Since I won the Gencon Championship last year, I was given the privilege of designing my own piece in V-Set 6.

-At first I was thinking of an uber-style Satele Shan (similar to the cost-range of Malgus, who we were developing at the time), but when I saw how good the first Satele was, I didn't want to go there.
-I didn't know what to do, but then as I was putting away my Xbox games (because my boys never do!), I picked up Revenge of the Sith, and I remembered that I'd always wanted a real Cin Drallig mini! Cin Drallig was the Jedi Battlemaster (lightsaber trainer) during the last days of the Republic. [More information: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cin_Drallig .] You can use him in the dueling portion of the RotS XBox game, and he was always my favorite, along with his prize pupil (but that's for another time).

As many of us might already know, the JWM (made by WotC) was originally supposed to be the Unique of Cin Drallig. However, Lucas said he the piece had to be a non-unique. So, Cin became the regular JWM, which was definitely undercosted at the time, because it was designed as a 1-per-squad piece. I always wanted the original Cin Drallig, so this was my chance. I decided to use the JWM as the foundation upon which I would design the real Cin Drallig.


In order to help you see my thought process and intentions during design, I've copied some of my comments from the original V-Set 6 design thread, edited to reflect the final version that we now have.


Re: Stats & SAs:
When it comes to stats, I started with the basic JWM statblock, and added Niman Style (+2/+2) and something resembling Ataru Style (attack is +15 rather than the 14 which Niman would give…didn't want to go to +16). I also added Soresu and Makashi (later changed to Parry for space reasons) as SAs, then Riposte (mirroring Djem-So) as a Force power. 120hp rather than 90hp, because he was the master.

The Lightsaber Trainer SA as I’ve written it has been suggested before, and I think it is probably the most interesting aspect of this character. I just made sure that Mace couldn't get it...no Soresu or Makashi for him!!!!

Re: Force Powers:
Riposte and Sweep (later discarded for flavor text) are there as holdovers from the JWM; Sweep should be the first to drop for space’s sake, IMHO. I think Riposte is important since it mirrors Djem-So and it makes it dangerous (as it should be!) to attack the lightsaber master.

He already has the equivalent of LS Assault in his GMA/Double, so no need for LS Assault.

Brutal Strike is there for a reason. I originally made a similar FP of my own which I called “Speed Strike,” but I found that Brutal Strike already exists and works better. In the duel portion of the Xbox game, Cin Drallig could charge in and attack really quickly in a blur, and it was hard for your opponent to block his attacks. So it seems like Brutal Strike fits perfectly, and I’d really like to see it stay. It’s probably the most important of his Force Powers, I think. If nothing else, it shows his ability as a LS master to overcome even his best opponent’s lightsaber defenses.

He has Force Renewal because he’s a powerful unique who taught his students how to meld the force with lightsaber combat. He should also have the freedom to use Brutal Strike every round if necessary.

We later added LS Precision to give him a damage boost, and the ability to do 50dmg (which is the new 30) on his turn.

Re: Commander Effect:
Given his role in the training of jedi, it’s clear that he should improve the ability of Jedi with their lightsabers. He’s already got his apprentice taken care of with LS Trainer, but his CE should affect the rest of the jedi in his squad too (as well as that apprentice). Options:

-LS Duelist (but the JWMs already have it, and I’d love to see some Drallig/JWM swarms for fun). And the main enemy of Jedi is shooters anyway, so it wouldn’t help much.
-A simple +4 to Defense…much better vs shooters, and helps to replace GOWK, since his CE won’t stack with GOWK’s. (I’m thinking more of 500pt skirmishes here.) As any martial arts practitioner (ie, myself) will tell you, the best offense is a good defense; well-trained practitioners are very difficult to hit. So this would fit his role as instructor.
-Synergy (+4/+4 with allied force users within 6)…probably too powerful, depending on what his cost would be. It would also stack with GOWK’s CE in 500pts, so that’s bad.
-I really like the GMA, since it allows several rarely-used pieces to see play (see list below). To me, this is probably the best option for him, and it would give life to so many of the never-used jedi in our boxes. It also fits flavor-wise: a well-trained and well-led squad of jedi would be running in and swarming their opponents with constant attacks while moving seamlessly through the battlefield.

Re: Cost:
This is an important consideration because LS Trainer only affects allies with a lower cost. Here are some of the notable pieces that would be fun to use with Cin Drallig; just think of how an additional LS Style would improve their playability, along with the CE:

47 Shaak Ti JM (I really want her to be available as an apprentice. Makashi to make her a tank, or Djem So to make her like Vader Scourge!)
46 Saesee Tiin JM
44 Master Yoda (Commander, so no CE)
42 Kit Fisto JM
40 Plo Koon JM
40 Luminara JM (Makashi for a tank!)
39 Anakin Chosen One
35 Qui Gon JM
35 Anakin on STAP (Niman for decent stats)
34 Quinlan Vos Infiltrator (Impulsive Momentum with GMA is fun)
...and many more.

Most of these pieces really only need GMA to be playable, and any of them would benefit nicely from the survivability of Soresu/Makashi or the offense of Djem-So, etc.


So, there you have it. It was a ton of fun designing my own piece. The V-Set 6 guys gave some very valuable input and feedback along the way. I hope you guys have as much fun with this piece as I have!

Yes very interesting! Thanks for sharing (BTW I think out of all the new pieces that came out in the last V-set release, Cin Drallig is definitely one of my top 3 favorite characters)

Cool, thanks! I'm glad you like him. I just like all the different squad options that he opens up. I'm still not sure what the best squad for him will be, but there are a bunch that I want to try.

lol Yeah, there's a few of us. I did karate, others did kung fu, a bunch of others were wrestlers in highschool.

yeah it doesn't surprise me that their are other martial artists that play SWminis (I practice jujitsu, a little kung fu, and I have studied some Krav Maga, among others)

HS Wrestling does not count as a martial art.

In the old traditions of training father to son, Bruce Lee would be my Great Grandfather in Jeet Kune Do. He trained Dan Inosanto, who trained my instructor.

Sweet! Jeet Kune Do is one of my favorites!

+1

TINT I just have to say that I really like this piece. I've probably been a little more critical of some things in this set than I normally am and when I first saw Cin I didn't like him. I think the big issue was that 1) I wasn't expecting such a powerful mini and 2) the Lightsaber Trainer ability has a significant amount of text (plus not having full descriptions of the styles - particularly lesser used ones - is somewhat confusing for more casual players).

That being said, once I got over my initial hangups (I was also a bit crabby that day) and really looked at him I realized that I really really like him. Given his lightsaber prowess he is certainly deserving of having a beefy version and although Lightsaber Trainer is really wordy its a great ability and will be really fun to use.

I also immediately thought of resurrecting Shaak Ti JM even if it does start to get expensive. Adding in General Skywalker is also fun but way too many points to be competitive. It also gives a glimmer of hope to the playability of JM Kit Fisto with his Double and Twin. 40 point Plo Koon is a commander so I guess one of my requests in the V-set 8 thread is for a follower Plo that has double attack as its now kind of a deserved piece.

Anyway, I could ramble about this forever because its so much fun so I guess I'll just leave off with a huge "thank you". Great piece.

And one last thing, for my opponents sake if I am going to bring Cin Drallig I'm going to bring a reference card to make sure everyone is clear about what the lightsaber styles give stars wise. The onus should be on the player using the mini to make sure everyone is on the same page with what they are getting.

I was happy to be able to work with Trevor on Cin for this set; Trevor was a full-on designer for set 5, and I really liked his work (and more importantly, how he worked with others) on that set, so he was actually on the short list of other designers that I would really like to work with. He came into the process with a very strong idea for what he wanted to do with the character, which is always great, and we were able to keep it basically intact. I think that the resulting piece is very strong and flavorful, as well as very well balanced. He's a tough nut to crack defensively, has a GREAT Commander Effect, has unstoppable damage, but is reined in because it really isn't a ton of damage (just 60). Yes, it is very text heavy, and yes, it might be hard for casual players to remember just what all those abilities do exactly, but I think those are just unfortunate allowances that had to be made to come up with a very strong design.

Luckily soresu is printed on his card so you can save some space on the reference card!

Really really like the piece. First chance I get to play with him I'm going to try Gen Skywalker, Aayala, and Vos. Seems like a lot of fun with a ton if great options.