Zions Finest - A Star Wars: Shatterpoint Podcast

Hello and welcome to Episode 18 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, the brothers take a break from the competitive grind (prior to immediately getting back on the grind) to discuss the hobby aspect of this game that we all love. Specifically, Scott leads a discussion as to how to develop and maximize your skill and time with respect to painting miniatures in Shatterpoint, and what to look for i...

IT'S A BONUS EPISODE! JUST ONE THOUGH! DON'T GET ANY IDEAS! Matt, Sam, and I went on a bit of a tangent (Matt's fault [okay it was mine]) and while it was ultimately cut from the masterpiece that was Episode 16, Matt suggested that we release it as a bonus episode. You're welcome! Have a good week! Rate and review the podcast! Do it! Join the Slack ! Watch on Youtube !

Hello and welcome to Episode 17 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, we rank the currently-released Secondaries from Jango (spoiler alert) to opposite-of-Jango. It's a lot of fun and I think largely uncontroversial (except for you Cody bros for whom there is no help). We love you all. Thanks for listening! Argue with us on the Slack ! Watch this on Youtube !

Hello and welcome to Episode 16 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, we do the deepest dive possible in these preliminary times on Jedi Knight Luke and Plo Koon. We talk about their strengths and where we think they will fit--especially Plo Koon, who's faction is more of a known commodity at this point. We are also releasing this episode on Youtube and we encourage you to check that out in c...

Hello and welcome to Episode 15! This is a bit of a new spin for us. Instead of approaching a particular topic or strategy in the game, we decided to yell at each other about the tiers (S-D) to which each of the currently-released primaries belongs. For those of you listening to us before, we will not have too many surprises here, but we try to think through why each unit belongs where it does. We...

Hello and welcome to Episode 14 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, Sam and Ben Varnum (new to the cast) discuss a recent tournament in which Ben participated and how Ben was able to win struggles two and three in matches and how to negotiate the sharing of time in a tournament setting. Ben also discusses how he plotted his distribution of lists to account for terrain and matchups. They both of...

Hello and welcome to Episode 13 of Zions Finest! This one is a doozy and I apologize for the length but it was genuinely difficult to get Matt to shut up when he started going. Mattistyping, more like Mattistalkingandwontshutup amirite?! Just kidding. Matt did awesome laying out what we think is a solid framework for parsing how to attack Struggles Two and Three when you fail to take the first str...

Hello and welcome to Episode 12 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, Sam and Scott discuss Momentum and how to conceptualize it for purposes of control and tempo. Anakin serves as the unit highlight for this principal, and they do an excellent job talking about how to think through what you should be doing on your turn to give you a competitive advantage. It's a great episode. Here's the...

Who wants to play an oppressively strong list that just chokes the life out of the opposition? Who wants to play a list that has the best offense, solid durability, incredible control, and awesome mobility? Well, here's the list: Vader / Obi-2 / Magnas Grievous / Jango / Flex (5th Brother/Super Commandos, but lots of options) Scott and I discuss why we think this list is doing so strong right...

Hello and welcome to Episode 10 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, JK and I give our hot takes on Momma Talzin and Mace after sparring with those boxes, as well as discussing the power level of active abilities on combat trees for all the extant figures. Spoiler alert: Momma is good. Mace is also good--but in a very straightforward way (at least on first play). Join the Slack and get our promo...

Shatterpoint takes the traditional maxim that you should never bring a knife to a gun fight and turns it on its head. You best not bring a gun to this knife fight, as the current meta and spread of objectives heavily favors units that are able to scrum, get on objectives, push people off of objectives, and swing at those poor suckers dumb enough to get close. Sam and I discuss why it is that the c...

Why is Maul an incredible primary unit despite being the only figure I have really seen get removed in a game? Because he does what he does for free! (Kind of, not really, but kind of.) In this episode, Sam leads a discussion as to the strategy of economy, and we all discuss how to leverage the resources you have in the game (force points, health and durability, actions, etc.) to gain the kind of...

Hello and welcome to Episode 7 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, Matt and JK discuss Jango Fett and how he highlights important issues to think about with terrain. They discuss terrain and its importance to a dynamic and challenging game as well as the importance of building a list that can be flexible when facing different arrangements of terrain. They also inaugurate the first POINT / SHATT...

Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 6! With the game out for almost two months, the TTS league long underway, and the store tournament season kicking off, Sam and I discuss the shape of the meta, whether Grievous is too good, whether the Seps are too good, and whether Anakin is too bad (he's not, but we don't think he's found his place). It's a fun, less strategic episode (though...

I enjoy random walks as much as any econ PhD out of the University of Chicago, but how am I supposed to handle the inability to control my Shatterpoint deck and dice variance?!?!?! (Like many of you, I am also still reeling from Fama sharing the Nobel Prize with Hansen and Shiller. What a wild world we live in.) In this episode, Matt leads a discussion as to how to think about randomness in Shatte...

Welcome to Episode 4 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, Samuel Sweeten leads a discussion as to how you should be thinking about combat trees and what the units in your list are trying to do. He discusses raw damage, control, consistency, and tempo with incredible insight and I hope it helps you reassess how you are piloting your lists. Kenny Brown, Matthew Richards, and JK Moore try to keep u...

Hello and welcome to Episode 3 of Zion's Finest! In this episode, Kenny Brown, Sam Sweeten, and Scott Nielsen provide some general breakdowns and analysis of three figures with whom they have been getting the most reps. Kenny discusses Ahsoka (Jedi No More), Sam discusses Kalani, and Scott discusses Anakin. They also discuss the economy of Shatterpoint compared to MCP and provide some general...

Hello and welcome Episode 2 of the Zions Finest podcast! We are thrilled to have you join us! In this episode, Sam Sweeten and Matthew Richards discuss positioning and how to leverage movement and repositioning for maximum advantage in your Shatterpoint games. They also discuss the strategy and tempo of movement in offense and defense generally, and provide context concerning the tradeoffs you wil...

Hello and welcome to the Zions Finest podcast! We are a group of best friends dedicated to Star Wars: Shatterpoint and are hoping to grow our local community as well as the general community in support of this game. We were previously heavily involved in the Star Wars: Imperial Assault community and are thrilled to be back to rolling dice in a Star Wars skirmish game. In this episode, Kenny Brown,...