We’re here, at the end of the Imperial road. Combining the Support and Heavy units together gives us plenty to talk about, so let’s get on with it!! I’m even going to go over the tank since we have all of the information on it!

 

74-Z Speeder Bikes

The support unit from the core set still sees some use, but maybe not as much as they used to. I don’t think they’re a bad unit by any means, but when building an Imperial list, 90 points can come at a premium. Let’s go over what the Bikes bring to the table on the face of things. First of all, they’re a speed 3 Repulsor Vehicle with Speeder 1 as a keyword. What this means is that the Speeder can ignore terrain that is height 1 or lower, and it must perform a compulsory move. Notice the wording on the card, it doesn’t say “may” which means it is a mandatory compulsory move. You need to consider every move you make with them, because you don’t want to crash into bigger pieces of terrain, run off the board, or displace your troopers if you were to finish your move on them. They do have Cover 1 which is pretty good, and gives them automatic light cover. They have a health pool of 3, per bike, and they can’t be suppressed and they can’t be engaged. They roll white on defense, with a surge. On offense, they roll the rainbow dice with Impact 1 and Fixed: Front (meaning the shot needs to be from the front arc) and they surge to hit. Ultimately, they’re a great flanking unit if they are run in a list. However, I think you need to run them in pairs at the minimum. They are only allowed a Comm upgrade in which you should most likely consider HQ Uplink, I think.

 

E-Web Heavy Blaster Team

The E-Web has a lot of keywords on it that we should go over and we’ll start with Cumbersome because it’s on the back of the card not shown. Cumbersome states “You cannot use this weapon and move, except for pivoting, during the same activation. This essentially nerfs the E-Web a little bit, because if it could move and use the Heavy Blaster weapon it would be maybe too strong. Full Pivot allows you to pivot up to 360 degrees, Plodding only allows you to move once per activation, Reposition gives you a free pivot action, and Sentinel bumps your standby range to 1 to 3. Some It has a health pool of 4 and a suppression threshold of 2. It rolls red dice on defense, with no surge, similar to Stormtroopers of course. On offense, it rolls one red, two black, two white at range 1 to 3. They do have the E-11 blasters, which coincides with Cumbersome, meaning that if you move you can’t shoot the E-Web…but you can shoot the E-11 blasters, if you wanted to, and all of the weapons surge to hit. I would personally add the Barrage Generator to add two more white dice and suppressive into the dice pool. One red, two black, four white with suppressive at range 3 is pretty solid. At a base cost of 55 points, 65 if you bring barrage, E-webs can give the Imperials a cheap support option.

 

AT-ST

Ah, the AT-ST….A much talked about Imperial unit. It’s slightly over costed at a base of 195, especially when you start adding Hardpoint weapons and pilots (listed below). It has Armor which allows it to cancel ALL hit results. Arsenal 2 allows it to attack with two of it’s weapons, and it has Weak Point 1: Rear which if the attackers unit leader is inside the rear arc, that attack pool gains Impact 1. It has a health pool of 11 and a resilience threshold of 8, rolls white defense dice with surge to block. It needs to be kept in mind that FFG has changed the vehicle damage rules as of recent, which certainly helps vehicles in someways. I would reference the Rules Reference to learn more about that! Now for it’s attack, it has the MS-4 Twin Blaster Cannon which is range 1 to 4 with two red, two black, two white….no surge to hit. However! Later this month, the tank comes with a new pilot which is pretty big for the AT-ST, and we’ll go into that after the Hardpoint options. OH and if all else fails and you find yourself in some melee, it rolls four red with it’s every so scary named Fence Cutting Blades! (Four red dice is no joke, though.) Keep in mind, the AT-ST can go into melee, but it cannot be engaged! (Surprised it doesn’t have Weak Point: Ewoks)

 

AT-ST Hardpoint Options

All in all, the hardpoints don’t really cost that much. I would think you run it with the Twin Light Blaster Cannon, most of the time, and maybe the Mortar Launcher to possibly counter snipers. For 20 points the Twin Light rolls one red, one black, one white at range 1 to 3, it is Fixed:Front with Impact 1. For 10 points the mortar rolls three whites, Fixed:Front and it is Suppressive at range 4+ which is pretty big. If you can land some hit’s you’re handing out 2 suppression in the opponents backfield. Last but not least the DW-3 Concussion Grenade Launcher  costs 15 to roll two black, with Blast at range 1 to 2 Fixed:Front. Still relatively cheap, and maybe you take it if you expect your AT-ST to get close, but I still think the other two might be a better go to. 

 

TX-225 GAVw Occupier Combat Assault Tank

The TX-225 GAVw Occupier Combat Assault Tank is a mouthful, so we’re just going with “the tank” or as some folks on the interned love to call it “the snow blower” as it may be a good use to transport Snowtroopers into the action. As long as the name is, there is also a lot to take in here. The tank has Armor, similar to the AT-ST it blocks all hits that are not crits. It has Arsenal 2, which as we know allows it to shoot two different weapons. It has a very new keyword of Transport 1: Open, which allows it to transport 1 friendly trooper UNIT. Keep in mind a few things for Transport: if the tank suffers any kind of wound, the unit transporting suffers 1 wound. When transporting, if you move the tank twice, the unit inside can only spend one action to disembark as opposed to disembarking and getting another action had the tank moved once. I’m pretty sure I have that correct, but I’m also not the best when it comes to interpreting new rules. It has Weak Point 1: Sides which gives the opponent Impact 1 when attacking it from it’s side arcs….which are quite big. It has a health pool of 8, a resilience level of 6, and rolls red dice for saves with no surge. On top of the addable hardpoint weapons, it has it’s Forward Twin MK 2 E/W Cannons which rolls a red and a black at range 1 to 2 with Suppressive while being Fixed:Front. It also has the Lateral Quad MK2 2 E/W Cannons which gives the tank a great 1 to 4 range weapon of two red, two black with Impact 2 and Fixed:Front. You can add a pilot and a hardpoint, as well as comms, but let’s dive into the hardpoints below.

The Tank Hardpoint Options

As always, the DLT-19 find it’s spot in an Imperial unit. At a cost of 18 you get two red dice at range 1 to 4 and Impact 1.Very standard for a DLT and ever so efficient. Next option is the RT-97C Rifle Pintle, which gives you some extra dice with one red and three white and no keywords. It is four points cheaper, I guess it really comes down to if you think Impact 1 and just two red dice are worth the extra four points, which most of the time I’d have to say the DLT is the way to go. It’s proven efficiency, especially for it’s points cost.

 

Imperial Ground Vehicle Pilots

I decided to bunch the pilots up here since they work for both vehicles. General Weiss comes with the AT-ST and for 10 points, he’s exhaustible to give the AT-ST Arsenal 2…which would stack with it’s inherent Arsenal 2 and give you Arsenal 4. So if you fully load it up, you can shoot a lot of things or something with a lot of dice. Prior to the tanks upcoming release, you probably did just that. However! The tank comes with two new pilots that are both pretty good options in general, but one specifically helps the AT-ST and the tank the most in my opinion. The Imperial Hammers Elite Armor Pilot gives Imperial Ground Vehicles surge to hit for 10 points. I don’t want to say this is an auto include, but it’s pretty close. The only reason it’s not an auto include is because the First Sergeant Arbmab is actually good as well, and cheaper at 5 points. It gives Imperial Ground Vehicles Tactical 1 which allows you to gain an aim token after a standard move, which is really strong if you want to move and shoot. I would think that the Hammer Pilot goes on the AT-ST most of the time, and then it’s a debate for which pilot you take on the tank. Both are great options. Sorry, Weiss.

 

Final Thoughts

Surprisingly so, all of the units we went over here are pretty viable. They may not be optimal, but they are viable. I think the tank is going to really shake things up because it appears to be the best vehicle worth taking on either side. I think FFG is doing a good job to try and make vehicles good in the game, which in turn could bring use of some Ion and Impact weapons if vehicles start to appear more often on the table. That said, I still think the Rebel Trooper Ion and Snowtrooper Ion guns still sit in the dark corner of your closet because they just both stink, but to each their own!  Sorry for the delay on the post, but I just couldn’t compete with those Shoretroopers and Dewbacks. My oh my do those look amazing. They might be enough to get me to switch from Rebels to Imperials….until Clones come out. Man, this game is the gift that keeps giving! Enjoy it!

May the Force be with You!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

“He’s no good to me dead.” – Boba Fett

The title of this post has a double identity: as Star Wars fan, it’s amazing that Boba is a big part of Star Wars Legion/is an awesome model…as a Rebel player, man I hate that guy. All jokes aside, as much as I loved Luke and Han growing up, Boba was always a personal favorite. As he has been for most of us. Coming over from Imperial Assault, where he is unplayable competitively, I find it fascinating that Boba is great in Legion. Bossk is on his way as the second Imperial Operative, but I’m going to wait for his actual release to go over him. For now, let’s talk about our Mandalorian armored friend.

 

So Boba doesn’t come cheap at a base cost of 140 points, and you more than likely want to run him with Hunter, Emergency Stims and maybe Recon Intel to get him into the action even more quickly. That puts him at 156 points loaded out that way, but when I say he earns every one of those points, I mean it. He has a health pool of 5 and a suppression threshold of 3. He rolls red defense dice, that Mando armor!, with surge to block. On top of that Boba has the keyword Impervious which allows him to roll extra defense dice in coordination to whatever unit is attack hims pierce value. Example, if Luke attacks Boba with Pierce 2, Boba rolls two extra dice. In terms of mobility, Boba is moving with the rarely used three speed template and Jump 2, which allows him to ignore terrain height 2 or lower. Next his attack has Arsenal 2, which let’s Boba combine two of his weapons, if able, or perhaps split his attack. Whatever seems suitable. Always keep in mind that weapon keywords are per the dice pool, which will help you in your decision making! His baseline weapons are: Boot Spikes in melee with two red. Wrist Rocket at range 1 to 2 with two black dice, Impact 1. And his EE-3 Carbine, which is two black with Pierce 1. Boba has even more options than that when you combine his Command Cards in, but we’ll get to that after. Last but not least, Boba comes with the keyword Bounty. Bounty read as follows: After set up, place a victory token on an enemy Commander or Operative. If you defeat a unit with a victory token, move that token to you. At the end of the game, if you have a victory token, gain that token. First of all, this is so thematically amazing. It adds a completely different element to the game, and as a Rebel player it always seems like you need to gameplan around that token. Just a few notes as a new player: Boba only receives the token if he serves the final blow and he only keeps the token if he survives until the end of the game.

Command Cards

Whipcord Launcher has a multitude of uses. Mainly, though, it’s a melee deterrent.(As always, looking at you Luke Skywalker) You get to choose an enemy trooper unit at range 1 and in line of sight, which in turn gives them 2 immobilized tokens and 2 suppression tokens. On top of that, let’s say you brought said unit into melee with Boba the previous round, Boba doesn’t need to withdraw. He can move freely with his normal speed and still have his normal actions. As a 1 pip card, it’s very, very strong. You’ll need Boba up in the fray to get it off, but that typically isn’t a problem.

Speaking of getting into the fray, same goes for the ZX Flame Projector. It gives Boba another weapon for the round, which is one red dice for each model in the unit you’re attacking with Blast. Depending on what you’re shooting at, you can add in the wrist rocket to add Impact 1 or the carbine with Pierce 1 to the attack, if you wanted. You could always split fire, as well! The Flame Projector just gives Boba yet another tool to his arsenal….pun intended.

Speaking of adding to the arsenal….How about another weapon? Sure? Alright. The Z-6 Jetpack Rocket gives Boba three red dice, at range 3 to 4, Blast and Impact 2. So you need to keep in mind that Boba needs to use this for opponents at least range 3 away, and if they are range 4 away you won’t be able to pair it with any other weapons. That said, it’s a pretty good early card to drop down and get some early wounds on some units. Maybe even a Round 2 usage where you can add his Carbine in at range 3 and hit a unit with three red, two black with Blast, Impact and Pierce. 

 

Final Thoughts

Boba brings it all to the table. He’s a multi-tool facet that the Empire can use in many ways. He can kill things, he can hop over terrain, he moves fast, he can play objectives really well, he doesn’t die easy….the list goes on and on. He’s one of the best pieces in the game with his versatility. You can either send him up the gut for an objective say Recover the Supplies. If he gets that box early, he’s off and running. I know a lot of Imperial players tend to use him as a flank unit. Of course, you can always focus on his Bounty as well but that should be more of situational thin rather than a focal point, I think. Either way you use Boba, you’ll get your moneys worth is my bet.

May the Force be with You!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

Now that Adepticon has come and gone, and I hope you all tuned in to the great live stream Fifth Trooper put together, it’s time to get back to writing for us beginners. We’re on to the Special Forces on the Imperial side of things. Since I already did a Rapid Reaction to the Death Troopers I’m going to omit them from this post and focus solely on the Scout Troopers and Imperial Royal Guard. Both of which are staples in a lot of Imperial lists. I’m looking forward to the data collected from Adepticon and for Orkimedes at Never Tell Me the Odds to give us an in depth look at things. That said, let’s look at the basics here at the Jedha Journal.

 

Scout Troopers

The Scout Troopers are very similar in some ways to the Rebel Commandos with keywords like Low Profile, Scout 1 (Rebels are Scout 2) and Sharpshooter 1, oh and white defense dice! Not to mention, they are all costed the same at a 60 base(for the full unit, but you’ll most likely take the strike team) and the heavy weapons are also the same cost. Not a common theme among the Rebels and the Imperials, as the Rebels are typically cheaper. As for the Scout Troopers, they’re actually not…as good as the Rebel Commandos? I question it because I don’t know all the math behind it but there are some things that make the Scouts a little hampered down compared to the Commandos. Such as the fact that Scouts only have a range of one to two as opposed to one to three and the fact that they don’t sure on offense and the Commandos do. If the Scouts get into range they can be really deadly though because they roll two black per miniature in the squad, sniper included. The likelihood you see full Scouts is not as likely as much as you’ll see strike teams. Let’s look into that.

Strike Teams really are the bread and butter to any list building. It’s hard to deny their effectiveness and price point. If activation count didn’t matter, Strike Teams probably don’t matter as much. But, the game relies on activation count and here we are. You’re either looking at a cost of 44 points for a two man sniper squad, rolling two black with no surge, or a point cost of 42 for a two man Saboteur squad, rolling one red and one black with surge to crit, blast and suppressive. The last keyword is quite important. Imperial Sabs roll a red and a black with Suppressive which will, in hindsight, more than likely put two suppression on any unit within range of that sonic charge. After playing with some Saboteurs this week, and the success of Saboteurs at Adepticon, I really think it’s something I am going to test out some more! That said, Sniper Strike Teams will be something you will see in droves in the competitive world of Legion. If you’re playing for fun, no need to worry about that and build whatever Scout units you want! They’re honestly some of my favorite models in the game, I think they look really cool. Always have since Return of the Jedi!

 

Imperial Royal Guard

Palpatines thugs in red armor are a very unique unit in the game. At a base point cost of 75 points you get three Guards, each with a health pool of 2, and they all collectively have a suppression threshold of 2. They move at a speed 2, have Charge, Disciplined 2, and Guardian 2. All of those key words are very important in how you want to run what we call the IRG. Charge allows the IRG to get into range and use their next move to get into melee and still attack. Disciplined 2 almost ensures they get both actions because when you’re issued an order you take two suppression off. As for Guardian 2, this is where the IRG probably has it’s most value. We went over Guardian with Chewbacca but let’s reiterate what it does. While a friendly trooper at range 1 and in line of sight is defending against a ranged attack, you may cancel up to two hit results. For each result cancelled, roll 1 defense dice. Convert any surges, then suffer 1 wound for each blank. This will allow you to take some wounds off units you don’t want to take wounds at that moment. A great way to use them is to protect Palpatine, Snipers in the early rounds, and perhaps Snowtrooper units who need to move up the board to get in to range. Keep in mind that they roll red defense dice, however they do not surge. As for offense, they pack a pretty good punch. At range, they’ll be rolling two black dice for every IRG model in the group. In melee they roll one red, one black per miniature. No surge on offense, either. However, they do have an upgrade which you’ll want to consider!

Imperial Royal Guard Heavy Weapon Upgrade

If you’re primarily using the IRG for defensive reasoning you may not bring the Electrostaff Guard. However, if you’re using them to get up into the fray and get into melee, he’s your guy. Especially if you want to run up into a Lightsaber wielder, looking at you Luke Skywalker, because the unit gains Immune: Pierce when the Electrostaff Guard is in the unit. Rather than rolling the red/black dice pool, he adds two black dice instead. A possible upgrade to bring with the fully loaded out Royal Guards is Tenacity. Odds are they’ll take some wounds, adding in another red dice into their melee pool is pretty darn good!

Final Thoughts

Special Forces on both sides of the game are honestly great all around. Between the Strike Teams, the Imperial Royal Guard and now the Death Troopers, the Empire has a plethora of Special Forces possibilities. You can actually run a five Special Forces list if you desire to run Palpatine and Krennic together as Commanders with use of the Entourage keyword. Might not be a very effective, competitive list….but man it sounds like a lot of fun! The best part of Star Wars Legion is that list building is tough! There’s so many viable units, it’s hard to figure out what you want sometimes. And if you ask me, that’s just great.

Congrats to all the winners at Adepticon this past weekend, and good luck at Worlds in June!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

The might of the Empire as we know it comes in white armor. Whether it be Stormtrooper or Snowtroopers, they’ve got their iconic look….which they stole from the Clones! What a classic rebrand story. Palpatine double identity, steals the armor idea and Galactic Republic logo, tweaks them a little bit and BAM we have the Empire. All right under the nose of the Jedi, too. Right now, we only have two units to go over when it comes to Imperial Corps units, with some on the way (speculation), so let’s get into it!

 

Stormtroopers

“Let me see your identification!” – A Stormtrooper, probably on Tatooine 

Opposed to their Rebel counterpart, Stormtroopers cost a little bit more than Rebel Troopers. Rebel troopers cost 10 per mini, Stormtroopers are 11 per mini. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a lot. Then you start building lists, and run out of points quickly. Especially when you start to talk about their heavy weapon, etc. Also opposed to their Rebel counterpart, they have Precise 1 versus Nimble, which allows Stormtroopers to re-roll an additional die if they spend an aim token. Something that Stormtroopers need, because thematically they roll white dice, the worst attack dice in the game, with their E-11 Blaster Rifle. They do however surge to hit and of course roll red defense dice, no surge. That white armor tends to stop more shots in the game of Legion than on screen, but I could be a bias Rebel scum terrorist. Much like the Rebel Troopers, you’ll only want to add a heavy weapon, for the most part. I will say this, unlike the Rebels, I would consider medical droids in an Empire list/in Stormtrooper squads. I don’t think a Rebel Trooper with white saves is worth the points, but a Stormtrooper, who is more apt to make a save and stay alive after being saved, is worth it. Especially a good idea if you’re running Palpatine, who just has 5 health

.

As a reminder above, Medical Droids cost 19 points and Treat 1: Capacity 2. It is a free action to remove a wound token, but it needs to be within Range 1 and if I’m not mistaken there are some caveats to remember such as:

• You can only treat one wound per activation, with a capacity of two
• You need to be range 1 AND in line of sight of who you wish to recover
• Recovering a miniature has to happen in the same round the miniature was defeated

That last part is pretty important, timing is of the essence when it comes to bringing back some models. As for wounds, I’m fairly certain those can come off at any time. Now let’s get into the heavy weapons.

 

Stormtrooper Heavy Weapon Upgrade

I’ll go ahead and say it: The DLT-19 is the best 24 points you can spend when making any list in Star Wars Legion. Red attack dice are the best in the game, you add Impact 1 to the attack pool which isn’t necessarily important at the moment BUT if vehicles do become a thing (which they will) you have immediate access to something that can deal with them. Oh, and they give you this option at range 4. It’s consistency is hard to argue, and at only 2 more points than a Rebel Z-6 Trooper, it’s well worth it. Yeah, six white dice on the Z-6 is great but the variance isn’t. The DLT-19 rolls a lot less dice, sure, but with it’s range 4 and consistent dice it’s a little better. As for the HH-12, if you have been reading my stuff I’m sure you know where this is headed, it’s not useful at the moment. It’s expensive at 34 points, it exhausts AND it’s Cumbersome. (Which means you can’t move your unit and shoot the HH-12, it’s less than ideal) If or when vehicles truly have a place in the game, it may become a viable unit with it’s Impact 3, especially with it’s range 2 to 4. For now, they’re on the shelf….like most units that exhaust and have Impact.

 

Snowtroopers

The Imperial answer to the Rebel Fleet Troopers comes in the form of Snowtroopers. At a cost of 48, they come out to be 12 points per mini as opposed to 44 points for fleets. They move at a speed 1, which at first glance seems questionable, but when you see they have Steady as a key word, that changes real fast. Steady allows you to perform a free ranged attack action after a move action. There’s a couple different ways this can play out, and this is all going to be in theory that you bring a Flametrooper. (which you should) At the start of the game, double move and try to get into short range for the Flametrooper. Maybe in the middle rounds, you can move, shoot, move into cover. Steady truly gives you a lot of options. They surge to hit on offense and have no surge on defense but roll red dice, like most Imperial units. Like their Stormtrooper friends, they roll white dice E-11 Blasters from range 1 to 3. The reason you take the Snowtroopers isn’t for the E-11 Blasters but for their Heavy Weapon so let’s dive in.

 

Snowtrooper Heavy Weapon Upgrade

The Flametrooper comes at a cheap price of 20 points, shoots at range 1, has Blast to ignore cover and rolls a black die for every person in your unit. This is why Steady is such an important, awesome keyword. If you can move your Snowtroopers into that range 1 band (at full capacity for the example) you’re going to be rolling five black, four white that ignores cover and surges to hit. It’s extremely good. It take a lot of work to get them into the fray depending on the game mode, map and deployment, but it’s worth it. The T-7 Ion Snowtrooper…this is a continuing theme…Exhausts at range 1 to 2(!), rolls one black, two white with Impact 1 and Ion 1 at a cost of 34 points. You’d be hard pressed to tell me that this isn’t the worst Heavy Weapon Upgrade in the game, especially for it’s cost. I don’t even expect it sees the table when vehicles become relevant.

Final Thoughts

Corps units are going to be the filler units in both armies and you’ll see an abundance of them, for the most part. I would like to preface that if you take Stormtroopers, take the DLT. If you take the Snowtroopers, take the Flametrooper. As I mentioned earlier, perhaps a Medical Droid fits your style of play and you bring that on the Stormtroopers. The Snowtroopers could benefit from Recon Intel if you have the extra points, but as we learn building lists: points are a premium on the Imperial side of things.

A way to play the Stormtroopers is to move into range 4 early, take that DLT shot into something, apply some pressure and suppression on your opponent and make them react. As for the Snowtroopers, they’ll be a main focus of your opponent and you need to keep that in mind. You’ll need to keep them in cover as the move up the battlefield and get that Flametrooper into that range 1 band and let it rip. Both units, with the Heavy Weapon Upgrades, will run you 68 points each. Just automatically account for 68 points when using either unit. Play style will determine how many of each you want! I prefer two Snowtrooper units, but I know some only play one and so on! Either way, have some fun making lists….even if you and they are the Emperors minions bringing quote unquote peace to the Galaxy!

 

Good luck to everyone at Adepticon this week! May the Force be with You…and may the news announcements be in abundance for us all!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

 

 

Can you hear that in the distance? Is that John Williams’ masterpiece, The Imperial March?! Lord Vader must be approaching…..run!

Honestly, I feel like the Fleet Troopers in Rogue One right now. I went through my beloved Rebels as slowly as I could to hold off this moment, but here I am with the Death Star plans in my hand and I’m getting hunted by a half(?!) man, half machine, lightsaber wielding maniac….the inevitable is upon us. We must go over the Imperials! As opposed to the Rebels, these posts will be from my perspective as a beginner but from playing against these units. Some of them, I haven’t even had a game in against, yet, such as the AT-ST. I’ll still do my best to try and break the Imperials down regardless of the lack of playing as them. I only have two games under my belt as Imperials and both came within my first week of owning the game. Let’s get to it, though, and start with the Emperor’s thug…..Lord Vader.

Darth Vader

“The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” -Darth Vader

You know, thinking about this classic line to Obi-Wan, he was actually wrong. Never the master was our fearless Lord Vader was he? Always in Palpatine’s shadow….never the less let’s get to the real point of our post. At a base cost of 200, Vader is pretty expensive right off the top. There’s been a lot of talk of whether he is good competitively or not, and I think the answer is that it just takes a lot of practice and a certain play style to be good with Vader. The main concern with Vader and Palpatine, in competitive play, is they work best in the mid to late rounds. In tournaments, you may not get the most of them.

Thematically he only moves at the one speed, which certainly makes him slow. On the upside, he has Relentless which allows him to attack after performing a move. Some downside is he has no surges on offense or on defense, unless he spends a dodge token. Dodge tokens on Vader are important and you may want to consider Force Reflexes and Force Push,  especially with Master of the Force 1, however the one thing you should include is Saber Throw. Vader is slow on the approach and in order to get maximum use of him you can move, move and throw his lightsaber at range 1-2. Sure it’s half the dice, but it’s better than nothing and it’s still Pierce 3! The only issue now is with Push and Saber Throw, for an example, is that he’s now a base of 225 points, which is over a quarter of your army. Sure he has a healthpool of 8, can’t be suppressed (and also won’t let any of your units panic if they’re in range) and rolls red dice, but he is susceptible to focus fire from trooper units if they’re in range. Keeping your distance, while getting down the battlefield is the key. Keeping him obscured can go a long way!

Command Cards

Basically, this is Darth Vader’s answer to Son of Skywalker. Maybe not as effective, because you won’t get to make the two attacks back to back, because you shuffle his token back into your stack. That said, it’s still really strong even taking the wound to do it, More actions for Vader is always a good thing. You’ll want to use this knowing you’ll be engaging a unit at the start of the round.

This is probably Vader’s worst Command Card out of the three, but it’s still really strong. It will be very situational. Such as where you are on the battlefield: how many troopers are in your squads? Can you afford to take the one wound to make another move or attack? On and on it goes. Keep in mind, it’s completely up to you because the card says “it may”, so you might not even use the card action and just use it as a tactic to maybe get initiative if you’re expecting your opponent to play something with more than two pips!

You get the ever important Dodge on Vader which will allow him to Surge/Deflect, give tokens to two other units, and oh yeah: apply three suppression to any enemy trooper units in range 1 to 2 of him. This is a really strong mid to late game card and can really cripple an opponent if they kept their forces near each other. It’s honestly such a great, thematic card! Darth Vader truly is a Master of Evil.

 

Emperor Palpatine

“Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.” – Emperor Palpatine

This is truly a beginners part of the article because I have yet to play a game with or against Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious aka our fearless Ruler of the Galactic Empire. I’ll do my best to give some insight on how to best play him. I do think he’s a niche piece that will take a lot of practice to become good with, but if you’re patient with him it will be worth it. He’s a really good unit when the person playing him knows how to play him! Let’s start with some base facts: He’s expensive at a cost of 210. He has a somewhat small health pool of 5, but a suppression threshold of 4. Now to the fun part. He has Pull the Strings which allows a friendly trooper unit at range 1 to 2 perform a free move or attack, which is really strong and is the basis of using Palpatine in the first place. Entourage: Imperial Royal Guard  can go a long way as well. Ignoring their rank and being able to give them an order token if they’re in range 1 to 2 is very good. You’ll want to keep the IRG close to Palpatine, anyway, because they have Guardian. Being able to take wounds of Palpatine is best because Palpatine thrives in the mid to late game, you need him to survive. Seeing as he is the true Master of the Sith tandem, he has Master of the Force 2, which allows him to refresh not one but two force cards. Oh! And he actually surges on both offense and defense!

My recommendations would be Anger, Force Push and Esteemed Leader. Esteemed will also help his longevity in the game. I think medical bots are a good possibility to throw on some trooper squads if you’re worried about Palpatine surviving and have the points to do it. That may be easier said than done when you have a Commander with a point total of 230, though. I mean, just tinkering on TableTopAdmiral I just threw a list together of Palpatine, two DLT Stormtrooper squads, two DLT squads with medic bots, one IRG with Electrostaff, and two sniper strike teams. That gets you to 796 points and 9 activations, seems pretty good but I could be wrong! Like Vader, Palpatine is better in the middle to late rounds.

Command Cards

A great late game card and especially good if your target is Luke Skywalker. Depending on how man wounds you have on Palpatine, you’ll be able to take as many attacks as you’d like with this Command Card and the defender gains 1 immobilized token. Hitting your opponent two times is great because now they can’t move. Which we all know Luke needs to be mobile to get his moneys worth. Very thematic card, reminds me of that time on the second Death Star or something.

This seems like a good early round card. It will rely on where your forces and where your opponents forces are. If you can pick a unit that is not going to get in range for an attack, they’re going to take those four suppression and be in danger of panicking next activation. Even if they don’t, I would say odds are they’re only getting one action anyways. Taking actions away from your opponent is always a good thing.

This seems like a likely candidate for turn zero/round one. Putting tokens on every unit in your army allows you to have full control of who activates and when they activate. Not having to go to the stack takes a lot of pressure off if something needs to activate at a specific time.

 

General Veers

“Yes, Lord Vader. I’ve reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing.” – General Veers

This is going to seem weird in a world where we have Vader and Palpatine….but Veers is your best option as an Imperial Commander. At least until Krennic comes out, which is soon! I still think Veers will be the go to. A lot of Imperial lists start with Veers and Boba, but let’s not get into that, let’s get into Veers himself. The reason Veers is featured in most Imperial lists is because he only costs a base of 80 and points are a premium on the Imperial side, as opposed to the Rebel side of things. He has a health pool of 5 and a suppression threshold of 2. He surges to crit but has no defense surge ability. Veers’ best ability is Spotter 2, which allows you to give out aim tokens. There’s multiple ways to play this, such as give Veers one and a trooper unit one. Typically, you’ll end up giving both to trooper units who can move and shoot with the free aim token, in theory.

Command Cards

The poor mans Coordinated Bombardment! Unlike Leia’s card, where you roll two red dice at three separate targets, Veers gets one attack at the end of his activation with four red dice. It’s not AS good as Coordinated Bombardment, but it’s still extremely effective.

I think this card had a lot of early value, and still does if you’re using the core set and run some bikes! As the game has evolved, and as I have mentioned, vehicles are not as efficient as they could be. If and when vehicles become a big part of the game, I could see this card being pretty good.

This cards value is also going up soon with the Death Troopers coming out soon. A free recover action is really good for things that exhaust. Let’s say vehicles become good again and you start running some HH-12 Stormtroopers, you can recover them with this. So on and so forth. But I really do think this card will be more useful when Death Troopers hit the table!

 

Generic Imperial Officer

Like the Rebel Commander, we won’t go over the Generic Commander too much. In basic terms: She’s a cheaper, not as good Veers. She has Spotter 1 as opposed to Spotter 2, Inspire 1 , no Precise but does keep Sharpshooter 1. She rolls white dice, instead of red, but does surge to blocks. Surge to hit on offense, with a slightly different gun. Healthpool of 4 and Suppression threshold of 2. Now that I have gone over the basics, the only way I really see her get used is if you’re crunched for points on a high activation/high point total list, or if you want to get a second Command token into your bag mix. Other than that, I don’t see her getting much play in competitive lists.

Imperial Command Cards

Right now, where the game is at, you can probably guess what your opponents hand has. I think the card has value outside of that, though. It is only 1 pip, which will mean you may get initiative when you need it. Maybe you need to activate some Saboteurs or Boba first, too. That said, if you’re running Veers/Boba you most likely will not have this card in your Command hand.

This card can give you some good board control if used properly. In a recent game, my opponent shot my Leia with their bikes and that meant Leia’s token goes to my stack rather than on Leia. Now I can’t activate her unless I pull her from my token stack. In the right moment, I can see this being a good card. Definitely situational and will rely on Support or Heavy Units being in your army.

The “Aim Chain”! This is a really strong card and most likely in a lot of Imperial lists, depending on what the options are. Definitely a mid-round card, where you know you have range on shots that way you can aim and shoot with your Corps units. Then, as long as they are in range, that tokens just going to keep passing and passing around. In theory, you can keep stacking Aim tokens if you position everyone properly. I have yet to see it go as high as some people thought it would, because it’s easier said than done. That said, this is an extremely good card still.

 

Final Notes

Unlike the Rebel counterparts, it’s somewhat difficult for an Imperial army to sport two Commanders and be effective. That’s the price of being the almighty Empire, I guess, everything cost more. Veers and Krennic(when he comes out next week) will be who you see most in Imperial lists, they’re cheaper and easier to play. That said, I strongly believe that Vader and Palpatine are good units that just need practice. (Update: Palp and Vader straight murdered me in a jank game last night! The Sith were feeling it!) If you can perfect yourself using one of those two, your opponent has a lot to fear. Which, I mean isn’t that thematic?! This was truly a beginner post and hope you enjoy it! Imperial Corps units will be next!

May the Force be with You!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn