We’ve come to it at last – the final playable Rebel Hero for the Imperial Assault campaign. There are tons of heroes in Imperial Assault who like to do the shooting game – some from up close and some from far away (and some who don’t really care), but there are few who can deal quite as much carnage as CT-1701. He’s also incredibly flexible as a shooting character, since he doesn’t have pistol or rifle requirements to use his special abilities (and he can be taken as either a bolt-slinging maniac or as a level-headed squad leader). Let’s see what this guy brings to the table that’s new to Imperial Assault.
CT-1701: So You Like Shooting, Huh?
I’m a huge fan of Star Wars: Rebels – it’s a great show. Rebels was very exciting for me because we learn – SPOILER ALERT – that Captain Rex and some of his Clone buddies survived the Clone Wars and didn’t go all Order-66 on the Jedi. This made me SO happy and I love the episodes with Rex. CT-1701 is our “Captain Rex” kind of Clone in Imperial Assault – an ex-Clone Trooper who’s trying to help the Rebellion fight against the Empire.
He’s also got a really wild shooting profile: while he’s unwounded, his shooting attacks can surge for 1 Damage Power Token (DPT), which is really great, since he can also spend 2 strain (even after he’s been wounded) to perform a second shooting attack at a figure within 3 spaces of the previous target (though that person gets a white die added to their defense pool). If you shoot at one figure, surge for a DPT, and then get to shoot again, you know that you can wipe out the block result that may or may not come from the new white die and still do damage to your target (assuming that he doesn’t get a dodge, of course – more on this later).
Other Rebel heroes can perform free attacks, but always with some kind of constraint on when or how they do it. Mak can perform a free follow-up attack if he doesn’t kill his target with No Escape (or against a figure who attacked him once per game with Decoy), Jyn can interrupt at the start of a hostile figure’s activation to perform a shot against it, Biv can perform a free melee attack before performing a shooting attack against an adjacent figure with Close and Personal (and potentially another free melee attack with Stay Down), Verena can perform a great many free attacks if she can keep killing enemy units that are adjacent to her with Close Quarters, Loku can interrupt to attack a hostile figure who has a recon token, and Vinto can perform a free attack with his Off-Hand Blaster (which isn’t very good, but is still a free attack). That’s a lot of people who can get free attacks – but no one gets to “just attack twice” with their main weapon for a single action . . . except CT-1701. So if you really like shooting guns, you should definitely try this guy out. If you'd like to do that from a safe distance, might I recommend . . .
End-Game Weapon #1: A-12 Sniper Rifle with Tactical Display and Sniper Scope
Barrage is a nice way to get an extra attack action at the low-low cost of 2 strain – but the cost of doing this extra attack is that your opponent gets a free white defense die. While there is little that aggravates a Rebel Player (or an Imperial Player, for that matter) more than a dodge result on a white die, the A-12 Sniper Rifle doesn’t really care about that, since it can surge to remove a dodge result from the defense total . . . a Yellow-Blue-Blue attack pool is great, but if you can surge for Damage 2 and Pierce 2 and not have to worry about dodges, I’d say you have a pretty good weapon. Getting the surges is the only hard part, so I’ve opted for the Sniper Scope (since we’re getting at least 4 accuracy on the two blue dice) – and while I could have gotten more damage out of the Plasma Cell (more on that next), I kind of want to make sure I’m getting all of the surge I want with the Tactical Display (which also gives me a surge if I need it if I'm less than 5 spaces away).
Both the Sniper Rifle and the Scope are Tier 3 items, so in the early missions, you can rely on the Charge Pistol (same dice pool as your starter weapon, -1 static accuracy, surge for Damage 1 and 1 Damage Power Token (DPT) instead of getting 1 DPT if you failed to deal any damage), which works out great with the Tactical Display. Emphasize to your team how much work you’re putting in and how much money you’re saving them so that when you get to Tier 3, you can buy what you want and no one swoops in to spend all your money.
Upgrades to purchase - 9 XP: Strafing Run (2), Squad Tactics (3), Concentrate Fire (4)
End-Game Weapon #2: DDC Defender with Plasma Cell
Four attacks for the low-low cost of 2 strain and 2 actions? Yes please! With each attack having a Green-Yellow and the ability to turn up to 2 surge into 2 Damage (and a static Pierce 1 on each of those attacks), it’s not hard to see 4-5 damage with Pierce 1 coming off this thing. And you get that FOUR TIMES! Yes, one of those attacks will get a free white die (and you’re functionally limited to shooting at guys who are right next to you due to the limited accuracy of your gun), but if you’re squaring off against melee fighters (or get some extra movement), this is a killer way to blow chunks in nearby units. You can actually attack FIVE times if you have Wild Fire . . . which you should totally get.
Besides Wild Fire, you probably want things that will get you extra damage – Reload is good on the turn before you open up with the DDC Defender (which will require you to be low on strain and have plenty of ways to up your damage – plus, you’ll be close to the enemy, so you’re probably taking damage). Weakness Identified is good to do as you’re throwing out shots, as you can remove a defense die during one of your attacks if you’ve killed a guy in that unit (either the white defense die from Barrage or the only defense die if it’s a normal attack). Finally, Strafing Run is a great way to turn all these attacks into extra movement (5 attacks turns into 5 movement points – perfect for closing the distance between you and a prospective target.
Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Reload (1), Strafing Run (2), Weakness Identified (3), Wild Fire (4)
End-Game Weapon #3: Modified Energy Cannon with Under-Barrel HH-4 and optionally Disruption Cell
The Modified Energy Cannon is a hard weapon to find a character for – mostly because a “good” character will want to have three dice in their Tech stat, but any yellow dice that appear there aren’t going to have much to surge for (so you’d need to add something like the Disruption Cell or the Plasma Cell to make them worth it). Without the Disruption Cell, the Modified Energy Cannon on CT-1701 has a Green-Green-Blue, which gives us at least 4 accuracy – and 5 accuracy with the ability to surge for 1 Damage/2 Accuracy or Blast 1 if we have the Under-Barrel HH-4. With the Disruption Cell, we get a Red-Green-Green pool with the same amount of accuracy – and if we get wounded, that becomes a Red-Green-Blue without the Disruption Cell and a Red-Red-Green with the Disruption Cell . . . that’s pretty crazy. You could opt for the Plasma Cell instead of the Disruption Cell (it would save you 150 credits, but the free Pierce 1 and option to surge for 1 damage needs to outweigh the drop from a red die to a blue die). As opposed to the A-12 Sniper Rifle, this build will want CT-1701 to be closer to the enemy instead of sitting back and shoot against tactical targets (a nice mid-range balance between the two previous builds).
This version of CT-1701 as a close-ish range shooter can actually help him a lot by taking both of his 1XP upgrades – Reload can allow him to have up to 3 power tokens and gain 2 DPTs once he rests (which he probably wants to do if he’s in a position to get damaged). If you’re within 3 spaces of your target, you can actually give yourself a Block Power Token (BPT) after the attack resolves with Covering Fire. You’d think this would need to be another friendly figure (and it certainly can be), but it doesn’t have to be someone else. Squad Tactics is a great upgrade to make sure you have plenty of health and speed, as well as a way to hand speed to another friendly figure within 3 spaces of you (who you can then boost on defense with Covering Fire). Strafing Run is always a good card (free movement is always welcome – especially if it can be passed to someone else) and Pin Them Down can be a great way to apply harmful conditions to figures that you’ve shot at (or are near figures you’ve shot at).
While you’re waiting to upgrade to this weapon (it’s a Tier 3 weapon, just like the A-12 Sniper Rifle), I’d recommend sticking with your starter blaster for the Tier 1 missions (with the HH-4 attached) and then upgrade to the Hunter’s Rifle (same dice pool, same static accuracy, surge for Damage 1 and Pierce 2, gets 1 DPT for killing a unit instead of failing to damage it – and it generates enough surge to make the Under-Barrel work). If you prefer another blaster at Tier 1-2, that’s fine too – but this one is pretty similar to what you started with, but better.
Upgrades to purchase – 9 XP: Covering Fire (1), Reload (1), Pin Them Down (2), Strafing Run (2), Squad Tactics (3)
CT-1701 in the Skirmish Game
CT-1701 is, unsurprisingly, a Trooper and a Guardian in the skirmish game. Trooper-heavy decks for the Rebels are incredibly strong and have a lot of unit choices available to them. Rebel Troopers can get a static Damage 1/Accuracy 2 on a Yellow-Blue attack pool with surge for Pierce 1-2 if they shoot before they move, Echo Base Troopers get a Green-Blue or a Red-Green on offense with surge for 1-2 Damage, and Alliance Rangers have a Blue-Blue with a reroll and the ability to surge for 2 Damage and Pierce 1. When you add in the characters who have the Trooper keyword, you have options for Fenn Signis (whose gun isn’t very good, but he has Assault and can give one other Trooper within 3 spaces Assault each round) and Ko-Tun Feralo (who can give nearby friendly characters DPTs or BPTs – and friendly figures near her can remove dodge results with their DPTs, which is super handy). You obviously don’t have to JUST use Troopers in your skirmish list, but I tend to focus heavily on the Trooper options when I run CT-1701.
When I’ve taken him in skirmish, it’s hard to leave home without both Fenn and Ko-Tun, who not only allow CT-1701 to attack three times during his two actions thanks to Barrage and Assault, but being near Ko-Tun means that he can also ignore dodge results, which makes him super useful for softening up white die units. While his surge abilities aren’t great, his weapon pool (Green-Green-Blue doesn’t surge that much anyway, and if you’re short on DPTs, you probably want to grab one of those while you’re near Ko-Tun before you go jumping for a single Damage result). If you spend 23 points on these three characters, you’re looking for budget troopers to fill in the remaining 17 points, which is basically one 9-point squad and one 6-point squad (with room for Rebel High Command to get you an extra command card each turn). Alternatively, you could pass on Rebel High Command and drop Ko-Tun and weather the enemy dodge results to get 24 points of Troopers (that’s four 6-point squads or one 6-point squad and two 9-point squads). Your activation total doesn’t change much, but your body count changes quite a bit – and with Fenn and CT-1701 in your army, you can clear out chaff pretty well with just their two activations.
With that, we’re done with the playable heroes in the campaign! Next time, were digging into a really interesting skirmish upgrade that required an errata to not be broken after the release of Tyrants of Lothal: Spectre Cell. If you like Star Wars Rebels, you’ll probably enjoy using this card (even in its errata’d state). Find out what all the fuss is about and why my son and I decided that it shouldn’t be used in two-player skirmish games as-written next time – until then, happy gaming!
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