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Monday, March 19, 2018

Skirmish upgrades: Vader's Finest

Good morning gamers,

Last time we looked at Imperial skirmish upgrades, we examined Advanced Com Systems. Today, looking at one of the Empire's first skirmish upgrades: Vader's Finest. This upgrade must be attached to a Trooper and provides special actions for that Trooper squad. To determine our finalists today, we will be asking the following questions:
  1. How much does the model benefit from being Focused?
  2. How does gaining movement points after attacking synergize with the existing abilities on the deployment card?
I'll mention this about Vader's Finest before we begin: no matter who you attach this upgrade to, you want to bring To The Limit in your Command deck. We've discussed the card at length in a past post, here's what you can do:
-Spend two actions becoming Focused and removing a harmful condition;
-Play To The Limit to gain an additional action;
-Spend one action to perform an attack and gain two movement points;
-Become Stunned;
-Next turn; spend two actions becoming Focused and removing the Stun.
You could also choose to remove the Stun normally, which would allow you to attack with your normal attack pool and gain two movement points. Either way, you don't suffer for using To The Limit. Without further ado, let's get into it:

Bronze Medal: Stormtrooper
This card comes in the Stormtrooper Villain pack, so there might be a little obligation on my part to include it. On a purely merit-based level, Stormtroopers have a distinct advantage over other Imperial Troopers: they come in sets of three.

While numbers aren't everything, it often means the difference between keeping the card alive and losing a whole deployment card before it can activate. Stormtroopers can also force damage-heavy units (Jedi Luke, Maul, Vader) to waste damage that would have killed a more expensive Trooper - this makes little difference in the long run, but feels good for you (especially if you have the Reinforcements Command card.

The reason these guys get third prize today is because there are already ways for the Elite version to become Focused and there aren't any other synergies being utilized. It's nice to be able to become Focused without having a squad mate die, but that's all they have going for them.

Silver Medal: Heavy Stormtrooper
I'll come out and say this up front: for the longest time, Heavy Stormtroopers were my favorite Imperial Trooper choice (and I still favor them when choosing open groups). Heavy Stormtroopers have a good health-to-cost ratio, a red-blue attack pool with two static accuracy, and the ability to Surge for Blast. Let's just say that they're awesome.

They're also slow. With only 3 Speed, they have problems keeping up with your other figures, but this is easily compensated but the free movement points provided by Vader's Finest. In addition, the Focus adds damage to the Heavy Stormtroopers' already impressive attack pool AND makes them more likely to get Surge results (Blast is nice when you actually get it). While it seems like the Heavy Stormtroopers might have this one in the bag, they fall today to my favorite Imperial Trooper...

Gold Medal: Elite Jet Trooper
Jet Troopers are basically the same cost as your standard vanilla Stormtrooper EXCEPT that they come in squads of two instead of squads of three (which makes the deployment cards a tad cheaper). Jet Troopers aren't as obviously lethal as Heavy Stormtroopers, but the elite version is probably the highest damage-for-cost unit available to the Empire (and certainly amongst its Trooper choices). With a green-blue-blue and the ability to surge for Damage 2 (recall what we said last week in our post on Gaarkhan about the difference in damage between dice when you can surge for Damage 2) these guys are where it's at if you ask me.

With their Fly-By rule, the Elite Jet Troopers not only get a free blue attack die, but they also get two free movement points (giving you four total with Vader's Finest). Since these guys are mobile, you get a free move out of the deal, allowing you to move, attack, and move again.

It's important to note that this free-move benefit applies to regular Jet Troopers too - while their damage output isn't as high as their elite brothers' output, it's still a decent amount of damage and you can start any skirmish mission becoming Focused to help boost your Damage even higher.

In our next post, we'll be returning to Rebel lists as we examine the Smuggler's Run upgrade. Until next time, happy gaming!

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