HorrorClix Power Reviews - It's Wicked Fun!

Acid Blood

Type: Static
Description: If this monster takes at least 1 damage from a close combat attack, the attacker is dealt 1 damage.

Review: by Weyoun's Last Clone

Rating: 8/10

The Aliens come to Horrorclix with a unique ability: Acid Blood. As the objective of this game is to kill your opponent’s figures, any extra damage you can do to them is great. You hit me? Fine, take some damage yourself. As long as you don’t take too much damage at once, it very nice to ‘return the damage favor’. This means you’ll have to watch out for opponent’s slash minions, and heavy hitters with 3 or 4 damage. Also, a damage reducing power on your opponent’s figure will nullify the effect of your Acid Blood. And a ranged attack will not activate the text either. In conclusion: it is a powerful effect, but it will only work in certain situations. Take those situations in mind, and make sure you coordinate the position of your Aliens, as well as the card-side they are on, in such a way you can make the most benefit out of this venomous power.

Assassin

Type: Dependant -

Description: Damage the attack deals to vulnerable monsters is penetrating damage.

Review: by Weyoun's Last Clone
Rating: 3/10.
The good: Penetrating damage can be very useful. It is also one of the few things that punishes vulnerability of monsters.

The bad: It actually is only useful against monsters with stamina that are vulnerable. Penetrating damage against invulnerable monsters would be great, but sadly (although logically) invulnerable monsters can’t be vulnerable. Probably your opponent will watch out if his centerpiece monster with stamina is near your assassin monster. So you might not even get much use of it. Although it forces your opponent to take some measures, so in that aspect it can be useful.

The ugly: The main problem I have with Assassin is that it is often found on monsters who already have Agony. As both are dependant powers, you can only use one at a time. And when a monster is vulnerable, it has 2 tokens, and this would mean Agony gives you +2 damage. This will net you nearly almost more result than using the Assassin power.

Strategy: So I think I can safely say Assassin is one of the less useful powers in Horrorclix (luckily it doesn’t hit rock bottom like, say, Intimidate). If you do want to use it, though, it might be could to think about it when constructing your team. The powers Venom, Torture, Torment, and especially Immobilize (as you don’t have to depent on dice rolls for that one, a great plus for me) can be very useful to get the most use out of your Assassin. A stategically placed action token can make your opponent Vulnerable, to be succeeded by an Assassin attack, cutting through your opponent’s defensive power.

Boss
Type: Static
Description: All adjacent friendly monsters get +1 to their attack.

Review: by Matt Pittman (mpittman)

Rating: 9/10
Boss is a great and hard to find support power that increases every monsters attack that is adjacent to the monster with the power. So you may group all of your ranged attackers together and put someone with Boss behind them to beef them up, or throw the Boss"er" in the fray next to your team in close combat.

Notable clix with Boss include R & E Matron Mother, since they are both cheap, they are quite versatile. Almost every other Horrorclix with Boss is a Unique (Bishop Luzifer, Pod Mother, Grid Alien, etc.), so in most instances, the Mother is the way to go. She has a nice defense (18), so she can dodge most enemies that try to attack her which allows her to stick around and help everyone out. After all, we all know those times where you would've won the game had you rolled one point higher.

Invulnerable
Type: Static
Description: Damage dealt to this monster is reduced by 2. This monster is not vulnerable when it has two action tokens.

Review: by Grant.100

Rating 10/10
Who doesn’t like damage reducing powers, except when you are attacking a monster with one of these powers. This is one of the best powers around. It is an extremely useful power for a monster to have. Damage reduced by 2 means that your monster is only under threat from any monsters with an AV of 3 or above or a damage enhancing power like Slash. It also means that your monster cannot be damaged by powers like assassin. Although it is generally only on the dial for 1 click it makes your monster almost untouchable in smaller games. Also with a monster with invulnerable in your warband, your monsters can concentrate on attacking other more powerful monsters whilst this one deals with weaker ones with lower damage values. In smaller games this power is definitely one of the best. Recommendable monsters with this power for smaller games are Scarecrow R and Executed Convict E.

Possession
Type: Dependant -

Description: If the attack succeeds, deal no damage. The monster is possessed.

Review: by Weyouns_Last_Clone

Rating: 10/10

The Lab brought us one of more interesting abilities found in the current environment of Horrorclix. From the description: it lets you ‘possess’ one of your opponent’s monsters. From most power descriptions, it is directly clear what the power does. Not here, we have to look in the rules what ‘to possess an opponent’s monster’ really entails. And it brings you three important benefits. Let’s go by them one by one. The most obvious benefit is that it gives you control of an opponent’s monster. So, it’ll give you access to your opponent’s power house for nothing more than a succeeded attack. Think about it: how cool would it be if you can use your opponent’s zombie Hulk for a turn? Second advantage: in the hourglass phase the possessed monster is assigned tokens so that the monster becomes vulnerable. Third advantage: in the same phase the possessed monster is dealt an unpreventable click of damage. Unpreventable. Awesome against invulnerable monsters, great against stamina monsters, and decent against monsters without defensive powers.
Only thing you have to watch out for when using this power is that using an opponent’s monster will use one of your allowed actions in that turn. In a 200 point game this means that you have to use your possession power, and then use the possessed monster, leaving no other actions available. But this is a very small price to pay for such a versatile and useful power, which can even be used in a frenzy attack. And it is already available for 25 points on the R Asylum Spirit.

Retributive Strike
Type: Static
Description: When an opposing monster targets this monster with an attack and misses, that monster is dealt 1 penetrating damage.

Review: by Wyouns_Last_Clone

Rating: 9/10

As of The Lab, this power can be found on only one figure, namely the Pyromaniac. But what an interesting power it is! Combined with a decent defense value this power becomes very interesting, and it will be nice to see how it psychologically affects your opponent into attacking your figure with this power. Will he use his primary attacker? That figure might have the best chances to hurt you, but if the figure misses, it’ll be left with one unpreventable damage. So your opponent might be inclined to try it with a figure who’s of less important to him. But odds are that figure will have a harder time. Very intriguing mechanic it is, and great how it add a new dimension to the game!

Slash

Type: Dependant -

Description: If the attack succeeds, roll a d6 before dealing damage. Replace this monster’s damage value with the result.

Review: by Matt Pittman (mpittman)

Rating: 9/10
Possibly one of the greatest Horrorclix powers hands down. The ability to do 6 damage and the fact that many monsters have it tempts so many players to use it. It is much more powerful then its Heroclix counterpart Blades/Claws/Fangs since you can use it while Frenzying and Heroclix doesn't have Frenzy.

While there is a chance of rolling a 1, you're odds to do more damage than your damage value remains high. If you have it, use it. Unless you have a monster with a high damage, in this case I wouldn't use Slash because you would be taking a risk.

Leap/Climb and Scare make for great combos with Slash. The ability to completely ignore hindering terrain is great by itself, but while Frenzy-Slashing, it is devastating. As most know, Scare allows you to reduce your opponents defense by one so that it is easier to hit them; when paired with Slash, Scare becomes even better than it was alone since it further adds to your chances of hurting your foe.

Spree

Review: by Wyouns_Last_Clone

Rating: 8/10

Spree is a very useful power. It adds another benefit to slaying victims, besides scoring points and becoming blooded. It increases your damage when you attack, and this includes the damage from your frenzy attack, which is never a bad thing. Now, if you have slayed a victim, you can hurt your opponents figure with Stamina. If you’ve slayed two victims, you can even hurt your opponents Invulnerable figure in a frenzy-attack. The negative sides of Spree are that it really depends on if you can get victims. So running into a victim denial crypt from your opponent can be a problem. Also, multiple monsters on your team with this power can make it hard for you to supply them all with victims, so you might want to keep the number of figures with Spree on your team restricted to one, maybe two.

Stamina
Type: Static
Description: Damage dealt to this monster is reduced by 1.

Review: by Wyouns_Last_Clone

Rating: 8/10

A very basic power. Damage dealt is reduced by 1. May not look like much at first, but when you think of it, it can save your skin in crucial situations. It helps you against frenzy-attacks for which the damage is reduced 1, negating that damage. (Although beware of damage increasing/replacing powers like Spree, Slash and Savagery). Also, a lot of plot twists deal 1 damage, which can be prevented by Stamina. When constructing a team, beware though. If many of your figures have Stamina, the ones without may get the heat of frenzy-attacks and plot twists played on them.