Dean Salvucci [mailto:dean_salvucci@hotmail.com] Ghost Rider "Champions" 300 Point Team This is a fun team based on "The Champions", a Marvel Team from the 70's that may be remembered fondly by some of us old school comic readers. Led by Hercules, this comic may have been an attempt to capitalize on the success of a Hercules Cartoon, although unrelated to the Marvel version of the Hercules character, which ran in the late 60's and early 70's and was big in syndication, at least where I grew up. Hercules, and Greek Mythology in general, had always been intriguing to children who enjoyed super- heroes and super-powers, however, the Marvel version of this character had never been able to carry his own title. Marvel had some success with Thor, so why not Hercules? They threw in 2 of the original X-Men, Iceman and Angel, along with Ghost Rider (not usually thought of as a team player), and the Black Widow (just to add a female to the group) and you had Marvel's "Most Sensational New Super-Group of All". The comic lasted about 3 years, but can now live on through Heroclix with the addition of Ghost Rider in the Ultimates release. That should suffice as my rambling introduction. So, here are the Champions: Ultimate Black Widow - E - 43 points Ghost Rider - E - 71 points Hercules - E - 67 points Iceman - V - 47 points Archangel - V - 68 points You'll notice that this team has no medics and is really mostly an offensive team. You get 2 characters with charge in Archangel and Ghost Rider, and a low-priced "brick" in Hercules. Black Widow's SHIELD ability acts as a nice damage enhancer for your "ranged combat expert", Iceman. So, here is how I play this team. Iceman carries Black Widow which bumps his 3 damage on RCE up to a solid 4. It is best to set BW down in a bush or other hindering terrain to take advantage of her stealth. Since BW adds willpower to the mix, she can make a decent ranged attacker to double team your opponent. With respective attack values of only 9 and 8 for IM and BW, it would be best to target some of your opponents secondary characters with low defense values and take them right out of the game. Ghost Rider is on his own and can charge up to even the strongest piece on your opponents team with his 11 attack and 4 base damage. He may take some damage in toe to toe combat, but gains leap climb to make a getaway if things get rough. In the mean time, you have Archangel charging your opponent while carrying Hercules. If you have an opponent using stealth, just charge right up with Archangel and attack. You will also be putting Hercules in place to yank that object on the next turn and clobber the opposition for 5 of 6 damage. Like I said earlier, this team has several good offensive pieces, but not great defense and no medic. Try them out as a "quick strike" team for fun and let me know what you think.