How to start the affiliation
You should start with the earth’s mightiest core set or the classic core set (or Avengers affiliation pack if you can’t find a copy of core 1) and add Nick Fury Jr. to it as the absolute minimum. Fury gives you (almost) all the SHIELD cards and is one of your leaders and an absolute core piece to the affiliation regardless if he is the leader or not. Namor and Black Panther, Chosen of Bast (unaffiliated) should also be pretty high up on your buying list as well as Nick Fury SR. and the Howling Commandos. Grabbing Hawkeye and Black Widow, Agent of SHIELD can be a good pick up, even if you probably won’t play the latter a lot. Spider-Woman and Agent Venom is another very good pack where both members are affiliated.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan
Last Line of Defense is a very unique leadership really unlike any other in the game. It helps you stay in the game when you went down early but also don’t sleep on the “aggressive” part of it.
Let’s get you an upgrade is a copy and paste leadership from Black Panthers King of Wakanda. It is very good so that’s not a bad thing for competitivty just a bit boring.
I fully admit I wasn’t super excited when this card was released as I thought SHIELD already had two strong leaderships and a lot of affiliated TTCs making this less desirable. Turns out I was really wrong about it and this leadership is absolutely fantastic. The unlocking of Skulls is what really makes this leadership shine.
As for game plan, while going very wide with is a decent option you kind of do it to bring even more attacks in your squad and not to really play a scenario game. This is as close to a pure type 4 (full on murder) team you’ll get without a big center piece model forcing it.
Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders
Quake was a popular shout for Inhumans and she’s a SHIELD agent too. Aside from her Agents Coulson and Carter are probably the most famous not yet in the game. Mockingbird would be another candidate. None of them scream leader to me but with 3 good leaderships on 4 models already available I don’t think there’s a big need for another leader anyway.
Rating every affiliated TTC and character
Team Tactics (11)
A New Age
B. This card can only shine when you’ve built your entire roster or at the very least squad around it. If it’s good it’s great but it can easily be a dead card in your 10 and 5 too.
Battlefield Medicine
A+. Medpack was rightfully banned and this is just that with an affiliation tag.
Defensive Prototype
C-. Very hard to set up and it can easily be ignored because opponents can chose to climb over the line as it only blocks advances.
Hard Reset
A. Recall is omnipresent and this is just that for SHIELD. Great but basically never gets played anyway.
Helicarrier Strike
B-. Would be awesome if it didn’t cost an action.
Life Model Decoy
D. Very convoluted set up for an undesirable effect.
Sitrep
A+. Maybe the strongest card of the bunch here as it works on splashes and enables a lot of Shenanigans.
The Invaders
A+. It’s a very strong leadership on a very good model. Making it fair to cost a slot in your 5 on Namor. Not so much on Boomer Cap.
The Shieldmobile
A. An action less L move is incredible. Only beaten out by Sitrep because it is affiliated models only.
The Initiative
B. Makes a splash model SHIELD for the game, but importantly not for sqaud building. Can be relevant with SHIElDs good cards. The one use superpower it also gives is flexible and can be helpful too.
Eye In The Sky (unaffiliated)
A+. This card is very much core to the entire SHIELD experience. Regardless of whether Fury is your leader or not. Getting the card recycled ever turn makes it about as good as it gets in this game. Be sure to watch Vincent Curkov video about all the weird interactions with this card.
Characters (20)
Agent Venom (4)
A. Flash is a specialist in killing Web Warriors which and also Invaders (and to a lesser extent Guardians as well). A real hero in the mirror matches of the places he’s affiliated. He’s overall just a very fun character to play and you won’t ever be mad to have him in your roster.
Black Widow (2)
A. L move, stealth and Martial Artist make Widow 1 a great objective runner.
Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (3)
B. Agent Widow is probably the best character you’ll never play. She simply has too though of a competition which both her other versions.
Captain America, First Avenger (4)
C-. Mighty Steve without his own leadership is just a bad sculpt and below average performing 4 threat. OK to have in the roster as a dual affiliated leader when you’ve just started out with SHIELD but otherwise not worth your time.
Hawkeye (3)
B+. Hawkeye is a great long range support character that is extremely mobile on top of it. His rather weak defenses often don’t matter because in the end out ranging your opponent is the best defense you can have.
Invincible Iron Man (4)
B. iTony is a solid character upping the overall damage output of your team with his rerolls form either Jarvis or his leadership. You’ll probably don’t play him if he isn’t your leader but you won’t feel bad about bringing him for the role either.
Iron Man (3)
A-. Brings a similar impact to the board as iTony but is cheaper. Just like iTony he comes with the two excellent TTCs Stark Armory and Helios Laser Bombardment.
Namor the Sub-Mariner (5)
A. Namor is fantastic and probably the most splashed 5 threat in the game right now. Having him in affiliation and even a possible leader means he will most likely make your roster. Giving him the Time Gem is also not the worst idea here.
Nick Fury (4)
A. The core piece of the affiliation regardless of whether he’s the leader or not. You’d have to have a very specific reason not to have him on the table in any given SHIELD game.
Nick Fury & The Howling Commandos (3)
A. One of the most underrated 3 threats in the game. Great at their job and the better “Got your Back” target as they use it with a Gainer making it a net 1 power cost.
She-Hulk (6)
C-. She-Hulk just can’t pull the weight of her 6 threat sadly. She is cool but will more often than not be focused down to death at the end of round 2. Give her incinerate and she absolutely melts like butter.
Spectacular Spider-Man (3)
A. Arguably one of the best 3 threats in the game in the tier below over tuned Zemo, Miles and Black Cat. He brings a lot of control to a faction that is otherwise pretty lacking in that department.
Spider-Woman (4)
B+. As I say in every of her many affiliated places: I love Jessica. Here is maybe not her best home simply because she plays a role not so much needed but you’ll also don’t regret at least having her in the roster.
Steve Rogers, Captain America (4)
C. Boomer Cap as he’s often referred to is just weird. He isn’t bad per se but compared to other 4 threats he is just lacking. Could be your Invaders leader but it’s hard not playing Namor so that’s probably unlikely.
Taskmaster (3)
B. Taskmaster is just a rock solid secure character. But he doesn’t help you too much with your primary game plan here.
The Black Widow (4)
B+. Very good but in the same vein as Spider-Woman, who is her closest competitor for a role, probably not someone you’d bring every game just because killing isn’t really what she does.
The Original Human Torch (3)
C+. I want to love OG Torch, an action less steal character, but on the table he just falls over dead way to quickly to actually use his cool abilities.
War Machine (3)
B-. Rhodey would be fine if Iron Man wouldn’t exist and his spender wouldn’t kill himself.
Winter Soldier (3)
B. Very much locked in to a Hammers specialist role nowadays but absolutely still the king of that.
Winter Soldier, Operative (4)
B+. 4 threat Bucky is a great backline Shooter. You don’t exactly lack on those here but he’s a very good one with Stealth and Range 5 as well as hit and run.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Agent Venom (4)
Black Widow (2)
Hawkeye (3)
Namor the Sub-Mariner (Time) (6)
Nick Fury (4)
Nick Fury & The Howling Commandos (3)
Spectacular Spider-Man (3)
Winter Soldier (3)
Hulk (6)
Shang-Chi (4)
Team Tactics (10)
Battlefield Medicine
Sitrep
The Invaders
The Shieldmobile
Eye In The Sky
Chi Mastery
Prince‘s Protection
Vertical Assistance
Brace for Impact (R)
Survival
Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)
Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)
That’s it for today. Next up: Spider-Foes
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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