Star Wars Legion Unit Review: The Bad Batch, Part I

Good morning gamers,

They're big (Wrecker in particular), they're bad (it's in the name), and they're by far and away the most potent Republic Operative choice (which is really not saying much) - oh yes, it's a review of the Bad Batch today! This band of misfits can do some extraordinary damage on the tabletop, and while they don't have any slots for gear or training upgrades, having them in your list MIGHT mean that certain other units you bring will be taking certain upgrades. Let's see what makes these guys awesome and what you should consider bringing in order to make them better!

Republic Bad Batch: The Profile

The Bad Batch for the Republic is a five-man unit that needs to equip 5 Heavy Weapon "upgrades" (Hunter, Echo, Tech, Crosshair, and Wrecker). With 2 wounds/mini (3 wounds on Wrecker), this squads has a very impressive 11 wounds and Courage 3, which is very, VERY difficult to both suppress and punch through. With the Republic trooper standard of non-surging red saves and speed 2, these guys will fit in with just about every other Republic infantry option.

They have some unit special rules that can be summarized as ARC-Trooper-like: Scale, Sharpshooter 1, and Impervious are standard issue on ARCs, which gives these guys reliability when moving over difficult terrain/scaling walls and reducing enemy cover when they shoot into cover. Impervious gives them something against Pierce, though Impervious itself is more of a "nice when it works" kind of proposition.

They also have Steady, which is different and more flexible than the Charge that you find on ARCs (which gives ARCs a free attack action when they end a move in melee, instead of a free attack action when they end a move NOT in melee for the Bad Batch). With 1 red each in melee and 1 black/1 white at range, these guys don't look far off from their 160pt price tag, but there are more special rules to this unit . . .

Two of the units in the Bad Batch don't really add special rules to it - Hunter has the Leader keyword (last man standing) and can do a wound to a non-Commander/Operative Trooper unit at range 1 half the time as a free action. Wrecker has an extra wound (as already mentioned) and has a "rainbow roll" of 1 red/1 black/1 white at melee and at range 1-2, so his damage output is a bit higher than that of his comrades. Beyond this, they're not adding anything to the team (just a little extra on the side).

Tech gives the team Tactical 1 and a cached aim token and dodge token. The aim tokens are really nice because you're throwing 1 white die per mini in the unit unless you're in melee (which you don't usually want to be) - and aim tokens when you're throwing white dice are really, really nice. While I wouldn't be careless with your cached aim token, it's important to note that if you start taking damage, you're going to need to take someone eventually - and so Tech needs to make sure that cached aim token is spent before he needs to be taken as a casualty. I'd spend the cached dodge token at your first opportunity.

Before taking Tech as a casualty, though, I'd take Crosshair. He gives the unit Precise 1, which helps Tech's aim tokens stretch a bit farther than normal. He's also got a rifle that can shoot 1 red die at range 1-5 instead of the two-dice pistol at range 1-2 and the shot picks up High Velocity, Pierce 1, and Critical 1 - which basically means it'll hit and wound whatever you shoot at. The High Velocity and Pierce 1 make it particularly good at clipping wounds off dodge-spam units or Clone Commandos that have not reset their shield token yet. Without Tech, though, the Precise 1 probably isn't being triggered and if you opt for a higher damage ceiling with his pistol, he's really not giving you anything that you couldn't get more from than with Tech. As a result, I'd take Crosshair as a casualty after Wrecker, but before everyone else.

Our last guy is Echo, my favorite of the Bad Batch. In-game, he gives the squad Reliable 3 - and while this seemed to me to be a pretty mediocre upgrade, there are few rounds in a game where I'm not spending most of if not all of those surge tokens. White dice make you happy when you see paint - and to get that paint, you might need surge tokens. Rerolling a black die that's showing a surge token is a dicey proposition (see what I did there?) - but having surge tokens means you can for-certain turn that surge into a hit. On defense, having surge tokens around is really useful - you may not roll a single surge-for-block icon, but if you do (and especially if you roll a few), you're gonna want to have a surge token around to make it work!

With all of these up-sides, there is one downside to these guys: their "we're not regs" special rule prevents these guys from doing the Clone Trooper token sharing thing (other Clones can't use the Bad Batch's tokens, the Bad Batch can't use other Clone's tokens) and they cannot benefit from Backup (so no free knock-off-hits for them). These guys are good - and this is the price we pay for it.

Okay, so these guys are pretty tough and they roll a lot of dice and get a lot of rules to make them interesting - let's see what kinds of "upgrades" we should take on these guys . . .

Republic Bad Batch: Recommended "Upgrades" and Command Cards

Let's be clear: besides the five characters, you can't take any upgrades on this unit. However, sometimes the upgrades you take on OTHER units will help the Bad Batch tremendously. Let's take a look at a few of those below . . .

Recon Intel (Gear) on Rex

The Bad Batch doesn't have the Scout keyword, which means that they can benefit from Scouting Party from Rex. Rex begins with Scout 1, which means that the Bad Batch (and one other Clone Trooper that doesn't have Scout) can gain Scout 1 as well. However, if you pay 8pts for Rex to take Recon Intel, then Rex, the Bad Batch, and one other unit can gain Scout 2 - which on a unit with Steady means you can make three speed-2 moves (roughly 18" of movement, or half the board) and STILL make a shot afterwards (12" range, or all but the back 6" of your opponent's board). Oh, and since you performed three move actions, you'll have 3 aim tokens from Tech AND the cached aim token . . . each of which can reroll 3 dice, thanks to having Crosshair. If you take these guys with Rex (and especially if he's taken Recon Intel), you can have a VERY splashy first turn!

For that second unit that you might want to give Scout-2 to, you could certainly do something smashy like squad-leader-Ahsoka-led Clone Trooper Infantry, or you could do Clone Trooper infantry led by . . .

Fives (Squad Leader) on Clone Trooper Infantry

Fives doesn't do anything innately for Bad Batch - but he makes an excellent fly-by support unit because he has Coordinate: Clone Trooper. This means that for 40pts, so long as Fives's squad is getting an order, so is the Bad Batch. A Clone Trooper Infantry squad with Fives and a DP-23 is a bit expensive at 118pts, but guaranteed order control on the Bad Batch (another 160pt investment) is excellent.

Clone Medic (Squad Leader) on just about any Clone Trooper unit

Sometimes you just can't keep a good man down - and if that guy is Wrecker, a Medic really CAN keep him from staying down! Even if you've taken a hit on someone else (like Crosshair or Tech), the Treat special rule allows you to either remove wounds or "restore up to X miniatures to that unit." This means that if you have 2-3 Medics in your list you could restore Wrecker 2-3 times to the unit - that's pretty gnarly! Yes, this may compete with other units that you'd prefer to have restored (and it might compete with other Squad Leader upgrade options, like Ahsoka or Fives), but it's certainly good for the Bad Batch!

Defensive Stance (Training) and Force Barrier (Force) on Obi-Wan Kenobi

While fielding the Bad Batch with Kenobi is going to be expensive, there's no better way to ensure that your opponent won't be picking off members of the Bad Batch than to shuffle damage off of them with Kenobi's Guardian 3 ability. Force Barrier can help the Bad Batch (or any wingman they have) from taking extra flak and Defensive Stance can allow Kenobi to generate 2-4 dodge tokens each turn onto himself, which is excellent.

Force Guidance (Force) on Yoda

If you choose to go the Yoda route instead of the Kenobi route, Force Guidance (and actual Guidance) is a great way to get a little extra out of the Bad Batch. Having Force Guidance on hand won't make Echo obsolete, but can incentivize throwing more surge tokens into your offensive rolls, since you know you can recoup a little from Yoda (and maybe Padme or a Clone Commander).

As we move into Command Cards, there are several characters that can bring extra power to the Bad Batch. The Bad Batch themselves has We Do What We Do, which gives them a bunch of boosts - Speed-3 always because Hunter will always be alive, Reliable 4 instead of Reliable 3 if Echo is alive (and he should be the second-to-last one you take), Tactical 2 instead of Tactical 1 if Tech is alive, Precise 2 instead of Precise 1 if Crosshair is alive, and Suppressive to all of their attacks if Wrecker is alive (which means you could split-fire and have Crosshair shoot with his red die gun, Wrecker shoot with his "rainbow roll", and the other three shoot with their black/white pistols and generate three shots, each with suppressive). That's a lot of suppression coming out!

More generically, you could get an extra surge token or remove a suppression token from Attack of the Clones . . . I'd only run this if there are NO other 3-pip command cards from the other characters you have, and we're about to look at three command cards that are all more useful than this one. Still, if you're playing a Recon game with a Clone Commander and the Bad Batch, this is definitely an option (and a very interesting starting play, if you don't want to start with We Do What We Do).

If you run Obi-Wan Kenobi, you can FLOOD the Bad Batch with surge tokens by playing General Kenobi on the first turn and issuing an order to the Bad Batch and someone else who can share surge tokens. Since everyone begins at range 1 of each other before they're on the board, a 10-activation list will put 9 surge tokens on Kenobi and whoever else is issued orders by the command card . . . and starting with 12 surge tokens is a pretty daunting task for anyone to beat. To a lesser degree, the Bad Batch can benefit from Knowledge and Defense as well - not because they'll get any tokens, but because Kenobi can Guardian all day if he took Defensive Stance and starts with a few friends near him (including the Bad Batch).

If you run Yoda, Luminous Beings Are We is one of the few command cards that allows someone to share tokens with the Bad Batch (something that Clones do normally but the Bad Batch does not). Yoda can do incredible things for the Bad Batch (less so now that he can't Guidance them into performing free attack actions with Steady) and he'll be a welcome distraction for them so they can . . . well, do what they do.

Finally, all three of Rex's command cards are useful for the Bad Batch. If you split fire on a turn where you play Call Me Captain, Rex can add 3 red attack dice to Wrecker's attack pool for 4 red/1 black/1 white OR add 3 red attack dice to the non-Wrecker, non-Crosshair pool for 3 red/3 black/3 white - both are EXCELLENT attack pools that will really hurt the enemy. Crosshair still wants to shoot on his own (or throw in his black/white with the rest of his mates), but it's your choice based on how tough the target is where you want Rex's dice.

Take That, Clankers allows the Bad Batch to aim-move-shoot for their turn and shoot up to range 3 with their pistols, which is basically the same range potency as a move-move-shoot . . . but with an extra aim token (and these guys LOVE their aim tokens). Finally, while not REALLY helping the Bad Batch much, We're Not Programmed allows Rex to issue orders to 4 Clone Trooper Units - and one of them will be the Bad Batch. If you've got 10 activations and you're issuing orders to 4 of them (maybe 5 if you took Fives in your list), that's half of your order tokens out of the bag. Throw in some Clone Commandos with HQ Uplinks and you might have close to perfect order control on the first turn . . . that's useful.

Okay, let's apply all of this with some lists!

Republic Bad Batch: Sample List and Strategy

Our first list is a 10-activation Republic list that features Rex (with Recon Intel), the Bad Batch (obviously), an Ahsoka-Clone-Trooper-Infantry squad, a Fives-Clone-Trooper-Infantry squad (no DP-23, though), and triple Commandos with 2 Medics floating around:

• Clone Captain Rex with Recon Intel
• The Bad Batch
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Fives
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan, DP-23 Clone Trooper, and Prepared Supplies
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medics
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry
• 1x Clone Commandos, Delta Squad with Offensive Push, Katarn Pattern Armor, and Config
• 1x Clone Commandos with HQ Uplink, Katarn Pattern Armor, and Config
• 1x Clone Commandos with HQ Uplink, Smoke Grenades, Katarn Pattern Armor, and Config

A slightly different 10-activation Republic list leans into AT-RTs instead of Commandos and takes those points in order to swap out some of our Corps for Yoda and three Medics:

• Yoda with Burst of Speed, Force Guidance, and Force Barrier
• Clone Captain Rex with Recon Intel
• The Bad Batch
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan, DP-23 Clone Trooper, and Prepared Supplies
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medics
• 1x ARC Troopers with Clone Medic and Emergency Stims
• 3x AT-RTs

This list allows Yoda to Guidance the ARC Troopers, which should help them stay alive. Getting order control on the Bad Batch can be a little tricky with this list, but they'll still get Scout 2 from Rex (as will Rex and Ahsoka's squad), so if Yoda leads off There Is No Try, you should be able to get a smashy start from the Bad Batch, the ARCs, and possibly Yoda. With 3 medics to keep the ARCs and Bad Batch going (and possibly Yoda), you should be able to swing hard into the enemy and keep them reeling.

Republic Bad Batch: Final Review

These guys are SUPER fun to play with and they're very, very tough. While they don't have to compete with Jedi in lists, they certainly will compete for upgrade slots if you try to run them with a Jedi. Still, they stick around, they throw lots of dice (with ways to try to get them to turn into valuable results), and they bring a lot of flavor to your games. If you haven't run them yet, give them a try!

Next time, we're having a bit of deja vu as we look at the Rebel variant of the Bad Batch. Does dropping Crosshair and potentially adding Omega change the squad much? Does the unit compete well with the other Rebel Operative options? And what can you throw into a list to make them better?