Hi timd,

Glad to hear you will be going to Gencon. Always a fun trip and you get to meet some great people.

To answer your questions,

1. Most your rules issues can be solved in the rules area of http://www.the-holocron.com/

2. You will not be able to go real far with hand holding in the meta. If I was you, I would start here http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=7024 . Bloomilk is where most people post up armies. So just look around and read. The meta is about as open as its ever been. Sorry if any of this sounds rude. I'm trying to be helpful.

Matt Hansen

As the head judge, with little to fear this year of "revealing" too much, you should be prepared to face the following combos in no particular order (in fact I mixed up the order from how they came to me to attempt more objectivity).

Lancer Pawn (1-2 Lancers, IG86(s), Darth Sideous and GGDAC). There are a number of ways to run it, but if your squad can't handle it, you could run into trouble.

Cad Bane Imperial and Rebel Swap squads. The Imperial versions will come with a Vader (usually Scourge of the Jedi), and the Rebel will have mass activations and likely Luke Rebel Commando and another attacker (Han Smuggler, Princess Leia, Snowspeeder, Landspeeder, etc).

Beef - JWMs, JBMs, and a variety of support. You might see JWMs with General Skywalker, GOWK, or Yoda GM. JBMs might not be played as often, but en masse they are difficult for a lot of the other top tier builds (most are built for tournament tech and can't deal with mass hp squads that charge at them).

Gungans (laugh all you want, if someone plays a good gungan squad they could do very well considering that their best weapon ignore evade, defense, and so on).

Rebels - Snowspeeder/Han Smuggler/Princess Leia, Luke RC, ERCs with Crix, Landspeeder Cannon, Han Scoundrel, Boba BH Cannon, the list is long, but generally the following rules will apply. Rebels will use evade, mobile, tempo control, disruptive, movement breakers (Levitation and speed) and cannon (Commander Effects granting extra shots - Princess Leia and Bothan Nobles) to make very powerful and hard to kill combos.

Mara/Ganner with either Han GH and another beat or Kyle JBM/Wedge. Either combo is tough, and you will see a number of these. The lasting disruptive is problematic for CE dependant builds, and it's difficult to beat these in an hour. The Mara Han combo will likely have the ability to run the MTB for init control, and will have superior activations to most squads with it.

Sep Tyranus LotDS squads (likely using the MTB). I think people have forgotten these, but don't. Someone will run one I am sure, and it will be nasty. These will use Whorm Lothsome as well.

Imperial Swaps - I mentioned Cad Bane already, but be prepared for a number of Imperial swap squads, some using Ozzel, some not. There are a couple of popular Vaders to use, and the support figures are highly variable - Kir Kanos, Zuckuss, Arica, Rex 501st(with Vader SA and Tarkin), Genoharadins, Nyna, Cad Bane, Dash Rendar, and so many more. Really too many to list.

Imperial Vader Unleashed and Palps on Throne - Dangerous, nasty, and powerful against a number of popular builds - was one of my toughest matches in regionals.

Rebel Force Push - Similar to the above, so you will see it.

Sith Malak squads - the support usually includes Dash, Jarael, Apprentices, Sith Lords and HoloSid

Yoda on Kybuck - preparing for the Lancer should cover you generally speaking, but expect to see Yoda in a variety of ways being played.

Vong - believe me, some people will play Nom Bomb variants (not straight bombs - likely using Cad Bane), and someone might very well run a JH swarm. Hard to prepare for, but the power is there.

Republic mid range swappers - (Usually centered around Qui-Gon Jedi Trainer) - I ran a variant last year at Gencon in the 200 JC event and went 3-1 - losing only to my friend playing the identical squad in a match that literally ended with his last piece of 40hps killing my last piece with 40hps. These squads will include QG, Dark Woman, Anakin on Stap, Dash/Cad, Rex, Yodabuck, Panaka, Obi JP, and so on, and should not be overlooked. There is great power in running 5-7 mid range threats, none of which are essential to the build against this wide meta - it let's you adapt your strategy (you likely have a wide range of ways to do damage so can pick and choose based on your opponent).

Sep shooters - Eric made sep mass activation IGs squads popular again by taking second in the Michigan regional (although to be fair he got the idea for using Nute Gunray from someone else :))- no reason not to expect these. They will outactivate everything else, and you need to have a way to deal with their free fodder sitting in front of the IGs or you won't be able to score points.

Luke GM NR builds - yes, you will see it played, and it won't make the top 8, but could easily be around for 4-6 rounds and if you can't deal with it, you will lose.

Ok, I'm sure there are more build types than I have mentioned, but here's a few more things to be prepared for - Mass activation squads (usually using Tempo control and powerful strikes either cunning, opportunist based, or both in the same squad - or swapping around a couple of beats), multiple overrides (do not show up to Gencon without 3 uggies in your squad), movement breakers - many times multiple in combination, cannon squads (multiple attacks from a powerful shooter through CEs), tough disruptive, and finally slow players. I mention the last one because it will be present, and even as the judge there is only so much I can do to control it. I will call it, but you will have to be prepared to inform me of the issue early.

The rule is that each player must play fast enough that the game has a reasonable chance to reach conclusion (which means one player scoring 200 VPs). That means with most top tier squads, you need to play somewhere between 7-12 rounds of play. If you are consistently playing less than 7, you have a problem, either with your own play speed, or your opponents'.

And one more thing. Understand that the championship is meant for rule abuse competitive play. You must play within the rules, but players across the board will stretch the rules to their favor as often as they can. Obviously if someone is breaking a rule, that's a whole nother issue and I will boot them from the tournament. But I'm talking about combos and strategy here, not cheating. Don't expect that the things you might let someone get away with locally will be allowed and get angry if it isn't. For example, if using Dodonna, you must state whether you are going to use one or two activations before you activate any piece, and players will call you on it, if you have done so improperly. Any advantage that can be gained legally will be taken, so prepare for that.

Now, our community are generally really nice people, so I make it sound worse than it is so you have reasonable expectations. People aren't going to be jerks to you, but you need to be prepared for what a National event is like. It's for all the marbles, so expect that when you play. You will have a great time, even if you go 0-7, that I can promise you. It's a tremendous experience and I look forward to meeting more people this year!

Great overview, Bill. I think people will settle on the 5-6 best of these when it all shakes out but this really covers all the possible bases for what those 5-6 might be. If something makes the top 8 that isn't here I'd be pretty surprised.



Rebel swap? As in K-3PO? If so, I'm intrigued as I just don't see it.

Thanks for the posts guys.

This is my first time going and I'm really looking forward to playing against all of you and learning more tactics.

Landspeeder sort of makes sense. It's so sturdy. But Cad on the surface seems to be really dependent on picking up Opp from Thrawn. I guess the Reb version works on Dodonna out-activating, Cad swapping in at the end, Leia activating to boost his damage, then Cad activating to shoot again and run for safety. Seems so much cheaper to just use Dash in the role and pick up another mid-cost attacker for if/when the harrasser is run down... Intersting though, thanks for explaining.

billiv, thanks for the rundown of the current meta. Great post!

Thanks for all the help guys! Much appreciated. It's nice to have a basis for preparation. We fairly competitive players, but like I said our play group is really small, so it's really helpful to see what others around the country are running.

Thanks again, and hopefully I'll be meeting some of you guys next month!

Tim

So a Rebel Swap squad would look like this?
Cad, Han Smuggler, Lobot, Luke Rc, K-3PO, Leia, Crix, Dodonna(?). Reinforcement would consist out of Mouse Driods, Ugnaughts and R7s ?

Does this squad even need Dodonna ? Or could you run more activations (Mouse and Ugnaughts) instead ?

I kinda like this squad.

And thanks for the run down of the expected meta at gencon. Perhaps a topic for the next SHNN ?