Good morning gamers,
The Separatists have access to very efficient Corps units in B1 Battle Droids (who we talked about last month), but the punch on these droids leaves something to be desired (even if you buy a Heavy Weapon on them). B1s have easy order control (which has been made even better now that the Infantry Support upgrade is available for vehicles) and that's what you're buying them for - bodies that can sit on POIs and survive a few shots. If you want cheap and efficient punching power, your option is probably Geonosian Warriors. Getting order control on these guys is a lot harder, but they're very, very punchy for their cost. Let's see what they do - and more importantly, how to plan for having their Corps order tokens in your lists!
Geonosian Warriors: The Profile
"Geos" have stats very similar to B1s - 1 wound each, Courage 1, surging-white saves (better than B1s), no surge on offense, and Speed-2. At 45pts base, they're 7pts more expensive than B1s, but only start with the standard 4 bodies. If the story stopped there, I think it would be pretty clear that you'd just take B1s every time. Their special rules and offensive capability is really where they shine: with 1 black in melee, they're more effective than B1s (who probably aren't trying to fight in melee anyway - but if they didn't take a Heavy Weapon, aren't any worse in melee than they are at range) and at range 1-2, they've got 1 black/1 white, which is very solid for being a Corps unit.
They have four special rules, three of which help them tremendously. Their best rule is a free-action Jump 3, which not only gives them a free Speed-3 move, but it allows them to perform that move without reducing their speed and moving over any terrain/models that are shorter than height-3 . . . which is 18" high! They can use this to get onto terrain that is up to height-3 above their starting position, which might be able to trigger their Death From Above rule, which allows them to ignore enemy cover if the Geonosians are higher than their opponent (this will trigger so long as they are on any piece of terrain, even if it's just a box). They also have Scale, which means that they ignore speed-reduction modifiers for difficult terrain and can perform climb moves (at speed-1) over terrain/models that are less than height-2 (so not as good as the Jump move for both height and distance traveled), but it does make them very maneuverable units. Finally, they have a negative keyword (Weighed Down) which prevents them from using their free-action Jump 3 special rule if they are carrying an objective token . . . which won't always matter (and it also means you want to use your free-action Jump to get to the objective token).
These are units that you can either choose to really lean into or take as cheap objective grabbers. I think it's fair to say that all these upgrades are optional, but two can really make this unit sing if you want to go hard into Geos.
Heavy Weapon x1
Geos have two heavy weapon options - both of which are kind of expensive. The cheaper of the two is the Force Pike Warrior, who can flip the unit card when taking certain actions. Its melee side gives you a 1 red/1 black attack pool (so +0.75 expected hits/attack) and whenever you perform a move action, you can flip the card to its other side before placing the movement tool. The second side has an Overrun 1 attack of 1 black/2 white, which is only supposed to net you 1 hit/attack, but that's enough to get a suppression token on your opponent. If you perform an attack action with this side active, you can flip the card before you declare defenders - the option to flip means that whenever you would be able to use one of them (Overrun during a Move action, melee attack during an Attack action), which is very efficient. Also, both attacks are suppressive, so they're handing out more suppression than normal, which is nice. For 15pts and with no Sidearm: Range keyword to keep the unit from also shooting when you're not in melee range, it's a decent upgrade over "just another guy".
The other option is the Sonic Cannon Warrior, which costs 25pts and gives a "rainbow pool" of 1 red/1 black/1 white at range 1-2 and gives the shot Impact 1 and Scatter. While I'm a big fan of Scatter (it can be used to bring the unit you just shot at into melee so the Geos can't be shot and might get some extra movement from combat coherency), I think the Impact 1 isn't going to do too much for the unit (this unit doesn't surge for crit and is probably trying to go up-and-over Armor X values with their massive dice pool). The attack itself is, like the melee attack for the Force Pike Warrior, just adding a red die to the expected pool of "just another guy", so you're paying for the cost of two guys and getting the firepower of two guys. I humbly submit that if you want more firepower for the cost of a guy, get the Force Pike Warrior or buy . . .
Personnel x1
There are also two personnel options - and if you don't have the points for a Force Pike Warrior, you could consider getting the Geonosian Warrior. For 11pts, you're just getting another dude, but the melee firepower and the shot-on-the-run firepower of Overrun are both better value on the Force Pike Warrior for +4pts. Alternatively, you can get the Geonosian Warrior Squad, which gives you five extra models, Indomitable for more reliable suppression clearing, and range-1 coherency for 51pts (which, like most super squad upgrades, is a better point-per-model ratio than buying a new squad). This makes the Geos a pricey investment (96pts), but also gives them 9 black/9 white for their unmodified attack pool, which can be absolutely devastating. These upgrades are definitely optional if you're not trying to go hard into Geos, but they're definitely worth looking into if you want a punchy Corps unit.
"Training" x1
With the release of Upgrade Pack 2, Geos can take "Hit the Dirt," which allows them to upgrade the dice they roll for cover from white dice to red dice once per game. Personally . . . I think you can leave this at home - if these guys had Cover X baked into their profile, that would be one thing, but I don't think you need to pay 3pts to get a once-per-game increased cover save. Definitely use the Jump 3 free-action to get into/behind cover with these guys, but paying extra to try to up your save probably isn't worth the investment.
I don't usually talk about Command Cards for non-characters, but I did want to highlight a few of them. We talked about General Grievous last time and his Supreme Commander 2-pip gives him Ruthless and any Trooper unit who is issued an order (say, a super-sized Geo squad) or is within range 1 and line of sight of that unit gets a surge token. If you issue orders to Grievous and a Geo squad (and both are within range 1 of each other), they will get 2 surge tokens at the top of the round (which Geos can use on offense and Grievous can use all the time) and other squads might get 1-2 surge tokens as well. Additionally, Grievous can use Ruthless to kill off one of your Geo bodies in order to give the unit a free action - and that could be used to perform a free move, followed by a free-action Jump 3 move, followed by a normal move, followed by an interaction with an objective marker or an attack - you can be in a radically different place at the end of your activation than when you started! Similarly, you can pile on the surge tokens with Crush Them! if you can kill off enemy units quickly.
Sun Fac is one of two Geonosian heroes and if he plays his Brutal Enforcer 1-pip, he can give up to two Geonosian Warrior units within range 2 a free Jump 3 action (as well as picking up Agile 1 and Demoralize 1 for himself). This is a small boost, but pre-round movement is useful and Jump 3 gives them all of the benefits of their normal mobility.
Most of Poggle the Lesser's command cards don't actually help Geos, but We Serve the Queen is an easy way to get lots of order control on your Geos (Sun Fac loses Direct: Geonosian Warriors but he and all of your Geonosian Warriors gain Coordinate: Geonosian Warriors - so you can issue an order to Sun Fac and all of your Geos get orders). Additionally, any Geo that has a faceup Order token gets 1 aim and 1 dodge token at the start of its activation, which is great for upping your damage and resilience a little. Poggle's 1-pip (Let the Executions Begin) can help Geos in that any Corps Trooper that attacks an enemy unit within range 2 and line of sight of Poggle gets surge for crit . . . but I think this exposes Poggle a LOT. Poggle doesn't actually help your Geos that much on paper, but Compel with Courage 3 is really useful for making sure your Geos don't feel the effects of suppression and for only 55pts, it's easy to fit him into your lists. Be careful with him, though - with 4 wounds and red saves, he goes down quick!
Geonosian Warriors: Sample Lists and Strategies
Our first list leans hard into Geos and fast units (STAPs and Wheel Bike Grievous) and gets to 12-acts with 4 Geo super-squads and 2 Force Pike normal squads:
- General Grievous, Wheel Bike Warlord with Up Close and Personal and Recon Intel
- Poggle the Lesser, Public Leader of the Geonosians
- Sun Fac, Ruthless Lieutenant
- 4x Geonosian Warriors with Geonosian Warrior Squad
- 2x Geonosian Warriors with Force Pike Warrior
- 2x STAP Riders
- 1x STAP Riders with HQ Uplink
An alternative list could look like this - this is a variation of Kyle Dorbos' Worlds list and sports 13-acts and included a single squad of Geos to run with Sun Fac (given that the Aquas can't take LTA anymore, I've made a few modifications to the upgrades to get a bunch of Adaptive Combat Network upgrades):
- General Grievous, Wheel Bike Warlord with Up Close and Personal and Recon Intel
- Kalani, Super Tactical Droid
- Sun Fac, Ruthless Lieutenant
- Super Tactical Command Droid, Auxiliary Command Droid with Seek and Destroy, Optimized Task Flow, Overclock, Adaptive Combat Network, and Electrostaff
- 1x Geonosian Warriors
- 3x B1 Battle Droids with Adaptive Combat Network
- 3x STAP Riders
- 2x Aqua Droids
There is a Rapid Interdiction Force option for Geos, but I feel like that list really doesn't showcase them very well - yes, they are useful in that they become heal-bots for your vehicles (and yes, they're super fast in a list that's moving very quickly), but it's unclear to me how much of that list is a "geo list" and how much of that list is a "vehicle list". Time will tell, I guess . . .
Geonosian Warriors: Final Review
Geos hit very hard, but are one of the most glass-cannon units in the game: I've thrown them up quickly and they've died fast. If left in reserve and jumping out late in the round, they can be incredibly powerful assets to your list and hit a lot harder for-cost than any other Corps units available to the Separatists.
Overall Unit Review: 4/5 stars. I think these guys really need command cards like Wookiees and Ewoks have to bring them into a better place. As it is, you have to push yourself to find command cards that will help them - maybe an eventual Geonosian battle force will solve this problem (and for that, we want those sonic cannons, lizard riders, and of course, a Nexu, Reek, and Acklay as support/heavy options!), but for now, we're in a waiting game to really make these guys shine.
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