Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Tauntaun Riders

Hey Reader!

Following up on the Medium Blaster Trooper, today we're looking at Tauntaun Riders - arguably the crowd favorite of the "Hoth Models" that currently exist for Star Wars Legion. We will start with the profile analysis, then examine the units that synergize well with them, and then we'll discuss the tactical uses of the Tauntaun Riders, as I think sometimes they get slotted into a singular role when they are very much a multi-functional support unit.

I.  Stats: Death on the Wind

From a stats perspective, Tauntaun Riders are one of the strongest profiles in the entire Rebel army list (and one of the strongest support units in the game). You pay 90pts base for it, so it's justified, but basically all of the stats you like are on this unit: Move-3 means you can cover distance like crazy, and Agile 1 gives you a dodge token every time you do that, so you are rewarded for doing what you do.

Offensively this is a great unit: it's a solid melee attacker with 3 dice (4 if you take Tenacity and have suffered at least 1 wound), Ram 1 (converting a dice to a hit when you charge), Reposition (so you can get the angles to charge), surge to hit (so averaging 2 hits per model), and Relentless helps you get into combat more easily as you can Move-Move and still Attack on the same turn if you get into melee. And thanks to Unhindered you don't have to worry about losing move distance due to difficult terrain.

But even more impressive (and the thing that gets a lot less attention) is the ranged capabilities of this unit. Every army gets a "fast attack model": Tauntauns, Speeder Bikes, BARCs, Swoop Bikes, and STAPs. But when you look at the attack pools on those units, it's hard to beat what you get on these guys: 2 red dice (so 1-2 hits on average for each model in the unit) with Sharpshooter 1 (so ignoring 1 point of cover) and Reposition (so you can get the arc you need to attack or charge) and surge to hit. It's only Range 1-2, which is short by comparison to most of the other options, but the pool is far better, and with the other options sporting a max of Range 1-3, it's not dramatically shorter range compared to the comparable units in their sphere.

Defensively the Tauntaun Rider is actually surprisingly durable for a rebel unit. It has Courage 2 (so unlikely to be suppressed), and a white defense dice with surge for blocks, which is not great compared to other armies, but for Rebels this is not only commonplace, but the Agile 1 means you can add dodge tokens easily to them without having to take the dodge action. But another consideration, if you're not tied to taking Tenacity as your training upgrade, is to take Up Close and Personal, so that if you perform a ranged attack at Range 1-2 (which is your range), you get a dodge token. So you can improve your defense by pursuing offense if you stat correctly.

You also get access to a comms upgrade, which most people use to take an HQ Uplink, and that's a good choice, as you can give them orders when you need them to activate at a specific time. The issue is that you then need to take a recover action to use it again, so just be aware of that. Another option is you could take a Long Range Commlink so you can issue them orders when you need to (plus its half the cost of HQ Uplink, which is nice) with no action required to continually use the ability.

But another upgrade worth looking at, and I generally don't recommend this one, but I think this is a case where it can be very useful, is a Hacked Comms Unit. This upgrade allows the Tauntaun Riders to be issued an order if an opposing unit within Range 1 is also issued an order. Naturally for Rebels you don't really want to be near an enemy unit, but since the Tauntauns are good in close combat, it's okay if you're close to an opposing unit. And this gives you the benefit of an HQ Uplink for half the cost and no action investment, so long as your opponent assigns an order to a unit you are engaged in melee with or are about to engage in melee with. So choose your targets well, and you can get good value out of this upgrade.

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

II.  Synergies: Base Covering at Its Finest

Part of what makes Tauntaun Riders so good, and the favored choice for support units among most Rebel players, is that they synergize well with basically anyone. If you pair them with a unit that really wants order tokens (like Rebel Veterans), you can give Tauntaun Riders an HQ Uplink upgrade to give them orders when you need to, but don't need to cut into your order tokens for other units. If you need some speed to accompany your supporting fire elements, screen for your heroes, or keep pace with fast vehicles, these are good choices.

But perhaps the biggest synergies that these guys have are melee-centric synergies, as they are good at locking down units while slower units get across the board. If you pair them with Wookiee Warriors, for example, you can buy your wookiees some much-needed time by sending aggressive Tauntaun Riders at them followed up by the Wookiees as a second wave, making it nigh impossible to stop all of the offensive units crashing through the lines. And with the ability to take Tenacity on both of these units, the sheer number of dice they roll guarantees wounds almost every round that they are engaged in combat.

(And fun story: you can actually run Luke Skywalker, 3 squads of Rebel Troopers, 1 squad of Ewok Skirmishers, 2 squads of Wookiees, and 2 squads of Tauntaun Riders at 800pts. So if you really want to do melee stuff, this troop can do it with both the upgrades and command cards to back it up. Anyway, moving on)

There are a few units, though, that they don't synergize well with. First off, they're not a good pairing with Rebel Fleet Troopers, as fleet troopers are rewarded for calling standby actions with short-range weapons, meaning they want to move up and hold positions and need to be accompanied by units that will provide supporting fire for them as they get into position. And Tauntaun Riders can do that, but they're taking a lot of risks with themselves if they are trying to quickly close to provide supporting fire, when they themselves work best when there are supporting elements giving them cover.

Similarly they don't pair well with Swoop Bike Riders, who not only also want covering fire while they close the gap (which you're already doing with Tauntauns, and arguably better as you get better special rules and attack pools to fill the same role), but also because of base sizes: Swoop Bike Riders, much like Tauntaun Riders, take up a lot of space, and trying to maneuver these (especially since Swoop Bike Riders don't have the Reposition keyword) while maneuvering Tauntaun Riders is a mess.

From a command card perspective, there are three cards that synergize very well with them. The first one is not a surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog, because 1) I like Leia, and 2) I think she's the best support hero the Rebels have (and possibly the best in the game), and part of that is because her command cards synergize so well with Rebel forces (not to mention her abilities). No Time for Sorrows (which has come up in several of our recommended lists to date) is one such card: not only does this card benefit Tauntaun Riders that are issued orders by their own HQ Uplink, but it also benefits them if they are chosen by Leia, given an order by Luke's Battle Meditation, given an order by Din Djarin's Comms Relay - lots of ways you can get orders on them. And not only do they get a speed-1 move (which is 3" + the size of their base, so basically an 8" move), since they have Agile 1 and Reposition, you get a dodge token and a chance to set yourself up better for a charge or shots at enemies with your pistols before the round even starts, making you more useful offensively and more durable defensively. All of this is good when you run Tauntauns.

And since most scenarios reward you for mobility, it's not surprising that we recommend a maneuver-focused command card.

The second one worth mentioning is, again, a Luke card that we have mentioned several times before: My Ally Is the Force. It's not as powerful as No Time for Sorrows as you don't get the movement aspect of that card, but it means that any Tauntaun Riders issued orders this turn (not just by this card) get 1 dodge token, so even before they start moving on their turn they are more survivable.

But the big reason I wanted to mention this here is to illustrate that while I've generally mentioned how difficult it can be to synergize Luke with some of the other Rebel units, Tauntaun Riders actually synergize well with Luke on multiple levels. Not only do they benefit quite nicely from his command cards (removing suppression to keep them running fast and hard off his 3-pip command card, Return of the Jedi, gaining dodge tokens from this card, or getting a bit less attention when Luke gains the ability to perform two attacks in a given turn thanks to Son of Skywalker), their melee options also make them great wingmen for him, charging into the same unit or another unit to make sure Luke is able to do his job well in close combat. And that's pretty rare for the Rebels.

Third, Han's command card Reckless Diversion is really powerful with them for very different reasons compared to everything we've mentioned so far. Part of why you take Tauntaun Riders is because they can reach far-flung objectives and do the legwork that your core and specialist troops struggle to do. But one of the best ways to help them do that is if Han activates himself and a friend (like Rebel Veterans near a Laser Cannon Team or Medium Blaster Trooper), and your opponent now has to target those units with attacks if they can see them, allowing your Tauntaun Riders to get one turn of slipping past enemies, or getting into melee where they are once again safe from shooting.

This is also a great command card to play on a turn after you've used an HQ Uplink and you don't want to recover to get the card back: you don't want your Tauntaun Riders to have faceup order tokens, and this is one way to make sure they benefit from not having a reliable activation time: they can't be attacked as easily.

So with all of this in mind, let's talk a bit about tactics and how to get the most value out of them.

III.  Tactics: Soften and Break

First and foremost, since we talked about the offensive abilities of this unit above, don't forget the blasters! It's so easy when you see a strong melee suite with useful special rules to just use it as a melee unit, and it's not: it's designed to soften enemies with ranged attacks and then charge home. So use the ranged profile to winnow down enemy units, and then use your horns and claws to finish them off.

But this brings up a second consideration that you need to remember: lining up charges is important. Ram only works if you are the one charging, so naturally (and this goes for cavalry in any war game) you need to make sure you are not charged from your position, and can charge enemies from that same position. So getting good angles, lining up the charges, and timing it so that you strike first allows you to take advantage of Ram to get reliable damage. And if you have something like Tenacity, Hunter, or some other means of getting a bump to your offensive capabilities, so much the better.

Third, if you can end your turn in melee that will ironically keep you alive longer. Shooting attacks, especially with Fire Support, are a good way to clear Tauntaun units quickly, as they are only going to block on average 1/3 of all hits that get past cover/dodges. And that means one good hit against you (5-6 hits) will result in losing a model, which dramatically reduces the impact of the unit going forward. But if you're in melee, you 1) are probably not going to suffer 5-6 hits unless it's a serious melee unit, and 2) you can't be shot by ranged attacks. So the number of wounds you suffer is probably lower.

This also gives you a turn where you can (hopefully) Attack to finish off a unit in melee the following turn, and then Recover to get your HQ Uplink back, or move to get to better cover and bank that dodge token - lots of useful stuff. But it all turns on the benefit of being in melee at the end of your activation.

Fourth, unlike a lot of the other units we've looked at so far, Tauntaun Riders don't really care much about the style of deployment you get. A notable exception to this, though, is Advanced Positions because it gives you access to a speed-1 move, which is basically 8" of movement for you. And that's sweet. When you only have Range 1-2 on your weapons, getting an extra 8" of movement is crazy good.

The other advantage of doing Advanced Positions is that your opponent is actually surprisingly close to you, even though you can't see it easily on this map. If you put a Tauntaun Rider squad at the far reaches of either prong of your deployment zone, and then move them speed-1 (plus their base size) toward the enemy, the enemy positions are only Range 5 (30") from you to start with, but they become only 22" from you after this speed-1 move. This means that after performing a normal move (which is about 12" for a Tauntaun Rider squad thanks to speed-3), you're within 12" of the enemy deployment zone to start your follow-up Attack action. And if an enemy moves closer to you, you might not need to move at all. So I'm just saying: this really gives you options for getting yourself into the enemy quickly, not to mention it allows you to move up your supporting fire units to give you the cover fire you need.

And finally, I'd actually avoid using these guys as your reinforcements in Rapid Reinforcements: you want to get use out of them every turn if possible, and while sneaking them behind enemy lines is possible, it's not nearly as easy as it looks, and it could keep them off critical elements of the board due to the uncertain nature of the whole thing. Drop a Veterans squad and a blaster trooper as reinforcements instead, as they can provide that base of fire that you'll want anyway to support your Tauntauns on approach.

And there are condition cards that are conducive to Tauntaun Riders (anything that limits visibility for the first turn is good since you want to get into things without as much danger, and same goes for anything that allows you to add defenses so that you can get better cover for your riders), but again, the Tauntaun Rider profile can work around any of those things - they are highly versatile, so you don't need any of those to be in place to make them work. They naturally gravitate to basically any condition because they're a very well-rounded, high-end support unit.

Conclusion

I love tauntauns - they're one of my favorite creatures in Star Wars. And I'm glad that the Tauntaun Riders are so effective in Legion, because I like playing with things I like. I don't like this unit as much as the Laser Cannon Team, but it's still really good, and offers that far-reaching element to the force that can secure victory where otherwise you would fail. So if you're looking to add some extra movement to your force, consider adding a Tauntaun Riders squad (or two).

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Come: Ride!" ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian