Good morning gamers,
If you haven't read Centaur's article on Rebel Veterans yet, you should - check it out and then keep reading. Prior to the release of Legion 2.6 (or Legion 2.0, depending on who you talk to), the common advice was that "Rebel Veterans are good and Rebel Troopers are bad." This always felt like a shame to me, since Rebel Troopers are the OG and actually had a rather interesting place in Legion. With the updated Rebel Trooper profile, Rebel Troopers have emerged into a realm of their own - still very squishy, but not as bad as they used to be.
So what we're going to do today is look at the new Rebel Trooper profile first in the light of their competition, and then after we've aired all the dirty laundry, we'll take another look and see what's to like about these units. Let's start off with their profile . . .
Rebel Troopers: The Profile
Rebel Troopers have a pretty average profile - Speed 2, 1 Wound, Courage 1, 1 black die in both melee and at range 1-3, 4 Trooper models to start with . . . nothing to write home about. Their white defense save with defensive surges is better than B1 Battle Droids and Wookiees, but is still pretty garbage, especially if you're coming to the Rebel faction after playing with the Empire or the Republic (like I am) where basically everyone has red defense saves.
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| Four perfectly valid Rebel Trooper builds (47-106pts) Photo Credit: Tabletop Admiral |
These guys used to have only one keyword: Nimble. Nimble allows you to get bonus saves from each of your dodge tokens (since you get one back each time you spend at least one), but unless you START with dodge tokens on your guys, Nimble isn't going to do anything for you (and since that usually required taking a dodge action, Rebel Troopers were in a much worse spot than Rebel Veterans who got a dodge token that didn't come back when issued an order - they've changed that, by the way). With the Legion 2.6 update, Rebel Troopers picked up Agile 1 as well, which gives them a dodge token each time they move - perfect! I was hoping these guys would get some way of getting dodge tokens automatically and I hoped it wouldn't involve giving them Defend 1 (which would undoubtedly be good, since they wouldn't have to activate to get their dodge token) - I'll take Agile 1 instead.
While 40 points for a Corps squad looks good (especially if you're coming from the Republic where all your guys cost a lot more - and the excellent nature of the Heavy Weapon/Squad Leader choices makes you want to invest a LOT in those units), once you consider the other Rebel Corps units, you realize that 40pts is pretty standard and basically everyone lives in that band.
There are six Rebel Corps units - two Mercenary options (that you can take 2-3 of, depending on whether you take Underworld Connections or not - and none of which count towards your required 3 Corps) and four Rebel options. Rebel Troopers cost 40pts and are tied for second for lowest cost with Fleet Troopers and Ewok Skirmishers.
Fleet Troopers start with much the same stats as Rebel Troopers do, but their shooting weapon does more expected damage (2 whites with surge to hit instead of 1 black without surge to hit) at closer range (range melee-to-2 instead of range melee-to-3). If you're playing keep-away, Rebel Troopers have a CHANCE of dealing damage when Fleet Troopers wouldn't, but this very much begs the question whether you WANT your Rebel Troopers to be shooting at all (except in the most desperate of attempts). Fleet Troopers don't have Nimble, but they picked up Charge in the new edition, which lends them greatly to any Rebel list that's trying to slam into the enemy. In general, I think these guys will die faster than Rebel Troopers if you can get the Rebel Troopers dodge tokens but are otherwise just as good as each other (except for one thing, which we'll view later). If you like the aesthetic of Fleet Troopers better, run them instead.
Rebel Veterans cost 2pts more/model than Rebel Troopers and have much the same profile, but pick up the surge to hit that the Fleet Troopers have, get a training slot, pick up Low Profile (so make sure they're behind cover to knock off an extra hit), and have Speed-1/Prepared Positions (so they can start on the board instead of having to move onto the board on the first turn) and Coordinate: Emplacement Trooper (which will only have benefits if they're operating near fixed/slow-moving-cumbersome units). Besides that, the profile for Rebel Veterans looks eerily similar to Rebel Troopers, which is why most players will tell you to just run these guys (and this was particularly true in the previous edition when they were Speed 2, had Defend 1, and everyone started on the board).
I gotta say . . . they're pretty good. However, they do begin more costly, that training slot can be added to Rebel Troopers with the Rebel Trooper Captain upgrade (who costs the same as an extra Rebel Veteran), and their heavy weapon option is really good but more expensive than any of the Rebel Trooper heavy weapon options, so these guys will be expensive . . . and die just as quickly as Rebel Troopers. Still, they'll put hits on anything that's on the board - armor, cover/dodge-spam, or plain-old-dudes - and that's got value.
For every unit of Rebel Veterans that you bring, you can also bring a single Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper, which is a one-man, big-base Emplacement Trooper who can benefit from the Coordinate of the Rebel Veterans and lend some Fire Support to units that could use a little extra oomph (like those Commanders and Operatives with limited dice pools). With 4 base wounds and Courage 2, these guys are 2pts cheaper than Rebel Troopers and are about as survivable - and their damage output won't be degraded as they take casualties. With surge to hit and 4 black dice with Critical 2, these guys are pretty good relative to Rebel Troopers . . . and now that detachment troopers don't count towards your maximum unit limit, you can field up to six of these guys if you also field six Rebel Veteran squads.
As we move from the Rebel Corps to the Mercenary options, we have to welcome the new kids to the block, Ewok Skirmishers. If these guys are run without any upgrades (which isn't a horrible idea), you can get a 6-mini squad for 40 points (same as Rebel Troopers), but they won't surge on defense, they don't have a ranged attack option, and issuing them orders is impossible without Underworld Connections or Wicket. Still, it's a squad of 6 guys who do decently in melee and can take damage for a surprisingly long time for their friends. I personally think the Rebel Troopers are slightly better than these guys because of their flexible attack options, but it's undeniable that taking both is a perfectly viable plan.
Our final Corps option is the infamous Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldiers. As the Mercenary option that all factions can take, these guys cost 44pts for their base squad and probably go up by another 24pts when you pick up their P13-M Disruptor Soldier heavy weapon choice and another 18pts when you pick up the Pyke Syndicate Capo personnel choice. This makes them an incredibly expensive option for the Rebels (though not their most expensive option - certain builds for the Rebel Veterans can be more expensive), but with Outmaneuver and Danger Sense 2, these guys can take quite a bit of punishment if they've got cover to soften the blow (which you want for all your Rebel units anyway - even though cover has become less reliable than it used to be).
So where is it that Rebel Troopers find their place? Well, to understand why you'd want to take these guys over their other options, let's look at their upgrades and how you can best each of these other Corps options . . .
Rebel Troopers: Recommended Upgrades
Back in the day, the go-to build for Rebel Troopers was the DLT-20A and a Rebel Trooper Captain with Situational Awareness - this currently costs 79 points/squad which . . . is incredibly pricey considering it's a 6-man unit with surging-white saves. With Pykes coming in at 86 points/squad, you're far more likely to survive with one of those units than a unit of Rebel Troopers (and for 7pts more, it's a pretty fair comparison). If you're comparing them to actual Rebel units, a Rebel Veteran squad with a CM-0/93 Trooper alone (5-man squad) costs 5pts less - and is going to do a lot more damage and might have Low Profile helping them right away. Between these two units alone (to say nothing of a 60-78pt 6-to-8-mini Ewok squad), it's pretty clear that the Rebel Troopers are going to have to be cheaper in order to compete in any way for a Corps slot.
Our goal, then, is to get our costs down but still get effective units - that is, effective at something, not necessarily at "doing damage." Given this information, here are our upgrade options . . .
Heavy Weapon
Rebel Troopers have four heavy weapon options - and only one of them appears to be a viable option in the current game state (at least to me). What used to be the most expensive option (and probably the least competitive option) is the DLT-20A Trooper, which gives you one extra model who gets 2 blacks/1 white at range 1-4 and Critical 1. Being able to get some kind of surge conversion is key (2.625/0.750 expected hits/crits at range 1-3, 0.875/0.500 hits/crits at range 4; 2.875 damage expected across all four ranges) - it's what makes Rebel Veterans so good, after all - but the fact that a Rebel Trooper squad with a DLT-20A is going to approach the cost of a Rebel Veteran squad with a CM-0/93 (66pts vs. 74pts) makes this a non-starter for me (Rebel Vets have an expected 2.750/1.250 hits/crits at range 1-3 and 0.750/0.750 hits/crits at range 4, with an overall damage output of 3.375 damage expected across all four ranges - it's just better in every way). I just can't justify the cost, given that Rebel Veterans are available in the list . . . plus 66pts is a lot for 5 wounds with surging white saves.
What used to be our second most expensive upgrade and is now the third most expensive upgrade is the Z-6 Trooper - which has the highest damage ceiling of any heavy weapon upgrade available to the Rebels, thanks to rolling 6 white dice. Unfortunately, surge conversion with this weapon is nigh impossible (unless you're at Range 1 and paid 5pts for Frag Grenades - or took Force Guidance on someone) and each die is a white one, so there's a 25% chance of each dice hitting, bringing your expected damage from a 6-man squad (Z-6 with extra guy - 67 points) to only 2.625/1.375 hits/crits per attack at range 1-3 (3.000 damage expected across all four ranges). This is available in the core set and in any box of Rebel Troopers you buy, so if you're just getting started, this isn't a bad option to run . . . assuming you actually RUN a heavy weapon upgrade on your Rebel Troopers (but more on that later). At 1pt more than the DLT-20A, you're getting ever so slightly more damage (both at range 1-3 and overall), but you'll have to be within range 3 in order to get that damage in and you're only 7pts cheaper than a Rebel Veteran squad (who are, again, still out-damaging you - but ever so slightly for +14pts and -1 health).
With the upgrade adjustments that were released with Legion 2.6, our most expensive Heavy Weapon option is the MPL-57 Ion Trooper. Clocking in at 67 points/squad (if you don't take a personnel option - 1pt more than the DLT-20A), this is no longer an affordable heavy weapon - and it no longer requires you to do "turretting" in order to shoot every turn (recover-shoot each time). With Critical 1 added to Impact 1/Ion 1, you're getting pretty good keywords on this thing - whether you're shooting into armor, droids, or anything with shields. You could pack in a bunch of upgrades onto this unit, but since you're starting in the high-60s, you're already encroaching on the innate goodness of Rebel Veterans. The new upgrade card traded an attack pool of 2 red dice for 1 white/2 black, which is the exact same dice pool as the DLT-20A (and both have Critical 1 now). If you want to have someone active from range 4, take the DLT-20A and save a point. If you want anti-armor options, you could take this guy. If you want to just plow through troopers, take the Z-6. Or . . . skip over all of these and take Rebel Veterans, who can shoot from range 4 with the CM-0/93, can do good damage with Critical 2 against armor, and can plow through troopers.
Our final option - and really the only viable option for me - is the SX-21 Trooper, which gives you a very reliable and punchy 2 red/2 white with Impact 1. While the other variants we've been looking at are expecting ~3 hits/attack across all levels and 3-4 hits at range 1-3, a Rebel Trooper squad with an SX-21, an "extra guy", and Prepared Supplies (65pts) does pretty much the same overall damage (2.250/0.750 hits/crits at range 3) with greater damage at range 1-2 (3.375/1.125 hits/crits at range 1-2). With 3.000 damage expected across all four ranges, this configuration does the same amount of expected damage as the Z-6, but far more reliably once you're at close range.
The "downside" is . . . its a range 1-2 weapon. Still, for 65 points with the extra trooper and Prepared Supplies, the base squad is incredibly affordable and while the DLT-20A would cost you 66pts to have a 5-man squad, this configuration for the SX-21 gives you a 6-man squad, a dodge token when you need it, and some firepower once you're up close. With armies starting much closer together in Legion 2.6, getting to range 2 is no longer as difficult - especially if you move twice on the first turn and have a cached dodge token to boot. If you've got cover between you and the enemy and three dodge tokens in hand, you're pretty likely to survive to get within range 2 and blast in some heads!
Of course . . . you could just run the unit without a heavy weapon upgrade. This means the squad is likely to remain cheap (read Ewok and Mark II Medium Blaster cheap) and can provide assistance to their team mates in other ways, mostly as a personnel caddy. Speaking of which . . .
Personnel
THIS is the upgrade slot where I think Rebel Troopers really shine. In the previous discussions about Rebel Troopers vis-a-vis other Rebel Corps options, the Rebel Troopers are fine or worse than their competitors, but in Personnel, they not only have the greatest number of options, but their seemingly bad selection of Heavy Weapon upgrades makes them one of the most desirable candidates for two of the most useful personnel options available to the Rebels.
But first, the bad news. Rebel Troopers have two unique personnel options: the Rebel Trooper Captain (who we've already talked about in passing - he costs +2pts over "just another guy", fills your unit leader slot instead of just-another-slot, gives you a training upgrade slot, and can be exhausted to allow his squad to not be suppressed - which really requires that you have a C3 commander nearby) and the Rebel Trooper Specialist (who costs +1pt over "just another guy", gives you a gear slot that you're probably not filling, and can be exhausted to give his Rebel Trooper squad a dodge token or a surge token - both of which are good, but the exhaust makes this likely to be a one-time thing).
While there's probably a case for taking either of these guys to fill in 1-2 points in a list where you've already taken "an extra guy" (more on this option later), I think their usefulness is pretty limited now that Situational Awareness (which allows you to use your dodge tokens to block crits) costs 4pts instead of 2pts - paying +6pts over "just another guy" to get Outmaneuver and anti-suppression abilities on top of whatever you're paying for the squad is just a bit too pricey for a surging white die save (plus you're knocking on the door of a Rebel Veteran squad that also has Situational Awareness).
Rebel Troopers can also take the more universal Rebel Personnel upgrades, specifically Rebel Officers (who are expensive and don't really help Rebel Troopers that much) and Rebel Comms Technicians (who also don't help Rebel Troopers that much - they're far too expensive for the ability to give them an order token or an aim/dodge token of their choice, depending on the Comms upgrade you choose to take).
This leaves us with four Personnel options - all of which are great: R5 Astromech Droids (who can repair vehicles or droid troopers twice each game - and only cost +1pt over "an extra guy"), 2-1B Medical Droids (who can restore trooper minis from your Rebel Trooper squad - or another squad - that were killed this turn or return a wound back to a wounded Commander/Operative), "the extra guy" (who, for 7pts, is pretty cheap for an extra black die on offense and an extra wound on defense), and "the five extra guys" (or the Rebel Trooper Squad, which gives you a 2pt discount on a whole new unit of Rebel Troopers who were bringing an "extra guy" - and a lot more damage, a lot more wounds, and Indomitable for clearing off those suppression tokens). Unless you take the "five extra guys," your damage output with Rebel Troopers will always be limited - so if you're not going to take those guys, you should consider giving them med-bots to move around so they help better units last longer.
Yes, you can run these personnel choices on Fleet Troopers as well (who cost the same as Rebel Troopers), but the Nimble on the Rebel Troopers is far more useful than the Charge on the Fleet Troopers, since the droid personnel options are noncombatants and won't be adding dice to your attack pool. Healing is great in this game - and you certainly don't want your Rebel Veterans to be taking a noncombatant who has to be killed AFTER the Heavy Weapon upgrade. Personally, I don't think it's close - Rebel Troopers are the best chassis for healing units that the Rebels have (and if you run them cheap, you can pile in a LOT of healing OR a lot of other stuff do their punching for them).
Gear
In my mind, you have exactly two options now for your Gear slot: Prepared Supplies and Recon Intel. Whenever you have a unit with Nimble, having a dodge token whenever you want it is incredibly useful. For 5pts, the dodge token you get from Prepared Supplies costs less than a mini and will stay with you for the round. Just having the cached token signals to your opponent that starting on Turn 2, you'll have Nimble active for an entire round at some point in the game (and they'll have 1-2 dodge tokens on Turn 1 by moving onto the board).
Recon Intel has a different purpose: its job is to keep a squad of Rebel Troopers alive on the first turn of the game. Since a Scout move is a move action, it will trigger Agile 1 - which means a Rebel Trooper unit that scouts-moves-moves on the first turn of the game will not only move up to 16" on the first turn (nearly half the board), but it will also end its activation with three dodge tokens . . . if that's happening early on, you can guarantee that anything trying to plink damage off those guys will probably fail - and wasted actions in Legion 2.6 are really, REALLY painful. This upgrade now costs more than Prepared Supplies and will only give you the dodge token on the first turn of the game instead of whenever you need it - but it will also give you 4" of movement, so that could be good.
Grenades
Don't. Just don't. Maybe there's a case for Fragmentation Grenades on a Z-6 or an SX-21, but honestly guys, the surge for crit is really all you want from these grenades and it's just too expensive for the saves these guys have. If you're looking to spend 3pts to get to an even 1000pts, you could put Smoke Grenades on these guys, but you could do that with any number of Rebel units - and most of them probably need it more than these guys do (though giving it to a Rebel Trooper unit that's establishing the "beach head" where everyone else is showing up is not a bad option).
Okay, let's look at a list!
Rebel Troopers: Sample List and Strategy
When I first started getting into Legion, I was like, "I'm gonna collect Rebels so I can build a Scarif list" - and at the time, I was like, "this probably means I'm gonna be painting Rebel Veterans to look like they're on Scarif instead of Hoth." However, with the changes that came out in Legion 2.6, I think Rebel Troopers are actually really good - and this list is a Scarif list that features SIX squads of Rebel Troopers, alongside three characters and three Special Forces options (you can view the list on Tabletop Admiral here):
- Cassian Andor with Duck and Cover and A280-CFE config
- Jyn Erso with Esteemed Leader, Duck and Cover, Prepared Supplies, and A-180 config
- K-2SO with Jyn's SE-14 Blaster
- 3x Rebel Troopers with SX-21 Trooper, Rebel Trooper Squad, and Prepared Supplies
- 2x Rebel Troopers with 2-1B Medical Droid and Prepared Supplies
- Rebel Troopers with R5 Astromech Droid
- Rebel Sleeper Cell with R4 Astromech Droid
- Rebel Pathfinders with Bistan, Duck and Cover, and A-300 config
- Rebel Pathfinders with Pao, Duck and Cover, and A-300 config
This is a 12-activation list - and if you wanted to get to thirteen activations, you could swap the Sleeper Cell unit for a Rebel Commando unit with no upgrades and a Rebel Commando Strike Team with a Proton Charge Saboteur (call him "Melshi" if you want). You'd have to drop a few upgrades to make it work, but you've got plenty of those to work with if you want.
The list begins with Cassian trading out his Commander token for an Operative token and gaining Infiltrate. With five units that can Infiltrate into friendly territory before their first action (Jyn, Cassian, K-2SO thanks to the way detachments work, and two Pathfinder squads), you can place nearly half of your army in strategically valuable (and defensible) positions during the first turn. Six of the remaining seven units have Scout 1 or Scout 2, so they'll get a free move onto the board before committing to their actions. The end goal of their moves should be to end up behind heavy cover if they can - you're Rebels, after all - but you should have quite few options for how much of the board you're contesting on the first turn.
Your shooting power is also pretty decent - Bistan's squad is expected to do 3-5 hits at various ranges, Pao's squad is epected to do 2-4 hits at the same ranges, Cassian should be able to hit with basically all of his dice (2-3, depending on the config option he's using), and Jyn's blaster should reliably get 2 hits in. If you shoot with K-2SO on the first turn, you should do about 2 hits as well. While there might be opportunities for a shot from your other units, these are the ones most likely to be able to shoot on the first turn.
The real powerhouse in your list is the Sleeper Cell, which costs 75pts as kitted out, but is expected to reach 7.5 hits/attack once it's at range 2 - which is CRAZY (though only a bit better than Bistan's squad)! The Rebel Troopers that are carrying med-bots aren't expected to do much (2 hits/attack - which is still on-par with the blasters from Jyn and K-2SO and occasionally the same as Cassian), while the "beefy Trooper units" are expected to get in 5 hits at range 3 and 6.5 hits at range 1-2 - so if you can get the first-turn move on Turn 2 and move to be within range 2, you should be able to tear into a unit so much that they can't punch you back nearly as well.
One change that could be made to the list is to swap the three Rebel Trooper Squad personnel upgrades for R5s, dropping the three SX-21s, and picking up three AT-RTs. This will give you 15 activations and plenty of healing to keep your mobile line of sight blockers on the board - but we'll talk about these guys more next time.
Rebel Troopers: Final Review
I love the changes that these guys got - one minor change, really, but it made all the difference. There'll always be a place for healing units, and at 48-60 points for the squad, you could do a lot worse than Rebel Troopers if you want healing.
Overall profile review: 3/5 stars. These guys are nowhere near the best Corps unit in the game, but they're cheap and can fill a very valuable role: keeping your big hero units alive. I didn't talk about running the unit with no upgrades, but you could certainly just dump 120pts into three bare-naked units of Rebel Troopers and take that as your "Corps tax" and have some units that can run from objective to objective, contesting things all the way.
Next time we're turning our attention to the last Rebel unit from the starter set: the Rebel AT-RT. If this was your only Support choice, he'd probably be fine . . . and with certain upgrades, he probably IS fine . . . but he doesn't always _feel_ fine (especially with the downgrade from full armor in the new edition). We'll dig into what the problem is with this guy next time (and how to use them well), but until then, happy hobbying!
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