Mysterio is probably the one you’ll use the most out of these four here in Foes. Kingpin is a better in CS as a leader, Venom is decent role player but a bit slow for the typical game plan here and finally Carnage is a glas cannon that sadly doesn’t really deliver on the cannon part.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan
PSA: Don’t use the card out of the Affiliation pack. It is completely false. Jarvis and the AMG website have the correct one.
Oscorp Weaponry sounds like a strong attrition leadership but it isn’t in reality. Rerolling your opponents dice is nice as it is the second to last step during the attack timing (ASM or Crimson Dynamo rerolling your attack dice is the only thing happening afterwards) but it still has a 3/8 chance to do nothing, sometimes even higher with Martial Artists and the like.
If you play Goblin leadership it is typically more to create a “trap house” list where he himself contributes a lot and not a “true” attrition list. You do kind of lack the affiliated beaters for that route anyway. Doc Ock 1 is also pretty much stapled to Goblin as their team up card Well Laid Plans is very strong. Goblin Foes play a scenario first game with some punch to win against other scenario teams (type 2).
Sinister Six is a cool anti attrition leadership. But that’s also a bit of it’s downfall. Ock Foes are a type 2 team too but can struggle against type 1 teams as their leadership is dependent on actually being targeted by attacks. If they face for example Web Warriors, who simply don’t attack them they are in a rough spot. They can no sell teams that focus on conditions as part of their attrition plan though. X-Force will often have a bad time against them for example.
Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as new leaders
Most important would be a female member. Foes the last none single model affiliation without a single female member. Probably the most likely candidate will be female Doc Ock from Miles’ universe. And that’s the other part here: we need some Miles Morales villains too! Prowler and Spot for example. Scream would be another good female Foe a d another if the always famous Symbiotes.
As a weird niche one that is simply going to be too new to be considered here I’d love is Hollow’s Eve. Especially as she’s in a new anti-hero team called Blood Hunters with Elsa Bloodstone, Dagger and White Widow, which could be fun in the future.
But enough of that tangent and back to our main topic.
Rating every affiliated TTC and characters
Team Tactics (8)
Custom Upgrades
A. There’d have to be a specific reason not to have the card in your 5. Don’t sleep on its defensive part either when you’re stuck in a 1:1 somewhere on the board meaning the downside doesn’t matter a lot.
Founding Members
B-. Fun but the best conditions are handed out by characters you generally don’t want to be in range to trigger it.
Neogenetic Recombinator
C+. Reads OK but it only moves damage around and doesn’t heal anything.
Sinister Traps
B+. It has a lot of counter play but can also have a significant impact on the game if your opponent doesn’t know or have any.
Strategic Retreat
A-. It’s a restricted card and a rotated card (Fall Back and Mission Objective) combined into one card but also more expensive. Harder to set up than you’d like but still very good.
Surprise, Webhead
A+. It’s the weakest version of this effect because it costs 2 power per character and all have to target the same enemy character. It’s still just a slightly worse version of the best TTC in the game, so pretty good.
Well-Laid Plans (unaffiliated, but requires Green Goblin and 3 threat Ock.)
A. It’s not super reliable and pretty costly with six total power but it can also completely swing a game in your favour.
This Is Our Day (unaffiliated but requires an Otto Octavius)
B-. This card has a niche use in when you face off against a type 1 team that wants to drop your extracts (so basically Web Warriors) that you went like 3:4 against in round 1. It helps you keep the margin close which can then hopefully
Characters (14)
Carnage (4)
C-. Carnage needs an update. He’s a glass cannon but doesn’t deliver on the cannon part as his attacks aren’t especially scary for a 4 threat. He was the match winner in my first ever TTS league win so he isn’t unplayable but you can simply do better inside and outside the affiliation.
Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist (4)
B. Ock 2 is a good leader and a fine model. His biggest weakness is that he’s pretty easy to take off the board for a 4 threat and being a leader doesn’t help with the target priority the opponent will have for him.
Doctor Octopus (3)
B+. Ock 1 is obviously weaker than 2, but he fills a different role in simply being a fast objective runner with some control. There’s another model here that does the same job better but it’s an important job and having two characters that are good at it is pure upside.
Electro (4)
B-. Electro reads fantastic but once you’ve seen him on the board it is a lot less hype. He’s very dependent on his 5 dice builders to connect otherwise he can’t find his kit. And speaking of: he hates holding an extract but that’s kind of the main plan here for either leader. Fun to sap people with anyway.
Green Goblin (4)
B. I think Goblin is an underrated character. He’s basically never played outside his own leadership but he is a fast and somewhat durable long range fire support with cool traps on his front side and becomes a much bigger threat on his backside.
Kingpin (4)
B. Kingpin is a very good model you’ll never play here. He’s too slow for the type of game Ock wants to play and he doesn’t fit the traps style of Goblin either. More than half of the characters here are CS too, so just play that with KP as your leader if you want to play him I guess. He’s a great Thor 2 counter though if that guy is hurting you.
Kraven the Hunter (3)
B. Kraven used to disappoint me all the time until Custom Upgrades released which can turn him into a heat seeking missile.
Lizard (3)
A. Fast, durable, has some control. Lizard is an objective runner all time favourite and a staple in Foes. He also looks awesome.
Mysterio (3)
A. Mysterio is very much a role player and he takes a TTC slot in your 5 when you bring him because The Grand Illusion is such a big factor of him being great in his role. He’s not an every game piece but when he shines (fighting in the center of the board) he shines unbelievably bright.
Rhino (4)
A+. Be sure to use the nerfed version of This Is A Robbery from Jarvis or AMGs website as it is now 4 power, making the card a bit more fair. Rhino is also good without the card and loves a spread out map. Other 4s have to beat him for the slot in your squad.
Sandman (4)
A. Probably a controversial take but I think Sandman is one of the most fun characters to play in the game and very good too. Loosing the Grunts on daze sucks but otherwise he is deceptively fast, pretty tanky, has tonnes of control and also decent damage output.
Shocker (3)
B. Shocker is unexciting but good.
Venom (4)
B. Venom is good at what he does but struggles to keep up with the rest of the teams in terms of speed.
Vulture (3)
C. If someone made him work please tell me. His kit looks good but he has no way to pay for it because he is reliant on a range 2 builder and he absolutely doesn’t want to be close to the enemy as he will just fall over dead immediately up close.
Example Rosters
Since Goblin and Ock lists are pretty different from each other I have one for each today.
Ock:
Characters (10)
- Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist (4)
Electro (4)
Kraven the Hunter (3)
Mysterio (3)
Lizard (3)
Rhino (4)
Sandman (4)
Shocker (3)
Black Widow (2)
Namor the Sub-Mariner (5)
Team Tactics (10)
Brace for Impact (R)
Custom Upgrades
Founding Members
Strategic Retreat
Surprise, Webhead
The Grand Illusion
This Is Our Day
This is a Robbery
Instant Recovery
Indomitable (R)
Secure Crisis
Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)
Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park (B, 18)
Portals Overrun City With Spider-People! (D, 18)
Extract Crisis
Paranoia Pummels Populace! (K, 16)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)
Goblin:
Characters (10)
Dracula (5)
Doctor Octopus (3)
Electro (4)
- Green Goblin (4)
Mysterio (3)
Rhino (4)
Sandman (4)
Shocker (3)
Vulture (3)
Lizard (3)
Team Tactics (10)
Brace for Impact (R)
Custom Upgrades
Fall Back (R)
Neogenetic Recombinator
Sinister Traps
Strategic Retreat
Surprise, Webhead
The Grand Illusion
This is a Robbery
Well-Laid Plans
Secure Crisis
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 (D, 17)
Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate (F, 20)
Extract Crisis
Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan (F, 17)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)
That’s it for today. Next up: Thralls of Dracula
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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