PUBLISHER: WIZKID GAMES | RELEASE DATE: EARLY JANUARY 2021
The more recent House of X and Powers of X storylines have turned the world of The X-Men upside down. In addition to a fantastic storyline, it’s also introduced (and re-imagined) some amazing X-Men characters. Marvel HeroClix: X-Men House of X lets you take some of the more memorable and visually striking characters and lets you put them in life and death struggles of your own devising.
Heroclix is a very accessible skirmish game which uses special ‘clix’ bases in each pre-painted model to make the game easy to play. This new range features some really nice models that take some of the weirder ideas from the comics and makes them playable fun. For example, it the comics the character Egg is one of ‘The Five’, someone capable of bringing dead X-Men back to life. He can also throw an infinite number of golden balls at his opponent. Not only are his rules great (and finely balanced) but his model features those balls flying away from him, thanks to the clever use of translucent plastic.
Similar attention to detail has been given to the entire range. For example, Cypher should be a pretty dull model (he is, after all, just a bloke who’s good at languages), but his ‘Warlock’ arm looks brilliant. Mr Sinister comes complete with cloak effect armour and an arrogant smirk. The new Professor X is incredibly dynamic looking. Paired with Magneto the pair look like a power-couple. Havok’s powers can be seen thanks to a very clever sculpt and so on. The range includes everyone’s favourite space pirates The Starjammers and they’re particularly striking. We particularly enjoyed Ch’od and his weird alien pet, perched parrot like on his shoulder. Similarly, Kate Pryde is in full pirate mode in this set, with an adorable Lockheed the Dragon perched on her shoulder.
Rules wise, these are finely balanced in the way we’ve come to expect from Heroclix. They are some nice rules twiddles, including a way for Magneto and Professor X to team-up in a spectacular way.
The bulk of the models are available via booster boxes, so you’re getting pieces at 5 models a box, at random. As it typical for these releases, a Fast Forces set is available for those who just want a core set of heroes. In this case you get Wolverine, Domino, Beast, Marvel Girl, Forge & Sarge. It’s a good starter and a quick way to get a core team. Similarly there’s a dice and token pack; the X-Men themed six-sided dice are nice and the poker chips (that also double as bystander tokens) are solid and well made.
This release also comes with a ‘Play At Home Kit’. Available separately from Wizkids or your Friendly Local Gaming Store, this is the sort of thing you’d normally only get at a launch or tournament even. The kit come with one rather nice double sided map (Krakoa jungle and Otherworld Castle). These are quite nicely done and make for dense skirmish play. The kit also features a version of Rogue who has just absorbed Apocalype’s powers. It’s quite a tasty piece (and hilarious when fielded with other Excalibur or with Apocalypse himself.)
Over all this is a solid release and one that’s a very worthy addition to an X-Men fans collection.
