Command cards: Force Users

Command Card Review: Force User Command Cards

Let's face it: on some level if we're playing a Star Wars game, we want to be able to be a Sith or a Jedi. It's just a fact. Since Wave 7, all factions have had access to the Channel The Force skirmish upgrade, which allows you to forego drawing a Command card at the end of a round and instead pick a Force User card instead (at the cost of Strain equal to the Command points of the card). This begs the question - and this is a Command card question, not a skirmish upgrade question - what cards are worth fetching based on the Strain they're going to inflict?

Force User Command Cards: What Do They Do?

There are a variety of different kinds of Command cards that are dedicated for use by Force Users, but if we're to over generalize a bit, they fall into five categories:

• Movement/mobility cards (very helpful for figures with predominantly melee attack types);
• Niche-situation control cards;
• Non-Attack-Action Damage cards (so you can attack with one action and do more damage on your next action);
• Augmenting attack/defense results cards (rerolls, bonus damage, etc.); and
• Perform additional action cards (rare but present and oh-so-helpful).

We’ll look at each of these types of cards in a moment, but since there are alliance restrictions to keep in mind, we’ll be starting off by examining the generic Force User cards (ones that can be used in Rebel, Imperial, or Mercenary Force User lists) and then look at each faction individually (wrapping up the Mercenary choices with the Imperial choices to save space). It’s important to note that while you can have a lot of Force User cards to choose from, don’t underestimate the power of non-Force User cards. Cards like Pummel, Recovery, Camouflage, Urgency, or Deathblow can easily fit into any deck with at least a few melee characters in it - you can get a lot of mileage out of them.

Generic Force User Cards: The Flesh Of Any Force User Army

In the Core set, you get two generic Force User cards: Deflection (two copies) and Telekinetic Throw. These cards cost 1 Command point, which means the Strain inflicted on your characters will be small to pull them up for use. Deflection is most useful when defending against a range attack and particularly useful if your figure is Hidden (Davith Elso is a prime candidate for that). Telekinetic Throw is one of the best cards you can include in your Force User army (my opinion) since it allows you to do damage via a Special Action and can supplement the damage from your attack action. Since most Force Users are melee figures (non-Jedi Luke and sometimes-Leia being the notable exceptions), being able to do damage at a distance is also quite nice. For only 1 Command point, pull it up as soon as you can!

Outside of the Core Set, we didn’t get too many generic Force User cards until recently. The Leia Organa Ally Pack (Wave 5) gave us a Command card that is probably better than the Telekinetic Throw card with I Can Feel It – a great way to improve your offensive results, your defensive results, OR just gain 1 VP. As a free Command card – yes, 0 points – you can pull this card up without taking any damage at all! Thanks to the Bespin Gambit (Wave 6), you also have access to the Force Illusion Command card, which allows the defender of an attack become Hidden if a Force User can see the attacker. This not only makes Deflection more powerful but can save one of your figures from being hit by a long-range shot (though at 2 Command points it's a big toll if you use Channel The Force to fetch it).

With Wave 7 and Wave 10, we got three additional generic Force User Command cards: Force Surge, Force Rush, and Force Jump. All three give you movement options for your characters. Force Surge is the most expensive at 2 Command points, but allows you to move 1 additional space after your activation ends and deal 2 Damage and 1 Strain to a nearby hostile figure. If you’ve already attacked that figure this round, it’s a great way to finish someone off or bring someone that much closer to death (and in all likelihood, keep them from healing up any of the damage they took from your original attack). Force Jump costs only 1 Command point and allows you to perform a mobile move as an action – which will be better than a normal move, but doesn’t give you any damage for the action. Finally, Force Rush is a free Command card and allows you to gain 2 movement points at the start of your activation – great for closing distance during your turn (or making a quick get-away).

These cards are pretty cheap (most are 0-1 Command points) and they can give your team much-needed resiliency, mobility, and supplementary damage output. With these cards as the background, let’s look at Rebel Force User cards.

Rebel Force User Cards: Getting More Out Of Your Heroes

The Core Set provides us with two unique Command Cards for your Rebel Force Users:  Knowledge and Defense and Meditation. For those looking for more defensive capabilities, it doesn’t get much better than Knowledge and Defense – adding an extra White die is great for stopping Surge abilities and getting that much needed Dodge. Since this lasts all round, you want to use this on a character who is going first (or the last character you have if acquired late in the game). Meditation allows you to effectively bank an action this turn to take an additional action next turn. In a two-player skirmish game, this is invaluable – use it at the end of a round when you don’t have initiative and then go first with three actions the following round when you do have initiative! While both of these cards are incredibly powerful, they’re also 2 Command points each, so I don’t recommend pulling them up with Channel The Force.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano Ally Packs have provided two other Command cards to supplement these choices: Force Push allows you to pick a small figure (friend or foe) and push them up to 2 spaces – great for getting an ally into position (especially if they have a lightsaber) or moving a hostile figure out of position (like keeping a figure from controlling a Terminal). The A Powerful Influence Command Card allows you to focus on the control game and keeps hostile figures from counting for the purpose of control around one of your figures (or interact with stuff), which is really, REALLY powerful in certain scenarios where VPs can be claimed by interacting with neutral mission tokens or Terminals. 

There are six Jedi characters (technically seven since there are two versions of Luke) available to the Rebels and most of the Command cards associated with these figures are fantastic. While none of these cards can be pulled up by Channel The Force, they will compete for Command point space with your other Force User cards. In the Core Set, you get Diala’s Sarlaac Sweep – this is one of the few cards that allows you to perform multiple attacks and is best used after you use Meditation in conjunction with Pummel (prepare for four swings bad guys!). You also get Son of Skywalker, which is an expensive but simple Command card to allow Luke to go twice during a game round (which is awesome for recovering damage with non-Jedi Luke OR doing lots of damage with Jedi Luke). Davith Elso’s Vanish Command card is great for making sure he doesn’t take damage in a given round and then high-tailing it to escape retribution afterwards.

The Leia Organa Ally Pack gives you the There Is Another Command card, which not only allows Leia to be a Force User for the turn (why we’re talking about her in the first place here) and gives her a free Surge, which means you can fetch a Command card you’ve already used (like one of those Force User ones you wish to get with Channel The Force) back into your Command deck. Ahsoka Tano’s Right Back At Ya! Command card is a great way to do damage to a figure who attacks you – making any figure close to death wary of attacking you.

Finally, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s I Must Go Alone Command card is highly situational but can make you immune to long-range attacks (which is helpful early in the game when the maneuver game is important OR late in the game when figures are being chased across the board). While inexpensive (1 Command point), I don’t recommend taking it – it’s very niche and generally speaking it’s okay if Kenobi dies (focusing one of your power hitters after all).

Imperial/Mercenary Force User Cards: Give In To Your Anger!

If there’s anything that typifies Imperial Force User cards, it’s the word “Damage.” Imperial cards are very, VERY offensive focused and are incredibly painful. They’re also very expensive (many are 3 Command points), which makes drawing them with Channel The Force a bad plan (especially since none of your figures can Recover Damage when attacking). In the Core Set, this is evidenced by the Force Lightning and Lure of the Dark Side Command cards. Hey, want to borrow that Jedi that you’re fighting for a moment? Lure of the Dark Side is your friend. Want to mass apply Stun and do a little Damage while you’re at it? Force Lightning! It’s straight-forward, simple offense.

Thanks to the Grand Inquisitor and Emperor Palpatine Villain Packs, Imperial Force User lists also have access to the Deadly Precision and Dark Energy Command cards, both of which are blissfully cheap and make your offensive game even better by allowing you to ignore Dodge results and pushing/lightly damaging a hostile small figure nearby respectively. While the previous two Command cards were not worth pulling up with Channel The Force, these ones definitely are worth it – especially Deadly Precision since it doesn’t require a Strain.

The Imperial/Mercenary Force User unique cards are also great: Lord of the Sith allows Darth Vader to wade through enemy units with ease – and this card is made even better now he can receive the Driven by Hatred skirmish upgrade. The Emperor’s Unlimited Power Command card is a little less impressive – it extends the range of his Emperor power (anywhere on the board is a nice bonus), making the ability more niche and less damaging. In a Sith deck (where you have few figures and they’re not likely to be close together), it’s kind of nice. The Grand Inquisitor’s Hunt Them Down card is beastly – adding an automatic Accuracy 2 + Cleave 2 is literally a killer.  Finally, Maul can use the Wreak Vengeance Command card, boosting his special attack power by giving him Focus AND Reach AND Cleave 2. For only 1 Command point, you want it. Every time.

Sample List: The Last Of The Jedi

Deployment Cards:

·         Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion

·         Ahsoka Tano

·         Obi-Wan Kenobi

·         Diala Passil

·         Davith Elso

·         Channel the Force

·         Balance of the Force

Command Cards:

·         Force Jump

·         Force Rush

·         Force Surge

·         I Can Feel It

·         Knowledge and Defense

·         Meditation

·         Pummel x2

·         Recovery

·         Right Back At Ya!

·         Sarlaac Sweep

·         Son of Skywalker

·         Telekinetic Throw

·         Urgency

·         Vanish

I should note before we begin that we couldn’t get Jedi Luke into this list and still get Channel The Force without losing one of our other Jedi. Since we’re looking at Channel The Force in particular, we’re keeping regular Luke (besides, he can Recover 2). I’d recommend the following priority for picking cards – and I’ll also recommend that you not pick up any other Force User cards with Channel The Force:

·         I Can Feel It (0 Strain)

·         Telekinetic Throw (1 Strain)

·         Force Rush (0 Strain)

·         Force Jump (1 Strain)

So I know what you’re thinking: why not pick a card like Meditation or Force Surge with Channel The Force? I can Recover 2 with Diala or Luke – isn’t it worth it? Not really – here’s why: you can pull up a 2-3 Command point card if you want to, but if you pull up a 0-1 point card instead, you’re still working through your deck and you don’t need to spend your Recover surge to just get back to where you were before you used Channel The Force. Health is the most valuable asset to any Jedi army – almost all the Jedi roll White die which basically take all the damage they’re given (unless they get a Dodge). By getting a cheaper card that’s not as great as one of the higher cost ones, you save your team the valuable health it would cost to get that card (and you don’t want to discard up to 2 cards from the top of your Command deck just to get it sooner rather than later, right?).

Once you’ve picked these four, I recommend you not use the Channel The Force skirmish upgrade and instead rely on drawing cards normally. That being said, there will probably be a case where getting a Meditation, Force Surge, or Knowledge and Defense is worth it – if that’s the case, you can always take the chance and risk the damage.

This concludes (for now at least) this series on Command cards – while I may pick this up again in the future, I think I’ve exhausted the interesting cases for Command cards. For the full list of posts in this series (and others), look at our Getting Started page! If you have ideas (or cards you’d like to see evaluated), leave a comment on this post – or any of the posts in the series. Lest you think we’re out of content, next week we’ll be starting a new Friday series dedicated to creating your own short campaign, using the template provided to us in the Twin Shadows and Bespin Gambit expansions. For the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at campaigns you can run with the skirmish missions you already have to allow you to skip playing that one campaign you’ve played too much and instead get new and exciting adventures. It should be great - until then, happy gaming!

Character review: Vinto Hreeda

In this series on splash characters, we've looked at Gaarkhan, the King of Cleave, and Fenn Signis, the Prince of Blast. Today, we're looking at Vinto Hreeda, who doesn't have any rules that Cleave or Blast, but instead does damage to a figure other than his target whenever he damages someone in an attack (or as he's running or whoever is nearby when he gets the inkling to start shooting). Vinto is different from both of these characters in that the splash damage comes as a result of doing the things you want to do - it doesn't detract from the power of your attacks or require you to attack extra times.

Vinto Hreeda: Maximum Damage or Maximum Attacks?

Vinto's upgrade cards tend to encourage him to do one of two things: make the primary attack he's performing do more damage (Merciless is the cornerstone example) or deal a small amount of damage to a different target (Shot On The Run is one of many examples). It's important to note that Vinto does both direct damage and indirect damage very well. Since Vinto always has Boltslinger, you can do off-hand damage to anyone simply by attacking - you don't need other ways to do small amounts of damage to a bunch of people.
When picking your upgrades (and weapons), however, you want to determine which kind of character you want to do. If you want to focus on doing a lot of damage to one target (and a little off-hand damage is nice), then focus your upgrades on direct damage. If you want to spray lots of people (finishing off lots of people OR preparing them to be finished off by someone else or by you during the next round), focus your upgrades on indirect damage. With this dichotomy in mind, let's look at a few weapon builds.

End-Game Weapon #1 - Don't Stop Firing: DDC Defender with Under-Barrel HH-4 and Off-Hand Blaster

Ok, let's get this out of the way from the get-go: I don't like Vinto's starting blaster: the Hair-Trigger Pistol has a Yellow-Blue attack pool that is unreliable at doing damage AND you can only turn your Surge into a single Damage AND you don't get to choose to reroll a particular die - you must reroll all of them. For 550 credits (the most expensive pistol at Tier 1), you can instead get the DDC Defender though: this weapon plays to Vinto's strategy of maximizing Boltslinger because you can turn both of your actions into 3 attacks! With a Green-Yellow combo (a more reliable attack pool for damage), you can get the required Damage 1 past a Black die reliably (and if you fail, just pick up Pinpoint Shot for 1 XP). To add to the power of this weapon, we've attached the Under-Barrel HH-4, since we're shooting (literally) for Damage being dealt to the not-target of the attack - what's better than getting more out of Boltslinger by spraying more people!
With 1-3 Accuracy from the Green die, at least 1 Accuracy from the Yellow die (thanks to surging abilities), an additional 1 Accuracy from the Sharpshooter upgrade , and 1 Accuracy provided by the Under-Barrel HH-4, you're guaranteed 4 Accuracy (which will reach everyone you can hit with Boltslinger). To get the most out of this, you'll want to alternate between moving/resting on one turn and attacking twice on the next turn (though if you stand near a deployment zone, you can get multiple turns of just shooting off...just saying).
Now while this is fun, why not attack a FOURTH time by Straining with the Off-Hand Blaster for 3 XP! I generally don't think this upgrade is worth it, but come on - attack FOUR TIMES! You can pump up your damage even more by picking up Rapid Fire, which not only allows you to reroll all the dice (attack and defense) every time you attack (like, if you're not going to wound the guy), but also allows you to Strain once to damage every hostile figure within 4 spaces (thanks to Sharpshooter). Provided you're healthy, you can use Thread The Needle to ignore figures in your way, so everyone within 4 spaces takes...well...a lot of damage. :)

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Sharpshooter (2), Off-Hand Blaster (3), Rapid Fire (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 - Point Blank: Hand Cannon with Plasma Cell

Though Vinto can do a lot of indirect damage, he can also be played in the other extreme: do damage directly (which makes it more likely that you'll get Boltslinger damage whenever you attack - that's not bad). Generally speaking, when you're looking for direct damage against someone, you turn towards Red die, so in my mind we need turn no further than the Hand Cannon (available at Tier 1) and the Plasma Cell (available at Tier 2). The Hand Cannon was released with the Jabba's Realm expansion (along with Vinto), so it seems to me that it BEGS him using it. :)
The Hand Cannon gives you 1 Accuracy automatically and gives you TWO Red dice in your attack pool (this has only been rivaled in the melee world by the Polearm, though the 434 Deathhammer gives you nearly the equivalent amount of damage - you could upgrade to this if you wanted). The caution with Red-Red attack pools as I've seen is that Red dice are unreliable. Most of the time you'll get 2-3 Damage off of them, but you won't surge very often (and most weapons rely on Surge to compensate for what isn't showing up on the dice results). The Hand Cannon has no Surge abilities on it and with the Plasma Cell, you can turn your maximum 2 Surge (rare occurrence) into Damage 1 + Recover Strain (which isn't bad). With the Plasma Cell tacked onto the weapon, you can reliably get Damage 6 + Pierce 1, though you want to count on getting Damage 4 + Pierce 1 (an occasionally Damage 2-3). With our goal being the breaking of an opponent's defense results, this is about as good as it's going to get.
One caution with this approach (and why you want want to consider getting the Deathhammer): you only get 1 Accuracy (though you can get +2 Accuracy if you're willing to sacrifice 1 Damage). As powerful as this combo can be (and inexpensive - 850 credits is pretty cheap overall), you need to be right up against your target in order to blast him. To supplement your base damage, I recommend picking up Merciless - effectively adding a Red die to your attack results which gives you (wait for it) THREE Red dice for your attack (with a static Pierce 2 and the guy needs to already have sustained some damage)...yes, it's painful. To back this up, I also recommend picking up Dead On, which can be used to augment either direct or indirect damage. Finally, I recommend picking up Pinpoint Shot (it's just a good upgrade) and Battlefield Experience, since getting a reroll on one of your Red die is better than having to scrub the whole thing with Rapid Fire.

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Battlefield Experience (2), Dead On (3), Merciless (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 - Give Me Some Options: Sporting Blaster with Charged Ammo Pack

While you can focus Vinto on doing lots of indirect damage (through Blast or special rules) or you could focus him on doing direct damage, there's another build you can do with Vinto: a little bit of both. In a balanced build, Vinto can do decent direct damage AND decent indirect damage, allowing him to assist in the more technical objectives of the scenario (instead of focusing on spending actions for attacks. To do this, we're using the Sporting Blaster - a great T3 weapon that generates a TON of surge. We've decided to put the Charged Ammo Pack on this weapon because it allows you to turn even more of the surge into (potential) damage and makes it more likely that you can get at least 1 Damage to trigger Boltslinger. The idea with this build, however, is that you only shoot once (and when you do, you clear the figure that you're targeting. Your other action should be spent moving (doing indirect damage with Shot On The Run) or resting/interacting/whatever else you need to do in the scenario.
I've decided in this build to focus on the cheap upgrades - increased Speed/Endurance with Shot On The Run and Battlefield Experience (the first helping you with indirect damage in addition to the speed, while the other gives you a coveted reroll on your Yellow-Yellow-Blue in addition to the Endurance), the ability to turn any attack result into damage (so long as you get the required accuracy) with Pinpoint Shot, and boosting your overall Accuracy (for direct and indirect fire) with Sharpshooter. For only 6 XP, you can get a character build that's good at anything, freeing you up to use the rest of your XP on whatever you want - any of the others will help deal a little more damage, so take your pick!
It's important to note that because the Sporting Blaster doesn't arrive until Tier 3, you might want something else to tide you over through the early missions. I highly recommend picking up a weapon as early as possible (I don't like Vinto's gun - have I mentioned that before?) - my favorite choice is the Charge Pistol. The Charge Pistol rolls a reliable green-green for its attack pool with an automatic 1 Accuracy, making you automatically hit adjacent Hidden figures OR non-Hidden figures within 3 spaces. Maximum damage is 4 (which is good enough to get a damage past a Black die - which is all you need to use Boltslinger) AND you can surge for Damage 1 (giving you a 58% chance of getting 3-4 damage).

Upgrades to purchase – 6 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Shot On The Run (1), Battlefield Experience (2), Sharpshooter (2)

Vinto Hreeda in the Skirmish Game

Vinto is a fantastic character in the skirmish game: unlike characters with Assault (e.g. Fenn Signis, IG-88, E-Web Engineers) or Brutality (like Darth Vader), Vinto can spend a single action to perform 2 attacks - which not only allows him to move and shoot in one round, but also allows him to make two attacks (which has HUGE tactical benefits). Vinto also retains his Boltslinger ability, so he can spray little pricks of damage to nearby foes that he's not targeting - great for polishing off people who weren't killed by your friends.
As both a Smuggler and a Hunter, you can get a lot out of your Command deck to make him even better - Smuggled Supplies, Assassinate, Tools for the Job, and On The Lam are great for Vinto (either for boosting his damage or keeping him alive). Thanks to Saska Teft, you can actually add Vinto to your favorite Rebel Smuggler lists too. While you don't have very many Hunter choices for the Rebels, you do have Biv Bodhrick and Alliance Rangers - using them to provide some damage to your favorite Smuggler team wouldn't be bad OR just run plenty of Alliance Rangers and you can go with a predominantly Hunter team (and whether you use Hunters or Smugglers, you can use all those beautiful Command cards mentioned above).

This concludes our series in "splash" characters - highlighting some of the stuff you can do with Cleave, Blast, and Special Abilities that do indirect damage to your opponents. Our next character review will be an interlude as we change gears from indirect damage to direct damage via blaster fire by examining Drokkatta (who has weapons designed for Blast, but doesn't actually NEED to Blast). Until then, happy gaming!

Skirmish upgrades: using Smuggler's Run

Good morning gamers,

We’ve already examined the On a Diplomatic Mission skirmish upgrade which can give Rebel skirmish lists an extra VP each round if the leader that bears the skirmish card doesn’t attack. Today, we’re going to look at my second favorite Rebel skirmish card: Smuggler’s Run. This upgrade must be attached to a Trooper and provides special actions for that Trooper squad. 

Requirements for Finalists:

This skirmish upgrade obviously requires that the person attached to it must be a smuggler, but there are other synergies that separate a few characters from the rest of the rabble-rousing smuggler pack:

• Since you need to get to your opponent’s deployment zone, how fast are you (and can you get extra movement in a pinch)?
• Because you’ll be running (in one way or another) towards an opposing character’s deployment zone, how survivable are you?
• Are there better skirmish attachments for the character that might preclude attaching this one?

These kinds of questions as a group will necessarily eliminate certain characters from consideration – Han Solo, for example, is average speed and very survivable but might be better served with the Rogue Smuggler attachment instead of Smuggler’s Run (so as much as I love him, he won’t be a contender). Jabbathe Hutt (allied in with Saska Teft) is pretty survivable but isn’t fast (and probably better served with On a Diplomatic Mission – see our previous post). Greedo and the Hired Guns (either can be allied in with Saska Teft) are fast and don’t have better skirmish attachments available but aren’t that survivable. All this to say, if you don’t see your favorite character here, it’s not because they’re not good or you couldn’t make it work – it’s that others are better choices overall.

Bronze Medal: Vinto Hreeda
Leading us off today is Vinto Hreeda – available to Rebel lists via Saska Teft. Vinto is gifted with a carte blanche right to attack twice for a single action (with his usual boltslinger rule from the campaign game). For more info on Vinto, read our post on him. Vinto ranks third on the list because for 5 points, he’s got 8 health (albeit defended with a  White die), can gain Hide (making it harder to hit him), and he’s Speed 5 and incentivized to move for at least one of them (because he has nothing else to do). Vinto’s speed allows him to quickly race across the board (shooting low-health figures as he runs), clearing out a path to the enemy zone quickly.

While Vinto is great at what he does, he isn’t very survivable – 8 health + White die + Hide only last for so long, so be sure to back him (and it’s best if he comes sailing in after other figures have already done some damage so he can polish people off with Boltslinger). While Vinto himself doesn’t cost very much, you do need to include Saska as well, increasing the total cost of this pairing to 13 points – one third of your army is wrapped up in getting you 5 VPs. It’s probably still worth it, but the expense does work against Vinto here.

Silver Medal: Elite Alliance Smuggler
Smuggler’s Run comes in the Alliance Smuggler Ally Pack, so I felt I needed to give proper appreciation for what you can do with the Alliance Smuggler. Let’s get one thing ironed out at the get-go: Alliance Smugglers (both Regular and Elite) are a great way to increase both the body count and the Deployment card count of any Rebel army. At 2-4 points per figure, you can get a whopping 6 figures (maximum 4 Regular + 2 Elite) for only 16 points, leaving you plenty of space to purchase whatever else you want. All Alliance Smugglers benefit from a static -2 Accuracy penalty to attacks made against them and get some free Movement points afterwards (making it very, VERY hard to hit them).

Don’t forget to include Camouflage to get the most out of him – begin your run once you have this card in hand so you can make yourself Hidden when attacked and make it all but impossible to hit you (that’s defense you can’t buy)! Ideally you also want to include On the Lam – which is great for making sure you get away from melee figures who won’t be affected by your accuracy penalties. All told, for 5 points, you can get an Elite Alliance Smuggler with Smuggler’s Run and score 5 VPs – not bad. But while the Alliance Smuggler is quite powerful, there is one Smuggler who takes the gold from him today…

Gold Medal: Jyn Odan

Jyn Odan is one of the original six playable characters in Imperial Assault and as such, she is awesome. J Jyn costs 5 points to use in the skirmish game (so a tad higher than the Alliance Smuggler) but is also a little healthier and has Cunning. With a White die having a 50% chance of getting an Evade, this means that half the time she defends herself, she’ll get 1-2 Block and 1 Evade – which is usually enough to make sure she doesn’t take very much damage. In addition to the free Block, Jyn can gain 2 movement points for each Evade she gets – which means you can get the 2 movement points the Alliance Smuggler gets half the time too.

What sets Jyn above the Alliance Smuggler is the sheer amount of movement you can get out of Jyn if you want it. Consider the following Smuggler team:

•          Jyn Odan with Smuggler’s Run
•         Han Solo
•         C-3PO
•         Saska Teft
•         Jabba the Hutt with On a Diplomatic Mission
•      Elite Alliance Smuggler x2

If Jyn stands adjacent to both C-3PO and Han Solo (note that Han doesn’t have the Rogue Smuggler skirmish upgrade), Jyn benefits from not one but TWO FREE EVADES each time she defends. This means that even if she gets the blank face on the White die, she’ll get 2 Block + 2 Evade + 4 movement points. The rest of the time she’ll either add 1 Block, 1 Block + 1 Evade, 2 Block + 1 Evade, or 1 Dodge to the defense results – any of which will clobber pretty much any 2 die combo you face. At the end of the attack, you’re looking at 4-6 movement points, which is basically a free move! If you go next, you can spend your first action moving and your next action scoring the 5 VPs. Of course, after she leaves her defense buffs in the dust, you run the risk of losing her, but at that point she’s already paid for herself…

In our next post, we'll be returning to the Mercenary skirmish upgrades and be looking at Prey On The Weak - a simple skirmish upgrade that can turn any Bounty Hunter into a powerful piece on the board. Until then, happy gaming!

Command cards: getting the most out of Endless Reserves

Ever since I started playing Imperial Assault, I’ve loved General Weiss. He’s expensive to be sure – second only to Darth Vader – but he’s fantastic. General Weiss has the ability to choose his attack pool based on the situation he needs: with a little automatic accuracy, you can often use a Red-Red-Green attack pool if you want straight-up damage at close range OR you can run a Blue-Blue-Green if you need to reach out and touch someone really, REALLY far away (automatic hit at 7 spaces away, reliably 9-10 spaces away). If you want to Blast 3 (which is AWESOME!), you can do that pretty well with a Green-Green-Yellow – you get the picture: flexibility!

One of the other advantages of taking Weiss in your army is that you can keep your figures on the board longer via his Command card Endless Reserves. This Command Card is one of my favorites – from a collector’s point of view, it helps you keep the Trooper models you bring to the fight on the table longer. Unlike the Reinforcements Command cards, there isn’t a figure cost associated with this card – you just need to have a figure from the group still alive.

Requirements For Candidates – Endless Reserves

The Empire has many Trooper choices in its arsenal, but there are a few that stand out more than the others. When choosing good candidates to accompany Weiss, there are a few requirements for “the best” figures to include:

·         High health – your last figure in the group needs to be able to last until General Weiss’ next activation;

·         Multiple figures – while having high health is great, having two or three figures in the squad is required to use Endless Reserves. Having three figures allows you to leave one figure behind and have two in the field – which is basically the same as having both figures in a two-man squad in the field but without the need to keep either of them alive;

·         Synergies with Weiss – let’s face it: if you’re going to have General Weiss along, it wouldn’t hurt to bring Troopers where were also Heavy Weapons, Vehicles, or Leaders.

With all this said, let’s look at our finalists…

Bronze Medal: Elite Stormtrooper

Since the Core game was released, we’ve all had our fair share of loathing for Elite Stormtroopers (and in early missions, regular Stormtroopers can be a pain too). Elite Stormtroopers not only have the ability to reroll an attack die, but they can become Focused if you kill off one of their friends. While they don’t share any synergies with General Weiss, they do provide numbers to your army, great firepower, and can be regrown easily with Reinforcements OR Endless Reserves, which allows the surviving Stormtroopers to become Focused AND you get one of their fallen comrades back. It’s awesome.

Gold Medal: Elite Heavy Stormtrooper

I have to say, I’ve always liked these guys. Both Regular and Elite Heavy Stormtroopers are amazing – Heavy Weapon upgrades are excellent, these guys have lots of health, a Red-Blue attack combo, bonus defense when being shot at from far away, and are only marginally slower than other infantry figures. While these guys only have two figures in their group, they work better with General Weiss and any non-vehicle units you choose to synergize with him. Want to include some E-Web Engineers and make it a Heavy Weapon list? Don’t forget your Heavy Stormtrooper to support them. Want to use regular (or even Elite) Stormtroopers? Don’t forget their heavier cousins. These guys are fantastic AND are some of the only infantry figures available to the Empire to have Blast – cheap Blast shouldn’t be overlooked (especially when you have options like Explosive Weaponry to add to your list). While Heavy Stormtroopers are fantastic, they only get the silver today because they were eclipsed by…

Gold Medal: Elite Jet Trooper

Perhaps the thing I like the most about the Jabba’s Realm expansion is that it gave us Jet Troopers. Vehicles on the whole in Imperial Assault are expensive – you can spend almost all your cash on General Weiss, an AT-ST, and an AT-DP. Jet Troopers provide us with cheap Vehicle options – and since Vehicle cards tend to be defensive in nature, it gives you the ability to do wonders with them. If you purchase the General Weiss Villain pack, you also get the amazing Command card Overrun, which is not that great for Massive figures (as you need to end your movement when you step on someone), but it’s great for Jet Troopers (we'll talk about this more in a bit). Elite Jet Troopers also have the ability to attack with 3 dice when shooting at someone close by (and gain some extra movement afterwards).

Elite Jet Troopers have good health (regular Jet Troopers have decent health) and share Vehicle synergies with Weiss, but there are only two of them (and the Elite versions can’t be regrown with Reinforcements). Still, they pack a punch on offense and can more adeptly use the cards available to Vehicle units. And you can have a lot of them…

Sample List: The General’s Cohort

Deployment Cards:

·         General Weiss

·         Heavy Stormtrooper

·         Sentry Droid

·         Elite Jet Trooper

·         Jet Trooper

Command Cards:

·         Cruel Strike (0)

·         Deadeye (0)

·         Endless Ranks (2)

·         Heavy Ordnance (0)

·         Maximum Firepower (3)

·         Overcharged Weapons (0)

·         Overrun (2)

·         Planning (0)

·         Ready Weapons (0)

·         Reinforcements x2 (4)

·         Repair x2 (4)

·         Take Cover (0)

·         Urgency (0)

Some of the Command cards we’ve added here are intended to supplement Endless Ranks and regrow your Troopers. Reinforcements can be used on all troopers EXCEPT the Elite Jet Troopers (though you could substitute them for Elite Riot Troopers if you want to be able to use Reinforcements on all your Troopers). Endless Ranks can of course be used to regrow all of them – and it gets re-shuffled into your deck after you use it!

Since we’re running two squads of Jet Troopers and Weiss as Vehicles – as well as a squad of Droids – the addition of Repair is obvious: use some Trooper unit near any of these figures to keep the damage from accumulating too quickly. Only your Heavy Stormtroopers are unable to benefit from these cards, though you could replace Take Cover with Recover if you needed.

Some of your figures are Heavy Weapons (Weiss and Heavy Stormtroopers) – these figures are able to use Heavy Ordnance (great free card that gives you bonus damage) and Maximum Firepower (which prevents you from moving, but also helps you do a TON of damage). Generally speaking, I like Heavy Weapon cards better than Vehicle cards – they make your Heavy Weapons do even more damage.

The troopers you brought benefit from Ready Weapons, which passes out a Damage Power token to each figure in a deployment group. While this has obvious benefits for the Heavy Stormtroopers or Elite Jet Troopers, it also can compensate for the damage penalty that might be suffered during one of the two attacks by a Sentry Droid. Either way, it's a little extra damage for a 0-cost Command card.

Your Vehicles (Weiss and the Jet Troopers) benefit from both Overcharged Weapons and Overrun. Overcharged Weapons is a little tricky to use - you basically get to interrupt and perform a devastating attack at the price of exhausting your deployment card (aka you can't do anything else this turn) and you become Weakened. I highly recommend that you use Command card with a Jet Trooper team (Elite preferably) that has only one figure in it - if you are close to your target, you not only get extra movement (and an extra attack die if you're Elite), but the Weaken is not that painful since you're rolling a Black die (not that likely to get Evades as it is). 
But then you have Overrun, which is much less tricky to use. This upgrade got a HUGE boost when Jabba's Realm came out and Jet Troopers became a thing: prior to the release of Jet Troopers, all Vehicles were Massive and Massive units (according to the rules) need to stop their movement as soon as they enter a space containing a hostile figure. Overrun back then only allowed a vehicle to plunge into 1-2 figures and deal 2 Damage to each of them. The key difference with Jet Troopers is this:

Jet Troopers aren't Massive - they're Mobile.

If a Jet Trooper squad (ideally two of them are active) plays Overrun at the start of their activation, they can perform a move (Speed 4 Mobile) and perform an attack against a figure within 2 spaces, which gives them 2 additional movement points. This allows them to move over 6 spaces with up to 4 of them being over hostile figures. While you can't deal more than 2 Damage to a figure via Overrun in a given activation, you have two guys - so you can potentially run over 4 hostile figures and deal 4 Damage to each of them AND SHOOT TWICE (ideally with 3 attack die if you're using Elite Jet Troopers). I will say that this becomes even more painful if you use Urgency as well (which ups your speed by 2).
For your other units, we've included other niche upgrades - Planning (which we've talked about a lot - it's best used by General Weiss), Cruel Strike (great way to get more of your surge translated into damage of a kind - best used by Jet Troopers), Deadeye (great way to add a little Accuracy to an attack - especially if you can't surge for Accuracy, best used by General Weiss and Heavy Stormtroopers), and Take Cover (good little pip of defense to keep your soldiers alive - best on Jet Troopers who can convert that free Block to an Evade if necessary). All told, this is a powerful deck with lots of survivability and firepower - I like it a lot. :)

In our next post, we’ll be wrapping up our series on Command cards and look at Force User options – specifically within the context of the Channel The Force Skirmish Upgrade. But it’ll be good. Until then, happy gaming!

Character review: Fenn Signis

When you think about Star Wars, perhaps your mind is drawn to iconic figures like Darth Vader, Han Solo, or Princess Leia in a gold bikini. Perhaps you like the sleek look of Imperial gray, mixed with hardened armor in black and white. To me, I've always liked the rag-tag look of Rebel brown. There's something about the look - simple home-spun, well-worn, and frankly not innately impressive. This look (to me) brings out the character of the person wearing it and draws you to the person, not the image of the person. Nowhere is this more typified in Imperial Assault than in Fenn Signis.

Fenn is a soldier - he's not a commander, his uniform isn't clean, and he isn't sent to meetings. He's sent to fight - and to assist a team of special commandos to fight the Empire wherever he's needed. Beneath his simple appearance is one of the most versatile characters that has ever been released in Imperial Assault (and he came out in the Core Set). Today we're continuing our Splash character review series that we started with a review of Gaarkhan and continuing with his Core-Set-Comrade Fenn. 

Fenn Signis: Just Give Me A Weapon

Fenn Signis begins with one of the worst weapons in the game: while I did say last week that Blue-Green combos are reliable, their damage output is very, VERY limited. Unlike last week’s post, Fenn’s Infantry Rifle doesn’t surge for 2 Damage and as a result the damage output is really, REALLY bad. For 400 credits (350 if you trade in your Infantry Rifle), you can purchase the E-11 which gives you the same attack pool but with better surge abilities (but we’ll talk about that later).

The reason Fenn is one of the best offensive characters in the game isn’t because of his starter weapon – it’s because of his upgrades. One of his cheapest upgrades is Weapons Expert, which allows you to Strain to add Pierce 1 and Accuracy 2 to your attack results. Since there isn’t an exhaust on this item, you can just keep using it over and over and over again – a great way for getting past your target’s defenses and deal all the damage you roll to your attacker.

Fenn also has Trench Fighter, which allows you to exhaust the card (different from Weapons Expert) to add 2 Damage to the attack results – which can basically add another attack die to your results. Trench Fighter’s downside is that it does require you to be close – not bad if you’re attacking with a short-range weapon (like a melee weapon or a pistol), but not as universally applicable as Weapons Expert.

Besides these two upgrades, Fenn has other upgrades that allow you to capitalize on his Havoc Shot skill or make him more defensive/mobile. For 7 XP, you can purchase Rebel Elite and Suppressive Fire which increases his collateral damage from Blast 1 to Blast 2 (in addition to upping his Health and Endurance) and allowing you to Stun (or do extra damage to) those you hurt in your attack. It’s an expensive combo, but very, VERY effective. In contrast, for 7 XP you can purchase Take Cover, Adrenaline Rush, and Superior Positioning, which can allow you to add a White die to your defense pool, recover Strain after taking damage, and add a free Block result while Focused (and allow you to become Focused too). The Focus not only boosts your defense, but also helps your next attack (or help you pass that Strength check to recover Strain with Adrenaline Rush).

What all this comes down to is…

It doesn’t matter what weapon Fenn has – he’ll make it work.

With this in mind, let’s look at a few weapon builds for Fenn…

End-Game Weapon #1 – Hardened Tank Mode: DLT-19 with Sniper Scope

The DLT-19 is the upgraded version of the Tatooine Hunting Rifle (THR) – you can purchase this weapon at Tier 1 to benefit from this build early (though it’s a lot more limited). The DLT-19 is less expensive than other long-range weapons (like the Pulse Cannon or DXR-6) but because it can allow the hero to gain Focus for 2 Surge, it can always have 4 attack die. With the Sniper Scope, you really only need 1 Surge on your Blue-Blue-Green-Green combo (which will always give you at least 6 Accuracy and more likely 9 Accuracy, so trigger that Sniper Scope man!). Any additional surge can be turned into damage (up to 2) or can be used to Recover Strain. With the THR, the strategy is a little different - I recommend you take the Tactical Display and save as quickly as you can for Superior Positioning (which can Focus you before you shoot should you fail to do that in your previous shot). The THR with the Tactical Display is relatively inexpensive as far as Tier 1 weapon combos go and you’ll only need to pay ~1000 credits more to upgrade both weapon and upgrade to their end-game status (which you’ll have all of the Tier 2 missions to generate the cash).

This plays heavily to the defensive build for Fenn – your goal is to always become Focused, reducing your offensive power a little bit to increase your defensive capabilities (free Block result while Focused). You can further supplement your defensive game by taking Take Cover, which allows you to roll the coveted Black-White defense die combo (with a free Block while Focused!). By the way, while Adrenaline Rush is a great way to regain some Strain after being shot, be careful to use it after the last figure before your activation attacks you – you don’t want to lose that Focus on a Strength check before being shot by someone else!

Upgrades to purchase - 7-9 XP: Take Cover (1), Weapons Expert (2), Superior Positioning (4), OPTIONAL: Adrenaline Rush (2)

End-Game Weapon #2 – Double-Wielder: E-11 with Charged Ammo Pack and Spread Barrel and Vibro Knucklers

In my first campaign as the IP, one of my good mates (and fellow contributor on this blog) ran Fenn with the BD-1 Vibro-Ax (I think he may have had a blaster too, but he didn’t favor it). It was during that campaign that a few things dawned on me: first, neither Weapons Expert nor Trench Fighter require that the weapon be a ranged weapon (though admittedly the Accuracy on a melee weapon isn’t very useful). So obviously I’d be remiss if I didn’t hint at melee builds you can run with Fenn. In today’s post, we’re going to make the assumption that you’ll be limited to 1000-1200 credits (normal for either a short/long campaign that doesn’t feature Generous Donations).

For our blaster, we’ve chosen the E-11 – as I mentioned above, it’s the upgraded version of Fenn’s Infantry Rifle. Where Fenn’s starter weapon can surge for Damage 1 or Accuracy 1 (and has 1 mod slot), the E-11 can surge for Damage 2 and Accuracy 2 (and has 2 mod slots). For 400 credits, it’s a bargain if you’re not anticipating getting a lot of Surge. For other characters, getting this weapon to do enough damage can be tough, but between Trench Fighter (if you’re within 3 spaces) and Weapons Expert, that’s not hard for Fenn. So long as you’re attacking within 3 spaces, the Spread Barrel will allow you to tack on an additional damage (that’s 3 Damage from the Spread Barrel and Trench Fighter), allowing you to bust through double-Black-defense-pools as well. While attacking this close, you really don’t need the Accuracy surge option from the E-11, so we’ve included the Charged Ammo Pack, which allows you to surge for a power token even if you can’t damage the target.

Of course if you’re able to get close enough to your opponent, you can maul him with the Vibro Knucklers – you might want to buy Tactical Movement to help with this. I’ve talked about this weapon choice before with Saska, but Fenn uses them as they’re supposed to be used: you have the ability to gain up to 3 Surge with these weapons but unfortunately the damage output will only be decent, not great (Damage 3-4 + Pierce 2 + Cleave 2 + Bleed). Fenn allows you to get far more out of these weapons not because he allows you to get all the Surge you want out of it (like Saska does), but because with his Weapons Expert and Trench Fighter upgrades. You don’t need to get Damage 2 or Pierce 2 from the weapon – it’s nice if you do, but it’s not necessary. Since this is a Tier 2 weapon, you can get the Armored Gauntlets at Tier 1 if you want – they’re not as good (see the post on Saska for more info), but they can surge for Damage 2 (which is pretty good for a Tier 1 weapon).

For 1200 credits, the total amount you’re spending on these two weapons isn’t going to break the bank for you or your allies. One other benefit: because we only needed 3 of our upgrades to make this combo work, we can save all our other XP for other things we like (like Rebel Elite or Suppressive Fire). I should note that there are other weapons (the Polearm, for example) that could generate more damage than the Vibro Knucklers. I’ve included the Vibro Knucklers because they’re relatively cheap and you’re already spending a bit of cash on your blaster. You could pick up some extra cash by purchasing the DH-17 instead of the E-11, but that's your choice.

Upgrades to purchase - 6 XP: Tactical Movement (1), Weapons Expert (2), Trench Fighter (3)

End-Game Weapon #3 – Blast Everything: DL-44 with Sniper Scope and Under-Barrel HH-4

Okay, okay – when I talked up Fenn last week, I said he was a Blasting guy so it’s about time I talk about a Blasting build. Yes, with Rebel Elite you can get Blast 2 twice per round (more often if you talk nicely to Gideon or Murne) which is not shabby at all, but let’s get to that elusive Blast 3 that can clear whole basic units in a single fell blow (and most other units in two fell blows). To do this we will need the Under-Barrel HH-4 (the only non-character-specific upgrade with any Blast ability) and…the DL-44!

I know the DL-44 is a Tier 1 weapon, but I like it a lot. While certain characters get more out of it than Fenn does (like Jyn or Verena), of all the two-mod-slot weapons, it’s pretty effective at both getting necessary Accuracy and Surge – both of which are necessary to pull off a high Blast combo. Why are two-mod-slot weapons the only ones being considered? Because generally speaking weapons either provide you with lots of surge OR they give you lots of damage. The HH-4 is a great upgrade – 1 free Accuracy and the ability to surge for Blast 1 isn’t bad, but you still need to breach the target’s defenses. Since the DL-44 allows you to surge for Damage 2 and Damage 1 (with extra Accuracy), you can get the damage you need from this weapon if you really, REALLY need it. In addition to Weapons Expert (which can give you Pierce and Accuracy), you should be able to hit your targets from far away, allowing you to benefit from the free Surge of the Sniper Scope (which triggers your Blast, baby!) every time you attack. With this build, you can move a little, fire twice, strain some more if you need to move some more, and then recover one of your Strain at the end of your turn. Untouchable…

The upgrades for this build are pretty simple: Weapons Expert (for Pierce as well as Accuracy), Tactical Movement (so you can fire twice instead of moving and shooting – plus it’s a very useful team-helping skill), Suppressive Fire (to hurt those you damaged after all your Blasting with your weapon) and Rebel Elite (to improve the Blast of Havoc Shot and boost your Endurance – you’re going to need it). It’s a full 10 XP (pretty near max for your campaigns), but in it you have some of the best blasting damage you possibly can get. I will say that while this is a great build for Fenn, we’ll discuss better ways to get Blast damage with Drokkatta in two weeks, so if you liked today’s thoughts, stay tuned!

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Tactical Movement (1), Weapons Expert (2), Suppressive Fire (3), Rebel Elite (4)

Fenn in the Skirmish Game

We talked about Fenn Signis last week with regard to the Strength in Numbers Command card, but to recap, Fenn is one of the best Skirmish game heroes you’ll find: he’s one of a handful of figures who has Assault (allowing him to attack multiple times) and he’s got a killer range dice combo with a red-green-blue on offense. Where Fenn really shines is that he can give Assault to a friendly Trooper nearby – which originally was just Rebel Troopers (who are fantastic), but now includes even more powerful figures such as Ko-Tun Feralo (who can allow Fenn to ignore Dodge results)! 

Fenn is a dangerous foe to fight and draws agro pretty quickly from your opponent, so protecting him is a top priority. At the same time, any agro he gains guarantees there will be someone he can shoot – and they’ll probably be in range for him to attack that figure twice. Fenn’s Burst Fire Command card is also really good, basically giving you Suppressive Fire for only 2 Command points. There’s not much Fenn can’t tear through in the skirmish game (though admittedly, triggering Blast with him is harder in Skirmish than it is in the campaign).

In our next post, we’ll be wrapping up our series on collateral damage heroes by examining Vinto Hreeda. While Vinto can use Blast weapons, his ability to do off-hand damage comes predominantly from special rules. This makes his damage incredibly difficult to block (and so guarantees the damage he does against his foes more reliably than either Fenn or Gaarkhan). Until next time, happy gaming!