Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Droidekas

Good morning gamers,

My son and I got started in our Star Wars Legion journey with the old Clone Wars starter set. I started with Republic but eventually bought out my son's Separatist collection by trading him Shadow Collective units (we discovered they're much more his play style). In the old starter, you got General Grievous, some B1 Battle Droids, and some Droidekas - at the time, they were a little expensive for what they brought to the table, but with the advent of Legion 2.6, these guys have come into a good place and are still able to compete for the Support slot in the current edition.

Droidekas: The Profile

Let's get the most recent update to these guys out of the way first: in early 2026, Droidekas (or 'dekas) went from being Ground Vehicles to "Heavy Droid Troopers," a new unit type that doesn't block line of sight, gives them a suppression value, and prevents them from being given orders by most of the Wheel Bike Grievous command cards. There were other modifications to the card - they lost the "Move" action from their AI keyword (now it's just AI: Attack), their weapons are now range 3, and they picked up Reposition (which gives them a full 90-degree pivot before moving instead of the standard 45-degree pivot). All in all, I think they're still a perfectly good units.

Their stats are good for their cost - 3 wounds each and 2 Courage is fine, they don't surge on offense but they have surging-white saves on defense, and they're speed 1 (with the option to be speed-3 with Wheel Mode - more on that shortly). Their relatively fragile defense stats are augmented by their Shielded 4/Generator 1 keywords, which gives them 4 super-dodges when they deploy and they reset one of those shields tokens at the end of the round. Unlike Clone Commandos, 'dekas don't have Recharge X, so performing recover actions will not reset any of their shield tokens (which is pertinent since one of Kalani's command cards allows units to perform a recover action), so you're dependent on Generator to bring them back. Still, knocking 4 hits or crits off an incoming range attack should help these guys survive the first wave of shots. Despite having 4 shields and 2 models, I will note that you keep all 4 shields even if you lose one of the 'dekas- perfect! All that said, these guys can't benefit from cover while they have Unconcerned active (more on that later) and similarly can't be repaired while Unconcerned is active.

Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Geonosian Warriors

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).

Skirmish Upgrades: Prey On The Weak

Good morning gamers,

Today we dig into one of the most straight-forward skirmish upgrades available to date: Prey On The Weak. When it comes to the skirmish upgrades we’ve viewed so far, there are two basic kinds of upgrades:

• Attachments that encourage the figures for the attached deployment card to behave in a certain way (Advanced Com Systems, On a Diplomatic Mission, Vader’s Finest, Smuggler’s Run);
• Non-attachments that provide some benefit for the team as a whole OR for one specific character on the team (Black Market, Under Duress).

So far, the only Mercenary skirmish upgrades we’ve looked at fall in the second category, so it’s about time we look at an attachment skirmish card for a change. J

Requirements for Finalists:

This skirmish upgrade is pretty straight forward: increase the Pierce and Accuracy of your attacks. The nuance comes with guessing how high the figure costs of your opponent are going to be (players who run Trooper swarms are likely going to have most of their army composed of deployment costs with figure costs of 2-4 points, while Jedi/unique-character teams will have figure costs well at or above 6). Given this guesswork, here are the assumptions we’re making about finalists today:

• The figure must be a Hunter (as that’s a requirement for the upgrade);
• Figures should have a deployment cost above 4 (sorry, Greedo) and no more than 10 (sorry, Boba Fett and IG-88); and
• While Accuracy isn’t required, figures who benefit from both the Pierce bonus and the Accuracy bonus will receive a higher preference.

I know what you’re thinking: why did you choose the range that you did? Here’s what my rationale is: there are many, MANY players who believe that Trooper deployment cards are the most competitive deployment cards in the game right now. And they would probably be right. Rebel or Imperial (or Mercenary hybrids), Troopers do reliable damage against the majority of units and reliably get Accuracy (and you tend to get a lot of them). You can also regrow them, heal them, and boost their damage. What’s not to like? Most Trooper choices, though, have a figure cost of 2-4 points. As such, if you’re facing an army of Elite Troopers, you want to cost at least 5 points (hence my floor value).

On the other extreme, the most expensive Hunter figure to-date costs 13 points (all hail Boba Fett), but there are very few figures that have a figure cost above 10 (many vehicles and a lot of the named characters from the Core Set and Twin Shadows – hence my ceiling). As such, figures who cost a bit less than 10 points will free up more space for you to flesh out the rest of your army while still getting the bonuses provided by Prey On The Weak. Does this make Boba Fett or IG-88 a bad host for this upgrade? No - though I think you want Focused On The Kill for IG-88 more than Prey On The Weak. As with many of my reviews, this is one man’s opinion – feel free to disagree if you want (but read the article first – I want the views). J

Honorable Mention: Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter (Senator/Streetrat Form)
I don’t usually do “honorable mentions,” but (SPOILER ALERT) seeing as how we don’t have very many Mercenary cards in this post, I figured I needed to give them a bit of an edge in the final tally. J The more I look at these guys, the more I’m impressed with them: at 6 points a model, they’re kind of expensive, but with a Red-Yellow-Green attack pool (my personal favorite in the game) and the ability to become long-range killers, up-close killers, or self-healing token-distributors, they’re fantastically flexible. I’ve not included the Scout form because I don’t think it needs the Accuracy buff (though the automatic Pierce 1 certainly makes up for swapping the Red die for a Blue die), so we’ll just be looking at the Senator and Streetrat forms today.

Both of these forms have great surge abilities (which of course only trigger if you get enough damage to breach the target’s defenses). With a figure cost of 6, pretty much any unnamed character is a fair target and you’ll be getting at least 1 Accuracy from Prey On The Weak and at least 1 Accuracy from the Green die. For a Streetrat, this means you will definitely hit someone adjacent to you (though minimum range is technically 2 spaces away) with a maximum range of 6 (which is kind of hard to hit seeing as how you can’t surge for Accuracy). The Senator also can’t surge for Accuracy, but does get a static +1 Accuracy, changing the range to Min 3/Max 7 (bonkers).

For both of these characters, you should be able to break through the toughest Black die (thanks to the free Pierce 1 and the Green die), drilling into the target with the full weight of the Red and Yellow – both forms can surge for Damage 1, so most of your surge is going to be dedicated to other endeavors (like sneaking out your knife or Recovering health). Whichever form you’re using, Prey On The Weak opens up your options and gives you the boost you need to be great - all for a single deployment point.

Bronze Medal: Biv Bodhrick (with Temporary Alliance skirmish upgrade)
I’ll admit, Biv is one of my favorite characters (we’ll write up the post on him when we talk about tanks): Biv in the skirmish game has a decent amount of health and the ability to perform more than one attack in a given turn (although both must be directed against the same person). Biv is great for tearing down heavy units and with his high figure cost (a whopping 9 – just made it under our limit), he can use his brutal attacks against basically any unnamed character and many named characters (which you won’t see from anyone else in this post). Since you purchased the Temporary Alliance upgrade to bring Biv in, you might consider also bringing another Rebel character to supplement Biv (and the rest of the army) – Gideon Argus or C-3PO come to mind, though if you want Hunter/Brawler synergies, Jarrod Kelvin is a good choice too.

Silver Medal: BT-1
Ah yes, we view yet another non-Mercenary figure. Unlike Biv, you can’t ally in Imperial figures into a Mercenary force UNLESS they’re Droids and you have an Elite Jawa Scavenger. This increases the overall army cost from 6 points to 9 points (which is slightly lower than Biv), but you get a lot out of this guy. First off, BT-1 always becomes Focused right before attacking (ouch). While he can shoot with his traditional arsenal (Red-Yellow-Green-Blue including the Focus die), you can alternatively fire three times with a single Red, Yellow, and Blue die (each of those getting the benefit of the Green as well). Like we said with Biv’s Close and Personal attacks, each of these attacks would benefit from Prey On The Weak, giving each not only a free Focus, but also a free Accuracy 1 + Pierce 1 (more ouch). You’re not going to find any other figure (besides Boba Fett in the turn that he gets to use Mandalorian Tactics) who can push out 3 attacks in a given round to benefit from this card (and most Hunters are hard-pressed to get 2 attacks out). As such, I feel that BT-1 must be granted some measure of respect for the sheer volume of attacks he can deliver with the card and so he claims second place today.

Gold Medal: Onar Koma

Onar has shown up before on our blog in our discussion of best figure to use To The Limit and in that post, I gave him the silver medal but admitted he could have won the gold. Today, Onar finally gets the coveted gold for several reasons. First and foremost, he’s cheaper than most of your other Hunter options. “Cheap” here is a relative term – costing too little (4 or 5 points) makes you more expensive than most units, but certain elite units (and most named figures) will be more expensive than you or at the same cost, which means you don’t get a bonus against them. Very few elite units cost 6 points or more, so you’ll be able to use Onar to focus on the chaff of the army (leaving his compadres to take care of the more elite and heavy models).

Even if you ignore the cost advantage of using Onar, there is another boon to putting this upgrade on Onar: there is a non-zero probability that you will get both the “Accuracy 1 + Surge 1” face on your Green attack die and the “Accuracy 2 + Surge 1” on the Blue attack die. When this happens (assuming your opponent gets no Evade results), you can’t use both of your surges for damage because you have to sacrifice all the Accuracy you gained (and range attacks without any Accuracy miss). With Prey On The Weak, Onar automatically gets +1 Accuracy, guaranteeing maximum damage from his surge results against the person he shoved with Rush. While the other characters get great bonuses from Prey On The Weak, it is most beneficial to Onar because it guarantees he does stuff.

In our next post, we'll be switching gears to non-attachment skirmish upgrades and viewing the Imperial ugprade Zillo Technique. I consider this to be the most powerful Imperial skirmish upgrades (and quite probably the most powerful of all skirmish upgrades) available to date. Until then, happy gaming!

Command cards: Force Users

Command Card Review: Force User Command Cards

Let's face it: on some level if we're playing a Star Wars game, we want to be able to be a Sith or a Jedi. It's just a fact. Since Wave 7, all factions have had access to the Channel The Force skirmish upgrade, which allows you to forego drawing a Command card at the end of a round and instead pick a Force User card instead (at the cost of Strain equal to the Command points of the card). This begs the question - and this is a Command card question, not a skirmish upgrade question - what cards are worth fetching based on the Strain they're going to inflict?

Force User Command Cards: What Do They Do?

There are a variety of different kinds of Command cards that are dedicated for use by Force Users, but if we're to over generalize a bit, they fall into five categories:

• Movement/mobility cards (very helpful for figures with predominantly melee attack types);
• Niche-situation control cards;
• Non-Attack-Action Damage cards (so you can attack with one action and do more damage on your next action);
• Augmenting attack/defense results cards (rerolls, bonus damage, etc.); and
• Perform additional action cards (rare but present and oh-so-helpful).

We’ll look at each of these types of cards in a moment, but since there are alliance restrictions to keep in mind, we’ll be starting off by examining the generic Force User cards (ones that can be used in Rebel, Imperial, or Mercenary Force User lists) and then look at each faction individually (wrapping up the Mercenary choices with the Imperial choices to save space). It’s important to note that while you can have a lot of Force User cards to choose from, don’t underestimate the power of non-Force User cards. Cards like Pummel, Recovery, Camouflage, Urgency, or Deathblow can easily fit into any deck with at least a few melee characters in it - you can get a lot of mileage out of them.

Generic Force User Cards: The Flesh Of Any Force User Army

In the Core set, you get two generic Force User cards: Deflection (two copies) and Telekinetic Throw. These cards cost 1 Command point, which means the Strain inflicted on your characters will be small to pull them up for use. Deflection is most useful when defending against a range attack and particularly useful if your figure is Hidden (Davith Elso is a prime candidate for that). Telekinetic Throw is one of the best cards you can include in your Force User army (my opinion) since it allows you to do damage via a Special Action and can supplement the damage from your attack action. Since most Force Users are melee figures (non-Jedi Luke and sometimes-Leia being the notable exceptions), being able to do damage at a distance is also quite nice. For only 1 Command point, pull it up as soon as you can!

Outside of the Core Set, we didn’t get too many generic Force User cards until recently. The Leia Organa Ally Pack (Wave 5) gave us a Command card that is probably better than the Telekinetic Throw card with I Can Feel It – a great way to improve your offensive results, your defensive results, OR just gain 1 VP. As a free Command card – yes, 0 points – you can pull this card up without taking any damage at all! Thanks to the Bespin Gambit (Wave 6), you also have access to the Force Illusion Command card, which allows the defender of an attack become Hidden if a Force User can see the attacker. This not only makes Deflection more powerful but can save one of your figures from being hit by a long-range shot (though at 2 Command points it's a big toll if you use Channel The Force to fetch it).

With Wave 7 and Wave 10, we got three additional generic Force User Command cards: Force Surge, Force Rush, and Force Jump. All three give you movement options for your characters. Force Surge is the most expensive at 2 Command points, but allows you to move 1 additional space after your activation ends and deal 2 Damage and 1 Strain to a nearby hostile figure. If you’ve already attacked that figure this round, it’s a great way to finish someone off or bring someone that much closer to death (and in all likelihood, keep them from healing up any of the damage they took from your original attack). Force Jump costs only 1 Command point and allows you to perform a mobile move as an action – which will be better than a normal move, but doesn’t give you any damage for the action. Finally, Force Rush is a free Command card and allows you to gain 2 movement points at the start of your activation – great for closing distance during your turn (or making a quick get-away).

These cards are pretty cheap (most are 0-1 Command points) and they can give your team much-needed resiliency, mobility, and supplementary damage output. With these cards as the background, let’s look at Rebel Force User cards.

Rebel Force User Cards: Getting More Out Of Your Heroes

The Core Set provides us with two unique Command Cards for your Rebel Force Users:  Knowledge and Defense and Meditation. For those looking for more defensive capabilities, it doesn’t get much better than Knowledge and Defense – adding an extra White die is great for stopping Surge abilities and getting that much needed Dodge. Since this lasts all round, you want to use this on a character who is going first (or the last character you have if acquired late in the game). Meditation allows you to effectively bank an action this turn to take an additional action next turn. In a two-player skirmish game, this is invaluable – use it at the end of a round when you don’t have initiative and then go first with three actions the following round when you do have initiative! While both of these cards are incredibly powerful, they’re also 2 Command points each, so I don’t recommend pulling them up with Channel The Force.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano Ally Packs have provided two other Command cards to supplement these choices: Force Push allows you to pick a small figure (friend or foe) and push them up to 2 spaces – great for getting an ally into position (especially if they have a lightsaber) or moving a hostile figure out of position (like keeping a figure from controlling a Terminal). The A Powerful Influence Command Card allows you to focus on the control game and keeps hostile figures from counting for the purpose of control around one of your figures (or interact with stuff), which is really, REALLY powerful in certain scenarios where VPs can be claimed by interacting with neutral mission tokens or Terminals. 

There are six Jedi characters (technically seven since there are two versions of Luke) available to the Rebels and most of the Command cards associated with these figures are fantastic. While none of these cards can be pulled up by Channel The Force, they will compete for Command point space with your other Force User cards. In the Core Set, you get Diala’s Sarlaac Sweep – this is one of the few cards that allows you to perform multiple attacks and is best used after you use Meditation in conjunction with Pummel (prepare for four swings bad guys!). You also get Son of Skywalker, which is an expensive but simple Command card to allow Luke to go twice during a game round (which is awesome for recovering damage with non-Jedi Luke OR doing lots of damage with Jedi Luke). Davith Elso’s Vanish Command card is great for making sure he doesn’t take damage in a given round and then high-tailing it to escape retribution afterwards.

The Leia Organa Ally Pack gives you the There Is Another Command card, which not only allows Leia to be a Force User for the turn (why we’re talking about her in the first place here) and gives her a free Surge, which means you can fetch a Command card you’ve already used (like one of those Force User ones you wish to get with Channel The Force) back into your Command deck. Ahsoka Tano’s Right Back At Ya! Command card is a great way to do damage to a figure who attacks you – making any figure close to death wary of attacking you.

Finally, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s I Must Go Alone Command card is highly situational but can make you immune to long-range attacks (which is helpful early in the game when the maneuver game is important OR late in the game when figures are being chased across the board). While inexpensive (1 Command point), I don’t recommend taking it – it’s very niche and generally speaking it’s okay if Kenobi dies (focusing one of your power hitters after all).

Imperial/Mercenary Force User Cards: Give In To Your Anger!

If there’s anything that typifies Imperial Force User cards, it’s the word “Damage.” Imperial cards are very, VERY offensive focused and are incredibly painful. They’re also very expensive (many are 3 Command points), which makes drawing them with Channel The Force a bad plan (especially since none of your figures can Recover Damage when attacking). In the Core Set, this is evidenced by the Force Lightning and Lure of the Dark Side Command cards. Hey, want to borrow that Jedi that you’re fighting for a moment? Lure of the Dark Side is your friend. Want to mass apply Stun and do a little Damage while you’re at it? Force Lightning! It’s straight-forward, simple offense.

Thanks to the Grand Inquisitor and Emperor Palpatine Villain Packs, Imperial Force User lists also have access to the Deadly Precision and Dark Energy Command cards, both of which are blissfully cheap and make your offensive game even better by allowing you to ignore Dodge results and pushing/lightly damaging a hostile small figure nearby respectively. While the previous two Command cards were not worth pulling up with Channel The Force, these ones definitely are worth it – especially Deadly Precision since it doesn’t require a Strain.

The Imperial/Mercenary Force User unique cards are also great: Lord of the Sith allows Darth Vader to wade through enemy units with ease – and this card is made even better now he can receive the Driven by Hatred skirmish upgrade. The Emperor’s Unlimited Power Command card is a little less impressive – it extends the range of his Emperor power (anywhere on the board is a nice bonus), making the ability more niche and less damaging. In a Sith deck (where you have few figures and they’re not likely to be close together), it’s kind of nice. The Grand Inquisitor’s Hunt Them Down card is beastly – adding an automatic Accuracy 2 + Cleave 2 is literally a killer.  Finally, Maul can use the Wreak Vengeance Command card, boosting his special attack power by giving him Focus AND Reach AND Cleave 2. For only 1 Command point, you want it. Every time.

Sample List: The Last Of The Jedi

Deployment Cards:

·         Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion

·         Ahsoka Tano

·         Obi-Wan Kenobi

·         Diala Passil

·         Davith Elso

·         Channel the Force

·         Balance of the Force

Command Cards:

·         Force Jump

·         Force Rush

·         Force Surge

·         I Can Feel It

·         Knowledge and Defense

·         Meditation

·         Pummel x2

·         Recovery

·         Right Back At Ya!

·         Sarlaac Sweep

·         Son of Skywalker

·         Telekinetic Throw

·         Urgency

·         Vanish

I should note before we begin that we couldn’t get Jedi Luke into this list and still get Channel The Force without losing one of our other Jedi. Since we’re looking at Channel The Force in particular, we’re keeping regular Luke (besides, he can Recover 2). I’d recommend the following priority for picking cards – and I’ll also recommend that you not pick up any other Force User cards with Channel The Force:

·         I Can Feel It (0 Strain)

·         Telekinetic Throw (1 Strain)

·         Force Rush (0 Strain)

·         Force Jump (1 Strain)

So I know what you’re thinking: why not pick a card like Meditation or Force Surge with Channel The Force? I can Recover 2 with Diala or Luke – isn’t it worth it? Not really – here’s why: you can pull up a 2-3 Command point card if you want to, but if you pull up a 0-1 point card instead, you’re still working through your deck and you don’t need to spend your Recover surge to just get back to where you were before you used Channel The Force. Health is the most valuable asset to any Jedi army – almost all the Jedi roll White die which basically take all the damage they’re given (unless they get a Dodge). By getting a cheaper card that’s not as great as one of the higher cost ones, you save your team the valuable health it would cost to get that card (and you don’t want to discard up to 2 cards from the top of your Command deck just to get it sooner rather than later, right?).

Once you’ve picked these four, I recommend you not use the Channel The Force skirmish upgrade and instead rely on drawing cards normally. That being said, there will probably be a case where getting a Meditation, Force Surge, or Knowledge and Defense is worth it – if that’s the case, you can always take the chance and risk the damage.

This concludes (for now at least) this series on Command cards – while I may pick this up again in the future, I think I’ve exhausted the interesting cases for Command cards. For the full list of posts in this series (and others), look at our Getting Started page! If you have ideas (or cards you’d like to see evaluated), leave a comment on this post – or any of the posts in the series. Lest you think we’re out of content, next week we’ll be starting a new Friday series dedicated to creating your own short campaign, using the template provided to us in the Twin Shadows and Bespin Gambit expansions. For the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at campaigns you can run with the skirmish missions you already have to allow you to skip playing that one campaign you’ve played too much and instead get new and exciting adventures. It should be great - until then, happy gaming!

Character review: Vinto Hreeda

In this series on splash characters, we've looked at Gaarkhan, the King of Cleave, and Fenn Signis, the Prince of Blast. Today, we're looking at Vinto Hreeda, who doesn't have any rules that Cleave or Blast, but instead does damage to a figure other than his target whenever he damages someone in an attack (or as he's running or whoever is nearby when he gets the inkling to start shooting). Vinto is different from both of these characters in that the splash damage comes as a result of doing the things you want to do - it doesn't detract from the power of your attacks or require you to attack extra times.

Vinto Hreeda: Maximum Damage or Maximum Attacks?

Vinto's upgrade cards tend to encourage him to do one of two things: make the primary attack he's performing do more damage (Merciless is the cornerstone example) or deal a small amount of damage to a different target (Shot On The Run is one of many examples). It's important to note that Vinto does both direct damage and indirect damage very well. Since Vinto always has Boltslinger, you can do off-hand damage to anyone simply by attacking - you don't need other ways to do small amounts of damage to a bunch of people.
When picking your upgrades (and weapons), however, you want to determine which kind of character you want to do. If you want to focus on doing a lot of damage to one target (and a little off-hand damage is nice), then focus your upgrades on direct damage. If you want to spray lots of people (finishing off lots of people OR preparing them to be finished off by someone else or by you during the next round), focus your upgrades on indirect damage. With this dichotomy in mind, let's look at a few weapon builds.

End-Game Weapon #1 - Don't Stop Firing: DDC Defender with Under-Barrel HH-4 and Off-Hand Blaster

Ok, let's get this out of the way from the get-go: I don't like Vinto's starting blaster: the Hair-Trigger Pistol has a Yellow-Blue attack pool that is unreliable at doing damage AND you can only turn your Surge into a single Damage AND you don't get to choose to reroll a particular die - you must reroll all of them. For 550 credits (the most expensive pistol at Tier 1), you can instead get the DDC Defender though: this weapon plays to Vinto's strategy of maximizing Boltslinger because you can turn both of your actions into 3 attacks! With a Green-Yellow combo (a more reliable attack pool for damage), you can get the required Damage 1 past a Black die reliably (and if you fail, just pick up Pinpoint Shot for 1 XP). To add to the power of this weapon, we've attached the Under-Barrel HH-4, since we're shooting (literally) for Damage being dealt to the not-target of the attack - what's better than getting more out of Boltslinger by spraying more people!
With 1-3 Accuracy from the Green die, at least 1 Accuracy from the Yellow die (thanks to surging abilities), an additional 1 Accuracy from the Sharpshooter upgrade , and 1 Accuracy provided by the Under-Barrel HH-4, you're guaranteed 4 Accuracy (which will reach everyone you can hit with Boltslinger). To get the most out of this, you'll want to alternate between moving/resting on one turn and attacking twice on the next turn (though if you stand near a deployment zone, you can get multiple turns of just shooting off...just saying).
Now while this is fun, why not attack a FOURTH time by Straining with the Off-Hand Blaster for 3 XP! I generally don't think this upgrade is worth it, but come on - attack FOUR TIMES! You can pump up your damage even more by picking up Rapid Fire, which not only allows you to reroll all the dice (attack and defense) every time you attack (like, if you're not going to wound the guy), but also allows you to Strain once to damage every hostile figure within 4 spaces (thanks to Sharpshooter). Provided you're healthy, you can use Thread The Needle to ignore figures in your way, so everyone within 4 spaces takes...well...a lot of damage. :)

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Sharpshooter (2), Off-Hand Blaster (3), Rapid Fire (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 - Point Blank: Hand Cannon with Plasma Cell

Though Vinto can do a lot of indirect damage, he can also be played in the other extreme: do damage directly (which makes it more likely that you'll get Boltslinger damage whenever you attack - that's not bad). Generally speaking, when you're looking for direct damage against someone, you turn towards Red die, so in my mind we need turn no further than the Hand Cannon (available at Tier 1) and the Plasma Cell (available at Tier 2). The Hand Cannon was released with the Jabba's Realm expansion (along with Vinto), so it seems to me that it BEGS him using it. :)
The Hand Cannon gives you 1 Accuracy automatically and gives you TWO Red dice in your attack pool (this has only been rivaled in the melee world by the Polearm, though the 434 Deathhammer gives you nearly the equivalent amount of damage - you could upgrade to this if you wanted). The caution with Red-Red attack pools as I've seen is that Red dice are unreliable. Most of the time you'll get 2-3 Damage off of them, but you won't surge very often (and most weapons rely on Surge to compensate for what isn't showing up on the dice results). The Hand Cannon has no Surge abilities on it and with the Plasma Cell, you can turn your maximum 2 Surge (rare occurrence) into Damage 1 + Recover Strain (which isn't bad). With the Plasma Cell tacked onto the weapon, you can reliably get Damage 6 + Pierce 1, though you want to count on getting Damage 4 + Pierce 1 (an occasionally Damage 2-3). With our goal being the breaking of an opponent's defense results, this is about as good as it's going to get.
One caution with this approach (and why you want want to consider getting the Deathhammer): you only get 1 Accuracy (though you can get +2 Accuracy if you're willing to sacrifice 1 Damage). As powerful as this combo can be (and inexpensive - 850 credits is pretty cheap overall), you need to be right up against your target in order to blast him. To supplement your base damage, I recommend picking up Merciless - effectively adding a Red die to your attack results which gives you (wait for it) THREE Red dice for your attack (with a static Pierce 2 and the guy needs to already have sustained some damage)...yes, it's painful. To back this up, I also recommend picking up Dead On, which can be used to augment either direct or indirect damage. Finally, I recommend picking up Pinpoint Shot (it's just a good upgrade) and Battlefield Experience, since getting a reroll on one of your Red die is better than having to scrub the whole thing with Rapid Fire.

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Battlefield Experience (2), Dead On (3), Merciless (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 - Give Me Some Options: Sporting Blaster with Charged Ammo Pack

While you can focus Vinto on doing lots of indirect damage (through Blast or special rules) or you could focus him on doing direct damage, there's another build you can do with Vinto: a little bit of both. In a balanced build, Vinto can do decent direct damage AND decent indirect damage, allowing him to assist in the more technical objectives of the scenario (instead of focusing on spending actions for attacks. To do this, we're using the Sporting Blaster - a great T3 weapon that generates a TON of surge. We've decided to put the Charged Ammo Pack on this weapon because it allows you to turn even more of the surge into (potential) damage and makes it more likely that you can get at least 1 Damage to trigger Boltslinger. The idea with this build, however, is that you only shoot once (and when you do, you clear the figure that you're targeting. Your other action should be spent moving (doing indirect damage with Shot On The Run) or resting/interacting/whatever else you need to do in the scenario.
I've decided in this build to focus on the cheap upgrades - increased Speed/Endurance with Shot On The Run and Battlefield Experience (the first helping you with indirect damage in addition to the speed, while the other gives you a coveted reroll on your Yellow-Yellow-Blue in addition to the Endurance), the ability to turn any attack result into damage (so long as you get the required accuracy) with Pinpoint Shot, and boosting your overall Accuracy (for direct and indirect fire) with Sharpshooter. For only 6 XP, you can get a character build that's good at anything, freeing you up to use the rest of your XP on whatever you want - any of the others will help deal a little more damage, so take your pick!
It's important to note that because the Sporting Blaster doesn't arrive until Tier 3, you might want something else to tide you over through the early missions. I highly recommend picking up a weapon as early as possible (I don't like Vinto's gun - have I mentioned that before?) - my favorite choice is the Charge Pistol. The Charge Pistol rolls a reliable green-green for its attack pool with an automatic 1 Accuracy, making you automatically hit adjacent Hidden figures OR non-Hidden figures within 3 spaces. Maximum damage is 4 (which is good enough to get a damage past a Black die - which is all you need to use Boltslinger) AND you can surge for Damage 1 (giving you a 58% chance of getting 3-4 damage).

Upgrades to purchase – 6 XP: Pinpoint Shot (1), Shot On The Run (1), Battlefield Experience (2), Sharpshooter (2)

Vinto Hreeda in the Skirmish Game

Vinto is a fantastic character in the skirmish game: unlike characters with Assault (e.g. Fenn Signis, IG-88, E-Web Engineers) or Brutality (like Darth Vader), Vinto can spend a single action to perform 2 attacks - which not only allows him to move and shoot in one round, but also allows him to make two attacks (which has HUGE tactical benefits). Vinto also retains his Boltslinger ability, so he can spray little pricks of damage to nearby foes that he's not targeting - great for polishing off people who weren't killed by your friends.
As both a Smuggler and a Hunter, you can get a lot out of your Command deck to make him even better - Smuggled Supplies, Assassinate, Tools for the Job, and On The Lam are great for Vinto (either for boosting his damage or keeping him alive). Thanks to Saska Teft, you can actually add Vinto to your favorite Rebel Smuggler lists too. While you don't have very many Hunter choices for the Rebels, you do have Biv Bodhrick and Alliance Rangers - using them to provide some damage to your favorite Smuggler team wouldn't be bad OR just run plenty of Alliance Rangers and you can go with a predominantly Hunter team (and whether you use Hunters or Smugglers, you can use all those beautiful Command cards mentioned above).

This concludes our series in "splash" characters - highlighting some of the stuff you can do with Cleave, Blast, and Special Abilities that do indirect damage to your opponents. Our next character review will be an interlude as we change gears from indirect damage to direct damage via blaster fire by examining Drokkatta (who has weapons designed for Blast, but doesn't actually NEED to Blast). Until then, happy gaming!

Command cards: Strength in Numbers and Squad Swarm

Command Card Review: Strength in Numbers and Squad Swarm

In a normal skirmish game, you need to choose a single deployment card to activate on your turn. In many cases, you’ll find yourself torn between two figures that you want to activate (e.g. fighting on two fronts, saving one unit while sniping an enemy figure, getting a great combo). While this will mostly be the case, there are two skirmish cards that allow you to break the normal tempo and steal an additional activation (opening up many, MANY opportunities). We’ll be talking about both of these today: Strength in Numbers and Squad Swarm.

Requirements For Candidates – Strength in Numbers

Strength in Numbers is the more generic of the two cards: after you resolve one deployment card’s activation, you choose another card to activate that one. The only restriction is that the sum of the two deployment cards’ costs is 12. This means that certain figures (Darth Vader or Chewbacca) will never be able to use this card and you’ll need to have some low-cost cards to include it in your list. For the purposes of this post, our objective will be to find units that complement each other well and benefit you greatly by having them activate back-to-back. I’ll admit that there will be situations where you need to get two units out of harm’s way at the same time (and you should use Strength in Numbers in those cases too), but we’re only looking to synergistic lists today.

Bronze Medal: Elite Jet Trooper and Regular Riot Trooper

While Stormtroopers have always been decent, some of the recent Imperial Trooper choices have been very good. Two of these are the Elite Jet Troopers and the Regular Riot Troopers (not to say anything negative about the Elite Riot Troopers – they’re fabulous too). Jet Troopers have several advantages over other Stormtroopers: first, they’re mobile, granting their commanders incredible deployment flexibility and the ability to quickly hide behind impassible terrain (or cross hindering terrain to escape pursuit by melee models). All Jet Troopers are also able to convert a Block result into an Evade result, which is perfect for keeping that annoying “Surge for Pierce 3” from completely negating your Black die. Third, Jet Troopers can gain movement points after attacking so long as they were within 2 spaces of their target. Elite Jet Troopers come into a field all their own above their regular cousins by giving you a free Blue attack die as well, increasing their damage and guaranteeing damage against Hidden foes nearby.

Once these guys perform an attack and retreat a few spaces, the Riot Troopers are able to march in and assume defensive positions OR attack the targets of the Jet Troopers’ attacks (if they started close enough to reach them in melee). Riot Troopers have the happy ability to turn all of their Surge results into 1 damage and will tack on 1 Strain result if their attack does damage (which is all but guaranteed). Then, they’ll each claim a Block token to throw an extra Block into any attacks that target them before their next turn. This not only allows them to provide excellent cover for the Elite Jet Troopers, but also allows you to clear out some room for your next activation (if you can finish a figure or two).

Silver Medal: Onar Koma and Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter

There are a few Deployment cards that cost 6 or less points and have three attack die. For Mercenary lists, they’re basically non-existent. However, Onar and the Elite Clawdite Shapeshifter are two of them. Because of the nature of the Clawdites, their synchronicity is heavily dependent on the form they choose. For today’s post, we’re going to be focusing on the Streetrat (though we’ll briefly talk about both the Senator and Scout forms).

Onar is pretty straight forward: use Rush to move towards someone (and deal some damage on the way), then shoot when you’re really close. Onar requires Accuracy beyond the required total in order to use his Surge abilities, so shooting people really close to you is a must. As a Hunter, he can use cards like Assassinate or Tools for the Job to further boost his damage profile, while on Defense, don’t underestimate the power of Take Cover or Camouflage (which not only protects him from being shot, but also makes surging more likely).

The Clawdite is also a Hunter, so she (just assuming it’s a girl – play along) can use all of the same Command cards that Onar does in addition to those with the Spy attribute (my favorites are ??? and ???). With the Streetrat form, she can turn a single Surge into a red die attack after the attack resolves that ignores defense bonuses – great for taking down a multi-defense figure that you don’t want to have to crack with a normal attack. In addition, you can get this surge result pretty easily, since you roll a red-yellow-green on attack (though you’ll want to be close to your target to make sure you don’t miss (guaranteed 1 Accuracy, maximum of 5 Accuracy).

The plan for using these two is simple: make sure that when they end their activations they are adjacent (or within 1 space) of each other. Onar activates first the following turn and uses Rush, pushing his target one space closer to where he started. The Streetrat Clawdite then gets 2 movement points at the start of her turn, getting her close to the target (potentially within 2 Accuracy of the target). You can then declare a Move action if you’re not adjacent to get adjacent to the target and perform your attack – surging for the Assassin’s Blade to do even more damage than you do on your attack. Between Onar’s Red-Green-Blue, the shove damage he caused, the Red-Yellow-Green attack from the Clawdite, and the Red die that deals unblockable damage afterwards, even double-digit health figures (like Gaarkhan or the Emperor) will have a rough time staying alive.

If you’re using other Forms for your Clawdite, the strategy changes a little: your damage output will be lower with the Senator form, but you can skip moving and instead pass out tokens to yourself, Onar, and other figures nearby. When you shoot you can Recover damage (which is rare in the skirmish game) and makes this unit more like an E-Web Engineer and less like a melee brawler. Since you can’t surge for Accuracy, I highly recommend taking the Deadeye Command card just to give you the extra oomph you need to hit the target (though you can Recover and gain a token even if you don’t hit).

The Scout is a little different – you basically have a Pulse Cannon, except that your accuracy is outrageously good – with a Yellow-Green-Blue and static 2 Accuracy (and the ability to surge for 2 Accuracy + 1 Damage), you’re guaranteed to get 6 Accuracy (though the average expected Accuracy is around 10 Accuracy) AND you can ignore figures in your line of sight. This means you don’t need to keep up with Onar – you just let him go ahead of you and you shoot around him. It’s pretty sick. Your damage output does drop a bit, but if you can keep 5-6 spaces between you and your target, there are precious few melee figures that will be able to move and attack you (and if you rely on the 9-10 Accuracy you should get, even range-attack figures will have problems hitting you).

Gold Medal: Gideon Argus + Fenn Signis

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that Gideon Argus is one of the best characters available in the skirmish game. Part of this is because he’s so cheap, but it’s also due to the strategic benefits he provides to his teammates. So long as he doesn’t need to move, you can spend both of your actions granting a friendly figure 2 movement points and making that figure Focused. This is particularly good if the figure can’t Focus themselves normally (making a character who can become Focused on their own is nice, but it’s not necessary for Gideon to do it unless that character happens to go next). For today’s post, we’re pairing Gideon Argus with Fenn Signis.

Fenn is one of a handful of characters who has Assault (allowing him to attack multiple times in an activation). Normally figures can only attack once, but Fenn is able to rapid-fire with his blaster and Blast 1 into whoever steps in his way. With a Red-Blue-Green (and the ability to surge for a little Accuracy), he can hit targets a few spaces away from him without much worry, but this range is increased a bit for the first attack thanks to the Focus die. If you have Fenn in your list, you don’t want him moving, so gaining a little extra speed from Gideon is a must-have, while the Focus die just makes your already impressive attack that much more powerful (and your probability of Blasting that much more likely).

I will say that you can also use this strategy with the likes of Gaarkhan, Diala, or Davith – all of whom have the ability to attack multiple times in an activation AND move. Fenn, however, doesn’t have the ability to move and attack twice, so I chose him (greatest benefit).

Requirements For Candidates – Squad Swarm

The Squad Swarm card works in a similar way with two exceptions: first, the deployment cost limit is increased to 15 (instead of 12). Second, the two deployment cards need to share the same name. This means you can use an Elite/Regular pairing, but they need to be the same unit. All of the previous combos won’t work with this upgrade. Hence, we’re going to create a new list of front-runners…

Bronze Medal: Elite Jet Trooper and Elite Jet Trooper

This particular Command card comes in an Imperial Villain pack, so I figured I’d include some bucketheads. J We’ve already talked about Elite Jet Troopers, but one of the advantages of using these guys is that they cost less than 8 points, allowing you to activate two elite squads at the same time. While you won’t be able to move up the Riot Troopers to shield these guys from attack, you will be able to rush in a number of troopers to triple-attack-dice-smash enemy figures and then back up a bit to gain some protection. It’s not fancy, it’s not flashy, but it is definitely effective.

Silver Medal: Trandoshan Hunter + Trandoshan Hunter

If you’ve ever started out with Imperial Assault by playing the Core campaign, you’ve met a Trandoshan or two. If your experience with Trandos is anything like mine, you don’t like to face them. Sure, they can’t surge for damage (and they occasionally waste their surges), but they hurt. A lot. And so when I was thinking about what pairings happen to fall at or under 15 points, it was an easy choice to add two regular Trandoshan Hunter squads. It’s important to note that while you have the models to run two regular squads, you don’t start with two copies of the card from the Core box so you’ll either need to borrow someone else’s deployment card OR just have a reasonable opponent who knows you don’t want to drop another $80-100 to get a core box just to get some of the models.

While using Trandos on different parts of the board is useful for dealing lots of damage on both sides, I find them to be a bit fragile – 6 health each with a Black die doesn’t last very long – especially if you’re facing three-figure deployment cards (Rebel Troopers or Stormtroopers in particular). While you can eat these guys for lunch if you want, if you’re not the one striking first, you might find yourself outclassed. As a result, I tend to run my Trandoshans together, so my opponent never escapes the pain they bring on one side of the battlefield. You can use other units to hold ground if the scenario requires, but don’t break the power of your offensive tools by splitting them up.

Gold Medal: Elite Tusken Raider + Elite Tusken Raider

Now I know I just got through talking about regular Trandoshans…these guys one-up Trandos. Trandoshans have the ability to “Surge for Pierce 2,” which is useful in making sure your attack does maximum damage. Trandos also have the ability to apply a Strain result before the attack if they’re attacking figures within 3 spaces (which is awesome – especially with Under Duress, which we posted on earlier this week). Tuskens, however, add a static Damage result to their attacks and they trade in that finicky Blue die with a  slightly-less-finicky Red die. Their surge options change from hurting their attacker to hurting nearby foes, making them more useful for splashing damage against low-health enemies nearby. Activating four at the same time is a HUGE game changer (especially if they’re together – their health is roughly the same as the Trandos we just viewed). If you can’t get in melee range, their Tusken Cyclers allow them to shoot at figures with a Red-Blue, which will probably do about the same damage as the Green-Blue that you’re going to see from Trandos who aren’t adjacent to their foes. All told, Tuskens are more reliable and more menacing than their Trandoshan cohorts and if you have the option of taking two of these Elites (see notes above on what to do with only having one deployment card above).

Is it cheating to talk about both Trandoshans and Tuskens as two of the entries? Maybe. Shouldn’t we have some Rebel figures in this section instead of all these bad guys? Perhaps. There are many combos you can use and most generic figures do fit the bill, but when you’re looking at pure offensive firepower, it’s hard to rival all three of these combos. It’s painful if these combos come against you and you really, REALLY love it if you can pull it off. In our next post, we’ll be looking at the Endless Ranks Command card and what Troopers to include in your list alongside General Weiss. Until then, happy gaming!