The Focus Point trait on Commander Rogers made me want to see how wild and crazy I could get with a team ability oriented army. It was meant as a lark, but at least on paper, the result actually seems pretty solid to me. What do you think?

Avengers - 499:
Commander Rogers 99
Beast 95
Firestar 81 w/ Hellions
Sandman 101
Iron Fist 70
Spider-Man 50

From a wildcard abuse perspective, five TA's are available (Avengers, Shield, Xmen, Sinister Sindicate, Hellions). Three figures sport dual TA's, one a triple TA, and two of those sport the wild card ability. So... a lot of options.

Iron Fist is our primary close combatant with Sandman taking on the menacing tie-up role. Backing up the primaries in both these roles are Spider-Man and Beast, who also contribute Outwit and Incapacitate as the situation demands. Rogers is the primary ranged combatant while Firestar is intended for crowd control. Should the opportunity arise, three members have the potential for a 12 Atk 6 Dmg shot at 8 or more squares; even Sandman can manage a surprise attack from 5 away. Hellions is unlikely to enter play, but it does provide some minimally defensive option for the wildcards and there's no reason not to use it. Played in Golden Age, it would probably be dropped to put Pym Particles on Sandman.

I was thinking of this

Build
99 CA031 Steve Rogers
70 SI004 Iron Fist
50 SI001 Spider-Man
70 SI004 Iron Fist
5 GXS101 Crimson Gem of Cyttorak
294

Gem can be swapped out for two lunges for Fist and Spidey if you use feats

Seems to me Steve should be teamed up with more of a ranged kind of team. FCBD War Machine and/ or Iron Man (who is retired) come to mind.

I don't believe this kind of pairing in a small build actually takes proper advantage of what Cap brings to the table (Shield TA, sharing of said TA, high attack secondary attacker, Leadership). Paired with a big gun the Leadership will be useless and I would hesitate to use a 99+ character just for SHIELD... so he becomes a secondary attacker dangerous enough to draw fire and wide open to a bum rush (IE... easy points). One could round out the squad with a close quarters fighter, but that kind of feels like throwing good points after bad.

Which is not to say I don't like him in the ranged game... I just think he's going to be stronger as the primary attacker in a cluster of smaller figs that can cover both him and each other in between bombardments. For focused ranged play I would rather use a Guardsman or whatever dirt cheap Shield mook we're likely to get in this set.

As for The_Sound_of_Animals force... it certainly looks effective enough. Obviously its scaled down and streamlined and sadly the cute option of having 4 TA's on one character is lost in the shuffle. I would probably trade out one Iron Fist and the Gem for Spider-Girl, mostly because I don't enjoy using multiple copies of non-generics. Otherwise potent.

Steve and Dr Strange could be a good combo.

I feel that Steve backing up HoT Thor is where it's at. Thor can use his leadership if Steve stays close by to potentially pull a token from him every round, letting him continue to boost Thor's damage. And once Thor is pushed hopefully you'll hit leadership so Steve can fire off on someone with an effective 8 range (with Thor using the Shield TA provided by Steve). In a 400 point game, those two with Iron Fist as a tie up/close combat attacker could be nasty.

Stevey would allow for shield swarms to advance without being caught by actions.
Steve Rogers- 99
Captain America- 72
2x CT E S.H.I.E.L.D Trooper- 28
2x CT V S.H.I.E.L.D Sniper- Spotter- 46
Sinister E SHIELD Sniper- Spotter- 27
CT R Mandroid Armor- 28
300
Stevey good in golden age, Stevey really good.