Im a noob and something I overheard a player in the local group say is that the night before some matches he will take the team he has created and play it verses teams complosed of some of the other pieces he expects to see . This allows him to have a game play on what his plan of attack will be based on what type of team he is going against vs what he has created.

Don't forget the value of telekenisis. I don't always use it but I never regret when I have it.
Also, I rarely play without probability control and I love outwit and support. But when it comes to team building, if you are a begginer see if you can figure out what kind of strategy you like best. Figure out what kinds of strategies work best for you and play to your strengths. I love playing ranged combat teams with running shot and wildcard so i can wc the ultimates or supes team ability so I know i can target anyone with stealth. I know guys who are good with close combat teams and others who like poison and pulse wave.
In reality, you have to decide if you are playing for fun or to win. I am not saying you cannot do both but honestly if I really want to win I am not going to play my favorite x-men theme team when I know the other guys are using their best teams.

Anyway I hope this helps.

Im not sure if anyone has posted this already or not, but when perplexing, its better to perplex an opponents Defense then your offense, because the lowered defense gives all your clix a better chance of hitting than a higher chance with one of yours.

dont build your army around one huge power, because if he gets knocked out your screwed. my strategy is make a team that if you lose one guy you have another to fall back on.

A couple of team-building things I've learned so far:

1. Big-Name characters die first. Some players will try to kill your Spider Men, Batmen, and Supermen first, ignoring your secondary characters. A marquee name like Spider Man might attract a lot of attention, whereas an unknown like Ragman may never get hit. This can be an advantage. The corollory of this rule is:

2. Don't go after the most popular character, go after the one that's the biggest threat to you. As has been mentioned, this is often the mind-control or outwit character. For example, if you see an Experienced Spider-Man and an Experienced Ch'p on the board, kill the squirrel first. (If I saw me on a board I'd kill me the first chance I got. I'm too much of a pain with that 18+Defense).

3. The point values of each character don't reflect how effective they are. Look for economical characters with powers that are critical to your game plan.

-Ch'p, Green Lantern Squirrel (Push me!)

I agree. If they have higher point values or are more recognizable, people automatically assume they are the best. Come out of left field with something people may not expect and you can win games.

Make sure that you understand all the powers on your clix's dial especially the feat cards you are playing because you cannot count on your opponent to tell you that even though he made his impervious roll he should still take the meteorite damage or to remind you that you forgot to say take poison damage before the first action on your turn.


Make sure that at the beginning of your turn you look at your opponents dails and your dails. Take notice to who has damage reducers on his side and whose power is the most dangerous to your team. Then try to attack

If you have 2 peices that are going to attack the same peice attack using the one with the highest attack value first so that if your attack hits your lower attack person will have a better chance.

Another very important point to consider when your building and feilding a team is how your going to survive the approach to your enemy. Very often I see players across the table with a nice collection of figs that moves up and proceeds to get blown to peices in the first few turns.
You have to have an entrance strategy.

Examples:

Pawn tactics: several low point - high def figs to advance with and tie up your oppoent while your RS/HSS pcs hit and run. V Mockingbird, U Ka Zar..etc. Basically advancing with any figures who are there for the purpose of taking fire to protect key pcs. In higher pointed games Hulk type figures can be good for this as they get stronger instead of weaker with damage. Cheap mystics are effective as well

using a high def combined with ESD to use as a shield while advancing. Using Jakeem THunder with Havok or Hawkman grants a 21-22 DEF(23 with Oracle) at range. Hard to hit means good chance to close to attack position. The Sidekick feat works well to.

Using stealth or several barriers to cover your team as they get into strike position.

Having flying figs with charge, RS or HSS soar when in position to cut range.

Bait tactics can work as well where you use a popular or dangerous pc to attract attackers who leave themselves vulnerable to your other pcs

Hope it helps

It's true this has happened to me with my JSA team, everyone knows who Green Lantern is. And my highest point guy like Hawkman always gets gunned for, but they never see Wildcat blindsiding them *BAM*!!! Sometimes my Sandman never even gets touched or looked at 'cuz ther're to concerned with bigger characters!!!!!

I'm short on time, so I'm sorry for not searching the forum first (if this question is answered), but I need to know: When the team points in a tourney are really high, should one still try to keep a theme team? We've got a 1000 point tournament coming up, and I'm too new to the game to know exactly what to do.

I could make a scientist team if keeping a theme is the smart thing to do, but otherwise I'd start mixing and matching.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

1000 point teams are a completely different beast.

Is there an action cap? If not that you are getting 10 actions per turn. Most likely there will be, probably between 4 and 6 actions.

BFC's have little effect on most 1000 point games because there are so many figures that fill every niche.

I personally play some sort of theme on every non-sealed team I build - but that's me.

Going in, I'd probably go with a wildcard abuse team because they are massively effective. Other players would go with lots of high-cost feated up monsters because they are increasingly playable in a 1000 point format.

Start with a figure you really want to use and then go from there.

Good luck.

Tyroclix, thank you so much. There's a five action cap, like you mentioned. From this point I guess I'll just do what I can. After all, it'll only be my third tournament.

Maybe I'll get some help from the local gamers too. They've been free with all manner of advice so far. In any case, thanks for your tips. I hope this works well.

This is actually my biggest complaint with Restricted format. The past few expansions (Avengers and JL to the extreme) had done little in the way of figures 50 or below, and bogged us down with figures in the 100+ range. WizKids seems to be taking Heroclix more in the direction of the tentpole teams of one major figure to serve as your anchor or "boss" and then a few support or secondary attack figures. The old rule of thumb of 2 figures per 100 points seems to have fallen by the wayside (which is sad, because I definately preferred the game that way).

To overcome this, consider counting each Willpower figure as 2 figures (or 1.5, depending on how much of their dial actually has willpower). This skews the math a bit to allow you to plan for using them more and still avoid pushing. Similarly, in support figures, I tend to weigh my "free action" support figs as 1.5, meaning your Outwit, Perplex, or Prob Control can be considered a little more than a figure, because you are in theory using them every turn without nessesarily having to token them. Your tentpole team anchor figure should have a deep dial (8+ clix) and still be combat viable at 5 clix in (if they drop off on the 2nd or 3rd, they're just too vulnerable to first strikes that completely nutralize the bulk of your team).

Also, a note concerning medics that I took waaay too long to learn myself. Compare them to the dials of the rest of your team. If your team has strong ending clix defense values, in most cases a medic is a bust. With support, you have to roll a close combat attack to actually "hit" your teammate for the heal. I see alot of support clix landing on attack values of 8s and 9s. That makes it incredably unlikely you're going ever succeed on that heal against Superman's 19 defense. If the AVs and DVs differ enough that you can't land the heals when you need it at least with a 7 or up, I suggest scraping out the medic in favor of a nanobots feat or a probability control figure who could theoretically prevent the damage in the first place. The medics seem to shine best when the figure tapers down towards that 15 DV at the end.

Good piece of advise, dont perplex your characters attack, decrease their characters defence!! Nothing worse than your character whose attack you perplex hitting them, then all your characters missing by one!! Well thats just what i do, others may find it iffy but eh, who cares?

If you play tournaments frequently (weekly at least), know what the tournament regulars tend to play. I know to expect T-Bolts abuse in unrestricted, one or two people commonly play tentpole teams, and there are those who play very well balanced teams.

If you know the point value and format of the game beforehand, start planning out a team in advance to prepare for what you're expecting your opponents to play. Play to your opponent's style if you're playing to win. That's the key to most strategy games: Play to your opponent, not the actual game.