Star Wars: Legion/Tactics/CIS

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Why Play The Confederacy of Independent Systems

For commanders who are too cheap for conscripts.

Pros

• No moral obligation to bring your army home alive.
• Get to say, "Roger Roger," a lot.
• Synapse style shenanigans.
• Most of your units are Immune to suppression.

Cons

• Jar-Jar Binks can out-think most of your units.
• I lost how many models this turn?
• Synapse style weaknesses.
• Your Units CAN still panic.

Faction Special Rules

• Droid Trooper: when Droids gain suppression tokens, they do not suffer "Suppressed" (i.e., they don't lose an action if they have as many tokens as their command value). The downside is that they also don't get the cover boost. If they get enough tokens, they're still affected by Panic and they Panic exactly the same as any other unit. The Panic rule states that your unit only makes a single action, which must be a move action towards the nearest table edge; this is fully independent from the Suppressed effect. Lastly, Droid troopers are immune to poison, meaning they don't gain or resolve poison tokens (from Bossk or Corporate Disagreements for example), but Ion weapons do affect them.

• A.I.(Action): if a unit with the A.I. rule is not somehow issued a token during the command phase, when that unit activates, the first action it takes must be the action given, if able. Fortunately, the B1 and B2 droids have the ability to get around this fairly easily. If there are multiple actions listed, such as Droidekas' "AI:Move, Attack", then you must choose one of them- you aren't required to do both.

• Coordinate:(unit): while not technically a Faction Special rule, all B1 droids have it and it can't be overstated how important it is to the faction. When a unit with the Coordinate rule is issued an order, that unit may automatically issue an order to a unit matching the unit type stated; the units must be at range 1 of each other. If the second unit also has Coordinate, it may do the same to a third unit, and so on, until you run out of units with Coordinate or eligible targets to benefit. You want to make sure your droid units are set up in a way that you can maximize this, as it gets around the A.I. rule; tossing an HQ Uplink or two out there can help. Note however that the units that are given orders by Coordinate are not considered to have been issued the order by the Commander, so they cannot benefit from effects like the Command Cards "You Disappoint Me" and "Crush Them".

Units

Commanders

1-2 Selections

The focal point of you army, which often have game changing abilities. Currently lacking any cheaper choices.

General Grievous

(170 pts.) As a four-armed, lightsaber-wielding, asthmatic cyborg, General Grievous can do a passable blender impression in melee.

Upgrade Cards

Command Upgrades (x2 Slots)

Aggressive Tactics (15 pts.) - After issuing orders, give 1 surge token to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. Combine this with Crush Them! to try to get at least 2 surge tokens on four of your units. Really good. Take this.

Commanding Presence (5 pts.) - When issuing orders, you can issue orders at range 1-4. Pretty meh. On smaller battlefields, this isn't even needed. On larger ones, it's situational. Having one unit equipped with HQ Uplink costs 5 points more and is generally better.

Esteemed Leader (5 pts.) - Friendly trooper units at range 1 gain Guardian 1, helping you defend your points investment. Basically, allows you to have someone else to eat a ranged attack meant for your general; doesn't work in melee, though. Works great if you have tons of cheap infantry to serve as body guard (and you do), and stacks with his Supreme Commander card, giving friendly units at range 1 Guardian 3 for one turn, allowing your general to make it into melee unharmed. Pretty good in larger point games.

Improvised Orders (5 pts.) - After drawing a token from the order pool, you may choose to draw another one and choose between the two. It's just okay. Your baseline troop has Coordinate: Droid Trooper and can take an HQ Uplink, though, so we don't really need this.

Strict Orders (5 Points) - Guarantees a trooper unit with a face up order token can remove a suppression when they activate, rather than leaving it to chance. Especially useful thanks to the Coordinate rule. As already stated, make sure you fully take advantage of Coordinate as much as possible.

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Duck and Cover (4 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 suppression while being shot at, for cover. With only 2 courage, you risk losing an action on your activation unless you're also running Strict Orders. Not at all recommended.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 suppression for free. Pretty situational, but can be useful. If you're getting hit with 2-3 suppression a turn, it might help, but you're probably doing something wrong. Grievous is better off with Strict Orders. Even so, it's not the worst choice and can see good use.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Aim tokens are always nice, especially when you're chucking black or white dice (and Grievous chucks both, regardless of which weapon he's currently using). Where this one really shines is when using "Trained in Your Jedi Arts" Command card. Just make sure some of the targets you're going to try to hit with that are wounded and BAM, free Aim tokens!

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. Grievous' only eligible ranged weapon is range 2, and even then, you don't want Grievous standing still and waiting to use Standby. He needs to rush forward as fast as possible and use Relentless to chop people up. Hard pass.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. Pretty good, considering your General is likely to draw a lot of fire. Only works in melee, but that is where he does the most damage. Either this or Hunter are probably your best choices.

Armament Upgrade (x1 Slot)

DT-57 "Annihilator" (12 pts.) - Gives Grievous a melee and ranged attack option with 2 Black and 2 White dice. Price is a bit high, but this allows him to do something with Relentless when he can't/shouldn't get into melee. Range 1-2 is meh, but Critical 1 and Pierce 1 is nice. As mentioned earlier, don't forget that Versatile lets you shoot a ranged attack even when you're in melee!

Command Cards

   1 Pip: Trained in Your Jedi Arts - [General Grievous] General Grievous gains Disengage and 1 dodge token. At the end of his activation, he may perform an attack against each enemy unit at range 1 using the following weapon: (Range 1, Suppressive, Versatile, 1 red, 2 black, 1 white dice).  

The range isn't great but if you can manage to pop this when enemies are clustered (looking in your direction, Clones...), you can really dish out some damage as well as suppression. Versatile means that even if you're engaged in melee combat, you can make ranged attacks, so wail away on everything. Unfortunately, despite it clearly being the trophy sabers, you don't get your normal Pierce/Impact and it will be affected by Cover as it normally would; but you do benefit from Hunter when the targets happen to be wounded. Same for Tenacity if you happen to be wounded and use this to make melee attacks. Also note that the v1.61 version of the rules clarified that you cannot combine this special attack with Arsenal to attack with additional weapons like his pistol; it's only this attack.

   2 Pip: Supreme Commander - [2 Troopers] General Grievous gains 1 surge token for each other friendly trooper at range 1.  While another friendly trooper unit has a faceup order token, it gains Guardian 2 and can use Guardian during a melee attack. 

A few notes: 1) only troopers can be protected by Guardians, so AATs and Droidekas are shit out of luck. 2) A unit with the Guardian keyword cannot be protected by another unit with Guardian; Grievous is safe (since it specifies "another friendly trooper"), but if you want Dooku or B2 squads to be guarded, DO NOT give them face up tokens. 3) You can use multiple units to block out full attacks. If Grievous somehow takes six hits from one attack and there are three crappy B1 squads near him with face up tokens, they can each take two hits and completely spare Grievous any damage. The defending player gets to decide the order in which this happens. Lastly, don't forget, as mentioned above, if Grievous (or Dooku) has Esteemed Leader, it'll stack with this. This only applies to characters who have the upgrade.

   3 Pip: Crush Them! - [General Grievous and 2 Troopers] When General Grievous issues an order to a unit, that unit gains 1 surge token for each defeated enemy unit. 

Not the best command out there, considering you have to already be doing fairly well to get the most out of it. Surge tokens can be nice, but can only do so much. Combined with Aggressive Tactics, though, this can be a nice boost. It turns your 6+ save to a 5+ and can maybe give an extra hit here or there.

Tactics

At 170 points, he's a decent chunk of your army. With 8 wounds and a red defense die, he's fairly sturdy, but with only 2 courage he's prone to "abandon ship" sooner than most commanders. Be extremely afraid of suppressive weapons. He also has Block and Impervious, allowing him to stand toe-to-toe against the amount of focus-fire he's likely to draw.

Against force-users, Jedi Hunter allows you to convert surge results to a crit. Combine this with the Tenacity (or possibly Hunter) Training to give him a better chance to deal damage to enemy commanders. Be sure to remember that he has two sabers, not one, as it's a very unique aspect of him that newer players may not see. Each one throws 1 red, 2 black, and 1 white die, with Impact 1 and Pierce 1 (These stack, for Impact 2 and Pierce 2!) Grievous also has Relentless, which allows you to make an attack after you perform a move action. This works with his DT-57 pistol, which throws 2 black and 2 white dice (Critical 1 and Pierce 1) at range 2 or in melee. Versatile allows him to fire this out of melee. Is Vader nearby and with one wound left, but Grievous is stuck in melee with some Stormtrooper goons? No problem! Just use Arsenal 2 to fire the pistol at Vader and use the other attack to chop up some Stormies (and if you took Hunter, you're getting a free Aim token to boot). Arsenal 2 only works with the pistol, too, so it's more or less a staple.

In regards to terrain, Grievous has Scale, giving him the ability to make a free clamber maneuver after he moves. In addition, he gains Unhindered and Expert Climber, meaning that Grievous can hide attack from places most units couldn't get to easily. Combined with the above Relentless, this lets you fire from atop cover and retreat behind it in one turn.

Two of Grievous' three Command Cards are underwhelming, and the third can be very situational (i.e. to get the most out of it, the conditions have to be just right). This means Grievous is more of a blitzing type of character who wants to move fast, hit hard, and keep moving. Dooku is better for commanding the army, so let Grievous be his attack dog. Grievous is fairly tough, rolling red dice for defense, but he needs a Dodge token to trigger Block and get the most of his defense- and he can't lean on Force Reflexes for that. Getting and keeping him engaged is arguably his best defense; just choose your opponents wisely. Don't let Jedi Hunter and Impervious fool you, Grievous stands to get very badly hurt if a Jedi or Sith swings back at him.

Count Dooku

(200 pts.) He trains people in your Jedi arts. Darth Tyranus.

Upgrade Cards

Force Upgrades (x3 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, regardless of the unit indicated on the command card. Same points as an HQ Uplink, but you can change who's getting the orders, and it comes from your commander. Situational, but okay. There are other, more valuable Force abilities.

Force Guidance (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to allow you to give a surge token to up to 2 friendly units at range 1-2, as a free action. Very nice.

Force Push (10 pts.) - Exhaust this card as a free action to force a trooper unit at range 1 to perform a speed 1 move, even if they're engaged. Very nice. Save your guys from melee, or pull enemies from behind cover/terrain so your droids can blast 'em. The extreme short range limits its usefulness, however.

Force Reflexes (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to gain a dodge token, as a free action. This is pretty much an auto-include for any Jedi or Sith, as you need those dodge tokens to trigger Deflect.

Saber Throw (5 pts.) - Spend an action to perform an attack with one of you melee weapons at range 1-2, using half of that weapon's dice (rounded up). This counts as your attack action for the turn, and it allows Dooku to throw 3 red dice with Impact 2 and Pierce 2 at someone, instead of using lightning. If you have this when you use Fear, Surprise and Intimidation you could use both weapons at once, and dish out 3 suppression tokens per attack, which is actually kind of good. Just make sure you attack separate targets with each attack to maximize output. If you've got the spare points and a Force slot open, doesn't hurt; or if you know that your opponent brought a tank and you really want that extra Impact punch that Lightning lacks, it doesn't hurt to take it.

Dark Side Powers

Anger (5 pts.) - Gain an aim token every time you take damage. Meh. You generally don't want Dooku taking damage. He's not a tank like Vader. Additionally, his best attack is throwing red dice already, which have a high chance of hitting (88% per die since he has crit surge). While his lightning is only black dice (with crit surge). You're basically paying for rerolls only on that, assuming Dooku got hurt prior to activating. Is that worth 5 pts. to you? If so, go for it. There are better options, though.

Fear (3 pts.) - Gain Demoralize 1, letting you give 1 suppression token to enemy units at range 1-2. For three points, its pretty good, but Dooku has to activate that close for it to work. It's cheap and if you happen to have the slot open, it doesn't hurt, but there are more useful Force powers out there.

Force Choke (5 pts.) - Exhaust this ability to deal 1 wound to a trooper mini at range 1, that isn't a Commander or Operative. Makes sure you get that last pesky trooper.

Command Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Aggressive Tactics (15 pts.) - After issuing orders, give 1 surge token to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. Surge increases a B1 mini's odds to hit by 50%, and doubles their odds of blocking one, when defending. Combine this with Crush Them! to try to get at least 2 surge tokens on four of your units by combining abilities/effects. No, Dooku has to be the nominated commander, so he can't combine it with Grievous's orders, but he can combine it with Coordinate or HQ Uplink. It's really good. You want this.

Commanding Presence (5 pts.) - When issuing orders, you can issue orders at range 1-4. Pretty meh. On smaller battlefields, this isn't even needed. On larger ones, its situational. Having one unit equipped with HQ Uplink costs the same, though, and allows them to get an order even if your General is dead.

Esteemed Leader (5 pts.) - Friendly trooper units at range 1 gain Guardian 1, helping you defend your points investment. Basically, allows you to have someone else to eat a ranged attack meant for your general; doesn't work in melee, though. Works great if you have tons of cheap infantry to serve as body guard (and you do).

Improvised Orders (5 pts.) - After drawing an order from the order pool, you may draw another one and choose between the two. Okay. Sort of works with his Double the Fall card, if you happen to have a lot of tokens in the order pool, but between your B1's, and HQ Uplink, it is situational, at best.

Strict Orders (5 Points) - Guarantees a trooper unit can remove one suppression when they activate, rather than leaving it to chance. In other armies, this is practically a must have. Most of your army is immune to suppression anyway, though, and, with Dooku's courage 3, they'll be difficult to panic. If you just can't be bothered to take Aggressive Tactics and have 5 points to spare, it doesn't hurt to take this.

Command Cards

   1 Pip: Fear, Surprise, and Intimidation - [Count Dooku] Count Dooku gains Arsenal 2, Relentless, and all his ranged weapons gain Versatile.  After an attack, each defender gains 2 suppression tokens.

This can be devastating. It gives you Arsenal, which allows you to use both the lightsaber and lightning attack in the same turn. Nice start. It also gives your lightning the Versatile rule (as well as Saber Throw if you took it). Versatile allows you to make ranged attacks even if you're engaged in melee; So you can charge into melee with Relentless, chop someone with a lightsaber attack, and then still use the lightning (or Saber Throw) to shoot someone else (note that Versatile does not allow you to shoot into a melee, it still has to be a ranged attack at someone else). Then the icing on the cake is that all of these attacks drop two extra Suppression tokens in addition to whatever they may have normally done.

Bear in mind, however, that Arsenal still requires you to declare your attack dice pools before rolling any dice, and they would have to be legal targets at that time; So you can't wait to see how one attack pans out to declare the second. For example, you can't shoot the lightning with Scatter to push the target into melee and then chop them with a lightsaber (you can't scatter into melee anyway but that's besides the point).

   2 Pip: Double The Fall - [Count Dooku and 1 Unit] At the start of the activation phase, if Count Dooku has a faceup order token, he may return it to the order pool and choose 2 other enemy units at range 1-2, and return their order tokens back to their order pool. 

So your opponent thought he was going to have Vader take first activation and bulldoze into you? Think again, my friend. He now has to randomly wait just like everyone else. All you need is that other unit getting it's order to proc your chain of Coordinate, therefore making your own pool less random!

 3 Pip: You Disappoint Me - [Count Dooku and 2 Units] When Count Dooku issues an order to a unit, that unit gains 1 dodge token. After Count Dooku performs a ranged attack against a trooper unit, he may perform a speed 2 move with that unit.

Hilarious when combined with Force Push. Drag an enemy unit/commander into the guns of your droids, and away from his troops, or just into Grievous' lightsabers.

Tactics

On the surface, he looks a lot like Luke Skywalker, with speed 2, 6 wounds, 3 courage, Immune: Pierce, Deflect, a red defense die with the ability to convert surges to crits. Don't be fooled, however, Dooku is much different.

At 200 points, he's second only to Emperor Palpatine in terms of cost, making him a pretty expensive Commander, but his Cunning special rule allows you to potentially activate first to help keep your army one step ahead of your opponent. You'll get even more perfect order control for a faction that had already perfected it. Master of the Force 2 allows twice the space-magic goodness per turn, at the cost of sinking even more points into one unit, as well. His cost is more than justified.

His weapons do not disappoint, either. Dooku is nearly as potent as Vader in terms of raw dice, dishing out 5 red dice (Impact 2, Pierce 2) with his lightsaber, and at range 1-2 he can do 5 black dice (Pierce 1, Scatter) with his Lightning attack. The Scatter rule on his ranged attack allows you to re-arrange small-base units around their leader (within cohesion), giving your roger-rogers more targets to blast! Combine this with Force push to annoy any opponent. Be warned, this may cause resentment and focus fire to be drawn towards Dooku.

Finally, Makashi Master allows you to reduce your Pierce value by 1 on a melee attack to ignore Immune: Pierce. This means, in essence, if you're fighting in melee against another Jedi or Sith, you get to actually use Pierce 1. If you roll at least one hit, you're guaranteed to get at least one wound on them (unless something really wonky happens, like Obi-Wan somehow using Knowledge and Defense and Soresu to block for Luke in a Republic-Rebel team-up). It's not game-breaking but every little bit helps.

Despite being a powerful Sith Lord who specializes in fencing, Dooku prefers to confuse and mess with his opponent. He can really screw with enemies by using his lightning attack, Force Push, Makashi and his command cards. Also bear in mind that he's the only lightsaber wielder in the game who doesn't have built-in Charge or Relentless (he can get Relentless from one of his Command Cards, though!). I mean, seriously, even Grievous has Relentless! Anyway, this means you'll need to be smart about how he engages his foes. Make use of his cards and abilities to get your enemies where you want them, and then pounce. Or make Grievous do it. Droids are the least affected by the cost of their units, due to how cheap others are. Taking Dooku with another Commander or Operative isn't entirely out of the question.

Dooku and Maul are especially scary in Skirmish matches!

Operatives

Cad Bane

(125 pts.) Cad Bane is a Duros bounty hunter. Imagine a Tau with kung fu training who's devoted his life to the greater greed, throw in some desperado gunslinger clichés, and you get the idea. He also has a nice hat.

Upgrade Cards

Armament Upgrades (x1 slot)

Electro Gauntlets (10 pts) - exhaust to do a melee attack throwing 4 red dice with Suppressive and Immobilize 3. You can also move Bane if he's engaged with an enemy unit that has one or more Immobilized tokens, even if this card is exhausted. An extremely nice way to slap a Jedi or Sith and then run away so they can get shot by your Clankers and AATs.

Training Upgrades (x2 Slots)

Duck and Cover (4 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 Suppression while being shot at, for cover. Helps with the lad’s survivability and benefits his Danger Sense 2.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 Suppression for free. It’s probably not worth your while taking this, considering he needs suppression for Danger Sense and his two pip command.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Practically mandatory, this will help you collect that Bounty.

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. Not super useful considering his pistol is only range 2 and he has Steady to move and shoot.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. A pretty good choice, especially if you also take the Electro-gauntlets.

Gear Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Electrobinoculars (8 pts.) - Gain the ability to spend an action to give another friendly unit at range 1 an aim token. Bane is better off doing other things than being a token factory. Hard pass.

Emergency Stims (10 pts.) - When you would suffer wounds, prevent up to 2 of them, then suffer the same amount you absorbed with this card at the end of your next activation. Overall, a really good upgrade, but not really necessary.

Environmental Gear (2 pts.) - Gain Unhindered, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain. This can be useful, especially with how cheap it is. Keep in mind, though, that Cad Bane does have Jump 1.

Grappling Hooks (1 pts.) - Gain Expert Climber, allowing you to clamber without rolling dice or taking wounds. This can be deceptively useful, and, if nothing else catches your interest, isn't the worst use of a single point.

Recon Intel (2 pts.) - Gain Scout 1, allowing you to make a speed-1 move after you deploy. Always useful as a backup option, if nothing else watches your eye.

Targeting Scopes (4 pts.) - Gain Precise 1, allowing you to re-roll 3 dice when you spend an aim token. Not terrible but not great either.

Command Cards

   1 Pip: I'm Your Worst Nightmare - [Cad Bane] Cad Bane gains Uncanny Luck 2 and gets to perform up to 2 attack actions this round. 

Combined with Steady and Jump 1, Bane can use this on an all-in turn to finish off a unit (maybe securing a Bounty) and safely retreat on top of or behind LOS-blocking terrain. Just make sure that you took an HQ Uplink so you don’t totally screw the rest of your units this round. Combos with his Electro Gauntlets in the (situational) instance that he is engaged with an enemy melee unit; assuming he gets at least one wound off on the Gauntlets attack, he can safely take a speed-2 move away and throw a parting shot into the now-immobilized unit.

   2 Pip: I'm in Control - [Cad Bane and 1 Unit] At the start and end of his activation, Cad Bane may transfer any number of suppression tokens he has onto any number of enemy trooper units within range 1-2.  Any enemy unit that receives at least one token this way also gains an Immobilize token. 

Amazing. Get a few suppression on Bane and then not only does he get rid of as many as you want, but he uses them to stop the enemy in their tracks.

   3 Pip: I Make The Rules Now - [Cad Bane] One of the fun new Divulge cards. During the Deploy Units step, you can reveal this card to your opponent in order to place 3 unique Bane tokens face-down on the battlefield beyond range 1 of any deployment zone. Cad Bane does not get deployed, and you have to play this card on round 1. If you choose not to use the Divulge effects, you get to place 1 Bane tokens face-down within range 1 of Cad Bane and another beyond range 1 of all enemy units.

Bane Tokens work a lot like mines, and trigger when a mini moves, deploys, or is placed at range 1 of an enemy Bane token and has LOS to it. Alternatively, Cad Bane’s player can reveal a friendly Bane token at the start of any round and resolve its effects, which are:

• Here I Am: As long as Cad Bane is not already defeated, his Here I Am token is replaced by his miniature and he keeps any tokens that were assigned to him. If he was not deployed due to the effects of the Divulge portion of his 3-pip, he also issues himself an order when you replace the token with his mini. This token is awesome for objective grabbing. Nothing says you can’t chuck one of these suckers up against a Recover the Supplies crate, or nice and cozy right next to the center enemy Corps unit in Hostage Exchange. Without his Divulge, it can be set behind LOS-blocking cover to provide a quick escape if you expect him to get focused down.

• Kablamo!: A fun surprise for your opponent, the token triggers just like a mine and makes an area attack using the weapon listed on Bane’s 3-pip. It throws 2 red and 2 black dice at range 1 with Blast, Impact 2, Suppressive, with surge to crit. Very nice against troopers, and pretty good value against Armor units with Impact and surges. Without Divulge, its offensive use is diminished slightly since you have to throw it out of its detonation range from enemy units, but it could be used to cover your retreat with Bane or help close off avenues to objectives for your opponent. With Divulge, it lets you play mind games with Bane’s last token.

• Smoke and Mirrors: No fun effects, boo! This token is just removed from the battlefield when it is revealed. S&M lets you fake-out your opponent, leaving them guessing which token is the Kablamo! mine and which one is the dud (or the Here I Am token in scenarios where you don’t need to clutch a center objective token). Just please, for the love of God, do not choose this token without the Divulge effect...unless you really enjoy messing with the enemy.

Tactics

He's 50 pts cheaper than Grievous and checks in with 6 wounds, 3 courage, and throwing white dice with surge on defense. He's not the toughest guy around, as you can see. Bane has the Danger Sense 2 rule, allowing him to roll extra defense dice when attacked, one extra per suppression, to a maximum of two He moves at speed-2 and has Jump 1 along with Steady (can make a free ranged attack after moving), allowing him to maneuver deftly around the battlefield. Speaking of attacking, he has built-in normal surge and throws 3 black in melee, as well as being able to shoot his pistol for 4 black at range 1-2 with Pierce 1. He also has Sharpshooter 1 and Bounty, as if all that weren't enough.

Bane adds even more complexity to Sep lists with his slippery play style. It’s good that he’s so slippery, because you shouldn’t be relying on suppression and Danger Sense 2 to tank more than one round of concentrated fire before he gets wiped off the table. Jump 1 and Steady will let you hop around LOS-blocking terrain and heavy cover while staying in range 2 for his pistols and I’m In Control (which still works when you don’t have LOS to enemy units). That built-in mobility combined with the Divulge effects of I Make the Rules Now lets him pop up nearly anywhere on the battlefield to flank your opponent, snag their objective tokens, or chase down those pesky Secret Mission units (Looking at you, R2!).

Unlike other Sep units released thus far, he plays pretty nicely with separating off of your main droid chain to do lone wolf things on the other side of the table. Strongly consider him in lists that utilize trooper-based objectives, like Recover the Supplies or Hostage Exchange, just remember to bring at least one HQ Uplink since two of his command cards only give orders to himself.

Maul

(160 pts.) At last. Maul is the second Operative unit to be added to the CIS. This is the sneaky Sith Apprentice version of Maul as opposed to the Clone Wars TV series Maul or grizzled crime lord Maul in Solo.

Upgrade Cards

Training Upgrades (x2 Slots)

Duck and Cover (4 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 Suppression while being shot at, for cover. No real benefits for Maul in this, but can be somewhat useful to gain cover. Minor pass.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 Suppression for free. A case could be made for this on Maul since force-users are usually bullet magnets in most games, but with his 2-pip and general mobility, Maul can stay out of most situations where your opponent can pile them on.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. This can synergize with his 1-pip At Last on turns where you're looking to gank or finish off a force user that's already been wounded.

Offensive Push (4 pts.) – While performing a move, exhaust this card to gain Tactical 1 (after performing a standard move, gain 1 aim token). Aims are always nice, and with Juyo's "free" recover you can get this back along with any other exhaustible upgrade cards.

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. No ranged weapons, no reason to take this. Why is this even an option?

Seize the Initiative (5 pts.) - Commander or Operative only: during the issue orders step of the command phase, issue an order to yourself and discard this card. Cheap and efficient for what it does, this essentially lets you guarantee Maul goes first off a Cunning Dooku 1-pip turn. If you find you don't need the second training slot for another upgrade, definitely consider this.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. A fantastic choice on a unit that already wants to be wounded for Juyo and can activate this himself with At Last.

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. Would be more useful if Maul was a commander or if his command cards synergized with this, but for now this is not useful at all. Skip.

Force Barrier (10 pts.) - You can exhaust this card when your opponent attacks a friendly unit at range-1 of you, and during the Modify Attack Dice step, you can cancel either 1 crit result or up to 2 hit results. Can be nice for protecting your corps units or expensive special forces heavy weapon groups, but most of the time Maul is going to be much further away to get any value out of this.

Force Guidance (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to allow you to give a surge token to up to 2 friendly units at range 1-2, as a free action. Would be more useful if he could use this on himself, but can see some use with BX squads or other equally as aggressive units. Not amazing, but not bad.

Force Push (10 pts.) - Exhaust this card as a free action to force a trooper unit at range 1 to perform a speed 1 move, even if they're engaged. Very nice. Save your guys from melee, or pull enemies from behind cover/terrain so your droids can blast 'em. So much can be done with this one card, I'd say it should be stapled to Maul in every list you include him in. No MOTF to get it back sucks, but he can recover "for free" with Juyo in order to get this back after he uses it.

Force Reflexes (5 pts.) - Exhaust this card to gain a dodge token, as a free action. Pretty good on most force-users. Juyo also gives Maul a reason to actually take a dodge action combined with Defensive Stance, so this could be redundant.

Saber Throw (5 pts.) - Spend an action to perform an attack with one of you melee weapons at range 1-2, using half of that weapon's dice (rounded up). Lets Maul throw 4 red (remember, you choose the half of the dice pool being used!) at range 1-2 as an attack action. Juyo lets Maul peekaboo with this in a move-throw-move turn, with Jump giving you the option to deny an opponent's unit cover if you can get above them.

Dark Side Powers

Anger (5 pts.) - Gain an aim token every time you take damage. Can be activated by At Last as well. Aims are always welcome, whether or not you think they're more needed than another force power is up to you. Maul is throwing 4 white dice on top of his 4 red, so rerolls aren't exactly bad.

Fear (3 pts.) - Gain Demoralize 1, letting you give 1 suppression token to enemy units at range 1-2. For three points, its pretty good, but Maul has to activate that close for it to work. It's cheap and if you happen to have the slot open, it doesn't hurt, but there are more useful Force powers out there.

Force Choke (5 pts.) - Exhaust this ability to deal 1 wound to a trooper mini at range 1, that isn't a Commander Operative. An amazing force power that lets you snipe objective tokens attached to unit leaders or heavy weapon minis in order to neuter a unit. It does exhaust which sucks with no MOTF, but the "free" recover off of Juyo will let you get this back, along with any other exhaustible upgrades.

Command Cards

   1 Pip: Duel of the Fates - [Maul] Maul gains 1 dodge token and Disengage. While Maul is engaged with an enemy unit, that unit cannot spend aim, dodge, standby, or surge tokens. 

Melee units love Disengage, as it allows you to leave less favorable engagements and either escape or dive into a more important target. The secondary effect is a gigantic FU to units that rely on their tokens like clones or Force-users with dodges; For example, play this on the same turn your opponent plays Knowledge and Defense and watch him cry over his useless pile of dodge tokens while you take down a significantly defanged Obi-Wan.

1 Pip: At Last - [Maul] While building a command hand, this card is treated as having 3 pips. Maul gains an aim token and Jedi Hunter, and when he activates, he may suffer 1 wound. 

This card lets you use not two but THREE 1-pip command cards, guaranteeing you a chance to go first 3 rounds out of 6 (depending on what your opponent plays). This is your "I need Insert Unit dead, and I need them dead NOW" card. Jedi Hunter gets you surge to crit for one round, and the aim token is just gravy. The "may suffer 1 wound" portion is your Juyo activator in case you haven't taken any damage yet, and note that you don't have to take the wound if you don't want to for whatever reason (if you're already wounded, for example).

2 Pip: The Phantom Menace - [Maul and 1 Trooper] This card has two separate effects, depending on how you play it. For the first portion, you can play this like any other command card and issue an order to Maul and another trooper. Maul cannot attack this round, and enemy units beyond range-2 of Maul cannot attack him. The second portion is a Divulge effect: during the Deploy Units Step, Maul gains Infiltrate, and during the first round, Maul and friendly DRK-1 Sith Probe Droids cannot perform objective card actions. Discard this card after it is revealed by Divulge.

The first part is basically pseudo-Incognito for a turn, which is not bad at all. You can use it to jog across the long side of the board towards your opponent's flank or back objectives without having to worry about getting blown up by their corps units on the way. The second part officially makes Maul the first infiltrating force-user (with some caveats), and this lets you do what Cad does with I Make the Rules Now and start much closer to either your opponent's units or the objectives.

Tactics

Coming in at 160 points with no upgrades, he's got 6 wounds, 3 courage, and he's got red defense dice (no surging offensively or defensively). In terms of keywords, he's got Jump 1, Deflect, and Immune Pierce, all standard issue for force-users thus far. Where he differs from the rest, however, is in his lightsaber style Juyo Mastery, which allows him to take 1 additional action during his activation as long as he is wounded. Extra actions on a force-user is absolutely amazing for saber users, and more than makes up for him not having Master of the Force X. You can move-move-attack, move-force push-force choke-attack-recover, move-claim objective-jump... There are a lot of combos that are possible with this keyword. He throws 4 red and 4 white in melee with Impact 2 and Pierce 2, so he's no slouch in melee either.

More needs to be added to his Tactics, after players have further tested him.

Corps

3-6 Selections

B1 Battle Droids

(36 pts.)"Roger, roger."

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

E-5C B1 Trooper (18 pts.) - Adds a 'bot with a machine gun analog. Always take this if you take nothing else, as its 3 black dice will contribute about the same statistical damage as all six of your standard troopers put together.

E-60R B1 Trooper (20 pts.) - Try to guess what the 'R' stands for. Adds a 'bot with a rocket launcher, who gets tired when you fire it. Unsurprisingly, this one is pretty good versus vehicles and things with armor. 1 red and 2 black dice is the most any B1 has the ability to dish out on their own, and Impact 2 allows two hits to become crits when fired at a target with Armor. Range 2-4 is, again, good for hunting vehicles so long as they don't get too close, and the price is fair, considering this one doesn't have cumbersome. A solid buy, when the situation calls for it. Be aware though- Range 4, rather than the range 3 of your normal E-5's, means that if AI:Attack triggers and you're only within range 4 of enemies, you lose out on the rest of the squad's shooting (white dice may suck but if you aren't rolling them they have zero chance of hitting). Ensure that this squad gets an order as often as possible until you reach range 3, or take a security droid (see below).

E-5S B1 Trooper (20 pts.) - Adds a 'bot with a sniper rifle. It can shoot range 1-4, rolls 1 red and 1 white dice, and has Critical 1, to turn one surge into a crit. It's not bad- throwing red dice with the bots is a welcome change of pace, as is the critical so you can actually use one of those surges. Like with the E-60R droid, be wary of the range 4; you may want to consider taking a security droid if you take this.

Radiation Cannon B1 Trooper (22 pts.) - Adds a 'bot with... a radiation cannon. Has range 1-2, doing two red damage and the targeted unit gains a poison token if successfully wounded by your attack (at the end of the unit's next activation, each poison token on a unit causes one wound and is removed). The red dice are very welcome, as is the extra damage from poison, but the short range may be off-putting.

Personnel Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B1 Battle Droid (5 pts.) - Another basic clanker. Adding one more as a buffer between incoming fire and your E-5C weapon is a good call, if you have nothing better to spend the points on. If you have a lot of squads, however, consider just taking another basic B1 squad.

OOM-Series Battle Droid (9 pts.) - Adds an OOM-series droid. Remember that one droid in The Phantom Menace with yellow on his head and he seemed to almost have a brain? It's one of those. He increases his unit's Coordination range to 2, and becomes the new squad leader. Could be useful to anchor a battle line if you're worried about not being able to Coordinate.

B1 Secruity Droid (7 pts.) - Add a Security Droid mini, allowing you to exhaust its card to ignore AI: Attack on the attached unit, until the end of the activation. For three points more than the regular B1, its an okay way to get around breaks in your command chain, or function for a turn after you commander dies, or if he is too busy stabbing people to give orders.

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Really bad if your opponent has this equipped to a melee-heavy squad. Even though our B1s aren't that good in melee, a squad or two equipped with these in a larger point game can prevent vehicles/elite infantry/Commanders from from getting face-up orders, if you're willing to sacrifice a minimum of 51 points per squad (or 41 pts. if using the reduced cost from the rules errata) to accomplish this. Not useless, but not great, either.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one. This has the potential to allow a unit at the end of your B1 conga-line to still receive orders, but for 5 more points, you could give anything that's not a Commander HQ Uplink, instead. You could also arrange your army in such a way that a B1 squad could pass an order to a non-Trooper squad, and still get an order token from another B1 squad through the Coordinate: Droid Trooper rule. This is pretty niche, and relies on you issuing 2 orders a turn, or else having a B1 squad equipped with HQ Uplink. In the former case, you could potentially save 5 points over taking HQ Uplink, though.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to "itself" so cards like Crush Them! or "You Disappoint Me" won't apply to them.

Long-Range Comlink (5 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields. Extremely useful when doing missions involving Disarray or Rapid Reinforcements, as your clankers are even worse than usual when you can't issue orders to them.

Integrated Comms Antenna (3 pts.) is a Droid Trooper-only upgrade. Essentially a reverse of the Commanding Presence upgrade, it allows your unit to be issued an order if it's within range 4 of the commander instead of the normal range 3. It's a good use of some leftover points if your force is spread out. However, if you've got a spare Command slot on your general, Commanding Presence (which was reduced in cost to 5 pts. by the rules errata) is probably better since it's not restricted to a single unit like this upgrade is.

Gear Upgrades (x0 Slots)

Electrobinoculars (8 pts.) - Gain the ability to spend an action to give another friendly unit at range 1 an aim token. B1 Battle Droids can ignore this card's Gear upgrade icon requirement.

Tactics

Your basic infantry squad. With 1 wound, 1 courage, and white dice for both attack and defense, don't expect them to do much on their own, but quantity has a quality all its own. In general, try to build the biggest squads you can, unless you can drop enough extra personnel to pay for another basic squad. This makes units harder to wipe in one bad round of shooting, in the former, and more targets for your opponent to spread their fire, in the latter.

These guys come with A.I.: Attack but also Coordinate: Droid Trooper. As often as possible, you want to use Coordinate to ensure that your troopers don't fall into being forced to attack when you don't quite want them to yet. Equipping one or two squads with an HQ Uplink can be extremely useful. Coordinate also activates off itself, so, yes, you want to make a daisy chain of B1s. The final coordinate can be used to order a B2 unit, or something similar.

As in the various movies and cartoons, the B1 clankers are just awful. But there's a lot of them! A full 8 droid squad including an E-5C is only 60 points; the nearest enemy equivalent is a 6 man Rebel squad with Z-6 for the same points. Treat the clankers as essentially a 7 man bodyguard for their heavy weapon, and soften up enemies for your heavier hitters like Grievous or Dooku.

These guys are your objective grabbers: they're numerous, cheap, and don't get suppressed. Run 6 squads of these stupid duck robots and just dogpile on any and all objective tokens. Your opponent will have to dedicate a large amount of firepower and attention to blasting a bare MINIMUM of 36 models off the table, or risk losing the game. Every non-B1 unit in the CIS hits like a truck, so if your opponent is trying to shoot 36 models who are on objectives, he is ignoring the units that bring the real pain.

With how cheap these toasters are, feel free to treat yourself and also take another expensive unit or two!

B2 Super Battle Droids

Very much, "super," compared to the B1s. These guys have 2 wounds and 2 courage, a black dice in melee, and a black and a white die on their ranged attacks, but their range is only 1-2, and they still only save on a white die (no surges of any kind).

Luckily, they have Armor 1 to soak one non-critical hit per attack.

Compared to the larger squads of B1s, which can hit 8 models in a single squad, B2s come in groups of 3 by default with a maximum size of 5 after upgrades. Like their smaller cousins, they aren't the brightest minds on the battlefield, and get the same AI: Attack rule, along with all of its drawbacks.

Unlike the B1s, they lack the Coordinate rule; however, they are droid troopers so they can benefit from it, meaning B2s are best deployed at the end of a line of B1s to avoid wasting a potential order.

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2-ACM Trooper (24 pts.) - Adds a big 'bot with a range 1-2 gun that has 3 red dice. Gives some much needed punch in an army that, aside from its commanders, generally lacks it.

B2-HA Trooper (32 pts.) - Adds a big 'bot with a range 2-3 gun that has 2 red and 1 white dice. Has Blast and Impact 2, and Cycle (at the end of an activation where you did not use the card, you may ready it). A pretty powerful AT gun that even has increased range over the basic wrist blasters you're usually using, and giving the attack pool Blast is a nice icing on the cake. As with the B1 snipers and missiles, this can muck with the AI rule a little bit so be aware of that.

Personnel Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2 Super Battle Droid (13 pts.) - Adds another big 'bot to the unit.

Comms Upgrade (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts., reduced to 5 pts. by rules errata) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Not a horrible choice since these guys need to get up pretty close anyway, but there may be better options.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful for the turn you when need that unit to activate when you need it to, to get around the AI rule, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to itself so cards like Crush Them! don't apply. Honestly though, this is usually better on B1 squads so that you can then use Coordinate to get more orders.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts. reduced to 5 pts. by rules errata) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields. Extremely useful when doing missions involving Disarray or Rapid Reinforcements, as your clankers are even worse than usual when you can't issue orders to them.

Integrated Comms Antenna (3 pts.) is a Droid Trooper-only upgrade. Essentially a reverse of the Commanding Presence upgrade, it allows your unit to be issued an order if it's within range 4 of the commander instead of the normal range 3. It's a good use of some leftover points if your force is spread out. However, if you've got a spare Command slot on your general, Commanding Presence (which was reduced in cost to 5 pts. by the rules errata) is probably better since it's not restricted to a single unit like this upgrade is.

Tactics

If you've seen the Clone Wars cartoons or the various video games covering the period, you're probably thinking that these guys are stupidly powerful. And you'd be... not quite correct. They hit pretty hard, certainly much harder than their B1 cousins (a full squad throws 4 black, 4 white plus whatever heavy weapon you took- compared to 7 white plus whatever heavy weapon you took on the B1 squads). They have two wounds each, making them pretty tough, along with Courage 2 to keep them fighting. And they have Armor 1, meaning they automatically ignore one non-critical hit every time they are attacked. So what's the problem?

The problem is that they have low model count and they're considerably more expensive than your B1 droids (5 B2s including an ACM is 90 pts, compared to the 60 pts of a full B1 squad with E-5C). They are armed with short-ranged weaponry, and they still only throw white dice on defense- without surge. They have the same 6+ save that your B1 droids have. Yes, the Armor rule will help keep them alive a little longer (assuming your opponent doesn't roll a lot of crits) but it's a double edged sword- it also means that Impact works against them, and crits don't just ignore Armor, but they also ignore Cover and Dodges. Common weapons like DLT-19 have Impact 1, and suddenly that's useful. Lastly, they're still droids, so they'll be affected by Ion if your opponent happens to bring any of those weapons.

If you can keep them in cover and advance quickly to attack range, they'll dish out some pretty respectable damage. But if you expect them to waltz in like nigh-invincible Space Marine Terminators, you're in for an unpleasant surprise.

Special Forces

Up to 3 Selections

Commando Droids

Essentially a droid version of the Imperial Scouts.

Stat-wise, they're B1 droids with 2 courage and red defense, plus the Impervious rule, which grants X extra defense dice if they are hit by a weapon with Pierce X. Instead of AI:Attack like their B1/B2 cousins, they have AI: Dodge, Move, neither of which are very problematic for these guys. They throw one black die each in melee; the previews cleverly hid the ranged attack but it appears to be 1 black at range 1-3 (it actually is 2 white), and they have Sharpshooter 1 built-in. They can be upgraded to be more CQB-oriented- see their upgrades, below. And to help with that, they come with Scout 3 and Scale.

Upgrade Cards

Armament Upgrades (unknown number of slots- likely 2)

Deflector Shields (18 pts.) - the squad gains Shielded 2 (two shield tokens that can be spent to block attacks for free) and Recharge 2 (automatically recover spent shield tokens at the end of the turn recover up to 2 spent shield tokens when you take a recover action). Nifty little defensive boost on an already tough squad.

Vibroswords (6 pts.) - the squad gains Charge and melee attacks that do 1 red and 1 white per model. This is how you make them a truly frightening melee squad.

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

BX series sniper droid (30 pts.) - gain a droid sniper shooting 2 red at range 1-5 with Immune: Deflect and Lethal (spend an Aim token to gain Pierce 1). A nice upgrade to allow your squad to safely shoot at Jedi/Sith without having to worry about Deflected shots, and Lethal can be useful against other targets.

Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28 pts.) - gain a droid chucking Zyklon B Dioxis mines. Mines do 1 black and 2 white area damage at range-1 with Blast and Poison 1, and they surge to hit. Note that friendly Dioxis mines can be detonated by any friendly BX Droid Saboteur unit from anywhere on the battlefield, and Detonate X can be triggered after any player completes any action (keywords like Relentless that trigger off of an action are still resolved first). Combine with Cad Bane and Minefield for maximum IED fun!

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Duck and Cover (8 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 Suppression while being shot at, for cover no reason, because droids don’t gain cover from suppression tokens.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 Suppression for free.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token.

Offensive Push (4 pts.) – While performing a move, exhaust this card to gain Tactical 1 (after performing a standard move, gain 1 aim token). There are going to be turns where you will not have these guys at the end of your activation chain (especially if you end up running 2-3), so getting orders on them for an aim action is tough. This upgrade synergizes well with their AI: Move, allowing you to get an aim token to use with Lethal on the Sniper upgrade.

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. These guys want to be moving

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) – You gain Outmaneuver (you can spend dodge tokens to cancel crit results). Holy survivability, Batman. Cheap, and plays nice with their AI: Dodge. Slap this plus Deflector Shields on a full squad, maybe add an HQ Uplink for re-upping shield tokens, and you’ve got a seriously resilient unit for camping objectives.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. Basically negates the loss of one droid for a vibrosword squad.

Gear Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Electrobinoculars (8 pts.) - Gain the ability to spend an action to give another friendly unit at range 1 an aim token.

Emergency Stims (8 pts.) - When you would suffer wounds, prevent up to 2 of them, then suffer the same amount you absorbed with this card at the end of your next activation. Lets a unit (hopefully) survive to shoot one more time.(How do robots use drugs without organic tissue?)

Environmental Gear (3 pts.) - Gain Unhindered, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain.

Grappling Hooks (3 pts.) - Gain Expert Climber, allowing you to clamber without rolling dice or taking wounds.

Recon Intel (2 pts.) - Gain Scout 1, allowing you to make a speed-1 move after you deploy. Really good choice to ensure all of your clones are in cover and are in rage to lend Fire Support. We may have Republic propagandists in our midsts.. However, stacking as it does with the Commandos inherent “Scout 2”, granting these boys a free speed 3 move at deployment shouldn’t be overlooked. Though it will be wasted if the mission also gives you Scout +1

Targeting Scopes (6 pts.) - Gain Precise 1, allowing you to re-roll 3 dice when you spend an aim token.

Grenade Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Concussion Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die, that ignores cover.

Fragmentation Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 red die with surge to critical.

Impact Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die and Impact 1.

Smoke Grenades (6 pts.) - Equipped units gain Smoke 1, allowing you to take an action put a smoke token out within range 1, and line of sight, of your unit leader. Smoke tokens work a lot like deploy-able area terrain: trooper units whose unit leader is at range 1 of a smoke token improve their cover by 1. Only lasts one round, and vehicles ignore the cover smoke provides when attacking units inside the affected area. A decent use of 6 points if you have them lying around and considering droids cannot benefit from the cover suppression provides, this can help cover your ass when you have to move out into the open.

Tactics

BXs are freaking cool. Impervious red (RED!) saves on a unit that has additional defensive options (Deflector Shields, Situational Awareness) coupled with Scout 3(!) and Scale makes for a very persistent and mobile unit. The lack of Coordinate sucks, but AI: Dodge, Move isn’t that big of a detriment to them either, since these guys want to be on the move or standing on top of objectives for most of the game. Don’t worry too much about keeping them in your activation control bubble with your B1s; obviously if you can end a chain on a sniper strike team so they can take an aim action then go for it.

These guys excel at grabbing and/or holding objectives. Their mobility from Scout 3 and Scale means they’ll be at the objectives before anyone else (outside of Infiltrate), and their defensive options mean they won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Offensively they’re pretty solid. Charging with Vibroswords lets you tie up enemy units in melee; the Sniper upgrade lets you use your increased range to remove minis from units or to remove Standby tokens from the clone token-sharing pool; Dioxis mines are swing-y but fun and let you play around with area-denial; and their basic ranged attack is not too bad either, 2 white with surge to hit is better than 1 black and with Sharpshooter you’ve actually got a chance at those hits going through.

Support

Up to 3 Selections.

Droidekas

The biggest drawback about these units might be the fact that you have to build them -twice-, once for wheel-mode, and one for its regular mode. Seriously, what's the Wheel Mode token for? (It's for if you choose not to build the Wheel Mode models... they even say that in the instructions...)

Droidekas excel at laying down suppressive fire, especially against pesky Force using lightsaber wielders- each fires 1 red and 2 black with suppressive and immunity to deflect (which just means the Droidekas won't suffer deflected damage- the target can still use a Dodge to trigger defensive surge). Out of all the Core units, they are the only ones that convert any surge results by default, and they do this for defense- of course, it's white defense dice but it still doubles their chances of blocking a hit to 1:3 rather than the usual 1:6. As depicted in the movies, they have potent shields, allowing you to automatically block up to four ranged hits per turn, and one point of spent shields automatically regenerates at the end of each turn.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Really bad if your opponent has this equipped to a melee-heavy squad. If said squad is getting close enough to your Droidekas for them to use this, you're doing something wrong. No, just no.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one. We have B1s for that, but might have some niche use. Per the 1.6 rules update, vehicles cannot take this.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to itself so cards like Crush Them! don't apply. Put one on your Droideka unit.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

Tactics

-Avoid melee at all costs-. Droidekas are considered vehicles. The bad news? You can't fight back if someone attacks you in melee. The good news? You can't be engaged, so you can just walk away. But if enemies are that close then that's bad news all around.

-Range is your best friend-. Their guns fire at range 1-3 (dealing 1 red and 2 black dice apiece), but have a Fixed: Front facing, meaning very fast units, or ones very close, can avoid its firing arc simply by moving (or getting into melee with you). In tight spaces, especially with lots of blocking terrain, they aren't very maneuverable. Your best bet is to park them somewhere where they can shoot at something without having to waste an action re-positioning.

-Pivot, Rather Than Move- Moving, even at speed 1, takes you closer to your opponent. Use pivot, when you can, to rotate 90 degrees, without getting closer. See above.

In Wheel-mode, they gain Cover 2, essentially giving you heavy cover while you re-position yourself. In their standard mode, they have Shielded 4, letting you add up to 4 block results while defending against ranged attacks, and Generator 1 allows you to get one of your shield tokens back a round. If you can get an aim token on them (through nearby B1s with Electrobinoculars or Linked Targeting Array) and have nothing better to do, dodging makes these units even more of a pain to remove from the board.

Droidekas are fast in wheel-mode, but this means that they cannot fire or flip their shield tokens (up or down) on the turn they do this. Seeing as one unit of Droidekas costs about the same as 2-3 units of B1s, 1-2 units of B2s, or roughly half as much as Grevious or Dooku, we want to shoot and use their shields as much as possible.

That said, they have the potential to speed around the sides of Heavy units to attack more a vulnerable facing, and can be a distraction for your opponent, because if they aren't dealt with before they can set up, they can do some damage.

STAP Riders

The speeder thingies that the B1 droids used in The Phantom Menace. For 73 points you get two of them, and they are considered repulsor vehicles. Each has 3 wounds with white defense (no surge). For offence, they each fire 3 black at range 1-3 with no surge or any other special rules and Critical 1 (which stacks to Critical 2 when using both guns on the same target). Essentially you're getting two of the E-5Cs that your B1 squads can take, but without the B1 squad around them. They have movement 3 and the Speeder 1 rule. But they also come with Cover 1 and Agile 1 (get a free dodge token after each standard move- which would include the compulsory move from Speeder).

Because they're droids (but not "Droid Troopers"), they have some special rules reflecting that as well. They have AI:Move, which isn't all that bad (Agile!). Additionally, they have Coordinate: Droid Trooper, Vehicle. If they are issued an order, they can automatically issue an order to a vehicle or one of your droid trooper squads too. They can start up a daisy chain, or ensure that your AAT is issued an order (in case you didn't take Lok Durd or a T-Series)- or you could start a daisy chain with other STAP rider units if you take multiples.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Excellent choice on a unit that you can expect to be operating at least part of the game outside of the range 1-3 of your commanders/operatives. Best part of this is that you can Coordinate this order to the other STAP riders in your "pod," removing their tokens from your order pool and avoiding having to AI:Move on turns where you don't want to be sling-shotting across the map. It also counts as having issued an order for the next upgrade card...

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order. Combined with HQ Uplink above, this can be a free aim on your other 1-2 STAP riders most every turn so long as you have the HQ Uplink unit recover afterwards.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

Command Control Array (2 pts.) - When you use Coordinate, you can issue the order at range 1-2 instead of range 1. Yeah, this is probably the one you're going to take. Cheap and useful.

Tactics

STAPs fulfill a role similar to what droidekas did, albeit poorly, before STAPs were released: they are affordable, fast flanking units perfect for zipping across the map to approach your opponent from an area where their units don't have heavy cover. They are definitely not as sturdy as droidekas (no Surge to Block on these white dice), but Cover 1 and free dodges every turn from Agile 1 help. First off, you want to be running at least two of them if you're going to be considering them at all. Their inclusion (and upgrades) open up other choices for deployment zones and objectives that would have previously made CIS players want to curl up and die. Disarray and Danger Close suddenly become very attractive when you have a group of 3 fast units that can Coordinate an HQ Uplink order to each other and then choose which opposing flank to tear into. Bombing Run and Breakthrough also become viable objectives for CIS lists with STAPs. On Bombing Run, just hand the bomb tokens to the STAP riders and watch your opponent panic as three kamikaze pilots scream towards their deployment zone at three Speed-3 moves every round.

Wherever you choose to deploy them, you'll want to keep them within range 1 of each other every turn that you possibly can for Coordinate. This can be tricky, but liberal use of the pivot action can keep them in line with each other and help you spend more time behind LOS-blocking terrain when you need it. Putting Linked Targeting Array on the other 1-2 STAPs gives them a free aim to work with which really helps boost their attack rolls. Their ability to always have an order on them similar to B1s also makes them a good target for your Aggressive Tactics surge token placement, and helps cover for their lack of Surge to Block. Speeder 1 means they can move over terrain under Height 1 (range 1 on your range ruler) automatically; keep track of what terrain fits that description on your table so that you know which lanes your STAPs can take when approaching your opponent or objectives.

Heavy

Up to 2 Selections

AAT Trade Federation Battle Tank

Finally some tanks for the Clankers!

For the cost of a naked AT-ST, you get a pretty nasty tank with this one. It comes with 9 health, and a 6 damage threshold; it also comes with the Armor rule to negate all non-critical hits, and red dice on defense (one of the few things in the army throwing them). It's pretty tough! And it hovers, so terrain is generally not going to be a problem- although it only has movement-1 so it's going slow no matter what.

For offense, it's pretty sick. Its main gun throws 4 red dice at range 2-4 with Critical 2, High Velocity, and Impact 1. While Impact 1 doesn't sound that great against enemy armor, bear in mind Critical 2 helps as well. It's useful for sniping enemy Jedi/Sith, or pesky Rebels loaded up on Dodge tokens (looking at you, Tauntauns...). It has a short-ranged anti-personnel gun that throws 3 black at range 1-2 with Fixed: Front. It can take two Ordnance upgrades- see below for details- which are essentially extra weapons. What's fun about those is that they all have the "Cycle" rule which allows you to automatically recover them in a turn in which you didn't use them- so fire one, fire the other next turn while recovering the first, and so on. Furthermore, the tank has Arsenal 2, allowing you to fire two guns/ordnance weapons. If that wasn't enough, the new Barrage rule lets you make two attack actions if you don't use Arsenal- so you can choose to fire the main gun twice. Bear in mind that these are two attack actions, meaning you can't do anything else (unless you have a way to do it for free)- no aiming, no moving, etc.

It does have some weaknesses though. It can be a rather expensive option in an army that tends to be horde-oriented. It also has Weak Point 2 on the rear side, giving enemies Impact +2 if they shoot it in the rear arc. Also bear in mind the minimum range on the main gun combined with the slow movement- deploy wisely! If a hard-hitting and fast-moving unit like Tauntauns gets behind it, it's in trouble! Lastly, it has the AI:Attack rule just like your Clanker infantry- if you intend to just sit and double-tap using Barrage, that's not an issue but otherwise, make sure you've got a way to issue it an order to ensure that it does what you want.

Upgrade Cards

Pilot Upgrade (x1 Slot)

T-Series Tactical Droid Pilot (5 pts.) - Your tank loses AI:Attack, and you gain Field Commander, allowing you to make the tank your commander, after you play a neutral command card, like Standing Orders.

Lok Durd (9 pts.) - Unique. A morbidly obese Neimoidian pilot who cancels the tank's "AI:Attack" rule. Plus you can exhaust him as a free action to gain Suppressive on all of the tank's weapons. Suppressive (which causes a unit targeted by the weapon to gain an extra suppression token after resolving the attack) doesn't stack so you'll want to fire each weapon at separate targets to maximize the usefulness of this. An extremely good upgrade though, and every army with an AAT will likely have him.

OOM-series droid pilot (7 pts.) - the tank gains the Coordinate: Droid Trooper rule, allowing it to start a daisy chain like normal droid units. Notably doesn't cancel the AI rule like the other two pilots. And to get the most out of it, you need to be giving it orders as often as possible and keep droid squads near it (since it's only range 1).

Ordnance Upgrades (x2 Slots)

High Energy Shells (8 pts.) - Exhaust to make an attack with Cycle Range 2-4. Critical 1, High Velocity Fixed: Front 2 Red dice and 1 white. This is your go to when a Jedi/Sith or anyone relying on Dodge tokens (hint: Tauntauns) needs to be deleted now but you also need to use you other action, so you can't just use barrage on your main gun. Just remember that High Velocity only works if all weapons in the attack pool have it- you can combine this with the main cannon no prob, but fire any other guns elsewhere if you want to prevent those Dodges.

Bunker Buster Shells (12 pts) - Exhaust to fire an attack with Cycle, Blast. Scatter Fixed: Front Range 1-2, one black and 3 white. Your... interesting option and the one that makes using barrage on something other than your main gun an option. Pulling an infantry squad in to the open has some interesting ideas behind it, but the white dice means low damage output.

Armor-piercing shells (10 pts.) - Exhaust to fire an attack with Cycle, Fixed: Front, Impact 3, range 2-3, 1 red and 2 black. Fantastic for when you really want a tank dead- combine with the main cannon for a mighty 5 red and 2 black with Impact 4 and Critical 2.

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts. reduced to 5 pts. by rules errata) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Since you're vulnerable to attack from the rear facing, and your main gun has a minimum range of 2, you shouldn't take this.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order. If you intend to make heavy use of the Barrage ability, you probably want to take this. Even if you don't intend to go heavy Barrage, it's not a terrible take. And once the STAP riders are released, you can use those to Coordinate orders onto the tank...

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts. reduced to 5 pts. by rules errata) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

Tactics

It's a tough tank with a long range, very powerful main gun. It can use the Barrage rule to double fire this gun each turn, and that seems like the best way to use it. Fire often and weather what incoming fire you wind up taking. (Combine this tactic with Lok Durd and you will be putting out a bare minimum of 4 suppression tokens on a single unit)

However, it can be more complicated than that. Bear in mind that when you fire twice using Barrage, it's two separate attack actions. Which means things like cover will apply separately to each attack. Unless you're really lucky and roll lots of criticals (of course, Critical 2 on each shot will double your odds to 25% chance per die, which will help), you're probably going to have one or two of your shiny red attack dice automatically canceled each time you fire it. This significantly reduces the damage output of the tank- especially since your targets will still get saves. Clones and Imperials will laugh as they shrug off the heavy cannon fire, and even Rebels will get their 5+ saves. High Velocity will prevent dodges, so at least there's that.

This is where the Ordnance weapons come into play. Unlike the Clone tank, you can take up to two of the (thus far) three upgrades. If you play on terrain-heavy tables, the Bunker Buster shells will allow you to ignore the cover problems (and the Scatter rule can help dump the enemy unit into the open for other units to murderize). When waiting for Bunker Buster to Cycle, the High Energy shells can combine with the main gun to erase Jedi, Sith, Tauntauns, and anyone else who thinks Dodge tokens will save them. Alternatively, you could go with the Armor-Piercing to take out enemy tanks- or just do extra damage (combined with the main gun, you're doing 5 red and 2 black, which isn't bad at all). Of course, all of this flexibility comes at a price- taking two of the Ordnance upgrades will add about 20 pts to the overall cost of the tank. And then you probably want to take a T-series or Lok Durd to ensure you can always aim or move or whatever before firing, which further adds to the pricetag.

Unit Upgrade Boxes

Fantasy Flight Games has seen fit to release new boxes with additional and supplementary upgrades in them. Most of them can be applied to any Trooper unit with the proper slots. Yours are Pending.