Editing Star Wars: Legion/Tactics/Clones (section)

====Anakin Skywalker====
(155 pts.) The man in the mechanical suit before he needed the suit. Be sure to cover his base with sand for maximum theming. 

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Upgrade Cards
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'''Force Upgrades (x2 Slots)'''

'''Unaligned Powers'''

''Battle Meditation'' (5 pts.) - When you issue orders, you can give one of those orders to a friendly unit anywhere on the battlefield. Letting you issue orders anywhere is good. But most of your army is going to be clumped to make use of token sharing anyway. Unless you're doing a Disarray mission, your army generally won't be spread out enough to really need this.

''Burst of Speed'' (3 pts.) - Expend to increase your movement speed to 3 for one round, and at the end of that round, gain an immobilize token. Not bad, because it turns Anakin into a cruise missile for one turn, making him especially dangerous after he's gained Relentless from his 1-pip (or Yoda's 2-pip). Also doesn't need Anakin to have Master of the Force. A very attractive, low-cost choice, just be wary of Anakin becoming stranded after he's noshed an enemy unit and is stuck with movement speed 1.

''Force Barrier'' (10 pts.) - Exhaust. When another friendly troops unit at range 1 is defending against a ranged attack, during the Modify Attack Dice step, cancel either 1 crit result or up to 2 hit results. This is amazing for boosting the durability of your units. <s>Saber tanks somehow become even more annoying to deal with</s> ''A Saber tank is not a trooper unit''.  Just be sure to have Anakin's 2-pip in play in time so you can make heavy use of this, or be prepared to spend an action doing a Recover.

''Force Guidance'' (5 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow you to give a surge token to up to 2 friendly units at range 1-2, as a free action. This is a nice power since clones share tokens and having more is always good.

''Force Lift'' (5 pts.) - When deploying, you may place a barricade at range 1 of you. During the game, exhaust and as a free action move one barricade within range 1 to anywhere within range and height 1 of its current position. Lets you bring heavy cover and drag it around the battlefield. Not a terrible choice to help defend Anakin or his clone buddies as they advance.

''Force Push'' (10 pts.) - Exhaust this ability and spend an action to force a trooper unit at range 1-2 to perform a speed 1 move, even if they're engaged. Shove enemies close enough so you'll be able to smack them with your saber. A solid choice.

''Force Reflexes'' (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to gain a dodge token, as a free action. A good option to reflect a wound back here or there with Anakin's Djem So Mastery, and gives another token to share if you've gained Exemplar on Anakin already.  

''Saber Throw'' (5 pts.) - Make an attack action to perform a range 1-2 ranged attack with a melee weapon, using half of that weapon's dice (rounded up). Anakin doesn't have a ranged attack; this gives him one, effectively 3 red dice at range 1-2 with impact 3 and pierce 3. Made even better by the fact one of Anakin's command cards can give him Relentless, and it doesn't need Anakin to have Master of the Force enabled yet. Where one of Anakin's commands imposes a penalty if you don't attack with him each turn, this is one of the more attractive upgrades for Sky-guy.

'''Light-side Powers'''

''Hope'' (3 pts.) - Gain '''Inspire 1''', allowing you to remove up to 1 suppression token from a friendly trooper unit at range 1-2, after your rally step every turn. This is... OK. It's useful in that it has low cost and doesn't exhaust, so Anakin's lack of Master of the Force until his 2-pip has been played won't matter; and clones sometimes struggle to remove suppression. But there may be other, better options for Anakin.

''Jedi Mind Trick'' (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to give 2 suppression tokens to an enemy trooper unit at range 1-2, as a free action. Most Trooper units, outside of droids, have problems with handling suppression. This is almost always good. 

'''Dark-side Powers'''

'''*Tempted - Anakin has the "Tempted" keyword, which allows him to take Dark Side powers.'''

''Anger'' (5 pts.) - After you suffer 1 or more wounds, gain an Aim Token. It's not bad here honestly. Due to one of Anakin's cards giving him Exemplar (and you'll want to use that command early in the game), he can act as an additional battery for sharing tokens. That means the token he gains shouldn't ever go to waste. 

''Fear'' (3 pts.) - After your rally step, you can give an enemy unit at range 1-2 a suppression token. It's low cost and gives a suppression token, but with the relatively low amount of ways clones have to play a suppression game like the Empire has it's not amazing.

''Force Choke'' (5 pts.) - Exhaust as a free action to choose a non-Commander, non-Operative unit at range 1 and inflict one wound. Can be useful to finish off units without having to dedicate shooting to them, but don't expect to pull a lot off with it.

'''Training Upgrades (x2 Slot)'''

''Duck and Cover'' (4 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 Suppression while being shot at, for cover. Anakin will be gaining a decent amount of suppression through his command cards, so maybe don't take this.

''Endurance'' (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 Suppression for free. Anakin is susceptible to suppression and unless you have a way to avoid direct fire via terrain and whatnot, this is a decent choice.

''Hunter'' (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Bear in mind that "wounded" means "has a wound token on it" (having lost an entire model in a unit does not count), so this upgrade's usefulness is rather limited, as Anakin is already throwing red dice with a high Pierce value, so he's quite good at murdering things. But it could generate a free Aim token for sharing if Anakin's got Exemplar.

''Into the Fray'' (4 pts.) - when an enemy at range 1 activates, gain a surge token. Where Anakin wants to be in the enemy's face, this isn't a terrible choice, especially if he has already gained Exemplar from his 3-pip.

''Offensive Push'' (4 pts.) - exhaust to gain Tactical 1 during one move, which is gives a free aim token after making that standard move. It's a free aim token, and Anakin can get Exemplar from one of his command cards. Not bad.

''Overwatch'' (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. Anakin generally doesn't want to be sitting around on Standby. ''However''.... this could be quite useful in combo with Padme and her Exemplar keyword (or even Yoda and his 3-pip). Remember... you can use Standby tokens to make a free move action, and if Anakin has Relentless/Saber Throw, he can use those after a free move action too. There's some potential there and shouldn't be overlooked. But if you're not taking Padme (or Yoda) for that trickery, then this upgrade is usually going to be a pass.

''Protector'' (5 pts.) - Exhaust when using Guardian to be able to cancel crits as if they were normal hits, and during the End Phase, ready the card. If you took Padme and gave her the Esteemed Leader upgrade, this could be useful for keeping her alive, but where Anakin can't use Djem So while using Guardian, this isn't even that great of an idea (unless you're just trying to soak a wound for Tenacity or Anger). Regardless, Padme is best suited to hiding in the back, out of view of the enemy; and Anakin doesn't have Guardian otherwise, so this is generally going to be a hard pass.

''Seize The Initiative'' (5 pts.) - Single use. Commanders or Operatives only. During the Issue Orders step of the Command Phase, issue and order to yourself. This can be very useful, especially if it's a turn where you're scared he won't be able to make it into melee with one. 

''Situational Awareness'' (2 pts.) - You gain Outmaneuver, meaning you may spend dodge tokens to cancel crits. Anakin permanently gets Outmaneuver from his 1-pip, so maybe skip this?

''Tenacity'' (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. Anakin takes one wound and now he's throwing SIX red in melee with Pierce/Impact 3, and surge to critical after you've used his 2-pip. If you plan to have Anakin chopping things, you want this.

''Offensive Stance'' (5 pts.) - Force user only. At the start of your activation, you may flip this card. When taking an aim action, gain two tokens instead of one. You cannot spend dodge tokens. The token must come from an action, rather than upgrades or command cards. This is the flip side of Defensive Stance. Anakin personally doesn't really need aim tokens and probably won't want to be spending an action on getting them, but at the same time, this can be useful for generating tokens to share via Exemplar. Tough call.

''Defensive Stance'' (5 pts.) - Force user only. At the start of your activation, you may flip this card. When taking a dodge action, gain two tokens instead of one. You cannot spend aim tokens. The token must come from an action, rather than upgrades or command cards. This is the flip side of Offensive stance. The extra dodge tokens can ensure Anakin's survival or allow more use out of Djem So, and can potentially save you needing to spend a Force upgrade on Reflexes (since Anakin doesn't start with Master of the Force). Recommended, unless another upgrade catches your eye.

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Command Cards
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*Anakin's command cards all give him permanent buffs, with some downsides. He gains more keywords, but has penalties attached to those buffs requiring him to do certain things to avoid the downsides. Even better, most of his command cards are fun to say or meme to your opponent.

    1 Pip: This is Where the Fun Begins - [Anakin Skywalker] Anakin gains Outmaneuver and Relentless, ''but'' if you don't activate Anakin as your first activation each round he gains a suppression. 

Makes Anakin a bit tankier and more deadly, which is nice, but also has one of the hardest downsides to mitigate from his cards. If you take saber throw you probably want to pop this early for relentless, but if you do make sure you have some way of modifying your pull or removing suppression tokens. Your 3 Anakin specific command cards only take you so far, especially since you probably popped '''Hero of the Clone Wars''' turn 1 and may have used '''You Underestimate My Power''' already.

    2 Pip: You Underestimate My Power - [Anakin Skywalker] Anakin gains Surge to crit and master of the force 1, ''but'' if he didn't attack someone he gains a suppression token. 

Free surge conversion is nice and allows him to spread around his surges more, and master of the force can allow him to get effectively free tokens every turn from a force upgrade. The downside isn't bad as long as you wait for him to be close enough to engage before playing the card.

Anakin also gains Defend 1 as of the 2.0.2 errata!

    3 Pip: Hero of the Clone Wars - [Anakin Skywalker and 2 Units] Anakin gains exemplar and reliable 2, ''but'' if he's not at range 1-2 of an enemy unit he gains a suppression token. 

If you think you can keep Anakin close to any clone unit, this allows him to join the production of tokens for your army. Nice to give him a use early before he can start swinging his 5 red dice lightsaber at the enemy.

    Flaw: Not a Story the Jedi Would Tell - if Anakin has at least one suppression token at the start of the Command Phase, your opponent can play this card, which disallows Anakin from being issued an order.

Per the third "Golden Rule", the "cannot" is absolute and can't be circumvented including via ''Authoritative'' or the Seize the Initiative upgrade. So if Anakin has all of his command cards in play, he probably won't be going first, meaning he'll automatically get another suppression; and if your opponent is smart and keeps him out of range for an attack (especially if you didn't take Saber Throw... and why didn't you take Saber Throw?), he'll get another. And that's in addition to whatever he gets from other sources (being shot at, the Fear upgrade, etc.). Note however that it is played at the start of the phase, meaning you choose your command card after this goes into effect. While the Flaw sounds pretty bad and has the potential to be pretty nasty if played just right, it's generally not all that bad. And if you manage Anakin's suppression well, it might not even come into play.

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Tactics
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Anakin Skywalker is less of a skilled tactician and more of a "lead by example" kind of guy. He's very powerful in melee, swinging five red dice with Impact 3 and Pierce 3, and he can gain critical surge as the battle progresses. Unless his target is immune to Pierce or is Greivous/Mandalorian, he's going to pretty reliably do 4-5 wounds per turn when he's in melee. His commands are less about commanding his army and more about each making him a bit more powerful. Each comes at a cost, narrowing how you can use him. Sure, you can choose to ignore that narrowing but then you'll find him quickly bogging down under suppression.

''Defensive Stance'', ''Force Reflexes'', ''Tenacity'', and ''Saber Throw'' are solid upgrades for Anakin. Throw allows Anakin to do something with his powerful lightsaber even when he's not in melee- especially useful once he has Relentless from his 1-pip, and to ensure he attacks for his 2-pip's downside. Reflexes and Defensive Stance ensure that he has Dodge tokens to take advantage of his Djem So mastery, although bear in mind that he lacks Master of the Force until his 2-pip is in play, so be wary of overdoing it with the exhaustible Force upgrades. Tenacity boosts his already formidable melee ability once he's wounded, and is an attractive option. 

While rerolls are always nice, Anakin's red dice have a high chance of hitting, especially once he has critical surge from his 2-pip, so he doesn't need the tokens as much as other units, making upgrades like ''Hunter'' or ''Offensive Push'' less attractive. Still, Anakin gains Exemplar from his 3-pip, and if you plan to lean on that ability, those upgrades can be useful. Lastly, ''Endurance'' should be considered to help keep his suppression under control- if your opponent is smart about using the Flaw card, Anakin can find himself buried in suppression very quickly.

Anakin's Djem So mastery is also of interest. It's essentially a more reliable Deflect- it still provides the surge on defense, but adds that it (almost) always bounces one wound back at the attacker, even in melee, rather than gaining the chance to possibly bounce wounds against only shooting attacks. Sure, it's only one, rather than potentially many in the case of Deflect, but you're (almost) guaranteed that one wound. If you think Anakin might get attacked, try to have Dodge tokens ready to trigger Djem So. 

Anakin at a glance: 

*Tempted: The option to take dark side force powers is a fun little gimmick.
*Flawed: If you don't manage your suppression on Anakin, the enemy can take him out for a turn basically free. However, certain things can be used to mitigate the impact of this, such as Improvised Orders or a certain other cheap clone commander adding a second Commander token into the pool.
*Suppression management: Once Anakin starts getting suppression, he can quickly find himself overwhelmed and difficult to function. He needs careful management of suppression.
*Permanent buffs: all of his command card effects linger. He becomes better, but harder to use the more cards you have played. Makes for an interesting decision process.

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