Outside the Box #1: Biggs Darklighter
Outside the Box #2: Darth Vader, Champion of the Sith
Outside the Box #3: Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master
Outside the Box #4: Darth Malak
Outside the Box #5: Anakin Skywalker, Sith Apprentice
Outside the Box #6: Obi-Wan on Boga
Outside the Box #7: Bastila Shan
Outside the Box #8: Corran Horn
Boo! Welcome to the Halloween edition of Outside the Box. If you've never read an Outside the Box post before, you won't have never read one again.
I'm pretty sure Bastila Shan is the hardest character in the entire game to use competitively right now. Don't get me wrong, she's not the worst piece in the game, by a long shot. But all the worse pieces cost less and have better faction support, so you can still squeeze them into decent squads. Bastila just doesn't have the faction-support she needs to be great. Oh well, let's see what we can do.
Bastila Shan [46]
HP: 110
Defense: 19
Attack: +13
Damage: 20
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Unique
Melee Attack
Triple Attack
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Force 4
Battle Meditation
Force Valor
Lightsaber Deflect
Lightsaber Sweep
The Outside the Box Challenge:
Try to come up with a 100 point squad that could take on Bane and 6 Ugnaughts. A 150 point squad that could take on Black and Blue (LV or JH). And a 200 point squad that could be decent at a tournament. For mine, I'm also trying to make squads that haven't been posted on swshoebox by anyone else yet (which is going to be tough with the limited pool of Old Republic pieces to choose from).
Here are mine:
-100 points vs. Bane & 6 Ugnaughts-
"OR Army"
Bastila Shan [46]
Old Republic Soldier x4 [32]
Duros Explorer [7]
Nikto Soldier x3 [15]
(100 pts. - 9 activations)
Bring a map where shooters have good LOS to Gambit. Keep Bastila back with the shooters and activate Battle Meditation and Force Valor. With a combine from a Nikto or Duros, the Soldiers will be attacking at +14 for 20 damage (need a 10 to hit Bane in cover). If your opponent uses the Ugnaughts to screen Bane, don't bother combining fire that round and just use all 8 of your shooters to exterminate the little guys. Bastila will likely only do 60 damage max to Bane, so you'll need to hit him at least 7 times with your Soldiers.
Good luck with that.
Depending on how things are going, you can either use Bastila to protect your shooters, or use your shooters to protect Bastila.
-150 points vs. Black & Blue-
"Sneaky Shan"
Bastila Shan [46]
Jedi Sentinel x5 [85]
Garindan [12]
Duros Explorer [7]
(150 pts. 8 activations)
I tried to come up with a Bastila squad that outactivated B&B, but I couldn't get anything that seemed decent. So I decided to fall back on Jedi Sentinels (point-for-point, the best thing the Old Republic has going for them). Bastila can activate Force Valor to boost the Sentinels, then they try to take out Stormtroopers. Even if (when) Vader manages to swap in he can only take out one Sentinel at a time (or more likely, Bastila first). Once the Sentinels eliminate all the swap fodder, Vader will have to engage in a fair fight. That's when you bring out the Spotters and hope to get some big hits in. 500 HP in a 150 squad is big. Even though the Sentinels can't put out damage very quickly, they can stand up to a lot before they die, so it will take Vader a while to finish them off.
-200 pts. Tournament Quality-
"Heaven Sentinels"
Bastila Shan [46]
Prince Xizor [40]
Bith Black Sun Vigo [20]
Jedi Sentinel x5 [85]
Wicket [8]
(200 pts. - 9 activations)
This squad has 7 accurate shooters and a boat-load of HP. Damage output is a little slow, so the fight might drag on a little. Keep Bastila back behind the wall of stealthy, evading, 70 HP jedi (hopefully also around a corner to stop accurate shooters from picking her off). Try to use Xizor to soak up damage (or better yet, to prevent attacks with Pheromones) when you can. Once the battle transitions into melee, Accurate Shot becomes much less useful, so it's okay to lose him. Be sure to get off your Accurate Advantageous Twin Attack with the Bith every round.
Please take the challenge and post your squads! It's all about exercising your squad-building creativity.
What I learned this week:
More Jedi Sentinels = better OR squad. Also, Old Republic Soldiers actually aren't bad figures. Compare them to any non-Unique shooter that costs less than 10 (except Stormtroopers, which are better than everything)--they aren't bad.
I welcome any feedback on the Outside the Box posts or my squads. I'm also taking suggestions for next time.
Here are some other characters I'm considering if you just want to vote for one of these:
[3 Votes] Corran Horn (New Republic)
[2 Votes] Zam Wesell (Fringe)
[1 Vote] Darth Maul on Speeder (Separatists)
[1 Vote] HK-47 (Fringe)
[1 Vote] Kyle Katarn (New Republic)
[1 Vote] Warmaster Tsavong Lah (Yuuzhan Vong)
[0 Votes for the rest, so far]
Aayla Secura (Republic)
Ki-Adi-Mundi (Republic)
Mace Windu, Jedi Master (Republic)
Asajj Ventress (Separatists)
Grievous [anything but Supreme Commander] (Separatists)
Jabba the Hutt (Fringe)
Guri (Fringe)
Anyone else you want to try to make competitive.