Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper

Hey Reader!

Following up on our last post on the 1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team, today we're looking at their little brother: the Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper. A detachment unit tied to the Rebel Veterans core unit, this is the other emplacement trooper you have access to, and it clearly falls into a specific role for your force...or does it?

On the whole I think a lot of people leave this option at home, and to be fair, I've done that a lot myself as well, so I get it. What's the point of spending 38-43pts on a core unit that has to choose between moving and shooting? Plus, with only Range 1-3 on its weapons, it can't provide long range fire support to keep down enemy long range weapons. So what's the point?

A few, actually. Not many, but a few.

Today we'll be looking at their stats (and what makes them worth taking), their synergies (as they don't have command cards, but they do have several useful synergies with both other units and specific command cards), and some tactical use for them in your rebel force.

I.  Stats: Much Needed Fire Support

From a stats perspective, the Medium Blaster Trooper is all punch and minimal survivability. For 38pts you actually get a really good Core choice from a stats perspective: 4 black dice (just like a baseline Rebel Veterans or Rebel Soldier squad, both of which are more expensive) at Range 1-3 (same as the Rebel Veteran and Rebel Soldier), with the ability to surge for hits (like the Rebel Veteran, but not the Rebel Soldier), and has Critical 2 (which neither core choice have).

What it also has, though (and this is why so many people don't take them) is the Cumbersome special rule, meaning that if it moves it can't fire in the same turn. That being said, though, it has Fire Support, which is the biggest reason for taking it (and will be the center of a lot of our tactical discussion below): when an ally is performing a ranged attack (no range limit on how far away they need to be, no requirement that you have to be able to see the friendly unit, etc.), as long as you have a face-up order token, you can activate the blaster trooper to join the attack pool.

This means that you can add 4 black dice and Critical 2 (with surge to hit) to any attack pool (on average that's +2 hits), allowing you to add some much needed damage output to any of your units: characters, Core, small specialist squads, or even vehicles.

It also has Full Pivot, so even though he has a larger base with arcs (and a Fixed: Front main weapon), it is hard to get around him to get out of his arc. And with Sentinel, if you give it a Standby token you have the ability to interrupt enemies up to 18" away (Range 1-3), which could be advantageous for dealing with enemies trying to move from cover to cover to avoid being hit by you.

Defensively the Blaster Trooper has 4 wounds (same as a baseline Core squad, all of which are more expensive than it), and has Courage 2 (so unlikely to be suppressed), and a white defense dice, which is not great compared to other armies, but for Rebels this is not only commonplace (every non-Mandalorian/Jedi gets a white dice), and with the ability to surge for blocks, it takes about 5-6 hits past cover/suppression to remove it. So while not great, it's not horrible either.

And while the team can only take one upgrade, it's a comms upgrade, so you have the ability to take the Linked Targeting Array (which I basically always take) for 5pts, as it gives you an Aim token every time you are issued an order. Which not only means you can not only make your 4 black dice more reliable, but if you use Fire Support, you can reroll the other unit's dice instead, which is awesome.

You do have the limitation of Detachment, which means you can only take this unit if you take a Rebel Veterans unit. So if you want, say, 2 of these in your force, you'll need to take 2 Rebel Veterans squads. This is obviously not an issue in an Echo Base Defenders battleforce, as Rebel Veterans are the only other Core option you get other than these guys, so you'll be taking some of those regardless. But in other lists, especially if you don't want to pay the premium for the best Rebel core unit to date, you will need to take a few of these more expensive veterans to take a blaster trooper.

On this topic, let's look at synergies, getting the most obvious out of the way first.

II.  Synergies: A Support Unit, But Also a Damage Dealer

To get the obvious out of the way, Rebel Veterans are the ideal pairing thanks to Coordinate, so the Blaster Trooper can be issued an order without detracting from the orders you are generating on a given turn. Which is good, because as we just mentioned, you have to take these guys to take a Blaster Trooper, so good news: it's a good pairing! The Rebel Veteran gets its dodge token, and the Blaster Trooper still gets its order token (and possibly an Aim token if you take the Linked Targeting Array). All of this is good.

Beyond that, though, their best synergies occur when you take an HQ Uplink on them. If a Blaster Trooper is not competing for order tokens with the ones you are issuing for the turn, they become a phenomal base of fire to add to allies. Han Solo has the combined issue generally where he's eating into the order tokens you are issuing (either because you have a limited number you are issuing or his cards are only issuing to him + maybe 1-2 other people), but if the Blaster Trooper issues its own order token, it can then Fire Support reliably to add 4 black dice to Han's 2 red dice, which is a lot of extra damage potential for Han.

And just looking at the math, this is exactly what Han needs. With surge for crit and 2 red dice, Han is only averaging 1-2 hits with Sharpshooter 1, which means there's a good chance that Han doesn't do much damage to enemies. But if you add 4 black dice (possibly with Hunter on Han to give him an Aim token), Han's average hits goes up by 2-3, bringing him to 4+ hits reliably. That's phenomenal extra damage, and if you have a second Blaster Trooper deployed and ready, Han may have a chance at a second shot like this thanks to Gunslinger.

And this is true for a lot of Rebel units: since Rebels overwhelmingly use white dice, they rely on doing damage to enemy units before being damaged themselves, and Blaster Troopers, especially if they can issue their own orders, are great for making sure you do some damage to an enemy unit.

What they DON'T synergize well with are order issuers that only activate themselves (like Din Djarin, Boba Fett, IG-11, and Luke) and fast-moving units, as they are likely to be left behind and not be in position to provide Fire Support for those units.

From a command card perspective, there are four cards that synergize very well with them. In the Echo Base Defenders battle force, Hold At Any Cost has great synergy with them (which we've mentioned to death so far, but this is the last post where we'll be talking about it for a while, so stay with me), because it does two things you really love. First, it activates three Core units, which means there are 3 Rebel Veteran squads coordinating with emplacement troopers, handing out those free order tokens (and the associated Aim token, if you take the Linked Targeting Array). So not only are you getting the right units activated, you're helping the Blaster Trooper directly by giving it an order token off the bat.

Second, since this gives all Core units an Aim token, you get yet another Aim token even if you're not issued an order. Which is awesome - for that turn, you are set for life, probably getting 3-4 hits on your own, with Critical 2. That's phenomenal for a 38-43pt unit.

But the third benefit is that all emplacement trooper units gain a Standby token, which maximizes your effectiveness a lot. We talked about this with the Laser Cannon Team, but the rules for Standby say that "A unit cannot perform an attack action and a standby action in the same activation," but it doesn't say that you can only perform one or the other each round. So it is possible for the turret, if it performs a standby attack before its activation, you can then activate it and perform another attack in the same round.

But the order of operations is very important: if a unit performs an attack action, it loses its standby token. So if you were to issue it an order, and then take your turn with it and use the Attack action (which you basically always want to do), or be used for Fire Support, you wouldn't be able to attack twice.

The second command card is a generic Rebel command card: Covering Fire. Not surprisingly for a unit with the Fire Support rule, this is probably one of the best synergies you can have with Blaster Troopers for three reasons. First, it activates 3 Core Units, which means that you can activate Rebel Veterans to give you an order token, or you can activate a Blaster Trooper directly if that works better. So this is exactly how you want to play if you are using Blaster Troopers.

Second, the wording of the card says: "After a friendly corps unit performs a ranged attack," not "After a friendly corps unit resolves its attack pool," which is HUGE for units with Fire Support. This means if you attack with a corps unit (like a Rebel Veteran squad) and then you Fire Support with a Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper, both of them have performed a ranged attack, triggering the command card special rule twice. So you can hand out a dodge token to both of them (as one feeds the other), or heck, load up other units near you. Imagine activating a Rebel Veterans squad, calling in Fire Support, and then giving Han 2 dodge tokens. Or Luke 2 dodge tokens. Or a Laser Cannon Team 2 dodge tokens. Whatever you load up with this on a given turn, they're going to be fine for the round.

But third, and less obvious, the command card also benefits units with Standby tokens immensely, as the effect is triggered by any ranged attack, not specifying that it has to be during a unit's activation. If an opposing unit is about to be attacked, and is in range of a Blaster Trooper with a Standby token, you can just take a shot at the attacking unit, and even if you do no damage (which is possible if you're only rolling 4 black dice), you still get to hand out a dodge token. So if you're using your Blaster Troopers for disruption (more on that in the next section), you are doubling down on that disruption by potentially removing dice from their attack pool, and then on top of that giving a dodge token to the target of that unit's upcoming attack.

The third command card is from Leia, and it's Somebody Has to Save Our Skins. Now this is not particularly suprising, as Leia is the best support hero for the Rebels, but her 3-pip allows her to not only pass out order tokens to other units (so Rebel Veterans to trigger Coordinate), but it also allows her, after she resolves her activation, to choose a friendly unit within Range 1-2 (so up to 12" away) and activate it.

This means, as we discussed in the Leia post, you can activate 4 units in a row: activate Leia and give her Fire Support with a Blaster Trooper, and then activate another unit and give it Fire Support with another Blaster Trooper. It's not technically 4 activations in a row, as the Blaster Troopers are only using 1 action (Attack), but it's 4 activations all in a row that aren't interrupted except by Standby tokens.

And this means that, in a very short period of time, you can get a lot of fire down range. Vaporizing units, suppressing (or even panicking) enemy units, or even weakening those melee-oriented force users can be reliably done on this turn, thanks to overwhelming firepower.

And the final card we're going to talk about (which we have discussed to death, and probably always will because it's so good and synergizes with almost every Rebel unit) is my favorite card for Luke: My Ally Is the Force. Since the card doesn't say, "When a friendly trooper unit is issued an order with this card" (like some Separatist cards say, for example), it means every unit that is issued an order this turn gets a Dodge token. 

So you activate a Rebel Veteran trooper near you, or you use an HQ Uplink, and you're getting your order (so you're getting an Aim token, because you are wise, and took the Linked Targeting Array), you can perform Fire Support if need, and on top of that you're also getting a Dodge token. If you have any level of cover, plus potentially a suppression token because people don't like you, plus a Dodge token, you're wiping out 3ish hits from the first attack against you, which means you're probably going to be okay from whatever it is, because 4 wounds goes a long way. And once again, since Luke can be taken in the Echo Base Defenders list, you can run this with generic Rebels or Echo Base Defenders if you want.

So with all of this in mind, let's talk a bit about tactics, because as you can see, this unit requires some finesse to use effectively.

III.  Tactics: Multi-Role Base of Fire

A lot of people say that the Blaster Trooper has "limited utility," and they're right: there's only four things that they do well.

First and foremost, since we've talked about this to death already so we can knock it out quickly, it can provide Fire Support to your units. This requires them to have 1) a face-up order token, and 2) be within 18" of the target unit, but that is relatively easy to guarantee thanks to Coordinate, the ability to take a Long Range Commlink or HQ Uplink, the deployment rules.

Consider: if you're playing Danger Close (or any other deployment setup that is not "The Long March" or "Battle Lines"), getting within 18" of an enemy if you deploy on one of the "prongs" of your deployment zone is almost guaranteed. Sure, you're in a bit of danger, but cover and being near a Rebel Veteran squad (which you'd want anyway) helps to keep you safe.

And as we mentioned in the Laser Cannon Team post, something like Advanced Positions will even allow you to make a speed-1 move before the game begins, which is awesome for getting Cumbersome units into range without giving up your damage potential for a turn.

The second role they fill is objective holder: as a Cumbersome unit who is near an objective doesn't need to move. And with 4 wounds and surging for blocks, it's about as survivable as you're going to find in the Rebel army, and between cover and suppression tokens, you fill the role decently well. Not as well as a Laser Cannon Team, but you're almost half the cost of a Laser Cannon Team, so nothing to sneeze at.

And if you happen to be playing Fortified Positions, you can guarantee yourself cover from a lot of potential shots for the whole game. Sure, it won't protect you from things in the air, but that's 1) a very small list of vehicles/characters, and 2) if they are devoting their limited shots each game to a Blaster Trooper, maybe that's good?

These are the two roles that I think most people readily assume for a Medium Blaster Trooper, and if you only use them for these purposes you'll do fine with them. But there are two other roles they fill very well that people pass over.

Third, they fill an anti-vehicle role very well. Not only do they increase the number of dice you roll by a lot (50% chance to get a natural critical result just on the dice from the Blaster Trooper), they provide the entire attack pool with Critical 2, so you can surge for crits instead of hits. Which is awesome. And with the ability to easily add an Aim token to the pool as well thanks to the Linked Targeting Array, you're in great shape to do reliable damage to vehicles with almost any unit in your force thanks to adding a Medium Blaster Trooper to the mix.

And fourth, they can actually be pretty good objective takers as well. Between transports for quickly moving them up, deployment zones that can place you on both sides of the map, or specialized deployment rules like Rapid Reinforcements makes it easy to get Blaster Troopers in range of far-flung objectives. And once it's on that objective, it's not easy to dislodge (especially if the heavy units of the enemy are moving toward your objective(s) on the other side of the board). Just make sure to get a Veterans team over there with them to make sure they get orders.

Conclusion

This is one of those units that I commonly leave at home, and you probably won't use 3-4 of them, but I think it is worse considering adding 1-2 to your force. Whether you need an objective holder, added fire support, or just a cheap activation or damage soaker to anchor your force, this unit is well worth taking.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Tarva and Alambil have met in the halls of high heaven." ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian