I've been looking around at Imperial Squads, especially with Mithrawn, and have noticed that a lot of folks don't care for using Ozzel competitively.

1. Why is this the case? I get that when things start happening you'd rather have two activations rather than one, but if you outactivate your opponent by 2-3 then you can essentially ignore Ozzel's restriction.

2. I have also seen folks talking about the "mid-round" swap vs. the end of round swap. With Mithrawn, why would the mid-round swap be better without Ozzel than the end-of round swap with him? Seems to me that you'd want to wait until all your opponent's figs have gone to maximize opportunist.

3. Are there any hard and fast rules on when you should use Ozzel and when you shouldn't? When I am building Imperial squads with Mithrawn, I always thought Ozzel was a no-brainer now maybe not.

Thanks in advance for your expertise.

Imperials suffer vs deepstrike, ozzel basicly handcuffs you vs yobuck or lancer. Ozzel kills you if you cant outact as well, there is nothing worse then only acting 1 per round and still getting outacted.

Dont get me wrong ozzel is a good piece you just flat out dont need him to have a good Imperial squad.

I do see the problem with vs deepstrike. Not only are all of your swap fodder in jeopardy, but when the gallop/lancer ends you can only move one piece in response either to attack or protect as best you can. In today's deep strike meta, I can see this being a huge drawback.

I also see the problem of being outactivated, but I wonder if the inclusion of lobot might help there. You'd have the luxury of seeing your opponent's squad and the ability to adapt accordingly.



Could you play around this scenario? Swap in at the end of the round, inflict damage unabated, win init with Master Tactician and swap out at the beginning of the next round. You would give up another turn against on the enemy fig, but with figs like LV and Rex (via Palps SL) benifitting from opportunist and other CE's like IG Tarkin you could in most cases take out most figs and not have to attack again the next round...so you just swap out.

Also, aside from the threat posted by deepstrike, would swapping shooters with GMA and Ozzel work where a melee fig would not? In this instance, you could shoot at the beginning of the next round and then mobile out. Even if you didn't win init (Enemy MT or NTMTO) you would have mobiled out of harms way the round prior anyway. Just a thought.

His commander effect isnt stopeed by doors. He has a boardwide commander effect that also cannot be disrupted.

Not according to the Bounty Hunters Mini FAQ.

Disruptive
Q: How does Disruption interact with commander effects that don’t affect specific characters, like San Hill’s or Grand Moff Tarkin’s?
A: These commander effects work normally.

Q: If a commander is within 6 of the Disruptive character, is his commander effect completely suppressed?
A: No. Disruptive affects characters trying to take advantage of the commander effects, not the character granting one.

http://www.the-holocron.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=55

Keep reading. I don't specifically remember which update it was, but it was either errata'ed or the glossary changed about a year or so later to include disrupting the commander. The BH Checklist write up has been out of play for at least 3 years now.

In fact, also from the Holocron, the complete glossary definition:

Disruptive: Enemy commander effects have no effect (on enemies and allies alike) within 6 squares of this character.
Characters within 6 squares cannot receive the benefits (or penalties) of enemy commander effects until they move out of range. An enemy commander within 6 squares has its commander effects suppressed until it moves out of range. (It still counts as a commander.)
A character who starts its turn outside this range and whose speed is modified by a commander effect continues to move at that speed for the rest of its turn, even if it comes within 6 squares of this character. Conversely, a character that begins its turn within range cannot have its speed modified by an enemy commander effect for the rest of its turn, even if it moves farther than 6 squares from this character.

I highlighted in bold the errata or update.

Yep, there is no substitute for experience. Unfortunately, I have not had a lot experience at the upper levels of play, nor will I in the future most likely. Given that, I thought I might pick the brain of those who live in that environment to help me understand and get better. Thanks.



Honestly, its this mid round swap and playing around activation control that I am having trouble picturing, given a squad centered around opportunist.

I'll take a stab...so instead of waiting until the end of the round to maximize opportunist, maybe you use your swap pieces to get access to those figs who have already activated?

Basically, Ozzel is just when you want your squad to focus on Opportunist with end of round swap. If you want a normal squad, Ozzel just screws you over when you want to do mid-round swap and such.

the consice answer is that if you run Ozzel you had better out activate any team that runs Dodonna.

If you run Ozzel and are out activated by NR or Rebel packing Dodonna you'll get crushed (assuming the rebel player is decent).

Its generally difficult for the Imperial Player to outactivate rebel factions that are made up of low to mid cost figs that don't require swappers or NR/rebel squads that run Gha.

If you take Ozzel and your outactivated you lose your mid round swap and you also lose your end of round swap. You actually lose any advantage you have by taking him and you hamstring your squad to moving one piece at a time. In a faction where the best mechanic is move/swap/hit (3 activations) running Ozzel is predictable to a fault unless you can do what you need to end of round.

There is tempo and then there is tempo. Your opponent has Mara Jade, Jedi. First thing in the round, she rolls over and tears apart your support piece (let's say Cad Bane for the sake of argument). If you don't have Ozzel, you could move a swap fodder adjacent (or near) to her, then swap in Vader to tear her apart next round. Or if the fodder is already there, swap and tear right now. But if you have Ozzel, that doesn't work. If you have to spend your one activation to move over, they'll move their Kyle or Han GH so that you can't swap in easily, and you absolutely don't get opportunist. If you spend it to swap in Vader, they can still roll over their disruptive piece so you don't get opportunist, and beat on Vader some to boot.

Imagine another scenario - your opponent makes a mistake and leaves, say, Yobuck butt to the wind in the middle of the Jedi Academy map, between those two doors in gambit. You want to shoot him with super opportunist Cad Bane, but the door between him and you is closed. You're hosed. You have to waste your one activation to open that door, then Yobuck is swapped out and you get didly. Or imagine that scenario against Rebels. The speeder or something is in the same position, but they out activate you. You override the door open so Cad can shoot. They override it closed. You open it again. They close it again. In both cases Ozzel robs you of opportunities.

I have used Ozzel quite a bit in TBSV builds, and he is incredibly useful in many ways, if and only if you outactivate your opponent. If you end up having, say, 8 more rounds than your opponent, which is not unreasonable, that's enough to override open a few doors, position your Czerkas, move the Vigos up, and blast the living daylights out of whatever is visible. If they outactivate you, though, you get none of that. Instead you have to plod along doing everything inch by inch, and your ability to respond to your opponent is hamstrung. More than once I have run him into gambit and basically just hoped my opponent would kill him. This actually happened at Gencon against Bill[iv15]. He laughed and left Ozzel alone, because he knew that Ozzel was hurting me more than helping me.

Looking over some earlier responses, "predictable to a fault" really sums it up best. In exchange for a chance at having a long bloc of uninterrupted moves, you give up a large measure of vitality and flexibility.