Good morning gamers,
We're just about through this series of posts looking at optimal Rebel list building and today we're grouping together two ranks: Support and Heavy. The units we're looking at today include some of the most resilient options Rebels have . . . which is to say, some pretty mediocre defense ratings. :) Jesting aside, the options we have here aren't going to be the high-health, high-Armor, good-save Heavy options you might find in Republic, Separatist, or even Empire builds, but they will be pretty cheap (for the most part), pretty durable, and many of them can pack a punch on offense. Let's dig into a little methodology (which should be very familiar by now) before we get into the list . . .
Taxonomy Overview: What Is "Optimal" for Legion 2.6?
As has been mentioned so many times before, because the objective conditions (both primary and secondary) are so heavily skewed towards having more activations than your opponent in pre-defined (and often stationary) parts of the board, Legion 2.6 is about both taking enemy units off the board (whole units - not just rendering a unit inert by killing off most of its models) and keeping your own units on the board. This means there are two measures of effectiveness (MOEs) that we can use to determine if a unit is "good": average expected damage and average expected health (AEH).
Average Expected Damage (AED) is computed by finding the average number of hits and crits that a unit is supposed to get. The greatest dilemma for finding this number in the real world is that it is affected by a LOT of variables - here's a few:
- There is a subtle but mostly irrelevant distinction between a Hit result and a Crit result - Crits really only matter if the enemy unit has the Armor X keyword, has dodge tokens, and to a small degree, has light/heavy cover (often if they also have Low Profile);
- The Pierce X keyword doesn't increase the damage that you do, but it DOES make the damage that you get more likely to actually take effect;
- The number of hits/crits that you get is all fine and good, but the quality of the target unit's save (and defensive keywords, dodge tokens, and visible models) can have a huge impact on how much damage you can actually do;
- The number of wounds previously suffered might reduce the expected damage of the unit (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has 1 wound) or it might have a slight impact once a certain amount of damage is done (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has multiple wounds), or might have no impact at all (in the case of single-model units); and
- The distance to the enemy target may affect whether or not a unit can aim before shooting - and the value of an aim token is highly dependent on which dice in your dice pool hit or missed in the first volley).
- Units will be evaluated at full strength, without respect to the degradation of their damage over time;
- The average expected damage of a unit will be a straight average of their expected damage at ranges 1-4, with a unit being able to substitute out its range 1 score for its melee score;
- The score for the unit as a whole will be the score of a reasonable loadout for the unit - we will not be meta-gaming upgrades to score well in the system, but will look instead at what upgrades would reasonably assist a unit with the role it's trying to fill (or the rules it wants to proc);
- Units are assumed to not take aim actions before they shoot unless that unit has a unique way to gain an aim token without spending an action; and
- The score for the unit will be the average expected hits for every 10 points spent on the unit (so units that are cheaper but do the same/more damage than a more expensive unit come out ahead).
Like the Commanders we viewed last time, the Special Forces options for Rebels tend to have one or more of these factors baked into their profiles, so there will be definite caveats for what was not factored into the analysis. Once again, I have attempted to be generous, but some of these boosts are highly situational and require understanding the target you are attacking or the rules of the unit attacking you in order to properly value them.
Average Expected Health (AEH) is much easier to conceptualize, but there are gray areas on the margins. Obviously, the total wounds of the unit will be "health" - and something will be added based on how good the save of the unit is - but do you account for rules like Low Profile making one cover save work? Do you assume cover at all? What if your opponent has Sharpshooter? What about rules like Impervious (do we assume the attack has Pierce)? If a unit can't be killed in a single volley, do you count its saves, dodges, Armor, Danger Sense, etc. more than once?
Like the damage calculus, there are a lot of variables that can affect this number - so our methodology will assume the safest case:
- This number will start with the initial total health (wound threshold) of the unit, including additional health provided by upgrades to the unit (specifically Personnel and Heavy Weapons);
- Additional health will be added to the unit based on the probability of saving wounds with defense dice (e.g. a 4-mini Rebel Trooper squad that has a surging-white save will add 4/3 wounds to its health total), to include a 1/6 chance of saving wounds with Cover 1 for the units that have it in this assessment; and
- Special rules and tokens that can prevent wounds (e.g. dodge tokens, Armor X, Danger Sense X) will apply additional wounds based on the number of hits that are likely to be blocked.
The last methodological thing we need to talk about is how we compare these two MOEs. Some players might want to make an aggro-heavy list that relies on blowing chunks into the enemy quickly and so would rate the AED score higher than the AEH score. Others might think, "You know, my likelihood of actually killing off enemy units is quite low, so I'd rather have my units last longer than be able to do damage", in which case, the AEH is the more valuable metric. For us today, I'm going to assume that they are equal and each contributes half of its rating to the overall score.
For the fourth time now (and the penultimate time for Rebels), let's dig into the Support and Heavy choices!
Optimal Support and Heavy Unit Ranking
I could have separated Support and Heavy units, but since the Rebel lists for both are not that interesting, I figured it'd be good to collapse them into a single post. Additionally, there isn't a big gap between Heavy and Support units (the Heavy options weren't all at the top and the Supports at the bottom or vice versa), so seeing them as a mix was helpful and insightful. Often times these guys are both vying for your points (as they're some of the most survivable unit options available to Rebel players), but please keep in mind you can often bring a mix of all of these things in your list.
To start us off, let's view the exception to this rule . . .
Honorable Mention: Chewbacca - 180pts, Score: 0.690
I am putting Chewie in his AT-ST on a "special list" because he's the only Heavy or Support option (at the moment) for the Bright Tree Village Battle Force. Chewie also happens to be the most expensive option by 55 points, which REALLY hurts his overall score and brings him up in last place (so . . . either Chewie would be an honorable mention or last - either way, we're talking about him first).
Chewie gets some incredible offensive scores with an expected 5.156 hits/attack across all four ranges, but with his great expense, this becomes an 0.286 expected hits/10pts spent (34.91 pts/hit). For reference, this is worse than the Commando Strike Team (who brought up the rear of the Special Forces list), better than most of the Commander options (not Cassian and Leia), and worse than every Corps option you can choose except Ewok Skirmishers (who only get to score in a single range band category). Chewie's raw attack strength is good, but his cost really punishes him.
Defensively, Chewie has Armor 5, 11 Wounds with a surging white save, and Incognito (which we have not factored in here). By all rights, this guy should do well - but in our metric, his overall cost results in a pretty standard Rebel score of 1.09 expected wounds/10pts. I must reiterate that Chewie is good and can blow you away with his overall damage capability, but since this evaluation is taking a relative view of how good someone is compared to the price you're paying, Chewie is just barely the worst option Rebels have in the Heavy or Support category.
For context, you can buy 3 AT-RTs for the cost of Chewie - and that's going to give you more health, more dice at all ranges, you still have surge for crit (Chewie does too - I didn't mention that above), and you have Impact 9 across their three attacks. Chewie isn't as good as an AT-RT - that's just a fact. While the choice between Chewie and AT-RTs in list building is a moot decision (you can't take both in a list), if you show up with Chewie and you see 3 AT-RTs on the other side, you'd better get the drop on them with Incognito, because if they get the drop on you, they're WAY more efficient than you are.
While I'm going to say that Chewie is the worst overall choice for Rebel Heavy/Support options, he's still getting an overall score of 0.690, which is a) better than all of the Commander options, b) better than some Heavy options we'll look at today (just not their most optimal choice), and c) better than about half of the Special Forces options. He was also just barely in last place because he couldn't quite bump . . .
Pick #7: T-47 Airspeeder with Harpoon - 125pts, Score: 0.693
I will begin by saying that I have done two things here: first, I have taken the free Harpoon instead of the Ground Buzzer because it scored better in this matrix (in fact, the Ground Buzzer is one of those Heavy options that got beat by Chewie). Second, I've avoided needless upgrades that you might very well want on an Airspeeder - most notably a free pivot from Wedge and an HQ Uplink to make sure you have an order when you want it.
To me, all of this is frills - the main weapon you're investing in with the T-47 Airspeeder is its main gun, not the Ground Buzzer. Upgrades are all nice and good, but this is an expensive unit with mediocre Armor protection to start with, so making it more expensive doesn't seem worth it to me. As such, I am evaluating the only Airspeeder option that seems to be a competitively viable build: bare-bones Airspeeder with the free Tow Cable Harpoon.
I'm happy to admit that my methodology makes assumptions about the game that will differ from actual gameplay - and this is particularly true in that the Harpoon won't do impressive damage to whoever is in your rear arc. However, let's look at the Harpoon anyway before we look at the overall chart. The Harpoon adds 1 red die at range 1-2 instead of 4 black dice at range 1-2. Yes, you can make the target pivot - whatever - but the primary point is that for no additional cost, you're adding almost a full damage to your overall offensive output in two range categories. By contrast, you're getting 2.5 hits for +10pts with the other, which actually IS a better deal, until you factor in the cost of the Airspeeder as a whole and the way it messes with the defensive score. As a result, when you look at the chart below, you can see the overall damage differences between the two hardpoint options:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
T-47 Airspeeder (Harpoon) | 125 | 3.813 | 32.79 | 0.305 | 1.08 | 0.693 |
T-47 Airspeeder (Ground Buzzer) | 135 | 4.625 | 29.19 | 0.343 | 1.00 | 0.671 |
T-47 Airspeeder (Wedge, Ground Buzzer, HQ Uplink) | 150 | 4.625 | 32.43 | 0.308 | 0.90 | 0.604 |
I will admit that the scores for just the hardpoints are pretty close - so if you like the Ground Buzzer more and you have 10pts to spend, buy it (why not). However, the expected damage is just barely 1 hit/attack higher (and only comes in ~3.5pts/hit cheaper than the harpoon build), so I don't think there's a case for it being definitively better. If you have a way to get aim tokens, I will admit that rolling more dice is better than rolling fewer dice - but there's plenty of black dice that might come up blank in your main weapon pool, so you'd have to have a pretty good day with your main gun before you'd be using an aim token to help with your secondary attack.
The Harpoon ended up getting an average of 3.813 hits/attack with an average of 0.305 expected hits/10pts spent (32.79 pts/hit). This is basically where Chewie landed, but you're 55pts cheaper. What tipped the scales for the Harpoon build over the Ground Buzzer was its fairly-standard-for-Rebels defensive score of 1.08 expected wounds/10pts. This does throw into sharp relief an important point about Rebel list building: if you're thinking about taking an Airspeeder, make sure you've maxed out your Corps first (because they're all getting the same/better offensive and defensive scores as you are). These guys are fast and better at dealing with Armor than most Corps units are, but those guys are punchy and cheap, so make sure you're taking plenty of both.
Pick #6: X-34 Landspeeder with RPS-6, A-300, Mark II Medium Blaster - 98pts, Score: 0.767
This is actually my favorite of the Rebel Heavy options - it can roll a lot of dice (potentially twice in one turn if you go for the Unstable Astromech upgrade) and can do it for under/around 100 points! As you'll see in the chart below, I considered a ton of different builds, but suffice it to say that there were two requirements I had on all of them: there would always be an RPS-6 crew choice and there would always be one Hardpoint upgrade.
Both of these are expensive upgrades (20+ pts each), but if you punt on either of these, this thing isn't throwing anywhere near the dice it needs to in order to justify its inclusion in a list. For those curious, I did include one build that only had the A-300 on it as a cheap Heavy option . . . it absolutely BOMBED the attack rating and absolutely NAILED the defense rating and ended up with the second-highest score of the day . . . but I don't really consider it to be a real option.
What I ended up evaluating was the cheaper Hardpoint upgrade (the Mark II Medium Blaster) with the RPS-6 (the highest damage crew option) and A-300 (because it adds 2 white dice at one additional range band). This comes in at only 98pts and gets a very impressive 4.031 expected hits/attack across all four range bands. This translates into a pretty good 0.411 expected hits/10pts (24.31 pts/hit), which is about what you expect from most Rebel Corps and right about the middle of what you get from Rebel Special Forces options.
One other build that I will highlight from the table below is an "alpha strike" option you can do with the Unstable Astromech instead of the A-300 and the M-45 Ion Cannon instead of the Mark II Medium Blaster. This costs 12pts more (110pts total), but it allows you to shoot twice on the first turn with two range 4 options and one range 2 option - so you can either Speeder-1 onto the board, then perform a speed-2 move, then attack twice by tapping the Astromech with 1 red/3 black/5 white at range 2 of anything that moved into the enemy deployment zone OR you can Speeder-1 onto the board, aim, and attack twice with just the range 4 weapons, which gives you 1 red/3 black/3 white. Oh, and either option will have Impact 3, Critical 1, and Ion 1 . . . all every helpful keywords if you're targeting something big and bulky (but also droids). The damage profile when you factor in the second shot makes this thing score better than any previously-viewed Rebel unit (14.55 pts/hit), but with just a single shot evaluated, this particular loadout is paying 29.09 pts/hit, which is still not bad, but also not as good as the Mark II/A-300 build (or any of the other Landspeeder options).
On defense, our Mark II/A-300/RPS-6 build has 1.12 expected wounds/10pts spent when factoring in Armor 2, Cover 1, and the surging white save to boost your 6 wounds. This is, as I've said before many times, about what you expect from Rebel units, so "it's fine" but not stupendous. While it didn't score very well, you can lean into the defensive side of the X-34 Landspeeder upgrades with the Outer Rim Speeder Jockey, Refurbished Gonk Droid, RPS-6, and Mark II to get a final score of 0.659 (0.288 expected hits/10pts, 1.04 expected wounds/10pts), but this doesn't break our baseline and actually results in a defensive reduction due to the greatly increased cost of the unit. The table below shows four of the configurations I ran for this guy (the Ion Blaster entry has two numbers - one for its single-shot values and one for its double-shot turn, which factors in the 1.5 expected damage it takes from the Unstable Astromech):
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
X-34 Landspeeder (RPS-6, A-300, Mark II Medium Blaster) | 98 | 4.031 | 24.31 | 0.411 | 1.12 | 0.767 |
X-34 Landspeeder (RPS-6, Unstable Astromech, M-45 Ion Blaster) | 110 | 3.781 (7.563) | 29.09 (14.55) | 0.344 (0.688) | 1.00 (0.86) | 0.672 (0.776) |
X-34 Landspeeder (Speeder Jockey, Gonk Droid, RPS-6, Mark II Medium Blaster) | 134 | 3.656 | 36.65 | 0.273 | 1.04 | 0.659 |
X-34 Landspeeder (A-300) | 56 | 1.125 | 49.78 | 0.201 | 1.96 | 1.083 |
Despite having a configuration that scored incredibly well (for the same reason Ewok Skirmishers scored incredibly well for Corps), my beloved Landspeeder ends up at #6 in the countdown (though the #2 Heavy option for today) and falls just behind our first Support choice for the day . . .
Pick #5: Tauntauns - 95pts, Score: 0.772
Okay, Centaur has probably stopped reading - I promise I'm not just hating on EBD! I've faced Tauntauns a lot (Centaur is a big EBD player - and he loves these guys a bunch), and like the T-47 Airpseeder, these guys are expensive. Like, they're really expensive. Sure, they come with 8 wounds and the Rebel-standard surging-White save, but they also cost about the same as Wookiees, which Rebels can get with 12 Wounds and non-surging-White saves. I'm just saying from a resiliency standpoint, these guys are expensive and there might be better options for those points (Wookiees did quite well in this math model - see my post from last time for more on that). Like Wookiees, you're limited in the number of models you can have in the unit, so even though they're rolling 2-3 dice each, your overall damage is a bit limited with these guys (especially for their cost).
On offense, Tauntauns get a very reasonable 2 hits/attack average (not bad considering they're not playing in two of the four categories being averaged), with 0.211 expected hits/10pts spent (47.50 pts/hit). This is worse than the Airspeeder and Chewie, but for comparison, you can get almost three Tauntaun squads for the cost of two Airspeeders (or two Tauntaun squads for the cost of Chewie - again, this is a match-up question, not a which-do-you-take question) and if you do that, the expected 4-6 hits that they're supposed to shell out each turn is actually pretty reasonable and comparable to both. Where these guys surge ahead is on the defensive aspect - 1.33 expected wounds/10pts spent is worse than Ewoks, on par/better than non-Ewok Rebel Corps options, on par/slightly worse than non-Ewok Rebel Special Forces options, and (once again) better than the Commander options. These guys have beef on them - and if run in conjunction with Wookiees, you can present your opponent with quite a bit of meat to have to chew through. Here's the list of four configurations I evaluated today - they all live in about the same neighborhood and all were better than the Airspeeder overall:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
Tauntauns | 95 | 2.000 | 47.50 | 0.211 | 1.33 | 0.772 |
Tauntauns (Up Close and Personal) | 103 | 2.000 | 51.50 | 0.194 | 1.33 | 0.761 |
Tauntauns (Tenacity) | 101 | 2.219 | 45.52 | 0.220 | 1.25 | 0.737 |
Tauntauns (HQ Uplink) | 105 | 2.000 | 52.50 | 0.191 | 1.21 | 0.698 |
The first thing I'll say is that if you use any of these upgrades, the overall difference between them is just 0.074, so take whatever you want. The overall score of "just Tauntauns" is mostly driven by its expected health-for-cost, which doesn't change when you tack on Up Close and Personal (though its offensive score dips a little because of the additional 8pts you pay). Tenacity reciprocally increases the offensive score a tad, but dips in the defensive category because (again) you're paying more points and not getting anything on defense. The HQ Uplink is quite useful on 'tauns, but adds cost without any benefit to the offensive or defensive scores. Tauntauns ended up just right about the middle today with a very decent score of 0.772, just behind their EBD counterpart . . .
Pick #4: 1.4 FD Laser Cannon with Barrage Generator and HQ Uplink - 78pts, Score: 0.825
Ok, NOW Centaur has stopped reading - I mean, come on, the FD Laser Cannon is behind the Swoop Bikes? Really!?!?!?! Yes, yes it is. I will forego a detailed observation that these things can only score positive VPs in 2-3 Standard scenarios and 1 Skirmish scenario, but will simply settle on a simple fact: this is a very expensive unit that offers great firepower, but not for its price. I like the idea of them and I'm glad they had their time in the sun in the previous edition (and might still have some time in the sun in EBD today). Let's break down what made these guys come in above the previous competition.
First off, let's talk about upgrades. I've taken the HQ Uplink on it because you're going to be recovering to get your generator upgrade back anyway, so we might as well get an order every turn. This is technically not necessary if you have a Rebel Veteran squad assigned to Coordinate with these guys, but I find that getting orders to Vets is quite hard unless you've invested in a Comms Technician and an HQ Uplink on the Vet squad itself. While the FD Laser Cannon team is prohibited from moving (besides pivoting) and so doesn't mind doing the "turretting" thing (recover-shoot or shoot-recover - either way you like it), Rebel Vets will usually need to perform at least a few moves and NOT taking the Comms Tech/HQU on the Rebel Vets frees them up to move beyond range 1 of the Laser Cannon. Honestly, it just seems more points efficient to put the HQU on the Laser Cannon now that Rebel Vets don't have Defend 1 (which made them really want orders).
I've also taken the Barrage Generator, though I think in practice the difference between this option and the Overcharged Generator is so incredibly minimal that your meta will determine which is the "better" choice (armor vs. not-armor). Frankly, you're rolling enough dice and you've got surge to hit that unless you're shooting at an Armor 5 unit with built-in cover, I'm not sure that either one is going to make much of a difference, but getting suppression on Trooper units is good and not well reflected in this math model, so I've opted or the one that both does suppression and has a marginally higher damage output.
The FD Laser Cannon team has 5 black dice at range 1-5 with surge to hit and an extra 2 white dice from the Barrage Generator, giving it an expected 3.875 hits/attack for a very impressive 0.497 expected hits/10pts spent (20.13 pts/hit). For perspective, this is slightly better than the Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper (best score from Corps), slightly behind Bistan/Pao Pathfinders (best score from Special Forces - including Sleeper Cell), and higher than all Commanders as well as everything else we're viewing today. Defensively, these guys are fine with 6 wounds and surging-white saves, leading to 1.15 expected wounds/10pts spent - pretty normal for Rebels.
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
FD Laser Cannon Team (Barrage Generator, HQ Uplink) | 78 | 3.875 | 20.13 | 0.497 | 1.15 | 0.825 |
FD Laser Cannon Team (Overcharged Generator, HQ Uplink) | 78 | 3.750 | 20.80 | 0.343 | 1.15 | 0.817 |
FD Laser Cannon Team (Barrage Generator) | 68 | 3.875 | 17.55 | 0.570 | 1.32 | 0.947 |
FD Laser Cannon Team (Overcharged Generator) | 68 | 3.750 | 18.13 | 0.552 | 1.32 | 0.938 |
The last note I'll make on this unit is that if you DON'T buy the HQ Uplink (which adds 10pts without boosting your offensive/defensive capabilities), your overall score jumps up to a 0.947 with the Barrage Generator or 0.938 with the Overcharged Generator, so if you don't want a free order token each turn, you can pass on this upgrade and you'd be sitting comfortably in slot #3 over . . .
Pick #3: Swoop Bikes - 70pts, Score: 0.850
Yes, Swoop Bikes snagged a third-place finish, mostly because they're the cheapest option we've seen so far (well, they would be more expensive and finished just behind an FD Laser Cannon without the HQ Uplink). If there's anything I've learned in this evaluation, it's that when it comes to Support and Heavy options, cost reduction matters a LOT. Small changes in points (5-10 points here or there) can really change how well your overall damage/health for cost values fluctuate and in a world where defense and offense are rated the same, that can change your placement pretty heavily. This isn't anything new - and in a world where you "only have 1000 points" to play with, saving points here and there to up your efficiency is a big deal. It's a really big deal. And now, we have a 70-point, multi-model unit that can shoot pretty decently and perform a free Overrun attack (which is not actually an attack) AND shoot with their pistol each turn. Like Tauntauns, these guys only contribute damage at range 1-2, but what isn't captured here is how easily you can get to range 1-2 with a free compulsory speed-3 move from Speeder 1 and a standard move after that. The Reinforcements keyword doesn't allow them to deploy after everyone else, but it does give them a free speed-1 move during the End Phase of Turn 1, which means if they didn't get their Overrun attack before then, they can trigger it at the end of Turn 1.
Thanks to getting credit for both their pistol attack (2 red/2 black - not a bad pool, but nothing to write home about either) and their overrun attack (1 red/2 white - and no, that doesn't double for having 2 minis in the unit), they end up with a pretty sad offensive output of 1.906 hits/attack, but their low cost translates that meager attack value into 0.272 expected hits/10pts spent (36.72 pts/hit). This is on the low end of average for Rebels (who tend to be in the low 20s in the points/hit category), but not terrible by any means - and much better than Tauntauns, who are their primary competitors for fast-attack Support options. Unlike 'tauns, they're not as healthy and only have Independent: Dodge 1 as a defensive keyword to help them out (they have Cover 1 as well, which was factored in here, but also doesn't add much). Still, their reduced price saw them get a very impressive 1.43 expected wounds/10pts spent, which is the best defensive score we've seen so far (don't worry, it won't last).
These guys are either better or worse than FD Laser Cannons depending on your view of HQ Uplinks, but are also able to be scoring units in any scenario (if you can keep them alive). There are trades that haven't been fully fleshed out here as well, but both Swoop Bikes and FD Laser Cannons came in behind our final Heavy option, which is of course . . .
Wait, the Heavy Laser Retrofit instead of the Quad Laser? Really? Yes, I was surprised as well. Let's be honest up front - you get a better offensive score from the Quad Laser (due to having double the dice and almost the same range in exchange for Critical 1), but as we've seen in every Rebel rank so far (particularly with Ewok units), dropping your points cost to get a better defensive score and a higher overall score is usually worth doing - and the overall offensive difference between a Quad Laser and Medic (0.232 expected hits/10pts spent) and the Heavy Laser with Medic (0.183 expected hits/10pts, 47.38 pts/hit) is just not that great. By contrast, the difference in defensive scores between the Quad Laser/Medic combo (1.84 expected wounds/10pts) and the Heavy Laser/Medic combo (2.03 wounds/10pts) is just that little bit higher, which gave a final score of 0.971 for the HLR over the 0.924 from the Quad Laser. I will note in passing that the FD Laser Cannon with just the Barrage Generator got a slightly better score than the Quad Laser/Medic build for the A-A5 - so there, Laser Cannon fans, you could have been second place.
I've opted for including the Medic in both evaluations - if you just take one of the Hardpoints, you'd actually get a score of 1.123 or 1.054 depending on whether you were trying to save money with the HLR or get bigger dice pools with the Quad. However, I don't think there's a world where you'd take this thing and NOT take either a Medic or a Tactician to fill a support role for the rest of your army. Yes, these things are hard to kill - and yes, they can get decent weapons - but getting healing every turn or aim tokens every turn is going to do wonders for more points efficient killers in your list - namely any Corps or Special Forces option (except Commando Strike Teams - golly those guys need help). The Tactician is just 4pts more than a medic, so if you prefer that build, then take that upgrade instead (the overall position of this guy doesn't really change). Here's the breakdown by upgrade - including a few upgrade-heavy options:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
A-A5 Speeder Truck (Backworld Medic, Heavy Laser Retrofit) | 89 | 1.625 | 54.77 | 0.183 | 1.76 | 0.971 |
A-A5 Speeder Truck (Backworld Medic, AG-2G Quad Laser) | 97 | 2.250 | 43.11 | 0.232 | 1.62 | 0.924 |
A-A5 Speeder Truck (Backworld Medic, Refurbished "Gonk" Droid, Outer Rim Speeder Jockey, AG-2G Quad Laser) | 127 | 2.250 | 60.89 | 0.164 | 1.39 | 0.776 |
I will note that the most expensive build not only comes in 2pts more expensive than the cheapest T-47 Airspeeder option, but it also scored slightly higher in its final utility score (its health stat is quite a bit better than the marginally better offensive score of the Airspeeder) . . . there's a data point for you. To reiterate this one more time, if you passed on buying the Medic/Tactician/anything-
Pick #1: Rebel AT-RT with Laser Cannon - 60pts, Score: 1.021
I love these things - they're so very efficient and I was always a big fan of them, even in the old edition of the game. These things had full armor back then, sure, but it was their access to reliable damage at range 4 that I liked the most. While their ability to block line of sight to friendly units behind them is certainly good, we're going to only rate them on their offensive and defensive efficiency. While you can get away with not taking a Hardpoint on the Republic version, I think the Rebel version really needs one, as 2 white dice at range 1-3 that admittedly surge for crit is not very reliable. I will say that I did evaluate a hardpoint-less AT-RT and it actually got a higher score than the Laser Cannon build did, but like the A-300-only X-34 Landspeeder or the Medic-less A-A5, I just don't see it having a good place in a Rebel list, despite getting the slightly higher score.
The Laser Cannon AT-RT has a reliable but not very impressive 2.125 hits/attack at range 2-4 with its Laser Cannon and 2.625 hits/attack in melee (with Impact 1 instead of Impact 3). This translates into 0.375 expected hits/10pts spent (26.67 pts/hit), which is a little higher than where you can expect Rebel Corps/Special Forces to be. For 60pts, however, these guys are cheaper than most Corps options with Heavy Weapons and cheaper than most Special Forces builds (Rebel Commandos, Ewok Slingers, and technically Rebel Pathfinders can be fielded at or below 60pts). This is decent damage coming off of such a cheap unit - and very few options across Corps, Special Forces, Support, or Heavy can deal as much expected damage as these guys do at range 4 (RPS-6/M-45 Ion builds for Landspeeders, AT-ST Chewie, FD Laser Cannons with either Generator option, Bistan/Pao-led Rebel Pathfinders, one-time jetpack rockets from Mandalorian Resistance, and Daimyo Boba Fett if he brings his rocket attack Command Card are the only ones that beat these guys - and all of them are more expensive than a single AT-RT, most are more expensive than two Laser Cannon AT-RTs).
On defense, these guys are well above the Rebel average with a very impressive 1.67 expected wounds/10pts spent, thanks to having 6 wounds, a surging white save, and Armor 2. This kind of defensive score is tied with the Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper (second best score for Corps), better than the Wookie Warriors from Special Forces (second best score for Special Forces), and is well above what we saw from the Commanders list. It's about as high as the A-A5 builds we saw above and higher than all of the other Rebel Support/Heavy options, so that's pretty good too. We've had units in the past who have scored well by leaning into one side of the game (offense or defense) and not the other, but the AT-RT leans pretty well into both sides (fine-to-good damage, good defense).
The Flamethrower build required an assumption for its Range 1/Melee score - since the Flamethrower has Spray, the number of minis in the unit it attacks makes the final score incredibly important. I settled on evaluating its attack against 4 models, but for what it's worth, in order to compete with the AT-RT in pts/hit (and still not beat it), it would need to score more than 8 hits . . . which requires more than 6 minis in the target unit. While there are super-sized Corps squads now, the likelihood of attacking 4-6 minis is far more likely to be the case than attacking a unit with 7+ minis in it. With an assumption of 4 minis in the target, it still beat out the AT-RT with Rotary Blaster, which has the highest expected damage rating across all four range bands, but because it costs more it ends up with a worse overall pts/hit and AED score. On health, it is similarly handicapped, gaining nothing for the 10pts more that it spends on its weapon.
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | Hits/Attack | Pts/Hit | AED | AEH | Utility Score |
AT-RT (Laser Cannon) | 60 | 2.25 | 26.67 | 0.375 | 1.67 | 1.021 |
AT-RT (Flamethrower) | 65 | 1.625 | 40.00 | 0.250 | 1.54 | 0.894 |
AT-RT (Rotary Blaster) | 70 | 2.344 | 29.87 | 0.335 | 1.43 | 0.882 |
AT-RT | 50 | 1.031 | 48.48 | 0.206 | 2.00 | 1.103 |
There are a few things to note about the table above: first, the defensive scores here, like the A-A5 Speeder Truck, are at least a little higher than the Rebel average (and a Hardpoint-less AT-RT has Ewok-levels of defensive scores). This means that if your opponent targets your AT-RT . . . you're kind of fine with it, as it's got more longevity than your other units. Yes, I've had instances where these things nearly evaporate to a Vader, Dooku, or AT-ST, but I've never yet had one one-shot by a Vader, Dooku, or AT-ST . . . and if those units have to take two attack actions (or work in tandem with another unit to weaken them first) in order to clear a 60-70pt unit, I think you're doing alright. The reliable damage you're expected to get from the Laser Cannon makes it dangerous enough (especially against armor units) that you have to attack it, but once you do, it's not really worth the squeeze unless you've got a lot of units that can lay down fire at once (like my son has with a triple AT-ST Tempest list).
Second, while the Laser Cannon got the highest score out of all the Hardpoint options, none of these scores are bad - a 0.882 or 0.894 is higher than the next-highest ranked Support unit in this post, higher than the second-highest ranked Heavy unit in this post, higher than all of the Commanders, and higher than most of the Special Forces options. Their final rankings aren't as good as most of the Rebel Corps options, but it's also going to last longer than all of those options, so there's that. All in all, there's probably an argument for saying that it doesn't matter which of the Hardpoints you take from this model's perspective, but I do feel like my AT-RTs in practice both survive longer and kill more when they're attacking at range 4 instead of having to get to range 3 or even range 1 to be truly effective. If you're a flamer fan, take the flamer. If you're a repeater fan, take the repeater. If you want to mix it up, mix it up. You do you - but Imma takin' Las-Cannons. :)
Conclusion
This was quite the spread of units today - but I'm curious if any of this surprised you! Personally, I'm looking at trying out 2 A-300 Landspeeders and 3 naked AT-RTs just to see if they're "better" than the more loaded versions I've been running (it'll only save me almost 150pts, but that might make a big difference, I don't know). You never know what you're going to find when you crunch numbers like this, so hopefully you found something useful in it. Next time, we're wrapping up the last rank for Rebels and it's the Operative rank. Who's gonna be at the top and who's just not worth the points? Find out next time and until then, happy hobbying!
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