Good morning gamers,
Last time, we looked at the Wookiee Chieftain profile and thoughts on list building with him. Today, we're going to look at the "melee-oriented" Wookiee Warrior profile (The "Wookiee Warriors" or "Wookiee Warriors, Noble Fighters" profiles) from both the Repbulic and the Rebel Alliance and what you want to think about with these guys. This profile is treated as Corps for the purposes of army building in the Republic's Kashyyyk Defenders battle force, which means these guys aren't foreign to the tabletop (though they're usually seen exclusively in that battle force). Let's see what all the hulabaloo is about with these guys . . .
Wookiee Warriors, Noble Fighters: The Profile
Like the Wookiee Chieftain we viewed last time, Wookiee Warriors have Charge and Duelist to make them devastating in melee (free melee attack after performing a move action from Charge and a free Pierce 1 if they spend an aim token in addition to the rerolls they get from the aim token itself). On defense, Duelist can also give them immunity to enemy Pierce in melee when they spend a dodge token, which is particularly good when you have a white defense die and no surge for block.
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| I usually don't usually lean this hard into upgrades, but here are some good ones . . . Photo Credit: Legion HQ |
Wookiees are a bit fragile for 69 points/squad (both Rebel and Republic), but with 3 wounds each and 3-4 models in each squad (depending on whether you have the points for a heavy weapon upgrade), they can usually absorb a few rounds of shooting before they're wiped out - and once they're in melee, it's pretty hard to clear them out without a dedicated melee unit.
Wookiees are, like most Special Forces choices, Courage 2 innately and with Indomitable to help them clear their suppression tokens more easily, they're pretty likely to avoid being pannicked or suppressed. If they're in range to charge (they start at speed-2, but might be speed-1 depending on their heavy weapon choice), however, even a suppressed Wookiee Warrior unit can still be dangerous.
When we look at their weapon options, we shouldn't miss the fact that Wookiee Warriors have a Kashyyyk Pistol in their profile, which gives them 1 black/1 white per model at range 1-2. This is basically charge range if you can perform two speed-2 moves, but if you happen to be just shy of a good charge, don't forget that you can move and then shoot and get just about as much damage as if you'd gotten in melee. With surge to hit innate in their profile, they're really solid close-range shooters as well as melee combatants.
Speaking of melee combatants, their Ryyk Blade gives each Wookiee 2 black dice in melee, which is really good if they also get 2 rerolls and Pierce 1 from Duelist. If a full 4-model Wookiee Warrior squad has an aim token and rolls 8 black dice with surge to hit, they're expected to deal 6.25 hits and apply Pierce 1 to the results - even against red die saves, you're supposed to get 2-3 wounds in on the unit! Cracking through Armor 5 (sported by most heavy units) is pretty difficult for these guys since they don't surge for crit, but if they deal the expected 1 damage with Pierce 1, they're still getting something through (and if the full-armor unit has Weak Point, they might even get some Impact hits through).
Republic vs. Rebels
The Republic only has two kinds of Special Forces units (at the moment - ARF Troopers are expected in 2025): ARC Troopers and Wookiee Warriors. ARC Troopers have similar blaster pistols but no surge to hit innately. They have Sharpshooter 1 while the Wookiees don't - and that's fine, since these guys want to be in melee eventually (where they outshine the ARCs by a lot). ARCs are generally considered more competitive, though, because a) they can be fielded for under 100pts/squad with a heavy weapon choice (either as a two-model Strike team or as a five-model full squad), b) they can benefit from friendly Clone Trooper aim, dodge, and surge tokens, c) they can avoid taking damage by shooting from far away and rolling red defense dice, d) they can add Fives or a Clone Commander as a Squad Leader upgrade, and e) they got Charge added to their profile and their pistols now give them 2 black dice in melee thru range 2 after the Ministraviganza update. Generally speaking, ARCs are probably in a better place to show up in Republic lists than Wookiees.
I planned to have Wookiees in my lists from the very beginning - and I love my Wookiees so much - but ARCs are undeniably harder to kill off, and if they can keep their numbers high, the late-game threat they can apply is pretty crazy. Wookiee Warriors want to close with the enemy, which means that they rarely can do so without taking a loss here and there - and each loss they take makes them a bit weaker.
In the Republic, you're probably better off running the melee-oriented Wookiee Warrior profile (Noble Fighters) in the Wookiee Defenders Battle Force - I have GAR lists with Wookiees in them, but including them usually means I need to also field a LAAT/LE Patrol Transport to get them where they want to go without taking loses (and with the changes to Transport, you're counting on going with the Wookiee squad as soon as the LAAT dumps them out). LAATs are going to cost you upwards of 120pts each, and when added to the 100pt Wookiee squad they're carrying, you've got quite a bit riding on how well those Wookiees (and maybe their transport) kill whatever they're racing for.
In Rebel lists, you have cheaper units (both characters and Corps units) that can offset the costs of Wookiees, so having expensive Wookiees isn't a big deal. You also have some pretty melee-oriented characters in the forms of Luke, Ahsoka, and Boba Fett (to say nothing of the less-meta characters that want to be close-up, like Din Djarin, Jyn Erso, and IG-11), so having some furry bodyguards for these characters makes total sense. Throw in some cheap Ewok units, and you've got a melee skew list that's got TONS of wounds and lots of activations . . . it's pretty scary.
Unfortunately, there's also more competition in the Special Forces slot for Rebels - Rebel Commandos/Commando Strike Teams can take long-range snipers that have Pierce 1 and High Velocity for easy chip-damage, Ewok Slingers are DISGUSTINGLY cheap and give you a TON of bodies (with Target 1 and Independent: Surge!), Rebel Pathfinders are often overshadowed by both of these options but also have good long-range capabilities (and roll a TON of dice at mid-ranges and can start on the board), and you have Mandalorians, who are very expensive and frankly feel like they're trying to be red-die-save Wookiees . . .
The strength of your Wookiee Warriors (the no-subtext and Noble Fighter variants) is often going to be measured by how much damage they can do in melee - so the theme of what we're looking for with these guys is very much going to be a) keeping our units alive on the approach, b) getting them aim tokens, and c) increasing the dice they can roll in melee. Let's see how we can do that with our upgrades . . .
Wookiee Warriors: Recommended Upgrades
The Republic and Rebel Wookiee Warrior units cost the same and have all the same upgrade slots - and in the main, I think the "best upgrades" they can take doesn't change. Let's go through each one and see what they do.
Heavy Weapon
Besides the Heavy Weapon upgrade, I think all of these upgrades are optional - and obviously, if you can't find the points for a heavy weapon upgrade, the heavy weapon itself might be optional. Competitive players might disagree with me on this, but since a base 3-model Wookiee Warrior squad costs 69 points (23 pts/model), I consider the heavy weapon choice to be a given every time. You have two heavy weapon choices that cost 26pts each and one that costs 31pts.
Your first option is the Bowcaster Wookiee (31pts), which gives you an extra mini who can use a bowcaster (1 red/1 white with Impact 1/Pierce 1) instead of his Kashyyyk Pistol. The boost from black to red increases the expected hits from this blaster by only 0.25, but the Impact 1 gives you a better chance of damaging Armor units - and Pierce is rarely avoidable by units with Armor, so you're likely going to do something by shooting. Since our focus in on melee, this probably isn't the best choice for us, but I could see you taking this option in order to give your melee wookiees an option for shooting at range.
The second option is the Long Gun Wookiee, who is a mini that gives his unit a range 1-4 2 black weapon that applies Suppressive to the enemy. Throwing on an extra suppession token is all fine and good, but at 26pts, we can spend our money better for this particular type of Wookiee Warrior (but put a pin in this guy for next time when we look at the OTHER Wookiee Warrior option).
Most of the time, though, I think you'll opt for the Battle Shield Wookiee - this gives us an extra mini who either has 2 black dice in melee (what you normally have), reduces their speed to 1, and gives them Armor 1 OR gets 2 red dice in melee with no penalty to their speed (and no Armor 1). You can flip the card at the start of your activation, so what I usually do is advance slowly/disembark with the Armor 1 side in play, then flip to the double-Red side when I'm within charge range. If you have heavy cover and Armor 1, it's pretty hard for these guys to take any serious damage before they arrive - and once they switch around to the 2 red side, you're ready to really pound the enemy. Armor 1 is quite valuable, so whether you're running melee-oriented Wookiees or the shooting-oriented kind (which we'll look at next time), these guys are well worth looking into.
Training x2
Our training slots are optional, but for me, there are only two training upgrades I consider getting: Tenacity and Offensive Push. Tenacity gives us an extra red die as soon as these guys take a damage, which is great because we're probably taking damage and it will offset the damage output that we lose as Wookiees die off. If you're still rolling 1 red/2 black when your Battle Shield Wookiee dies, you're doing okay.
Offensive Push is really only useful once (maybe twice if you build recovers into your deck - or have time to perform a Recover action), but if you can get a big charge in, you may only need it once. Tactical 1 (getting 1 aim token when you perform a move action) is quite helpful - and it's something that makes ARC Troopers really good. If you can give it to your Wookiees too, even better.
Gear
Like we said in our post last time, having Scale in our profile by default rules out a lot of the gear options we can take. The only upgrades I consider taking are Recon Intel (because it helps you close a tiny bit faster - and it's cheap, so if you have the points, why not take it) and Prepared Supplies - because when you need a dodge token, you need a dodge token. Whether it's spent in melee to trigger Duelist or if it's spent at range to keep a mini alive, dodge tokens are great on Wookiees. Both of these upgrades, though, are very much optional - only take them if you have some points lying around and can't get more units.
Grenades
There are actually two grenade options that make sense for these guys: Smoke Grenades to keep them from taking damage as they approach and Impact Grenades if you took a Bowcaster and have to tackle armor. Going from 1 black/1 white to 1 black on all three of the non-Bowcaster models will result in less overall damage, but since basically every dice can be turned into a crit against a unit with Armor, you can deal some pretty impressive amounts of damage with this attack . . . and if you then rush in on the following turn to attack it on a Weak Point, even better. Still, I almost never buy the Bowcasters on these units, so you probably want to just leave them be.
Wookiee Warriors: Sample List and Strategy
For the Repbulic, we're going to look at an all-Wookiee list from the Wookiee Defenders Battle Force. Last time, we looked at running the Wookiee Chieftain with Yoda and today we're looking at the Wookiee Chieftain with Chewie and a host of Wookiee Warriors. The list comes in at 999-points with 11 activations:
- Wookiee Chieftain
- Chewbacca with Protector
- 5 Wookiee Warriors, Noble Fighters with Battle Shield Wookiee
- 1 Wookiee Warriors, Kashyyyk Defenders with Long Gun Wookiee
- 3 Raddaugh Gnasp Fluttercraft with Gnasp Bombadier
The list is also incredibly deadly in melee - Chewie rolls 4 red dice with Lethal 1 (and he picks up Charge once he's taken some hits), the Wookiee Chieftain's offense was reviewed last time, and we have five squads of Ryyk Blade Wookiees to carve up the enemy. The only difficulty will be trying to get aim tokens for these guy . . . and we're stuck with the generic command cards and the Wookiee-oriented Republic command cards. Still, it's a solid list.
For the Rebels, I've got an 11-activation, 998pt list with two Wookiee Warriors (with Battle Shield Wookiees and Tenacity) and two A-A5 Speeder Trucks - both of which have Wookiee pilots, both of which have medics to keep the Wookiees going, and both of which have Onboard Comms Channels so that if they can get orders issued, they'll keep the orders flowing:
- Leia Organa with Esteemed Leader
- R2-D2
- 2 Fleet Troopers with R5 Astromech Droid
- 1 Fleet Troopers with Scatter Gun Trooper and Fleet Trooper Squad
- 2 Ewok Skirmishers with Axe Ewok, Ewok Trapper, Call to Arms, and Forest Dwellers
- 2 Wookiee Warriors with Battle Shield Wookiees and Tenacity
- 2 A-A5 Speeder Truck with Hotshot Pilot, Backworld Medic, Refurbished "Gonk" Droid, AG-2G Quad Laser, and Onboard Comms Channel
Leia is an efficient commander, but we could have gone with a cheaper one if we wanted to in a Rebel Officer. I like her command cards though - Somebody Has to Save Our Skins can issue orders to Leia and both buses (and with them, the Wookiees/units nearby), No Time for Sorrows is a great way to get Wookiees to move farther, and Coordinated Bombardment is a great way to soften up units before a Wookiee charge.
The Ewoks are there as a distraction - they can run near the buses to regrow their numbers and provide some staying power on the board if they can find some good blocking terrain (leaving one model visible to limit their casualty count to 1 each time they're attacked). The Fleet Troopers were chosen because they're cheap and are now killer melee units since they got Charge and their Scatter Guns work in melee. I opted for bus healing and a second Ewok squad instead of giving all three squads 5 extra guys and scatter guns - but it's very much your choice here.
Speaking of buses, we have two offense-oriented buses (with the Hotshot pilot for Sharpshooter 1 and the Quad Laser Cannon for 6 black dice with Impact 2), with the token Gonk Droid to give us some crit protection and the Onboard Comms Channels for Coordinate. It's unclear to me if the OCC is still a good upgrade, but the Gonk appears to be. While I could have gone a little harder on defense by taking the Outer Rim Speeder Jockey (also a wookiee pilot, so it would have been on theme), boosting the Cover by 1 just didn't seem as valuable as getting Sharpshooter 1.
Wookiee Warriors: Final Review
Wookiees are really fun to use and while they might die easily, they also pack a punch. Personally, I think they should have some kind of way to mitigate damage besides "just having lots of health," but I'm fine with them the way they are. They are a bit tricky to put together if you don't have plastic glue, so bear that in mind if you're looking into buying them.
Overall character review: 3/5 stars. I think these guys have greater stock in a Rebel list than in a Republic list (non-Kashyyyk Defenders Battle Force), since a melee skew is pretty easy to throw together with Jedi and Ewoks already (and their ability to play the poke-from-far-away game is pretty hard to reliably do), but they're pretty expensive and not hard to kill with concentrated fire. Learning to be patient with these guys and move them carefully takes a lot of time and practice.
In our next post, we'll be doing Part II of our review of Wookiee Warriors and turn to the Kashyyyk Defenders and Kashyyyk Resistance variants that are more shooting-oriented and less melee-oriented (though they can still ring your can if you engage them too brashly). These guys have to play a different game from their Noble Fighter/no-subtext brothers, but they can also set the stage for their charges as well. Find out what makes these guys worth taking next time - until then, happy hobbying!
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