Good morning gamers,
We're back to reviewing profiles for Star Wars Legion - and with the updated cards dropped on the AMG website, we can be pretty confident that the unit we're looking at today, Clone Commandos, won't see massive changes in this new edition of the game. When Clone Commandos first dropped into the competitive scene, they were SUPER strong. Even after a drastic price hike that brought other Republic Support options into the discussion (most notably AT-RTs), Commandos are still a powerful force on the table, whether you run one squad, two squads, or three squads.
Clone Commandos: The Profile
Clone Commandos have a pretty normal Republic profile at first glance - 1 wound each, Courage 2, no-surge conversion on offense or defense, and speed 2. Like ARCs, they have limited numbers (4 models, no extras) but each guy has 2 attack dice (2 black in melee, 1 black/1 white at range 1-2 with suppressive). However, between their specialized gear (which will consume both their Gear and Armament slots every time because they are required/free) and their special rules, these guys might be pricier than ARCs, but I think they're always worth taking.
They have a wealth of special rules that help them out on defense - they have Equip: Katarn Pattern Armor, which forces them to take the Katarn Pattern Armor at no extra cost to reduce the results of a defense result to only suffering 1 wound instead of what they would have gotten. This upgrade is an Expend piece, so you only get a do-over once (so best if you have other ways of funnelling off damage). They also have Shielded 1 and Recharge 1, so they will start with a shield token to absorb a hit/crit result from a shooting attack and can reactivate it by performing a Recover action (which they are likely to do every turn). While not explicitly a defensive keyword, Infiltrate allows them to deploy as a free action anywhere within your deployment zone, which means they can appear behind fat rocks or a barricade to give them cover and hopefully manage their incoming fire.
On offense, they have Target 1 - and if these guys are getting orders every turn, having an aim token that can be shared with other Clones or used to improve their impressive dice pools is pretty sweet. They also have their free config, which isn't a special rule, but does give them a range 3-4 1 red die attack pool that has High Velocity when everyone is using it and Lethal 1 if at least one guy is using it (so you can use that aim token from Target 1 to add Pierce 1 to your attack results instead of rerolling failed dice). Alternatively, you can flip the card over at the start of your activation to have a 2 black range 1-2 gun that has Impact 1 for each gun using it and Scatter. The Impact doesn't usually matter against units that can be Scattered, but having the flexibility of tackling armored targets with up to Impact 4 or moving multi-model trooper squads out of cover/into charge range of a friendly unit can be pretty helpful.
Finally, these guys have the Complete the Mission keyword, which has both offensive and defensive boosts. During Setup (so before Turn 1 and before Prepared Positions is resolved), the controlling player gets to put out one Mission token for each Clone Commando squad in his army. They have to be placed in contested territory (or outside of any deployment zone) and while a Clone Commando unit is within range 1 of a mission token, it gains surge: block (which means at least one token should be placed near your deployment zone so that all of your Clone Commandos can Infiltrate within range of it and have surge: block for as long as they're camped there). Additionally, any enemy units within range 1 of a mission token, any Clone Commandos that attack that unit gain Critical 2. So . . . while these guys don't innately surge, you can definitely finagle things to get surge: block and if your opponent is required to get somewhere, you can also finagle surging for crit as well (at least up to two times). With Aggressive Tactics leaving the game, any time you don't have to spend a surge token on another unit is a good day - and these guys surge very, VERY well.
While Clone Commandos are expensive, they're also very solid and incredibly difficult to kill off. However, there's a unique profile option you can take with these guys, so let's look and see what's been added to . . .
Clone Commandos, Delta Squad: The Profile
For +15pts, Delta Squad is basically a Clone Commando squad with four changes. First, instead of having 1 black/1 white at range 1-2 with Suppressive, they roll 2 black at range 1-2 with Suppressive. This means they don't HAVE to use their close-range config gun if they don't want to and instead lean into suppressing enemy units with the exact same attack pool. While normal Clone Commandos might benefit from the less-reliable Suppressive blaster, Delta doesn't have to worry about that.
Second, Delta has infinite Courage, which means they can't be suppressed and will always be taking their actions. They also can't improve their cover save with suppression . . . so sad.
Third, these guys have Independent: Recover, so while a normal Clone Commando squad is incentivised to shoot-recover each round (what I call "turretting"), Delta can abstain from receiving orders and instead move-shoot, trusting to NOT getting orders to get a free recover.
Finally, they have Target 2 - so if Delta DOES get an order, they get 2 aim tokens instead of the free recover action. Late in the game, if there's nowhere to move to, these guys can easily transition into a turretting role - but if you need ground secured, these guys are a good option for it and I think you can forego the Target 2 option.
If you have 15 points available, these guys are definitely worth taking - but really the difference in cost is going to be more like 11pts, as we'll see as we dig into their upgrades . . .
Clone Commandos: Recommended Upgrades
Clone Commandos are already pricey and so it helps that they don't have that many slots to fill. Two of their slots are already spoken for either by Equip or the fact that there's no cost to taking them - so we'll get those out of the way first.
Gear & Armament
We've already discussed how you have to equip Katarn Pattern Armor in your Gear slot and you want to take the config in your Armament slot because it's free and gives you good options. The Katarn Pattern Armor keeps you alive after a nasty shooting attack (it doesn't work against melee attacks!) and the config gives you reliable, dodge-immune shooting attacks or devastating close-range shooting attacks. You'll need to perform a recover action to use it multiple times - hence, we have the "turretting" or "Independent-scoot-and-shoot" approaches for using these guys.
Training (1-2)
Normal Clone Commandos have 1 training slot while Delta Squad has 2 training slots - and honestly, I'd only equip a Training upgrade on Delta. If you're planning on using the "Independent-scoot-and-shoot" approach with these guys, you're rewarded for taking Offensive Push, which you can tap every round thanks to Independent: Recover. It effectively gives you the benefits that normal Commandos get from Target 1, except you aren't fighting for an order token.
So long as you're within range 1 of a mission token, most of the other Training upgrades are unnecessary or not applicable - Duck and Cover won't do a thing for Delta since they have Infinite Courage, but you definitely don't want your normal Clone Commandos being suppressed, so taking extra suppression isn't a great idea. If you're shooting at people near your mission tokens and standing near a mission token, you don't need Into the Fray, and because you don't have Guardian, you don't need Protector. Situational Awareness isn't that necessary since getting dodge tokens is going to be hard for you and you already have a shield token to nix a crit result. I don't think you'll be using Standby actions very much and I think you want to avoid getting into melee if you can (your shields and Katarn don't play in melee), so I wouldn't bother with Overwatch or Tenacity either.
This leaves us with some very, VERY optional upgrades that we could take, but I don't think I've ever had the points for them. Endurance is an interesting option for keeping suppression off these guys, especially if you left the Inspire keyword at home. On the Hunt could give you a second aim token, but only if you intend your Commandos to be shooting at multi-wound Trooper units (heroes - High Velocity could be good here, but lacking Immune: Deflect does make shooting at Lightsaber users a bit of a risk). Finally, if you wanted to get dodge tokens and shoot up close at someone, Up Close and Personal is always going to be a good upgrade (especially on Delta), but I also don't know that you'll have 8 points left over for it.
Comms
For normal Clone Commandos, there is only one option that you want to consider getting: HQ Uplink. This card got updated to have a max of 2 inclusions in your list, which means your normal squads can have it, but Delta cannot have it (Delta also doesn't want or need it). Since you want to recover-shoot with normal Commandos anyway, an HQ Uplink makes sure they always have an order (triggering Target 1), it makes sure you can go when you want to, and it means they don't compete with other units for the orders that are coming off your Command Cards. It's a good option - and certainly better than Comms Jammers (which you need to be VERY close to the enemy in order to use), Hacked Comms Units (same distance from the enemy as Comms Jammers), and Emergency Transponders (which is a one-time aim/dodge/suppression-removal tool instead of an every-turn thing). For Delta, leave this blank - if you took Offensive Push, omitting this upgrade closes the cost difference between Delta and a normal Commando squad to 11pts instead of 15.
Grenades
This is very much optional, but I would recommend that if you can fit it, one of your units of normal Clone Commandos should take a Smoke Grenade. This unit can be your first unit to deploy, it can Infiltrate-shoot-recover-Smoke during its activation, and it will make sure that your other Clone Commandos (and anyone else who arrives nearby) can arrive with smoke to give them a cover save before you use your surging-red saves to shrug off the rest of the damage.
Our first list relies on having three units in our 10-activation list sitting back and lobbing cover fire for the rest of us: two "turretting" Commando squads and a Medic-caddy ARF trooper squad:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi with Force Barrier, Saber Throw, and Offensive/Defensive Stance
- 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan and DP-23 Clone Trooper
- 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Fives and DP-23 Clone Trooper
- 2x Clone Trooper Infantry
- 1x ARC Troopers with Jedi Guardian
- 1x ARF Troopers with Clone Medic
- 1x Delta Squad with Offensive Push, Katarn Pattern Armor, and DC-17M ICWS Config
- 1x Clone Commando with HQ Uplink, Katarn Pattern Armor, and DC-17M ICWS Config
- 1x Clone Commando with HQ Uplink, Katarn Pattern Armor, DC-17M ICWS Config, and Smoke Grenades
Commandos are great with Kenobi, but they really want Medics to help them out (as does Kenobi when he botches a save for someone else). This second 10-activation list is basically the first list, but I've dropped Fives and a DP-23 to get 3 Medics and swapped the ARF Troopers for another ARC Trooper unit with a Jedi and given Smoke Grenades to Ahsoka (to help keep them alive during their advance):
- Obi-Wan Kenobi with Force Barrier, Saber Throw, and Offensive/Defensive Stance
- 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan, DP-23 Clone Trooper, and Smoke Grenades
- 3x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medics
- 2x ARC Troopers with Jedi Guardian
- 1x Delta Squad with Offensive Push, Katarn Pattern Armor, and DC-17M ICWS Config
- 1x Clone Commando with HQ Uplink, Katarn Pattern Armor, and DC-17M ICWS Config
- 1x Clone Commando with HQ Uplink, Katarn Pattern Armor, DC-17M ICWS Config, and Smoke Grenades
This list still has three units besides Kenobi with Charge to smash into the enemy but also gives their Clone Trooper Infantry squads a bit more to do by being the Medic caddies. Depending on your scenario, this might mean sitting back and feeding the Commandos, but it might also mean supporting the ARCs and Ahsoka's squad if you have to race across the field and recoup your losses (Kenobi probably wants to go with them). The Commandos are really the heart of both lists - if you keep them alive, they can turn a game for you!
Clone Commandos: Final Review
Clone Commandos are awesome - and while not everyone runs three of them, I like running three. They're reliable on both offense and defense and not THAT expensive relative to other unit choices in the Republic faction. If you enjoyed this review or have other thoughts on them, let us know in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!
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