IP Class Deck Review: Power of the Dark Side

When the Nemeses class deck was released with the Jabba’s Realm expansion, we thought we were getting the Sith deck we always wanted. Then, with Heart of the Empire (and the release of Emperor Palpatine and Maul), we were told that we had received the actual Sith deck we always wanted with Power of the Dark Side. When I first saw it, my thoughts went something like this. . . .

THIS. DECK. SUCKS!

So, it’s taken me some time to look at the deck and determine what I think of it. My thoughts over the last six months shall be shown below. Rest assured, my views have gotten better, but given the choice, I think (for the record) I’d still choose Nemeses (you can read my thoughts on that deck here).

Power of the Dark Side: Give A Little To Get A Little

Every now and again, you’ll find a class deck that focuses on something new that was released in that expansion. This is seen most obviously in two Imperial class decks to date: Power of the Dark Side (with Damage Power tokens) and Imperial Black Ops (with the Hidden condition). When you’re playing with these kinds of decks, you’ll be given many opportunities to use whatever new mechanic is introduced – and often times if you focus full-bore into it, you’ll do alright. Power of the Dark Side does have a variety of ways to get Damage Power tokens (DPTs hereafter), but I’m going to submit that focusing fully on it isn’t that necessary. While we will discuss how you can use this “damage in your pocket” to the max, we’ll be looking also at the non-Damage-Power-Token routes that you can take.

What makes the Power of the Dark Side Imperial Class deck unique from the other decks is not only its use of a new game mechanic, but also the penalties it requires in order to gain benefits. While other decks might provide static offensive or defensive benefits for being near a certain unit, Power of the Dark Side rarely requires proximity to something but instead provides either a one-time boost to someone, a temporary boost to someone, or it requires taking damage in order to become stronger. This allows your units to act more autonomously, but requires that you take healthier units (or field cheap units that you can regrow as you require).

Perhaps the best thing about this deck is that unlike all other decks we’ve seen thus far, it doesn’t rely on an Imperial Player using a particular kind of unit (only one upgrade has any kind of exclusion at all). While other decks might require you to have Troopers, Guardians, or Leaders in your deck, this one helps everyone equally. With that said, let’s get into it. . . .

End-Game Build #1 – That Thing Yoda Says: Manifest Aggression, Embrace Fear, Embrace Anger, Embrace Hate, Embrace Suffering

Okay, I’ll be honest: when I first saw the deck, I said “Huh, it follows that quote Yoda says in Episode I: I wonder if that’s worth doing.” After some debate, I think it MIGHT be worth doing, but I couldn’t hesitate in the end from presenting it. J

The automatic upgrade available to the IP is Manifest Aggression – this is a great way to give 2 Imperial figures each a DPT. This is the most reliable way to get DPTs spread across your army (and the good thing is that it doesn’t require you to do anything bad to the guy receiving the token). The cost paid is this: you either a) get 2 tokens but tell the heroes where they’re going to be, or b) you get 1 token and the heroes can’t preemptively strike whoever gets it. I highly recommend that you NOT give out Damage tokens at the start of the first round and instead assign DPTs at the end of the first round AND the start of the second round – this gives you 4 DPTs to use during the second round (and you could have 2 DPTs on 2 figures if they can attack multiple times). The only cost of doing this is not being able to up your damage during the first round (which you’ll be hard-pressed to see that realized into anything meaningful because most of your units will likely be out of position to attack properly).

Supporting this upgrade are two upgrades that deal Strain to Rebel heroes: Embrace Fear and Embrace Hate. Embrace Fear can only be relied on to give 1 movement point to an Imperial figure when he activates (which isn’t that great, but is on-par for what we expect from a 1 XP upgrade). The value in this upgrade is that it dictates which Rebel figure goes first – the Rebels can appear to be defeating this upgrade by activating someone with a good Insight check pool (but this might not be figure who is in the most danger). If the chosen first figure fails the check, they’ll suffer 1 Strain (which turns into Damage if the hero is already fully strained OR makes it less likely that they’ll be able to use their special abilities). While only a niggling hurt, every Strain suffered pushes the Rebel hero closer and closer to having to spend an action resting (which is often good for the IP, since many missions require the heroes getting somewhere or killing things).

Embrace Hate allows you to choose a Rebel figure in the status phase to suffer 1 Strain. This not only happens right before Embrace Fear (which means a Rebel hero with only 2 Strain left could go from able-to-strain to not-able-to-strain-without-resting), but it’s not dependent on having line of sight to the figure. If you do have line of sight to the figure, your figure suffers 1 Damage and gains a DPT. Pairing these two upgrades together is powerful not only because you can slap 2 Strain on someone if they don’t have a good Insight pool and they NEED to go first (like if they’re about to be wounded). This, added to the DPTs that are handed out, makes it very likely that you can wound that character so long as you have units healthy enough to endure the first Rebel activation.

The other two upgrades we have are different: one is offensive, the other tactical. Embrace Anger is perhaps one of the best upgrades available in this class deck (if you have healthy characters): an Imperial figure can exhaust the card when he declares an attack to suffer 1 Damage and add 1 Damage to his attack results. Since this card readies at the start of each Imperial activation, you can use healthy units to rail against a single hero, driving him to rest (see the Hate-Fear combo we just talked about for how to finish this guy). Embrace Suffering is far more situational: you can either choose to exhaust the upgrade without paying Threat to push someone (useful if they’re trying to get somewhere or be next to something/someone) OR you can pay Threat to take control of a Rebel figure and perform an attack (like using that amazing Polearm with Vibrogenerator and whack another Rebel figure with it). It’s painful AND it happens at the end of the round, so you can rack up a little extra damage on someone before the first activation of the round is decided.

This build is eclectic, but it works. Your emphasis is on doing as much damage as you can during the round and then as one round turns into another, you add a little Strain, do some unexpected damage, gain a few DPTs – BAM! You’re all set up for another round of punishment.

Best IP Units:

·         Royal Guard (Core) – If you’re going to be taking damage in order to gain bonuses, you might as well get a static Block 1 each time you defend yourself. While Royal Guards don’t give themselves static Block results, they do give friendly figures this bonus. They themselves not only have a great attack profile (Red-Yellow with Reach), but they also have a great health-for-cost ratio (great for keeping them alive).

·         Elite Gamorrean Guard (Jabba’s Realm) – While these guys can’t benefit from the free Block provided by the Royal Guards mentioned above, they do receive a static Block 1 against blaster attacks. With the same cost and health as Royal Guards (plus a punchier attack pool and a reroll whenever they attack), these guys are less team-oriented and more self-oriented – the perfect candidates for the two DPTs provided by Manifest Aggression.

·         Riot Trooper (Heart of the Empire) – With an equally good health-to-cost ratio as Royal Guards and Gamorrean Guards, Riot Troopers are very inexpensive and their free Block Power Token allows them to supplement their defense results quite nicely. As Guardian units, they also can’t benefit from the static Block 1 of the Royal Guards, but they’re still great to have (and can be easily fielded in the first half of any campaign. On offense, they lack the Reach of the previous two candidates, but they can turn any surge they get into Damage, which is pretty nice (and can convert Damage into Strain if required).

·         Heavy Stormtrooper (Twin Shadows) – Like the previous three candidates, Heavy Stormtroopers also have a great health-for-cost ratio and are the first non-Guardian units we’ve considered (so they can benefit from the static Block 1 bonus from the Royal Guards). They can add to this an additional static Block 1 against attacks from 4+ spaces away – perfect for not being sniped (though in practice, the Rebels tend to just run up closer, so it’s not a big thing). As one of a handful of Imperial units who can surge for Blast, getting a DPT is critical to getting the damage you need to breach an opponent’s defenses and blast into his friends.

·         Elite Probe Droid (Core) – While getting free defense is a way to offset taking damage, healing is far more reliable. Elite Probes not only have a good health stat, Probe Droids have always been an inexpensive three-dice-attack-pool unit – and the ability to Recover Damage is huge.

End-Game Build #2 – Maximizing DPTs: Manifest Aggression, Embrace Hate, Unnatural Abilities, The Power of Passion

Four of the nine upgrades in this Class deck allow the Imperial Player to hand out one or more DPTs. While we’ve already talked about Manifest Aggression (use back-to-back at the end of a round and the start of the next every other round) and Embrace Hate (which comes at the cost of a damage to whoever gets the DPT), there are two other upgrades that provide DPTs: Unnatural Abilities and The Power of Passion.

Unnatural Abilities rewards you for having single-figure, non-Creature deployment cards in your list. With a static Block 1 + Evade 1, your single-figure deployment card is MUCH harder to kill (though multi-model deployment cards still get the static Evade 1), and at the end of the deployment group’s activation, one figure in the group receives a DPT to use during his next activation (regardless of how many figures are in the group). The Power of Passion makes anyone who uses a DPT more powerful by adding a static Surge 1 to the Damage 1 of the DPT. This static benefit is supplemented by the ability to exhaust the upgrade in order to reroll any number of attack dice. This is similar to upgrades in other Imperial Class decks (Precision Training, Nemeses) while other decks allow a reroll of a single die (Inspiring Leadership, Precision Training, Hutt Mercenaries). While the ability to reroll attack dice is nice, the real benefit comes from the static offensive benefits – don’t get too caught up in which unit gets the reroll.

Best IP Units:

·         AT-DP (Heart of the Empire) – If equipped with Unnatural Abilities, this guy gets a static Block 2 + Evade 1 (in addition to whatever he gets on the Black die – likely an additional Block 2). The Evade 1 is the real boon, since you want to keep those nasty Pierce 3 guys from getting through all that armor – and because you lose the ability to perform multiple attacks each turn if you fall below half health. With very few surge abilities (and a Yellow die already in your attack pool), it’s not that necessary to use DPTs with this guy (unless you’re just trying to maximize damage).

·         Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter with Streetrat Form (Heart of the Empire) – I love this build – the surge abilities on the Streetrat are phenomenal (free Red die worth of damage against an adjacent figure, Damage 1, or DPT) and with the Elite, you have a good chance of getting 2 surge (which you should use to deal the Red die worth of damage and regain your DPT). As a single figure deployment card, you also get the full benefits of Unnatural Abilities (which can give you a DPT at the end of the round if you didn’t surge to get a DPT during your attack).

·         Elite Probe Droid (Core) – If you’re going to get a free surge result from your DPT, you might as well have some great surge abilities to use – with choices of Damage 2 / Pierce 2 / Recover 2, it’s hard to go wrong with this guy. He also will get the full weight of Unnatural Abilities to assist him in defense, including a free DPT each turn, allowing you to use Manifest Aggression on other figures.

·         Clawdite Shapeshifter with Senator Form (Heart of the Empire) – Thanks to the Conspire skill on the Senator Form (and the ability to surge for a Wild Power Token), you can make sure all of your teammates get DPTs. This is a cheaper, less-powerful version of the Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter we discussed previously, but if you’re planning on playing the support role and passing out tokens, I recommend taking the cheaper version.

·         Wing Guard (Bespin Gambit) – These guys don’t benefit from the static Block 1 from Unnatural Abilities, but they do benefit greatly from the static Surge from DPTs (as a Green-Blue doesn’t reliably surge and they can Recover Damage whenever they surge). The DPT gained from Embrace Hate can be an excellent counter to the Damage 1 suffered in order to gain the DPT (since you can then surge to Recover 1). Be watchful of the damage these guys are taking though – they’re not hard to reinforce, but redeploying a new batch costs 6 points (which is very hard to come by in most missions).

End-Game Build #3 – Defensive Stance: Manifest Aggression, Dark Resurgence, Supernatural Vigor, Unnatural Abilities

It was a little surprising to me that a Sith-oriented deck could play defense – none of the Sith characters have any kind of defensive abilities. Some of these upgrades, however, are quite good. We’ve already seen the defensive (and offensive) benefits of Unnatural Abilities, but there are two other upgrades we’ll look at: Dark Resurgence and Supernatural Vigor.

Dark Resurgence is simple: pick someone who was just defeated to recover 3 Damage instead. While this is an obvious boon to an Imperial figure who needs to be defeated in order for the mission to end, it’s not as powerful as the Failsafe upgrade in Technological Superiority. That said, it’s a 1 XP upgrade – how much can you really complain (and unlike Failsafe, it doesn’t cost Threat)? Supernatural Vigor is a tricky upgrade to use: whoever receives it has a slight health boost (or a dramatic health boost if it’s a low-health figure), but that figure needs to be able to recover any damage that spills over onto the upgrade in order for it to move to someone else (assuming it follows the general understanding of the Adrenaline Command card – see discussions here and here). In my opinion, it’s best put on a low-health figure who will begin at the front of the fighting, keeping him alive for an additional attack action – though it obviously has benefits on a villain that you’re trying to keep alive for mission objective reasons.

Perhaps the best thing about this build, is that it only costs you 6 XP in order to field – giving you plenty of opportunities to get other upgrades to supplement your offensive needs (I like Embrace Anger, though borrowing a Rebel figure to perform an attack with Embrace Suffering is also great).

Best IP Units:

·         Stormtrooper (Core) – When it comes to thinking about a defensive build for an IP team, cheap units are one way to do it. If you can keep one of your guys alive (let’s say with Supernatural Vigor), then redeploying your men comes easily. When I mentioned above that you want to give Supernatural Vigor to someone who might get one-action-KO’d by your opponent, I had Stormtroopers in mind.

·         Elite E-Web Engineer (Core) – E-Webs are great at using both Unnatural Abilities and Supernatural Vigor: not only can they Recover up to 4 Damage in a single turn (if they shoot twice and surge to Recover 2 Damage each time), but they will have a static Block 2 + Evade 1. Since E-Webs play defense (our mantra on this site), I kinda felt like I needed to put them in the list.

·         Elite Probe Droid (Core) – what can I say – we’re looking for units who can Recover Damage? These guys are just going to naturally benefit from upgrades like Unnatural Abilities and Supernatural Vigor (with the healing bringing them under the +3 bonus health they receive), but don’t underestimate the benefits they get from free damage provided by Manifest Aggression or Embrace Anger.

·         Clawdite Shapeshifter with Senator Form (Heart of the Empire) – The Senator Form allows a Clawdite Shapeshifter to Recover Damage and since Clawdites have low Health as it is, this makes them difficult targets to remove if they have Supernatural Vigor and Unnatural Abilities. I’ll note that you can run a Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter as well, passing the Senator Form along with the Supernatural Vigor upgrades between them – boosting the health of whichever one needs to recover the most.

·         Wing Guard (Bespin Gambit) – As the final unit that can recover damage, it shouldn’t be a surprise that these guys made it here: like their Stormtrooper counterparts, they don’t benefit particularly well from getting Unnatural Abilities, but Supernatural Vigor can keep one of them from dying.

In our next post, we’ll be looking at the Imperial Black Ops Class deck – another deck that focuses on maximizing a new game mechanic introduced in its expansion. Until next time, happy gaming!

Character Review: Jarrod Kelvin

In this our last post of our character review series (at least until they decide whether or not to release any more expansion sets), we’re looking at the great droid maker and all-around great tank, Jarrod Kelvin. Released alongside Ko-Tun Feralo (who can play a great tank) and Drokkatta (who can also play a good tank), it’s easy for Jarrod to feel dwarfed by his friends, but let’s make this clear from the get-go: 

Jarrod is THE BEST TANK you can get. 

As tough as Biv and Onar are (read our posts on each of them for more info), no one gets to pile on defensive bonuses like Jarrod (though he’s no slouch on offense, either).

Jarrod Kelvin: Just Give Me Another Melee Weapon (and Where’s My Droid?)

When it comes to Jarrod, all you really want is an additional melee weapon – you can’t get rid of your Vibro-Claws and for both the Parry rule and Leaping Slash (if you choose to purchase it), you want another melee weapon. Here are your options (I’ve omitted both the Ancient Lightsaber and the Ryyk Blades, since the Ryyk Blades become a glorified Vibroblade and the Ancient Lightsaber becomes a glorified Vibrosword in the hands of Jarrod Kelvin – doesn’t make sense to me to spend 3x the cash and wait until Tier 3 when you can just get the alternatives at Tier 1 OR a different weapon altogether):

Weapon Name (Set Required)	Tier - Cost	Attack Pool (Mods)	Avg. Exp. Damage (Cleave)
Armored Gauntlets (Core)	1 – 300	Green-Yellow (0)	2.13 (0.31)
Vibroblade (Core)	1 – 300	Green-Green (1)	1.44 (0.85)
BD-1 Vibro-Ax (Core)	2 – 600	Red-Green (2)	2.11 (0.78)
Vibro Knucklers (Core)	2 – 400	Green-Yellow (0)	2.60 (0.14)
Force Pike (Core)	3 – 1100	Red-Yellow-Yellow (1)	3.53 (0.00)
Gaffi Stick (Twin Shadows)	1 – 200	Red-Yellow (1)	2.18 (0.00)
Vibroknife (Return to Hoth)	1 – 150	Green-Green (0)	2.38 (0.00)
Stun Baton (Return to Hoth)	2 – 500	Red-Blue (1)	2.60 (0.00) *
Vibrosword (Bespin Gambit)	1 – 350	Blue-Green (2)	3.00 (0.00) **
Double Vibrosword (Jabba’s Realm)	2 – 650	Red-Green (1)	2.11 (0.78) *
Polearm (Heart of the Empire)	2 - 600	Red-Red (1)	2.86 (0.50)
Electrostaff (Grand Inquisitor VP)	3 - 1250	Red-Green-Blue (1)	4.61 (1.99) ***

*Does not include weapon special rule                 **1 Strain to apply Pierce 1              ***Apply Cleave 2

Obviously, the average expected damage of these weapons changes if you put different modifications on them, but this baseline gives a rough idea of which weapons are good at doing direct damage or cleave damage (and whether their damage is worth the cost you pay for them). A few weapons play greatly to Jarrod’s strengths (since Jarrod doesn’t need to strain very often to activate his abilities, the Stun Baton and Vibrosword are well worth the purchase), but we’re not going to talk about these weapons today. Instead, we’re going to look at how we can maximize cleave damage, maximize our choice of targets with Reach, and getting the most out of Jarrod’s companion, J4X-7 (“Jax” hereafter).

End-Game Weapon #1 – Maximize Cleave: Vibro-Claws and Electrostaff with Focusing Beam

Jarrod has REALLY GOOD 3XP and 4XP upgrades – in this build, we’re taking two of them. With Leaping Slash, we get a few spaces of movement with two attacks as a single action. The first attack has to be made with the Vibro-Claws and the second attack has to be made with a different weapon (in our case, an Electrostaff). The first attack is intended to do two things: first, gaining a Damage Power token, and second, recovering 1 Strain. The second attack then becomes even stronger with the Damage Power token. With Explosive Reflexes, we not only increase our Endurance (useful for moving a bit further, healing more, triggering Leaping Slash, or removing Dodge results via the Focusing Beam), but we can also change a die we’re using to a better one. Since we’ve chosen to use an Electrostaff, you want to get that Red-Red-Green combo instead of the standard Red-Green-Blue. Thanks to the Focusing Beam, we can be assured in the second attack that our attack won’t be Dodged OR the defense will be -1 Block.

The pairing between Explosive Reflexes and Leaping Slash are not useful for making Jarrod play the tank role (the other 3 XP and 4 XP skills are much better), but it makes him incredibly strong on offense. We’ve paired this with Scout’s Loadout (great for removing Evade results from your targets) as well as Balanced Approach, which is one of the best all-around 1 XP skills you can get (granting healing, movement, or a Damage Power token based on what you didn’t do during your activation).

So . . . how does this maximize Cleave? Between Leaping Slash and strain, you can avoid using your actions to move and instead you can focus on performing attacks. With a free Cleave 2 (or Reach) to your attacks, the Electrostaff is not only a flexible weapon, but all-but-guarantees that you’ll be able to do damage to your foes thanks to the high damage output you’ll be generating. While we’ve chosen the Focusing Beam, you can also get good mileage out of the Balanced Hilt (which will make it more likely that you trigger that Surge for Damage 2 ability on the Electrostaff) or the Energized Hilt (which will get you to that envied Red-Red-Red).

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Balanced Approach (1), Scout’s Loadout (2), Explosive Reflexes (3), Leaping Slash (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 – Maximize Reach: Vibro-Claws and Polearm with Vibrogenerator

Reach is one of the most useful abilities in the game – warriors who don’t want to have to spend an action moving can Strain to push themselves just a wee bit further and stretch out and touch their targets. With Jarrod, the use of a Reach weapon gets even better when paired with Leaping Slash, since you’re not required to attack with the Vibro-Claws (which unfortunately don’t get Reach). Since we’re looking at having a weapon that allows us to get more possible targets for our attacks, we’ve designed this build towards one of Jarrod’s best strengths: mobility.

By taking Leaping Slash and Mutual Progression, Jarrod can spend 1 action moving (5 movement points thanks to Mutual Progression) and move an additional 2 spaces with Leaping Slash (spaces, not movement points). We’re also going to pick up both of Jarrod’s 1 XP skills, Balanced Approach and Forward Momentum. We’re not going to be using the Vibro-Claws in this build for Leaping Slash, saving it instead to Parry (giving us a free movement point whenever we Parry thanks to Forward Momentum). Forward Momentum also gives us free movement points at the start of our turn. Sometimes, you won’t need to perform a move (Mutual Progression is still good for the defensive buff it gives) – when that happens, you can gain a free movement point from Balanced Approach – which allows you to basically perform a free move if you take into account the bonuses from the other skills.

On offense, we’ve chosen the Polearm with the Vibrogenerator – we’ve already talked about this weapon build as one of the best melee weapons you can use. If you’re looking for maximum damage, you’re basically agreeing to spend 2 Surge for 2 Damage, but because you’re rolling a Red-Red, you hardly ever get a single Surge, so most of the time, you’re getting a free Damage 2 bonus (which is like having a Red-Red-Green pool). You’re not going to be able to surge for Cleave 2 or Pierce 1, but worse things have happened. J Prior to getting to Tier 2, I’d recommend picking up the Vibroblade with the Extended Haft (it’s got basically the same surge abilities as the Polearm) and keeping the Extended Haft on the Polearm until you get to Tier 3.

Upgrades to purchase – 9 XP: Balanced Approach (1), Forward Momentum (1), Mutual Progression (3), Leaping Slash (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 – Combat Companions: Vibro-Claws and Gaffi Stick with High Impact Guard

Huh, we also already talked about the Gaffi Stick with High Impact Guard as one of the best melee weapons you can take. J The idea with this build is that you want to acquire a weapon early and stick with it (see what I did there - "stick with the Gaffi Stick?"), focusing your upgrades on things that will help you and Jax – who is really the center of this build. The Gaffi Stick is a great weapon – static Pierce 1 with a Red die is awesome, but all of the surge that’s generated doesn’t translate into Damage until you get the High Impact Guard. If you never see the High Impact Guard (or if one of your buddies wants it), you can take the Energized Hilt instead and once per turn you can attack with a Red-Red and static Pierce 1 (using any Surge you get to recover 1 Strain or apply Weaken).

The goal of this build is to get the most out of Jax: with Scout’s Loadout, you can not only apply Pierce 1 to a friendly attack each activation, but you can also apply -1 Evade (which will KILL a White die). Thanks to Mutual Progression and Mechanical Master, not only are Jarrod and Jax much more resilient and faster, but Jax can activate during Jarrod’s activation AND during another Rebel figure’s activation. When Jax shoots, he’ll roll a Blue-Green with a static Pierce 1 (not bad) and if you want to, Jax can also gain a free movement point at the start of his activation with Forward Momentum. This makes Jax more like an ally – very helpful on offense – but VERY VULNERABLE to attacks. Jarrod for this build is an actual tank – able to gain a free Block with his Black die, 12 Health, and two weapons to use with Parry (since you don’t have Leaping Slash - and benefiting from free movement whenever we Parry).

Now for those keeping tally at home, you'll notice that this build (and all the other ones) have left out one of Jarrod's upgrades: Slicer's Upgrades. I bring it up here because you could add it to your build (or even remove Forward Momentum if you only have 11 XP). In my mind, the benefits of this upgrade are too niche to plan on purchasing as part of a build - the other skills are far more helpful in the long-run and help both Jax AND Jarrod. 

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Forward Momentum (1), Scout’s Loadout (2), Mutual Progression (3), Mechanical Master (4)

Jarrod in the Skirmish Game

Jarrod Kelvin in the skirmish game retains a few benefits from the campaign game: first, he gets a basic version of Leaping Slash, getting a few more spaces of movement. With an automatic Damage 1 on offense (to be supplemented by Jax’s static Pierce 1 if he’s adjacent to the target), the Yellow-Yellow attack pool with the ability to surge for Damage 2, Pierce 2, and a Damage Power token is made all the stronger. Finally, Jarrod has a free Evade (which is different from his Mutual Progression bonus of a static Block) to supplement his Black die. For only 5 points, Jarrod has a decent amount of health and is hard to crack through by basic troops. Able to synergize with Leaders, Brawlers, and Spies, Jarrod can be included in any Rebel list (even Smuggler and Trooper lists will benefit from Jax’s static Pierce 1 benefit, as well as the support cards provided by Spies/Leaders). We’ve used Jarrod in one of our previous posts – you can see how to integrate him there.

This concludes our series on Rebel heroes for now – I may do a series of posts on different team builds you can do, but that’s probably a long way off. We still have an active series on Imperial Class decks, but other content will probably be put up ad-hoc for the various series we’ve already done on the blog. Until next time, happy hobbying!

Character Review: Onar Koma

As we look at the tank characters in Imperial Assault, we turn our attention today to the mercenary bodyguard Onar Koma – the character with the most health in the game and NO starting defense die. Even when he’s fully upgraded defensively, Onar gets very little defense results and must rely on having more health (and getting more out of rest actions) than other characters. This can make Onar tricky to use, but he’s a valuable Tank character none the less. Unlike Biv Bodhrick who we viewed last week, Onar is in many ways the best at playing the tank role, as Imperial figures are rewarded the most by shooting at him (since he will stop almost nothing of what they throw at him). While Onar isn’t as survivable as Biv, he draws agro far faster than Biv does. In this realm, Onar is king.

Onar Koma: The Rule of Three Red Dice

Onar has an amazing upgrade with Don’t Make Me Hurt You – exhaust the upgrade to add a Red die to one of your attacks (with the option to damage yourself if you killed your target in order to ready it again). While there are many ways to make this powerful (we’ll highlight a few in this post), in general I recommend that your goal with Onar is to find ways to roll at least three Red dice when attacking. The reason? 

Red dice can be unreliable. 

We’ve all had times when we really needed a good roll and our Red die (our one power die!) got a measly Damage 1. Even with two Red dice, you will occasionally get a single Damage out of each of them. With three Red dice, however, your reliably is kept high – AND if all three do get a single Damage result, you’ll still break through the vast majority of defense rolls.

Getting the required three Red dice can be achieved most easily by purchasing a weapon with two Red die in its attack pool. Because we’ve talked about weapon builds for the Polearm and the DXR-6 in one of our previous posts, you won’t see either of those weapons featured in this post (though I will admit they work really well with Onar). Thanks to certain weapon mods you can take, you can change an attack dice (or two, if you have the right weapon/mods) into a Red die if you want – which might cost more money in the long-run than buying a weapon that has the double-Red dice attack pool normally OR might limit you to one attack with a double-Red attack pool. Either way, once you have two Red dice in your attack pool the third is easy in coming with Don’t Make Me Hurt You.

Besides this upgrade, the only other upgrade Onar has that works offensively is Mutual Destruction – while this has distinct benefits when using Rush, the greater benefit is that in any attack you perform, you can suffer 1 Damage in order to add 1 Damage to the attack results. Taken with Don’t Make Me Hurt You, you can do even more damage than you otherwise would. For 6 XP together, you’re not spending that much to make your offensive game stronger. With that, let’s look at what we can do with Onar.

End-Game Weapon #1 – Point Blank Cannon Blast: Hand Cannon with Plasma Cell OR Under-Barrel HH-4

The Hand Cannon not only comes in the Jabba’s Realm expansion (along with Onar), but it’s the upgraded version of Onar’s starter weapon, the Bodyguard Rifle. Key differences between these two weapons include a Red-Red attack pool with a static +1 Accuracy (instead of a Red-Green attack pool) and the presence of a Mod slot. Since neither weapon begins with any innate benefit to rolling Surge results (besides recovering Strain), the presence of the Mod slot makes the Hand Cannon far better as a weapon, since you can turn your Surge results into something useful (at least, from a damage output perspective). With either the Plasma Cell (which gives a static Pierce 1 + surge-for-Damage) or the Under-Barrel HH-4 (which gives a static Accuracy 1 + surge-for-Blast), you can increase the damage you do AND give some kind of static bonus (either taking away enemy Block or hitting targets that are slightly farther away).

To supplement this weapon (which you can have kitted out at Tier 1 if you go with the Under-Barrel, and Tier 2 if you go with the Plasma Cell), we’re adding both Mutual Destruction and Don’t Make Me Hurt You. Regardless of whether you intend to do precise damage to your target with the Plasma Cell or spray damage with the Under-Barrel, the extra Red die and the additional Damage 1 is quite helpful (though the Under-Barrel certainly benefits more from the investment as it more reliably guarantees that you can Blast provided you get a Surge result on at least one of those Red dice). To balance out Onar, we’re taking the Black Sun Armor (to give some kind of defense, not to mention increase the health of our hero as we’re going to be damaging ourselves quite a bit) and Keep Up, as getting a free point of movement is quite valuable when your range is going to be low (1 Accuracy with the Plasma Cell, 2 Accuracy with the Under-Barrel).

Perhaps the best thing about this build, is that your weapons will cost you 850-900 credits, which saves you a little room to buy additional gear (I like the Portable Medkit the best, though the Personal Shields is good to supplement your defense and Extra Ammunition is great for offense). Your choice as to what you want to do.

Upgrades to purchase - 11 XP: Keep Up (1), Mutual Destruction (2), Don’t Make Me Hurt You (4), Black Sun Armor (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 – Defensive Powerhouse: Gaffi Stick with Energized Hilt

Let’s face it, Onar is a tank – if we’re going to take damage, let’s mitigate it as best we can. One of the ways we can do that is by spending less for our weapon, plan on only attacking with one of our actions each turn, and then RESTING. Since Onar heals an additional 2 Damage after each rest, any amount of resting is valuable. To that end, our cheap weapon today is the Gaffi Stick. I’ll just say that I played a short campaign with Onar and all I had was the Gaffi Stick until . . . basically the end of the campaign (when I finally swiped the 434 Deathhammer from another hero – a weapon which we won’t be covering in this post, much to pity). With a static Pierce 1 and a wasted Yellow die, the Gaffi Stick is one of the cheapest weapons in the game and one of the most deadly when you get to the end-game. Onar can make this a Red-Red-Yellow weapon with Don’t Make Me Hurt You, but if you’re only planning on attacking once, you can spend 250 credits on the Energized Hilt to roll a Red-Red-Red – fabulous! For 450 credits, this is a one-action-per-turn-mega-bashing-stick with an automatic Pierce 1 (and the ability to turn your surge results into Weaken, recovering Strain, and . . . well, regret).

If you’re worried about the incredibly unlikely event where you get surge results you don’t like, you can bail yourself out by purchasing the Power Charger. This not only gives Onar access to Damage Power Tokens, but also makes him essentially surge for 2 Damage (just that you get the Damage on the NEXT attack, not this attack). Pretty cool, no? Since you’re not spending anywhere near the amount of money a regular person is, you can also pick up all of the gadgets we mentioned in the previous build (though I would skip the Extra Ammunition as you’re not running a blaster and instead take the Bacta Pump – this enables you to strain during the end of your activation for movement and not have to recover that when you rest).

As I mentioned at the start, we’re choosing to favor a cheaper weapon so we can focus on defense. Apart from the equipment you choose to take, we’re purchasing both the Black Sun Armor (something is better than nothing) and Stay Behind Me – a great little pip to your health and the ability to add a Block to an adjacent friendly figure who is defending at the cost of 1 Damage to yourself. The free health allows you to do this twice without any real penalty and if you’re not near any of your friends (or just don’t feel like saving them), you have a nice little health pip all to yourself. J

As a flexible option to either protect other people or yourself, we’re also taking Get Down – gonna admit the biggest pull for this upgrade is that you can give yourself more than one defense result – you want that Block, man. While this can be used to protect other people, you’re going to be a big fat target with that beat stick you’re carrying and very little defense to reduce the damage you’re taking. Use it for yourself (like any good tank).

Upgrades to purchase – 11 XP: Get Down (1), Stay Behind Me (2), Don’t Make Me Hurt You (4), Black Sun Armor (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 – Rapid Fire: DDC Defender with Disruption Cell

Alas, we’re going to break our “Rule of Three Red Dice” with this build – we’ll only be using two dice. When I looked at Onar, I had a semi-conversation with myself that went something like this:

Initial thought: “Self, do we really need to rest?” Answer: Yes.

Next thought: “Self, if everyone around me is dead, do I really need to rest?” Answer: No.

Follow-on thought: “So self, if I don’t need to rest if there’s no one around me, then getting multiple attacks into my activation removes my need to rest, right?” Answer: Correct.

Conclusion: “Glad we agree – what did we do with that DDC Defender?”

Alright, so my conversations don’t usually happen like this (and NEVER happen out loud . . . obviously . . . why are you looking at me like that?), but the fact remains: because Onar has the ability to ready Don’t Make Me Hurt You, it makes sense that you’d want to be able to use your weapon as much as you can to do as much damage as you can. We’ve talked about this weapon three times already: first with Vinto Hreeda (as a means of maximizing his special splash damage rules), again with Loku Kanoloa (as a means of getting the greatest opportunity to recover strain), and most recently with Jyn Odan (as a means of getting the most attacks and movement out of your character). For those keeping score at home, each time we’ve reviewed this weapon, we’ve chosen a different modification to go with it:

·         For Vinto, we chose the Under-Barrel HH-4, since our objective was to do as much splash damage as we could;

·         For Loku, we chose the Plasma Cell, since we knew we wanted precise damage against our targets with the end-goal being recovering strain;

·         For Jyn, we took the Charged Ammo Pack, looking for cheap damage options instead of expensive direct damage options

Today, we introduce a fourth upgrade: the Disruption Cell. In the interest of getting close to three Reds, we’re instead going with a Red-Red-Green combo. Thanks to the Disruption Cell and the Green die, we’re guaranteed at least 3 Accuracy, which makes this a more reliable range weapon than the Hand Cannon we viewed earlier (and only marginally more expensive). Until you get to Tier 3, you can go with any of the mods listed in the bullets above (the Plasma Cell will be the most like the Disruption Cell), but once you hit Tier 3, you’re in business with LOTS of damage.

For upgrades, we’re purchasing two offensive and two defensive upgrades: for offense, we’re using Don’t Make Me Hurt You and Mutual Destruction, and for defense we’re using the Black Sun Armor and Get Down. You’ll want to rest every other turn in order to keep your damage intake down (or you can just blaze forward towards getting wounded and have a good time), but every time you attack you’ll be able to damage yourself to add +1 Damage and damage yourself again to reset your Red die. Against most figures, you’ll blow three of them to pieces with this. Assuming there aren’t too many more than three hostile figures nearby, you should be fine.

Upgrades to purchase - 11 XP: Get Down (1), Mutual Destruction (2), Don’t Make Me Hurt You (4), Black Sun Armor (4)

Onar in the Skirmish Game

In the skirmish game, the biggest draw for Onar Koma is that he’s got a massive amount of health for only 6 points – that’s the same cost as basic units. As a Hunter, Onar can get huge benefits to his offense with the usual cards (Tools for the Job, Assassinate, Primary Target) and he gets HUGE benefits from Glory of the Kill. In many ways, his Guardian attribute works against him – since he doesn’t have a defense die, he can’t benefit as well from some Guardian cards (Defensive Stance) though he does benefit a lot from Parry. Additionally, if you ally him into an Imperial force, he can’t benefit from the static Block from Royal Guards because of his Guardian status and he can’t be shielded by Wing Guard either.

Besides these unfortunate circumstances, Onar is one of the finest bounty hunter characters they’ve released to date – with plenty of health and the ability to get a free attack via his Extra Protection Command card, Onar is a power-house. Use him with any bounty hunters (Jabba is great, so is Bossk) and other Guardians (Elite Gamorrean Guards for example) OR ally him into a Rebel (with Saska Teft) or Imperial list (with Temporary Alliance) if you want a little extra power for not a lot of cost.

In our last post on Rebel heroes, we’ll be covering Jarrod Kelvin. Jarrod is the only hero who always comes with a Companion to aid him and is not only (in my view) the best tank available in the game, but also has incredible offensive potential. Until next time, happy hobbying!