Good morning gamers,
It took a while for the Republic to get a second faction-specific Corps unit when Legion 2.6 dropped - and when it finally arrived, I have to admit, I was convinced they'd have white saves. Imagine my surprise when I saw not only a unit that looked remarkably like the Clone Trooper Infantry profile, but it also had access to range-4 on all of its blasters AND it had Marksman to improve its dice rolls! Enter the Clone Marksman - a unit that comes in at a slight discount compared to Clone Trooper Infantry, sports the kinds of things we all like in Clones, but also plays very differently from their Corps alternatives. These guys are not beating anyone out of a job (except for maybe ARF Troopers), but they're quite solid as a Corps choice if you plan to field several of them.
Clone Trooper Marksmen: The Profile
This squad has the standard Corps stats you'd expect from a GAR unit: 1 health each on a 4-man squad base, Courage 2, and non-surging red saves. They also have speed-1, but have Prepared Position, so their location after two turns is likely to be about what you'd expect from Clone Trooper Infantry. They roll 1 black die in melee and at range 1-3, but their guns have Long Shot on them, so if you spend an aim token, they can have range 4. With Marksman in tow, having access to two aim tokens means that they can not only shoot at range 4, but they can also promote a die roll from a blank to a hit OR promote a hit to a crit (depending on your situation, this can be very useful). Finally, they have Prepared Positions, which means they'll start the game with a dodge token if they begin on the board - and I think that's generally a good idea, as the dodge token can be shared with other Clone Trooper units and it avoids the greatest downside of being speed-1.
At 50pts each, they're roughly comparable in price to the Corps of most factions and come in 6pts cheaper than Clone Trooper Infantry. Since many of their upgrades cost about the same, you'll generally find that if you need a few points for another activation or an upgrade elsewhere in your army, you very well might be able to find it by downgrading one of your Clone Trooper Infantry squads to a Clone Trooper Marksman squad.
Clone Trooper Marksmen: Recommended Upgrades
There are a few upgrades on these guys that might be worth taking - though you're probably taking at least one extra body, since the 4-man squad doesn't really do enough to justify its existence.
Squad Leader x1
While Squad Leaders that give Charge (Ahsoka Tano and Fives) are fabulous on Clone Trooper Infantry, getting Charge on a speed-1 unit isn't great. I'd pass on them in this list. Similarly, I'd pass on Clone Captain Rex because he incentivizes shooting at range 2 and this unit is probably trying to shoot from range 3-4. I would also pass on Waxer and Boil if you're planning to use Prepared Position (as you'll lose the Scout 1 move and I don't think Guardian or Disciplined are good enough to justify their inclusion otherwise.
There are a few good options, though: Clone Captains give you Defend 1, which means you can start the game with 2 dodge tokens if you are issued an order (Yoda's Luminous Beings are We? Rex's We're Not Programmed? Assault/Attack of the Clones?), but they also gain Outmaneuver so those dodge tokens can be used to block crits. If you continue to give them orders, they'll have 1 dodge token at the start of the round, which is great for Clone survivability (both for themselves and their pals nearby). For 2pts less, you can take a Clone Medic (who doesn't have the Leader keyword) so you have Treat 1 (healing a wound off an important character OR restoring a trooper who died this turn, like a member of Bad Batch or a Clone Commando/ARC Trooper). Whoever you're trying to keep alive, Medics are blissfully cheap(ish) for 20pts each.
I think there's an argument for taking Clone Commander Cody for 28pts because he has range 4 access and adds Precise 1/Impact 1 (and Mechanized Infantry, if you care) - but Cody's Precise 1 is only useful if you have an aim token available . . . and there's a very good chance that Marksman is just better than rerolls. Cody can be taken in ARFs and I feel like he's probably much better in that unit than this one. I think there might also be an argument for taking a Clone Commander at some point, but his cost needs to come down first.
Heavy Weapon x1
Let's start with this: don't take Echo in one of these squads, since he's also aim hungry (Lethal 1 - very useful in this unit, to be sure, but also it's gonna cost you aims like crazy) and he should probably be in the Bad Batch. Either of the other Heavy Weapons are good - the Mortar Clone Trooper is cheaper at 20pts and gives you 2 black dice with Critical 1 (like Echo), Suppressive (very useful for getting some extra suppression out there on enemy troopers), and Cumbersome (shoot-then-move or aim-then-shoot, whichever floats your boat). This weapon can't be used at range 1, but this trooper doesn't have Sidearm: Ranged, so at range 1, he can just fire the normal gun that the unit has.
You also have access to the RPS-6 Clone Trooper for 23pts, which gives you a rainbow roll of 1 red/white/black at range 2-4 and it has Cumbersome (see above) and Impact 2 - there might be an argument for taking the RPS-6 with Cody in this unit, but one could also argue for the RPS-6 and Cody in an ARF Trooper unit, so . . . Anyway, I'd take a heavy if you're not taking a squad leader - you might take both, but you'd need to want this unit to fill multiple roles (if you're supporting Commandos, for example, you might choose to take both a medic to heal them AND a mortar to deal extra damage). These points do stack up, though, so I don't know that it's a great idea to try to have these guys pull double-duty and have both - but it is an option.
Personnel x2
There are a lot of personnel options that are situationally good to take in a Clone Trooper Marksman unit: the Clone Engineer (if he's ever a good choice) would only be a good choice if there is a vehicle that plans to sit back and shoot (Saber Tanks in the 212th?). For 3pts less, you can get a Clone Marksman (aka, "just another guy"), but once again, this is really only a good choice if you don't have the points for something else. The best of the generic options is probably the Clone Specialist, who is 17pts for the opportunity to get a free aim token (probably once per game, but TECHNICALLY this guy is the go-to option if your plan is to aim-then-shoot, since you can recover-free-action-aim-then-
There are two other options: the "super squad" and Shaak Ti. The super squad is really good if you have 53pts for it - it has comparable damage output to an RPS-6 with Medic for the same price, but also gets you 5 wounds instead of 2 with Treat 1. Shaak Ti, on the other hand, gives the unit a cached aim token and Immune: Melee Pierce, but since her weapon is melee and her immunity to pierce is melee, you probably don't want her in this unit.
Training x1
Overwatch might be useful on this unit, as it has the potential to lean into standbys in a way that other Clone units just don't - starting on the board and either getting an early order to aim-standby or starting the game with a standby from a Comms Tech means that 18" range + usually 9" forward deployment will cover most of the board (all but 9"), which can stunt your opponent's desire to advance up - and if you don't have your standby range triggered, you can probably perform a 4" move and be at range 4 (24" range) of wherever a unit ended when it's your turn to activate. This gets expensive fast, but you can equip up to five Marksman squads with this upgrade for the low-low cost of leaving one medic or mortar at home . . . that might be worth it in some play styles.
I don't know that these guys are going to be able to stay in your deployment zone in most scenarios, so for me personally, I'd stay away from Dug In - if you lean into gunline scenarios like Bunker Assault and Recover the Research, you can probably get away with it, but if you're playing traveling scenarios, this upgrade is generally not worth it.
I would personally stay away from all of the other upgrades - I don't think you really need them (and if you're tempted to get Situational Awareness, may I commend to you the Clone Captain).
Gear x1
I think the only upgrade for these guys that makes sense is Extra Supplies - and this is only worth taking if you took the Clone Specialist. Extra Supplies is a 5pt ugprade that allows you to reset your Clone Specialist at the end of your activation so you can use him again on the next turn without having to perform a recover action. If you've committed to the specialist, then consider taking this upgrade as well - the pair costs you 22pts, which is the same as a Captain and they probably have the same efficacy.
Clone Trooper Marksmen: Sample Lists and Strategies
Our first list is a 12-act list that I've been experimenting with that features Yoda, Ahoska, a lot of Clone Corps units, and two Clone Commandos - it's a great gunline list and the Clone Commandos and Clone Marksmen on the first turn of the game help each other a lot (the Commandos bringing out aim tokens and the Marksmen bringing sharable dodges). Yoda helps too:
- Yoda with Force Barrier, Force Guidance, and Jedi Mind Trick
- Ahsoka Tano with Force Barrier, Improvised Orders, and Offensive Push
- 2x Clone Trooper Marksmen with Clone Medics
- 2x Clone Trooper Marksmen with Mortar Clone Trooper
- 2x ARC Troopers
- 2x ARC Trooper Strike Teams with DC-15X ARC Trooper Sniper
- 2x Clone Commandos with Katarn Pattern Armor and DC-17m ICWS Config
Our second list is a 10-act 212th list, which features triple Saber Tanks - units that won't mind having a little dodge support (since vehicles get the Clone Trooper token sharing rules with both non-Commander/Operative Clone Troopers and Vehicles). It also has 3 AT-RTs (no upgrades - don't need 'em/didn't have the points for flamers) and has Cody, 2 Marksmen with Mortars, and 1 Duo-ARF Trooper unit to back up the vehicles:
- Clone Commander Cody with Seize the Initiative
- 2x Clone Trooper Marksmen with Mortar Clone Trooper
- 1x ARF Troopers with ARF Trooper Duo
- 3x AT-RT
- 3x Saber-Class Tank with Clone Trooper Pilot and Beam Turret
This list has some interesting synergies: the vehicles can all be issued orders on the first turn with the Flexible Strategy 3-pip so you can have an aim or dodge token on each and you can divulge the Sneak Attack 1-pip so that your two Marksmen squads Infiltrate onto the board instead of starting on the board (and one of your tanks can get Scout 1 OR one of your AT-RTs can get Scout 2). The Saber Tanks also have the Clone Trooper Pilots, which allows them to generate surge tokens that the other tanks/AT-RTs can borrow on each of their beam attacks (up to 3 surge tokens generated each turn). This makes the vehicles in this list incredibly resilient. I wouldn't mind getting a flamethrower or two (you could do that by dropping the Mortars or one Mortar and the Duo), but to do that, we'd probably have to go down to 9 activations and bulk out the remaining infantry units . . . maybe that's fine.
Clone Trooper Marksmen: Final Review
I really like the option for Marksmen, but I do think they aren't a go-to option to automatically replace Clone Trooper Infantry (with or without Fives/Ahsoka). Marksmen are playing a very different game from Clone Trooper Infantry and probably fulfill the need for backline support of things like Clone Commandos and Strike Teams better than Clone Trooper Infantry do (who will be hard-pressed to be able to contribute anything beyond token sharing and an additional activation towards controlling an objective). They're aim hungry, so I don't know that they're very good without help (or "turreting", where they aim-shoot every turn), but I do think they're worth taking.
Overall Unit Review: 3.5/5 stars. These guys would benefit a LOT from having some way to generate their own aim tokens. Whether that's from an upgrade that could reliably give them aims (On the Hunt is an option, but only against multi-wound Troopers) or a special rule, I don't know - but the result is the same: these guys are fine-to-good, but not stellar. 3.5 stars for me.
Next time, we're sticking around in Republic list building and we're going to be looking at the Republic AT-RT - one of two pretty cheap Support options for the Republic (besides Strike Teams, of course). These guys are pretty durable, block line of sight (despite their spindly legs), and have a lot of different gun options. Find out how to think about these guys and what's the best bang for buck when fielding them! Until then, happy hobbying!
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