Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday.



Today’s article is a little different than ‘Top 10 Spideys’ or 10 maps. This is a little more strategy oriented. And even though its intended for Rookie players, I hope there’s something in here for long time players as well.

Having played for a while now, I occasionally have the unpleasant occasion of being paired up against a total n00b. Even though I try to go easy on the person, and give them pointers about the game, the end result is still the same.

From all of those games, I’ve noticed a few things that may beginners and players new to collecting do when they start into HeroClix.

This may also be helpful (or humorous) for New Guy Night that’s just around the corner. Bring this list with you and see how often these things come up.

10 – You can do what?!
It’s pretty common, and more or less expected that a new player isn’t going to know all the rules and all the nuances to the rules.
What a player in that situation needs to avoid is listening to an opponent tell you what something is.
Brushing up on the rules is always helpful. But if you’re ever unsure about a rule, don’t let your opponent bully you into believing something. At a tournament, ask the judge; he’ll answer your question and explain the rule, since some can be complicated to new (or even experienced!) players.
If you’re still unsure, or playing at home (no judge), check the rulebook or the FAQ. There’s nothing worse than perpetuating an incorrect ruling!

(The flip side to this is when a new player is totally convinced they know the rules better than long time players. I don’t know how many times a player who has only played at home argues with me about how something works. Even after I show them the PAC and patiently explain why the rule is the way it is.)


9 – To push, or not to push…?
Knowing when to push is an important part of the game. Some players won’t ever push their figures for fear of taking push damage. But if it looks like your figure will get hit next turn anyway, go ahead and push!
Other times it pays to press your advantage – which is pushing to land a second attack on a fig that is injured so you can get the KO, or just keep an opponent from running.
On the other hand, sometimes players push figures unnecessarily, like just moving into position or making a dubious attack (like your 8 attack against his 17 defense – to deal 1 damage ). Paying attention about when to push and when to rest is key to getting the most out of your figures.
This is best summed up with: Be patient, but know when to pounce.


8 – More effort than its worth.
Complicated strategies that sound cool but rely on too many ‘ifs’ and too much set up. Or, things that seem good in concept, but are really bad ideas (like Vendetta on Omni-man).
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told these incredibly cool and killer new strategies that will totally wreck your opponent! Only they require you to build a whole team around it, and 4 turns for set up.

EG: Yeah, Rip it up is an awesome feat when you play it with Nanobots and Separation Field Generator to constantly make new objects and then ‘eat’ them to heal. But how often are you going to get to use that? How many of your Super Strength figures have only 2 damage (the prereq for Nanobots)? Why are you intentionally putting figs with low damage on your team with the strategy of running away?
What happens when your opponent sees this strategy and completely kills it by simply shooting the Special Object?
Some strategies are cool in concept, but completely impractical in real games. If you come up with something utterly cool, try it at home a couple times before coming to the comic shop bragging that your new idea will wipe the floor with everyone!


7 – Getting color blinded
This is when a player sees cool powers and combos (or feat card combos) and ignores bad stats. Yeah, its totally roXXors that a figure has Running Shot and great range, and you can play trick shot, and all that… too bad it only has an 8 attack value and couldn’t hit the broad side of a skrull.
The offense of a figure comes from Attack, Damage, and the ability to get those to the target (from range, or with Charge, or some other attack method.)
If your figure has awesome attack ability but low movement and battle fury, he’s not going anywhere fast. Look at the big picture and don’t get caught up in cool combos and killer powers.
And don’t forget #5 (below), feat cards don’t make a figure good, they improve an already good figure.


6 - Schlepping around the board.
Oy, what a schlep!
Crawling around the board happens when a player doesn’t think to include any mobility on their team. This is common of really new players who get so caught up in playing the figures they like that they forget to build a practical team.
No fliers means every figure has to move around on its own. No TK means that your opponent might get the jump on you.
Transporters, and even mobility powers like Leap/Climb and Running Shot can help keep a team from being bogged down and ending up like #2 (Sitting Ducks).
Mobility is possibly the #1 most important aspect of the game. You could have the greatest figures in the game on your team, but if the can’t get to the enemy (or can’t get there without stopping for a rest 3 times), then they aren’t worth squat!


5 - All fluff, no substance.
This is something you see new players do a lot as they learn a little more about the game. Once then get turned on to utility powers (Outwit, Support, Perplex, etc), they build lots of those powers into their team. Then suddenly they’re well prepared for anything with their Outwit and Probability Control… only they forgot to include an actual offense!
Don’t bog down your team with so many utility pieces that you sacrifice an actual strategy.

The second (somewhat newer) aspect of ‘All fluff, no substance’ is taking mediocre figures and boosting them way up with feat cards. Some figures were never meant to cost 50% more than they are. Yeah In Contact w/ Oracle, Protected, Nanobots and Armor Piercing will make your Rookie Iron Man ‘teh b0mb’, but for the extra 40 points you could have just played a better figure in the first place!


4 - Too much of a good thing.
Well rounded teams are the cornerstone to winning. But too many players focus on a single aspect, such as range, or lots of Charge, of figs with lots of Perplex, etc. But when they run up against a team that foils their strategy, they’re left stuck. (IE, an all range team against Stealth teams. Or lots of Charge tripped up by hindering terrain.)
Have a good mix of abilities, some range, some Charge or HSS to get in close, figures with enough damage to knock down walls in case you get stuck indoors.


3 – Who invited all these people?
The opposite of having just one big gun is having too many figures on your team. If you have a lot of points to work with, but fill up a team with tons of low cost figures (thinking this will give you a figure advantage), this can lead to having a lot of weak figures that don’t do enough damage and far more figures than actions with which to use them!

A basic rule of thumb is about 1 figure for every 50 points. This doesn’t mean you can’t play the big 100+ point figures, just that they’ll be balanced out by <20 point support pieces.


2 – A team of sitting ducks
This happens far too often to rookie players; they want to get their army into action right away so on the first turn they move everyone out into the middle battlefield. (I see this all the time, and it makes me cringe more than anything else!)
All this does is give your opponent plenty of easy targets to attack on his opening turn.
Move figures out with caution and make sure they are protected; either with Stealth, on rooftops, or behind blocking terrain.
This is part of an overall strategy of looking ahead at what your opponent is likely to do next turn.
Look over your opponent’s team, see if they have TK, or HyperSonic Speed with which they can come out and knock your block off early.
If you’re unsure of what your opponent’s figures can do, you are allowed to ask to look at them.


1 – Must.. Play.. Superman/Ares/Parallax/Sentry/Ganthet/etc…!
This happens when new (or often young) players finally get that awesome figure that’s a ton of points and will totally kill your opponent! Then building a team around that 1 figure.
New players are always eager to get the hard to find figures that everyone else is talking about. Then once they get that big bruiser they build a team around it that is usually just the one figure and a tiny bit of support. Then they get stomped. Then they get upset that they A) Spent a lot to get said figure. B) Lost horribly when they think they should have won.
Wait for bigger point games to play that figure, and remember to build well rounded teams for the games that count.


That's all for today's Top 10. I'm sure people have more to add to this list, but its not called Top 11 Tuesday, so I had to stop where I did.

Thanks for reading, and please click the quote marks (") below, or the (+/-) icon above to comment.

Excellent advice for the newbies, AZS.

Now finish off the never ending Invincible reviews!

Nice article, AZS. I hope the new players out there read this.

If I may be so bold as to add an honorable mention:

11 - Learn from your mistakes

Sure it is no fun to get completely stomped, but rather than pout the whole game watch what your opponent is doing: What characters are dealing the most damage? How are they dealing it? How is your opponent able to neutralize your strategy?

Too often I see new players (both younger and older) just completely pull themselves into an apathy spiral when they start losing. The only real way to get better, though, is to learn from your mistakes and make sure you don't repeat them. It also never hurts to ask for some pointers after the game; I know I don't mind giving them out to the new guys and neither do the other experienced players I've run across in my time playing this game.

great read Azs. you get repped.

I have had tremendous luck with a 300 point team that consisted of all B/C/F. I had 7 figures on the board, but I was able to move and/or attack every single turn. And with leadership, I was able to do even more.

I have won 2 games with it so far.

`Le

Good article, I can usually tell the experience of a player as to how well they protect (strategically) their pieces, and whether or not they try to anticipate opponents moves (like chess)

Nice article a lot of good points.

I remember when I started playing I busted open a V-Ultron [IC]
Oh I thought I was sooo set, had a 'great' figure that would decimate my other players teams. Laff.
This also brings into focus another one of the comments you made about people who play at home and their "special" rules. My buddies who ripped apart my V-Ultron everytime did so with some pretty special rules, as they had largely just started playing as well [IC was only set out so game was pretty new mind ]. They played by the rules...that a character could be given 2 actions on the same turn. It got really ridiculous with someone taxi'ing forward V-Hercules, then Herc would move using avengers free move [this was long before the days of NAAT], grab an object and then smite someone for 6 damage. I think in fact one game i moved ultron too far forward and he got "flurried" by herc with that 4 damage after herc got taxi'ed in....Oh the things new players do. I guess I should be thankful, because of Ultron getting torn to pieces all the time I traded him for V-Sabretooth and V-Bullseye--- And then I tore apart my friends ;p
Of course then I got an E-Ultron and my friends just had no chance!!!

Another thing new players tend to do...almost without fail....they hardly EVER roll leadership.

Nice article. Should be helpful for new players. I think it is indeed the best tip for new players to build a well-rounded team, not focusing on one figure, or on one power, or one end-all be-all strategy.

I think the advice of not listening to your opponent is a bit harsh. Sure, there'll be opponents that might take advantage of playing against a rookie, but in my area the experienced players just give decent advice for new players. With new players the judge could pay a bit more attention to the new player, checking how the opponent handles the new player.

Heh. I've been playing in tournaments since the Hypertime marquee and I can still occasionally fall prey to some of these. I probably end up a sitting duck more than any other... I hate skulking around. Super heroes are supposed to charge in. But sometimes I don't pay enough attention to my opponent's figures before I do so. It usually isn't pretty.

I also make a not exactly n00b mistake a like to call "theme for theme's sake". I almost exclusively play heavily themed teams. And while they are very nice thematically, they often are not enough to deal with "competitive" teams. Heck, I even catch myself trying to build themes in sealed events when I most likely don't have anywhere near the options I need to pull it off! Sometimes I can manage a nice theme with good flexibility and coverage, and those often do pretty well, but other times I end up with things like a purely Manhunter robot army facing HT Darkseid, Desaad and a bunch of parademons. (For the record my manhunters killed Desaad, a couple of demons and kept Darkseid from acting for like 6 turns... which had pushed him to his RCE clicks and he just mopped up the near dead bots.)(It was a totally awesome game though!)

Overall this is a good article. Even vets can use reminders. Now I just need to work on loosening my themes and try to develop a killer instinct mentality (C-C-COMBO BREAKER!) to win more. Probably won't happen though. I tend to get more Fellowship prizes than winner prizes.

I am going to pass a link on to this to our newer player! It is all so true.

I also cringe when a new player moves all there figures into the centre of the board.

Another thing that new players should always do is to always use their support powers (outwit, perplex, leadership) even if they don't really need to. Rolling for leadership every turn even when you can't use the extra action gets you into the habit of using the power. Outwitting even when there really isn't anything worth outwitting also creates good habits (it can also end up being more useful than expected). I have a player that routinely perplexes up his defense at the end of his turn if he hasn't used his perplex. Sure, the bonus goes away at the end of his turn, but he is in the habit of using perplex.

I've already emailed this article to my players. Very good article.

I totally know what you mean. I've played since IC, and I constantly make bad theme teams that look SO pretty before they hit the field!
The other thing I do a lot is take extremely unnecessary chances, trusting the dice. I'll go for a 9 anyday. Even 10s aren't too far off. But I don't recommend it. Some days it pays off. But most days... not so much.
This carries over to my predominant inclusion of TONS of senses/shape change pieces.

Great article.

Another mistake might be "getting angry as you lose badly." I see people get angry at themselves, their dice, their opponent, the rules, etc.

In my first few tournaments, I went in knowing I was going to get completely trounced. I saw them as a chance to learn how to beat people. Essentially, whenever someone mops up the floor with you, it is a great opportunity to learn how to mop up the floor with people. Or, to put it another way, when you lose badly, focus on why you are losing badly.

Another way to put the well balanced team issue is that all teams must have more than one trick to them. All stealth, FF-alt ability abuse, Ares, etc., none of them guarantee you a win. When you are sure one figure or team design choice guarantees you a win, you're in trouble.

thank you for advice it was very good the first time i played in a torrnement
i pushed al my figures to death including a maximus and vet radioactive man