So as everyone knows the Vader's Fist or variants of it are very powerful. I think the power from it stems from two things:

1. Darth Vader - Just a great unit all around and is very hard to beat. Usually in games that I do win against someone using him, I never kill him whatsoever.

2. Numbers - There's a good balance of units that are powerful and the amount of units, being 10 total. Most skirmish teams are very light due to the restrictions of building a skirmish team, but not this one.

So my answer? Aggressiveness and power with a high amount of numbers.

Using a bunch of heavy duty guys is tough against Vader cause Vader just ends up killing them anyway. I feel like there needs to be some type of expandeble units that you can shove in there to make aggressive pushes soley on their own.

1x Luke Skywalker

1x Fenn Signis

2x Rebel Troopers (Gray)

1x Rebel Saboteur

1x Mak Eshka'rey

1x Balance of the Force

Cost: 40

Total: 11 Figures

Command Deck:

1x Covering Fire

1x Maximum Firepower

1x Son of Skywalker

1x Burst Fire

1x Knowledge and Defense

1x Meditation

1x Deflection

1x Marksman

1x Telekinetic Throw

1x Celebration

1x Element of Surprise

1x Fleet Footed

1x Planning

1x Recovery

1x Take Iniative

Unfortunately this deck is in theory as I don't have access to more Rebel Troops or cards. I have to make proxies to make it work which is kind of eh for me.

Regardless what do you guys think? Any improvements I can make?

What is Mak's role in this squad? I personally prefer Gideon's support role more in Rebel squads.

Gideon is pretty godly. For three points, passing focus AND a line of sight free move is pretty great.

Yes, I can't think of a Rebel squad without Gideon that would not be improved by adding him. He's just that good for 3 pts.

A core-only squad I've been enjoying is:

Luke, Fenn, Jyn, Gideon, Mak, 1 Rebel Troopers, 1 Rebel Saboteurs

40 points, 7 activations, 10 figures.

One less figure but 5 "hero level" ones, one extra activation, and a lot of support and flexibility.

A core-only squad I've been enjoying is:

Luke, Fenn, Jyn, Gideon, Mak, 1 Rebel Troopers, 1 Rebel Saboteurs

40 points, 7 activations, 10 figures.

One less figure but 5 "hero level" ones, one extra activation, and a lot of support and flexibility.

Am I crazy? isn't this 41 points?

Luke 10

Fenn 9

Jyn 5

Gideon 3

Mak 3

Troopers 6

Saboteurs 5

Unless you mean Gaarkhan or 2x Saboteurs?

Ha! No wonder I've been having fun :-) I miscalculated when I built that squad and we never questioned it since. Back to the drawing board I guess.

Here is what I would run:

Rebel Strike team

1x Luke Skywalker

1x Fenn Signis

1x Rebel Trooper (Red)

1x Rebel Trooper(Gray)

1x Gideon

1x Mak

I would guess the Red version is like the Elite Stormtrooper. Not really a fan of the reg Troopers but since its a trooper build kind of hard not to go x2. Since they have the white dice could be ok blockers and mission guys and mak for sniping. Could go x2 Red guys or Jyn/Mak(not sure Jyn fixes in the build being a smuggler lol)

I do agree Gideon is fantastic, but Mak does just as well for me plus he's a bit more attack heavy than Gideon. Gideon is fantastic support though and I really do want to try to wedge him in there somehow.

Dalia impresses me as well in Skirmish. Her discard ability gets through some really hard defenses consistently which is just awesome imo. I want to fit her as well while still have the concept of "numbers + power" so to speak.

I recently ran this retooled build and liked Diala (now that I'm playing a legal point amount )

Luke, Fenn, Diala, Gideon, Jyn, Rebel Troopers.

You're right that discarding command cards really helps take down defensive characters. Having 2 force users helps bite on more force user command cards as well.

I do agree Gideon is fantastic, but Mak does just as well for me plus he's a bit more attack heavy than Gideon. Gideon is fantastic support though and I really do want to try to wedge him in there somehow.

Dalia impresses me as well in Skirmish. Her discard ability gets through some really hard defenses consistently which is just awesome imo. I want to fit her as well while still have the concept of "numbers + power" so to speak.

Mak is great but the full power of him is being able to take out a character a turn from far away. The problem not using Gideon is that you dont have the fire power to pull off his action thing and take out characters. I like having both together.