I'm very pleased to present to you a guest article written for us by Bill Russell, a Youth Pastor from Gurnee, Illinois, and a Star Wars Miniatures player since September of 2004.

Bill has written a lot of strategy and squad building articles over the past few years and he spends a lot of his time trying out new squad ideas and helping people with their builds. Bill has also been instrumental in helping to make Gencon into a complete event, not just for gaming, but where the people call each other "friends" and hang out with one another throughout the weekend. Bill was the winner of the 2008 GenCon championship and was inducted into the very first Star Wars Miniatures Hall of Fame for his contributions to the community.

Known online as Billiv15 by most of the Miniatures community, Bill also enjoys other things such as Settlers of Catan, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Harry Potter, playing guitar and hanging out with his friends. Bill has been married for 3 years to his wife Erin and they have a son, Will, who will be 2 years old in less than a month.

Bill can be found playing around Chicago, Milwaukee and all of the surrounding areas. He has traveled to Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin to play games, and has played at 15 or more different venues over the years. Bill can also be found playing on Vassal quite often because, in his words, "With a 2 year old in the house now, I don't get out as much as I used to, but I supplement that with time playing on Vassal. That has become my real LGS."

Bill has plans to go back to school and get his PhD in modern American Religious History at some point in the future.

I'd like to thank him, personally, for taking the time to put this article together for our group and, without further adieu, I'm happy to present

Billiv15's SWMs Strategy for the Newbie (Competitive Guide)

Prestige Classes 

     Some of the best new offerings of The Clone Wars come to us from the chapter on Prestige Classes. This chapter gives access to new Talents for the Prestige Classes in the SE core rulebook which, like the rest of the campaign guide, tend to focus on teamwork. We won’t be able to cover every Talent, but this should give you a good idea what you’re looking at. The book also gives three new Prestige Classes that especially reflect the tone of the Era.

The Star Wars Customizable Card Game Players' Committee has done it again - and this time better than ever! They've released the newest virtual set of cards, and this time they've done it with the most stunning visual effects yet. The title and theme of the set? The Force Unleashed! Its 21 cards based on the best selling video game of the same name.

Download the pdf here!

Also, since the set is already released, all of these cards are legal in our our upcoming 2/15 tournament at Dr. No's Comics and Games instead of only the preview cards.

We are quickly approaching the end of this little round-up. With the commanders and shooters under our belt (the articles for those are here and here, if you missed them), time to check out the melee characters in the New Republic. That means, you guessed it, lots of Jedi.