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Help My B&B Options
adamb0nd
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 6:48:53 AM
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Joined: 9/16/2008
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I really like this B&B squad I made, though ive never really played a B&B squad to know how good this will be in actual play. The build is:

--B&B--
71 Darth Vader, Legacy of the Force
35 Hondo Ohnaka
32 Thrawn (Mitth'raw'nuruodo)
22 Imperial Governor Tarkin
11 Admiral Ozzel
8 Mas Amedda
15 Rodian Brute x5
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

(200pts. 13 activations)

The idea is that Hondo can be swapped in at the end of the round, to take advantage of his tripple cunning attack for 50 damage a pop... 40 damage if he needs to go for opportunist due to circumstances... then he can be swapped out the next turn to keep him alive. With master tact, i am almost guaranteed he'll get first turn attack.

Likewise, Vader can be swapped in end of round for a 4x Oppertunist attack.

I really like the synergy, but my concern is that I only have 2 damage output characters (albeit, they're really good at what they do). I could replace my swap fodder with more powerful pieces, but that effects my ability to out activate my enemy, and makes it much harder to set up Hondo for an early round Cunning attack.

Ive tried building the squad with diplomats and cloaked pieces to help my fodder survive, and to give them a little more damage output, but then activations seriously suffer.

Do you guys think this squad is good as is? Or could it use a revamp?
Weeks
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 6:55:57 AM
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well its not a bad idea. I do worry about the 13 acts with ozzel. Just about any other tempo squad will outact you and thats an issue. I think if you drop tarken for more acts it will run a little better.
Inquisitive Infiltrator
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 7:07:29 AM
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Weeks wrote:
well its not a bad idea. I do worry about the 13 acts with ozzel. Just about any other tempo squad will outact you and thats an issue. I think if you drop tarken for more acts it will run a little better.

The 13 acts isnt really all that bad if you play on the right map.
Perfect example; My 12 activation Yobuck squad was pummeled last night with a build like this, except it had 6 activations.

Vader LoTF
Hondo Ohnaka
Thrawn
Mas Amedda
Kriea (She was the one who really drove me nuts)
Ozzel.

The map we played was streets, and my buddy came out of the Casino.
I figured I can somewhat rush him because hes only running 1 at a time, and only has 6.
Nope, biggest mistake I made was coming after him.
This squad you have right here is Deadly Adam, I like it ALOT.
billiv15
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 9:05:57 AM
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Joined: 4/4/2008
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Inquisitive Infiltrator wrote:

Vader LoTF
Hondo Ohnaka
Thrawn
Mas Amedda
Kriea (She was the one who really drove me nuts)
Ozzel.


That's not even close to a competitive squad.

Drop Ozzel, with 13 acts, you can't compete with it in a high level tournament. Ozzel only works when you out activate every opponent, as soon as someone can out activate you (almost all Rebel and NR squads get higher than 13), you've lost. There are ways around this on occasion, such as using Ozzel as a swapper, getting him killed, using him for gambit, etc. But even with all of that, it's still an uphill battle. You are better off (especially since your main shooter is cunning anyway) working for mid round swaps. Use Ozzel's points to get override (R7) or better yet, drop the swap fodder and Ozzel for Lobot (no reason to run 5 swappers against Yoda on kybuck and the lancer anyway.
adamb0nd
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 11:13:00 PM
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Thats not a bad idea billiv. I guess the lobot swap would give me some advantages... better door control, the ability to bring swap fodder if needed, the ability to bring in fewer more durable pieces in case of a strafe squad.

My concern was that if i swapped Hondo in to early in the round, he would get ripped to shreds before i could get him out of site.

I didnt want to drop Tarkin, because he seriously drops Vaders and Hondo's capabilities, and right now, theyre the stars of this squad.
Inquisitive Infiltrator
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 2:42:35 AM
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billiv15 wrote:
Inquisitive Infiltrator wrote:

Vader LoTF
Hondo Ohnaka
Thrawn
Mas Amedda
Kriea (She was the one who really drove me nuts)
Ozzel.


That's not even close to a competitive squad.

Drop Ozzel, with 13 acts, you can't compete with it in a high level tournament. Ozzel only works when you out activate every opponent, as soon as someone can out activate you (almost all Rebel and NR squads get higher than 13), you've lost. There are ways around this on occasion, such as using Ozzel as a swapper, getting him killed, using him for gambit, etc. But even with all of that, it's still an uphill battle. You are better off (especially since your main shooter is cunning anyway) working for mid round swaps. Use Ozzel's points to get override (R7) or better yet, drop the swap fodder and Ozzel for Lobot (no reason to run 5 swappers against Yoda on kybuck and the lancer anyway.

No Bill, it isnt a competitive Squad at all, but not everyone plays squads on a competitive level. Thats the beautiful thing about play testing I guess.
And when your Yobuck rolls a 1 against Kriea, at full health (after he has already used his FP), that squad becomes a bit more formidable.
billiv15
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 4:02:06 AM
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Inquisitive Infiltrator wrote:

No Bill, it isnt a competitive Squad at all, but not everyone plays squads on a competitive level. Thats the beautiful thing about play testing I guess.
And when your Yobuck rolls a 1 against Kriea, at full health (after he has already used his FP), that squad becomes a bit more formidable.


Well someone who's name is not known, but who feels like they can call me by my first name for some reason, you missed the point.

You placed this 6 activation squad out there as evidence of "13 acts isn't really all that bad if you play on the right map". I am absolutely refuting that point in it's entirety, and by no means am I talking about "high level competitive play" when I use the words, "not competitive". I am talking about basic local level play. [mod edit] I almost always differentiate between "competitive" and "high level competitive" play on the forums. [mod edit]

Now, your example here, even furthers my point. You are depending on a 1/20 chance of something happening, which is actually less so if solid simple strategy is followed where you don't attack a figure with betrayal without a FP, and generally wait until that figure is the only one left. So really, the 1/400 chance that a double 1 would happen is completely negligible when considering the strength of a build. And considering your example not only requires poor strategic play at the most basic level, and extreme luck combined with a map that is not legal for any format at the moment, that makes your example [outside the scope of this discussion].

[mod edit]
I responded because I wanted the OP to understand that your point was not correct and to give him a more useful response. [mod edit]

[mod edits by swinefeld]
swinefeld
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 5:03:40 AM
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Location: Southern Illinois
I have edited billiv15's post above.

Guys, let's not have any back and forth between individual posters and just stick to discussion of the OP's squad.

@InquisitiveInfiltrator - your response to billiv15 could be taken as being "snarky", and it seems fair to assume that the OP is looking for suggestions to make his squad "competitive" on more than a casual level or he would have said as much.

@billiv15 - if you feel baiting is taking place, try not to respond to it publicly.

Please address any further concerns to me (or another mod) via bloomail.
Thanks - swinefeld
adamb0nd
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 5:20:21 AM
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So, i guess my questions at this point are as follows:

What is the desired Activation count in a competitive squad? Ive seen some as low as 11, but this seems to be reliant on high damage out put. However, I always assumed more activations was better. At what point is more activations worse? It seems that if I have a staggered activation squad, but am against an opponent with more activations, I am better off not having the 1 per turn rule, and just going all out with my forces. Im having trouble seeing where the line is. Billiv, you say drop Ozzy for lobot. if I do that, i'll likely have fewer rounds for myself, but i think your saying in this case "fewer activations, but more activations per phase is better in this case". Can you or someone else go into more depths on all this?

Are hondo and vader (with their current bonuses via CE) enough of a threat for the 200 pt game? Does their need to be a third threat in there, or are two enough if played carefully? As is, they have alot of damage output each, and vader has alot of survivability. Is another mid level unit in order?

Inquisitive Infiltrator
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 7:14:13 AM
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I'm sorry for coming off as snarky, that is not what I was going for, honestly.
I just wanted Adam to know that I thought his squad was a very good one, having gone threw Ozzel Hell the night before with only 6 activations, his squad seemed way more competitive then what I went against.
As far as Adams Question, I think that if you are running Tempo control (San Hill, Ozzel and Dodonna) you may want to stay within the 12-14 activation neighborhood. To me, its always safer to go that way then to bring 11 activations, when activating 2 at a time.
So like I said before, your squad looks very tough, Hondo with a triple attack is just.....well, wrong.
Sithborg
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 7:27:06 AM
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I think Billiv's point is that Ozzel does not work, since he is not going to allow you to outactivate Rebel/NR squads, and puts you at a severe disadvantage due to Dodonna's flexibility. You are better to forget Ozzel, as 15 will allow you to outactivate most non-Dodonna squads or other squads with crazy activations. I would likely go for 2 Caamasi over Ozzel, still at 14 activations without Ozzel being a drawback. The Arica option pretty much has to be run with Ozzel, just so you can even it out. Without her, you will likely be outactivated by quite a few squads, with a severe drawback that really hurts swap.
Eroschilles
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 9:18:17 AM
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The one thing I like about Ozzel is his Reserves. It is based entirely on luck, but it does give you a small chance of increasing activations. Other than relying on luck, the squad doesn't really need Ozzel as is, as stated above.
adamb0nd
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 11:48:02 PM
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So you think this might be more competitive?

71 Darth Vader, Legacy of the Force
35 Hondo Ohnaka
32 Thrawn (Mitth'raw'nuruodo)
27 Lobot
22 Imperial Governor Tarkin
8 Mas Amedda
5 Caamasi Noble

(200pts. 7 activations)
Disturbed1
Posted: Friday, September 17, 2010 3:21:38 AM
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I think your getting closer to it being competitive, but with this version, youve put yourself in a spot to make a difficult decision. You currently have 1 door control, very few activations, and 1 swap fodder piece, with 20points of reinforcements to try to help all of those. Obviously, the 20 points can take care of the lack of activations, but your going to want to go with more than 4 more, so caamasis are out.

If you go with Ugos, you lose out on swap fodder.
If you go with brutes, you lose out on added door control, and lobot and go down quickly.
If you do a combination, it will give you enough door control, probably, but you wont have much swap fodder.
If you go with an R7 for door control and Brutes for swap, youve back to having just 12 activations.

While I dont think youd do that bad with the R7 + Brutes option, youd probably be better off with dropping Tarkin, as that can open enough points to help you cover the door control, activations, and swap fodder. Yes, this will lower your dmg output, but it may give your attackers more survivability, which will give them more dmg output in the long run.
adamb0nd
Posted: Friday, September 17, 2010 4:35:44 AM
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Joined: 9/16/2008
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Disturbed1 wrote:
I think your getting closer to it being competitive, but with this version, youve put yourself in a spot to make a difficult decision. You currently have 1 door control, very few activations, and 1 swap fodder piece, with 20points of reinforcements to try to help all of those. Obviously, the 20 points can take care of the lack of activations, but your going to want to go with more than 4 more, so caamasis are out.

If you go with Ugos, you lose out on swap fodder.
If you go with brutes, you lose out on added door control, and lobot and go down quickly.
If you do a combination, it will give you enough door control, probably, but you wont have much swap fodder.
If you go with an R7 for door control and Brutes for swap, youve back to having just 12 activations.

While I dont think youd do that bad with the R7 + Brutes option, youd probably be better off with dropping Tarkin, as that can open enough points to help you cover the door control, activations, and swap fodder. Yes, this will lower your dmg output, but it may give your attackers more survivability, which will give them more dmg output in the long run.


But, if dropping tarkin, why not stick with ozzel, and go with a high number of swaps and activations?
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