1) Does TK live-up to your expectations of how good you thought it would be under the new rules?

2) Do you think fliers are still necessary?

3) How important is mobility to your team under the new rules?

4) What powers and strategies do you use to compensate for NAAT and TCCT?

1. Yes and No = Cosmic boy yes, jean and mandroids no

2. Yes, they make you cover the map, much much easier than TK. You have to have LOS when TK and your fig will usually be all alone once Tkd.

3. Very important! TK and some fliers are still a must and it would also help if you had some charge, HSS or RS on your team. Free moves and leadership is also welcome.

4. TK, Outwit, Stealth, Charge, barrier, RS, HSS

Thanks for the reply valor. From what I've been seeing lately, people are using their big-hitters as taxis. I'm seeing more figures like Super Skrull, Annihilus, and Wonder Woman taxiing in another grounded big-hitter like Bane or Despero. One of my favorite teams has NO fliers or TKers and it's been higly effective. Of course it has some HSS, lots of perplex and stealth, and a dose of willpower...

You forgot Thor and even... yes.. Iron Man.

Well Thor and Iron Man are certainly premium pieces under the new rules, but I don't think they're that great in a 300 point or lower format.

My current 300 point undefeated team:

R Mystique 34
R Gambit 28
R Yukio 57
E Black Cat 32
V Doc Oc 66
U Nightcrawler 83

300 even

Now I'm sure there are teams out there that *can* beat this one, but in my experience it's pretty tough. Yukio standing behind Doc Oc and Mystique suddenly makes them a pretty serious threat. Yukio has 5 clix of Enhance with toughenss all the way down. She's a tough customer with all that and Crossgen for Black Cat to borrow. Gambit and Black Cat are basically just Nightcrawler sponges once they get knocked off their top clix.

Doc Oc and Black Cat have Leap/Climb and NC has HSS, but notice there are NO fliers NOR TKers. In other games I've played several teams with NO flight or TK and have found them to be highly effective as well. So is TK really the bomb? Everytime I've played a TKer they get to do their TK thing once and that's it. The discerning player will do things to make that one TK shot difficult if not impossible, and then they're done. I've found that TKers like Mandroid Armor and Jean Grey aren't that great but Fatality, Moondragon, Magneto, Cosmic Boy, and Johnny Alpha are a bit better, but really their TK just doesn't get used all that much.

Anyone else have similar or different experience? Why or why not?

Here's my problem with telekinesis. Whenver I use it, I find that my telekinesis person gets somewhat left behind. If I use Johnny Alpha to toss someone into combat (and assuming I don't want to push Johnny which is usually true), then Johnny can't fight for a long long time (1st round: Tk. 2nd round: rest. 3rd round: move closer to fight. 4th round: rest. 5th round: attack for the first time)

Pushing doesn't make this much better. (1st round: Tk, 2nd round: move up, take damage from pushing. 3rd round: rest. 4th round: attack, if he's survived two rounds of being within the opponent's combat range.)

I like flying TK-ers better, since they can taxi first. Moondragon's my favorite in this regard, though for DC only, I'm looking at trying out E-Fatality.

How does Cosmic Boy do well? I'd hate to spend over 50 points for just a TK taxi, with no range at all, so I'm curious how one can make him excel. Fatality is at least dangerous after doing her taxi/TK jobs (with RCE).

Is TK the bomb?

Yes.

One of my favorite combos is rookie or vet Jean Grey and a piece with running shot and good attack/range/damage. This can devastate, DEPENDING ON THE MAP YOU CHOOSE.

If it's a three-hundred point game then you can have plenty of Defense staying back to defend the telekinesis person. And if you play it right with positioning and support then they can have higher defense or a brick nearby.

Yes - TK with HSS, R&S or Charge would be extremely effective, but are those powers really any less effective without a TKer?

In the Marquee, I had a E Johnny Alpha.

In the first game I kept him in position to TK but never used it. (Well I was going to once.. to use the object one of my characters in front of him was standing on to whack someone else.. but I didn't have LOS).

In the second, I had him in position to TK and did use it. I TKed E Bron up to the front lines for two reasons. 1 to force his people to attack the Crossgen character, and 2 to get a good whack on his V Johnny Alpha. Unfortinately Super Senses got in my way, although my purpose was achieved in getting rid of Stealth on E Maggie, and Outwit on R Abbey Chase.

Unfortinately I forgot about V Johnny Alpha's 8 (thinking it to be 6) range and since I was 7 away and he had no perplexers I thought I was safe. I was proven to be very wrong. It cost me the match as my E Bron was destroyed, and his Johnny Alpha got a 3 pt hit on mine.

V Kabuki missing her Flurry attacks later didn't help either.

However on a constructed team (Involving U Spiral) TK is the Absolute bomb. Chucking Spiral at an opponent then having her copy whatever TA is available on my team is a #### useful thing.

In TKers.. Yeah I can see Cosmic Boy as being useful, especially the V since Leadership is actually USEFUL now.

Johnny Alpha.. all about useful.

Jean Grey/Mandriod Armor No. They're cheap TK that has no real purpose.

Moondragon - Marvel's Best TKer. Magneto is nice on the front end for decent damage (E/V) but Moonie is cheaper and more versitile.

E/V Fatality - More cost effective than Cosmic Boy IMHO.

StormWind

Yes, you just said it. TK gives you 10 extra movement for one action(12 with Phoenix, not that I was planning on using her), and you can attack with the moved figure within the same turn. I indeed think that it is "extremely useful".

First off, I'm ignoring DC pieces in this discussion because I don't play with them much, I just try to waste them in mixed tournaments (and some of them are cheap bastards!).

I disagree with you.

LE and Vet Jean have high defense and support, as well as X-Men.

Mandroid is less expensive than these and still has toughness and shield TA, and I will admit that one is cheaper than Jean.

But with tons of cheap Mandroids you can pull off some insane first-attack strategies. I'm not saying that this is a guaranteed tournament win strategy. It depends on who you are facing. But I've had some incredible results with the new rules and an anti-stealth/anti range strategy. But sometimes facing a person with good positioning/indoor clutter/defense power such as invulnerability - it won't work.

And if you're using an HSS character such as Nightcrawler or Amazo and you're second player on the first turn and your opponent has moved forward at all, then you have a high probability on an open map of being able to do a hit and run on that turn.

Really, if you take your time and plan out a long-term strategy (not just first strike) with TK, your team can be really adaptable.

Well, I ended up mentioning Amazo so I just contradicted myself. Oh well.

No, but then again I never had any increased expectations due to the new rules. I used TK alot before, and have not found the frequency to increase.

[quote]2) Do you think fliers are still necessary?[quote] Fliers have never been necessary. It was the preferred method of mobility. Fliers do however, serve a different function now, if you intend to use them solely for the purposes of taxiing.

Mobility is now the single most important factor, when determining what type of team you want to put together. It has been my experience under the new rules, that he who cannot move, is deadmeat.

I use the same ones as I did before. I'm just more thoughtful of how I do things. However, I do think that Flight, L/C, Phasing, Running shot,HSS, Willpower and Charge are all IMPORTANT and highly stressed powers, in team building. Like I said he who is immobile is in trouble.

I think TK is good, but over rated. I agree with Stormwind that once your TK'er does his/her job, they tend to be a piece left out of the mix. I think that pieces that offer more in terms of TA, Attacking abilities, and support powers will be prevelant, because TK is one more dimension that they add to the game.

I always felt that figures that were fliers, should be used for their other capabilities as well as their taxiing ability, this was something I practiced...I don't really see that aspect being any different now, at least in that sense.

That about sums up the Marquee experience I had. Those who pulled, and properly used, Johnny Alpha rocked the house. Those that didn't had their posteriors handed to them. The ability to toss a BCF figure and have them attack in the same turn was devastating in a field of figures that couldn't take more than 2-3 clicks before becoming basically worthless. In effect, taxi mechanics with a different name, and like the old style taxi those who didn't have it suffered for it. The big difference being in IndyClix its a lot harder to pull a TK taxi.

Then there's the issue that Indyclix is a field of figures that hit hard up close but rarely leave hindering terrain, and are thus hard targets unless gang piled. Which was the other battle order of the day - each side picking a single opponent's piece and dog piling it with close combat figures, the winner of the match being the one who racked up more dog pile KOs than their opponent did on them (this often being decided by a successfull Super Senses roll or two). No real finesse or tactics, just each side picking their victim (and, by definition, their sacrifice) and pounding away en masse. The advantage invariably going to the person who deployed their figures to good terrain first (the "come in and get clobbered" factor) and didn't get completely dice wanked. I chalk this up much more to the figure mix in US IndyClix than I do to the IndyClix rules changes, although the latter is a factor.

I do know this - each opponent I faced had (like myself) luckily pulled a Johnny Alpha, but none of them used him like the BCF cannon he is. In fact one opponent never used his ability for anything other than objects. I was tossing BCF figures at unsuported victims every good opportunity (unpushed Witchblades being my favorite target - nothing like knocking that "can't miss" first click right past those dangerous Charge clicks). As a result, I clobbered all but one opponent - and that one won only due to never missing a die roll (made all his hit rolls, all his Super Sense rolls) and my dice running cold after some early cleanup (missed all but 1 attack after turn 4, with almost all being just 5 or 6+ to hit). I don't think TK is essential for Marvel or DC, but with the current Indy mix I think its a must have for that set.