It was a very frustrating game to play. Only some bad moves from Darth Moore in the last 20 minutes lost him that game.

We've already decided to not allow Daala at our next tournament. She won every one of our four major tournaments this season and held 7/8 of the final spots in these events. She has become a bit of an NPE for most of us here.

no idea right now, but i know that when it first came out timb and i think thereisnotry? played the daala yobuck match and daala won that game. And like i said i am only interested in what TOP players do with daala, i could care less what new players did with her. because like dr darman said in new zealand it has won it all everytime, so who cares it is obviously a problem and they were right to ban her from now on.

I'm glad to see her banned even if it's only in NZ. It's a start. I hope she gets banned, or nerfed down even more here in the states.

In the final against TheHutts, I rolled a 6 for initiative twice in a row. After the first lot of Raxus reserves, the game was pretty much over for graham. I think I had the upper hand ever so slightly, but the reserves turned the game massively. The second lot confirmed it. Graham and I discussed this after our match and we both think that her Reserves should be dropped. It creates a massive swing in every game it happens in.

If Daala doesn't win GenCon it won't mean her significance will be diminished or lost on people.
Daala squads are top tier in the current meta and have been the talk of the entire season.
She chased out many competitive squads and is the mother of the current meta.

However, she has not won everywhere and good players have played Daala and not been "owning" with her.
Good and even average players are running other squads and beating Daala. Some hate squads can beat Daala quickly.
So play her at GenCon and face opponents that have seen her tricks and have prepared for her.
Or don't play Daala at GenCon and you better be well prepared for her.

That's pretty much what it has come to, Daala has set the new standard for winning.
But Daala is not a gaurenteed win for even the best swm player (Tim) to win GenCon.

I generally agree with the above, and I think that actually indicates an incredibly healthy meta. Yes, Daala makes for very strong squads. But there are good counters. I think there are a good number of squads that should be considered tier 1, and Daala is just one of them. Richard Garriot has talked a lot about balance in games, and has pointed out how the best competitive environment has 4-6 tier 1 archetypes, and that a game is worse off if it has either more or less than that. I think he's correct, and I think we're at that number. Some people might not like it being that low, but I think it realistically makes for a more interesting meta. You can do some real planning for what you're going to see, allowing for there to be a true "meta-game", but there aren't so few choices that you know exactly what you're going to see, so that "meta-game" isn't too simple.

I do think Daala is the overwhelming favourite in most matchups - here are my thoughts on some, using the Snowtrooper squad I played (posted above):



He had Tarpals, so double War Throat. I beat him in practice fairly convincingly, but he was a bit tentative with Momaw. Definitely a tough matchup if played well - maybe 40/60.



I beat this very convincingly. The trouble is that a lot of the squad has stealth/cloaked, so if Talon comes out, he's an easy target, and if he doesn't I keep all my CEs and it's 18 damage dealers onto 4. I'd say 95/5 to Snowtroopers.



This was more of a casual squad, with low activations. Daala should take it.



I played this, I'd say 95/5 in favour of Daala. He doesn't have any Drone trigger, so I can move away and take the AOOs. Cad can only take down so much. With no accurate, he shouldn't take down more than four or five troopers in one assault unless I play badly.



I had Pellaeon in my build, I'm very comfortable with the matchup.



Again, I had Pellaeon - I left him in my Commander area as insurance - if I bring him up, the Super Commando can snipe him.



He did have a lot of Snipers/Spotters, but it also meant not much tech - no override, and low activations. So I think I'd be in with a good chance - although a similar build with more tech and less Snipers/Spotters would be much more of a problem.



95/5. I just bring everyone up in the bubble. I'd probably bring in Ozzel here, as a pseudo-Dodonna.



You'd need a Quednak and a Shaper right? Otherwise you're just doing 10 damage. I only played the other Vong build.



I won this comfortably enough. I took down the non-Cloaked stuff first - if Talon comes up I shoot him, if he stays back, he has no disruptive. Definitely tougher than the other Talon squads, but I'd still say 65/35 for the Snowtroopers. I effectively have 21 attackers with the Commander, Officer, and the Security Officer all able to come up and shoot too, so he has to trade 2 for 1 to win.

Its tough when the two best players pick the squad under the most scrutiny as your left trying to decide of skill or squad type is the true power.

Clearly our nerfs haven't removed Daala as the champions choice in NZ and its concerning.

But then that's what happened in 2009, the best players were unanimous with what squad was best. Snowspeeder v Snowspeeder hate; Daala or Daala hate.

What if Prideful only gave +4 attack? Is it the damage output of the troopers?

They have easy access to booming voice, opportunist, squad power etc and prideful for a cool +12 +30 (on top of the troopers attack and damage) damage and they have a bucket of activations.
Most likely its a combination of effects.

You think this one has an advantage over Daala, then? Double War-Throat does change things... I should have figured Tarpals in the Gungan squad.


Cad does have Sniper, and with Hostage Shield I would have thought he'd be able to survive a round and get off a second Assault. With no MTB, those Drones won't do much, but even so, this still looks like a tough matchup.

For several of the others I'd generally agree with you. I didn't take Pellaeon into account, and I had assumed some basic door control, Shaper, etc that weren't mentioned (and apparently weren't there).

Play report for Swiss - I was playing:


I was toying with playing Durge or Yobuck a week before, but I realised that I had been talking Daala up a lot over the last year, and made statements like that Snowtroopers were the strongest squad in the meta, and that I should put my money where my mouth was, and run her.

Round 1: vs Hayden (Separatist, Cad BH, Aurra, Assaj, Poggle, 13 Drones, Hondo, + door control)
I don't think this is an especially hard game for Daala. I have an activation advantage, and a big Cad Bane furious assault is the only thing that really worries me. Hayden was a bit unlucky - I moved Pellaeon into cover in gambit mid way through the second round, and his Aurra charged in and shot at him. She was in the force bubble, so couldn't reroll, and got a 1 and a 2! Aurra got cleaned up by four troopers doing 30 damage each, and after that, I held gambit and never relinquished my lead. In the third round, Cad Bane and Assaj were sitting in cover near gambit, and after Hayden had finished moving his pieces, I threw all the Snowtroopers who were close enough at Cad - I think I missed a couple of shots, and Cad hostage shielded the first four shots to Assaj, so at the end of the round Assaj was dead, but Cad still had 40 hit points, and was in a good position for a furious assault. I won initiative, and put an extra 30 on Cad, but he was able to assault and take down maybe five troopers, the R7, and an Ugnaught. Even so, it wasn't enough to swing the balance - I was able to finish Cad, and then it was Hondo vs ten troopers, which was never going to end well, and I finished comfortably within the hour. 1-0, 3 points.


Round 2: vs Nick (Fringe, Talon Karrde, Barriss, Dash, Jarael, Zam, Kel Dor, Lobot)
Nick had the first round bye, so he had to come in cold against the troopers. He won map, and chose Jabba's Palace - I would have also chosen Jabba's Palace had I won map, since it's so shooty and good for Daala squads. First round I edged up and got Pellaeon into gambit to take a lead. He had Talon locked up out back with Lobot - which was probably sensible, as they're pretty easy targets when most of the rest of the squad has stealth. He bought Jarael into gambit second round, while I kept edging up. Jarael charged in and killed one trooper, then got hammered by three Snowtroopers that moved adjacent to counter evade. Dash shot a couple, and Zam missiled a couple, but by then I was halfway across the board and tracking his attackers down. It's A Trap on the Security Officer meant I could shoot Barriss from across the board. Nick was arguably a little loose with Dash - he could have used GMA to stay out of line of sight a bit better - but generally I don't think there was anything he could do to stem the tide - he played competently enough and finished 10th overall, but just didn't have the tools to deal with 18 rampant Snowtroopers. 2-0, 6 points.


Round 3 vs Dr Daman (Daala, Piett, Needa, GARY, Raxus * 12, Imp Officer, Stormie on Sled)
I won map, so we played on Command Deck. I bought in Ozzel as I didn't want to be outactivated, and Daman left his squad as is. Superficially, you would think that with me having 18 troopers and Daman having 12, I would have a clear advantage, but it's actually much closer - the Repulsor Sled can mobile and take down a trooper without exposing itself, the Officer means that he can run a Raxus forward and trade it for two Snowtroopers, and Needa means that he basically never misses; I've played against this squad four times in tournaments, and he's yet to lose Needa to a failed reroll. Daman made a mistake first round, and exposed his R7, so after he was all done, I was able to open the door and shoot it, and jump into an early lead and leave him without override. I can't recall exactly what happened after that, since we played twice in the same day, but my rolls were awful - I rolled a lot of 1s and 2s, when I just needed 3s (I saved my good rolling for my game with Sharron.....). It ended up as 120-84 to Daman, but it would have been very close if I hadn't been rolling so badly - Dr Daman might disagree, but I think I could have edged it with better dice. 2-1, 6 points.


Round 4 vs Darth O (Talon Karrde, Lobot, Marn, 10 Klats)
I won map, which was reasonably crucial - noone wants to play against 10 Klats on Cantina. Facing it bought to mind our conversation on the squad builder earlier in the week:



Talon is a conundrum - if he comes forward, I can shoot him, since the Klats are cloaked. If he stays back, I have my CEs and am doing 30 a shot, so I can trade a 5 point Snowtrooper for a 12 point Klat. He bought bodyguards in (a Human and a Twi'lek) with reinforcements, along with an R7. With Talon's CE, he was able to get first round gambit, while I edged forward. Once he was all done at the end of the second round, I was able to pour through and start shooting at the R7 and Talon. By the start of the third round, Talon, the R7, and the two bodyguards were all gone, Lobot was hiding, so I had all the cards, and was able to mostly trade one for one - plus once they've lost Talon's CE, the Klats needs 8s to hit Snowtroopers in cover, so they miss a fair bit. Oli did a few nice moves where he based a couple of troopers at once, but I still had enough left that I was comfortable, but I had started moving my Officer and Commander up the board in case I needed them as finishers. It might have been a different story on Cantina, but I think I can win this match most of the time if I win map. 3-1, 9 points.


Round 5 vs Bev (Vong, Prefect, Quorreal, WC Subcommander, PB Soldier * 2, YV Seer, Scout * 7, Shamed One)
Even though I was 3-1 with 9 points, if I'd lost this game I would have dropped out of the top 4. This was tough; Bev bought in a second Seer, a Zonoma, and some more Praeorite Scouts. I lost map, so I ended up on Cantina, which made things tougher. With forward positioning, he got first round gambit. I had to sneak carefully up the board, and there wasn't much engagement in the first couple of rounds. He was able to blow doors to counter my double override. I got Pellaeon into gambit in the third round, and he used three Scouts to flush him out, but the three Scouts were shot by Snowtroopers in retaliation - some of the Scouts were reserves, so it put him ahead on the scoreboard, but it did swing the game my way since I now had far more attackers on the board. He had an aggressive negotiations Seer in gambit, which could have caused me problems, but I was able to shoot it with my Security Stormtrooper Officer (It's A Trap!). I did leave a couple of Snowtroopers exposed for his Peace Brigade Soldier to shoot at, but generally as the game progressed, I was trading attackers at one for one, which we couldn't afford, and he had to retreat out of gambit, and I overran the board. Eventually, I was able to base one of the Soldiers and shoot it, and once he was down to one Soldier, it was clean up. I rolled reserves late as well - while they didn't impact the outcome, they were able to help with cleanup and helped secure the 3 point win. It definitely felt like the toughest game outside the Daman ones - Bev had a really good squad with the first round gambit, cloaked/stealth, two good shooters, and all the auto damage. 4-1, 12 points.