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.
K-2SO has two upgrade slots: Armament and Comms. The Armament one is hard to leave at home no matter how you build your list because K-2 doesn't have a gun option by default and he surges for crit. The comms slot . . . is very much up to your preference.
Armament
Your only option for this slot is Jyn's SE-14 Blaster - and I always take it. Paying 10pts if you don't have Jyn in your list and 5pts if you do have Jyn in your list makes this a half-cost (or quarter-cost) Z-6 weapon that loses 1 white die to get Pierce 1 and Suppressive - and has surge for Crit, which no Z-6 unit has innately. With range 1-2, this allows K-2 to contribute damage (and remove Incognito) at the same range as Cassian and Jyn and can do so while throwing out extra suppression and piercing through those pesky red-die saves. I've shot down T-47 Airspeeders with the Pierce/surge for Crit and I've chewed through Clones with this gun - it's occasionally unreliable, but if K-2 is getting 1-2 aim tokens from Teamwork, it's actually pretty reliable.
Comms
There are only two options that I think are worth taking here - and I often leave them at home: the Comms Jammer and the HQ Uplink. The Comms Jammer is risky, since Incognito doesn't work against range 1 attacks, so if you use the Jammer, you're either already out of Incognito or you shortly will be. Still, Jammers are a pain to work around, so there's utility there. The HQ Uplink is valuable because K-2 wants to be able to Calculate Odds and shoot, but with Cassian in your list, you can still benefit from this upgrade twice with Volunteer Mission's free recover. This means you can have orders issued to you in four of the five rounds (the first round of the game via HQ Uplink, the second round of the game with Sacrifice, a later round with Volunteer Mission, and the round after that with the HQ Uplink again). The downside to investing into either of these is that if K-2 is drawing fire to himself, he may not be on the table at the end of Turn 3 or 4 . . . so have you gotten your utility out of those upgrades yet?
As we turn to command cards, K-2SO only brings one to the table: Sacrifice. I LOVE this command card - I'm a Republic player through-and-through and specifically a Kenobi/Commando player and having Guardian 3 with Soresu is amazing for keeping your Clones going. K-2SO isn't THAT cool, but for one round, he can have Guardian 4 with a non-surging red save, but also easy access to dodge tokens from Calculating Odds on Cassian/dodging himself. Ideally there's another hero to help out with the dodge generation (Leia, perhaps?), but red saves and Armor 1 to prevent direct damage (and possibly Incognito) is pretty good at helping him stay alive. I always take this command card if there aren't other competing must-haves in the list (like I Am a Jedi from Operative Luke and Change of Plans from Han - those are more pressing, I think) and it's usually my Turn 2 pick to keep my boys alive.
The generic Reble 3-pip (Covering Fire) can be nice for K-2 as well - the more you lean into Corps Troopers (like Rebel Vets/Mark IIs), the more dodge tokens you're going to generate for your team. If this is played right after K-2 has just saved a bunch of people's skins with Sacrifice, you can pay back the favor by making sure he doesn't get sniped.
My Ally is the Force (from either version of Luke) is also nice, since it will issue him (and Cassian) a dodge token if one of them gets an order and two dodge tokens each if they both receive the order tokens. This can be a nice Turn 1 play if you intend to start with them going in guns-blazing to distract from your other units arriving on the board (and they're surprisingly hard to take down when they're helping each other out).
An interesting Turn 3 play after using Sacrifice is Reckless Diversion (from Han) - this works basically like another Sacrifice turn, except that instead of K-2 getting to choose if he Guardians hits, he HAS to be shot at by anyone that can shoot at him. If Han issues orders to himself and K-2 and then proceeds to go as your first activation, anyone that can see K-2 will have to shoot at him . . . that's pretty great for the rest of your team (especially if you brought some heal-bots in your Corps units to keep him going).
Another interesting command card to play after using Sacrifice is Cassian's Last Stand. Since K-2 has probably taken 3 wounds from his Guardianing, being able to pick up 3 dodge tokens is really good. More dodge tokens might follow from Calculate Odds or a dodge action from Cassian, so having 5 dodge tokens isn't inconceivable.
As I said last time, having Swift Protector from Ahsoka can be beneficial to both Cassian and K-2. Guardian 2 on Ahsoka/free dodge tokens on K-2 (and Cassian) when you get shot at is a nice follow-up to Sacrifice and will make you nigh unkillable if you're shrugging off 3 hit results from Guardian and the dodge token (assuming your opponent doesn't have High Velocity).
I have some high expectations from Hondo's upcoming 3-pip command card (Stories, So Many of Them True). From what we've seen in the Adepticon roadmap, Hondo will be able to gain a suppression token during K-2s activation to give K-2 an aim, dodge, or surge token (which will be shared with Cassian via Teamwork in most cases). Hondo can later turn these surge tokens into a suppression dump with his 2-pip - and can even do this for Cassian too (to further help K-2). I'm not sure that Cassian/Hondor/K-2 is the best Rebel Operative line-up you can come up with, but it looks interesting.
Finally, we have Jyn. While Trust Goes Both Ways should be a good take (and the Teamwork: Jyn Erso will mean that dodge tokens are likely to flow to K-2 from Jyn's Agile 1 ability), Rebellions are Built on Hope is a far better command card for K-2 to benefit from. Danger Sense 2 is really nice on a Droid Trooper and the ability to not be panicked means that the suppression he has already acquired is just fine (though the immune to being suppressed is wasted because he's a Droid Trooper). Still, it's really good and has nice synergies with both Jyn (who doesn't have Danger Sense anymore) and Cassian (who is likely to be stacking up the suppression and wouldn't mind being unable to be suppressed).
The first list we have today is a 15-activation Cassian/Ahsoka list from yester-year, but it's adapted for the new edition with 3 Sleeper Cell squads and 3 AT-RTs:
- Ahsoka Tano with Saber Throw, Force Barrier, and Seize the Initiative
- Cassian Andor with Duck and Cover and A280-CFE
- K-2SO with Jyn's SE-14 Blaster
- 3x Rebel Veterans
- 3x Mark II Medium Blaster Troopers
- 3x Rebel Sleeper Cell
- 3x Rebel AT-RTs
This list actually has two command cards it can lead with: Push to issue orders to Cassian and K-2SO (Ahsoka can issue herself one with Seize the Initiative) or Crack Shot can issue an order to Cassian and you can use the free attack action to Infiltrate-move-move-shoot on the first turn with 3 aim tokens to help you get range-3 shots with Long Shot on your pistol config. You can also just Infiltrate with your sniper config on, aim once, dodge once, and then shoot twice with 2 aim tokens to use for Marksman only. Either way, you're probably going first - unless your opponent is Incognito'ing Lando or something.
Turns 2-3 are often the critical turns and on these ones, we want to play Sacrifice and Swift Protector so we have some Guardian 2-4 bubbles available. Ahsoka will want to play conservatively in this list, using Force Barrier to block incoming hits on a few rounds and using Saber Throw to get 2 red/1 black attacks with Pierce 2 at range 2 to support your damage. K-2 is also going to have to be conservative - I didn't include any Astromechs in the list to heal him, so you're going to have to do the conventional method of protecting him by having him stay out of sight until he's ready to be helpful.
You'll want to follow up these turns (which are likely to have damaged Ahsoka and K-2) with Volunteer Mission so they can recover (getting your Force Barrier back for free and clearing any mounting suppression they have) and can pick up 1 suppression/Danger Sense 1 to give them a pad of resilience. Cassian will benefit from these things as well, of course.
Most of the damage coming off this list is in 3-4 dice pools, but it's reliable damage, steady suppression, and there are three squads of Sleeper Cell to throw out big dice pools (and K-2SO can certainly help them out if they need some token support). I'm not sure that this list is better than the ones we viewed for Cassian/K-2 last time, but it's a different way to play. Now for something else entirely . . .
- Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion with Burst of Speed, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel
- Cassian Andor with Duck and Cover and A280-CFE
- Jyn Erso
- K-2SO with Jyn's SE-14 Blaster
- 4x Rebel Veterans
- 1x Rebel Veterans with Smoke Grenades
- 5x Mark II Medium Blaster Troopers
- 3x AT-RTs with Laser Cannons
This is a 17-act Commander Luke list - and while I think Operative Luke is the FAR better pick because of the loss of I Am a Jedi and You Serve Your Master Well on the Commander version, he's still a smashy hero who can tie down a lightsaber user effectively. You can lead off with either Crack Shot (as outlined above), Son of Skywalker (to get two shots in with your blaster at range-3, tapping Offensive Push to generate 2 aim tokens for Long Shot from the Scout-1 move and a standard move - and possibly using Burst of Speed to get a few extra inches if you need it, but I usually don't), or My Ally is the Force (to issue orders/dodge tokens to Cassian and K-2SO, which means you're playing more defensively with Jyn/Luke on the first turn).
Turns 2-3 are probably taken up by Sacrifice and Trust Goes Both Ways (or one of the smashy ones used above), with a smashy Turn 4 play and Rebellions are Built on Hope as your Turn 5 closer if Jyn is still alive. Luke benefits greatly from having K-2 in the list - his Courage level is high enough that he doesn't care if he picks up a suppression token in order to get an aim and dodge token and the list packs in a lot of reliable damage dealers without having any units that require time-sensitive activations besides your characters (no Sleeper Cell in this list - crazy, I know).
K-2SO: Final Review
K-2SO is probably my favorite character from Rogue One and he provides some very interesting options in Legion right now. I'm giving him the same rating as Cassian - 3.5/5 - because I think as a support piece, he's a little pricey (especially since he's not really complete without the blaster). 75-80pts is a lot to pay for what he might be bringing to the table in a world where Sleeper Cell is a thing, but his score would definitely rise if he was closer to R2's cost.
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