I read in some thread before Gen Con (I forget which) about the strength of the rebels and it was listed one of the 2 worst factions.
Challenge Accepted…….
That basically gave me motivation take a really close look at the faction and try to play and place with some design. I figured "If, after this effort I still come up short, at least I’ll have some idea what to fix.". I must've tried 20+ builds of rebels trying to get the most well rounded squad I could and basically ended up with the skeleton of the 2009-2010 championship squads. There still is no synergy like it on the rebels as several commander effects combine to make each piece lethal.
I included Ackbar as a tank squad counter and to increase the attack of the rebels with free combines; 2 aspects that have really hurt the rebels. He is also a good means to keep the rebel activation count high which a band of peewees really need to increase survival (my max HP fig is Luke/Han with 70 each). With the high volume of shooters in the squad I figured his Concentrate All Firepower was the best means to give the rebels the leg up they need to compete.
--Just the spot (of Ackbar)--
27 Han Solo, Smuggler
27 Lobot
27 Luke Skywalker, Rebel Commando
25 Admiral Ackbar, Supreme Commander
20 Princess Leia
16 Elite Rebel Commando
16 General Crix Madine
14 General Rieekan
9 General Dodonna
12 Mon Calamari Tech Specialist x4
3 Mouse Droid
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
Preferred Reinforcements:
(Lobot) 20 Jawa Scout x2
(199pts. 17 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/131935/just-the-spot--of-ackbar-The basis of the squad was in the free spotter potential with Ackbar and some free jawa scouts with lobot (or Garindan). Even scrubs can hit for 30-40 and it can be done on multiple turns if you position correctly. However, usually outactivating is the goal and Ackbar does present a midified improved spotter that can add damage to scrub attack (1 mon cal can combine with 2 shooters to get one shot off at +11 for 20 dmg unpreventable) You can double combine on twin shots if you want to activate the spotter (1st shot is free, second activates). The cost of fitting everything I wanted into the squad meant I couldn't take a ghost so every levitation had to count. Thus the playstyle differs from me playing lobbin' luke or ganner where I will use levitate almost every round even if it’s just a minor positional move (taking gambit etc). I would not levitate usually until the 3rd round with this squad. Just the Spot doesn't have great deep strike potential but its fast enough to catch some great LOS with Han or the ERC who gets accurate on a chosen target from Ackbar. The cheap guns (mon cals, Bespins or peace brigade thugs) have evade and so can run into enemy LOS to set up power combine shots with Ackbar. Even though it has good movement the real stopping power comes from positioning a spotter and a crowd of shooters within 6 of Ackbar. It basically requires you to swarm targets with Ackbar and scrubs to start the CF madness but it’s hard to set up in today’s very fast game.
The squad tends to move as a spread out group with Han, ERC and Jawas levitating into prime locations. Luke, Ackbar and Crix run shoulder to shoulder in the core of the squad with leia doing what is needed to improve damage. Ackbar and Leia have a weakened synergy because you can’t combine fire on Leia shots, but she gets an attack boost herself with Concentrate all fire power (CAF) and Ackbar makes the ERC a lethal force with accurate.
I took Ren Var because it allows me to get close without taking shots to rush and overwhelm.
Match 1
TheUltraStar running Mithrawn, Cad Bane, Morrigan, palleaon, mas, ozzel, lobot etc
I won map and chose ren var, he swapped out ozzel for Tarkin and set up on the right. I took 4 bespins he took an amanin a camassi. I tag Cad with Ackbars CE.
1st round was moving up closer to the center, he swapped some pieces in the cubby hole on the side of the center room. The next round he moves a Camassi into gambit with the amanin and a brute at the back. I levitate Han into LOS and have leia take out the brute and then making Han take out the amanin. Han activates and shoots the Camassi and moves back into hiding. Start of next round Morrigan takes out a bespin and hides behind the open door. Shots are fired here and there and scrubs die on either side. He swaps Cad forward looking to get a no cover shot on Han but i've blocked off landing squares adjacent to Han which he didn't realize until he swapped so he retreats with Cad and locks the door infront of Morrigan. I move my combiners into the war room and open the door to the center. Next round I spin Dods, he spins Mas an something, ERC runs 12 adjacent to the door and unlocks it, leia runs up makes him shoot and kills Morrigan. The ERC takes some return fire and then Luke steps up and levis him back out into the war room. He moves up Tarkin for LOS and Han waxes him and then he moves in Palleon and Cad and takes out Leia. I start shooting at Cad with everyone using CAF and free combines, cad takes a few crits and a few unblockables and the round ends with Cad in distuptive with 10 HP left.
Time over and I win on points like about 105 to 45. 1-0
Match 2
Next up V Timmerb with 30 activation Sid, lancer and poggle bombs.
I take a kel dor a peace brigade and an uggie. Tag the lancer with Ackbar.
I lose map and start on the right and move up in a well rehearsed formation of Luke at front Kel dor at the back and everyone else in between with no landing spots. I move towards center and I don't get strafed 1st round. Next round i get strafed losing a few small figs here and there. I managed to make it awkward enough that he starts to use his keldor to take out a few pieces. After a few rounds of slow advance (during which he takes out my Keldor) I’m at a point where I can take shots on things I move up Han and he kills his Klat (taking 20) and then gets blown up by his Keldor. He strafes a few pieces and then I have a shot needing a 10 to wax his lancer and possibly edging ahead on points but the ERC misses the leia assist shot and his next strafe takes out the ERC and leia leaving me well behind when the time is out.
31-140 (roughly)
1-1
Match 3
Next up I face Engineer with his HK, San hill, assassin droid, spotter, mouse swarm (he had almost as many activations as Tim). I take 5 peace brigade thugs and tag HK with Ackbar.
We roll, I win map and somehow he convinces me that we should just play on his map (he was very friendly), so we do and it’s the cantina and I start on the crap side (right).
He rolled a 1 on init and takes a sniper droid and another battle droid. This match was pretty straight forward we moved up and started shooting. He was hitting evading thugs while i was missing 28 D mice so not a lot of big damage happened initially. Most of the shooting was through the door above the bar with Ackbar and his spotters crowded in the room to the right of the bar with the accurate shooters volleying shots over the scrub screens. At the end of the 3 or 4th round l set up a long range Concentrate firepower on the Spotter droid negating energy shield and causing Han to take him out. The assassin droid puts 60 on Han the next round but without the spotter the return fire takes out the sniper droid before I move Han. HK moved up to shoot and I used the ERC to run and take a leia shot on HK and hit one putting 40 on him. Return fire wounds the ERC but I kept putting thugs/mon cals in the way to protect him. The next round the ERC nails HK but has to extend to do so and ends up getting killed by an IG86 (i forget to reassign Ackbar). Han finishes off the assassin droid and time is called.
I win by about 40 points.
2-1
Match 4
Jake sthlrd2 with BAD GAS. I take 2 Jawa Scouts and tag Czerka with Ackbar.
I end up on the right side of Renvar. Not totally clear of the details but roughly…… I moved up in a cluster towards the center keeping peashooters on the door to the war room. I took gambit and made some shots on his pawns before I took out his swoop with Han I think. He moved into the war room with Jaq and guarded him with Figrin who managed to Draw and evade Hans shots. I retreated from center as he moved in and opened the door that my squad was behind. I used concentrated fire power to take out Figrin and leave Lobot exposed and that’s when Jake moved up and SBMd in the initiative phase, won init and killed leia. Ackbar then gave the ERC a double concentrated spot for 40 dmg a hit on Cadeus before Han moved in for the finish with large amounts of combine fire. The ERC died to a backlash from a trooper. We started repositioning when time ran out.
This was the first match that I thought needed an extra round to determine a winner. With 2 GAG guard, czerka, lobot, scrubs and Jaq v Han, Luke, Ackbar, Crix, Rieken, lobot, Dodonna, scrubs I thought that everything was to play for, it wasn’t over by a long stretch
88-78
3-1
Match 5
Lou, with Malagus, Cadeus, Ragnos ghost, squib, Verger
Played on spy net.
This match was quick. I started right side, took 2 jawas and tagged Cadeus with Ackbar. He moved down the street and tried to tuck in behind a building. However, he left Vergere in a spot where a levitate and a six square move with Han put Vergere into LOS. I took the shot, hit, and then Leia boosted Han and took Vergere out 1st round. Lou put the force onto Cadeus, flow walked up to Han and then put 60 dmg on him at the start of next round. I levied in a spotter close to Han and had han shoot Cadeus for 60 dmg, he failed his Illusion. I moved up with Ackbar and concentrated fire on Cadeus until he died by which time Han had died to Malagus. Lou won init and moved to zap 3 of my CF’s. I started spotting Malagus and throwing lots of shots into him with everyone who could move into his LOS and managed to take him down to around 70 HP. Next round I won init and used the ERC with concentrated firepower and about 3 combines on each shot to finish Malagus off. The squad was built with this match up in mind and I thought I would have to rush the center at some point and risk a repulse that would decimate my squad and take away my spotter positioning but Lou ran straight into my meat grinder.
3pt win.
So I’d reached top 8 and thus decided that I’d achieved my goal of proving the rebels have some fight left but I wanted to see how far I could push them.
I faced Gerry on the Saturday after a grueling Ascension championship where I also made top 8. The match took place at 7:30 and I wasn’t really in the best of mental states.
Gerry had is RNAF squad and theed. He won map and I set up on the right, I tagged R2 with Ackbar.
I started bottom left after trying to figure out where my most guarded advance was. With him setting up second he could pretty much get to me wherever unless I was way out of LOS so I set up in the bottom room. As a result my first round I shifted from the back 4 to positions where I could run against the central theed building next round. Gerry moved through the top buildings and set up people in the room off gambit. The next round Gerry took a few shots at a Mon cal that had stepped into the street and managed to defeat it. I kept the rest of the mon cals moving through the corridors and rooms which proved to be a labored advance. I moved Crix the ERC and ackbar to the center and locked the door to the center. The shots continued the next round with me losing another mon cal and I moved up with Crix to prevent his heavy CE boosted pilots from coming around the top rooms corner. End of round he’d left the door open so I used luke to Levi a Jawa up forward with LOS on R2 through the open door. He was forced to tow R2 1st activation that round and left him locking the door below him. End of round I opened the door to the center with Lobot, moved up and opened the door to expose r2 and made leia order the ERC to shoot who took out R2. I levied the ERC back out of LOS. Next round He started shooting at my pieces and Leia spent some force to avoid damage. I managed to take out a pilot with the jawa spotting for Ackbar but the Jawa died in the death shots (0 point though).Gerry ran forward with his Diplomat and a pilot end of round and I took out the dippy by putting him only in LOS. Time had gone and Gerry stopped me there before I could take out the pilot behind the dippy.
18-14
The game was tough for both sides. Figure placement was a huge issue and I know I couldn’t fully engage without taking out R2. It took a while to flush him out but I got him and after that I felt much more in control knowing I had advantage in door control and activations to start picking off isolated figs. It’s not a fast strat, but it’s about the only style that gives the low HP rebels a chance against the Buzz saw Naboo.
Semi final against Tim, lancer and poggle bombs. For some reason we decided to do this at 2:30 am Sunday morning. I didn’t fancy my chances I this one as I’d lost to it 2 times previous.
On Renvar, the only difference was that Tim won map and chose the good side.
1st round I moved up and he strafed lobot who was in the storage room. I moved up and managed to avoid a strafe 2nd round. 3rd round he took out my keldor when I missed my evade which was unfortunate because I had a levi trap set to take out 5 genos. I took center and got strafed again and then shortly after time was called.
I lost by a smaller margin than before but this time I have no opportunity on the lancer.
There ends the rebel run at gen con
So after my experiment I’m not really sure the Rebels are as bad as they were made out to be. Ackbar is certainly an effective boost for some of the rebel weaknesses even if gallop and strafe destroy them completely. I think Ackbar surprised a couple of people and he was vital in winning the shooting match against the droids.
It is a tricky squad though and it most likely loses to Ricky’s “Art Class” because of unleash the force and that my highest HP piece is 70. Still its likely I Tag Anakin with Ackbar and ricky has the decision to either steal 2 of my peace brigade thugs and have activation advantage by 3, or take the Felucian trigger and have a even activation count. Which CE he steals is another question but I’d say the advantage is with his squad but other than luke he is not flush with HP either.
However, the rebels still have very little chance against strafe and with Luke and Leia on speeder in set 6 this squad archetype will not likely be seen much because of its slower than tournament pacing.
But it was fun wrecking shop with Ackbar and Jawas’
UUUUUuuuuuuTTTTttttiiiiniiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!