Who all has had a chance to play Uscru? I'm curious what everyone's current thoughts are as we head toward World's?

@brystrom1 and I got two games in last night, and I have a few thoughts.

Losers : Long range units, especially Rangers.

Too many corners for opponents to hide, not many good corridors for sniping.

Unlike on Mos Eisley where the doors frequently feel irrelevant, the doors can be used to great advantage in this map. If you want to engage in the central corridor, both players have to agree to it. Otherwise, you can use the doors to set up your ideal Round 2 engagement or deny your opponent theirs.

Winners: short to medium range units, fast melee units.

Han and Chewbacca seemed to do very well. I even ran some Wookie Warriors to decent effect.

Pretty sure this map will reinforce Vader's strength, as well as that of Jedi Luke, Riot Troopers, and Jet Troopers. Probably the AT-DP as well.

Biggest loser: smugglers. Absolutely worthless except for blocking on the courier droid mission

1 minute ago, player1155101 said:

Biggest loser: smugglers. Absolutely worthless except for blocking on the courier droid mission

At the least one of them can sit on your terminal so that's okay, but the 2nd one will struggle for sure. At least they could shoot at the courier droid when it gets close since they don't normally attack much anyways. I suppose cards like "Black Market Prices" could be useful actions for them as well. (No one runs "disable" but that could be nice too).

2 minutes ago, player1155101 said:

Biggest loser: smugglers. Absolutely worthless except for blocking on the courier droid mission

True, forgot about them!

They make for a good terminal sitter?

I don't think Smugglers are a complete waste here. They recover their cost after holding one objective and the rest of your force can fight the good fight. Screening for the courier is fine, but I don't imagine many couriers will be successfully delivering their message on this map. It is probably better for the Smugglers the screen your Rangers or such from the initial rounds of shooting.

2pt figures will always have a place.

They do lose a bit on certain missions as the smuggler especially does well when he can interact and gain movement. I'm glad there is something besides control or retrieve crates.

Perhaps smugglers aren’t a complete waste on courier mission, but they lose value significantly. Their attack is not that great, you can get an occasional stun if you’re lucky. If you have R2 they don’t have much value holding the terminal. Screening for Han or Rangers is the best move. You can still bring them of course, they don’t lose viability, I just think they lose the most on this map.

I actually think short range units lose quite a bit here. The map is so big in the east-west direction it's very hard to close distance if you stick to one side. It sort of forces you to go through the middle where you're exposed to ranged units. I think Luke fares better than Vader here just because his threat range is so much larger. I do think Rangers lose quite a bit of effectiveness because the horizontal sniping lanes don't have great cover.

Hunters come out best IMO. They have extra time to focus/hide and draw cards without having to worry about reroll range like Rangers. IG is also one of the few figures that can duck in, get a shot round 1, and duck back to safety.

Ughs seem hosed by this map to me. You can't get a good string of attacks in on the first turn, and then the door opens, letting your opponent shoot into your deployment zone.

Not that anyone will MIND the Ughs being hosed on this map, of course.

It is hard to get a meaningful amount of objective points on the courier mission, almost certainly no more than 12. This strengthens point denial strategies, like Vader.

2 hours ago, pheaver said:

Ughs seem hosed by this map to me. You can't get a good string of attacks in on the first turn, and then the door opens, letting your opponent shoot into your deployment zone.

Not that anyone will MIND the Ughs being hosed on this map, of course.

Yup, and once Nal Hutta exists the rotation I think Ughs will be gone for good.

Loser: R2-D2 (on one side of the map, the terminal is too far away from the deployment zone).

Winners: EJets, Short ranged units and brawlers

1 hour ago, DerBaer said:

Loser: R2-D2 (on one side of the map, the terminal is too far away from the deployment zone).

Artoo is never a loser with Hera by its side.

Yeah, this only hurts R2 for Mercs, which I can’t ay I’m bothered about ?. Or that Rebel player not running Hera ?

-ryanjamal

30 minutes ago, ryanjamal said:

Yeah, this only hurts R2 for Mercs, which I can’t ay I’m bothered about ?. Or that Rebel player not running Hera ?

-ryanjamal

I doubt rebels can get a better attack than Hera for less than 5 points

Yeah R2 doesn't care about being 4 spaces from the terminal with Hera by his side. Top side of Jabba's Palace was the same way. As is the bottom of Nal Hutta.

9 hours ago, ryanjamal said:

that Rebel player not running Hera ?

-ryanjamal

Yeah, that's me. Actually, I don't even believe in luck, but Hera is a magnet for bad luck for me. I'm playing a third smuggler and Rebel High Command instead at the moment ....

Having played the map one more time, I'd like to add ...

Winners: Devious Schemes (one deployment zone is remarkably better than the other). Objective grabbers with Move 5 (e.g. Hired Guns) or Officers, when you play from the worse side (the central objective is 10 spaces away from the worse side). Mobile and Massive figures (a lot of terrain to be used to your favor).

On 4/20/2018 at 12:38 PM, Smashotron said:

but I don't imagine many couriers will be successfully delivering their message on this map.

My experience so far has been the exact opposite. Who has an extra attack they can waste on the courier droid? Very first time I played that mission I took it out and lost by under 6. Had I used those 2-3 attacks and taken out another figure, chances are I would have won. Since then, I've played the mission 2-3+ times and when neither side is attacking the droid, the 12 pts are a wash.

I wonder if we'll see some lists using the old Sorin-esque tactic of beefing up on the courier droid (your own I mean). Like first turn. Shoot with your Trando to Focus up and move forward (now Trandos suck, but could be a similar deployment)

The courier droids are suprisingly resilient. You want to dedicated your super attacks against figures, so the smaller attacks don't seem to roll as well or can't get through the black die.

5 hours ago, aermet69 said:

I wonder if we'll see some lists using the old Sorin-esque tactic of beefing up on the courier droid (your own I mean). Like first turn. Shoot with your Trando to Focus up and move forward (now Trandos suck, but could be a similar deployment)

can you shoot/target your own courirer droid?

Just now, buckero0 said:

can you shoot/target your own courirer droid?

Seems that way. Rules just say, a figure can attack a courier droid. Doesn't specify if its your's or your opponents.

Sure, the couriers are objects, and objects are not friendly or hostile and the mission rules do not make a distinction between your own and your opponent's (except for placing/deploying and scoring them).

Too bad I can't take more than 2 elite jawas, I could spend the whole first 3 turns gambling and racking up victory points with my bargain ability.

The return of Blaise! All fear the courier droid, he knows your secrets....

Seriously though, I think Sentry's actually get a boost from this map. They can do there usual sniping shenanigans, and can use the terrain to easily pop out then pop in.