This is for as-printed rules only, no IACP.

We are creating a format for local tournament play where we want to organize the existing deployments so that we can put restrictions on the number of pieces per tier one can have in an army. Basically this is the thinking:
There are five tiers. Tier one is the super tier with guys like RS Han, FOTK IG and DBH Vader. Tier 2 is the good tier, tier 3 the average, tier 4 the not so good tier and tier 5 is the crap tier with most regulars etc.

Basically we will try out a sort of matching system. The first basic idea is that:
For each point in Tier 1 you need the same number of points (+/- 2 to make band building easier) from tier 5.
Same goes for tier 2 and 4
Tier 3 does not require matching.

Given that, if given full freedom, where would you place what deployments? Not all of them perhaps, but a few? FOTK IG is tier 1 for instance. Please share your thougts.

Some food for thought: What regular deployments are not tier 5? Smuggler, Hired guns, HKs spring to mind. Jawas? Any others? What elite ones are tier 5? Are there any?

Off the top of my head, aside from the smugglers and jawas that you mentioned, I would definitely put regular riot troopers up high. Their strain can be annoying, but more importantly they're a whole lot of trouble to kill for a measly two points. Great as objective runners and as shields for your more valuable figures. And then the regular imperial officers, but I'm betting that they're so ubiquitous that you probably didn't even think to list them

I'd also class Jet troopers, death troopers, LOLcats, hired guns and HK droids as playable regular deployment units. None would be my absolute first choice, but they could all have a place in the right list (except maybe HKs, who IMO are pretty much outclassed by eQuays).

And then there are ughnaughts, who are their own whole thing that is possibly better left forgotten hahaha

As for elites, there are a few that aren't great but I would put wing guards and rebel troopers as probably the worst of the worst. The former is basically just a stormtrooper group without the auto-focus and (more importantly) without any sort of trooper synergy in the Merc faction. They have their strain ability, but it's way too hard to set up for way too little payoff (since your opponent has too many choices in how to play around it, whether to take a damage or pitch a card, etc.). The rebel troopers just die too easily and don't put any damage through, even when they can manage to pull off the (rather difficult) Get Into Position attack

14 hours ago, ManateeX said:

Off the top of my head, aside from the smugglers and jawas that you mentioned, I would definitely put regular riot troopers up high. Their strain can be annoying, but more importantly they're a whole lot of trouble to kill for a measly two points. Great as objective runners and as shields for your more valuable figures. And then the regular imperial officers, but I'm betting that they're so ubiquitous that you probably didn't even think to list them

I'd also class Jet troopers, death troopers, LOLcats, hired guns and HK droids as playable regular deployment units. None would be my absolute first choice, but they could all have a place in the right list (except maybe HKs, who IMO are pretty much outclassed by eQuays).

And then there are ughnaughts, who are their own whole thing that is possibly better left forgotten hahaha

Great input, thanks! I fully agree on the Riots (probably tier 3) and the officer will be tier 2 I think. We will set up a start tier rank and test it out.

Hm, I never really considered rJets that much... I guess they should perhaps go into tier 4. Death troopers too. HKs I think I want in tier 3. Loth cats perhaps a tad higher as well.

Big thanks for the input, much appreciated!

14 hours ago, ManateeX said:

As for elites, there are a few that aren't great but I would put wing guards and rebel troopers as probably the worst of the worst. The former is basically just a stormtrooper group without the auto-focus and (more importantly) without any sort of trooper synergy in the Merc faction. They have their strain ability, but it's way too hard to set up for way too little payoff (since your opponent has too many choices in how to play around it, whether to take a damage or pitch a card, etc.). The rebel troopers just die too easily and don't put any damage through, even when they can manage to pull off the (rather difficult) Get Into Position attack

I think I have both the eWings and eRebel troopers in tier 4. The elite rebel troopers are actually a lot better then given credit to. For them, it is a matter of not having them be a primary threat. If all falls into place, they are a very high damage activation with huge range thanks to Aim. I mean, average damage with Aim is 4 pierce 2 with cap damage of 7 or 6 pierce 2 per trooper and while hard to set up, that is a really hard hit.

Another elite deployment that should go into tier 5 I think would be the Hired guns. The elite version is truly terrible.

Again big thanks for the feedback!

Some figures power level changes pretty radically depending on the players skill level. Fragile Long range figures tend to get a lot worse because new players struggle with calculating range odds and setting up long range line of sight attacks, and melee figures with high health pools work a lot better for new players.

Good point. All of us playing in the group have at least three years experience in IA and several of us have been there since the start.

One very interesting apsect of this exercise is exactly this; What deployments are powerful if you have limited access to the top ones. We had a trial run this weekend and had a very interesting spread of bands.

Our biggest problem right now is actually how to handle the rebel care package. Even if set to tier 1, they are just so point efficient that they are more or less still staples. Most others can be tweaked by moving them up and down in tiers.

This might help. It doesn’t have the last wave (Lothal) but it’s got a pretty thorough write up of everything else.... (not my work)