Good morning gamers,
This is it - this is the final rank that we need to consider for what are the "most optimal" units Rebels can take. The Operative rank went under the radar for me for a long time - not only because I started my Legion experience with the Republic (which had only two operative choices at the time - only one of which appealed to me), but also because the Operative options were similar to Commander options but didn't help your teammates as much and were still pretty expensive (most of the time). As such, it wasn't until I really dug into the Rebel faction that I started to appreciate what's on the menu for these guys - and how essential this slot can be for your list building.
We're wielding the "math hammer" one more time, looking at how "good" the Rebel operatives actually are - and as we've done for Corps, Commanders, Special Forces, and Support/Heavy units, we're going to use a heuristic model to determine which units are the "most optimal choices" for Legion 2.6 (and their equipment choices, where that's a consideration).
Taxonomy Overview: What Is "Optimal" for Legion 2.6?
In what will probably be boring for anyone who's read the previous five posts, the scenarios in Legion 2.6 are so heavily skewed towards having more activations than your opponent in pre-defined (and often stationary) parts of the board, and as such, building a "good list" involves both taking enemy units off the board (whole units - not just rendering a unit inert by killing off most of its models) and keeping your own units on the board. This means there are two measures of effectiveness (MOEs) that we can use to determine if a unit is "good": average expected damage (AED) and average expected health (AEH).
Average Expected Damage (AED) is computed by finding the average number of hits and crits that a unit is supposed to get. The greatest dilemma for finding this number in the real world is that it is affected by a LOT of variables - here's a few:
There is a subtle but mostly irrelevant distinction between a Hit result and a Crit result - Crits really only matter if the enemy unit has the Armor X keyword, has dodge tokens, and to a small degree, has light/heavy cover (often if they also have Low Profile);
The Pierce X keyword doesn't increase the damage that you do, but it DOES make the damage that you get more likely to actually take effect;
The number of hits/crits that you get is all fine and good, but the quality of the target unit's save (and defensive keywords, dodge tokens, and visible models) can have a huge impact on how much damage you can actually do;
The number of wounds previously suffered might reduce the expected damage of the unit (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has 1 wound) or it might have a slight impact once a certain amount of damage is done (if it's a multi-model unit and each model has multiple wounds), or might have no impact at all (in the case of single-model units); and
The distance to the enemy target may affect whether or not a unit can aim before shooting - and the value of an aim token is highly dependent on which dice in your dice pool hit or missed in the first volley).
For the sake of a more simplistic model, I've made the following assumptions:
Units will be evaluated at full strength, without respect to the degradation of their damage over time;
The average expected damage of a unit will be a straight average of their expected damage at ranges 1-3 and melee (like Commanders, most Operative units would get a 0 at range 4, so I'll highlight which units would have scored better if we did ranges 2-4 and your best score between range 1 and melee, but I won't be penalizing most of the participants today for not being able to shoot on the first turn);
The score for the unit as a whole will be the score of a reasonable loadout for the unit - we will not be meta-gaming upgrades to score well in the system, but will look instead at what upgrades would reasonably assist a unit with the role it's trying to fill (or the rules it wants to proc);
Units are assumed to not take aim actions before they shoot unless that unit has a unique way to gain an aim token without spending an action; and
The score for the unit will be the average expected hits for every 10 points spent on the unit (so units that are cheaper but do the same/more damage than a more expensive unit come out ahead).
Like the Commanders we viewed in a previous post, the Rebel Operative options tend to have one or more of these factors baked into their profiles, so there will be definite caveats for what was not factored into the analysis. Once again, I have attempted to be generous, but some of these boosts are highly situational and require understanding the target you are attacking or the rules of the unit attacking you in order to properly value them.
Average Expected Health (AEH) is much easier to conceptualize, but there are gray areas on the margins. Obviously, the total wounds of the unit will be "health" - and something will be added based on how good the save of the unit is - but do you account for rules like Low Profile making one cover save work? Do you assume cover at all? What if your opponent has Sharpshooter? What about rules like Impervious (do we assume the attack has Pierce)? If a unit can't be killed in a single volley, do you count its saves, dodges, Armor, Danger Sense, etc. more than once?
Like the damage calculus, there are a lot of variables that can affect this number - so our methodology will assume the safest case:
This number will start with the initial total health (wound threshold) of the unit, including additional health provided by upgrades to the unit (specifically Personnel and Heavy Weapons);
Additional health will be added to the unit based on the probability of saving wounds with defense dice (e.g. a 4-mini Rebel Trooper squad that has a surging-white save will add 4/3 wounds to its health total), to include a 1/6 chance of saving wounds with Cover 1 for the units that have it in this assessment; and
Special rules and tokens that can prevent wounds (e.g. dodge tokens, Armor X, Danger Sense X) will apply additional wounds based on the number of hits that are likely to be blocked.
The last methodological thing we need to talk about is how we compare these two MOEs. Some players might want to make an aggro-heavy list that relies on blowing chunks into the enemy quickly and so would rate the AED score higher than the AEH score. Others might think, "You know, my likelihood of actually killing off enemy units is quite low, so I'd rather have my units last longer than be able to do damage", in which case, the AEH is the more valuable metric. For us today, I'm going to assume that they are equal and each contributes half of its rating to the overall score.
For the last time now, let's dig into the Rebel Operative choices!
Optimal Operative Unit Ranking
Prior to the April update, the operative slot was an eclectic mix of Jedi, a bunch of Mandalorians (or genetically-altered Clones of a Mandalorian), three droids, and a Wookiee. With the addition of Cassian and Jyn, we have twelve profiles and quite a few heavy-hitters in the mix. I would like to emphasize the same thing that I said in the Commander post: just because someone shows up low on this list doesn't mean they're bad - they're just expensive for what they're bringing when you equally weight expected damage and health. With that in mind, let's start off with the twelvth slot, which hurts a lot to say . . .
Pick #12: Luke Skywalker with Saber Throw, Burst of Speed, Jedi Mind Trick, and Into the Fray - 189pts, Score: 0.371
Let's start with this: Op-Luke is amazing and super powerful in-game. If he can pair Jedi Mind Trick, You Serve Your Master Well, Force Push, and a nasty melee attack all in one turn, he can probably remove 4 activations from a single POI. Not many units in the game can do this. Unfortunately for Luke, most of these utility moves don't contribute to our scoring metric, so Luke becomes a pretty expensive heavy-weight, which (like AT-ST Chewie last time) really hurts his overall score.
On offense, he has a very good 2.344 hits/attack (no score for range 3, limited damage with Saber Throw at ranges 1-2, and a pretty good melee attack). With an almost 200-point value, Luke gets a pretty bad 0.124 expected hits/10pts spent (80.64 pts/hit). This isn't the worst score in today's ranking, but it's not great. For comparison, Commander Luke (with Burst of Speed, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel) got 0.206 hits/10pts spent (48.51 pts/hit), so that's a data point worth considering . . . mostly because his blaster gave him a better score at range 1-3 than the Saber Throw did at range 1-2 for Op-Luke (though his Lightsaber attack did less than 1 hit less than Op-Luke's Lightsaber). Yeah, I'm a fan of Commander Luke.
On defense, I assumed that Into the Fray and Deflect would give Op-Luke surging red saves - and with 7 Wounds, you'd think he'd do just fine on defense. However, with his incredibly high cost, he only gets 0.62 expected wounds/10pts spent - which is the lowest score of any Rebel Commander or Operative (though not as low as Command Sniper Strike Teams). These two scores together put him at an overall utility score of 0.335, which is one of the worst we've seen to date - and it's basically tied to his points cost.
Taking Force Push instead of Jedi Mind Trick gives you more tactical play, but does lower your score slightly (0.313 overall, 0.105 AED, 0.52 AEH). Honestly, I think it's probably worth the slight drop in overall score for the control abilities provided by Force Push if you don't mind paying 224pts for Luke (and if I were building a strategy for him without this math model in mind, I'd definitely drop Saber Throw so I could get both Jedi Mind Trick AND Force Push). Luke is the most expensive model available to the Rebels and he shows up last. He's edged out, however, by a dear friend . . .
Pick #11: Ahsoka Tano with Burst of Speed, Saber Throw, Seize the Prize, and Into the Fray - 169pts, Score: 0.396
Yep, it's the other expensive Jedi! Ahsoka happens to also be the second most expensive character on this list, so like we saw in the Heavy/Support section, that is certainly a driver. I did load Ahsoka up on upgrades, but they tend to be the kind of upgrades that you want on her in-game (and all except Burst of Speed contribute to her scores in this math model).
Like Luke, Ahsoka gets a really good offensive score - but unlike Luke, her Saber Throw ranged attack is a bit worse (2 red/1 black vs. 4 black) and thanks to Jar'Kai Mastery and at least one dodge token from Defend 1, her melee attack is slightly better (4.75 expected hits instead of 4.375). Her overall offensive score comes in narrowly ahead of Luke with 2.375 hits/attack and 0.141 expected hits/10pts spent (71.16 pts/hit). Not being able to play at range 3, not being able to promote dice with Jar'Kai at range, and having a rainbow roll of 2 red/2 black/2 white (or basically 6 black) does limit her output quite a bit in the long-run and there are a lot of Operatives who can play at all four range bands we're considering today.
As we saw with Luke, her high cost also takes a toll on her defensive score - having 6 wounds, surging-red saves with Deflect and Into the Fray, and a dodge token (most of the time) from Defend 1 gives her a pretty good raw score, but only 0.65 expected wounds/10pts spent. This is similar to the defensive score that Commander Luke got and better than Operative Luke, but still well below the Rebel average of ~1.00 wounds/10pts spent. Her end result is pretty close to Commander Luke, though, so if you wanted an operative of similar ilk to Luke, you could have a little family reunion with Luke and Ahsoka. Speaking of family reunion . . .
Pick #10: Sabine Wren with Up Close and Personal and Close Combat Shield - 138pts, Score: 0.454
Oh hey, it's the fourth most expensive character in our list today (the third most expensive is much higher up the list, for reasons we'll get into later)! Sabine is good fun, but figuring out how to equip her proved to be a tricky proposition. I opted for things that gave clear defensive boosts (Up Close and Personal and a Close Combat Shield) and none of her cool toys on offense (because they didn't definitively help her that much - more on this shortly).
Sabine doesn't roll a lot of dice, but her scores end up being pretty good for having small dice pools. She has an expected 2.188 hits/attack for 0.159 expected hits/10pts spent (63.09 pts/hit). Like Ahsoka and Luke, she can't participate at range 3 (no jetpack rocket for her, I guess) and while Gunslinger doubled her expected hits/attack, she only starts with a 3-die "rainbow roll" pool, so each shot is expected to get about 2 hits. Her melee profile by default is pretty bad (2 black), but her only alternative to boost this number involves buying the Darksaber (more on its scores shortly). All in all, not terrible - but also well below the Rebel expected value for both Commanders and Operatives.
On defense, Sabine is again below the expected Rebel value, but due to her reduced cost, 5 surging-red saves, and 1 shield/1 dodge token (with Nimble, which we're not accounting for here) from her upgrades, she gets a respectable for this far in the post score of 0.75 expected wounds/10pts spent. If Sabine were to drop in price, she'd be a very solid option for this slot, but with this particular build, her cost just makes her less efficient than other Operative options.
So what about the Darksaber? Her offensive score is weakest in melee (well, that and range 3, which cannot be helped), so adding 5 surging black dice should help her out over getting 2 surging black dice, right? Yes, it does - her melee score goes from 1.25 expected hits to 3.125 expected hits, which raises her expected damage to 2.656 hits/attack and 0.174 expected hits/10pts spent . . . which is better than Ahsoka and Luke (mostly because of the price differential), but it's only better than one other Operative on today's list.
There is also a reduction her defensive score (0.68 expected wounds/10pts) simply because she costs more and hasn't gained any defensive boosts from it (besides Immune: Melee Pierce, which we're not evaluating here). The impact is a slightly lower overall score of 0.424 . . . but this tells me that the Darksaber is probably worth taking on Sabine if you can swing the 15pts, because falling from a 0.454 to a 0.424 isn't that far of a fall - but like Luke, I wanted to report the highest score possible, so I went with the non-Darksaber variant for the actual ranking. For those curious, taking no upgrades on Sabine netted a final score of 0.421, which is slightly behind the Darksaber score, so spending points on the upgrades does make a difference. It ultimately didn't matter whether I reported out the Darksaber score or not, as going up 0.03 utility points by omitting the saber didn't let Sabine surpass . . .
Pick #9: IG-11 with Bounty Protocol - 110pts, Score: 0.537
This guy is nuts - and I'll begin by saying that when I evaluated his score, I used his range-4 gun exclusively because its die pool is slightly more reliable than his range-3 pool (despite having Pierce 1 from the Bounty Protocol instead of Pierce 2 from the native Pierce 1 + Bounty Protocol). 2 black/1 white at range 1-4 isn't a "great" attack pool, but it plays in all of the range bands we're looking at today and thanks to Gunslinger, he gets to count it twice (just like Sabine).
On offense, this attack pool is expected to get 3.25 hits over both shots and his 4 red melee profile is supposed to get 3.5 hits/attack. This gives him a very impressive 3.313 hits/attack, for an average expected damage score of 0.301 expected hits/10pts spent (33.21 pts/hit). 33pts/hit is better than most Commanders and beats all but two people in today's competition.
On defense, Armor 1 helps his 5 wounds/red save some, but it's mostly his just-over-100pt cost that saves his score. He has 0.77 expected wounds/10pts, which is not great for Rebels in general, but is higher than everyone else we've seen so far (but only just above Sabine). IG-11 does have a 3-pip that you are required to take, but he's otherwise a good source of firepower, albeit a bit inefficient in this metric because we didn't penalize our crew for not getting to range 4 (which IG-11 has access to). Just above IG-11 is a guy who also gets to attack twice, if he isn't shot at first . . .
Pick #8: Boba Fett with Tenacity, Flame Projector, and 3-pip Jetpack Rocket - 131pts, Score: 0.538
Yes, it's Daimyo Boba Fett, who is actually more expensive than IG-11 but makes up for that expense by having an Independent: Standby token OR extra ammo to take advantage of Arsenal 2. Getting his expected damage value for each band was actually quite hard because if Boba Fett has access to Independent: Standby (by not being issued an order), he gets a free attack with his Gaffi Stick (melee) or his Carbine (range 1-3). I assumed he had a) his 2-pip Flame Projector and his 3-pip Jetpack Rocket, b) just his 2-pip Flame Projector, or c) neither of these command cards. If I score the use of his 2-pip at range 1, then Boba would receive an order token and can't get a free attack with his blaster from his standby action. Similarly, if I score his 3-pip at range 3, he won't get a free standby attack for that range either.
Like IG-11, he's playing at all scoring levels, which helped elevate his score above Luke, Ahsoka, and Sabine (and his dice pools are better than IG-11s). With the assumption that he was targeting a 4-mini unit with his Flame-Projectors at range 1, Boba Fett got some pretty crazy scores. At range 3 with his blaster and jetpack rocket, he got an expected 4.5 hits; at range 2 with his blaster shooting twice he got 3.75 expected hits; at range 1 with the blaster and flame projector, he's supposed to get 7 hits against a 4-man squad; and in melee with two attacks from his Gaffi stick, he gets an expected 8.25 hits.
Altogether, that gives him 5.875 hits/attack and 0.439 expected hits/10pts spent (22.78 pts/hit). This is the best offensive score we got for this rank - and is pretty much the only offensive score that's on-par with the best units from any of the other ranks (and well past what we saw from the Commander list). It's doubly amazing because Boba comes in at 131 points with this build, which is a lot higher than the highest-scoring offensive units from any of the other ranks - so his offensive output is much higher than "the best" comparison units.
As you can see from the chart below, I did factor in three use cases (Boba's 3-pip rocket attack with his old 2-pip flamer, his old 2-pip flamer only, and no command cards) and what was surprising to me (though not really when you think about it) is that the range-1 score of the no-command-cards option was actually better than the 2-pip-only option (either option really) because getting a free 3-black standby attack with 3 black/4 red for the normal attack is slightly better than getting an 8 red normal attack:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | AED | Pts/Hit | Hit/10pts | AEH | Utility Score |
Boba Fett (Flame Projector, Tenacity, 2-pip, 3-pip) | 131 | 5.875 | 22.30 | 0.470 | 0.64 | 0.542 |
Boba Fett (Flame Projector, Tenacity, 2-pip) | 131 | 5.688 | 23.03 | 0.434 | 0.64 | 0.535 |
Boba Fett (Flame Projector, Tenacity, 3-pip) | 131 | 5.750 | 22.78 | 0.438 | 0.64 | 0.538 |
Is there a drop in score for not having the flamer 2-pip anymore? Yes. Is it significant? No, not really. No matter how you array the command cards, Boba Fett on defense is going to do the same. With a high cost, only 5 wounds, but surging red saves gives him 0.64 expected wounds/10pts, which is below average for Rebels, but comparable to Commander Luke, Ahsoka, and Sabine, and better than Operative Luke . . . and Rebel Commando Sniper Strike Teams (who are REALLY bad defensive investments right now).
We've had four pretty heavy hitters so far - now time for a profile redo that tries to do what these other guys do for cheaper . . .
Pick #7: Jyn Erso with Inspiring Presence and Prepared Supplies - 85pts, Score: 0.609
As was anticipated in the Commander post that I did, Jyn Erso got redone as an Operative and thankfully, her updated profile dropped with a month for me to update this post (so naturally, I waited for the last minute to actually do that). I've run Jyn with minimal upgrades - the Prepared Supplies is still really useful on her (in case you play a command card that gives her an order - like her 1-pip to get Charge and a free attack) and Inspiring Presence allows her (at least at the moment) to provide her Courage 3 as an anti-panic value for friendly troops (which is what she used to be able to do as a Commander). If you don't like Inspiring Presence and want to take Underworld Connections instead, be my guest - I personally am lamenting the loss of Esteemed Leader paired with Backup, but it's fine.
On offense, Jyn doesn't score at range 3, but she gets 2 red/1 white with surge for crit and Pierce 1 at range 1-2 and 4 black with suppressive in melee. This isn't impressive (2.125-2.5), but it's surprisingly comparable to what you're getting from similarly-costed heroes (Chewie, IG-11, K-2SO, and Sabine are all living in the 1.25-3.75 expected hits/attack). While heroes like Boba Fett and Luke are expected to beat Jyn's score, at almost half of Boba's cost and about a third of Luke-with-Push's cost, her average expected damage of 0.199 expected hits/10pts is actually better than most of the people we've seen so far (not Boba or IG-11 - both of whom are getting credit for attacking at range 3). I was pleasantly surprised with this, and hey, coming in at about the middle of this evaluation is high praise indeed.
On defense, Jyn has actually stayed about the same and pretty close to the 1 wound/10pts spent that Rebels get generally. She only has 5 wounds now, but she's getting credit for a surging-white save and 2 dodge tokens (one for Prepared Supplies, one for Agile 1) - though it should be noted that with Nimble on there, it's quite likely that she's getting more than 2 dodge tokens during the course of the game (though against a big slap-bang attack, she may only get the 2 dodge tokens or perhaps 3). Thanks to being under 100pts, this gives her a pretty unimpressive 1.02 expected wounds/10pts spent. This is fine - nothing fantastic, but fine. Would it be better if that number was higher due to her encouragement to be up close? Yes. Am I going to make any big changes to try to raise that number? Not really - not much I can do, honestly since most of her previous score (which was only 1.01 wounds/10pts) was tied to capitalizing on that 6th wound and Danger Sense 4 - both of which she lost. Getting Agile 1/Independent: Move does help Jyn a bit to make up for the loss of a wound, but Danger Sense 4 was super useful and I'm gonna miss it.
We're entering the top half of the rankings, and so it's time to see one of the first surprises for me . . .
Pick #6: R2-D2 with C-3PO - 70pts, Score: 0.618
Uh huh, the dude who can't fight finishes in the upper half! R2-D2 is . . . objectively awful at fighting. I have fielded R2 only a handful of times, but with only 4 wounds and surging white saves, I find that having C-3PO in your list (and a way to get suppression on him early to trigger Inconspicuous) is a must-have. As such, R2 comes in at 70pts today and gets a rather surprisingly good score.
It's not because of his offense - R2 a '3PO have a grand total of 4 white dice when they attack in melee and 3 white dice when they attack at range 1. While they surge on those dice, that's not a great attack pool and it nets them an average of 0.656 hits/attack across all range bands and 0.094 expected hits/10pts spent (or 106.67 pts/hit) - this makes them the worst Rebel unit EVER on offense. Even Rebel Troopers or Fleet Troopers with Medical Droids as dead-weight (and the Rebel Commando Sniper Strike Teams I like to make fun of) are still getting 40pts/hit - and Ewok Skirmishers who only get a score in melee are still in the 56-60pts/hit category.
So how did these two buckets of bolts manage to get fourth place today? Like the Ewok Skirmishers we viewed before, it's because of their defensive efficiency. R2 and '3PO have 6 wounds with surging white saves - and while I didn't give them a dodge token for Calculate Odds, they got a very impressive 1.14 expected wounds/10pts spent. While this is very high for Operatives (best we've seen today, second best we will see today), it's actually just above the normal for Rebels, so R2 and '3PO are "fine" on defense. They're also cheap, which helped them tremendously. If you find yourself running an armor spam (like I have recently), you might consider adding these guys as a repair option for your vehicles . . . or not.
I was personally quite glad that R2 didn't happen to beat out our next competitor because that would have been sad . . .
Pick #5: Cassian Andor with Duck and Cover and A280-CFE Config - 92pts, Score: 0.642
Cassian did really well in the Commander revamp and moving him to Operative with Field Commander is really cool. I toyed around with running various upgrades on him, but I've settled on just Duck and Cover to trigger Danger Sense. You could rely on Up Close and Personal to generate dodge tokens (that might be shared with K-2SO) and you could always give him Prepared Supplies to try to give him a little extra beef, but neither of these are essential to Cassian's play (and they didn't really move the needle on his final score either). Cassian gets credit for range 3 with Long Shot on his pistol (2.375 hits with an unfactored in Pierce 1) and gets credit for range 1-2 with Tactical triggering Marksman on his pistol (3 hits with a boosted die and Pierce 1) and nearly the same in melee if you aim-punch (2.875 hits). This ends up giving him an average of 2.813 hits/attack and 0.306 expected hits/10pts spent, which is roughly the same as IG-11 (slightly better), lower than Boba, and pretty much better than everyone else in our assessment today.
On defense, he's pretty meh - still has Danger Sense 3 with Courage 2, so you're gonna want to make sure you have some Inspire in your list to make sure this guy is well taken care of. With 6 wounds, Danger Sense 3, and a surging-white save, his low-ish cost does give him a slightly-below-Rebel-average score of 0.98 expected wounds/10pts spent. All in all, this almost got him to 4th place, but he was beaten out by a good friend . . .
Pick #4: K-2SO with Jyn's Blaster - 80pts, Score: 0.645
Well, this was an unexpected but delightful podium finish! I really like K-2SO (in Rogue One, obviously, but also in the game - Guardian 4 for one round with a red save and Incognito? Yes please!) and he's pretty cheap for a red-save and a decent amount of health. In fact, he's got a carbon-copy of IG-11s defensive profile for about 30 fewer points (and I've factored in the cost of the blaster assuming that Jyn is in fact not in your list so he could be cheaper still).
On offense, K-2SO's only way to get a range attack (at range 1-2) is to take Jyn's blaster, which has 5 white dice, Pierce 1, and Suppressive (the latter two keywords aren't being evaluated here). 5 white dice isn't great, but surge for crit means this is actually a pretty decent gun. 4 red dice with Lethal 1 is pretty good in melee (same as IG-11) - one of the weaker melee attacks we're seeing in this list, but pretty decent overall. The result is a not-too-shabby, but not-too-great output of 1.813 hits/attack and 0.227 expected hits/10pts spent (44.14 pts/hit). The 1.813 hits isn't great, but it's surprisingly close to the average hits/attack for Op-Luke (2.344), Ahsoka (2.375), and Sabine (2.656 with the Darksaber, 2.188 without it). If you're coming in a half-hit behind these guys at half the price or so, you're doing alright in my book.
On defense, K-2SO surges ahead of IG-11 by having a cheaper chassis, getting a respectable-but-not-great-for-Rebels score of 1.06 expected wounds/10pts spent. This score could have been higher if we assumed that he'd get a dodge token from doing Calculate Odds for Cassian since a) you have to take Cassian to take K-2SO, b) the primary reason to take K-2SO is to get more oomph out of Cassian, and c) because Cassian really wants aim/dodge/suppression tokens, which K-2SO can give with Calculate Odds (and will benefit from these tokens in return thanks to Teamwork). The aim token is hard to judge in this context, but the dodge token would have made his defense score higher (1.19 AEH, overall score of 0.707). This would mean he'd still come in third behind . . .
K-2 did very well (and with the Cassian build that we looked at, you can spend 172pts at the cost of a single Operative slot), but he ended up losing out on the podium JUST BARELY to . . .
Pick #3: Din Djarin with Flame Projector, Grogu, and the Amban Rifle - 127pts, Score: 0.658
Dude, I love this guy - and when you look at his profile (especially with Grogu included), there's a lot to like about this guy. I'm going to start with his defensive stats because I think they're a lot more straightforward than his offensive kit. Din is one of the rare Rebel options that has a surging red defense die built into his kit and with Grogu, he has 6 Wounds (instead of 5, which you find with surging red saves on Boba and Sabine or with non-surging red saves on IG-11). If you don't buy the jetpack for Din, he's going to float around the cost of all three (a bit higher than IG-11), which makes his defensive package really good (all four also have Impervious, which is not factored into this analysis and frankly is sub-par to Immune: Pierce or Immune: Melee Pierce). Thanks to the 2 dodge tokens that Grogu can spend to help Din along and the free dodge token he can pick up by not being given an order, Mando gets a very solid 1.02 expected wounds/10pts spent (which is about normal for Rebels, if not just a bit below what they normally get). For being double the price of most of the Corps/Special Forces builds we've looked at, that's pretty tough.
On offense, I think the Flame Projector is an absolute must - it helps you get the most out of Arsenal 2 at range and is not a shabby offensive option if you find yourself in melee against a big group. I've paired this with the Amban Rifle as well, since it does about the same amount of expected damage as the Beskar Spear but comes in slightly below its cost. With the free aim token from Independent (or from his 2-pip or Tactical 1), Din can use Long Shot on his pistol to participate at range 3, use the same pistol at range 2 (not boosting for having aim tokens available), can use both the pistol and the Flame Projector at range 1, and use the pistol (versatile) and the Amban Rifle in melee. Altogether, this gives him a pretty decent 3.719 hits/attack and 0.293 expected hits/10pts spent (34.15 pts/hit). Not as good as Boba and just below IG-11, but pretty good overall, considering he can't shoot twice and can only benefit from Arsenal 2 in two of the four range bands.
Here's the breakdown of four different builds for Mando - one with the Amban Rifle, one with the Beskar Spear, one with the Beskar Spear and Jetpack, and one with the Beskar Spear and Recon Intel - all of which are perfectly fine builds for him, though some are a bit expensive:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | AED | Pts/Hit | Hit/10pts | AEH | Utility Score |
Din Djarin (Flame Projector, Tenacity, 2-pip, 3-pip) | 127 | 3.719 | 34.15 | 0.293 | 1.02 | 0.658 |
Din Djarin (Flame Projector, Grogu, Beskar Spear) | 132 | 3.844 | 34.34 | 0.285 | 0.98 | 0.638 |
Din Djarin (Flame Projector, Grogu, Beskar Spear, Jetpack) | 147 | 3.844 | 38.24 | 0.256 | 0.88 | 0.573 |
Din Djarin (Flame Projector, Grogu, Beskar Spear, Recon Intel) | 140 | 3.844 | 36.42 | 0.269 | 0.93 | 0.602 |
Some key takeaways from this: first, if you prefer the Beskar Spear, take it. The Beskar Spear has 2 red/1 black instead of 3 black, so it's a bit more reliable in melee - and with Duelist and Independent: Aim 1 and Dodge 1, Din can proc both the offensive benefits of Duelist (reroll 2 dice AND add Pierce 1) as well as the defensive benefits of Duelist (dodge 1 hit AND Immune: Melee Pierce) just by not being issued an order. If your goal is to have him rush into combat and benefit from those things instead of having the tactical option of sniping from long range and adding Immobilize/Suppression tokens in melee, take the spear.
Second, the overall difference between taking Recon Intel in addition to the previous three upgrades is pretty negligible too. Going from 35pts/hit to 37pts/hit isn't that big of a deal and you're getting a free speed-1 Scout move to proc Tactical 1 on the first turn. The extra 4" of movement is excellent and can make a second move (so you have 2-3 aim tokens, depending on whether you were issued an order on the first turn) get you within range of a Long Shot with your pistol. Alpha-strike options for Rebels are everywhere and Din is certainly in their ranks. Alternatively, if you take Recon Intel with the Amban Rifle (which I have not shown here - but it scores about the same as the Beskar/Recon build), you can use the Scout move to get onto the board and then use the Amban Rifle special ability to perform another speed-1 move and clip a hit off something.
Third, the Jetpack provides you with good in-game flexibility, but it's also expensive and you can get most of the first-turn movement from it by just taking Recon Intel. If you like the Jetpack, try taking Recon instead - if you don't like that and still want the Jetpack . . . take the Jetpack (it's not horribly behind the others).
But we all knew that Din wasn't going to rank higher than . . .
Pick #2: The Bad Batch with Omega - 150pts, Score: 0.710
I'm gonna be honest, I thought these guys were going to be first - but they're also 150 points. Unlike Sabine (fourth most expensive), Ahsoka (second most expensive), and Luke (first most expensive), the Bad Batch is an expensive unit, but for its cost, it's getting a LOT of dice and a LOT of wounds - both of which help it play well in this metric. Without Crosshair, it can't score at range 3 on our offensive metric (like Luke, Ahsoka, and Sabine), but they make up for it by just having a fairly normal squad size with character-size attack pools. Let's see how they did (and what I counted from their various upgrades and what I didn't).
I looked at the build both with and without Omega and thankfully, the Omega build outshone the non-Omega build (thankful because the tactical ability she provides is really useful for most primary objectives). Omega is not contributing that much on either the offensive or defensive front (2 white dice, 1 wound), but for only 10pts, she doesn't need to bring much to the table to make a difference. Wrecker isn't bring anything to the table besides his improved dice pool in melee-range 2, which does help the unit tremendously to compete with many of the contenders we've already seen who are rolling at least 2 red dice.
Tech is getting credit for his cached dodge token on defense, but not his cached aim token or Tactical 1 on offense (so the offensive efficiency score should be higher than it is). Echo is getting credit for Reliable 3 on defense only, since there was already a high damage efficiency without it. Frankly, this scored higher in the metric (and is more in-line with what I did for Luke and Ahsoka), but know that this is a second penalty to what the offensive score could have been.
Finally, Hunter is adding an extra 0.5 hits to the range 1 and melee scores for his Force-Choke-lite free action ability, which isn't as great as adding a red die, but is basically like adding an extra black die. All in all, the group is getting 4.25 hits at range 2, 4.75 hits at range 1, and 5.5 hits in melee, which brings an average across all four range bands to 3.625 hits/attack and 0.242 expected hits/10pts spent (41.38 pts/hit). This is actually pretty low compared to our most recent guys, but only a bit behind Din (0.242 < 0.286), a bit behind IG-11 (0.242 < 0.301), and a good chunk behind Boba Fett (0.242 < 0.449). This is mostly due to the fact that they can't play at range 3 - but the fact that things are pretty close with Din without the range 3 score should be indicative of how good they are at melee to range 2!
These guys also have great defensive scores - 10 wounds, effectively surging red saves with Reliable 3, and a cached dodge token makes them incredibly tough and they JUST barely pipped the highest Defense score of the day with 1.18 expected wounds/10ptsspent (just over our top Operative). Yes, this is the third most expensive unit in our ranking, but they also have more wounds than anyone else, are tied for the best save, and have a static defense buff. What else could you want?
Here's the chart for all three builds I looked at - honestly, there isn't much customization you can do with these guys:
Unit (Upgrades) | Pts | AED | Pts/Hit | Hit/10pts | AEH | Utility Score |
The Bad Batch (Omega, Reliable 3 on defense) | 150 | 3.625 | 41.38 | 0.242 | 1.18 | 0.710 |
The Bad Batch (Omega, Reliable 3 on offense) | 150 | 3.906 | 38.40 | 0.260 | 1.07 | 0.664 |
The Bad Batch (Reliable 3 on defense) | 140 | 3.250 | 43.08 | 0.232 | 1.14 | 0.688 |
The Bad Batch (Reliable 3 on offense) | 140 | 3.531 | 39.65 | 0.252 | 1.04 | 0.644 |
What more could you want? Well, you'd actually like a lower price point for similar damage and defense. For that, I give you today's winner (and no, he didn't get it by threatening to rip my arms out of my sockets) . . .
Pick #1: Chewbacca - 90pts, Score: 0.736
Only 0.026 utility points ahead of the Bad Batch is the one and only Chewbacca - yes, the guy who came in dead last in the last assessment (I mean, as an honorable mention last time - let go of my arms, please!), comes in to take the gold today (the medal he really deserved in Episode 4).
Chewie is under 100pts and is tailor-made to be good in this metric: he has a gun that plays at range 1-3 (and not range 4), has a good melee pool, has lots of health (even though he has a bad save), and doesn't really need any upgrades. I did evaluate him with several (Tenacity on its own and Tenacity with Prepared Supplies) and all of these builds were higher overall than any other Operative choice EXCEPT the highest scoring build of the Bad Batch. Let's look at how he got the scores he did.
Chewie's range attack is 2 red/2 white with surge for crit, which means he's getting 2.5 hits/attack from each of these. Without Tenacity, Chewie's melee attack is supposed to generate 3.5 hits, while a Tenacity-enhanced melee attack of FIVE red dice is supposed to get 4.375 hits. Without Tenacity, that means he's averaging 2.75 hits/attack for 0.306 expected hits/attack (32.73 pts/hit).This puts him ahead of everyone except Boba Fett in the damage department (who is shooting twice or using Arsenal 2) and just barely ahead of IG-11 (who is also shooting twice at range 1-3). Not bad for "just costing less" with a single attack pool.
On defense, Chewie has a ridiculous 9 wounds but with really bad saves. You'd think this would give him a worse score than the Bad Batch, but in once you factor in the over 50% increase in cost for the Bad Batch, they come out about even. Chewie gets 1.17 expected wounds/10pts spent, which is JUST behind the Bad Batch's 1.18 - crazy good. All told, Chewie provided a lot of beef and comes in at under 100pts. Here's the run-down of all three builds for those curious:
I'm happy he won the day, but considering how easy it is to get wounds on him, I'm thinking the Bad Batch and Din are much better options (though both Cassian and K-2SO did podium in this assessment, so maybe there's something to work there, as K-2SO doesn't take up a max slot thanks to the detachment keyword). Regardless of how you cut it, there are some intriguing options here, all of which score higher than the non-Leia Commander options for those of you who like to "hero hammer" your lists.
Conclusion
The key question I find myself asking is whether this ranking for operatives actually matters? Like the Corps assessment where everyone did more or less the same with no clear losers in the mix, I feel like most of the Operatives are in the same boat. Yes, there's a difference in scores, but there's only a 0.194 utility score difference between Boba Fett (#7) and Chewie (#1) on the list. Does it matter if you take Boba instead of Chewie? Does it matter if you prefer the alpha-strike options of IG-11 over the shorter-range options of Din Djarin? I don't really think it does - most of the guys we've looked at today are capable of netting 3+ hits with at least Pierce 1 at one or more range bands, so if you want a good damage output, there are a number of good choices out there.
At the same time, this math model does seem to indicate that all of these Operative choices - Bad Batch included - is suboptimal compared to many of the Corps and Special Forces options available to the Rebel Alliance faction (to say nothing of the clear winners from the Support and Heavy category). Hero hammer lists for Rebels are popular and fun, but I can't help but feel like this math model supports their use as much. Yes, there are a HOST of things that weren't accounted for in my methodology, but the lists that appear to be more optimized by this model tend to land on 18+ activations BECAUSE the Corps and Special Forces slots (and AT-RTs in Support) are so cheap and available. The operative slot seems to me to be the thing you add after you've maxed out on those good options (whatever you choose to go with) - and thankfully they're cheap enough that you should have the points to get something fun and hard-hitting with all of those "better" choices.
I'm curious what your take is on the list - any surprises for you? Anyone you think I didn't treat fairly? Let me know in the comments below and until next time, happy hobbying!
