This Thread is ment for the discussion of the current top meta squads and how they will effect regionals.

well its not a bad squad if you dont use your commanders as attackers hehehe.

the top 5 factions have good enough pieces to win a regional. I still think the rebels are number one. Luke RS,Han,Zuckuss with ferus is just nasty. I would go a bothan so you can stick twice. You can add in a ERC and Crix to help out vs the speeder. I really like that build. I think Push is really good now with Yoda.They still have the speed in the landspeeder and Snowspeeder. The NR would be second I think since they have Ganner and Mara that is another just nasty combo. Man minis is broken well I guess Rebels are going to win regionals all of them. I guess if you dont run rebels you will lose. That darn lancer is no match for the Rebels.

Ok really regionals will come down to matches and the player. I dont there is one top squad out there at 200 that a hands down winner like GOWK,speeder in 09.

REBELS,REBELS,REBELS,REBELS

Dod and Rieekan should be in every squad they are just that good. even at 50 they cant lose.

I agree ive seen good players running OR beat Bad players running slow cannon at 150. It comes down to what you like to run. My fiance only runs mandos and does pretty well with them, were as i like running swaps and i do good with them. It doesnt mean that we cant run each others squads but it does mean we are more comfortable running certain types.

I think rebels are still really tough to beat. I dont see them winning every regional though.

I see Thrawn, Yobuck, Han Cannon, and Whorm being the top squads. You can really fill them out as you see fit but those are prob the best building blocks. Ganner is a honorable mention as well.

Mando Scouts with Captain and Quartermaster.. unstoppable. Not a word of lies.

No, actually I'll have Boba Fett Bounty Hunter with a Gonk in the Desert Skiff plus The Jedi Exile and 30 ugnaughts. Out activate that!

Both. Different regionals will have different results, just as we saw last year, based on what the choices of the top players tend to be. Generally speaking, the 200pt meta's tend to favor well rounded mixed squads, but don't be overly surprised if an all melee squad (or mostly) wins a couple. Also don't be surprised if an all ranged squad wins one either.

Matchups make part of the story as well. An all non-melee squad shouldn't do well if that local meta contains GOWK/Flobi in decent numbers. But even then, the guy running it could be bad, someone could fail their saves and lose, or the person playing non-melee gets lucky in the matchups and doesn't have to play GOWK/Flobi. You just never know.

I took a strong GOWK squad to Chicago last year and lost in the first round to Jonny's Gungans. Deri took a Takin/Xizor/TBSV squad to Racine and won without playing against GOWK at all. You just never know.

It also makes a big difference if your regional has 8 players or 28 in terms of preparing. In a small regional, it's not much like a local tournament. In the larger ones, it tends to be more like preparing for Gencon. In a small one, you usually only need to consider what 1-2 players are likely to be bringing, and in some of the larger ones, it tends to be 5-10 people that could win it.

As to squad expectations, I expect to see a lot of Yodabuck and General Skywalker because it's strong, but also because people that like to play it do so because they can counter the rangy squads quickly. It's a good protection builder in the meta right now. So that's probably the Gatekeeper this year, and it could win some events. I'd start with the question, "Can my squad handle a yodabuck squad?" I'd also ask about the Lancer. Lancers are devastating if you aren't prepared for one, and likely will show up at many regionals. NR beats with Ganner will be played. I'd also expect to see copy cat squads, like Lobbin' Luke with 50pts added to it, as there are always those kinds of things. But they generally aren't the real threats anyways. Sith Malak squads, Whorm, Sep Droids, Boba and Mando scouts/guns, Vong even, all have good shots to take a top spot if someone decent plays them this year.

Really, just about any faction can make a competitive 200pt squad, so there really is no excuse for anyone right now. Most factions can make multiple. Every squad has bad matchups so even the old, "can't beat such and such" really isn't a real reason not to run what you want this year (outside of yodabuck and the lancer probably). The rest depends on what you expect to see locally.

Further things, squads need to be fast, and the players need to play them fast. The new rules really help speed up games and slow players. Finesse squads are likely to not be played as heavily this year, because of it. Melee should have a higher presence than in the past, but I think more of what you will see will be a larger chunk of the players moving towards what has almost always been the best squads anyways - mixed shooter and interference squads.

Hah, you can only use 18 Ugs in that squad! I can easily beat that with my 21 activation Dodonna Swarm ;)