Pretty much what's in the title. For some reason it's relatively easy to get examples of high performing imperial lists but much harder to find out what the top rebel players are playing. The only thing I keep hearing is that Tauntauns are broken and OP and it doesn't help much if you want to play something other than Tauns.

I'm curious because the last time I played rebels, they could still compete with imperials in a straight up shooting game. Sure, stormies had better range and were tougher but troopers hit harder and were good enough if kept in cover and given dodges. Deathtroopers were a problem for the rebels, but the popularity of snipers neutralized it to an extent. Now with snipers weakened and shores multiplying order tokens like crazy and getting aims and surges for days, imperial gunline seems to completely outclass the rebel one. Veterans were supposed to be a rebel counterpart of shores (I guess?) but they can't compare.

So, if I want a competitive rebel army not based on Tauns that won't get steamrolled by the imperial firepower, what do I take? Are there any examples for people winning tournaments (or at least taking top places) without using them?

This website will help you with the last question. Fair warning, that page sometimes acts up! But you can see what people have won majors with!

https://legiontournamentcircuit.com/tournament-data-2019/

It's as I feared then. With some rare exceptions such as triple rotaries, Tauns are everywhere. And the worst thing is that I'm not convinced it's because Tauns are so OP. They're a powerful unit no doubt but the main problem seems to be that rebels are becoming a close combat faction by necessity. There's no way they can beat shores and DTs in a straight up firefight, so the only way to win is to close the distance and overwhelm the opponent in melee. No wonder a fast shock unit has just become their most popular choice.

Oh well, I guess it's either an imperial gunline or tauns then. Tough choice. Gonna try both. At least there's quite a bit of diversity of playstyles between factions.

2 hours ago, Lightrock said:

It's as I feared then. With some rare exceptions such as triple rotaries, Tauns are everywhere. And the worst thing is that I'm not convinced it's because Tauns are so OP. They're a powerful unit no doubt but the main problem seems to be that rebels are becoming a close combat faction by necessity. There's no way they can beat shores and DTs in a straight up firefight, so the only way to win is to close the distance and overwhelm the opponent in melee. No wonder a fast shock unit has just become their most popular choice.

Oh well, I guess it's either an imperial gunline or tauns then. Tough choice. Gonna try both. At least there's quite a bit of diversity of playstyles between factions.

Gunline is at least in part a reaction to Tauntauns pushing out some things; They did a real number on the previous Imperial Meta builds. Still, the sheer amount of efficient range 4 guns the Empire has is... alarming.

Snowspeeders.

It's Tauntauns all the way down.

2 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

It's Tauntauns all the way down.

Only because the Rebels don't have Dewbacks.

The Death Star rides on a Dewback. Dewbacks, all the way down.

4 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

It's Tauntauns all the way down.

I mean, we’ve been collecting data since April so it’s not actually all TTs

5 hours ago, TalkPolite said:

I mean, we’ve been collecting data since April so it’s not actually all TTs

Please share.🥺

The most successful Rebel lists I saw at Warfare Weekend were Tauntaun heavy, triple sniper, Luke and someone else (Leia or a Generic) and minimal troopers. Considering how well they worked together, I'm hard pressed to find something that works better.

9 hours ago, JediPartisan said:

Please share.🥺

See the second comment on this post - it’s not hiding anywhere!

7 hours ago, TalkPolite said:

See the second comment on this post - it’s not hiding anywhere!

Uhh... All but one of the Rebel lists for the last month and a half had at least 2 units of Tauntauns, so I think I see where @JediPartisan is coming from.

Triple RTs or double RTs /Tauns and FD turret. The support units are the current meta for rebels IMO , but to be honest I feel everything is fair game, if anything it's the Corp units that are the weak part (at least until the dlt20a hits) (although I will be surprised to see an airspeeders show up even with the points drop)

Has anyone had any success with running a counter meta list I:E- No one expects vehicles so no ones brings ion or anti vehicle weapons so run a vehicle heavy list and thy might struggle to counter?

3 hours ago, Tonytt1642 said:

Has anyone had any success with running a counter meta list I:E- No one expects vehicles so no ones brings ion or anti vehicle weapons so run a vehicle heavy list and thy might struggle to counter?

That doesn't work I'm afraid. If Legion was a game that was focused on killing the other guy's forces while losing as few of your own as possible in return, it might work. Unlike most other TT games I've played Legion is not focused on that at all. I've had games where at the end I had roughly 150 points worth of units on the board while the opponent had 600. I still won. Killing units is only worth it if it facilitates completing the mission or makes it harder for the opponent to do so. Taking vehicles significantly cuts into your own capacity to get VPs and the vehicles' firepower, while typically quite high, simply isn't enough to compensate for that lost capacity. Yesterday I took a triple tauntaun list to a tournament to see how it plays. I had next to none anti-vehicle in it and I got to face an AT-ST the first round. I never even scratched it (or shot at it for that matter). It killed half of a tauntaun squad on their way in and then the Tauns were behind it and engaged with the opponent's infantry, so it proceeded to shoot at my commander and infantry instead. Granted, it did kill an entire unit and almost wiped out another two. In the meantime, while his infantry was busy with Tauntauns the rest of my units claimed 4 out of 5 supply crates. Easy win. I guess the other guy was inexperienced and could do better if he made better decisions but the point still stands. Just because your 200 point unit is practically impervious to anything the opponent might have doesn't mean you've got a list that will win games.

On 11/15/2019 at 4:15 PM, Lightrock said:

There's no way they can beat shores and DTs in a straight up firefight, so the only way to win is to close the distance and overwhelm the opponent in melee

On 11/15/2019 at 2:29 PM, Lightrock said:

imperial gunline seems to completely outclass the rebel one.

On 11/15/2019 at 7:13 PM, Hawkstrike said:

It's Tauntauns all the way down.

All this here. Shore troopers/Death troopers make a rebel gunline a waste of time and points. I played a game the other day against a suppression list and was shocked how I lost a sniper unit, two trooper units, and got 5 suppression on a tauntan all at range 4 with heavy cover on turn 1. If not for Luke and another unit of tauntans I would have had no chance.

On 11/15/2019 at 5:19 PM, Squark said:

Gunline is at least in part a reaction to Tauntauns pushing out some things; They did a real number on the previous Imperial Meta builds. Still, the sheer amount of efficient range 4 guns the Empire has is... alarming.

It is a crazy abusive cycle with the meta right now. It feels like shores counter most other rebel list, but tauntans counter shores hard. So Rebel players just counter Empire list or try to counter tauntans with AT-RTs.

Both could use a small nurf (or big) to see if that would allow room for the options.

1 hour ago, RyantheFett said:

All this here. Shore troopers/Death troopers make a rebel gunline a waste of time and points. I played a game the other day against a suppression list and was shocked how I lost a sniper unit, two trooper units, and got 5 suppression on a tauntan all at range 4 with heavy cover on turn 1. If not for Luke and another unit of tauntans I would have had no chance.

It is a crazy abusive cycle with the meta right now. It feels like shores counter most other rebel list, but tauntans counter shores hard. So Rebel players just counter Empire list or try to counter tauntans with AT-RTs.

Both could use a small nurf (or big) to see if that would allow room for the options.

This is how the meta will develop now that we access to several options. X beats most units in the game. Y beats X but isn’t as strong as X against other units. People bring X and hope not to play against Y.

with the addition of 2 new factions, I expect the meta to diversify and help solve the above problem.