Why should you play the affiliation
Emma is awesome and here she brings a group of misfit mutants that are mostly found in the greyish area of good and bad and combines them under a very strong leadership.
How to start the affiliation
Your only starting point into the Affiliation is the MCP13 pack Uncanny Telepaths and Telekinetics, which is a bit of a shame as it comes with Emma Frost (your only leader and essential to the Affiliation), strong affiliated 4 threat Psylocke but also Jean Grey and Professor X. The latter is a fun leader for Uncanny X-Men but very hard to justify to use for anything else than leading his own team.
Your next purchase for a pure Hellfire Club list is without a doubt MCP14 X-Fiends and Foes. It comes with affiliated staples Omega Red and Mister Sinister, affiliated 5 threat Option Shadow King and main stay splash 5 Juggernaut.
What's probably a good idea and a good starting point anyway is CP271, the X-Men Starter Set (just be aware that basically all of the stat cards included there are now outdated). You'll get some affiliated Hellfire Club models in Mystique, Storm and Magneto (though it's hard to imagine playing him under Emma and not the other way around).
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan?
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White Queen's Pawns is a fantastic leadership. Once upon a time it allowed every character to be affiliated and that was so strong that the card had to be restricted. Now with HFC having an actual affiliated roster it is still amongst the best leaderships in the game but no longer restricted.
It, combined with the native strengths of the affiliated models, promotes a type 2 list build most.
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?
Sebastian Shaw is the big an obvious answer here.
I'm also a bit sad, that AMG decided to keep it a mutant only affiliation when all of: Norman Osborne, Tony Stark, Wilson Fisk, Ophelia Sakrissian (Vipers alter ego most likely spelled wrong) have been members of the club for example.
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (1)
My Hellfire Club
A. It's your leadership and it is incredibly good. You're not too mad about it taking a slot in your 5.
Characters (12)
Angel (3)
B+. Angel is fast, can displace and has a healing factor. He's also got a Sacrifice style TTC. Personally I'd run him in every HFC game.
Archangel (4)
B. Archangel is also fast, can hit like a truck and is much more survivable after his August 26 update to 7/7 Stamina even though he is still absolutely not a tanky model. He's got a fantastic team up card with Psylocke but I feel you can use that trick better in Servants of the Apocalypse or X-Force.
Cassandra Nova (5)
B. Cassandra is a fine character. Her biggest issue is mobility which the affiliation doesn't fix however.
Emma Frost (4)
A. Even with basically no action compression (the range 1 teleport from Transforming not included, as it is usually not what you want to use that for) Emma Frost is in the conversation to be one of the best 4 threats in the game. I'm not quite sure I agree with that but after the two Updates she got she is now very strong (but dice dependent) and very tanky. She's even a decent model to pick up an Extract on the midline now.
Lady Mastermind (4)
B+. I've only played Lady Mastermind before her August 26 Stamina increase to 7/7 but she was decent even before. She is the second of no less than 3 affiliated models with Shapeshifter like effects (where your opponent can't use reactive superpowers or TTCs in the characters activation) along with Emma herself and Mystique. She mostly struggles for a spot when other affiliated 4s just do more for the usual game plan.
Magneto (6)
C+. Magneto wants his own leadership and Magnetic Refraction to come back to him every round (which it only does in Brotherhood) and the mobility tool of Asteroid M. He is now a decent 6 threat in his own right but loosing all his favorite toys make it hardly worth it to bring him here. It's a very easy dual of course. And I don't think many people have tried it so maybe him healing basically every round might even out the loss of Refraction every round (you can bring the card here, too it just doesn't recycle like in Brotherhood).
Mister Sinister (4)
A-. The August 26 Update fixed Mr Sinisters biggest problem of power generation while it capped his token generation. He needs the former for his bow, the most important thing on his card, and the latter for his tankines. The leadership already helps him with both. He should be good here.
Mystique (3)
B. Raven is very fast while Stealth and Martial Artist makes her rather tough. She's pretty much always loaded on power anyway so this isn't her best home here.
Omega Red (4)
A. Omega Red is even more of a staple of the Affiliation after the Updates than Mister Sinister because while he is probably a bit less tanky (but even that is debatable) but he has the big advantage of being able to displace multiple enemies during his activation with his pull. He needs power for that and the leadership of course helps with that.
Psylocke (4)
B+. Psylocke is a fantastic killer with great mobility as well as Stealth and Martial artist. Her only problem is that killing is probably not your game plan. Though nowadays an offensive Hellfire Club built around her, Archangel, Sunspot and Emma herself seems more realistic even if it won't be the most competitive version of the list.
Shadow King (5)
B-. My favourite sculpt in the game and the August 26 Updates definitely made him better but I'm still not sure it is enough to pay the 5 threat for him. His roll is to guard a back point, which he will do better than any other model in the game most likely but the question is if that's what you want your 5 threat to do. He has a fantastic builder, can reach pretty far now (with only one attack) and is incredibly tanky while Nightmare Visions can ruin an enemy characters while activation. He is just very slow to move around the board and you don't want to use movement actions with him.
Storm (3)
B+. Storm is just a good 3 threat overall. She is a great back point sitter, that can shoot outside of her super stealth range and occasionally throw an opponent off a secure. Most likely one of your 3 threat choices in the list.
Sunspot (4)
B-. Sunspot is a fun character to play when you can give him flare tokens at least semi reliably which sadly you really can't here. He also likes healing and extra power of course.
Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation
Toad (2)
A. Toad is great in any team that wants to focus on objectives first and this is no exception.
Juggernaut (5)
A+. Juggernaut is one of the best designed 5 threats in the game and everything he does fits right in with the typical Hellfire Club game plan. He is incredibly fast, super tanky and can displace enemies (though he does need to hit a trigger on his builder on the front side).
Nova (5)
A. Nova is not yet really a popular splash in HFC which is mostly down to Juggernaut being there who is the much more tanky of the two. Richard, my favorite character in Marvel Comics and a character that AMG has designed to 100% feel like he should on the table, does bring more reliable Displacement though. Here you'd probably still pick Cain Marko over him but he'd be a good second choice if you don't own Juggs (which would be a bit weird as the X-Fiends and Foes is your second most essential pick up after Emma herself) or you can't use him in a Team event or something.
Example Roster
This roster is built using only the Uncanny Telepaths and Telekinetics, X-Fiends and Foes and X-Men Starter starter sets. It keeps the dual option into Brotherhood of Mutants.
Characters (10)
* Emma Frost (4)
* Magneto (6)
Shadow King (5)
Mister Sinister (4)
Omega Red (4)
* Storm (3)
* Mystique (3)
Juggernaut (5)
Beast (3)
Toad (2)
Team Tactics (10)
Asteroid M
Astral Plane
Carbonadium Synthesizer
Do You Know Who I Am?
Fall Back (R)
Indomitable (R)
Magnetic Refraction
Mind Transfer
My Hellfire Club
Stolen Identity
Secure Crisis
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Strike Team Secures Shield Relay! (D, 17)
Power Overload! Factory Goes Up in Flames (Y, 19)
Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate (F, 20)
X-Men Infiltrate Secret Weapons Facility (X, 17)
Extract Crisis
Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe (D, 17)
Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan (F, 17)
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)
Jailbreak Leads to Mass Mutant Escape! (T, 20)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
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