Kalani, Super Tactical Droid - Unit Guide

Kalani is a Super Tactical Droid who served the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. He, as most Super Tacs were, was regarded as a master tactician and formidable opponent to all who faced him.

He was one of the best Generals that the CIS had and that role is almost perfectly captured in Shatterpoint. He is an absolutely incredible unit that can be effective in almost any list containing Battle Droids. Let's find out why.

• 5 Points Cost
• 0 Force Points
• 10 Stamina / 2 Durability
• Secondary | Battle Droid - Droid - Separatist Alliance

Kalani is one of the more expensive Secondary units in the game, sitting at 5 points. He is very fairly priced, as we will discover today since he is one of the best units in the entire game so far. He is sitting in a spot where he either needs to be with B1s or Magnas in order to be with an 8 Squad Point Primary, but now that we have Cad Bane, you can take Kalani with anything, not that you should.

He is very durable with 10 Stamina and 2 Durability. What he lacks in defense dice he makes up for in raw health. 10 Stamina really helps him avoid getting wounded in any less than 2-4 good swings. He is usually paired with Asajj or Greivous who both have a decent amount of Heals to hand out. I still don't think that Kalani should be running about in the open or playing too aggressively, but you can somewhat rely on him to take a few hits before becoming wounded.

His tags are great! Battle Droid allows him to benefit from a ton of different abilities on units like Grievous, Kraken, B1s, etc. Separatist Alliance is also a very nice tag to have both to assist him and assist other units. Stuff like Dooku's Leader of the Separatist Army or Asajj's Slip Away both proc off of friendly Seppie units.

Roger, Roger - I can't ever say it enough. In a game where positioning is the top priority, extra moves are amazing, especially if they're free, and especially if you're moving up to four characters at once. This ability has so many uses it's insane. Droids have some of the most synergistic and effective abilities and being able to shift their threat range is amazing. Off the top of my head, you can use this to move Magnas into a position where they will be pricing Intercede, move B2s to a place where they can more effectively gun down enemy characters, move B1s to a place where they can proc Combat A.I. Protocols off of Kalani's own attack, or move any or all of them to start contesting a point that they otherwise would not have been. That's just the tip of the iceberg for this ability too. If you can position properly and pull Kalani early enough, your Droid characters can be nearly halfway up the board by the time they first go. Being able to potentially move four characters at one time is insane, and it cannot be stated enough. You have the potential to turn the entire tide of the game with this ability alone, just by moving Droids to scoring positions. I think if you ever were looking for a specific reason to bring Kalani, this is it.

Tactical Network - Just like above, this ability is fantastic. The versatility that it provides for 1 force cost is incredible. Being able to pick and choose which droid needs which ability is super cool. "Oh, you have a unit of B2s that want to finish off a unit? Go for it." "Do you have a unit of B1s who would love to get some cover? By all means." "What's that you say? Kraken needs to get on an objective for you to win this struggle. Have I got some news for you." This ability is like a Swiss army knife for your droid lists and I cannot suggest using it enough.

Target, Concentrate All Firepower - This ability is Droid lists Bread and Butter. It is insanely easy to pull this off and can be incredibly impactful. You might think that adding just one extra attack dice is not that great and you're right. It gets great when you use this ability three to six times per Deck. That amount of extra dice can be game-winning when you need it. This ability also helps Kalani since it does not specify "another allied unit." Using TCAF in conjunction with all of his other abilities pretty much means you should always be able to pull this off. Let's take a B2 unit for example, if you can line this up when they are attacking, they can roll upwards of ten attack dice. Ten may seem like overkill, but when you need it, it will likely guarantee they run their whole tree. This ability is also not limited to ranged or melee attacks, which means Magnas are also happy to be proccing it.

Complete Analysis - This is his least impactful ability, and it's still really good. Droid lists are the most timing-dependent lists out there right now. You want everything to be able to go exactly when it needs to. Being able to reserve Kalani for free is amazingly helpful. The one thing to consider with this ability is that, in general, Kalani likes to go early in the deck. He really likes proccing Roger, Roger before any of the Droid Supports activate. It's a small knock to this ability, but in general, free reserves are still very good.

Cold Logic

Kalani's weakest aspect is his combat. He is not usually brought in a list for how well he attacks or defends. With that said, this stance is still not half bad. It's definitely leaning toward the more ability-oriented side of things, but it can still put out a good hurt.

Seven ranged attack dice is a really good starting place for him. He can pretty easily get up to eight or nine depending on focus and abilities, but usually, he'll stay around seven to eight. He does not focus that often in my experience. Assuming he rolls eight dice that will end up netting him two Crits and five Strikes on average after expertise. That is a really solid amount for a character who is mostly built to support his allies. His ranged attack expertise is okay, It's definitely not the best we've seen, but it can do some work. It is generating Crits at both levels which is crucial to his offensive output.

His melee profile is not nearly as good. Six attack dice is a decent place to start, but it's not going to be doing a ton, especially against melee-oriented units. His melee expertise is kind of pitiful, but once again, he is not built for combat, especially not the up close and personal kind. One strike from one to three expertise is really quite bad and only one critical from four or higher expertise is bleh. I do, however, see this as a good thing because it should keep you from being tempted to run him into engagement which is exactly where he does not want to be.

His combat tree is surprisingly good for a support-oriented character. He is maxing out at nine damage from five successes, which is a really good place to be. The tree also comes with a slew of other handy abilities and conditions, not the least of which is the ever-so-rare Active Ability symbol. Sure, Kalani can do some pretty serious damage if you roll like a god, but the main reason he should be attacking is to try and proc his Active Ability for free. A free Tactical Network makes it even better than it already is, and it's not that hard to pull off. All you need is three successes. Apart from that, two shoves and a reposition is a healthy amount of movement, and the choice between disarm or expose is decently flexible, though I would suggest the expose 90% of the time.

His defenses are also not the best. Once again, I would not suggest running him out into the heat of battle expecting him to stay unwounded very long. He is getting only four defense dice at range and three in melee. Keep him as far away as you can while still supporting your army and keep him out of melee at all costs. Anakin, Grievous, and Vader eat Kalani for breakfast in melee. His defensive expertise is okay but not flashy. He's generating a decent amount of blocks at all levels plus a single reposition at the top. The math says, more than often, he will be rolling one to two experts per roll. That means he will only be generating a single additional block. One block is not enough to keep him kicking. The moral of this story is to keep him away from the fight if you can and if you can't, keep him near a Magnaguard or two.

Squad and Strike Team Ideas

Before I wrap up today's article, I am just going to cover a few different Squads and Strike Teams I have tried, I recommend trying, or I think could be good.

Pure Droids

• Asajj Ventress
  • Kalani
  • B1 Droids
• General Grievous
  • Kraken
  • B2 Droids

I think this is one of the best pure droid lists you can play. Between Kalani and Kraken, your Supports are going to be packing a serious punch and have a ton of objective play. Asajj and Grievous can pick up the melee slack pretty easily.

Don't Disappoint Me

• Cad Bane
  • Kalani
  • B2 Droids
• Count Dooku
  • Kraken
  • Magnaguard

With Cad right around the corner, I think he will add a ton of space to Droid list building. Since Cad is a nine squad point primary it allows Kalani to be taken with four point cost supports, like B2s. Dooku and Magnas are there to keep melee issues at bay and help support Kalani and Kraken while they do their thing.

That's all I have on Kalani! I think he is one of the best if not the best, secondary units in that game right now. Between all of his support abilities and the fact that he can still pack a sneaky punch, I think he has cemented himself into droid list-building almost permanently.

Let me know what you think of this Unit Guide! Thank you for reading!