Another year, another starter, another round of changes to the ol’ Heroclix rules. Click through to see the minor tweaks that will hopefully make everything a little bit better.

ULTRA LIGHT OBJECTS

An Ultra Light object is a light object with a white ring instead of a yellow one. Ultra Light objects follow all the rules of light objects with the following changes:

• Any character can pick up or hold this object, even if they can’t use Super Strength.
• This object is not used when making a close combat attack and does not add to a character’s damage.
• A square containing this object is not hindering terrain.
• When used to make a ranged combat attack, this object can be thrown 8 squares and deals 1 damage.

Throwing Light/Heavy Objects

The distance for throwing light objects is now 6 squares, and the distance for throwing heavy objects is now 4 squares.

Picking up Relics

The “Once per game” restriction to attempt to assign one is no longer present. A character can now attempt to assign a Relic as many times as it likes until it finally succeeds. Want to assign that bright and shiny Cosmic Cube to your Red Skull? Now you don’t have to worry about getting only one chance to do it! You can keep giving that mean old Red Skull power actions to make a Relic roll every turn until he finally gets that Cosmic Cube.

ATAs

One big change is that ATA’s are no longer a separate entry in the rulebook. They are now part of the Tactics section and are a special bonus that you can only use when your force is a Themed Team.

All normal build rules for ATA’s still apply. One very important thing to note is that the ATA you use does not have to share a keyword with the Themed Team you built. Let’s say you build an X-Men keyword Themed Team and include Beast and Wolverine (who also have the Avengers keyword) and Cyclops and Emma Frost (who do not have the Avengers keyword). You could assign Beast and Wolverine the Secret Avengers ATA (which requires the Avengers keyword), even though your Themed Team was X-Men.

Themed Teams

• A Themed Team is now any team that has at least 2 figures on it where all of the figures share a keyword. Are there at least 2 characters on your team? Do they all share a keyword? If the answer is yes to both questions, then you’ve got yourself a Themed Team.

• Themed Team Probability Control (TTPC) can now only be used on NAMED keyword Themed Teams (Avengers, Skrulls, Thunderbolts, etc.). If your Themed Team only shares a generic keyword (warrior, soldier, past, etc.) then you do not get the TTPC bonus.

• You now also get 1 TTPC use per character on your force, but only up to 1 per each 100 points of the build total. 300 point team with 2 characters? That’s 2 TTPC uses. 500 point team with 8 characters? That’s 5 TTPC uses.

Improved Targetting OO>
Now reads: May make a ranged combat attack against any opposing character within range and line of fire, even if that character is in an adjacent square.

Great Size
All characters with great size now ignore opposing characters’ plasticity.

Also, a house rule update (we have so few of these): the Tank Turret ultra heavy special object is now going to be considered a standard ultra heavy object (as these are included in the Winter Soldier starter). So, you can start using that tank turret for free and with resources (on March 21st) 

These rules can be found in the 2014 rulebook, currently available in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Starter (in store, while supplies last).

We will begin using these rules on 3.21.14 (or March 21st, 2014, however you prefer to read it).

A note: the PAC is not in the current starters, but Wizkids is going to be making them available later through stores (much like the Book of the Skulls reprints and Utility Belt reprints).