Tag: analysis

Unit Analysis

Rebels take on the rules reference

Posted on by jocke01

So a lot of stuff has been happening with legion recently. Lead designer is gone, AMG is taking over and we got a new rules reference with tons of new points and changes. I was gonna make an article about tips and tricks, but with all the stuff going on I decided to share my thoughts on the new points and erratas. Enjoy 😊.

Neutral cards
Big things here is aggressive tactics going up from 10-15. Rebels have few units that need surges and we don’t have that same order control of CIS or the empire, nor the token sharing of Clones. So for rebels It’s nice to see this staple card getting an increase since it’s very powerful.

Force reflexes going down to 5 is a surprise as it’s IMO mandatory on Luke and Vader. Having that extra dodge for deflect is such a huge boost in defence. Battle meditation and force guidance is also cheaper. With the coming card force barrier, I see force users being able to take a more support role in armies, all though Luke is still gonna be point and click lightsaber missile in most cases

Coincidence?

Environmental gear and grappling hooks got dropped to 2 and 1 respectively wich is natural since the new ascension cables are out for only 4 points doing both their effect but better even with the exhaust drawback. Easier to fit these things in on some special forces units or corps when u got extra points. Emergency stims went from 8 to 12 and now back to 10. A middle ground and probably a good place for a good card. Not really as impactful as it used to be due to the increase in firepower and other defence upgrades, but a nice thing to drop on some key units that often gets close to the enemy for a potential extra activation. Han, Jyn, Chewie, Sabine and more will enjoy the point decrease.

Lastly I can’t remember if grenades and generators got decreased last time or if it was this time. Grenades aren’t used that much by rebels in my experience, but barrage generator is pretty nice on a fd cannon with linked targeting array.

Rebel specific cards
Jedi mind trick got changed from range 1-2 to range 1. I pretty much only use it on jedi Luke for his 1 pip card all though it had the potential to put out 4 suppression on a unit to make em panic in a last first activation with Luke. Since it now can’t touch operatives and got limited to range 1 I think it’s only worth using with Luke if you pick his new 1 pip card.

Sabines darksaber and combat shield got reduced to my surprise. The darksaber is nice, but hard to use since Sabine lacks charge. However it gives her both immune pierce against melee and dauntless with is an amazing ability for an operative with 2 courage. If you have a commander with 3 courage (cough Jyn cough) and strict orders it will allow Sabine to get move-attack or move-arm despite starting her activation with 6 suppression (with faceup order ofc). Granted if you need the points elsewhere you can skip it, but for only 15 points dauntless is worth it alone. Shield isn’t amazing on a unit with such a solid defence, but not bad to help against sniper dmg, being reduced makes it more reasonable when compared to e-stims.

Spoiler alert!, no wait wrong series

Landspeeder got all of its big weapons reduced. With the new transport open rules, I can see it coming back into rebel lists. Transporting Han, Leia or even Luke forward in style. Perhaps Lando will have synergy with vehicles and be a good choice to ride along. However I think I won’t deck out the landspeeder with more than the medium blaster If I’m gonna go with transporting a wip. The units can be shot and shoot out of the transport, but they gain heavy cover. Solo could use the speed boost forward and don’t worry about suppression slowing him down. Leia can combine with Chewie in order to use his brains and brawn card easier. Since her weapon is range 2 and Chewie is range 3, Leia could use a speed boost and her pistol with sharpshooter 2 is also very good so she can ride shotgun and do drivebyes. 

If this becomes the new meta, Im happy 🙂

At-rt laser cannon got reduced to 10 and the airspeeder harpoon dropped to 0. The laser cannon have a hard time when not facing enemy vehicles so I like that it got dropped. Only 65p is a steal and even though rotary is gonna be the best due to it being effective to most targets, a cheap at-rt is nice. At least you aren’t paying as much for the laser in the gamble of facing enemy armor. At-rt snipers from the early days of legion might come back as 3 of them is only 195p. The harpoon being free is good since the ground buzzer is far superior, but if you don’t wanna pay the points you still get a rear arc weapon. While managing a harpoon pivot is a fun thing to do, it’s incredible hard to pull off since it’s only 1 die and can be saved against and of course it’s very weak vs vehicles in cover.

Bistan got dropped in points and both Bistan and Pao gained 2hp. A nice boost for pathfinders that alot of people argued for since the clan wren box came out. This also opens up for future mini characters to be added to squads. 

Expert level photoshop

Most rebel corp units heavy weapons and personel got dropped in points. Heavy weapon wise I don’t think much will change except that the ion gun is down to 18 and actually cheaper than the Z-6. Could be worth using one if more heavies are being used. The fleet trooper grenade launcher is down to the same cost as the scattergun, but without cycle I don’t know if it’s worth it. Rebel captain, officer, trooper is gonna be more attractive with the point drop since they were good options before the drop. Rebel veteran is down to 9 so it’s the same as coms specialist. Depends if you want hq uplink on them or not. Rebel specialist is still pretty meh, but you can take him + environmental gear and grappling hooks for a very mobile objective securing unit. The big surprise is the veteran heavy weapon that is down to 26p and got range 4!
This is great news for rebel veterans who can now throw 4 white dice with critical 2 on range 4. Sadly this makes fleet troopers even more obsolete despite their point decrease.

Wedge got dropped to 1 points wich is pretty funny. Auto include on a single airspeeder since a free pivot for 1p is an absolute steal.

Rebel units
Chewie got another 5 point drop and gained scale and lethal on meele. He was good and now he is even better. I doubt lethal will have that much use since he has no good way of getting aim tokens unless you play him with Han and the units that can tank his pool of red dice often have imperivous or immune pierce anyway, but It’s a nice little boost.

Fleets got dropped to 40. However they needed much more than that so they won’t do much wonder outside of skirmish I fear. I might try them out in some lists though.

Both Jyn and Han got dropped to 100p. Jyn is a big surprise since she was recentlt dropped to 110 from 130p. Granted her defence isn’t the greatest despite danger sense, but 100p is crazy for a courage 3 commander. A big reduction for Sabine Jyn combo this time. Han could have used a 30p decrease, but at least he is cheaper. His defence is meh since low profile isn’t doing much, uncanny luck is also pretty meh compared to danger sense 4 as you get to roll the dice even on 1 hit attacks, while re-rolls can’t be used on the same dice. He also has a hard time of doing much with his pistol since he can only kill 1 model in heavy cover per attack and his courage is a real handicap. His command cards are great, but with Jyn being the same cost there isn’t that much that speaks for Solo sadly. Still at least he is cheaper than before and he boosts Chewie.

Jedi Luke got 5p off wich is weird since he is a beast of a unit, boosted with situational awareness I expected a point increase. 5p from his cost and reflexes down 5 makes my Jedi Luke 10p cheaper wich is an unexpected surprise.

Both rebel commandos and rebel pathfinders got a 10p drop. I still think commandos needs something more since I still think snipers or pathfinders being the best in the special slot along with the new mando’s. However a normal commando squad is at least cheaper for use. I was hoping for a boost to low profile to help han and commandos, but no such “uncanny” luck.

Wookies got scale and a new keyword wich so far does nothing. They got duelist so they gain extra boost when using dodge and aim tokens in meele. However unless you use offensive push they have a hard time getting these tokens while moving into close combat. They got dropped in points, but not much. I was hoping for 5p per wookie, but we got 2p. The bowcaster got 4p drop. Sadly while they are better than before the same problem remains. Expensive in a competitive slot (special forces), they’ve lack a meele heavy weapon and lose models fast with a ⅙ save. Hopefully they do something with wookie trooper to help them further.

Airspeeder and landspeeder dropped in base cost. The airspeeder is now down a total 40p, gained surge-crit, -10p on weapons, wedge is almost free and it’s immune to range 1 weapons. I think it’s finally on the level it needs to be. The landspeeder is still very fragile, but at least it’s not as expensive anymore. The ion shark is now down to 137p.

Wait wrong game
  • X-34
  • Ion blaster
  • Rocket girl
  • Ryder 
  • Hq uplink
    Just slow roll with speed 1 comp, fire and then recover. High impact and ion does a big dent in armor units.

If we start to see more heavies with this recent change as well as droidekas being cheaper I think this is a valid choice. It’s only 7p more than 2 laser at-rt and you get the ion effect.

Tauntauns and R2 got a point increase. Secret mission is very powerful and this is a fair increase wich makes it a little higher investment especially if you add on 3P0. Tauntauns got a higher price on situational awareness wich I think is amazing on them. With these changes combined they are 101p with that upgrade and it reflects their power level better. Being 4 wounds a head with 2 dodges most activations and doing 5 actions they are very powerful for being a trooper unit. The new point cost fits that better. Also they no longer gain dodges from moves anymore instead from move actions. So no more triple dodges from Leia’s no time for sorrows. A fair change and it opens up tauntauns for use without Leia.

Lastly the generic rebel officer got 5p cheaper. It shaves off even more point for my double airspeeder list ^^.

Other changes
The mark 2 medium blaster emplacement trooper got an extra wound. This is something I have been talking since it released. Being stuck with a cumbersome range 3 weapon it was very much in the line of fire unlike it’s empire counterpart. I think it used to be the most fragile unit in the game with 3hp and ⅓ save. 4 hits and you got a ⅔ chance of it dying. Being 2p more than the mortar was just salt in the wound. This with the range increase for the veterans weapon really boosts their place on the battlefield as a mini special forces choice.

We thank you for your service

Sabotaged communications is still hard to get a good use from, but now it reduced the amount of orders from the card to 1 instead of by 1. A small, but welcome change. The empires card was in a much worse state and finally got useful. Son of Skywalker was just a clarification if I understand it correctly.

Conclusion
Rebels got a lot of changes this time around and IMO for good reason as several units were either too highly priced, poorly designed or just weaker than their competition in their slots. The fact that 5/6 unit cards that have been errata:ed was rebel speaks for their problems.

The winners are Jyn erso, Sabine, veterans pathfinders and the airspeeder. Jyn erso dropped in a whopping 30points giving her lists much more to play with. I think she is gonna be most popular or top 2 popular commander going forward for that nice courage bubble and flexible battlefield role. Sabines equipment got 15p cheaper if you take both and she was already strong with the addition of situational awerness. Veterans range increase and extra wound on their detachment is huge. Finally pathfinders a solid, but potential fragile unit got a decrease and extra wounds on their leaders. I think all these 4 (5 with emplacement) units will get alot more table time in the future. The airspeeder got even more cheaper than before and finally offensive surge to put it’s red and black dice on point. Being surge – crit is gonna be a huge dmg boost if you use targeting array. Also with speeder comp move now being either at start of end of the activation it’s gonna be much easier to double tap units or get targets in both arcs.

Jedi Luke, rebel troopers, generic officer and chewbacca were already good, but the decrease at least future proofs them a bit. Hopefully more people will see the potential and keep using these. I can’t complain on these.

However Han Solo, fleet troopers, wookies and to some extent the landspeeder needed a little more than point decreases. Fleets got cheaper but so did rebel troopers, and their other competition veterans got buffed. They still have a hard time outside skirmish games. Han solo got a big decrease, but he still suffers from low courage and meh offense with 2 dice and sharpshooter 1 even with gunslinger. With Jan ors and Cassian in the same point range he is still the weaker option. However at least Chewie and Han are stronger and cheaper together. Commandos are in similar place. They got good offense and are a bit cheaper however compared to the new pathfinders I don’t see the point. I rather have infiltrate than scout, rather danger sense over low profile and pathfinders have more flexible weapons. They aren’t bad as in unplayable, but compared to your other choices they are the weaker choice. A change in low profile or a possible Han Solo Commandos combo like sabines has with clan wren or entourage kind of ability could push them over the line. Lastly wookies are a little bit better, but so are it’s competition and I think we have to wait for something with the wookie trooper keyword to make them more attractive as a choice. Don’t take this as a complete sawing of these units as they still work, they just aren’t as flexible or powerful as other choices in their unit slot IMO. The landspeeder I think we have to wait and see if the new transport rule will be powerful or just jank. It’s an ok weapon platform vs armor, but otherwise I think double rotary at-rt is the better choice.

The units that got nerfs/increases were both justified with tauntauns and R2 as the action economy, mobility, durability and firepower of tauntauns are so strong for their points and R2 for bringing so much with secret mission, repair and command cards for his low cost.

Rebels comes out swinging from his rules reference and we probably won’t see another big change for at least 6 months and quite possibly not for another year. Hopefully we see some expansion that does something with wookie troopers and maybe Lando gets a command card that can work with vehicles.

For our enemies the clones got turned down a peg with point increases and loss of standby sharing. Some units did need slight increases compared to rebel and empire counterparts, but the standby sharing never felt too strong for me. Granted I never played any online tournaments were it’s probably easier to create this big standby chain.

rip standby

Empire got some love for their heavies especially the occupier since it’s now a more proper transport instead of a deathtrap. Shore troopers got a small increase with focus on the amazing t-21b heavy weapon, maybe we get to see more stormies and snows instead of endless shorelines. Very excited to see the huge drop on Boba, his command cards are still a little weak compared to the new stuff that sprinkles on tokens with every order, but at least we will see him again.

What do you mean, field commander??

CIS can now use the tank as a commander, moving past their expenive commander tax. We might start seeing higher activation lists from them as well as more droidekas. Glad that all rebel ion weapons got reduced in points. I think they will benefit alot from the coming specialist box.

Get ready to hear this alot from CIS players ^^

With the recent news it’s impossible to tell the future of the game. However with the new units coming out and this major patch that fixed alot of stuff, but not all I think the game is in a very good spot. I just hope the new team will build from the solid foundation and not throw the bantha out with the bathwater. Also hopefully this covid nightmare can’t end soon enough so I can get more games in.

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments and speak up what you want to see coming up. Now I have to rework all my lists of you excuse me.

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Uncategorized, Unit Analysis

Rebels, meta and moving forward

Posted on by jocke01

Rebels, meta and moving forward

So it’s been a while since I posted something. Covid has shut down my local playing group, cancelled tournaments and stopped shipping to some extent. However with people dying it doesn’t feel right to complain about my plastic figures, but it has dampened my interest for legion a bit since I didn’t get to play for a long while. I don’t like playing on a tabletop simulator, but now I have been playing a few games in real life again and doing some painting and list building. I decided it was time to start posting again and here is a general rebels meta analysis article about my thoughts moving forward.

First I wanted to try out the unit tier list on this link https://tiermaker.com/create/star-wars-legion-unit-ranking-513478. Below is my explanation
of my choices:

First addendum is that both the rebel and imperial strike teams should be placed at S tier due to the incredible advantage of activation padding, long range pierce and suppression dmg as well as extra bodies for objective holders for less than 50p each.

S-tier
A lot of new operative/commanders here. So what makes them S tier and not A tier? Well Krennic and Rex are incredibly powerful at supporting and leading their armies with a low cost. Krennic’s cunning, command cards, entourage and compel makes him very good at any kind of imperial list and helps to control last/first activation as well as objective capturing with compel, making 3 suppressed corp troopers capable of double move or move – shoot. Rex is perfect for creating tokens to share for clones, capable in his own right and the command card that gives units increased range is brutal for alpha strikes. Dooku is another type. He feels like you took the best from Palpatine, Krennic and Luke. He is expensive in points, but combining cunning, extremely powerful command cards with a mobile lightsaber user that can ignore immune pierce and you got yourself a monster unit. You pay for it, but IMO he is the gold standard of sith units in this game now. Cad bane is maybe placed to high as he can’t be paired with a cheap commander yet, however if CIS get’s one I think he will be an amazing operative. His command card “I’m in control” is gonna be very powerful card to stop enemy units capping objectives and steady with speed 2 jump combined with bounty hunter is gonna be a game winner I believe, since he can either chase down a target with double move – shoot or move – shoot – jump behind los terrain. Moving on to Sabine and Luke, both units are what you want in an operative IMO. Very mobile, very durable, hard hitting and enemy disruption. The one weakness Luke has is that you need a commander with him, so at least 50p atop his own 200p for just 2 models. Sabine has courage 2, but with enough inspire and her 2 pip card that gives her a free recover action, she can often work around it. Both units are a threat that your opponent often can’t ignore, but at the same time will be the tankiest unit in your list especially with the new situational awareness card (more on that later). R2-D2 is maybe not incredible on his own at defeating stuff, but 35 points for secret mission is a game winner. Just deploy him alone somewhere and move towards the enemy deployment zone. Either you get 1 victory token or you gained a 35p distraction and activation that will force your opponent to dump a lot more points than 35 into stopping it. Lastly I put Shoretroopers and Tauntans at S tier. Shoretroopers have knocked Stormtroopers of the table with their free aim, black dice rifles and the best corp heavy weapon in the game the T21-B. These guys combined with their mortar and aggressive tactics gives you order control, powerful and accurate shots even at range 4 and very good durability for any return shots. They are so good that they exceed all other corp units so far IMO (I have only seen p2 once so they might compete). Tauntauns have been talked to death, but their power is still the same. Very mobile, good at both shooting and close combat. This combined with an unrivaled action economy of 5 possible actions in one turn makes them an excellent choice for rebels. Their weakness is critical weapons and standby, one is gonna be fixed soon however.

“Don’t mind me, look at that juicy tauntaun over there” Translated from beepboop.

A-tier
I won’t go into the same detail on all of these units. However they are all very Good units that Will perform well in most cases. What keeps them from S tier is either point cost or weaknesses. These units are really good though and some of the clone units might make it into s tier when I get the chance to play more against them. I think R2 with 3P0 is still good, but I think you use it more as a support activation than a secret mission unit. Each time you calculate some odds you aren’t moving into the enemy zone.

Han was unto something

B-tier
Alot of vehicles here and this is because of how vehicles and single non-trooper activations are unfavoured in the objectives of this game. They aren’t bad units, but their value is either dealing dmg, tanking dmg or both. However you can often get special forces or operatives units that do the same, but better or cheaper and capable of taking objectives. The non vehicle units here are often good units, but they either suffer from bad defence, bad offense or their role is just filled by a better similar  unit.

C-tier
Here I placed some stuff that are showing signs of early release sickness where some rules weren’t designed yet or done poorly. Some also suffer from a high point cost in relation to their effectiveness. Not saying the units are bad, but they are either using outdated tricks, competing for valuable slots or are begging for an update or point reduction. The rebel laser cannon and officer are perhaps misplaced, but I feel the cannon needed the range 5 rule to even work properly, but rebels just don’t favour standstill gunlines and the Sentinel keyword is pretty pointless now. Same with dewback that wants to be up close, while most empire units wanna stay at range, the units themselves aren’t that terrible, but they aren’t competitive enough to be taken over other support units. They could use some units to work with to really shine. Good in a vacuum, ok at the table. Rebel officer just to show that I feel the empire one is stronger with spotter to combine with electro binoculars and red defense.

D-tier
Now we are talking about bad units. Barc speeder is a weird one. It’s expensive, can do some damage and doesn’t work well with the clone token sharing ball. It is very misplaced in the clone army and I think it will see little use once the clone at-rt is here. Not a terrible unit, but weird design. Wookies, my poor wookies. They are 25p per model with white surgeless defence, but at least they got 3 hp. Their keywords are all about moving forward, but they should have gotten scale if they were released today and when they get in Close, their 2 black dice isn’t very scary. Their heavy weapon option is designed for shooting, but their shooting is worse than their melee so a close combat unit is often just the 3 base models and they will rarely get into close combat at full strength. They need help with defence, a close combat heavy weapon and a point reduction wouldn’t hurt. 

F-tier
This should be for units that get’s outclassed in their unit type, struggle to be effective and have anti synergy. Fleet troopers were cool back when there wasn’t much released. Looking at them though shows what a raw deal they got. 1p more per model than rebel troopers and they lose nimble and range 3 guns. They gained surge-hit and 2 white instead of 1 black that seems fair in a vacuum. However with white defence and surge they will lose bodies fast and often stuck with move – move or move – shoot as actions that are very hard to keep up with courage 1. The grenade launcher is such an anti synergy weapon that even the point reduction didn’t help it. It needs recover to reload which you don’t have time for and range 3 doesn’t line up with their range 2 pistols. Blast is great, but poorly combined with impact. Standby keyword gives you an aim for using standby, but who will walk into range 2 of your fleets instead of just shooting them? They are designed for fighting Stormtroopers inside a ship or a terrain heavy 3*3 table, that’s not what standard legion is played on so rebel troopers or veterans will take their spot for me 99% of the time these days with so much powerful firepower ready to attack them at range 4. Their scattergun is amazing though. Scout troopers are in the same boat, with worse save than their other corp counterparts and range 2 guns, as well as the sniper strike team being so much point efficient.

Sorry guys, back to shelf!

I can’t speak for everyone everywhere, but in my experience the current meta is supporting commanders with powerful operatives. Special forces is the most important slot outside of corps where it’s powerful units like death troopers or sniper strike team spam. The new releases will make this spot even more crowded. Then you fill out with cheap corps. Rebels have tauntauns as a powerhouse unit and the clones have their new phase 2 troopers and arc troopers with supporting rex and padme. There are still a lot of units that aren’t bad, but there exist better options for them in their slot. I feel like vehicles and older units are in a weird spot where they aren’t bad on paper, but other units take their place. Newer operatives have so many options and their command cards don’t just bring small stuff anymore but shower the units in tokens, actions and abilities that the old timers like Boba Fett and Han Solo can’t keep up with. I wished for objectives to be released that give some favours to heavy units and or support units to make them more valuable in the game.

The Future of Warfare

“hit it very hard”

With new expansions coming in and some soon to be revealed I’m sure, we can only speculate on future stuff. However I think I have some ideas for future rebels. With vital assets being out and currently most objectives and conditions favouring troopers, I don’t see rebel heavies having a big role in most lists. What will be popular is special forces. We are getting Clan Wren who looks to be a hard hitting, fast moving unit with potential of having the best defence outside operatives/commander units in the rebel army. These, as well as commandos and pathfinders will be getting help from the Cassian Andor expansion. Especially the card “volunteer mission” is gonna be great for pathfinders giving them a free recover action and more danger sense. I think a list with cassian, jyn and k2 supported by pathfinders/strike teams can do very well. Just add the necessary 3 corp units and whatever upgrades you can afford. 

Safe!

The next thing that will change the rebellion is situational awareness. Dodge tokens have been a paper shield vs all the critical weapons out there, however this card gives a cheap access to outmaneuver. I would have prefered making outmaneuver standard rule for dodges, but we work with what we got. It’s limited to units with training slot, but it will be awesome for:
Luke (operative)
Han Solo
Cassian
Sabine
Rebel troopers (with captain personnel)
Rebel veterans
Tauntauns

Okey option for:
Chewbacca
Commandos
Wookies

Not an option for:
Jyn
Pathfinders

So with this situational awareness we focus on any sources of dodge tokens. Luke and Leia are both great for dodges. Luke gains from a lot of his command cards and operative Luke is gonna be a juggernaut with this upgrade. Leia can with the new upgrade portable scanner give 3 dodges each turn and a rebel officer can be a mini Leia for 56p. Sabine with her nimble keyword is gonna love this upgrade as long as someone gives her a dodge the turns outside of “legacy of mandalore”. Han Solo and Chewie with their teamwork can get some mileage out of this as well, don’t know if it will be enough for him to make a comeback, but fun to try out. 

“There isn’t enough life on this rock to fill a space cruiser”

Rebel veterans are perfect for this, with their keyword defend 1. They lack nimble, but as long as you can get some orders they become much more resilient. I have seen my veterans lose half their squad with 2 dodges up far too many times. Rebel troopers lack the training slot, but I’m gonna have a Z-6 + rebel captain squad with situational awareness in most of my future lists. 1 turn ignore suppression and nimble dodges that work on crits for just 6p more than a standard trooper is a nice deal.

Some units like commandos or wookies can use this situational awareness, but they lack nimble or any way of getting dodges outside their actions. One unit that is gonna love it however is tauntauns. They wisely added the +4 point cost for support units and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it would be restricted to non creature troopers only. Getting outmaneuver on a unit that often receive 2 dodge tokens per turn is a steal for 6p and they will be even better than before with this. High velocity will still cut them down though.

Lastly in this article I wanted to mention som example of list archetypes I’m gonna test for rebels moving forward. Some might work out well, some might just be thematic and fun.

Return of the Jedi
I have two variants here, but they are both the same concept with Luke main piece and 10 activations. The difference is one is going with 3 strike team cheese and one is going with at-rt support. The at-rt can be fitted with laser cannons if you expect a lot of armor or flamers for big swarms of battle droids. I go ⅚ Luke command cards with covering fire as the second 3 pip for more dodges and order control to the corps. Operative Luke is a beast and these lists will let him go nuts.

Leia Dodgeball
Leia trying to maximize the new dodge upgrades. She can move and give out 3 dodges a turn, tauntauns and veterans will get dodges on their own and it will be frustrating for your opponent to deal any high amount of dmg. Feels strong in theory, but might be impractical or jank. Tauntauns + awareness + no time for sorrows is gonna be powerful though.

Han&Chewie Saboteurs
Old fun list of mine updated. Han and Chewie will try to be a distraction with Han’s command cards and Chewie’s guardian. In the meantime the commandos will try and place as many charges as possible. Situational awareness will boost Han’s survivability a bit and you can get some dodge tokens with teamwork. These days there is so much firepower but “reckless diversion” will make Han a pretty solid tank with low profile, dodges from Chewie and the officer as well as uncanny luck.

Rouge One
Might actually be time to buy a second Pathfinder box. Jyn and Cassian have a ton of synergy with them already with their command cards and together Jyn, Cassian and K2 can probably be a pretty strong team. 

5/8

Double Airspeeder
Been playing with the airspeeder a bit after the Wedge errata and I think it’s ok at least. It has done some decent damage, but one doesn’t quite cut it and combining it with a landspeeder didn’t work that well. This list is betting on the speeders. Double ground buzzer and targeting array, keeping orders on them as much as possible for extra aims. Comp move + move shoot or aim shoot, with Wedge and Ryder helping the maneuvers so you can get as many double shots as possible. Might not win tournaments, but will probably surprise a lot of opponents that expect few vehicles from rebels.

Jyn + Wren Clan.
I think Sabine and Jyn make a great team and with the new Clan Wren coming in, I think we can have a strong new rebel list coming.

So that was my article about the current legion thought in my mind. It was kinda tricky finding a good name for it and speaking of tricky. I think my next article will be tips and tricks. Stuff I picked up over the years or stuff I just learned last week. Stay tuned.

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Special forces, Unit Analysis

Pathfinders Analysis

Posted on by jocke01

Written by Skyler Galle – Tirion (ffg forum)

Rouge one in a box

Pathfinders Analysis
Hopefully, if you’re here you’ve also read my analysis and opinions of Jyn and why I think she is a very viable and capable commander. If not, go check it out!
A reminder of my guidelines for analysis: I will only be comparing the Pathfinders to other Rebel trooper units (Trooper units within the rebel faction not just the Rebel Trooper unit itself). Also, I’m not going to be spending a whole lot of time looking at only the base Pathfinders without a heavy. In my opinion, if you are playing them, you’re playing a heavy. As such, most things I will be comparing is a squad with Pao or Bistan. But what if I want to play 3 Pathfinders? My response is simple, “You never go full Pathfinder.”
Offense – Ranged
A300 Blaster Rifle Short Range Config: Range 1-2, Keywords: Reconfigure
Let’s start with the more popular of the two heavies Bistan.

Now with a -6p discount!

This may shock some people. Are you sitting down? Good. Pathfinders and Bistan with a short-range config, average the most hits of any non-commander infantry unit in the game. They are tied with Death Troopers with a DLT-19D and the grenade launcher config (also must be at range 2) at 5.625 hits per attack. Now is this something easily accomplished? Not even a little bit. Is it something you should be hinging your game on? Definitely not. But when we talk about offensive capabilities, they are top shelf. I do not game plan to make this happen outside of my opponent making a huge deployment mistake, but it is something keep in my pocket and keep an eye out.

Ion anti tank gun or exploding farts, either way the empire should run


Where Bistan can swing a game at close range if you can pull it off, there isn’t a huge payoff for our maligned lizard friend Pao. While he does pack a punch up close, it is almost a whole point less. Since in my opinion you shouldn’t be actively deploying to get these guys in close, if you’re going to do it, do it with Bistan.

Magnificent paths and where to find them

A300 Blaster Rifle: Range 1-3, Keywords: None
The Pathfinder’s standard weapon with Bistan is still on average almost a full point higher (this will be a recurring theme), than Pao.

Clocking at an impressive 5.125 average hits per attack the Pathfinders once again find themselves at the top of the damage pool now at range 3. Though this time it is alone. The Death Troopers, once again with a DLT-19D, are almost half a damage point behind Bistan Pathfinders. This is a much safer range for the Pathfinders to hang out at.
Looking at Pao Pathfinders are still an extremely formidable offensive unit.

Still hitting far above the faction average, you may start to wonder if the 10 points are worth saving by playing Pao over Bistan.

Don’t be like Steve, don’t kill trees.

A300 Blaster Rifle Long Range Config: Range 1-4, Keywords: Reconfigure
Guess what, our giant mammal friend once again is the king of the faction at range 4.

To put this unit’s range 4 damage in perspective it is greater than the average of a Rebel Trooper Z6 unit at range 3 (though there is a hefty point difference there). There are so few options in this faction for infantry at range 4 and Bistan Pathfinders is not only one of them but excels at it. I’m going to take this opportunity to discuss the elephant in the room and that is Bistan’s keywords, and what they mean for his card. Namely that it is an exhaust. Bistan has Ion 1 and Impact 1. This is nice (especially at range 4 which is rare), as it brings you some insurance for vehicles while still being an extremely useful anti-infantry weapon due to its dice pool. But as with all exhaust weapons it can be a major issue when you need to recover, move and attack all in the same turn.

Who isn’t inspired by that face 🙂

Now let’s look at the other heavy, Pao, and see if I can convince you he should be played just as much if not more than Bistan.

By saving 10 points from Bistan down to Poe what are you missing out on? Well Pao’s weapon doesn’t have any keywords (confusing in my opinion and if he were made today would have Critical 1). All you get are his dice which are ok. The nice about Pao is that he isn’t an exhaust card. So, while your Bistan is busy recovering, or worse not using his heavy weapon, Pao’s unit is taking an aim and firing which helps mitigate the damage difference between them, while providing options for other actions.

Don’t be like Steve, dont charge into melee with your pathfinders


Offense – Melee
Unarmed – if they are in melee combat, you’re doing it wrong.
Defense: White Die Surge, Keywords: Danger Sense 3
Like Jyn much of the debate that surrounds the Pathfinders is with their survivability or perceived lack thereof especially for their point cost. They have the same white surge defense die as basically the rest of the faction. However, at a base of 68 points it can be disconcerting to lose a piece that based on dice alone dies just as easily as a rebel trooper that costs 42% less. Luckily, as Pathfinder players we are not asked to live on base dice alone.
Danger Sense
I could just reword everything I said about danger sense in the Jyn article but that doesn’t seem like fun for anyone. So, If you haven’t read that and want to see me get into the weeds about danger sense in general go check out that article (shameless plug).
Just a couple of things to note here that are specific to Pathfinders. Since you are going to be purposely feeding them and retaining suppression tokens due to Danger Sense, it is easiest to play them with Jyn or commander Luke and focus on keeping them in their courage bubble. The extra 2 suppression before panic can be a lifesaver. Just like Jyn, Duck and Cover is stapled to them.
Their full Danger Sense averages an extra block per attack so in a perfect world from heavy cover and an average Danger Sense roll you would be negating 3 damage before you even get to your standard dice pool.
Additional Keywords
Dauntless – For a unit that can accumulate a lot of suppression fast this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand for a unit that can and usually will be suppressed after a single attack being able to get a free move if you aren’t panicked is huge. And as shorelines are a common occurrence this is just one more way to combat that, which anytime you have an answer (no matter how small) to a common netlist it is worth writing home about.
But as I said double-edged sword. The suppression token you add on can be just one more token in a quickly growing stack you aren’t sure what to do about. This is where you just have to remember that even though Danger Sense allows you to keep your suppression tokens if you choose, remember (and this applies to Jyn as well) you can still choose to. You can remove one at the end of the round if you wish. You can even roll for your rally step (in fact you are supposed to) but then choose to not remove them for any paint you rolled.
Infiltrate – In some ways similar to Jyn. DO NOT overextend them to have them blasted by an entire list turn 1. Be smart about it and when you’re unsure just deploy them normally, I promise the universe won’t implode.
Inspire 1 (Pao) – This would be nice if it could be used on themselves, but there is virtually always an use for Inspire so take advantage of that. This just plays into the anti-suppression list that Jyn and Pathfinders are great at.
Leader (Pao) – Here is an interesting thing to note about the differences between Bistan and Pao. Bistan, if you deploy or do your cohesion poorly can get killed if he is one of the only minis that can be seen by the attacking squad. He is a heavy upgrade no different than a Z6. Pao on the other hand becomes your unit leader. So, no matter how reckless you get with him, or how gamey you want to be with him poking out farther than the rest of the squad he is protected in the fact that he must die last.


Gameplay Tips
The farther back they are, the safer they are. That should go without saying, but the closer you get the more damage they can do. What is a player to do? My preferred playstyle is to attempt to keep a Bistan squad at range 3 behind some heavy cover and just waiting for a squad to come to close so that I can switch to short-range config and just mess up an enemy squad. You are more vulnerable, but you’re going to be more survivable than most other things your opponent could choose to shoot at.
With Pao I generally keep him at range 4 early on and try to get a lot of utility out of his inspire. Then in the latter half of the game move him into range 3 to push an objective.
Just like Jyn they can be used to grab a box and run, though I much prefer them to cover the escape of a box grabber. I utilize them heavily as position holders, similar to how I use Jyn half the time. Find a spot, you should be able to get their early due to Infiltrate and hunker down. Pathfinders excel at board control provided you can be smart with them. It can be easy to get ahead of yourself and the next thing you know your Pathfinders are the only target for half of your opponent’s list and they get blasted in a turn or two.


Recommend Commanders
Jyn Erso – They do a lot of the same things namely hold objectives. As I mentioned before her 3 courage is a huge boost to Pathfinders and they are carrying around so much suppression. Also her beautiful 3 pip can not only help them ratchet up their Danger Sense but if you are in danger of panicking or need to ensure you have access to both activations this command card is the answer. It just checks so many boxes for Pathfinders: need suppression check, need to ignore the negative effects of suppression check, need to remove extra suppression check.
Luke Skywalker – Commander Luke has a few things going for him that help the Pathfinders, namely his courage 3 bubble. But also, his 3 pip (which could be played with operative Luke as well), this can help remove suppression when you are crossing the line of acceptable suppression into the panic territory. Something to be aware of however is that depending on if you are keeping the Pathfinders at range 4 or not they can fall outside of Luke’s courage bubble, so keep that in mind in how you choose to play them with Luke. In these cases, it is generally worth taking more risks with them to keep them within his bubble, theoretically, they won’t be the number one target since Luke is present.
Leia Organa – No courage bonus here but Inspire 2 is nice to have around when you are a unit that hoards suppression. And when is her 2 pip not good?
Cassian Andor – Cassian’s 3 pip is fantastic for a Bistan Pathfinder unit. Not only do they gain an extra Danger Sense. But they gain a free recover which as we talked about is huge.

Is he always screaming or does he have some sort of condition?

Recommended Builds
Training – I think Duck and Cover is, unfortunately, a must. Danger Sense depends too much on it.
Comms – the only one that makes any sense to me is HQ Uplink. If you’re going to be recovering with Bistan than might as well double down on it and get yourself some more activation control. I don’t always take this slot but when I do its Dos….I mean HQ Uplink.
Gear – While I generally leave this slot open but there are a lot of solid options. Locally we have a lot of climbing opportunities so Grappling Hooks get solid play but your mileage will vary. Environmental Gear is to me never a bad choice, but my Pathfinders don’t move much so I don’t have a lot of use for it. Recon intel is an easy add that can help out your infiltrate to get into that piece of cover or if you’re feeling crazy and want to do a Bistan short-range suicide mission you can use this to get into range 2 on deployment (good luck with that).
Grenades – Again I generally leave this blank but there are a couple of solid options. If you play in a vehicle heavy meta (they do exist) Bistan with Impact Grenades even once can ruin a vehicle’s day. On the flip side with Concussion Grenades being to push almost 6 hits through cover if even once can change a game.


Most of my variation centers around Bistan as Pao just doesn’t have enough upside to risk getting him in that close. You would also potentially miss out on his Inspire 1 so depending on how important that is to you.
So get out there and Infiltrate some Pathfinders (just not to close)!

Good pathfinding out there!
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Commander, Unit Analysis

Jyn Erso Analysis

Posted on by jocke01

Today we got an analysis from a guest writer: Skyler Galle – (Tirion FFG forum)

Jyn Erso Analysis  

First things first, while I stand by any opinions below my biggest opinion is that most things in this game are viable, and at the end of the day they are just that my opinions. Don’t take this as me saying that this unit is better than that unit (although some of these opinions are just factual based on math). I come from Armada (a very well-balanced game) and what I think is most true in that game is still mostly true in this game: play what you like and what you know. Practice is equally if not more important than the nuts and bolts of a list.  

“I rebel”

Most often in wargames I see netlisting or group think (extremely prevalent in the competitive Legion community) and the term “competitive” or “good” is used for a piece that in general is just an easily min/maxed unit that doesn’t require a lot of tactics compared to other units or options within whatever game it happens to be, in a term “point and click”. Again, I’m not saying that these units aren’t good or even the most efficient in their respective games or lists. Though I don’t think the groupthink that is all or nothing on these units is worth anything. Also, spoiler alert I love Rogue One. It gave me so many things on screen that I had wanted to see as a child so admittedly I’m probably biased.  

Now for the reason we’re here, the polarizing Jyn Erso. For this analysis I am comparing her to her faction. The rate at which this game adds new units and characters I think it will become increasingly futile to compare cross faction for balance reasons. Also, comparisons will be made against non-force heroes unless noted.  

Offense – Ranged 

A180 Pistol: Range 1-2, Keywords: Pierce 1, Reconfigure 

I must backpedal here as I have said recently that the A180 pistol is a trap and not to use it. I’ve changed my mind since looking at the math again. I was very wrong. Jyn with this weapon is the highest rated offensive hero ranged attack the Rebels have. Period. She is ranked 2nd at average hits and wounds into no cover, 1st into light cover and 2nd into heavy cover.  

Can’t beat that price!

I have heard from several people, some of them high profile, that are on the record as claiming Jyn is poor or average at best offensively, or that she “hits like a wet noodle”. This just isn’t factually true compared to the rest of the rebel heroes. She is at the very top of rebel ranged 2 heroes offensively.  

A180 Rifle: Range 1-3, Keywords: Pierce 1, Reconfigure 

Obviously, there is a drop off here with her rifle config, the biggest thing though is it can fire at range 3. The list of commanders in the game not just the Rebels that can fire at range 3 currently sits at 2 (this will be changing soon with Cassian and Iden). So, this is a big deal. The weapon isn’t trash though to put it in perspective it does 0.125 or about 11% average hits/damage less than Han but at range 3.  

Some assembly required

When I hear opinions that Jyn is lackluster offensively I let my pal Marcel the Shell take it, “Compared to what?” (shout out to the 3 of you that got that reference). They math just doesn’t support that view.  

Offense – Melee 

Collapsible Tonfa: Keywords: Suppressive  
 

I think a lot of us early on with Jyn thought that maybe she should be a melee character or at least was good at it. While she does rate out number one in melee compared to her coworkers, I don’t think that is a great place for her to be. Plenty of lists have melee focused pieces and they will eat her alive. Even if she gets stuck in melee against death troopers she is going to struggle. Non force user Rebel heroes, not counting Darksaber Sabin, don’t want to be in close combat. To me its that simple.  

Defense: White Die Surge, Keywords: Danger Sense 4, Nimble 

There has been a lot of discussion about Jyn’s survivability. Mostly with anecdotal arguments of “My Jyn just gets blasted in 2 shots,” or “My Jyn tanked their whole army for 3 turns!”. So as is generally my go to, lets look at the math!  

I want to set aside keywords for a minute and just look at the defensive die, while also reminding you my readers that we are comparing apples to apples here that is non force using Rebel heroes. It’s the same as Han, Leia, and the Rebel Officer. They average 0.333 blocks per die. Obviously, keywords matter significantly but let’s just remember that little bit of information.  

Nimble  
I want to start with the less controversial keyword first. As a Jyn player if I’m being honest unless she is paired with Leia (and even then they don’t spend a ton of time within range 1 of each other) I’m usually only getting 1 or 2 uses a game on her at most plenty of games its zero. So, while nimble can be good, especially when she has a box and is running for it, it can be avoided by your opponent. And as many have pointed out there is so much critical in the game now a dodge token just can’t be relied on for much.  

Danger Sense  
Probably what 75% or more of the debate over Jyn is about. Before I get to deep into it lets just be honest and admit that Duck and Cover is an auto-include on her. I hate auto includes but here we are. This is where a lot of the anecdotal evidence has come in. Lets just face it white dice can be streaky its true. Having played exclusively Rebels since the day the game came out until clones dropped; I completely understand the variance of white defense dice. Instead of comparing stories of “she tanked it all game,” and “she was one-shot,” lets see what the math says on this keyword. Well its pretty simple each die added increases your average blocks by 0.333. With a full danger sense that is (checking the calculatron) 1.333 extra blocks per attack. To me, that is a huge boost.  

I read and hear how difficult some perceive ratcheting up Danger Sense is. Lets look at an example. 

First attack your Jyn is out in the open: you duck and cover gaining a suppression (and at least some of the time removing a hit right there), now with danger sense you roll what hit dice are left plus one. Mathematically you aren’t doing a whole lot for yourself there but hey its better than nothing, though on average less than what uncanny luck has going for it at this point. You probably take some damage but hey now you have 2 suppression tokens. 

Second attack hopefully you have moved Jyn at this point but maybe not: You duck and cover again gaining another suppression token (again in some cases removing a hit), but now your danger sense is in a way better place as you roll and additional 3 defense dice that average an extra block. And you end the attack with a full danger sense (absolutely no downside to 4 suppression tokens right?). 

One of the most overlooked things about danger sense I see is that outside of Immune: Pierce, it is one of only 2 keywords in the game that grants you any kind of protection against pierce. By being able to roll more defense dice than your opponent rolled hits you can roll enough blocks to cancel out the pierce. Were it so easy (hopefully more of you got that reference). 

Danger sense thrives against small dice pools and conversely is less effective against larger ones. Though that isn’t to say she isn’t better off than pretty much all her comparisons. Even comparing danger sense to impervious mathematically shows the power of this keyword. 3 suppression alone against an average sniper shot is equal in blocks rolled as red defense with impervious. 

Wow you have all the answers thanks for the maths! Is what I’m sure everyone is saying at this point right? Well even I will say sanger sense is not fool proof. You can suppress or even panic yourself real fast if you aren’t careful. It’s a fine line that comes with practice is what I have found. Though more to come on this topic in the next section. As I said before it is white dice, so you know what they might blank out but I don’t see how that is an argument against the keyword. Yeah, white dice can be fickle but guess what all the comparative commanders also have white dice but without the bonus (Han does get uncanny luck which is also a good keyword but not the point of this article).  

Command Cards 

“That moment I knew, I should have called in sick that day” Tk 789

Rebellious – If I’m being honest, I’ve used the charge gained by this card maybe twice and both times were to stop someone from running away. As I stated before most of the time I don’t want Jyn in melee combat so that doesn’t help with a lot of situations. It’s the rest of the card that is wonderful. As we talked about before Jyn has one of the best available ranged hero attacks in the game so being able to do that twice in a round is huge. Don’t discount the ability to move though as well. Many times, I have played this card in a pivotal turn as Jyn needs to run away with a box or move to an objective. If all you use this card is for another speed 2 move, possibly even if you lost initiative, before your opponent can often win a game (there is anecdotal evidence again). 

There is no I in teamwork Jyn Erso

Trust Goes Both Ways – I think one of the most often overlooked aspects of Jyn is how well she combats suppression lists. She is 1 of 2 Rebel commanders that have courage 3 (no idea why Leia doesn’t have 3). This card just double downs on that ability to combat suppression. I like this card a lot when I run her with Sabin as I want to get a quick thinking in on this turn as they both have nimble and double the aim tokens is nice too. The inspire 2 can really help with managing your pathfinder’s suppression. 

Flip to side B to continue

Complete the Mission – I see this card put down constantly and I suppose if you didn’t play pathfinders I understand it to a point. For me this is Jyn’s best card and what makes a list with her and pathfinders work. First, lets acknowledge the fact that this card doesn’t restrict you by having to give Jyn one of the orders, though it is limited to troops and not all units. Not a huge downside but something to consider.  Next, she gains low profile this allows you to be out in the open with heavy cover, they way Han can for the whole game. Again, clutch for objectives. Next it you may assign a suppression which can be used the turn you know you and your pathfinders are about to be blasted and you need to get that danger sense going immediately. On the other hand (and this is where I use this card the most) if its in the back half of the game you and your pathfinders have more than enough suppression tokens and are heading toward panic territory, or you just really need two actions with Jyn or another trooper. Giving 3 troopers the ability to ignore the negative effects of suppression tokens plus remove one when they are finished is huge. This card is one of the best counters to shoretrooper gunlines, which last I checked are everywhere.  

Gameplay Tips 
Goodness 2000 words later and I haven’t even mentioned infiltrate. I don’t have anything revelatory on this keyword. With Jyn I generally prefer to wait to place her to see how my opponent has deployed all or most of his units. This limits the areas of the board she can deploy so as many have said it’s a glorified scout 3 maybe at best a scout 4. But its nice to be able to start on objectives or be a threat to your opponents. The only real piece of advice on this one that everyone should take to heart is DO NOT overextend her with this. It would be better to just deploy her normally than to get her wrecked by an entire list in a turn or two because you thought it would be great to have to deploy on a flank at range 3. Take it from someone who has been there and lost her turn 1.  

There are a lot of ways to successfully play Jyn but the two I land on most of the time is just as an offensive piece that hardly moves or as an objective grabber that hardly attacks. I bounce back and forth between those depending on the objective mostly. Recover the supplies is one that I’m generally trying to steal the middle objective turn 1 and then get out of dodge. While something like key positions or intercept the transmission I’m picking a spot that will have a big impact on the board and just doing quick thinking and attacking most of the game.  

As far as builds you have duck and covered stapled to her and her armament is free though I generally have it set to the rifle side. Outside of that I sometimes run improvised orders and recon intel depending on how points fall in the list. Here is a variant of a list I have played with success.  

Jyn Erso (Duck and Cover, A-180 Rifle Config) 
R2-D2 
Sabine Wren (Endurance, Electro Grappling Line, Personal Combat Shield) 
Rebel Troopers (2-1B Medical Droid) 
Rebel Troopers 
Rebel Veterans 
Rebel Pathfinders (Bistan, Duck and Cover, Recon Intel, A-300 Long Range Config) 
Rebel Pathfinders (Pao, Duck and Cover, Recon Intel, A-300 Long Range Config) 
AT-RT (AT-RT Rotary Blaster) 
1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team (Linked Targeting Array, Barrage Generator) 
Commands: Rebellious (1), Explosions! (1), Trust Goes Both Ways (2), Symbol of Rebellion (2), Complete the Mission (3), Legacy of Mandalore (3), Standing Orders (4) 
Deployments: Advanced Positions, Battle Lines, The Long March, Major Offensive 
Objectives: Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators, Recover the Supplies, Intercept the Transmissions, Breakthrough 
Conditions: Hostile Environment, Clear Conditions, Limited Visibility, Minefield 

Action mcaction

Check back soon for analysis and tips for the next highest debated unit in the Rebel unit pathfinders! 

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Battle report

Alphaspel Prime Tournament Statistics 29/2

Posted on by jocke01
Who dosen’t love numbers

 The 29/2 I attended the Alphaspel Legion Prime tournament in Stockholm. I wanted to do some analysis and check the current meta and how different factions and units performed in the tournament, as well as checking any trends of fun obeservations. I will also post a tournament report from my point of view. We were a total of 20 players

First we have a look at factions:

Since Seperatists and Republic are so new, it’s no suprise that they are fewer. Almost half the players played Empire though.

Next we check win ratio of the factions. Empire did well, but about as many wins as losses. Rebels did handle themself the best and both seperatists and republic didn’t do as well. Not suprised that the new factions didn’t do overall well, however republic had a real struggle.

How many of each faction made it to the top 8. Pretty even overall, with rebels just a tiny bit more effective.

Next I checked how many of each commander was represented. Interesting note: No Emperor nor commander Luke. Luke is understandable with the new operative out, but not a single Emperor in a majority empire turnout.

Veers was the most popular commander, however he didn’t do to well.

Top 5 effective commanders. Rebel officer and Vader was very effective. Han Solo is an anomoly since only one person played him, but effective nonetheless.

How about operatives. Interesting note: 75% of top 8 played with and operative, but only 45% of all players did.

How good did they work?

Bossk went undefeated in the tournament which is interesting to note, don’t mess with the Bossk man. R2-D2 did not work out that well and the rest had a 2/1 win ratio.

Lastly I want to add some notes I found:
The average activations of the top 8 was 9.375 while the average overall was 9.2. So activations wasn’t that big a factor and it looks like 9 is the standard. Fun fact one of the undefeated lists was 8 activations.

There was no Rebel heavies but a total of 6 empire. 5 at-st and 1 occupier. 1 at-st represented in top 8.

The was no
Wookies
Fleet troopers
Luke commander
Palpatine
Boba
Operative Vader
Dewbacks.

The most represented unit was sniper strike teams with a total off 21 sniper teams, with average of 1.05 per player. Still the most important unit besides the mandatory corps.

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Unit Analysis

Rebel trooper upgrade expansion

Posted on by jocke01

Rebel trooper upgrade expansion analysis
I have long speculated about upgrade expansions with new personell and or heavy weapons for released units, One friend even said “hey they stole your idea” when they were announced. However I think that with FFG’s history it was pretty easy to guess. 

“Unit upgrade complete”

The expansion gives us 4 new models that are new sculpts. New aliens and poses is great for customisation which I love. I have bought a bunch of alien heads to modify my models already and these are great. Can’t wait to modify that ithorian to have a Z-6. You also get a unit card and token so you can use it as an extra unit. You of course can’t get a full squad without extra models, but since we already have a bunch of new personel from the rebel specialist expansion, it’s a nice thing for rebel players that don’t already have 6 units. In the box the rebel troopers get access to 2 new heavy weapons and 2 new personel upgrades as well as some new upgrade cards.

  • Ithorian ❤
The new sculpt looks really good, I love variety in rebel armies

Heavy weapons
The first new weapon is the DLT-20A rifle. It gives the rebel troopers a range 4 gun and comes with critical 1. The cost is slightly more than a Z-6 and does an average of 1.375 wounds per attack thanks to the critical 1. So compared to a Z-6 it feels like a weaker option, while the critical can give you a potential crit to snipe through dodges and cover or hurt a vehicle. The higher price also speaks against it, so the potential strength is range 1-4.

Shoretroopers in sight

However like many other heavy weapons the range dosen’t work well with the rebel troopers standard gun, which have range 1-3. So if you fire only att range 4, you waste the normal troopers dice and if you shoot within range 3 you don’t get any value from the extra range. So either you can use it as a split fire weapon or have a way of shooting at range 4, but doing less dmg than a Z-6 squad. Having the versitility of attacking something on range 4 at the cost of more points and the slightly less dmg of a Z-6 is a mediocre trade IMO. However I do see a potential for this gun. My plan is to use a single rebel trooper unit with this gun and grappling hooks as a backline objective holder. Get into position and snipe with he range 4 at anything that is in range, if you get a range 3 shot then great. You can just take a standard squad to sit at an objective or a sniper strike team. This unit is a little more expensive, but it can’t be killed in 2 hits like the strike teams and can deal dmg than a naked squad. I doubt I will use more than one rifle in my lists though.

The second heavy weapon is a scattergun much like the fleet troopers one, with this one being focused on anti-tank. The SX-21 comes with 2 red and 2 white and it has an average of 2 hits per attack which makes it the most effective gun availiable to the rebel troopers. The drawback is the range 1-2, which has a similar with range as the dlt rifle only reversed. You can’t use the gun togheter with the standard ones at range 3. The SX-trooper can use the normal rifle of course, but you are losing 1.5 average hits from your attack. I would love to swap this gun with the fleet troopers grenade launcher, that would be a dream come true for each unit.

  • Hey wanna trade?
  • Sure, no backsies

The special keyword is impact 1 which only affects vehicles atm. If I want close range anti-tank, then I rather go with a unit that can get there easier than troopers. There are of course new infantry units with armor like the dewback riders and super battledroids, however impact 1 will only be effective vs these units if you only have a single normal hit on your attack after cover. A full squad of fleet troopers with scattergun does 5.5 average hits with pierce 1 killing 3.75 stormtroopers outside cover. A full squad of rebel troopers with SX-21 does 4.5 on average killing 2.25 stormtroopers outside cover. Looking at these numbers I see no point in using the rebel trooper SX-21, at least not for attacking troopers at range 2, despite rebel troopers being slightly cheaper at 70p vs 78p of fleet troopers (including heavy weapons). Giving the rebel troopers fragmentation grenades you can dish out an average of 5.625 hits, killing 2.8125 stormtroopers outside cover. This is still worse output than the fleet troopers due to the lack of the powerful keyword pierce, however surge-crit and impact 1 will hurt vehicles if you ever get a range 1 shot. So with the fleet troopers as an option I don’t see the value of this new gun unless you really need short range anti-tank in the corps slot. Having pierce or something would have helped, or doing the swap for the fleet troopers launcher. A cool gun, even cooler model, but on paper I don’t see why they designed the card like this.

Move!

Moving on we have 2 new personel upgrades: the captain and specialist. The rebel specialist is an exhaust personell for 14 points and gives your troopers one extra gear slot as well as a free exhaust action that gives the unit a dodge token or a surge token. In the article they suggest recon Intel + emergency stims, these however is a pricy build with 28 points for the gear and specialist. Exhaust abilities should be powerful since they cost of using them multiple times. This is essentielly a free action that can be used multiple times if you recover, it is however locked to either a dodge or the new surge token. I think double gear is a bit overkill for a corp unit, I would love this personel on my pathfinders though. However going both enviormental gear + recon intel or grappling hooks is a build I might consider.

Hoping for new gear upgrade cards

This way you can combine actions and mods with powerul anti-tank weapons, then recover all the cards with one recover.

Lastly we got the rebel captain who gives the squad access to the training slot. This is a nice thing since training gives you access to powerful cards like hunter, endurance and offensive push. Like the specialist, the squad also gains an exhaust ability. This one makes you immune to being supressed for an activation with the cost of not being able to remove supression during the activation (rally step and recover actions). This downside prevents you from doing a recover to remove supression and recover the card in the same action. For only 4 points I think this ability can be quite worthwhile and training is one of the better upgrade types.

Rebel troopers 40
Mpl ion launcher 24
Rebel specialist captain 14
Offensive push 4
Total 82p.

Suppression?, get out there soldier!

The ability is however pretty specific in use, but can turn games. With courage 1 you can only gain effect from the ability when you start the activation with 1 supression, but you get a 100% chance instead of a 33.3…% chance with rally. So during round 5 or maybe 6 it’s amazing to be able to guarantee to get 2 actions instead of 1 when you need to claim an objective in the end. It’s a bit specific in use though since it dosen’t work with 2 supression or more. You could combine this with a ion launcher to recover and fire each round despite being supressed.

Adendum
I did not think about commaders courage bubble that help you against panic. That means you can use this to avoid being supressed despite having more supression than your courage. So this make the captain a great contender vs officer upgrade and is a really nice upgrade to take vs enemy supression lists, extra good with Jyn or Luke for the 3 courage.

Closing thoughts:
The things that sticks out in these expansions are the offensive push. A 4p card that gives you free mods on attacks after a move action. This have the potential of becoming the upgrade card predator of old 1.0 x-wing. It’s a card that makes training a even better slot than before. The heavy weapons are a bit dissapointing. I think I will at most use the one dlt-a rifle and no scatterguns. The designers had a problem of not making these new weapons just replace the old in effectivness, but it hit the other end and the shotgun is probably not gonna see any action since fleet troopers fill that role better. The new personel upgrades are nieche, but I think they can help the ion gun. Otherwise I still prefer the officer for supression control. For the rebels this expansions feels a bit weak on paper compared to the other factions, don’t know if it’s the designers being in a rush to make 4 expansions of the same type or they didn’t wanna make stuff to powerful. I could be proven wrong then these hit the table, but I think a single copy would be enough if they hadn’t put offensive push and some real nice sculpts in there.

What are your thought?

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Battle report, Unit Analysis

Battle summary and thoughts on new points

Posted on by jocke01

It’s been a while since I could play some Legion. Been busy with school and other things. I finally got a game in and decided to test some units that gotten point reduction.

Rebel list 797/800
Commander
-Leia Organa
Commanding presence
Environmental gear

Operative
-Chewbacca
Emergency stims
Hunter

Corps
-Mark 2 medium blaster
-Rebel troopers
mpl-s7 trooper
-Rebel troopers x2
Z-6 trooper
-Rebel veterans
Cm-0/93 trooper
Hq uplink
Rebel comms technician

Special forces
-Rebel pathfinders
A-300
Duck and cover
Recon intel
Pao

Heavy
-T-47 airspeeder
Ax-108 ground buzzer
Linked targeting array
Outer rim speeder jockey

Commanding presence is a nice upgrade, but 10 points was a bit much, now it’s a contender with esteemed leader and other stuff when down to 5p.

Chewbacca got a point reduction and with the stuff I put on him, he was about the base cost used to be. I think Chewbacca have been underated and didn’t need a reduction, but I don’t complain 😛

The ion troopers got a 8 cost reduction and are nice thing to have in your army. I doubt I will not have at least one of these in my army in future.

Pathfinders is the same point cost, but the very good duck an cover is not 4 and a staple on them thanks to danger sense, also the A-300 config is now free. So this unit I got 10 points cheaper than before. Infiltrate is a nice ability and I think these can compete with commandos for real now.

The huge thing was a fully kited airspeeder that comes in at 10 points less than the normal base cost. This is such a good thing for this amazing model. I really look forward playing alot with this one. The janky harpoon gun is only 3p so you might as well use it if you play with the speeder and skip the buzzer gun.

I faced an imperial list led by a generic officer and tested 2 shoretrooper squads with mortal teams. Also an AT-ST with 3 weapons and surge-hit pilot. It’s so fun to se both armies having these centerpiece units.

We spotted imperial walkers!

We played the scenario in downed at-st. It was fun to finally put this beautiful terrain piece to work. First turn the was an orbital bombardment as well as a airspeeder shot that dropped a few imperial troopers.

Infiltrare pathfinders are great for objective matches

In turn 3 the pathfinders took a pounding of at-st and mortar fire. The airspeeder took some dmg on the way towards the imperial line, but it strafed a squad of stormtroopers and killed of them.

With good use of Leia’s 2 pip command card and hq-uplink veterans 4 units could rush towards the at-st and the veterans picked up the objective.

“No time for sorrows”

The at-st kept pounding the rebel troopers behind the downed at-st. While the airpseeder flew past the at-st and opened fire with both the ground buzzer and forward guns.

The speeder dropped to 2 hp and got imobilized wich made it harder to turn around and shoot the at-st. I had to spend an entire activation to comp move and pivot. However the ion-troopers did a bananas roll on the at-st. That + pot shots from chewie put on a nice deal of dmg.

Think we will see alot more of these tokens.

The airspeeder had finally turned around and faced the at-st in the weakpoint. Sadly the at-st activated first and killed the veterans holding the objective. The airspeeder despite aim token only delivered 2 damaged though the defence. Bad time for dice fail. However awesome to get the airspeeder in the at-st’s weakspot.

Chewie did alot of guarding wich eventually led to his death

Grrhg uul

So when the final turn is about to begin, the at-st is destroyed and a single trooper leader is holding the objective. The empire had no way of claming the objective and winning, however it would take a miracle for the rebels to claim victory.

Despite my best effort to destroy the top positioned shoretroopers with a early speeder activation, the defence dice where strong with this one and only one trooper died. They then destroyed the rebel holding the objective leading to a draw.

However anyone can win the act 2 mission so will see who comes out on top.


Thought on the points erratta:

Chewie is still a crazy guardian beast and the reduction is just sugar on top.

Alot of expensive upgrade cards have become cheaper and the options for every unit has increased.

The airspeeder and at-st is back and better than ever. It’s great for the game that we now will see more of these centerpiece units. Targeting array was nice for the early attacks, but eventually it moved beyond even my range 4 command range. So maybe long range comlink is the way to go.

Pathfinders I haven’t played with enough, but with the reduction of their upgrade cards, I think they will be a viable pick just to win some objectives.

The new snipers are still powerful, but they must now use move actions and the scout move is now a very useful ability that must be used if you want to get early shots. It’s great that they cant just sit back at the table edge and aim-shoot non stop.

See you next time. Feel free to support my patreon if you like my stuff: https://www.patreon.com/Rebelsguide

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Battle report

Battle report Double officers vs Vader&Bossk

Posted on by jocke01

Welcome to another battle report. This time I faced 2 opponets who used one of my opponents lists, they played togheter with one command hand and it was more like a player with a coach. I think it both worked to their advantage with different ideas, however sometimes I think it might have worked against them with the classic too many cooks.

We played at our local gaming place at Studiefrämjandet.

It was great to finally test some of my newest terrain pieces. This match we had alot of light cover area terrain and some line of sight blocking trees + the building. As well as some difficult terrain water terrain and barricades. I used my modified list from the last time, learning from my misstakes and took some hints from my last opponent.

Rebel Alliance 798
Commander
Rebel officer – esteemed leader 55p
Rebel officer – esteemed leader 55p
Corp
Rebel troopers – z-6 trooper, astromech 70p
Rebel troopers – z-6 trooper, astromech 70p
Rebel troopers – z-6 trooper 62p
Rebel troopers – z-6 trooper 62p
Rebel veterans – cm-0/93 trooper, rebel veteran, hunter 97p
Mark II medium blaster trooper 38p
Special forces
Rebel commandos strike team – dh-447 sniper 44p.
Support
At-rt – flamethrower 80p
At-rt – flamethrower 80p 
At-rt – rotary blaster 85p

I faced an imperial list led by Darth Vader with a Bossk operative. Supported by e-web teams and stormtroopers.

Empire 798
Commander
Darth Vader – force reflexes, saber throw
Operative
Bossk – Hunter, targeting scopes
Corps
Stormtroopers squad – dlt19 trooper
Stormtroopers squad – dlt19 trooper
Stormtroopers squad – dlt19 trooper
Stormtroopers squad – dlt19 trooper
Special forces
Scout troopers strike team – dlt sniper
Support
E-web team – barrage generator
E-web team – barrage generator

After a die roll my opponets chose to be blue player and we ended up with clear conditions, advanced positions and breaktrough. I had some luck with breakthrough coming up at the third spot so I could guarantee it, which favoured me with 12 activations against 9.

Run to the hills!

I deployed most of my units in the centre left, using the scout move from advanced position to get some squads further ahead. I put my rotary at-rt alone in the other end of my deployment with a trooper squad and officer in the centre. I thought a reserve of 3 units with inspire support was a good idea for the breaktrough objective. The rotary at-rt was gonna walk straight into the imperial deployment zone from the flank, firing as it goes.

The empire focused most of their units around the crashed at-st and barricade line where they had a great line of fire to a large area and put 2 trooper squads on the left flank.

Round 1
Command cards
Assault vs Lying in wait

These command cards is pretty fitting for how the game went

I wanted to save my flamer at-rt’s to last so they don’t take too much damage, I also gave order to my veterans to get the free dodge as well order token to my emplacement trooper. The empire had no choice, but to give order to Bossk who sat and got all the aim tokens.

The empire started with a nice 2 wound sniper shot at my backline officer. I followed with a great z-6 squad opening, dealing 3 wounds on the closest e-web.

This squad kept over performing and managed to duck so much fire that came their way, surviving with a dodge token gifted by my rebel officer. We traded a few long range shots, not doing much damage and the at-rt’s started to advance.

Fire chickens, charge!

It was my first time playing against Bossk and oh man, can he store aim tokens. He waited for good shot at my at-rt which the stormtroopers tried to soften up with a dlt. Luckely I managed to repair it with one of my astromechs.

Steady…steady…steady…

Bossk finally had to activate and he crawl forward and decided to take his shot at my closest flamer at-rt. It was amazing to whatch, it was just re-roll after re-roll until he had his 5 crits. Putting 5 wounds on the at-rt it got damaged, but I repaired it putting it at 4 wounds at the end of the round. Bossk with targeting scopes was scary, if he re-rolls that much he would completly bypass any dodge and guardian.

Cold blooded patience.

End of round
If felt happy with the first round. The empire didn’t make much progress across the board while my forces moved quite a bit for a single turn. While the sniper shot that took out half my officer in the back was disheartning, my z-6 squad was mvp this round. Dealing 3 damage and despite being shot by 3 attacks lost nothing. My opponent focused alot one of my flamer at-rt which worked in my favor thanks to the astromech healing. The plan was for Bossk to burst it down which would have changed alot.

resourceful, reliable, reparing astromechs ❤
Rebel advance!

Round 2
Command cards
Covering fire vs Reptilian rampage

Dodge tokens vs a crit slinging lizard.

This round I wanted to keep reparing my walkers as well as use the covering fire to advance in the open area between my position and the forest. I gave order to my 2 astromech squads as well veteran + emplacement again. Empire of course gave order to the rampaging Lizard. The empire first activated a random and got a corp order which they used to put their far left stormtrooper squad outside of at-rt walk-fire range and put 2 wounds on it with their dlt supported attack. I activated one of my astromech squads to repair my at-rt up to 3hp and attacked the e-web dealing no damage, but giving out a dodge token to another squad due to covering fire.

It is akward when just one base is lacking grass 😛

Here is when my opponets were really unlucky with Bossk. They had a plan to double tap my at-rt with 3 hp left, providing they got a crit on the first attack they could pierce it trough my save and then use their aim token on the second attack to hopefully get 2 crit on the second attack and drop the at-rt. However they roll 5 blanks on their first attack so they decided to attack my trooper squad with the second to push on the supression. 3 hits after aim sadly got denied by cover and my dodge token.

acrylic tokens helps your troopers survive

In this game I really got value from my astromechs, I activated my second astromech squad and repaired the last hp I could giving my at-rt effectivly 10hp instead of 6. Then they rolled amazing and killed the 1hp e-web.

  • 4 natural hits with a z-6 is average right?

Then it was time for Vader to show his troopers how it’s done, he walked into position behind the barricades and drop 2 soldiers with his saber throw.

If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!
My acrylic tokens went out, coincidence?

My at-rt went into position for a next turn stormtrooper barbecue. My other one lost his first action and just walked up against vader. next I finally got to use fire support with my veterans. Despite throwing 9 black dice with aim I only managed to put 1 wound on vader and got one wound deflected due to his forces reflexes.

End of round
My flanking trooper squad and rotary at-rt kept advancing and dropped a strormtrooper or 2. Thing were locking okey for me, but I was scared of having vader so close to my lines. I had the advantage, but if I can’t stop Vader then this will be a short breakthrough.

Oh right, my strike team also walked up behind the walker

Round 3
Command cards
Ambush vs Master of evil

“Okey guys, one 3 we jump out and fire at the 2 meter tall cyborg death man who can block blaster bolts with his hands. Uh sir that seem…3!”

I expected master of evil, but I thought that they might play implacable as well so I played it safe with ambush. I issued order to my veterans and emplacement trooper while Vader got his order and a dodge tokens as well as an e-web and Bossk. My first Fire support activation again only pushed trough 1 dmg on Vader, fire with hunter veterans feels powerful, but the force was with the dark lord of the sith this day.

“If that dosen’t kill him what will?, Not us…run!”

Vader activated and gave me a total of 12 supression tokens! He then crushed my flamer at-rt with saber throw. I followed that with a randow draw support, Flame on. After aim-shoot I got a very average 7 hits on the 5 troopers and their armor was useless.

I prefer my stormtroopers red in the middle

The rest of the fight on the left flank wasn’t very dramatic. Most of my troopers had 3+ supression and I needed to start moving if I wanted to reach the enemy deployment zone so I ignored the dodgeless Vader. My backline officer had walked into range enough to use his inspire which combined with my other officer and at least 1 succesfull rally each time prevented my units from panicking despite e-web and Bossk supressive attacks. My flamer at-rt got another 2 wounds and was also damaged.

End of round
My flank units continued towards the enemy line and finished of the rightmost stormtrooper squad. After removing supression tokens during the end of the round I felt pretty safe. I understand how this imperial list could be panic central when combinding supressive weapons with master of evil. I had some luck with activation order to use inspire as well as at least rally 1 token each rally step,

Sneaky rebels

Round 4
Command Cards
Push vs Implacable

Vader and Bossk has so cool cards.

I gave order to my veterans + emplacement once again as well as my officer. Imperial gave it to Vader.

Vader started by walking to my right flank and cut down 2 troopers with his saber throw and took one damage to put back his order token via implacable. My trooper squad responded by fire back, as standard for my gammorean z-6 trooper he rolled 3 crits + 1 hit :). However vader was really implacable and blocked every bolt with his saber.

Meanwhile on the left flank the shooting gallery continued. The rebel forces ran trough the woods towards the edge of the battlefield, while the veterans setup in a covering position in the forest. Thanks to the heavy cover and diminishing imperial troopers casualties was minimized. However my 2nd flamer finally went down.

Run, they cannot shoot us all!

End of round
On the right flank my rotary at-rt blasted the imperial strike team and Vader finished of the foolish troopers that shot at him and walked towards the rebel officer. My sniper team managed to put 1 wound on Vader. I felt like I had a pretty good chance of placing 2 units in the enemy deployment zone. The empires chance is to stop me from putting more than 1 unit and pick up the bounty on my Twi’lek officer forcing the game to points which the empire would probably win thanks to the huge amount of points stuck in Vader&Bossk.

Round 5
Command cards
Turning the tide vs Merciless Munitions

“He has a what grenade?”

The empire could only give order to Bossk and I had only my rotary at-rt left. I was a bit disconserned when I saw the Bossk grenade card, I had totally forgot he had grenades. Luckily for me Bossk was just a bit to far away to hit several units with the grenade, If he was about half a speed 1 move closer he could have gassed 3 units.

You gonna have to work on your throwing arm mr Bossk!

My emplacement trooper stayed behind to cover my advancing troops and dropped 2 troopers, sadly the e-web survived my rotary at-rt and could keep the barrage generator on while pounding my troopers, that combined with bossk grenade attack I had only 3 trooper leaders + 1 astromech left of my troopers.

  • Quick hide behind R4

End of round
Vader did a sweet curved saber throw cutting the at-rt in half down to 3 wounds and my right flank was starting to look battered. Going in to the last round I felt that my offices was already dead due to vader being so close and the at-rt could be taken down by the last stormtroopers + e-web. However I felt that my strike team was garantueed to make it into the deplyoment zone and live through the round. On the left flank I had to put at least 1 unit in the enemy line, if Bossk managed to drop my officer it would be clutch due to the fact that my troopers could not stay supressed since they all needed 2 moves to make it across.

Round 6
Command cards
Sabotaged communications vs New ways to motivate them

This will be tense

I gave my order token to the only available special forces while my opponent gave it to Vader an Bossk. My first activation was a random drawn commander, I activated my twi’lek inspired a trooper squad and ran into the goal zone.

Touchdown!

Here I have to tip my hat to my opponent, he did a very cool manouver with Bossk thanks to the extra action from Vaders card, he was very close to turn the game. Bossk used his unhindered to jump over the x-wing wreck and fired with an aim token from hunter on my rebel officer who now lacked any unit in range to use guardian. My officer just managed to duck enough wounds to surive and deny Bossk his bounty. Bossk then ran into melee with my veterans stopping them from walking as well and regenerated the wound lost for the extra action. Wow it was a great activation, if it had worked he would have denied me 2 victory tokens while gaining 1.

“I can feel your anger”

His lone stormtrooper put a supression on my closest leader preventing him from double move, the e-web survived my rotary blast with 1 wound and then killed my second closest leader. My veterans used their hunter to club Bossk down to 2 hp.

Tense game, but here rebel victory semed imminent.

Vader walked up and cut of my officers head with his saber throw, while my sniper team walked into the victory zone and popped another wound on Vader.

I feel bad for my sniper team in the fictional turn 7 :p

End of round
Now if Bossk had taking his bounty the score would have been 2-1 and his last stormtrooper squad could aim-shoot my at-rt and hope to drop it, in that case my last supressed trooper leader had a 1/3 of winning the game for me. However Bossk just missed it and the stormtrooper couldn’t get 3 crits. My supressed leader didn’t rally so in the end the rebels won 3-0, the final score dosen’t really paint a fair picture of the full match and it could have turned the other way easily.

Rebel breaktrough

After battle report
It was fun to play with all my new terrain pieces and I think that this list worked a little better than the last version. While I didn’t get to be blue player I got a very lucky mission to play with 3 more allbeit weaker activations. I felt that the veterans with hunter + emplacement fire support worked well in theory, but they did a total of 2 wounds despite rolling a total of 18 black dice with aim in their 2 attacks. I think fire support have great potential and I think my choice to hold them back worked in their favor to not get focused early and the hunter gave me a total of 3 aims during the game and it could have been 4 if I didn’t have to run towards the deployment zone.

RNG
I felt that the dice was in my favour in the start of the match. My z-6 squads delivered 4+ hits almost every attack while the average is 3.5. The early 3 wounds on the e-web did alot since the double barrage generator combined with master of evil is an great combo against rebels. My opponent focused my at-t’s which I think was smart looking at the huge damage just one of them did, however due to below average rolls I was given plenty of time to repair. I think that the biggest rng swing was with Bossk. My opponent gave him targeting scopes and he gained a ton of aims during the game either from hunter or actions, despite that he rolled pretty poorly espechially in important attacks like the 2 wound at-rt and the bounty officer.

List building
I was suprised when I saw targeting scopes on Bossk as this card have recieved it fair share of negativity, but dang he used it alot during this match. For my own list I felt that swapping 2 rotary to flamers made them more of a threat and they tanked alot of damage this game, while I could use my astromechs to their fullest and reparing 4 wounds. The double officer still works with giving me a great command range as well as precise inspire and extra activations. However despite guardian, they are very squishy and the risk is giving away bounty. I think double officer works, but maybe Leia is so pass powerful that her with commanding presence and esteemed leader might work better or just as well. 2 officers is essentially splitting Leia in 2 while loosing her command cards. This was also my first game with veterans and I like them, they feel more like a special forces unit than corps unit and the fire support with the medium blaster was scary even when it failed against the Vader tank this game. The drawback is that you often feel forced to give them an order due to the coordination order to enable fire supprort and get the free dodge token.

Battleplan and tactics
The plan was pretty simple, place a massive blob to run behind the fire chickens that tanked enemy fire. Hopefully get enough units to the enemy line. The backline deployed force worked very well even though they spend 2 turns just walking, having fresh troops arriving at the enemy flank was great and it forced my opponent to decide where to focus his troops. The fire chicken tanks work great with my astromech squads. However I must pay more attention where my command range ends, I had a opportunity to play turning the tide vs master of evil, but one of my at-rt was just out of range.

Happy to write another battle report and I find that going through the match a day after, looking at pictures you get to reflect on the match. Somethings looked more even than it felt and you see what misstakes you avoided or did during the match as well as to get a clear picture of how different units delivered. If you like my stuff pls consider supporting me on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Rebelsguide

Next time I think I will try some tauntauns or perhaps Sabine, see you then.

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Support, Unit Analysis

At-Rt Unit analysis

Posted on by jocke01
“Hey, why didn’t I get to be in Rouge one?”

Unit introduction

“Is that a…”

The At-Rt (all terrain recon transport) is a clone wars era scout vehicle and works as a mobile fire support unit for the rebel alliance. At first I was lukewarm to the At-Rt being in the core box. I thought: “they couldn’t put out a core box before going to clone wars era, ugh”. However it grew on me and thanks to the alliance refit of the arc-170 in x-wing and the rebels episode where they find an abandoned clone wars base a story started in my head. A rebel force attack an imperial base that they heard have low security. When entering the facility, they find out why the security was so lacking. It’s a surplus storage facility, where they find old blaster, non functioning equipment and a large number of At-Et’s. Despite having weak armor and weapons the rebels make the best of it and since they lack spare parts and plans for maintenance. I wanted my forest world recon walkers to look muddy and rusty with the old paint job from their episode 3 appearance. Decommissioned from the empires service in favor of more advanced modern vehiclems the rebels use what they get and it’s really fitting the David vs Goliath relationship of the rebels vs empire with an at-rt going up against the at-st.

Before the dark times…wait that is pretty dark

The rebel at-rt is in my opinion the most balanced unit in the game. I’m not saying it’s the best unit in the just the most balanced in both internal balance (compared with other rebel units and options) and external balance (compared to other faction units and options). It has 3 weapon options and they are all viable picks despite being very different. I often find myself annoyed at some design decisions where I just don’t understand the reasoning, but with the at-rt almost everything went right. You might think that I claim the Rt is perfect and it’s not, but close. I have 2 gripes, one being that it should have been armor 2 and surge-block. However since armor was an all or nothing keyword when it was desighned I will let it slide. The second thing is that the climbing vehicle is rarely useable and I would have preferred it just being unhindered by difficult terrain instead. You might of course find yourself on a table with a bunch of things to clamber on, where you can get cover or good line of sight. However this is not often the case in my experience.

Unit options and abilities

55 points, what a bargain

The At-Rt comes in at a base cost of 55p which sounds cheap, but you often want to take one of the 3 weapon options pushing the cost to 80-90p. It has a nice speed of 2 with a medium sized base that gives it quite a good mobility. 6hp and 4 resilience threshold is fine for the price and the armor keyword makes it pretty resilient to non impact weapons, however with a surgeless white dice defense, most crits will go through so don’t expect more than one block each game. Except for the 3 weapon options, the only upgrade it can take is comms. Surge-crit helps in its anti armor role and its melee weapon is not to be overlooked, 3 red dice with impact is not bad. Like mentioned before it has the armor keyword, so all normal hits than aren’t flipped via impact are canceled. It has clamber vehicle and expert climber so it can move just like a trooper with grappling hooks. Thanks to its base size it moves about an extra 1.5 small base lenght compared to a normal trooper. 

  • Guest appearance of Pao
“Burn heret…imperialist!”

The at-rt got 3 weapon options. The first and cheapest is the Flamethrower which comes in at 25 points. It has only range 1 and instead of a fixed dice value it gives 2 black dice per miniature in the defending unit that is in line of sight. This combined with the blast keyword makes this a nightmarish weapon vs trooper squads, especially other rebel troopers or the soon to come cis. The more models the more dice and blast takes away cover so the effectiveness is increased vs lighter armor. 2 black dice per miniature with an average of 0.625 hits per die gives you pretty good odds of getting at least as many hits as defending models in every attack.

“6 barrels, 5 dice. You do the math”

The second and slightly more expensive is the Rotary blaster at 30 points. This is the true utility weapon of the unit if not the entire rebel faction. 5 black dice at range 1-3 with surge-crit and no keywords it is the jack of all trades. With its range, dice pool and surge-crit it can hurt both vehicles and troopers alike, but not as effective as the other 2 weapons to their specific targets. It’s the go-to weapon if you don’t need specific anti-tank or anti-infantry firepower in your list.

“I think we found your smoking gun”

The third weapon is the Laser cannon which has the longest range 2-4 and highest price at 35. This gun was the sniper before the sniper teams came out. It has 2 black and 1 red with impact 3 making sure that any hits that go through cover turns into crits. Due to the range you can often just sit and go aim-shoot with a 2-3 hits every time. This gun isn’t that effective vs troopers since heavy cover nullifies most of your dice if you don’t roll crit or surge, but vs imperial vehicles you can often count on 2-3 crits every attack since they don’t have easy access to cover.

Build and tactics

The fire chicken

  • At-rt 55p
  • Flamer 25p

Total 80p

“Weapon destroyed?, taste my A-300”

This is the cheapest one you can get with a weapon hardpoint. You might considering putting a hq uplink on this one to combine with “sorry about the mess” or a unique 1 pip cards as this unit screams last-first activation. The range 1 is limiting, but if you spend a turn double moving and then first activate for a move shoot next turn, you can cover a lot of distance and get the drop on an unlucky trooper unit. I suggest taking 2-3 of this unit since it’s gonna be a priority target for your opponent and it has to survive on the way to it’s targets to get any firepower from it, so having a pack makes it much harder to deal with than a single one. Han solo is a great commander for these ones, since his reckless diversion can help them walk up the battlefield without getting shot at. The “sorry about the mess” hq uplink or improvised orders can give you a nice last first activation to guarantee a burned enemy unit. I think of these ones as flaming missiles rather than fire support. You should pick on target to go after and hope you can get there before being shot down, any turns after that is just a bonus. If you are faced with a single model unit, remember you have a nice 3 red melee weapon.

The Z-6 big brother

  • At-rt 55p
  • Rotary blaster 30p

Total 85p

Rotating rotary

This is the basic At-Rt fire support. It works very well with your rebel troopers, commandos and any trooper unit with a range 3-4 weapon. It’s gun does an average of 3 hits, which is just shy of what a Z-6 trooper squad does, however it doesn’t lose any attack dice when suffering wounds unless you get weapon destroyed after you reach your resilience value. It also doesn’t care about suppression like troopers, so you can often do an aim-shoot to increase your dmg output. This is the At-Rt’s main strength, it’s a workhorse that delivers until its destroyed. I want my enemy to shoot att my rts because then my troopers can do their job and don’t lose effectiveness . Even with 5 wounds and chance of only having 1 action per turn from the damaged vehicle, the rotary blaster still spits out average of 3 hits per shot. Using a group of commandos with the rotary At-Rt is like giving them a mobile heavy cover that also have a gatling gun. 

Sniper RT

  • At-rt 55p
  • Laser cannon 35p

Total 90p

“We have spotted imperial walkers”

This is a stable anti-tank platform, but it has limitations when attacking infantry. The range however let’s it stay out of range of some impact firepower and stray blaster bolts and it doesn’t have to move all that much. A speed 2 move with the medium base + range 4 is a long distance on the battlefield, so this unit can work as a sniper when single models units present themselves out of cover. While the range 2 can feel limiting, you can just run into melee if someone gets that close. This is a unit that I could take 1 of, but it works fine as a pair. 2 of these can really put some consistent hurt on any ground vehicles you face when they aim-shoot together, speeders are harder targets these days with their often cover 2 protection that blocks your impact. Ironically their favourite targets are other At-Rts which they will make short work of.

Tips and tricks
Since they have so few upgrade slots I figured I would do a general tips and tricks section instead.

Reversing
I find that a lot of players, myself included forgets that ground vehicles can reverse. This has the obvious advantage of getting out of range from enemy weapons or melee units like Vader. However it can also help with getting units in your fire arc, even better than pivot does.

Mobile cover
Even without weapons the At-Rt is a big cylinder of light cover (heavy with low profile or suppression) that can be placed where you need it. 3 naked At-Rt’s only cost 165p and that is 18hp with armor walking towards your opponent. I haven’t played with weaponless At-Rt’s, but I am tempted to do a melee rush list with them, if you want to see battle reports with that kind of army please consider supporting me on patreon.

Displacement 
When you are moving into melee with a trooper unit that has 2 or more models, you can often manager to displace one model, while moving into base contact with another. That way you give the unit 1 suppression from displacement as well as attacking them. You can also do a little dirty move when displacing your own units, that way you can displace your own unit leader in order to move then further ahead. Sure they get 1 suppression, but if it’s late in the round it will just go away in the end phase.

At-Rt’s place today
With the newest addition of tauntaun riders, the rebels have access to 3 different support units. I find that At-Rt’s work best with Han Solo or the generic officer. Leia and Luke works best with troopers due to their abilities and command cards, not that you can’t take At-Rt’s with them just that they prefer trooper focused armies. Jyn works well with most things that can take care of themselves if you use inflitrate. The tauntaun riders have better mobility and strike hard vs troopers with red dice save or better. The laser turret gives great firepower at range 4 for cheap, but the lack of mobility can be exploited by your opponent. Both are great options, but the At-Rt’s strenght is the advantage of armor and no courage as well as flexible weapon options.

List idea: Vehicle heavy. This is a list that I think can go against the new meta of more and more trooper units and less vehicles and impact. This army can march up the board and throw out dice. Rotary blaster works against most targets and the landspeeder is kited for anti-tank.

Rebell alliance

  • Rebel officer
  • Esteemed leader
  • 55p
  • Rebel officer
  • Esteemed leader
  • 55p
  • Rebel troopers
  • Z-6 trooper
  • Astromech
  • 70p
  • Rebel troopers
  • Z-6 trooper
  • Astromech
  • 70p
  • Rebel troopers
  • Z-6 trooper
  • 62p
  • Rebel troopers
  • Z-6 trooper
  • Comms specialist
  • Comms relay
  • 76p
  • At-Rt
  • Rotary blaster
  • 85p
  • At-Rt
  • Rotary blaster
  • 85p
  • At-Rt
  • Rotary blaster
  • 85p
  • X-34 landspeeder
  • M-40 ion blaster
  • Ryder Azadi
  • Rps-6 rocket gunner
  • 154p

Total: 797p

This is my analysis of the At-Rt. A fine unit that still holds up. If you are curious about the Landspeeder pls let me know in the comments, I would love to do an analysis of that unit. If you like my stuff, please consider supporting med on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Rebelsguide

Rebels!
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Special forces, Unit Analysis

Rebel Commandos unit analysis

Posted on by jocke01

Rebel commandos analysis

General Solo?, is your strike team assembled?

Rebel commandos is probably the expansion for the rebels with the most value since you can field 2 units out of the box and you get 7 very nice minis. This was the first rebel special forces and they are essentially rebel troopers on steroids, the strike teams are on the other hand just like the name entails, a small unit that strikes critical targets. 

Rebel commandos (unit)

Like I said commandos are rebel troopers on steroids. They come in at 60 points for the base unit of four models so 15 points per model compared to the 10 point trooper. They keep the same defence die and weapon, but they have a lot of nice keywords to make Them stand out. Like fleet troopers and rebel veterans they got surge-hit and sharpshooter 1 on top of that. In defence they got low profile which is great thanks to their courage value of 2, that allows them to get heavy cover from suppression while requiring 2 to lose their action after rally.

Unit options and abilities

Commandos have access to 2 different heavy weapons, but no personel upgrade. In top of that they got access to gear, comms and training. They have several abilities: 

Low profile which gives them heavy cover if they got light, this is a nice ability to have since some terrain should be light and they can get heavy from hiding behind at-rt’s or emplacement troopers or just out in the open of they have suppression.

Scout 2 that allows them to make a speed 2 move when deploying, nothing gamebreaking, but depending on terrain, deployment and objective cards this is an ability that shouldn’t be overlooked since they can get a great position outside deployment or move into claim position for objectives.

Sharpshooter 1 this is great since most shots vs other infantry will be at least light cover, it’s almost like adding an extra hit to their attack rolls.

put me and this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile of Emperor Palpatine with a clear line of sight, sir… pack your bags, fellas, war’s over

They got 2 heavy weapons to choose from, one being the DH-447 sniper rifle. This weapon is special since it got range 1 – infinite, making it a great weapon for splitfire since it can always reach a target. It adds 1 white dice over the standard rifle which isn’t too exciting, but it has pierce 1 and high velocity which don’t allow dodge tokens to be used…providing it’s the only weapon in the attack. So just to compare with a Z-6 trooper squad which is in my opinion the gold standard.

Average hits 

  • Z-6 troopers: 3.5
  • Commandos sniper: 3.5

So at first light it’s the same, but adding the pierce and sharpshooter on a standard stormtrooper squad in heavy cover we get:

Average wounds

  • Z-6 troopers: 0.75
  • Commandos sniper: 1.875

More than twice amount of dead bucketheads!

“What is an aimbot?”

This is in a control environment of course, but my point is don’t let the amount of dice fool you. Against lighter armor the commandos advantage decreases and increases vs heavy armored  targets like death troopers. A commando squad with a sniper gives you a quality attack that excels vs imperial targets. The downside is that your commandos die just as easy as normal troopers when fired upon, while low profile helps a bit of course.

“I’m just gonna drop this here”

The second weapon option is the proton charge saboteur which is a different kind of weapon option than other units have. It does not add any dice or keywords to the attack pool, instead it’s an area weapon that needs to be charged then detonated. So unlike exhaust weapons you don’t have to recover it, but you have to spend an action to arm a charge within 1 of the unit leader. After a charged is placed any friendly unit with “detonate proton charge” can detonate it after any unit have performed an action. When detonated the charge performs an attack vs every unit att range 1 of the token and line of sight including friendly units. The proton charge model uses the commandos ranged weapon of 1 black die, but the real advantage comes when using the charges since you get to attack every unit in range and los. I will speak more about proton charges, their effect and how to use them in a future analysis. You can have a maximum of 3 proton charge saboteurs in your list and that’s a potential 18 charges armed (3 saboteurs x 6 rounds), more likely it’s 8-12 and you need at least one unit left with detonate proton charge to use any placed charges. So a commando unit with a proton charge saboteur can be a base unit combined with 2 strike teams with saboteurs.

Upgrades

Commandos can have a plethora of different upgrades. Grenades, gear, comms and training.

Charge beats grenade!

I don’t usually take grenades on commandos. Frag grenades is a decent dmg increase, but restricted att range 1 for a unit that prefer attacks at range. Frag grenades seems overkill when you already have sharpshooter 1 and if you want anti tank then the proton charge is a better use than impact grenades.

There is a lot of gear that’s useful. Recon Intel to get a scout move of 3 is perhaps not necessary, but fun and can give you a nice alpha strike with scout move-move-shoot or scout move-shoot-move back depending on deployment. Environmental gear is a solid choice as your commandos can turn difficult light cover terrain into free heavy cover terrain and it helps your scout move. Emergency stims is just as good here as on other expensive units. Grappling hooks is also a great thing with scout, as you can scout move into a climbable terrain piece then during your activation you can climber-shoot. Targeting scopes is usually a never take for rebels, but combined with the hunter training card it’s actually a valid choice.

Comms is not as pick and choose friendly. Comms jammer doesn’t suit commandos as they prefer long to mid range. Comms relay can be used with sabotage communications to great an upgrades ambush card. Hq uplink is the one I use the mosh, just to get the extra uses from Luke and Leia’s 2 pip cards and to ensure control of when I can activate my commandos and I prefer this over long range comlink.

Comms Combo!

Training is a powerful category, but pretty specific in it’s cards. Tenacity is just a no take since single wound units can’t be wounded. Duck and cover is a good one as it combines with low profile, however it is expensive and in the wake of death troopers, Palpatine and Bossk the empire have a fair number of suppressive weapons. This can make duck and cover as risk as you can easy help your opponent to suppress or even panic your commandos. Endurance is good, but not really necessary unless you run into a lot of the aforementioned suppressive weapons on a regular basis. My favourite is the hunter card. It’s not to expensive at 6 points and it suite the commandos offensive capabilities perfect.

Free aims?, yes please

Builds and tactics

The classic commandos

  • Rebel commandos 60p
  • Sniper 26p
  • Environmental gear or grappling hooks 3p
  • Hunter 6p
  • Hq uplink 10p

total 105p

These guys are the standard commando squad I play. You can cut some fat by skipping the hq uplink, but I like the command flexibility. These are the rebel hunters and what do they hunt you ask? These guys are character killers. Any commander, even Palp or Darth with the immune pierce are prime targets. Commanders usually hang around with royal guards which is a free aim token piñata. They prefer to stay at mid range where they can bring all their guns to bare and their focus is to take down enemy commanders, operatives and royal guards. A trick is to splitfire the weapons between a commander and his guard to get 2 aim tokens if both are wounded. The sniper can be shot at a commander to ignore dodge and pierce can be used on a guardian hit if the target have immune pierce. The other guys throw their dice at the guards something different, with sharpshooter negating some of the cover tax of attacking multiple units.

This unit like a lot of rebel units prefers Leia as a commander. Her command cards works well, 1 pip can drop wounds on units for hunter to trigger, the 2 pip is just good and the 3 pip let’s Leia inspire and order take cover on them before they activate. Using Leia with strict orders you get very good control of suppression, you can make sure to keep one token for low profile if necessary. Commandos love at-rt supports as they can walk behind them and gain heavy cover while either shooting in base contact or through them with sharpshooter.

“Heavy hitting diplomacy”

List example:

++  Standard (Rebel Alliance) [796 Points] ++

+ Commander +

•Leia Organa [100 Points]: Strict Orders, Esteemed Leader

+ Operative +

•Chewbacca [122 Points]: Emergency Stims, Tenacity

+ Corps +

Fleet Troopers [78 Points]: Fleet Trooper, Scatter Gun Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [58 Points]: 2-1B Medical Droid

+ Special Forces +

Rebel Commandos [107 Points]: DH-447 Sniper, Environmental Gear, HQ Uplink, Hunter

+ Support +

Rebel At-Rt [85 Points]: Rotary Blaster

+ Command Hand +

Command Hand: •Coordinated Bombardment, •Sabotaged Communications, ••Brains and Brawn, ••No Time for Sorrows, •••Covering Fire, •••Somebody Has to Save Our Skins, ••••Standing Orders

++ Total: [798 Points] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

The proton base

  • Rebel commandos 60p
  • Proton charge saboteur 24p
  • Duck and cover 8p
  • Comms relay 5p

Total 98p

This is another commando unit I’ve used when playing a triple proton charge saboteur lists. It’s Main purpose is to survive and detonate charges and place some on a backline objective. They can take descent potshots and the comms relay is for the sabotaged communications command card or just to boost command range to runaway strike teams. I like to play a Han&Chewie saboteur list. Han Solo’s reckless diversion help to stop fire on your strike teams and “sorry about the mess” combined with improvised orders help to guarantee a last first activation. Chewie works well with Han and His guardian helps keeping your strike teams alive. 

What I see when I play reckless diversion

List example: 

++  Standard (Rebel Alliance) [799 Points] ++

+ Commander +

•Han Solo [130 Points]: Improvised Orders

+ Operative +

•Chewbacca [122 Points]: Emergency Stims, Tenacity

+ Corps +

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper

Rebel Troopers [58 Points]: 2-1B Medical Droid

+ Special Forces +

Rebel Commandos [91 Points]: Comms Relay, Proton Charge Saboteur

Rebel Commandos – Strike Team [44 Points]: Proton Charge Saboteur, Recon Intel

Rebel Commandos – Strike Team [44 Points]: Proton Charge Saboteur, Recon Intel

+ Command Hand +

Command Hand: •Sorry about the mess, •Sabotaged Communications, ••Push, ••Reckless Diversion, •••Change of Plans, •••Notorious Scoundrels, ••••Standing Orders

++ Total: [799 Points] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

Final thoughts

Give me votes!

In conclusion I think the Rebel Commandos are a valueable unit in the rebel alliance and much needed to counter the royal guard based death balls, either with hard shooting or the area damage of the proton charge.

This was my thoughts on the Rebel Commandos who are in my opinion an unit that get’s overshadowed by their strike team brothers and sisters. Speaking of wich, I might talk about them next time or perhaps I will give my thoughts on the At-Rt, make your voice heard in the comments!

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