Game setup idea.

I've also thought about picking heroes at random, as though they were the only ones available to combat the new threat.

I've played the game with that. We used a d10 for the heroes and a d4 for the environments and villians.

Good idea! I think this would push me away from the characters I tend to play as all the time.

It can help make a game more challenging, just imagine going up against Dawn in the environment that likes to destroy equipment cards with The Wraith, Bunker, and Absolute Zero, not to mention their all slow starting characters.

The Wraith, Bunker, and Absolute Zero together can't even defeat Baron Blade (they can't even manage to lay a punch, trust me, I know personally) let alone Citizen Dawn.

I'll take that challenge.    Zero,  Wraith, and Bunker, vs Baron Blade, advanced mode, on Mars.

You'll have to accept the honor policy as to whether or not I win, and how many games it takes me =p.

Advance mode?  You just want to lose, don't you?  Oh, and you have to have someone who's never played the game before play as Bunker (heheheh).

I am confident that it is possible, but it certainly won't be easy :D

now that will be just nasty. It may be best to skip over recharge mode and try to get into Upgrade mode when possible...

Game 1 summary:  I have only like 2 minutes to write this!

Ok, so ultimately razor ordinance and a first turn omni-cannon draw were enough to do a lot of damage to Blade and take out 2 of his defense platforms.  Ultimately, without much environment control, thanks to wraith not drawing grappling hooks, I was faced with a tough choice:  Either the terralunar implosion beam destroys the world, or self destruct sequence destroys mars.  With a war cry, bunker charged up his omni cannon the last time, and unleashed it into the barons laughing face.  Baron was taken down to -1, and flipped to his Vengeful Mad Scientist side. 

Subsequently Wagner Mars Base was obliterated.    I call that a draw at least.  More games to come!

Sounds like it is pretty exciting, maybe I should give it a whirl pretty soon and see how well a fair.

Game 2. 

I  decided to try to search for Wraith's Infared Eyepiece instead of a damage card like Razor Ordinance, hoping that I could avoid drawing Baron Blade's trash-cards stuff to slow down the Terralunar beam.  This actually worked rather nicely and we flipped Blade with several turns to spare.  Unfornunately, we had been ravaged by Fire in the Biosphere... twice, when nobody had any ongoing cards.  In addition, a Devious Disruption destroyed all our equipment and ran us out about  5 hp apiece,  bad luck that Wraith saw the Devious Disruption coming with her eyepiece, along with..... another Devious Disruption.  Ran out of life, Baron hardly scratched on Vengeful Mad Scientist side.   

Such awesome games! Gotta hope for those Grappling Hooks and Adhesive Foam Grenades.

It's been 5 games  now,  and I've lost all 5.  Of the last three, two of them weren't even close, easy victories for blade.  The most recent was death by villanous weaponry,  drew that the environment turn, then THREE hasten doom cards, and finally a Slash & Burn to finish off the combo. 

Best record so far,  Blade at 18 hp on Vengeful Mad Scientist side, done largely with an inventory barrage and a 6 card Omni-Cannon.  (all equipment destoryed last turn,  unable to get back in the game before loss of all hero hp).

Wow, you're so close! You can do it!

Allright.. the moment we've all been waiting for.    I lost count of how many losses I've taken,  but I know for a fact it was at least 10, probably somewhere in the area of 15 straight losses,  but I did it.  I finally beat Baron Blade -advanced mode-, on mars, with Zero, Wraith, and Bunker.

The winning Strategy: 

Wraith:  Wraith is your best hero in this setup.  And....  yes,  I know it's tempting to get out Razor Ordinance and Micro Targeting Computer and Throwing Knives and Utility belt and go around dealing massive damage....  but don't do it.  Resist the urge!  it's a losing strategy.  Your top priority is Infared Eyepiece,  use that as much as possible to bury cards that add more to Baron Blade's Trash (Terralunar Impulsion Beam Inventor Side) like Hasten Doom and especially Consider the Price of Victory.  Burying Devious Disruption, and Mobile Defense Platforms is also helpful.  When using the eyepiece you'll draw more cards, which is good because you'll want them for grappling hooks and impromptu inventions.  Grappling Hook on the self-destruct sequence when it comes up is a must,  you don't have time to skip several players turns.    Throat Jab is particularly useful.    When it comes back around to those really bad cards that you buried at the bottom of the deck, I was able to use a Throat Jab on Baron Blade and then the Eyepiece to set Devious Disruption on top.  Nobody discards any equipment, however Baron Blade can not deal damage.  Once you've got the eyepiece, you can use utility belt and another weapon to start dealing damage.  I favor the Stun Bolt over Razor Ordinance or Throwing Knives, though all have their usefulness.  Baron has a lot of cards that deal direct damage to the heroes, Stun bolt can help keep your hp up.  Microtargeting computer is nice when you can get it.

Absolute Zero:  Is the trickiest.  You might want to keep a Fueled Freeze or two around to get rid of backlash field and living force field as well.  You'll need Isothermic Transducer ASAP, after that try to use Null-Point to keep Zero's HP high.  You want him to be the target of the fire damage when Baron Blade uses Slash and Burn,  wraith can sometimes help set up this combo with her eyepiece.  Isothermic Transducer can also deal damage when Fire in the Biosphere comes into play.  If you draw Impale,  it's tempting to use it on Baron Blade right away,  this turns out to be a bad idea because if he draws his Elemental Redistributor can make this turn against you.  Impale on Mobile Defense Platforms or the Elemental Redistributor itself isn't a bad call though.    You'll want to kill Elemental Redistributors when they come up,  so that Zero can deal damage to blade.  Sub-Zero Atmosphere helps against Blade Batallions quite a bit.  If you can get Blade to Slash and Burn zero when he has Isothermic Trasducer, and then drop a Coolant Blast against him,  it's great.  Tough to pull off, but great.

Bunker:  Bunker has a lot of different routes he can go,  although it seems like you'll want to play Adhesive Foam Grenades early and often.  His grenade launcher is usually pretty good, able to deal damage to multiple targets which can be nice for weakening Blade Batallions so they dont deal as much damage.  Flak Cannon is always nice to have as well.    Auxillary Power Source if you can get it out, can be used to use more powers, which I think is preferable to going into Turret Mode, but I'm not sure..  Ammo drop, as always, is very helpful.  Gatling gun can add to bunkers damage output as well.  Omni Cannon is great,  but sometimes I find it hard to get working.

You can't avoid Red Dust from coming out, you just have to deal with it when it does.  Fortunately, Onboard Module Installation, Modular Reallignment, Decomissioned Hardware, and Impromptu Invention can help you get back on your feet after the disaster hits.  But its tough... it's really tough. 

Once on the Vengeful Mad Scientist side, its all about letting Zero tank as much damage as he can, mitigating disaster with Wraith's eyepiece, and recoverring after the environment disasters, all the while nickel and diming Blade to death.  Once you've got him down to ~5 hp, you can probably finish him off with an Inventory Barrage,  that was my finishing move. 

Final HP counts  Zero: 14.  Wraith 7.  Bunker 2.  (no hero deaths!)

Next up...  Citizen Dawn,  You're mine!

I'm absolutely going to use the same team =p.

Also I wanted to add that the above strategy is by no means a garunteed victory,  it takes a certain degree of luck too.  And there's probably more ways to win than just what I mentioned..  but i tried a lot of strategies, and so far, that's the only one to work =p.

I think Greater Than Games should set up an extravagant prize for the first team that can defeat Citizen Dawn on advance mode in an official setting (using official rules,that is) playing as four Ras. (It can't be done, they say, heheh.)

Here's your chance to prove them wrong. Send your four Ras into combat against Dawn. After that try using four Absolute Zeros using the official rules against any villian and see what the outcome would be.

Wow! That sounds like it was so much fun! Best of luck against Dawn. Upon investigation, I feel Dawn is the hardest on regular mode, but Voss is the hardest on advanced. It's just sort of brutal.

This is really awesome.  I love the in-depth strategy guide to the different heroes for this scenario.  I'd love to read outlines like this about any other in-depth scenarios you try.