Praetorite Vong Scout, from Command of the Galaxy





With all the furore over Daala, it's easy to forget that Command of the Galaxy bought in a second significant swarm squad to the table - the Vong direct damage swarm. The Warrior Caste Subcommander from the same set is the capstone of the squad, handing out Blast Bug (Replaces Attacks, range 6: deal 20 damage to target enemy; this damage cannot be prevented) to all Yuuzhan Vong Warriors. There are plenty of passable Warriors to choose from - the new Domain Lah Warriors with Speed 8 and 40 hit points are another excellent option - but Praetorite Vong Scouts have arguably been the most popular so far. With 10 hit points, they're very vulnerable to Momaw Nadon, to strafe, and to gallop, but they also have some very strong advantages; Cloaked, Forward Positioning, and Stable Footing all help them to get into position to Blast Bug safely, while the Praetorite Vong Warrior SA means that they only cost 7 when they're in a squad with Prefect Da'Gara.

A squad of Blast Bugging Scouts is nasty - the otherwise uber-robust Darth Zannah has a very limited life expectancy against them. It's also significant that they don't require the Yammosk - although you can bring it in via Reinforcements if there's a particularly juicy CE (Tarpals!) to steal. We saw a couple of Praetorite Scout swarms at the NZ National Tournament this year, and while neither quite cracked the top 4, they performed very creditably, pushing the Daala squads that made the final very hard.



The Praetorite Vong Scout is an important part of a significant new squad type. They are hurt a little by the change to 10 point gambit, as previously they were easily able to gain first round gambit, but they're still a handful for a lot of squads. It'll be interesting to see what shakes out as the best option for Blast Bug swarms with the Domain Lah Warrior around, but they're a really strong tool for the Vong, 9/10.

The Arkanian Jedi General does not boost non-uniques, he only boosts OR Troopers and Soldiers. Made a really great squad and jak pointed out this tiny flaw. (this is a little behind, was gone a couple days)

BoShek, from Bounty Hunters





BoShek combines three of the most useless special abilities in the game - namely Gunner, Repair 10, and Industrial Repair 10 - into one package. With stealth and 30 hit points, he's relatively tough for an 11 point tech piece, but what he brings to the table just isn't worthwhile. He has at least one rabid fan out there in Bloomilkland - MasterShaper has built 58 different public squads featuring him - but even at 11 points his abilities just aren't worthwhile, and there are cheaper uniques to trigger Impulsive abilities, like Wicket and Salacious Crumb. 2/10.

"This build" above is by TheHutts himself.

The first day we moved into our house, we called the police because there were shouts of "put down that knife" coming from next door (which I think is quite a reasonable thing to do....).

Ever since, our neighbour has been upset about it - he's an adult with mental health difficulties, who lives with his parents, and I think he's painted me in his mind as his arch-enemy.

There have been a few odd incidents with him over the years. He's thrown a Bible at me from over the fence, he's put Monopoly money and other weird stuff in our letterbox, he's played a single Michael McDonald song loudly on repeat between 11pm and 1am at night, and sometimes shouts stuff when he's been drinking. One morning at 4am I had insomnia and was up, and he unleashed a particularly vehement string of abuse. I can't repeat it in a forum, but one particular phrase included "and that's why I don't respect you."

For the record, it's not too big of a deal - we're planning to move house in a few months anyway after being there nearly seven years, he hasn't done anything directly physically threatening apart from the Bible throw, we get on fine with his parents, and I don't think calling the police will help his mindset.

Sounds more like Al Bundy or Beavis or Butthead to me.

Also, because it is "within 6", the Shaman must be up in the fray. His Force ability can be turned off if he spends a Force point, rolls a save, or takes damage.

Plus Scrumb and Wicket actually hurt your opponent and thus gives a reason why your opponent will want to kill them (thus triggering Impulsive SA's)

Polis Massa Medic, from Revenge of the Sith





Heal always feels like one of those n00b-honeytrap abilities - when you see a detailed description like this:



It's obviously not going to work in real game play, at least against a competitive level squad. If you drop General Skywalker in the middle of your opponent's Tier 1 squad by himself, he's going to die in about 10 seconds. The notable competitive-level heal piece is Dr Evazan Galactic Criminal - he has other utility as well as healing, and with 50 hit points he takes some effort to drop.

So Heal 10 is a negligible ability most of the time and, to add insult to injury, the Polis Massa Medic isn't even very good at it. For an extra point in a Republic squad you can get either a Kaminoan Clone Technician or Owen and Beru Lars, who both have 30 hit points and bring some additional abilities to the table. I guess you could argue that he's the cheapest heal piece that the Republic has access to, but that's not enough to save him from a 1/10.

You know you're a bad mini when... You have the more of the lowest possible rating than any other piece covered