I think that Talon needs all that stuff to hang in with other top tier squads - and even with them he still has plenty of weaknesses. Talon squads are generally going to be vulnerable to strafe (unless you're running Klat Assassins), they don't really have an answer to tempo control, and Talon's always a weak point defensively. If he's forward, you can take him out, and if he's not you miss all the disruptive and Ysalamari.

I think 8 is a great place to pitch pieces - so they're good enough to take to a tournament, but not really affecting the meta too much. I think the v-sets have generally done that very well - more than half of the pieces covered in this thread fall in the 7-9 bracket.

Here's a graph showing the breakdown of ratings handed out on this thread so far. V-sets are in a nice bell curvey sort of thing, with most pieces between 7-9, while WOTC pieces are all over the place. Lots of useless 1s and 2s, more power pieces than the v-sets, etc. Much better QC on the v-sets.


Here's the same graph with the pieces before Alliance and Empire removed - since WOTC basically obsoleted most of those early pieces with their own power creep.

Yoda of Dagobah, from Champions of the Force





Yoda of Dagobah is arguably the best force battery in the game - while he's only got Force Renewal 2, as opposed to Palpatine's Force Renewal 3, he's not limited by emplacement, and he also hands out Light Tutor so a non force user can gain force points, as well as Force Spirit 6 when he's defeated. While he can't do any damage, he can be a pain with his 120 hit points, 20 defense, force stun, force defense, and force alter - although if you're using him as a force battery, you probably don't want to waste his force points on annoyance. His most popular use was the 150 point Force Push squad, where he powered up Apprentice Redeemed and Luke Hoth Pilot Unleashed for continuous mobile Force Pushes. Of course, a force battery is 36 points of uselessness if you're playing against Vong or Ysalamari, so it's a risk to take him, and 36 points is a lot to spend on a non-combatant, but Yoda of Dagobah is still really good at what does, and fills a unique niche for the Rebels. 7/10.

I was wavering between a 7 and an 8, so I've shifted him down to a 7. I do think he's an efficient piece - I think his biggest issue is that there are more force immune squads in the meta than there used to be - Pellaeon and Talon are popular, and Vong have got a lot better, so I would certainly be reluctant to take him to a tournament. I'm pretty sure he won a game at the WNY Regional this year with darthbinks1 though.

Yammosk War Coordinator, from Destiny of the Force





I might be courting controversy here, but I think the Yammosk is a bit overrated. In my view it's primarily filling in a huge hole that WOTC left the game with, and helping the Vong keep up with the better equipped factions.

The Vong were simply screaming out for boardwide transmission of Special Abilities and Commander Effects. The Advance Agent, Officer has a great commander effect, but with only 30 hit points, and with it being ridiculously un-canonical for the Vong to use Mouse Droids, it should have been rangeless in the first place. Same deal with Special Abilities like Shaper and Scarification - you had to have fragile pieces out near the action in order to utilise their Special Abilities, or do something inefficient like use Nom Anor to give a Shaper super-stealth. Honestly, I feel ripped off that I have to pay any points to make these boardwide - they should have been like that in the first place.

At the time of Destiny of the Force, stealing a commander effect simply helped the Vong to keep up with factions that were drowning in great commander effects like Swap and Cannon CEs. There are plenty of great Commander Effects that the Yammosk can't take, since they're specific to a group of figures, like the Arkanian Jedi General's "Non-Unique Old Republic soldier and trooper allies within 6 squares gain Greater Mobile Attack." Telepathic Insight is a lucky dip - sometimes you'll get something awesome like Swap, Dodonna, or Rieekan, and sometimes you'll come up blank.

I see the Yammosk not as a power 11 piece, but as something that allowed the Vong to actually use pieces like the Advance Agent, Officer, and to stand a chance against other factions squads that have access to great Commander Effects. It is a fixture in most Vong squads (not all: Warrior Caste Subcommander swarms can function without it), and I'm sure people will disagree, but I actually think the Yammosk could have been costed cheaper - in plenty of games you're paying 15 points to transmit CEs and SAs that should have been rangeless to start with. It's a good design from the v-set team, to fill a hole that really needed filling, but I don't think it's a power 11 piece at 15 points. 10/10.

Major Maxmilian Veers, from The Dark Times





The Imperials are well stocked in cheap commanders - according to Bloomilk, they have access to 25 different commanders who are 20 points or less. Major Maxmilian Veers is one of the less essential ones, with a Commander Effect that feels more like a nice bonus than anything particularly significant. Even in Daala squads, where you have a whole swarm of non-unique followers to take advantage of his CE, there are plenty of commanders who are much more useful. Veers does also have Crack Gunner +10, but if you're after that, the Elite AT-AT Driver is the same cost, but with slightly better stats, so you may as well take the Driver over Veers. MM Veers isn't a terrible piece - his CE could be mildly useful in some squads, and he has decent hit points for a commander as well, but I imagine that he doesn't get out of the box much. 3/10.

It needs to be mentioned that she was a key component to the GenCon winning squad last year too

Lobot

Agreed. And really Lobot and Mas are Tech, so Jarael is in a class by herself

Jensaarai Defender, from Jedi Academy





The Jensaarai Defender is an interesting piece, but at 45 points he just doesn't bring enough to the table to be worthwhile. Draw Fire and Force-Attuned Armor are potentially a strong combination, as he can try to force enemy pieces to target him, and then soak up damage with his high defense and force-attuned armor. But at only 90 hit points, he can't really do it for long enough to justify his cost, and with just a double attack at +12 he's not a very heavy hitter for his cost either. I think he'd be effective with some more hit points or at around 30-35 points, but 45 points is too much to spend, and other pieces like GOWK, Zannah, Jarael, and Satele Shan are much more effective in the melee interference/annoyance role. I certainly don't regret having a Jensaarai Defender in my collection though - while I've never used the actual piece, it's a great proxy for Darth Revan Sith Lord and costs $2 as opposed to Revan's $70. 4/10.