Character review: Saska Teft

To wrap up our discussion of support heroes, we're going to view today my favorite character so far in Imperial Assault: Saska Teft. While Diala Passil can Focus friendly models and Gideon Argus can give them free actions (and other stuff), Saska can provide a variety of benefits to her teammates and give them the flexibility to choose how and when to use them.

Saska Teft: Something From Nothing

Saska Teft is like Q in the Bond films: she makes the cool gadgets and works her technical wizardry to turn ordinary weapons into high-powered tools of destruction (or an ordinary vest into a defensive fortress or a shorted-out explosive into an actual explosive). Saska does this by using her Battle Technician ability, which allows her to pass “device tokens” (DTs) to adjacent heroes. By default, this allows heroes who are attacking to add a Surge result to their results OR allow heroes who are performing an attribute test to reroll a die. This is very, VERY useful in the early game when your weapons are bad (and is still useful later in the campaign with weapons that don’t surge well).

Saska – more so than any other character – can provide benefits to other characters that make them better at what they already do. While Gideon makes other figures do “their thing” more often (and can remove Strain or make them Focused or add a Surge result), Gideon can’t make a bad weapon good. Saska can. Ko-Tun can pass out battle tokens, Diala can focus other people, Fenn can pass around some movement points, and several characters can provide one-time block/evade results. Saska can’t pass out battle tokens, but she can give friendly figures the ability to do all the rest via her DTs.
The most powerful upgrades in Saska’s arsenal are her 3 XP skills: Gadgeteer and Power Converter. Gadgeteer is a must-have – it allows Saska to use Battle Tactician twice each turn, which means she can help a friend nearby and help herself (or help two friends if you feel generous...or claim both tokens if she's feeling selfish). Since these don’t take actions, she can still rest and perform an attack OR move and perform an attack. Gadgeteer also opens up otherwise unavailable configurations for weapons by allowing her to add an additional mod slot to the weapons she’s using – which includes adding a mod to weapons that have no base mod slots (thank you for clearing that up, FAQ).

Power Converter requires a Strain to use, but it allows anyone using a DT on the attack to not only gain the free Surge result, but also change one of their die out for a different color die. If you start with this skill in a short campaign, you can allow characters like Gaarkhan to roll a Red-Red with his Vibro-Ax or Biv Bodhrick to roll a Red-Green with his Repeating Blaster. Characters who have terrible starter weapons (like Jyn Odan’s Vintage Blaster or Fenn Signis’s Infantry Rifle) suddenly have powerful Red-Green weapons that can roast their foes so long as they’re up close (Fenn could roll with Red-Blue if he needs the accuracy). Saska has the choice with her starter weapon of rolling a Red-Yellow or a Red-Green, both of which are incredibly powerful combos and with the ability to surge for Damage 1 and Pierce 1 (and Weaken if you plan on shooting twice) with a free Surge, you’re hard-pressed to not do damage.

Her vulnerability, though, is her relatively low Endurance for a support character. As opposed to both Diala and Gideon (who have 5 Endurance each), Saska has a standard 4 Endurance, making her run out of steam pretty fast and you’ll find that she constantly needs to rest. As a result, it’s best to only plan on attacking once per turn (and occasionally, you may need to sprint instead of fighting). The exchange though is that you don’t need to be the one using your DTs and straining to change die colors – you can pass that buck off to other people!
You can also get the Remote Distribution upgrade which not only brings you up to Endurance 5, but also allows you to toss DTs to a figure within 3 spaces (instead of being adjacent to friendly figures).

I will say this before we delve into the different builds for Saska – we’re going to focus only on the three upgrades listed above. Saska has other ones – and they’re good – but they require splitting synergies (do A or B or C or D with your DTs). While this toolkit approach to Saska is useful (and one of the reasons she’s my favorite), the builds we’re going to show below all work with the same upgrade tree – and it costs a lot of XP (because it’s so powerful). Know that there are other upgrades that are fantastic and very useful…but they distract from the overall firepower support that we’re choosing to focus on here. With this in mind, let’s look at several weapon builds for Saska.

End-Game Weapon #1 - Whirlwind Punch: Vibro-Knucklers with Balanced Hilt

Saska can turn any weapon into a great weapon with her Gadgeteer ability. From the melee perspective, it’s hard to do better than the Vibro-Kucklers. The Vibro-Knucklers are an upgraded version of the Tier 1 Armored Gauntlets, but they are way, WAY better. Where the Armored Gauntlets surge for Cleave 1, you gain Cleave 2. Want to surge for Stun and Pierce 1 separately? Try getting Pierce 2 and Bleed together – it’s not even a question which is better! For 400 (and only 100 credits more than the Armored Gauntlets), it’s a steal.

However, for most characters (except Gideon – see our last post for more info on that), if you get 3 Surge, that’s about all you get out of the weapon.

• In an ideal world: Damage 1 + Surge 1 + Damage 1 + Surge 2 = Damage 2 + Surge 3 = Damage 4 + Pierce 2 + Cleave 2 + Bleed. Of course, this only happens 5% of the time.
• Most of the time: Damage 2 + Surge 1 (or Damage 2 - doesn't matter) = Damage 2 + Surge 1 = Damage 4. 
• Worst possible result: Surge 1 + Damage 1 = Damage 1 + Surge 1 = Damage 3. This isn't TERRIBLE, but not great for a Tier 2 weapon (no matter how cheap it is). 

So, all that to say . . .

Against a Black die, you can expect to get 2-3 Damage past the defense results.

If Saska wields this weapon with the Gadgeteer and Power Converter upgrades, though, we have several advantages: first, we can add the Balanced Hilt. For 300 credits (a whopping 700 credits for your character), you get a free Damage 2 (or Pierce 2 and Bleed) – you’re not going to get that kind of benefit from any other modification! Sure the High Impact Guard is a fine upgrade – and could be triggered by this weapon pretty easily. But nothing beats reliably triggering all your surge abilities at the same time. The Balanced Hilt can be acquired early (perhaps on the Armored Gauntlets for a free Damage 2?) before you upgrade to the Vibro-Knucklers.

Second, we can swap the Yellow die for a Red die. While there isn’t generally much difference between Green and Red, the jump from Yellow to Red is huge since a) we have a free Surge from the Balanced Hilt (see above) and b) we have another free Surge from the DT. With 2 free Surge (if we need both of them), we only need a single Surge to trigger all three effects (which we should get ~65% of the time past a Black die) – and approximately half of the time, we won’t need the Balanced Hilt at all (though if you plan to attack and rest, it’s nice to use the Balanced Hilt anyway since you’ll only be attacking once). Instead of doing 2-3 Damage past a Black die, you’re averaging 4-5 Damage (plus Cleave 2) past that die – that’s close to three dead EliteStormtroopers if you double-attack in one turn! And all this for the cost of…700 credits. Worth it? I think so.

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Power Converter (3), Gadgeteer (3), Remote Distribution (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 - That Big Dang Gun: T21 with Sniper Scope OR Spread Barrel

Okay, as fun as slashing things with Vibro-Knucklers is, Saska starts off with a gun. So what better gun to give her than one that she alone can turn into a truly formidable weapon? A T21! The T21 is the only Tier 2 weapon that has an attack pool with 3 dice in it. It’s surge abilities aren’t great (Stun and Pierce 2 are nice, to be sure), but it rolls a Green-Green-Yellow. Assuming the Power Converter upgrade has been purchased, you can convert that Yellow die (you don’t need the Surge coming off that Yellow) into a Red die (because it’s fun).

Now here’s the cool part: always make sure you are either 2 spaces away from your target or 5 spaces away from your target.

• If you are 2 spaces away, the two Green die will make sure you hit the target, allowing you to use the free Surge from the device token to gain Pierce 2. 
• If you’re 5 spaces away, you can use the free Surge from your device token to surge for 3 Accuracy which, combined with the 2+ Accuracy from your Green die makes sure you hit the target. You then have the Sniper Scope’s free Surge to use for Pierce 2. 
• Either way, you get the Accuracy you need and the Pierce 2 FOR FREE! All of the other die results can be free of Surge and you’re happy – 6-7 Damage with Pierce 2 and enough accuracy to hit the target, thank you very much. Any Surges that appear allow you to Stun the target or recover Strain – not bad all in all. 

If you’re concerned about the off-chance that you get 3 Surge results and can’t use them all, consider picking up Responsive Armor – if it keeps Saska alive, it’s good, right? This weapon is pricier than the previous set, but requires you to strain to move (or spend an action to move) less often – at just under 1200 credits, though, it’s still comparable in both damage output and utility as many Tier 3 weapons.
It’s important to note that the Sniper Scope isn’t strictly necessary for this build – you can instead rely on shooting things up close (or rely on recovering Strain less often) by going with the Spread Barrel. Assuming you only attack once per turn, you’ll get the same damage output from up-close as you do with the Sniper Scope (and you can get this at Tier 2 instead of Tier 3). Just a thought…

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Power Converter (3), Gadgeteer (3), Remote Distribution (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 - Paint Everything Red: Valken-38 Carbine with Disruption Cell and Plasma Cell

We come now to the most surprising weapon for Saska to use – and by far the most expensive. Once you see it in action, though, I think you’ll agree there’s no other weapon quite like it. Enter the Valken-38 Carbine with the two most destructive blaster upgrades you can muster: the Disruption Cell and the Plasma Cell. It’s important to note that there are two different ways you can use the Valken: first, you can spend all your actions to become Focused and fire the darn thing (ignoring all bad guys in your path). Second, you can just shoot the thing without becoming Focused, which allows you to both move and shoot (with a small difference in the output of the weapon) OR you can shoot twice (which overall is likely to do more damage). There are reasons for both, but we’re going to focus on the latter right now and assume you want to save an action to rest (or shoot twice – whichever strikes your fancy).

Let’s review what we’ve said in the previous entry for our default bonuses:

• Thanks to the Power Converter upgrade, we can turn the Valken’s Red-Blue-Blue dice pool into a Red-Red-Blue dice pool. 
• We will also get an automatic Surge result from the DT, which can trigger the Damage 2 surge result.
• Thanks to the Disruption Cell, we get an automatic 2 Accuracy (we’ll need it) and we change the current Red-Red-Blue dice pool into a (WAIT FOR IT!) Red-Red-Red dice pool. 
• With three – I REPEAT THREE – Red dice and a free Surge for 2 Damage we add *dun dun dun* the Plasma Cell for a free Pierce 1 and the ability to Surge for 1 Damage.
• Each Red die is likely to provide 2-3 Damage to the result total. We will get (besides the free Surge we get from the device token) no more than 3 Surge results, which we can use to a) gain extra accuracy, b) recover strain, and c) add 1 more Damage. 

Depending on the circumstance, these are all good: you can always take a shot at someone who is more than 2 spaces away because you know you’re getting a free Surge from the device token. In the odd event that they get an Evade, you have a fair chance at getting a surge on one of your three Red die. Of course, all this becomes moot if just run up to the guy and blast his head off at close range, but in the end you’re looking at 8-10 Damage with an auto Pierce 1 – YOU CAN’T REALLY DUPLICATE THAT!!!! Alright, some characters can, but you certainly don’t expect it from Saska…or the Valken.
But this underscores yet again why Saska is my favorite character: compared to other Tier 3 weapons, the Valken is kind of weak – it has the requisite surge for Damage 2 ability, but it doesn’t surge very often and while the two Blue dice give you range, it doesn’t give you damage. Anyone can put the Disruption Cell on it to make it a Red-Red-Blue (which surges even less often) or the Sniper Scope (if you want that Damage 2 so badly), but nobody is going to be able to rival what Saska does with it. She is, once again, just that good.

Upgrades to purchase - 10 XP: Power Converter (3), Gadgeteer (3), Remote Distribution (4)

Saska in the Skirmish Game

Saska Teft in the Skirmish game is more expensive than many smuggler and is probably not as good as Diala or Gideon. However, she has the unique ability of not only being able to surge for 3 different Damage/Pierce options with her Yellow-Green (that’s pretty good for a Smuggler), but also she can add a single Mercenary Deployment Card to your army. This has excellent synergies with Jabba the Hutt and Vinto Hreeda, though you could also grab anyone you want (Smuggler, Hunter, Brawler, Creature…). While Saska doesn’t provide many other unique abilities, she’s got a good Health stat to back up her White die, and a great Command Card that can blow up a wounded figure who is trying to maintain control of a Terminal. All told, she’s nice to have (though a little pricey).

Saska is a wonderful hero and I highly recommend her. While her DTs can drain her Endurance pretty quickly, you can use her to either provide niche benefits to your team (again, most of which we didn’t cover here) OR provide self-bolstering offensive/defensive capabilities if you want to play more independently of the group. Don’t forget to rest and have lots of fun with her. We’re stepping away from Support class heroes and moving into fighter heroes and who better to view than the berserk Wookie Gaarkhan, the gunslinging reckless showoff, Vinto Hreeda, and the soldier who taught us to love the blaster-toting-warrior class, Fenn Signis. So until next time, happy gaming!

Skirmish upgrades: using On a Diplomatic Mission

Good morning gamers,

In our last two posts, we've looked at skirmish upgrades for Mercenary (Black Market) and Imperial (Advanced Com Systems) armies. Today, we're going to turn our attention to the Rebel faction and view the On a Diplomatic Mission skirmish upgrade. This upgrade must be attached to a Leader and requires that the Leader doesn't attack during his or her activation. Our qualifications for finalists today will be:

1. The model must be able to be included in a Rebel force;
2. The model doesn't need to attack on it's turn;
3. The bonus provided to the Leader adds to what they already provide the team.

While there are times when getting a free Evade is nice and getting some movement is handy, most of the time, I want that VP. We'll assume in this post that you'll be taking the VP, but we'll note if the other options might be better. Without further ado, let's get into it:

Bronze Medal: Murne Rin
Murne has one of the worst attack pools you can have and while she can surge for 2 damage, she isn't going to hurt too many people. Where she really shines is being able to co-op an enemy model (with a low figure cost) and use him to attack instead.

Since Murne isn't attacking, she can still trigger the free VP (though a free Evade will help her stay alive with that black die). For only 5 points, Murne Rin can be included in just about any force. But she only takes third place...

Silver Medal: Gideon Argus
As I said in a post last week, Gideon is one of the best figures you can take in any army. At 3 points, he's cheaper than Murne Rin and can give friendly models movement points or make them Focused. While he can shoot decently, Gideon can do a host of other actions and then benefit from movement, a free Evade, or a free VP.

Gideon has the ability to stand in one place (preferably in a safe place) and enhance his friends in combat. This is huge, since becoming Focused is hard in the skirmish game. Gideon not only hands out Focus at a far distance, but he's also inexpensive. But despite all this, he's not the best candidate...

Gold Medal: Jabba the Hutt

If you've been keeping up with the blog, Jabba has featured prominently in several posts. Unlike the last two contestants, Jabba is a Mercenary figure, not a Rebel figure. So why does he show up here?

The answer is that you can ally him in with Saska Teft. Saska allows you to include one Mercenary deployment card in your list, which enables Jabba (or your favorite bounty hunter) to join a predominantly Rebel force. While Jabba is by far more expensive than our last two choices, he already rewards you with VPs if you defeat enemy figures. This skirmish upgrade adds to the flow of VPs so that you win faster.

It's important to note that Jabba isn't as strong as he can be in Mercenary lists - two of his special rules require selecting a Mercenary figure (which will only be himself). Still, you can Bully, perform a move, and Scheme - all of which are useful and none of which count as attacks.

Are there heroes we could have chosen instead? Yeah - but most Leaders are encouraged (by their rules or by their attack pool) to do some attacking. Will our Leader be tempted to attack? Sure. Would attacking be bad? Not necessarily. If attacking during your activation defeats a figure, you'll get more VPs from that than you will from the skirmish upgrade, so just because you take the upgrade doesn't mean you can't attack.

In our next post, we'll be returning to Mercenary lists as we examine the Under Duress upgrade. Until next time, happy gaming!

Command cards: Urgency vs. Fleet-footed

Command Card Review: Fleet Footed and Urgency

As we continue in our discussion of Command cards and how to use them, two of first 0-cost Command cards that you will run into in the Core box are related to movement: Fleet-Footed and Urgency. In many ways, these two Command cards provide the same benefit, but their use and efficiency in your army list differ (recommending one to certain lists over the other). In today’s post, we’re going to look at what those differences are.

Movement in Imperial Assault

Before we get into the two cards, let’s take a quick moment to understand some of the finer points of movement in the Imperial Assault Skirmish game (though most of these rules apply to Campaign mode as well). In Imperial Assault, most models require a single movement point to move from one tile to an adjacent tile. This can be done vertically, horizontally, or diagonally as long as you don’t cross a line. Mobile/Massive figures ignore red solid/dashed lines which would normally obstruct movement because they’re cool that way. Certain spaces require 2 movement points to enter (either spaces with enemy models or with blue “difficult” terrain tiles), indicating resistance from the tile (either from the ground itself or from someone not wishing to be shoved). Mobile/Massive figures ignore these penalties as well. Third, non-Massive figures can’t end their movement in a space containing another figure unless they are allowed to “push” (which very few can do). Finally, some special rules allow models to move “X spaces,” which allows the model to move through difficult terrain and enemy figures for 1 movement point instead of 2 movement points. These four rules for movement will govern most of our discussion today and can be summarized in the following questions:

1.       Will 1 movement point get you anywhere further?

2.       Is your figure Mobile/Massive?

3.       Can your figure move X spaces (instead of using movement points normally)?

Fleet Footed: Value of a Movement Point

Fleet Footed has one key advantage over Urgency: it doesn’t require an action to use. True, you don’t go much farther as a free action, but still, if you have the other two actions planned out, it’s nice to not have to spend an action to perform a full move (or a move-and-then-some with Urgency). The need for slightly more movement (and not spending an action to do it) benefits three specific groups of units: first, you want to use Fleet Footed with models that can spend both of their actions doing damage to enemy figures. If you are an Elite Imperial Guard, you want to be within 2 spaces of a friendly model so he can interrupt to perform a move or an attack. Assuming you start within 3 spaces of the target, your choices are a) spend an action moving, b) use Urgency to get that movement and keep moving onward, or c) use Fleet Footed. In either of the first two cases, you can’t attack the same target – you need to choose which of your two models will be attacking this round (the Imperial Officer or the friendly figure). Getting that little nudge to help you use more of your rules is invaluable. This is also useful for models with Assault who want to be able to attack multiple models but can’t see anyone at the start of their turn.

The second kind of model that is helped are models that have the capacity for long range attacks but can’t surge for accuracy (or those that don’t surge very often if they can surge for accuracy). Some models (like Loku Kanoloa, Probe Droids, ad HK Assassin Droids) have the capability for hitting targets that are far away, but if you get a bad roll for Accuracy, you’re hosed. While Urgency might be nice for these figures, there’s usually a jump in the likelihood that you hit your target if you move just one step closer. Alternatively, you might be able to look around a corner and acquire a better target by moving a single step. This allows you to save your movement for getting away (or storming in if you clear the hallway of foes).

The third kind of model that should be using Fleet Footed are models with the Massive special rule. While any large figure benefits from getting additional movement points, part of the Massive special rules indicate that as soon as you stomp on a hostile figure, you need to stop your movement. While Urgency can give you a boost to moving (which is nice), Massive figures usually need on a little more movement. Being able to push yourself one more step often leads to less waste.

Urgency: Getting a Speed Boost

The first models that benefit the most from Urgency are models with the melee weapon type. There is nothing more frustrating than being a melee model and not being able to attack on a given round. Models with Reach (or Tusken Raiders who have the option of using a melee attack or a range attack) have life a little easier than the rest, but by and large, melee models need to run up to someone and still have an action left to hack away in order to be useful. Getting one extra movement point might be useful, but Urgency is more likely to help you.

You’ll also want to use Urgency if you have fast models that benefit from being in enemy deployment zones. For both Smugglers who have the Smuggler’s Run skirmish upgrade or Spies who are trying to use the Behind Enemy Lines Command card, getting that extra boost of speed could mean the difference between using a special ability/Command card or being shot in the head. When you need to get in and out, the boost from Urgency is unrivaled. Granted this is a niche case, but still…

The third group of models that benefit from Urgency are models that have to follow normal movement rules. I’ll admit that this recommendation is totally uninspired – anyone who follows the normal rules will like getting more movement than they normally get. Models like Onar Koma, Gaarkhan, or Mobile models however ignore most of the penalties associated with movement points. The majority of models in your collection, however, will not be able to rush through an enemy battle line or be able to move through difficult terrain. Urgency’s added movement point gives you the flexibility to go further than expected OR be able to move through terrain that otherwise would have eaten up too much of your movement.

Movement Command Cards: Is One Better?

As you can probably tell, there are benefits from using Fleet Footed in all of the Urgency cases, and benefits from Urgency in the Fleet Footed cases. In many ways this is because both provide extra movement and extra movement is nice. Ultimately the question of whether you should include one over the other comes down to whether your models need to both attack and perform a different special action. In all other respects, the two are very similar. In our next post, we’re turning away from the Core Box and looking at the top three Ally/Villain packs for giving you Command Cards that are useful for your armies. Until next time, happy gaming!

Character review: Gideon Argus

In my last post reviewing characters, I looked at Diala Passil. She’s a support character who’s no slouch in combat (and she can be run in several different ways – and what we talked about there wasn’t even exhaustive). Today, we look at the king of the support class: the aged general Gideon Argus.

Gideon is, for both the campaign, and the skirmish game, one of the best figures Fantasy Flight Games has come out with so far. Gideon, like Diala, is included in the core box and fills a role that no other player has done yet: get more mileage out of your teammates. While Gideon thrives on making other people’s lives easier, you can run him to be a powerful piece in his own right.

Gideon Argus: The Playmaker

Gideon’s core ability is Command and it allows him to give one of his actions to someone else to use to either move or attack. This means that if you run him near a hero who specializes in killing things (Gaarkhan, Fenn, Biv, Onar, Davith, Diala, Shyla, Verena…you get the picture), you can give that character more time in the sun and a better shot at doing what they do best – and you don’t need to pay the cash to equip two characters with great weapons/damage upgrades. This is a fantastic economy of team resources and makes the game more fun for the person that you’re empowering (and you feel better because you let them do it). J

Gideon improves on this Command skill with three of his upgrades: his Air of Command upgrade is perhaps his best skill, as it not only improves his Health for 2 XP, but allows him to Command figures that are in line of sight (as opposed to within 3 spaces). The three-space range is sometimes quite useful even after getting this upgrade (as you can choose someone that you can't see either because they're around a corner or because there are figures in the way), but being able to look down a hallway or across a field and give a free action to a friend is invaluable. For 2 XP more, you can get Mobile Tactician, which gives you movement points each time you use Command. Finally, for a whopping 4 XP, you can get Masterstroke, which allows you to resolve the effects of Command again, but without having to use an action or suffer the strain penalty. When using Masterstroke with Mobile Tactician, you not only get to lend 2 actions to friendly figures, but you also get 4 movement points (which in most cases is like getting a free move). Not bad for 6 XP. Gideon also has the ability to make friendly figures remove strain or become focused, but these skills tend to cut into your 4 XP options, so you can usually only get one of them if you purchase both Air of Command and Mobile Tactician. Oh, the choices…

With this in mind, let’s look at three different builds for Gideon Argus.

End-Game Weapon #1 - The Commander: Holdout Blaster with Spread Barrel

Gideon’s Holdout Blaster is not particularly good – the unfortunate side-effect of running a Yellow-Blue weapon is that occasionally you’ll only get Surge results on your dice (happens 33% of the time on a Yellow and 16% of the time on a Blue, so you can expect these two events to coincide pretty close to 5% of the time). In statistics, we call this a "non-zero probability" which is a fancy way of saying "it basically never happens, but we need to acknowledge that it does happen" (and in my experience, it will happen when you need to do damage the most).
When you actually get a damage result on one of your die, however, the Holdout Blaster is a neat little weapon (especially since a healthy Gideon can surge for Stun with his Disabling Shot skill). This means that Gideon can use the maximum possible 3 Surge to gain Pierce 2 + Stun + Recover 1 Strain, which is pretty good for a base weapon (compare that to Jyn Odan’s Vintage Blaster or Fenn Signis’s Infantry Rifle – it’s not even close). The limitation of this weapon (what makes it balanced) is that you can’t get extra accuracy with it – so you want to be close to your target. In general, you should get 4 Accuracy (3 from the Blue and 1 from the Yellow), but you want to be within 2 Accuracy to be guaranteed a hit. Not bad per se, but not great either.

The point of taking this weapon, though, is not to fight very much. When you need to finish someone off, you can. The Spread Barrel guarantees that so long as you’re within 3 spaces (and you should be – you can’t get extra accuracy as stated previously), you can add a damage to the results of your attack. This means you’ll at least get 1 Damage + Pierce 2 + Stun on your attack, which in general should result in doing at least 1 Damage to your target (unless he gets 3 Block on the Black or the Dodge on the White). And that’s your WORST RESULT.

Gideon is then free to use his activation issuing Commands, focusing a friendly figure who attacks (during a Command, perhaps?) via For the Cause!, pushing himself to move a little further, and resting (to both keep himself healthy and strain-free). Every turn he can start free of strain and end free of strain, while empowering his buddies to do the killing on his turn that he could do (but chooses not to do). And you paid…300 credits for this weapon build, so feel free to get yourself some armor (I like the Admiral’s Uniform, though the Responsive Armor is also good), perhaps a Portable Medkit, and the Combat Visor (to get that accuracy you need!) with all the cash you’re not spending on weapons.

Upgrades to purchase - 11 XP: Air of Command (2), Mobile Tactician (2), For the Cause! (3), Masterstroke (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 - Guns Blazing: A280 with Plasma Cell and Sniper Scope

If you want Gideon to go in guns blazing and bust people up, the best gun to use is the A280. This weapon is one of a handful weapons that can surge for both Damage 2 and Pierce 2 (melee and range included). At only 600 credits, it automatically gives 4 Accuracy (but likely 5-6 Accuracy) and it gives you two mod slots.

The down-side is that while its surge abilities are good, it doesn’t surge very reliably – the Green-Blue combo should get you ~1 surge each round, but you need to boost your surge potential in order get your money’s worth out of it. The raw damage that it does isn’t going to be great if you’re surging on those die, so…what do you? Well...

You're Gideon: surging is what we do.

First off, we take the Sniper Scope (the Tactical Display works too and is available at Tier 1 vs. Tier 3, but can't be triggered more than once in an activation). So long as you’re shooting from 5 or more spaces away (which you should get the accuracy required for that), you get a free Surge (FREE 2 Damage with the A280). In addition to the Sniper Scope, we can take the Called Shot upgrade for a free surge or (perhaps should I say, “and”) the Military Efficiency upgrade to convert 1 Damage into 1 Surge. Both of these are 1 XP upgrades, so I think you should be able to afford them. With these two upgrades alone, we could turn a single damage result (let’s say one of those nasty single damage results on the Blue die) to Damage 2 + Pierce 2. If we have the Sniper Scope, we don’t even need to run this conversion (or save Called Shot for use on someone else’s turn – whichever). Add to this killer combo the Plasma Cell for a free Pierce 1 and the ability to surge for Damage 1, you can turn an absolutely horrid roll of 2 Surges on the Green and Blue to a final damage result of Damage 3 + Pierce 3 at Accuracy 4 (using Called Shot instead of the Sniper Scope). Maximum output, of course, is generated by getting double-damage faces on both the Green and Blue, which would result in a grand total of Damage 7 + Pierce 3 + Accuracy 5+ (and you could reduce your Damage by 1 to add Stun to the results – your choice). That’s…a lot of power.

To top it all off, you can take Hammer and Anvil instead of (or in addition to?) Masterstroke, allowing you to call a friendly figure to assist you with an attack for one of your actions. This gets all the power of Command with the added benefit of being able to attack also!

Total cost of this build is 1300 credits, which is more expensive than the majority of weapons you’ll find out there, but you’re not likely to rival its damage output. To make sure you get that required accuracy, again consider taking the Combat Visor since it’s not a weapon mod. J Also, this build doesn’t require a lot of his upgrades, so you can buy whatever you want with the remaining XP (it’s all good stuff).

Upgrades to purchase - 6 XP: Called Shot (1), Military Efficiency (1), Hammer and Anvil (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 - I Am One With The Force: Ancient Lightsaber with Focusing Beam

Gideon might be old, but he’s no Jedi. The good news is, this doesn’t disqualify him from using the Jedi’s weapon – and I’m willing to go out on a ledge here…

Gideon is better at using the Ancient Lightsaber than ANY OTHER CHARACTER!

There. I said it. Now to defend myself.

We just established that Gideon can make Surge results appear without trying. With a Yellow-Blue-Green, he shouldn’t need to surge as strongly as we showed before, but why not be able to do it? Let’s assume that you have Called Shot and Military Efficiency: you can then turn 1 Damage into 2 Surge. With this amazing Lightsaber, that means we can turn 1 Damage into Damage 1 + Pierce 3 – that’s a free (I REPEAT FREE) Pierce 3. Any other surge you get on the dice you roll (and you’ve got a Yellow-Green-Blue while you’re healthy) trigger the surge for Damage 2 (or save you from needing to use Military Efficiency OR Called Shot). With the Focusing Beam, we can also add a free Pierce 1 to our attack (if we need it) OR strain and exhaust to remove a Dodge result (oh White die foes, you are not safe anymore). How likely are we to get 3 Surge? Surprisingly often…and certainly more often than anyone else (including Mr. I-hide-from-everyone-because-I’m-Davith-Elso).

What’s even better: this uses the same upgrade skills as the previous entry, so if you want to buy the A280 at Tier 2, you can do that and then reconfigure your weapon of choice to the Ancient Lightsaber (giving your blaster to someone else who will use it - and if you use it a few times, someone will want to keep it).

Upgrades to purchase – 6 XP: Called Shot (1), Military Efficiency (1), Hammer and Anvil (4)

Gideon in the Skirmish Game

First off, let’s get something out of the way as we migrate to the Skirmish game: Gideon is better in campaign mode than in skirmish mode. That being said, Gideon Argus is still one of the best figures for the Rebel player to take (and is commonly held to be one of the best figures you can bring period). Gideon is cheap, fitting easily into any Rebel or Mercenary army (with Temporary Alliance) and he can spend the entire game moving people out of harm’s way (or into a better offensive position) and focusing them. If he’s required to shoot at people, he basically has an A280 (except that he can become Focused instead of doing Pierce - which is probably better).

Gideon is a Leader, so he can use Command cards that give you more Command cards (like Planning) as well as assisting your teammates in removing harmful conditions (like Regroup) or making people Focused (like Inspiring Speech). As a Rebel Leader in particular, he is one of the best characters to use with On a Diplomatic Mission (which we will talk about in a few days in a different post). All told, Gideon is fantastic to have on your team – in many ways, he’s very similar to an Elite Stormtrooper…which also hints at his weakness.

Gideon, for all his benefits, is very vulnerable to taking damage (like in the Campaign game). Gideon will not be able to resist damage very well – that black die is meant to stop a single die from doing something (and it very rarely stops two dice). As a result, after a few shots are fired at him, Gideon will fall. For 3 points, that’s not a big loss, but he’s not going to last forever if you don’t keep him safe. Still, as part of a Trooper team or assisting a team of Jedi (or Wookies!), he’s fabulous to have encouraging your soldiers on to victory.

In my previous post on Diala Passil, I mentioned Gideon is my second favorite character – for a while he was top dog because I thought that he was the character most suited to my own personality. While Gideon will always hold a very special place in my esteem, he has since been ousted by a different support class character: Saska Teft. We’ll talk about Saska more in our next post and you’ll be the judge as to whether she’s better than Gideon (though admittedly they do different things). Until then, happy gaming!

Skirmish upgrades: using Advanced Comm Systems most effectively

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our series on skirmish upgrades by looking at a niche Imperial attachment: Advanced Comm Systems (ACS). There are only a few units that can use this card (and the Grand Inquisitor isn't one of them... even though you get the card in his villain pack). This card is unique in that it extends the range of special abilities from 1-2 spaces away to 3 spaces away. Our qualifications for finalists today will be:

1. The model must be able to be included in an Imperial force (while you can include Mercenary models in your force with Temporary Alliance, none of the Mercenary deployment cards can use this power);
2. The model can affect friendly models nearby;
3. The benefits of this upgrade will prioritize static bonuses over situational bonuses.

Without further ado, let's get into it:

Bronze Medal: Elite Imperial Officer
The Elite Imperial Officer is one of a handful of units that can enable a friendly figure to attack out of turn. With an original range of 2 spaces for his Executive Order special ability, ACS gives that occasionally required extra range to make a better figure look good.

The Elite Imperial Officer is only third in our list because while he's very useful, he only provides a once-per-turn benefit and if you lose your power figures, the effectiveness of this card goes down.

Silver Medal: Kayn Somos
Kayn is expensive for a trooper, and while his expected range rivals most units, his damage (and surge) output is not great. When you do surge, you can use his Squad Commander surge ability make a friendly adjacent Trooper Focused. With ACS, you can choose a Trooper within 3 spaces, which is far better.

In addition, Kayn can spend his non-shooting action to use his Firing Squad special ability to call in the firepower of two friendly Troopers within 2 spaces (with ACS it's within 3 spaces) to attack a single model (which means you can attack the same guy three times if Kayn shoots too).

While all this is great your not that likely to surge more than once in a fight and if you do, your damage output is greatly diminished. Still, if you have strong Trooper units (the elite Stormtrooper variants are great), you don't need to attack - just call in the shots and move to where you are needed most.

Gold Medal: General Sorin

I don't like most of the models in Return to Hoth, but I like Sorin. Sorin has great Droid and Vehicle synergies, and like our two previous finalists, his Bombardment special ability can cause another model (adjacent originally, within 3 spaces with ACS) to interrupt to attack (with a static Blast 1 added to the results). Sorin is also healthier than the Elite Imperial Officer (though not as healthy as Kayn Somos) and cheaper than Kayn Somos (though not as cheap as the Elite Imperial Officer). But Sorin comes into a realm all his own in a different way...

Sorin originally allows adjacent friendly vehicles and droids to borrow his surge abilities with his Advanced Firepower skill, which not only allows for more damage, but also can Focus the Droid/Vehicle or Stun the target. Since Imperial Droids and Vehicles can't use more than 2 surge for damage (and none can Focus themselves or Stun their opponents), Sorin provides the ability to turn more surge into damage and makes it impossible to waste surge in an attack (assuming you get enough accuracy). Ordinarily, you'd need to create a "Sorin Ball" with up to 8 figures surrounding Sorin (which not only makes your army vulnerable to Blast, but also limits your ability to move around the board). With ACS, the range for this borrowing rule is increased to 3 spaces and your army is less vulnerable to Blast AND can move around the map more easily.

This upgrade is one of the few upgrades available to Imperial players, but it can be well worth it. Even if you're not running a Droid, Vehicle, or Trooper list, it's still useful on an Imperial Officer (and for 1 point, it's probably not breaking your point limit). In our next post, we'll be switching to the Rebels and examining On a Diplomatic Mission. Until next time, happy gaming!

Command cards: using To the limit to the limit

Command Card Review: To The Limit

When building a Command Card deck, it’s pretty hard to stay away from 0-cost Command cards. Since you need the Core set to play the game, I’m going to go through several Command cards in this series from the Core set (though we’ll depart from the Core set for at least one post…maybe two…we’ll see). To start us off, I want to begin with a Command card that I didn’t like at first (I mean, it hurts you, doesn’t it?) but have come to rely on for many Skirmish lists.

Requirements For Candidates

To The Limit requires that you perform a special action during your activation: in trade for an extra action now, you become Stunned (which generally requires that you lose an action on your next activation AND prevents you from performing most interrupt actions when it's not your activation). While some units by default have special actions on their deployment cards, the use of Command cards can give any unit a special action. As such, any unit could use this card, but certain characters can use it more effectively than others. As such, the qualifications for those that appear in our list today will have a) at least one special action they can perform on their deployment card, and b) some way to deal with the Stun harmful condition. Without further ado, let’s look at our third-place finalist…

Bronze Medal: Bossk

Bossk has a wonderful ability that allows him to discard a Harmful condition at the end of the round (as well as recover some damage – which is awesome). Bossk’s special action, Indiscriminate Fire, allows him to do splash damage to enemies around a certain space that’s nearby, which allows you to:

1. Move to a useful location;
2. Perform Indiscriminate Fire;
3. Play To The Limit and fire at your foes;
4. Become Stunned. 

It’s important to note that if you don’t use all of your movement in Action #1 above, you’ll lose the remainder of your movement because of the timing of the Stun effect. You could move in Action #3 and shoot in Action #1, which will be better if you start in a position where you can attack your enemies (as it also gets you away from the targets of your Indiscriminate Fire).

The reason Bossk stands on the Bronze pedestal is that during the rest of the round, Bossk can receive the Bleed and/or Weaken conditions. When the end of round occurs, you then need to choose which condition to remove – do you stay Weakened (which really hurts you both on defense because you roll a white die and on offense since you have a great Surge ability but not a lot of surge generated)? Do you retain the Bleed (which you can heal at the end of the round, but if you don’t remove it, you’ll be that much easier to kill)? Or do you stay Stunned (which you’ll need to get rid of if you want to move/attack)? No good options – your next turn is spent for sure.

Silver Medal: Onar Koma

Onar has a great special ability: with Rush, he can move a number of spaces equal to his speed (which is different from gaining movement points equal to your speed per the FAQ) and gets to push someone out of the way, dealing damage to the target. Since Onar can only attack once, this allows Onar to:

1. Move towards the person you want to take down; 
2. Rush (which gives him even more movement);
3. Play To The Limit to unload on the person he Rushed (who will not only be right next to Onar, but will also be 1 health closer to death than he was a moment before Onar arrived).

When most characters would get stunned, Onar’s Immune special rule indicate that he cannot receive harmful conditions so…you just shrug it off. No penalties, free action this round. Ah, yes, this command card was designed for Onar to use. So why doesn’t Onar get the Gold on this one? Because there’s one other character who uses it far better…

Gold Medal: Jabba the Hutt

Let’s be honest here: Onar gets a free action. That’s pretty great. Jabba, on the other hand, can’t ignore the Stun – he’s going to get stunned and it’s going to hurt. Or will it? The rules for Stun indicate that you can’t “move or attack” while you’re Stunned. For many deployment cards, moving and attacking is all they can do in the Skirmish game. How then does Jabba take the Gold? He’s got a bunch more he can do besides moving and attack.

Jabba has a wealth of special actions he can use – they are most effective in a Mercenary list, but can be employed in a Rebel list too if you use Saska Teft to ally him into the list (which I do regularly). For starters, Jabba can Bully, which allows him to pick a foe within 3 spaces to suffer 3 Strain. This is not an attack or a move. Jabba can also use Incentivize to make a Mercenary figure become Focused. This is not an attack or a move. Perhaps Jabba’s most useful special ability is Scheme, which allows you to draw a Command card. This to is not an attack or a move. Finally (I think you’ve caught on already), you can spend both your actions to Order Hit, spending 2 VPs to pick a Mercenary figure to interrupt to attack and gain a few movement points.

All four of these options are yours to pick from with To The Limit, but you can also do them while in the Stun trance. In fact, if you begin the game with To The Limit in your hand, you can play it in the first round and let Jabba sit in his happy trance the entire game and he’ll still be useful. While his Red-Green melee attack is decent (would be better if he could Surge), his speed is awful and with such a large base, it’s hard for him to flee from pursuers anyway – so don’t move and don’t attack. If your opponent was close enough to move and attack, you can Bully him from where you are for one action instead of moving and attacking for two actions (and you'll probably get more damage through than you would rolling your attack profile). Not near any bad guys and have some good Mercenary figures? Try Incentivizing one of them and scheming this turn. Did Fenn race in and deal a deep blow to one of your guys? Use Order Hit to strike back!

I’ll admit that Jabba might not be as good as Onar on this one, but I think Jabba gives you a lot of options that are not tied to his attacking or moving, so the Stun doesn’t really affect him either. Since Onar can't attack multiple times in an activation, unless you play a Command card that allows him to do something other than move, all Onar can gain from this card is a free move action. Jabba can do so. much. more. That said, I could see him and Onar sharing this space (there, I said it). In our next post, we’ll be looking at two 0-cost cards that are fairly similar and show situations where it helps to have one over the other: Fleet Footed and Urgency. Until then, happy gaming!

Character review: Diala Passil

Some people like playing damage characters that shoot or hack their way through the bad guys. Other players like to take characters that are just not going to be killed. Still others (like me) prefer to play characters who can fight on their own but mostly exist to make the other characters do what they do better (through healing, rerolls, and free actions). Because I prize flexibility and teamwork, the support class lends itself strongly to me.

As a result, we’re going to start off our series on character reviews by looking at my favorite three support characters: Diala Passil, Gideon Argus, and Saska Teft. We’ll leave support class characters after that, but these three characters are by far my favorite characters to use (closely followed by…why would I spoil this now???).

Diala Passil was released in the core game of Imperial Assault and as a result is one of the best characters in the game (sure, the expansions have released great playable characters, but the original six are still top of the line and certainly some of the best characters you can use). Diala walks the line between support to the team and raw damage dealer. As a result, let’s look at three different builds we can use to bring out both the raw power and the supporting abilities she provides.

Diala Passil: Any Melee Weapon Can Be Good

Diala is a Jedi and while she’s not as offensive-focused as Davith Elso, she’s got some incredible abilities that make any weapon she uses simply amazing: first, while she is healthy, she has the Precise Strike skill that removes a defense die from your opponent. In most cases, this means your opponent doesn’t get to resist your attack. Any weapon that would normally do 3-4 damage now does its full weight against your opponent (instead of 1-2 damage past a black die). In addition to this base skill, for 1 XP you can get the Force Adept upgrade to allow you to reroll an attack die at the cost of 1 Strain. Finally, for 2 XP you can purchase Battle Meditation, which allows you to make yourself Focused (or someone else if you’re already Focused) whenever you rest (basically guaranteed – you’re testing Insight). These three abilities (which you have after you get 3 XP and as long as you stay healthy) can greatly change any weapon from a "meh" weapon into a good weapon and any good weapon into a great weapon. With this in mind, here are some broad ideas you can use for weapons (but I’ll note alternate weapons that can be even better).

End-Game Weapon #1 – the Guardian of the Whills: Plasteel Staff with Extended Haft OR Weighted Head

Diala’s base weapon is, if we’re honest, not very good. With a Yellow-Green combo, you run the risk of getting 2 Surge as your attack results, which can get you a whopping 1 Damage and a Stun (if you’ve strained twice to remove his dice). That’s…not great. On the other hand, you have the off-chance of getting 4 Damage and you should get 2-3 Damage each time you attack. In general, this is enough to clear out a basic Imperial unit each activation (which in the early game is pretty great).

While the staff isn’t great, it does have Reach. For melee characters, if you can avoid straining to get right up into the face of your opponent, that’s a good thing. For Diala, you want to save your Strain to reroll dice (or throw people, remove defense dice, etc.) so having Reach is great. You can then purchase the Extended Haft early in the campaign and use it to add Pierce 1 to the attack results (which is great against White die opponents and useful against Black die opponents). Ultimately this doesn’t matter as much if you are using Precise Strike, but you will find opponents who get static Block results (and this can handle those special cases nicely). Alternatively, you could forego relying on the Precise Strike and save yourself the strain, potentially reducing your damage output a little to rely on doing more attacks (vs. resting every turn).

With Reach, Diala has three different targets. Against the Stormtrooper, she can use Precise Strike to remove the Black die, in which case, she can expect to do 3-4 Damage against him (should kill him). Alternatively, she can rely on the automatic Pierce 1 to remove most/all of his Black die result (still might kill him). Since the Hired Guns can't get the Dodge result on a White die, you don't need to use Precise Strike at all (though they will get to shoot at you if you kill them).

If you plan on using Precise Strike (however), I’d recommend the Weighted Head – this is a great way to do extra damage to enemies nearby since you can guarantee that you hit the target with Precise Strike and then transfer damage to someone else (finishing them off or doing damage to someone you don’t want to have to hit directly). This is supplemented even more with the Snap Kick upgrade – which is kind of like doing Cleave damage…without the requirement of doing damage. Regardless of whether you choose the Extended Haft or the Weighted Head, you can get even more mileage out of the staff by purchasing the Dancing Weapon upgrade. Why do this?

This turns your ordinary Plasteel Staff into a Pulse Cannon.

The Pulse Cannon allows you to turn 2 Surge into 2 Damage + Pierce 1. With the Surge ability provided by the Dancing Weapon upgrade, you can also spend 2 Surge to get 2 Damage and either Pierce 1 (with the Extended Haft) or Cleave 1 (by exhausting the Weighted Head). The difference, of course, is that you need to spend one additional surge with the Pulse Cannon to get the accuracy bonus…and with Diala’s Dancing Weapon skill, you get it for free. Any additional surge you get with the Weighted Head becomes Cleave damage, while the Extended Haft adds the Stun (and removal of Strain). All in all, you’ve got the equivalent of a very good T3 weapon for the cost of…300-400 credits (and 4 XP).

If Diala is 6 spaces away from her target (distance between her and the Royal Guards above), she would need to get the Accuracy 1 + Damage 2 on the Green die, the Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 on the Blue die and the Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 (or either face that doesn't get Accuracy) on the Yellow die to miss hitting her target. All told, that's a 1.45% chance of missing a target that's 6 spaces away with Dancing Weapon!

I should note: you can do slightly more damage with other weapon builds – the Force Pike, BD-1 Vibro-Ax, and the Polearm are excellent examples. Each has Reach, so whatever we said previously applies. I find, however, that the damage threshold of these weapons isn’t that much more than what you get with the base weapon (assuming you use Precise Strike) and the credit cost (and waiting) is pretty high. For the same money, you can get gear options that supplement your other skills (such as the Portable Medkit, the Combat Visor, or the Combat Coat) – and you can buy two or three of these items for the cost of the weapon you’d be purchasing. Now tell me that’s not worth it?

Upgrades to purchase (with Extended Haft) - 8 XP: Force Adept (1), Force Throw (1), Battle Meditation (2), Dancing Weapon (4)

Upgrades to purchase (with Weighted Head) – 10 XP: Force Adept (1), Battle Meditation (2), Snap Kick (3), Dancing Weapon (4)

End-Game Weapon #2 – The Jedi: Shu Yen’s Lightsaber with Balanced Hilt

Let’s face it, Diala is a Jedi. As great as playing Chirrut Imwe with your Plasteel Staff is…

WE WANT A LIGHTSABER!!!!

There are two ways to get a lightsaber: do Diala’s side mission or wait for Tier 3 to get the Ancient Lightsaber. The sad truth is this: in a long campaign, it could be a while (hopefully you get it early) before you get the chance at Diala’s Side Mission if it shows up at all. In a short campaign, you get only one shot at Tier 3 gear (and you don’t get to choose which missions you play), so you may not get a chance to use a lightsaber. Ever. It’s sad.

The good news is, if you never get a shot at it, at least you have the Plasteel Staff, which we’ve just covered in great detail. So for our purposes here, let’s assume you get a lightsaber (we’ll start with Diala’s reward item and then move to the Ancient Lightsaber).

Shu Yen’s Lightsaber is a great weapon – it rewards you for using Foresight (even if you take damage) and it gives you the traditional Lightsaber bonus of Pierce 3 and the ability to Cleave into your opponents. The only thing it lacks…is the ability to surge reliably. Pierce 3 is fantastic – you basically don’t need Precise Strike anymore (unless you’re fighting someone with two defense dice). To trigger this effect more often, there’s an inexpensive fix: the Balanced Hilt. While the Red-Blue combo isn’t great on this weapon for damage (Red-Green or Red-Red would give you more), it does make the weapon more likely to hit targets farther away from you if you use Dancing Weapon (discussed previously). All in all, as a reward for a mission, it’s well worth having.

The Ancient Lightsaber functions in much the same way: it gives you the Pierce 3 skill with a Damage 1 at the cost of 2 Surge, but it also provides you a single surge option for 2 Damage – which against White die is better than Pierce 3. This more balanced weapon is also tied to your Insight stat, which means if you do get wounded, you’ll actually deal more raw damage than you did before (trading that Yellow die out for a Red one). This means you’ll also surge less often, but the damage output is negligible (and with the Balanced Hilt, you can still trigger that Pierce 3 fairly reliably).

Both weapons can be thrown, of course, but since you don’t need to strain for Precision Strike, consider taking Way of the Sarlaac – getting multiple attacks out of that lightsaber before resting (and using your Strain to reroll those die results you don’t like OR using the surge from the Ancient Lightsaber to recover strain and keep you from needing to rest). Defensive Stance is also good with Shu Yen’s Lightsaber, since it gives you bonuses when you use Foresight. It doesn’t have any synergy with the Ancient Lightsaber, but is a nice utility skill to have anyway (in case you want to be Focused when you start your turn, instead of becoming Focused from resting).

With Way of the Sarlaac, Diala can suffer 2 Strain to attack all three of these Stormtroopers. With either Lightsaber, a single Surge completely wipes out a Black die (or comes pretty close to it with the Ancient Lightsaber), allowing her to do most of her Damage against the target's Health instead of having to work through their Block.

Finally, if you want to get a similar feel for Shu Yen’s Lightsaber without doing the side mission, consider taking the Stun Baton - you can strain to weaken up to 5 foes around you, rest, then use Way of the Sarlaac to strike them all! Damage output is roughly the same (trading Pierce 3 for Damage 2) since the dice pool is the same.

 Upgrades to purchase (with either saber) - 9 XP: Force Adept (1), Battle Meditation (2), Defensive Stance (2), Way of the Sarlaac (4)

End-Game Weapon #3 – The Executioner: Vibrosword with Energized Hilt and Focusing Beam

So this weapon was the most surprising for me – I never really liked the weapon though I always WANTED to like it. In some ways, there isn’t much that recommends the weapon:

• You roll a Green-Blue but doesn’t need the range;
• You can surge for 2 Damage, but the dice pool doesn't surge reliably; and
• You can surge for Bleed (very useful), but you aren't likely to get the damage you need past any defense die have a surge left to issue Bleed.

So why take this weapon? That's when it hit me:

You’re Diala – turn this weapon into an Electrostaff!!!!!

As I said before, Diala makes all melee weapons good – with Dancing Weapon, this blade becomes a Green-Blue-Blue weapon, which not only makes it great for throwing down long hallways (guaranteed 5 accuracy, likely hitting 7-8 accuracy) and you can reliably expect 5-6 damage off of it for 350 credits. With two mod slots, there are a bunch of things you can do with it, but I’ve settled on the following: the Energized Hilt and the Focusing Beam. While you could go with the High Impact Guard, the guard costs the same as both of these upgrades and requires you to surge in order to use its effects…and we just got through saying how hard it is to surge with this weapon. Instead, the Energized Hilt allows you to change that awful Blue die into a Red die, giving you (effectively) an Electrostaff (except that instead of getting the choice of Reach or Cleave 2, you can surge for Bleed…and strain for Pierce 1…up to 4 times…AHHHH!!!!!!).

Diala (top-right) is seven spaces away from the Imperial Officer. If she stays with a Blue-Blue-Green, Diala would need to get either the 1 Accuracy + Damage 2 or 2 Accuracy + Damage 2 on the Green and the 2 Accuracy + Damage 1 on both of the Blue dice to miss (which happens <1% of the time). If she uses the Energized Hilt to swap one of the Blue die for a Red die, she'll want to move up closer

In addition, that second mod slot allows you to do something else – I’ve chosen the Focusing Beam to give you the ability to overcome White die without having to use Precise Strike (exhausting for Pierce 1 OR removing a Dodge from the defense results at the cost of a strain as well). If you wanted to mimic the Electrostaff, you could go instead with the Extended Haft (slightly more expensive but available at Tier 1) or the Weighted Head. All told the cost of these two upgrades and the weapon is under 900 credits – far cheaper than what you’ll find at Tier 3.

What’s even better is…besides the Force Adept upgrade and the Dancing Weapon upgrade, you can do whatever you want with the rest of your upgrades – the door is wide open. So…didn’t see that coming, huh?

Upgrades to purchase - 5 XP: Force Adept (1), Dancing Weapon (4)

Diala in the Skirmish Game

As should not be surprising, Diala Passil is fantastic in the skirmish game. As a Force User, she has incredible synergies with such characters as Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker (either one), Davith Elso, and Ahsoka Tano (though you can also do Leia Organa if you include her Command card). Diala’s ability to recover damage is nice (though not triggered very often) and she can allow you to discard Command cards from hand to remove a defense die from an opponent (handy if you have a card you can’t use or don’t want to use) and allows you to reroll her defense die for free. With all those beautify Force User cards (free damage, protection from blaster fire, etc.), she’s stunning.

But she’s even better when surrounded by walking carpets – that’s right, using her Brawler synergies with Wookies! Sure, being a Force User is great, but there’s something incredibly fun about running Diala with Gaarkhan, Drokhatta, and some regular WookieWarriors! Give it a try sometime – she’s fantastic with them.

In our next post, we’ll talk about Gideon Argus – my second favorite character and one of the first characters I ever used. Diala can support other characters by making them Focused (we focused on how to make her a power all on her own here), but Gideon does the enabling power of support characters better than any other character they’ve come out with so far. Until next time, happy gaming!