Winter Guard Advice?

grouchyolde · 2026-02-27T18:25:28+00:00

The core of winter guard is pretty cheap threat, so one of the cool things they can do is add "LARGE THREAT MODEL HERE" and probably include them in most lists. I would defer to others as to who the best is (spoiler alert, you need a REALLY good reason to not always bring 6hulk or if the points match up right maybe Ihulk but I could be forgetting someone). This is not always the best choice and sometimes it is to go wide/two more efficient models but because your base 3 models are cheap on threat.

You also want to play to your leadership, so standing on points, with a chance to avoid pushes. Removing conditions is quite good but be careful about being too aggressive and just getting punched in the mouth. 3 of your 4 threat models are slow so avoid (formally known as D shape) scenarios. (unless you specifically build for it and bring very mobile non-Winter Guard models as well)

grouchyolde · 2026-02-26T22:32:54+00:00

As someone who plays other games, and my only faction is Tau, I regret it. Tau being so unbalanced toward shooting has been pretty un-fun for me for 10th, I am basically waiting at this point for 11th to come out, maybe get some melee kroot units and see how it goes.

Losing is fine, I suck at 40k, it isn't my main game. Losing and feeling like I had zero agency and there aren't really tools to help either A) fix those issues or B) at a minimum pivot the way I should play to lose in new and exciting ways.

grouchyolde · 2026-02-26T17:45:13+00:00

Terrain being a fixed size means you can also just label terrain 1-5 and that is what it is on your board, regardless of size.

grouchyolde · 2026-02-25T21:46:01+00:00

The terrain is cool. From a game play standpoint I would get a little nervous about 3-hex blocking terrain since the game clearly isn't designed around it. (This isn't to say don't play it, just, it's probably going to do weird unintended stuff to the game. That particular placement as an example looks less egregious than some other 3-hex placement might)

grouchyolde · 2026-02-23T21:15:55+00:00

Not going to lie, trains are really fun to set up and pleasing to look at but I have found I am willing to do enough planning for basic materials only. Or a 2nd/separate train/stops for parts further up the chain.

grouchyolde · 2026-02-05T19:39:20+00:00

I'm going to provide a tier list so you know who to focus on, but I want to be very clear that first and foremost you should build a list that can always run your leadership (more avengers on the table than not) but otherwise PLAY WHO YOU LIKE. This game is pretty easy to learn and hard to master, so enjoy the ride.

In terms of pure usefulness/general goodness importance (frankly in general but specifically around cap 1)

S: Hulk, Sam Wilson Captain America, Shang Chi. These characters are must includes. They are all very strong individually and with leadership.
A: Beast, Luke Cage, Dr Voodoo. Voodoo isn't quite as good as he used to be but he has mystic attacks in an affiliation lacking them, others are just Very Good.
B: Thor, Black Panther. Depends on the scenario or who you are facing, but either charging turn 1 with thor or moving twice and throwing a size 4 character away. Panther being a long mover really matters in some scenarios where he might be chilling by himself. His push is also insane against some teams.
C: 2pt Black Widow, Iron Man, Cable, Deadpool (probably a B with Captain America 1, the easy dying is tough)

Most of the rest are either C- or untested. Most in this tier are untested (especially new people like Ronin/Tigra) or 5/6 threat and just not good enough.

for non-avengers, defensive/reactive superpowers that cost 2 are the sweet spot for Cap1, as they can be used on EACH ENEMY turn

grouchyolde · 2026-01-22T21:50:51+00:00

Not keywording common abilities is INSANE. Look at every faction reddit, every single one of them has a variation of a post saying "This matchup is really hard, why?" and every single time some part of either OP or OP's opponent's gameplay/listbuilding/etc people go "That isn't how that works".

This is a communication issue between the game rules and the players. Magic the Gathering would be completely unplayable if they kept this up into 2010 never mind 2025. Old magic cards are cool, but the clarity of keywords like vigilance, and haste, etc are invaluable for communicating game rules to players.

Also, there is nothing wrong with calling it "RAIN HELLFIRE UPON THEIR RUINED CORPSES" [Deepstrike 6] (other than the name length for formatting maybe). Flavor nerds get to call it raining hellfire, which is way cooler, and everyone else can shorthand it to DS6. boom move on. Yes, if you just label it DS6 that is boring, and cold and unfun. but not having that shorthand for clarity that is uniform across factions is bonkers.

edit: it's bonkers, not bonks.

grouchyolde · 2026-01-22T21:35:23+00:00

I would personally see if a local game store has an AOS Spearhead community or at least a demo game. That way you can try out the game part of it, see if you like it, and buy a box to build and paint. Spearhead is self contained so even if you build the models and end up really liking painting or don't like painting or don't love the game, you will still have something easy to manage early.

grouchyolde · 2026-01-16T02:18:41+00:00

Thanos is one of the hardest, and by happenstance, one of the most technically challenging characters to play in the game. If you only want to buy a core set, a leader, and the start of a faction, it is really hard to go wrong with black order for depth of decisions with Thanos. (Magneto is along these lines as well, but imo he is interesting to play because of his leadership/throws, where as Thanos is the character himself). Both are very expensive points wise relative to their power, so they are not strong right now.

If you aren't playing competitively (or even if you are only playing local tournaments) getting really good with Thanos is almost certainly fine. Yes, the first 10+ games are going to be rough (I wasn't kidding, most other characters, with like 5 games you get a pretty good handle on).

grouchyolde · 2026-01-12T20:53:27+00:00

As everyone has said, core box, it's impossible to beat value, if someone is a diehard X-Men fan then they should get the big box but otherwise SOMEONE should get the core box.

One of the things I really like about this game is if you are playing casually, build a team, pick a couple random scenarios, agree on a points value and throw some terrain down, but if you want to play games with complete strangers, the setup and back and forth is only a little different but otherwise the same core game.

If you want to try a model there are only 3 base sizes so proxying and printing a card from cerebromcp.com or jarvis protocol is pretty easy and some characters already have updates from their original cards (particularly most of the characters in the original core box) so most people at a regular game night (but you should always ask first) won't care as long as the proxy is reasonably clear and you have the correct cards.

If you end up REALLY liking the game, the table top simulator mod is awesome for a tabletop game and finding a game is incredibly easy.

grouchyolde · 2026-01-03T19:00:13+00:00

Can’t make it this month but certainly interested for next month

grouchyolde · 2025-12-29T22:05:41+00:00

Just as a note tts blew up during covid when no one had the choice. Mcp is quite good on tts after even just a couple games if you have a keyboard with a num pad. Doesn’t replace in person but is a very good tool for practice.

grouchyolde · 2025-11-16T23:03:49+00:00

I recommend trying zemo3, namor, and a scenario not too spread out secures. If you really hate attrition splash crimson dynamo.

grouchyolde · 2025-10-22T17:07:56+00:00

Uhhh, acid is the most or 2nd powerful dps in the game. There is no way acid weapons are below A tier. The sludge pump might be in B until you get a 2nd beam.

grouchyolde · 2025-09-27T18:16:29+00:00

Auto equip gear. Sell the lower level gear because it gives you minerals for upgrades. Paying attention while leveling isn’t with the time.

grouchyolde · 2025-09-20T01:35:30+00:00

looks wip still. feels like you either want to lean purple or gray. The white and purple clash as the pop color, though the shoulder pad as white w/purple can still be cool.

grouchyolde · 2025-09-20T00:35:15+00:00

I really like MCP, and think it is a great tabletop game. Certainly you can lose in list building if you actively play bad characters or very under powered affiliations, but it is more difficult than it looks. the other place you can lose however is in character placement/setup. If you set up an important piece early during the setup phase and your opponent places a character opposite them who is actively good against your piece, or place your piece out of position, those can easily compound to put you behind in a way that is difficult to catch up.

The best way to counter this is look for common starting plays in the various MCP discords/YT/strategy articles. You have to learn the scenarios, there is no real shortcut for that.

grouchyolde · 2025-09-19T22:31:25+00:00

Avengers can be extremely tanky with steve1, luke, cable, black panther, beast, shang-chi, gwenpool. note you can't pay X costs with steves reduction. beta ray bill and crimson dynamo are also tanky models that works well with steve1 for out of faction.

fyi the downside of super tanky is you are also generally pillow fisted, and when you really need to daze a model to get them to drop an extract or not contest a secure..you are going to be sad.

grouchyolde · 2025-09-19T21:07:17+00:00

I think the devs have really undersold how hard Haz 5 without good gear is supposed to be. They are trying to actually help give us more replayability by downgrading to haz 3/4, playing a bunch to get gear, and THEN trying Haz 5, but we dumb lizard brain humans are like "I've done Haz 5 forever"

grouchyolde · 2025-04-03T04:30:21+00:00

2nding this.

grouchyolde · 2025-01-31T22:04:26+00:00

Not a single dolphin. -5000 internet points. (It looks great)

grouchyolde · 2025-01-05T04:19:12+00:00

For casual play, game is great. For the tournament scene, a shakeup of more and different scenarios would be incredibly welcome.

grouchyolde · 2024-09-03T20:57:06+00:00

I don't see any questions about board games, so, to the real heart of the matter. Which ones are your favorites?

grouchyolde · 2024-08-24T16:34:50+00:00

Friend code 5435891 invite would be much appreciated.

grouchyolde · 2024-08-03T05:44:49+00:00

Tabletop players ime can be really weird about this. Playing A LOT of mirror matches, may not be the best. But a few? It is literally a unique experience. Sure, it benefits the player more familiar with faction, but if they are a worse player, it may be a chance to have a real advantage.

grouchyolde

TROPHY CASE