I thought this would be an interesting discussion. Assume you're going to a small 4-player tournament and you know your opponents are dedicated to practicing their particular squad for a regional or GenCon. So you know the other 3 squads. What squad do you bring in order to give yourself the best chance of beating all 3 squads?

Here are the 3 squads:

--You Can't See Me, Nah Nah Nah-Nah Nah--
58 Mandalore the Vindicated
28 Kelborn
24 Mandalorian Tactician
23 Mandalorian Captain
38 Mandalorian Scout x2
11 Death Watch Saboteur
12 Mandalorian Demolitionist x2
6 Mouse Droid x2

(200pts. 11 activations)


--Beyond Annoying--
23 Crix Madine, SpecForce Commander
21 Marn Hierogryph
19 Princess Leia, Rebel Commando
18 Major Bren Derlin
75 SpecForce Wilderness Fighter x5
14 General Rieekan
9 General Dodonna
9 R2-D2 with Extended Sensor
12 Ugnaught Demolitionist x4

(200pts. 16 activations)


--Dance of Death: UberTank--
54 Darth Caedus, Sith Lord
49 Juggernaut
31 Barriss Offee, Rogue Jedi
30 Vergere
14 Exar Kun, Dark Force Spirit
11 Freedon Nadd, Dark Force Spirit
10 Squib Trader

(199pts. 7 activations)


(Squads chosen pretty much arbitrarily)

Some other thoughts...
* No init control on any of these. So Master Tactician or MTB or even a big Tactician could work really well. The Mandos have early movement and the Sith have Aing-Tii, though.
* Easy to out-activate Sith or Mandos if you want to.
* Two of the squads are full of shooters. One is full of melee and direct damage. That makes it harder to prepare for all 3.


Faction-wise, I think you look first at Vong, Fringe or Imperial to counteract the Sith squad. From there, a deep strike squad would probably work best since the other 2 squads rely on commanders. If you can take out Rieekan/Leia or take out two of the Mando Captain/Tactician/Kelborn, you're probably golden.

For a deep strike, that may point to Embo as the best option. If you get to 17 activations plus activation control, or if you can negate Dodonna, you out-activate the Rebels and can reach the backfield pretty easily. Master Tactician would also be extremely helpful with the deep strike since you can go both first and last to extend your reach. A 32 square run by Embo lets him easily kill Leia or Rieekan if he can get the doors open. The Mandos are a bigger issue because he can't swap back out of Disruptive, and he can't kill MtV in one activation. But he could rush in for an end of round hit and then run 16 back out at the top of the round. And still need a way to deal with Cloaked.

Going at it the other direction, if we try to tackle the Mandos first, probably the easiest thing is to just fight fire with fire. They need to shoot. Give them nothing to shoot at - all cloaked. And all melee, which means that once they're engaged the melee should have the advantage. But that means moving away from Imperial. You could go with Cloaked Blastbuggers... might be ideal. Force Immunity stop Sith; non-save based, non-attack damage slows down Rebels; and Cloaked slows down Mandos. Cloaked Blastbuggers are most vulnerable to Strafe/scissors pieces but none of these squads have that.

I think it needs Pellaeon in there. Without Pellaeon, Vader can come in and kill Juggernaut in one turn at the end of the round with LSA+OWF (assuming no bad rolls). But then he's parked right there next to Caedus/Barriss. Aing-Tii + 2 SBM + Double Cunning. It might not kill him (depends on the Mines saves), but it would be close. And then he'd die to Caedus' Riposte.

He should be able to take out MtV, though, if he can reach him. No Opportunist and Vader can't swap out, but he can attack last and first. Resol'nare would likely move MtV away, but that generates an aoo. So 80dmg at the end of the round and then 60 at the top, all with OWF would kill MtV (again assuming no bad rolls).

Oh right - I forgot about that. Yes, killing Barriss would probably work just fine. Probable advantage versus Sith. I think the only way they can defend against that is to block a doorway. Then Vader has to Leap to reach her and has to choose between OWF and LSA. Going with OWF means only 60dmg on her. So very map dependent. Sith have to have the right doorway in the right spot. If it's too far up, the Amanin might be able to run over Barriss... but he could die to Mines on the way. If it's too far back, Imperials can wait safely in gambit.

Against Rebels, it would probably be map dependent. You'd need the doors open to reach the commanders.

Against Mandos, would there be enough firepower available? I guess if you can kill MtV you can pick them off one by one while trying to hide. But with Resol'nare they can close ground pretty quickly. And if you can't kill MtV it's game over because Vader can't swap out and they activate 3.


(This discussion is a lot more interesting than just building a hate squad against one squad.)

I'm pretty sure there are squads that are better equipped out there, I just liked throwing this Thrawn and Lord Vader in the ring because it's all WOTC (although I'd certainly want some v-set reinforcements).

Embolical Karrdes would work well here

50 Boba Fett-AFH
42 Embo
32 Talon Karrde, Information Broker
28 Mira of Nar Shaada
27 Lobot
9 Mouse x3
6 Uggie x2
6 Brute x2

Enough movement shenanigans to handle things, already beat high activation MtV Cannon squad with Cloaked Figures during the Vassal Regional, Can beat the Sith squad pretty handily. would hold up well vs Rebels also. Vs MtV bring in Teebo and use Sentry to shoot the scouts.