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I was reading an old WotC thread about ranking the factions here - http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75862/19445978/Factions_Ranking?pg=6. Which factions do you think are strongest now? I'm specifically thinking about 200 point games, like at GenCon Championship, but you're welcome to think of other criteria if you want. My opinion: 1. RepublicHave at least three really strong squad bases - GOWK/Mace, Yobuck/General Skywalker, Panaka of Theed/Naboo stuff - all of which made the top 8 at GenCon this year. Great movement with R2-D2 Astromech, original Panaka, and Foul Moudama. 2. ImperialHave a really good infrastructure to use with non-uniques, with Pallaeon, Mas Amedda, both Thrawns, and lots of other useful tech pieces. Lots of ways to go, with Echani Handmaidens, Storm Commandos, and other non-unique swarms. 3. Old RepublicHave been performing solidly with Bastila, Atton 'Jaq' Rand, and Carth Onasi ORS - and Satele Shan and Bao-Dur promise to be two great additions from Scum and Villainy. 4. SithTheir stock has been rising steadily with the v-sets - it'd be good to see some other top squads as well as the Revan/Kaan/Jaq one that's been doing so well, but they got a ton of new pieces in Scum and Villainy, and it'll be interesting to see how they shake out. 5. New RepublicThey are hindered by Mace being popular, as he's such an effective anti-melee piece and his Force Absorb neutralises Mara Jade, Jedi, who was their spearhead. But they still have a lot of tools with Dodonna, Disruptive, and access to Evade. 6. RebelsI'm interested to see if the new Han is enough to raise their stocks a bit. Red Squadron Aces are a nice new option from the v-sets as well. And urbanjedi won a tough Regional with the 2010 Rebels, and they have lots of tricks like cheap disruptive. New Yoda might be helpful too. 7. SeparatistsThey have been getting stale - the Lancer has been getting heavily neutered - but they have other tricks like droid swarms with Whorm. 8. MandaloriansI'm interested to see what Fenn Shysa and Mandalore the Vindicated do for them. They are a bit one dimensional with mainly shooters, and no movement breakers. 9. VongSuper effective against Jedi, but one-dimensional with pretty much all melee. The nom bomb squad has been hurt by the introduction of Momaw Nadon as a Lobot option.
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I agree with your ideas. I have never really used old republic, but I have heard they are fun to play
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Very Interesting! I tend to agree with your list Hutts. Republic, OR, and Empire are battling it out for top 3 right now. The Empire has such a good framework for squads and it can deal with so much stuff that between that and the Republic will be duking it out for the top spot for a bit.
But I'm interested to see if V-set 4 can boost any of the other factions, I think the Mandos especially got a bump and the OR may be able to pull off Droid Squads now, and the Sith have a lot of neat new tricks. It'll be interesting to see what starts showing up next regional season.
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Lobot has been the number 1 piece. In a diverse meta, versatility is king. We'll see how much the Rebels' added versatility boosts them.
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FlyingArrow wrote:Lobot has been the number 1 piece. In a diverse meta, versatility is king. We'll see how much the Rebels' added versatility boosts them. We had a 100 point tournament last week; it was pretty cool to see Dr Daman turn the new Han into Han in Stormtrooper Armor with Accurate Shot and destroy a swarm of Geonosian Drones.
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I really like republic squads with yobuck, republic commandos, and others there are so many great squads
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Pre V4, I would probably put Seperatists and NR above Sith. Sith are okay, but I wouldn't put them at #4. Still extremely limited, and Sep Droids are still a force to reckon with.
A bit early post V4, but I see Mandos making a big leap with Vindicated and/or the Protectors/Fenn Shysa.
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Sithborg wrote:Pre V4, I would probably put Seperatists and NR above Sith. Sith are okay, but I wouldn't put them at #4. Still extremely limited, and Sep Droids are still a force to reckon with.
A bit early post V4, but I see Mandos making a big leap with Vindicated and/or the Protectors/Fenn Shysa. I was about to say that, actually. The Seps are still pretty dangerous with GGDAC/Whorm. Seps don't seem to be progressing like the other factions, though. almost all of the new sep droids have single shot blaster or already have twin. I know that the v-set team is trying to give the other GGs a chance, but I would rather them give the Seps a chance at getting as competitive as the Republic or Imps, or at least the OR. The Sith used to be better when there wasn't Mace, very powerful shooters, death shots and other tricks. They are a pretty cool faction, but they just have mostly melee, which limits their long-range power and squad options a lot. And I think that the OR is where it should be, but it is really held up by Bastila Shan, JM. I don't think that there were any OR GenCon squads without her. (Even though I wasn't there.)
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MaliciousCrumb wrote:
I was about to say that, actually. The Seps are still pretty dangerous with GGDAC/Whorm.
Seps don't seem to be progressing like the other factions, though. almost all of the new sep droids have single shot blaster or already have twin. I know that the v-set team is trying to give the other GGs a chance, but I would rather them give the Seps a chance at getting as competitive as the Republic or Imps, or at least the OR.
But that's not progressing the faction. You are either trying to create a better altnerative to the IG86 (powercreep on an already powerful figure) or just supporting one squad type. Creating figs that aren't dependant on one commander will lead to the faction opening up. And it's a bit of an issue, you don't want to be giving power pieces to a faction that has been pretty much the gatekeeper for a few years. I assure you Seps are going to be diversified.
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I agree that positions 4 through 7 are debatable - I like Sith best, as I think New Republic are missing a big shooter and are missing bite without Mara, Separatist builds are a bit sluggish with the Lancer getting less effective, and Rebels are too vulnerable to Bastila, but the Sith are admittedly pretty limited outside that one Tim Ballard build that Weeks took into the top 8. Quote:The Sith used to be better when there wasn't Mace, very powerful shooters, death shots and other tricks. They are a pretty cool faction, but they just have mostly melee, which limits their long-range power and squad options a lot. Nah, Sith hardly had anything good before the v-set - their best bet was Darth Malak DLotS and Darth Sidious Hologram buffing up fringe pieces. Their good stuff like Revan, Kaan, 'Jaq' Rand, Zannah etc has been appearing simultaneously with stuff like Mace and death shots, and they've gradually been getting better. And they have access to 'Jaq' Rand who's one of the most powerful shooters in the whole game.
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Sithborg wrote:MaliciousCrumb wrote:
I was about to say that, actually. The Seps are still pretty dangerous with GGDAC/Whorm.
Seps don't seem to be progressing like the other factions, though. almost all of the new sep droids have single shot blaster or already have twin. I know that the v-set team is trying to give the other GGs a chance, but I would rather them give the Seps a chance at getting as competitive as the Republic or Imps, or at least the OR.
But that's not progressing the faction. You are either trying to create a better altnerative to the IG86 (powercreep on an already powerful figure) or just supporting one squad type. Creating figs that aren't dependant on one commander will lead to the faction opening up. And it's a bit of an issue, you don't want to be giving power pieces to a faction that has been pretty much the gatekeeper for a few years. I assure you Seps are going to be diversified. It could take a while, though. Only about 5 Sep pieces a set isn't too much. :P GGDAC is already a top piece. He just needs some better support and tricks like movement breakers, etc. Why start over with another Grievous when GGDAC is the only one that really has potential? It might allow the Seps to have more options, but competitively, it'll take a while.
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I definitely agree with #1 and #2.
I actually am not sold on OR as #3, and I really don't think Sith is #4.
Seps are certainly not #7. I really think the new spotter and sniper droids have potential.
Vong got NOTHING worth playing in v-set 4, but (very general spoiler) look out for v-set 5 where they will take a GIANT leap into the action (IMO). I am very excited about their possibilities then.
Mandos . . . sigh
You can NEVER count out the rebels. Never.
NR - I think I might agree with NR as #5, but I might swap some of the others above and below them. Deri basically had Trevor beat this year in the top 8, but then Trevor's Mace reposted Deri's Corran Horn JM and crit 3 times in a row killing him and pretty much ending the game right there. Had that not happened then maybe they'd be ranked higher. I still think they are more well rounded than Sith.
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TheHutts wrote:
Nah, Sith hardly had anything good before the v-set - their best bet was Darth Malak DLotS and Darth Sidious Hologram buffing up fringe pieces. Their good stuff like Revan, Kaan, 'Jaq' Rand, Zannah etc has been appearing simultaneously with stuff like Mace and death shots, and they've gradually been getting better. And they have access to 'Jaq' Rand who's one of the most powerful shooters in the whole game.
You got to look back even further. Sith were pretty strong back in the CotF-BH era as Bane and Exar could tear through most anything.
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EmporerDragon wrote:TheHutts wrote:
Nah, Sith hardly had anything good before the v-set - their best bet was Darth Malak DLotS and Darth Sidious Hologram buffing up fringe pieces. Their good stuff like Revan, Kaan, 'Jaq' Rand, Zannah etc has been appearing simultaneously with stuff like Mace and death shots, and they've gradually been getting better. And they have access to 'Jaq' Rand who's one of the most powerful shooters in the whole game.
You got to look back even further. Sith were pretty strong back in the CotF-BH era as Bane and Exar could tear through most anything. Sure - I always forget that people were playing before I started - ground zero for me is after Masters of the Force was released. From what I understand, Sith pretty much struggled through 2008-2010, though right?
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TheHutts wrote:
Sure - I always forget that people were playing before I started - ground zero for me is after Masters of the Force was released. From what I understand, Sith pretty much struggled through 2008-2010, though right?
How I would describe it is since they were a minor faction, they just weren't being given the pieces to keep up with power creep, and the ones they were given didn't mesh well with the rest of the faction, as you wound up with glass cannon soldiers with little support and big beatsticks that didn't synergize with each other (Rather similar to the problems with the Old Republic). They got a bit better with Jedi Academy as that gave us Naga Sadow and the Lord and Apprentice, but it paled in comparison to the boost the other factions like Republic and New Republic got.
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