Math Hammering: Ranking Rebel Special Forces Units

Good morning gamers,

We're back with another math model, trying to figure out what the "optimal" Rebel units for Legion 2.6 are. If you missed our previous posts on Corps and Commander options, you can catch up on the units that appear to be good. Both Corps and Commander are (generally speaking) required ranks to fill and today's post branches off into the rank that is probably the most contentious rank to fill out: Special Forces. There may be an argument that there's a three-way tug-of-war for what your Support slot should be - and there may even be an argument over whether or not you take one Heavy option over another - but Special Forces seems to be packed with good options that might only be rivaled by your options in the Commander and Operative ranks. The Rebels have a lot to like in this particular rank - and with only three slots that can be filled, we have a lot of decisions to make. Let's take a look and see how we're evaluating everything today, shall we?

Taxonomy Overview: What Is "Optimal" for Legion 2.6?

As has been mentioned before, because the objective conditions (both primary and secondary) are so heavily skewed towards having more activations than your opponent in pre-defined (and often stationary) parts of the board, Legion 2.6 is about both taking enemy units off the board (whole units - not just rendering a unit inert by killing off most of its models) and keeping your own units on the board. This means there are two measures of effectiveness (MOEs) that we can use to determine if a unit is "good": average expected damage and average expected health (AEH).

Average Expected Damage (AED) is computed by finding the average number of hits and crits that a unit is supposed to get. The greatest dilemma for finding this number in the real world is that it is affected by a LOT of variables - here's a few:

• There is a subtle but mostly irrelevant distinction between a Hit result and a Crit result - Crits really only matter if the enemy unit has the Armor X keyword, has dodge tokens, and to a small degree, has light/heavy cover (often if they also have Low Profile);
• The Pierce X keyword doesn't increase the damage that you do, but it DOES make the damage that you get more likely to actually take effect;
• The number of hits/crits that you get is all fine and good, but the quality of the target unit's save (and defensive keywords, dodge tokens, and visible models) can have a huge impact on how much damage you can actually do;
• The number of wounds previously suffered might reduce the expected damage of the unit (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has 1 wound) or it might have a slight impact once a certain amount of damage is done (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has multiple wounds), or might have no impact at all (in the case of single-model units); and
• The distance to the enemy target may affect whether or not a unit can aim before shooting - and the value of an aim token is highly dependent on which dice in your dice pool hit or missed in the first volley).

For the sake of a more simplistic model, I've made the following assumptions:

• Units will be evaluated at full strength, without respect to the degradation of their damage over time;
• The average expected damage of a unit will be a straight average of their expected damage at ranges 1-4, with the unit's preference of melee or range 1 as its range 1 score;
• The score for the unit as a whole will be the score of a reasonable loadout for the unit - we will not be meta-gaming upgrades to score well in the system, but will look instead at what upgrades would reasonably assist a unit with the role it's trying to fill (or the rules it wants to proc);
• Units are assumed to not take aim actions before they shoot unless that unit has a unique way to gain an aim token without spending an action; and
• The score for the unit will be the average expected hits for every 10 points spent on the unit (so units that are cheaper but do the same/more damage than a more expensive unit come out ahead).

Like the Commanders we viewed last time, the Special Forces options for Rebels tend to have one or more of these factors baked into their profiles, so there will be definite caveats for what was not factored into the analysis. Once again, I have attempted to be generous, but some of these boosts are highly situational and require understanding the target you are attacking or the rules of the unit attacking you in order to properly value them.

Average Expected Health (AEH) is much easier to conceptualize, but there are gray areas on the margins. Obviously, the total wounds of the unit will be "health" - and something will be added based on how good the save of the unit is - but do you account for rules like Low Profile making one cover save work? Do you assume cover at all? What if your opponent has Sharpshooter? What about rules like Impervious (do we assume the attack has Pierce)? If a unit can't be killed in a single volley, do you count its saves, dodges, Armor, Danger Sense, etc. more than once?

Like the damage calculus, there are a lot of variables that can affect this number - so our methodology will assume the safest case:

• This number will start with the initial total health (wound threshold) of the unit, including additional health provided by upgrades to the unit (specifically Personnel and Heavy Weapons);
• Additional health will be added to the unit based on the probability of saving wounds with defense dice (e.g. a 4-mini Rebel Trooper squad that has a surging-white save will add 4/3 wounds to its health total);
• Special rules and tokens that can prevent wounds (e.g. dodge tokens, Armor X, Danger Sense X) will apply additional wounds based on the number of hits that are likely to be blocked; and
• We're not going to assume that anyone has cover (of any kind) or that the attack has Pierce, which means that the Impervious, Immune: Pierce, and Low Profile keywords will not be factored into the calculation. Since there are Rebel Units who rely on Low Profile to help the compete (and one in particular that we're viewing today), I will comment on how the numbers would change if you assumed an extra hit was taken off by Low Profile (but will be excluding it from the quantitative assessment).

The last methodological thing we need to talk about is how we compare these two MOEs. Some players might want to make an aggro-heavy list that relies on blowing chunks into the enemy quickly and so would rate the AED score higher than the AEH score. Others might think, "You know, my likelihood of actually killing off enemy units is quite low, so I'd rather have my units last longer than be able to do damage", in which case, the AEH is the more valuable metric. For us today, I'm going to assume that they are equal and each contributes half of its rating to the overall score.

With all that said, let's see who did the best in our Special Forces ranking!

Optimal Special Forces Unit Ranking

Like the Commander post last time, we have nine contestants today - but unlike last time, I've made no room for honorable mentions. Of the nine units we're looking at today, Rebel Commandos/Strike Teams are unlikely to change from their early-release cards, the Ewok Slingers are unlikely to change as well, and Sleeper Cell appears to have been designed with the new edition in mind. This leaves the Mandalorians (who will hopefully get some alterations in the new edition), Pathfinders (who will hopefully get a little love when the new cards drop), and Wookiees (who I feel would have been nerfed if they were going to be nerfed - but could use a few changes to make them better in this new edition). As such, I think this list is pretty stable, so we'll start with . . .

Pick #9: Rebel Commando Strike Team with Saboteur - 40pts, Score: 0.490

If the sniper rifle hadn't gone up so much in cost, the Strike Team would probably have done pretty well. As it stands, a sniper squad costs about the same as a Rebel Veteran squad with a CM-0/93 (74pts for the Vets, 60pts for the Strike Team) and you get virtually the same profile, a weaker/Pierce-oriented heavy weapon for the Commandos, a fraction of the Wounds, and a different rank slot. We'll talk about Rebel Commandos later in this post, but suffice it to say if you want a long-range option and you're looking at a Commando Strike Team, you should probably look at Rebel Veterans (or a few other special forces choices) instead.

The sniper Strike Team got a worse overall score than the Saboteur one (0.345 vs. 0.490), mostly because the Saboteur has a better dice pool at range 1/melee and coughs up a pretty mediocre expected damage output at range 4+. With only 1 black/1 white, you're expected to get 1 hit/attack, which admittedly at range 4+ is right about the middle of what you're supposed to get from your other Rebel options:

• Bistan/Pathfinders and FD cannons are supposed to get 3.5-4 hits/attack at range 4;
• Jetpack Rockets from a 4-model Mandalorian Resistance squad is supposed to get a one-time 3.5 hits/attack at range 4;
• Pao/Pathfinders are supposed to get 2.75 hits/attack at range 4;
• Cassian is expected to get 2 hits/attack if he has an aim token at range 4+;
• AT-RTs are supposed to get about 2 hits/attack at range 4;
• Rebel Troopers/Veterans with their range-4 options are supposed to get 1-1.5 hits/attack at range 4)

The Saboteur team averages 1.25 hits/attack across the four range bands (1.25-2.5 at ranges 1-3, no credit for range 4), which leads to 0.313 expected hits/10pts spent (or 32 pts/hit). While this puts them near the bottom of the pile for Rebel Special Forces (only beating the sniper variant of the Strike Team and the Wookiees that we'll view later), it should be noted that a score of 32pts/hit is better than ALL of the Commanders we viewed last time and better than the Ewok Skirmishers that we looked at in the Corps ranking, so while this doesn't give them a good showing in this ranking, it's actually not a bad score all things considered. It should be noted that the Sniper team (40.85 pts/hit) only beat out the melee Wookiees with Battle Shields by a very narrow margin, mostly because the Wookiees don't get scores at ranges 3 or 4.

On defense, the Strike Team pays a premium for very, VERY few wounds. With only 2 wounds and a surging white save, these guys are only expected to have 0.67 expected wounds/10pts spent. This score was on-par (but still worse) than our next pick, but was only better than the Sniper Strike Team's score of 0.44. This is also marginally better than what Commander Luke got last time but is FAR below all of the other Commander options and well below every Corps choice except the "super-sized" Fleet Trooper squad with a Scatter Gun heavy weapon choice (who still got an expected wounds score of 0.75/10pts spent - so still worse). All told, you can spend the same or less on a different unit (e.g. Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper, Ewok Slingers, no-upgrade Rebel Troopers/Fleet Troopers) and get a better offensive, defensive, and overall score than these guys.

So yes, the Strike Team isn't great - but now let's look at a unit that I know will make some people mad . . .

Pick #8: Mandalorian Resistance with Beskad Duelist and Jetpack Rockets - 97pts, Score: 0.563

I get that these guys are cool - and I also get that these guys are some of the few Rebel units that have red defense dice - but these guys are also MUCH too expensive and I greatly hope that they drop in price a bit with the card updates that are due in a few weeks. The Mandos with their cheapest (and only generic) Heavy Weapon choice and their specialty Jetpack Rockets (for alpha strike options on the first turn) come in at 97 points and much of their firepower is limited to range 2 (2 black dice at range 1-2, 1 black/1 white in melee). This puts them in about the same place as B2 Super Battle Droids, but they do get the surge conversion on both offense (hit) and defense (block), and are base speed 3 (which is awesome).

They're also one health each, which B2s are not . . . and they're competing in the Special Forces slot against some VERY competitive choices. Golly, if I could bring these guys in Corps, they'd have a much different story (though comparing them to the scores from the Corps last time, they'd still be in a rough slot on the chart). Their melee damage is as good as a B2s by default if the B2s don't have surge tokens available to them, but a 4-man unit of Mandos with the Duelist in tow (2 red in melee) is going to have an advantage over a 4-droid B2 squad and come out about the same in melee as a 5-droid B2 squad. All in all, they're a pretty good offensive unit that was let down in this analysis by their poor defensive score.

To quantify their offense a bit, the Mandalorian Resistance squad in question is expected to get an average of 4.25 hits/attack across all range bands (counting their jetpack rockets as both a range 4 and range 3 attack, even though it's expended after its first use - speed 3 ought to see these guys get from a range 4 to a range 2 shot if you can get the timing right), which is VERY good (second best score that we'll see today). This results in 0.438 expected hits/10pts spent (or 22.82 pts/hit). This is a really solid score - on par with the best scores we saw in the Corps section - but it's also only "fine" in the Special Forces comparison because these guys are, with the exception of our next contestant, the most expensive Special Forces option we have. Yes, you COULD get more expensive with Sleeper Cell if you took the Marksman (don't - just don't), but for all reasonable comparisons, it's pretty much top of the line expense . . . and while the average hits you're getting are good, they're not THAT much higher than the competition (who saves you money and ends up being a better overall value).

On defense, these guys have 4 wounds with surging red saves (pretty good), but that ends up only being ~7 wounds for a ~100pt unit (0.69 expected wounds/10pts). I didn't factor in Nimble - but factoring it in would have been quite difficult, since they can't get dodge tokens for free by performing other actions (like Rebel Troopers can with Agile 1 or Mandalorian Super Commandos can with Defend 1 - and they're missing Nimble). 

The simplest way to get dodge tokens on these guys is to include them in an army with Sabine (3-pip gives a choice of dodge/aim tokens), Ahsoka (2-pip gives a dodge token if the defending unit is within range 1 of Ahsoka, 3-pip gives a choice of dodge/aim tokens), and Luke (who would need to be in his commander form - his 2-pip gives anyone who is issued an order that turn a dodge token). These three characters could bring all four command cards to give these guys the dodges they want, but for Luke, this would come at the cost of not getting the order tokens he desperately wants.

All in all, I think these are really cool units that need to either get a points drop or pick up a new keyword to get them dodge tokens (or do the Independent: Aim/Defend 1 thing that Super Commandos have). For those curious, the squad did slightly better if you foresook the Beskad Duelist and took Tristan Wren (0.588 instead of 0.563) or Ursan Wren (0.603 instead of 0.563), but seeing as how both of these characters will be playing into the score of a different Special Forces option AND it wouldn't change the placement of the unit at all, I've left them out of the comparison today. Okay, on to the already foreshadowed . . .

Pick #7: Rebel Commandos with Duck and Cover - 50pts, Score: 0.721

I'll start off by saying that the Duck and Cover upgrade was probably a staple of this unit in the old edition (if you could afford it) because any number of suppression tokens could trigger cover and if your opponent couldn't reduce your cover to 0, you got an extra hit-cancellation with Low Profile. While cover certainly isn't what it was, most units that are being favored in the meta today are hoping that the odds play out and that cover isn't cancelling their hits anymore. When you have fewer units relying on Sharpshooter to make them good, rules like Low Profile are going to be better - so I paid 2pts more to get Duck and Cover . . . it didn't change the ranking of the unit at all, but I thought it nice to have.

On offense, this unit can't hit range 4 (no sniper - golly, the price hike on those snipers sure seems unnecessary), but gets respectable scores for a 50-point unit at range 1-3 with 2.5 hits/attack, for 1.88 expected hits/attack across all four ranges (0.375 expected hits/10pts, 26.67 pts/hit). This is a very respectable score for someone who can't hit range 4, but only puts them at the same level as Rebel Troopers/Fleet Troopers without any upgrades (and behind Fleet Troopers with the extra guy). They're also behind all versions of Rebel Veterans that we viewed last time . . . and they cost the same or less than those guys . . . that's an interesting data point.

On defense, these guys have the token Rebel profile of a handful of wounds with surging white dice - I have not factored in Low Profile, but know that if I gave them an assumed 1 block for Low Profile (like I do with dodges), they would jump up one slot to #6 . . . so yeah, it's not a big change (and anyone with Nimble and a way to get dodges would do much better). The result is that they get a pretty typical Rebel score of 1.07 expected wounds/10pts, which is fine. While I know these guys are getting new sculpts, I'm not sure they're bringing much more to the party than Rebel Veterans are, so unless you want have effectively 9 squads of Rebel Vets, I think you're better off going with someone else in the list. Skipping these guys means no Strike Teams . . . what a shame, what a shame.

For anyone who is disappointed with how Rebel Commandos did in this ranking, please consider the following: the highest-ranking Rebel Commander in the previous post had a score of 0.643 (0.652 if run with only one upgrade) - the Commandos, and everyone coming later in this post, scored better than them. Being pick #7 on this list isn't an insult. In much the same vein, it's okay that pick #6 is . . .

Pick #6: Clan Wren with Jetpack Rockets - 103pts, Score: 0.745

Oh look, it's a unique 2-health Mando Resistance squad! This is a 3-mini unit instead of a 4-mini unit, but thanks to having Retinue, we can assume that they're going to start the round with a dodge token to trigger Nimble so long as Sabine is around. This helps their defensive score tremendously, as does the extra 2 wounds and better combat profile. Let's see what they've picked up.

On offense, the unnamed third member of Clan Wren has the standard 2 black dice at range 1-2 and just the Jetpack Rockets at range 3 or range 4 (though I gave them credit for both - again, call me generous). In addition to this, Usra Wren has a blaster with a rainbow pool (1 red/black/white) and Long Shot, so I let it contribute to the range 3 pool. Tristan Wren has 2 black at range 1-3, so that gives the squad a pretty impressive 3 red dice at range 4, 2 red/3 black/1 white at range 3, and 1 red/5 black/1 white at range 1-2. All told, this averages to 4.34 hits/attack and 0.422 expected hits/10pts spent (or 23.71 pts/hit). While not quite as efficient as the Beskad Duelist build for the regular mandos, they're pretty much in the same ballpark (so if you have Sabine in your list and you're taking at least one squad of Mandos, take Clan Wren - otherwise, just take Mandos).

On defense, these guys aren't bad - 6 wounds with surging red saves and a dodge token at the start of the activation phase to trigger Nimble is pretty good (though counting the dodge token multiple times won't be done in this assessment). Clan Wren comes in with a very respectable 1.07 expected wounds/10pts, which is on par for what you expect from Rebel units generally (most Rebel Corps and Special Forces units live in the 1.0-1.5 range). Sure, this is on the low-end for what you'd expect from Rebels, but it's still pretty decent. All told, this gave them a very respectable score of 0.745 overall, which is better than either Commando option and the generic Mandos, but only if you have Sabine in your list. Is it worth taking Sabine in order to use these guys? You'll have to wait until we cover Operatives, I guess.

On to my personal favorite of the Rebel Special Forces option - and the one I planned to buy three of when I first started looking at Rebel lists, thanks to how cool they were on Scarif . . .

Pick #5: Rebel Pathfinders with Pao, Duck and Cover, and config - 78pts, Score: 0.841

I will say this about Pathfinders - like the Rebel Commandos, I assumed these guys had both the free config (because why not) and Duck and Cover (because regardless of whether you get cover from your suppression, you're getting Danger Sense triggered). A base squad of Pathfinders with Duck and Cover is only 58pts, which is high compared to many of the Corps options we had (and high compared to a few of the Special Forces options - but not many of them), but still pretty low compared to what most other factions are paying for Special Forces. These guys aren't getting any credit for their Infiltrate keyword or for their Dauntless move action if they start the round suppressed, but their raw stats give them some pretty solid scores regardless.

There were three ways that I configured these guys: with Bistan, with Pao, and without a heavy weapon (your only generic option). Narrowly pipping out the others was Pao's variant, so that's the one we'll look at today (though the other two have their stats in the table below). Pathfinders have a range-4 config option that gives them 1 white die/mini, but with surge to hit and 1 red/1 white coming from Pao, they get a very respectable 2.75 expected hits/attack at range 4 - which is better than every other Special Forces option EXCEPT the Mandos and their one-shot rocket attack (and Bistan's squad, which benefits greatly from his pile of dice also extending to range 4). This, added to their surging 2 white dice/mini (1 red/1 white for Pao) at range 3 (4.25 hits/attack) and their surging 1 red die/mini (1 red/1 white for Pao) at range 1-2 from the config (4.75 hits/attack) gives them a very solid 4.125 expected hits/attack and a score of 0.529 expected hits/10pts spent (20.17 pts/hit), which is the highest offensive score we have for Special Forces today. As you can see from the table below, Bistan's squad gets the actual highest (0.550 expected hits/10pts spent, so yes, the monkey king is still the king of overall expected damage). This is particularly good since Infiltrate and access to range 4 gives a Pathfinder squad the ability to arrive in a place that is protected/within a speed-2 move of a place that's protected and can alpha-strike on the turn that they arrive to deal some early damage. Without a heavy weapon option, the Pathfinders are a bit weaker as an alpha strike option (only 1.5 expected hits/attack at range 4), but they still end up with a score of 0.496 expected hits/attack, which is better than all of the other Special Forces options available to the Rebels except one (and even THAT is a close one). These offensive scores are also better than all of the Corps options, including the Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper, who led the pack on offense with 0.493 expected hits/10pts spent. Pathfinders are good, just sayin' . . .

Unit (Upgrades)	Pts	Hits/Attack	Pts/Hit	AED	AEH	Utility Score
Rebel Pathfinders (Pao, D&C, config)	78	4.125	18.91	0.529	1.15	0.841
Rebel Pathfinders (D&C, config)	58	2.875	20.17	0.496	1.09	0.794
Rebel Pathfinders (Bistan, D&C, config)	91	5.000	18.20	0.550	0.99	0.769

As you can see from the table above, their defensive stats are also pretty good. Pao's group leads the charge (narrowly) with 1.15 expected wounds/10pts spent, with the no-heavy squad coming in 0.06 wounds behind at 1.09 expected wounds and Bistan "coming in third" with almost 1 expected wound/10pts spent. All in all, with Danger Sense getting a very token accounting, these guys are pretty decent compared to what you expect to get in Rebels (but still near the bottom end of the expected range).

Given their top-notch offensive scores and their so-so defensive scores, I was a bit surprised that they brought up the middle of the field today, but as you're about to see from our next four competitors, you can get quite a bit of defensive beef for a relatively small amount of points if you take . . .

Pick #4: Wookiee Warriors with Battle Shield and Recon Intel - 103pts, Score: 0.843

I love these guys - mostly in the Wookiee Battle Force where they get free movement when someone dies, but they're also fun to throw into a Rebel list every now and again. On offense, these guys are a bit disappointing - I factored in the use of the battle shield in offensive mode (2 reds with speed 2) for the offensive score and the battle shield in defensive mode (2 blacks with speed 1/armor 1) for the defensive score, since I find myself flip-flopping between the two regularly in games. Since these Wookiees are limited to range 2, their overall damage score is pretty low - just 2.38 hits/attack - for an overall score of 0.231 expected hits/10pts spent (43.37 pts/hit). That's . . . pretty bad - that's Sniper Strike Team levels of bad. However, they're also expected to get 5.5 expected hits in melee (which was superior to their range 1 score, obviously), which is better than most are going to be able to do (not as good as Bistan/Clan Wren, but better than everyone else we're looking at today (though it is less than a super-sized Rebel Vet squad or super-sized Ewok Skirmishers with an Axe Ewok and Call to Arms - the first being almost 30pts more expensive than Wookiees and the second being about 20pts cheaper). If you want a melee-focused Rebel list, you could do worse than taking some of these guys (maybe with Rebel Vets and Ewoks in tow?).

On defense, Wookiees have always had an advantage - 12 wounds with any of the heavy weapon choices is a great place to start from, even if they're rolling non-surging white dice. The Armor 1 helps some and gets them a score of 1.46 expected wounds/10pts, which is just barely the second-best defensive score in the Special Forces category. These guys did pay for extra points for the Recon Intel upgrade, but that's mostly because I've found I lose WAY too many Wookiees if they're not getting as much movement as possible on the first turn (and hopefully they can find something that shields them from fire or can activate late).

Melee wookiees are fun, albeit a bit expensive. If you want a slightly better overall score for slightly fewer points, you'll want to look at their cousins . . .

Pick #3: Wookiee Warriors, Kashyyyk Resistance with Long Gun - 98pts, Score: 0.872

These guys pipped above their melee counterparts because the Long Gun Wookiee gives them a score at range 4 and the unit as a whole gets scores at range 3. Their overall damage scores at ranges 1-2 (really melee and range 2) are slightly worse than the melee Wookiees above, but not THAT much worse (4 hits/attack in melee instead of 5.5; 3.5 hits/attack at range 2 instead of 4). They still have surge to hit and they pair it with Sharpshooter 1, which is a nice-to-have option if you're going to be shooting (and possibly alpha-striking). I have not taken Recon Intel on these guys - call me crazy, I don't think they need it. On offense, they averaged 3.06 hits/attack and got 0.313 expected hits/10pts (32.00 pts/hit), which is still not great, but better than the other Wookiees but a shy margin.

On defense, these guys come in slightly behind the other Wookiees with 1.43 expected wounds/10pts, mostly because they don't get the Armor 1 buff that the shield provides. TECHNICALLY speaking, taking the Battle Shield on these guys gave them a higher overall score than the Long Gun Wookiee (0.902), but that's because it gave them a better defensive score of 1.53 and a lower offensive score of 0.274). Both scores are still higher than the melee Wookiees, but it didn't change their overall placement on this list, so I figured I'd talk about the Long Gun more than "just another variant of the Battle Shield." That said, it IS the better overall choice and if you don't plan to alpha strike with your list, you very well may be playing a range 2-3 game with these guys - so at least consider taking the Battle Shield instead (it's the same price and this unit doesn't pay for being reduced to speed 1 as much as the melee guys do).

Of course, we knew that Wookiees weren't going to claim the top spot today - but coming in at bronze is certainly higher than I thought they would. The surprise pick for second place goes to . . .

Pick #2: Rebel Sleeper Cell with R5 Astromech - 75pts, Score: 0.939

I . . . totally thought these guys were gonna win it. I really did. By all rights, they should. We know them to be a powerhouse on offense with a very impressive 7.5 expected hits/attack at range 1-2, which given that there's no access to range 3-4 shots gives them a very respectable 3.75 hits/attack and 0.500 expected hits/10pts spent (20.00 pts/hit). This isn't as good as Pao/Bistan-led Pathfinders, but it's better than Mandos with their rockets giving them range 3-4 scores, it's better than Commandos, it's MUCH better than Wookiees, and it's barely better than no-heavy Pathfinders (by 0.005 hits/10pts spent). Pretty good unit - especially since it's cheaper than all of the Wookiee builds, all of the Mando builds, and the Pao/Bistan Pathfinder builds.

On defense, these guys give you 7 models with surging white saves and a way to get a dodge token if you end your movement near a POI. This can trigger Nimble on the unit, which is super nice. Without accounting for Nimble, these guys have 1.38 expected wounds/10pts spent, which is almost as good as the Wookiees and slots in comfortably as the fourth-highest defensive score today. It's also basically on-par with the Rebel Trooper defensive builds and better than the Rebel Vet/Fleet Trooper scores - so even compared to other Rebel infantry options, it's pretty good.

I did do the math for the Marksman with Astromech and the score isn't bad, but it's not particularly good either (0.425 expected hits/10pts spent, 1.04 expected wounds/10pts spent, overall score of 0.730). Frankly, this is higher than I thought it would be, but it's also a good shout worse on both offense and defense than running the squad without the Marksman. So yeah, paint him up and leave him at home.

I fully expect these guys to get hit with the points nerf bat soon, but until then, they remain one of the finest choices for Rebel Special Forces. Alas, they were pipped out of the top spot by those furry murder bears who DEFINITELY need to feel the points nerf bat . . .

Pick #1: Ewok Slingers with Forest Dwellers - 38pts, Score: 1.258

I have no idea why these guys begin at 35 points - they have the same number of bodies as their 40-point Ewok Skirmisher buddies, they have the same keywords and then some (Target 1 for an aim token if they get an order and Independent: Surge if they don't get an order!), they have 1 black die/model at range 1-2 instead of in melee, AND they're still speed 2 (how the heck are their little legs able to carry them forward at speed 2?). They're . . . insane. Just insane. And they're base 35 points. And they get a dodge token and scout 1 for 3 points with Forest Dwellers. I mean, I feel like it's always worth it to drop 81pts on 2 squads of Ewok Slingers with Forest Dwellers and Underworld Connections on one of your Commanders (do you see why virtually all of my Commander options in the previous post had Underworld Connections stapled to them?).

Okay, math time: the 6 black dice from the Ewok Slingers will only contribute to their scores for range 1-2 (like the melee Wookiees), but despite that limitation, they're still expected to get 1.56 hits/attack with a very impressive 0.411 expected hits/10pts spent (24.32 pts/hit). This is worse than the Mandos, Pathfinders, and Sleeper Cell, but better than everyone else - WITHOUT scoring points for range 3-4! Paying about half of what you pay for the other options and getting nearly the same expected damage is pretty insane - and yet another reason why I'm buying two boxes of these guys as soon as I can.

On defense, their score is absurd - not only do they have 6 wounds on the unit (more than most), but since they're paying a fraction of the cost of everyone else, their non-surging white save (without the boost of the Independent: Surge keyword) gives them a very, very, VERY impressive 2.11 expected wounds/10pts spent. This is not only the highest score we've seen today, but it's also double what you expect from Rebel units and higher than ANY Rebel unit we've seen to date (Corps, Special Forces, or Commander). The only real downside to these guys is that you can only take 2 of them in a normal Rebel list . . . so take 2.

Conclusion

And that's Rebel Special Forces! We're half-way through this series and next time, we'll be covering both Rebel Support and Heavy options all in one list - mostly because I didn't think a four-profile post for Support and a three-profile post for Heavy was going to be worthwhile. After that, we'll be diving into the myriad of options for Operatives and then capping off the series with an "optimal list" post that brings it all together. If you have thoughts on this ranking (or any of our other rankings), drop a comment in this post or any of the others in this series! Until next time, happy hobbying!