Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Ki-Adi Mundi

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at Mace Windu from the "new" Jedi Council expansion box. Today, we're tackling the other Commander from the set, Ki-Adi Mundi. Ki-Adi also feels a bit too expensive (10-15pts), but I think there's a lot in this profile that makes him worth at least trying. He's not going to be the beat-stick that Mace Windu is, but he's plenty good and can hit hard and repeatedly. Let's see what he's got going on . . .

Ki-Adi Mundi: The Profile

Let's get this out of the way from the start: Ki-Adi Mundi has a LOT of keywords that I like on Jedi. Most Jedi have (or can get) a Jump 1 action, but Ki-Adi Mundi has a Jump 2 action (which may not make a difference in all games, but it very well might in some games). He's got the excellent defensive combo of Deflect/Immune: Pierce and like most Jedi Commanders, he has Master of the Force 1. He's also got Charge, which is very nice to have when you only have a melee weapon (I think Mace Windu would do well to have Relentless if his points cost isn't going to drop, but I digress). His other stats are more or less what you'd expect of a Jedi Commander: 6 wounds, Courage 3, Speed-2, red saves, but no surging in either direction (on-par with custom Jedi Commanders and Obi-Wan, but worse on offense than the likes of Anakin and Ahsoka and worse in both categories than Yoda and Mace).

As an "individual flavor" to this profile, Ki-Adi Mundi has two other special rules: Danger Sense 1 and Ataru Mastery. Danger Sense 1 is really great when you have red defense dice (and Deflect to give you defensive surges against ranged attacks). Rolling bonus defense dice that are likely to work offsets the randomness of "blanking out" and this can be improved to Danger Sense 2 with the Disturbance in the Force command card (which we'll look at later). Ataru Mastery does wonders for helping Ki-Adi Mundi out, as it allows him to perform 2 Attack actions (so he can move/Charge + attack) and whenever he attacks, he gains a dodge token. Additionally, each time he defends, he gets an aim token (so there's a real question about when he needs to activate to get the best of both worlds). Yoda is the only other person with Ataru and Ki-Adi Mundi comes in at about the same cost (5pts more base, could be slightly cheaper depending on the upgrades you bring on each).

His weapon is, however, not as good as Yoda's. Yoda rolls 4 red dice with surge for crit and Impact 2/Pierce 2, while Ki-Adi Mundi has 2 red/2 black with Impact 2, Lethal 1, and Pierce 1. While I think this is definitely worse, I do think that we can fix this a bit with our upgrade suite on Ki-Adi Mundi (which means he's going to do less overall than Yoda does on any given round if he wants to "keep up" with him).

The Ki-Adi Mundi Squad Leader Upgrade

Like all of the Jedi Squad Leader upgrades, Ki-Adi Mundi has the Leader and Sidearm: Melee, Ranged keywords, which is a fancy way of saying that his lightsaber is the only weapon he can use and he'll be the last one to die. Unlike the Mace Windu upgrade who has 2 Wounds, Ki-Adi Mundi only has 1 Wound, which means he needs to be compared to other Squad Leaders who live in the 20-22pt range and carry guns . . . and those guns will either be 1 black die if you've attached him to ARF Troopers or any Corps Clone Trooper unit or 2 black dice if it's an ARC Trooper unit (which, given the melee-only weapon profile, is quite likely to be the case). The Ki-Adi Mundi upgrade gives you 2 red/1 black on offense, which gives you 1-1.5 more expected hits/attack in melee with Impact 2/Pierce 1 over cost-comparable options like the Clone Captain or Clone Medic. If you don't shoot a lot with your ARC Troopers, I think this is certainly a defensible choice.

However, I think the real decision that needs to be made is whether the support abilities of these alternative options is better than the extra offense from Ki-Adi Mundi. The Clone Captain gives you a dodge token with Defend 1 if he gets an order (my ARCs get orders a lot) and Outmaneuver to use that dodge to block crits, while the Clone Medic can regrow a model killed this turn OR restore a wound to a model that has taken damage (like a Wookiee Warrior or a character). Ki-Adi Mundi has a support ability too, but it's a lot more nuanced. As a free action, you can exhaust his card to choose another allied unit at range 1: both Ki-Adi's unit and the target unit can remove 1 suppression token. For each token you remove, Ki-Adi's unit gains 1 surge token. This is basically the ability to get 2 surge tokens, assuming that you have a suppression token and someone nearby you has one (like if you were shot at and someone used Guardian X to strip some of your incoming damage away). In the context of ARC Troopers, getting surge tokens is great - not only for reliable offense, but anything you don't need when you attack can be used to potentially keep you alive.

It's the exhaust part that makes him a bit of a question mark, though: the only way to get a free recover action on an ARC Trooper squad is through Yoda's Guidance action (and the only other way to get Guidance is through a custom Jedi's Tactical Acumen Jedi Training upgrade, but that can only target a Corps unit) and so the ARC Trooper squad will need to either perform its own recover action OR take up one of Yoda's actions in order to use Ki-Adi Mundi's ability more than once. I will note that taking a recover action with the unit will mean that you have to recover right after using the ability on their turn, as recover actions not only recover your exhausted upgrade cards, but also clear all of your suppression . . . which is an important part of the ability. I think you should plan on this being used once and be happy if you get to use it again - which means it should come into play the same amount of time as a medic (and could save more than one life if both surge tokens are spent to boost surging defense results) but will probably not come into play as much as a Clone Captain's support abilities. All in all, I can see paying a few more points for Ki-Adi Mundi over a Clone Squad Leader upgrade in an ARC unit (or instead of the Heavy Weapon choice they have), but I don't think that he's better than Mace for 10pts more (and I really don't think he's as good as the Plo Koon upgrade that we'll look at next month for 3pts less). 

Ki-Adi Mundi: Recommended Upgrades and Command Cards

I said earlier that I think Ki-Adi Mundi can fix some of his shortcomings with upgrades - so let's keep this in mind as we see my perhaps "hipster" recommendations for him.

Force x3

Before we get into the discussion of Force upgrades, let's keep in mind that Ki-Adi Mundi has a 3-pip command card that we'll talk about shortly that rewards him for using his Force upgrades as much as possible during one turn of the game. That means we want to stay away from deplete command cards, as they might be used before that turn comes OR they'll only proc once.

Ki-Adi Mundi is one of very few Force users who has 3 Force slots and what might be conceived of as an "available" Force slot. I think the first one you want is Battlemind, which gets him to roll 4 red dice if he uses it, but it can also be used on Turn 1 as a way to upgrade dice in an alpha strike attack. To benefit from Master of the Force 1, I think you want Force Guidance so you can give yourself and a friend a surge token. Ki-Adi Mundi really wants surge tokens because unlike Obi-Wan, he doesn't have Critical X on his lightsaber and so he runs the chance of "blanking out" on a limited dice pool, which can really hurt. Surge tokens can also help him on defense if he's in melee or if whatever is shooting at him has Immune: Deflect, so don't sleep on this one. An alternative option is Jedi Mind Trick, which doesn't augment anything he does, but will make taking objectives from enemy Corps units a lot easier. There is an argument for Force Barrier as a slightly more expensive option, because on his 3-pip turn, you could use it before his activation, gain a surge token to reset it, and then use it again after his activation.

It's the third upgrade slot where I think you have some interesting options: if you want to use him as an augment hero, Force Absorb or Helping Hand are ways to make sure someone nearby gets a little extra help on defense (possibly with some mobility). These are used outside of Ki-Adi Mundi's activation, so on the turn you play his 3-pip, either of them could also proc twice. But the best way (or worst way) to mine surge tokens on the 3-pip turn is through Annul: whether it succeeds or not, you can use it up to six times so long as a) your opponent brought Force users, b) they use their Force abilities within range 2 of Ki-Adi Mundi, and c) Ki-Adi Mundi isn't suppressed (which means you can use it three times before activating, then you activate and probably Recover-while-Suppressed, then use it three more times). This could do nothing for 12pts or it could really hose your opponent's day (especially if there are multiple Jedi working together OR if there is a Force User who wants to use two abilities a turn, like Dooku, Vader, or Yoda). Whichever upgrades you end up taking, I think you definitely want to fill all three slots.

Training x1

There are a few upgrades that I think have some play here. Tenacity gives him an extra red die on offense once he's taken a hit, so that's always good. I've been experimenting with not giving orders to Ki-Adi Mundi and using Strong in the Force to get him either an extra aim token or an extra dodge token. For 5pts, this can trigger every turn and if you know that he's in melee with something weak, you can super-charge his offense to trigger Lethal 1 so he has Pierce 2 (same as Yoda) - but if you know that he might die, you can boost up his defense. For those who want order control on him (or if he's being run with Yoda and will probably get orders on 2 turns of the game), Seize the Initiative is always a good choice. 

There's an argument for On the Hunt as well, if you're dedicated to chipping off wounds on multi-wound Troopers with your other units. Situational Awareness could be useful if you're worried about incoming crits, and Into the Fray is always nice if you want surge tokens when the enemies around you activate. I have also toyed with Go For Broke or Duck and Cover, since you don't mind keeping a suppression token or two on yourself to trigger Danger Sense and keeping something you got from Ataru for the next round isn't terrible. This slot feels optional to me, but you do have some very strong options here. 

Command x1

I don't know that Ki-Adi Mundi is a great source for Fire Control, but if you don't have anyone else who can take it (Padme?), you can put it on him. Trusted Agent can be really good if you have an Operative that needs order control (Padme? Bad Batch? Jedi Knight with Guardian? Shaak Ti?), but if you're struggling to find something to go here, understand that filling this slot is optional and you don't need anything to have a good build.

One thing I'd like to highlight is this: if you have Tenacity, you gain an aim token on Ki-Adi Mundi from being attacked with Ataru, you have Battlemind, and you have Force Guidance to give yourself and someone else a surge token each, you can actually get something slightly better than Yoda's lightsaber with 5 red dice and Impact 2/Pierce 2 (this will be better in situations where a crit and a hit mean the same thing, like if your opponent doesn't have Armor X or dodges). Taking these upgrades (Battlemind, Force Guidance, and Tenacity) brings Ki-Adi Mundi up to 174pts, so that's 186pts if you take Annul . . . which is 6pts cheaper than the 192pt build for Mace Windu that we looked at last time (Battlemind, Force Guidance/Jedi Mind Trick, Force Ability, Tenacity), but also 8pts more than a fairly classic 178pt Yoda build (Force Barrier, Force Guidance/Jedi Mind Trick, Force Agility, Fire Control). I feel like Ki-Adi Mundi is a little expensive for what he's doing and I wouldn't mind seeing him come down 10-15pts like Mace.

When it comes to command cards, I think Ki-Adi's 3-pip is interesting and might even be good. :P Force of Will issues orders to 3 units, which means you don't have to issue orders to Ki-Adi unless you want to (depends on whether you took Strong in the Force, I think). When he performs his rally step, you can choose to pile up to 2 suppression from up to 3 units within range 3 of him. For each suppression he takes, he can ready an exhausted Force upgrade (which is a nice way to get extra use out of those exhaustible force upgrades we looked at earlier). Because Ki-Adi doesn't have Indomitable by default and because he doesn't have Dauntless, you should expect to be suppressed (hopefully not panicked) if you take suppression from your friends. With one action, you probably want to either perform an attack/Charge (if you have Padme's 1-pip in your hand or if you have Yoda around to perform a Guidance-Recover on his activation) OR a recover action to clear all of it. The key bonus to this ability (as has already been mentioned) is that each time Ki-Adi uses a Force upgrade (which includes those that are depleted, exhausted, or "just used", like Annul or Saber Throw), he gets a surge token. Most of the time, surge tokens matter when you're attacking but if you are engaged in melee, you will need surge tokens on defense as well. All in all, I think this might be worth having, but if there's competition for your 3-pip (or if you brought Yoda and he wants to use all his cards), I think you could skip playing this one - I don't think Ki-Adi needs it to be good.

As was mentioned last time, the Jedi Council members from the Jedi Council pack have two command cards available to them, which means Ki-Adi Mundi (like Mace) sort of has three command cards. The first is awesome - the Wisdom of the Council one-pip issues an order to a Commander or Operative (whether you give it to Ki-Adi or someone else really depends on whether you took Strong in the Force or not) and then has you roll 5 red attack dice at the start of the activation phase (so after your opponent resolves their command card effects): if you get a crit or a surge (one-quarter of the time, expect to get one or two of these), you get to issue an order to a friendly Republic unit that doesn't already have an order. On a hit (five-eighths of the time, expect to get two to four of these), an allied unit removes a suppression token (this affects mercenary units). On a blank (one-eighths of the time, you might get one of these), an allied unit gains an aim or dodge token. This is a bit of a roulette game, but depending on when you play it, it is likely to always do something for you. Clearing suppression can be really useful if Ki-Adi is taking too much suppression, but always make sure he keeps 1 suppression to keep his Danger Sense 1 active. The other abilities (tokens for Clone token sharing and extra orders) are always good to have though less reliable to arrive.

The other command card for the Jedi Council is . . . weird, but less weird if you have Ki-Adi in your line-up. A Disturbance in the Force issues two orders and while the units who receive the order have a faceup Order token, they gain Danger Sense 1 and Indomitable - this would be SO much better if it was a Permanent ability, because you could play it before you play Force of Will so that when you draw all the suppression onto yourself, you would have Indomitable to clear two-thirds of it, and you would still be able to keep up to 2 of them with Danger Sense 2 to be that much tougher all the time. There's another ability on the card that will probably not trigger very often: if an allied unit (doesn't need to have the order) has 1+ Force upgrade slots (so, a Jedi) and they spend/lose a Standby token (which they can't get for free, except through command cards - which they can't use on this turn), they can gain an aim or dodge token after the effect is resolved (so after an attack that clears a standby or after the standby is used).

The only way to gain standbys for Jedi is through taking a standby action - and since you can't perform a standby action and an attack on the same turn, you have to take the standby instead of performing your attack right then. This means your Jedi needs to have a good range attack option or needs to already be in melee with the unit they want to perform the standby against (since you can't hit one guy while another guy triggers your standby). You're also going to always gain a dodge token, since your aim token can't be shared and your attack will already have been used. So . . . yeah, I think there's an upgrade cooking that gives Independent: Standby (not given an order), Fire Support (given an order), or just hands out a standby in the works, but for now, this part of the command card isn't that useful. I will say that the people most likely to benefit from this upgrade are the customizable Jedi who take the Jedi Training/Peacekeeping Mission, since they will have Sentinel for range-3 triggering (and potentially access to range attacks with Saber Throw or from their doctrines). Take this or leave it - the Danger Sense 2/Indomitable on Ki-Adi Mundi is pretty good (and it could be a nice way to clear suppression from him if he piles a bunch of suppression on himself at the end of a turn with Force of Will).

 

Ki-Adi Mundi benefits from a lot of the command cards that are good for Mace Windu - Yoda's Luminous Beings are We (access to aims and surges are very nice - dodge tokens are good overall, but not necessary for Ki-Adi's abilities), Anakin's General Skywalker (again, aim tokens are good), Padme Amidala's Aggressive Negotiations (aim, dodge, or movement - it's all good), and Clone Captain Rex's Call Me Captain (extra red dice when he attacks? Why not!). Overall, though, I think the best thing about Ki-Adi Mundi is that he doesn't require command cards to do what he does - and that's good, if you have someone like Yoda who really wants to use their command cards to the fullest.

Ki-Adi Mundi: Sample Lists and Strategies

This is my list that I'm testing out with Ki-Adi Mundi - it's an 11-act Ki-Adi/Yoda list that runs a 179pt Ki-Adi, a 170pt Yoda, and a lot of "Republic good stuff" for the rest of it - I opted for Aggressive Negotiations instead of a Disturbance in the Force . . . but I'm going to be honest, I'm planning on just playing all of Yoda's cards unless I have a really good reason to play something else:

• Ki-Adi Mundi with Battlemind, Force Guidance, Helping Hand, and Tenacity
• Yoda with Force Barrier, Force Guidance, and Force Absorb
• Padme Amidala with Fire Control
• 3x Clone Trooper Marksmen with Mortar Clone Trooper
• 1x ARC Troopers with Plo Koon
• 1x ARC Troopers with Clone Captain
• 1x Wookiee Warriors, Kashyyyk Defenders with Chewbacca
• 2x ARC Troopers, Strike Team with DC-15X ARC Trooper Sniper

Our second list features Ki-Adi as an ARC Trooper upgrade in an 11-act list, running him with Rex and Padme and a bunch of Clones:

• Clone Captain Rex with Trusted Agent and Recon Intel
• The Bad Batch with everything
• Padme Amidala with Fire Control and Strike Team Leader
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Mortar Clone Trooper
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Fives and DP-23 Clone Trooper
• 1x ARC Troopers with Plo Koon
• 1x ARC Troopers with Ki-Adi Mundi
• 1x Wookiee Warriors, Kashyyyk Defenders with Chewbacca
• 2x ARC Troopers, Strike Team with DC-15X ARC Trooper Sniper

Ki-Adi Mundi: Final Review

Ki-Adi Mundi is an iconic Jedi master, and while I think he costs a little too much, I think he's interesting and certainly playable. Is he competitive? Time will tell - but I think he needs a slight points adjustment before most people will view him as "competitive".

Overall Unit Review: 4/5 stars. I feel like Ki-Adi Mundi has reasons to get suppression (from Force of Will and Danger Sense), but he doesn't have a way to get rid of overwhelming suppression (unless he takes Endurance as his training upgrade). I also think he costs a little too much and not being able to surge on offense is kind of a bummer (though this plays into his surge-token-generation gimmick). Overall, I think the character is playable, but I'd rather that he be a little cheaper or do more support role stuff if he's going to stay expensive. Also, I'd be much more enamored with the Disturbance in the Force command card if it was a permanent effect (or if there was a reliable way to get standbys on your Jedi). That's not a critique of Ki-Adi Mundi, but rather just of the command card itself (which, for Ki-Adi Mundi, feels like a missed opportunity).

Next time, we're tackling Shaak Ti, the first of two operatives that come in the Jedi Council pack. She hits hard, she has Makashi Mastery, and she's reasonably priced. She's also "good" with Mercenaries . . . but do you lean into that part of her profile? Or does she speak softly and carry a glowing stick? Find out next time and until then, happy hobbying!