another possible counter could be some kind of swarms to where cad is wasting shots on Aqualish assassins or Pickpockets or tuskans and the commanders ocked in a room.

Ill be the first to admit I'm glad to see Cad Bane winning Tournaments and not the same old rotaition of squads im used to seeing. Some other good things about the Team are it looks Really Fun to play. I've playtested some stuff thats very similar but chicken'd out playing it because of the one shot wonder of it.

There are many ways to counter it just off the top of my head here are some.

Use Ozzel to your advantage. Ozzel is a cool piece to use but his power can be crippling at times so use the move one at a time to your advantage.

KILL GRAN RAIDERS! Those guys are the key to getting off the big swap if there dead you got a great chance to catch cad. Doing this also slows down ozzels effectiveness.

DONT EXPOSE ANYTHING YOU DONT WANT TO DIE. This could be very important since the squad rely's on killing something vital every round advance your fodder or b list guys to try to kill as many grans as possible and let cad only be able to shoot at your fodder for the first 2-3 rounds. In the 3rd to 4th round hopefully youve killed most of the swappers and or done some kind of damage to cad. You advance your big guns and take out cad.

It shoudnt be that hard to do if you play it right, but then again ive had time to prepare for it and i wasn't in that tourney the element of suprise is huge in tourneys.

Yes man, u are right, swarm Squads are a big problem vor Bane Swap. U´re wasting your shots on ewoks or anything else. it´s very effectiv against him.

But what about Yobuck, Lancer and Kyle ? :D

The other points are theoretical an good idea but .... it doesn´t work.
On the right map its really dangerous and hard to kill one gran.


@ Billiv15 : No i´m not on the board. I´m on WOTC but not as active user.

Thank u for your kind words, the frenchman lost their own championship because they didn´t try to counter the current meta. They played Squads the same way than the championships before. 3 from the german players tryed a nearly untested Bane Squad and it won. So next time on a big tournament bane is no more dangerous than the other known Squads. Than its time to counter Bane + Speeder + lobbin Luke. We got an enemy more but i think the time to walk through in the pre-finals with him is over.
I won the most games and got the most points but i didn´t won the tournament,(because of the lot of congrats ... perhaps just a disaccord) that was another player with the same Squad all 3 Bane Squads were in the finals. I lost against a Bane Squad.Mirror Matches are still hard.

Thats true it was aweful ...

Yes u are right, no he has no acc. up here i think.

We always seem to have something in each set that proves to be the best meta changing piece. From this set it seems as of right now cad is in the lead. If its in a tourney at 150 i dont think flobi will be a huge deal. I'm much more concerned about Gen Sky at 150 and giving momentum to Yobuck that seems like it will be one of the contenders next year.

Exactly the point I was making above with the GOWK comparison. This is what the game when going well should look like. Some people when looking at the Gencon meta complained that the Speeder meta was the same as a GOWK meta, but it wasn't. I know it's a subtle nuance, but the difference is kinda hard to see for most players, that I understand. You've explained it perfectly. And what it shows you, is the value of skill, preparation and creativity over squad and figure strength in determining game outcomes.

I think I understand that point better now than before, and I would be willing to guess that most of the community can better wrap their minds around what a healthy meta is and what it is not.

Thanks to the Imperial Cad squad. It's not just competitive with the Snowspeeder squad, but very dominating over it while still holding some solid competition with other solid squads. And at the same time, still holding its own weaknesses to other solid competitive squads that can beat it and also perform well themselves against other top squads.

Rock/Paper/Scissors

It looks like this refreshing take on B&B is here to stay. Cad Bane is the almost perfectly statted glass cannon for the swap and shoot role having flight>gma>quad due to Thrawn's Master Tactician. The squad itself does run very well. I'm impressed with the slow play options despite fears of low Hit Points. With so many Grans,Uggies, etc I noticed map selection was important as ranged squads with R2 astro, and Lukes Snowspeeder could pick off targets if I wasnt careful. Cad Bane allows much more room for placement error, unchecked aggression and bad dice rolls than other popular swappers such as Lord Vader or Nym
Universe Lobot is the key here capable of reinforcements such as BG's, more activations, Amanin Scout,Override,etc..

Galaxy at War is a great indication of the games direction.

General Skywalker/Yobuck simply has yet to evolve a defining squad. Between Panaka swaps and r2 Deep Strike the squad selection and design is still coming together. It showed at the recent European tournament. In my opinion General Skywalker,Yobuck,r2 astro,Lobot,uggies,grans is going to be a great squad.
I also like the various General Skywalker/JWM squads with or without Dash RS

Flobi is nice and Loathsom is great with Fett Enforcer, Aurra Sing CS, Lando DS, but without Deep Strike capabilities outside Lancers Seps seem to be fading.

I don't mind the meta revolving around long distance/range gimmicks as long as they stay varied (such as swaps,r2 astro,snowspeeder,Lancers,Yobuck,Master Speed) and all factions get one or another appropriately costed and suitable for thier faction. For instance the Palpatine from Jedi Academy while great in design, currently does not function that well in top level play in the 150 pt format. As the swap ability costs a majority of the squad. Its also vastly inferior to a 32 pt Thrawn package. Pawn of the Darkside is another ability which doesnt quite make the cut which may have been intended for long range counterbalance.

New republic also lack Long Range strike capabilities which ultimately reduces thier competitive playability. A New Republic version of Deep Strike would strengthen the faction enough to bring several NR squads to the forefront. (a CE that gives Master speed or something)

The reason I talk about deep strike/first strike is that while I do agree there are certain problem maps, Mindful map design combined with Faction balance from First Strike will bring the best results.

The meta feels very healthy at the moment and the new B&B squad will most likely add more flavor to rock/paper/scissors rather than hinder it!

Cad Bane is an absolute beast but keep in mind he lacks accurate and only has 80 HP!!


So in a nutshell, The new meta is evolving into:

Bane B&B

slow cannons (Snowspeeder/Han Smuggler/Leia)

Yobuck/Rex Panaka swap

Fett,BH /Rex/JWM, R2 Astro

General Skywalker/Yobuck


And the squads designed to defeat the above squads. Such as swarms or Lobbin Luke. These squads will be heavily local meta influenced.
Universe Lobot has made a big comeback too. Activations are huge and mean everything when both slow cannon and Bane B&B rely heavily on them.

Kyle Katarn gets better after every set with all these fresh ce's running around, new republic with him and mara, jedi is sweet i can see him being a big deal now.

When january gets here it will be sweet to get rid of some of these problem maps and play melee teams a lot more. Also cad bane will hurt cause he wont be using his free grans to pick up gambit anymore that will be cool.

Agreed!!!