Why should you play the affiliation
Because you want to be a Hipster? 😅 From what I've read about them the Inhumans aren't the most likeable of characters but at least they have really cool and unique power sets.
On the table they offer a fantastic leadership that is very rewarding to play with a bit of practice. They also just got a big boost with a lot of new models, two new leaderships and some new affiliated TTCs.
How to start the affiliation
Your first pick up has to be Black Bolt and Medusa. Just be sure to get their updated cards from AMGs website or Jarvis Protocol. Black Bolt is currently your only leader so you’ll play him in every Inhumans game you play. Medusa is the best in affiliation 4 threat and will also see the table a lot for you here. Next up I would recommend Ms. Marvel. She is in a singles box and your most well rounder 3 threat choice here. Crystal and Lockjaw are honestly more a “to taste” pick up. Neither is bad but they don’t stand out as particular stars immediately either. For theme reasons you probably do won’t Crystal though since at the moment the rest of the affiliation is made up of her various husbands and boyfriends… (Edit: Beast does not fall into this. Thanks for reminding me TheJJ!) All three of them: Beast, Quicksilver and Ronan are definitely worth giving a look at some point in your Inhumans journey but sadly none of their box partners stand out as particularly good additions for Inhumans. Quicksilver and Wanda (unaffiliated) as well as Beast, who is best grabbed in the X-Men affiliation pack, give the option for an easy Avengers dual if you own either core set. Ronan and Drax (unaffiliated) would open up a lane for a Guardians dual but I personally don’t think that’s a route really worth exploring as (little spoiler) Guardians usually have the same primary game plan anyway and Ronan and Drax are more tech pieces than core there, too.
Update: with the new Inhumans character pack coming out there's a different route you can take now. I would still absolutely start with original Black Bolt and Medusa but then grab the new pack of King Black Bolt, Maximus the Mad, Karnak and Gorgon. This gives you a very nice core of affiliated Inhumans and three possible leaderships.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan?
King of the Inhumans is your first available leadership and is easily in the top 5 leaderships in the game. The amount of possible power manipulation is unparalleled and unlike many other power focused leaderships it is completely unconditional (outside of the Range restriction) and your opponent has no influence on it (like in A-Force). Be careful though as it doesn’t create a single additional power during the game. You “just” get to redistribute power you already have to someone you think needs it more.
In terms of archetype Inhumans sit comfortably at type 3: plan A is murder but the affiliation is wide and objective focused enough that the pivot to scenario focus is absolutely possible if they think out fighting the opponent will not work.
Turning the concept around to type 2 is also very possible.
For type 1 (full on scenario only focus) you lack the tools and your 5 threat leader doesn’t help you with the plan a lot and while he absolutely does for a type 4 (pure murder plan) you lack a couple of additional beaters in affiliation.
Call me Maximus the Magnificent! is probably the weirdest leadership in the entire game. The reroll not being optional can already bite you when you are forced into re-rolling a success (especially painful in defense rolls) but the part about being placed by your opponent when you get a Skull from that reroll is what really hurts. Sure it's just a 1/8 chance it happens but you can bet your mother's wedding ring on it that it will happen when it breaks your game completely. On the other hand the amount of free rerolls this leadership gives is probably the highest of any in the game. So it can be absolutely fantastic in some games, too.
Maximus doesn't really promote a single archetype as in the best case he just gives a flat buff to every character in the squad.
Queen of the Inhumans is your win more kill 'em all leadership (rather fitting for her personality). It doesn't help you kill but is a classic reward leadership quite similar to Dark Council of Malekith, with the difference that this leadership here only benefits the killer itself. There aren't too many of those in affiliation yet, though.
This promotes a pure type 4 game plan first and foremost.
Type 1: Pure Scenario team, as many VPs on the table as possible and try to win by scoring out as early as possible and with as little engagement
Type 2: Midrange Scenario team. Similar to Type 1 but can fight and chase if necessary
Type 3: Midrange Attrition team. Wants to be the beatdown but can shift to scenario play if the other side is clearly the beatdown.
Type 4: Pure Attrition team. Wants to murder you as quick as possible. Tabling is a possible and achievable goal here, but not the only way to win (they mostly score their points and deny yours by virtue of your models being dazed or KO'ed)
Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders?
Outside of the very new box of models the one sticking out most to me is Triton. Quake is another popular Inhumans character and might open the road to a dual affiliated list with SHIELD.
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (6+1)
Attilan Rising
A. Your leadership doesn’t create new power. This card does. And potentially a whole lot of it. Don’t hold it back untill it doesn’t help you enough anymore though. If you have two or sometimes even just one injured Inhuman just play the card and enjoy the big influx on power in your affiliated squad members. A card that can only get better with more affiliated characters coming soon.
Genetic Prophecy
B. It's a weird card. Not being able to attack with your Black Bolt, be it King or regular, is a huge deal but on the other hand gaining two VP is also a big swing especially since you can already play the card when you're down on points. The thing is: do you plan for that? I can absolutely see the worth in the card but the problem is more: will it ever make the 5? I could see the argument against type 1 teams to keep up with their scoring but forgoing your team's most potent damage dealers attacks might come out as a net negative there.
Inhomo Supremis
B. The effect here is pretty great and rewards you for playing actual Inhumans in your squad but four power in the power phase is also very expensive. Good that it's in no way tied to the character that played it though.
Inhuman Royal Family
A-. Once again don’t be fooled by the opportunity to play this with every possible character at once. Play this when you really need Bolt to get the necessary damage through for example.
Inhuman Queen
B+. It's great to have the option of running Medusa as your leader and the leadership is good. My biggest concern with it is that outside of the Black Bolts you do lack reliable killers in affiliation.
Terrigenesis
A. Civilian is the lesser represented extract type at the moment (but that might change with the War of Kings pack of course) making the card do nothing in the majority of games. Can be game winning in the right situation though.
The Great Refuge
A-. Rainbow Bridge with the twist that the leader has to pay for every character that wants the place. Harder to do but still a great effect nonetheless.
Royal Guardians (unaffiliated)
A. Sacrifice style cards are always good and this one is attached to two affiliated 3 threats which makes it very intriguing to have in the 10.
Characters (8)
Beast (3)
B+. He’s a fast objective runner that is somewhat defensively capable. His already cheap throw is even easier to get here which is nice.
Black Bolt (5)
A. Bolt is your absolute center piece in the affiliation. He hits like a truck, can bodyguard on his front side and has one of the best spenders in the game on his backside along with a tonne of health. He also gets two power per power phase making him a good candidate to start the power redistribution.
Crystal (3)
B-. Crystal is very fast and has the potential for three attack actions per turn. If she lives to activate which is her biggest weakness.
Gorgon (3)
B. Gorgon is just a solid overall 3 threat. His spender is great, having a Beam is helpful, Charge makes him relatively fast and a taunt can always be helpful.
Karnak (3)
A-. Karnak is pretty awesome. He has good attacks that his superpowers only make better and he can give very unique but expensive support to your other characters damage output.
King Black Bolt (6)
A. An effective 6 dice (per Inhuman reroll) Range 4 Gainer beam is pretty awesome especially as it can rather easily be boosted to 7 so effectively 8 dice with a superpower. He also packs a good spender, a charge and reposition for one of his team mates. His biggest strength though is being incredibly hard to kill. 7/8 health, effective 5/5/5 defenses and of course damage reduction.
Lockjaw (3)
B-. Lockjaw struggles for a role outside of turn 1 jank a bit. He can be used to teleport your extract carriers back to safety, too though and can guard a back point well. He’s also a very good boy so probably give him a try anyway.
Maximus the Mad (4)
B+. If it weren't for the scary 2 physical defense which makes him an absolute target for any kind of throw, Maximus would've been an A for me. He has very good attacks, and superpowers. Especially cool is that unlike with Amazing Spider-Man or Crimson Dynamo Maximus can decide to let the enemy reroll two attack dice after you see their initial roll.
Medusa (4)
A. Medusa got tuned down in her 21 card update but she is still very good overall. Teleporting allies is always good and her no rerolls against me defensive tech is relevant against a lot of popular teams like Asgard.
Ms. Marvel (3)
A-. Kamala is deceptively fast with her transformation and can hit like a truck with her rerolls. You just kind of run out of dice before you run out of rerolls with her.
Quicksilver (3)
B+. Fantastic objective runner especially with Wall Crawler and the Advance on his cheap Spender that’s even easier to fund here if you need it. Also brings a (Assets only) Steal TTC along with him.
Ronan the Accuser (4)
B. Ronan is very much a control piece to use against enemy Kaijus. He has his one job but that he does do well enough to be considered for a roster. With the rotation of Eyes on the Prize I don’t think Power Gem Ronan is worth it personally. He doesn’t really spend the additional power well enough to be worth the extra threat cost to me.
Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation
Any model that either has additional power to help get the train rolling, or uses it incredibly well when being fed with it is excellent here, when you choose Black Bolt as your primary leader. Medusa likes any character that can reliably kill. And Maximus mostly gives flat buffs to anyone with some risk. For him models with in built movement tech are probably best.
Hulk (6)
A. Multiple power per power phase, often flush because of the damage he takes and a great user of power, too. Hulk is basically just an excellent model everywhere and uses the leadership well here.
Abomination (5)
A. Possibly my new favourite character for Inhumans. Abomb is basically a 5 threat Hulk but dazed protected and with damage reduction. His Gainers also mean you can plan his turns out perfectly and calculate beforehand if you need to feed him power or if he himself will be able to hand over a power to someone else. He also gains multiple power per Power Phase.
The Wrecking Crew (4)
A-. Another model with multiple power per Power Phase and a super flexible one with high damage output. They also bring in Mystic Menace, which is a fantastic TTC. Their biggest downside is not being especially hard to take out.
Gladiator (6)
A. Gladiator, somewhat unfittingly, may have one of his best homes here. He likes Black Bolts leadership a lot and is a very potent user of Medusa's as well.
Sunspot (4)
B-. A model I want to call out specifically for Maximus because he at least gets a Flare token when he gets placed by the leadership so it's not pure downside.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Gorgon (3)
Karnak (3)
King Black Bolt (6)
* Maximus the Mad (4)
Abomination (5)
* Black Bolt (5)
Lockjaw (3)
* Medusa (4)
Ms. Marvel (3)
Quicksilver (3)
Team Tactics (10)
Inhomo Supremis
Inhuman Queen
Royal Guardians
Attilan Rising
Inhuman Royal Family
Terrigenesis
Can I Borrow That?
Gamma Burst
Brace for Impact (R)
Sacrifice (R)
Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Extract Crisis
Ship Security Breached in Royal Rescue (J, 20)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe (D, 17)
That’s it for today. Next Up: Legion of the Lost
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