Woo Hoo! We whipped Eurostar!

[Trebuchet]

In our monthly run yesterday our team MidGuard defeated Eurostar in a pitched battle on a tramp freighter in the Aegean Sea. We had no idea they were involved; we'd already defeated another villain team they'd treacherously set up as scapegoats and rescued the crew of a Russian nuclear sub. Eurostar had us on the ropes for a few seconds; at one time two of our 4 members were out and the other two were stunned, but a couple of seconds later we'd turned it around. My martial artist Zl'f got to strike the final blow that put Mentalla down, with a fabulously lucky 44 Stun generated with a 10d6 attack. (Mentalla even Ego Blasted Zl'f and stunned her while she was fighting Scorpia, but Zl'f recovered before Scorpia could attack because Scorpia had already aborted her next phase to Dive for Cover to avoid Zl'fs Area Effect 1 Hex attack. That's what happens when a SPD 5 martial artist fights a SPD 9 one.) At one point my character was down to 3 Stun; fortunately that was Phase 12 and she got her Post-12 Recovery.

 

We really sweated blood for that victory; at the low point in the fight we were figuring we'd have to do an "Escape from Eurostar's Headquarters" adventure next month. True, Eurostar was short two members (Fiacho and Fuermacher were absent) but our team was also short two members. All in all, not bad work for 4 350-point characters.

 

How many of you have fought the "Big E"?

[OddHat]

Congratulations on your victory! For Great Jusitice!

 

I've always gotten a kick out of GMing Eurostar, but I haven't had a chance to fight them. Sounds like a good game.

[Lord Liaden]

Congratulations! It always feels good when your heroes can bring down one of the "name powers" of your world, and Eurostar has always been presented as some of the toughest, meanest muthas on the Champions block.

 

Haven't faced or used the new version yet, but I was part of a tournament game in which we were playing the Protectors from To Serve and Protect, the climax of which was a full on dustup with the 4E Eurostar. Ten heroes mostly built to the standards of 5E Standard Superheroes, up against all seven Eurostar villains. The GM played the villains very smart, coordinating their attacks and covering each other's backs; Eurostar is devastating that way, what with their great variety of abilities. After one nasty double team by the Whip and Pantera, Dr. Wraithe (the character I was playing) was left with 3 Body.

 

Every one of the players in that game had played HERO before, and two of us were familiar with To Serve and Protect and knew the special tactics the Protectors use, so we were able to prepare and play smart too. Nonetheless we barely squeeked out a win - by the time Eurostar went down only three heroes were still standing, and two needed immediate medical attention. It was a very satisfying victory.

[Trebuchet]

It just goes to show that you can never give up. When my MA was down to 3 Stun I was seriously contemplating having her jump overboard to escape, but I elected for her to stay because running wasn't very heroic, and she opted to attack Mentalla instead. And in just 4 more segments we'd completely turned the tables and pulled out a skin-of-our-teeth victory. The entire fight took two full Turns; a fairly long battle by Champions standards in my experience. She was even running low on END, something that is almost never a factor for her, due to Pushing. Funny how my character, the lightest defended and lowest DC character on the entire team, was at one point the only one even standing.

 

All in all it was one of the toughest fights (maybe the toughest) I've been in in 20+ years of playing Champions. The GM didn't insult us by cutting us any slack, and that made the victory all the more sweet.

[wcw43921]

Outstanding. May you do as well against Dr. Destroyer or Takofanes.

[John515]

Fighting Eurostar

 

In my old 4Ed game we fought them a few times. The first encounter was pretty much a draw-they escaped with their unconcious teammates and we were in too bad a shape to do much about it. The next time we were much smarter (and about 30 XP stronger)and actually managed to subdue them and bring them to justice. The final time we fought them was muuuch later (+another 30XP) and they were in the middle of an operation where they had already killed a bunch a normals and were proceeding to do the same to a much less powerful team of supers who were valiantly attempting to stop them. Eurostar and their 2 extra supervillians for hire managed to take out a few more normals and kill two of the other supers before we finally took the kid gloves off and decided that we were going to finish them off once and for all. It was a quick, bloody battle reducing them to very negative STUN and a lot of Negative BODY. A couple of combined attacks vs Durak and some REALLY lucky damage rolls were much more effective than expected and he ended up KIA. Fiacho was down to about -8 body and later died before he could be treated properly. Everyone else was hurt badly (at least some -BODY).

Our GM had us roleplay out the consequences of a team of heroes killing super villians and we got charged with a variety of crimes like Manslaughter, Murder, Aggrevated Assault, etc. The surviving members all hired high-powered attorneys to take one last stab at us from behind bars. Luckily for us, there were a number of normal witnesses who survived the attack and testified on our behalf and a TV newscrew who got much of the fight on tape. We ended up with some Agg. Assualt and one of our team got hit with Manslaughter, but we beat the Murder rap. Public opinion was pretty much on our side, and the international community was releived to hear that Eurostar was no more.

[Trebuchet]

Most of our team is in the 25-35 XP range, so we're not exactly new but not exactly battle-scarred veterans either. Eurostar had never made an appearance in our campaign (We don't play in the CU, only poach suitably modified villains from it. ), so we were quite taken aback when we finally realized who it was we were fighting. Fortunately our mentalist Prodigy was more than a match for Mentalla, although she was tough to finally put down and it ultimately took three of us to do it. Durak was our biggest problem; Prodigy ended up mentally paralyzing him. We'd have done better if we'd had our own brick Silhouette, but her player was the GM.

 

We all have Code vs Killing, so I can't see our team killing Eurostar except by accident. We even rescued the other villain team Eurostar had hired and treacherously abandoned on a disabled (and about to explode) Russian nuclear submarine 600 feet down. Good thing MidGuard has it's own flying submarine...

[Hermit]

Hot diggity! Congratulations on the victory!

[Patriot]

Saturday night One of the members of Team Vanguard was taken Hostage by Eurostar.....this story line is gonna get intresting...

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Patriot

Saturday night One of the members of Team Vanguard was taken Hostage by Eurostar.....this story line is gonna get intresting...

Good luck on the rescue. I don't know how tough Team Vanguard is, but unless you're 450 point heroes it'll probably be a very tough fight. I hope your team has some characters with Mental Defense.

[Patriot]

The Kidnapped:Panther A Hindu Martial artist with minor mental abilities.(about 450 points)

 

The remaining Team:

Theolandus Evermeet: A druid from another planet (About 420 points)

Tassadaric An Alien(based off a half breed zerg/protoss) Strong mentalist 520points

Stellar a surfer dude with the ability to alter density of himself and others 700points

Kira A desolidification based Martail artist 450 points

Nocturus solaris 1/2 angel/1/2demon martail artist /weapon master/celestial 450 points

 

Thats the base group

others that may show

Shadowwalker 1600 point Ninja(not a typo)

Raven 700 point half dead/half cyborg(thank you duchess) who is a zen master

[Aldarath]

I do belive im more of a 520 pt character, so ha. Damn eurostar...

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Patriot

The Kidnapped:Panther A Hindu Martial artist with minor mental abilities.(about 450 points)

 

The remaining Team:

Theolandus Evermeet: A druid from another planet (About 420 points)

Tassadaric An Alien(based off a half breed zerg/protoss) Strong mentalist 520points

Stellar a surfer dude with the ability to alter density of himself and others 700points

Kira A desolidification based Martail artist 450 points

Nocturus solaris 1/2 angel/1/2demon martail artist /weapon master/celestial 450 points

 

Thats the base group

others that may show

Shadowwalker 1600 point Ninja(not a typo)

Raven 700 point half dead/half cyborg(thank you duchess) who is a zen master

Ye Gawds!

 

Your team is unbelievable! Stomping Eurostar should be a cinch for your group, unless of course your GM realizes that and has subjected Eurostar to a nice healthy radiation accident. Of course, he's probably also added a couple new "provisional" members to his Eurostar lineup: Dr. Destroyer, Menton, and Firewing all want to join.

[Patriot]

I am the Gm!

Eurostar is the perfect team to go against these guys

due to the fact that they each have a vulnerability , and a member of Eurostar can hit it!

[Diamond Spear]

Question

 

If you are playing a MA how did you KO Mentalla since she flies and her powers work on LOS?

[Mastermind]

Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Diamond Spear

If you are playing a MA how did you KO Mentalla since she flies and her powers work on LOS?

 

Yes, good question!

 

In our last adv, the party Mentalist was not even physically on the battlegroud---he was Mind Scanning, targeting and then Ego Attacking or Draining.

 

I am sure that Mentalla could do much the same.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Diamond Spear

If you are playing a MA how did you KO Mentalla since she flies and her powers work on LOS?

 

Haven't looked at the character recently. Is she Overconfident?

 

How many people take that disadvantage like it's free points, and think still take every available tactical advantage? "It's not worth the effort to avoid you."

[lemming]

One of my martial artists was well suited for going after mentalists. Not all MAs are limited to HtH. (That and she had one of the shiftiest minds around. )

 

Of course if there was mind scanning, etc... being done, it would take much longer.

 

My theory is that Mentala made the mistake of being too close.

[Diamond Spear]

I'm not sure if his MA had some sort of ranged attack but as for Mentalla making a mistake that is really not like her.

 

Eurostar is so dangerous not only because of their power level but because of their intelligence. They are smart, well coordinated and not afraid to retreat and regroup. They also have the versatility to take almost any group on and win and aren't shy about endangering normals to make good their escape. Not to mention Bora's habit of hangout invisibly and either putting you through the floor (double KB straight into the ground HURTS!) or grabbing the fallen with her TK (while fully invisible) and flying off at high speed.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Diamond Spear

I'm not sure if his MA had some sort of ranged attack but as for Mentalla making a mistake that is really not like her.

All this is pure speculation of course. Plus the fact that there was a mentalist on the hero's side and it was happenning on a ship. The villians setup, etc...

Anyway, Treb can clear it up if he wants too.

[Mentor]

Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Diamond Spear

If you are playing a MA how did you KO Mentalla since she flies and her powers work on LOS?

His martial artist character is also the team speedster with lots of running and a long inherent leap. Beleive it or not she did a move through. My mentalist PC, Prodigy had just finished mentally paralyzing Durak who had just KOd our teleporting demi brick. Our Energy Projector, Thunderbird, had just been Ego Blasted into nighty nite land by Mentalla, and the Olympic medalist (even before she was super) acrobatics martial speedster Z'lf did a move through two "inches" in the air over the cargo hold of the ship and lands with her hands in the air looking for the judges' scores. It was incredible to behold.

[pinecone]

In all my years I've only faced Eurostar once and it was fun, we managed to knock out 4 of them and the rest ran for it. And then my character the Star spangled avenger had to desperatly abort the B-52 strike I had called in on those coords when I had realized who we were facing... I suspect that the GM was taking it easy on us as we were a scrach team and Eurostar did not seem to use much in the way of tactics and Star spangled seemed much stronger than the other heros and I felt like I was simply in Eurostars league, most of my "powers" were things like being able to comadeer US military equipment and call the president and not be put on hold ,rather than throwing big bunches of dice....

[Trebuchet]

Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Diamond Spear

If you are playing a MA how did you KO Mentalla since she flies and her powers work on LOS?

Fair question. It's really not that complicated, although I may have a couple of the details wrong. (Understand I was paying more attention to Durak and Scorpia than what was going on between Mentalla and the rest of the team.) Mentor may have some corrections to offer, but this was how I saw it.

 

Mentalla was in fact hiding in the cargo hold when we arrived; and just as was stated attempted to attack Prodigy with a mental attack (Ego Blast, I think.) through a Mind Scan. Her Ego Blast mostly bounced off Prodigy's high Mental Defenses. Since the other villain team we had just beaten and rescued was missing its previously encountered mentallist, Prodigy still had his 90 point VPP set with extra Mental Defenses. He then rendered himself invisible to Mind Scan, which caused Mentalla to come up from the cargo hold to attempt to gain LOS on her opponent. She hovered a few inches above the cargo hatch to get her bearings.

 

Once outside the cargo hold, she was fair game. Thunderbird, our energy projector, also had some Mental Defense supplied by Prodigy, so she was unable to stun him. Meanwhile T'bird summoned a Megascale storm (Change Environment) which reduced her sight PER rolls by -3 and flight speed by 5". IIRC she Ego Blasted Thunderbird a couple more times and finally succeeded in KOing him, but not before he'd he'd shot Ultrasonique out of the sky and hit her with a couple 13d6 EB lightning bolts.

 

Then Mentalla turned to Ego Blast my martial artist Zl'f, who was fighting (and fairly handily beating) Scorpia due to her vast SPD advantage (SPD 9 vs SPD 5). Mentalla managed to stun Zl'f and get her within 3 points of KO, but as that was Phase 12 Zl'f got her post-12 recovery. Zl'f managed to put down Scorpia immediately in phase 2 of the next turn, then turned to deal with Mentalla in phases 3 and 4

 

Zl'f first ran over and leaped attempting a Move Through on Mentalla, but narrowly missed. In her next phase she made a successful hit with her Sacrifice Strike (10d6) for 44 points of stun, which put Mentalla out of the fight. Since Prodigy had already mentally paralyzed Durak, that pretty much ended the fight.

 

Mentalla might possibly have done better to go higher up , but going too high up not only risked her losing LOS with most of her opponents, especially Prodigy who didn't need LOS because he could Mind Scan, but really puts her in Thunderbird's element since he is truly awesome in aerial combat and has Personal Immunity from the effects of his own storm. Zl'f can run 30" and jump 6" straight up; Mentalla is not the first flying villain to discover that merely being airborne does not make one safe from Zl'f.

[Blackjack]

Re: Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Mentor

His martial artist character is also the team speedster with lots of running and a long inherent leap. Beleive it or not she did a move through. My mentalist PC, Prodigy had just finished mentally paralyzing Durak who had just KOd our teleporting demi brick. Our Energy Projector, Thunderbird, had just been Ego Blasted into nighty nite land by Mentalla, and the Olympic medalist (even before she was super) acrobatics martial speedster Z'lf did a move through two "inches" in the air over the cargo hold of the ship and lands with her hands in the air looking for the judges' scores. It was incredible to behold.

 

In Phase 12, Z'lf appeared to be neutralized, and Mentalla had just been shot by Thunderbird. Mentalla used her Phase 12 action to strategically 1/2-move and attack the greatest threat at the moment: Thunderbird, successfully knowcking him out. It would have worked, to, if Midguard had just stayed down: Three of the four members of the team were stunned or unconcious. But as the heroes they are, Midguard rallied.

 

Besides, even if Mentalla had known that Z'lf would suck it up and attack, she had used her action: Z'lf had phases 2 and 3 (Z'lf has a MUCH higher DEX than Mentalla's EGO) before Mentalla could act again...

 

When I decided to put Midguard up against EuroStar, I knew it would be a tough fight. I didn't know that the Good Guys would win, but I thought they had a good chance. My hat is off to Midguard for exceeding those expectations...

[Mentor]

Re: Re: Question

 

Originally posted by Trebuchet

Fair question. It's really not that complicated, although I may have a couple of the details wrong. (Understand I was paying more attention to Durak and Scorpia than what was going on between Mentalla and the rest of the team.) Mentor may have some corrections to offer, but this was how I saw it.

 

Mentalla was in fact hiding in the cargo hold when we arrived; and just as was stated attempted to attack Prodigy with a mental attack (Ego Blast, I think.) through a Mind Scan. Her Ego Blast mostly bounced off Prodigy's high Mental Defenses. Since the other villain team we had just beaten and rescued was missing its previously encountered mentallist, Prodigy still had his 90 point VPP set with extra Mental Defenses. He then rendered himself invisible to Mind Scan, which caused Mentalla to come up from the cargo hold to attempt to gain LOS on her opponent. She hovered a few inches above the cargo hatch to get her bearings.

 

Once outside the cargo hold, she was fair game. Thunderbird, our energy projector, also had some Mental Defense supplied by Prodigy, so she was unable to stun him. Meanwhile T'bird summoned a Megascale storm (Change Environment) which reduced her sight PER rolls by -3 and flight speed by 5". IIRC she Ego Blasted Thunderbird a couple more times and finally succeeded in KOing him, but not before he'd he'd shot Ultrasonique out of the sky and hit her with a couple 13d6 EB lightning bolts.

 

Then Mentalla turned to Ego Blast my martial artist Zl'f, who was fighting (and fairly handily beating) Scorpia due to her vast SPD advantage (SPD 9 vs SPD 5). Mentalla managed to stun Zl'f and get her within 3 points of KO, but as that was Phase 12 Zl'f got her post-12 recovery. Zl'f managed to put down Scorpia immediately in phase 2 of the next turn, then turned to deal with Mentalla in phases 3 and 4

 

Zl'f first ran over and leaped attempting a Move Through on Mentalla, but narrowly missed. In her next phase she made a successful hit with her Sacrifice Strike (10d6) for 44 points of stun, which put Mentalla out of the fight. Since Prodigy had already mentally paralyzed Durak, that pretty much ended the fight.

 

Mentalla might possibly have done better to go higher up , but going too high up not only risked her losing LOS with most of her opponents, especially Prodigy who didn't need LOS because he could Mind Scan, but really puts her in Thunderbird's element since he is truly awesome in aerial combat and has Personal Immunity from the effects of his own storm. Zl'f can run 30" and jump 6" straight up; Mentalla is not the first flying villain to discover that merely being airborne does not make one safe from Zl'f.

I had forgotten about the first attack being a miss, but that's the great thing about having lots of phases to act in a turn. As tough a fight as any character of mine has ever been involved.

 

Give major kudos to Blackjack for faking us out so smoothly as we thought we were going to clean up a lone villain and some agent types on the fishing trawler and Mentalla drains three points of Prodigy's Ego away. It went South from there when Scorpia, Durak, and Ultrasonique pop in. We just knew that we would be doing the "Escape From Fiacho's Death Trap" scenario until we won by the skin of our teeth.