When I first started out in
Imperial Assault, in my first practice game I used the big walking carpet named
Gaarkhan. He’s healthier than most other figures that have been released so far, giving
him some incredible staying power (especially if he can get his furry paws on
some Laminate Armor). With two 1 XP
upgrades that can recover damage and remove harmful conditions, Gaarkhan can
stand up to a TON of punishment.
But let’s face it: most of us
don’t want to play the Wookie to take all the fire for the team (let Biv/Fenn
do that). No, we want to go axe-gleaming into the middle of a sea of enemies
and smash them all into teeny-tiny little bits. And Gaarkhan does that very,
VERY effectively. In today’s post, we begin a new series on “splash” fighters –
guys who do off-hand damage to those nearby. In Imperial Assault, there are
three different ways that this happens (and three characters who do it very,
VERY well):
·
Cleave:
melee weapon attack bonus that allows you to do damage to a figure you can also
attack (generally Cleave 1 or Cleave 2) – exemplified by Gaarkhan;
·
Blast:
range weapon attack bonus that allows you to do damage to all adjacent figures
(friendly and hostile) to the figure you are attacking (generally Blast 1,
Blast 2, or Blast 3) – exemplified by Fenn Signis; and
·
Special
Rules: a special rule (usually tied to successfully damaging an enemy
target or exhausting an upgrade card) that allows you to do damage to an enemy
figure that you didn’t attack – exemplified by Vinto Hreeda.
Just because these guys can do
splash damage this way doesn’t meant that’s all they can do. In our post today,
we’ll be looking at the Cleave-oriented Gaarkhan and see some of the ways you
can run him (some of which have little to nothing to do with Cleave). Before we
do, let’s look at some of the benefits of doing splash damage versus precision
damage.
Gaarkhan: Precision
or Splash?
Generally speaking, units in
Imperial Assault do precision damage: you pick a target, roll your dice, and
see if you can break through your opponent’s defenses. One of the benefits of
focusing on precision damage is that in order to do splash damage, you need to
actually damage the target. Gaarkhan’s Vibro-Ax (which we’ll talk about
shortly) is the only starter weapon that can Cleave – and if you put an upgrade
like the Weighted Head on it, you can get up to Cleave 4 in a single attack
(which can outright kill many basic IP units and mostly kills a bunch more). As
great as that is, you’ll be hard-pressed to get any damage against the initial
target with that much surge being dedicated to Cleaving, so you may never get
that beautiful maneuver. Instead, many players choose to focus on just doing
the damage required to break the target hostile figure’s defense and ignore
Cleave/Blast entirely.
But against certain units,
Cleave/Blast is invaluable. There’s nothing quite so hard as trying to break
through a double-Black dice defense pool (complements of Darth Vader or an
AT-ST). It’s difficult. And tedious. And you might not be able to do it. But…if
Darth Vader (or an AT-ST) is standing near someone more vulnerable (a
Stormtrooper or Probe Droid perhaps), you can walk up so that you can reach the
great Sith Lord (or armored mech) and bring your weapon down hard on the little
guy and deal some off-hand damage to the figure that’s much, MUCH hard to hurt.
All of the rerolled defense die in the world can’t shield Darth Vader from a
good Blast or Cleave assault.
While double-Black dice foes are
difficult to damage, it can also be really annoying to try to attack White die
opponents (that pesky dodge that seems to only come up when it’s the most
critical for me to thwack someone) or even worse: Black-White die opponents.
Damaging these units – especially if they have Cower – can be really, REALLY
tough. So…off-hand hit them. It works.
Blast/Cleave are tricky and
over-emphasizing your ability to Blast/Cleave is a liability. However, it has
its uses and it behooves any Rebel squad to include someone who can do it
(because you never know when you’ll need it). There are a great assortment of
weapons (or upgrades) that allow models to Cleave (though Blast/special
abilities are pretty rare), so in today’s post we’re only going to touch on a
few. No matter which Cleave weapon you choose, though, Gaarkhan can put it to
good use. With that, let’s look at some builds you can run…
There are a handful of heroes who
have good starter weapons – some you can run with for a while (either because
they’re so-so or because the figure doesn’t need to attack very often), but
Gaarkhan’s weapon is particularly good. Red-Yellow attack dice pools are very
strong, though occasionally unreliable: the Yellow will trigger those surge
abilities you want (often supplying you with Surge in excess of your opponent’s
Evade results), while the Red does straight-up damage. To supplement Gaarkhan’s
base weapon are his two 4 XP skills which are easily the best skills he has: Unstoppable boosts his Endurance and
his Speed (increasing the potency of his Charge skill and reducing the impact of the constant Straining). In addition, should
you be reckless with him, Gaarkhan can become even stronger on the attack when
he gets wounded (take that Bucketheads)!
Paired with Unstoppable is Brutal Cleave, which is a simple way of
turning an attack action into two attacks – very useful for either a precision
weapon focus OR for attacking someone you almost killed with Cleave (two birds
for the price of one action). A Brutal Cleave used right after a Charge action
will result in basically two free actions – a free move and a free attack. All
for the low-low price of 3 Strain…totally worth it.
While Gaarkhan’s base weapon
allows him to Cleave/Pierce 1, it doesn’t do precision that effectively (nor
does it Cleave particularly well). To supplement the precision problem, we’ve
chosen to take the High Impact Guard
(in large part because of the surge for Damage 2, but also because that free
Block you can get can help you take exactly 3 damage from an enemy attack so
that you just barely become Focused. If you’re blessed and come across some Laminate Armor, you can make this even
better. You can also add Wookie Fortitude to tap for an additional Block at the
cost of 1 XP…
Those who own the Twin Shadows
expansion will know that there is little difference between the Vibro-Ax and the Gaffi Stick, which is better at the precision thanks to an
automatic Pierce 1, but lacks any Cleave ability. It’s your choice as to
whether this weapon will be a better fit for you – you’ll find it in Tier 1, so
you don’t have to wait very long in the campaign AND it will be cheap.
Upgrades to purchase - 8 XP: Unstoppable (4), Brutal Cleave
(4)
End-Game Weapon #2 - Maximum Cleave: Double Vibrosword with Balanced Hilt
While the Vibro-Ax can deal some
Cleave damage, it’s primarily a precision weapon. The Double Vibrosword,
however, is a very different kind of weapon – it’s emphasis is on Cleave. With
a surge for Cleave 2 option, it’s pretty easy to see that you’ll do a bunch of
damage to those nearby if you can just get a surge off.
In the hands of Gaarkhan, though,
you can get a TON of damage out by using the Double Vibrosword’s strain ability
(which you can activate even if you didn’t damage your opponent). Add that to
Gaarkhan’s Rampage upgrade and you can do lots of damage to more than the usual
one person that a Cleave targets.
With Brutal Cleave as well, you
can easily perform 2 attacks each round, dealing a total of 3 splash damage
(Rampage + Charge Attack + Brutal Cleave attack) at the cost of 5 Strain (2
for Charge, 2 for the Double Vibrosword special rule, 1 for Brutal Cleave).
With Unstoppable you happen to have 5 Endurance (so I’m assuming that your
second action will be resting so you can do that again the following turn). The
Balanced Hilt (along with the Green die) gives you a reliable Cleave 2 on each
of those attacks you’re doing – and every now and again you might get away with
not resting during a particular round and getting a third attack against your
foes (if you’re able to recover 1 Strain during one of your attacks).
While you can make this build work
pretty well without any additional purchases, I highly recommend the purchase
of the Cybernetic Arm to push that
Endurance up even higher. It would also be good to play with Gideon or Murne
(who we’ll talk about in a post a LONG time from now) to relieve your Strain
generation (if you don’t want to rest). This build has a very high XP cost, so
you won’t see power-plays like this until the end of the campaign…but the
finale will be epic!
Upgrades to purchase - 11 XP: Rampage (3), Brutal Cleave (4),
Unstoppable (4)
While you can run your base weapon
for the entire game, precision damage is pretty good off the Vibrosword as
well. When I first saw this weapon, I was unimpressed – Blue-Green on a melee
weapon? Really?!?!? But that’s when it hit me…
For all their faults, Blue/Green combos are
reliable.
Red die – for all their offensive
power – don’t do that much more damage than Blue/Green die (especially if you
can surge for Damage 2…like you can with this weapon). Blue die will deal 1-3
damage if you can surge for 2 Damage, while a Green will deal 2-3 damage – both
of which are about what you expect from a Red. For all you statisticians out
there, here’s a table:
Die
Color
|
Surge:
Damage 1
|
Surge:
Damage 2
|
Red
|
2.33
|
2.50
|
Green
|
1.83
|
2.33
|
Blue
|
1.50
|
1.83
|
Even if you compare the Blue die
to the Red die, you’re looking at occasionally doing 1 less Damage off this
weapon. And that is certainly outweighed by the fact that you can Strain for
Pierce 1 as many times as you like. I thought of this weapon because of
Gaarkhan’s Vicious Strike ability,
which allows you to Strain as many times as you like to add Damage to the
attack results. I don’t like the card – I think it’s too expensive to be worth
it – but the idea is simple: let me just muscle my way past my opponent’s
defenses. In this case, you can use your remaining Strain to remove his defense
die (1-2 will do the trick), turning everything else you do into raw damage.
Your surge will be spent on
getting Damage 2 and recover Strain (if they don’t get any Evades). Recovering
that Strain in your first attack allows you to Pierce more on your second
attack (OR remove a dodge result with that Focusing Beam). Speaking of the
Focusing Beam, it plays to this strategy well, providing you with the ability to
Pierce 1 at the cost of an exhaust (instead of a Strain).
To top off this build is the Extended Haft which saves you from
having to Strain to get to an adjacent space. Since we’re not purchasing Rampage, you don’t need to end adjacent
to anyone (even to use your Charge ability). Reach saves you that Strain
(either to Pierce 1 or issue Brutal Cleave) which can often make the difference
between a decent turn and a great turn.
Upgrades to purchase – 8 XP: Brutal Cleave (4), Unstoppable
(4)
Gaarkhan in the
Skirmish Game
Obviously Gaarkhan works well with
Wookiees – the free block on Defense and multiple attacks while damaged on
Offense puts you in a huge position to mess up your enemies (plus the Charge
special action is great for action economy). Gaarkhan is the only Wookie who
can Focus himself so far, which can turn this Red-Yellow power figure into a
Red-Yellow-Green warrior (perfect for dealing lots of damage). Since he can
both Pierce 1 and Bleed on the same surge, he can also spread the love by
handing out very annoying harmful conditions that have to be dealt with quickly
in the skirmish game (health is a prized commodity for most figures).
While Gaarkhan at the head of four
squads of regular Wookiee Warriors is enough to turn any Stormtrooper’s armor
from white to yellow, don’t underestimate the helpfulness of Gaarkhan in a team
of Jedi – as a Guardian, he can give Jedi figures rerolls to their White dice
on defense via Guardian Stance (which
is very helpful in keeping them alive). Most Jedi can also only attack once
(though a pair of Pummel Command
cards is often nice), so Gaarkhan’s multi-attack capability is especially
welcome.
In whatever list you choose, Gaarkhan’s Furious Charge Command
card is a must-have – anytime you can get two activations from Gaarkhan is a
good day. With Guardian-Brawler synergies too, you can focus Gaarkhan on
dealing damage (Brawler cards) OR on protecting those around him (Guardian
cards). Take your pick – it’s great.
In our next post, we’ll be
changing gears to talk about Gaarkhan’s stalwart companion from the core set:
Fenn Signis. In that post, we’ll talk about Blast (instead of Cleave) and some
of the great work you can do with this trained soldier of the Rebellion. Until
then, happy gaming!
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