Here's what concerns me over the GOWK issue (which imo is tied primarily to the Mace Critdu issue): we have a NPE (negative play experience) for some people with these characters so we turn around and design pieces to counter them but in doing so create additional NPE's with a character like the Mando Training Sergeant and his Covert Ops. Only in that case the counter doesn't just affect Mace, it creates a major issue for all melee characters in general and that imo is a very bad thing.

Granted, I have not used the character yet nor have I played against it but I'm pretty sure I understand how its supposed to work and can't help but think this is going to hurt the game. Hopefully I'm missing something but at the moment I am perplexed as to why counters are being created that hurt all melee not just Mace/GOWK.

As someone who's played in a few Gencon championships and regional events over the years, there's a couple of things I'd like to say on this.

1. Swiss rounds are not particularly affected by "luck" figures. You don't face them every round (often not at all) and even when you do, and have the additional requirement of the "bad luck," and the additional enough to cause a loss that you cannot overcome, it's just one loss. In regionals or Gencon, 1 loss is nothing. Win the rest of your games with your squad and skill and it's no big deal.

2. Single elim games always exaggerate the luck factor. By this point, the crap squads (and sometimes players) are eliminated. Skill is still a factor, but it's much less so than in swiss. Match ups matter too, but again, less than in swiss. In the end, luck of all kinds tends to have a higher factor in games played with top tier squads and by the better players.

3. Luck has always factored into the Gencon Champs in particular. In fact, I can give you a story nearly every year of what I would call "ridiculous luck" causing a win/loss. That's just the nature of a game based on dice, where a single game outcome determines who advances. Because of this, I've long said that my main goal at the Champs is to make the top 8, then see what happens.

Sometimes luck is on your side (08 for me) and sometimes it isn't (09 Finals, although I also benefited in the first round of 09 quite a bit). I could say that the 2012 finals were helped by luck, which is true, but again that's only looking at one match. I only won in the semis because of a lucky set of circumstances that allowed me to use door control against Weeks. But I don't feel bad at all about losing to Trevor. In addition to the "luck" was that he also set himself up perfectly nearly every round (one small minor situation that allowed me to keep Windu from attacking anything good one round was about it). Otherwise, he set it up and played it so that all the advantages of his squad remained in his favor. So he in a sense created his own luck. That is a major skill issue, not a "luck" issue. Sure, he could have failed all those SSM saves and I could have won it with relative ease. But I wouldn't ever say that it was the "luck" that won him the game. He had to do a lot to maximize his odds.

And with that, I still wish I had brought in Dr. Evazan. :) (Instead I decided to stick to my original plan which was to bring in 0 V-set figures the entire tournament, and I did :))

Billy's on to something there. As I hear it, Sifu Trevor got the win with superior monk skillz, not a broken piece.

As the V-Sets roll on, I'm sure more SSM counters will appear. Welcome Zam!



Madness? This is Alderaan!

Ooh! Big laser!

I'm in the completely opposite camp. Counters, not bans. Although if it's a piece that is a problem, not a particular ability, counter the piece (by name) instead of the ability.

a few things here:
Mas , although powerful, is not all that broken anymore. HE is only available to 2 factions, but those 2 factions have added more 6 range commander effects than other factions. Factions like NR and Rebels have more Board wide commander effects built in now. (Plus by banning him you would set the precedent for banning the Yammosk, which would again put vong in the bottom.)

Gha Nacht, still annoying, but he is seeing less play, mostly because seps are seeing less play. Yeah he is a pain in the butt for mouse droid drops but that in itself is being countered with abilities like rival and wide range auto damage. (Mawmaw nadon)

The mandalorian training sergeant doesn't need banned to me. Maybe covert ops taken off but i really like battle ready, and as i was one of the playtesters for it, found it to be a good boost that is an outside the box ability for mandos.

Now as to activation control pieces, i really haven't been seeing any for a while, i do not like pieces like Dodanna that allow you to choose 1 or 2 with no other requirements, but other than that they do not bother me. I mean honestly i have seen less of the high activation/activation control squads we used to see and i am glad. I Actually like pieces like Grand Moff Tarkin, Captain MAr Tuuk, and the Mandalorian Tactician.

Overall i do not like the idea of a cap on activations. Personally i think that would ruin the fun of squads like swarm squads. HEck i have a Vong squad i took to regionals and did ok with that has about 16 activations in the base with lobot and prefect D'gara. but i dont think that is overwhelming because it is the vong type, they have cheap pieces that are tough.