I Don't Need Any Surprises - Cassian Andor Unit Guide

Cassian Andor is one of the best Rebel Commanders in the current Meta, but he has always been quite good. He is extremely versatile and supports a wide range of varying list styles and archetypes. He has seen some very high placement in recent tournaments and will likely continue to do so. Let's talk about why.

• 90 Points
• 6 HP + Courage 2
• White Defense Dice
• Surge Block and Hit
• Trooper

He starts off at a really good price for what he brings to the table. He is tied for the fifth cheapest Rebel character with Jyn and Chewbacca. This allows him to fit in a wide variety of lists. His health pool is not terrible, it's pretty standard for rebel heroes. Six raw wounds mean, since he has surging white saves, he's sitting at 9.09 effective wounds. Courage Two is okay since he's not always a commander (Covert Ops), but it means you need to be careful about how much suppression he is getting. He really needs both of his actions as often as possible. He is one of the only Rebel heroes that only surges to hit on offense. This is okay because he has Marksman, which we'll look at later.

Covert Ops - Covert Ops is a fantastic keyword. It only appears three times in the entire game. Iden, Lando, and Cassian. It allows Cass to become an Operative and if he does, he gains Infiltrate. You need another commander on the board to do this, and if you do, Cass no longer shares his courage with friendly troopers. Infiltrate can be very powerful on him as a means to set him up in a nice crow's nest for sitting and sniping or to put him behind some LOS if you're playing an aggro pistol build. It also pairs well with all the other Rogue One units. Another key element here is adding an extra OP token to your bag. Being able to have up to three OP tokens available to you allows for more convenient and advantageous activation timing.

Danger Sense 3 - Danger Sense is also a fantastic keyword. It is also on all of the Rogue One units, except K2. It is a really nice way to boost the defenses of these units and potentially allows them to ignore Pierce. Danger Sense has gotten me out of a few binds with Cass, but on him, it's more of a passive keyword. With Jyn and Pathfinders, you might actually want to lean into this keyword, but Cass can't risk losing the actions.

Loadout - I love Loadout. I wish it was utilized on more units in the game. It allows Cassian to play super flexibly. I love using it for setting up both Sniper and Pistol Cass. I will further explain this later on.

Marksman - Marksman is a huge part of what makes Cass so good. The ability to reliably get crits into his targets is incredible. This keyword lets him really put in work. This is a part of the reason why he really needs two actions, he needs an aim or three. Luckily, K2 is usually around to help him get a few aims. There is a lot of math revolving around this keyword that I am not qualified to get into. It essentially boils down to when is it better to guarantee one crit vs reroll to gamble for two+.

Tactical 1 - Tactical is very nice for Pistol Cass. It is also a neat way to pass some aims to K2 via Teamwork. This keyword is almost useless to Sniper Cass since his sniper has the cumbersome keyword. He cannot move and then shoot, so no Tactical aim.

Weapons

Cassian has access to four different weapons. One melee and three ranged. Two of them are native to his unit card and the other two come in the form of a flippable (reconfigurable) upgrade card.

Advanced Combat Training - Decent in a pinch, but don't go trying to set up melee attacks with Cass. His ranged weapons are all better.

Cassian's Covert Blaster - Not bad if you need a short-ranged, non-cumbersome, shot while Cass is in Sniper mode. I actually used this pistol for the first time recently. I needed exactly three damage on a unit to kill them, Cass was in Sniper mode. My choices were either Recover (to flip to pistol) -> Shoot or Aim->Shoot with his native pistol. I opted for the latter since I figured the aim would help me guarantee the hits I needed. The aim did come in handy and that shot ended up killing the unit I needed it to. The die pool is not super hot, but with an aim and Marksman, you can usually force at least two saves in a pinch.

A280-CFE Sniper - This half of the card is the main reason you bring Cass. Infinite range is incredible and allows him to play in a certain way that nobody else can, except Iden (kinda). Being able to plink shots from across the map is excellent. With how prevalent Dodge Castle GAR and Shadow Collective lists are, High Velocity can put in some serious work. Pierce One is also quite handy for dealing with those red saves. If he has four aims, he can guarantee two crits. If he has three aims (most common in my experience), all he needs to do is roll one paint of any kind to guarantee two crits. This sniper, when paired with a marksman, is a really powerful tool and it costs zero points!

A280-CFE Pistol- I. Love. Pistol. Cassian. Sometimes, table and matchup-dependent, I will go an entire game with just Pistol mode. With K2's support and Tactical, Cassian is actually pretty good at running and gunning. He can play the objectives or go hunting and be successful either way. He needs a few more aims to guarantee certain results, but the die pool on this pistol is quite reliable. Longshot is also a very nice alternative way for him to use his aims, it makes him a decent fire support candidate.

Upgrade Slots

Cassian has access to a pretty good array of upgrade slots. When you begin to account for Loadout, he can be extremely flexible in how you build and use him. He's got Training x2, Gear, and Armament Slots. We already talked about the armament so I will only focus on the other three. Cassian is a unit that can be happy with just his Sniper or with maxed-out upgrades. This is where a bit of my own personal opinions will differ from the common choices. You will usually see him with just his Sniper config and nothing else. I like him both like that and loaded to the gills.

Training

Hunter is an excellent card on Cass. It allows him to get an extra aim when you attack certain targets. He likes shooting Heroes anyway, so after you do the first wound you will start generating some free aims. I like this for if I am planning to use him as a Sniper for the majority of the game.

Overwatch is a good upgrade depending on how you plan to use Crack Shot. It bumps his standby range to three which can allow him to more effectively proc Sniper standbys. The Crack Shot turn also will allow him to proc Gunslinger off of the standby, so Cass can get up to four shots in one turn.

I like Situational on him. I get why many people might not feel the need to bring it, but if you are playing an Aggro Pistol build, SA is one of the better choices in my opinion. It bumps up his defenses by quite a bit, and K2 is also able to help him get plenty of dodges.

Once again, not a very common upgrade. UpCaP is a card that I like to bring for when he is Aggro. It not only generates dodges for him but also K2. It can, albeit rarely, generate up to four dodges on Cass during Crack Shot. Four on Cass means four on K2, and eight+ in one turn makes them both essentially invincible. This one is pricy, but it makes for a good base card to get some cheaper Loadout cards in there.

O-Push is not a bad choice. Helps him get a few more aims but requires a Recover to bring it back. Luckily, Cass can get a single free recover from Volunteer Mission. I personally prefer Hunter for aim generation, but I can see why people like this.

Special note for Seize The Initiative, It's not ever a bad choice if you have other heroes in the list, but I would not call it necessary or particularly common.

Duck and Cover is a card that I see a lot of on Cassian. I do not think this card is particularly good on him. It works well on Jyn or Pathfinders, but Jyn is Courage Three and Pathfinders can survive while suppressed since they have Dauntless. Cassian on the other hand, cannot. He needs both of his actions and willingly giving him an additional suppression while being shot is rarely going to be more helpful than a second action. Danger Sense is nice, but on him, I see it as more of a passive keyword, not an active one.

Gear

The gear slot is one that is left empty more than the Training slot, but there are a few good choices here.

If you have the points to spare, I really like Prep Supplies on him. It is a nice way to handle the first shot he takes or you can save it for a particularly big shot. It is a bit pricy, but worth it on occasion.

Before the CRB climbing changes, I used to swear up and down by Cables. I still think is it worth grabbing just in case he has the chance to Infiltrate onto some height-two terrain. It can allow him to be placed a little more flexibly.

Recon Intel is probably the most popular choice. Being able to Infiltrate and then Scout can be pretty handy if a good hiding spot is inside range three of an enemy unit. It also can allow him to end deployment outside of your zone without having to use Covert Ops.

This is my go-to build in 95% of lists with Cass. Sitting at 106 is not bad and still allows for plenty of other things in your lists. I like to pair UpCaP + SA for dodge generation and better dodge use. I love it for Pistol Cass. If I think he'll be sniping then I swap to Hunter for Aim Gen. I go between SA and Overwatch for Sniper mode, but I still tend to lean toward Overwatch. The nice thing about Cassian is you absolutely can just get by with his config and nothing else (which means he's only 90 points!). Every other upgrade is really personal preference or playstyle dependent.

Command Cards

Crackshot is an excellent card. It is the entire reason I would bring Overwatch on him at all. Getting up to four attacks with either his pistol or sniper is incredible. You need a lot of aims to maximize these shots, but that's not too difficult. Since it is a one-pip, if you get priority, he can get two attacks off and then still have that standby for when your opponent goes. Personally, I do not have the standby proc as much as I want it to, but against competent opponents that will often be the case.

I personally believe that Last Stand is in the running for Rebel's absolute best Hero-oriented Command Card. It is incredible for mid-late-game power plays. Giving Ahsoka, Luke, or even Han up to three free tokens, indomitable, and order is fantastic. You can mix and match or let those heroes lean into major offense or defense. It is also good for getting lots of tokens on Cass himself and by proxy K2. Cass, K2, Han, and Chewie all with three aims is a very scary sight.

Runner up for best hero-oriented command card is Volunteer Mission! The big draw here is the free recover. It is great for heroes and SF. Ahsoka loves this since she lacks Master of the Force, Bistan loves this to recover himself, Luke loves this for Danger Sense, and The list goes on. This card is exceptionally flexible and can be used to great effect on many different units. Red save units with Danger Sense can be pretty frustrating to kill.

It depends on what kinds of lists and units you're bringing but for me, I love to bring all three of his cards. He can survive with just one, usually Crack Shot.

Tactics

Okay, this guide is getting very long, so I'll try to keep this short. Cassian can be a very flexible piece. You can play all pistol or all sniper, but I prefer a healthy mix. I like to start the game in Sniper Mode and usually do that for about two to three turns. Once things start to clear up and get sweaty I like to play Volunterr mission, flip to his pistol, and dive. Usually around turn three or four. Once he dives he can play the objective more effectively and/or play clean-up on weakened units.

He is one of the easier heroes to figure out in Rebels. Play him a few times and you'll start to notice patterns and develop tactics of your own. He is also one of the most varying heroes. There is almost no wrong way to use him.

Lists and Units

Cassian likes a wide variety of lists and units. He works well with other heroes and also works well with Special Forces. Honestly, there is no wrong choice here. Pretty much any Hero or SF that he can issue orders to is a good choice (no mercs, except Boba for other reasons).

In no particular order, these are my favorite units with him: OP Luke, Ahsoka, Lando, Pathfinders, Full Commandos, Melee Wookiees, Han, Boba, and K2. There are more but those are my favorites.

Boba's Dream Team

This is a solid place for Cassian. Boba's Rule With Respect can add a bunch of extra dice. Six of those shots can be at range five. You can drop a strike team for extra upgrades on a few units as well.

Rogue One

This is my go-to rogue one list. It has a ton of theme and flavor while still being pretty formidable. It throws a good amount of dice but really likes playing the objective. It can handle a lot that comes its way.

Cahsoka Tandor

This is my take on the currently popular, Cass + Ahsoka Gunline. There are a ton of different variants out there and a few of them have been doing very well and recent tournaments. You can swap a couple of things around for more acts or different units. It's all pretty flexible.

That is all I have about Cassian Andor. As always, if you have any thoughts please let me know! Thank you for reading.