Unit Analysis Fleet Troopers

Posted on July 12, 2019August 24, 2019 by jocke01

Fleet troopers

Coming in at a base cost of 44p with an extra trooper for 11p, just 1 point more than rebel troopers. Same speed, hp, courage and save. They got access to 2 heavy weapons, grenades and gear. They are however quite different in their playstyle. They are a glass cannon or hammer unit. they hit hard, but are very brittle. They require a much offensive playstyle than the normal troopers.

I’m ready for anything, *lightsaber sound…except that

Unit options and abilities

Unlike their normal trooper friends the fleet troopers got both defensive surge and surge-hit. They only have one ability and that is the steady keyword which gives the unit one aim token after they perform the standby action.

The standby action is hard to use successfully since it’s very easy to counter. If you receive a suppression token you lose your standby, so in other Words any unit that attacks your standby unit need only one die with a hit result and you Lost your standby. I have used it successfully once and faced it once or twice. If you can place yourself behind a los blocking piece of terrain and your opponent wants to get past it or if they want to engage in melee and need multiple move actions to so it then it can give you a successful standby attack with an aim token. However since it’s limited to range 2, I recommend that you just move and try to take a normal shot.

“Shotguns? I didn’t think anyone used projectile weapons anymore.”

Fleet troopers have access to 2 different heavy weapons. The scatter gun for 23 points and the MPL-57 grenade launcher for 33p. They can also take grenades, personnel and a gear upgrade. The scattergun is an amazing weapon and the only downside is the range 1-2 limitation, however since fleet troopers have that range on their normal gun it isn’t that big a drawback anyway. The scattergun fires 2 red dice instead of the fleet troopers normal 2 white. This adds a 1.75 average hits thanks to the surge-hit and is a heavy increase in firepower over a normal fleet troopers 0.75 average hits with 2 white. In addition to this the gun has one of the best keywords in the game pierce. Pierce # cancels the same amount of rolled blocks on defence dice, this is taking straight from the descent/imperial assault game system and the thing that makes pierce so powerful is that it cancel the dice after it’s rolled a block. So for a stormtrooper that rolls on average 0.5 blocks per die needs to roll 4 dice in order to safely block a pierce shot (according to statistics). The only downside is that pierce don’t do anything of your opponent don’t roll any blocks, however if your opponent blanks hos defence roll…well you probably didn’t need that pierce.

The grenade launcher is a totally different story and I don’t know what the game designers was thinking. It has range 1-3 which doesn’t synergies with the fleet troopers 1-2 range. It’s expensive coming in at 22 points more than the normal fleet trooper and is an exhaust weapon. So for that investment, what do you get?

Well you get 1 black and 2 white dice so just 1 black die over the fleet standard. 1.375 average dmg so just shy from double the dmg of the standard 2 white. It does have some fitting keywords for a grenade launcher though, impact 2 and blast. Impact 2 is pretty good for a handheld weapon and blast ensures that cover won’t stop your hits from becoming crits. Blast can of course be combined with the rest of the troopers attack if you are at range 2 to give the entire attack blast and ignore cover. This can of course be achieved with concussion grenades at range 1 combined with the scattergun for 5 less points, and no exhaust.

Battlefield role

Unlike rebel troopers the fleet troopers are shock troops meant to be played offensive and attack rather than the multi-purpose of rebel troopers. I also think that fleet troopers works best as 1-2 squads rather than the spammable rebel troopers. Their defence is just as weak as normal troopers and they don’t have the nimble keyword, however their offensive output is much higher. Since their range is limited they need backup by other units that don’t just sit in your backline, combined with units like Luke or Han they can make an hammer to strike at your priority targets.

Builds and tactics

The run and gun

Fleet troopers 44p
Scattergun trooper 23p
Recon intel 2p
Fleet trooper* (optional)

Total 69-80p

This is the basic fleet trooper squad I use, either as 1 or a pair with 2-4 rebel troopers. The scattergun combined with the 4 standard models gets 4.75 hits with pierce 1. If you fire on a stormtrooper squad without cover and score 5 hits you will drop 3.5 dudes from that squad. This is some nice firepower to have. Now the downside is that the unit needs to survive Long enough to get into range. The recon intel helps a bit and is cheap, the extra trooper is optional ,but I recommend taking it of you can as every trooper adds 0.75 hits and you will lose a few on your way forward. My tactic with these guys is to hug los blocking terrain if it’s possible. I try to get them into position where they stand behind a wall or building where they can run out and attack any unit that comes within range of a speed 2 move and range 2. Don’t be afraid to leave them in the open after a attack like this, the dmg you inflict will be worth it, but of course use cover if you can.

This brings me into the Luke Slingshot: Luke Skywalker with force push is these guys best friend. You position these guys with Luke for round 2 or 3, then you use the command card my ally is the force to give both Luke and the fleets an order token and a dodge token. You then save Luke and the fleets for last, again try to hide behind los blocking terrain or at least heavy cover, the dodge token will deter enemy fire. Luke goes first and double move to get into range 1 of an enemy unit and push them out of cover towards the fleets. A speed 1 move + 1 move cohesion which you get to place covers quite a bit of difference. Then you fleet troopers have a fine target right in the open to shoot. Either move shoot or possible aim shoot of you set it up perfectly. Luke can next turn go Son of Skywalker and go after a commander or valuable unit.

Range longer than 2 and in cover
Force push
Speed 1 move
You get to place coheseion. In range 2 and without cover
Double move luke into range 1

The barrage

Fleet troopers 44p
Mpl-57 barrage trooper 33p
Fleet trooper 11p

Total 88p

At first I didn’t see any reason to take fleet troopers without the scattergun and against empire… I still don’t, however vs rebels I actually prefer it. Rebels are far more dependent on cover and very few units have a decent defend die so pierce is not as necessary and against such units like Luke, he is immune to pierce. The optimal way for this unit to work is of you can find a target att range 2 for the troopers then split fire with the launcher att some other small unit, like a strike team or vehicles. This is easier said than done of course. This unit doesn’t have to play as offensive as the scattergun unit and can stay in the middle and use the launcher to hurt vehicles, specifically at-rt’s and landspeeders who either comes with cover or can get it thanks to their relatively small models. Then if something comes within strike distance go and shoot with your regular guns. Depending on what units the clones and cis bring, these guys might be more useful, but for now if you face a lot of rebels with vehicles then these guys are worth a shot.

This is what happens when you don’t take cover

Upgrades

Fleet troopers have access to grenades, gear and personnel.

The only grenade I would give them is the concussion grenades, it gives a nice dmg boost against units in cover and fleet trooper fire at range 1 or 2 anyway. Impact grenades gives you a black die that with surge-hit is worse than 2 whites and frag grenades only gives each trooper a boost of 0.125 average hits and the surge-crit isn’t as powerful when they already have surge-hit.

There is 3 gear upgrades that I would use on fleets

Recon Intel. It’s cheap and gets you closer to your targets.
Environmental Gear. Also cheap and helps you get to your targets faster. It’s however dependent on terrain.
Emergency Stims. Expensive, but it gives you fleets a chance to still strike with their full strength. It’s a backup in case your opponent can activate before you and shoot your fleet troopers, you can still lose 2 guys and strike back at full strength. You will of course lose them after their activation, but these guys are all about dealing dmg, not surviving.

That is my thoughts on Fleet troopers. Agree/disagree?, you have any nice tactics or stories with fleet troopers?

Let me know in the comments!

Corps

Posted on July 11, 2019 by jocke01

Fleet troopers #1

Fleet troopers #2

Support

Posted on July 11, 2019 by jocke01

AT-RT’s

1.4 FD Laser cannon team

terrain

Crashed x-wing pre-paint

Posted on July 8, 2019 by jocke01

I really enjoy making terrain. You can make it out of any kind of junk or just combine different cheap material. To legion I stick to a star wars theme, but you can use alot of this terrain in other games. This one will be very star wars. I purchased a revell kit x wing cheap on an auction site. It’s around 1/72 in scale so it’s to small for legion wich scale is around 1/48. However when crashed the scale isn’t as noticeable.

I started with assembling the model then I attacked it with my exacto knife and handrill. I had an image of how it crashed and where the parts should be and I’m pretty happy with the results.

I hotglued everything on a mdf board that i cut out. My idea for this terrain is to make it a big piece that will be difficult for troopers and provide only light cover. Recently I have been pondering how to make more terrain pieces that either favours vehicles or aren’t optmised for troopers, since the current meta isn’t that friendly to vehicles.

Next step was basing. I use sand, pva and water that I mix around 40% sand, 40% glue and 20% water. The reason I mix in sand is that I can shape it more than just glue and water and it gives a thicker texture. I use an old brush to put this out and a barbeque stick to shape it or push it into cracks. The I add sand and small rocks on this and then turn it upside down and give it some light taps to remove any excess sand.

Join me next time when we start painting this bad boy.

Corps, Unit Analysis

Rebel Alliance unit analysis : Rebel Troopers

Posted on July 7, 2019August 24, 2019 by jocke01

Rebel troopers

These guys are our backbone unit and will probably exist in every list you make in one form or another. The unit is 40 points for 4 models with 1 wound each, courage 1 and with 2 heavy weapon options and a personal upgrade. They have access to grenades and gear for additional upgrades. Speed 2 range 1-3 is the golden standard so nothing extraordinary or a handicap.

Unit options and abilities

Their main drawback is the white defence die. They at least have surge-block, but they will only block every third hit on average. On the other hand, they got great offence for their price. 1 black die in both ranged and melee, the base squad has an average of 2 hits per attack which is better than stormtroopers base value.

The nimble keyword is a purely defensive ability. It allows the unit to regain any dodge token spent during an attack. It’s very powerful when attacked multiple times. It doesn’t help when you don’t have a dodge token or when only attacked once during a turn. This keyword is best used with commanders like Luke or Leia who have ways of passing out command tokens. Don’t be discouraged to use dodge actions when possible. Even if you never spend them, you can deter your opponent from attacking a well positioned unit. It can feel like a waste when you put 5 dodge tokens back in your supply at the end of the round, but rather that than put away your models.

The 2 heavy weapon options are the Z-6 trooper and mpl-57 ion launcher. The Z-6 is an anti-infantry weapon with 6 white dice att range 1-3 with no keywords for 22 points. 12 more points than adding a single trooper. The offensive output is quite big, it adds 1.5 average hits compared to 0.5 from an extra trooper. Since it adds so many dice, the dmg potential is enormous, however it can just as likely roll mostly if not all blanks. A white die without surge-hit only have 2 hit symbols on it. The price and dmg output makes this one of the most effective weapons in the game and I would not recommend taking a rebel squad without it unless you chose the other option. The addition of so many dice also gives you 6 more potential crit results that can hurt vehicles and go through dodge and cover.

The ion launcher has 2 red die and a range of 1-3. It costs 32 points so 22 points more than a standard trooper and is an exhaust weapon, meaning you need to do a recover action after each usage if you want to add it to your attack pool. So it’s quite expensive and a heavy drawback with exhaust and it adds 1.5 average hits just like the Z-6. It does however have some keywords: impact 1 and ion 1. Impact 1 let’s you turn 1 ht result into a crit result after dodge and cover, providing the defender have the keyword armor. Ion 1 means that if you deal at least 1 dmg to a vehicle unit, that unit receives 1 ion token and will lose 1 of it’s potential actions next round. So this gun, unlike the Z-6 is designed to attack vehicles. While 2 red and impact 1 will not destroy a vehicle, the ion token will severely hurt the defending vehicles next activation. Or even negate it completely if you have more than 1 of these weapons in your list. It is a heavy point investment though and if your opponent isn’t bringing vehicles it’s just a Z-6 that cost more and exhausts after usage.

Battlefield role

Rebel troopers are our backbone unit. They will hold objectives, attack trooper and vehicle enemies and can serve both in the backline, middle of center of the battle. They are cheap and spammable with options for both anti-infantry and anti-vehicle. They will however die very easily and gets easily suppressed, use cover and dodge tokens as much as you can.

Builds and tactics

The bread and butter

Rebel troopers – 40p
Z-6 trooper – 22p

Total – 62p

My gamorrean z-6 trooper has the record of 4 crits without aim

This is the rebel bread and butter. It’s cheap and very spamable, it has an average of 3.5 hits per attack and are perfect for sitting on objectives. With courage 1 it’s easy to get suppressed and your main action is to attack. If you don’t have a shot you should always move towards an enemy or objective. If you can shoot, you should avoid the aim action even if it’s tempting. An aim token that re-rolls 2 black dice is okey, but re-rolling white dice without sure is barely worth it. If you can take a better position take a move or take a dodge token. This unit deals enough damage as it is and a dodge token with nimble will help them stay alive to claim objectives which is what will win you the game. Even the unit leader + the Z-6 trooper throws 7 dice per attack and does average of 2 hits, just the same as the base squad of 4 models.

The heavy troopers

Rebel troopers – 40p
Z-6 trooper – 22p
Rebel trooper 10p
Fragmentation grenades – 5p

Total – 77p

This is pushing the trooper squad to it’s highest dmg potential. The fragmentation grenades don’t only let’s the unit throw red dice instead of black the attack pool get’s surge-crit. This is a massive boon to the Z-6, adding surge-crit to that weapon is like giving it 3 extra white dice. The average trooper also goes from 50% hit chance to 87.5%.

The downside is of course that the grenades only work on range 1. However if you are going with the extra trooper I think the 5 point grenades are a no-brainer. The dmg output increase is so big that moving into range 1 is far better than aiming. This of course forces this unit to the frontline. This unit is made for advancing and taking objectives in the centre or in your opponents backline. A unit like this does become a target for heavy fire and suppression will keep them from moving and firing. Leia with strict orders can help this unit. “No time for sorrows” command card gives them an extra speed 1 move and strict orders makes them not lose their action due to a single suppression. Leia can also activate before them and use inspire and take cover for both suppression removal and a free dodge token.

The ion control

Rebel troopers – 40p
Ion launcher trooper – 32p
Rebel trooper – 10p

Total – 82

The rebel trooper is optional, but when investing into the ion gun, you might as well add an extra body to protect that investment. This unit prefers to stay at the backline and then go towards an objective or just the center of the battlefield. If your not facing a vehicle this unit can feel like a waste, but they can still fire one shot just as well as the z-6 squad and they can still claim objectives. This unit is 1 out of 2 possible ion token generators for the rebels. I like a unit of these or two if I will not have any or very little impact weapons. They are not for destroying vehicles, but they will try to contain the threat of them by split fire the ion launcher against enemy vehicles. Vehicles like the at-rt or speeder bikes can be handled with regular weapons, but the at-st, occupier and rebel speeders have to much health to go through with standard attacks. If you want to bring down a heavy vehicle before round 6 you need to focus a few impact weapons on it quick, otherwise you might as well ignore them. The ion control is helpful with the latter option, you won’t destroy the at-st, but you can remove its actions. Even with one ion you can stop that aim token that would give you 2 more hits to save against or stop a vital move/pivot into range or arc. If you have 2 of these or can pull of a last/first activation you can give a vehicle 2 ion tokens, which simply denies that units entire action. For a 200+ at-st, losing just one attacks is devastating for its effectiveness. If your meta does not include a lot or heavy vehicles, then the launcher is often just a waste of points. I like to have one of the squads with me in lists without much impact, it can save your neck vs an aggressive at-st or double tank list.

Upgrades

The rebel troopers have access to grenades and gear. When it comes to grenades they are all 5 points and are all range 1 weapons. Concussion grenades is not bad, however if you get a shot of at range 1, the frag grenades are better vs most targets and it works if the defender is out of cover. Impact grenades is great for imperial corps since they swap white dice for black. Rebels on the other hand just get impact 1, sure great of you find yourself at range 1, however again I would prefer frag grenades since they work vs infantry as well and the surge-crit is enough if you want to attack an unit with armor.

When it comes to gear all the options are okey, however you don’t always need them and they cost a lot to put them on every trooper unit you got. They also arent any must have, but several nice haves.

Grappling hooks: not bad for a Z-6 squad or two to get into good positions, dependent on terrain.

Environmental Gear: again dependent on terrain, but not to bad if you got some extra points. Can help heavy troopers get into range 1.

Emergency Stims: good, but to expensive to put on these kind of units IMO.

Recon Intel: these can be used on heavy troopers to give them a small speed boost or ion troopers to help them get into range of vehicles.

Targeting scopes: you will aim very rarely, if at all so never take these.

So this is my thoughts on the rebel trooper squad. Agree/disagree, have some interesting tactics or builds of your own? Let me know in the comments. See you next time when we look at the rebel troopers cousin, the fleet troopers.

Rebels guide to the galaxy