Feel like everyone around you has a leg up in tactics? Experience may be the best teacher, but we want to help you shape up your strategy. Heroclix has a lot of rules, which also means a lot of loopholes, synergies, and restrictions. Knowing what those are and more tactically practical ways to exploit them can help you see the game in new ways and come up with your own variations. It’s not quite meta, but it’s still Practically Tactical!

One of the parts of forming a team is understanding the point system. Heroclix is a little of an odd duck because your starting resources are customizable. If you want Superman on your team, he can be on your team. If you want Wolverine on your team, he can be on your team. Wizkids allows this through the assignment of points to specific figures in relation to their effectiveness in combat. So you can fill out your team with a single Superman or an entire cast of X-Men. You can even choose a weaker Superman, and pair him with lower point versions of his contemporaries or even just other guys you personally like. That said, even within their point values, not all figures are equal. What you use to figure that out is point economy.

So what is point economy?

To understand point economy, you also need to understand the concept of a point formula. Rumors have abounded for years about a point formula, which calculates the point cost of a figure based on the stats, powers, abilities, and number of clix that figure possesses. The base idea is that a character at about 50 points should be about as powerful as another character with about 50 points whether that means that they're a support character, an attack character, or whatever else. That said, point formulas are inaccurate, and some characters are simply better than others, even at the same points. For example, look at



compared with



Even though the two characters start with the exact same Range, Powers, and Combat Symbols, Superman's other starting stats are all higher than Ultraman's. You might think that Ultraman makes up for it later, but Superman's stats also stay high for longer than Ultraman. Additionally, he has 1 more click of health than Ultraman. Ultraman's powers and abilities can't be countered while he's in Hindering, but Superman generally can't be targeted at all from Hindering. Ultraman can target people in Hindering, but so can Superman. Additionally, Superman can self heal, has more common keywords, and can move through indoor Blocking. Ultraman's only edge is his ability to use Probability Control by giving action tokens to his team, but that doesn't really seem to make up for the rest of the things that Superman brings to the table.

Another concept in Heroclix is the idea of "Power Creep" where dials become more effective as time goes by. You could try to explain the difference between these two by saying one is about a year newer than the other, but in truth, the point of a Point Formula should really be to present a baseline value per point. However, even with Power Creep, Power Creep can be fickle, and doesn't always work like that. For example, compare Ultraman with:



Again, Captain Thunder has a similar power set and increased stats in every category except range. He also has a Stop Click, Pulse Wave, more health, better keywords, the ability to drop a pog, and your opponent takes damage just for hitting him. He's also a little bit older than Ultraman, so power creep should be working in Ultraman's favor. And while the idea of a point formula is compelling, more often, what you find is that different characters give you more bang for your figurative buck, and that is point economy.

Point Formula VS Point Economy

Now, keep in mind that while there may not be a point formula, Wizkids obviously has an idea in mind for how effective a character should be at a specific point level. That said, some characters are simply better for their points than others, and a big part of proper team building is learning which characters are a better investment for their points. When it comes to team building, this is largely going to make certain characters better or worse in different formats. With smaller formats, you don't want to spend too many points on one guy, so spending 200 points for a support character in a 300 point format is a little silly unless their primary role is something else. That said, in a larger format, like 500 or more, 200 points isn't so bad. When we say economy, we're primarily talking about a set budget (your point total) and how much of that budget you're spending on a specific figure. This largely depends on the figure's role, and here are a few examples.

The Primary Attacker

Different people have different styles, but in most cases, your primary attacker is someone who will take about a third or more of your build points. I'm basing that here off of the idea of using about 100+ points in a 300 point build. Now, if you're aiming for a tent pole team, the primary attacker will take up more points, probably around half or more. Likewise if you're looking for a One Man Army, they'll likely be about 2/3 or more of the team, or more appropriately the only person on the entire force. The purpose of a Primary Attacker is, obviously, to be the primary guy to attack. This becomes less and less of the case as the point value of the game goes up, and many teams become less about an individual attacking and more about several individuals attacking. However, in most games, he'll be the primary attacker, and this means that he needs two things.

The first is that he needs at least a moderately high offensive values, such as damage. This is partially because he's the crux of his team, and being able to KO or at least knock his opponents in to a click where they're less of a threat is his primary goal. In most cases, I'd keep it at least 4, and probably do 5 or 6 if I can manage it. This is also useful if your opponent has a damage reducer you can't crack, because dealing one or two damage at a time isn't going to get you where you need to be. To the same end, you'll want a high Attack because if you can't land a shot, it doesn't matter how much damage you can deal. Start at 11, and it doesn't hurt to find a way to get to 12 or higher. Remember that a lot of characters will start with an 18 defense, and it's not hard to get a 19 or 20 when you consider things like Perplex, ESD, CR, and just simple Hindering terrain. I have another article on the probability of landing a hit, but a bare 11 attack vs a bare 18 defense gives you slightly better than 50/50 odds. Remember that a wasted attack is generally a wasted action. Aside from good attack stats, remember that powers like Penetrating/Psychic Blast or Precision Strike help you avoid things that might slow your Primary down. It's also never a bad idea to have a good defense, because a Primary Attacker is also going to be a primary target by your opponents, and it's always a good idea to protect your investment.

The Secondary Attacker

Secondary Attackers tend to hit a little less hard than Primary Attackers, but also tend to be a smaller amount of points. In a 300 point game, you can expect them to be at 100 or less, and often closer to 50-75, so I'd define that as around 1/6-1/3 of your point total. They want a lot of the same things as a Primary Attacker, but they have a lower bar. Perhaps instead of a 4+ damage, you settle for 3, or you use powers like Blades/Claws/Fangs or Flurry that make the most of smaller damage values. While they likely won't be one shotting foes, they can draw them on to weaker clicks, coordinate strikes against stop clicks, or finish off weakened foes. Often times they'll have other uses as well, so what they lack in attack power they make up for in additional utility.

The Support

Support characters often feature powers like Perplex, Outwit, Probability Control, and while they aren't as useful on their own, they can make the other characters on your team more effective, usually with creative uses and free actions. There are other powers and even team abilities that can help the rest of your team out, so keep a lookout for what they can do, and what your team really needs. Support characters should take as few points as possible, though 50 is a good number to aim for in a 300 point game, especially if the character can do a multitude of things. For example, a major turning point in the modern support character was cw Scarlet Witch. With two starting lines, she can provide two support powers (Perplex and Probability Control) for 50 points with Barrier or some minor attack ability as well, and at 75 points she can provide 3 support powers in the form of Telekinesis as well (she's also annoying to knock out since she'll be doing damage with Mystics). Looking forward a bit, you can see Trinity War Batman has a 75 point line where he has the sacred trinity of Outwit, Perplex, and Prob, as well as the ability to choose another attack or damage power on top of that. He's a little pricier, but he's still a fairly inexpensive swiss army knife. Generally, it depends on how many support powers they're providing, but you'll want to invest about 1/4 or less of your build total on a particular support figure unless you have a specific build in mind or your support characters are filling in other jobs (there are even Primary Attackers who form their own support).

The Taxi

Taxi is a sub category of the Support figure in many cases. Getting around the map is a huge part of the game, and getting around the map without your Primary or Secondary attackers having to take actions means that they can spend more actions soon after on actually attacking their target. Additionally, difficult terrain can slow down or even ruin your character's ability to become effective, and positioning can be a huge hinderance for teams that don't have mobility. Typically I like to spend as few points as possible on taxis. Generally speaking I don't want to spend more than 1/6 of my total build on a taxi unless it's a very good taxi that can Carry multiple characters around, such as a Green Lantern, or someone like Vanisher or Overdrive. Ideally, you might even have a Primary or Secondary Attacker that doubles as a taxi, so you don't need to spend any extra points getting around. Movement is an often overlooked part of the game, but pay attention to it, and it can win you all the games you want.

The Interference

Interference is another type of Support figure, although it's really more of an Anti-Support figure. Perplex, Outwit, and Barrier are all good examples, as well as Team Abilities like the Outsiders or Police and Hydra TAs. Instead of raising the effectiveness of your team, they work on lowering the effectiveness of your opponents. For example, if you have a lot of damage reducers, you could reduce your opponents damage to a 2, and call it a day. Alternatively, you could Outwit their Charge so they need to take another turn getting to you while you get more shots off. One big difference is that Interference characters usually have to be able to draw lines of fire at or near their opponents, which usually means putting them in the thick of things, where Support characters can more generally afford to stick to the back lines.

Now, looking at budget options for Interference and even Support figures, part of what you want to consider is what does your team actually need. Outwit is great if your opponent is using a power that's the crux of their entire strategy, although in some cases, Outwit might not even be usable on your opponent's team. Now, we established that 50-75 is a good baseline for 2 or 3 powers, but perhaps you can only afford one or two. This is where point economy comes in. For example, check out



The thing about this guy is he's only 25 points, so half the cost of a 50 point character, and he comes with a long range Outwit. He's also a pain in the ass to kill, with a lot of powers to compensate for both range and close attacks. While he only really has a click of health, that's enough for a distraction at least, and being placed near the center of the map usually means he has a good vantage point of the action. However, that said, he can't move, and his line of fire could be blocked by anything from positioning to even a bad map, and there's little he can do about it. While there's a slight chance he can pivot to a secondary attacker, he's mostly just 25 points for an Outwit, but if your opponent moves out of his line of fire, you're out of luck. Now look at this:



This is an even cheaper Batman. Again, he only has a single click of health, but he keeps his Outwit. And while his Outwit has a lower range, Ape Batman himself can move around. He loses some of the things that make him harder to kill, but he can also grab an object to hit for 5 damage if that's what you're in to, and more importantly he's cheaper AND he can move. Also, because of the rules dealing with pog characters and theme teams, his keyword doesn't even cancel out an otherwise well designed theme. Even better is he's MUCH easier to physically acquire than his Kingdom Come counterpart. For his points, he's a great investment.

Tie-Ups

I talk about Tie-Ups more in another article, but Tie-Ups are a special type of Interference piece where instead of (or in addition to) interfering with your opponents stats and abilities, they force the character to deal with an annoying but mostly harmless figure instead of whatever the real threat is. Being based means that they can't draw lines of fire for range attacks, and often it means not being able to break away in order to get at the real target. Good Tie-Ups can do a lot of damage just by forcing your opponent to waste actions that they'd rather spend on your real threat. They're often as few points as possible, as you want the return investment to be something good, but spending 50 points or less is a good ballpark.

The Pog Generator

Pog Generators have become a lot more common in recent years, and refer to any figure that can create other figures, usually at will. These figures tend to have only a single click of health, but many of them also tend to be worth zero points. This can be really troublesome when you consider that the more time your opponent spends attacking zero point pogs, the less time they're attacking things that will actually win them the game. Now, different generators create different pogs with different capabilities, and some can create them in different amounts. For example, Devil Dinosaur can't create an infinite number of pogs overall, but he does create 3 at a time. jw Penguin can't create as many at once, but he can create them indefinitely. Gertrude Yorkes can only create the one, but it's a very effective pog that's difficult to get rid of and painful to ignore completely. In some cases, the pogs don't attack, but can do other things. For example, wkD15-008 Nightwing can create a pog with Support and Perplex. Since Nightwing can also be called in easily with an ID card, this makes him even more valuable because he can be called in himself, call in his pog, and even after he leaves the field, the pog stays. The new HQ set has a Zatanna that can do something similar. Pog generators tend to be fairly cheap themselves, usually hovering around the cost of a good secondary attacker, although that's not always the case. The big thing to remember is that the guy spawning the minions needs protection and the longer your opponent takes to cross the map and take them out, the more time they have to create minions to throw things in your favor.

The Undefinable

Some characters have powers or roles that don't really fit in to a specific mold. These are characters like Prime Nighthawk, who can cause a huge interference effect from anywhere on the board, or uxm047 Mystique, who can't attack. but also can't really be attacked either and has another way to fight indirectly. These can have huge effects on their teams, primarily from the fact that their powers and tactics are so non-conventional that counters or safeguards are hard to plan for, and even harder to come up with on the fly. These are hard to talk about, though often they seem to have powers at very low point values. Both of the aforementioned examples are below 100 points, and other examples like dp Banshee, Frog-Man, or even most of the Shredder Chases from tmnt3 are also under 100. Being able to twist or ignore the rules of the game for a tiny investment of points is a huge thing, though it typically requires some advance planning in most (but not all) cases. Additionally, not every figure who can singularly reverse the rules has some insane meta use.

All Together Now

Now, I gave some ballparks for different types of characters, but one thing to consider is that most characters don't neatly fit in to one of those categories. Trinity War Batman can be a good utility piece, but he's also a good secondary attacker, and bvs Superman can taxi people around with him in addition to being a good primary attacker. If you look at the Mighty Thor Carnage colossal, you'll find a character that's an extremely cheap secondary attacker that can taxi people around in a pinch, and can also generate pogs that are also good secondary attacker/tie-ups. For 10 points! That's some economy! Compare that with someone like Ben Urich or Koi Boy or the 10 point Joker Thug from Joker's Wild, and you can see why he's the most valuable of the Mighty Thor colossals.

Point Economy is a hard thing to pin down (which is part of why this article is a little late), but it's an important thing to understand if you're looking to build effective teams. There can be leagues of difference between characters of the same point value, and being able to understand that is the difference between picking an effective team and a less effective one. There are some builds that use characters that seem to defy point values in specific situations, but unless you have a specific instance in mind, it's useful to assume that there's someone else that can fill a similar role and look to find that.

I hope you guys took something away from this or at least got to see something in a different light. Until next time, stay tactical!

Nice article, as someone fairly new to the game (only been playing about 9 months) these articles really help, especially since my friends have all been playing longer than me. Thanks, and keep up the great work!