Character review: Gideon Argus

In my last post reviewing characters, I looked at Diala Passil. She’s a support character who’s no slouch in combat (and she can be run in several different ways – and what we talked about there wasn’t even exhaustive). Today, we look at the king of the support class: the aged general Gideon Argus.

Gideon is, for both the campaign, and the skirmish game, one of the best figures Fantasy Flight Games has come out with so far. Gideon, like Diala, is included in the core box and fills a role that no other player has done yet: get more mileage out of your teammates. While Gideon thrives on making other people’s lives easier, you can run him to be a powerful piece in his own right.

Gideon Argus: The Playmaker

Gideon’s core ability is Command and it allows him to give one of his actions to someone else to use to either move or attack. This means that if you run him near a hero who specializes in killing things (Gaarkhan, Fenn, Biv, Onar, Davith, Diala, Shyla, Verena…you get the picture), you can give that character more time in the sun and a better shot at doing what they do best – and you don’t need to pay the cash to equip two characters with great weapons/damage upgrades. This is a fantastic economy of team resources and makes the game more fun for the person that you’re empowering (and you feel better because you let them do it). J

Gideon improves on this Command skill with three of his upgrades: his Air of Command upgrade is perhaps his best skill, as it not only improves his Health for 2 XP, but allows him to Command figures that are in line of sight (as opposed to within 3 spaces). The three-space range is sometimes quite useful even after getting this upgrade (as you can choose someone that you can't see either because they're around a corner or because there are figures in the way), but being able to look down a hallway or across a field and give a free action to a friend is invaluable. For 2 XP more, you can get Mobile Tactician, which gives you movement points each time you use Command. Finally, for a whopping 4 XP, you can get Masterstroke, which allows you to resolve the effects of Command again, but without having to use an action or suffer the strain penalty. When using Masterstroke with Mobile Tactician, you not only get to lend 2 actions to friendly figures, but you also get 4 movement points (which in most cases is like getting a free move). Not bad for 6 XP. Gideon also has the ability to make friendly figures remove strain or become focused, but these skills tend to cut into your 4 XP options, so you can usually only get one of them if you purchase both Air of Command and Mobile Tactician. Oh, the choices…

With this in mind, let’s look at three different builds for Gideon Argus.

End-Game Weapon #1 - The Commander: Holdout Blaster with Spread Barrel

Gideon’s Holdout Blaster is not particularly good – the unfortunate side-effect of running a Yellow-Blue weapon is that occasionally you’ll only get Surge results on your dice (happens 33% of the time on a Yellow and 16% of the time on a Blue, so you can expect these two events to coincide pretty close to 5% of the time). In statistics, we call this a "non-zero probability" which is a fancy way of saying "it basically never happens, but we need to acknowledge that it does happen" (and in my experience, it will happen when you need to do damage the most).
When you actually get a damage result on one of your die, however, the Holdout Blaster is a neat little weapon (especially since a healthy Gideon can surge for Stun with his Disabling Shot skill). This means that Gideon can use the maximum possible 3 Surge to gain Pierce 2 + Stun + Recover 1 Strain, which is pretty good for a base weapon (compare that to Jyn Odan’s Vintage Blaster or Fenn Signis’s Infantry Rifle – it’s not even close). The limitation of this weapon (what makes it balanced) is that you can’t get extra accuracy with it – so you want to be close to your target. In general, you should get 4 Accuracy (3 from the Blue and 1 from the Yellow), but you want to be within 2 Accuracy to be guaranteed a hit. Not bad per se, but not great either.

The point of taking this weapon, though, is not to fight very much. When you need to finish someone off, you can. The Spread Barrel guarantees that so long as you’re within 3 spaces (and you should be – you can’t get extra accuracy as stated previously), you can add a damage to the results of your attack. This means you’ll at least get 1 Damage + Pierce 2 + Stun on your attack, which in general should result in doing at least 1 Damage to your target (unless he gets 3 Block on the Black or the Dodge on the White). And that’s your WORST RESULT.

Gideon is then free to use his activation issuing Commands, focusing a friendly figure who attacks (during a Command, perhaps?) via For the Cause!, pushing himself to move a little further, and resting (to both keep himself healthy and strain-free). Every turn he can start free of strain and end free of strain, while empowering his buddies to do the killing on his turn that he could do (but chooses not to do). And you paid…300 credits for this weapon build, so feel free to get yourself some armor (I like the Admiral’s Uniform, though the Responsive Armor is also good), perhaps a Portable Medkit, and the Combat Visor (to get that accuracy you need!) with all the cash you’re not spending on weapons.

Upgrades to purchase - 11 XP: Air of Command (2), Mobile Tactician (2), For the Cause! (3), Masterstroke (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 - Guns Blazing: A280 with Plasma Cell and Sniper Scope

If you want Gideon to go in guns blazing and bust people up, the best gun to use is the A280. This weapon is one of a handful weapons that can surge for both Damage 2 and Pierce 2 (melee and range included). At only 600 credits, it automatically gives 4 Accuracy (but likely 5-6 Accuracy) and it gives you two mod slots.

The down-side is that while its surge abilities are good, it doesn’t surge very reliably – the Green-Blue combo should get you ~1 surge each round, but you need to boost your surge potential in order get your money’s worth out of it. The raw damage that it does isn’t going to be great if you’re surging on those die, so…what do you? Well...

You're Gideon: surging is what we do.

First off, we take the Sniper Scope (the Tactical Display works too and is available at Tier 1 vs. Tier 3, but can't be triggered more than once in an activation). So long as you’re shooting from 5 or more spaces away (which you should get the accuracy required for that), you get a free Surge (FREE 2 Damage with the A280). In addition to the Sniper Scope, we can take the Called Shot upgrade for a free surge or (perhaps should I say, “and”) the Military Efficiency upgrade to convert 1 Damage into 1 Surge. Both of these are 1 XP upgrades, so I think you should be able to afford them. With these two upgrades alone, we could turn a single damage result (let’s say one of those nasty single damage results on the Blue die) to Damage 2 + Pierce 2. If we have the Sniper Scope, we don’t even need to run this conversion (or save Called Shot for use on someone else’s turn – whichever). Add to this killer combo the Plasma Cell for a free Pierce 1 and the ability to surge for Damage 1, you can turn an absolutely horrid roll of 2 Surges on the Green and Blue to a final damage result of Damage 3 + Pierce 3 at Accuracy 4 (using Called Shot instead of the Sniper Scope). Maximum output, of course, is generated by getting double-damage faces on both the Green and Blue, which would result in a grand total of Damage 7 + Pierce 3 + Accuracy 5+ (and you could reduce your Damage by 1 to add Stun to the results – your choice). That’s…a lot of power.

To top it all off, you can take Hammer and Anvil instead of (or in addition to?) Masterstroke, allowing you to call a friendly figure to assist you with an attack for one of your actions. This gets all the power of Command with the added benefit of being able to attack also!

Total cost of this build is 1300 credits, which is more expensive than the majority of weapons you’ll find out there, but you’re not likely to rival its damage output. To make sure you get that required accuracy, again consider taking the Combat Visor since it’s not a weapon mod. J Also, this build doesn’t require a lot of his upgrades, so you can buy whatever you want with the remaining XP (it’s all good stuff).

Upgrades to purchase - 6 XP: Called Shot (1), Military Efficiency (1), Hammer and Anvil (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 - I Am One With The Force: Ancient Lightsaber with Focusing Beam

Gideon might be old, but he’s no Jedi. The good news is, this doesn’t disqualify him from using the Jedi’s weapon – and I’m willing to go out on a ledge here…

Gideon is better at using the Ancient Lightsaber than ANY OTHER CHARACTER!

There. I said it. Now to defend myself.

We just established that Gideon can make Surge results appear without trying. With a Yellow-Blue-Green, he shouldn’t need to surge as strongly as we showed before, but why not be able to do it? Let’s assume that you have Called Shot and Military Efficiency: you can then turn 1 Damage into 2 Surge. With this amazing Lightsaber, that means we can turn 1 Damage into Damage 1 + Pierce 3 – that’s a free (I REPEAT FREE) Pierce 3. Any other surge you get on the dice you roll (and you’ve got a Yellow-Green-Blue while you’re healthy) trigger the surge for Damage 2 (or save you from needing to use Military Efficiency OR Called Shot). With the Focusing Beam, we can also add a free Pierce 1 to our attack (if we need it) OR strain and exhaust to remove a Dodge result (oh White die foes, you are not safe anymore). How likely are we to get 3 Surge? Surprisingly often…and certainly more often than anyone else (including Mr. I-hide-from-everyone-because-I’m-Davith-Elso).

What’s even better: this uses the same upgrade skills as the previous entry, so if you want to buy the A280 at Tier 2, you can do that and then reconfigure your weapon of choice to the Ancient Lightsaber (giving your blaster to someone else who will use it - and if you use it a few times, someone will want to keep it).

Upgrades to purchase – 6 XP: Called Shot (1), Military Efficiency (1), Hammer and Anvil (4)

Gideon in the Skirmish Game

First off, let’s get something out of the way as we migrate to the Skirmish game: Gideon is better in campaign mode than in skirmish mode. That being said, Gideon Argus is still one of the best figures for the Rebel player to take (and is commonly held to be one of the best figures you can bring period). Gideon is cheap, fitting easily into any Rebel or Mercenary army (with Temporary Alliance) and he can spend the entire game moving people out of harm’s way (or into a better offensive position) and focusing them. If he’s required to shoot at people, he basically has an A280 (except that he can become Focused instead of doing Pierce - which is probably better).

Gideon is a Leader, so he can use Command cards that give you more Command cards (like Planning) as well as assisting your teammates in removing harmful conditions (like Regroup) or making people Focused (like Inspiring Speech). As a Rebel Leader in particular, he is one of the best characters to use with On a Diplomatic Mission (which we will talk about in a few days in a different post). All told, Gideon is fantastic to have on your team – in many ways, he’s very similar to an Elite Stormtrooper…which also hints at his weakness.

Gideon, for all his benefits, is very vulnerable to taking damage (like in the Campaign game). Gideon will not be able to resist damage very well – that black die is meant to stop a single die from doing something (and it very rarely stops two dice). As a result, after a few shots are fired at him, Gideon will fall. For 3 points, that’s not a big loss, but he’s not going to last forever if you don’t keep him safe. Still, as part of a Trooper team or assisting a team of Jedi (or Wookies!), he’s fabulous to have encouraging your soldiers on to victory.

In my previous post on Diala Passil, I mentioned Gideon is my second favorite character – for a while he was top dog because I thought that he was the character most suited to my own personality. While Gideon will always hold a very special place in my esteem, he has since been ousted by a different support class character: Saska Teft. We’ll talk about Saska more in our next post and you’ll be the judge as to whether she’s better than Gideon (though admittedly they do different things). Until then, happy gaming!

Skirmish upgrades: using Advanced Comm Systems most effectively

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our series on skirmish upgrades by looking at a niche Imperial attachment: Advanced Comm Systems (ACS). There are only a few units that can use this card (and the Grand Inquisitor isn't one of them... even though you get the card in his villain pack). This card is unique in that it extends the range of special abilities from 1-2 spaces away to 3 spaces away. Our qualifications for finalists today will be:

1. The model must be able to be included in an Imperial force (while you can include Mercenary models in your force with Temporary Alliance, none of the Mercenary deployment cards can use this power);
2. The model can affect friendly models nearby;
3. The benefits of this upgrade will prioritize static bonuses over situational bonuses.

Without further ado, let's get into it:

Bronze Medal: Elite Imperial Officer
The Elite Imperial Officer is one of a handful of units that can enable a friendly figure to attack out of turn. With an original range of 2 spaces for his Executive Order special ability, ACS gives that occasionally required extra range to make a better figure look good.

The Elite Imperial Officer is only third in our list because while he's very useful, he only provides a once-per-turn benefit and if you lose your power figures, the effectiveness of this card goes down.

Silver Medal: Kayn Somos
Kayn is expensive for a trooper, and while his expected range rivals most units, his damage (and surge) output is not great. When you do surge, you can use his Squad Commander surge ability make a friendly adjacent Trooper Focused. With ACS, you can choose a Trooper within 3 spaces, which is far better.

In addition, Kayn can spend his non-shooting action to use his Firing Squad special ability to call in the firepower of two friendly Troopers within 2 spaces (with ACS it's within 3 spaces) to attack a single model (which means you can attack the same guy three times if Kayn shoots too).

While all this is great your not that likely to surge more than once in a fight and if you do, your damage output is greatly diminished. Still, if you have strong Trooper units (the elite Stormtrooper variants are great), you don't need to attack - just call in the shots and move to where you are needed most.

Gold Medal: General Sorin

I don't like most of the models in Return to Hoth, but I like Sorin. Sorin has great Droid and Vehicle synergies, and like our two previous finalists, his Bombardment special ability can cause another model (adjacent originally, within 3 spaces with ACS) to interrupt to attack (with a static Blast 1 added to the results). Sorin is also healthier than the Elite Imperial Officer (though not as healthy as Kayn Somos) and cheaper than Kayn Somos (though not as cheap as the Elite Imperial Officer). But Sorin comes into a realm all his own in a different way...

Sorin originally allows adjacent friendly vehicles and droids to borrow his surge abilities with his Advanced Firepower skill, which not only allows for more damage, but also can Focus the Droid/Vehicle or Stun the target. Since Imperial Droids and Vehicles can't use more than 2 surge for damage (and none can Focus themselves or Stun their opponents), Sorin provides the ability to turn more surge into damage and makes it impossible to waste surge in an attack (assuming you get enough accuracy). Ordinarily, you'd need to create a "Sorin Ball" with up to 8 figures surrounding Sorin (which not only makes your army vulnerable to Blast, but also limits your ability to move around the board). With ACS, the range for this borrowing rule is increased to 3 spaces and your army is less vulnerable to Blast AND can move around the map more easily.

This upgrade is one of the few upgrades available to Imperial players, but it can be well worth it. Even if you're not running a Droid, Vehicle, or Trooper list, it's still useful on an Imperial Officer (and for 1 point, it's probably not breaking your point limit). In our next post, we'll be switching to the Rebels and examining On a Diplomatic Mission. Until next time, happy gaming!

Command cards: using To the limit to the limit

Command Card Review: To The Limit

When building a Command Card deck, it’s pretty hard to stay away from 0-cost Command cards. Since you need the Core set to play the game, I’m going to go through several Command cards in this series from the Core set (though we’ll depart from the Core set for at least one post…maybe two…we’ll see). To start us off, I want to begin with a Command card that I didn’t like at first (I mean, it hurts you, doesn’t it?) but have come to rely on for many Skirmish lists.

Requirements For Candidates

To The Limit requires that you perform a special action during your activation: in trade for an extra action now, you become Stunned (which generally requires that you lose an action on your next activation AND prevents you from performing most interrupt actions when it's not your activation). While some units by default have special actions on their deployment cards, the use of Command cards can give any unit a special action. As such, any unit could use this card, but certain characters can use it more effectively than others. As such, the qualifications for those that appear in our list today will have a) at least one special action they can perform on their deployment card, and b) some way to deal with the Stun harmful condition. Without further ado, let’s look at our third-place finalist…

Bronze Medal: Bossk

Bossk has a wonderful ability that allows him to discard a Harmful condition at the end of the round (as well as recover some damage – which is awesome). Bossk’s special action, Indiscriminate Fire, allows him to do splash damage to enemies around a certain space that’s nearby, which allows you to:

1. Move to a useful location;
2. Perform Indiscriminate Fire;
3. Play To The Limit and fire at your foes;
4. Become Stunned. 

It’s important to note that if you don’t use all of your movement in Action #1 above, you’ll lose the remainder of your movement because of the timing of the Stun effect. You could move in Action #3 and shoot in Action #1, which will be better if you start in a position where you can attack your enemies (as it also gets you away from the targets of your Indiscriminate Fire).

The reason Bossk stands on the Bronze pedestal is that during the rest of the round, Bossk can receive the Bleed and/or Weaken conditions. When the end of round occurs, you then need to choose which condition to remove – do you stay Weakened (which really hurts you both on defense because you roll a white die and on offense since you have a great Surge ability but not a lot of surge generated)? Do you retain the Bleed (which you can heal at the end of the round, but if you don’t remove it, you’ll be that much easier to kill)? Or do you stay Stunned (which you’ll need to get rid of if you want to move/attack)? No good options – your next turn is spent for sure.

Silver Medal: Onar Koma

Onar has a great special ability: with Rush, he can move a number of spaces equal to his speed (which is different from gaining movement points equal to your speed per the FAQ) and gets to push someone out of the way, dealing damage to the target. Since Onar can only attack once, this allows Onar to:

1. Move towards the person you want to take down; 
2. Rush (which gives him even more movement);
3. Play To The Limit to unload on the person he Rushed (who will not only be right next to Onar, but will also be 1 health closer to death than he was a moment before Onar arrived).

When most characters would get stunned, Onar’s Immune special rule indicate that he cannot receive harmful conditions so…you just shrug it off. No penalties, free action this round. Ah, yes, this command card was designed for Onar to use. So why doesn’t Onar get the Gold on this one? Because there’s one other character who uses it far better…

Gold Medal: Jabba the Hutt

Let’s be honest here: Onar gets a free action. That’s pretty great. Jabba, on the other hand, can’t ignore the Stun – he’s going to get stunned and it’s going to hurt. Or will it? The rules for Stun indicate that you can’t “move or attack” while you’re Stunned. For many deployment cards, moving and attacking is all they can do in the Skirmish game. How then does Jabba take the Gold? He’s got a bunch more he can do besides moving and attack.

Jabba has a wealth of special actions he can use – they are most effective in a Mercenary list, but can be employed in a Rebel list too if you use Saska Teft to ally him into the list (which I do regularly). For starters, Jabba can Bully, which allows him to pick a foe within 3 spaces to suffer 3 Strain. This is not an attack or a move. Jabba can also use Incentivize to make a Mercenary figure become Focused. This is not an attack or a move. Perhaps Jabba’s most useful special ability is Scheme, which allows you to draw a Command card. This to is not an attack or a move. Finally (I think you’ve caught on already), you can spend both your actions to Order Hit, spending 2 VPs to pick a Mercenary figure to interrupt to attack and gain a few movement points.

All four of these options are yours to pick from with To The Limit, but you can also do them while in the Stun trance. In fact, if you begin the game with To The Limit in your hand, you can play it in the first round and let Jabba sit in his happy trance the entire game and he’ll still be useful. While his Red-Green melee attack is decent (would be better if he could Surge), his speed is awful and with such a large base, it’s hard for him to flee from pursuers anyway – so don’t move and don’t attack. If your opponent was close enough to move and attack, you can Bully him from where you are for one action instead of moving and attacking for two actions (and you'll probably get more damage through than you would rolling your attack profile). Not near any bad guys and have some good Mercenary figures? Try Incentivizing one of them and scheming this turn. Did Fenn race in and deal a deep blow to one of your guys? Use Order Hit to strike back!

I’ll admit that Jabba might not be as good as Onar on this one, but I think Jabba gives you a lot of options that are not tied to his attacking or moving, so the Stun doesn’t really affect him either. Since Onar can't attack multiple times in an activation, unless you play a Command card that allows him to do something other than move, all Onar can gain from this card is a free move action. Jabba can do so. much. more. That said, I could see him and Onar sharing this space (there, I said it). In our next post, we’ll be looking at two 0-cost cards that are fairly similar and show situations where it helps to have one over the other: Fleet Footed and Urgency. Until then, happy gaming!

Character review: Diala Passil

Some people like playing damage characters that shoot or hack their way through the bad guys. Other players like to take characters that are just not going to be killed. Still others (like me) prefer to play characters who can fight on their own but mostly exist to make the other characters do what they do better (through healing, rerolls, and free actions). Because I prize flexibility and teamwork, the support class lends itself strongly to me.

As a result, we’re going to start off our series on character reviews by looking at my favorite three support characters: Diala Passil, Gideon Argus, and Saska Teft. We’ll leave support class characters after that, but these three characters are by far my favorite characters to use (closely followed by…why would I spoil this now???).

Diala Passil was released in the core game of Imperial Assault and as a result is one of the best characters in the game (sure, the expansions have released great playable characters, but the original six are still top of the line and certainly some of the best characters you can use). Diala walks the line between support to the team and raw damage dealer. As a result, let’s look at three different builds we can use to bring out both the raw power and the supporting abilities she provides.

Diala Passil: Any Melee Weapon Can Be Good

Diala is a Jedi and while she’s not as offensive-focused as Davith Elso, she’s got some incredible abilities that make any weapon she uses simply amazing: first, while she is healthy, she has the Precise Strike skill that removes a defense die from your opponent. In most cases, this means your opponent doesn’t get to resist your attack. Any weapon that would normally do 3-4 damage now does its full weight against your opponent (instead of 1-2 damage past a black die). In addition to this base skill, for 1 XP you can get the Force Adept upgrade to allow you to reroll an attack die at the cost of 1 Strain. Finally, for 2 XP you can purchase Battle Meditation, which allows you to make yourself Focused (or someone else if you’re already Focused) whenever you rest (basically guaranteed – you’re testing Insight). These three abilities (which you have after you get 3 XP and as long as you stay healthy) can greatly change any weapon from a "meh" weapon into a good weapon and any good weapon into a great weapon. With this in mind, here are some broad ideas you can use for weapons (but I’ll note alternate weapons that can be even better).

End-Game Weapon #1 – the Guardian of the Whills: Plasteel Staff with Extended Haft OR Weighted Head

Diala’s base weapon is, if we’re honest, not very good. With a Yellow-Green combo, you run the risk of getting 2 Surge as your attack results, which can get you a whopping 1 Damage and a Stun (if you’ve strained twice to remove his dice). That’s…not great. On the other hand, you have the off-chance of getting 4 Damage and you should get 2-3 Damage each time you attack. In general, this is enough to clear out a basic Imperial unit each activation (which in the early game is pretty great).

While the staff isn’t great, it does have Reach. For melee characters, if you can avoid straining to get right up into the face of your opponent, that’s a good thing. For Diala, you want to save your Strain to reroll dice (or throw people, remove defense dice, etc.) so having Reach is great. You can then purchase the Extended Haft early in the campaign and use it to add Pierce 1 to the attack results (which is great against White die opponents and useful against Black die opponents). Ultimately this doesn’t matter as much if you are using Precise Strike, but you will find opponents who get static Block results (and this can handle those special cases nicely). Alternatively, you could forego relying on the Precise Strike and save yourself the strain, potentially reducing your damage output a little to rely on doing more attacks (vs. resting every turn).

With Reach, Diala has three different targets. Against the Stormtrooper, she can use Precise Strike to remove the Black die, in which case, she can expect to do 3-4 Damage against him (should kill him). Alternatively, she can rely on the automatic Pierce 1 to remove most/all of his Black die result (still might kill him). Since the Hired Guns can't get the Dodge result on a White die, you don't need to use Precise Strike at all (though they will get to shoot at you if you kill them).

If you plan on using Precise Strike (however), I’d recommend the Weighted Head – this is a great way to do extra damage to enemies nearby since you can guarantee that you hit the target with Precise Strike and then transfer damage to someone else (finishing them off or doing damage to someone you don’t want to have to hit directly). This is supplemented even more with the Snap Kick upgrade – which is kind of like doing Cleave damage…without the requirement of doing damage. Regardless of whether you choose the Extended Haft or the Weighted Head, you can get even more mileage out of the staff by purchasing the Dancing Weapon upgrade. Why do this?

This turns your ordinary Plasteel Staff into a Pulse Cannon.

The Pulse Cannon allows you to turn 2 Surge into 2 Damage + Pierce 1. With the Surge ability provided by the Dancing Weapon upgrade, you can also spend 2 Surge to get 2 Damage and either Pierce 1 (with the Extended Haft) or Cleave 1 (by exhausting the Weighted Head). The difference, of course, is that you need to spend one additional surge with the Pulse Cannon to get the accuracy bonus…and with Diala’s Dancing Weapon skill, you get it for free. Any additional surge you get with the Weighted Head becomes Cleave damage, while the Extended Haft adds the Stun (and removal of Strain). All in all, you’ve got the equivalent of a very good T3 weapon for the cost of…300-400 credits (and 4 XP).

If Diala is 6 spaces away from her target (distance between her and the Royal Guards above), she would need to get the Accuracy 1 + Damage 2 on the Green die, the Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 on the Blue die and the Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 (or either face that doesn't get Accuracy) on the Yellow die to miss hitting her target. All told, that's a 1.45% chance of missing a target that's 6 spaces away with Dancing Weapon!

I should note: you can do slightly more damage with other weapon builds – the Force Pike, BD-1 Vibro-Ax, and the Polearm are excellent examples. Each has Reach, so whatever we said previously applies. I find, however, that the damage threshold of these weapons isn’t that much more than what you get with the base weapon (assuming you use Precise Strike) and the credit cost (and waiting) is pretty high. For the same money, you can get gear options that supplement your other skills (such as the Portable Medkit, the Combat Visor, or the Combat Coat) – and you can buy two or three of these items for the cost of the weapon you’d be purchasing. Now tell me that’s not worth it?

Upgrades to purchase (with Extended Haft) - 8 XP: Force Adept (1), Force Throw (1), Battle Meditation (2), Dancing Weapon (4)

Upgrades to purchase (with Weighted Head) – 10 XP: Force Adept (1), Battle Meditation (2), Snap Kick (3), Dancing Weapon (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 – The Jedi: Shu Yen’s Lightsaber with Balanced Hilt

Let’s face it, Diala is a Jedi. As great as playing Chirrut Imwe with your Plasteel Staff is…

WE WANT A LIGHTSABER!!!!

There are two ways to get a lightsaber: do Diala’s side mission or wait for Tier 3 to get the Ancient Lightsaber. The sad truth is this: in a long campaign, it could be a while (hopefully you get it early) before you get the chance at Diala’s Side Mission if it shows up at all. In a short campaign, you get only one shot at Tier 3 gear (and you don’t get to choose which missions you play), so you may not get a chance to use a lightsaber. Ever. It’s sad.

The good news is, if you never get a shot at it, at least you have the Plasteel Staff, which we’ve just covered in great detail. So for our purposes here, let’s assume you get a lightsaber (we’ll start with Diala’s reward item and then move to the Ancient Lightsaber).

Shu Yen’s Lightsaber is a great weapon – it rewards you for using Foresight (even if you take damage) and it gives you the traditional Lightsaber bonus of Pierce 3 and the ability to Cleave into your opponents. The only thing it lacks…is the ability to surge reliably. Pierce 3 is fantastic – you basically don’t need Precise Strike anymore (unless you’re fighting someone with two defense dice). To trigger this effect more often, there’s an inexpensive fix: the Balanced Hilt. While the Red-Blue combo isn’t great on this weapon for damage (Red-Green or Red-Red would give you more), it does make the weapon more likely to hit targets farther away from you if you use Dancing Weapon (discussed previously). All in all, as a reward for a mission, it’s well worth having.

The Ancient Lightsaber functions in much the same way: it gives you the Pierce 3 skill with a Damage 1 at the cost of 2 Surge, but it also provides you a single surge option for 2 Damage – which against White die is better than Pierce 3. This more balanced weapon is also tied to your Insight stat, which means if you do get wounded, you’ll actually deal more raw damage than you did before (trading that Yellow die out for a Red one). This means you’ll also surge less often, but the damage output is negligible (and with the Balanced Hilt, you can still trigger that Pierce 3 fairly reliably).

Both weapons can be thrown, of course, but since you don’t need to strain for Precision Strike, consider taking Way of the Sarlaac – getting multiple attacks out of that lightsaber before resting (and using your Strain to reroll those die results you don’t like OR using the surge from the Ancient Lightsaber to recover strain and keep you from needing to rest). Defensive Stance is also good with Shu Yen’s Lightsaber, since it gives you bonuses when you use Foresight. It doesn’t have any synergy with the Ancient Lightsaber, but is a nice utility skill to have anyway (in case you want to be Focused when you start your turn, instead of becoming Focused from resting).

With Way of the Sarlaac, Diala can suffer 2 Strain to attack all three of these Stormtroopers. With either Lightsaber, a single Surge completely wipes out a Black die (or comes pretty close to it with the Ancient Lightsaber), allowing her to do most of her Damage against the target's Health instead of having to work through their Block.

Finally, if you want to get a similar feel for Shu Yen’s Lightsaber without doing the side mission, consider taking the Stun Baton - you can strain to weaken up to 5 foes around you, rest, then use Way of the Sarlaac to strike them all! Damage output is roughly the same (trading Pierce 3 for Damage 2) since the dice pool is the same.

 Upgrades to purchase (with either saber) - 9 XP: Force Adept (1), Battle Meditation (2), Defensive Stance (2), Way of the Sarlaac (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 – The Executioner: Vibrosword with Energized Hilt and Focusing Beam

So this weapon was the most surprising for me – I never really liked the weapon though I always WANTED to like it. In some ways, there isn’t much that recommends the weapon:

• You roll a Green-Blue but doesn’t need the range;
• You can surge for 2 Damage, but the dice pool doesn't surge reliably; and
• You can surge for Bleed (very useful), but you aren't likely to get the damage you need past any defense die have a surge left to issue Bleed.

So why take this weapon? That's when it hit me:

You’re Diala – turn this weapon into an Electrostaff!!!!!

As I said before, Diala makes all melee weapons good – with Dancing Weapon, this blade becomes a Green-Blue-Blue weapon, which not only makes it great for throwing down long hallways (guaranteed 5 accuracy, likely hitting 7-8 accuracy) and you can reliably expect 5-6 damage off of it for 350 credits. With two mod slots, there are a bunch of things you can do with it, but I’ve settled on the following: the Energized Hilt and the Focusing Beam. While you could go with the High Impact Guard, the guard costs the same as both of these upgrades and requires you to surge in order to use its effects…and we just got through saying how hard it is to surge with this weapon. Instead, the Energized Hilt allows you to change that awful Blue die into a Red die, giving you (effectively) an Electrostaff (except that instead of getting the choice of Reach or Cleave 2, you can surge for Bleed…and strain for Pierce 1…up to 4 times…AHHHH!!!!!!).

Diala (top-right) is seven spaces away from the Imperial Officer. If she stays with a Blue-Blue-Green, Diala would need to get either the 1 Accuracy + Damage 2 or 2 Accuracy + Damage 2 on the Green and the 2 Accuracy + Damage 1 on both of the Blue dice to miss (which happens <1% of the time). If she uses the Energized Hilt to swap one of the Blue die for a Red die, she'll want to move up closer

In addition, that second mod slot allows you to do something else – I’ve chosen the Focusing Beam to give you the ability to overcome White die without having to use Precise Strike (exhausting for Pierce 1 OR removing a Dodge from the defense results at the cost of a strain as well). If you wanted to mimic the Electrostaff, you could go instead with the Extended Haft (slightly more expensive but available at Tier 1) or the Weighted Head. All told the cost of these two upgrades and the weapon is under 900 credits – far cheaper than what you’ll find at Tier 3.

What’s even better is…besides the Force Adept upgrade and the Dancing Weapon upgrade, you can do whatever you want with the rest of your upgrades – the door is wide open. So…didn’t see that coming, huh?

Upgrades to purchase - 5 XP: Force Adept (1), Dancing Weapon (4)

Diala in the Skirmish Game

As should not be surprising, Diala Passil is fantastic in the skirmish game. As a Force User, she has incredible synergies with such characters as Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker (either one), Davith Elso, and Ahsoka Tano (though you can also do Leia Organa if you include her Command card). Diala’s ability to recover damage is nice (though not triggered very often) and she can allow you to discard Command cards from hand to remove a defense die from an opponent (handy if you have a card you can’t use or don’t want to use) and allows you to reroll her defense die for free. With all those beautify Force User cards (free damage, protection from blaster fire, etc.), she’s stunning.

But she’s even better when surrounded by walking carpets – that’s right, using her Brawler synergies with Wookies! Sure, being a Force User is great, but there’s something incredibly fun about running Diala with Gaarkhan, Drokhatta, and some regular WookieWarriors! Give it a try sometime – she’s fantastic with them.

In our next post, we’ll talk about Gideon Argus – my second favorite character and one of the first characters I ever used. Diala can support other characters by making them Focused (we focused on how to make her a power all on her own here), but Gideon does the enabling power of support characters better than any other character they’ve come out with so far. Until next time, happy gaming!

Skirmish upgrades: using Black Market

    Good morning gamers and Star Wars fans,

    It's been a while since I posted on this space, but I'm going to begin three series on this blog that (hopefully) I'll get a post up for each week (but let's face it, life might get in the way, so don't hold me to it). :) I've been playing Imperial Assault for a few years now and had my own core set for ~14 months, and during that time, I've spent a lot of time thinking about different hero builds, using certain command cards, and who to take skirmish upgrades for. As a result, the three series we'll be working through are as follows:

1. Skirmish Upgrades - for a specific skirmish upgrade, who should you use it with? What characters should you put it on (if it's an attachment)? What list supports it well (I hesitate to say "the best")?
2. Character Reviews - what are different builds you can use in campaign mode (both weapon choice and upgrades based on the weapon chosen)? How can this character be used effectively in the skirmish game?
3. Command cards - how do I use a certain command card effectively? Who are the best (or at least, some of the best) characters to use with it?

This post will start off the Skirmish Upgrades series and we'll be talking about the following Skirmish Upgrade: Black Market.

Obviously to use this skirmish upgrade, you need to have a smuggler in your list (or three...or six). Since no Smuggler can surge to recover damage, you have to rely on using Command cards to get this health back (more on that in a bit) OR just have enough Smugglers around that you can spread the damage without doing any real harm to your team. You DO NOT want to discard a card for the strain because you'll run through your command deck too quickly (and let's face it: if you discard a 3 cost Command card for the strain and then draw a 0 cost command card, you just cost yourself either using the 3 cost card or gaining 3 VPs from it...bummer).

Cards to always discard

1. Cards that benefit both players - I will say at the start that these cards are incredibly rare. Cards like Dangerous Bargains are great for gaining a few more VPs, but you have the option of gaining 3 VPs (if you're not close to winning) and giving your opponent 3 VPs OR you can gain 1 VP. There are times when cards like Dangerous Bargains are useful (hey, why not start the game with 3 VPs each...), but late in the game, you want to consider discarding it to give you the pip ahead you might need.
2. Cards the rely on your opponent moving adjacent to you - some of my favorites that do this are Dirty Trick (since we're running at least one Smuggler) and Parting Blow - both of these cards rely on your opponent moving adjacent to you or leaving an adjacent space. Depending on your opponent's objectives and list, he might never do this OR he might do this when you don't have the card. Both of these cards, however, are 2 cost cards - each worth 2 VPs if you discard it. Totally worth it if you ask me.
3. Character-specific cards for characters who have been defeated - let's face it: there's nothing worse than getting a Command card that's unique to a figure that's been defeated. If that card is anything like Jabba's card or Bossk's card or Boba Fett's card or IG-88's card (you get the picture, I'm going to stop now), it's a real shame. However, with Black Market (assuming you draw it at the right time - more on this later), you can turn these otherwise useless cards into VPs. Awesome. :)

Cards to always buy

1. Anything that can get you more XP by playing it than discarding it - the quintessential examples of this are cards like Merciless or Price on Their Heads. Do not underestimate, however, the benefit of other cards (such as Black Market Prices) which can turn those character-specific cards for characters who have been defeated into money after you've brought them into your hand - a very, VERY powerful card. :)
2. Cards that do a boat load of offense - the best example of this for Mercenary armies is Assassinate - let's face it, just adding 3 damage to an attack is awesome. Yes, you need to be a Hunter to use it, but who says you can't have Hunters and Smugglers in the same list??? Getting 3 VPs from this would be tempting, but if you can get more than 3 VPs by killing someone, that would be even better.
3. Character cards - we want our named guys to live, right? Usually a character-specific Command card helps us do that (or helps us kill more guys on our way out). These cards are awesome and usually give us the VPs back that we'd pay to buy them). So get them if they come up - don't even think about it (unless the character is already dead...in which case you should view #3 above). :)

With all this in mind, let's take a look at how to use this upgrade in the skirmish game.

Exemplary list: Jabba's Barge

• First Strike (2)
• Black Market (1)
• Elite Jawa Scavenger x2 (6)
• Jabba the Hutt (6)
• Vinto Hreeda with Prey Upon The Weak (5+1)
• Elite Weequay Pirate (7)
• Temporary Alliance (1)
• Leia Organa (8)
• R2-D2 (3)

Why use these characters in particular?

1. First Strike and Black Market (3/40 points): First Strike starts both sides off with 4 VPs. While this is a nice boon for your opponent, it also starts you off with money to buy something nice after the first round. Getting VPs any other way is basically impossible during the first round, so if you need to buy an extra card, it's a nice way to do it.
2. Two Elite Jawa Scavengers and Jabba the Hutt (15/40 points): The Jawa Scavengers allow you to risk a VP and have a 50% chance of gaining 2 VPs back if they spend a Surge during one of their attacks. This isn't a great way to get VPs, but it's surprisingly useful. Jabba gives you a free VP when you defeat figures from a specific opponent - great for giving you a bit of extra cash when you need it. These figures are also Leaders as well as Smugglers - giving you incredible card drawing options if you want it.
3. R2-D2 and Leia Organa with Temporary Alliance (27/40 points): R2-D2 (like Jabba) allows you to draw an extra Command Card each round. This means that you don't really need to stay adjacent to a terminal (just near one) OR you don't need to control the terminal. Getting as many Command cards in your hand as possible might cause you to run out of your deck, but that's where Leia Organa comes in (and let's face it...I wanted Leia and R2 in a deck with Jabba...for thematic reasons). :) Leia has the ability to shuffle Command cards back into your deck - this means that once you run out of Command cards, you can CHOOSE the card that will be drawn by Black Market...one that will always get you 3 VPs for example...
4. Elite Weequay Pirates and Vinto with Prey on the Weak (40/40 points): while the previous characters are nice, WE WANT FIREPOWER!!! Weequay are reasonably priced for elite troops and do a fair bit of damage (what with the reroll in combat, the auto-Hide ability, automatic 4 accuracy, and the ability to surge for lots of damage). Add to that Vinto Hreeda (who can bolt-sling for 2 free damage after making attacks with an auto Pierce 1 and Accuracy 1 when shooting at figures with a figure cost of 4 or less. Vinto can tackle any cheap spam units your opponent brings (like Troopers) while your Weequay (and any bolt-slinging pot-shots you wish to add) take on the stronger, more expensive units.

Command cards:

1. Character-specific cards: Blood Feud, There Is Another, Draw! (3/15)
2. VP-generating cards: Merciless x2, Black Market Prices, Dangerous Bargains, Celebration, Price on Their Heads, Of No Importance, Pickpocket, Utinni (10/15)
3. Offensive cards: Assassinate, Tools for the Job (15/15)
4. Command card drawing cards: Planning

Most of these cards have been talked about already - Planning is great for drawing cards (and you have 4 leaders in your list to use it). Pickpocket basically gives any Smuggler the Jawa Scavenger surge rule EXCEPT you base it off the Accuracy of the result and not the damage result - far better chance of reward since you risk losing nothing and thanks to taking First Strike, your opponent actually has VPs to lose at the start of the game. The inclusion of Utinni only helps our two Jawas, but allows them to surge (AGAIN) to get 1 VP (rude, I know). Finally, Tools for the Job is a nice card that allows you to turn any of your Hunters/Smugglers (so...anyone except Leia Organa and R2-D2) into power characters. Rolling a Blue-Green with Vinto? Here's an extra Red dice. Rolling double-Green with a Weequay? Here's an extra Red dice. Someone dumb enough to charge Jabba? See what kind of damage a Red-Red-Green combo does.

Hopefully this gets you thinking - if you have any thoughts on similar lists (or cards you love using Black Market with OR other skirmish upgrades you'd like to see in this series), let me know. Our next set in this series will look at Advanced Com Systems. Until next time, happy gaming!

Tiberius