--The Yobuck squad for linking--
51 Yoda on Kybuck
33 Captain Rex
23 Captain Panaka
18 Jar Jar Binks
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid
8 Mas Amedda
4 Gran Raider
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
(149pts. 8 activations)

This squad starting showing up at first constructed event that followed the clone wars release. The first version had Lando, DS instead of jar jar. the squad went 4-0, beating myself in the final round in a very close game. Which was played by jumpingflea.

--Kota Attacks--
55 Master Kota
25 Juhani
21 GenoHaradan Assassin
18 Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid
8 Mas Amedda
5 Caamasi Noble
9 Ugnaught Demolitionist x3
(150pts. 10 activations)

My squad was designed to have cloaked that could go after gambit and kota was generally powerful but I figured he would be a great way to defeat mando scouts as they have 50 hp. Lots of fringe to benefit from kota ce aswell. I beat a GG, dac squad with IG's and hk47, and shinja playing a great nr squad with jaina, smug and kyle. Both games were very close and very challenging.

Right after this event markIV showed up with the jar jar variant, which caught even more people off guard. The squad was then used by another player at our lgs and has one all 4 150 event that a player used it in. By the 3rd or 4th time we had really started to see changes in squad design. The amount of activations had gone down. We didn't see nearly as many 4-5 uggie squads and most figs with 20 hp or less weren't being used.

Here are some of the first remodeled squads that showed up afterwards. First two were mine and the 3rd was another from our lgs. I liked his idea but always felt like it didn't quite use the last 20-30 points well enough to be a tier1 squad.

--The Rebellious Shaak Ti--
47 Shaak Ti, Jedi Master
47 Luke's Landspeeder
20 Princess Leia
18 C-3PO and R2-D2
9 General Dodonna
9 Ugnaught Demolitionist x3
(150pts. 8 activations)

This squad did great. Yobuck went down easy but i never played the actual build i am posting about. I lost 3rd round to durge/aurra jh and alot of bodyguards. My opponent got sanhill reinforcements on the first init (useing the bg droid i loaned him : ) Then that very droid was missed twice by leia need 11's. Durge made the jedi mind trick save and the speeder failed both deflect saves. Which basically allowed aurra to escape with 10 hp and i lost the game and the door was blocked by a t1 and durge.

--Count the Pawns--
51 Count Dooku of Serenno
36 Darth Sidious
34 IG-86 Assassin Droid x2
11 Human Bodyguard
9 Battle Droid Officer
9 Ugnaught Demolitionist x3
(150pts. 9 activations)

This worked great for me, but i ended up losing to the exact yobuck squad i was designing it to beat. Which i felt was largly due to me, making some very poor positioning errors and jarjar redirecting a force lightning back at an IG and BG, making them gallop targets. It was this game that actually made me finally realize how much jarjar brought to the squad.

--Talon Assault 2.1--
56 Darth Talon
49 Sith Heavy Assault Droid
27 Lobot
8 Wicket
4 Gran Raider
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

Lobot:
20 Bith Black Sun Vigo
(150pts. 8 activations)

This squad was designed by a friend of mine and I still think it has alot of merit and deserved mentioning. I ended up playing this squad with "Count the Pawns" in the 2rd round and I really liked it. He played it great, even tho it doesn't look like much on paper.


Anyway, i want to go into detail about the yobuck swap that spawned this entire post.

--The Yobuck squad for linking--
51 Yoda on Kybuck
33 Captain Rex
23 Captain Panaka
18 Jar Jar Binks
9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid
8 Mas Amedda
4 Gran Raider
3 Ugnaught Demolitionist
(149pts. 8 activations)

Yodo on Kybuck

This piece has nice chunk of hit points so he can generally survive a beating. He can move 16 and get 40 damage on a commander while killing every ugnaught along the way. Or moving 26 and getting damage to set up for a better swap. Basically there is a melee piece that your commanders just can't hide from and he can cut down your activations very quickly.

Counters: Lightsaber riposte and djem so make for great ways to get extra damage on yobuck. Block and parry help alot too, because there are often rounds where you are only taking one attack from him, so you have a chance to take nothing. Diplomat also helps you avoid getting galloped, so thats one way to keep your activations up.

Captain Rex

The hardest part about rex comes down to luck. If the player with rex, gets lucky on his first volley of shots and hits 3-4 of them, then you are probably now an easy target for yobuck. With greater mobile and 4 attacks he can be quite deadly.

Counters: Rex actually makes stealth a good ability again. He is comonly used shooter without accurate. High defense helps against him, just don't rely on it. You will be very dissappointed. (in an actually game rex was about to move out and shoot my ulic at 23 def, no cover and the player decided not to after i pointed out the defense. I then jokingly reminded him rex always hits anyway, so just shoot. Rex hit 4/4 attacks needing 11's : ) Shields, Dark Armor and Crab Armor can help reduce his damage output aswell.

Captain Panaka

The swap effect in this is huge. Most squads do their heavy hitting at the begining or the end of the round. With this squads it generally happens somewhere in the middle. Yobuck gets towed 12, then gallops. Then the next round is swaped out for jarjar. You never really know what round it will be. Often enough 4 turns into the first round it can happen, before you even finished getting your pieces into the place you want them. This forces you to be ever more careful with your starting placement, often making your trek to gambit alittle more challenging. Now the other thing to remember with panaka, is that mid game, he will probably deal 20-40 damage with his opppurtunist shots and after mid game he is a Bodyguard. 70 hp of bodyguard makes yobuck and rex very difficult to kill. I have seen many people forget he is a BG. They go for a risky move, leaving a char exposed and they try to kill rex only to have him live and devastate the now exposed piece.

Counters: You would think disruptive helps counter panaka, but in this squad the 6 space range of disruptive is a minor nuisance and generally isn't a probably. Remember flame thrower and force lightning can't be BG'd.

R2D2, Astromech Droid

The pieces strengths are well known. But there are some additonal worries in this situation. Since Yobuck can easily kill other overide pieces and uggies, you are alot more vulnerable to lock outs if r2 is still alive. Also, if r2 doesn't go down, you will likely end up with yobuck galloping mid flight with no aoo's. (i believe nickname said that MIGHT change with new errata)

Counters: Mines can help screw with R2, or catching him and his tow with force lighting (30 damage multi target version).

Jar Jar Binks

This characters is a headache to say the least. First of all, Bombad Gungan is alot better than the card makes it sound. He can redirect force powers and he can send melee attacks to pieces 6 squares away. He makes for an excellent swap piece because he can actually hurt your opponent when they try to attack him.

Counters: A couple of older abilities have improved because of this char. Lightsaber sweep and force storm both cannot be redirected with bombad gungan. Also remember overwhleming force and force repulse work aswell. When able just get all your pieces out of the 6 square range of bombad gungan and then its not much more than evade. Also keep in mind which abilites only work on enemies (like jedi hunter, oppurtunist, cunning)




Well, if i posted anything thats incorrect, please point it out and feel free to add anything. I think the players who play it and those who play against it can improve their game. I am still not sure what squad(s) can consistantly beat this squad in the hands of good player. Also I really don't hate the squad ( i hate jarjar) but i like how much it can actually change the meta. It feels like it really shakes things up.

Hehe, very nice write up! And yep, Panaka, Yodabuck, R2, Rex is a pretty solid base.

Fingersandteeth used a Czerka with Panaka the other day at our tournament, which made his normally annoying opp shots something to fear. It was a nice change up from Lando, who I don't think is the best use of points.

For available points, I would use an ECT (gains greater mobile, same +8 base as Lando, no opp) and you also gain a Caamasi (or 5 pt shooter if you really think missing that 10dmg will matter) and a gran raider, much better swappers and something to leave behind.

I am unconvinced with the Jar Jar version, mainly because the best players will know how to avoid Jar Jar in this squad. Without Yoda CS, his saves are iffy at best, so you can even move outside of 6, and fire away if you want, with a 50% chance of nothing happening.

But against normal opponents, Jar Jar is an absolute blast to play with!

Yeah, I could see czerka being brutal. Especially with the new init rules. Potentially rex has four chances to jolt and panaka can twin.

I think jarjar bugs me the most just because of the chaos he puts in to it. Sometimes he is just a 60 hp sink, other times he causes a huge delay just because you are trying to position to avoid bombad gungan, and sometimes the rolls really go in jarjar's favor and he turns in a 120+ hp sink.

Now i just try to include repulse, storm, sweep etc in some way, just so I know I can get some damage on him without having to deal with bombad. Or i attack with pieces that have a hard time hurting themselves. Like luke's snowspeeder is great example. He needs 5's to hit jar jar but needs 8's to hit himself and would only deal himself 10 per shot. Although snow speeder can probably get out of the bombad range....it was just a first thought.

Anything at your LGS that seems to consistantly beat it or atleast beat it half the time? I haven't actually played it myself, only against it a few times.

I love using that same build at 150 too. I use the Lando DS version with a Caamasi Noble instead of the Gran. Most of the players at my LGS usually have low activations and beefier characters in their squads so Lando makes sense.