Captors of Mandalore - Squad Reactions

CahoonM -

They have now shown all of Maul, Gar Saxon, and the Super Commandos. I am going to talk about how I think they'll all work together and individually. You can still consider this article speculation since on paper everything can be way different than on the table. Eventually, I will be writing Unit Guides on most/all of the units in the game, but that will have to wait until I can get some playtime in with them.

Primary - Lord Maul

  • 8 SP - This is good. I am glad that he's an 8 to match Ahsoka.
  • 3 FP - I think this is about the standard for force users, I wish he brought a little bit more because his abilities use quite a bit of FP.
  • 11 Stamina - This is the same as Anakin, I think it's a decent amount. 11 should give some leeway before you are wounded.
  • 2 Durability - I was quite surprised to see this, I almost felt like it was a typo. Considering his abilities, this is going to go surprisingly quickly. I think he is going to play like a cruise missile, run him in, blow up, and die.  The more stuff he brings with him, the better.

Force Speed - This is a Reactive Ability with the cost of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may Advance. This is good, it will definitely help him play the cruise missile game.

There is No Place to Run - This is a Reactive Ability with the cost of 2 FP. Choose a character in this unit and an enemy character within range 3 of that character. Pull the chosen enemy character range 2 closer to the chosen allied unit. That character then gains an Exposed condition. This is really good. This ability can be used for a ton of different scenarios, not the least of which include moving your opponent's character away from an objective, or getting them to a closer range to be fired upon by other units. This ability will also prove to be amazing if you can use it on units that have already activated, that way there's nothing they can really do about it.

Revenge, I Must Have Revenge - This is an innate ability with no cost. When this unit is wounded by a Melee attack, after the attack is resolved, one character in this unit may immediately Dash and make a 5-dice melee attack against the character that wounded it. This is quite good. I am really loving the innate abilities of all of these units. Maul essentially just gets a free attack whenever he's wounded. Remember, in this game wounded only means once you've reached your Stamina level in damage tokens, so I believe this could only proc a total of 2 times. It means if you're against Maul, shoot him. If you're using Maul, cruise missile him to melee as fast as possible.

Sustained By Rage - This is Maul's Identitiy Abillty with no cost. While this unit is not wounded, when it would spend Force Points to use an ability it may suffer damage equal to the cost instead. — For every 3 damage, this unit has it may add 1 dice to its melee attack rolls, and for every injured token this unit has it may add 3 dice to its melee attack rolls. This is absolutely incredible. The first part of this ability is pretty incredible since it will reserve force points and help Maul get a little damage on him for the second part. The second part of this ability takes Maul's attacks from good to potentially insane.

Let's say, for example, that your Maul is on his Dark Rage stance. He has 9 damaged tokens and 1 injured token. He also made a focus action. That means he is rolling 16 attack dice in melee. That's averaging 4 Crits and 6 Strikes before defense dice, but so far nothing in the game can roll 10 defense dice, so you're guaranteed to get some damage through. He will most likely wound whatever it is that you're swinging at, but he will also most likely become defeated shortly after.

Dark Rage

Dark Rage is Maul's more Melee Damage-oriented stance. It is pretty incredible once you consider all of the fun things he can do with it. He's throwing 7 attack dice in melee and 5 defense dice at both range and in melee. That 7 dice can become up to 16 if he is on death's doorstep and has a focus. His expertise charts are both quite good. On offense he caps out at 12 damage with expertise, that's enough to wound every unit in the game so far with one swing. His combat tree here is also quite good, giving him tons of damage output and plenty of abilities to pick from.

Sinister Cunning

This is still quite good, with not a ton of variation. The biggest change here is that Maul gains a ranged attack in the form of a throw lightsaber. If I'm being honest, I can see no real reason to use Dark Rage over this stance almost ever. The expertise charts are nearly the same. His offensive expertise is a bit worse on this side, but he does get to throw more defense dice. His ranged attack should prove to be quite good potentially throwing up to 8 dice with a focus. That will average around 5 Crits and Strikes with the potential to do damage and a whole slew of conditions. His defense dice and expertise should be netting around 4 blocks per roll which is also not too bad at all.

Overall, I am quite excited about Maul. I am usually not a huge fan of playing "Bad Guys" in games like this, I just tend to like Clones and Rebels better, but Maul is tempting me a lot. He just looks like such an offensive powerhouse and a cruise missile that I need to try.

Secondary - Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander

  • 4 PC - Same as Bo and Rex, I really like the flexibility that the core box brings to list building.
  • 0 FP- ...
  • 9 Satmaina - This is a pretty good spot to be in. I think 9 will be around what the average is for secondaries.
  • 2 Durability - This is, I think, going to be the durability of every Secondary and Support we see in the first couple of waves.

Pride of the Mandalore - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, choose another allied Mandalorian character, that character may Jump. This is really good. Free Jumps are all the rage, especially with Mandos.

Jet Pack - This is an Active Ability with the cost of 1 FP. Good. Each character in this unit may Jump. Just straight good. 1 FP to get more Jumps is fantastic. Mandos are going to be hopping everywhere.

Mandalorians are Stronger Together - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. After this unit makes a move action, it may use this ability. If a character in this unit is within range 2 of another allied Mandalorian character, this unit immediately makes a focus action. This is also really good. I think it's probably a bit better with Gar and the MSC since they both have better ways to benefit from focuses than Bo.

I've Got You in My Sights - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. This unit has Sharpshooter 2. When a character in this unit makes a ranged attack, the target does not benefit from Cover. After this unit makes a focus action, it gains a hunker. This ability is insane. This will be, I think, the main reason to bring Gar in a lot of lists. He is a ranged powerhouse. Sharpshooter 2 and a bunch of free focuses means Gar is rolling up to 9 dice at range with no cover. That is incredible. Gar also gets a free hunker every time he performs a focus action which means if he's close enough to an allied Mando, he can Move->Focus->Hunker->Shoot (9 dice with no cover.) All in one activation.

Pack Hunter - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When a character in this unit makes a melee attack targeting an enemy character that is engaged with another allied Mandalorian character, it adds 2 dice to the attack roll. This is also quite good. Once again, Gar is going to be rolling a lot of dice. if he has a focus (which he should about 99% of the time) he will be rolling 10 attack dice in melee. All just because one of his buddies is nearby.

Concentrated Assault

This stance is also pretty good. It's definitely not the best one we've seen, but I think it'll help him do some work. 6 Attack dice at range 5 is pretty incredible considering Sharpshooter 2. 7 In melee is also quite amazing considering Pack Hunter. 4 Defense dice in melee and at range is a little bit scary, but he should have at least one hunker token and if he's with Bo he can get protection while contesting. His offensive output should prove to be quite good. He's doing a max of 8 damage on his Combat Tree or he can do 7 Damage and 4 other abilities. His expertise charts are a little bit funky to me. It seems, at first glance, that his melee expertise chart is actually preferable to his ranged one, which since he's a ranged unit doesn't really make sense. Having Shoves on his ranged expertise chart also feels a bit weird to me, but maybe he'll be shooting out of close range more than I'm thinking.

Overall, I am pretty excited to run Gar. I think he is going to be stupid good alongside Bo Katan, Clan Kryze, and his Mauldalorians.

Support - Mandalorian Super Commandos

  • 4 PC - This is good. I like that, so far, all of the Mando units are the same cost
  • 0 FP - ...
  • 8 Stamina - I think this is about average for Supports. I am okay with this, but I do sorta wish Mandos got 1 extra stamina to show the Beskar Armor or something.
  • 2 Durability - It couldn't really be anything else

Jet Pack - This is an Active Ability with the cost of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may Jump. I am quite happy that all Mandos have this ability. It's going to make them so mobile. A Mandos list will be flying all over the place, just make sure to bring a Primary with a solid force value.

Mandalorians are Stronger Together - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. After this unit makes a move action, it may use this ability. If a character in this unit is within range 2 of another allied Mandalorian character, this unit immediately makes a focus action.  This is the fourth time we've seen this ability and the fourth time it has been absolutely incredible.

YOU get a focus, and YOU get a focus, and YOU get a focus...

No Mercy - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. After an enemy character that is engaged with one or more characters in this unit Advances or Dashes, after the move is resolved, the moving character's unit suffers 2 damage if the moving character is no longer engaged with one or more characters in this unit. This is a really neat ability. It seems like these Mandos are more melee oriented which I am a fan of. This is a neat ability to either force your opponent to stay engaged with you or take 2 damage. Maybe you just send these two after both of your opponent's primaries and hope to do some damage.

Victory or Death! - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. Characters in this unit have Impact 1. This is neat, it leans into their melee kit. This should be quite easy to proc since they have Mandalorians are stronger together!

Disruptive Tactics

This is not a bad stance at all. They're throwing 5 dice at range 4 and 6 dice in melee. With impact 1 they can throw as many as 8 dice in melee, which should get them about 2 Crits and 3 Strikes. Their expertise charts are about average for support units. Their Combat Tree is also not too bad. It maxes out at 7 damage, but no matter which branch you tale there are a ton of options for conditions and abilities. Their defense is not too bad, but still a bit weak. I like 5 defense dice in melee since you want them in there anyway. 4 dice at range is a bit scary, but shouldn't be too bad. Their defensive expertise is also pretty nice. I really like the 1:1 Ratio on the first 2 expertise icons.

Overall, I'd say I'm pretty excited for these guys. I can't wait to see how they play alongside Gar, Bo, and Clan Kryze. I think they're going to be quite good and really fun to use.

This whole squad is filled with really neat units. Maul is definitely going to be ruining some days on the table. He'll most likely die, but he's likely going to take quite a bit with him. Gar is one hell of a sniper, I think once people start to figure out how to best utilize his abilities and expertise charts he is going to be one of, if not, the best ranged units in the game.