Thoughts on Angela

 Thoughts on Angela

I competed for the second time in my local MCP tournament with my Asgard affiliate list. For my second game, I finally found the opportunity to field Angela against X-force re-rolls. The match up was Loki, Prince of Lies leading; Angela, The Mighty Thor, and Beta Ray Bill. Against Cable leading; Domino, Bishop, Psylocke, and Warlock. I hard locked Angela from the beginning of my squad building because I knew I needed to see whether she truly managed re-roll teams well.

Angela started the game with a move and attack action on the enemy Psylocke, who claimed the Alien Core on my right-side. She missed the daze Turn 1, but with priority Turn 2. I turned Angela’s mid-turn 1 activation into a double turn on Psylocke, dazing her by the second attack action and allowing her to Angelic Assassin into Cable. He defended out of it, which I was slightly relieved as it kept power off of him so early in the turn, and it allowed me to set her base on some terrain to gain cover from Bishop. Before Turn 3 Angela got said terrain thrown into her by Cable. This loaded her with some damage that helped get her dazed early in the next turn. Regardless, she took her next turn to attack three times. Double attacking Cable, dazing him, advancing to cheap shot Warlock, and placing to threaten Domino, who was harassing Loki all the way on the other side of the centerline. After that opening, Beta takes the brunt of the enemies’ attention and dazes. Eventually KO’d on the center secure mid next turn without activating. Early Turn 3 Angela dazes without activating, but Domino never moves. Angela Turn 4 dazes Domino and Angelic Assassin to deal out Cable. Bishop ends up clearing her with good dice, and I finish the game with Mighty Thor and Loki, both Healthy but battered end of Turn 4 against Warlock and Domino. Turn 5, I KO Domino and left Warlock with one wound remaining, which the Alien Core he held flared for damage KO’ing him.

Throughout the game, I made sure Angela was a prime target for my opponent. They focused on Beta early, exposed distinctly placed on the center Demon secure objective. He soaked a lot of damage and scored twice on the point. Him KO’ing also allowed me to maintain priority control. As a side note, I missed several Honorbound triggers that could have set Beta up to have a more offensive presence, but regardless, his defensive game helped win the game.
Angela’s dive into the enemy back lines created a load of collateral damage and Angelic Assassin triggers. I did a great job of placing from one side of the board to the other with Xiphos, the only move action I made with her being the initial move action off the deployment line Turn 1. Her modification negation caused a lot of chagrin from my opponent but because of her exposed positioning, in the end didn’t keep that much damage from her. I made her a target, and that is why she was KO’d before the end of the game. To that point, it is the most satisfied I’ve ever been of her KO’ing. She became the hammer and nail in their side. She never used an attack other than Xiphos, threw at least three pieces of terrain, and triggered Angelic Assassin three times.

In a macro sense, I won the game by early possession of extracts and the denial of the center objective space with Mighty Thor and Beta’s Throws, and Loki’s displacements. Along with a steady supply of chunk damage to keep Angelic Assassin triggers primed, Angela put a tremendous amount of pressure on my opponent to the point that when she dazed, the rest of my team leaned forward and smothered my opponent. All of which was feeding into one another from I Come Bearing Gifts, as Angela was flush with power and re-rolled whenever available. Which fueled Loki into multiple Clever Ploys.
I actually surprised myself at the beginning of Turn 4 after Bill and Angela were gone and appreciated that Loki and Mighty Thor were both healthy and only had two wounds between the two of them.
It is worth mentioning that against pay to re-roll teams/characters, Angela forces them to keep their pocket change in their pockets for later use. I definitely felt this on enemy character injured turns when they were flush with power.

Dice are a huge crutch for Angela, but if they are fair. She has quite wonderful games, without or without targeting re-roll teams/characters. However, in this instance, I truly think Angela is an affiliated tool for Asgard against such teams/characters. She becomes a 5 Threat sacrifice to your opponent, who must deal with her 4/4/4 defense and no modification. If it takes multiple characters to defeat her while she is defeating multiple characters alone. That is easy mathematics for me. Her ability to adjust her position so readily to find choice targets like Extract carriers or support characters that are more than likely within range of their allies who Angela can attack to get to. My favorite being enemy characters that are one to two wounds from dazing or KO. Which Angela, with or without quality dice, can usually squeeze out. Especially with Loki’s leadership. Which generates an Angelic Assassin trigger which results in more dice throwing.
Angela fails to dice rolls because her kit directly establishes the law of averages onto the table. She has the potential to throw twelve to eighteen dice a turn minimum before Angelic Assassin or Cleave. On those special turns she does Angelic Assassin if you only used Xiphos to attack. She has probably moved around Range 5 worth, and all for two Power.

Two Power for eighteen dice rolls and at least Range 5 worth of movement.

 

Army of Asgard

Characters (10)
Thor, Hero of Midgard (6)
* Loki, Prince of Lies (5)
Angela (5)
* The Mighty Thor (5)
Beta Ray Bill (4)
Lady Sif (4)
Enchantress (4)
Heimdall, The All-Seeing (3)
Mysterio (3)
Valkyrie (3)

Team Tactics (10)
Freyja‘s Blessing
Odin‘s Blessing
Rainbow Bridge
Trickster‘s Boon
Skuttlebutt, on Me!
Giant‘s Blood
The Grand Illusion
Brace for Impact (R)
Brothers in Arms (R)
Joint Effort

Secure Crisis
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base on Moon‘s Blue Area (G, 15)

Extract Crisis
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)