It’s not just about size!

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Today we have the second feature article from Chris Young, and he is going to be talking about the fact that it isn’t just the size that matters, it’s what you do with it!

Size Matters

Hello again and thanks for all the great feedback on the Its not dice, it’s you article. Todays article is to talk about size – and why it’s sometimes overlooked but still important, depending on what you do with it.

Of the 106 characters we currently have available, 80% of them are size 2, which means they can move across most small things like cars and dumpsters without needing to climb, and gain cover from most terrain, except for bins and lamp posts. This means that most players will start to fall into this being the norm, and consider cars being to be cover, certain throws/pushes working and having to move around bigger terrain.

Although I will be covering this in another article it’s important to note that some characters, like Valkyrie who is considered to be one of the best three threats characters due to her consistent throws is suddenly reduced to just her attacks when presented with one of the larger heroes or villains. 

So, with that in mind lets have a look at the larger sizes.

Size 3 Characters

Below are the size 3 characters currently in circulation – Wolverine is has an honourable mention due to his Adamantium Skeleton special rule which works against throws and pushes.

Beast	Groot	Lockjaw	Ronan Accuser
Ghost Rider	Kingpin	Mr Sinister	Sabretooth
Green Goblin	Lizard	Omega Red	Wolverine*

Being size three means that they no longer gain cover from size 2 terrain, but they can now traverse size 3 terrain with ease and without climbing, which is great for the long movers like Sabretooth and Ghost Rider.

Although this seems quite an obvious thing to think about, if you were planning on using Sam Wilson’s push or Valkyries throw, the size of some characters can catch catch you off guard as some are actually bigger than they might seem. Sabretooth, who I’ve already mentioned, surpised me when I found out that he was a size three Villain. 

This also works the other way around – If you wanted a solo flanker who can fight off an opponent without getting pushed off as easily, maybe give the size three characters another look. With healing factor, both Wolverine and Lizard are great solo characters for this.

With rules like Glider Ram on Green Goblin and Weapon X Program for Sabretooth and Wolverine, size three is a huge bonus. These throws basically give you access to an automatic four damage on a target if you can reach them. If the opponent fails to make their dodge rolls, or have a low physical defence stat like lots of the newer Mystic characters, this can really help to push through some damage – And you’ll probably even be able to push through a couple of damage against the higher Physical defence characters.

Size 4 Characters

Just three characters that are currently available are size four – Black Dwarf, Hulk and MODOK. This puts them pretty much out of most size specific throws and pushes, meaning they are harder to manipulate. Sadly though they suffer from not having cover and line of sight blocking from anything other than the bigger buildings.

MODOK see’s the table quite often, but I think Hulk and Black Dwarf might be slightly overlooked as it’s easy to move them out of their effective range with Wakandans or Web Warriors. At only four points Black Dwarf is hard to kill, and may be a great choice as a far flanker just sitting on a secure throwing anyone outside of Dormammu away while the rest of the team focusses elsewhere.

Hulk on the other hand has slowly been left behind. For six threat, there are plenty of other characters that are just better for the threat cost, a lot of them even costing less. His lack of power gain for attacks and no real condition immunities other than Poison, mean that he is easy to just ignore and throw lots of conditions onto. He does see some very specific plays with Defenders, but other than that isn’t seen much. 

Size 5 Characters

Currently Dormammu is the only size 5 character, which means he only gaining cover from the largest of buildings and can be seen almost table wide in most cases.

There are very few characters able to move pushes him, the Web Warriors with their Web Lines and the Wakandans with some of their attacks. There are even fewer people that can throw size 5, Kingpin, Thanos and Hulk spring to mind. This means that you can be fairly confident in knowing where he will be if your opponent doesn’t have any of these models, and don’t need to worry about him being pulled around. 

The double Edged Sword

As Ive tried to express here, I think size is great as it is basically a bunch of extra rules contained within a single number – I like to think of size three characters as making Valkyrie cry! If you start taking these larger models then one thing to be very aware of is that your opponent can start throwing you around and your characters into each other, which is going to hurt just as much as when your thrown into them.

Some extra Tricks

A nice little trick is that if your surrounded by terrain and don’t want to risk having it thrown at you, you can use Superpowers like Glider Ram to throw your own characters in to it and not take any damage, whilst still removing it before your opponent gets chance to throw it at you.

Wait… What about size 1 characters?

Currently only occupied by everyone’s favourite Racoon with a gun and the tiny forms of Ant Man and the Wasp, this is quite literally the smallest group of characters. Overall I see size 1 as an advantage over size 2 as you now get cover from every piece of terrain in the game and you can’t be seen if completely blocked by size 2 and larger pieces. It’s important to remember this only works 1 way, so our small supes can still see size 2+ heroes over the cars etc but are cleverly hidden in return. Add that to limiting the damage you do if thrown into your own team and it’s all positives for these little guys!

I hope that next time your setting up for a game, you consider your deployment or assess how good a character is you by looking at their size. Remember, it’s not just about the size, it’s how you use it! In the future I hope to do a full review of all the different kinds of pushes and throws in the game.


If you enjoyed Chris’s article, then please leave a comment or a like, and I’m sure we will have more from him soon!

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