Character Review: MHD-19, Ko-Tun Feralo, and Murne Rin

We’ve completed three major groupings of characters (support characters, splash characters, and sharpshooter characters) with a minor interlude on Drokkatta who was both a splash character AND a sharpshooter. Today, we’re doing another interlude before we get into the “slasher” class of characters and I’ve lovingly titled this section: “the other characters.” The reason is pretty simple: I don’t really think I have enough creativity to give any of these characters a post on their own.

It’s not because I don’t have ideas.

It’s not because I don’t think they’re good.

It’s because I don’t think the weapon you use matters.

MHD-19, Murne, and Ko-Tun: Universal Offensive Benefits

From an offensive point of view, none of these characters require a specific kind of weapon; they can all use blasters as well as melee weapons equally effectively. Instead, each has cards that just generally help you when you’re attacking:

·         MHD-19 has the Combat Override upgrade which allows him to perform 3 attacks for 2 actions (and then take some damage) and can perform an Improper Procedure (to damage/weaken an adjacent foe);

·         Murne Rin has Lead From The Front, which gives her static bonuses to her attacks (or False Orders), the Double Agent upgrade which can stun the person she uses in False Orders, and she has Sonic Bellow, which can stun a low-cost figure within a few spaces;

·         Ko-Tun Feralo can gain whatever power tokens she wants (and increase the value of them) with Self-Sufficient and Squad Cohesion. While cards like Combat Logistics, Auxiliary Training, and Fire Support Specialist can all affect friendly figures, there is no specification that they must be used to help “another friendly figure,” so she can use these to boost her own offensive capabilities too.

Because it doesn’t really matter which upgrades we're purchasing, we’re going to look at two different types of weapons for melee and range (four weapon builds total) and you won’t see any upgrades recommended. Upgrades that help you with offense are provided above, but generally you can choose whatever complements your team the best. I do recommend that Murne Rin gets Lead From The Front sooner rather than later and I think Ko-Tun Feralo is well-served by Self-Sufficient, but beyond that, get what you like.

I will say this as well: the starting weapons for these characters are pretty bad. MHD-19's Sidearm Blaster allows him to surge for Pierce 1 (and not at all for Damage), so you run the same risk that Gideon Argus runs of not being able to damage your target. Murne Rin's Diplomat's Blaster can surge for Pierce 1 and push the target figure, but doesn't have any mod slots and is very similar to Fenn's Infantry Rifle (which I don't like) - not to mention not damaging the target occasionally. Finally, Ko-Tun Feralo's Service Rifle doesn't allow her to surge for Damage or Pierce, but does give her a reroll of one of her dice (which could mean she skips surging entirely). This makes it unlikely that you'll fail to get some kind of Damage result, but the total Damage output will be limited. With that, let's look at some weapons.

End-Game Weapon #1 – Pummel Them All: Polearm with Vibrogenerator OR Gaffi Stick with High Impact Guard

If you’re looking for raw offensive power, there’s not much that beats a Polearm with Vibrogenerator (unless you’ve got a special rules that incentivizes something else). With a Red-Red attack pool and Reach, you add a static +2 Damage to your attack results and suffer a -2 Surge result from the Vibrogenerator. For each hero...

• If you’re playing with Murne Rin, you want to be one of the first two heroes to go so that you can add a static Damage 1 + Pierce 1 to your attack results with Lead From The Front. 
• If you’re using Ko-Tun Feralo, you can add another +2 Damage by using a Damage power token with Self-Sufficient. 
• If you’re MHD-19, you can attack three times with this weapon thanks to Combat Override (the health hit is manageable).

Since the Polearm isn’t available until Tier 2 (and the Vibrogenerator isn’t available until Tier 3), you can use the Gaffi Stick early on and rely on the High Impact Guard once you get to Tier 2. The Gaffi Stick isn’t as powerful as the Polearm (no innate ability to surge for Damage with that Yellow die is sad), but a static Pierce 1 with a Red die can be killer. The High Impact Guard doesn’t give you a guarantee of Damage 2 like the Vibrogenerator does, but it does give you a bit of added resiliency on defense.

End-Game Weapon #2 – Long Range Cover: DXR-6 OR 434 Deathhammer with Plasma Cell

I will say that I was tempted to put the A280 on this list, but I've already highlighted some of the best builds with it (see our posts on Gideon and Loku). From the get-go, I'll say that the DXR-6, in many ways, is not as good a weapon as other Tier 3 (and even some Tier 2) weapons, but it tends to be cheaper than most final weapon builds and it has reliable Accuracy (which is a plus). With a Red-Red attack pool, it has the potential to do lots of damage OR hardly anything at all. If used by MHD-19, he can shoot three times with it if he has Combat Override (which makes the probability of getting a bad roll less painful). Murne Rin, for her part, can add a static Damage 1 + Pierce 1 to each attack result thanks to Lead From The Front. 

But where this weapon really shines is in the hands of Ko-Tun Feralo: if she has Self-Sufficient, she can strain to gain a Surge token and spend it when she declares an attack to add 2 Surge to the attack results. This adds an automatic Damage 2 + Pierce 2 (one of the great things about the DXR-6) in addition to whatever she gets on the dice. Should a surge appear on the dice, she can recover the strain she spent to get the power token (and if you have the Responsive Armor, you can spend any additional surge you get too).

Those looking to get a good weapon before Tier 3 need only look at the 434 Deathhammer with the Plasma Cell. This weapon combo provides a static Damage 1 + Pierce 1 with a Red-Blue combo and unlike the DXR-6 is a close-range weapon (only guaranteed 2 Accuracy and while you can surge for 2 Accuracy, you don't surge very often - and you don't really want to use it to gain Accuracy if you can help it). With a maximum damage output of Damage 6 + Pierce 1, the 434 Deathhammer is a little weaker than the DXR-6 (maximum damage output of Damage 6 + Pierce 2), but its average expected damage is a little better (Damage 5.0 for the DXR-6, Damage 4.8 + Pierce 1 for the 434 Deathhammer). All in all, both are good weapons if you just want to shoot things.

MHD-19, Murne, and Ko-Tun in the Skirmish Game

MHD-19 is currently the only character who can heal other figures (or himself) in the skirmish game. As a Rebel Droid, he can be easily allied into any Mercenary force either through Temporary Alliance OR with an Elite Jawa Scavenger. For 5 points, he’s inexpensive and adds resiliency to your units. Use him alongside Onar Koma or any White die figure with a decent amount of Health and no self-healing abilities (Davith Elso, Jedi Luke, Han Solo). On offense, he has a poor starting attack pool, but with the ability to Focus himself during each attack, he has the potential to get a very good attack pool (with decent surge abilities).

Murne Rin has the ability to give False Orders on some basic figures, which makes her very powerful at clearing chaff units away from Terminals OR using low-cost figures to damage high-cost units. Her attack pool is the same as that of MHD-19, but with the ability to turn only one Surge into Damage 2 (which again, isn’t bad), she’s capped on the total damage she can do. While she can make herself Hide (which is great for keeping her alive), she doesn’t need the surge that comes from it on offense, so it’s mostly just helping her on defense. To get more out of her, I recommend using Cruel Strike, but if you really want her to be a contributing member of the team, equip her with the On A Diplomatic Mission skirmish upgrade (which would solve her poor attack option – we’ve talked about this in a previous post).

Unlike our previous two characters, Ko-Tun Feralo has a great attack pool and lots of great rules to give both her and those around her better offensive capabilities. With a reroll on her Blue-Blue-Green attack pool, she can reliably get 5-6 Damage (plus a Damage power token if you want) and she can surge for Damage 2, which is pretty good. The strength of this character, however, lies in her ability to allow friendly figures nearby to remove a Dodge result if they use a power token in their attack. Allowing characters who share her Leader/Trooper traits (Fenn Signis, Han Solo, Leia Organa) to ignore a Dodge result is FANTASTIC, allowing them to do a better job of killing things off and scoring you points faster.

In our next post, we’ll be moving on to a discussion of characters in our “slasher” class – characters who love to be right up next to their foes before they bash them. While certain characters that we’ve already covered (like Gaarkhan) certainly qualify and others that we haven’t covered yet could as well (like Biv Bodhrick), the general feel of these characters is that from both an offensive and defensive perspective, they benefit from being right in the thick of things. Until next time, happy gaming!