Marvel Knockout Round 2: Guardians of the Galaxy vs Wakanda

It's the battle of the billion-dollar franchises!

Guardians of the Galaxy vs Wakanda

Let no man call me a xenophobe. Non-Americans are always welcome in the land of the Big Apple. Just ask Lady Liberty. I say it with her - your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, those you can import freely. Freedom is our great export. 

Where I draw the line is the wretched refuse of the teeming shore! Treemen? Bald ex-cons? Armed racoons!?! And although I'm as colour-blind as any true New Yorker should be, once you're outside the spectrum of humanity, you can stay on the wet side of Ellis Island. I mean, green, for Pete's sake! The Irish were bad enough!

No, these Guardians can go guard the galaxy. We've got the NYPD, and that's all we need, thanks - NY says NO to intergalatic immigrants!

As for Wakanda? Wacky name, wacky place. Purple panther people prowling our parks? Not on my watch!

--- J. Jonah Jameson

Guardians of the Galaxy

The whole gang is here: Nebula, Groot, Rocket, Drax, Star-Lord and Gamora. There is hardly any crossover with other affiliations, but this crew synergise so well with each other, who needs friends?

Tactics are: Crew of the Milano, Galaxy’s Greatest, Daughters of Thanos, Deadly Duo, We Are Groot

Wakanda

I, Stylus, will be heading up Wakanda's royalty, comprised of: Okoye, M'Baku, Black Panther, Shuri (proxied here by Punk Storm, who was also a Wakandan-by-marriage) and people's champion Killmonger.

Tactics are: Wakanda Forever, Vibranium Shielding, Trial By Combat, Jabari Chieftain, Usurp The Throne

Deployment

In-keeping with our narrative, we're playing Mystic Wakandan Herb: Fact or Fiction? - this involves getting across the board to grab a Herb objective, then running back to secure it by a Vessel objective. The objective-holder is slowed down, but if they achieve all that, they get a whopping 4VP a turn.

The other crisis is Infinity Formula Goes Missing! - which is a more straightforward secure objective, with the added bonus of some extra power. 

Bring a close-knit group, the Guardians cluster together on the right flank, directly in front of the Wakandans' Herb, with Gamora in the centre eyeing up their own objective.

The Wakandans divide up, with Okoye, Black Panther and Killmonger on the left flank, ready to rush their own Herb. 

Shuri and M'Baku take the other flank, guarding their own Vessel and the Guardians' Herb.

We roll-off and the Guardians are going first.

Round 1

Most of the characters have short-range attacks, and so the first turn is all about positioning. Star-Lord, Groot and Drax rush forward to the Wakandan Herb, while Killmonger and Okoye move up to face them. 

Black Panther advances and scoops up his Herb, while Rocket snipes a few wounds from Killmonger.

On the other side of the board, Gamora moves to claim the Guardians' Herb, facing off against M'Baku and Shuri.

A handful of VPs collected, and no real harm done yet. But with everyone getting juiced up from the Infinity Canisters, things could get rough quickly.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1 : 2 Wakanda

Round 2

Black Panther sprints back to his home objective, while Star-Lord opens up on Killmonger. Okoye bravely (and somewhat questionably) jumps in front of the Full Auto and gets Dazed!

Killmonger returns the favour and charges towards Nebula, who is also Dazed and starts off his Kill Count.

Drax moves up to support Nebula, dropping Killmonger with his Titan Killer move.

Rocket and Groot come forward to draw aim on Black Panther, chipping away a couple of wounds with his Plasma Rifle.

On the other side of the battle, M'Baku starts the batting with a Knobkerrie attack on Gamora, then throws a hunk of terrain at her. The Deadliest Woman In the Galaxy is dazed and drops the Herb.

Shuri takes one look at the carnage and decides that she's quite happy where she is, thank you.

Still just a few VPs collected this round, but the punches are now flying and the Wakandans are the only team still holding their Herb.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 : 4 Wakanda

Round 3

The Guardians strike back, beginning with Nebula, who jumps to her feet and finishes off Killmonger.

Groot wraps his roots around Okoye and politely asks her to leaf. One thump and the Wakandans lose their second team member.

Black Panther leaps back onto his Vessel objective, so now the scoring can begin. Shuri steps forward to defend the king.

Picking up the Herb, Gamora makes a run for the Guardian's Vessel objective, but M'Baku is having none of his. He runs down and unleashes the Wrath of the Jabari, followed by another piece of terrain. Gamora is KO'd and the Herb is dropped once again.

Drax restrains the urge to fight back and collects the Guardian's Herb.

It was a rough turn for the Wakandans, who are down two members and outnumbered five to three. 

On the other hand, they take a huge leap in the VPs and with Black Panther amassing points each turn, the Guardians of the Galaxy are now chasing the game.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4 : 9 Wakanda

Round 4

Most of the Guardians are out of position, but Nebula can move fast, so heads directly for Black Panther and takes off a couple of wounds with her Shock Sword.

The biggest long-range threat is the raccoon with the plasma rifle, so with a call of Wakanda Forever!, Shuri is able to push back Groot with her Panther Gauntlets.

Out of range of his Personal Bodyguard, Rocket is now vulnerable for the first time. M'Baku steams down upon him and unleashes Wrath of the Jabari - and eight-dice attack that should easily despatch the two-wound creature.

M'Baku misses every single roll. He can't even throw anything because Rocket is too nimble. This could be critical.

Flushed with success, Rocket and Groot immediately team up and play Deadly Duo, allowing Rocket to fire his plasma rifle in every direction. M'Baku and Black Panther take glancing hits, Shuri is more seriously hurt, but the action earns Rocket enough power to take a shot with his Hadron Enforcer at Black Panther.

Black Panther takes just enough damage to go down, drops his Herb and loses control of the Infinity Canister.

Clearing up the final moves, Star-Lord takes control of another Infinity Canister, while Drax runs the Guardians' Herb back onto their Vessel objective.

That last shot from Rocket was a huge turnaround - costing Wakanda 5VPs so they finish on 0 this turn. Whereas the Guardians pick up 6VP and take the lead. The momentum is definitely with this plucky band.

Guardians of the Galaxy 10 : 9 Wakanda

Round 5

With the Jabari equivalent of a Hail Mary, M'Baku throws everything at Drax. He clobbers the Destroyer, flinging him into a pillar for good measure. But Drax can Take It, and he holds onto to his last wound - and the Herb.

Unable to follow up on Drax, M'Baku tries to knock out Star-Lord, but falls short and finally goes down to a blast of Element Gun fire.

Shuri is dazed by Nebula, and Rocket doesn't even have to take aim on Black Panther. The Guardians simply walk onto all the objectives, including Drax returning the Herb to its Vessel, and they rack up all the VPs they need.

Black Panther may have recovered his Herb, but its too late - the Guardians bag 7VPs and take their place in the quarter finals.

Guardians of the Galaxy 17 : 13 Wakanda

Back at the Bullpen

That was a fantastic game. The Mystic Wakandan Herb crisis certainly adds a touch of lopsided mayhem, which is all to the good.

Mayhem it was: four dazed characters in round 2 and three KOs in round 3 seems pretty violent to me! You commented that you don't normally see that kind of thing, but I guess both of us ran straight at each other in round 1 and everyone was being powered up by the infinity canisters. Great fun!

I'm pretty sure I mishandled the Wakandans. Black Panther is probably the best choice as Herb-carrier, given his speed and durability, but I should have invested more in his protection, like keeping Okoye close by. Shuri's ability to push characters is very useful. Killmonger seems formidable, although throwing him directly into the teeth of the enemy is not the way to go. My MVP was M'Baku, who was very impressive as a fighter. I don't blame him for not one-shotting Drax, although I very much blame him for not taking out Rocket, which seemed like the point where the battle swung.

On the other side, I really enjoyed watching the Guardians at work. They really do work together well as a team and I think clustering them together, as Pootle did, made it difficult to pick them off individually. Luckily, we'll see them again!

The Guardians were tremendous fun to play, I only wish I'd thought of some appropriate Rocket-style lines when he survived the assault from M'Baku and proceeded to lay about him with plasma fire immediately afterwards - that bit in particular felt incredibly cinematic.

Despite some preparation ahead of the game I managed to misinterpret the herb objective and thought it was a one-off 4VP score right up to almost the end of the game (Stylus did say he thought I was being rather relaxed in my approach to it!). In the retrospect though I probably wouldn't have played it any different (apart maybe from bugging Gamora out sooner - I hadn't appreciated how lethal M'Baku is when he bounced her in two successive turns). Overall I loved the game: thanks Stylus!

There might be a few of you who appreciate a touch of exotic spice in your shawarma wrap. When the powers that be declare we all ought to be adding Wakandan botanicals to our take-outs, I for one say ENOUGH! 

The masks behind city hall won't be happy until every of us are bounding around the streets, dressed in last year's halloween guises. Misery loves company, after all! 

Citizens, take back the streets! Say no to secret identities, keep your pizza crusts heart-shaped herb-free, and for the love of liberty, DEMASK these DESPOTS!

Bugle out!

J. Jonah Jameson