And don't forget you cup of online Bloo Milk (bloomilk.com)
Activations are truly a critical thing. The ability to move your heavy hitters last is what makes it great.
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| Noobie Question: Activations https://www.swmgamers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3065 |
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| Author: | aaronksw [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Noobie Question: Activations |
I'm pretty new to Star Wars Miniatures and haven't played in any tournaments, so I have a quick question: Why do people say it's good to have more activations? In other words, why are people filling their squads with a bunch of Ugnaughts/Ewoks when they can't do much with them? Why not instead use a better piece that costs slightly more rather than having 4x Ugnaughts? To me, they just seem like cannon fodder. Am I missing something? |
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| Author: | Boba52 [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
Well, the previous post was by the No. 1 ranked player in the game, so I am going to go with...Good answer. It also gives you options to react to your opponents squads. Those guys are always perfoming at least 3 functions. 1. Letting your big guns go last. 2. collecting gambit. 3. acting as decoys or fodder for your opponent so he can't get to your big guns. Now, some other nice bonuses are helping in decision making..ie I see my opponent has no accurate shot. Now my fodder becomes meat shields my opponent has to shoot at instead of my big beats and if I have a gran the stealth really helps gambit. My opponent spends his activations attacking my guys in gambit, now he is left open to my counter attack. My opponent doesn't have flight. Now I can use them to block doors and passages so my opponent can't get to my important guys. And there is always usefulness in blowing a well timed door. You wouldn't want to waste this on a guy who can shoot and hurt your opponent. I am sure there are many more but they tend to become more situational. |
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| Author: | aaronksw [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
Thanks for the answers, that actually makes a lot of sense. I'm guessing most people just move one square or do something meaningless with their Ugnaught/Ewok activations then (assuming their already in a safe position). Also, are there any abilities that are generally accepted to be powerful, 5-star abilities in tournaments? I hear often that Accurate Shot is good, but it doesn't seem that good when I use it (since it doesn't negate the +4 Defense from cover). From my experience (which admittedly, is just playing against myself and I don't use gambit with myself), abilities like Twin Attack, Jedi Hunter and Sith Rage seem much better...? Has anyone made a list ranking the top abilities of characters before? |
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| Author: | LoboStele [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
You're on the right track in terms of understand the use of Ugnaughts and such. Many times, what I call 'touch activating' them is where you just leave them in the square where they started, but you say, "OK, he's activated, and not going anywhere, and not doing anything, but he's taking up one of my activations for this phase." There are many times though (Boba52 pointed out some of the best) where you'll still want to move those Ugnaughts down the field. Just sort of depends on what squad you are playing, and what you are playing against. I think the example he gave of using them as 'blocking' pieces is one of the best. If your opponent has all Melee, or at least no Accurate Shot, you can keep the Ugnaughts/Ewoks in front of your main pieces, thereby forcing your opponent to waste attacks getting past the fodder before they can actually get to your big pieces. As for top abilities? That's a tough one. It really comes down squad synergy more than just any single abilities being better than another one. Twin Attack might be great, but if I run an entire squad of pieces that only have 10 or 20 HP, then Twin may not do you any good at all, as you'll likely be wasting the extra attack every time because the first attack kills the target. Same thing with Accurate Shot. If you bring a bunch of shooters, but none of them have Accurate, and I have a whole squad of Stealth pieces, then you can't shoot any of my pieces until you are within 6 squares, whereas I might be pounding you back the whole game. Accurate in particular IS one of the best abilities in the game, but simply because it lets you choose your targets regardless of cover. Many times it's much more beneficial to kill the R2-Astromech, Bothan Noble, Lobot, Yuuzhan Vong Shaper, etc. that is hiding behind all the other enemy pieces, then to waste shots on the guy in the front who still has 100+ HP left. When you use Accurate to wipe out those support pieces in the back you do two things: 1) you decrease their activations, giving you more of an advatage as we talked about before with the Ugs/Ewoks; 2) you take away squad potential by killing a key Commander or Support piece. Many squads can be brutally crippled by taking out a key support piece, and Accurate allows you to do that. edited by fox, Reason: Fixing a critical typo. |
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| Author: | fingersandteeth [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:31 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
here is a great article on activations http://www.the-holocron.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=80 It should tell you a lot of what you want to know. Also playing with yourself (oo-er) is not a good thing, look into downloading vassal on your computer so you can start playing against people on line. Your playing will improve drastically as you experience different squads and tactics. http://www.vassalengine.org/community/i ... ule_id=126 http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/doku.p ... ng_started Accurate shot is one of the most powerful abilities in the game (override is another game winner) which allows you to get around some of the targeting restrictions. Its difficult to hide from an accurate shooter which makes it so powerful. Normal shooters are often left shooting the nearest inconsequential fig, accurate shooters can select a lot more targets. |
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| Author: | DarkLordVerjal [ Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:22 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
Heh, I was just about to post some Vassal Links. Well Aaron, here's a link to Star Wars MiniManager. It contains all the stats of every mini with pictures of them too. You may also build squads on it. http://www.4shared.com/account/file/437 ... er2_5.html |
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| Author: | thejumpingflea [ Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
And don't forget you cup of online Bloo Milk (bloomilk.com) Activations are truly a critical thing. The ability to move your heavy hitters last is what makes it great. |
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| Author: | DarkLordVerjal [ Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:51 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Noobie Question: Activations |
Blue Milk: May contain more midoclorians than Yoda... Great site, I use it frequently. But activations can also be blocked, I use 'Wall O' Ugnaughts' alot. Ask Hothie, I got him a few times with my blockades 
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