Hi everyone, long time listener first time caller.

I want help making a really solid 100pt or 150pt squad that can handle a multitude of threats (force lightning is a pretty rough one). I play pretty often with my brother and some friends and its frustrating being the one smacked around all the time.

I've had some decent success with Kazdan based reserves teams and Leia Hoth Commander revive squads but nothing consistent enough to consider myself good at this game.

I want to be better so I offer myself up to your knowledge.

My restrictions are no V-sets, Dark Times is the most recent set I have minis from, and I only have 1 Vong character, but I have a decent amount of all other factions with fringe, seps, republic, and empire being the biggest pools to choose from.

Any ideas, thoughts, directional assistance would be greatly appreciated,

General principles to handle force lightning:

Good shooters who just stay away from it
Force Immunity - Grand Admiral Thrawn since you don't have Vong
Armor of some sort absorb part of the damage... Lightning is usually 30dmg. The big ones usually take too long to charge up for.
And, of course, don't bunch up versus Lightning 2.

# * Cost Name HP Def Atk Dmg SA FP CE
TFU 32 50 Darth Vader, Unleashed 140 23 15 20
IE 13 33 Emperor Palpatine on Throne 130 21 0 0
IE 24 32 Thrawn (Mitth'raw'nuruodo) 70 18 11 10
DT 19 22 Imperial Inquisitor 70 17 0 0
LotF 27 18 Moff Nyna Calixte 40 14 5 10
AE 33 17 Storm Commando 40 17 6 10
AE 33 17 Storm Commando 40 17 6 10
CotF 30 8 Mas Amedda 30 14 3 10
CotF 59 3 Ugnaught Demolitionist 10 12 0 10

If you have Thrawn and Lord Vader (or another big Melee beatstick Vader), Black & Blue should work.

Black & Blue = Vader & Thrawn. Out-activate your opponent. When he's out of activations, run someone way up to his people. Swap in Vader and kill something. Beginning of the next round, win init with Master Tactician. Swap Vader out with a Brute so they only have a Brute to kill.

This version came in 2nd at GenCon in 2010:
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/90791/gimp-imps

It would have to slim down some to fit into 150.

Swaps are an excellent strategy, as well as reserves. If you don't have the pieces for a swap, you could try something with more Force Defense, though that also takes time to charge. Lightning has never been a problem for me, but my friends have been playing a lot of Sith squads which just have a lot of annoying Force Powers like corruption. So I have taken to using more Vong. I don't have that large of a faction yet, but I am working on it. It may be worth investing in. To bad about not using V-sets, our group just started using them, and there are a lot of good Vong in those.

Anyway, good luck.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas, although with my collection I hardly have any of the Imperials you mentioned. I do have all of those Republic figs, except for Aayla. Any decent replacement or archetype to fill her shoes?

Good news though, I won finally using Vader Champion of the Sith, Dark Trooper Phase 3, Night Sister Sith Witch, and a Sandtrooper. I really like the Night Sister and the Dark Troopers but I never really had much synergy with them and a Vader until today.

In case you're curious here's what I have to work with for Imperials:

StormTrooper x6
R-7 DeathStar Protocol Droid
SandTrooper
Scout Trooper
Jagged Fel
Royal Guard x3
Elite StormTrooper x2
Heavy StormTrooper
Dark Trooper Phase 1 x4
Shadow StormTrooper
Dark Trooper x2
StormTrooper Office x2
Coruscant Guard
Dark Side Adept
NightSister Sith Witch
SnowTrooper with E-Web Blaster x2
Dark Trooper Phase 2
Imperial Knight x3
Imperial Sovereign Protector
Dark Trooper Phase 3
Antares Draco
Anakin Skywalker, Sith Apprentice
Darth Vader (starter set one)
Darth Vader, Champion of the Sith
AT-ST x2
Darth Vader, Dark Jedi
Emperor Roan Fel
Lord Vader
Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter
AT-AT Imperial Walker

Any ideas for builds and synergy with those figs at 100 or 150 would be cool, I'd preferably have a Vader and like I said I do enjoy a good Dark Trooper and Sith Witch when they fit well together.

I'm worried though, because my brother just ordered Exar Kun and he seems like he'll be a beast and a half no matter who I use.

Thanks again and sorry in advance if this post was too long.

If you want to use Vader, CotS, you'll want followers who already have a good chance of hitting and/or being able to reroll if something goes wrong. The Sith Witch is alright in that aspect as she's got fp, but she's better off paired up with a Palpatine to use as a battery for lightning. The Dark Trooper unfortunately, has no synergy with Vader as it's a droid.

Try something like this for 150:

Vader, CotS
Antares Draco
Imperial Knight
Lobot
Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel

Use Lobot's Reinforcements to bring in activation filler and/or shooter support.

Basically, Antares and the Knight can make use of Synergy and Vader's CE to make attacks at +17/18 and 30 damage. They can also use fp to reroll should you flub the roll. Lando can provide shooting support as when using Vader's CE and Opportunist, he'll be going at +16 attack and 40 damage. Avoid using Vader's CE for Lando unless it's a sure shot and/or a critical finish as he doesn't get second chances.