So after reading a few of the Regional Result topics, I noticed a lot people touting Jedi Luke and the Rancor and Jabba, etc.

My question is, "Are these new figures really that good, or are they just the newest thing, so everyone is playing them?"

It seems that as a community, we are so small (we had a 4person tourney recently, there was 7 people at the Tulsa Regional and 14 at the Denver Regional, 6 at the NZ regional, 12 at the Australian, etc.) that the sample size is too small to gauge anything from. It wasn't too long ago that everyone was championing the Blaise Spytrooper list. In thinking about it, I'd love to see if the Blaise list could still hold up to some of these newer figures. We (as a community) always claim how balanced the game is now since Return to Hoth, and wouldn't Blaise's spies with Zillo and Interrogate and all the spy cards (Comm's disruption cancels Son of Skywalker instead of Grenadier) be a hard counter to Jedi Luke or even the Rancor for that matter. I think the Imperial Jet Troopers and Dewbacks are powerful figures in their own right, mix them with Blaise and maybe some ISB or Cross-trained Stormies or Terro even to get the best of both worlds.

What do you think? or is that the point of Worlds' Tournament? (I still think the results are skewed do to the small number and the logistics of trying to get players from Europe or Australia or whatever to compete, not to mention that new figures will be released**DROIDS** by the time Worlds rolls around)

Little from Column A, little from Column B.

I think the issue that a lot of people have has something to do with the deterrence the game designers have placed on running high figure count lists.

Many of the new figures are very, very good against waves of faceless minions. Kenobi and Shyla roll a black die with an innate evade and have 12 health, and that can be very difficult to overcome. eStormtroopers, not so far removed from being on top of the tiers, might just spend 2 full activations, or three, trying to defeat such figures, and that's not counting attrition. Jedi Luke can run up and take out two troopers a round, four if the dreaded Son of Skywalker gets played. Rancor is made for mass minion munching, and it's master Jabba reaps up reward points for them. Vinto slays them by the score. While the new figures are new and shiny, all these new figures appear almost tailor made for going up against trooper lists. And that's not new, the developers have been trying to deliver answers to trooper lists for a little bit now. Area Damage like the Bantha and Bossk were welcome additions to those struggling against the white stormtrooper tide.

The new points scoring system isn't as terrible as many make it out to be, but it certainly doesn't do trooper lists any favors.

But, to answer the question directly, "Yes, the new figures really are that good." Point for point, the newer figures appear stronger than the older, especially from the Core set. I'm not saying that it's Power Creep. There are plenty of figures that have been released that don't see that much play. Just that, inevitably, some figures are going to be better than others. There just seem to be quite a few of them in this wave. Especially given that this was the Mercenary shot in the arm that they needed, as they were few and far between in tournament showings up until now. I know a lot of people who were waiting for such a thing, just because they wanted to play as Mercenaries.

One of those reports was mine, so you already know my thoughts, but yeah I do think Jedi Luke is that good. The two attacks per turn or moving eight and getting one attack in on that fleeing last unit is really powerful, and his 16 health is enough to keep him around a while (unless of course an HK rolls five dice at you :-) ). Jabba is also very strong, especially his Ordered Hit ability, which changes the way that you have to play. No longer can you simply ignore an already activated figure. Furthermore, the ability makes Bossk and the new and improved IG88 all the more valuable. The rancor is good, but more than that he's fun. He's so blessedly epic and iconic and plays just how you would want him to, it's hard to leave him in the box.

I do think that spy lists are still viable and have a place, but more and more I think you need at least one heavy hitter to shred through your Obiwans and Lukes and Rancors etc.

-ryanjamal

We've had some bigger tournaments here at regionals and lots of the new figures have made it in.

20 man and then a 29 man tournament with jabba lists on both sides of the final in both, he's very powerful.

The 3 finals lists were :

Devious scheme / jabba / Shyla / vinto / ePigx2 / hired guns (won one, lost one final)

Jabba / Shyla / vinto / Greedo / temp alliance / Jedi luke (motivation) / Gideon / (losing finalist)

Black market / Jabba / eWeequays / Onar / Greedo / Temp alliance / eRangers / Gideon (winning list )

So jabba in every list, some of that will be the fact that he's new I'm sure but he is fantastic for 6 points he does so much .

Shyla and vinto in 3 of the 4 lists also amazing pieces.

Surprised to see luke in only one list but he seems to either win a game early or if he doesn't quite do enough he'll die, probably doesn't have enough decent support with rebels.

Anyway, will leave the rest for you to consider! I agree that this latest wave is all very competitive though

The Paris regional was on Sunday, and the winning list took everyone by surprise :

Han Solo

Chewbacca

Leia

Gideon

C3P0

Granted, JR wasn't authorised because it's not available in France yet, but I'm curious whether the new figures would have changed much...

What was the attendance in Paris? Makes a distance of its like 7-8 people

We were 18 in total, fairly varied lists, trooper swarms, scum banthas...

I believe Jedi Luke is top tier, and I think Jabba is great as well. I was just thinking out loud, that we have a lot discussion about how balanced everything is, I just wondered if some of the middle age stuff (Hoth to Bespin) is as competitive as the Jabba Realm stuff. Do we see the Jabba Realm age stuff just because its new, or because its better? or a little of both. Could a Bespin list go to the top still with a good player or is there some creep (as has been discussed multiple times in other forum topics) Is a blend the way to go (old and new figures) If everyone is playing the new stuff because it's new, then its only new stuff vs. new stuff and you're bound to see the Jabba's Realm figures at the top of the winner's bracket as you all have posted. Are the middle age figures worse, or just no one plays them because they're not new. We all know except for a few pieces the early stuff (core to TwinShadows ) is less competitive.

Leia has become a lot more vulnerable with the new units and a lot less effective. I think if there were JR components allowed she would have been eaten alive.

Good to see some healthy turn outs over seas, definitely not the case here. Is Destiny more limited across the pond? Perhaps that has caused a delay in the player migration?

where do you play FT? I feel the same strains on the game as you. Everyone looks at IA and says "man that looks cool, I've always wanted to get into IA but have never wanted to invest the cash to do so" Destiny comes out and a month later there are 15 regular players, whereas despite similar efforts to share, show, develop an IA player base has netted me my kids as my only regular opponents.

Perceived price point as barrier to entry.

Destiny is new, and you can jump in and be competitive with the price of a starter deck plus boosters. I don't know how much that costs because I haven't yet picked it up.

IA is, well it'd be silly to call it old, but let's say it's been expanded on. $99 US to start, then $10-$15 each for several figure packs while you learn what's actually competitive. My current squad that I run would be ~$200 US, and that's not including having the map tiles and set up packs for the tournament maps.

I'm not saying that Destiny will be cheaper or more expensive in the long run. Magic certainly eats through people's wallets fast enough. I'm just thinking that it's the Perceived price point that may be a hindrance at this point.

The earlier waves also included Bossk, HKs, Obiwan, the Inquisitor, and Lando, all of whom are still strong. But the new wave made it hard to bring in low-health uniques like Leia, as R5D8 pointed out. The new hunter command cards are just so good, it's hard to resist fielding a hunter list.

-ryanjamal

1 hour ago, buckero0 said:

where do you play FT? I feel the same strains on the game as you. Everyone looks at IA and says "man that looks cool, I've always wanted to get into IA but have never wanted to invest the cash to do so" Destiny comes out and a month later there are 15 regular players, whereas despite similar efforts to share, show, develop an IA player base has netted me my kids as my only regular opponents.

I play in central Canada, the closest regionals to my city is over 6 hours, then I think 14-15 hours, whatever northern state is closest. IA basically doesn't exist in my region thanks to X-Wing, the LCG and Destiny. However my wife did surprise me with the X-Wing core for valentines day, so maybe she was sick of hearing me ***** about having nobody to play IA against? lol

1 hour ago, R5D8 said:

Perceived price point as barrier to entry.

Destiny is new, and you can jump in and be competitive with the price of a starter deck plus boosters. I don't know how much that costs because I haven't yet picked it up.

IA is, well it'd be silly to call it old, but let's say it's been expanded on. $99 US to start, then $10-$15 each for several figure packs while you learn what's actually competitive. My current squad that I run would be ~$200 US, and that's not including having the map tiles and set up packs for the tournament maps.

I'm not saying that Destiny will be cheaper or more expensive in the long run. Magic certainly eats through people's wallets fast enough. I'm just thinking that it's the Perceived price point that may be a hindrance at this point.

Funny this should come up, I actually went over to the Destiny forums and asked them about price:

The general consensus was that $300-400 gets you a lot of competitive options for both light and dark side decks, but it is possible to get competitive if you specialize ONE deck around a few characters for around $100 just buying a starter pack and then singles online. The average in between seemed to be 2 of each starter pack and 1 booster box.. so I think that comes to around $160-200. This was all drastically higher right now obviously given the shortage of stock and also complicated by being in Canada where everything is more expensive.

I did find it funny though, this game is vastly popular world wide right now and has blown up in my area. And R5D8 is dead on, it's got a great price point for entry. Starter set is 15 bucks, few booster packs to flesh it out a little and you are playing, not competitively but getting a feel for the game. You will in the long run spend more than you will on IA, even if you stopped playing competitively in the first wave here your total would still be higher than everything that has come out so far for IA. But it is that cheap jumping off point. That option just doesn't exist for IA, you need to take a huge plunge or be lucky enough to try with a friends stuff first. We've ground this discussion into the dirt in the other thread though so not trying to re hash it here, just thought the Destiny comparison was on point.

Not all Australian Regionals have been completed yet (so the sample size will be bigger); Perth, Western Australia Regionals are on February 26. My first foray into a big-deal IA event.

On 2/14/2017 at 7:48 AM, buckero0 said:

where do you play FT? I feel the same strains on the game as you. Everyone looks at IA and says "man that looks cool, I've always wanted to get into IA but have never wanted to invest the cash to do so" Destiny comes out and a month later there are 15 regular players, whereas despite similar efforts to share, show, develop an IA player base has netted me my kids as my only regular opponents.

I would say it's less the price point and more the fact that you don't have to paint the **** dice. If you don't like painting, that's a ton of valuable hours of investment or you have to play with super ugly gray/beige models after we've all been spoiled with our pretty X-Wing minis. Painting is a real pain point for a ton of gamers as the act of painting is completely divorced from the act of playing. I refused to buy IA for that reason until Sorastro convinced me I could paint decent looking minis and our IA DM had to quit. Most of us are adults and most adults have more money than time, so it makes sense that Destiny is not having issues building a player base other than supply issues.

I will keep beating this dead horse, IA needs a prepainted skirmish starter set if it wants to bring skirmish back to life from FFG letting it die in year 1 with 4x4. Yes the minis will look like complete crap compared to X-Wing and FFG will probably have to take a financial loss on the product, but they will still look better to non-painters than gray/beige mono-chrome minis and will be the shot in the arm that will increase sales of the rest of their IA products.

There are many ways to paint your minitures, if you don't want to spend a lot of time but also don't want to play with plastic colored minis. I saw one posting his Silver/Gold Chess-like minis. That can be done super hyper quick, and it looked real cool!

I've actually had quite a few people comment on that at my demos, they ask if the minis come pre painted (as mine are) to which I have to say no, then show them one I haven't painted and they go "Ugh.. that is ugly." But better they say that about my non painted than painted ones? lol

I get it though, I've got a lot of money sunk into my painting gear but more importantly as Tvboy said it is the hours. That is why I love Sorastro's videos and I pointed everyone towards them who asked about the game, although they will still require you to actually paint the minis, they save you a ton of time in researching technique and especially for researching colors for each figure. Some people might enjoy that part, but for me I just want to be told what to buy and where to put it. Then I know I can sit down and if I only have a hour at least it will be a productive hour.