October Shatterpoint Tournament Prep - Part I

 October Shatterpoint Tournament Prep - Part I

"Talent is a factor. But training and focus are what truly define someone's success."

First things first: I have not competed in a Shatterpoint Tournament since 2024 Adepticon. So, you know, it's been a minute.

Additionally, while I've been ramping up my gaming over the last month or so, I'm still not up to speed. So my experience in playing Shatterpoint is still pretty limited overall. All of that said, I'm really excited to finally get back to competition! I don't have a lot of natural talent for the game, but I'm all too happy to spend time training in order to improve. There's a local tournament happening over in Illinois (Fantasy Books and Games in Fairview Heights Illinois; it's on Saturday 10/18!) later this month, so that's what I'm prepping for. It'll be a premier event, so I'll need to have 4 squads ready to go. The notion behind the format is that each Squad pairing happens at least once over the course of the tourney. My understanding is that, in the majority of cases, players will effectively create two strike teams of two Squads each, and then use those pairings. So A plays with B, C plays with D, and now that all 4 Primary characters have made an appearance, anything goes. Some folks will also play A with B and A with C, and then D gets in for one match just to ensure no DQ, but it's kind of a throwaway situation.

Meanwhile, the ideal is, I think, to have 4 squads that can all mix and match to present different archetypes and puzzles for an opponent to solve. But since I do have limited time to train, and my natural talent for the game is pretty well nil, I think the strongest approach i can take is to ensure that I've got 3 solid combinations. In the case of the list below, I'm thinking A & B, B & C, and A & D. If I'm really not sure what to do, I can combine A and C so I've got two highly mobile beat sticks in Ahsoka and Maul. But there isn't a ton of synergy between the squads in my head, so that's kind of a "break glass if I panic" combination for me. At least, that's the way I anticipate things going.

I mean, he's got more hair than me, and doesn't wear glasses. But otherwise, pretty spot on.

So! With those Squad combos in mind, my list is below:

I Am No Jedi

Mission: Never Tell Me The Odds

Squad 1: 4 Force

Primary: Ahsoka Tano, Fulcrum

Secondary: Sabine Wren, Spectre-5

Support: Clan Kryze Mandalorians

Squad 2: 2 Force

Primary: Lando Calrissian, Galactic Entrepeneur

Secondary: Dengar, The Demolisher

Support: "Zeb" Orrelios, Spectre-4

Squad 3: 3 Force

Primary: Lord Maul

Secondary: Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter

Support: Bounty Hunters

Squad 4: 3 Force

Primary: Princess Leia, Charming to the Last

Secondary: Luke Skywalker, Daring Hero

Support: Han and Chewie, In It For The Money

I know the team name isn't particularly creative, but I'll probably revisit the name before the tourney. If you followed my Armada career at all, you know I'm big on names!

I built all of this around Ahsoka as a starting point. I've been excited about her since the box was announced, but it took awhile for me to get around to painting her, to say nothing of actually playing her. A couple of posts back, I wrote some bat reps featuring a team I built around her. I certainly didn't maximize my play, but i had a ton of fun using her. So I thought I'd stick with her for a bit! I plan on leaning heavily on Rogue One and Leia's box in the future, as well as turning back to Scoundrels and Bounty Hunters at some point. 

I read Star Wars: Scoundrels maybe 5 years ago, and while I didn't think it was brilliant, I did think it was a fun read!

Ahsoka doesn't have any natural synergies worth noting here since she doesn't offer any buffs to anyone, and her tag count is limited to two. They're broad, which can be useful, but she is kinda like Maul in that she can fit with about anyone. She can be a monster, but that monster is fueled by Force. So I knew from the start I wanted to pair her with another Primary who could help her with Force. I've been fond of Lando since he dropped, so that was my second Primary. Now that I had another Primary, I turned back to Ahsoka to see who could work well with her. I honestly didn't look much farther than Ezra and Sabine. Ezra has a lot of upside, but i haven't seen much of Sabine, and was always interested in her in theory. I was also already thinking about leaning into mobility around Ahsoka, which had me thinking about using Clan Kryze Mandos. If i decided to go that route, than Sabine made the most sense to me, since she could trigger abilities off of everyone in that squad.

So, onto Lando. Referring again to my recent bat reps, I plugged Ezra in here, and decided to use Zeb. Again, I've read that the Spectres are strong, but haven't really gotten to use them. My preference leans towards Chop, but that felt like more reason to at least try Zeb before moving to someone else. But honestly, I thought it might be a decent idea to double down on characters who could get in multiple attacks. Between Ahsoka and Zeb, I could threaten a lot of different units. At this point, it's worth noting that I had chosen Never Tell Me The Odds for these two Squads because of the in-activation movement. I enjoyed playing it, and want to get better with it. As such, I decided to stick with it going into this month's tourney. So with my first two Squads (mostly) set, and knowing I'm building for Odds, I knew I wanted even more in-activation movement. Ezra fulfills that aim, but I honestly didn't have much fun using him in the last two matches. I have no doubt he can be effective, but I was ready to move on from him.

So I decided to go a little farther afield with Ezra's replacement: I looked at Scoundrels so that the Secondary could also benefit from the Rebel tag (courtesy of Lando). I haven't used Dengar yet, so i thought he was worth a try. He gets some free movement, I like his Not Just A Pretty Face buffs, and if I really wanna be all in on my buffs for a key activation, he can use Payday to be a Spectre or Mando.

Now I start looking at Squad C, who I anticipate I will pair with Lando. Given that thought, I know I want someone who can deal out damage. Additionally, Scoundrels are Lando's schtick. I love the Scoundrels in Shatterpoint, so that's my starting point. Very few Scoundrels present as much raw threat as Maul. Plus, he's light on Force, and he's got mobility (of which Lando has little). I have always loved playing Maul, so he's my C Primary. Despite his nerf, Jango is still a top tier Secondary unit, and he's got the Scoundrel tag, so it gives me some options with Lando. My understanding is that Bounty Hunters are generally considered a mid to lower tier Supporting unit, but they've always done very good work for me. I like their flexibility, and I like the way they spike sometimes when they get in a sneaky attack.

Finally, Squad D. I knew I wanted something that could synergize with Ahsoka so that I would have two solid pairings for her out on the field. As it turns out, I think she can work decently with Maul, so Ahsoka's should be the one squad that can work with any of my other squads. I really love the Leia box, but haven't had nearly enough opportunity to use it. There are still a lot of new units I want to use, but since I'm actually trying to get better at the game at this point, my goal is to pick a couple of units and get markedly better with them before trying other units. That way, I'm a little more focused in my approach, despite the excitement of acquiring and playing with even more new units. 

Looking at you, King Shark! Thanks for giving me more options for my beloved Seppie builds!

So yeah, the Leia box. I think it's a strong box overall, and though there's nothing creative about fielding it as it is, Leia gives me some trickiness, some revenge attacks, and she can grant her fellow Rebels (including Ahsoka and Sabine) additional movement upon activation. I have only used Han and Chewie once, but I really enjoyed their antics, and they give this squad a little needed muscle. I haven't seen enough of Luke to have an opinion on him yet. I want to like what I think he is (I'll dig into that a bit more deeply in a future post), but I just don't know yet. So why not give him a chance and see what happens?

This post will be part one of two parts covering my tournament prep. In my next tournament prep post, I plan on sharing my overall approach to my three intended Squad pairings (I'm skipping Ahsoka/Maul for these purposes because that's really just a combo I think I'll field when I'm not sure what to do, and think I need some extra muscle all around). I'll talk a little about how I expect to use different units in combination with one another, and why I think there may be synergy worth exploring in those builds.