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" (ie, 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.
PAY ATTENTION HERE, theses effects DO stack. Which means that as opposed to other units who perform tactical retreats(or combat shuffles for Snowtroopers), one move per activation, yours perform sprints, double moving towards the nearest table edgeThey 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- they don't gain or resolve poison tokens (from Bossk, 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...
- 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 they often have game changing abilities. Currently lacking any cheaper choices.
General Grevious
As a four-armed, lightsaber-wielding, asthmatic cyborg, General Grevious can do a passable blender impression in melee.
At 175 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. 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.
Relentless allows you to make an attack after you perform a move action, and coupled with his DT-57 "Annihilator" pistol, he can dish out 4 dice (2 Black, 2 White) with Critical 1 and Pierce 1 while ducking between terrain.
Speaking of terrain, Grevious 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 Grevious 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.
His melee weapons consist of two "Trophy Lightsabers" which each deal 1 Red, 2 Black, and 1 White dice with Impact 1 and Pierce 1. Not too shabby if you double up (thanks to Arsenal 2)- the Impact 1 and Pierce 1 will stack, giving Impact 2 and Pierce 2, and you're throwing more dice (2 red, 4 black, 2 white) than any Jedi or Sith. Note that his DT-57 pistol not only can be fired in melee (note the red melee range icon), it has Versatile- this allows you to make ranged attacks even when you're in melee. Is Vader nearby and only has 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).
Upgrade Cards
Command Upgrades (x2 Slots)
Aggressive Tactics (10 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 (10 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 the same, and allows them to get an order (and if it's a B1 unit, start a Coordinate daisy chain) 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), 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 (10 pts.) - Draw 2, pick 1 token from your order pool. Okay. We have Coordinate: Droid Trooper and 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 (8 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 suppression while being shot at, for cover. Pretty meh for 8 points, and with only 2 courage, you risk losing an action on your activation, unless you're also running Strict Orders.
Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 suppression for free. Pretty situational. If you're getting hit with 2-3 suppression a turn, it might help, but you're probably doing something wrong. Better off with Strict Orders.
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 (see below). 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's 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
(3 pip) Crush Them! - [General Grievous & 2 Units] - 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, and surge tokens can be nice but they require you to actually roll surges...
(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 great way to save Grievous from suffering heavy damage in the mid game- if you maximized Coordination, practically your entire army can prevent wounds for your more elite stuff (bear in mind that, unlike the Esteemed Leader upgrade, anyone can be benefit from the protection- including Droidekas or Dooku). Be sure to laugh as you happily trade away crappy B1 droids to protect your more valuable units. Note that Pierce triggers on the guarding unit's hits first, so Grievous (or Droidekas, B2's, etc) won't have to deal with it, but Grievous will still trigger his Impervious rule, since the attack pool did include Pierce. Fun!
(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... hintity hint hint...
Tactics
Two of Grievous's three Command Cards are underwhelming, and the third can be very situational (ie to get the most out of it, the conditions have to be just right). So Grievous is more of a blitzing type of character- move fast, hit hard, and keep moving. The Command fuckery is more Dooku's game, 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 if they survive his onslaught.
Count Dooku
He trains people in your Jedi arts.
On the surface, he looks a lot like Luke Skywalker, with speed 2, 6 wounds, 3 courage, Immune: Pierce, Deflect, a red defense die and the ability to convert surges to crits. Don't be fooled, however, Dooku is a much different animal Jedi Sith.
At 205 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. Master of the Force 2 allows twice the space-magic goodness per turn, at the cost of sinking even more points into one unit.
His weapons do not disappoint - 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 throw 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.
Finally, Makashi Master allows you to reduce your Pierce value by 1 on a melee attack ignore Immune: Pierce. It means in essence if you're fighting in melee against another Jedi or Sith, you get to actually use Pierce 1- so you're almost guaranteed to get at least one wound on them. No selling Immune: Peirce will give Dooku a huge leg up on almost any melee unit in the game, when he gets there...
Upgrade Cards
Force Upgrades (x3 Slots)
Unaligned Powers
Battle Meditation (10 pts.) - When you issue orders, you can give one of those orders to a friendly unit anywhere on the battlefield. Same points as 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 (10 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. Very nice.
Force Push (10 pts.) - Exhaust this ability and spend an 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. Practically a "must have" on a commander like Dooku.
Force Reflexes (15 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 (10 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, but allows you to throw 3 red dice with Impact 2 and Pierce 2 at someone, instead of using your lighting. The price is a little high for someone who already has a ranged attack with 5 black dice, Pierce 1 and Scatter for free. Situational. If you have this when you use Fear, Surprise and Intimidation you could use both weapons at once, and dish out 2 suppression tokens. Very scary. If you've got the spare points and a Force slot open, doesn't hurt to take for that F,S&I bomb; or if you know that your opponent brought an AT-ST and you really want that extra Impact punch that Lightning lacks, it doesn't hurt to take it. Otherwise... meh. Pass.
Dark Side Powers
Anger (5 pts.) - Gain an aim token every time you take damage. Meh. You really don't want Dooku getting hurt.
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. Makes sure you get that last pesky trooper.
Command Upgrades (x1 Slot)
Aggressive Tactics (10 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 (10 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 (10 pts.) - Draw 2, pick 1 token from your order pool. Okay. Sort of works with his Double the Fall card, if you happen to have a lot of token 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- but most of your army is immune to suppression anyway. 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
(3 pip) You Disappoint Me - [Count Dooku & 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.
(2 pip) Double the Fall - [Count Dooku & 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 bring 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.
(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's very fuckery-oriented. 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, see the upgrade, above). Versatile allows you to make ranged attacks even if you're engaged in melee. So you can charge into melee (because Dooku is finally 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). And 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 to use Scatter to push the target into melee and then chop with a lightsaber.
Tactics
Despite being a powerful Sith Lord who specializes in fencing, Dooku's more of a fuckery style commander. 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). 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 the fuckery to get your enemies where you want them, and then pounce. Or make Grievous do it.
Operatives
TBD
Corps
3-6 Selections
B1 Battle Droids
"Roger, roger."
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 to you opponent to spread their fire over, 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.
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 (during the End Phase, 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 (6 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 (12 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 (9 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.
Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)
Comms Jammer (15 pts. reduced to 5 pts. by rules errata) - 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 (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.
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
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 72 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.
B2 Super Battle Droids
(Currently on Pre-order)
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 in only 1-2, and they still only save on a white die.
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 (26 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 (16 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 need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get around the AI rule, 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.
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. Yes, they hit pretty hard, certainly much harder than their B1 cousins. 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 the 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 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 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
TBD
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.
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.
Heavy
Up to 2 Selections
AAT Trade Federation Battle Tank
(Currently on Pre-Order)
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.
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!
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.
Bunker Buster Shells (12 pts) - Exhaust to fire an attack with Cycle, Blast. Scatter Fixed: Front Range 1-2. 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.
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.
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. Let's be honest, if you're issuing an order to this tank, its probably because you want to use it.
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.
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
How best to use the tank goes here.
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.