Great article Webhead! Judges have a lot of say in how their tournaments are set up and can create scenarios for their players. For instance - at my venue, we do one 300 point, restricted, constructed, one tournament designed by one of my players, and one comic based scenario (last month was the Kingdom Come Final Battle where everyone brought a 300 point DC team with NO KC pieces and each round, everyone randomly drew a KC piece to add to their army. At the end of the round when time was over, there was a simulated nuclear blast where any remaining pieces on the board were instandly KOed...no victory points unless you wiped out your opponent).

Anyways...this is just an example of how judges have some control over what is played at the venues. As Capedcrusader put it...we as the players and the judges have to make the game fun at the venues.

I always play theme games. every week at my venue we have some weird theme or scenario, so this was a good read!!

Ah, there's always time for shameless self-promotion later. Rest assured, over time I will be contributing to the Theme Park in my own way.

@just about everyone - thank you for the compliments...this is a subject near and dear to my heart, and it means a lot to me that the subject matter is well received here.

@SimonMoon5 - I have to disagree...while there are specific figs that haven't translated perfectly, they are certainly in the minority, and I don't think they bring down the game as a whole. As for the rules of the game...they continue to evolve...I have confidence that they will continue to improve the way each figure works in the game.

Great article Webhead!

I only play themed teams, as do most of the folks I play with. I'm into the game because it reminds me of the comics I used to enjoy as a kid. I've tried straying from theme (and have played against many non-themed teams :P) and it just doesn't do anything for me.

The Decktech.Net scenarios (at least the finished ones) and themes are pretty good. I'd like to see a few tweaks to some of the themes, but mostly they are good stuff (a huge improvement over the wide open basic environment!). I also like how the villains pick the scenario...very nice touch!

I look forward to the new theme section of the forums!

-Mark

wow, that's quite the article. excellent write-up.

Great article. I always find theme teams MUCH more fun to play than mechanically well-constructed ones, even if the road to victory is far more pot-holed.

I look forward to seeing what kind of stuff appears in the new "Theme Park"

i think it's great that Wizkids is trying to make it possible to have more options when it comes to team building. transporters should help this out GREATLY, and make it so that I might FINALLY be able to play my Marvel Knights team....there's no marvel knights fliers....grrr...
I only play theme teams with my friends, though they've started to power game against me hehe. They don't care about it, but I play for the 'comic book battle' image. My favorite scenario is fighting over something, whether it be a hostage the good guys need, or some super weapon the bad guys have.

Hello All,

Nice job, webhead817. I really like this article. It nicely sums up some of the feelings that I have had regarding HeroClix.

For example, I've always been very unhappy with the way in which the Legion of Super Heroes has been translated into clix. The powers of the characters are fine, but they should not be wildcards. In their own books, the Legion is the most tightly knit super hero team in DC comics. Individually, each member of the Legion is relatively weak, having only one or two super powers. Together, they are a powerful force. Very rarely do any of these characters appear with the other residents of the DC Universe. This is certainly not the case in HeroClix.

Regards and Best Wishes,

Donald Eric Kesler

Brilliant article, webhead! For the longest time I was extremely irritated by how the game play didn't even come close to resembling comic book action, but a good deal of that was due to mechanics issues, which have been addressed with Feats for the most part. The only pet peeves I have left are touched on precisely in this article.

From what I can tell, scenarios are fairly prevalent already in HeroClix venues, which is good. There was a thread a few days ago about feats giving theme teams a better chance:

Here

Someone there suggested taking mechanics from Mechwarrior and MageKnight, I believe, that would in essence be "team feats". What they amount to is cards with their own point cost, that grant extra abilities to figures from a roster or with a certain team ability. The point cost may even have a discount for figures with the given team ability. The abilities can range from additional powers, to being able to add a figure to an existing team (the example given being Jay Garrick Flash being granted the JSA team ability). I think this would go a long way to giving theme teams a boost.

Must be something in the water.

The contest I just wrapped up over at Whoclix for the new CLASSIC CLASHES feature addresses just this fact - that the games just don't feel "superheroey" enough.

I hope that in giving the players some inspiration and grist for their creative mills (in the form of descriptions of classic comic book battles) that we'll start seeing more comic-based games (and - dare I dream - tournaments) in the future!

Great read but I could have answered the question in one word.

Medics

The reason is very simple. What happens in a comic is really only limited by the writer's imagination. What happens in HeroClix is limited by the game rules, the figure stats, dice rolls, etc.

Definitely. I just started working on a batch of articles that tie in with the whole "theme team" idea, but from a different angle.

As more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan I've always had holes in the team I want to build. Presuming others have that same problem I'm throwing out a "who would you use" kind of thing. Want to play the current Teen Titans? Who makes a good substitute for Wonder Girl? Is Changeling really the best choice for Beast Boy, or is there someone else who works better? Building a Legion team? Well, you're missing the majority of the team, so who do you use?

No, I'm not just limiting it to DC, those are just the ones off of the top of my head

Great work, webhead!

I'll chime in my "great article". Definitely a new perspective for me.

I think WK's team ability mechanics would honestly have been better served by not correlating them to a team. But you're right, the thematic demands are better-served the way they are. They probably also are easier to remember that way as well.