Good morning gamers,
We're tackling the big man himself, "Commander Vader", today. Vader is a staple in basically every Imperial list and the reason for it is simple: whether he's hacking things with his lightsaber or just forcing Imperial Corps units to stay on target, he's changing the state of the game. We'll be looking today at what makes this version of Vader so good, but we'll be looking next time at what his Operative variant brings to the table (and loses in the conversion process). By far and away, this is the most prevalent version of Vader you're going to see - and for good reason!
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith: The Profile
Darth Vader boasts an incredibly strong combat profile with 6 red dice and Impact 3/Pierce 3 - if given Saber Throw (which you should always give him - I left it home for a three-round Recon tournament once and sort of regretted it, as great as having Push and Choke was), he can reliably cut into enemy armor and any damage that he deals will automatically work against the target unit in most situations. While he doesn't have the innate ability to surge, access to aim tokens and occasionally surge tokens are definitely options in your list building. With the Relentless keyword, Vader can turn any move action into a follow-on attack action (up to one attack each turn), but might be able to perform a second attack via the Blizzard Force 2-pip command card (and can even perform two activations in a single round with Implacable). Yes, Vader is trying to deal as much damage as he can - and when he deals damage, he's pretty incredible.
He's only Speed-1, which often means that you want to factor in options for speed with him (more on that when we cover both the Force upgrades and what command cards you take below). Speed-1 isn't that much slower than Speed-2, but avoiding him is a lot easier than the Operative variant just because a unit that moves Speed-2 once can ensure that they are safe if they started at least range 1/2 away from him before they moved. Vader also has infinite Courage, which means that any friendly units within range 3 of him (potentially range 4) never count as being panicked - which is fantastic when paired with his Compel: Corps Trooper ability, which can give any suppressed-but-not-panicked Corps units more suppression (Cover 1 for the win!) in order to get a free move . . . which is sort of like not being suppressed at all. Vader also has Master of the Force 1, which is great for making sure that any exhaustible Force upgrades you take can come back to you at the end of each activation (not turn - activation) so you can use them again.
All in all, Vader is a hefty amount of points before upgrades (170pts), but he's also got a lot of power in his profile. Let's see what kinds of upgrades work well with him.
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith: Recommended Upgrades and Command Cards
Force x3
There are two must-take upgrades, in my opinion, for Vader and several that are nice to have depending on how many activations you want in your list and whether you're playing Recon or a Standard game. Because Vader has Relentless and no innate shooting attack, Saber Throw is a must. I played a tournament without it and I regretted it - though there were definitely turns where the one-two punch of Force Push and Force Choke (more on those shortly) were very strong. Saber Throw will often mean that Vader can finish something that's already taken some damage OR get a quick hit on a Commander/Operative that he intends to dice up next turn. It's also fabulous for cracking through Armor X (thanks to rolling 3 dice with Pierce 3/Impact 3), so long as you have aim/surge support to get three icons (and the time to crack through the health three-at-a-time).
The other must-take is Burst of Speed - ideally on the turn you use the Implacable command card OR the turn BEFORE you use the Implacable command card. Burst of Speed changes Vader from Speed-1 to Speed-3, but the following activation will see him having an Immobilize token, which reduces him to Speed-1. This means Vader will spend one activation stationary, which is fine so long as he ends his Speed-3 activation Engaged with a unit that has already activated. If you do a last-first activation with Vader, popping Burst of Speed at the end of one round so he can charge someone who can't just disengage from him. If you played Implacable on that round, you'll be able to throw Vader's order token back into your pool and draw him next, getting that Immobilize token off you after you hack apart what's left of the unit you charged. If you plan to use Implacable on the next round, you'll need to activate Vader early (first?) so he can get that hit in and be mobile later in the round (though you won't have as much order control on him as you would otherwise want). I've fought Vader a few times without this upgrade and you need it - you really do need it.
In general, I think the only other upgrades you want to look at are Force Push and Force Choke - pick one of these to help Vader out. Both of these abilities are tactical ones - Force Push can be used to move a unit that has already activated away from an objective (and potentially into charge range with Vader himself), while Force Choke is my go-to way of removing those one-man Corps squads that charge Vader to keep him from killing more valuable pieces. Force Choke is also great at killing off Commandos, who are likely to use Katarn Armor and shields to mitigate your saber attacks, but you're guaranteed to kill a Commando squad in 4 turns if you just stay close enough to use Choke . . . or you can finish them off faster if you also have no better targets for Saber Throw. Push is quite a bit more expensive than Force Choke, but it's also really, REALLY good for unit control - so if you have 30pts remaining, consider getting Force Push.
There is probably a world where you'd take Force Guidance on Vader instead of Push or Choke - and that world is only when you really want the surge tokens (ideally on Vader and an Exemplar commander who doesn't mind following him around) so Vader can access surge tokens during the round. Frankly, if you're running an Exemplar commander, chances are good that you're also getting good access to aim tokens . . . which mitigates the need for surge tokens on offense quite a bit. I've seen some players in my local group take Force Reflexes on Vader . . . and I don't think the dodge token does nearly enough to justify its inclusion.
Command x1
The only one I consider taking on Vader is Inspiring Presence. Infinite Courage at range 3 is great - but infinite Courage at range 4 is even better! The Empire doesn't always want to spread itself out, but if you find yourself fighting on two fronts, having Vader granting a slightly larger courage bubble is always nice! I wouldn't bother with any of the other upgrades, unless you want to take Trusted Agent to issue an order once per game to a Tip-of-the-Spear Imperial Agent who can shuffle Vader an aim token with Aid.
Command Cards
When it comes to command cards, most of Vader's options are incredibly strong. Of all his options, both of his 1-pips and one of his 3-pips are auto-includes, with two other command cards being basically auto-includes for me. Implacable has already been discussed a little bit, but any 1-pip command card that allows your big piece to activate twice (for three actions total) is definitely better than any other 1-pips you might be considering. Vader's Might is particularly valuable if you don't have the points for Force Push, but even if you have Push, there's still value in being able to move two units that have already gone and moving them away from scoring positions. Finally, Darkness Descends is a great way to make sure that a speed-1 Vader begins far enough up the board that he can be threatening on Turn 2 (and sometimes on Turn 1!) OR you could choose to give him Reliable 2 and not divulge the command card on Turn 1. Either way, this is a great card to include in your deck.
There's an arguable case that Vader's other 3-pip, Master of Evil, is also an auto-include - it gives Vader a dodge token and issues orders to two other units (like to other Commanders/Operatives - especially if they have Heavy Blaster Pistols). It also gives all enemy units "near" Vader 3 suppression tokens, which is a great way to make sure that low Courage units around you are panicked after Vader has killed off the local Commander who was providing a solid Courage bubble (maybe after Implacable?). The timing for this command card is the key - and because of that, one could make the argument that a different 3-pip might be a better choice. Similarly, New Ways to Motivate Them is super good late in the game (or as an alternative first-turn play to get extra movement out of Snowtrooper super-squads) in that you can take a hit on a Trooper unit to push them a little farther to reach an important objective. I usually include these in all of my Vader lists, but I could also see an argument for leaving them at home.
Vader has a very situational 2-pip in Fear and Dead Men - in theory, it's a great option to keep in your hand as your "I may not play this one" command card, since any big hero that hits Vader is probably going to take multiple rounds to kill him off. If you get hit by Anakin once and then play this card, you are warning your opponent (especially if he's wounded) that he could lose his power piece (or severely weaken them) if they punch Vader . . . which provides an interesting dilemma for your opponent. That said, I almost never take this one as the generic Push 2-pip can be used by anyone, which is particularly nice to have should Vader die.
There are other command cards that help Vader out - if you took Director Krennic, any of his command cards are useful (though I think only Deploy the Garrison and Annihilation Looms will be included). Deploy the Garrison can give Vader a standby token (two attacks if he's near someone who's going to activate first - and you can't take suppression, so you can't shoot the standby off!), while Annihilation Looms throws out suppression on everyone on the board . . . and Vader can't receive any suppression and will keep any of your suppressed units from panicking!
I don't know that you really need to lean on any other command cards - but I have high hopes for what we get with Tarkin, Tagge, and Thrawn! Okay, let's wrap this up by looking at some lists!
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith: Sample Lists and Strategies
Our first stop is a Blizzard Force list - we just had a few of those with the HRU post - but it comes in at 11-activations with Vader, a Tip-Officer (instead of my usual Academy Trained variant), 5 Corps units (mostly Snowtroopers), and 4 Speeder Bikes:
- Darth Vader with Burst of Speed, Force Choke, Saber Throw, and Inspiring Presence
- Imperial Officer with Tip of the Spear and Heavy Blaster Pistol
- 2x Snowtroopers with T-7 Ion Snowtrooper, Snowtrooper Squad, and Imperial March
- 1x Snowtroopers with T-7 Ion Snowtrooper and Imperial March
- 1x Stormtroopers with DLT-19 Stormtrooper
- 1x Stormtroopers with FX-9 Medical Droid
- 2x 74-Z Speeder Bikes
- 2x 74-Z Speeder Bikes with HQ Uplink and Strike and Fade
If we run a vanilla Empire list, we can run the following 12-act list with Vader, one of each customizable commander, and a smattering of Corps, Scout Troopers, and Speeder Bikes (which you could turn into more Corps if you don't feel like you need the speed). This list doesn't have a medical droid, but you could swap one of the HH-12s for a Medbot if you wanted one:
- Darth Vader with Burst of Speed, Force Choke, Saber Throw, and Inspiring Presence
- Imperial Officer with Academy Trained and Command and Control Uplink
- Imperial Agent with Tip of the Spear, Seize the Initiative, and Heavy Blaster Pistol
- 2x Snowtroopers with Flametrooper, Snowtrooper Squad, and Imperial March
- 2x Stormtroopers with HH-12 Stormtrooper
- 3x Scout Troopers
- 2x 74-Z Speeder Bikes with HQ Uplink and Strike and Fade
You could definitely swap out the Speeder Bikes for more Corps if you wanted to - I've opted for some speed and order control (though admittedly, if you don't issue orders to Corps units, you can leave them in your order pool and not care if you have more of them).
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith : Final Review
This guy is super fun to use and if you can keep him alive, you have a very good chance of carrying the day. Always make sure you have enough friendly units to give him aim tokens (especially your Tip-Officer/Agent) so his attacks always land with force!
Overall Unit Review: 7/5 stars. I know, I probably shouldn't give him more than 5 stars, but the guy feels the way he should, he's costed appropriately, there are several build options you could take with him, and he's so, SO fun to use! He's a force on the battlefield and can be fielded in most Imperial lists - give him a try if you haven't already!
Next time, we're looking at my preferred way to run Vader - his Operative form! Sure, you have to plan for Courage/anti-panicking in different ways, but his Operative form does bring a few tricks to the table that you won't find in his Commander form. Find out what you can do with him next time - and until then, happy hobbying!
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