Well I've been looking for a way to play Cade but haven't seen anything fantastic so far. In fact most of what I've seen about Cade is people saying how much better Boba BH and Boba Merc are compared to him. But I paid money for the booster I got him in, so I'd like to give him a shot.

Anyway, onto my squad premise. Cade really needs a good support piece to help him against Stealth figures, those hiding in Gambit, and Melee beatsticks. I think Shado fills that niche pretty well. He has good longevity with all those Force tricks, and can put a beating on just about any type of unit. If need be, he can run back to Cade for some quick healing, grab a few more FPs, then kamikaze back out. All in all he's an intimidating piece to have to fight, and can really screw with your opponent's plans. But to be honest, here's all I've got so far:

Cade Skywalker, Bounty Hunter
Shado Vao
Garm Bel Iblis
Luke Skywalker, Force Spirit
General Dodonna
~173 points. 27 left to spend, plus Reinforcements 30.

What would you use with those 27 points? What about the Reinforcements? Aside from activations, of course. A Rauntaun is always nice, but this squad doesn't rely on init control. No need for Vanguards, Cade is great crowd control. Wookiee Freedom Fighters would compliment Shado I guess. I don't think a Corellian Security Officer would be all that useful. Bothan Noble maybe? Lobot for greater door control? What would complement Garm's CE? Boba Fett, Young Mercenary for Accurate and scrub killing?

Thoughts?

Squad Name: Three Wisemen & their Noob!

I've added this to it:

For 27 pts., I’ve added Lobot (Door Control).

For Garm’s 30, I added a Bothan Noble (extra attack) (13) and RT on Tauntaun (Recon – Initiative Control) (17).

For Lobot’s 20, I added 2x Ugos (Door Control) (6) and a Kel Dor, BH (BOOM plus +4 vs. uniques) (13).

If the Bothan’s next to Cade at the end of his turn, Cade gets to Twin Attack again. Perfect time to “choose” to activate twice.

Might be a decent squad, gonna have to try it soon.

-b

Definitely any time you have exactly 27 points left, Lobot should be your first consideration for those last points. In terms of NR pieces, I think that's probably about your best choice. Unless you want to put in Jaina Solo. I think she'd be decent here, especially with the new changes in the FAQ that let you spend FPs for extra movement even when using Garm's CE. Then Jaina and Cade could each move up to 5 squares and still use their Double Attack. Plus, you could choose whether to tack Luke FS onto Jaina or Cade, depending on your enemy (i.e. all range, but no Accurate, give it to Jaina and let her play Deflect shield for Cade).

As for Reinforcements, a Rauntaun is always a good idea, even if you don't necessarily need the initiative control. When you have Cade in place for a nice opening round salvo, winning init could be huge. The GA Scouts are one of my new favorites as well, since they have Stealth, Spotter, AND Flanking Support. Definitely consider the Bothan Noble as well though. 6 attacks from Cade is quite beastly, especially if you're also healing off 10 damage every time.

I am definitely looking forward to utilizing Cade and Garm together once I get Cade. I would actually consider a Rebel variant of this as well though, where you can use Garm and Leia Senator to give Cade the full pseudo-Mobile. In that case, if you still feel like you need a beatstick to slow-down the melee pieces, either Obi-Wan Unleashed or Luke COTF would probably make a decent choice.

Thanks for your thoughts Lobo!

Ridiculously, I spent an hour on Bloo Milk and mini manager trying to get the best synergy I could. One thought was to go with an Ithorian Cmdr and some Ewoks too. I love Ewoks and the swarm would be so much fun with the choosing one at a time feature. I opted out of the swarm since I've done so much of that lately. I kept think I needed to get 13-15 activations in this sqaud and then realized I had Dodonna in it. 10-12 would suit just fine.

Anymore, I find myself making sure I have door control and something to help with initiative whether it be something like Recon, Intuition and a Swarm.

I'm not too big on Disruptive yet (don't see it much), so I don't usually throw it into squads.

I think Cade and Garm are going to be a tough combo to take down as more is discovered with these pieces.

I always find myself working a squad to deal with what might present itself these days too, mostly B&B of any form and Vong.

-b

On the Rebel front, you could also consider Shaak Ti JM or Master Kota. Kota would give Cade a huge boost, making him a pretty formidable 23 Defense and +15 base attack. Then you have Kota's 23 Defense and Repulse to hold off the Melee beats when they get in close.

You could also run it like the 'Jango Sniper Tower' type squads. Use Garm's Reinforcements to bring in a Golan Turret. Cade's Spalsh damage won't hurt the turret at all, so you can use Cade/Bothan Noble to seriously unload on anyone sitting on the far side of the turret. Could even build the squad with Cade, Jango, and Garm, and then you have two power shooters to fire at the far side of the turret.

Last, but not least, Bossk BH is ALWAYS a good choice with Garm, for the potential 70 damage Momentum/Rend attacks.

I was thinking about the Golan when I was putting it together last night too.

One thing I'm looking at trying to do is look outside the box with this squad and find some new synergy withouth rehashing something already proven too.

Not that I don't like all those options, because I REALLY do, but Cade/Garm/Dodonna/Ghost Luke just seems like so much fun. Add another beat to get something really cool at this point.

Thanks!

-b

From the FAQ:
Garm Bel Iblis
Q: Can a character extend the movement allowed from Garm's commander effect by spending a Force point to move 2 additional squares or using an ability like Master Speed?
A: No.

Have I missed something?

Look at the latest FAQ that was released last week, right after LOTF came out. There were quite a few interesting changes.

Okay, so I think these are the options we've narrowed it down to:

::27 points::
Lobot (Reinforcements: activations/low cost shooter)
or
Boba Fett, Young Mercenary + x3 Ugnaughts
or
Jaina Solo
or
Zuckuss + Jawa/Caamasi

::Garm's Reinforcements::
Golan + Bith
or
Bothan Noble + Rauntaun

Using Jaina would be too big of a gamble IMO. As good as she is I'd prefer another shooter + activations. Accurate Shot would be nice, which is why I've thrown Zuckuss and Baby Boba up there. For Garm's Reinforcements I'd have to see my opponent's squad first. The Bothan + Rauntaun has the obvious synergy, but a Golan might be nice since I don't have any Gambit Grabbers in the squad.

What do you think about the basis of the squad? Think it could have a fair chance at victory against other 200 pointers?

Just a quick point, i wouldn't discount the CorSec Officer too much, especially with Cade against Stealth. Throw some ugs or Caamasi Nobles up in front of the CorSec Officer, and now Cade will have non-stealthed targets to shoot. Just a thought.

Finally found the new FAQ. Thanks.

It is a pity that there are two sources which contradict each other at the moment.

Actually, the FAQ says add the bonus before dividing. That results in Jaina and Cade being able to move a maximum of 4 and still be able to use Double.

Here is the entry:

Garm Bel Iblis

Q: Can a character extend the movement allowed from Garm's commander effect by spending a Force point to move 2 additional squares or using an ability like Master Speed?

A: Yes. Add all applicable bonuses, then halve the total (rounding down if necessary.) So a standard character with 6 speed spending a Force point to move 2 extra would have (6+2)/2=4 squares of movement.

Oh, funny, I didn't read it close enough to catch that. Cool. Still 1 extra space than before, so that's cool.

Yeah, four is a lot more than three (practically speaking). I played Garm and Cade last weekend and many times I was wishing for just one more square of movement.

I actually played a rebel version with Han RH, Obi JS and Luke HPU. It was incredibly effective. One thing that always worried me was Cade's lack of accurate but Han was enough to cope with those situations where Accurate was necessary.

Another thing of note is that Cade had more FP than he could ever hope to spend even though I had to keep him too far from Obi to benefit from renewal a few times. Renewal is huge when you start with 4 force already. When Cade was eventually based I used Luke to push the opponent away and, when I could not do that, I healed Cade for 40 and took shots with everyone else at the adjacent figure and Spotter 20 proved very handy at that point.

I think Cade is good enough to be tier 1 (even with his shortcomings and especially with a Bothan Noble) but I think a decent accurate shooter is necessary in the build to make Cade playable. Having Force Push (2 or 4, not 3) is also a very handy bonus to include with Cade.

I have just been thinking...

I think Wolf is the perfect compliment to Cade. He is a great melee interference piece with his surprise move and has Force Push 2 to keep opponents off Cade. At the start of a round that is a potential 140 damage against whatever is basing Cade. The combination also leaves enough points left over to include a decent accurate shooter.

What about this:
Cade
Wolf
Garm
Dodonna
Delia Blue
Luke FS
Ugnaught

200 even

Garm can add activations, a Bothan, Door Gimmick, A Rauntaun, a Golan and a whole range of other options.

Could work. I hate spending 33 points to only use Deliah as a shooter though. She's worth it in a Telosian Terror squad or something of the such, but to just use as a shooter I think she's too costly. I suppose if I really wanted Accurate Shot, I'd go back to Lobo's suggestion and do this:

Cade Skywalker, Bounty Hunter
Jaina Solo
Han Solo, Rebel Hero
Garm Bel Iblis
Luke Skywalker, Force Spirit
General Dodonna
Wicket
x2 Ugnaught

Reinforcements 30:
Bothan Noble + Rebel Trooper on Tauntaun
~199 (229)