OK, I'm still learning some basic strategy, I have most of the mechanics of the game down and hope I can get answer or two about terms I read on posts.
How are these "pieces" best used? Or even what's a good definition of these peices?

Support
Brick
Tie-Up
Bruiser
Tentpole

I have read through some of the Basic Strategy sticky, FYI as suggested in there somewhere it's advisable to read from the back to the front of that whole thing.

Thanks in advance.

Support - a piece primarily on the team not to attack but to provide help in some way. The traditional "Support" powers are Prob Control, Perplex, Outwit, Support and TK. However other powers (Enhancement) and some TA's and Special Powers make good support also. Ex: Chief

Brick - a figure with decent to good attack and damage, damage reducers and no range. Ex: The Thing

Tie-Up - a typically low cost figure on the team to sacrifice itself keeping a bigger threat occupied so your primary/secondary attacker can be used poractive;y in some way. Ex: She-Thing or Stature

Bruiser - see Brick

Tentpole - a figure that takes up almost all (two-thirds, three-fourths, maybe more) of your team's points. The opposite would be a Swarm team of many lower point figures. Ex: Superman (depending on build total but typically he is)

J-pop covered some of the basics pretty well, so I'll just expound on his comments.

Support: People used to use an acronym to annotate the support powers: STOPP

- Support
- Telekinesis
- Outwit
- Perplex
- Probability Control

The idea was to build teams that covered as many of the STOPP basics as possible. Figures that could be used for multiple aspects -- such as a figure that had Outwit, TK, and Support -- would be particularly valuable. While these are still good concepts to consider when team-building, I don't think they are as necessary as they used to be... figures with Special Powers, theme teams, and changes to dials have made the STOPP powers less mandatory. But they are still good considerations when teambuilding -- not only "Do I have these options," but also "How will I deal with my opponent's STOPP?"


Tie-Up: While J-pop's got the basics covered, the most important aspect is a figure that is going to go base an opponent's figures in order to prevent ranged attacks and block LOF. Good tie-up figures are those with a low cost, have decent mobility (flight, Phasing, or Leap/Climb are good), and have some kind of survival power on Defense -- most aren't going to have damage reducers, but powers like Combat Reflexes, Shape Change, Super Senses, Stealth, or team abilities like Skrulls that provides additional opportunities to survive your opponent's attacks are all good for tie-ups. Good tie-up figures are the Lila Cheney bystander, any of the Mockingbirds, Stingray, or Batgirl from Batman: Alpha.


Tentpole: Again, J-pop covered it, but it's important to consider the Tentpole figure + STOPP... because a well-built team with a lot of the STOPP powers can often shut down an unsupported tentpole. So if you're going to run a tentpole figure, it might need some help in the STOPP arena.

Thanks for the information.

One other one, I understand the Carry ability, is this what is referred to as "taxis"?

Thanks

Taxi generally refers to a figure that is included solely or mostly because it possesses the Carry ability. Classic taxis include R IC Vulture, Universe Starter Wasp, R Lockjaw, and R Green Flame. A more recent example is Lightspeed.

Basically yes. Taxi can be used to describe Carrying. Often when used to describe a figure or it's role on the team it's more to describe it's main purpose on the team, rather than just the fact that it can Carry.

KC Superman can taxi someone but he's on your team for much more than that. Green Flame is usually on a team just to carry others around. She doesn't do much else but what she does do she does extremely well and for only 17 points, awesome TAXI.

Quebbster type faster than me.

Ah. All good information. Appreciate the replies.