Inspired by TheHutts Rolling Mini of the Day thread, I decided to review squads. I'll try to do a couple per week if I can. In order to talk about the squads, though, I think it's important to define some terms first.

Auto-loss: Squad A gets an auto-loss from Squad B if Squad B is expected beat Squad A nearly all of the time (95%+), when used by equally skilled players.

Tough match-up: Squad A faces a tough match-up against Squad B if Squad B is expected to win at least 2/3 of the time when used by equally skilled players. (Virtually every squad has a tough match-up.)

Tier 1: A strong squad that is a legitimate contender for a Large Championship. It probably has no auto-losses within Tier 1, but if it does it has just as many auto-wins within Tier 1/1.5. Due to its strength, it is likely to be seen at a Large Championship.

Tier 1.5: Generally weaker than Tier 1 and/or may have an auto-loss or two within Tier 1/1.5 (without a counterbalancing auto-win). But it could still win a Large Championship if it avoids its auto-loss. There is a good chance that this squad appears in a Large Tournament.

Tier 2: Can beat some or even many Tier 1/1.5 squads, but has more bad matchups than good matchups and may have multiple auto-losses. Unlikely to be used at a Large Tournament by a serious competitor. A squad that has a sub-optimal piece as its focus, but tries to get the most it can out of that piece, is likely to wind up at this level.

Tier 3: A pure hate squad may be found at this level. But other than pure hate squads, these squads generally cannot compete with any Tier 1 squads. A squad built with the restrictions of a specific theme or scenario, but is optimized for that theme/scenario, is likely to wind up at this level.

Tier 4 (and below): Squads at this level and below are simply bad from a competitive standpoint. They may be thematic squads with no regard given to the strength of the pieces in the squad. Or the squad may be intentionally built using severe restrictions that do not allow any good pieces. Or they are completely random squads. Or they are built to be bad on purpose. In any case, squads down at this level will get an auto-loss to virtually any Tier 1, 1.5, or even Tier 2 squad.

Gatekeeper: A Tier 1 or 1.5 squad that is likely to deal your squad an auto-loss if you do not take it into consideration.

Rock/Paper/Scissors: General categorization of the squad as one that has one or two main attackers, is a swarm squad, or spreads out its damage to kill swarms. (Or is a balance among those options.)

“Rock” damage: A grade to reflect the maximum amount of damage one character can put onto another character in one turn.

“Paper” damage: A grade to reflect the number of distinct damage dealers in a squad. (This generally ignores commanders who are not likely to be in the fight and scrubs like Ugnaughts.)

“Scissors” damage: A grade to reflect the ways that the squad can damage many enemies in the same turn/round.

(See this thread for more discussion about Rock/Paper/Scissors.)

(If you'd like to debate definitions, please start a new thread instead of debating them here.)

Great idea! I will follow this for sure!

Good review, made me have a lot more respect for mace squads and their strategy.

Yes, there is a LOT more to running GOWK/Mace than just tossing them out there and hoping for good dice. Anyone who thinks that is the case just blatantly does not know how to play them. Timing is critical, as is odds-calculation and tactics. I did have a ridiculous turn of luck in the quarterfinals vs Deri (Mace rolled 3 17s in a row vs a full-health Corran Horn on a LS Riposte), but I don't remember any other games where the dice saved my butt in a game that I should've lost.

I think 1.5 is about right. Without Ysalamiri in the meta I think they might be on the outside edge of Tier 1, since very few people are playing tank-busters these days (since tanks aren't being played these days).

LST3 ignores cover, and UtF doesn't target. Both can hit multiple targets as well as LS Sweep. It may not have an advantage over Daala/Klats (not sure), but I think it would be in the game.

I'm not so sure that it would have an advantage over klats. The klats do have ysalamiri going for them, which counters both UTF and LST3. If you send someone in to go after talon, the klats will kill that piece, and ysalamiri will still be in effect.

So can you force push, repulse or grip a person in the ysalamiri bubble?

Let's step back to 2011.

--Bastilla's Battlemasters 2.0--
33 Bastila Shan, Jedi Master
81 Jedi Battlemaster x3
27 Jedi Seer
27 Lobot
14 Old Republic Senator
8 R7 Astromech Droid
6 Mouse Droid x2
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist

(199pts. 11 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/100191/bastillas-battlemasters-2-0
Squadbuilder: Jester007

Ian won GenCon with this build. A build with multiple Battlemasters is sometimes called "OR Beef", and several people have built squads with variants of that name and multiple Battlemasters.

PROFILE
Rock/Paper/Scissors: Moderate Rock.
Melee/NonMelee/Direct Damage: Pure Melee, but Lobot could bring in a secondary shooter.
Defense: The Battlemasters have a great HP/Cost ratio and also come with Block/Deflect and 4 force points. 23 defense with either cover or LS Duelist gives them a good defense, too. The Jedi Seer provides Lancer protection.

General strategy: Advance carefully and then engage with 60dmg Lightsaber Assaults. Use the Senator to give another 30dmg shot each round.

Match-ups: The Battlemasters can deal out 60 per turn. As such, they match up well against swarms of mid-teen pieces. Pieces in that cost range tend to have 50-60hp, and a Battlemaster can take them out in one turn. With 110hp, the Battlemasters can usually survive multiple attacks from pieces in that point range. This is a relatively balanced squad, so it is at a disadvantage to many extreme squads. Being all Melee without a mass killer, it has a strong disadvantage against shooting swarms. Being a 'Rock' squad, it is also at a disadvantage against the 'bigger rock' squads such as Mace/GOWK. The balance does mean that most disadvantages are only disadvantages and not auto-losses. ABM is automatically a huge advantage against any CE-dependent squad.

REPORT CARD
“Rock” damage: B
60dmg per turn plus a bonus attack in the same phase = 90dmg per phase potential from a Battlemaster. All 3 could possibly attack the same character, but that takes more time/effort to set up.

“Paper” damage: B
The Battle Masters + Seer make for 4 different damage dealers. Bastila is a 5th once she stops ABM, and Lobot can bring in a 6th if needed.

“Scissors” damage: C+
The best option for scissors-damage is probably to bring in Momaw Nadon with Lobot. 4 other damage dealers lets them spread the damage around some over the course of a round, but they don't have any special abilities to get multiple threats all at once.

Movement breakers: C+
Surprise move on the Seer. Force Leap on the Battlemasters. The Senator is a sort of movement breaker in the sense that a character can still move double-speed and attack in the same phase. Force points give all of the characters a slightly increased range. Bastila cancels swap to level the field against some other movement breakers. But overall, not a terribly mobile squad, especially for being Melee.


Flexibility: A-
Lobot gets you an A- all by himself.

Overall Grade: Tier 2

This is the GenCon 2011 winner, so it was pretty clearly Tier 1 at one point. Does it hold up? I don't think so. This squad came before the release of Atton "Jaq" Rand, and that piece would be a pretty clear upgrade in this squad. Would that upgrade (swapping out a Battlemaster and door control to make room) put the squad back to Tier 1? The Daala and Talon+Klat swarms that have emerged tend to do their best against squads just like this. Multiple Melee attackers without much scissors-damage. With those swarms clearly in Tier 1, this squad has a very bad match-up and possibly an auto-loss there, particularly with the Lightsaber Assaults/Deflect canceled by Force bubbles. I don't see enough good match-ups/auto-wins to make up for it and push this squad back up to Tier 1.

The seer got a line of mention but it was a big roadblock for this squad and a large part of the strategy during advancement.

Advancement to gambit would generally be out of LOS with the Seer creating problems for anything moving into squares around doors with 30dmg jedi reflexes hits. This made it hard for Yobuck and lancers but also for a lot of figures trying to get at Bastilla.