The top two figures in our countdown really are
not going to come as a surprise. At #2 we have
perhaps the worst figure in the game. I am not
talking about design, but what it did to the game.
This is a great piece to play. It was number two on
my list. He is uber cheap and has fairly beefy stats
for 15 pts, but it's his CE that is both awesome and
the worst thing that happened to the game. His
granting evade and mobile is a huge benefit to any
squad, but the fact that it is granted to allies and
not just followers is sickly good.
So why do i call this piece in the game? Well,
it's because of what it did to the game. Can you
imagine the Sith with this CE? Old Republic? Even
the Separatists would love this piece, but who gets
it? A faction that is already dominating the top of
competitive play and just pushed it that much closer
to pure domination and brokenness. Wedge was a great
piece when he came out and was a huge help to the
New Republic, so what do they do? They slash the
cost in half and increase the effect to allies.
Rebels have been too powerful for awhile before this
figure came out, and Rieekan just made them that
much more powerful. This is part of the reason the
Rebels have dominated competitive play at Gencon for
the past two years.
This piece also came at a point in the game that
was truly showing a lack of creative design.
Everybody was now becoming mobile and evade was
becoming rampant. To me this took away much of the
skill in SWM. You no longer had to choose when to
put power cannons out in the open to get your shots.
Instead you can take your shots and not have to
worry about it, and even if you get caught you still
had evade. I also think this increased game times as
now about every figure out there has to be dealt
double the damage just to kill them (unless you roll
saves like i do).
As i said this would be a great piece had it gone
to one of the lesser factions, but the fact it went
to a faction that was already overpowered was a bad
direction for the game. It is a direction the game
has yet to recover from, and i really doubt will for
some time.
Josh
General Rieekan (Rebel, 4/40, Very Rare—Imperial
Entanglements; HP50, ATT 9, DEF 15, DAM 10)
With this figure, the Rebels pick up yet another
nice commander that is really going to help extend
their longevity. His commander effect is worth his
14 deploy points alone. Much like the New Republic
General Wedge Antilles, General Rieekan gives Rebels
access to a commander that gives your entire squad
Evade and Mobile Attack.
Anymore, you wind up needing at least one of those
two abilities to make your squad effective. For a
mere 14 points, Rieekan gives the Rebels access to
both which will really help your squad.
Recon is
a nice additional bonus, but with the increased
number of characters that can get around initiative
control powers and Rieekan’s own fragility (50HP
with only a 15 on defense) you won’t really want to
try and take advantage of
Recon too
much. Keep him well-protected in the back and he’ll
make sure your squad lasts a long time thanks to
Evade and
will make it easier to prevent your characters from
getting pinned down in a firefight thanks to
Mobile Attack.
100 POINTS: Even though trying to run commanders at
this level is
usually a bad idea, this character works pretty
well here. He’s really cheap and has decent stats so
you’re not going to wind up losing him really fast.
Since his commander effect isn’t limited to within
six, he doesn’t even have to hang with the main part
of your squad to help them out. At this point level,
you might even be able to use
Recon
since there are nearly as many power shooting squads
run at this level. SCORE: 4
200 POINTS: Here, Rieekan is almost a necessity. In
recent expansions, the Rebels have really picked up
some great commanders. Running him with General
Dodonna means you can control activations more
effectively and make your squad more difficult to
kill. Another interesting option would be to run him
with General Crix Madine. It will give General
Madine some added protection from your opponent’s
characters with Accurate Shot. General Madine will
also likely be in a commando build and means your
commandos will not only have access to super Stealth
(assuming you’re using Rebel Commando Strike
Leaders) AND Evade and Mobile. That’s pretty nasty
if you ask me. Even if you don’t have a specific
build in mind yet he can fit really well just about
anywhere in the Rebel armies at this level just
because his commander effect is so useful and he’s
not that expensive. SCORE: 4.5 (for certain and
possibly a 5 if you can find some really good
commanders for him to synergize with)
Addendum for the Top 10 Minis of 2009 List—This
figure, hands down, has been completely reevaluated
in my eyes after playing with it once. Though I
don’t usually play 100 point squads, I tried him out
and my opinion of running this particular commander
has been totally reversed. This piece is an
incredible addition to the Rebel faction. But if you
think this figure is game changing, tomorrow’s piece
really alters the landscape of Star Wars Minis.
RoqueSaber
General Rieekan
Cost: 14
HP: 60
Def: 17
Att: 6
Dmg: 10
Special Abilities:
Unique, Recon
Commander Effect:
Allies gain Evade and Mobile Attack
Love him or hate him, Rieekan changed the game.
Since its creation, the game had been slowly started
to become dominated by shooters. Twin Attack, Mobile
Attack, Evade, and other similar abilities made
shooters very deadly. Then comes along General Wedge
Antilles, giving out Evade and
Mobile
attack to followers. Wow, what a killer commander
effect! Hehe…two sets later and we have this sucker
on our hands. Evade and Mobile to allies really helped push (or
shove…) the game back
to melee. As pointed out by a smart someone, Evade
is really one of the most powerful abilities in the
game because
shooters will only ever have a 47.5% chance for
their attack to hit. Giving this ability along with
Mobile
can be very easily abused. With the advent of the
TBSV, any follower is a Rieekan squad can gain
Greater Mobile. Regardless of whether or not you
approve of these deadly possibilities, you can be
sure to see Rieekan is just about any competitive
Rebel squad nowadays.
100/150/200: 5/5 He’s so ridiculously cheap for what
he does that all the formats can be lumped in one
big pile, he’s a staple for sure.
If you have him, use him. ;) If you’re playing
against him, just be prepared for a lot of shots to
miss or pack some serious melee threats.
