So, this past weekend is the first time I ran troop carts in a tournament. I ran Vosa, Brood, Kota, Med Droid, 2 uggies, and 2 carts. Not uber competitive, but pretty interesting.

What I found in the course of my games was that the cart was a very interesting movement breaker (especially if there was a vacancy on board mid game).

What I did once: Moved a cart out near an enemy. Moved brood 12 to base the cart and board it. Start of next round, disembarked Brood on the other side of the cart for an extra 4 square movement.

There are just so many possibilities with the darn cart that I now think it is a very competitive piece. The ability to just suck in and spit out minis for up to 8 square movement for free (diagonal to diagonal) plus the very interesting possibility of not quite ending adjacent to an enemy and then if you win init, you dump the double/triple/whatevers adjacent to the big baddy and swing away. If you lose init, the opponent still has to move to base the cart.

I rarely engaged from the cart. I kept disembarking for free and then going where I needed to. The cart was more of a distraction or move to safety piece (quite often I made a full retreat from one side of the map to the other).

Cart logic is just a fun thing to wrap your mind around (similar to Mon Mothma v Mon Mothma armies).

Finally you have come around Great use of the cart for the extra movement options.

Yeah, it just sucks that they reduced it's usability with the latest FAQ. It can still be quite awesome (heck, even the 16 square movement is an awesome bonus) it's just frustrating that the FAQ changes keep them from being quite as useable.

I think 2-1B is still one of the best cart passengers I've seen to date though, since it makes it very easy to keep him nearby for your Emergency Life Support saves. And to top it all off, you can use ELS on the Cart itslef, lol.

I'd be interested to know how well you were able to do against various other squads, and what you had to play against.

I personally haven't played the cart in a while, but it was pretty fun the last time I did try. Using the cart to carry around a Gonk for Boba Merc to have fun with was quite hilarious.

Wha? I have been loving the cart since it came out. This was the first constructed event we have played since GenCon and I used carts (it is also the first time I have ever used Rebels in a constructed event).

It is still quite a vulnerable piece... and the adjacency is a very problematic thing when I ate two grenades 20 on 4 riders and both carts. Just imagine a missiles 40 or flamethrower!

Lobostele... we played modified DCI rules in a Store vs Store competition. The Encounter road tripped down to All Things Fun in NJ. We knew we were not playing std DCI rules, and we plan to have house rules in place when they venture up to see us. But the rules were: Huge Friendly maps (can be a host of maps including the pack from JC), no Gambit, 40min rounds. 3 of the 4 players were using Super Stealth (makes sense with the 40 min time limit), another one played Boba BH/Kota/support shooter build.

Round 1: Played a Han SC, Luke HoY, Obi FS, Leia of CC, the CE that gives commandos SS guy, 3 Dressillian Commandos, and a couple of other commanders. We played on a new JC map. I loaded up the carts and approached the center out of LOS. Engagement started on round 3 when I dumped Brood off and LS Assaulted a commando in a doorway. Brood ate a lot of shots in return, but her insanely high defense boosted by Kota made her untouched. The opponent overrode the door shut and I had to blow it for my round 3 LS assault on Leia CC. The rest of my squad made feints to keep the opponent from flanking and on round 5 I retreated Brood back to the carts. Being up in points and time running out, the opponent had no choice but to advance towards me. Round 6, I bum rushed a commando and some other commander with Brood on a cart. Kota/Vosa was on the other cart and they ended adjacent with Brood in the lead with the Med Droid. Brood finished off another guy while the carts sustained Machine Gun Luke, Han SC, and 2 grenades 20 shots on the whole group. Final Score: something like 55 to 0.

Round 2: Played on Coruscant (whichever map has the large cantina on one side and a landing platform on the other), huge friendly enough. I lost side and one of my carts was stuck on the platform. I was facing Boba BH, Kota, the new JH/Cunning/BH guy who was a pain in my rear, a Kel Dor, and support. I lost init, and I had a 10 HP cart for that. The cart retreated to a room and I started the boarding procedures. Boba BH advanced down the hall way with the Kel Dor and 2 uggies. The other pieces moved after shooting at the cart in the cantina. Kota was still in the cantina. Round 2 was posturing with me advancing my carts at the end of the round within 6 of Boba BH. Round 3, I win init, disembark the Wonder Twins and LS Assaulted Boba BH. 8 attacks later, Boba BH is down to 60. For my trouble I am left with a 30 HP Vosa, and an untouched Brood. His Kota and My Kota end the round within 4 of eachother and the Med Droid heals Vosa to 40 (ends adjacent to both chicks)... Round 4, I win init, I repulse Kota towards the pit to kill him, but he makes the save, however Kota is activated. I kill Boba BH with the very wounded Vosa. His support shooters try to defeat Vosa but I make my Avoid Defeat. His Kel Dor breaks off to finish a cart, but it made its A.D!!! Round 5, His Support Characters put a hurting on my Brood, his Kel Dor bases my Brood and Kota. He runs his Kota up to within 5 of my Med Droid, 2 carts, Vosa, and Kota. After winning Init, he blasts my characters apart, and end game is my Brood with 20!? left, my Kota with 40 left (after killing the Kel Dor and eating a repulse) versus his Kota with 70 left. A LS Assault with Brood at the end of a round brought Kota down to 10 and I Force Pushed him for the game... my Kota was down to 20.

Round 3: Played on a JC map. Republic SS with 2 Sevs, the guy who gives em Shields 2, CS Yoda, Mas, Boss, and support. Action saw me gamble with Kota on a cart at the end of round 2. I advanced my Kota towards the opponent's Sevs/Boss/Mas/Shields 2 guy. I lose init on Round 3 and my cart is down to 20 quicker then a blink of an eye. I run my uggies out as cover as the Sevs spun already, a brilliant placement of Bacura kept my cart pinned so Kota had to engage on his own. Cs Yoda began a flanking maneuver so my chicks had to deal with him. R2-AM came a bit too close so I was able to pick him off and begin to smack Yoda around with the sisters (who were unceremoniously dumped out of their ride when it blew up, Med Droid couldn't quite keep it alive). A bajillion attacks later, Kota is down to 60 when he finally repulses and kills off a lot of the opponents pieces. The sisters keep missing Yoda and when the little hermit finally fell, Vosa was on life support with 10 left, brood was at full (thank you heal!), Bacura nailed Kota for 30, and the last init went to me so Kota lived.

These were not Tier 1 armies, but they were at least semi competitive. Our other players came down with Imperial SS (JR78), Mobile Missiles (as if BGartz29 can play anything else!), and a Kazden army (Dr_divot). The 40 minute time limit was something new, so the others didn't know how to handle it. One game ended 6-0, another ended 11-8. The time limit was not an issue for me as the ladies engage *fast*.

Nice report.....I hadn't thought of the free movement by embarking/jumping off the cart. That is quite useful for the rebs

Very cool emr. It's awesome to see stuff like that, especially when so many of us get hung up in the uber-competitive world many times.

I'll have to give something like that a shot at my LGS sometime.

Just remember, you have to disembark before your first activation. If the opponent goes first, it is still a risky position to be in.

True, but in all three games, the opponents saw glory in killing the 'easy' carts and ignored the riders.

Kill the easy Cart, get a 25% chance of killing the passenger, I think it is worth it unless you could've easily killed the passenger.

Seems like most of his passengers were force users, so with the reroll its pretty good odds that you'll still get your escorted troops.

The only time I got dumped out of a cart, it allowed my ladies to actually engage a round quicker.

Besides, I now know I don't fear a repulse on the cart as much. Imagine the other passenger being 2-IB or a Med Droid.

I repulse on the cart. Do a lot of damage measuring on the cart. I *hope* the cart fails its Avoid Defeat. Down the cart goes. I now make a save with Kota from the cart blowing up. If he fails, I got a last ditch effort of A.D. from the healer. If he makes it, I place Kota on one side of the destroyed cart. I then try to make a save with the healer, assuming he makes it, I place the droid on the other side of the cart out of range 5 of where Kota is currently. I am down all of 15 points for the price of the increased range repulse. If the cart makes it, then I only lose the droid from the repulse (12-17 points).

Interesting thread. Very clever discovery with the medical droid or 2-1B on the cart when you Repulse - I had to read that bit a few times to understand how the mechanic works, but now I get it.

Anyone ever played a Troop Cart squad against an opponent running Caamasi Nobles? I think they might present a serious speed bump if you don't have a good way to deal with them. Your squad has multiple Repulse options which should be helpful in clearing them out.

I have always wanted to load up a troop cart with Gundarks.

With a Varactyl Handler w/in 6 and an Ithorian Commander on the board!

I still say the best use i've ever gotten out of the cart was

Cart with Hoth Repeater cannon on board, and enough fodder so your basically turned the HRC into a gattling gun. One build had the lone HRC dishing out 300 damage a activation spread over as many as 3 targets.