Suicide Squad Part 2- Team Discussion

Continuing on from part 1, here is another part to my Suicide Squad review with a few things that I think are worth mentioning in the team. These are options that facilitate different playstyles to what I have previously mentioned, and will open up new angles of play.

The other standard version of Deadshot, this one trades off the mobility and potential spread of Willshot for pure single target deletion.
Offensive
As an assassin piece, Deadshot's best role is understandably his damage. His Barret is similar to Sharpshooter from the Bane Batbox but with slightly changed critical effects and without Reload. It is still the amazing 4 blood Scope gun it is on Sharpshooter, but with Bleed:2 and Devastating it can put out an extra 4 blood on crits (something boosted by Holds Breath) and he can do this for a few turns with 3 ammo and lacking Reload.
The Barret alone lets him be a model that is great for simply locking down areas of the board with his sheer threat, but he also has some bonuses to it that make him truly great. Ranged Master gives him a +1 to hit (+2 with Holds Breath), Obsessive gives him a +1 to wound if he targets the same model with all his attacks (which he will always be doing) and although this doesn't help much on the Barret (only against Amazons and Demons really) it is still a good way for him to work against armour or Tough Skin while using his 9mm Twin Cannons.
He also has 9mm Twin Cannons for a ranged attack, and it's a nice piece to give out some little extra damage if he doesn't have Barret ammo (or wants to move that turn).
Defensive
Defence 3 isn't great on someone of his cost, but he does have endurance 7 and a 50/50 Dodge to make up for it. As someone who will likely be popping between sniping positions anyway, he is decently survivable.
Overall
As well as being a great shooting threat, he is also decent at supporting other models. Outlaw Field Commander means he should always have a counter in Special, because it acts as a pseudo-Inspire on one model, and if no one else is around he can use it on himself to put it somewhere useful.

The cheapest option available to Suicide Squad, which is a virtue in it's own right, Electrocutioner is somewhat ok as a filler option.
Offensive
With his Shock Gloves, he does double stun at strength 4+ at a pretty good attack 4, and with crit:Stunned he can set up some nice vectors for attack (or just stop a beater from hitting him back). He has Electric Storm just like Little Spark and Nightwing, but it still isn't great and especially when he is only willpower 5. EMP is handy to have given the increasing numbers of Cybernetic, Bot and Vehicle models in the game as well, letting him reroll to wound against them. Taunt is a nice little control element, moving counters into attack which can be a nice way to shut things down. It is best used when something has already activated and is sitting on dodges or blocks, or if they are a control based model that needs SC and isn't great in attack (AK Scarecrow, Mad Hatter to an extent)
Defensive
Just like the Arkham Origins version this is based on, Electrocutioner has a glass jaw. Defence 3 endurance 5 is ok for his cost, although it isn't especially tanky.
Overall
Criminal is not bad given his stun output, and will reliably trigger if he decides to hit weaker models (which really, he should do anyway). He also has Expendable so he is worth only 1VP when he dies, with nothing being awarded for KO (which is amazing in a team like Squad where every VP matters). Charismatic is ok in some lists but useless in Squad, as you have no Free Agent limit in a team anyway.

The magic user of the Squad, Enchantress is an absolute powerhouse of a model and a huge boost to the crew despite her very steep cost.
Offensive
In terms of straight up attacking she has a quite simple Magic Strike that does double stun and has the Magic effect. At attack 4 and strength 3+ she's not a bad beater, but it isn't her best role.
In terms of control capabilities Enchantress is right up there for the best options (and rightfully so for her cost). With Mind Control she can straight up take threatening enemies, and possibly even lock them into a permanent loop by choosing another model with Persuasive (which is excellent otherwise just to counter opponents plans).
Her Magic is the last great thing about her offence, and it plays into her role as a board control piece more than anything else. Magic Power 5 lets her put out a couple of great spells a turn, and with her Magic disciplines she has some really good spells. Curse from Occultism is another great debuff to the opponent, stopping them from spending SC (counters both Magic and opposing SC abilities) and Necromancy has the excellent Black Pain, which is fairly easy to cast makes 2 models take a willpower test or suffer 3 stun and -1 willpower until the next Raise the Plan. This obviously makes her own Mind Control easier to do, but is also good in just making it harder for an opponent to do what they want as they will effectively be down 2 counters next turn.
Defensive
Another surprisingly tanky Magic user, Enchantress is pretty tough to get damage on unless you manage to play your turn order carefully. Safe Hands is just a basic immunity to Steal shared with most Magic users, but Magic Tatoos also makes her immune to this plus Fire (which is very strange that she would have both). Her real defensive strength comes in just how hard she is to kill, between defence 4 endurance 7, being a movement 3 Acrobat and Invulnerability:2 to top it off. She will take a very big effort to remove, and is definitely a formidable tank, but she also has Occultism to give her a +1 defence when she needs it once per game, on top of all the healing she can do with Magic.
Like Raven she can use Black Shadows as a means of defending herself from ranged attacks (although with Acrobat this is less necessary) as well as moving her around the table,
Overall
Outside of the healing from normal Elemental Magic, she can also heal herself once per game through Necromancy, by spending 2MP and dealing a blood damage to another model in contact which heals her 1 damage. Best used as a finisher to take out enemies, but it is useful nonetheless as a means of healing. As a Necromancer she has the Revival spell, which lets her put models back into the game that had died earlier. This spell is excellent, if difficult to get off on the larger models (difficulty increases based on endurance) and can be a great way to turn a game back around with Squad as it can stop them snowballing into a major loss. The only other thing to mention is her Bipolar, which isn't as huge as it may seem. The 50/50 chance to lose or gain a counter isn't major because she is already willpower 8 and a Magic user, so she isn't suffering for counters as much as a pure beater would, and it doesn't affect her actual willpower stat either so she is unaffected for casting. It's a negative for sure, but just not something that will ruin her in a game.

Is AO Deathstroke behind the curve?- My thoughts

Topping off a few of the teams I've previously discussed, Deathstroke is the absolute upper tier Free Agent in terms of cost and statline. As one of the best fighters in the DC Universe, he can reliably take on opponents in combat, although he is very pricey and he is difficult to compare to other generic Free Agents because of just how much he brings.

Offensive
With 3 different ways to attack and 2 weapon profiles, Deathstroke is a pretty good toolkit when it comes to killing.
His Reinforced Bo is a pretty great weapon with rerolls to hit and Reach doing double stun, but with his attack 5 Combo on top he can very easily knock out most things, and can even take multiple henchmen out of the game in a single activation. The consistency in hitting is needed against higher defence models, and it is for that reason I would always use the Bo against them
His other weapon is a simple Sword, doing double blood with Sharp. Not getting Combo here isn't great, but the damage is still very good and should be the weapon of choice against low defence models because it will quite likely outright kill them.
Hidden Sniper is his way of attacking at range, and it is a pretty good one. As previously mentioned with Commissioner Gordon, it is a way of getting unlimited range pingless shooting that is pretty good damage, letting him cover targets he normally wouldn't be able to reach, and as it is a trait he can use his regular attacks against a different target anyway, spreading out his potential damage a very long way.
The last piece of offensive tech Deathstroke has is his Counter Attack, letting him use successful block rolls to hit his opponent back and do some extra damage. It is most often best to use the sword for this as it is blood damage, but it depends on the target. Counter Attack in general isn't something I see as hugely valuable although it is good, as it relies on first hitting defence 5 then you rolling successful blocks before you can make your attacks (that is, it's a lot of hoops to jump through and not that great outside of Bronze Tiger) but if he is defending a position that's important, it can be very useful.
Defensive
Martial Artist and Defence 5 are always amazing, but adding it to the rest of the tricks he has makes Deathstroke a very tough model to remove from the table. Stealth is a little extra protection against guns and synergises very well with his Acrobat, which at movement 3 means he is not likely to be getting shot very often, and when he does he will be dangerously close.
His Soul Armour is a once per game ability that lets him heal 2 damage counters off himself, although at the cost of 3SC to do so it's a hefty investment and must be assessed if it's worth doing. It can be very good, but oftentimes it's just better to hit an opponent that is threatening him or to block.
Overall
Acrobat helps speed him up with +1 to his BMD and some placement tricks, but the more important trait in this regard is Undercover. Being able to not only deploy further up the table, but to drop after most other models, gives him a great degree of flexibility and reactive play to where he goes, letting him choose his game plan a lot better than most FA beaters.

Comparison to other villain FAs- Is Deathstroke overcosted? 
Deathstroke's 145 rep cost may seem to make him an unfavourable choice in comparison to some of the cheaper villain FA options (primarily King Shark, Batman Who Laughs and the Merciless, who I will talk about below) but he does bring a ton of tricks to play that can make this argument a lot more positive in his favour.
King Shark
While King Shark looks very similar in his offence to Deathstroke, both having attack 5 with combo and strength 3+, Deathstroke comes out on top for a variety of reasons that cannot be discounted. Against shooting, Shark is defence 3 with Huge, meaning he will realistically be getting shot a lot more than Deathstroke, and Bulletproof Vest and Regeneration are helpful but ultimately stacking damage on him isn't all that hard. They share the same endurance, but Deathstroke's defence 5, Martial Artist, Stealth and Acrobat giving him a 50% chance of dodging means he is significantly harder to take out in all regards, something which is a huge factor in his 50 rep increase in points.
Movement wise, Shark is 2" faster at his full output, and Amphibious makes sewers a lot cheaper.  But Deathstroke's Undercover and Reach compensate for this, making them overall roughly similar in threat range although Deathstroke's smaller base and Acrobat can help a lot in positioning him on the table.
Talking their weapon profiles they are fairly comparable when you look at the Bo, as Shark trades Reach and Handy for getting blood damage and rolling 2 crit die, which synergises greatly with Brutal to let him fish for what he wants. Shark's Bloodthirsty offsets his first counter loss from damage, and he is tuned up when he is attacking models that have taken damage through Blood Scent getting +1 to hit and wound and crit blood. This puts his potential output higher than Deathstroke, but it needs to be set up and thus isn't as efficient as Deathstroke (and probably needs an investment that is almost as high as Slade anyway). Either one of them will destroy whatever they touch, but Deathstroke is slightly more efficient in doing it, and can do it on the defence as well with Counter Attack if needed.
Batman Who Laughs
This is probably the worst comparison for Deathstroke, but BWL is only 5 rep cheaper and costs more funding. They share an identical statline apart from 1 higher willpower and endurance on BWL, both have ways to heal (Cannibal vs Soul Armour, BWL wins here) and both have great defensive traits (Martial Artist on both, Counter Attack on Deathstroke). Trickster gives BWL insane versatility, and while Deathstroke has Undercover for an increased deployment (and later drop) BWL has Large to increase his movement slightly more over Deathstroke (6" vs 5", Deathstroke will still make combat sooner due to Undercover).
It is where they have ranged protection that they first begin to tip slightly towards Deathstroke, as Protective on BWL is only a 33% chance of passing, while Deathstroke's Dodge (if he has the counters) is a 50% chance of success, making him that little bit more likely to make combat. It is less counter efficient, but Deathstroke having Combo offsets that anyway once he gets to where he wants to be fighting.
Offensively BWL seems slightly better through having Blood/Stun as compared to Deathstroke's Bo and having Luck to possibly reroll wound rolls, but Combo on the Bo means Deathstroke is usually fighting with even more dice thus guaranteeing damage vs lower defence targets and hitting higher potential damage at the same time, making him better against low defence/high endurance models in general. BWL's gun is also strictly inferior to Hidden Sniper most of the time, having worse damage, far less range, allowing Ping! and less native shots. Deathstroke can't use his gun turn 1, but realistically neither can BWL outside of silly play from an opponent and neither of them will likely be attacking until turn 2 anyway
BWL also provides pre-game bonuses and little bits of control through Strategist, Detective and Persuasive, while Deathstroke doubles down on his combat through the not wholly reliable Counter Attack. This is probably more in favour of BWL.
BWL is more versatile in his counters between his higher willpower and Trickster, but Deathstroke is very efficient with what he has, and they are overall fairly comparable in their costs, although Deathstroke should probably be a little lower in relation.
The Merciless
When you're looking at Merciless, it is apparent he is seriously undercosted. His statline is excellent for his role as a beater, and he is very reliably killing most models. Deathstroke is worse here in terms of sheer killing ability sure, but Merciless has a few things that make him a bit more manageable than Deathstroke and that play into Slade's favour. This is absolutely not a favourable comparison for Deathstroke by any means, but in my opinion this is because Merciless needs to be increased in cost if anything, because he is a bad comparison to anything in his cost bracket.
Attack wise Merciless is almost just better. Higher strength and attack, and his sword is better than Deathstroke's by virtue of having +1 to hit and Anti-Tank, and Unstoppable potentially shuts down blocks, but Deathstroke is more counter efficient with Combo and with Reach is able to easier reach models. Hidden Sniper gives a ranged option to Deathstroke, while Merciless has none, making him better in this regard.
Defensively it's a tough competition, as Deathstroke is harder to hit and has Dodge against ranged weapons, while Merciless has a lower defence and Large making him somewhat prone to shooting, although he compensates with Medium Armour. Both have Martial Artist making it a moot point, that's as good as each other, but Merciless does have 1 extra endurance which matters. Soul Armour is clutch, and can keep Deathstroke alive longer, but isn't going to always see play.
Speed wise it's the same as BWL, Large is offset by Undercover.
Deathstroke has the win of being able to claim objectives and score VP though, while Merciless cannot. This is a big point in comparison, as it stunts Merciless in his role while Deathstroke can do a variety of things while he moves around.
Veteran is another in favour of Merciless, as he can move around some counters while Deathstroke just can't.
Overall
For the reasons discussed above, Deathstroke is still largely justifiable for his premium cost, and will do a lot of work in game despite being very expensive. There are absolutely cheaper options that will do one of his roles better, and this allows extra models to fill out the crew, but in the end none of them majorly compare to Deathstroke in the role that he fills, and they will do different jobs that aren't 100% comparable.

Suicide Squad- Team discussion and my favourite choices

Hello again all! Going forward, I have decided to write up a few smaller posts regarding some of the various teams we were given in the revamped PDF. Team Arrow will no doubt follow this soon, as I am currently working on a few different things for them, but to kick things off I've decided to start with the "new" team, Suicide Squad. Largely unchanged from their original appearance in the 1st edition Flash and Arrow book, the Suicide Squad are a high risk, high reward crew, and are largely based around overwhelming damage and maximising VP gain.

Team Rules

The team rules are interesting in Suicide Mission is an active liability in terms of gameplay, and if they're not played to bad things will happen. Fortunately, simply playing the game will help stop this, as your own models won't explode should you gain a quite trivial amount of VP across the game. Simply by managing to score kills you should be able to keep up with the count, but a couple good turns of objective scoring will completely negate Suicide Mission. It is also important to make sure if a model that is important to your crew can be the boss in your list, it absolutely should be, if only to protect it from this rule, and the Volunteer rule also protects against this, despite it being very rare.
They do, however, have another special rule unique to the team in the form of We're Partners, For Now... which lets them make a once per round Let's Go type ability for the same cost, although they don't have to roll for it and this chain activating happens immediately. This is huge because it lets you set up big hits that can't be resisted, and like most of Squad you want to use these risk/reward rules to guarantee your VP gain and attempt to reduce counterplay. Anyone who can reliably KO followed up by Slipknot is very useful, as is simply doing 2 strong guns one after the other to kill as much as possible. The "downside" to this is that it's only usable by Free Agents, but the vast majority of the team are Free Agents so it's negligible.

Equipment

Squad only have 3 equipment pieces to choose from, and all are good in their niches. With the Squad getting more funding than normal (and most of the great gun pieces being able to lead) they'll almost always be able to take 1-2 of these, and in many situations all 3.
Aerial Locator System 0-1 $200
I've found the Aerial Locator to be more of a psychological choice than an actually useful one myself, but when it does work it goes off excellently. Lighting up a single model makes it very clear at the start of the turn who the main target is, and letting the opponent know this gives them another thing to think about, and forcing these levels of planning are important. When you so choose, it lets your guns shoot at a higher range as well, which is of obvious use. It's the first equipment I'll drop, as the other 2 I find far more useful, but it still has a very definite place in all my lists. It also has the benefit of being the cheapest Squad equipment, which is in itself something that can be very helpful in just finishing off lists.
Magazine- 0-1 $300
This is the one you'll probably always take. Keeps you shooting for longer and thus killing for longer, great on any Deadshot or Rick Flag for obvious reasons.
Airborne Deployment 0-2 $300
I always take this on big hitters without question. For $300 the ability to put a model on the board closer to where they need to operate is always useful, and putting it on someone like SS Deadshot who can come on and immediately Bullet Time is a huge boon to the crew. I play this as high risk/reward, and most of the time it pays off well. Use it for VP gain above all else, as you should be doing with most of Squad.

Strategies

Squad strategies range from very good to completely useless, they go the full spectrum. 

Suicidal Tendencies Value 1, Phase E

I'll start with this one, which makes them immune to the Run Away rule, because you should literally never take this strategy ever. It can be seen as "planning for failure" but I see it as "wasting strategy points in the event you're nearly tabled," and by the point it comes into play you've pretty much guaranteed lost the game. 

Direct Assault Value 2, Phase C

This one is good, if you're planning to take Fast Advance I'd consider this instead if only because it's a further distance forward, but it lets you move some guns into more favourable positions to control the board better. Depending on the crew, very valuable

ARGUS Telecommunications Relay Value 3, Phase ?

Squad's best strategy, but expensive (and rightly so). This strategy has the effect of Exhaustive Planner and Mastermind, but can optionally instead cancel the use of Exhaustive Planner (so you get an extra counter in the bag for 3 strategy points). I wouldn't take this if the opponent has Exhaustive Planner, just cause it's not worth keeping after that, but in a lot of cases it is a huge bonus to the crew. 

Objective- Beacon

The new objective given to them in their Batbox, it's the ultimate risk/reward objective. Only Squad can choose it, but anyone can control it and at 4VP it's already a big potential gain for an opponent if they just camp it. Then you add in the ability for controlling it, and you have an objective you absolutely need to reach ASAP. The ability to not only reallocate counters after allocating (in effect Scheming after Scheming comes into play) but also gain +1 counter on 2 models is a really great ability, although something you don't want your opponents to take. Luckily for Squad, you have the option of Airborne Deployment or Croc to take it by pure aggression early in the game, and you'll probably be dealing big hits at the same time to make it worth doing. This is definitely an objective worth using, as the potential gain from it is too good, but it plays into Squad's high risk/reward nature. 

 Overall, Suicide Squad Deadshot is one of the best options in this team. He's a Boss option, brings great shooting, Leadership for a little bit of crew support, he has it all. At willpower 8 he has a lot of counters to throw around (except for the golden turn of Bullet Time) and packs a lot of versatility.
Offensive
Bullet Time. Deadshot can put out a ridiculous amount of high damage shots once per game, most likely ignoring pings and being able to move as well. Put Airborne Deployment on him and turn 2 shove him into the opponent's crew to take out a couple of models (or 1 big hitter) and you'll be instantly at an advantage, even before the rest of your crew is factored in. If Deadshot can be somewhere he gets pings or extra ammo for his Custom MG, put him there with Bullet Time, because it increases his use exponentially. Outside of that one turn, he is still one of, if not the, best gun pieces in the game with Ranged Master and Shooter, and all his guns are either double blood or high rate of fire so he can easily at least KO most models in a single round.
Defensive
Kevlar Vest is about it, but defence 4 and endurance 7 are both very good. The loss of an endurance becoming standard was more than justified, as at 8 endurance he was obscenely good for his cost.
Overall
Deadshot is mostly just a gun piece, although Leadership helps a lot against Hypnotise or Charm abilities. Not much else to say, the reason you take him is for his huge output and just to kill things.

Offensive
Like most models in Squad, Croc's primary role is as a beatstick, working mostly as a large piece that rolls around and hits things. High strength, Claws, attack 5, all Croc is missing is a bonus to hit to make him a dominating combat monster, but what he does have is Power Strike and Charge. Power Strike is good to set up another big hitter, but with Croc's damage isn't the greatest, while Charge (coming from Huge) lets you get a few free automatic hits in on models for extra damage, and hopefully knock down some things for you to then claw into. Once per game the "golden turn" with Croc is starting his activation in base contact with a sewer, using it for 1MC and then useing Lord of the Sewers to charge out of it his basic movement, following up with 4 attacks. Ideally you will be doing a big hit with this activation, hopefully thinning out the enemy crew and getting Croc to a spot he's scoring or contesting.
Defensive
At Defence 3 and Huge Croc isn't hard to hit, and makes a big bullet magnet, but he has 13 Endurance and Tough Skin. He's taking a beating, with Sturdy not losing too many counters, and he can keep on rolling around relatively well until he's close to death. He has the advantage of auto passing any endurance roll (including to wake up from KO) and has rerolls on regular recovery rolls courtesy of Huge, can rarely be pushed or knocked down, and in general makes a great beefy threat. He'll die to a sustained effort, but in Squad you should be able to have your crew in general take out big threats where needed. However, he also has Runaway and Superior Sense of Smell, so he's immune to a good amount of abilities that would normally take him out of play (at least temporarily), and Runaway in particular makes him particularly tough to take out. Brave and the Bold hate it, as they can't rely on Arrest and instead have to make sure they do enough blood damage to kill him, all the while he can wake up without question and eat someone to regain some health through Cannibal. Superior Sense of Smell isn't the most useful, as he doesn't have anything that really makes him need line of sight, but it can potentially have its uses (against Sneak Attack for example)
Overall
Croc doesn't have much in the way of abilities that don't help him in combat, but he does bring a little bit to the crew. Lord of the Sewers lets you use sewers more than you normally would while adding another one to the table, and Coward's Reward can be a decent way of locking models into specific areas of the table. All in all not amazing bonuses, but when used right are great additions to his already great toolkit. One other thing to note here is Huge, as in Squad I've already mentioned you want to maximise VP gain, and Croc can be just the one to do that as he can come out of a sewer and already be claiming 2 objectives. If these are the Beacon and a 3VP objective, you've got a big potential scoring threat from turn 1, and even if he isn't attacking things he can still win games just by this high scoring.

Operating in a similar role to Deadshot above, Rick Flag is my regular Boss option, which may seem strange. Having Volunteer, you wouldn't want him as your boss, but being a Sidekick he has to be most of the time. I also find that to maximise the chain activating you wouldn't want him anywhere else, letting your Free Agents work better while he sits back as a static firebase.
Offensive
Rick Flag works not as a mobile piece like many others in Squad, he is instead used for immobile fire support, although for his cost he is good at it. With Multifire he can put out 5 shots a turn at double blood (or blood/stun into base contact with Light if someone chooses to attack him) and although he doesn't ignore pings or have any hit bonuses, by sheer rate of attack he can reliably munch through lower defence models with ease. He struggles somewhat against higher defence, or layered defences, but that's where the rest of the crew comes into play with debuffs to help each other out (Harley or Killer Frost are great here)
Defensive
Similar to Deadshot, defence 4 means he's not getting hit all the time, but Bulletproof Vest is a bit of a downgrade compared to Kevlar (which is reflected in his cost). He's usually more survivable against guns, but Deadshot is the more durable option overall. This isn't to say Flag is bad, just that he needs to be played a bit more cagey compared to the "balls out" Deadshot.
Overall
You guessed it, he's close to Deadshot in his abilities here too. Leadership is identical, but it's in the rest of it where the military feel of Flag comes into it and he really shines as a solo piece. Veteran lets him have some degree of versatility in any given turn (and can all but guarantee Multifire most of the time) while Order gives the rest of the crew a little bit of flexibility which is nice.

General- Other models

You may have already noticed, 2 of the 3 models I've discussed above are boss options. I do think having at least one in every list is invaluable, and I often take both for the reasons I've listed, but there are a great many other models worth taking in Squad depending on the type of list. SS Boomerang is another model almost always worth taking, as I've said in the past, as is King Shark for a similar job to Croc for a bit cheaper. Some more situational picks(but still very often great) are the Harleys, Killer Frost or Reverse Flash for a bit of a faster objective grabber and a bit of control, or Grodd or Ivy for a mix of damage, mind control and durability. Many of these models lose the Let's Go! ability though, so you have to plan carefully for them in your lists.