Good morning gamers,
The past few posts have been about Wookiees - mostly in the Republic faction, but we also looked at their applications in Rebel factions. When I first considered getting Wookiees (especially the melee-oriented Noble Fighter variants), I was like, "Man, I need a way to get these guys into combat before they lose someone!" Naturally, as a Republic player, this meant buying one thing: a LAAT/LE Patrol Transport (hereafter LAAT - though I traditionally refer to it as the "battle Orca" because of my painting scheme).
<my LAAT>
No, this thing doesn't look like the LAATs that we get in Attack of the Clones - it's a patrol transport variant that looks far more at home in a hangar full of TIE Fighters than amongst Clone combat gear. LAATs, like Wookiees, are multi-faction and can be fielded by both the Republic and the Empire. Today's post will be focused on the use of LAATs in the Republic and we'll pick up the topic for the Empire next time. Let's see what this thing can do . . .
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| Yeah, when you say LAAT, this is what I think of . . . |
LAAT/LE Patrol Transport: The Profile
LAATs are Heavy unit choices and like most heavy options, they have Armor 5 (slapping the first five hit results in the attack pool is basically like what full armor was, though big dice pools are likely to get some hits past Armor 5 - but more on that later). Armor X is one of those keywords that's so powerful, that there are OTHER keywords specifically designed to counter it (the Impact keyword, which turns Hits into Crits, and the Critical keyword, which turns surge results into Crits). While LAATs are probably one of the least popular full armor units in the game, they have some of the best supporting keywords alongside the Armor X keyword.
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A very traditional - and a very untraditional - LAAT build for the Republic - 119-125pts
Photo Credit: LegionHQ |
LAATs also have Cover 1, which will remove 1 Hit result before keywords like Impact are applied - super useful. They're also Immune to Blast (so you can't take their Cover 1 away), Melee weapons (so you don't have to worry about Jedi slamming you with 6+ dice and loads of Pierce/Impact), and Range 1 weapons (which includes all grenades - one of which has Impact). It's important to note that most weapons with Blast happen to be Range 1 weapons, but for the few that aren't (Bunker Buster Shells, the MPL Barrage Trooper, and the B2-HA Trooper), you're immune to those too. With a white defense die and defensive surges, any damage that does make it through is probably going to be successful in wounding you (especially if Pierce is present), but you'll be shrugging off most of the dice that are thrown your way.
LAATs have two other really great rules that set them apart from other Republic heavy options - Hover: Air 2 and Transport 1: Closed. Hover: Air 2 allows the LAAT to move over terrain that is at/below Height 2 (which is anything less than 12" high and probably most of the terrain you're playing with) and can end its movement on a piece of terrain that's at/below Height 2. Units with Hover: Air or Hover: Ground can perform standby actions, can reverse (for a Republic LAAT, this will use the rear notch at Speed 1), and can strafe (a Speed 1 move to the left or right). This basically means that if you want a LAAT to look in a given direction, respond to enemy actions near it (even if it has to move first), or get over intervening terrain, it probably can.
But the real reason you take LAATs over other Republic Heavy options is that it has Transport. There used to be a ton of rules related to transport, but now it basically allows you to issue an order to a normal-sized Corps or Special Forces unit on the first turn of the game (even if the LAAT doesn't get an order token) and after the LAAT is done deploying (it's first move action on the first turn), the chosen unit can then perform a speed-1 move from the base of the LAAT. The circular base of the LAAT is roughly the same as a speed-2 move and with speed-2 base, that means the transported unit (which will have an order token, so it could be chosen as your next activation) will be able to deploy ~16" forward BEFORE taking its first move action. Put another way, that's basically half-way up the board. On top of all these awesome keywords, LAATs have 8 wounds (pretty good), have 6 resilience (see what's broken after they take 6 wounds), and are base Speed 2. All in all, not bad.
On offense, LAATs begin with a base weapon that has Range 1-3 with 2 red/2 blacks, which gives them an expected damage output of 2.5 hits/attack without an ordnance upgrade. This . . . isn't particularly good, but it's also not bad for a unit that's base 100pts (though for comparison in a Republic list, a 117-pt Clone Trooper Infantry unit with a Clone Captain, a Z-6 Trooper, and a Clone Medic is expected to get 5.375 hits/attack at Range 3 and an 80-pt full ARC Trooper squad with a Clone Commander is expected to get 4.25 with Sharpshooter 1 at Range Melee-to2 - with the only token support being the Reliable 1 that's provided to both units). We'll look to see how we can up this damage output (or whether we even should) in our next section . . .
LAAT/LE Patrol Transport: Recommended Upgrades
So far in this series, I've only recommended fully outfitting Obi-Wan with upgrades. Like a good Commander unit, I think a Transport will benefit from being pumped full of upgrades too - and the LAAT upgrades are surprisingly cheap, so it's not going to break the bank to get three upgrades on it. There's pretty much just two builds of LAATs that I look at - though for most players, there's really only one build (see Jay and Tim's discussion on the Fifth Trooper podcast here for more info on what this is - and spoilers, they're not wrong).
Pilot
The Republic has three pilot options for LAATs: Clone Commander Fox, Hound & Grizzer, and the Clone Shock Trooper Pilot. Hound & Grizzer are not my cup of tea - if the ability to throw out 4 observation tokens on a target was a free action (even if it required an exhaust), I'd consider taking them, but I just never have the actions to spare once my LAATs are within range 1-3. As an 8pt upgrade, I think you can do better.
Coming in at slightly more points (10pts) is Commander Fox, who gives you the Field Commander keyword (so you don't have to take a Commander unit) and a free action that can give a trooper unit at range 2 a free surge token and remove a suppression token. If you're looking for a flexible, tactical pilot option - or if you want to capitalize on the Field Commander keyword to deny your opponent VPs from Bounty - I think Fox is a good option.
Finally, we have the Clone Shock Trooper Pilot. This generic upgrade only costs 4pts and changed dramatically with the new rules revamp. Instead of giving units tokens when they disembarked, the Shock Trooper Pilot now gives 1 friendly unit (not just a trooper unit - though most Republic units are likely to be troopers) at range 1 a surge token after the LAAT attacks. If you're going to use the LAAT to lay down fire, this is probably your best option - but it also means you're probably running a more expensive kit-out than you would with Fox.
Ordnance x2
Once again, the LAAT has three options available to it - and depending on what you plan to do, your "best option" may change. The cheapest of these options (and the most situationally useful for a LAAT) is the High-Energy Shells, which is an 8pt upgrade that gives you 2 red/1 white with Critical 1 (awesome on a unit that doesn't have any surge options) and High Velocity (which is only useful if you're splitting fire, since the lack of High Velocity on the LAAT's main gun will remove the bonuses of High Velocity if the two weapons are fired together). A final dice pool of 4 red/2 black/1 white is perfectly respectable (an estimated 4.375 hits/attack - or what you're supposed to get from an 80-point ARC Trooper squad).
For 2pts more (10pts), you can get the Armor-Piercing Shells, which gives you 1 red/2 black and Impact 3 - which is going to give you FAR more damage against units with Armor than either of the other attack options. If you're not rocking a lot of Impact on your other units (RPS-6 launchers are pretty affordable, but also restrict your mobility), this is a pretty good option. With an estimated 4.25 hits/attack, you're getting about the same number of hits as the High-Energy Shells, but you're also expected to deal about 4 hits to a unit with full Armor - and from experience, you only have to "turret" with this guy twice (spending your actions during your activation to recover-then-shoot) before units with armor are really, really hurting. If you're also transporting Wookiees that can get into the Weak Point arc of a Heavy unit with Armor . . . yeah, it's going down in two or three turns.
Finally, for 12pts, you can pick up the "Bunker Buster Shells," which gives you 1 black/3 white and the Blast and Scatter keywords. This is the only ordnance option that ignores cover and while the LAAT's elevation might make it possible for you to see the enemy clearly, if he has any cover at all (measured as a beam from the top of the LAAT to the bottom of the LAAT), the overall damage of your LAAT is limited. Furthermore, both of the previous options are only range 2-3 or range 2-4, so if you're close to the enemy, they won't help you out. This ordnance weapon is range 1-2, so it's better at softening up a unit before your transported unit gets into them. It has a much lower expected damage output than the previous two (3.25 hits/attack), but against cover, you're supposed to be more reliable than the other two . . . assuming cover works, now that it's probabilistic instead of deterministic. Still, if you plan to transport a close-range melee unit (like Wookiees), I'd always opt for the Bunker Buster Shells over the other options.
With the rules revamp, LAATs can now take two Ordnance upgrades - and since each of these upgrades has Cycle (allowing you to recover the upgrade if it's exhausted and wasn't used this turn), if you're planning to shoot a lot, you probably want to take the Shock Trooper Pilot and two Ordnance upgrades, rotating which one you use each turn. Laying down fire from afar probably means you're looking at the High Energy Shells and the Armor Piercing Shells - which puts your LAAT at 122 points, flexing between 4.25 and 4.375 hits/turn. That's not GREAT damage output for being a Republic unit, but it's also not bad. Alternatively, you could spend 126 points to swap the High Energy Shells for the Bunker Buster Shells and do damage from Range 2 (and occasionally Range 1). If you're angling for that, your overall damage will be lower on the turn you're using the Bunker Buster Shells, but you also don't have to worry about melee spams as much.
If you're running Fox, however, you don't HAVE to do the double-Ordnance option. You could choose to turret instead - choosing to recover-shoot each turn - or double-move every other turn, since your pilot upgrade isn't heavily incentivised to "just move and shoot". This will end up being slightly cheaper (Fox + the Armor Piercing Shells is only 120pts), but it's still in the same ballpark.
Comms
About half of the Comms upgrades aren't going to work well on a LAAT - you don't have Coordinate innately and most units are going to try to stay outside of Range 1 of you (or they'll try to get there if you took either the High-Energy Shells or the Armor-Piercing Shells), so Command Control Array, Comms Jammer, and Hacked Comms Unit aren't that great. Additionally, being issued orders anywhere with a Long-Range Comlink or issuing yourself an order with an HQ Uplink are all fine and well, but they're not as good as one of the other options. Giving the LAAT an aim or dodge token with an Emergency Transponder has potential, but your Clones will benefit far more from a Transponder than a LAAT will (both because their expected damage is better and because they can share the tokens).
This leaves us with three upgrades: a Comms Relay, Linked Targeting Array, and Onboard Comms Channel. The last one (the Onboard Comms Channel) changed a lot with the rules revamp, since it now gives your LAAT Coordinate: Trooper, which is AWESOME if you're planning to a) issue orders to the LAAT, and b) have a trooper unit nearby to - I don't know - get a surge token (and possibly remove a suppression). With a price hike up to 10pts, I'm not sure that this is the easy-sell it used to be, but it's still good.
The Comms Relay is an interesting choice, since one of the Command cards for Cody and two of the generic Republic Command cards issue orders to vehicles/Heavy units specifically. If one of your vehicles happens to be both a vehicle and a heavy weapon, you're golden on all counts (plus Cody has Direct: Vehicle, so even if you've got a BARC Speeder or something receiving orders, you can still get an order and pass it to someone else). Taking the Comms Relay will not trigger the special rule for Synchronized Offensive (the generic Republic 1-pip Command card), but it'll give you the flexibility to get the order tokens on the Corps units that need them - and if they're close enough to get an order from a Comms Relay, then they'll also be close enough to benefit from a surge token/suppression removal from Fox. This isn't a bad choice - and comes in at only half the price of the Onboard Comms Channel (though you're only getting one order instead of two - so I'd personally just pay the 5 extra points to get the Comms Channel if I can swing it).
. . . but I can't help but think that the Linked Targeting Array could have some play if you intend to do a ton of shooting with the LAAT. If you know that you're getting an order every turn (from Cody's Direct: Vehicle special rule, let's say), an aim token every turn on the LAAT is going to be useful in bumping up your damage - and if you took one of the longer-range support Ordnance options (Armor-Piercing or High-Energy Shells), you're already starting with ~4 successes - and you're probably getting 5-6 successes with an aim token (depending on which dice you're rerolling). If you take Commander Fox, the Armor-Piercing Shells, and the Linked Targeting Array, you're coming in at just 125pts and you're a lot beefier as a combat piece than most will expect. While the Saber Tank is the better overall damage piece (it's supposed to get 4.625 hits/attack before any aims if it has the Twin Laser Turret), a 125pt LAAT is going to be about 60pts cheaper than that and do about as much damage . . . so there's that.
Okay, let's look at some lists!
LAAT/LE Patrol Transport: Sample List and Strategy
The list we have today is a Cody-double-LAAT list and it plans to use the LAATs to transport DP-23 Troopers (who are close-range terrors) to the center of the board quickly. Cody can deploy near the Commandos to provide long-range fire, while the LAATs play the mid-range game, supporting the DP-23s. If you prefer Z-6s instead of DP-23s, you could swap them one-for-one - your choice. The Clone Captains now grant Defend 1 and Outmaneuver if they're issued an order, which is GREAT if they're hanging out near LAATs (you can view the list here on Tabletop Admiral): LAAT/LE Patrol Transport: Final Review
LAATs are fun, flexible units and while they CAN do damage, their primary goal is to get your units in a good scoring position. With the changes to Transport, these units are a lot more flexible than they used to be, since you're not going to try to shuttle units around all game (which heavily incentivized the Bunker Buster Shells).
Overall character review: 3/5 stars. I think as far as personal transports go, LAATs are the best option in the game (with the possible exception of the A-A5 Speeder Truck), but their offense requires them to turret or pay for a second Ordnance upgrade in order to perform on-par with a similarly-costed or cheaper Corps/Special Forces option, so if you're going for firepower (thanks to token sharing), I think you can do better than this unit. Still, it's a great model (and can be hard to kill) and I'm glad I have it in my collection.
Next time, we're flipping from the Republic to the Galactic Empire as we look at the LAAT again. While the only real change for LAATs is their choice of Pilot upgrades, the options you have for this guy dramatically change how they're used. Find out if this guy is better or worse when fielded 20 years later - and until then, happy hobbying!
