Lord Liaden

Hmm... maybe for Obama, or Trump now. But there are so many Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, Grants, Nixons, Fords, Carters, Reagans, Bushes, Clintons... The name really needs to stand out.

Not upset at all, I apologize if I gave that impression. It's just that your OP asked for what Eurostar does, how they go about operating. The way they're officially defined, they're terrorists. That's one of the things that sets them apart from other supervillains, that makes them unique in this setting, why one might use them in lieu of the Ultimates or the Crimelords. My "insistence" was just trying to keep to what you appeared to ask for, that folks seemed to keep missing. Of course you can modify Eurostar in any way that would be more satisfying for the games you want. But then this becomes a thread about modifying Eurostar. If that's what you prefer, that's fine.

I'd call Emma Peel more of a sexified weapon.

Nope, still not getting it. Eurostar does not demand a billion dollars or they blow up a bridge with everyone on it. Eurostar blows up the bridge. Then claims responsibility. The critic of Eurostar does not get to apologize or else a loved one is tortured on public broadcast. The loved one is tortured. Did Al Qaeda demand money before flying a jumbo jet into the World Trade Center? Terrorists attack and kill without warning, that's what makes them so terrifying. They don't extort, they make graphic statements. Since this is the Champions forum, perhaps someone has been watching the recent The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming series. That's how terrorists operate. The way this plays out in dramatic fiction like our RPGs is that the heroes learn of a planned attack by some means -- an informant, electronic eavesdropping, piecing together the pattern of the terrorists' previous activities -- and then intervene before the attack takes place, usually at the last moment.

Ariel as a mermaid doesn't offer quite as much...

You are not. I've mentioned the same thing elsewhere on the forums, after privately raising the issue with the Secret Masters. For me it isn't simply the length of the products, but also that their layout is very basic, not up to the standards of any previous Hero ebook; that they're nearly devoid of artwork and maps; and that some of them are even thin in providing NPCs. As one Herophile I corresponded with put it, we're paying professional-grade price point for amateur-grade product. FWIW I have it on good authority that Hero considers these sectional ebooks to not be finished products, and more will be done with them when they're collected in a single volume. But if they're going that route I believe that should be reflected in the price. That also convinced me that I should wait for the whole book rather than buy any more individual chapters. Which really bums me out, because I thought the sectional book concept had potential, but IMHO this approach will torpedo it before it gets a fair chance.

Yeah, they're all cute at this age. Then they grow up to be Tai Lung.

I think you're all being too optimistic about "united Europe" already being accomplished. Look at the last few years. Not just Brexit, but the rise of right-wing nationalist parties across the continent; conflicting uncoordinated responses to the Middle Eastern refugee crisis; waffling over Russia's annexation of Crimea; rebellion by nations in debt like Greece to austerity demands from international banks in exchange for loans. Denmark just pulled out of Europe's treaty for accommodating refugees, which it was the first signatory to decades ago. The European Union has been unable to get its collective act together on a range of fundamental issues, highlighting that a lot of pan-European idealism is still wishful thinking.

Now I see where John Byrne got his inspiration.

I disagree. Eurostar wants to be feared, to spread terror. If someone succeeds in paying them off, even if only temporarily, it makes them less frightening. You need to stop thinking of them, especially Fiacho, as criminals trying to score as much personal profit as they can. Fiacho is a fanatic and the whole crew are psychopaths.

That's the thing about Eurostar. They're not in this for the money, although I'm sure they find plenty of incidental opportunities to cover their expenses. They wouldn't negotiate even if you begged them. Most supervillains threaten to make terrible things happen if they don't get what they want. For Eurostar, making terrible things happen IS what they want.

Needn't be that high-tech. Use powerful explosives to crumble the land on either side of the Strait and fill it with enough rubble to block it to deep-water shipping. But any way you make Gibraltar impassable, you're blocking 300 cargo ships per day. But that isn't even the busiest water route in Europe. That honor goes to the English Channel, most-traveled trade line in the world.

Kind of overlooked the Strait of Gibraltar.

BOTD points out that Dr. Destroyer monitors potential opponents and rivals closely, and has developed strategies for dealing with them when he needs to remove them. I think one could make a case for the Golden Avenger of PRIMUS being an iconic Champions hero. There's been a Golden Avenger in the CU since Third Edition through Sixth. Granted, it hasn't been the same man using that identity for all of that time; and the original Avenger's motives were questionable at best. But his successor in the role is unquestionably an honorable and heroic person. If the CU time line continued to progress normally, we'd probably be on our third Golden Avenger by now. Another spot where the CU could use an update.

Well, what Eurostar does is shaped first and foremost by Fiacho's motivations, both intellectual and emotional. As far as I can tell from his backstory and activities, Fiacho believes that Europe's inherent potential for greatness is being held back by all its nations' entrenched political, economic and cultural structures, which keep it divided and weak. Fiacho seems to have decided that those structures need to be irrevocably smashed before a new united Europe can arise. I don't get the impression he's thought through what specifically should replace them. It's as if Fiacho makes an almost Marxist assumption that something better will inevitably evolve once the old order has been swept away. Of course a lot of Fiacho's philosophy is rationalization for his personal anger, bitterness, disillusionment, and resentment. He wants revenge on a system he feels failed and betrayed him, and his campaign is his intellectual excuse for venting. It's no coincidence that he recruited violent psychopaths for his team. They follow him out of a combination of their natural predilections aligning with Fiacho's activities, personal gratitude and loyalty, his persuasive charisma, and the wealth and power they expect to get out of his campaign. I would imagine Eurostar's activities generally follow the pattern of most normal human terrorists, to cause death and destruction targeted at a particular group in order to sow confusion, doubt and fear in that group. Of course their superhuman power allows them to be more direct and obvious than normal human terrorists. Their specific targets would likely fall into two main categories. One would be the power structures underpinning European society: governing bodies and political parties; law enforcement and the military; industry, banking and other linchpins of the economy. The other would be symbols of the standards and values of the old order, and of its aura of strength and continuity: national monuments; great achievements in technology and engineering; particularly prominent and famous politicians, business people, intellectuals, and media/entertainment figures. Because Fiacho resents America's economic and cultural "imperialism" in Europe, that's more than enough justification for Eurostar to cross the Atlantic to strike at similar targets in that country. So you don't have to confine their depredations to the Old World.

[Agent Ward] "Somebody really wanted our name to spell out P.O.L.T.E.R.G.E.I.S.T." [/Agent Ward]

Dr. Destroyer's supervillain operatives do serve a useful purpose in a game context, though. They give PCs who aren't ready to tackle DD directly someone to fight who's more in their weight class. With everything the Doctor has going on in the world he must need to delegate the supervision of some of his operations. In going up against his lieutenants the PCs can have the satisfaction of putting a dent in Destroyer's schemes. As they become more powerful and prominent they'll grow from annoyance to actual threat, until the D-man decides they warrant his personal attention.

Doctor Destroyer in 5E/6E isn't completely "locked" into his armor, but he does wear it nearly constantly, because his aging is slowed by its systems. So, practically the same deal. My problem with DD isn't his concept, or any "cluttering," but that as a character he's very superficial. You can summarize him in three words: power, intellect, arrogance. That's it. There are no layers to him, no shadings. I admire Steve Long's writing for several qualities, but in Book Of The Destroyer he wasted the opportunity to put some role-playing meat on those megalomaniacal bones. Despite going over Albert Zerstoiten's whole history, the book gives almost no sense of what people and events shaped him, what led to him becoming the man he is. His attitudes seemed to emerge nearly full-blown from childhood, like Athena from the brow of Zeus. He does make for a cool-looking avatar, though.

[From "epelesker" on the Champions Online forums] I've got the positive news that Thundrax is once again back home-- and fingers crossed that this is the one for sure! [From "guyhumual" on the Champions Online forums] He was actually just on CO! Sadly I missed him but that's really great news

I remember Reed Richards remarking he served in the army during the Korean War. Of course that was in a comic from the late 1970s. But Marvel characters may be immortal, artificially de-aged, get longevity treatments, are kept in suspended animation, travel through time, are cloned, get resurrected, and experience all other sorts of birthday-defying phenomena.

Eh, that's debatable. President Kennedy increased the number of "military advisors" in Vietnam from hundreds to thousands, and direct military aid to South Vietnam grew to well over $100 million per year by 1963. By that point the United States was already the SV government's primary foreign backer. I believe it was what Hero was trying to do with the Champions Universe, but the effort couldn't be sustained. You can see a number of in-setting events and changes listed not just in News Of The World, but between the 5E and 6E editions of Champions Universe, and other books advancing the time line like Book Of The Destroyer. The events in published Champions adventures like Champions Battlegrounds, Shades Of Black and Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth became incorporated into the official time line, in the years in which they were published.

Oh, is there a snake too?

Iron Man debuted in 1963, and his origin was based in the Vietnam war, not Korean. So you can shave off around a decade from Tony Stark's age FWIW. The purpose of Champions Universe: News Of The World was to update the setting with ongoing events in the world in general, and the Superhuman World sub-culture in particular. It was all but stated that that book would be the first in a series, to keep the setting fresh by rotating retiring characters out and new characters in, changing the dynamics of organizations, etc. Unfortunately the downsizing of Hero Games curtailed those plans. I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums that IMO it's past time for another such official update to be released.