I have constructed a 200 point army I am thinking about using in a tournament. It consists of:

1) An assortment of Skeletons
2) 2 Grave Diggers
3) Technomancer
4) -either-

1) Scholar Magus Bessa
-or-
2) Magus

Any suggestions on which figure to use or comments on if this is even a considerable army to ponder using in a tournament.

I'd go for the magus just for the command he'll bring.

The bessa is quite good, but since you're going to fight alot of threats with the skelly, the magus will do good fighting every individualy figure that comes in sight.

Magus has an advantage over bessa on 2 fronts, he has a longer range and bigger arc giving him an ease of use that can't be matched by bessa. The big difference though is in damage. Bessa can cause 2 clicks of damage straight out when a lone figure threatens while magus has and holds 4 damage without using magic blast. These things are what in the end turned me off to bessa.

I think the greater benifit of a magus over bessa is that Magus - Technomancer - Technomancer is a movment formation.

So you have 3 ML figs moving in one action, as oposed to 3 actions if bessa were included.

Bessa is best used when you can take advantage of her ME, and when you don't have to worry about action limitations.

-Mojo_the_Balrog

magus. it can do more offensivly, and it also has command to give you even more actions (very important for 200 points).

Id go with the magus in a heart beat. I'll give u some suggestions on the army though. I dont think u need 2 grave robbers. Maybe take out one and add a cheap atlantis figure so u can move in a formation

The reason S-M Bessa isn't very good in Rebellion, is because she was designed as a loner Dungeons figure.

She ME's herself if she isn't in base contact with a friendly figure, and can use 2 target f/l on 2 figs in base contact....thats a total of 8 Damage caused in one turn! (of course, the maximum would be to a group of 6 monsters, doing 16 total damage!)

But because she can't Enchance herself, and figures aren't usually set up like that in Rebellion, The Magus is a better choice.

Magus is the one everyone here is saying use and without a set army here it is a little hard to give ideas. We do not know how many skellies, or technos. Now Magus is a good choice but he is not always the best choice.

Why would you use Bessa:
-Pt cost: In a bone toss Magus main purpose is going to ML, clean up and protection. Bessa does not have th erange but does have the ML. At 67 pts she has it for 4 clicks and for 43 ( lvl3) she has as much ML as Magus and is saving you 25 pts.

-Surprise: Most people have played with or against a Magus. I can not tell you what an advantage it is to play with a figure that others players have limited knowledge of. Point in case: at nationals one of my friends was running a Reaver and the opponent thought that is was a healer. I can not tell you how surprised he was when that "healer" MB something 14 in away.

-Life span: Magus lives for 8 clicks and Bessa lives for 10. If a healer is put in then Bessa is going to be around for a long time.

-ML: I alreayd covered it to a degree but having those slots of ML allows you to push her to ML and not have to worry about losing ML.

Some things to think about: You do not need 2 GRs but you could upgrade one to a *** because it keeps Necro for 2 clicks. that would allow you to push once. Soul Stealer: if you are going to toss skellies then you might as well go with one to move all the magespawn together. IF not then it is going to take alot of actions to move and set up. DZ, rammers and skellies are all good choices to toss. Formations: ML/bone toss need formations to get set up and even more so in 200pts. Magus if using 2 technos would help but do you realy need 3 MLers? IF you play a soulstealer you could play 1 techno and a lvl of bessa since she is push friendly. If you use GRs then you should toss DZs in most cases. Just some ideas.