Grand Moff Boris wrote:
EDIT: Thinking some more about this, the GOWK squad would need to get 75 points and then have the lead to win. That doesn't sound too difficult. GOWK can outpace with Gambit and fodder slaughter.
Yeah, if you can pick off enough fodder early on, and then have Boba or Obi-Wan camp in gambit near the end of the time limit, might be able to pull it off. Will still struggle against Tempo Control squads though, as those types which are well-built will have ways of gaining their own gambit, and hopefully denying yours.
To me, I still feel like it might be tough for GOWK and Boba to do enough damage in the late game to pull off the win under those rules though. In most games I played at GenCon, it was not unusual to only play 7-8 rounds and accomplish a total win. And 7-8 rounds in an hour is pretty decent timing per round as well for most games. If we take those same 8 rounds to a GOWK/Boba vs. something else matchup, then you're looking at a maximum of 40 points of gambit earned by either team. Once you're down to the final 1 or 2 rounds, can GOWK/Boba's 80 damage per round be enough to pick up the extra 35 points? And this is, again, assuming that the opponent hasn't done something to deny gambit in the earlier rounds.
EDIT: Obviously, if Boba has been able to pick off fodder throughout the game, then it makes those last 35 points less, but as I've pointed out in other threads, I think most high-end players will do whatever they can to make that pretty difficult (Reinforcements through Lobot, etc.).
It's just an idea I've been tossing around. Gambit was designed to force people to play the game, not kill one piece and then hide in a corner. While it works pretty well, it also provides the scenario we see before us now, where competitive games are played by such a razor-thin line of just barely having enough points to beat your opponent. I can't even count the number of times I've won by an Ugnaught any more.
I keep thinking there has to be a way to encourage people, even in the highly competitive environment, to actually play the game and fight each other, instead of just jockeying for gambit control. At the top tier tables, the game becomes less about killing the other player's pieces, and more about controlling gambit and counting up points.