Good morning gamers,
We're back to reviewing profiles for Star Wars Legion - and with the updated cards dropped on the AMG website, we can be pretty confident that the unit we're looking at today, Clone Commandos, won't see massive changes in this new edition of the game. When Clone Commandos first dropped into the competitive scene, they were SUPER strong. Even after a drastic price hike that brought other Republic Support options into the discussion (most notably AT-RTs), Commandos are still a powerful force on the table, whether you run one squad, two squads, or three squads.
Clone Commandos: The Profile
Clone Commandos have a pretty normal Republic profile at first glance - 1 wound each, Courage 2, no-surge conversion on offense or defense, and speed 2. Like ARCs, they have limited numbers (4 models, no extras) but each guy has 2 attack dice (2 black in melee, 1 black/1 white at range 1-2 with suppressive). However, between their specialized gear (which will consume both their Gear and Armament slots every time because they are required/free) and their special rules, these guys might be pricier than ARCs, but I think they're always worth taking.
They have a wealth of special rules that help them out on defense - they have Equip: Katarn Pattern Armor, which forces them to take the Katarn Pattern Armor at no extra cost to reduce the results of a defense result to only suffering 1 wound instead of what they would have gotten. This upgrade is an Expend piece, so you only get a do-over once (so best if you have other ways of funnelling off damage). They also have Shielded 1 and Recharge 1, so they will start with a shield token to absorb a hit/crit result from a shooting attack and can reactivate it by performing a Recover action (which they are likely to do every turn). While not explicitly a defensive keyword, Infiltrate allows them to deploy as a free action anywhere within your deployment zone, which means they can appear behind fat rocks or a barricade to give them cover and hopefully manage their incoming fire.
On offense, they have Target 1 - and if these guys are getting orders every turn, having an aim token that can be shared with other Clones or used to improve their impressive dice pools is pretty sweet. They also have their free config, which isn't a special rule, but does give them a range 3-4 1 red die attack pool that has High Velocity when everyone is using it and Lethal 1 if at least one guy is using it (so you can use that aim token from Target 1 to add Pierce 1 to your attack results instead of rerolling failed dice). Alternatively, you can flip the card over at the start of your activation to have a 2 black range 1-2 gun that has Impact 1 for each gun using it and Scatter. The Impact doesn't usually matter against units that can be Scattered, but having the flexibility of tackling armored targets with up to Impact 4 or moving multi-model trooper squads out of cover/into charge range of a friendly unit can be pretty helpful.
