Poll: Supervillainy and your minions

[WolfThomas]

I chose Hired Thugs but to be fair I'd want my minions to be proffessional soldiers, with good pay, dental and medical cover, 4 weeks paid holidays, an excellent 401(k) etc. I'd be an excellent boss, when a lone survivor bring me news of an attack I'd promote him for his trouble, not kill him out of rage. In fact I really wouldn't punish anything but betrayal with death. If you screw up a lot, you might end up in the mailroom or the Alaska offices, but I won't kill you. There'd be no suicide runs or punishment for tactical withdrawal. I'm working from the Hank Scorpio business model, I'll hold the world to ransom, but also personally visited my new employees with a fruit basket.

 

[Right Hook]

Cultists: You create a cult that worships you as a sort of god among men. Like the thugs, they can be equipped however you choose, but with the added bonus of being completely and solely loyal to you. Keep in mind, though, that highly controlling religions are typically resistant to change, so if you wish to use your cultists for a purpose that you didn't anticipate when you created it, you may have some difficulty.

For my money this is the best choice. I'd go with the most non-crazy cult type people, more of a group united under a single ideal and when we achieve it, they disband or do whatever they planned on doing. I'd probably dress them in some kind of uniform (robes? Just to be cliche) and give them plentiful body armor and machine guns. I'm guessing I must be pretty powerful if I'm facing off against super heroes, so my minions would be more about achieving certain goals, like stealing money from the rich, assassinating political figures, spreading a certain message, taking on law enforcement, crowd control (I don't want innocents to die) etc. essentially a group of really cool crazy dudes like the guys from Fight Club. Leave the heavy lifting to me, they'll spread the message.

 

[GrimTuesday]

I would do it myself. If I'm a supervillain, chances are I'm very powerful (otherwise I would just use my power for pointless things) so I wouldn't need minions. Also, I kind of envision it as me and maybe a couple of highly trusted partners, so that I have someone to watch my back, but not so many that stupid mistakes are made or so lowly halfwit screws everything up by revealing my weakness.

 

[Falcon123]

Wow, good question. I voted for cultists, if only because the idea of people worshipping me all day, every day sounds pretty damn awesome. And if I ever wanted to take a break from the villainy thing, I still have them to serve my every whim. I call that a win

 

[ace_of_something]

Hired thugs obviously. If they survive and do a good job great! If they die, oh well I don't have to pay them than. Plus there's ALWAYS more thugs to hire.

Though having an evil HR department might be a bit redundant.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Demons, easily. Why? Because all I'd have to do is summon Bartimeaus, cut a deal, and laugh as all of the hero's plans are ruined by my snarky villain ally!

 

[Tiger Sora]

I'd go with demons but they'd just kill everyone than I'd be alone. And the chance of betraying me, no thanks.

So robots it is. So versatile, so adaptable, so easily upgraded. Sizes varying to the extreme to nano scale. Instant instructions can be issued. Loyalty unwavering. Go my mechanical minions!

 

[Fenris Frost]

Cultists. It's only right and fitting that I be worshiped as a living God. Furthermore, since I would be able to pick my cult it would be made up of wealthy and intelligent people as well as some lower down to act as henchmen. Squeeze in some occult practitioners too and I'll be unstoppable.

 

[Smiley Face]

I don't so much know about 'hired thugs'. I like the hired part, the other options are all variations on either unintelligent or follow my orders too much to the letter - but thugs implies I'd employ morons. Hiring folks allows me to get the right person for the right job, and for it to be inconspicuous and deniable, and to allow improvisation in the case of unforeseen circumstances.

Hirelings also allow for variety, which is a big advantage over all the other options - the other options allow a specialized enemy to wade through your goons of choice like butter - hirelings allow you to adapt and evolve.

 

[Blobpie]

Robot all the way?
My reasoning:
Design each machine for a certain role (EI:Fire support, close quarters, stealth, etc)And make enough of these machines to cover each others weaknesses.

In short; design my machines to work as a team. The biggest draw back to this would be if they're caught alone they have some very exploitable weaknesses. But then again, i don't intend them to be alone.....ever.

 

[White Lightning]

I would find someway to clone myself, I'm the only person I would trust with taking over the world... and If I can't clone myself I would still prefer to work alone, the things listed above all have some weakness that I wouldn't want getting in the way of my plans.

 

[Averant]

What, has NOBODY thought of turning the tables on the heroes?

Seriously, do it yourself and go chessmaster on their asses. Get into governemnt and frame the heroes for some horrible crime. Now you have the fucking military at your back. Let's see those heroes try and get through some poor schmuck who's got a wife and daughter at home, who's totatlly committed to his job.

And the firepower. Sweet jesus the firepower.

In this order: Chessmaster > Gov't > Military > Win.

Simple.

EDIT:

Hired thugs obviously. If they survive and do a good job great! If they die, oh well I don't have to pay them than. Plus there's ALWAYS more thugs to hire.

Though having an evil HR department might be a bit redundant.

 

[Saulkar]

Demons. Give them enough heroes to get their sadism on and we're golden.

 

[theheroofaction]

Thugs: don't draw too much media attention, and can be accessed across the whole budget range, but not at all loyal.
Cultists: Cheap and loyal, but the media coverage that starting a new religion would get me would practically be a police magnet once my awful plan starts.
Robots: Expensive, powerful, and can easily be disguised as civil machines until I start my plan, though they may malfunction.
Zombies: cheap, but innefective and would garner too much media and police attention before having a large enough horde.
Demons: tough, strong, smart, as well, satanism is big enough for me to have a steady supply of scapegoats. It would, however, be like maintaining an army of starscreams.
AIOs: Powerful, yet expensive, easy to hide, but due to their ridiculous low intelligence, are just as much a danger to the user as they are to the target. As well, people might get suspicious about somebody personally ordering 20 tons of concrete.
Beasts: Cheap, hard to detect, though due to the fact that most beasts desirable as minions include human in their diet, they're very dangerous to use.
None:Somehow, taking over the world without help seems like a bad Idea.

I think I'll go with robots, though only of the nonsentient variety.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

I'm a do it yourself kind of villian. The only reason i'd have minions is to feed them to mutants and death machines to test they're effectiveness. I'd also use them to distract the hero while i lined up a sniper shot...or just blow up the builiding they're in.

 

[Ocelano]

Mines not up there So I'm putting it out here I am developing a super virus with a long incubation period and a contagious period starting within minutes of initial exposure I make several containers of said ubervirus and have them delivered by courier to My countries major airports. after which well did anybody hang around for the end credits of rise of the planet of the apes? if so you get the idea. By the end of the incubation period the virus should have and pretty hefty spread going and by the time it activates the world won't even know what hit it.

so all in all aside from witless couriers not aware of the contents of the packages and maybe some scientists I would be holding hostage to help perfect my little bug my answer is pretty much the last one "If you want it done right do it yourself"

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Cultists: You create a cult that worships you as a sort of god among men. Like the thugs, they can be equipped however you choose, but with the added bonus of being completely and solely loyal to you. Keep in mind, though, that highly controlling religions are typically resistant to change, so if you wish to use your cultists for a purpose that you didn't anticipate when you created it, you may have some difficulty.

Yup, gotta go with cultists. ^^ I deserve to be worshiped as a goddess, and this sounds like my opportunity. Plus, you know, world conquest is always fun with insanely devoted followers.

As for the resistant to change thing, I can think of two ways to deal with that.

One: Multiple Sects. If I need minions for a new task, just start another cult that also worships me, but in a different way. Of course, they might get into fights with my first cult, but that might be entertaining.

Two: For the Love of the Goddess. If I ask one of my beloved minions to undertake something new, I'll just have to remember to remind him/her that he/she loves me, so that anything I ask, no matter how odd, is reasonable for him/her to please me.

 

[The_Evermind]

Thugs will either run away when faced with those pesky heros or flat out disband when offered more money. Robots are powerful but can be tricked easily and are vulnerable to electronic attacks or hacking. Zombies are stupid and have a tendency to be decimated in large numbers by even small groups of heros. Beast are unlikely to be effective in a city and can be taken down by most weaponry. Demons will end up helping my enemies at one point or another "accidentally" letting information leak or "not seeing" someone sneaking in, they are just to risky. A.I.O.'s are tempting, who can resist summoning one (or more) giant fire monsters to destroy your enemies but seem like they would take to much micromanagement and possibly even me being on the scene to control them which is to much risk. Cultist, while very squishy, are useable in a variety of different situations including infiltration which none of the groups can do, so they are my choice.