I thought it was hilarious that you said this
Omnus wrote:
Its kind of sad that the throne room and ruined base are still the only good melee maps. I thought TS would be a great melee map but I have not had any problem with han cannon or mando scouts on it.
And then you said the following about Taris:
Omnus wrote:
And it is damn hard to move safely through the map. You can get los from alot of angles even in the places with some cover.
I would have said the same about Train Station, lol. I thought it was going to be a map that would heavily cater to melee and shut down shooters. But the LOS on Train Station is so darn hard to predict sometimes, that it gets pretty gory. I still think it's one of the best for melee, but you just have to play it smart (i've annihilated a few Mobile Shooter squads with my melee squad on Train Station). I do like the myriad of LOS trouble on Taris though. Makes people play smarter, and it becomes even more crucial to make sure you don't make mistakes.
Grand Moff Boris wrote:
I will say here what I said on WotC. Wasn't the map roll/loser decides who sets up first supposed to address this sort of thing.
Sure you can win the roll to play on Taris, but you do so at risk to yourself.
Hmmm...Does the map roll really make that much difference for Taris though? Again, say you're running a squad like Speedy Cannon or San Hill, and while those have specific maps they perform well on, they can also do good on a wide variety of maps. If you lose map roll and have to play on Taris, but you're running a squad like Speedy Cannon, San Hill, etc., you really don't care which side you get. Unless you have some way to really screw your opponent (like they have no door control or something), then your preference will usually be to set up 2nd on Taris anyways. If a loss because of map/side is going to happen on Taris, it's likely going to happen because of the 'map' part of that, not the 'side' part, IMO.
If you win the map roll, and Taris is your map, well, then you likely pick Taris if it uniquely gives you an advantage against your opponent (if they're melee-heavy, etc.). Otherwise, you can pick the opponent's map, and play the more 'balanced' map if necessary. Most of the time, if you 'win' the map roll, it means you'll be setting up first, because most of the top players prefer setting up 2nd. So, if the choice is between Taris and your opponent's map, you get a 'win' pretty much no matter what with 3 different possibilities:
1) Taris is your map, and it screws the opponent, so you choose it.
2) Opponent has a squad that could abuse Taris too, so you choose their map which is a slightly better balanced in which case:
a) Opponent sets up first to take the 'easy' gambit side (i.e. Throne Room or Starship), which means you get to set up in response
b) Opponent makes you set up first, which means you get the 'good' side for gambit.
So, I think it works out pretty well for the player that brings Taris with them for their own map. The map/side roll helps balance other maps with uneven access to gambit like Throne Room and Starship, but I'm not sure how much difference it makes for Taris.