Now that all the cards have been revealed I'm going to start doing some first impressions articles starting with the very powerful Upgrade cards!

http://rollfordamage.net/index.php/2018/08/23/tyrants-of-lothal-impressions-part-1-skirmish-upgrades/

Hi team,

I've one question about Ezra hability when a force user is a 3 spaces. He can change the side of the dice, but is it considered rerolled? As Landon hability? Is it possible to use thought luck??

Thanks!!

Much to Learn : I assume due to "instead" (of rerolling) that it doesn't count as a reroll, so cannot be Tough Luck'ed, but I'm waiting for the IA designers' response.

10 hours ago, a1bert said:

Much to Learn : I assume due to "instead" (of rerolling) that it doesn't count as a reroll, so cannot be Tough Luck'ed, but I'm waiting for the IA designers' response.

Got a response, the "instead" part isn't considered to be a reroll. The timing of Much to Learn is the reroll step also for that part.

1st Impression: everyone's waiting for the counterlist to spectre cell.

Rebels dominate atm; mercenary lists run Hondo instead of weequays and IG is everywhere since doubt cannot remove his focus; imperials suffer from Vader's fall of performance so imp lists are going to get several shapes...with thrawn in all of them

47 minutes ago, erlucius90 said:

Vader's fall of performance

I thought Vader got quite few ways to gain block/evade tokens every round and get even tankier, plus CCs like second chance and dying lunge. What's the fall of performance you're mentioning?

Vader vs Weequays, Greedo, Rangers etc. is 1 hit = 1kill. Vader vs Kanan, Zeb etc. is not. Anyways, with Doubt and Extra Armor Vader just got better. He is a nearly unkillable Tank.

3 hours ago, DerBaer said:

Vader vs Weequays, Greedo, Rangers etc. is 1 hit = 1kill. Vader vs Kanan, Zeb etc. is not. Anyways, with Doubt and Extra Armor Vader just got better. He is a nearly unkillable Tank.

I don't see the point of you comparison. You said that it's one shot for 4pts figures and 2 shots for 8pts figures, it makes sense to me and actually used to be the same with 8pts in previous meta. I see no fall in performance.

The new meta has less figures with more health and defense power, against spectre cell Vader Will die due to the too many Pierce 3 no matter what token you use, while against other lists they Will just run away from him to kill the test of the list forcing you into a chase that makes you lose enough time to lose the VP race

4 hours ago, Golan Trevize said:

I don't see the point of you comparison. You said that it's one shot for 4pts figures and 2 shots for 8pts figures, it makes sense to me and actually used to be the same with 8pts in previous meta. I see no fall in performance.

After the first attack, the 4 point figure gives you 4 points and doesn't shoot back anymore, the 8 point figure gives you no points, then attacks and runs away.

Spectre Cell presents a problem for Vader in the numerous hard hitting Pierce 3 attacks it can generate per round. Zillo can only cancel on of those pierce at a time. Meanwhile SC is tanky enough that it takes Vader at least two attacks to kill any one of them besides Hera/Chopper.

1 hour ago, defkhan1 said:

Spectre Cell presents a problem for Vader in the numerous hard hitting Pierce 3 attacks it can generate per round. Zillo can only cancel on of those pierce at a time. Meanwhile SC is tanky enough that it takes Vader at least two attacks to kill any one of them besides Hera/Chopper.

That's all true, but we had ways to counter Vader in the past. I understand now is more balanced, but I was a bit surprised of reading "Unshakable Vader's fall". It definitely has 1 more trouble now, but I believe that pirates/ranger, han and focusers got a lot more troubles than Vader in ToL and wave 11.

I think it's actually the Jets that are about to fall, which was an important anchor to the list. They can't punch through the Spectres Vader-esque defenses and Vader ends up having to do all the work which forces him to expose himself and get ganged up on by the Spectres. I don't think even 4 eJets all attacking with Fly-By can reliably kill a Spectre, except for maybe Hera or Sabine. Empire may have to go back to using harder hitting figures like Terro, AT-DP and Palpatine alongside Vader, but having those big hard to hide targets makes them much weaker against the Hunters that will act as natural predators to the Spectres.

With Doubt and Extra Armor the one attack = one kill will be less likely for all figures in all factions.

Yeah that's a big part of it. If you look at the damage curves of eJets vs. Ezra the results are pretty pitiful. So a good SC player just has to swarm Vader to win the game. It's basically Vader vs. Ezra, Kanan, Zeb, Sabine.

So far, this is the Pierce meta, figures without it will do no harm, hunters apart just because they CCs are still the most performing,.
Imperials might find new lights with different figures, and perhaps even Vader might be replaced by the Inquisitor to save 4 very useful points.
Btw, since doubt came out, Scum lists don't run Weequays anymore, or at last you can find 1 group of them per 10 games played against mercenaries. Hondo + Sabine with pickpocketing jawas is the new way to go it seems, followed by IG most of the times.
EDIT: Oh and Han is a ghost aswell...literally, i've never seen him once in a game. Well, actually so far i've seen rebels playing SC only, exception made for 2 games in which i saw another FU list and a Trooper list with Fenn and CT which was totally amazing.

In a world where Pierce is king, I want to put a couple of dewbacks on the table. 3 die attack with Pierce 2, and they can’t be one shot by anything without command card help

And the Dewbacks even synergize with the Death Troopers ...

I think Dewbacks are a hidden gem. They've failed me slightly, last time I tried using them - but there were also less support for them and they are indeed a solid target for Death Troopers. A couple defense tokens on them and they might last long enough.

The only thing I don't like about Dewbacks and Death Troopers is their lack of rerolls.

It's Probe Droids time ?

8 hours ago, Fightwookies said:

In a world where Pierce is king, I want to put a couple of dewbacks on the table. 3 die attack with Pierce 2, and they can’t be one shot by anything without command card help

...and some of the Creature cards (e.g. Wild Fury, Feral Swipes, Roar, Ferocity - even the Feeding Frenzy attachment) are really good for them; and if they're in a good position (without needing to move), they get a free yellow dice worth of damage in addition to their normal attack.

Yeah, I've always liked Dewbacks. Large is a pain though. Speed 3+4 doesn't go as far as you think when you lose a square every time you go round a corner.

They are also absolutely murdered by blue square movement.

5 hours ago, Isnigu said:

They are also absolutely murdered by blue square movement.

5 hours ago, Bitterman said:

Yeah, I've always liked Dewbacks. Large is a pain though. Speed 3+4 doesn't go as far as you think when you lose a square every time you go round a corner.

Spectre cell is coming to you, so lost movement doesn’t matter as much as it would against other matchups. Depending on map, it would be a liability against hunters