Well I know some of you out there are heading off to a Bespin and Beyond tournament soon so here is #8 in the series called 'B&B: Tips and Tricks'. This is the last post in this series. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. This time lets look at the strategy that’s just crying out for abuse by the light side.
EPP Swarm with Frozen Assets and Draw their Fire
The Trick:
Light Side EPP mains not only out number the Dark side mains but are
arguably far better as well. In addition the use of Draw their Fire
and Frozen Assets in conjunction makes it impossible for the dark side to rely on any interrupts (like Trooper Assault) to help them if light comes to play.
I’m not sure how real the danger of this strategy is all I know is that it’s not too hard to get 3 or more of each main, a few Frozen Assets and start with DTF. Coupled with the fact that Dark has no SC or Myoom or Bad Feeling things get even more tempting for the light side.
In addition light side has some decent interrupts to like Clash of Sabers, which can prolong your agony by separating your forces and Courage of a Skywalker to make the skywalkers killing machines.
Don’t despair you can beat them and even have a fun time doing it.
Attack their weakness!
The Tip:
First you must realize that it’s just like the Dark side to gang up on
a single x-wing or trooper? Dark side plays to win, period. The Evil
Empire uses everything they have to leverage the most advantage over
the puny rebels. Do you think the Emperor would say to Darth Vader, "Go
and fight Luke Skywalker but go alone so it’s a fair fight?" I think
not.
The general rule is attacking the opponent’s weakness produces the best results. What is the EPPs primary weakness?
Considering that we are in B&B environment, here are some of their weaknesses.
You can choose any of these weaknesses to exploit, but for the purpose of this article I’m going to choose #3. I encourage you to go back later and devise other strategies from exploiting other weaknesses.
3. Their combat capabilities are dramatically reduces when not present at a ground location
To maneuver your opponent into this tactically weak position you need to play a strategy that focuses your troops in a theater that dramatically reduces your opponent’s capabilities as stated in weakness #3. Here are some possible suggestions.
Jabba’s Palace with None Shall Pass - this prevents deployment at all. Reducing their combat capability to nil.
Systems or Sectors - If they deploy here their combat effectiveness is less than half of what it was especially considering the light side ships available in this scenario.
I particularly like Starting with Coruscant and playing clouds and the 1/0 locations with gas miners to get decent drains at minimum risk. If you control system with a SD Rebels can not even deploy to related sites. Further more you can play ISB OPS and A Bright center and really shut down any off world drains. Sure there are risks like, what if they convert the system or what if they have spies, but what is a game without a little risk?
This is of course just one of many ways to counter EPP’s. The primary point is find a crack in the armor and exploit it, not to try to match strength for strength. I personally am not overly concerned with EPP strategy. But if you find it prevalent in your area try some of these ideas out. I think you will be pleased.
Well that’s it for B&B: Tips and Tricks. I know I didn’t cover all the strategies you will see but I hope I was able to touch on the most important ones. Thank you for reading.