Grand Tier List for IA Skirmish (To be updated as new Waves emerge)

By theaficionado, in Imperial Assault Skirmish

Key points on Headhunter: the opponent must discard a random card, if able. I'm still not sure that makes it worth the point to add it to Chopper...but there's very little opponent choice involved. : )

1 hour ago, IndyPendant said:

Key points on Headhunter: the opponent must discard a random card, if able. I'm still not sure that makes it worth the point to add it to Chopper...but there's very little opponent choice involved. : )

You're right, I thought they could choose damage or random card, but there's no choice: it just falls back to damage if their hand is empty.

That certainly makes it better: I'm going to swap Devious Schemes for Headhunter to test in my Chopper build.

Edited by nickv2002

I saw a list at Europeans that ran Chopper with Headhunter and Mak for hand disruption. Inventive! No idea how it went though, was just watching a few games.

9 hours ago, aermet69 said:

I saw a list at Europeans that ran Chopper with Headhunter and Mak for hand disruption. Inventive! No idea how it went though, was just watching a few games.

So you're saying that it is...

RETURN OF THE MAK

ONCE AGAIN

RETURN OF THE MAK

PUMP UP THE WORLD

RETURN OF THE MAK

WATCH MY FLOW

YOU'LL KNOW THAT I BE BACK

Really agree with most of it. Jabba I feel like is a Tier II unit. His card draw is very good, and that ordered hit I've had finish off troublesome units at just the key time.

I'd also say eStormies are now a Tier 1.5. With a seeming redo in the power curve with Jabbas Realm there are just too many units that can reliably do 5-6 damage an activation. With the scoring change its a lot of points swinging away. Still a good unit as a backbone for the Imperials, but they aren't as efficient as they once were.

I've seen a lot of lamenting the death of the estormies on the forums, but I don't get it. eStormies are still probably the best 3 point cost figure in the game. Comparing them straight to 4 cost figures is a little bit apples to oranges in my opinion. They're not supposed to hit as hard or last as long as a 4 pointer. The point scoring nerf and subsequent reduction in effectiveness for reinforcements is really what hurt them, and I'd argue that was for the best.

It's not hard to imagine some new symmetry from the next box bringing eStormies all the way back. Sign me up for an imperial trooper attachment 'experimental armor' that gives an evade. Something along those lines anyway.

16 hours ago, Fightwookies said:

I've seen a lot of lamenting the death of the estormies on the forums, but I don't get it. eStormies are still probably the best 3 point cost figure in the game. Comparing them straight to 4 cost figures is a little bit apples to oranges in my opinion. They're not supposed to hit as hard or last as long as a 4 pointer. The point scoring nerf and subsequent reduction in effectiveness for reinforcements is really what hurt them, and I'd argue that was for the best.

It's not hard to imagine some new symmetry from the next box bringing eStormies all the way back. Sign me up for an imperial trooper attachment 'experimental armor' that gives an evade. Something along those lines anyway.

For sure. I also think the addition of a whole bunch of figures that either removed surges, pinged auto damage, or were specifically good at resisting ranged attacks also hurt them. I think they're still very good, just now when building Imperial they are not a must have. That roll seems to be falling to eJets.

i still think one of Jabba's strengths is the extra vp he grants. It has made units like Estormies cost too much to be as effective. There are also way too many 3 dice attack figures now (and 4 dice even) stormie can't compete with that.

*bump*

This thread will be getting updated in a couple of weeks. I'm way too busy with uni at the moment, and my spare time is spent doing other things. Stay tuned!

2 hours ago, theaficionado said:

*bump*

This thread will be getting updated in a couple of weeks. I'm way too busy with uni at the moment, and my spare time is spent doing other things. Stay tuned!

I'm on the way :) stay here until next update

Quote

Gaarkhan (Tier IV)
Goodness gracious. When you compare Gaarkhan to the Royal Guard, you start to wonder what designers were thinking. They're even in the same box! Red-Yellow is my least favourite attack in the game (it's way too swingy), and poor Gaarkhan doesn't even have the surges to capitalise on the yellow dice! Top that off with the fact that he's melee, and we have an almost all around loser. He's got decent traits and abilities, but is yet again a little too squishy for 8 points, and nowhere near impactful enough for his cost.

Uhhh, can i disagree? XD
I mean, you're right about RY being wierd and you're right by saying his health is low for 8 cost, but Gaarkhan imho is not that bad.
With 1 surge you can always keep him focused, granting him a constant attack pool with 3 dices, while applying Bleed to an opponent is underestimated imho (especially on big targets such as Boba or Vader.
Unless you focus your aim on him or kill him with just 1 activation (which is still quite hard), Gaarkhan can hit really hard, mostly when he will strike 2 times in a row only by receiving 1 damage.
Ok, he's definitely not T1 and maybe T2 may be high for him, but i wouldn't place him in Tier 4 while Mak is being placed in T3.
Besides, if Heart of the Empire will move the meta into a more FU, melee meta, wookies could benefit from that :D

8 hours ago, erlucius90 said:

Ok, he's definitely not T1 and maybe T2 may be high for him, but i wouldn't place him in Tier 4 while Mak is being placed in T3.

I think Mak's low cost allows him to sneak into Tier3 and fit into certain lists while Gaarkhan's cost prevents him from doing the same.

9 minutes ago, leacher said:

I think Mak's low cost allows him to sneak into Tier3 and fit into certain lists while Gaarkhan's cost prevents him from doing the same.

Well, Mak is definitely going to die with 1 hit (4 health atm means you dodge or you die), so you just place him close to a terminal and just stay there, you play his command card as soon as you draw it, fullstop.
Chopper is way better than Mak at that purpose :P
Gaarkhan starts his defense by blocking 1, plus a black die, and once he gets only 1 damage he can rush attack you and then attack again, and basically rebels are always focused by gideon or c-3p0 so gaarkhan can hit pretty hard with RGY (it's the same dice rolled by the inquisitor, with shittier surges indeed)

As a newbie to the game this post is super helpful.

2 hours ago, Robert Percival said:

As a newbie to the game this post is super helpful.

I believe many veterans also find this post super helpful - maybe not in terms of "need help deciding what to pick", but "why should I NOT pick that" or "under what circumstances WOULD I pick that"

You can also spark a whole new discussion (there are plenty on this forum already) on "what changes are necessary to make it worthwhile for me to pick that"

On ‎12‎.‎07‎.‎2017 at 3:13 PM, erlucius90 said:

Uhhh, can i disagree? XD
I mean, you're right about RY being wierd and you're right by saying his health is low for 8 cost, but Gaarkhan imho is not that bad.
Unless you focus your aim on him or kill him with just 1 activation (which is still quite hard).

Are you serious? Gaarkhan is the definition of Tier 4. He would be Tier 5, if there was Tier 5.

He has one of the worst health to cost ratios in this game. And his range is really bad for the points.

I would consider playing him for half the points, but even then he would not be an auto-include

Edited by DerBaer
11 hours ago, Robert Percival said:

As a newbie to the game this post is super helpful.

I'm glad it has been! :)

I've been meaning to update this with the last few figures I'm missing, but it's not my top priority right now, especially with the new wave coming (which is sure to shake things up).

Hopefully, when that comes in, I'll have some time to update this!

I too am really looking forward to an update to this thread. For me as a sort-of-newbie it is very good!

After doing some testing I would put rJet troopers in Tier III (or maybe event Tier II). Justification: VERY HANDY objective grabbers/support in double eJets lists (so basicly all imperial lists atm ;D) They are 2 units activation with mobile, they can throw grenades, overrun people (which saves your eJets activation for attacks) + they benefit from fuel upgrade (especially on Nal-Hutta SHIELDS scenario, when they benefit from -1 surge for the enemy, can change block for evade + possible fuel ugprade, which often ends with +3 evade). They are also REALLY good cross training weilders in spy/semi spy lists (strategic shift with 2 points figure guarding terminal anyone?)

On top of that upon dying they redraw shared experience, which is not only great offensive tool. but also AMAZING fuel for zillo and rule by fear).

Edited by Szycha
typo

This would be more useful if there was a section that was sorted by tier.

Tier 1:

xxx

Tier 2:

yyy

On 8/26/2017 at 4:29 AM, Tvboy said:

This would be more useful if there was a section that was sorted by tier.

Tier 1:

xxx

Tier 2:

yyy

The problem with that would be that I'd have to reorganise everything every single time a new wave came out. I'm future proofing the list this way.

On 7/12/2017 at 4:39 PM, erlucius90 said:

Well, Mak is definitely going to die with 1 hit (4 health atm means you dodge or you die), so you just place him close to a terminal and just stay there, you play his command card as soon as you draw it, fullstop.

Tier 3 is perfect for Mak. He's a very usable figure at 3 points. Of course his attack and health sucks, but really not out of balance considering his cost and what he can do. The spy trait is still very powerful. You might not want to spend one of Leia or a Sabs actions, but Mak is perfectly suited to spend an action for command cards like strategic shift or data theft, or (like you mentioned) his own borderline broken command card. Can't wait for Ahsoka to bring some more punch to rebel spy lists.

He's solid in a Rebels spy list, but you can add him cheaply to any lineup for 3 points just to have the threat of some spy command cards.

Edited by Fightwookies

Can we have an update on this list? Plzzzz @theaficionado

@Chetote

As soon as Heart of the Empire lands this week, I'll be updating the list! :)

I think Vader is definitely Tier I after Driven by Hatred. Han is probably Tier I too (very consistent damage + can shoot up to 3 times/round, usually 2 because your opponent doesn't really want to shoot at Han)

Looking at similar units I'd probably put Chewie as a Tier II (he's all-around good , good attack + durability like eEcho/eProbe/Leia/Inquisitor but I wouldn't build an entire list around him). Taking away his dodge means he will die to focus-fire

I could totally build an entire list around Tier I units like Vader/Han/IG-88

edit: you could probably argue Chewie being Tier I too

Edited by ricope