Even Piell, from Champions of the Force (http://www.bloomilk.com/Character/270/even-piell)





Lots of WOTC pieces were power creeped out by subsequent sets, but Even Piell suffers the ignominy of getting outclassed by similarly priced options in the same set. Champions of the Force featured three Republic Jedi in the 26-29 point range; the Jedi Weapon Master was a 26 point non-unique that became a Republic staple, Depa Billaba was a 29 point piece with the very useful Force Sense, and compared to them Even comes up as the third most useful option, primarily because of his lack of defense against shooters. He's competent enough - Mettle combined with a +14 attack means he's not going to miss much, but overall he was the least third most-useful option in his faction and price range of his set, which means that he has slidden into irrelevance now. 3/10.

you're just talking about a +2 att though.

his 90 hp = jwm
19 d is standard at that range and he's unique which makes him easier for bounty hunters. jwms have 19 + duelist

his att is the only thing that stands out.

in general, his design is bland. Mettle is nice but as the +14 att is higher than usual its kind of redundant.
His design would have been far better if his block was parry, or he had soresu or something that can really benefit from his mettle.

motf1 and no innate save based ability that doesn't require spending force makes him a pretty awkward design.

All the really awesome mid cost Jedi from that era suffer from the same design flaw. If they would have gotten twin attack they would still be played today. Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Deepa and Even,would be played still. The design flaw is that ranged received twin instead of melee. It's a shame, because some of these sculpts are really cool. They play really well as flavour pieces too because they are mid cost with high hit points and great attack stats. So they are really strong in swarms but can be taken down individually. I actually have house rules that make them really fun. I should post them in what we want to see. Anyway its a real shame. Really.

Cheers

Geonosian Drone, from Clone Strike





If you're playing without v-sets, the Drone is a cast iron 1. I can't think of any reason why you'd play it over an Ewok - the Ewok has the exact same stats, but with the addition of Swarm +1. As a Separatist living piece, the Geonosian Drone wasn't subject to any bonuses that the Ewok couldn't access. So there was no reason to play the Drone ever.

But the addition of Poggle the Lesser in Destiny of the Force made the Geonosian Drone into a Separatist staple, with a 1 point rapport for them and a Commander Effect giving them self destruct 20. While Poggle's commander effect works on all Geonosians, the now two point Drones, aka 'Poggle Bombs', are the obvious candidate. They're transformed from a useless piece of board filler to an excessively useful 2 point piece, who is a strafe deterrent and a source of auto damage. They're often set off with the Muun Tactics Broker for initiative control, or Darth Sidious, who can pawn one and set it off for self destruct 20 at the end of his turn.

Many players will agree that this boost was very strong, and and most modern Separatist squads are powered by a back end of San Hill, a Muun Tactics Broker bought in by Lobot, Poggle the Lesser, and a dozen or so Drones, providing initiative control, activations, tempo control, and a source of auto-damage. Given their potential synergy with Poggle, the formerly lowly Geonosian Drones are suddenly on the table in force, and get a 10/10 rating.

Don't forget that they are excellent strafe deterrent, as well as having great synergy with Sidious as he turns them into pawned missiles.

Cool - I was figuring I'd go into more detail on Poggle's article, but maybe I'll never make it that far, so I expanded the Geonosian Drone article.

Stormtrooper, from Rebel Storm





The Stormtrooper was bound to come rather than later in the randomiser, since it got released 10 times in the WOTC sets. And there's no reason why not - they're both iconic and a really good piece for 5 points, with good stats, and subject to umpteen boosts. The only real issue for Stormtroopers is that they're often outclassed by the 5 point Raxus Prime Troopers, who have very similar stats and Wall Climber, and Snow Troopers, who have 20 hit points and can come down to 5 points with rapport. The Storm Trooper's a really good piece for 5 points, and it's still eminently useful, especially with v-set based builds like Admiral Daala and Vader Agent of Evil, but it is generally eclipsed by Snow Troopers or Raxus Prime Troopers in a lot of situations. 7/10.

On Stormtrooper incompetence:

https://imgur.com/w5MHii8

(I don't remember where I first saw this image. Someone may have already posted it on bloomilk.)

Zann Consortium Defiler, from Vengeance





Zann Consortium Defilers remind me of a Fringe Storm Commando, with Deadeye, Stealth, and Satchel Charge on a mid range trooper. They're a Swiss Army Knife type piece, as they can blow doors, shoot, and have a direct damage option. The Defiler can do a bunch of things, but he doesn't necessarily don't do any of them especially well - with +8 attack, he's not a great shooter, and he can do 60 damage, but he needs to roll well to hit big pieces. Satchel Charge is obviously a very important ability, but you don't want to tie up your 24 point piece blowing doors if you can avoid it. And you can use Captain Tarpals to allow the Defilers to use Proximity Mines twice in a turn, but since you can't put Proximity Mines on the same piece twice at the same time (it violates stacking rules), it's also limited in effectiveness. I like Defilers, but personally I haven't had a lot of success with them - they might become more useful as the Zann Consortium is fleshed out, but right now, they're merely a competent support piece with some cool tricks. 6/10.

I agree on the functionality of this piece. I recently played a Talon squad with them which boosts their attack and damage. The proximity mines are great going up against people like GOWK who you would have difficulty shooting anyway. If you have 2 Defilers mine the same piece that's still stacking right?