Killer_Nacho
09-24-2006, 09:35 AM
First, a little stats courtousy of swshoebox:
Rebel Storm Average Cost: 15.75
Clone Strike Average Cost: 20.88
Universe Average Cost: 25.40
Champions of the Force Average Cost: 25.70
Bounty Hunters Average Cost: 26.53
Every set the average costs of units points-wise goes up and up. Its not a secret that large characters dominate most formats, and it seems Wizards is starting to realize it now.
I believe when the game first came out, Wizards thought that an army with tons of shooters (and activations) would rule supreme over larger characters. This was remotely true for the Rebel Storm days- neither Darth Vader or neither Luke saw very much play... not even the Emperor. Boba saw a little bit of play, but his height in popularity wasn't quite realized yet. This is Wizards' original vision for the game, I think.
Then Clone Strike hit, and its almost like Wizards were trying to make bigger characters more playable... and it seems they made them a little too playable. Aurra Sing was used by nearly anyone who obtained her, and hoards of jedi scourged the land. This didn't change with Revenge of the Sith, and Universe Huge made it even worse with the mother of all big badasses- Darth Vader Jedi Hunter. Of course, Universe also gave us Grand Admiral Thrawn, but all that did was help push the Imperials over the top, as they now control the best weaklings and strong badasses... and of course, Aurra Sing.
Champions of the Force was completely filled with new interesting beatsticks, perhaps the most popular of which is Darth Bane. For 82 points, he was expensive but could take nearly down in Limited, and is still probally the single most offesnive piece in the game. (Although it fails in defense.) We also got many other dominating beatsticks in this set, such as Exar Kun, General Windu (although he does help smaller-costed armies with his commander effect.), and Darth Maul-Champion of the Sith.
With bounty hunters coming out, we have a whole new family of beatsticks. Thew new Boba and Jango are hilariously big and powerful--- with range as well. It seemed originally hard for me to believe that this set would have a greater average point total than Champions of the Force, but it indeed does... in fact the average cost is almost DOUBLE the average cost of Rebel Storm.
I really think this needs to stop. It should not be that every set comes out with more and more higher-costed pieces, there seriously needs to be more support (and more overall) pieces for small shooting armies. One of my theories is that the game in Rebel Storm was every balanced for 100 points, but after Clone Strike 200 points became more popular, throwing off the balance of the game a little. (And caused Wizards to desperately try to balance the game back again with increaseing point totals.) That's my little rant/article.... comment please.
Rebel Storm Average Cost: 15.75
Clone Strike Average Cost: 20.88
Universe Average Cost: 25.40
Champions of the Force Average Cost: 25.70
Bounty Hunters Average Cost: 26.53
Every set the average costs of units points-wise goes up and up. Its not a secret that large characters dominate most formats, and it seems Wizards is starting to realize it now.
I believe when the game first came out, Wizards thought that an army with tons of shooters (and activations) would rule supreme over larger characters. This was remotely true for the Rebel Storm days- neither Darth Vader or neither Luke saw very much play... not even the Emperor. Boba saw a little bit of play, but his height in popularity wasn't quite realized yet. This is Wizards' original vision for the game, I think.
Then Clone Strike hit, and its almost like Wizards were trying to make bigger characters more playable... and it seems they made them a little too playable. Aurra Sing was used by nearly anyone who obtained her, and hoards of jedi scourged the land. This didn't change with Revenge of the Sith, and Universe Huge made it even worse with the mother of all big badasses- Darth Vader Jedi Hunter. Of course, Universe also gave us Grand Admiral Thrawn, but all that did was help push the Imperials over the top, as they now control the best weaklings and strong badasses... and of course, Aurra Sing.
Champions of the Force was completely filled with new interesting beatsticks, perhaps the most popular of which is Darth Bane. For 82 points, he was expensive but could take nearly down in Limited, and is still probally the single most offesnive piece in the game. (Although it fails in defense.) We also got many other dominating beatsticks in this set, such as Exar Kun, General Windu (although he does help smaller-costed armies with his commander effect.), and Darth Maul-Champion of the Sith.
With bounty hunters coming out, we have a whole new family of beatsticks. Thew new Boba and Jango are hilariously big and powerful--- with range as well. It seemed originally hard for me to believe that this set would have a greater average point total than Champions of the Force, but it indeed does... in fact the average cost is almost DOUBLE the average cost of Rebel Storm.
I really think this needs to stop. It should not be that every set comes out with more and more higher-costed pieces, there seriously needs to be more support (and more overall) pieces for small shooting armies. One of my theories is that the game in Rebel Storm was every balanced for 100 points, but after Clone Strike 200 points became more popular, throwing off the balance of the game a little. (And caused Wizards to desperately try to balance the game back again with increaseing point totals.) That's my little rant/article.... comment please.