Wicket - First Thoughts!

Woo! Our first real look at some Ewoks! I am so excited for these little guys to come to Legion and I cannot wait to paint and play with them. They should prove to be great tools for Rebel armies, particularly Wicket!

Eight keywords! It's almost too many. His Stats are nuts!

Unit Stats

70 Points - This is a really solid spot to be. This will make him the second cheapest commander for Rebels after the Officer. I would argue that this number may as well be 74 since you should probably always bring Situational Awareness with him.

3 Talent Slots - This is hilarious. I love that he's got more talent slots than trained soldiers like Rex or Cassian. I don't think you need to fill these up every time you bring him, I might even argue that he could go out with just Situatianl and be perfectly fine. I could see an argument for Tenacity, Up Close, O-Push, or Forrest Dwellers, a new card that comes with him!

This card should prove to be pretty good on him and almost any Ewok. Scout is always good and starting the first round with a Dodge allows him to play a little more aggro on the approach. Get that nimble going early. This potentially gives him 2 dodges at the top of the game.

5 Health and 2 Courage - This is pretty standard fare for Rebel Heroes. I am glad that he has 5 hp, because I could've seen him getting only 4. Courage 2 should be fine, but be careful about how long you wait to go with him. He's going to probably want his 2 actions.

Spear and Sling - These are hilarious. I love them. His spear shows that he probably wants to be in melee more often than not, but when you're out of melee you can push through 1 with pierce roughly two-thirds of the time with no aims. This is pretty good for probing red save corps units before he can start harassing them.

Printed Keywords

Independent: Dodge 1 - This is incredible. Since he's a mercenary he won't be getting too many orders anyway. This will help him out defensively since he's a little bit on the flimsy side.

Low Profile - This is also quite incredible. With how much cover is around these days, he is going to be blocking a ton of hits. This and the dodges that he will have should keep him alive during his approach.

Nimble - Yet another defensive keyword! He is turning out to be a bit of a tank. With Independent Dodge, he should have a dodge the entire round for most rounds.

Relentless - This makes him an actual threat. He would still be good without relentless, but using an action to shoot a 1-die sling feels a little bad. Getting to do it for free on the other hand is excellent.

Scout 1, Scouting Party 2: Ewok - I'll do these two together since they go hand-in-hand. Scout 1 is good, especially when you consider he'll probably have Scout 2 from Forrest Dwellers. It gets even better when you consider that he also can scout party two other Ewok units. I assume that they will like to be in melee as well, so the sooner you get them there, the better.

Sharpshooter 2 - Good, this is really good. I don't think anyone would ever take a shot with his sling without this. It was definitely 100% necessary to make him SS2.

Unhindered - This is good. There isn't much difficult terrain around nowadays. but if there is, he can ignore it. There's no downside here.

Wow! I think he is going to be absolutely amazing. I am tempted to bring him with almost every rebel list I take just for a little teddy bear of death. I really like how they made him and I think 70 points is pretty fair for what he brings to the table. Be careful overextending him though, he will go down to one or two solid rolls.

Woah! A Rebel Hero who can survive without their Command Cards?!

Maybe...

1-Pip: Close Call - Orders Wicket. Gives him a Dodge at the start of the activation phase, Outmaneuver, and makes his speed 3. He cannot perform attacks. This is a pretty nice get-out-of-jail-free card. This should allow him to run off and hide in an effective manner to avoid dying. I think this could also prove to be very helpful in objective play to have him grab a box and run. I'm not super sure why they made it so he can't attack, but I'm sure they have their reasons. Overall, I think this is a decent card, but I am probably not bringing it over 75% of other Rebel 1-pips.

2-Pip: Sneaky Scouting - Orders Wicket. 2 enemy units at range 2 of Wicket gain 2 Observation tokens. When a friendly unit declares an attack against a unit with observation tokens they may spend one to gain Surge: Hit for the attack. This is a really good card for Ewoks. I think outside of Ewok Centric lists, it doesn't really have a place. I could see this bringing Rebel Troopers or Busses back into the light for a bit, but it's only one round of surging for them. Ewoks, however, we know don't surge on the attack, so this could actually really help Ewok spam or Bright Tree Village lists.

3-Pip: Courageous Counterattack - Orders Wicket and 2 Units. Ewok trooper units with faceup change their courage value to "-". When Ewok trooper units that have faceup order tokens form attack pools this round, add 1 White attack die for each wound or defeated miniature in the unit. This is really really cool. I like this one a lot. Once again, unsurprisingly, this card is really good for Ewoks and not so good in regular rebel lists. This card giving them infinite courage is wonderful. They also get what is essentially Tenacity+. It means that no matter how many wounds or defeated minis you have you're essentially rolling your full-strength attack, just white dice.

2-Pip: A Beautiful Friendship - This is a surprise, but a welcome one. Orders Wicket and Leia. Permanent: Wicket Gains Teamwork: Leia Organa. When an Ewok COmmander issues orders, you may choose a friendly unit at range 1 and issue it an order. When a Rebel Commander issues orders, you may choose a friendly Ewok unit at range 1 and issue it an order. This is nice! I am not a huge fan of Leia, but I think this card will have me break her out a bit/ I really like the idea of Teamwork with 2 Nimble units and how many dodges Leia can pass out. The second part of this card is also quite nice. It essentially just allows you to give out extra orders depending on who gives out the orders in the first place. This card could be nice for setting up some fire supports with Vets and Mk2s. The wording is a little bit weird to me as it seems to imply that it works off of enemy Rebel Commanders or Enemy Ewok Commanders, but we will have to wait until release for an official forum ruling. It also seems like this sorta locks Leia into taking Underworld Connections in order to issue orders to Wicket, but that's not the end of the world.

I really like all of these. I think they are all thematic as hell and should prove to be good with Mass Ewoks. I really like that they lean hard into the Ewok theme, I am also glad that we will have a Rebel Hero who is happy in regular lists without any of their own command cards. I think Wicket is going to be an excellent commander for his little furry friends and a wonderful problem-causer in regular lists.

List Ideas

It's a little hard to come up with many good list ideas since we don't have the full Ewok picture yet, but I will try some regular Rebel lists with Wicket.

Here's one that seems like fun, I think Wicket has a ton of different potential in almost any Rebel list. You can use Beautiful Friendship to set up some easy Mk2 Firesupports. Points are left open for Ewok Heavies and Personel.

The objective of this list is to just fit as much Fur as possible. You could probably get more, but they won't be as good without upgrades.

Overall, I am really excited to try out Wicket. I think he is going to be a ton of fun to use and should prove himself as a nice tool for Rebels. Thanks for reading!