Reserves and Reinforcements

I've always been a fan of the game. While I have struggled with some of the decisions (and non-decisions, for that matter) of the Rules and Balance Committees, I have always understood that things do need to be addressed and sometimes re-addressed in our game.

My feelings about an activation cap are mixed. I get that act control got out of hand and I also understand that high activations are starting to annoy some people more than others, but needs to be addressed. I am of the opinion that activations (IF CAPPED) should be a cap of 16 PLUS any Reinforcements and/or Reserves. A hard cap here, to me, makes no sense as it is a "special feature" of the character to bring in reinforcements and the fact that we have essentially nerfed Reserves out of gameplay (among other archetypes).
In my opinion we are coming dangerously close to "All Special Abilities and Commander Effects are suppressed as they give too much advantage to the player that isn't losing".

My opinion on Reinforcements, is that there should be a hard number associated to what can be brought in. Now whether that is a point value or a set number of characters is debatable. Reserves may need different circumstances due to the Reserve Number.

My thinking to this is when you make your squad, you must "anticipate the meta", and therefore must do the same with your Reinforcements and Reserves. In my opinion, a "sideboard" (sorry, I play MtG so it's what I reference) of 100pts worth of Reserves and/or Reinforcements show be sufficient. The fact that we can currently choose from the entire character lists and hand pick the absolute "Silver Bullet" is a bit much.

Thank you for reading, didn't mean to go all kobyashi on everyone!!

Having an activation cap which doesn't account for Reinforcements would be a problem, because it just compounds the advantage of Reinforcements. Why would you not play Reinforcements when not only do you get to customize your squad after seeing your opponent, but you also are guaranteed to outactivate any player without Reinforcements? I think I would prefer no change at all to an activation cap that gives Reinforcements another innate advantage.

For Example

--Yun-Yammka Devotion: FAIL SAVES (Gen Con Shaft 7th place)--
30 Shedao Shai
30 Supreme Overlord Quorreal
28 Tsavong Lah, Warrior Elite
27 Nen Yim
22 Dovin Basal Keeper
22 Khalee Lah, Warrior Progeny
19 Eighth Cortex Shaper
15 Yammosk War Coordinator
7 Shamed Intendant

Preferred Reinforcements:
(ECS-CE) 18 Praetorite Vong Priest
(S. O. Quorreal) 13 Yun-Ne'Shel Priest
(S. O. Quorreal) 5 Zonoma Sekot Scout
(S. O. Quorreal) 4 Yuuzhan Vong Worker

(200pts. 13 activations)

Two Sets of Reinforcements

--Running Down a Dream--
43 Cad Bane, Bounty Hunter
35 Asajj Ventress, Nightsister
33 Aurra Sing, Assassin
26 Kel Dor Bounty Hunter x2
10 Defel Pirate
10 San Hill
8 Muun Tactics Broker
8 R7 Astromech Droid
9 Rodian Brute x3
18 Ugnaught Demolitionist x6

(200pts. 18 activations)

No Reinforcements

--Shots--
36 Darth Sidious
24 Commando Droid Captain
75 BX Commando Droid Sniper x5
15 Daultay Dofine
9 Battle Droid Officer
9 Wuher
8 R7 Astromech Droid
6 Buzz Droid
12 Mouse Droid x4
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

(200pts. 18 activations)

Also, No Reinforcements

You misunderstood what I was trying to say; I probably could have been clearer. Here's my hypothetical scenario: activation cap is set at 14 or whatever, not including Reinforcements. Everyone brings their 14 activation squads, without Reinforcements. I bring my 14 activation squad, with additional Reinforcements. Assuming no act control on either side (most act control is pretty useless at this point anyway), I am guaranteed to outactivate everyone who does not bring Reinforcements, because they are maxed out at 14 activations, and I have 14 plus whatever Reinforcements I bring in. Of course you could also play Reinforcements in a squad that starts with less than the activation cap- that's not what I was talking about.

And this is why us northern types do our own thing. I feel like many people just want to play a certain type of game and think everyone should play the same thing. I completely disagree with hard activation caps and the reserve nerfs and thus we don’t follow most of the weird balance committee ideas and do our own thing instead. But anyhow you guys carry on making the game you want to play and we’ll play ours.

This is LITERALLY the best reason for it. guessing the Meta is part of the game for everyone else except Reinforcement players because they can absolutely pick the "Silver Bullet" that stops the other teams squad. How is that fair to other squads? I have played 6 uggies and Knessa for 2 rounds but now that I see your BX sniper squad, I'll go grab EV and just shut your entire squad off. Oops then the next squad has Balista, so Ill just throw sy snootles in and call that a wrap?

It is EXACTLY the same for the other Reinforcement characters ESPECIALLY Quorreal. You can absolutely bring in a piece that will specifically benefit your squad more that your opponents.

There should be no way to be able to NOT have to guess and work the meta in all facets of your squad, including reinforcements. If you think the meta is going to be a certain way, build your squad AND your reinforcements that way, with your reinforcements as the special circumstances, but do it from a specific Pt value. Else you are FURTHER rewarding Reinforcements and will warp the Meta in a way that everyone plays it and we go back to absolutely every squad shows up with the same archetype. It's Daala and Thrawn all over again.

The whole point of an activation cap is to limit the number of activations to a certain threshold. It's only fair if every squad is limited to that threshold. If squads with Reinforcements are effectively not, they are given an additional advantage over all other squads. My issue is not with people who play 6 act squads getting outactivated- they expect that. The issue is that people can play to the activation "limit" and still get outactivated just because they don't have Reinforcements.

Limiting reinforcements to a pool of characters actually has the potential to open up the meta.

For instance, we haven't seen very many BX squads recently because a simple EV droid basically shuts them down and is almost a hard counter too them.

If a pool is instituted, then there is the potential that not all players with fringe reinforcements will have EV on their list.

This makes for possibly more squads being available to be played.

The same holds true for other squads that have a pretty hard counter that COULD be available to reinforcements.

That's all correct, but I don't think it's worth it to further complicate squadbuilding and Reinforcements to do it. A simpler solution is better. Why not just ban poorly thought out designs like EV-9D9 and Unkar that penalize certain squads unfairly? Are they untouchable?

Unkar has low caste and cannot be added to a squad so he really shouldn't be part of this particular discussion.