I present you with a 1000 point X-Men only team.

Unique Professor X, 92 pts
Unique Nightcrawler, 83 pts
Veteran Colossus, 111 pts
Veteran White Queen, 94 pts
Veteran Rogue, 88 pts
Veteran Beast, 80 pts
Veteran Cyclops, 78 pts
Veteran Wolverine, 75 pts
Veteran Storm, 52 pts
Veteran Gambit, 51 pts
Veteran Jean Grey, 50 pts
Veteran Iceman, 47 pts
Veteran Psylocke, 45 pts
Veteran Shadowcat, 40 pts

Professor X: As always, the good ol' Professor is there to lead his team into battle. Weighing in at a hefty 92 points, you're going to want to put that Mind Control to good use - his speed of 6 in the hoverchair makes this more possible. Leadership provides you with an extra-action every other turn (probability wise), though his Defend may seem useless to you, many of the X-Men have a glass jaw when it comes to defense. The good Prof's two clicks of 16 defense might be just enough to save a piece's life. His attack of 11 should be enough to Mind Control anyone you come across - just be careful about Mind Controlling anyone over 100 points. While consistent over his first three clicks, the Prof will surely fall after.

Nightcrawler: A speed of 14 with Hypersonic Speed and an attack of 10. What to do with that? Move him across the board, let him hit an opponent, and then zip over to someone else with the rest of his move. Nightcrawler has Supersenses for the majority of his dial, so there should be no need to push him the next turn. His attack of 10 should allow him to get two or three blows in with a Hypersonic Speed attack. Use Nightcrawler to zip around the board, taking out your enemies generics. If he gets hurt into his final two clicks, have him get the hell out of there with Phasing (still with a speed of 9-8!) and to Jean Grey.

Colossus: 9 times out of 10, Colossus is going to be the one bringing the pain for you when it comes to getting up-close and personal on this team. His three clicks of Charge w/ Super Strength and a damage of 4 are simply priceless. Have him pick of the proverbial heavy object, charge in there and lay down the smacking for a hefty seven clicks. Or fly him in there with one of your oh-so-many fliers and perplex his damage with a bit of help from Gambit or Storm - major pain. His low defense value is his downfall. Even Invulnerability won't be enough for this Russian tank. Once he starts to fall, fly him back out of there to Jean Grey.

White Queen: A steady defense of 17 w/ Leadership and Invulnerabilty, the White Queen will help you out like the Good Prof, two people with Leadership result in an extra action every turn. Her defense w/ Invulnerability will keep her around for a while, keep her at range and have her plunk away at weaker opponents with her 2 damage. She has a hefty cost for her powers, so you'll want to milk her for all she's worth.

Rogue: Ahh, the lovely Rogue. Get her in there along side Colossus to get some hefty close combat damage in the fray. Unlike Colossus, she has Steal Energy for a large chunk of her dial. Use it to keep her in the fray while still doing 3 damage to your foes. After she weakens them, bring Colossus back in for the finish or plunk them off with your ranged attackers.

Beast: Another of the Good Prof's men with charge (and a speed of 10 to boot) and a damage of 3 to bring in the pain. Send him in for some close combat rampage, throwing his perplex around to aid his team or himself. Once he gets hurt, bring him back as a back up medic incase Jean Grey either goes down or gets too far down in her dial to be healed back up with the team ability.

Cyclops: What does a range of 10 and a damage of 3 with Ranged Combat Expert mean? Besides a healthy dose of whoop-###, I'm clueless. Have him TKed by Jean Grey or taxid in by one of your fliers to bring the pain from a distance. Keep him at that distance, his Energy Shield/Deflection raises his defense by a healthy 2, otherwise he's cannon fodder. Try and keep Cyclops to his first click, he loses 2 damage after it.

Wolverine: Fangs. Regeneration. Stealth. Creep Wolverine along in the hindering terrain, and then leap out to strike at either a group of generics, or one of the tougher enemies (those with Invulnerability). Probability dictates you'll hurt them 1/3 times, and 1/6 times will be for a major ouch of six clicks - four or five depending on their defensive absorbing power. If he goes down, use Regeneration to bring him back up - never push to Regenerate, as you'll need to roll a 4 or higher to heal a measly one click!

Storm: Storm is another one of your ranged attackers. Keep her along with Cyclops, have her tote him around. Plop him down and have him blast, wait a turn, and then have them both blast away - for a total of a whopping eight clicks! Energy Explosion is useful, if you find yourself in a generic-infested area.

Gambit: Another one of the generic-killers, Gambit likes it when you put him in hindering terrain and have him fire out with Energy Explosion, from his decent range of six. Perplex his attack up to ten if you feel you need it, but if you're taking on generics it might be best to pump up the damage to 2 for the man you aim at. After his first click, he gains Ranged Combat Expert. If he's with your Cyclops and/or Storm, have him join in the ranged fun for anywhere from 6 to 12 clicks!

Jean Grey: Jean Grey should never leave past your starting area, or atleast somewhere close to it. Place some objects close by for her incase any enemies manage to sneak by. Jean Grey will be your medic, as well as your transporter. Jean Grey should never need to take a turn that isn't either: Move, Telekenisis, or Support.

Iceman: In the thick of trouble? Need to protect your team from the baddies across on the other side? Iceman is your man with the master plan (or Barrier). A good idea is to break him up with either Cyclops or Gambit, to have a secondary ranged unit.

Psyclocke: Psylocke should /never/ leave Gambit's side. Enhancement works with his Energy Explosion, and quite well at that. He can perplex it further for a total damage of 3, and then a splash damage of 2 to everyone else - major pain. If you're feeling really frisky, have Storm being the one carrying Gambit around - that's 2 more damage and then more splash for 1. Be a gentlemen and spread the pain around. Hide her in the bushes with Gambit, if anyone comes up to mess with her or the Cajun, have her stab them to a bloody death with her Blades/Claws/Fangs.

Shadowcat: Ahh. The 'Taxi Supreme', as I like to call her. Phasing and a defense of 17 with Supersenses. Have her move either the Good Prof about to get into Mind Control placement in the rear lines, or let her get Wolverine or a heavy hitter in the rear lines to cause havoc from both sides. If one of your team is getting in a mess, plop her down next to the man your guy is having trouble with. Next turn, push her to get him the hell out of there. She won't need to break with Phasing, and keeps that defense of 17 for a second click.

In general, I can only stress the importance of two things: one, keep moving. Your team, for the most part, has very shallow dials. Spread the damage around with your X-Men ability if you get hit, keep getting people back to Jean Grey and/or Beast, etc. Two, everyone has a role. Don't purposefuly make them break from it. Keep Gambit at a range, if someone tangles with him - so be it. But you should never need to have Gambit in close combat /willingly/, you have Beast, Colossus, Rogue, Wolverine, etc for that.

And above all else, please remember to have fun.

a very cool theme team!!! if you have her, you can change out the vet Jean Grey for the LE Jean Grey

ummm....Perplex doesn't work with EE (for damage). It's a timing issue. You declare Perplex before the attack, and when you declare the EE attack, damage is reduced. Enhancement does work however.

And why, god, why! would you ever use the Vet. Emma. You don't really need the leadership, you probably won't be using all you actions each turn anyway. You have 14 figures and 10 actions. Leadership is almost redundant here. I'd throw in Meltdown and Wolfsbane. Probably just use them for healing those hard to heal figs like Nightcrawler, but they can also add a late game punch.

I also would go with Magneto over the Prof, but thats just a personal preference. He works well with a little Psylocke hangin around him. (he's about the only ranged X-character without RCE which doesn't work with Enhancement)

And don't forget the evil that is a perplexed Nightcrawler! A hit-and-run for 4 damage is just sweet.

For the most part, I agree with your analasys of the characters. My favorite taxi combos for the x-men are: Storm/Cyclops (keep em at range), Rogue/Wolverine (Charge with Rogue and finish em with Wolvie), and SC/Colossus (Colossus' low D makes him a target, so a guaranteed pull out helps), Magneto/Psylocke (reason stated above), and Jean/Nightcrawler (a TK push almost doubles his movement, and if the enemy is close enough, you can get back to Jean to do it again a turn or two later.

All in all, I love the X-men, and XP made them a force to be reconed with. Thats my .02.

While I understand that I could use a different figure than Vet Frost, I wanted to get as close to 1000 as possible and still have that 'X-Men' feel. I can never view Magneto as an X-Man, regardless if he really was. Besides, I was going for a 'Veteran' theme.

Chris Claremont brought Magneto full circle. He developed Magnus's character so well that his becoming an X-Man (even for a short time) was pre-destined.

It wasn't until the cra p p y and uncreative writers took over that Magneto went back to being a one-dimensional bad guy.

The best thing Claremont did was attempt to kill Magneto after X-Men #3, his final issue after writing X-Men comics non-stop for 15 (?) years.

Too bad Marvel had to resurrect him under bad writers.