Don't forget Jaded Galaxy during the 150 pt era. Mara, Han GH, Dodonna, Dodonna, ugos, lobot (mtb and more ugos). Very, very potent squad. Mara has always been one of the best.

Thanks Sithborg and UrbanJedi, I've altered the original to include your feedback. Obviously, since I started playing in 2010, quite often I don't quite know what I'm talking about before that.....

More stats, I arranged the pieces into four eras (in terms of release date), and took the average rating.

Era 1: Rebel Storm -> Bounty Hunters, average rating = 3.33 (15 pieces covered so far)
Era 2: Alliance and Empire -> Knights of the Old Republic, average rating = 6.88 (8 pieces)
Era 3: Clone Wars -> Masters of the Force, average rating = 7.00 (10 pieces)
Era 4: V-sets, average rating = 7.23 (13 pieces)

Kelborn, from Galactic Heroes





There are very few auto-includes in the game. R2-D2 Astromech Droid makes it into every Republic squad. Ganner and Dodonna make it into every New Republic squad. Mas Amedda makes it into every Imperial squad. The Yammosk makes it into every Vong squad. Kelborn joins that elite group, with his game changing capabilities for the Mandalorians. Even without his two most interesting Special Abilities, Kelborn's a solid attacker for the Mandos; he's a Cloaked Cunning attacker,who can get up to 120 damage with the help of a Mandalorian Captain against an unactivated enemy, and that alone is just about worth 28 points. But on top of that, he has two great Special Abilities that push him into the rarefied air of the elite minis:

Coordinated Command - Kelborn has Relay Orders himself, and also hands it out to allied commanders. It makes it a lot easier to take advantage of Commander Effects, and the Mandos have some really strong ones, especially twin from the Captain and death shots from Jaster Mereel. Darth Maul Death Watch Overlord is a good, tough commander with Cloaked who can use Relay Orders.

Resol'nare - even more importantly, Kelborn also gives himself and allied Mandalorians who start the round within 3 squares of him, 6 squares of movement at the start of each round. I hate to sound like a broken record, but efficient movement breakers are some of the most powerful pieces in the game, and Kelborn's another one - he allows the Mandalorians to get up the board quickly, and gives them some unpredictability.

Kelborn's a really well thought out piece; he's very powerful for 28 points, but the Mandalorians needed him, and with his help they've been much more competitive - Fenn Shysa and Mandalore the Vindicated are also great recent additions to the faction, but Kelborn is the Power 11 piece in the mix. The Mandalorians took out a couple of Regionals last season, and a Kelborn based Mando team went unbeaten through Swiss in the NZ National tournament last year, Mandos are finally a major force in the game. 11/10

as you pointed out , this is an auto include for any mando squad today. SOme much utility for a piece that it cant be helped. THat being said this is my favoirte mando piece released for a while. It is a decent attacker and tech that brought mandos up to a more competitive level.

Wow! I had a large hand in designing this piece and I don't think I would have given him an 8. I'm happy you think that though.

What I am pleased with is that he seems to have hit the mark that we were aiming at - fun, different, and useful but not top tier.

I like seeing that many people are building with him, even though I don't think I've seen too many (if any) squads use him at tournaments.

In the uber-rock meta (mace/GOWK, Malgus, etc) theoretically I envisioned a Stealth N Blue squad with Watto and the Rancor Keeper being quite nasty. The issue is that you have to have something in your base squad, and bring in Watto OR the Rancor Keeper with Lobot, but unless you're playing Jabba too, you have to put one or the other in the base squad, which weakens it in most matches.

Long story short - you have to build with it from the start, and that will never be tier 1.

But there are some fun builds with him, and room for more synergy with future characters.

Vanguard, from Galactic Heroes





Trooper squads in Old Republic squads have been a tricky beast - since every tournament Old Republic squad starts with Bastila Shan JM and also needs some door control and activations, there just wasn't room for enough Troopers and Commanders to make a viable Old Republic grunt squad, despite some strong individual pieces. So most Old Republic squads revolved around uniques like Carth Onasi, Atton 'Jaq' Rand, Satele Shan, and Master Thon. The Arkanian Jedi General in the most recent v-set was a good answer for this problem - squads of 20 point Old Republic Troopers with Greater Mobile Attack and Prideful are suddenly nasty, if not necessarily Tier 1. Unfortunately, at 40 points, the Vanguard gets left out in the cold from these new builds, since he doesn't fit in under the General's 30 points for Prideful. The Vanguard does have some power - Jolt is potentially nasty, and Advanced Shields on a shooter gives him some survivability. The Vanguard's a decent piece for 40 points; he might be somewhat overcosted, but his main problem is that he just doesn't slot comfortably into any OR build and he's not going to get much play as a result, 4/10.

Clone Trooper Commander, from Clone Strike





Before doing these random profiles, I had no idea that Clone Strike had both a Clone Trooper Commander and a Clone Trooper Sergeant; they are almost equally quaint with their almost identical stats, costs, and negligible CEs. It's hard to decide which is worse, but I think this guy takes it out with his terrible Commander Effect....

Have I got a deal for you! If you leave your fragile Clone Troopers in the open for an entire round, I'll give them +3 attack at the start of the next round.

I guess this Commander might have some kind of (very marginal) application in Naboo Trooper squads, but Clone Trooper squads are much better off with Queen Amidala or Captain Rex for mobility. And Clone Trooper squads are terrible anyway. 2/10.

Gonk Power Droid, from Universe





The GONK power droid is certainly an interesting piece - with one potentially uber ability (Power Coupling) balanced by two negative abilities in Self-Destruct 20 and Speed 2. I think, overall, that the limitations of Power Coupling (the recipient has to stay adjacent to GONK until after it makes its attacks) together with Speed 2 are too prohibitive to make the GONK truly useful. One of the GONK's potential uses has been obsoleted by the v-sets - if you want a detonator for the Muun Tactics Broker, that you can bring in along with the MTB with Lobot's reinforcements, you're much better off with a Klaatonian Assassin in most scenarios. I do hear that the GONK is more practical in tile wars, where the Speed 2 is less of a restriction, and fans of Power Coupling should note that the v-set Mandalorian Technician has the same ability. I think the GONK deserves a three, since it does have some unique possibilities, but it's not going to see a lot of play in this day and age, 3/10.

I once bought a gross of gonks for no apparent reason beyond the fact that I could. Still have most of them too.

Yeah, I remember those Gonk squads. One player used Chewie RH and a bunch of Gonks...Chewie could BG for them, and then he had something like 9 attacks on his turn. I did see better squads though:

Han RH
Aurra Sing
Chewie RH
Gonk x2

All the figs would be clustered in a group, with Chewie BGing for everyone and then Han would get Triple Accurate (Cunning) and then you'd activate the gonks and give their boost to Aurra, who also got Triple Accurate (Jedi Hunter). That was HUGE damage output back then. It was pretty nasty. It had virtually NO mobility and so it was never more than Tier 2, but it did give many squads fits for a while.