LoboStele wrote:
Just a point of clarification, Boris. It's Teth Monastery that's the problem, not Teth Courtyard. I know that's what you mean, just don't want to confuse people.
Monastery, Courtyard, meh yeah - they both suck.
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I do think that to some degree we are in a situation somewhat similar to GenCon 2007, it's just that many of us are aware of it ahead of time. In '07, the threat of Mustafar and Geonosis was present, but I think that based on the pieces that were available at the time, those maps were possibly not as abusive as Teth Courtyard or Taris. At least with Mustafar, both sides were typically disadvantaged, with neither having an easy way to do anything on the map. Teth and Taris are a bit different in that respect, allowing protected movement to within 12 squares of gambit.
From what I have seen on the Teth map - and I admit I have never seen Snowspeeder played on Taris so I cannot comment on that (I only know one person locally who uses the Snowspeeder and I always win map roll when I face him - woot), but its basically a game of the Snowspeeder running all the way up to Gambit, then dropping back at the start of the next round. Once it gets that 5-point bonus, you MUST move out of the room, and you're in a bottleneck.
But you don't want them inside the building, and you outside, because the squad has double, possibly triple Override. Even if you blow up the outer door, you still have 2-3 other doors to contend with, and the Snowspeeder can come all the way to the middle alcove area and still get away without taking any significant amount of damage.
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So, no, I don't think the Rebels are the problem. Yes, they have access to the best suite of abilities at this time through cheap pieces like Rieekan, R2, Juno, etc. No other faction can combine that sort of tech so cheaply. Now of course, at 150 points, you still sacrifice power for tech if you decide to build that way, so it can still hurt you. Disruptive is not helpful in every match, which often leaves Juno shooting blindly at Mouse Droids.
Disruptive has nothing at all to do with the issue. If you think that Disruptive is the problem, then you haven't really faced a solid Rebel build with Luke's SS and Gen. Rieekan.
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I still firmly believe that Separatist San squads, and several NR Variants are solidly competitive, as well as a few other things that have started to creep up. The problem is: the maps. Teth and Taris make it nearly impossible for some of those other squads to compete, with the Vong being the greatest impact of that. Granted, they have a dickens of a time catching the Snowspeeder, but at least on other maps, you can close the gap easier, and hope for a big init win, rather than having to cross a shooting gallery just to get to the opponent. Again, similar to my matches with my San squad in the Vassal tourney a week ago. I managed to win map in both games, and went 1-1, though the loss was extremely close, and I likely would've won if he'd had one more round of combat, or if I'd played a tad more aggressive with Lobot. But I firmly believe that was because I won the 50/50 map roll. Had I been forced to play on Teth Monastery, I would have been at an extreme disadvantage in both games then.
We keep coming back to the maps being the problem, but I maintain that if Rob and his design team had been paying attention to what maps are being designed and what they looked like, we wouldn't have gotten some of the problem pieces that we have. There is plenty of "blame" to go around with this issue.
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I've said it other places, but I'm still somewhat surprised that Jim didn't propose a restricted map list for the Championships again this year as he did last year.
In all fairness to Jim, there are several reasons he didn't propose that. For one thing, the rotating map schedule was my idea, and it evolved into a restricted map list. We both ended up with some egg on our face when we didn't know the Hoth Outpost map was going to be legal, and the whole restricted list thing was not as popular with most people as it appears to be with you. So this year we agreed that we would try to stay more aware of what was being done with DCI, and getting to know Dean and Tanner better since GenCon has provided better communication on that issue as a side benefit to the good friendships that have been built up.
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All said and done though, I'm not convinced yet that the Rebels are "too powerful". I think on the majority of the maps, things are fairly even. Most of the Rebel pieces have lower defenses, and lower attack values than many of the other factions. Yes, they have access to a lot of tech, but they are way more reliant on solid dice rolls than some of the other competitive squads. And that is what keeps them in check on the balanced maps, IMO. It's the maps like Teth, Taris, and Muun Commerce Plaza that allow the Rebels to abuse that tech to it's fullest, and I think that is the heart of the problem, not necessarily the Rebels themselves.
IMO there are four problem figures for the game: General Rieekan, Twilek Black Sun Vigo, Czerka Scientist, IG Lancer.
Period.
And the map problems are amplified, possibly even created, by the imbalance these pieces have caused in the game, particularly at 150.