This is Where the Fun Begins - Squad Reactions

We're finally starting to see full spoilers of unit cards. They have now spoiled all of Anakin, Rex, and the 501st boys. I am going to talk about how I think they'll all work together and individually. You can still consider this series of articles 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 -  General Anakin Skywalker

The Hero of the Republic! He's got some pretty wicked stats off the bat. Let's see what he can do.

• 7SP - I have a feeling most Jedi will be 7.
• 4 Force Points - That is the highest we've seen. Not surprising for the chosen one. I am tempted to say 4 FP will be relatively rare. Probably reserved for people like Yoda, Dooku, Vader, and maybe Luke.
• 11 Stamina - This seems like a huge amount. I want to say it'll be rare to see anything higher than this, but I suppose anything is possible.
• 3 Durability - Once again, the highest we've seen so far. Making his health effectively 33hp.

Force Jump - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 FP. Each Character in this Unit may Jump. I am nearly certain that this ability will be coming in handy a ton. With the way this game incorporated elevation into combat and missions, I think this could be a pivotal ability.

I'm Going to End This - This is a Reactive Ability with a cost of 2 FP. After his Unit makes a combat action, it may use this ability. One character in this unit may make an attack targeting one of the same enemy characters in range and LOS. Essentially it allows Anakin to attack the same unit and character twice back-to-back. 2 FP is a pretty steep price, but the potential for massive damage here is insane. Back-to-back attacks are actually better than if it just doubles his attack dice since you can only go so far on your combat tree.

Deflect - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. After a ranged attack targeting a character in this unit is resolved, this unit may use this ability. If the attack roll contained one or more Failure results, the attacking unit suffers 2 Damage. I think this ability will be pretty standard for force users. It's free and all it takes is for your opponent to roll a failure on attack dice. There is almost no reason to ever avoid using this ability, but I will definitely be thinking twice before shooting a force user with a weakened unit.

This is Where the Fun Begins - This is an Identity Ability with no cost. When a character in this unit wounds an enemy primary or secondary unit, after the attack is resolved, move the struggle tokens one space toward your momentum tokens. Then, if the wounded unit is a Primary Unit, each allied Galactic Republic unit may Heal. This is an absolutely insane ability. This will definitely prove to be the main reason to bring Anakin along in any strike team. I have a hard time thinking of a competitive scenario where you would not bring Anakin along just for this. This is such a cool ability for the chosen one to have. This is really the only support ability he has but it's a potentially game-winning one. Then you will still potentially score objectives with him after his turn. Insane.

Form V: Djem So

This is definitely his more offensive stance. 8 Attack dice in melee and 5 Defense dice in both melee and range. 5 Defense dice feels a little bit low, but he does have an absolute boatload of HP sitting behind those dice. His attack tree here is pretty great. If he has even just 3 successful dice he is doing 7 damage and a strain. That's pretty incredible and not going to be too difficult for his dice and expertise. His expertise chart is also pretty good. Considering the fact that Criticals cannot be blocked he has a pretty good chance of doing 2-3 crits in one roll, which for those keeping track, will work to do 7 damage and a strain. On average, he will be rolling 1 Crit, 3 Strikes, 2 Exp, and 2 fails. Both of those exp will add crits so he's doing 3 crits and 3 strikes pretty easily. The defensive expertise on this stance is still pretty good, but not as good as his other stance. He should be producing at least 2 blocks per roll and sometimes produce one change of crit to strike.

Form V: Shien

This is Anakins defensive form. He throws 1 fewer attack dice in melee and 1 more defensive dice in both. His attack on this stance is a little bit worse since there are 1 fewer dice and his expertise is not producing crits until you roll 4+. There is a .3% chance of rolling 4 exp on 7 attack dice. Still good, but not as good. His defense, however, is great on this stance. 6 Defense dice give you an average roll of 2 blocks, 2 exp, and 2 fails. This means, on average, he's blocking 4 and turning 1 crit into a strike. That is pretty massive for a character who already has so much HP.

Side Note: I am a really big fan of how they've implemented stances into this game. Having two stances to choose from is a really good idea and will be fun to try and figure out mid-game.

After looking at all that there's no wonder why Anakin is the only 7 SP unit we have ad the only 4 FP unit we have so far. He is game-changingly good. He seems like a kind of Lone Wolf-type Unit. Like he's happy going off on his own and causing problems since his one ability that supports other units doesn't have a range requirement. I'll be honest, I've never been the biggest fan of Anakin. He just never stood out to me in the same way that Obi-Wan or Ahsoka ever did, but I am damn excited to put him on the table.

Secondary - CC-7567 Captain Rex

• 4 PC - This is a good cost. He will be able to fit with pretty much all of the other Primary units in the game should you want to.
• 0 FP - I think this will be the standard for non-force user Secondaries and Supports.
• 9 Stamina - After seeing what Anakin has this feels so low. I think this is around what the average will be for the game. 9 Still feels a little bit low considering some of the Primaries will be able to do 9 damage in one swing.
• 2 Durability - Once again, I think 2 Durability will be average. It's definitely a decent amount, but 18 HP feels like a low spot for him. I am tempted to say that since he will most likely be around Anakin he probably won't be getting hit or shot at as much since Ani will take a while to defeat.

Get a Move on Soldier - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, choose a character in this unit or another allied Galactic Republic character. The chosen character may Dash and gain a Hunker. This is really cool. For no cost, there is no reason not to use this ability. It will definitely prove to be handy for the quick repositioning of units to score or anything else really. The Hunker token is another really nice ability. Being able to toss some free cover to a unit in the open or a unit that has already gone and lost any previous Hunker tokens is pretty incredible.

Defensive Maneuver - This is an Active Ability with the cost of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may Dash. If any characters Dash, this unit gains a Hunker. This is very similar to his Tactic Ability but only for himself.

I'm Always First, Kid - This is a Reactive Ability with a cost of 1 FP. If this unit is not wounded, after an allied Clone Trooper Supporting Unit within range 3 of this unit makes a combat action, this unit may use this ability. One character in this unit may Dash. If it does, it may perform a 5 dice melee or ranged attack targeting one of the same characters within range and LOS. This feels similar to Fire-Supporting in Legion except he performs a separate attack, not adding his dice to their attack. I think this could prove to be a pretty incredible ability, especially when you have two Clone Trooper Supporting units on the table like 501st, 212th, Commandos, or 104th.

Bring it on, Clankers - This is an Innate ability with no cost. After an allied Clone Trooper unit within 3 of this unit gains a Hunker, one character in that unit may Heal. This explains a bit of why Rex has seemingly little HP. Since a lot of his abilities give him or allied units Hunker tokens, there will be a lot of healing going on. Rex himself could potentially heal himself up to 4 times in one activation (1 from gaining Hunker from his Tactic, 1 From Gaining Hunker from his Active, and Twice from his Attack Tree).

Brothers in Arms - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. While this unit has one or more Hunker, each character in this unit gains Steadfast. This is cool. I like that this feels like something that will nearly always be active since Rex should have a ton of Hunker tokens sitting on him.

Tactical Supremacy

This is Rex's one and only stance card and it is pretty great. He is throwing 7 attack dice at range 5 and 7 in melee. That's pretty darn good considering Anakin throws 7 with one of his stances. Rex, however, does not do as much damage with his successes. He uses his combat tree successes to either do some damage (up to 7 with a strain) or he can use them to reposition and heal while doing 4 damage. I think this combat tree will grant a lot of flexibility to Rex when he needs it. His attack expertise is pretty good too, he can produce a pretty good amount of crits which in this game is particularly good. His defensive expertise is okay, it's nothing special but it's solid. It should usually net him at least 1 extra block.

Overall, I think Rex is going to be a really good combat and support unit in Clone-centric lists. Probably with Ani, Obi, Rex, Cody, 501st CTs, and 212th CTs. I am really excited to get him on the table. He is one of the best characters in all of Star Wars and I'm glad they're doing him justice on the field of battle.

Support - 501st Clone Troopers

• 3 PC - Good, Cheap, and Easy to fit pretty much anywhere.
• 0 FP - Yeah, no surprise here. Standard.
• 7 Stamina - This seems about average from what we've seen so far. 7 is pretty low, but I think it'll be okay with the amount of Hunker tokens and heals they can get.
• 2 Durability - Also seems about average. 14 HP should be plenty for a supporting unit, but we will see soon.

Defensive Maneuver - This is an Active Ability with the cot of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may Dash. If any characters Dash, this unit gains a Hunker. Same as Rex. Good, very good. Flexible and defensive, this should help them with staying alive and repositions.

Coordinated Fire - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. When another allied Galactic Republic character makes an attack as part of a combat action, before dice are rolled, this Unit may use this ability. If the targeted character is within Range 5 of a character in this Unit, the target gains the Strained Condition. This is a really neat idea to improve the attacks of friendly units. It effectively adds the strain icon to the combat tree of friendly units.

Brothers in Arms- This is an Innate Ability with no cost. While this unit has one or more Hunker, each character in this unit gains Steadfast. Same as Rex. This is purely good, especially with the amount of Hunker tokens that are going to be around.

Seemingly solid, particularly solid when you consider that each character in this unit takes any actions they perform. This effectively means that this unit can throw up to 14 dice for one ranged attack action. Their combat tree is pretty good, but it doesn't do a lot of damage. It seems to mostly focus on giving out condition tokens. Their defensive expertise is okay, it won't be doing a whole ton so you can't rely on it like with other units.

Overall, I think the 501st CTs are going to be pretty good. I don't think I'll be using them for a ton other than as bodies to stay on objectives for as long as possible and to hand out strain tokens when allies are attacking.

I am really excited to get this squad on the table. The synergy between Rex and his boys is phenomenal. Anakin seems like he'll not be helping out his buddies much by doing anything other than just killing stuff for them. I am really quite excited to see if there are any hidden synergies for them elsewhere. I think Obi-Wan allegedly has an ability centered around hunker tokens so maybe he and Rex will be good buddies.

I think that's all I have to say about them for now. Look out for dedicated unit guides on all of them once the game has been out for ample time. I really cannot wait to get these guys on the table and my excitement grows every day.