I don't know how mean they are supposed to be if CSM is going to be a factor. If CSM isn't a factor, they seem competitive but still not 'mean'. If being mean is your goal then in my view you're not being very mean.

Of the two I like the second better, but I don't like 3 man teams in general.

I like the second one more. CSM could be a serious pain, though. Do the people who play him know how to maximize him?

I think they're pretty solid anti-Spiderman tech, actually. Two mobile Psychic Blasters chasing him around the map will catch and hit him eventually, since he'll have to eventually push to get away from one and leave himself open to the other. Inertial Interference Field is key to the game vs. him, since I'm pretty sure he won't be on a theme team and he'll want to save his Ordinary Day for a Disbanded I imagine.

The other one has Telekinesis and Psychic Blast, which coupled with Wasteland should really have him on the ropes. Not a lot of places for him to hide, and the team has great reach.

The second is pretty clearly the stronger team, but the first looks a little more fun potentially. DC75 Ganthet is not a great figure, but I love the visual of the two Guardians flanking him in my starting area.

This is also an option:

Gravity Feed Ganthet 200
Guardian of the Universe 150
Guardian of the Universe 150
Salaak 100

Inertial Interference Field
Wasteland
Bright Lights
=600 (I think it's a theme team)

Depends. Typically no. Last week one guy had a slightly sub-optimal team and was playing him well, the other had a completely min-maxed team but wasn't playing well. Neither was playing really badly, but they were making mistakes from what I heard and saw about those games.

How is it possible to play badly with CSM?

I just see someone having to TRY to play badly with a piece like CSM.

If you aren't a good player, you aren't going to become a good player because you're playing CSM, but you aren't wrong. There's lots of room for making mistakes with him.

Point. ::filler::

You'd be surprised.

1) Pushing when unnecessary. Soooooo many people I know will take an action simply because they don't take pushing damage, and thus allow their opponent to set up something against them.

2) Not accounting for PB, EW, TK. Some people just don't bother to count squares, and miss how they might be vulnerable.

Although when I asked, what I really wondered was whether or not they were going to do things like pick good TAs to copy, or use tactics like TK into the Tankhole.

BTW, anyone who does want to play CSM in a game like this, don't overlook a cheap golden age Superman Enemy. Voila, CSM can now outwit anywhere within 10 squares.

Completely true story: There's a mentally handicapped guy who plays at our venue who used Cosmic Spiderman like six weeks in a row. Every single game for six weeks he would move him his full speed, not move a single other figure on his team, then the next turn he would push to move into your starting area, maybe making an attack on the way. Next turn he would be dead, every time, and it would just be a case of walking over to his starting area and beating down his pit crew. After six weeks he sold his Cosmic Spiderman, bought a Watchmen set, and did exactly the same thing with Dr. Manhattan for six weeks.

Huh. Anyone try to explain the finer points to him?

What I was thinking.

Absolutely. He does not absorb it. I'm not sure what his condition is, but he seems to have trouble with information retention. Quite often people would offer to help him build teams, since that's something that doesn't require him to remember the fine points exactly, but once a good team was made it was completely up in the air how he's going to play it. He knows how to play Heroclix, and some teams he plays alright, but he has this perception that bricks are unbeatable and he can play incredibly unwisely and still win, no matter how many times that fails to happen.

I don't enjoy playing against him. It's very uncomfortable, since he tends to have difficulty following complex plays and special powers and has periodically accused me of cheating when he didn't follow what I was doing (and note that I do my best to carefully explain everything that's going on, I don't just breeze through it and expect him to know exactly what I'm talking about).

There was one especially memorable game in which he quit the game and dropped from the tournament because he insisted on using the Justice League team ability as a wild card and I told him that wasn't how it worked, up to handing him a powers/abilities card. He apologized later and never made that mistake before or since, but with that guy once he gets an idea in his head he's the only one who's going to get it out, regardless of what anyone else says.

Huh. That's certainly a tough one right there...

It's a good thing this isn't possible anymore.

Placement, false sense of security, attacking the wrong opposing figs leaving the biggest threats around and rolling horribly come to mind..