Well, in all honesty, as a judge, if I saw someone consistently playing a squad this way, and only racking up 2 point wins, then I likely wouldn't give them a slow-play warning. Playing that way would be hurting themselves, and themselves only. For instance, there were some players in the Champs this year that were 4-3 or 5-2, but would've been no where near close getting into the top 8 because they had all (or all but 1, maybe) 2 point victories.
So, when I say that I would hand out a warning, I don't know if it would be a solid, recording warning. Maybe more of a reminder that "hey, playing that way, you won't have a shot at winning the whole thing."
Dennis, I understand your frustrating about it, and in that sense, then the opponent would definitely be the one getting the slow play warning. Once you are behind on points, it is that player's responsibility to engage and try to get back ahead, and win the game before the time limit is up. A squad like this one would get creamed if it left the gambit area and had to engage the enemy, so I would agree, that sound strategy in this instance would be to stay in the middle.
However, it has been ages since I saw a game where only one player had a piece in gambit, or was ahead on points simply by having one more round of gambit. If we're playing in a high-level event and I see a squad like this get put down on the table opposite from me, you can bet that part of my strategy to start with will be to make sure I have something that can also get gambit on Round 1. So that's how I would see this type of squad playing out most of the time, as a stale-mate, because both players are tied for gambit, and neither wants to leave the safety of their wall in order to engage the other guy.
All said and done, I just don't see this being competitive anyway though. Too many things that could move in and pick off little things and then retreat. True, hitting Barris might be tough, but with some good focus-fire attacking, hits would get through. Plus, all it takes is losing init a couple times, and the pieces would get pounded before Atris could activate Meditation. Or, a smart player does their rounds fast enough to where Atris runs out of FPs.
_________________ -Aaron Mand'alor "You either die a hero, or you live to see yourself become the villain."
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