Tabletop Tactics: Heroclix Fantastic Four & Dr. Doom
Tabletop Tactics is an article series that spans several games and is meant to give experienced gamers and gamers who are trying to become more competitive a deeper look into some of the strategies they can use to learn to optimize their game. In this Heroclix battle we’ll look into the new starter set released by Wizkids “Cosmic Clash” which features the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom and Silver Surfer. What makes starter sets like these great is that your team compositions can vary depending on the point limit you and your opponent agree upon giving you a lot of build options. For this article we’ll focus solely on a 300 matchup between Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four, and how to best utilize each of these teams against each other.
Matchup Tactics
Fantastic Four Tactics – Even at 75 points a piece each they are still a formidable team when used to work cohesively. Their priority is to keep Dr. Doom tied up in close combat to prevent him from using his 3 target Photon Array attacks from doing any damage. Mr. Fantastic works best as his Plasticity will give Dr. Doom fits, but The Thing works too as he can follow Dr. Doom around the map if he’s close enough to trigger The Things “It’s Clobberin’ Time” trait. It’s also important to keep Invisible Woman hidden as long as possible using her Telekinesis to position her teammates and using Support when necessary. Use Human Torch’s trait Flame Trail to get Dr. Doom on those pesky STOP! clicks to allow The Thing and anyone else do some real damage. My final piece of advice is to keep them close together. They have a lot of powers that benefit off them being within a certain range of each other, so keep them together but be mindful about Pulse Wave, Energy Explosion, and similar Special Powers (I’m looking at you Photon Array).
Dr. Doom Tactics – As with any one man army you have to be cautious of being caught in vulnerable positions where you can be outactioned and tied up. This means you need to use Doom’s 7 range to his advantage and prioritize targeting The Thing and Mr. Fantastic. The latter may even take priority as his “You’ll find Mr. Fantastic more than a match for you, every time” special power can get around Doom’s Protected: Outwit trait should Doom be able to activate it. I’m not diminishing The Thing’s threat level, but Doctor Doom has damage reducers throughout his dial that allows him to take a hit or two of which Mr. Fantastic can easily remove if he gets close enough. Use Photon Array to keep the Fantastic Four pinned down with action tokens for as long as you can. Most importantly keep your distance!
The Battle
The Fantastic Four ended up winning the die roll and chose to play on the “Testing Grounds Outdoor” map as it provided plenty of blocking and elevated terrain for them to hide behind. This meant that Dr. Doom wouldn’t have free rein to blast them from a distance. The Fantastic Four quickly swarmed the center of the map using the elevated terrain to hide from Dr. Doom’s Photon Array. Since Dr. Doom couldn’t get a bead on them, he hung back behind blocking terrain biding his time until the Fantastic Four was a little more exposed. Failing his own Leadership rolls didn’t help as the Fantastic Four quickly closed the gap and Mr. Fantastic tied Doom up with Plasticity while Human Torch used his Flame Trail trait to quickly put Doom on his STOP. click.
It was all downhill for Doom from there. Dr. Doom was only able to hit 1 Leadership roll the whole game and it was too little too late. Human Torch ended up doing a bulk of the damage with the help of Mr. Fantastic’s special “You’ll find Mr. Fantastic more than a match for you, every time” removing Doom’s defensive powers. Dr. Doom did manage to get a Pulse Wave off along with a couple of attacks on The Thing and Mr. Fantastic, but it wasn’t enough..
The Aftermath
If you’re planning to play Dr. Doom solo try and KO those pesky characters with Outwit ASAP. Doom may have had a fighting chance if it weren’t for Mr. Fantastic using Outwit and his special power “You’ll find Mr. Fantastic more than a match for you, every time”. He really was. The map choice was also very important being he’s a one-man army it may be difficult to win map choice versus themed teams.
The Fantastic Four played exactly as planned. It is very helpful that 3 of 4 of them have Indomitable or Willpower. This really allowed them to keep piling on the damage on Dr. Doom turn after turn once he was tied down by Mr. Fantastic’s Plasticity. IIf you’re planning this battle yourself against a friend keep Mr. Fantastic alive. Use Invisible Woman’s Telekinesis if you have to pull him out of danger and heal him up with her Support. Human Torch’s Flame Trail trait was a crucial power to get Dr. Doom off some of his nastier clicks. The Thing may be the more disposable of the 4, so use him as bait as he can tank a decent amount of damage too.
Before I Go
Stay tuned for more Heroclix related articles in the very near future. If you’d like more information on our gaming group please see the “About Me” section below as we post a lot of original content there as well that you may not find on our official website (Facebook and Instagram Stories, edited images, and/or pictures taken by us the DTS Gaming Crew.
About Me: I’m a video/tabletop game reviewer, content creator, and game member of the Drop the Spotlight Gaming Crew. If you have questions about any of my content, reach out to me at maurogarcia@dropthespotlight.com. You can also view our gaming content on our Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram pages, check out our gaming podcast on Anchor FM, and our videos can be viewed on the Drop the Spotlight YouTube.
