Great point Nick I've never thought about that, I thought 3po did it to any adjacent friendly never even considered it was the space, silly me.

Jabba certainly looks great but I think it'll depend on the list generally. Don't think it's a definite one or the other, at least not in my head atm

I'm thinking that Jabba will replace the Gideon/3P0 combo in most, if not all, competitive Merc squads.

My two cents are; play what you want. Most stuff in the game is pretty good and you can get by with it. As far as I can see, you want between 6-8 activations each turn and this seems to be superior to having strong characters.

Cripes, I keep getting to 5 activations and running out of points. Gonna have to take another look at that.

I keep getting to 4

My two cents are; play what you want. Most stuff in the game is pretty good and you can get by with it. As far as I can see, you want between 6-8 activations each turn and this seems to be superior to having strong characters.

Cripes, I keep getting to 5 activations and running out of points. Gonna have to take another look at that.

I keep getting to 4

I hear you, because I like to use the big pieces too. Vader, RGC, Weiss, Boba, Han, Chewie...they're all so cool!

I wanna play Han, Chewie, Luke, Leia, Obiwan, R2 and 3P0, all in one squad! A 57pt squad, but a squad nonetheless!!! For some reason which I can't quite put my finger on, it feels like they just belong together....

Back on topic, I think you need to ask yourself what kind of squad you want to be building. If it's not for competitive play, then I'm sure that whatever you're building will be just fine, even if it just has 4 or 5 activations. However, if you're looking at competitive play then those pieces I've listed in my first sentence are also some of the least cost-effective (ie, the most overcosted) pieces in the game, and so you probably wouldn't want them in your competitive squad to begin with. I'm making the assumption that you are trying to use some of those high-cost figures, and I arrive at that assumption because it's hard to get just 4 or 5 activations in a 40pt squad if you don't have at least 1 or 2 of these figures in the squad.

So what I'm saying is that, if you're using these high-cost figures, your squad probably won't be very competitive anyway (or at LEAST will be very difficult to use effectively), so in that case it's probably not a big deal that you're a bit low on activations, since it's not really a squad tailored for competition. See what I mean? But if you want to play a competitive squad in a competitive event, then I'd suggest that you try to work with some of the ideas that people have mentioned earlier in this thread (and other threads). There's a lot of variety on the competitive scene right now, but unfortunately that variety doesn't really include the original high-cost Uniques. But Obiwan, Lando, Greedo, on the other hand...those guys are Ace!

Meta decks atm based on podcasts and events that I've witnessed:

Rebels:

Skywalker Twins
Leia eTroopers

Leia Spies

then optional mix of Force Users and Alliance Smugglers in any of the archetypes above.

Rebels really have the biggest wiggle room for modifications as there are known archetypes but no clear concrete list to each.

Imperial:

Troopers Spam (Spy or non spy variants)

Grand Inquisitor Vader's Fist type list

Sorin with HK Assassin Droids

Probably the most commonly seen faction as EStormtroopers are just so cost efficient for what they do.

Mercenaries (or Scum):

Bantha - Tusken Warrior Jundland Terror

Bossk Trandos Strain list

then HK Assassin Droids depending on the player (usually buffed by Gideon and C3PO)

Both good solid lists for wrecking the battlefield and killing all that stand in your way.

FFG can approach the overcosted problem 3 ways :

1.) Make new cards that will overshadow older incarnations of the characters (which I suppose is the running trend)
2.) Errata, but this is probably a sad choice to do.

3.) Increase the max deployment value to maybe 50 instead of 40. So Vader taking up 2/5 instead of 1/2 of your list gives you enough wiggle room to add more bodies in your list, and I don't believe the balance of the game to be broken too much.

Raising points brackets isn't a solution to make more varied lists. Never was and never will be in any points-based game. Giving you more points to play with doesn't incentivise taking high-cost inefficent choices in any way. It only incentivises taking more of the stuff that's already points-efficent.

I can see those extra 10 points making games a bit less swingy, since you'd have more built-in redundancy and access to a wider array of tools in your list, allowing you to tech against stuff that would counter your pieces. But it won't make people consider the high-cost uniques, since all of the efficency, action economy and attack/defence math stays the same.

There are so many other and better miniature games out there (the LOS system here is a joke for instance),

Woaah wait a minute, what's wrong with the los system? Seems great to me, initially though to grasp but once you've got it makes sense and works great.

Also not sure what other miniature games you think are better? Different maybe but I can't think of any similar game that works as well out is as well balanced as ia atm, sure there are some bits over/under costed but nothing is dominant at the moment really.

I still think boba can work in the right list, you just need to design around points retention, I've got a couple games with him on the channel where he works OK.

Regards stormtroopers I'm not sure there's anything more iconic for star wars so we'll have to agree to disagree there bantha riders aren't seen too much anymore as once you know what they do you can mitigate their effectiveness pretty easily.

Tl;dr version, the games in a fantastic place atm and bar a few figures is fantastically well balanced. Even Chewbacca and boba can be really effective in the right lists and Han although probably the worst of the bunch was doing good work in lists like smuggler box where c3po stage behind him for an evade

Rich

That was a cool video by the way. Great to see you take time to explain stuff.

Sexpanther? LOL!!!

Thanks mate, hopefully it helps someone!

FFG can approach the overcosted problem 3 ways :

1.) Make new cards that will overshadow older incarnations of the characters (which I suppose is the running trend)

2.) Errata, but this is probably a sad choice to do.

3.) Increase the max deployment value to maybe 50 instead of 40. So Vader taking up 2/5 instead of 1/2 of your list gives you enough wiggle room to add more bodies in your list, and I don't believe the balance of the game to be broken too much.

My thoughts on this ^

1. they could do this but all of the figures that need it have already had alt. art cards made, if they did this there would be a least 3 versions of cards out there. I like this the best a la Reb Sab, Royal Guards and soon to be Imp Officers but I don't think it will happen.

2. This will also work "In Skirmish only..." reduce deployment cost by x or change this word or add this line at the end of the card. Lots of options here to fix stuff, but it makes it difficult to get the word out to the new players.

3. I hate this. I've never seen a system be raised in point level that didn't water down and eventually ruin the game. If they do it once, they'll do it again, and then the game becomes laborious and taxing to play. Keep it tight, and limited, it makes the games quick, it helps control overpowered stuff, and is one of my favorite parts of the games is the lists building and having to shoe-horn stuff or leave stuff out.

Other options to augment or fix specific characters (assuming we can all agree on which characters need a fix - - I've seen opinions all over the spectrum, the only consensus is that Dengar, Boba & Vader need a fix, Han and Chewie are expensive, but their abilities are great and they work in certain situations)

Have skirmish upgrades for specific characters ie, not a new card but a skirmish upgrade attachment card (that maybe doesn't count as an attachment)

Boba card example "when fielding this card, you may add 2pts to your total deployment cost" or Dengar card " once per round, you may 1.add a green die to your attack roll or 2. add~recover 2 "

But distributing these cards may be an issue unless they release a pack of them with Zuckuss and 4-lom as a Mercenary add on or upgrade pack.

What they will probably do which may not help the situation by rubbing some people the wrong way, is release new versions of the character like they did with Luke (who didn't need it) like here's the ROTJ Boba Fett version pack which is different than the ESB version or here's Grandpa Force Awakens version of Han Solo and the REBELS/Rogue One version of Vader, etc.

What they will probably do which may not help the situation by rubbing some people the wrong way, is release new versions of the character like they did with Luke (who didn't need it) like here's the ROTJ Boba Fett version pack which is different than the ESB version or here's Grandpa Force Awakens version of Han Solo and the REBELS/Rogue One version of Vader, etc.

They did fix the figures, that were overpowered. Underpowered figures are not good either, but they don't mess up the meta that much. Therefore, fixing these wouldn't be my priority either.

In one or two expansions, they will be through the whole Original Trilogy. I think, they will make new versions of the underpowered figures then. Maybe we'll get a General Solo with Endor before, like they did with Luke. Maybe, there will be a Death Star 2 expansion with the Emperor and a new Vader inbetween, but I doubt that.

I've been running a rebel list of

chewie

obi wan

Lando

Hera

Elite Alliance Smuggler

C1-10P

and smugglers run.

Chewie and obi work well together l, Chewie keeping obi in the game longer with slam and ibis attack and mind trick, I've been using them as my go to team to take terminals. Hera works well with lando, her buffs giving you more freedom when you re rol landis attack dice. Chopper is perfect for sticking on your home control point as he can sting your opponents base keeper. Finally the alliance smuggler floats about where he can be most useful. I'm torn between attaching smugglers run to chewie and hammering into the opponents zone, or by sneaking in last minute with the smugglers higher movement value.