“City Officials Baffled as Spider People Demonstrate Varied Tactics in Order to Terrorize Citizens: The Web Warrior Game Plans”

Dear reader,


When I play Web Warriors I look at their game plan in 2 definitive modes: Heavy Bruisers and Control Monsters. Unfortunately, you cannot just run all three at once, we still have to consider our points and our options for our rosters. In this introductory article I will go over these play styles, basics of Web Warriors such as leadership, the core members of your team, and some basic recommendations on which characters you will want to bring with you to round out your teams. But first, who are these masked arachnid menaces?

Web Warrior Overview and Why I play the Webbed Terrors

Web Warriors are a faction that focuses on controlling enemy movement/placement while staying alive through re-rolls and superior movement. Many of our characters have the ability to move without taking an action through either advances or to be placed (or both in some of our characters cases) which allows them to reposition quickly and efficiently throughout the battle. These two aspects of Web Warriors give the faction a consistent effect on the battle which is not always dependent on dice spikes.

However, Web Warriors do suffer from a need for power and, for some of our characters, a definitive lack of hard hitting offensive power. This can be made up by out of faction characters or the dreaded All Webbed Up turn (more on this later).

 

Even though the Web Warriors have some power issues, I still love playing them. The game play of the group is fluid and can be adjusted depending on who you see across the table. When I play them I work  with them a bit more...unconventionally. Most see the Spider Tribe as a group of general defensive control pieces. I see them as a group of roided out spider maulers who force you into bad situations. Don't let the 4 dice builders on many of them fool you, they have many ways to increase their damage and can do some massive damage under the right situations. In addition, the Web Warrior leadership bonuses play nicely with almost any character. Great Responsibility ratchets almost any character with built-in defensive tech (such as Lizard, Corvus, Proxima, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, etc) into near unstoppable monsters. One defensive dice re-roll doesn't seem like a lot, but when it gives you a 37.5% chance (don't quote me on this) of further reducing damage that is already being reduced it really starts to stack up over a game. This stacked defensive tech is truly frustrating for most opponents, and a frustrated opponent is an opponent that will make more mistakes that can be capitalized on. This is ultimately my long winded way of saying I like being annoying when I play. 

 

The Core

My favorite Core of Web Warriors is Miles, Gwen, and Venom. This combo comes in at a lean 10 points and gives you a solid amount of displacement, attack power, and general spider shenanigans. If you need to go leaner you can replace Venom for Black Cat or Moon Knight depending on if you are playing a scenario with a single extract or need to beat up that nerd Dracula. 

 

 

• Miles Morales' alone is reason enough to keep him in the core of my group. But, adding in a massive R3 place, stealth, Spider Sense, the ability to make his opponent drop tokens, and a builder that can throw and be empowered by his own actions just make Miles a great player in my book. Be warned though, if your opponent has a way to take away Mile's defensive tech, he will crumple like a wet paper bag man real quick.
• Gwen makes my core because she does almost everything that Baby Pete does, but cheaper. She has a pull, she has a push, she can do both on turn 1, she is amazing, I am naming one of my future daughters after her, she has empowering additional, she has a long move, she can literally pull one of your other characters out of harms way. The list goes on and on about how good she is, and we really don't have that kind of time for me to go into it all and keep your attention. So, the TL:DR is she controls the battlefield well and is capable of switching rolls into a beater very quickly. Her empowered Spider Technique after a Freestyle Beat Down on an all webbed up turn is expensive...but beautiful in how many dice you are throwing in a control faction.
• Finally, Venom. Oh, Venom. The King is here and you can expect a future article pretty dedicated to him alone. But, for now, Venom makes the list for 4 major reasons. 1) A sickening pull from range 4 to a medium move. Opponents who thought they were safe on the board will have their world rocked hard when you tugged them from a quarter of the board away into your loving...tendrils? Claws? Jaws? Who cares, it's going to frustrate someone's plans for the board easily. 2) An out of activation taunt/displace. Lethal Protector is such a good team tactics card that gets even better when you have enough energy to also pull off So Many Snacks and We Are Venom together on the counter-attack. Having your opponent deal some damage to Venom and then get smacked back while Venom heals is truly marvelous to watch. 3) Auto-bleed from R3. Symbiote Tendrils is such a fantastic attack that I look forward to using it every game. Also, people generally forget about Bleed until they realize that one durable character is now somehow on 1 HP because he has been bleeding and plinked for 2 turns. 4) Klyntar Rage. This throw is one of the few medium throws in the game and allows Venom to pull some major plays on certain maps. Gamma Shelters no sees people thrown into damage in the middle of nowhere. Buildings are now flying farther than many people expected. Some characters have to do a legitimate double move back onto points in order to contest. It is such a a great skill that it just makes us happy.

Leadership

Web Warriors leadership comes in two flavors: Defensive and Slows. Let’s start with Miles Morales’ leadership:

Great Responsibility is the faction’s defensive behemoth of a leadership that actually stacks with what some of our Web Warriors already do naturally with Spider Sense. Being able to reroll a defensive dice is literally the difference between life and death for some characters and being able to reroll skull dice is massive for those same Peter tinglers while contesting or holding objectives. The straight forward nature of this leadership and its universal usefulness puts this leadership ability at the top of our game consideration. This is the true reason Miles is a part of your core team. The leadership ability is what truly makes people frustrated to fight you and keeps you in the fight longer to keep pushing and pulling enemies.

Web Warriors second leadership, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Team, is more control oriented and can be found with The Amazing Spider-Man:

This ability gives Web Warriors an additional control variant at the cost of power. I am going to be honest; I am not a big fan of pay-to-use leadership skills. I am even less inclined to use pay-to-use leadership skills that have restrictions on where they can be used. As much as I like big Pete as a character, I do not like him as a leader for the team. Earlier, I noted that Web Warriors really need power to function. Most Web Warriors already have some form of displacement for the enemy (through throws and pushes), so you mostly do not need to use this leadership skill. I am not saying it doesn’t have its uses. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Team allows for massive All Webbed Up turns outside of the bubble provided by the team tactics card and allows for some additional displacement. The problem is that it also requires a hefty power and placement investment (2 power to flip someone by R1 and that same character loses the slow is painfully inefficient in my opinion and you have to be within R2 to even do this really hurts). I, personally, would skip this one unless you have a real definitive roster built around it.

Game Plans

Heavy Bruisers

Heavy Bruisers is my personal favorite way to play Web Warriors. It is a fully offensive list that utilizes the defensive bonuses from Miles Morales to have an out of faction heavy hitter, such as The Hulk, Doctor Voodoo, Corvus Glaive (with Reality Stone), or Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange to live longer and cause more damage to the enemy by limiting how many times they, themselves, have to move. I find that characters with their own defensive tech work wonders in this roster. Remember, keep the pressure on your opponent, and let them come to you. You can generally survive any counter hits, but Gwen dragging in your opponent and letting your heavy hitter take them out after they have already activated is gold. I think Miles is the perfect leader for this play style and find that Heavy Bruisers have no preference as to whether they get Extracts or Secures.


Out of Affiliation Characters to Consider:

• The Hulk
• Hulkbuster
• Corvus Glaive (with Reality Stone)
• Proxima Midnight
• Doctor Voodoo
• Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange
• Doctor Strange

Control Monsters

 

 

The second list is the control monster. Almost all Web Warriors, as noted earlier, have some form of displacement. If you are going second then you are able to rip the enemy off of Secure objectives easily or can more safely steal objectives from their holders with either Black Cat or Miles Morales. It is imperative that you stay without priority with this play style. An opponent that hasn’t activated yet can more easily undo the scenario damage that you have done and can more readily react to what you are attempting to do with this team. Stay as far from the enemy as you can while scoring objectives and just make it exceptionally difficult for the enemy to succeed. You aren’t here to do damage with this list and you may only do one attack sometimes (a classic opening gambit is Baby Pete or Gwen moving, Impact webbing and pulling an enemy to prevent scores). I find that both Spider-man leaderships can work with this play style, however I much prefer to utilize Secures when playing this way that I do Extracts.


Out of Affiliation Characters to Consider:

• Omega Red
• Mysterio
• Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange
• Hulkbuster
• Valkyrie
• Black Panther
• Captain America Sam Wilson
• Cassandra Nova

Final Notes

When making a roster, I generally choose if I am looking to go offense or defense with my webheads. While I will choose some characters that fall into the control category with my bruiser team, I always have a plan as to why I chose them to go along for the ride. Like Peter Parker sometimes has to do, it's all in how we plan to take down our foes and analyze why we chose the moving parts of our lists and how everything is meant to come together.


Till next time fellow Web-slingers.