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 Post subject: New Player In Need of Assistance =)
PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:15 pm 
Unnamed Wookiee
Unnamed Wookiee

Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:50 am
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I've been following the game for a short time, and I recently picked up a booster (CotF) and got the following figures:
Jacen Solo
Jedi Consular
Crab Droid
Saleucami Trooper
Kashyyyk Trooper
Utapau Trooper
Varactyl Wrangler

I've been around the WotC forums for abit, and those who frequent there would probably have seen my posts. I came here to ask a few more specific questions, and to hope get advice from players that may not have seen my post there for whatever reason.

I'm facing a major dilemma: I have no idea what to play, and what set to buy, because to my understanding different sets are slightly more predisposed to certain factions. The root of this problem is my money: quite simply put, I can barely afford packs too often, and singles are hard to come by considering how most people here keep what they have, and I can't shop on Ebay.

So far, on the WotC forums, I've obtained one rather common piece of advice: take alot of Jedi Weapon Masters and some R2-D2 variant. Thats great, but unless I somehow overlooked a post (I've not reviewed my old posts for abit due to a lack of time on my part), I've not actually been given a sample army list for building around that idea. I'd also like to hear about other ideas outside of that, because as far as possible I'm trying not to play with very commonly-used figures as I do not want some sort of crutch that would hamper my army building and gaming skills later on. That is why I"m straying away from Boba Fett, despite him being one of my favourite characters =(

Anyway I really hope for some input from you guys regarding:
1) What faction to choose, preferably friendly on the pocket. I'm flexible in my playstyle based on my experience in many other miniature games, although I tend to enjoy armies that are capable of dealing obscene amounts of damage (although unfortunately such armies tend to be full of glass cannons), or those that can take obscene amounts of damage while still being able to hurt things. Basically, two polar opposites

2) What sets to buy. Mainly talking about boosters, because I seem to get "go buy a starter" every time I post this question =(

3) Good army lists (again, preferably friendly on the pocket), one built around JWM because everyone seems to be talking about it, and a few other ideas that aren't built around the JWM. Just for the record in case anyone asks me, I like anything in armor, anything robotic, and anything with a lightsaber, while I generally don't really like anything outside that :P

Also, I'm really new and don't have much time on my hands to research too much on the game, so when suggesting pieces please try not to use acronyms (although if you could teach me the acronyms in your post that would be fantastic!) and please post the set, rarity and expected price of the figure if its not too big a hassle.

Thanks alot!


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:29 pm 
One of The Ones
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Well, my first question in return would be, do you have a regular group to play with? Having a regular play group is awesome, because that's where most of the extra pieces I'm missing end up coming from. By trading. With a new set coming out in a little over a month, that's the easiest way to get things from the new set. Find out when your friend's pull doubles, and then try to trade or buy them from them.

Otherwise, good army ideas are best found just by reading the 'Squad' forums on a regular basis. There's also a couple of threads both here and at the WotC boards that discuss the 'Competitive DCI' squad builds. If you're looking for squads that will regularly beat anything else, then the 'Competitive' threads are what you'll want to read through.

For right now, I think it would be cheapest to get good Rebel squads together. There's several options for competitive builds (Han Cannon, Landspeeder, Luke COTF, Han ST Swarms, etc.) and the pieces are easier to get right now because of A&E. A&E boosters are also cheaper than the upcoming Huge set.

Otherwise....only thing I can suggest is to get a job (or get one that pays more if you already have one :P). Unfortunately, this game is constantly changing with new sets being released. In order to really stay up with the sets, you have to be ready to spend at least $100 to get the basic pieces you'll want from a new set. Possibly more for the Huge sets.

The last option, since you are new to the game, is to find some local friends who will help you build squads, and let you borrow pieces to play with if necessary. I know at my Local Game Store, I let some of the younger guys borrow one or two of my pieces almost every single week.

Good luck!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:41 pm 
Unnamed Wookiee
Unnamed Wookiee

Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:50 am
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Thanks for the reply!
1) I don't have any particular gaming group, but I know there is a community here. I haven't had the time to go down and check, but from what I've heard singles are very rare, and probably are either those very common pieces, or those that suck.

2) Competitive is nice and all, but normally that means more money. Now if there was a good way to be competitive with a cheap army, I'm all ears (though I think thats unlikely =P).

3) I'm still studying, and my workload is enough to keep me on that fulltime.....so "getting a job" is a no-go for now =)

Thanks and hope to see more replies!


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:14 pm 
Black Sun Thug
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You might want to check for singles on strikezoneonline.com or coolstuffinc.com. They've got decent prices on some pieces.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:17 pm 
One of The Ones
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Well, a 'job' can even be offering to cut a couple lawns in your neighborhood on a Saturday or Sunday. You could easily make $10-$15 a yard. I did a LOT of that when I was in highschool, and I still managed to graduate with great grades.

And yeah, unfortunately, building highly competitive armies can get expensive. It's just the nature of the 'supply and demand' beast. But even if you can't afford the top tier pieces, a lot of the 'Tier 2' squads are an absolute blast to play. Heck, I typically play a lot of lower tier stuff anyways just because I'm trying to have some fun, not necessarily just beat the snot out of all my opponents. So, I say collect what you can, and play with what you've got, and just go out and have fun!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:20 pm 
Third Jedi from the Left
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Joasht wrote:
2) Competitive is nice and all, but normally that means more money. Now if there was a good way to be competitive with a cheap army, I'm all ears (though I think thats unlikely =P).


A good, cheap top teir squad in 100 is

Queen Amidala
R2, Astromech
JWM x3

Buying everything straight up will cost about $30-35. Though, if you wanted even cheaper, you could swap R2 out for 3 ugnaughts and save about 20 bucks, but then it wouldn't be as good.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:42 pm 
Really Cool Alien from a Cantina
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Everything posted to date is spot on.

Competition costs money. Find a FLGS (friendly local gaming store).

My advice:

1- Pick a faction or two, but remember that you are not going to get their 'top-tier' pieces quickly, or inexpensively. For you, I'd recommend looking around at Republic or Seperatists. Two reasons- first, they have a ton of pieces, so there should be many around. Second- their generic troops (clone troopers, SBD) can be improved quickly by the addition of just a few key pieces (commanders, Jedi/Grevious, etc)

2- find a FLGS- some of them carry miniatures. Use the phone and call around. Ask if they have a regular group and if they sell minis. If they do, barter. I've talked a number of stores into selling commons and uncommons cheaply- as long as I buy in bulk.

3- find a group. Most people (myself included) are glad to trade VERY well for competitive pieces- particularly to people starting out.. One competitive common (like, say, a crab droid) can be worth several less competitive pieces (like, say, a half-dozen clone troopers).

4- surf the sites. Many people who post "For sale" notices on the boards do not bother to list their commons and uncommons. But they will sell them if asked. Some may not even be asking for cash, but they might be willing to deal.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:49 am 
Unnamed Wookiee
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Thanks for the replies again!

vaderfett76: As I mentioned in my OP, I don't actually have a credit card, so online shopping is a big no-no :(

EDIT: Also I'd like to add that no one I know, including my parents, would allow me to use their card. Now if there was an alternative way that I could shop online without using credit cards, but is still safe and fast, I'd like to hear about it =)

LoboStele: Thanks again for your replies! Unfortunately, I'm from Malaysia; we have gardeners that walk up and down every day charging very little for lawn mowing. Baby sitting is also not an option since many families here either don't trust their child to anyone else, or have maids. It probably sounds really stupid to anyone that hears me say this, but generally outside of an actual part time or full time job, you don't actually get paid to do menial labour around here =P

EmporerDragon: Thanks for the army list!

lt_murgen:
a) I'd really really appreciate some ideas for armies built around republic/seperatists if thats not too big a hassle =D

b) No shops here sell singles. I've been a gamer in various games for over a decade, so it is highly unlikely that one such shop would have slipped under my radar. Unfortunate though =(

c) I'm hoping to get to meet up with some players this weekend. Otherwise, I'd have to wait a bit since my exams are coming up in 2 weeks...self-imposed grounding to study XD
The Crab Droid is competitive? I'd like an army list around that one if possible, since I've really liked it since I saw it =)

d) Not having a credit card here once again is my biggest problem =(


Thanks for the advice so far, I'd really appreciate more advice (I never have enough of that XD) and army list ideas.

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:19 am 
Third Jedi from the Left
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Joasht wrote:

EDIT: Also I'd like to add that no one I know, including my parents, would allow me to use their card. Now if there was an alternative way that I could shop online without using credit cards, but is still safe and fast, I'd like to hear about it =)


Paypal comes to mind. It lets you spend money through a bank account.

Quote:
LoboStele: Thanks again for your replies! Unfortunately, I'm from Malaysia; we have gardeners that walk up and down every day charging very little for lawn mowing. Baby sitting is also not an option since many families here either don't trust their child to anyone else, or have maids. It probably sounds really stupid to anyone that hears me say this, but generally outside of an actual part time or full time job, you don't actually get paid to do menial labour around here =P

What about donating blood or the like? Or don't you meet the requirements/don't get paid for it there?
Quote:

The Crab Droid is competitive? I'd like an army list around that one if possible, since I've really liked it since I saw it =)


Yes. In fact, the crab droid generally considered the best Droid for the Separatist faction, especially when paired up with a Battle Droid officer and Grievous, Supreme Commander.

If you're looking for squads in general, try http://www.swshoebox.com . It's a site where people can post the squads they've come up with and comment on/rate/favorite others.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:12 pm 
Unnamed Wookiee
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Thanks again!
Paypal through the bank? Thats interesting, I always thought it needed a card...I"ll look into that =)

We don't get paid for blood donations here. They take the word "Donation" literally.

Thats an interesting piece of information about the crab droid; the Grievous is from a starter right? Or was that the other Grievous? I'll go hunt down that starter =D



I managed to get a verbal agreement with a friend who's taking some stuff off me for cash. I can afford about 2 "large" boosters (i.e. universe or BH) with that money. Now, considering if the starter is the same price as one of those larger boosters, that leaves me with enough to get one large booster, or two smaller boosters. Which ones should I get?

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:46 pm 
One of The Ones
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If you want Huge boosters, I would recommend waiting until the new set comes out in a month, or get BH. Very little from Universe is better than the BH pieces. But getting two normal size boosters nets double the number of pieces. If you wanna play Separtists or Republic though, definitely buy Champions of the Force boosters.

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Mand'alor
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:49 am 
Unnamed Wookiee
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Alright, I'll see what they have stock of tmrw, but I'd follow your advice if I see any CotF packs...I bought the "last one" the last time I went, but chances are they might have restocked hehe

Today I checked paypal; unfortunately I need to have a US bank account to do the bank funds transfer thing :(


I have two other questions today:
1) What maps are generally considered worth getting? I understand that different armies need different maps, but I also heard some are kinda bad. What are the good ones, and where do i get them?
2) I posted this on the official forums, but I thought I'd post it here too; last I recall my LGS has a AT-ST box left. As a gamer who doesn't care about the collectability of the box, is it worth the purchase for the figures and/or the maps?

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 10:09 am 
One of The Ones
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GET THE ATTACK ON ENDOR PACK. :D

Seriously, it has 3 GREAT maps in it. The Rancor Pit map is only one of 3 legal maps for the 200 pt level, and it's a great map overall. Some of us are hoping to get the Ruined Base map and possibly the Yavin Temple map added to the 200 pt legal list, but as of right now they are both only legal at 100 and 150. Still, they are great maps. The last map in the set, the Endor Bunker, is not legal for DCI play, but has some fun scenario rules, and can be a fun map to play on for casual games.

Otherwise, the newest starter set that came out this summer has the Throne Room (or Imperial Base as it's now called) map which is another great one, and is DCI legal for all point levels. The Korriban map in that set is fun to play on as well, but is not DCI legal (yet...it's kind of a sore point on the WotC forums, and we have yet to find out if it's going to get added to the list of legal maps). However, it again falls into that category of 'fun to play on when you're just goofing off'.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:46 pm 
Unnamed Wookiee
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Well, today I went to my LGS and found that the Attack on Endor was sold out...great.

Well on the plus side, they brought in two more CotF boosters. I bought them both, and got yet another Jacen solo (WHY?!) and Mas Amedda (I don't own any real commanders anyway for him...). I also bought the Revenge of the Sith starter, because I simply want grievous (him being my favourite character in the entire prequel trilogy, or whatever you term Ep 1-3 :P) and the droids (I love robots). The clone troopers aren't that bad either (I like armored characters). As for Obi Wan......well, I can live with him :P
So, my combined collection now stands at:

Empire:
2x Coruscant Guard
Mas Amedda

Sith:
Sith Assault Driod
Sith Trooper Commander

Old Republic:
2x Old Republic Soldier
Jedi Guardian
Jedi Consular

New Republic:
2x Jacen Solo (lol)

Fringe:
2x R5 Astromech Droid
Varactyl Wrangler

Separatists:
General Grievous, SC
2x Super Battle Droid
Crab Droid

Republic:
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master (I'm wondering; without anakin is he even worth playing? I'm worried his effect is factored into his cost, which is most likely the case)
Republic Commando - Sev
Jedi Padawan
2x Saleucami Trooper
Utapau Trooper
2x Clone Trooper
Kashyyyk Trooper
Mas Amedda


So for now my two makeshift 100 point bands would be:
Obi-Wan JM
Republic Commando-Sev
Jedi Padawan
2x Clone Trooper
Utapau Trooper

Funny band, everything practically dies in one shot.....

General Grievous
2x Super Battle Droid
Crab Droid
R5 Astromech Droid
Varactyl Wrangler

The Wrangler just happens to fit into my last 6 points :P Most of the band also dies in one shot...so oh well.

Well, even with two crappy bands I can at least play around with the game a little, especially since both have the same number of figures :D
What should I look out for from now on? Other than R2-AM and JWM's XD

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:18 am 
Unnamed Wookiee
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I just managed to get two games down, with me on the Light Side in both games.
The first game was really close; the Separatists went for the route south of their deployment zone (south for me, since thats the other end of the table from me) while I made my way west to meet them. The game was horribly bloody: just as Grievous fell, my entire band was wiped down to obi-wan alone, while this entire army, short of Grievous that was just taken out, was still almost at full health, while my obi-wan was already down to 80 life. Obi-wan then proceeded to take out the entire army single-handedly with 20 life to spare. There was a little bad "luck" on my part earlier on admittedly; most of my attacks didn't hit; even my Obi-wan failed to hit earlier in the game with both his attacks (keep in mind he has +15 attack...). The unnaturally poor rolls lead me to lose a few men faster than I'd have expected to, since in order to shoot, I had to get myself in a position to get shot :P

Lessons:
1) Obi-wan isn't as bad as I expected. 21 Defense and 120HP is pretty tough, and his damage output, to be fair, isn't that bad I guess, since he generally hits things really well with +15 attack.

2) Grenades = Oh my goodness. I initially thought "meh, save 11, 10 damage." By hiding his Wrangler behind tossing grenades the whole game, he managed to do 30 damage to Obi-wan and 20 damage to the Padawan; not bad for six points! Of course, if you suddenly told me that grenades are "one-use-per-battle", then the game would have gone a little differently.....would have been a greater advantage for me though :D

3) Crab Droids are rather tough to gun down with anything less than +9 attack or so (I said "+9" since thats my Commando's attack value; and he was the only shooting guy that managed to hit the Crab Droid before dying to a critical shot from a super battle droid).

Second game was totally imbalanced. The reason was simple, poor placement of Grievous allowed me to dump four Clone Troopers' worth of shots into him in one turn, followed by another two in the second turn (where I combined fire just to make sure I hit) since I went first; basically, Grievous died before doing anything. I took advantage of placement to make shooting ant anything other than Obi-wan rather disadvantageous due to cover saves, which ends up spiking most of their defense values to considerable heights (just as a note, this time I went north instead of west, so my opponent proceeded east towards me) that unboosted droids just couldn't hit. I ended up playing "tag" with the Crab Droid and Wrangler, although it didn't end too well since Obi-wan managed to catch up (he ran into a dead end since there really wasn't anywhere else to go) and slayed both targets in one turn with some prior shooty softening and Lightsaber Assault.

Lessons:
1) Obi-Wan - the bane of things that simply can't hit 21 defense. With Grievous out of the picture almost nothing in his army could even TOUCH obi-wan, let alone take out his 120 hp.

2) Droid armies kinda suck without Grievous unless combined fire kicks in, which takes away alot of firepower. I think in bigger games, where you can have more droids, or when I get far cheaper droids to enable combine fire, then they would be more viable.

3) Clone Troopers (of the variety I used) can deal alot of damage if given a chance! I never thought much about the 10-HP guys, but then I realised that if you somehow boost their survivability (like me using characters and terrain for cover this game) to allow them to actually SHOOT stuff, then they are pretty scary with their 20-damage shots.

Well thats it for my report, comments/suggestions are well appreciated :)


Last edited by Joasht on Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:19 am 
Third Jedi from the Left
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Joasht wrote:
(I'm wondering; without anakin is he even worth playing? I'm worried his effect is factored into his cost, which is most likely the case)


Very much so. In fact, his CE actually lowers his cost (some characters are given mediocre CEs so they can't benefit from other commander effects.).

While he has become somewhat obsolete in the face of newer jedi, he's still a good, solid fighter.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:23 am 
Unnamed Wookiee
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Haha thanks for the quick reply! I just happened to post up two short batreps on the previous page just before your post. I learnt from those two games that Obi-Wan is the absolute bane of anything that can't hit 21 defense too well; even Grievous had some trouble touching him at times. I know that there are definitely better Jedi out there, but I'm really impressed with the piece; far more than how I was when I looked at his stats on paper :)


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