Hi.

What determines the force of your team? Is it when you have two or more characters in your force with the same team symbols on their base or if two or more characters in your squad with the same keyword?

Your force is your team.

A themed team happens when all of your characters share a common keyword AND you meet the minimum number of characters required for the build total. (Bystanders are excluded from this.)

Team symbols have no bearing on themed teams.

So, in order to benefit from the JLA team ability, I must have every character on my force with that title under the name on their card and meet the minimum number of force members required, right? How do I know what the minimum number is?

Also, what are the symbols (robin from TT has a purple T and a yellow batman symbol for example) on a character's dial for?

The JLA team ability doesn't have a minimum, the character just needs to have the JLA team ability on their dial. Those are the team abilities you're referring to with Robin. You can print out what they do here:

http://heroclix.com/wp-content/uploa...ities-2012.pdf

and http://heroclix.com/wp-content/uploa...mAbilities.pdf

Theme team rules (those referring to the keywords under the character names on the cards) can be found on page 23 of the rulebooks that will come with your avx starters or can be found here:

http://heroclix.com/wp-content/uploa...ebook-2013.pdf

They are fairly lenghty and detail how many characters you need in order to make a theme team. Although when first starting to play you shouldn't worry about the tactics section of the rulebook (which includes theme teams) get the basics down in the first few section (which do include team abilities)

Thanks. I'll do that. I have both starter sets of x-men vs avengers coming in a few days. Those will be helpful. So...If I use robin and he has the JLA and yellow batman symbol on his dial he gets the jla ability and friend of batman ability in the game? Also, whatever character I use gets all of the corresponding abilities that are represented on their dial base regardless of what other people are on my force?

Correct

Correct

So you can have Scarlet witch and Spiderman on your force and she can use the Avengers and Mystics team abilities and he can use the Avengers and Spiderman team abilities.

Some team abilities (like the X-men one) require at least 2 characters to have the team ability, but that is clearly indicated in the team ability description.

Great! Thanks! I feel like I'm finally playing the game the right way, even if it takes us an hour (constant stoping and looking in the glossary and PAC) when it should probably take 15 minutes

That just comes with practice.

I used to play for a bit, and got into the rules and intricacies... then I stopped playing for a bit, then they go and add new abilities (the pink ones) and rewrite other old abilities, so I'm back to referencing the PAC and rules from time to time again when I play.

Don't use the team ability printout linked above. Instead, refer to the current wordings of team abilities from the Golden Age Player's Guide, linked to in my sig.

Memorizing rules is just something that comes with time. I've been playing since the mid 2000's and I still have to look up a rule on occasion.

So don't sweat it.

"Friend of Batman" Team Ability.