Need some suggestions on team makeup (Newbie)

[shortboy]

Hi everyone! I’m new to the boards here and I’m new to Heroclix. We just started playing about 2 weeks ago. I’ve been reading thru all the threads here and there seems to be a gigantic wealth of knowledge to digest. It’s very enlightening, although, with my present skill level at Heroclix, some of it is above my head right now. Hopefully the fine art of strategy will come to me in the future. Basically, we’ve been slugging it out on a map trying to use all our characters in different combinations to get a feel for how they interact with one another, in an attempt to group them with their most benefitial counterparts. I see over and over again here, that team composition and complimintation seem to be vastly more important than just throwing your most powereful figures on the table and swinging. I’ve even seen some turnament results that quit honestly, surprised me. In an effort to help me in the area of strategy and team building traits, I was hoping to list the figures I presently have and get some comments on what some others would recommend using in a standard 300 point team. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Todd

Thug- V- 10
Thing- V- 134
Scarlet Witch- V- 40
Hawkeye- V- 64
Cyclops- V- 78
Doombot- E- 33
Firelord- E- 81
Kang- E- 178
Wasp- E- 33
Dr. Octopus- E- 44
Sheild Sniper- E- 14
Dr. Doom- R- 121
Professor X- R- 59
Mandroid Armor- R- 28
Sheild Trooper- R- 11
Hydra Medic- R- 12
Spiderman- R- 61
Blade- R- 26
Skrull Agent- R- 11
Sabertooth- R- 38
Blizzard- R- 35
Again, thanks for any help you can give. Looks like a great site here and I’m looking forward to being a member.

[Mr. Pilkington]

You have a decent mix of figures here. The only one that isn't really that playable is the Kang... just too expensive for most 300 point games. As to what you should use together, well that depends on your play style. I tend to like taking the fight to my opponent. Here's an example team from your listing:

Sabretooth (R) 38
Blade (R) 26
Mandroid Armor (R) 28
Wasp (E) 33
Doombot (E) 33
Cyclops (V) 78
Scarlet Witch (V) 40
Hydra Medic (R) 12
SHIELD Trooper (R) 11
--------------------------------
299

This team gives you both close and ranged combat abilities. You taxi Sabretooth with Wasp and hurl Blade into action with the Mandroid's TK. You taxi Cyclops around with the Doombot, who can either move for free copying the Avengers power or pump a ranged attack by Cyclops copying the SHIELD power (or if you don't have an extra action to spend copy the Hydra ability to give Cyclops a +1 to his attack roll). Scarlet Witch needs to keep LOF to Blade and Sabretooth and stay within 10 squares of them to help with the B/C/F rolls. As leftovers you have a Shield Trooper and a Hydra Medic. I personally don't use medics often, but you might benefit from one, especially if Cyclops gets pounded. He is your real ranged damage and his stats can plummet when hit.

Alternately you could drop the Blade/Mandroid/Sabretooth/Scarlet Witch unit and add in vet Thing (dropping the SHIELD Trooper to a Thug). More consistent damage and harder to hurt, but you'll have less figures to work with. Plus two thirds of your team will be Cyclops and Thing, so your opponent could focus on them each in turn and cripple you.

This is just a general first attempt. I'd like to try to work Doc Oc or Dr. Doom into a team as well.

[shortboy]

Thanks alot Mr. Pilkington. Your suggestions make alot of sense to me especially since they are models I have. I have a hard time visualizing a strategy when I'm reading about figures I don't have. It's very informative to see how you would use the figures I have. One of the things I'm most confused about is the Team abilities. If I have three Avengers on my squad who have the Avengers free move ability, does that mean that all three get moves or just that I get 1 free move for having 1 or more Avengers? Also, I have gathered from reading the threads that I have to place an action marker buy the character who made the free move just as if I had used one of my turn actions. Does this mean that that character can make no more actions that turn even if the one it made was free? I hope I'm not over burdening you with 'newbie' type questions. Thanks again for your help.

[shin-goji]

Team makeup? Well, Rouge has been known to use it a lot, and everyone agrees Kitty Pryde is way to young to be using it. Storm swears by Mary Kay. But I think we can all come together that Wolverine needs a little bit of blush on his cheeks.

[Mr. Pilkington]

Any figure with either the Avengers team or the Brotherhood team may make a move action without using up one of your allotted actions for the turn (the ones you get based on build points, 3 for a 300pt team, etc). Any figure moved in this way takes a token and has done their action for the turn. No figure may act more than once in a turn (whether using free move actions or not) and the figure using a free movement action may only move. They may not use any superpower that uses a move action such as Running Shot, Charge, Force Blast, Barrier, Regeneration, etc.. Basically the free move teams give you more flexability in getting your team into place. With the team that I suggested you could do all of the following in one turn:

Taxi Cyclops with the Doombot (free action, putting token on 'bot)
Taxi Sabretooth with Wasp (free action again, putting a token on Wasp)
Move Scarlet Witch (free action, token)

Then you still have 3 normal actions left which could be used to:

TK Blade via the Mandroid (normal action #1, token on Mandroid)
Attack with Cyclops (normal action #2, token on Cyclops)
Attack with Sabretooth (normal action #3, token on Sabretooth)

Or you could attack with Blade instead of Cyclops or Sabretooth, move your medic or your Tropper instead of attacking with one of them, etc.. Just note that you could have 6 of your figures with tokens after turn one, and if they act on turn two they push. But being able to move that many figures into place and attack with a couple of them on turn one can be a big advantage.

[MrHappyJetpack]

Originally posted by shin-goji
Team makeup? Well, Rouge has been known to use it a lot, and everyone agrees Kitty Pryde is way to young to be using it. Storm swears by Mary Kay. But I think we can all come together that Wolverine needs a little bit of blush on his cheeks.


har-de-har-har

:p :D

[Xian]

Mr. Pilkington has posted some excellent responses, I just thought I'd add a couple more comments.

I was hoping to list the figures I presently have and get some comments on what some others would recommend using in a standard 300 point team.

I think the concept of a "standard" team is misleading...I'm not sure there's any such thing. There are definitely "tournament quality" teams, and "theme/trick" teams, but I don't know that there's really any "standard" team. :) Anyway, as Pilk (if I can call him that) says, a lot of it depends on your style of play. I find that aggressive is the way to go, as in "the best defense is a good offense."

Team abilities can really add to a given team of figures, and they should be taken into consideration (especially wildcards, like Minions of Doom and Spider-Man team), but unless they are the basis of your team, I would recommend using them as a secondary selection mechanism.

Take, for instance (sorry I can't take examples from your list, but there aren't any really good comparisons), Experienced Black Cat vs. Veteran Black Cat. The V version has better stats, more Probability Control, and only costs a few more points than the E version. However, V Black Cat isn't on a team, while E Black Cat is part of the Spider-Man team. Depending on what you need, this can be a big difference. If your team has an Avenger, Black Cat can get into position for free. If you have a Hydra or SHIELD member, she can add to attacks as appropriate as well as using Probability Control. Because of this versatility, E Black Cat more frequently makes my teams than V Black Cat.

Other interesting figures to consider building teams with (from your list):

Thing- V- 134 -- an incredible brawler, but needs a taxi, and probably someone with Outwit to keep him safe. Amazing in booster draft or in a group with a limited supply of figures.
Hawkeye- V- 64 -- gets a lot of flack for not being very good, but I think he has a lot of versatility.
Cyclops- V- 78 -- Good punch, but not as good as Firelord.
Doombot- E- 33 -- Doombots are great...wildcard, flight, etc.
Firelord- E- 81 -- Good. Too good.
Wasp- E- 33 -- One of the all-around better taxis.
Dr. Octopus- E- 44 -- Haven't played with him much, but has lots of possibilities, especially with wildcards sharing his AV.

Building a team that doesn't include Firelord, I think the following is pretty interesting:

E Dr. Octopus
E Wasp
E Doombot
V Cyclops
V Hawkeye
R Blizzard
R Hydra Medic
--299 points--

The Doombot can taxi Doc Ock (freely as an Avenger), share his AV, or add the Hydra team ability as needed. Later on, he can become an X-man and trade clicks with Cyclops (probably to heal Cyclops, although possibly healing the 'bot to make it easier for the medic to heal Cyclops). Hawkeye and Wasp can deploy freely, with Wasp taxi-ing Cyclops into a good position. Hawkeye and Cyclops are your big hitters, and you'll probably need to have them concentrate on one target at a time in order to take someone else's heavy hitter down. Things would be even better if Blizzard were Brotherhood, because he could freely deploy too, but you can't have everything. Blizzard can hang back and create Barriers as needed.

Another idea would be to build a team around Thing and Wasp, but I'm sure you can figure out fun stuff to do there.


Xian

[shortboy]

Thanks for the advice all! Being very new to the game I'm more than willing to give all the variations a try. I traded some stuff last night just to try some new things. I have no idea if it was a decent trade or not, but I got some new guys to try. I traded the Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch for an E Magneto, E Kingpin, and a rookie Daredevil. Thanks again for the advice and I'm sure I'll be asking more questions as I go.

On a side note, I wanted the Magneto figure as I'm thinking of putting together an X team. I have read here that they maybe alittle weaker than other teams, but it looks like the explosion expansion may be addressing some of the deficiancies.

[Ghost_Rider]

After Xplosion, the X-Men will probably be the most playable team out there. Experienced Magneto isn't bad, but the veteran is the best.

Still, the experienced version can add a lot to your team: flight, Telekinesis, Leadership.. Just remember to keep him out of battle for the most part. He is best used sending the likes of Wolverine into the fray, while sitting back and taking potshots on anybody that comes within range. When the end of battle is near, that's when you unleash Magneto's wrath. He is basically your cleanup crew, and sending him too early could be a very sorry mistake.

Ghost

[allchimp]

I generally like to sit back and play hide-and-go snipe, but using hawkeye and blade together could be a nice little battery if you throw a sheild in. The shield powers up hawkeye and blade and\or thing decimates whatever comes at it. That makes for quite a missile battery.
EDIT:
Sorry, didn't see that u traded hawkeye.