After a bit of mustering we had nine players taking part, Ste shuffled the team sheets and round one was underway!

Seven Samurai? No. The Seven Spymater Clones!!!

Stephen Hunt's "Sweet Christmas!" team (sorry you've lost me there, is it something to do with your over-ripe banana?) drew Parry using another of the teams Ste had built "Da Crow" lead by 185 points worth of Thanos. Ste's team was the more balanced and managed to take out Parry's support pieces, but only just managed to hurt Thanos with one hit in the last attack. It was enought to just scrape a win though and this one was even tighter with only 305 points achieving the win. Parry's 294 is about the best score you can get without a win so not devastingly poor.

Paul Brown had opted for a team fashioned around the F4 (Fromagetastic Four) with a Lockjaw for added cheesey flavour. These "Fantastic Imperfects" saw the potentially devastating effect of a Battle Field Condition though as, drwan against Craig's D.O.A. X-Men based utility squad he faced the ultimate nulifier of Disbanded. I don't think too many tears were shed in the house though. Perhaps Paul should also discover the mysteries of BFC's and especially Ordinary Day, albeit only once per tournament but it would sure of helped here. Thanks to the Fantastic four being disbanded to be just the Four, Craig managed to pick up a win. A well considered use of BFC if I might say Craig.

Whilst on the subject of cheese, it was a tough call between Paul Brown and Paul Atherton as to who took the biscuit (or in this case the dry cream cracker) with Paul fielding no less than seven (yes SEVEN) experienced Spymasters, a Nebula with Trick Shot and a Hydra Medic. He may also take the most ludicrous named team prize with "I think he, my, I mean his, erm I dunno but we are all clones". Unfortunately for Paul, he couldn't have got a worse first round draw as I was ready for this monstrocity with my " 'Brotherhood' of Man Eurovision 1978" Team. After winning the roll to go first and electing to pass all that remained was to laugh maniacally prior to turn two. Tk'ing Polaris into the fray and doing a quick Nova Blast enhanced Pulse Wave sort of spoilt Pauls's day a bit as stealth was no defence. He managed to take out Polaris but then lost the rest of his team. Ok a cheesy tactic from me ... but I only went with one Perplexer and the support wasn't fantastic as noone had above nine attack. Lets hope to avoid the Fromage Four in the next rounds eh? But perfect to cut into one display of cheese.

Martin Teece who I can now confirm was not a simulucrum last week but has in fact improved his game significantly picked up a win, but unfortunatly it was via a bye so he only clocked up 299 points with it.

The random power loss seemed to work in the way it was intended as first Damage Powers went, then Attack Powers and finally Team Abilities to spice the games up a bit.

Polaris on suicide mission number one spoils Paul Ath's (or should that be Spymaster Cloning Tank's) day

Martin well before he realised he would be making tonight's final watches on as he has a bye

Six down, one to go. Ko'ing Spymaster's is like swatting flys today as they just keep coming and coming

Stephen Hunt was paired with JP's speedy trio for the secound round. Once again the use of BFC's proved very significant for an old hand as Ste played Inertial Interference Field almost negating the Hypersonic Speed of JP (ok he could still run fast, but he wasn't going to do any damage). In contrast JP had once again gone with no BFC. What developed in this game was something of a war of attrition as the game of cat and mouse prolongued Ste's headache yet further. He prevailed despite only KO'ing 98 opposition points due to losing only Colleen Wing ... it amazing how well you can do when your opponent can't do any damage. Its about time the new players started to use BFC's or I predict the hurting will continue indefinately.

Martin had to actually play to get his win this round. His "The Good, The Bad and The Vulture" did still pick up a win though as they took out Parry's Thanos! Hang on ... is that four wins in a row (over two events) for Martin now? It sure is and a healthy 711 points to take into the third round. Parry didn't even get a KO - what was he playing at this time? How can you not get a KO when you have Thanos? Well the 6 roll on BFC and the a critical to knockback into a wall both against Thanos may have helped a little. Perhaps if you move out of your start zone next time Parry?

The last game saw Paul Brown this time able to cheese up to the full with no Disbanded in sight. With all but Lockjaw sporting 19 defence, it meant that the Human Torch could have 22 with his Energy Shield and sitting in a bush tactic. Not surprisingly Alec struggled to hit and didn't get any KO's at all ... I bet it was great fun too wasn't it Alec? Paul recovered from his round one loss to get to 1 and 1 with 624 points. Alec did at least prevent his Warmachine from being KO'ed though.

That left Paul Atherton to gather an easy 300 points for the bye after his first round massacre. Word to the wise Paul, if you ask everyone at the club for their experienced Spymasters someone is going to rumble you ... and stealth is no defence against the mighty Pulse Wave and Nova Blast combo!

Craig wins the big battle on the top table in what was my most enjoyable game of the evening. My reward for defeat was Hunt in the next round once again proving its not just the dice that screw me!

Paul Brown cheeses up whilst Martin quietly gets on with it in the background.

The second place was up for grabs between a few potential candidates, but the Huntmeister could again warm a chair in the final with a win over me. We both played the Low Gravity BFC, which was a bit ironic in the end. Another early Pulse Wave Nova Blast did a fair degree of damage, but was limited due to the positioning of Ste's team and an average roll. Worse yet, both players forgot to apply the Low Gravity which would have sent those hit flying four squares into walls for an extra one damage and may just have made the difference. Its not like we are both qualified Judges or anything though is it, D'OH! It all went horribly wrong in totality when a re-rolled second Pulse Wave missed everyone thanks to two bad dice rolls (now that is a very unusual thing to happen to me isn't it ... they were virgin dice too!). Well if the early part of the game will be remembered for our stupidity and my bad dice, the latter was certainly ruled by Ste taking advantage with some excellent tactical manouvering. The ever annoying Antman (LE) did exactly what he does best and tied the Brotherhood up. The rest of the team blocked the doorway to make it impossible to target anything worthwhile or hitable. A sucessful Danger Senses roll from Ste's Iron Fist just about summed the game up and I wasn't hitting anything after that. Black Knight trotted about transporter attacking to mop up and the pog who miraculously survived a Pulse Wave (thanks to Destiny's intervention, silly old cow) got another kill. Go Misty Knight ... NO REALLY, GO!

So the two final slots were decided by the undefeated three win rule. But not knowing this the other tables were still fighting hard. Paul Brown had huge defence, but this game he realised that the attack on the Fromage Four isn't exactly staggering against high defences either. With Two Quicksilvers to deal with this game was a thrilling struggle of who can roll the most ridiculously high numbers the most, now isn't this exactly what Heroclix is all about? Ok I lied, but each to their own. As it was, Paul managed to stay awake a little longer than JP and once a couple of hits were in it wasn't too difficult to finish of most of the speedsters. Paul won again and ended with a points total of 1004. After seeing the Fromage Four follow Superman last week I fear that cheese will now proliferate the venue ... what next a 'LAMP' team?

Paul Atherton, again free from the Pulse Wave nightmare of round one, continued his cunning double smoke bomb every round ploy to provide plenty of cover for the Spymaster Clone Army. Then using Nebula with her Trick Shot it fairly cut swathes through Alex who just couldn't get a clear shot. Paul won heavilly scoring 578 points to more than double his event total.

Parry settled for the bye this round, but it did at least add 299 points to his total and stop him finishing last.

Arrrgggghhhhhhh, why I am cursed with 20 defence whenever I play with 9 attack? Damn you Antman!!!

Two Phantom Strangers observe Paul's multi-smokebomb tactic to dispose of Alec and below is physical evidence of the full horror that was seen tonight (Clone Wars, where is Order 66 when you need it?)

Martin stormed into an early lead thanks to a few good hits, but having just played Huntmeister's team I saw exactly what was about to come. Antman did his thang again and was an annoying tie up piece yet again. If there was a figure on that base I think I owuld have been tempted to snap it off at this point. Ste took out Martin's weaker support characters first and got a very timely Super Senses intervention with Iron Fist again to stop Sabretooth mauling him. A pushed regen roll for Sabretooth yielded a six and a brief hope that he could come back and win, but as time was called a close final went to that man again and he claimed his 326th event win (or does it just seem like it to everyone?). As neither player has recorded the results of the final on their sheets I will have to dock them both 1000 League Points, which puts Paul Brown top of the league. Ok on second thoughts you can have the points back then.

It was a fantastic night for Martin, who originally was thinking of playing some rubbish car racing game instead (no Mr Date not race Day). Just as well he didn't as he finished 3 - 0 on the night. He collected the Fellowship Prize, which has to be worth more than the actual prize surely? After a count up it seems he is also top of the League on points. You are top of the league, say you are top of the league!

I think Antman and his 20 defence also got to Martin as he verbally abused Mr Hunt's car in th car park afterwards. I didn't hear exactly what was said, but shall interpret it as "You may have won, but you have a girls/hairdressers car and it is the colour of alcohol induced vomit". Indeed he has Martin, indeed he has.

Sunday's event has had to be cancelled due to a venue double booking so the next dose of Heroclix Event goodness is next Thursday for the Flashback Event. Thanks for playing, see you then! Don't forget to build a tasty 600 point open team for the surprise maga day event too.

Despite our best hopes and heckling from the sidelines the Lex Luthor in a Superman Hockry Shirt wins yet again. Why did you carry a moldy banana with you all night though? Is this part of the secret of your sucess?

Ste Hunt (winner and bald) and Martin (Fellowship) looking far to pleased with their prizes!

Judges Tip Of The Week: If you have a rules question or are not 100% sure of something ASK THE JUDGE. Its what we are there for. DO NOT ask your opponent and then the next week try to argue with the Judge because they told you the wrong rules. We are not perfect but we have all done the Wizkids Judge test (one of us even scored 100%) and have been playing the game several years. I suggest you ask us first rather than your opponent who may also be a learner.