IP Class Deck Review: Reactive Defenses

Good morning gamers,

We’re back with another Imperial Class Deck review and this time, it’s the Reactive Defenses class deck from Heart of the Empire. I’m not sure that any class deck is as underwhelming as the Power of the Dark Side class deck (which was also released in Heart of the Empire), but at first glance, the only thing that really appeals about Reactive Defenses is that you can use those new energy shield tokens and a companion droid who gets a free dodge result . . . nothing that spectacular, really. However, as with most class decks, there’s more than meets the eye about this one and it actually provides several different ways you can play the deck. Let’s see what’s up.  

Reactive Defenses: Droid Options 

To understand what this deck is all about, we need to begin by discussing the ball-droid you get with the deck: 88-Z. Your default class card (Active Surveillance) has you deploy him at the beginning (from one of your green active deployment points) and if 88-Z happens to die later in the mission, you can exhaust Active Surveillance to redeploy him. 88-Z activates as part of any Imperial activation, so after you’ve acted with one unit that’s benefitting from his help, you can move towards another unit. Alternatively, if there’s a unit that could really benefit from being near 88-Z and needs to activate now, you can move 88-Z before that unit performs its activation. What the benefits of 88-Z are depends heavily on how you upgrade him (by default, he can surge to apply 1 Strain to the target of his attack – and that’s it). 

The cards you can buy in the deck broadly speaking fall into two categories: cards that give 88-Z more abilities (usually performed as actions) or cards that benefit units that are near 88-Z. Four of the class deck upgrades allow 88-Z to place an energy shield in an adjacent tile (Shielded), hand out surge power tokens to up to 2 figures within 2 spaces of him (Mechanical Prototype), get you 1 Threat if an enemy hero doesn’t Strain and pass an Insight check (Infrared Scanners), or gives him 3 actions during each activation, and the ability to give himself a free damage power token, or DPT (Overclock). If you were to purchase all four of these upgrades, you’d need to pick and choose what 88-Z is going to do, since he won’t have enough actions to do them all (giving himself the DPT seems the least useful to me) and because moving and attacking are also actions (if you take the DPT, you’re very likely going to be attacking on one of your activations). Each of these upgrades also does something else for your team (exhaust to apply +1 Block, exhaust to give a Droid +1 Damage, +1 movement point for each figure – no exhaust required, and exhaust to ready 88-Z, respectively), so even if 88-Z isn’t going, there’s always some benefit to your upgrades. Your starting upgrade is really the only “bad” upgrade you have, but it gets you 88-Z in the first place and allows you to re-get him if he dies (which is rare without Cleave/Blast, but definitely possible with direct attacks as the campaign goes on and access to anti-dodge tech becomes available). 

Most of the other class deck cards provide benefits to your non-88-Z units based on how far away they are from 88-Z. Chief among these is Targeting Sensors, which gives all Imperial figures within 2 spaces of 88-Z +1 Damage and +1 Accuracy to their attack rolls – which is kind of like getting Pierce 1/Accuracy 1 for free from the Precision Training deck, only it’s in a localized area instead of static across the army. You can also exhaust the card get +1 Damage on anyone, so that’s pretty great. The Electromagnetic Disruptors doesn’t help your models per se, but makes Rebel figures within 3 spaces of 88-Z suffer -1 Accuracy to their results, which makes models that can get Hide really good (as they’re apply -2 Accuracy to the attack results anyway), but also makes units who want to sit back at long range better, as they can force move actions in order for heroes to hit them reliably. Remote Activator doesn’t require a unit to be near 88-Z, but the unit bearing this attachment can spend an action to make 88-Z perform a move, attack, or special action once per group activation – which is great if you have several special actions that you want to perform but can’t squeeze them all in. You can also exhaust the upgrade to give 88-Z 2 movement points, which is awesome. 

The final upgrade doesn’t require you to interact with 88-Z at all. Blaster Emplacements makes one Rebel figure anywhere on the board suffer damage from a yellow die (which will vary from 0-2 damage and deal about 0.83 damage each turn) and can be exhausted to give any Imperial figure +2 Accuracy. This 1XP upgrade is good to add as a finishing touch to any deck (spending any excess XP you have), but is probably the least necessary of the bunch to any particular deck build (except for maybe Remote Activator – that one really only comes into play if you want 88-Z to be really active). Okay, let’s talk about example builds! 

End-Game Build #1 – The Droid Stuff: Active Surveillance, Shielded, Mechanical Protocol, Infrared Scanners, Overclock 

This is a 10XP set that focuses on what we can give to 88-Z – we want Overclock as early as possible (4XP) so that 88-Z can perform 3 actions twice per round. With four special abilities, as well as moves/attacks as options (don’t attack with this build – he’s got basically nothing to help him), we can start the game by moving/applying Strain when we attack, then pick up Shielded (which you can actually pick up at the start of a short campaign, since you’ll have 5XP after the first mission, regardless of whether you win or lose) so you can place two energy shields to protect your troops/block line of sight each round. Infrared Scanners is nice to have because everyone gets 1 movement point (extra movement on everyone is always good) and 88-Z can potentially increase threat (or at the worst, apply more Strain). Finally, Mechanical Protocol can increase the damage of your droids and allow 88-Z to hand out surge tokens to models that don’t surge well. 

Best IP Units: 

• Sentry Droids (Heart of the Empire) – These are droids who don’t mind getting a +1 Damage boost from Mechanical Protocol (and will certainly welcome some defensive cover from Shielded). In order to set up those Multi-Fire shots, an extra pip of movement from Infrared Scanners is great as well. 
• Riot Troopers (Heart of the Empire) – These guys have good surge abilities, but a low chance of actually surging, which can be fixed with Mechanical Protocol pretty easily. With already impressive defensive tech (black defense die, free block token if they don’t have one already) and access to Shielded (5 health/1 block energy shields and an exhaust for +1 block) will make the Rebel heroes have to work harder to kill these guys. 
• Weequay Pirates (Jabba’s Realm) – These guys have excellent surge abilities and low health – energy shields are great for keeping them alive and the surge tokens you can get from Mechanical Protocol can get a little extra damage out of that Green-Green die pool. 
• Trandoshan Hunters (Core) – If you have 88-Z applying Strain to the Rebel heroes, why not stack onto that more Strain from Trandoshans? The Green-Blue pool on these guys can get a surge, but having a SPT would be better than having to get it innately (and if they’re attacking an adjacent hero, they can get up to 5 Damage with Pierce 2).  
• Bespin Wing Guard (Bespin Gambit) – Bespin Wing Guard also play the Strain game, while tanking hits for nearby units. Extra Defense is always nice to help shield off vulnerable units that might be further down a hallway or deeper in a room and force the issue of dealing with a Wing Guard or “wasting” an attack against an energy shield. Either way, you win. 

End-Game Build #2 – Well-Placed Benefits: Active Surveillance, Blaster Emplacement, Electromagnetic Disruptors, Targeting Sensors 

This build only requires 8XP and focuses on providing static benefits for Imperial units (and penalties for Rebel units) instead of trying to power of 88-Z. For Electromagnetic Disruptors and Targeting Sensors, this requires careful placement of 88-Z (Rebels within 3 spaces, Imperials within 2 spaces), but it also frees up 88-Z to “just move” and “just attack”. If you have 3 XP extra before the finale, I’d recommend getting the Infrared Scanners for the free movement points, but if you’re more limited on XP, you can get Mechanical Protocol if you plan to lean harder into droids/SPTs, Blaster Emplacements for the extra accuracy (and end of round damage), or Shielded for the extra block and option for throwing up energy shields. The units that are going to benefit the most from this approach are the ones who want to stay away from the action/Hide and those who have limited accuracy/actual damage (but great surge abilities). 

Best IP Units: 

• Probe Droid (Core) – Probe Droids can only surge for 1 Damage and 1 Pierce – and if you get a trash roll, it’s not hard for them to either miss entirely or do pitiful amounts of damage. Targeting Sensors is great for them – and if they can get an Evade Power Token (EPT) from Electromagnetic Disruptors, even better. While +1 Accuracy is great, the option to get +2 additional Accuracy is really good and allows these guys (or at least the first guy) to fire from a long way away. 
• Gamorrean Guard (Jabba’s Realm) – If you want a unit that’s hard to kill and won’t mind getting a little damage, it’s regular Gamorrean Guards. Red-Red is great for damage – but Red-Red with -1 damage isn’t that great. If you run Gamorreans with THIS deck, however, you can get a static +1 Damage to outweigh that and also make them harder to kill with EPTs. If these guys can double-up on a hero and then queue up 88-Z to take a pot-shot, you could get a hero wounded (or leave them vulnerable to an end of round Blaster Emplacement shot). 
• ISB Infiltrators (ISB Infiltrator Villain Pack) – These guys have the ability to surge for Hide (the Elites tack on Pierce 1 to this surge ability), which can keep these guys from being shot from long distances while 88-Z is nearby. Their Blue-Green attack pool greatly benefits from Targeting Sensors, as the extra Accuracy (and possibly more if you exhaust Blaster Emplacements) allows them to attack from far away and the extra damage makes them just a little more reliable at actually getting a wound through. If you can afford their more elite versions, you should get them – for +2pts, you add Pierce 1 to your surge for Hide (so use the surge from Hide to re-hide yourself), adds Pierce 1 to surge for 2 Accuracy, you surge for 2 Damage instead of 1 Damage, you pick up surge to remove 1 dodge result, and you get +2 health/model . . . it’s kind of ridiculous. 
• Elite Weequay Pirates (Jabba’s Realm) – These guys can spend an action to Hide (instead of surging for it), which makes them much harder to deal with from a distance. With a static 2 Accuracy, at least 2 Accuracy from the Green-Green, 1 Accuracy from being within 2 spaces of 88-Z, and potentially 2 Accuracy from Blaster Emplacements, these guys can get RIDICULOUS range (and they can reroll one attack die if they don’t mind what the target got on defense). Without any exhaust benefits, it’s not unlikely that you’ll get a final result of 7 Damage/5 Accuracy for your attack – which is CRAZY for a 7pt squad! 
• Heavy Stormtroopers (Twin Shadows) – These guys want you to shoot at them from far away so they can get extra block, so naturally anything that ups the damage of a Red-Blue and tacks on extra Accuracy is going to be amazing! Have these guys at the end of a corridor if you can so they can shoot and then back up, relying on the boosted Accuracy they can get from Blaster Emplacements/88-Z to augment their already impressive static 2 Accuracy and blue die. 

End-Game Build #3 – Damage Mode: Active Surveillance, Blaster Emplacement, Mechanical Protocol, Targeting Sensors 

This last build is the most bare-bones of the builds with only 7XP committed – and they’re all the damage-oriented cards. Mechanical Protocol and Blaster Emplacements can help you get extra damage from your Droid units/extra surge on any units or deal damage at the end of the round (and extra accuracy when you need it), while Targeting Sensors is by far and away your first choice (except for maybe Blaster Emplacements if you’re playing a short campaign), since it can give extra damage to anyone in a bubble around 88-Z. Once you have these three upgrades, the rest of your options are wide open – Infrared Scanners for extra movement, Electromagnetic Disruptors to hinder Rebel units/hand out defensive tokens to your units, or your handy-dandy Shielded upgrade for defensive barriers, just to name the ones that can benefit anyone. Whichever way you choose to do it, this mode makes damage the priority, but leaves you options to customize the rest of your deck as you want. 

Best IP Units: 

• Tusken Raiders (Twin Shadows) – I’m not sure that there’s a better damage-for-cost unit in the game than Elite Tuskens (certainly that has the flexibility of dealing damage up close or at a distance). Sure, you have to have at least 1 desert tile on the map to use them, but if you have them at your disposal, then you’re in good shape. Extra damage on these guys is a killer and if you can keep them alive (Shielded would help a lot, as would Electromagnetic Disruptors), they’ll bring the pain. Their Cyclers are great ranged weapons, but without the ability to surge for accuracy, they need all the static boosts they can get – and this deck can give them 1-3 Accuracy on top of what they get from the blue die they’re rolling. 
• Loth-cats (Tyrants of Lothal) – Do you know who likes getting free damage besides Elite Tuskens? Loth-cats. Why? Because getting a free Pierce 1 AND a free Damage 1 is AWESOME! Yes, the accuracy boost is wasted on these guys, but it doesn’t matter – they’re getting effectively a free die to attack whoever they want (and they’ll take it). They can also start nowhere near 88-Z and still end up benefitting from his boosts, thanks to their incredible speed and the Pounce ability (which is really good on a small model, since a diagonal move can make these guys get to ridiculously far away places). 
• Stormtroopers (Core) – Stormtroopers deal good damage if they have Squad Training (nothing to write home about, but it’s good all the same). Anything that allows them to shoot from farther away and deal a little extra punch when they shoot is awesome. Their Blue-Green with the reroll and the option for 1-3 extra Accuracy also means you can be pretty far away from someone and STILL be dangerous. If only they were Droids as well . . . 
• Sentry Droids (Heart of the Empire) – Oh look, Droids! While Multi-Fire is an excellent ability (and these guys certainly benefit from it if they have access to Targeting Sensors active), being able to exhaust to add not 1 but 2 extra damage to one of their Multi-Fire attacks is amazing! They’ll also take SPTs, since they can surge for Pierce 2 and they have a good chance of getting 4 damage from their Green-Green dice pool. With at least 3 Accuracy if they’re within 2 spaces of 88-Z and the potential for 4 Damage + Pierce 2 after the Multi-Fire penalty, a pair of these guys can really ruin the day of two heroes who get too close to them. 
• HK Assassin Droid (Return to Hoth) – I’ll be honest, I don’t like these guys (I think they cost too much, their damage output isn’t worth it, and they’re too fragile). However, they roll a Blue-Blue-Yellow, which has at least 4 Accuracy built into it and with a reroll of one attacking die and one defending die, there’s a good chance that with THIS deck, you could make them actually worth something. With the ability to surge for Damage 1/Pierce 1 on the regulars and no less than 5 Accuracy, you can reliably shoot from 7 spaces away and still deal damage to the attacker . . . if you can manage those kinds of shots in the game (check your layout before picking your open groups), take it. 

In our next post, we’ll be wrapping up our review of the Imperial Class Decks and looking at the Overwhelming Oppression deck from Tyrants of Lothal. This deck seems to walk the line between several other class decks, so if you want a little-bit-of-this from several other deck options, this might be a good class deck for you. Find out more next time, and until then, happy gaming!