Dear Readers,
As time has gone on, I find that the old Web Warrior introduction is a bit outdated and needs some refinement. In this week's article, I will be introducing part 1 of a 4 part series detailing what we as a faction do best, who we want to take, what team tactics cards work well, and what scenarios you may want to look into so as to up your Web Warriors game.
Game Play and Strengths
Web Warrior game play from my experience is about creating scenarios for your opponent that force them into poor decision making and then running away with extracts once you know the score is in your favor. When I am given the decision as to what scenarios to play, I generally go with my extracts in order to maximize point potential since I run both Struggle for the Cube and Spider-Infected.
- Movement: Most Web Warriors characters enjoy either a long move, a place (Web Swing gives you an R3 place and Glide/Hook gives R2), or both (Spider-Woman, you lucky dog). In addition, many of the Web Warriors have Wall Crawler built into their kit, which means they do not have to worry about terrain hindering their movement and can just run over it like it wasn’t there (sort of). Having movement shenanigans as a core part of our play style is a huge boon for an objective based game. Having characters that can just run from opponents while not getting tagged, or at the very least tagged less, means you are keeping points on your side and putting pressure on the opposition. Mistakes are made when pressure mounts, and MCP sometimes comes down to a single point scored in a turn versus not scoring said point.
- Defense: Web Warrior units usually have some form of defense built-in to their kits. Whether it is the Spider-Sense rule, which allows for defensive/dodge re-rolls (generally on physical or energy attacks), Martial Artist, or Stealth, Web Warrior models come built slightly more durable than your average MCP model. Now, this does come with a downside in that most of our models make up for this durability with lower health pools. However, with the defensive capabilities of our units coupled with their speed, veteran Web Warrior players can maximize the effects of our keep away game to benefit the scenarios and keep the group alive. Remember, you will get hit, it’s inevitable, but you are built to take it better than most other units.
- Displacement: Many Web Warriors models have access to long range pushes or throws that make them even more difficult to deal with, and many of the throws are size 3 or less, allowing the faction to deal with the vast majority of the game in displacement. For some of our longer range pushes, they do not even have a size limit, allowing us to pull around cosmic beings and Hulks, with the only downside being that it is toward the model.
- Objective Manipulation: Web Warriors is the only faction that I know of that has three in-affiliation models that have an objective-steal either through their attacks or just straight up thievery. This is a powerful tool because it, again, creates pressure as to when and where you are going to force an opponent to either try to run from a group of speedy people, which then also potentially puts them off of points for you to score, or forces them to stand and fight, which means as long as you survive, you get to take from them and run.
While I don’t have a lot of experience with Masked Menace yet, I can already tell this card is going to be a staple of the Web Warrior list building and will turbo charge displacement turns by adding that little bit of extra power you may need to get an additional Web Line, throw, or Web Swing off in order to push the game further in your favor. The restriction of web warriors having to pay power doesn’t really inhibit your ability to get work done because you will be able to generate more than enough power to continue making plays and create displacements.
All Webbed Up is the defining Web Warriors team tactics card. Creating a R3 bubble of slow is amazing all on its own as it allows you to create even more distance between you and your opponent to keep your units alive. What’s even better is that when you attack a slowed character this turn, your Web Warriors characters gain an additional 2 dice to their attacks. This will our more offensive units, such as Moon Knight and Gwenom a turbo charged turn of damage and up the damage of our other units to help solidify a turn of success. The nice thing about All Webbed Up is you use it when you need it, either to destroy a large chunk of opposing models to score points or to slow them down while you run away to score more points.
Weaknesses
The first weakness is mystic attacks and ignore re-rolls for defense. Almost all of our Spider-Sense users are not able to use the super power against mystic attacks. It is an unfortunate reality that we have to live with, but we will get bodied by almost any mystic attacker. This rings even more true for units that ignore re-rolls or modification of dice, oddly enough two of the most dangerous are our own units in the form of Venom and Agent Venom. Just ignoring dice re-rolls into a group that literally relies on the re-rolls to function is brutal and I usually try my best to avoid them as best as I can when I play and try to position them into spots that are advantageous for me to get an attack or two in before performing All Webbed Up to finish them off.
Speaking of things that seem specifically tailored to eliminate Web Warriors: Marked for Death. Marked for Death specifically targets two of our faction strengths by slowing us in a manner we cannot shake, removing dice modification, and removing stealth. It is a card that makes me to this day still a little sour in just how blatant the targeting of the faction it is, but complaints don’t get you places, preparation does. So, the best way to prepare for this card is to sacrifice someone who isn’t Miles. We will talk about the importance of Miles a little bit later, but my preferred choice is Amazing Spider-Man for sacrifice. He has a better than average stat line, is on a medium base while still having Web Swing and he is able to utilize Witty Banter. Black Cat is a close second as your opponent cannot modify their offensive dice into her or explode their crits, so the playing field is a bit more leveled towards her survival. Playing a bit more aggressively with an opponent to tease out the Marked for Death turn is probably best, because if they do still choose to go for Miles or another key member of the team, they are ignoring everyone else while you are still scoring. Remember, losses are alright as long as they benefit you in the long run.
Our low health pool is definitely a weakness as sometimes your defense dice just leave you hanging. It is certainly one of the sticking points for new players to the faction as when your dice fail we feel more frail than other factions. To mitigate this, try to be on the move as much as possible and pick scenarios that are a bit more spread out to force the opposition into minimal attack patterns on your units.
Finally, playing cagey all game can sometimes get a bit boring. This isn’t a weakness for us so much as it is a need to know when you can do something and when you need to be running. We don’t hit hard except on All Webbed Up turns, it’s just a fact of the faction. But I have seen times when a Webs player sees someone on 2, decides to do 2 Impact Webbings into the model, and does 0 damage because they were sure the offensive dice would be in their favor. One trick I do is I hedge my bets of low damage and just accept that low damage is probably no damage. It forces me to focus on what’s really important on the field - the objectives. If my opponent isn’t on a point and I am, it doesn’t matter how much damage I could have done, because I swung the round 1-2 points in my favor. If that happens over 2 turns, it is usually enough for me to get a comfortable lead over my opposition and win the game. Remember, we are an objective and scenario team, not attrition.
Our Units
The Leaders
Spider-Man (Miles): Miles Morales is our primary leader, bringing one of the best leaderships in the game to a mobile three threat platform. Let’s start by understanding what exactly the leadership does, as it is not readily apparent for most people the versatility of the model. The first part of his leadership gives you a re-roll to your defensive dice on every attack. This isn’t, in the long run, a huge increase in survivability as your chances of changing the dice into a success for most models is only ~38%. It’s nice to have, and don’t get me wrong it has saved my bacon more than once, but it’s not the best part of this leadership. The biggest part of Miles’ leadership is the second part, which allows him to re-roll and modify Skulls if holding or contesting an objective. This is huge as it means that Spider-Sense and Mastered Spider-Sense have no dead zones and you can gain cover from skulls while you are playing the game we actually want to play. The more interesting part of this is the second part of the leadership where it allows this to apply to any rolls. We have a character that is in affiliation and one who is probably going to be in affiliation that allows for re-rolls to attacks which then shoots their damage even higher to skulls not being able to hinder their ability to re-roll the dice. It is such a huge bonus that it actually allows for some cool plays with a little bit of creativity or even makes a more offensive Web Warriors team with Miles, Moon Knight and Gwenom (probably) and the splash in some characters that allow for more re-rolls like Zemo a possibility.
Miles, however, isn’t just his leadership. Miles is a fantastic stand alone model that sports excellent defensive options in both Spider-Sense and Stealth, heightened mobility with Web Swing, fantastic Objective Manipulation with Venom Blast to force objective drops, and a small amount of displacement if you hit a wild on his gainer to throw a character up to size 3.
Rating: S
Amazing Spider-Man: From overlooked 5 threat model to ridiculous powerhouse, Amazing Spider-Man went from just ok to, well, amazing with one small update. Before we get into the model itself, let’s take a look at his leadership. Amazing Spider-Man’s leadership has two options for it can do, but can only be done once per turn and during that character’s activation it may spend one power to either place a slow token on a unit within R2 or, if the unit already has slow on it, remove the slow token and then place the model R1 of its current position. It is an alright enough leadership, though I really do wish it didn’t cost anything to do and relied more on attacks or super powers being done on the enemy. But, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts then we wouldn’t be talking about Web Warriors! This is a leadership that I think plays really well in D secures and when you can get multiple objectives onto one sturdy unit and run away while the rest of the team spends their turns tagging someone with slow. It takes some getting used to, but the annoyance factor is there for sure to prevent major damage from happening.
However, his leadership is nothing compared to his actual stat set. Long move with medium base is enough for Peter to obtain a mid-line objective in one movement. Which means, ASM can run up, get a center line extract like Cubes or Montesi formula, and either run backwards, or forward to contest an objective on your opponent’s side, depending on how froggy you are feeling that day. He also comes equipped with Web Swing to give him even more mobility than he would normally have. All of this is backed up with his ability to generate power when he rolls a crit, which he does quite often. ASM’s durability is through the roof as he sports 4/4/3 defense with a re-roll any number of dice in his defense and dodge rolls. Couple this with Miles’ leadership and his ability to force your opponent to re-roll a dice with Witty Banter, and you have a model that is so difficult to take down, that your opponent might just stop trying. The only critique I have of ASM is that his gainer shouldn’t have collision as a the trigger, or, at the very least, should have had an additional set of triggers that would have given slow, root, or both status effects. But, outside of this, ASM routinely makes my lists for games as he is so tough to take down, and if you cram him into your opponent’s deployment zone, they either give up their own points or are forced to try and come across to take ours, which doesn’t always work out well.
Rating: S
Non-Leader Models
Spider-Man (Core 1): Core 1 Peter is a displacement machine. If he has the power for it, he can displace up to 7 times if he is lucky. Web Line only stipulates that a model can be placed once utilizing the skill, but if you have 8 power then Pete1 can double Impact Webbing to gain 10 power and potentially push people off of a point and then push up to 5 more times. Or, conversely, you can, with 3 power on the table, push a model towards Peter1 at an angle, then hit him twice with Impact Webbing for 2 more potential pushes away and then finish with a throw away if the model is size 2 or less. This allows you to jigsaw move a model around the map and away from much needed objectives or away from allies. Outside of that, Pete1 sports long movement, Spider-Sense, and the ability to stun a target. It’s not a bad kit by any stretch of the imagination, but he has never been top tier as a 4 threat. Poor Pete1 has kind of straddled the line of not good enough to compete in the 4 threat slot and too good to have ever been made a 3 threat. Something that was brought up after posting was Core Pete 1 is a part of two different affiliations, yet never taken in either of them. There is so much potential for this model's kit but a change needs to come in somewhere for him to feel useful.
Rating: C
Spectacular Spider-Man: The new Peter on the block has made a huge splash by combining elements of Amazing Spider-Man and Peter1. SSM allows for a Web Swing, Impact Webbing to auto generate power and potentially push a target off of a point, and a R3 size 3 character throw for 3 alongside Spider-Sense and movement triggers in his basic attack. He pretty much does it all and allows for the reliable use of The Cat and the Spider to be used effectively in turn 1. He has found great success in and out of Web Warriors so far, and I don’t think that is going to let up any time soon. Avoid using his spender unless you just find yourself flush with power on a big turn because more often than not his abilities will sway the game way more than hurting someone will.
Rating: A+
Black Cat: They tried to nerf her, but you CAN’T NERF PERFECTION. Our new and improved Black Cat doesn’t allow for any attack dice to be re-rolled against her or crits to explode when attacking her while also sporting stealth. This is huge because you know exactly how much damage your opponent can do at any given time and make your plans based on that knowledge. On average, a 5 dice attack should be showing roughly 2-3 successes before crit explosions and re-rolls. Cat, having 3/3/3 defense should get 1-2 successes before crits and re-rolls. This means that with average dice Cat should be taking 0-1 damage depending on the rolls from attacks before we factor in Miles’ leadership. She is now crazy durable in a faction that loves durability. She also has a long move, stealth, an attack with auto stagger at R3 with a wild trigger small move, an objective steal, and an r2 place. Black Cat is an amazing model, and I find that when I make my squad for Web Warriors that she always makes the cut.
Rating: S
Spider-Woman: Spider-Woman brings some great things to the table. She is a long mover with an R2 place, playing into our need for extreme movement. She has martial artist and stealth for defense with a 4/3/3 stat line. She has the ability to hand out shock, poison, and stun before damage is dealt on each wild in the attack roll in her builder and she forces drops on your opponent’s objectives with her spender like miles with the added ability to, on a wild, advance your opponent small if they are poisoned. She comes stock with Interrogate to give us even more victory points while she is within range of dazed characters. She does a lot in a four threat package. Her only issues are that she has a dead zone for her bulkiness that a lot of people have figured out, and if you take away martial artist (which only works within R2), then she just kind of falls on her face hard, and a lot of characters are now sporting hard hitting R3 attacks that can easily get within her zone of protection. However, she has made my roster since her release, and I usually play her alongside Miles and Black Cat to force poor decisions from my opponent as to where their extract tokens are headed, which should be in my hands as I run away.
Rating: A/S (if you opponent has nothing but R2 physical/energy attackers her stock sky-rockets)
Moon Knight: Moon Knight is kind of an odd duck in Web Warriors. He has Wall Crawler, and the ability to give Stagger. He makes great use of All Webbed Up turns (Bo Staff with a token usually nets you 5-6 successes and a stagger). But he has minimal displacement, OK defense in the right circumstances as he has stealth and can add 2 defense dice against mystic attacks for 2 power, and no real movement outside of his spender. Mark is…OK in Web Warriors. He bridges for some outside factions well, but he hasn’t been a model I reached for in a long time due to his unpredictability and limited cohesion with the rest of the squad. He is only 3 threat though, which is nice. His mileage may vary quite a bit from person to person, but for me he doesn't bring enough to the table to edge out Spectacular Spider-Man, Black Cat, or Ghost Spider as our affiliated non-leader three threats or Lizard and Zemo for out of affiliation three threats.
Rating: C
Venom: Once king of my heart now fallen so low. Venom is a tank of a model that comes stock with R3 basic gainer attacks that auto bleed, an attack back mechanic with So Many Snacks, the ability to prevent dice modification or re-rolls in defensive rolls, Medium Pull Web Line and a Size 3 Medium throw, and We Are Venom heals you for the damage you dealt. In addition, Venom has Lethal Protector as a team tactics card that allows him to intercept an attack and place it within R1 of an ally that is R3 away. All of this is fantastic and it pains me to say that this is where the greatness ends. Venom has a small move on a medium base, which isn’t the worst movement out there, but still gets outpaced by a slug with a broken foot. In addition, energy attacks have been on a steady rise and Venom only has 2 energy defense. Venom is decent under Miles and too slow to really make an impact under ASM. At the moment, we have other models that do his job better outside of the distance he can drag someone. But, being slow doesn’t help him when people pummel him with energy attacks or just run away from him while he hopes to gain power to drag them back.
Rating: C+
Agent Venom: Agent Venom plays an important role as a mobile Spider Hunter. He can still displace people with his throw, but his real power comes in being able to threaten R4 and get within Stealth range with a Web Swing while ignoring the ability to re-roll defense. He has never truly performed for me, but having him used against me I can say that while other models in Web Warriors do what he does better, he certainly is king of his niche in hunting down rival Web Warrior groups. Unfortunately, that’s where his niche sticks as his only real defensive option is being able to remove a status effect for 1 instead of having to shake the condition, which means he can get rid of pesky things that prevent him from hunting like Stagger and Shock so that he can maximize his turns.
Rating: C+
Ghost Spider: Ghost Spider is a staple three threat in our roster with great mobility in long movement and the ability to move/strike/move with Spider Technique. Keeping her back though is where she truly shines as she can displace up to 7 models a turn like Pete1 but with 1 fewer threat attached. She also has Lifesaver, which is one of the most frustrating things to fight around for most opponents and acts like a pre-attack Fallback from R4. She has one glaring weakness though: she has no defensive tech of her own. If your opponent gets the drop on her, 3/3/3 defense with 5 HP isn’t going to last long and you’re going to need to hope that your opponent rolls poorly or risk losing your ability to displace people. I will say this though, she is deceptively aggressive on All Webbed Up turns with 3 power and an opponent already in 2 to do an 8 dice Freestyle Beat Down with a throw into a whopping 9 dice builder. I have dazed Corvus or Thanos on more than one with the combination as Ghost Spider dances off the next turn with Fallback.
Rating: A+
Daredevil: So, I am mixed on Daredevil. On paper he does a lot of the things we want him to do. He has around a 70% chance of pull on Baton Hook, and it can target out of sight characters and Stealth characters. He has always active counts blanks for physical and energy attacks for defense rolls. He has a long move with Wall Crawler. He has out of activation movement with a strike back. His strike attack can cause Stun. His spender even has an unlimited size push and gets stronger the more people are around. There is so much going on here that I like, yet in practice it isn’t enough. He doesn’t bring the right combination of control and defenses to keep Matt going and I feel like even his All Webbed Up Turn isn’t strong enough to warrant bringing him to the table. He does bring a bridge into Defenders though, so if you find yourself going into Webfenders he will be a must to bring and isn’t too terrible on the table. If he were a 3 threat he would be an every game, but I have a feeling he operates a lot like Peter1 in that sense.
Rating: C
Probable Units
We have two new units coming down the pipe that I am 99% percent sure will be Web Warriors and, if they are not, I will not know what to do with my life.
Scarlet Spider: Scarlet Spider seems to be coming in hot with 4/3/3 and Spider Sense. He is almost everything I love about Sensational Spider-Man with one caveat, instead of having Web Swing, Ben decided he wanted Web Swing and a pull all in one. This opens an interesting avenue of play on turn 1 where Ben walks up, says “nice point you have there”, gives them the ol’ Impact Webbing to the face, follows it up with “shame if someone were to take it from ya” and he Web Whips the opponent off the point and takes it. That may be a bit dramatic, but its part of the play I expect to see from Ben Reilly. Once on the point, he can literally cause major issues for enemies by just Impact Webbing them twice and then throwing them off of the point with an R3 size 3 throw. His movement is based on where his opponents are, but Ben is going to make an excellent point grappler for us.
Rating: None Until Proper Play testing.
Gwenom: Gwenom is the bastard child of Ghost Spider and a Chainsaw birthed in hell. Her play style is so offensively interesting to me that I am gonna have to force her into games where she has no business being. First and foremost, she takes Venom’s drain tank ability in Maximum Gwenom, has a chance to make it explode onto every enemy within 3 of your target and has Spider-Sense. If you need to get out of dodge, you can Run, Symbiote Spider Technique someone to move again or just double tap to get re-roll any number of dice on the attack. Even though Gwenom doesn’t have her own counter-strike for herself, she can do it for her friends, which means your opponent is now going to have to decide if they want a chainsaw whip that gives Gwenom more health thrown into them. That’s right, it’s just an attack. Not Symbiote Spider Technique. This is going to lead people to trying to kill her first, but they then run into a high health unit with Spider-Sense. She may have only 2 energy defense like all Venoms, but she is more durable than the others just by the notion that she has Spider-Sense.
Rating: None Until Proper Play testing.
Conclusion
If you like fast-paced gameplay that requires a little bit of forethought on where to go and how to operate, then Web Warriors are for you. We may not be the more offensive force (yet), but we provide plenty of elusive and tough units that, if played properly, will give your opponents a headache the likes you’ve never seen.
Be on the lookout for our next installment when we take a look at what splash models work well for us and what I consider the parameters for a splash model to do in order to be considered for use.
Till next time Webslingers.
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