I wrote an article on the different levels of military planning and how they relate to the Skirmish game! This is definitely a great place to start when prepping for a tourney. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback!
Planning for Victory: A Strategy (and Operations (and Tactics)) Article
Very cool, and very helpful article. Good stuff! I love discussions like this, and there are obviously an infinite number of side conversations would have, but one that I think is rather important is having a general understanding of the meta.
For example, while building a list right now, it's pretty important to have a game plan for how to defeat lists you think will be popular. Obviously this can vary based on your local meta, but Jedi Luke is a good example of something you can expect to see a fair amount of, so having a plan for him is important.
The section I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on is planning a strategic path. As you said, every list needs to be somewhat balanced, but it would be interesting to hear some of your thoughts on how to approach building a list when deciding to focus on objectives, for example.
Overall it was a very fun read, thanks for sharing!
2 hours ago, CruzinToVictory said:For example, while building a list right now, it's pretty important to have a game plan for how to defeat lists you think will be popular. Obviously this can vary based on your local meta, but Jedi Luke is a good example of something you can expect to see a fair amount of, so having a plan for him is important.
That's definitely an important aspect worth considering! I'll be including that analysis in my Units Classification article.
2 hours ago, CruzinToVictory said:The section I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on is planning a strategic path. As you said, every list needs to be somewhat balanced, but it would be interesting to hear some of your thoughts on how to approach building a list when deciding to focus on objectives, for example.
That article is currently in the research/planning stage! Just stay tuned and you shall not be disappointed. I'll try to touch on all three paths to victory in that article.
I also thought that this article was excellent!
There have been a few times I've done fairly well in competitive play too, and I agree with everything you wrote. Having a specific plan for each map (and being prepared to play from either deployment zone on each map!) is important. In fact, I often rehearse my initial setup and first round's moves several times before going to a tournament; you will obviously need to adapt to what your opponent does, but it's good to have a well-thought-out plan for that crucial first round; I've found that games are often won or lost in that first round, because the decisions made there will get momentum rolling in one way or another. A bad start can sometimes put you on your heels for a good portion of the match.
Thanks very much!
Fantastic article, I've commented there as well but this is the best IA article I've read to date I think 
As thereisnotry says I'm another that knows my deployment and first moves on each map, for each deployment zone, and it makes a massive difference.
16 hours ago, thereisnotry said:I also thought that this article was excellent!
There have been a few times I've done fairly well in competitive play too, and I agree with everything you wrote. Having a specific plan for each map (and being prepared to play from either deployment zone on each map!) is important. In fact, I often rehearse my initial setup and first round's moves several times before going to a tournament; you will obviously need to adapt to what your opponent does, but it's good to have a well-thought-out plan for that crucial first round; I've found that games are often won or lost in that first round, because the decisions made there will get momentum rolling in one way or another. A bad start can sometimes put you on your heels for a good portion of the match.
Thanks very much!
4 hours ago, RoyalRich said:Fantastic article, I've commented there as well but this is the best IA article I've read to date I think
As thereisnotry says I'm another that knows my deployment and first moves on each map, for each deployment zone, and it makes a massive difference.
Thank you guys for your kind words! Indeed, the last few weeks I have been obsessing over that Cantina map trying to find the best ways to deploy and make first moves. We'll see how well those plans work at tomorrow's Regionals
Where are you based buddy?
I presume that's a US Regional as opposed to the one I'm at tomorrow in Evesham
6 minutes ago, RoyalRich said:Where are you based buddy?
I presume that's a US Regional as opposed to the one I'm at tomorrow in Evesham
Unfortunately I'll not be seeing you there. I'll be at the FFG Regionals at the Fantasy Flight Game Center
18 hours ago, thereisnotry said:There have been a few times I've done fairly well in competitive play too, and I agree with everything you wrote. Having a specific plan for each map (and being prepared to play from either deployment zone on each map!) is important. In fact, I often rehearse my initial setup and first round's moves several times before going to a tournament; you will obviously need to adapt to what your opponent does, but it's good to have a well-thought-out plan for that crucial first round; I've found that games are often won or lost in that first round, because the decisions made there will get momentum rolling in one way or another. A bad start can sometimes put you on your heels for a good portion of the match.
Thanks very much!
I think this is probably the most important thing to do tactically in the game. Sure having a solid list with combos and an overall strategy of what you want to do is good but you need to be able to impliment it properly. Games go to 3-4 rounds, if you waste 1 round because of bad setup, that's going to cost you
After creating your list, you should take a look at the 6 deployment spots (2 per map) and plan out your setup.
Questions to ask:
Who is opening the door?
Who is contesting a terminal?
Am I going for objectives this map or fighting? (might need 2 different setups for this, depending on your opponents list, might affect which route you take)
Where am I positioning my guys first round and which order do I plan to activate in? (holding key figures until last, using support figures early + setup)
1 minute ago, frotes said:I think this is probably the most important thing to do tactically in the game. Sure having a solid list with combos and an overall strategy of what you want to do is good but you need to be able to impliment it properly. Games go to 3-4 rounds, if you waste 1 round because of bad setup, that's going to cost you
After creating your list, you should take a look at the 6 deployment spots (2 per map) and plan out your setup.
Questions to ask:
Who is opening the door?
Who is contesting a terminal?
Am I going for objectives this map or fighting? (might need 2 different setups for this, depending on your opponents list, might affect which route you take)
Where am I positioning my guys first round and which order do I plan to activate in? (holding key figures until last, using support figures early + setup)
Right on!
And I even have some perfect anecdotal evidence that is less than 12 hours old:
I was playing a game on Vassal last night. I lost THE GAME because of a bad setup. We were on the Dianoga mission and I needed to open the center door, but because of my setup I had to leave Luke in LOS after opening the door; if I had set him up 1 square closer to the door I would've been able to retreat him back out of sight, without a problem. But as it was, he died at the start of Round 2 (immediately after drawing Son of Skywalker!) because my opponent's Rangers and their insane command cards poured their damage into him. After that it was all downhill...I actually went "on tilt" after that, as described in link that was included in the article! A bad setup--a single square, actually--lost me that game.
So yeah: Plan your setup...and ask yourself these questions that frotes mentions. It can actually save the match for you.
Ouch! Poor Lukkkke
That's probably the first thing I learned and the most key out of all.. who is opening the door! Because of that, I highly value Gideon/Officer or some other objective figure. Most doors are 4 spaces away from the closes starting point (most figures have 4 speed) and a 2mp order can move a figure so that it can open the door & move back 2 to safety.
4 minutes ago, frotes said:Ouch! Poor Lukkkke
That's probably the first thing I learned and the most key out of all.. who is opening the door! Because of that, I highly value Gideon/Officer or some other objective figure. Most doors are 4 spaces away from the closes starting point (most figures have 4 speed) and a 2mp order can move a figure so that it can open the door & move back 2 to safety.
Yes, that normally would've worked, but even then it wouldn't have been okay since the spot he would've needed to be was still occupied by another figure. Opening doors...stormtroopers can't seem to get it right, and if we're not careful, then we IA Skirmish players often struggle with it too.
Close the blast doors! Open the blast doors, open the blast doors!
6 hours ago, frotes said:Ouch! Poor Lukkkke
That's probably the first thing I learned and the most key out of all.. who is opening the door! Because of that, I highly value Gideon/Officer or some other objective figure. Most doors are 4 spaces away from the closes starting point (most figures have 4 speed) and a 2mp order can move a figure so that it can open the door & move back 2 to safety.
Elite Alliance Smugglers are the best door openers, especially if they got 2 mp from Gideon beforehand.
Yeah, the alliance smuggler is key to all of my rebel lists. But now I see I need to finally try out the elite rangers. Everyone keeps gushing about their damage potential, so I guess I need to get over my aversion to them.
Great discussion in this thread, and thanks to the OP for his original post!
-ryanjamal