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Grievous's Wheel Bike Set: Sith #33/60 Date Reviewed: May 22, 2006 Image from Wizards.com Rating: 2.0 Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst. 3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

 

Ten-Eyed Man	Ah, Grievous’ Wheel Bike: Huge before it was cool to be Huge. The base is actually Large, but I don’t think any piece in the game spills so far over its base as this one. If you can find a way to store it, GWB is a fun piece, but it’s not competitive. At 58 points, the ultimate chopper has some great abilities and decent numbers, but can’t quite make it because the all-important Attack number isn’t quite decent enough. Let’s look in more detail. On the plus side, Grievous’ Wheel Bike is exceptionally mobile (Wheeled lets it move 18 squares and make an attack) and has Double Attack with an impressive 30 damage. It also has a healthy Defense of 20, but that’s when things start to fall apart. With only 120 hit points, it will likely take Aurra Sing or Han Solo, Rebel Hero only four attacks to kill it. Since both of those characters are substantially cheaper than the Wheel Bike, this is bad news for the rest of your squad. What’s worse, an Attack of only +10 means that hitting Aurra in cover requires you to roll a ’15’ or higher: no mean feat during the short time you have before she kills your 58-point death machine. I’ve used Aurra Sing in the example above because she’s a definitive tournament piece, but she’s only an illustration of the larger problem: a 58-point figure should have a chance against figures in its point class. While a skilled player can use the Wheel Bike’s mobility to hit and run against the major Jedi, the most powerful ranged combatants in the game will slice it to ribbons in short order. With such a short life expectancy, there is no real excuse for Grievous not having an Attack rating high enough to take any of his killers with him. It’s really the one Force Point that causes Grievous so many problems. He can only benefit from it once in a game, and it makes him subject to Jedi Hunter for the whole skirmish. Jedi Hunter is a very popular ability, and likely to be even more so once Champions of the Force gives us a slew of new victims for it. It’s really unfortunate, because the mini is great-looking and a lot of fun to play, but he’s just not playable in a competitive environment. Overall rating in 100: 2 Overall rating in 200: 2.5
Vesuvan	Grievous's Wheel Bike Everybody have a nice weekend. To kick off Mean Mounts Week we have Grievous's Wheel Bike. At 58 points he is a little costly for what you get but can be quite painful to your opponent if used on the right team. He has the stats you would expect for a mini of his cost. The most notable feature is that he does 30 damage with double attack. This can be a great threat to Jedi on the field as he doesn't have melee attack and can blast his opponents from across the field. He is Wheeled so he has great mobility on the field. The mini has two drawbacks however. First, his attack isn't all that great and +10. Second, he has Mounted Weapon which greatly limits his killing potential, due to the fact that the separatist don't have any other mounted weapon or gunner minis. One fun team to make with him is to take him with a few Battle Droids on STAPs. High damage with low attack. Tournament 100pts 2/5 cost too much 200pts 2.5/5 300pts 2.5/5
Sith Dragon	Grievous on Wheel bike Separatist Cost: 58 HP: 120 DEF: 20 ATK: +10 DAM: 30 Cyborg, Wheeled(move 18 then attack), Double Attack, Mounted Weapon Force 1 This is perhaps the greatest piece in the game....that just plain sucks. He is costed for a piece that should dominate a game like a triple attacker. 120 HP isn't too bad, but falls short for a 58 pt character. The 20 DEF is good enough as the emperor is in this class, and many others are only a point more. The +10 ATK is just horrid! The 30 base damage is very good. Outside of base stats, what does he have? Cyborg, which means Asps, Iktochi, and Wat can repair him to extend his life, which is about his only other plus. He does have double attack, but at 58 points he should be closer to a triple. Wheeled can be a nice effect as it lets you either run up and shoot, or turn and out run your opponent and still get the shot. All in all he really isn't too bad, BUT here's where the problems lay. Being a cyborg he doesn't get any of the awesome effect CIS has for droids. At 58 points, he should have overpowering stats, when in reality his stats are more in line with the low to mid 40s. Having mounted weapon means that no on in the game right now can combine fire with him to get his attack up, so not only does he have a VERY hard time hitting Jedi before they are up close, but the few that hit will get deflected, healed, body guarded, etc. Granted a well placed crit could do wonders (enter Asajj and her lone useful CE). Then you have his lone force point, which i still fail to see why any version of him has it. He is now susceptible to Jedi hunter and all other anti force user effects. His last big problem is the problem that all of the Unique CIS characters have. They all carry heavy costs, and most have the power to justify where they are at, but outside of Asajj, there are no good mid 30s range of support to bring synergy. You can run a power Jedi then have tons of choices for mid-range support. CIS has nothing outside of Asajj. 100/200 pt: I am just going to combine these as he really does horrid in both. His cost is outrageously high for what little he does. Grievous was feared in the SW universe for all the Jedi he had killed, but like all other versions they come up short of being dangerous. This guy is just horrid outside of a very casual game. "Dude, the fat guy totally just blew up!" -Pink 5