Good morning gamers,
In early 2023, I got the Republic half of a Star Wars Legion starter box, and after playing a bunch of games, I was hooked (though disenchanted by some of the features of the game - see a previous article I wrote on this). The starter box for for the Clone Wars era gives you Obi-Wan Kenobi, two squads of Phase I Clone Troopers (which we'll cover later this year), and a BARC speeder (which we'll cover eventually). In all my research on how to run the Republic, basically everyone says that Jedi are good . . . but Obi-Wan is not. So, since all of the experts are saying to avoid this guy, I've naturally been playing with him exclusively since the start of the year and I have some thoughts on him. TL;DR is that he isn't junk, just misunderstood.
NOTE: When I wrote this article, everyone was down on Obi-Wan - and then someone won the LVO tournament with him, so now he's being talked about everywhere (and I'm moving this article up in the schedule to be relevant - and so you don't think I'm just tooting someone else's horn, since all of these thoughts were written up BEFORE Obi-Wan's success at LVO). If you'd like to see the LVO winning list, you can view it here. You can also listen to a discussion about Obi-Wan (and the Republic - and a lot of other things) here.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Profile
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| My Go-To Build for Obi-Wan Kenobi: 205 points Photo Credit: Legion HQ |
General Kenobi has a fairly standard Jedi profile - lots of attack dice (2 red/black/white) with Impact 2/Pierce 2 (and Critical 2, since he doesn't surge for crit/hit innately), Immune: Pierce, Master of the Force 1 (for resetting one of those really useful Force upgrades), and a very healthy 6 Wounds/3 Courage and a red defense die. Obi-Wan can also perform Jump 1 for one action (most Force users can), he has Charge (which isn't the same as Relentless, but a free attack action is still a free attack action), and he's got 2 Force upgrade slots. By all rights, this guy should compare pretty well to his Jedi counterparts, specifically Yoda and Anakin.
But here we depart into the differences - both Yoda and Anakin have rules or command cards that allow them to lean hard into the token-sharing mechanic that makes the Republic really good - and most of the upgrades that Obi-Wan can take can also be taken by these guys (Yoda can't take Training upgrades and Anakin can't take Command upgrades). If you compare the expected damage from Anakin (one attack with 6 Blacks and surge for crit) or Yoda (two attacks with 4 Reds), Obi-Wan is lacking in the damage department a bit. But Obi-Wan has two other rules that make him distinct and different from these guys - and paired with his unique access to Force, Command, AND Training upgrades, I think these rules set him above the other two (wait, did I just say that?): Guardian 3 and Soresu Mastery.
Guardian 3 allows Obi-Wan to absorb up to 3 hit results from a friendly unit within range 1 and within line of sight - he then gets to roll his red defense die to try to block them. This pairs nicely with Soresu Mastery, which not only allows Obi-Wan to cancel one of these hits with a dodge token if he wants to (he's the only Guardian who can use dodge tokens to cancel Guardian hits), but also gives him surge for block on defense, increasing his effectiveness. While Yoda can generate a lot of dodge tokens that can be borrowed on a turn in which he plays Luminous Beings Are We (and can REALLY generate dodge tokens if Padme is also in the list with Guidance) and while Anakin can generate lots of dodge/surge tokens that can be borrowed with Exemplar and Reliable 2, Obi-Wan has the ability to continually absorb damage away from your critical units in a way that neither of the other Jedi options for the Republic can. Let's see how we can capitalize on this with his upgrade suite . . .
Obi-Wan has four upgrade slots - and I always fill all of them. For his two Force upgrades, I always take Battle Meditation (5pts) and Force Barrier (10pts). Battle Meditation gives us the flexibility to issue orders to critical units instead of Obi-Wan with his command cards - and it makes it so that if we have a unit that's WAY far away (which you generally don't want to do with the Republic, but if you end up playing with the Disarray board setup, you'll want it) OR just make sure that all of your Fire Support Clone Troopers can get orders. Obi-Wan's command cards don't require him to actually be issued orders in order for him to get things, so it's good to just issue the orders to not-Obi-Wan and leave his order token in the pile. If you would prefer to have Force Push for its late-game flexibility in certain scenarios, be my guest - it can also be used to set up a Charge, but in my experience, Obi-Wan doesn't really hit hard enough to make this an appealing scenario.
Force Barrier helps a lot with our Guardian ability - once or twice per round (depending on when Obi-Wan activates), we can block 2 additional hits (or 1 crit) BEFORE we get to the Guardian 3 rule - and any time you can avoid taking 4-5 hits is a great day! Since many of Obi-Wan's command cards can give him dodge tokens (as can one of Padme's cards), it's not hard to reduce his damage intake with Soresu in addition to whatever you reduced with Barrier. Since Battle Meditation doesn't require an exhaust, Barrier is the only Force upgrade you need to reset with Master of the Force 1 (and is likely to be what you reset if you choose Force Push instead).
For his training upgrade, I've been "doing the Anakin thing" and running Offensive/Defensive Stance (5pts) - mostly staying in the Defensive Stance so that each dodge action he performs generates 2 dodge tokens instead of 1. While Obi-Wan is part of your gunline (and he should be part of it so he can use Barrier/Guardian effectively), he will likely move-dodge and generate 2 dodge tokens OR he can double-dodge and generate 4 dodge tokens. I've tried to do the offensive thing where Obi-Wan takes Tenacity instead (with Force Push instead of Barrier), but it just isn't as effective as supporting the gunline. The best alternative option for your Training slot is Protector, which was used at LVO to allow Obi-Wan once per round to absorb crits instead of just hits.
For the Command slot, I've gone back and forth between Vigilance (12pts) and Aggressive Tactics (15pts) - both of which are great on Obi-Wan. Since Obi-Wan generates a lot of dodge tokens (and generally wants to start with one), Vigilance can be really key - and he's one of very few units in the game with access to both a Command slot and the Nimble keyword (which he'll have for one turn of the game). If you want to make sure Obi-Wan is ready to start the turn with a dodge token, Vigilance is a good shout most of the time.
However, I've been running him with Aggressive Tactics a lot recently - since Obi-Wan generally doesn't need surge tokens, the ability to issue an order to anyone on the battlefield AND give that model a surge token is a great way for making sure your Clones are more effective when rolling dice (staying alive if they use it on defense and pumping out a little more damage if they use it on offense). The costs of these upgrades is basically the same, so depending on whether you think the surge tokens or the dodge token on Obi-Wan is more important is really the deciding factor. Both upgrades are pretty expensive, but you can offset this by leaning harder into Phase 1 Clone Troopers rather than Phase 2 Clone Troopers (effectively giving your Phase 1s the Reliable 1 that you get from Phase 2s).
When it comes to Command Cards, all three of Obi-Wan's command cards are great - Hello There! (1-pip) gives Obi-Wan an order token (or any unit on the board with Battle Meditation), Nimble for the round (so one spent dodge token comes back to him each time he uses at least one when he's targeted by an attack- though this won't trigger when you use Guardian), and allows him to gain a dodge token (and potentially aim/surge/standby tokens - but you really want the dodge tokens) for each enemy unit at range 1-2, which is great if your gunline has incoming foes (or if Obi-Wan is slightly ahead of your gunline)!
Knowledge and Defense (2-pip) allows Obi-Wan to issue orders to up to two Trooper units (or one Trooper unit and any unit on the board) and gives Obi-Wan a dodge token for each friendly Trooper unit at range 1 - perfect if he's embedded in your gunline and surrounded by friendly Troopers! I usually play this command card on Turn 3 or 4 when the enemy is likely to be able to shoot at me and I need to spam out the dodge tokens before the shooting begins.
General Kenobi (3-pip) allows Obi-Wan to issue orders to himself and 2 units (or any three units) and whoever receives an order from Obi-Wan also gets a surge token for each friendly unit within range 1 - which is also great for a Clone gunline! I usually play this on Turn 1-2 depending on the deployment setup. I played a game where Obi-Wan used this command card on Turn 2 or 3 and between it, Reliable 1 on Echo's Strike Team, and Aggressive Tactics, I generated 14 surge tokens . . . it was absurd.
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| Look at all my surge tokens - and two more are off screen! |
If your army is heavily focused on Clone Troopers (most GAR armies are), Obi-Wan can get similar results from Attack of the Clones (3-pip), which issues orders to 3 Clone Troopers (or 2 Clone Troopers and any unit on the board) and whoever gets issued an order gains 1 surge token or removes 1 suppression token. This is another great Turn 1-2 command card - and both this one and General Kenobi stack well with Aggressive Tactics, which can hand out still MORE surge tokens! The goal with these command cards is simple: don't cough up units early in the match!
While not as good as Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan can get some value out of Synchronized Offensive (1-pip), which makes it so that when a friendly vehicle is issued an order, a friendly Clone Trooper unit at range 1-2 of it also receives an order. Theoretically if you had a LAAT that was carrying someone with an Onboard Comms Channel and it was near a Phase 1/Phase 2/ARC Trooper squad with Fives in it, you could end up with 4 orders issued during the round - and Obi-Wan could make sure that the vehicle was anywhere on the board when it received the order with Battlefield Meditation. If you chose to run Battle Meditation (like I have above), you can use the order token to go to a non-vehicle unit, but you won't get the second order off of it (which is still fine, but not as good as getting a free order token).
Similarly, if you run Obi-Wan with Commander Cody, Cody's Have I Ever Let You Down? Command Card (2-pip) can allow Cody to perform an attack each time Obi-Wan uses Guardian. If you wanted to get more use out of Synchronized Offensive, Cody is probably a good add to your team, since the text of Synchronized Offensive can be triggered by Cody's Direct: Vehicle ability and Obi-Wan can issue the order from Synchronized Offensive wherever he wants.
But the real person you want to bring with Obi-Wan is (of course) Padme - thanks to having Exemplar and Authoritative (which allow friendly units within range 1-2 to borrow her aim/dodge/surge tokens and allows her to issue her order token to someone else), any tokens Padme generates and any orders that go to her can be used in a more flexible manner. Her Our Fate Is in Your Hands Command Card (1-pip) will give her up to 2 dodge tokens that Obi-Wan can then borrow for his Soresu Mastery. Obi-Wan can pick up a dodge token and have access to another dodge token with her 2-pip Aggressive Negotiations too (so long as both he and Padme receive the orders). Her Diplomatic Cover Command Card (3-pip) gives her a permanent Reliable 1, which is really good for the Clones around Padme and less so for Obi-Wan, but can still be useful (though I'd just go with Attack of the Clones, personally - paired with Aggressive Tactics, you probably don't need Padme's Reliable 1).
So yes, Padme and Cody (and the generic Clone cards) are great with Obi-Wan - and that shouldn't be surprising, since Padme and Cody are also really great with the other Jedi heroes (I mean, Padme is making GAR lists work right now). Also, an Obi-Wan/Cody/Padme list won the Las Vegas Open this year, so you don't have to take my word for it. You could also go with a Clone Commander if you want, but I think he's providing a different set of skills than Cody does (both have Direct - and the Clone Commander doesn't require you to take a vehicle - but the Commander will give you surge tokens and has a so-so gun, while Cody will give you observation tokens and has a good gun). Still, if you're not bringing a vehicle, the Commander will save you money and is a decent shout.
So with all this in mind, let's take a quick look at a sample list and the strategies behind it . . .
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Sample List and Strategy
Here's a 799-point list with Obi-Wan and Padme in it (you can access it on Legion HQ if you prefer to see it visually here):
- Obi-Wan Kenobi with Battle Meditation, Force Barrier, Aggressive Tactics, and Defensive Stance
- Padme Amidala with Strict Orders and Looted E-5 Blaster
- Phase I Clone Troopers with Fives and Clone Medic
- Phase I Clone Troopers with Z-6 Trooper and Phase I Clone Captain
- Phase I Clone Troopers with RPS-6 Trooper and Boil
- ARC Troopers with DC-15x ARC Trooper
- ARC Trooper Strike Team with DC-15x ARC Trooper
- ARC Trooper Strike Team with Echo
For our command cards we've gone with all three of Obi-Wan's command cards, two of Padme's cards (not Diplomatic Cover), and Attack of the Clones. Our plan is to use our gunline of 3 ARCs and 3 Phase 1s to riddle the enemy with shots and absorb damage with Obi-Wan and Boil (who has Guardian 1). Padme was given the Looted E-5 Blaster so she can trigger a Fire Support from Range 3 if we need to, but if you wanted to use those points and the point we didn't spend, I'd consider giving Recon Intel to all the Phase 1s (that would give us four Scout 2 units and two Scout 1 units). As it is, we want Obi-Wan near as many of our units as we can, but if Boil and a Strike Team need to drift away from the group, that'll be just fine.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Final Review
I think a Yoda team (and possibly an Anakin team) would be better than this list - but I really like the flexibility you get from Obi-Wan that isn't tied to "just creating dodge tokens." Yes, he does that too - and almost as well as Yoda and Anakin - but the ability to absorb 3 shots each time someone shoots is really, really good. I've heard the critique that you don't want your 6-health, high-point-cost hero taking all that damage, but if your emphasis is on keeping your Corps/Special Forces units alive, I don't know that there's a better option than Obi-Wan.
At some point, you may need to pivot from performing a full Guardian 3 to performing a Guardian 1 (if he has a dodge token left - especially if it's on a turn when he plays Hello There), but Obi-Wan can keep your other units alive - and if you can kill over 200pts of the enemy, losing Obi-Wan might not cost you the game. If you find yourself in the position where Obi-Wan doesn't have a lot of health, double-dodging with Defensive Stance will keep him around for a while (and if you can Guardian 1 and avoid the damage with a dodge token, you're still contributing to your team).
Overall character review: 4/5 stars. I think Obi-Wan is worth taking, but using him requires a lot of practice and patience. He'd be better if he had a reliable offensive capability, but as it stands, his expected damage is pretty mediocre unless you lean into it (and away from Guardian). Thankfully, you don't NEED Obi-Wan to be great at offense - the Republic has TONS of affordable and reliable options for offensive firepower.
Speaking of which, next time we'll be looking at Phase 1 Clone Troopers and the options you have when fielding them. These guys are my favorite of the units available to the Republic, and it makes fielding Republic lists really fun because they can be customized so much (and they fulfill your Corps requirements with units you ACTUALLY like). Find out more next time and until then, happy hobbying!
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