What a mini! And what escalation – we started with a steel beam and moved up through dumpsters to cars and bigger terrain – the modding was real! But is She-Hulk’s rules text as good as the mini itself, or do her abilities fall flat? Let’s see!
STAMINA – As one would expect from a Hulkian character, stamina here is high. Jen has a whopping 20 stamina to play with!
MOVEMENT – Medium (on a medium base). Pretty good to be fair.
SIZE – 3. She’s no original Hulk, but she’s still pretty darn big!
THREAT – 6, ouch. She-Hulk better be doing some serious business on the tabletop to justify that threat cost.
DEFENCES – Considering Jen is a 6 threat character she doesn’t have the greatest defensive lineup of all time, but at least it is a heck of a lot better than original Hulk’s, with 3 dice for physical and mystic and 4 for energy. Higher energy defence is nice, as a lot of ranged attacks are energy type, but let’s hope there are some more defensive abilities on her card, lest she fall foul of some of the issues which original Hulk faces.
ATTACKS – Jen’s first attack is physical and is called Sensational Uppercut. It has a range of 2, strength of 7 and a power cost of 0. Yes. This is a powerful attack as is, but there is more. As usual, power equal to the damage dealt is gained, but in addition after the attack is resolved the target character automatically gains the Slow special condition. I mean, what is there to really say about this attack – it’s a bit of a monster, and considering she can do it twice a round no problem I wouldn’t want to find myself parked up too close to an enemy She-Hulk. It’s better than some characters’ costed big attacks!
She-Hulk’s second attack is also physical, and is called The Defense Rests. This is a range 3 attack with a strength of 9 and power cost of 5. If this attack deals damage then after the attack is resolved the target character gains the Slow andStun special conditions. If the target character already has the Slow special condition, it gains the Stagger special condition. One of life’s great joys is when your characters big attack combo’s directly with your characters basic/free attack, so rejoice for She-Hulk brings us this wonder. I can picture it now, a Sensational Uppercut to give out Slow followed by a The Defense Rests to chuck out a Stagger on the same character. A good time to be you, a grim time to be your opponent. That’s assuming, of course, that the 9 dice attack doesn’t wipe the enemy character off the face of the planet! Of course, you need to do damage to give out Slow and Stun, but there are plenty of ways to add dice to attack pools. A solid attack all round I think.
LEADERSHIP ABILITY – She-Hulk is the leader of the A-Force, whose leadership ability is called Defenders of Arcadia. This ability states that when an allied character is damaged by an enemy effect, another allied character may gain 1 power. A character may not gain more than 1 power from this ability per turn. I love this ability. This is a skirmish game, characters are going to take damage. Being able to gain a benefit from this that then increases access to your character abilities is strong. And it so good that the limit on this is only per turn, so you can stack up power on a single character over he course of a round, rather than having to spread it amongst your team – I like having the option to put power where it is needed. I really like the sound of this leadership ability and I am looking forward to trying it out more in-game.
SUPERPOWERS – Jennifer’s first superpower is active and is called Clear the Court. This costs 3 power to use and states that Jen may choose an interactive terrain feature to an enemy character of size 4 or less and within range 2 and throw it medium, and this ability can be used only once per turn. This is exactly the same as Hulk’s throw with 1 one exception – it costs 1 more power to use. Still, having the ability to throw any character currently released in the game a medium distance is powerful, and should come with an appropriate cost.
Next up is another active superpower, this time called Superior Weight Training. This superpower has a cost of 3 and states that during the next attack made by She-Hulk this turn, add dice to the attack roll equal to the size of the target. Heck yes! I love abilities like this that scale with character size. Going toe to toe with Hulk or Black Dwarf? +4 dice for 3 power – yes please! Maybe not one to use if you’re facing down a Rocket Raccoon though… For the most part you’ll be getting either +2 or +3 dice, which is still great at 3 power.
Moving on now to Legal Defense which is a reactive superpower that costs 2 power. When an allied character within range 2 of She-Hulk is targeted by an attack, She-Hulk can instead become the target of the attack regardless of range or line of sight. This is exactly the same of Captain America’s Bodyguard ability which I am sure most if not all of you reading this will know, is really really useful. I’m not sure who it is best on – Cap or She-Hulk; Cap has lower stamina but very strong defences, whereas She-Hulk has very high stamina and so-so defences. Either way, it is a great ability to have access to, and it synergises really nicely with the A-Force leadership ability; an attack comes in, She-Hulk takes it instead, her allies become powered up. Great.
Next is an innate superpower called Gamma Transfusion. This superpower states that during the power phase She-Hulk gains 1 additional power (yay). Also, after an attack targeting She-Hulk is resolved, if She-Hulk suffered damage then she may advance short towards the attack character. Lastly, if She-Hulk would flip her stat card to her injured side she is, instead, K.O’d. First off let’s talk about the additional power – +1 per round is nice, even if it does mean She-Hulk is susceptible to a little bit of Stun. At least she can reliably trigger Legal Defense once each round and protect one of her allies. Speaking of Legal Defense, this combo’s really nicely with the second part of Gamma Tranfusion, meaning that she can take an attack directed at an ally and gain a little out of turn movement for her trouble. This is a really great bit of rules text that helps to mitigate one of the issues that original Hulk has. Keeping on the Hulk theme though, she has no inured side. Fair enough, we can’t have everything.
Let’s finish off the superpower section with an easy one, an innate superpower called Immunity [Poison] which means that She-Hulk is, unsurprisingly, immune to the Poison special condition (lose 1 power during the power phase). Nice and simple.
INJURED SIDE – There isn’t one!
SUMMARY – She-Hulk seems like a well-rounded character with a great leadership ability and a good group of attacks and superpowers that compliment each other nicely. What other praise can I give other than stating that I am excited to play her more which is, after all, what she was designed for. Good work AMG.
AFFILIATIONS – As She-Hulk is the leader of the A-Force it makes sense to play her in an A-Force team. We have covered that a little in the above so I don’t think we need to go over this too much more. The A-force has a pretty long list of affiliated characters, so you should be able to do whatever you want with the team really.
In addition to being the leader of the A-Force, She-Hulk is also affiliated with the Avengers. Does she benefit much from Cap’s leadership? Heck yes she does! With the 1 power discount Jen now has access to all of her superpowers each round. She can throw anyone and anything, redirect an attack to herself and add dice to her attacks at least once per round guaranteed. Pretty amazing.
As for other affiliations which I suspect She-Hulk fits nicely into Asgard could be fun for a little healing to keep her around a bit longer, although you may be better off playing some healing team tactics cards instead. Also, as it looks like She-Hulk will wreck some face you could slip her into a Black Order team. Well, I say slip her in – there ain’t much room in the Black Order for unaffiliated characters!
In Cabal Red Skull let’s you gain power whenever you damage an enemy character with an attack – that’s She-Hulk territory right there! Just like with the Black Order though it is getting harder and harder to include high cost unaffiliated characters in teams as the affiliated character pool is ust so big now. Still, worth a shot.
I quite like the idea of She-Hulk in a Defenders team. Yes, the Defenders leadership ability is generically awesome (and I love playing Doctor Strange), but it is the Hex that pulls me in here. Hex prevents characters from adding to their attack, defence or dodge dice pools when they roll criticals, and I think She-Hulk laying some attacks into characters which have been given Hex could be extremely powerful indeed.
Similar to the A-Force, an Inhumans team could work with She-Hulk in it. The Inhumans leadership ability let’s you move power around between characters, meaning you could stack a bit of extra power onto She-Hulk over the course of a game, or if you find she is power-rich you can move it off her to help out her allies. Probably not as up there as the A-Force, but still worthy of consideration I think.
I also think She-Hulk could work in either of the Uncanny X-Men teams, with Cyclop’s team letting character pool their power to pay for attacks, and Storm’s team granting additional movement as well as a little cover which always comes in handy.
Lastly, I think She-Hulk could benefit from the Web Warriors leadership ability, and could fit in there quite easily as the character pool to choose from is quite limited at the moment, and they are short of higher cost characters. The Web Warriors leadership ability grants allied characters the ability to reroll a defence die, which will help with She-Hulk’s longevity, and also grants the ability to reroll failures when holding or contesting an objective – pretty nifty!
TEAM TACTICS CARDS – As part of the A-Force and Avengers teams She-Hulk has access to some affiliated team tactics cards, as well as a character-specific one. Let’s take a look at these first and then move onto some potential other cards which could be good on She-Hulk.
First up let’s look at A-Force Assemble. An A-Force character may spend 3 power to play it, and if they do so then allied characters defending against an attack this round add 1 die to their defence roll for each other allied A-Force character within range 2 of them. This synergises nicely with She-Hulk, as you will likely be using her to take some attacks which are directed at her allies, so that’s at least 2 characters within range 2 of each other. This card becomes more powerful the more clustered up characters are, so crises such as “Gamma Wave” and “Origin Bombs” become more appealing if this card appeals to you.
Remember Drop Off? Not allowed in organised play anymore (yet another reason why casual play is the best!). Now we have Special Delivery – a reactive A-Force team tactics card which allows an A-Force character with Flight within range 2 of an allied She-Hulk to pick her up and drop her off when the character begins a move action, at the cost of 1 power each. When the active character ends its move you place She-Hulk within range 1 of it, then she may perform one of She-Hulks attacks that has a listed cost of 0 power. Amazing! We all know what Drop Off can do – now grab Special Delivery and go for it (preferably whilst yelling “Special Delivery” as loud as you can).
Next up is Stalwart Determination, another A-Force reactive card. This card states that during the power phase any number of allied A-Force characters may spend 1 power to prevent themselves from being pushed or thrown by enemy effects this round. Pretty nifty if securing some critical objectives!
Last up we have Agents of S.M.A.S.H. which requires you to be running both Hulk and She-Hulk. In a single team. Is this even possible?! Anyway – if the planets align and you are able to perform this miraculous feat then if both characters are within range 2 of the same interactive terrain feature of size 5 or less then they may spend 3 power each, then you get to choose one of the characters to throw the terrain feature long. This is pretty much the most mega throw in the game, but is it worth running 12 threat across 2 characters? I’m not so sure.
On to Avengers cards now, first up – Avengers Assemble. She-Hulk, along with any number of allied Avengers characters, may spend 1 power to advance short. On a medium base that’s not too shabby. Also, if you find that She-Hulk has Stun then you could play Second Wind for the cost of 1 power to remove it.
As for other cards let’s start with All You’ve Got. This gives a character of 6 threat or less a second activation, following which She-Hulk would gain a dazed token. You could then bring her back with Field Dressing, then heal her further with Medpack or other cards/Asgard’s leadership ability. Just a notion.
Inexorably we come to Battle Lust – She-Hulk moves, pays 4 power, then adds 4 dice to her next attack, after which she pushes the target character away short (if it’s still standing of course). Yes sir, thank you sir.
If you find that your characters are getting laid into a bit and She-Hulk is taking attacks for her allies left, right and centre you could consider Disarm. 2 allied characters within range 3 of an enemy can spend 1 power each to cause the enemy to roll 2 fewer dice on all attacks this round (to a minimum of 1).
If you have 2 power to spare you could play Extreme Conditioning which would allow She-Hulk to advance long instead her usual medium – pretty great.
As She-Hulk is rich with stamina you could reasonably consider running No Matter the Cost. She-Hulk can take up to 3 power for an equal reduction in power cost of her next attack. This means The Defense Rests would cost a mere 2 power – that’s a turn 1 attack. Dang.
To boost attack dice you could run One-Two Punch. She-Hulk is already likely to be close to her allies and some enemy characters, so why not pay a little power to get some bonus dice on attacks.
Lastly, to keep She-Hulk around a bit longer you may want to consider running healing cards such as the previously alluded to Field Dressing, Patch Up and Medpack.
And that’s your lot. Before signing off let me make mention of Black Gate Games – they’re based in the UK and offer great discounts on MCP, as well as (shudder) Star Wars and other games. Scope them out if you are in the market for shiny new goodness.
So what do you make of She-Hulk? Are you going to use her much in your games?
