Star Wars Legion Unit Review: The Bad Batch, Part I

Good morning gamers,

They're big (Wrecker in particular), they're bad (it's in the name), and they're by far and away the most potent Republic Operative choice (which is really not saying much) - oh yes, it's a review of the Bad Batch today! This band of misfits can do some extraordinary damage on the tabletop, and while they don't have any slots for gear or training upgrades, having them in your list MIGHT mean that certain other units you bring will be taking certain upgrades. Let's see what makes these guys awesome and what you should consider bringing in order to make them better!

Republic Bad Batch: The Profile

The Bad Batch for the Republic is a five-man unit that needs to equip 5 Heavy Weapon "upgrades" (Hunter, Echo, Tech, Crosshair, and Wrecker). With 2 wounds/mini (3 wounds on Wrecker), this squads has a very impressive 11 wounds and Courage 3, which is very, VERY difficult to both suppress and punch through. With the Republic trooper standard of non-surging red saves and speed 2, these guys will fit in with just about every other Republic infantry option.

They have some unit special rules that can be summarized as ARC-Trooper-like: Scale, Sharpshooter 1, and Impervious are standard issue on ARCs, which gives these guys reliability when moving over difficult terrain/scaling walls and reducing enemy cover when they shoot into cover. Impervious gives them something against Pierce, though Impervious itself is more of a "nice when it works" kind of proposition.

They also have Steady, which is different and more flexible than the Charge that you find on ARCs (which gives ARCs a free attack action when they end a move in melee, instead of a free attack action when they end a move NOT in melee for the Bad Batch). With 1 red each in melee and 1 black/1 white at range, these guys don't look far off from their 160pt price tag, but there are more special rules to this unit . . .

Star Wars Legion Unit Review: K-2SO

Good morning gamers,

Last time we looked at the updated Cassian Andor profile and today, we're looking at his buddy, K-2SO. Cassian and K-2 were purchased right after Jyn as the second and third Rebel units in my Legion collection and I love these guys. Let's see how K-2 has changed in the new edition.

K-2SO: The Profile

K-2SO's profile hasn't changed at all - he's still got 5 wounds/Courage 2 (which only matters for panic, thanks to the Droid Trooper keyword), Speed 2, non-surging red saves, and surge for crit on offense (which is REALLY useful). He has no ranged weapon by default, but has a 4-red die melee attack that unlike Chewie's melee attack doesn't have Lethal 1 (so no Pierce from this guy).

Most of his keywords are the same too - he still has Armor 1 (which is good for his resiliency) and Incognito (which is REALLY good for keeping him alive on Turns 1-2), he still has Detachment: Cassian Andor (so K-2SO doesn't count towards your two Operative slots and can deploy near Cassian) and Teamwork: Cassian Andor (so when one gets an aim/dodge token within range 2 of the other, the other gets one as well), which are both great as well. Finally, he retained the Calculate Odds special action, so someone (including himself) at range 2 can gain an aim token, a dodge token, and a suppression token - and if that person is himself or Cassian, then the other gets the aim/dodge tokens as well thanks to Teamwork.

The only "new" (but functionally no difference) keyword change for K-2 is that he gained Infiltrate - which really doesn't matter with Detachment, but it's nice to have if K-2 has to go down first. In most games, if Cassian goes down first and K-2 arrives to give him buffs (Calculate Odds + dodge action), then K-2 will probably be using Detachment to arrive nearby and the Infiltrate doesn't matter - and sometimes the Detachment deployment will be the same as an Infiltrate action anyway, so it doubly doesn't matter. But in the set of cases where you want K-2 coming down first, Infiltrate is nice to have.

Okay, let's take a look at the upgrades we can take (or more appropriately, not take) on this guy.