The new rule comes into effect in August, but we'd thought we would give it a spin last night.

I ran:

Luke

Chewbacca

Han

Gideon

My friend ran:

Royal Guard

Royal Guard

Elite Officer

Elite Officer

Elite E-Web

Stormtroopers

We played on Chewbacca's map. This is the one where your goal is to sit in your enemys deployment zone and collect 6vp. And... and... there are 5 token crates with 6pt shields on the board. My list was much slower, but I had all the command cards for the characters, so I figured I'd get some extra actions to make up for my lack of figures.

Che

Turn 1 I got initiative (I should have passed it to my bud, but ... what can you do.) I did pass on his first couple of activations. That was kinda fun. He grabbed a terminal, I grabbed a terminal. I got a command card to focus two of my characters, and Gideon used that and his own abilty to focus everyone. Chewie from across the board sniped a Stormtrooper off a terminal and the command card advantage got started.

Turn 2, it was pretty clear I didn't have enough models to grab any of the shields and still bring any offense to the game. I passed on 1 activation, and later I passed on another. (After this turn I didn't pass anymore)

Turn 3, my lack of models was getting me worried, even though I took down 2 royal guards that had shield tokens (14 life!!!!, each!!!!)

Turn 4, Luke... Luke!!!! Poor Luke died. Chewie used his command card and reactivated... and ran into the enemy deployment zone.

Turn 5... end of round... both players at 39 VP.

Turn 6.... we both gave up playing figuring the game was over, but then we fudged stuff so if I won it would get an asterisk, if he won he would get an asterisk. So we call it a draw.

I think 4 Activations under the new rule is fine, but having just 4 models on the board made it much more difficult for me to play. Next time Han gets taken out and two unit of rebel saboteurs come in. I needed blast to stop the royal guard protector ability and I needed the ability to lay down more generic firepower, I think I had too much super elite killing ability.

I lost Luke, Han and Gideon, 4 wounds taken on Chewie (who oddly dodged six times in a row) for about 31wounds taken

He lost 1 unit Royal Guard, EWeb, 1 storm trooper and 1 officer, and had 1 life left on his other officer, for about 48 wounds taken.

I'm planning on a similar list, except swapping R2-D2 for Gideon.

I don't actually expect it to be that strong, but in the new rules it might at least be nearly-viable. Previously, no way.

4 Act's used to be a death sentence, but with the new rule (when everyone uses it) that's no longer the case necessarily. But I think you'll find that 4 models doesn't play into 10 models very well. Then again it could have been the mission, perhaps another mission where I don't have to deal with +6 life shields all over the place might be better.

Tried it and its not enough models.

The scenario could easily work for you, since you can get shields on Chewie and Luke early on and make them nigh unkillable, then you gang up one side with Luke Han and the other with Chewie Gideon, holding Gideon waaaay back, and let Chewie kill stuff with focus on.

I played 4x4 (Player 1) against Vader, Elite Officer, Royal Guard, Elite Stormtroopers (Player 2) recently. The activation count was not the problem anymore.

Turn 1:

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Stormtroopers: Move, Move

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Move

Player 2: Royal Guard: Move, Move

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Officer: Move, Order

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Vader: Move, Attack

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Turn 2:

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Vader: Attack, Choke

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Officer: Move, Order

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Stormtroopers: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Move

...

I'd still say, that the Order is great.

Sometimes, you want a cheap figure to just control that Terminal, where no opponents are etc.

I played 4x4 (Player 1) against Vader, Elite Officer, Royal Guard, Elite Stormtroopers (Player 2) recently. The activation count was not the problem anymore.

Turn 1:

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Pass

Player 1: Officer: Move, Order

Player 2: Stormtroopers: Move, Move

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Move

Player 2: Royal Guard: Move, Move

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Officer: Move, Order

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Vader: Move, Attack

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Turn 2:

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Vader: Attack, Choke

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Officer: Move, Order

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 1: Royal Guard: Move, Attack

Player 2: Stormtroopers: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Attack

Player 1: Officer: Move, Move

...

I'd still say, that the Order is great.

Sometimes, you want a cheap figure to just control that Terminal, where no opponents are etc.

Thanks for posting. There's no doubt that Order is solid...and for only 2pts it's a great option. I'm just not sure that you need to spend 20% of your squad points on it, the way that you did before.

Who won? How did it go? Did you find that the 4/4 list was no longer as strong, since its activation advantage was nullified? It seems like the Vader squad had plenty of strong damage output each round, but it would still suffer from a lack of the board control that the 4/4 list had. I'm curious to see how the match played out.

The 4x4 won, but not as dominant as usual. It was a fair game. The 4x4 is still very good: Board control, speed, tough, hard hitting ...

Before passing was allowed, on turn 1 the Vader list would have been done activating before the first Royal Guard of the 4x4 would have activated. The 4x4 was able to position itself on the first half of turn 1 and then strike hard on the second half of turn 1 without any retaliation. These times are over ... and it is good.