So I'm trying to get together a list with the Bantha Rider and figuring out what fits where and this is what I have so far. There are two iterations of it of trying out right now. Feel free to critique and let me know your thoughts.

- E Bantha Rider (because Banthas are awesome)

- Beast Tamer (see above point)

- E Tusken (strong unit for the point value and something to use with Jundland Terror if Bantha dies)

- Wampa (something to use Beast Tamer with if Bantha dies. Really loves the extra movement points)

- HK (8 points for two figure with 3 dice each? Yes please. The forced rerolls is great vs the dreaded X-Man)

- Hired Guns (pretty weak but the 5 movement is going to help with grabbing terminals and objectives. A necessary evil)

This is the core 34 points in my opinion. This sets you with 5 activations and 8 figures so far. A point to bring up here is why I'm doing so much planning for the Banthas death. We talked about this in another forum and came to the conclusion that the Bantha rider will probably not make it past round two assuming you run it up the first round into enemy troops.

The last 6 point I'm torn between either

Rebel Splash

- Gideon

- 3PO

- Temp Alliance

Wampa and Upgrade

- Devious Schemes (gives you initiative turn two which is great for the Bantha)

- Wampa (another beastie with high hit points)

Could also do E Nexu, DS and Tuskens, E Hired Guns(ewwww).

So what do you guys think would work best? Anything need to be swapped out?

I was thinking about this some today. You kind of want Devious Scheme and 7 activations to pretty much ensure you can move the bantha last, wreck stuff, then use it again at the beginning of round 2. In order to get the 7 activations, you pretty much need to bring in the rebel support (which is amazing anyways). You also pretty much need a hired guns to do objectives.

So, that's 20 points (bantha, beast tamer, 3p0, Gideon, temp alliance, and hired guns) and 4 activations. 21 with scheme.

I think you want hks, but you can really only take 1 if you want to try to get 7 activations. An hk leaves you with 11 points and 5 activations.

Elite Nexu is probably a good idea, as that gets you another creature, and he has a lot of good utility. 5 points left.

I think the last 5 has to be wampa, regular tuskens, or another hired guns (and explosive arms for the hks).

I can't say I'm super excited about any of those choices. I lean towards the tuskens to get use out of Jundland Terror when the Bantha dies.

So the final list would be:

Bantha

Gideon

3p0

Hired Guns

eNexu

HKs

Tuskens

Upgrades: Devious Scheme, Temp Alliance, Beast Tamer

Command deck obviously has Crush, 2x Jundland, Opportunistic (or whatever the merc movement one is), Ferocity, Survival Instincts, Single Purpose, and whatever else good you can fit in. Inspiring Speech and Field Tactician are certainly worth considering.

I wish the mercs could bring alliance smugglers to make more activations, but the cheapest they have is hired guns or nexu.

General strategy is to move last with the Bantha in round 1, and first in round 2, to hopefully kill all their guys.

Why not E Tuskens and Regular Nexu? The upgrade for Elite for Tuskens seems better than for Nexu. Or am I crazy?

Elite vs Regular

Tuskens

+ 1 automatic dmg

+ 6 Hp

Nexu

+ 2 Hp

Surge for 2 dmg instead of pierce

Cleave 2 instead of cleave 1

Yea, that probably is a better tradeoff. It just stinks to have to take a regular nexu since the elite one is better. Makes sense in this case, though.

Got my bantha today and basically got him killed by the beginning of round 2 because I ran him right into a mad of my friends storm troopers.

My list (bantha, 2 reg tusken, 1 elite HK, reg hired guns, TA/gideon/c3po)

His list (3 reg officers, 2 reg heavies, 2 elite stormies, reg probe droid, rule by fear)

Once my bantha was dead it was really easy to kill my remaining troops. I'll probably be more patient if I use this list the next time.

Elite vs Regular

Tuskens

+ 1 automatic dmg

+ 6 Hp

Nexu

+ 2 Hp

Surge for 2 dmg instead of pierce

Cleave 2 instead of cleave 1

But :

The +1 dmg on the tuskens doesn't work on the range attack AND it is not Cleave 2 instead of cleave 1. It is automatic Cleave 2 instead of Surge : Cleave 1 .

Especially the automatic Cleave 2 is a great upgrade for a melee beast so I would consider it over eTuskens.

If you stick with regular Tuskens you are risking them dying to a single good roll or almost certainly from 2 attacks from almost everything. At 7 Hp you could probably soak up another shot and a half. Why not use the Tuskens in Melee anyways. The first couple rounds attention is on the Bantha so it shouldn't be too hard getting them close. You really don't want to use the cycles unless you can't get to someone with Melee.

I think using a focus'd Nexu to get in a Last Activation attack (which is possible in most any map with the use of Beast Tamer and pounce) will weaken your enemy and put the fear of the Nexu in him. Hopefully by next turn you can activate him again for a second, although weaker, attack. He'll die soon after, but that's when you have the Bantha ride right up behind him to lay on the second wave of hurt! By this time, it's nearing the end of Round 2, your opponent has had two huge beasts to deal with while whatever is left of your squad takes a nice and leisurely walk around the board to objectives or a good position.

After some toying around I think I like the Nexu better than the Wampa. The rounds the Wampa needs the movement from Beast Tamer are generally the first two and that's right when you are going to need it for the Bantha Rider. Nexu can generally take care of itself when it comes to movement although it will never say no to an extra 6.

After some toying around I think I like the Nexu better than the Wampa. The rounds the Wampa needs the movement from Beast Tamer are generally the first two and that's right when you are going to need it for the Bantha Rider. Nexu can generally take care of itself when it comes to movement although it will never say no to an extra 6.

Couldn't agree more on this one.

The fact that with two elite Nexus you can both do 'change of plans' and Strength in Numbers (though not necessarily both at once) has really impressed me.

Good pounce use and mobile makes the bases almost LESS annoying than the Wampas, too.

A

What are you cutting out for the two Elite Nexu's? That seems like a large point investment with the 9 already going to the Bantha.

I started messing around with proxies a couple weeks ago and posted the bantha rider list discussion in this forum. I started with one list and ended up tweaking it to this. I like it quite a bit.

9 Bantha

7 E Tusken

6 E Nexu

6 E Nexu

1 Temp Alliance

3 Gideon

7 E Sabs

1 Beast Tamer

= 40

You can look at the command cards I used in that thread. I hadn't thought of using change of plans or strength in numbers with the nexu though. That could be fun

Wanted to get some discussion about command cards going on here and bounce some ideas around. Here is the list I'm going with.

- E Bantha

- Nexu

- E Tusken

- HK

- Hired Gun

- Beast Tamer

- Devious Schemes

- Temporary Alliance

- Gideon

- C3PO

Here are the command cards I'm working with.

Card Options

2 - Jundland Terror

2 - Jundland Terror

3 - Crush

2 - Inspiring Speech

1 - Negation

1 - Batllefield Tactician

1 - Single Purpose

1 - Survival Instincts

1 - Ferocity

0 - Element of Surprise

0 - Take Intiative

0 - Planning

0 - Urgency

0 - Rally

0 - Fleet Footed

0 - Opportunistic

Let me know of any other you guys can think of and what has worked for you!

Hmm, you're only using 14 points of cards, but all the point cards you're using seem pretty required (it is Field Tactician, not Battlefield).

You could remove Planning (since only Gideon use it the best, and he'll be busy a lot) and replace it with like... Hit and Run? Or maybe Marksman? Both would be intended for use with the HKs.

This is pretty much what I had in mind though.

I ran the following list at FFGC Store Champs yesterday:

Bantha Rider - 9

Wampa - 5

Wampa - 5

Elite Nexu - 6

Elite Nexu - 6

Nexu - 4

Nexu - 4
Beast Tamer - 1

I went 2-2, I lost the first mission because I didnt read the fact that I could beat down the door, and spent the entire game tripping over myself trying to get into position while my opponent's rebels focused everything up and then dropped me as I came around the corner, too slowly to be effective. This was my fault, and was a mistake I did not repeat the next time I was on that map. My other loss was a calcuated risk to open the data core uncontested on the first turn and be able to hold it for either 2 or three turns to win, but my dice failed me, and my opponent's dice were on absolute fire. So instead of scoring 10 vp's on turn 2 and 3, I only was able to score 10 on turn 4, but by that time, i could not contest both terminals, and he was able to move in on turn 5 and finish me off.

Running the missions, Wampas were really great at beating down doors in the Training Ground, but after that, with a base speed of 3, and the awkward large base movement (moving them is like playing tetris), even with the extra 2 MP when at range, and the damage output of 2 red dice, they are just too **** slow to be effective. Both wampas are getting removed from my list entirely, and they will never get fielded again. They arent worth it. In their place, I will either add another Bantha and give it Last Stand, or two more Nexu, both with Last Stand.

Watching a Nexu use beast tamer to move 12, then pounce 3 and attack is a thing of absolute beauty.

Moving into our new world of Beast Tamer, Bantha lists, I will have to say that while Wampa's can have a place in a list, I see them as a second turn beat-down then a first turn tank. Too slow, burned down too quickly. Nexu are honestly my favourite first turn strikers, they have the movement (especially with beast tamer) to allow them to get your enemy at a point where he thought it was impossible to get him, then cleave and bleed while hopefully getting at least 1 dodge all. Then, at the end, 6 points isn't that big of a loss to me if the Nexu takes a figure or two with it.

Yeah the Nexu definitely fits better with the Bantha's. I'd like to find a place for Wampa somewhere still but it's just not possible. Also from my play testing and the tourney I did the other day I may have been wrong about how fast the Bantha goes down. Two of my fours games the Bantha survived the whole match and the two games it died was on round 3 and the start of round 4. So the whole point about using Beast Tamer on the Wampa is moot.

I would kick one tusken for c-3po and upgrade something. Maybe the wampa.

Got rid of the Wampas. New list I am trying:

Bantha Rider - 9

Elite Nexu - 6

Elite Nexu - 6

Nexu - 4

Nexu - 4

Nexu - 4 (+attachment)**

Nexu - 4 (+attachment)**

**Attachment: Last Resort - 1

**Attachment: Last Resort - 1

--Upgrade: Beast Tamer - 1

Gotta paint up a yellow nexu and a purple nexu, and I plan on redefining "Taste The Rainbow".

Haha that's awesome! I had to paint up some non-traditional Nexu too!

I call them Fire and Ice. Not quite done yet, not sure if I'm going to go with regular spikes like yours (though it's hard to tell for sure in the picture) or more styled ones with fire and ice qualities. And I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with their tails.

http://imgur.com/a/BxZaI

You could form the Mighty Morphin' Nexu!!

~D

In Soviet Russia, Rainbow tastes you!

My teeth and claws still need some work, the orange and green one (and the Bantha) I cranked out the night before the tournament, so they aren't "done" yet. Not sure what I am going to do with the tails, so far, just made them like the fur. I made all the spikes an off-bone color with a shade of the fur color to give them a unified look. I also put colored construction paper in the card sleeves to help identify which unit is which.

I could name the Bantha "Dio", then I would have "Rainbow, featuring Dio".

Not super creature heavy. But I think this makes a super strong Bantha list.

Bantha

Elite HKs

Elite Nexu

Hired Guns

Hired Guns

Beast Tamer

Devious Scheme

Temp Alliance

Gideon

With 1 point left for either Explosive Armament or Last Resort.

Flexible on the Nexu, so you can potentially tweak a few points and take C3PO or R2D2 or something like that.