Seems to me that the problem is the competitive meta. Most likely, FF did not anticipate that spamming regular units would be so powerful compared to elite options. Spamming lists are expensive to buy but too good in the game, so a slight rebalancing would likely make the weird effects less. Hopefully this is in the pipeline, and much more likely than FF publishing cards.

If there is no mono-cutlture of 1-2 competative lists, then the problem becomes much less, since the cards can be borrowed for tournaments. This is how me and my friends solved the X-wing problem, if your have around 4 friends playing the game all with different list-preferences, then 1-2 core sets for a competative player should be more than enough.

If the cost is to high, diversify the local meta yourself. Be the change you want to see...etc. I also note, however, that I was able to find all the cards and models mentioned in the thread except Royal Guard regulars on Ebay doing a 5 min, search. So really, it all comes down to the need to play 8 regular RG instead of 4+2 elties (with 2 cores), for instance. Or putting in some Troopers and mixing it up a little.

As for me, if I a going into the skirmish game at all it will be as a strict scum/merc player, likely using Hired Guns and so on. I enjoy playing the underdog:)

I think all the Skirmish players specifically need to relax.

This is a *very* easily addressed issue thanks to Organized Play. Much the same way that I now have *way* too many elite storm trooper and AT-ST cards, it is easy and probably already "in the pipe" for FFG to release alt-art, additional cards via OP kits. I would think that things like extra Trandos, extra RGs, extra heavy troopers are all things that will be addressed.

So far the OP kits have all been elite units, it would be nice if they started to include regular deployment cards, as you can legally field up to 4 of them. This would give extra insensitive to go to multiple tournaments that happen to be using the same tournament kit.

Seems to me that the problem is the competitive meta. Most likely, FF did not anticipate that spamming regular units would be so powerful compared to elite options. Spamming lists are expensive to buy but too good in the game, so a slight rebalancing would likely make the weird effects less. Hopefully this is in the pipeline, and much more likely than FF publishing cards.

Like I said, the different design teams work on different games, but they interact. And the games change significantly over time. What we see seeing is not the result of bad design but the artifact of a young game. And it's likely that spamming will always be powerful anyway, but if we continue to get releases, strong counters will arrive.