Road split in two.

Hello,

           I've had an interesting conversation with a listener and made come back and think about a looming issue from last weekend's post. I feel I honestly asked to look again where fun and competitive meet. If you read the "Rough Weekend" post you will see that I had some advice about not treating your figures like an issue of a comic book. I would like to stand by that position, but I would like to expand that thought. Play your favorite figures well. It is a simple thought but means a lot.

       Many times people think that just because their favorite figures are on the field then any action they do is a good one. Or even worse that the situation may be loaded against that figure. How many times in comics does one person take down whole armies alone. Now ask yourself how do you make that character into a balanced heroclix figure? You can't. That is why Supes can get owned by Captain America with the help of Black Panther. Just because Power Man runs in head first every comic through a brick wall to hit the first guy he sees in the throat doesn't mean that you should do that tactically. Also if the version of the figure are playing is range glass cannon and you want to play it as an in your face brick because you feel that is the true nature of the character I'm sorry you will have problems. The key is to understand and separate your desired fantasy from consequences.

     Just like people clix have layers. No good character is one dimensional in their attitudes. The same goes for many heroclix. Take time to learn the tempo of your favorite figure because that is their personality. You have to be careful because if you force to much of your plans on that figure that don't work with the nuance of the dial then you are going to struggle. I can't tell you how many times lately I wanted the cop car to move just a few more squares. In that focus I have ignored its attacking or perplexing abilities. See the figure for what it is not what you want it to be.

    Think on how the actual team dynamic works. If in the comics there is a poor team dynamic and they fumble through their missions guess what is going to happen in clix. Also what type of missions did that comic team do. If they are a stealth team that snuck in and took out one evil dictator the whole time they would have problems against the super x-ray squad and their bombs of doom. Take for example X-Force. That team plays exactly as it reads in the comics. The problem is that it  is not flexible in the amount of situations it can deal with.  That is why Justice League, X-men, Avengers, and the like are the most popular theme teams. Not because everyone likes those teams or books. They might enjoy them but it is mostly for the tactical options.

   Now this leads us to some very shaky ground. I want to make it clear that this is not a "casual" versus "meta" conversation. We can see that some theme play is easier than others.  Some people think theme play is better because there is a disadvantage. That is not true. Some thing that min-max has a total sum of efficiency, that is not true as well. The first thing to note is that you can make a killer Gencon level Justice League team or Avengers team right now. Their are ton of high and low meta tech options to deploy. At the same time you get theme team bonus to map and theme probs. That is a really good deal. But it takes guts to make the needed decision to say that you are not playing the exact line up from your childhood with the figures that correlate to your favorite issues. I know players like that. On the opposite end look at Push to Regen's Avenger team from the 2v2 and you will see a monster team that is theme.  Just because you min-max it doesn't mean you have a superior edge. The thing about min-max is that in the end the mechanics are very obvious and simple. You can't do anything complicated or subtle with min-max thinking most times. Min-max limits options so you can most effectively do 1 or 2 things. That is the one element people forget. There is very little psychological trickery or edge to be gained. Alex Avilla taught us that mind games of heroclix have yet to be cracked. His world teams played on the two biggest weaknesses of min-max thinkers. The first is that the highest point piece is the most important. The second is tempo/timing manipulation. Do you kill the 160 point support piece or the 77 point real damage dealer? What do you do when you can't get all your major effects lined up and you are taking damage?

   You can see how labels can get us into trouble. Some times the labels will disarm us and make us not think. We categorize so that we can make judgements quickly. But I would challenge you to slow down at the beginning of each round and rethink through your opponents team.

   I may do a podcast on morale, or not. I don't know yet. I will not be going to K.C. this weekend so I will have to assess some stuff. I hope you can see with this post that fun and competition are not two separate paths. I also hope you saw the weakness in some of the common community thinking in heroclix.

   If you have any show or blog post ideas hit me up.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos