Star Wars: Legion/Tactics/CIS

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.
• The most consistently balanced faction in the game.

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. Now with cheaper choices!

General Grievous

(155 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!

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, especially with the dice pool Grievous has.

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.

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. Recommended, unless other upgrades appeal more to you.

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) - You gain Outmaneuver, meaning you may spend dodge tokens to cancel crits. This can be very useful, but other upgrades will be more useful.

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 even allows you to split attacks with your lightsabers- so you could murderize one unit using two sabers, or if you're engaged with two units, attack each with a single lightsaber. It's a very flexible keyword.

With regards to terrain, Grievous has Scale, giving him the ability to make a free clamber maneuver before or after he moves. In addition, anytime he clambers (free or not), he does not roll to see if he takes damage, and difficult terrain does not slow him down while he's moving. This all translates that for a guy with speed 2, he moves pretty fast. He's very dangerous over short distances, and Scale plays into that.

Despite his name, General Grievous is actually not all that great at commanding troops. 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. Half the points of an HQ Uplink, but you can change who's getting the orders, and it comes from your commander. Situational, but okay. Maybe Maul (or Grievous) is too far away and you want to make sure he gets an order when using Dooku's 3-pip for the free Dodge token? Anyway... there are other, more valuable Force abilities.

Burst of Speed (3 pts.) - Expend to treat your movement rate as 3 for one turn; at the end of that turn, you gain an Immobilize token. This is a solid pick. You could use it the turn he uses his 1-pip and bulldoze into something. Or use it when he's already within speed 3 range of something, and you can use your second action to make an attack (and perhaps use his 1-pip next turn...). Just be careful that Dooku isn't left exposed in the subsequent turn when his movement is reduced to 1 by the immobilize token.

Force Barrier (10 pts.) - Exhaust. When another friendly troops unit at range 1 is defending against a ranged attack, during the Modify Attack Dice step, cancel either 1 crit result or up to 2 hit results. This can give a B1 or B2 squad an annoying durability boost.

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 Lift (5 pts.) - When you deploy, you can place a free barricade within range 1 of you. Exhaust to gain the free action ability to choose a barricade at range 1 and move it anywhere within range 1 and height 1 of its current position. Basically lets you drag around free heavy cover. Can be useful to protect Dooku or another valuable target. Or just to annoy your opponent by making your Roger Rogers harder to kill.

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 can be useful.

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). His lightning is only black dice (with crit surge), so you'd basically paying for rerolls only on that- and that's 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 each to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. Surge increases your corps units' odds to hit by 50%, and doubles their odds of blocking when defending. The character with this has to be the nominated commander to use it, but it can be combined with Coordinate and/or HQ Uplink. It's a rather expensive upgrade, but that's because it's quite good- especially in this army, which, when played right, will usually be able to get all four tokens even when using a 1-pip.

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.

Esteemed Leader (5 pts.) - Friendly trooper units at range 1 gain Guardian 1 when you are defending. Basically, allows you to have someone else 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 meatshields- and would you look at that... 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. Not a great choice, maybe take a look at Improvised Orders or Esteemed Leader if you don't have the points for Aggressive Tactics.

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. A fun tactic is to throw the Saber and shoot the lightning to drop 3 suppression on two different units (in addition to whatever damage you wind up doing).

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 tied with Emperor Palpatine and Yoda as the most expensive units in the game. His Cunning special rule (which breaks ties when you use his own command cards- did you play Fear, Surprise, and Intimidation the same turn your opponent played And Now... You Will Die? Well guess what, you're going first!) 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. 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 super cheap, so taking Dooku with another powerful character isn't entirely out of the question.

Dooku and Maul are especially scary in Skirmish matches!

Super Tactical Droid

(95 pts. for generic, 100 pts. for Kalani or Kraken)

An upgraded droid who's like, a really smart person. Comes in three flavors- generic no-name, Kalani, and Kraken.

Upgrade Cards

Command Upgrades (x2 Slots for Kraken and generic; x3 slots for Kalani)

Aggressive Tactics (15 pts.) - After the ST issues an order, give 1 surge token to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. You probably want this, especially if you have no other commander.

Commanding Presence (5 pts.) - When issuing orders, you can issue orders at range 1-4. It's okay on Kraken because he tends to run up into melee away from his army. It's nearly a "Must-Take" on the generic ST or Kalani because it makes their Range 2 Direct become Range 4. Congratulations! Your support commander can now start his B1 chain for FREE while camping back, out of sight, giving tokens to his snipers or tank or whatever.

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. Stacks with the Guardian that MagnaGuards have though, helping keep your valuable commander alive.

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.

Vigilance (5 points) - During the End Phase, choose one unit (or two Corps units) within range 1-2, and the chosen unit(s) can keep one of their dodge tokens instead of discarding it as normal. If you're running units that really like dodges (BX, Magna, Dooku), you probably want this.

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot for Kraken only)

Duck and Cover (4 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 suppression while being shot at for cover. Droids don't get cover from suppression. Also, Kraken has to deal with getting suppression from his Override and Strategize, so... pass.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 suppression for free. You probably want this to help offset Override/Strategize.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Kraken's good in melee and might even do well against most characters (except certain dudes with lightsabers). Not a terrible choice by any means, but there are others that might be better.

Offensive Push (4 pts.) – While performing a move, exhaust this card to gain Tactical 1 (after performing a standard move, gain 1 aim token). You probably want this, so that you'll have that aim token for Lethal once Kraken gets into melee.

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. Kraken's excellent in melee, you probably don't want him on standby.

Seize the Initiative (5 pts.) - Commander or Operative only: expend during the issue orders step of the command phase, issue an order to yourself. Not a bad choice although there are some other really good options that may be better.

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) - You gain Outmaneuver, meaning you may spend dodge tokens to cancel crits. This can be very useful, but other upgrades will be more useful.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. This is always worth taking on a melee oriented unit.

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. If you're going with a melee ST (looking at you, Kraken) this is a solid option, especially against lists that go for order control.

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. Unless you're going for some sort of Coordinate shenanigans or something niche like that, probably a pass.

Hacked Comms Unit (5 pts.) - during the Issue Orders step, if an enemy unit at range 1 of you is issued an order, you may issue an order to yourself. Basically a reverse Comms Jammer, also a good option for a unit that wants to be near the enemy.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. A solid choice to ensure it gets an order even though the Command card you're using is troopers only. Mostly useful for when you've got a second commander and want to make sure the ST gets an order. But generally, this is probably better on a B1 squad so they can do Coordinate.

Long-Range Comlink (5 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Might be useful if you have a second commander and you don't want to use the ST's commands... otherwise, useless.

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. See Long-Range Commlink, above.

Command Cards

Do Not Underestimate Our Means (3 Pip) - [3 droid troopers or AI Units] 1st effect: If this card wasn't divulged, at the start of the activation phase, choose up to 2 friendly units with face-up order tokens- each chosen unit recovers. 2nd effect: Divulge during Deploy Units Step, choose 3 friendly units with AI- these units get Reinforcements.

This is a weird card. The first effect isn't bad- it allows you to ready any exhausted cards you may have. That AAT (as long as it doesn't have Lok Durd or the T-series pilot- or if it does have one of them but uses an HQ Uplink...) can now ready all of its ordnance. It also allows your ST to remove any suppression it may have. That's not too shabby. The second effect allows the units to be deployed last, after all other units that don't also have the Reinforcements keyword. Could be useful for setting up a stronger flank once you know where your opponent has deployed everything- especially if you're using Kalani, who already has Reinforcements built-in.

Preservation Protocols (2 Pip) - [2 droid troopers or AI units] when the Super Tactical issues an order to a droid trooper unit or a unit with AI, the unit gains Disengage, Impervious, and a dodge token.

A nice little one turn defensive boost. Is a lightsaber boi thrashing your B1 line? Have them walk away using disengage and then light 'em up. Probably best used on units like the ST himself or MagnaGuard, where they don't have Impervious already and actually have decent defense. An AAT with Impervious just sounds hilarious. Bear in mind that Kalani/generic's Direct will work with this, as will any other shenanigans where the ST is issuing an order (such as Comms Relay or HQ Uplink).

They Too Will Suffer (1 Pip) - [Super Tactical Droid] at the end of the Command Phase, your opponent chooses a non-commander/operative unit with a faceup order token (if able) and puts their token back in their order pool. The first time your opponent would draw a token from the pool, you can force them to draw a token with a rank of your choice instead.

This is kind of like a weaker version of Palpatine's "Give In To Your Anger", allowing you to have some control over your opponent's orders early in the turn. Your opponent is looking to pound you with a tank? Force them to draw a corps unit instead, throwing their plan out of whack.

Tactics

The three Super Tactical Droids basically have the same stats- 5 wounds, 2 courage, movement 2, red defense (no surge). Each has offensive surge, although Kraken's is surge to critical. They all have the Strategize X rule, which is that the ST uses an action to gain a suppression and choose X units at range 1 and give the chosen unit(s) a dodge and an aim token. The generic and Kraken also have Override X, which allows them to take a suppression when a friendly AI unit at range X or less activates to allow that AI unit to ignore the AI rule. Kalani and the generic have Direct:AI unit, allowing them to start a daisy chain even when they're not the commander- good stuff. They all also have Sharpshooter (1 for generic, 2 for Kraken and Kalani), making cover less of an issue when shooting.

Speaking of attacks, that's where they really start to differ.

• The generic throws two black in melee, and has blaster with range 1-3, 1 red 1 white, and Lethal 1.
• Kalani throws a black and a white in melee, and has a blaster with range 1-3, 1 black 1 white, and Lethal 1.
• Kraken throws 4 red with Lethal in melee, and has a blaster with range 1-3, 2 black, and Pierce 1.

Lastly, Kraken has Charge, and Kalani has Reinforcements (when deploying, he can be deployed after all units without Reinforcements have deployed).

So it should be fairly obvious now- Kraken wants to rush forward with melee units like vibrosword BX droids, Maul, and MagnaGuard and thrash enemies in melee. Kalani is more of a "hang back and boost friendly units around him" kind of commander. And the generic is somewhere in between. None of the ST's are particularly tough though, so you'll want to ensure that they're protected from attack, especially by a lazer sword boi. None of them are particularly brave either- while being droid troopers helps a lot, it won't take much to get them to panic level, so be wary of overusing Override/Strategize.

Lastly, note that the black dot indicating uniqueness is next to "Super Tactical Droid" - meaning if you take one, you cannot take either of the other two in the same army. If you take Kalani, you can't also take Kraken (or the generic).

T-series Tactical Droid

(55 pts.) Basically a computer with a pistol and legs. About as resistant to enemy fire as you would expect a computer to be.

Upgrade Cards

How to best use upgrades goes here

Command Cards

Note that these are all generic and may be used by any commander in your army.

Roger, Roger! (3 Pip) - [3 droid troopers] When a unit is issued an order using this card, it gains either 1 dodge or surge token.

This is slightly underwhelming as it is specified that the orders must be given to droid troopers, and only the units given an order by the card get the tokens (so units that get their orders from Coordinate, HQ Uplink, Direct, etc. do not get the tokens). But a little extra boost never hurt, especially considering how terrible your B1 droids are.

Orbital Strike (2 Pip) - [1 Commander or Heavy unit] Once this round, at the end of the activation of a friendly Commander droid trooper unit or friendly field commander unit, it may perform an attack using the following weapon: 2 red 2 black, suppressive, Immune: Deflect.

A free attack is always nice. Note that the attack is considered to be fired by the unit triggering it, whether it's a T-series, a Super Tactical, an AAT with the T-Series, or a droid unit that's been upgraded to commander because your actual commander died. That means that any unit abilities like built-in surge, Sharpshooter X, or even aim/surge tokens would carry over onto the attack. Suppressive is a nice touch too, for a little extra oomph.

Mechanized Incursion (1 Pip) - [1 Vehicle] After a friendly vehicle unit is issued an order, choose a friendly droid trooper unit at range 1-2 of it and issue that unit an order.

Better than Ambush as long as you have a vehicle. Give it to a STAP and he will be able to issue an order to start a daisy chain of B1's at a distance of 2 and still use his coordinate to give an order to a neighboring unit/vehicle. Note that it doesn't specify the order must be issued by the card or the commander- so the STAP Coordinate, HQ Uplink, Direct, etc. will also trigger it.

Tactics

This is by very far the cheapest Commander you can get. You want to field two AAT? Go ahead. You want 6 troops, three Droideka/STAP and an AAT? You do you son. His low cost allows you to have an amount of flexibility that the Separatists couldn't achieve.

In addition he can issue an order to a droid trooper unit for free, basically guaranteeing that no matter the command card you play, you will be able to start your sweet sweet daisy chain. His cheapness comes at a price: If someone so much as looks at him or sneezes in his general direction, he will die. Is there a jedi? Dead. Is there a Clone Unit? Dead. Are these Stormtroopers? Dead. Is it raining? Dead. He throws white defense die with no surges so even in heavy cover he will not survive bumping his toe. Due to this giving him esteemed leader is a very good way of ensuring his relative safety as long as the enemy does not crit too much. He should always be surrounded by various units and in heavy cover so this will make him considerably more durable. This will make him very vulnerable to snipers nevertheless and therefore keeping him in a corner is a viable strategy. He throws one red one white with sharpshooter 1 at a range of 3 which is decent, but if you can shoot them then they can shoot you, so bear that in mind. In melee he throws just one white dice, but lets face it: if you somehow got in melee you are as good as dead so you might as well bitch-slap that Jedi.

He get to bolster two units nearby which is nice, so you should give him some electrobinoculars and have him give aims to the nearby AAT or Grievous, throw a couple surges and chill. If you want to live life on the edge, then giving him Aggressive Tactics is very powerful but then if he shows just an inch of his square butt to the enemy he will die (since he won't have esteemed leader).

He is best used as a support commander, making your droids shoot better and guaranteeing teamwork, and letting the heavy lifting to more "powerful" commanders. His synergy is great but he is without doubt THE weakest unit of all of legion so only make him come out to taunt the enemy (not recommended).

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.

Offensive Push (4 pts.) - exhaust to gain Tactical 1, which is gaining a free aim token after making a standard move. Offensive Push is always a nice upgrade, and Cade Bane does want to stay on the move.

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) - You gain Outmaneuver, meaning you may spend dodge tokens to cancel crits. With this, you can make Bane even more annoying to deal with, if he somehow gets dodge tokens!

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.

Ascension Cables (4 pts) - Until the end of your activation, you gain scale. This is especially useful to get your troops into position, or traverse a dense battlefield. You can't really go wrong with this one.

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.

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) - You gain Outmaneuver, meaning you may spend dodge tokens to cancel crits. This can be very useful, but other upgrades are better for Maul, sadly.

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.

Offensive Stance (5 pts.) - Force user only. At the start of your activation, you may flip this card. When taking an aim action, gain two tokens instead of one. You cannot spend dodge tokens. The token must come from an action, rather than upgrades or command cards. This is the flip side of Defensive Stance. This can be nice to ensure you really hurt something in melee. Recommended, unless another upgrade catches your eye.

Defensive Stance (5 pts.) - Force user only. At the start of your activation, you may flip this card. When taking a dodge action, gain two tokens instead of one. You cannot spend aim tokens. The token must come from an action, rather than upgrades or command cards. This is the flip side of Offensive stance. The extra dodge tokens can ensure Mauls gets more use out of deflect. Recommended, unless another upgrade catches your eye.

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, but Maul's lack of Master of the Force makes it slightly less attractive. 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 (just bear in mind that he can only jump once per activation).

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. Considering Maul's lack of Master of the Force, this isn't a bad upgrade, considering how cheap it is.

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). He is armed only with his double-bladed lightsaber, which throws 4 red and 4 white with Impact 2 and Pierce 2 in melee. 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.

Juyo Mastery allows him to take 1 additional action during his activation as long as he is wounded. The extra action cannot be a third move- otherwise, anything is allowed. He can move, attack, recover; or move, move, attack, etc. This sounds great, right? Well, bear in mind that he also doesn't have Master of the Force or Charge/Relentless. Which means you still can't be reckless with his actions. If you've loaded up on exhaustible Force powers, he'll need to use one of his actions to get them back via Recover action. And you always need to have an action ready to attack if you want to do so after he moves.

That said, he's an absolute squad slaughterer. Tenacity is a great upgrade for him, since he'll be wounded for Juyo anyway, meaning he'd be throwing five red and four white (plus Pierce and Impact). Watch entire squads melt under that firepower. He'll generally struggle a little against another lightsaber boi, especially if it's Anakin (Djem So auto-wounding) or Dooku (Makashi), but he's throwing so many dice that he won't struggle that much. But against regular units and non-lightsaber/Force-using characters, he'll shred. He's basically a cruise missile- just point him at the target and press the red button.

Corps

3-6 Selections

B1 Battle Droids

(36 pts. errata'ed to 38 pts.) "Roger, roger."

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

E-5C B1 Trooper (18 pts. errata'ed to 16 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. errata'ed to 18 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). Also bear in mind that the E-60R droid also carries the same E-5 blaster as the regular droids... so you can choose to fire that, thereby wasting an action and saving the rocket shot for later.

E-5s B1 Trooper (20 pts. errata'ed to 18) - 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. errata'ed to 16 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. errata'ed to 4 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. errata'ed to 8 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. errata'ed to 6 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.

EV-series Medical Droid (14 pts.) - adds a medic droid who can heal one poison or wound token from a friendly non-droid trooper within range 1, twice per game. He also has the "non-combatant" keyword, meaning he can't fight and can't die until only he and the squad leader are left. If you're using one of the few non-droids and really want to make sure they stay alive, this is helpful to that end.

PK-series Worker Droid (12 pts.) - adds a little repair droid who can heal an ion token, wound token, or damage token from a friendly vehicle or droid unit at range 1, twice per battle. He also has the "non-combatant" keyword, meaning he can't fight and can't die until only he and the squad leader are left. Useful for keeping your AAT's or Super Tactical Droids "alive".

T-series Tactical Droid (18 pts.) - adds a squad leader version of the Commander of the same name. He removes the AI: Attack keyword, adds the Reliable 1 keyword, and becomes the squad leader. He also comes with a Sidearm ranged attack (meaning it can't do the regular E-5 attack that the rest of the squad gets) doing 1 red at range 1-3. Gives the squad a little extra punch, and a free surge token to boot. Plus it helps get around the AI rule. A little pricy but not a terrible choice.

Viper Recon Droid (8 pts. errata'ed to 6 pts.) - adds a mini version of the Imperial probe droids from Empire Strikes Back. It has a Sidearm ranged attack (meaning it can't do the E-5 attack like the rest of the squad) that does 2 white dice at range 1-2. It also allows the squad to spend an action to put two Observation tokens on an enemy unit at range 1-3 and LOS. Each Observation token can be spent to allow one of your units to reroll an attack die when attacking that unit. Not bad and only 2 points more than a standard Roger Roger, although it will eat up one of your actions to use it.

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! The 10/27/21 rules update modified them a little bit to be slightly more expensive as a base squad and with slightly cheaper upgrades- the meta up to that point had been to spam cheap naked units and spend lots of points on expensive stuff like AATs and/or Maul. Now they're trying to gently encourage players to take upgrades on the squads, as they're a little cheaper. Seems like naked B1 spam is still the way to go, but if you've got some points, throw in some heavy weapons so the squads are actually useful for more than camping on objectives.

B2 Super Battle Droids

(48 pts. errata'ed to 45 pts.) Watch those wrist rockets!

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2-ACM Trooper (26 pts. errata'ed to 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. If you're gonna take a heavy weapon with these guys, this is probably the one you want. It synergizes well with the rest of the squad, it's cheaper than the HA, and it doesn't have to exhaust.

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. Due to the Cycle rule, it's best to use this on turn one or two, so it can refresh during the next one.

Personnel Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2 Super Battle Droid (13 pts.) - Adds another big 'bot to the unit. Not bad, but 13 points may be better spent on extra B1 droids.

EV-series Medical Droid (14 pts.) - adds a medic droid who can heal one poison or wound token from a friendly non-droid trooper within range 1, twice per game. He also has the "non-combatant" keyword, meaning he can't fight and can't die until only he and the squad leader are left. If you're using one of the few non-droids and really want to make sure they stay alive, this is helpful to that end. May be a better option in the B1 squads, where the B2s are a better offensive unit.

PK-series Worker Droid (12 pts.) - adds a little repair droid who can heal an ion token, wound token, or damage token from a friendly vehicle or droid unit at range 1, twice per battle. He also has the "non-combatant" keyword, meaning he can't fight and can't die until only he and the squad leader are left. Useful for keeping your AAT's or Super Tactical Droids "alive". Like the EV-series, probably better in your B1 squads.

T-series Tactical Droid (18 pts.) - adds a squad leader version of the Commander of the same name. He removes the AI: Attack keyword, adds the Reliable 1 keyword, and becomes the squad leader. He also comes with a Sidearm ranged attack (meaning it can't do the regular Arm Cannon attack that the rest of the squad gets) doing 1 red at range 1-3. Gives the squad a little extra punch, and a free surge token to boot. Plus it helps get around the AI rule. A little pricy but not a terrible choice. Important note: He only has 1 wound; because of the way casualty removal works per the "Leader" keyword on page 55 of the RRG, if this guy is ever killed (due to LOS shenanigans or Force Choke... how do you choke a droid?), he will automatically replace one of your B2 droids- meaning you're essentially losing two wounds for the price of one. So while on the one hand, this guy looks like a great option in this squad thanks to surge tokens and removing AI, he can be a detriment if your opponent is smart. Tough call.

Viper Recon Droid (8 pts. errata'ed to 6 pts.) - adds a mini version of the Imperial probe droids from Empire Strikes Back. It has a Sidearm ranged attack (meaning it can't do the Arm Cannon attack like the rest of the squad) that does 2 white dice at range 1-2. It also allows the squad to spend an action to put two Observation tokens on an enemy unit at range 1-3 and LOS. Each Observation token can be spent to allow one of your units to reroll an attack die when attacking that unit. A nice cheap way to add a body to your B2s, and only slightly worse shooting. Of course, his ability will eat one of your activations.

Comms Upgrade (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - 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 (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 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 walking death machines. You wouldn't be totally right, however. 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; this compared to the 7 white plus whatever heavy weapon you would have took on a B1 squads- the B2s are clearly superior in this regard. They have two wounds each, making them pretty tough, along with Courage 2 to keep them fighting. B2's also have Armor 1, meaning they automatically ignore one non-critical hit every time they are attacked.

They do have a low model count, but this is more or less offset with their surprising durability, and cost slightly more than a B1 unit. Supers are armed with short-ranged weaponry, and they still only throw white dice on defense, without surge, though. 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 critical rolls will hurt. Lastly, they're still droids, so they'll be affected by Ion if your opponent happens to bring any of those weapons.

Generally, bouncing between heavy cover is what you'll want to do. Combined with their 2 health and armor 1, B2's can be oddly hard to displace. If your opponent wants to sink impact weapons into them, as well, then all the better, as they won't be shot into your AAT. Range 2 hinders these bricks a good bit, but they handle it better than most other units with the same issue. AI Attack may be the biggest drawback to this unit, but this can easily be mitigated in most situations where it's an issue. A great solution to this would be to assign a T-Series to the unit, his red dice, and reliable 1 can allow your B2's to throw a total of 4 red dice, 3 black and 3 white at range two (although he has a potentially major downside- see his entry in the Upgrades, above). This is nearly as strong as a tank so you may want to have them hold a well defended position and stop any foolish attempt to pierce through. Keep in mind that if the enemy is out of range two then you can't do much except lose units, so keep them hidden until you can come out and melt the enemy.

Unlike B1s, they lack the Coordinate rule, which means they can't bounce orders further along a line of droids. They're best put at the end of the chain for this reason.

If you can keep them in cover and advance quickly to attack range, they'll dish out some pretty respectable damage. 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

BX-series Droid Commandos

(68 pts.) Essentially a droid version of the Imperial Scouts.

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 (recover up to 2 spent shield tokens when you take a recover action). Nifty little defensive boost on an already tough squad. can greatly combine with the Saboteur to create a very annoying unit.

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. It isn't cumbersome, either, so AI: Move isn't that bad- note, however, that if you're moving or dodging due to AI, you're not aiming... so be ready to get that aim token for Lethal somewhere else.

Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28 pts.) - gain a droid chucking Dioxis mines. These mines do 1 black and 2 white area damage at range-1 with Blast and Poison 1, with 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 Not true, see the 6th pip under "Detonate X" on page 38 of the RRG- the Detonate preempts everything except using a Standby.). Don't underestimate poison- each poison token (bear in mind that droids and vehicles are immune) does extra wounds to the targeted unit. A couple dioxis mine hits and units start vaporizing. Combine with Cad Bane and Minefield for maximum IED fun!

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Duck and Cover (4 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. can be nice, considering they only have courage 2, but there are better upgrades.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Very nice, in general, for this unit.

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. As always, this is a hard pass...When is this ever useful?

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. Hard pass, because of the AI rule. Even with an order, BXs will want both of those activations for themselves.

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 (2 pts.) - Gain Unhindered, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain. BXs have scale. Hard pass.

Grappling Hooks (1 pts.) - Gain Expert Climber, allowing you to clamber without rolling dice or taking wounds. BXs have scale, Hard Pass.

Recon Intel (2 pts.) - Gain Scout 1, allowing you to make a speed-1 move after you deploy. You can't have Scout higher than 3, so this is utterly useless on BX droids.

Targeting Scopes (4 pts.) - Gain Precise 1, allowing you to re-roll 3 dice when you spend an aim token. Your aim token will be going towards lethal, with the sniper, so hard pass if you plan to take that. With any other loadout, this can be somewhat useful.

Ascension Cables (4 pts) - Until the end of your activation, you gain scale. BX droids already have scale, so this is useless.

Grenade Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Concussion Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die, that ignores cover. Not bad, especially for Vibrosword squads.

Fragmentation Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 red die with surge to critical. This may seem useful, but, honestly, won't do very much.

Impact Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die and Impact 1. Impact Grenades can be very useful against any vehicles these droids may come across.

Smoke Grenades (2 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 good use of 2 points if you have them lying around and, considering droids cannot benefit from the cover suppression provides, this can help cover these droids when you have to move out into the open.

EMP Droid poppers (3 pts.) - Range 1 with 1 black die, and an attack pool that includes them gains Ion 1 (just one, not one per grenade). If you know you're facing some armored units, or other droids, then this is the way to go. You just need to throw one to trigger it, so you can fire your other weapons, as well!

Tactics

Stat-wise they have the Impervious rule, which grants X extra defense dice if they are hit by a weapon with Pierce X, as well as a red save without surge. 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 and two white dice at range 1-3, with Sharpshooter 1 built-in. They can be upgraded to be more CQB-oriented, fight at range, or mine the field like the war criminals they are. And to help with this, they come with Scout 3 and Scale!

BXs are freaking cool. Impervious with 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 (sniper aside...), 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; 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.

BX-series Droid Commando Strike Team

(20 pts.) Essentially a droid version of the Imperial Scouts Strike Team, but better. The Heavy weapon which must be taken in this squad becomes the unit's leader.

Upgrade Cards

Armament Upgrades (X1 Slot)

Deflector Shields (18 pts.) - The squad gains Shielded 2 (two shield tokens that can be spent to block attacks for free) and Recharge 2 (recover up to 2 spent shield tokens when you take a recover action). Nifty little defensive boost on an already tough squad. Can greatly combine with the Saboteur to create a very annoying unit.

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, but the Strike Team doesn't benefit much from it.

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. It isn't cumbersome either, so AI: Move isn't that bad- note, however, that if you're moving or dodging due to AI, you're not aiming... so be ready to get that aim token for Lethal somewhere else.

Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28 pts.) - gain a droid chucking Dioxis mines. These mines do 1 black and 2 white area damage at range-1 with Blast and Poison 1, with 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 Not true, see the 6th pip under "Detonate X" on page 38 of the RRG- the Detonate preempts everything except using a Standby.). Don't underestimate poison- each poison token (bear in mind that droids and vehicles are immune) does extra wounds to the targeted unit. A couple dioxis mine hits and units start vaporizing. Combine with Cad Bane and Minefield for maximum IED fun!

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Duck and Cover (4 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. Can be nice, considering they only have courage 2, but there are better upgrades.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Very nice, in general, for this unit. This isn't too useful on a Saboteur unit, though.

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. As always, this is a hard pass...When is this ever useful?

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 team, while maybe adding an HQ Uplink for re-upping shield tokens, and you’ve got a seriously resilient unit for harassing the enemy.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. Strike Teams rarely want to be getting into melee, so this isn't amazing. Admittedly, BXs could possibly see some use out of this with the Vibrosword, though.

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. Hard pass, because of the AI rule. Even with an order, BXs will want both of those activations for themselves.

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 (2 pts.) - Gain Unhindered, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain. BXs have scale. Hard pass.

Grappling Hooks (1 pts.) - Gain Expert Climber, allowing you to clamber without rolling dice or taking wounds. BXs have scale, Hard Pass.

Recon Intel (2 pts.) - Gain Scout 1, allowing you to make a speed-1 move after you deploy. You can't have Scout higher than 3, so this is utterly useless on BX droids.

Targeting Scopes (4 pts.) - Gain Precise 1, allowing you to re-roll 3 dice when you spend an aim token. Your aim token will be going towards lethal, with the sniper, so hard pass if you plan to take that.

Ascension Cables (4 pts) - Until the end of your activation, you gain scale. BX droids already have scale, so this is useless.

Grenade Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Concussion Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die, that ignores cover. You don't have enough models to get proper use out of this.

Fragmentation Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 red die with surge to critical. This may seem useful, but, honestly, won't do very much. I mean, again, you don't have the models to fully utilize this upgrade, and you'll want to be harassing the enemy indirectly with a Strike Team.

Impact Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die and Impact 1. Impact Grenades can be very useful against any vehicles these droids may come across. Yet again, though, it must be pointed out that a Strike Team really won't get much use out of this.

Smoke Grenades (2 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 good use of 2 points if you have them lying around and, considering droids cannot benefit from the cover suppression provides, this can help cover these droids when you have to move out into the open.

EMP Droid poppers (3 pts.) - Range 1 with 1 black die, and an attack pool that includes them gains Ion 1 (just one, not one per grenade). Sadly not too worth it on BX Strike Teams.

Tactics

Stat-wise they have the Impervious rule, which grants X extra defense dice if they are hit by a weapon with Pierce X, as well as a red save without surge. 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 and two white dice at range 1-3, with Sharpshooter 1 built-in. They can be upgraded to be more CQB-oriented, fight at range, or mine the field like the war criminals they are. To help with this, they come with Scout 3 and Scale, as well! However, Strike Teams, of any kind, tend to dislike getting into melee.

BXs are freaking cool. Impervious with 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 (sniper aside...), 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 harassing the enemy, rather than holding objectives like the full squad. Their mobility from Scout 3 and Scale means they’ll be able to get into sniping position or set up mines before enemy units can push too far up. Their defensive options mean they won’t be stopped easily, either.

Offensively they’re pretty solid. Charging with Vibroswords lets you tie up enemy units in melee, if you choose to do so with a Strike Team; the Sniper upgrade lets you use your increased range to remove minis from units or to remove Standby tokens; 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.

DRK-1 Sith Probe Droids

(35 pts.) The small Probe droids Maul had in the Phantom Menace. They can only be taken if Maul is in the list, as well.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. This is generally good, and, considering you'll want these things floating around Maul, it might see use.

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. Not really useful.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. A solid choice to ensure it gets an order even though the Command card you're using is troopers only. Perhaps not too useful on a Probe Droid, but that's for you to decide.

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

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. This unit will usually be near a Darth Maul, so it's not that great.

Tactics

These guys are a fun little cheap niche unit. They're low cost and difficult to kill because your opponent usually can't attack them thanks to Incognito. So they're particularly good at babysitting an objective away from the enemy. The unit has Observe 3, which allows them to spend an action to put three observation tokens (your units can spend each of these to reroll one attack die directed at the observed unit) on an enemy unit within range 3 or less- note that the Observe is not tied to the number of models in the unit, so even if there's only one droid left, it still drops 3 tokens. They have an attack- they can zap in melee or out to range 2 for 2 white with suppressive and offensive surge, but it's pretty tame- and when you use that attack, the unit suddenly becomes vulnerable to being attacked. So you probably want to be careful about using it, if you do.

They're not all that useful for much else. Sit on objectives, observe enemy units, and look pretty.

They also take up a Special Forces slot, and you've got some great units to choose from in that category. But if you're fielding Maul, you've got a spare 35 points and a SF slot, definitely give these guys a look.

IG-100 MagnaGuard

(72 pts.) Essentially a droid version of the Imperial Royal Guard.

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Electro-Whip MagnaGuard (28 pts.) - adds a droid with a crazy whip (range melee or range 1, 2 red with Immobilize 1 and Versatile). He still has the electrostaff that normal MagnaGuard have, but the whip is better so... yeah.

RPS-6 MagnaGuard (28 pts.) - adds a droid with a rocket launcher (range 2-4, 1 of each color die, Critical 1 and Impact 2) in addition to the standard gear. This one's controversial- yes it's more expensive than the Clone RPS and B1 E-60R, but it lacks Cumbersome and isn't exhaustible. However, note the range disparity- the long range of this and the short range of the darts means it'll more often than not be firing at its target alone, dramatically cutting its damage potential. Plus, the unit is at its best in melee- and a ranged weapon doesn't fit that. Lastly, the unit's AI can mess with it (eg if you are forced to move or dodge, you aren't aiming...). So in short, this is giving you some anti-tank flexibility out of an elite unit.

IG-100 MagnaGuard (22 pts.) - adds an extra guy. Not much to say about that; if you lack the further 6 pts for the other upgrades, an extra body never hurts.

Training Upgrades (x2 Slots)

Duck and Cover (4 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. Can be nice, considering they only have courage 2, but there are better upgrades considering suppression isn't much of an issue for droids.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Not too bad, especially if you can take advantage of the Whip or RPS to gain the tokens from range, but you have to have a wounded trooper unit (lost models don't count) to get the benefit.

Into the Fray (4 pts.) - when an enemy at range 1 activates, you may gain a surge token. Yeah you probably want this if you intend to rush the unit forward into melee.

Offensive Push (4 pts.) – While performing a move, exhaust this card to gain Tactical 1 (after performing a standard move, gain 1 aim token). With so many black dice on offense, having rerolls is always a good thing.

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. Not a great option considering the short range of their weapons (RPS aside) and that you generally want them moving into melee and not sitting around on Standby (especially since it's easy to knock units out of standby).

Protector (5 pts.) - Exhaust while using Guardian; it allows the unit to cancel criticals as though they were normal hits. During the End Phase, ready the card. If you intend to make heavy use of Guardian to protect your Commander, you definitely want this.

Situational Awareness (2 pts.) – You gain Outmaneuver (you can spend dodge tokens to cancel crit results). Not terrible, and low cost. Just make sure you have the dodge tokens to take advantage of it.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack while you are wounded or have lost a model, gain 1 red attack die. This is always a pretty good option for melee oriented units.

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. Hard pass. These guys want to be moving/shooting/melee-ing, not wasting an action dishing out an aim token to someone else.

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 (2 pts.) - Gain Unhindered, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain. If you like to waste points... (these guys already have Unhindered).

Grappling Hooks (1 pts.) - Gain Expert Climber, allowing you to clamber without rolling dice or taking wounds. Meh. If you're desperate to climb terrain, go for it.

Recon Intel (2 pts.) - Gain Scout 1, allowing you to make a speed-1 move after you deploy. Not terrible, considering they are a melee unit and want to get close to the enemy fast.

Targeting Scopes (4 pts.) - Gain Precise 1, allowing you to re-roll 3 dice when you spend an aim token. Not a terrible option considering all the black dice you'll be throwing.

Ascension Cables (4 pts) - Exhaust to gain Scale until the end of your activation. Not a terrible upgrade if there's a lot of climbable terrain- but you're only getting half the benefit of the Scale keyword since they already have Unhindered built in.

Grenade Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Concussion Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die, that ignores cover. Cheap and not bad, especially when you've got the Whip (which is same range), but realistically, they want to be in melee.

Fragmentation Grenades (5 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 red die with surge to critical. Again, not bad if you've got the Whip (same range). Red dice with critical surge are going to hit very reliably, but realistically, they want to be in melee.

Impact Grenades (3 pts.) - Range 1 attack with 1 black die and Impact 1. Not bad as a last ditch if you have no RPS and desperately need anti-tank.

Smoke Grenades (2 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. It takes an action to use these, and do you really want to be spending an action for this?

EMP Droid poppers (3 pts.) - Range 1 with 1 black die, and an attack pool that includes them gains Ion 1 (just one, not one per grenade). Again, these guys want to be in melee, so this isn't all that attractive. Still, can be useful if you're facing a vehicle-heavy list.

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Melee-oriented guys are going to try to be near the enemy, so this is a solid option, especially against lists that go for order control.

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. These guys generally want to keep the order they've been given, but could be useful in a niche way (like if you don't mind moving due to AI, and want to pass the order to something not eligible for Coordinate, like Droidekas or an AAT).

Hacked Comms Unit (5 pts.) - during the Issue Orders step, if an enemy unit at range 1 of you is issued an order, you may issue an order to yourself. Basically a reverse Comms Jammer, also a good option for a unit that wants to be near the enemy.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. A solid choice to ensure it gets an order even though the Command card you're using is troopers only. Definitely useful if your MagnaGuards are going to rampaging away from the commander or your Coordinate daisy-chain, and you need to make sure they have an order.

Long-Range Comlink (5 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Not great unless you're worried about something like a Disarray battle card.

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. Meh. If you're super worried about being far from the Commander (usually you won't be), could be worth taking.

Tactics

MagnaDroids are an elite melee unit similar to Imperial Royal Guards in a lot of ways.

The unit comes with three models and can be upgraded for a fourth. They have courage 2 and 2 wounds each, offensive surge, and red dice on defense (no surge). Each carries their infamous electrostaff for 2 black in melee, and a "precision laser dart" pistol for 1 black, 1 white at range 1-2. Because they have those electrostaves, the whole unit is Immune to Pierce while in melee, making them a difficult target for any lightsaber boi trying to kill them.

They have Charge, Guardian 2 (Commander) (they have Guardian 2 but only for commander-rank units), and Retinue (Commander) (they get a free dodge or aim token at the start of each turn when they're within range 1-2 of a friendly commander-rank unit). Lastly, they have Unhindered, meaning they ignore difficult terrain while moving. They also have AI: Dodge, Move, which isn't that big of a deal considering they're melee-oriented and want to move

So here's the deal with these guys- you want to use them similar to how the Empire uses its Royal Guard. Melee and/or to protect your powerful characters. Unlike the Royal Guards, they can be upgraded with some heavy weapons to make them more flexible. Even without either of those weapons, they have a decent shooting attack but their melee attack is better, and immunity to Pierce gives them a little protection from your enemy's hard hitting Jedi/Sith. These guys are absolutely begging to hang out with a melee oriented commander, especially Kraken, but Grievous or even Dooku would also work.

Be wary though. They are a relatively expensive unit in an army that tends towards a horde style. Fully upgraded they can easily run over 110 pts. And, while they do have decent defense, without surges they can still be brought down fairly easily, especially if your opponent brought ranged weapons with Pierce.

Support

Up to 3 Selections.

Droidekas

(80 pts.) "They're no match for Droidekas!"

Upgrade Cards

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. 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, if you have the points. This isn't completely necessary, but will be a massive benefit.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order. This can be really nice, considering the damage Droik

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

Tactics

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...) Just use one of each in a unit, and you turn a single starter boxes worth, or an expansion pack, into two squads. This may not fly in competitive play, but casual players probably won't bother you about it.

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 from Deflect, Djem So, Soresu, etc). The target can still use a Dodge to trigger defensive surge). Out of all the Core set 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.

-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. If enemies are that close then that's bad news all around, though. The other really bad news? Melee hits cannot be deflected with the shields...if the aggressor has pierce then the few defense dice you rolled are not going to help...so yeah...rolling away may be your only chance of survival once a saber-wielding maniac is getting uncomfortably close...alternatively you could slowly walk backwards to try and keep the range, don't forget that their vision is based on movement so move slooowly and avoid eye contact.

-Range is your best friend-. Their guns fire at range 1-3 (dealing 1 red and 2 black dice apiece), but have Fixed: Front facing, meaning very fast units, or ones very close, can avoid its firing arc simply by moving. 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 active shield tokens to block hits (they still get to flip one inactive token due to Generator 1 at the end of the turn) on the turn they do this. Seeing as one unit of Droidekas costs about the same as 1-2 units of B1s or B2s (depending on how they're outfitted, and thanks to a significant points reduction in the November 2020 update), or a little less than half as much as Grievous or Dooku, you'll 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. If they aren't dealt with before they can set up, they can do some mean damage.

DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid

(55 pts.) The name says it all. The smaller droid that that Seps used that looks like a spider. Not the huge one that has giant laser-shooting satellite dishes. And not the crab droid either. Look... just google it if you don't know what it is.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. This isn't terrible, but you need to be close for it to work. Can be useful if you went with the flamethrower, or you're having a naked one do a self-destruct suicide run.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Never a terrible choice, especially in a turn where AI might stymie your efforts.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order. Pretty useful, especially if you brought a Super Tactical Droid (generic or Kalani) around to make sure it gets orders via Direct.

Long-Range Comlink (5 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. These don't have Coordinate so this is kinda (and by "kinda", I mean "totally") useless.

Protocol Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Attack Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Aim and Precise: 2. Not a bad choice if you went with the Laser cannon (see Hardpoint upgrades). It might even be useful if you went with the Ion Blaster, although you'll lose an action each turn when the blaster is cycling (Super Tactical Droid's 3 pip might help here). Otherwise, you might want to look at the other two (or ensure you're always getting it an order somehow). Bear in mind that the droid has Precise regardless of if AI affected it that turn.

Defense Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Dodge, Nimble, and Outmaneuver. Gives a nice little defensive boost on turns when you are unable to issue it an order. Might be most useful with the Ion blaster, which has a long enough range that it doesn't need to move. Bear in mind also that you still have Nimble and Outmaneuver even if you aren't affected by AI...

Engagement Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Attack, Move. Pretty much an easy default with no real downside, but no upside either.

Hardpoint Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Nose-mounted Flamethrower (15 pts.) - range 1 with Spray, Fixed: Front, and Blast, throwing 1 red, 1 white per model in the target unit. A nasty infantry-eraser, always popular.

Nose-mounted Ion Blaster (10 pts.) - exhaust to attack with range 2-4, Ion 1, Cycle, Fixed: Front, and Impact 2 doing 3 black and 3 white. A pretty nice anti-tank gun, although exhausting to attack cuts its usefulness a little. Still, you can always ready the blaster using a Recover action without waiting for Cycle...

Nose-mounted Laser Cannon (15 pts.) - a range 1-3, Critical 1, Fixed: Front attack doing 1 red, 3 black, 1 white. No frills, throwing a lot of dice with ok range and Critical for that extra push (bear in mind you already have normal surge to hit).

Tactics

For 55 points (plus at least 3 points of upgrades...), you get one tough little weapons platform. It comes with 6 wounds (threshold 4), Armor 3 to cancel some hits, and white defense with surge. Not terrible for 58 points. It also has a built-in "wicked kick" (apparently it's built in Boston?) melee attack that does one of each color die with regular surge (which the unit has built-in). For its other special rules, it comes with Climbing Vehicle and Expert Climber (so it can climb terrain easily and without potentially suffering damage), and has the Programmed keyword, which requires it to be equipped with a Protocol upgrade. The Protocols (see Upgrades, above, for more details) each give the unit AI and some related keywords to reflect how it was intended to fight.

Also note one last keyword that we skipped over just now: Self-Destruct 4. When the unit has suffered 4 or more wounds, you can do a free action that allows the unit to blow itself up. It's not an attack action, nor does it count against your normal two actions, so go ahead and do what you want to do first (attack, get into a better position, etc). The self-destruct attack is made against all units (friend or foe) at range 1 and is done with 3 red dice (still with regular surge), Blast, and Impact 1. That's a spicy meatball. Although, as the name suggests, the unit is killed by doing this. So it's a pretty nasty last resort sort of thing.

In practice, the Spider Droid functions a lot like the Rebel/Republic AT-RT - it's a tough but mobile weapon platform that can be tailored for the role you want it to fill. Need some long-range anti-tank punch that can survive some counter-fire? Go with the Ion Blaster and Defense Protocols. Want a short ranged infantry murderer? The Flamethrower and Engagement Protocols should serve you well. Want a generic gun platform that is reliable but with no particular specialty? Laser cannon and Attack Protocols should fit. Or you could even use it as a suicide bomb- give it Engagement protocols and Comms Jammer, have it run right into the middle of the enemy army and be a nuisance until it gets the 4 wounds allowing it to trigger self-destruct. Hey, you're playing droids! They're not meant to survive! Just watch out for any lightsaber-wielding fools who can easily kill your suicide bomber before the bomb goes off.

STAP Riders

(73 pts.) The odd speeder bikes used on Naboo during the Phantom Menace. Nothing can...STAP your droids from flanking the enemy (I'll see myself out, don't worry)!

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. This isn't bad, but being that close to the enemy is. STAPs aren't entirely durable.

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...Or, alternatively, you can equip both units with an Uplink and just pass orders around to avoid the AI rule.

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 (5 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields. Speeders can generally benefit somewhat from this upgrade, though, so maybe give it a try!

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

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 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 multiple of them.

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

(170 pts.) Finally some tanks for the Clankers! To those who played Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005), you can hear this unit, can't you? No? Not until I mentioned it? Well, now you can!

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 most lists with an AAT will likely have him.

OOM-series droid pilot (9 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. 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). Can be extremely useful, though.

Ordnance Upgrades (x2 Slots)

High Energy Shells (8 pts.) - Exhaust to make an attack with Cycle Range 2-4. Critical 1, High Velocity and Fixed: Front, with 2 red dice and 1 white die. 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 problem, 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 without aim tokens.

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 (5 pts.) - 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. This can work well with the OOM droid, though, as it'll act the same way an Uplink would on a normal B1 squad.

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. STAP riders can easily order an AAT, as well, to activate this, too!

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

Tactics

For the cost of a naked AT-ST, you get a pretty nasty tank with this. 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! It hovers, as well, 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. AATs 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, so 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.

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 (Although, you need both activations to do this). 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. GAR and Empire are especially vulnerable to this.

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. You'll also 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. Of all the factions to take something like this, though, CIS can do it best! You have the cheapest, most worthless corps units in the game, after all.

NR-N99 Persuader-class Tank Droid

(145 pts.) Those weird snail-like tank things that the Separatists used to attack the beach in Revenge of the Sith.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (5 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. This isn't terrible, but you need to be close for it to work, and this guy be slow.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Never a terrible choice, especially in a turn where AI might stymie your efforts.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order. Pretty useful, especially if you brought a Super Tactical Droid (generic or Kalani) around to make sure it gets orders via Direct.

Long-Range Comlink (5 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. These don't have Coordinate so this is kinda (and by "kinda", I mean "totally") useless.

Onboard Comms Channel (3 pts.) - If you're issued an order during the Issue Orders part of the Command Phase, you can issue an order to a unit you're transporting. Cheap and pretty useful if you're planning on transporting stuff.

Protocol Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Attack Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Aim and Precise: 2. If you're planning on leaning heavily on its firepower, this is a good choice. Bear in mind that you still get Precise even if you aren't being affected by AI.

Defense Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Dodge, Nimble, and Outmaneuver. A solid defensive boost, but being forced to do a Dodge action can slow an already slow unit down. Bear in mind that you still get Nimble and Outmaneuver even when you're not affected by AI.

Engagement Protocols (3 pts.) - Gives the unit AI: Attack, Move. Pretty much an easy default with no real downside, but no upside either.

Ordnance Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Armor-piercing Shells (10 pts.) - exhaust to gain a range 2-3 attack doing 1 red, 2 black with Cycle, Fixed: Front, and Impact 3. Combines nicely with the Heavy Repeating Blasters for a pretty good mid-range anti-tank attack. Worth considering.

Bunker Buster Shells (12 pts.) - exhaust to gain an attack with range 1-2 doing 1 black, 3 white with Cycle, Fixed: Front, and Scatter (after attacking an enemy unit, reposition the target unit's models in cohesion with its unit leader). Short ranged but can be useful for dumping enemy units into the open, allowing your Roger Rogers an easier target to shoot.

High-Energy Shells (8 pts.) - exhaust to gain an attack with range 2-4 doing 2 red, 1 white, with Critical 1, Cycle, and High Velocity (if the attack pool only has weapons with High Velocity, the target cannot spend Dodge tokens). Combines really well with your main gun (which has same max range of 4) for a lot of red dice. And, in a pinch, can be used for whittling down enemy Jedi/Sith/Tauntauns by firing it separately to take advantage of High Velocity. It's also the cheapest of the three upgrades! Definitely a good choice.

Tactics

For 145 points, you get a tank with 11 wounds (threshold 7), Armor, and white defense with surge. It also has built-in offensive surge to hit, Arsenal 2, Reposition (before or after each move, it can make a free pivot), and Weak Point 1: Sides (enemies attacking its sides get an extra Impact 1). It comes with the Programmed keyword, meaning you are required to give it a Protocol upgrade, and it's got the Transport 1: Open keyword. It has two built-in attacks - a range 1-2 gun throwing one of each color with Impact 1, Ion 1, and Fixed: Front; and its main gun with range 1-4 throwing 1 red, 2 black, 2 white with Critical 1 and Fixed: Front. It can also be fitted with an Ordnance upgrade for extra spiciness.

Does it kind of remind you of the Empire's GAVw tank? It should. They're a lot alike, except the Seps notably don't have an equivalent to the E-Web to stick on it... yet.

So it fills two functions. It's a school bus for your Roger Rogers, and it's a weapon platform. It's actually not bad at either of those tasks. It gives your Roger Rogers some mobility while providing heavy cover. And its main gun combines with a couple of the Ordnance upgrades for some solid medium or long range firepower. Even without an Ordnance upgrade, if you can get it close, its two built-in guns can do some damage, especially to vehicles (or droids... hey, don't look at me like that).

That said, it's not without its downsides. It's slow (movement 1). Its defense isn't as good as the AAT (5+ save, and unlike the AAT, surge tokens are of no use to it) although it has a couple more wounds; and Weak Point on the sides means its got a higher chance of that keyword being an issue. And watch out, apparently Tarzan-like Wookiees can easily blow them up (this may not be reflected in the game).

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, and are detailed in their respective entries. Currently, B1 squads are the only units with this in the CIS faction.

B1 Battle Droids Upgrades

Personnel Upgrades

Note: The OOM and Security droids are really just normal B1 units, with different designations. The amazing thing about B1s is that their colors are the only thing separating droids like these two from the rest. If you wish to save money, and have some spare droids, you could paint one or two droid troopers as an OOM or Security droid. The color is clearly defining what they are, so no confusion should occur. Granted, if you went for a themed color scheme which effects this, then you may be out of luck.

• OOM-Series Battle Droid

• B1 Security Droid

• E-5C Blaster Rifle B1 Trooper

• E-60R B1 Trooper

To Be Released

• Asajj Ventress
• Geonosians

Tactics & Build Help

• Some cards have been changed via Errata, so here is a link to it: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/d6/15/d615052c-f568-4bdc-9cf7-316727c3e251/swl_rules_reference_20-compressed.pdf
• Dooku and Grievous are really good for what they offer. Either commander is amazing, but the combination of Dooku and Maul in Skirmish, specifically, is horrifying. It's not like CIs lacks cheap units to fill in the other list requirements, or anything...
• B1 battle droids are your bread and butter. They're so cheap that you'll easily have room for some more expensive units. In fact, this is exactly why double AAT lists are possible! B2's are also extremely good, for what they are, and can be a nice investment. Which you take is dependent on whether you intend to rely more on your infantry or not. Regardless, you want your corps slots filled, if not close to being so.
• Droidekas got a points decrease in the November 2020 RRG, and are now 80 points. They're very much worth it at this point level, for the threat they'll pose to the enemy. Dekas are best used to harass specific units and make them paranoid of when your Roaches of death will mulch them. STAPs, while posing the same threat, are far less durable, so require more finesse. Use these speeders to also harass the enemy, but expect them to be more prepared than with Droidekas.
• The AAT is among the most terrifying heavy units in the game. Your enemy will fear it from the moment it's put down, so use this to push your other big units up, like Dooku or Maul. Can't shoot them all, and the AAT will eventually become a massive problem. Certain maps will screw it over, but that's to be expected.
  • This is all being said, because Double AAT lists are extremely terrifying to go up against. With how cheap B1 units are, this combination barely affects droids as much as it does every other faction. While anti-tank has become more prevalent, due to lists like this, most people may find it difficult to take out two AATs rolling up the board.

See Also

Star Wars Miniature Games Tactical Guides
X-Wing:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Resistance, The First Order, Scum & Villainy, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Armada:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Legion:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Grand Army of the Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems,