Whoops. I confused the Shadow and the Hand.

Looks like they toned down the Hand somewhat... I don't know what the original stats were.

But wow, Shadow doing 80 dmg. Plus Stealth, plus door control for 23 points. Flurry should have been "at 10 damage" instead of "at -10 damage". Or Force 2 - that would have worked, too.

Thing is, it's really not that hard to boost their attack to +12 or +14. A 23pt non-unique fig with Stealth that can pump out 80 damage with relative ease is pretty far out there IMO. And of course, I understand that you'll probably only get it off once, but that could be a game changer.

Honestly, I'd probably put Jek in every Pilot squad I make. Obviously he doesn't fit in anything BUT a Pilot squad, but getting a free Twin Attack off with one of your Red Squadron Aces that has based somebody is pretty sweet. And if your opponent refuses to kill Jek for fear of that free shot, you just use Jek to get down to the other side of the board to start assassinating commanders! For 13 points, he's a solid buy in a Pilot squad.

I also have to say that it's interesting how powerful people consider the Jedi Shadow to be. It's a strong piece, and might even be good enough to see top-level play, but I don't even think it's the strongest piece in the set, not by a long shot. That +10 Attack is really, really low. You can get it up to +13 with Kavar, but you're paying almost 100 points for just Kavar and Bastila, so you get MAYBE 3 Shadows, and +13 still isn't great. That seems like a pretty weak squad. You could run them with Atris instead of Kavar to get to +14 attack, but honestly if you're running Atris and Bastila a Echani Handmaiden is better than the Shadow in almost every way (higher attack, better damage output, and they can shoot). The only thing that could be argued is that the Shadow is a little more survivable, but even that's debatable compared to the Handmaiden being a Greater Mobile shooter (so she can stay out of LoS) and they have Evade.

The more I think about it the more I think that I would be hard pressed to not consider the 23 points on the Shadow to be better spent somewhere else, like going towards one of the powerful OR 50-65 point pieces. They require at minimum two commanders to be worth their weight (Bastila and something to boost that dreadful attack), and at that point I really think you're better off with something else. They might become a powerful tier 2 squad, but I don't think I would rely on them for a really competitive squad, and I don't think they're good enough to build a squad around.

As far as new mechanics go I love the dismount ability!
Makes so much sense and should be given out to everyone mounted that gets made from now on, examples:
Stap remake -> battle droid
The new epic General Grievous's Wheelbike -> General Grievous Jedi Hunter
Luke/Leia/Han on speeder bikes -> respective character
Dash Rendar on Swoop Bike-> Dash Rendar original
New epic Obi Wan on Boga-> Obi wan Jedi master
At-St/PT/RT/AT-> imperial walker pilot
Mustafarian Flea Rider into a Yuuzhan Vong piece that also breaks apart
So many choices!

Hahaha, yes I know Grievous JH is the suck, but if they made the new wheelbike cheap enough then it wouldn't be so bad (50-60 pt wheelbike) but perhaps grievous from clone strike.

Old palpatine finally stands up eh? Haha but he just spent all that money on a nice lazy boy throne. He would sooner die then get up.

Favorite- Galen, Corran Horn, Cassus Fett, Rohlan Dyre, Momaw Nadon

Dislikes- None too be honest. Designers did a good job :D

My favourite is probably Marka Ragnos or the Vong Hunter on Quednak.

My least favourite is the Ugnaught Jedi. I'd prefer that new Ithorian dude for 15 points if i needed cheap swarm control.

My problem with the Shadow is not really as he stands now but how he obviously affects future designs. It limits the possibility of future damage boosts. Anything he has access to*4. There are plenty of other pieces that can do 4 attacks, but none with his survivability at his cost, and without needing any support to do it. It also makes Lightsaber Flurry harder to hand out to others, since it's only cost 1. Put that on a major beatstick and it could be a major problem.

I'm a fan of
Lightsaber Flurry X: Force X; replaces attacks, make X attacks.

If you can store up 6 force, go for it - obliterate someone. Just be sure it doesn't end up on anyone with Twin.

Faves: I'm very glad at long last something has been done about the excessive weenie spinning. This should have been in Vset 1. Wuher, Momaw Nadon, Tyber Zann, good job.

Additional Door Control options are also very welcome to the game. You should not have to auto include Lobot, and Ugnaught Demolitionists in every freaking squad. Even more Faction specific options would be welcome.

Glad to see the Dewback.

Unfaves: Much like the good old days when Rob was designing the sets, I don't know what you guys were thinking when you put the set list together for the base set as per usual. Being a huge lifelong Star Wars but not an especially huge EU fan I am afraid looking through the list, it leaves me cold. So much so that I have completely given up that I will ever see a set designed by anyone else that I agree with. Thankfully Bloomilk is a great resource for creating customs.