Make the Impossible Possible

They have now shown Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Chopper. I will talk about how I think they'll all work both together and individually. You can still consider this article speculation since everything can be way different on paper 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 - Hera Syndulla

8 SP - Woo Hoo! I was right. 8 SP was where I hoped she'd be, this offers not only maximum mix-and-match ability within the Spectre team but Rebels as a whole!
3 FP - Also not surprising, this is the standard for 8sps. This means that the Ghost crew will be six force total, not bad but a bit tight.
9 Satmina / 3 Durability - This is the non-force user standard. It's okay. She can still be one-hit wounded by a lot of stuff, but overall her durability seems to be very good.

Phoenix Leader - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, choose another allied Rebel Alliance unit. One character in the chosen unit may [dash]. If the chosen unit is a Spectre, one character in the chosen unit may instead [advance]. Obviously, OOA moves are good. They can be game-changing sometimes. This ability when paired with Kanan will hopefully make the Ghost crew feel pretty mobile. However, I am a bit sad that Hera can't pick herself for this ability. I get that she is supposed to be a support primary, but she is going to be a very slow support primary.

We Will Not Stand Down - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 2 Force. Choose an allied Rebel Alliance unit and an active objective. The chosen unit may remove one wounded token, all [damage], and one condition from itself. Then, the chosen unit gains an injured token, and one character in the chosen unit may [Reposition] toward the chosen active objective. This is pretty much just the rebel version of Long Live the Empire. It is slightly different and much less restrictive. It is a good ability, two force is pricy but I think fair. Using this to flip a point and guarantee you have a body contesting is nice, but I will be trying to get this for free as often as possible. If it's not free, I see it as a highly situational ability that will mostly come in hand mid-late game.

Crew of the Ghost - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. Allied Rebel Alliance Characters within [range] 4 have Cover [1]. This ability is sick. It is like Bodyguard, which is a good ability, but better. It's all Rebel allies and the range is extended. Pair this with Chewie and you could have easy Cover 2 or more on your secondaries and primaries.

We Have Hope - This is an Identity Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, you may spend 1 momentum. If you do, each allied Rebel Alliance unit within [range] 5 may remove [damge][damage][damage] and one condition from itself. If this unit was chosen to activate with a Shatterpoint Card, you may resolve this effect without spending momentum. This ability is pretty wicked. We don't exactly know what "spend momentum" means, but I think it likely just means removing one from your side. Every Rebel unit within five getting to remove three damage is cool and all of them also removing a condition is amazing. I like the option for this ability to be free if you activate her with the Shatterpoint card, but I don't think you will need to do that. This ability in addition to Not Stand Down makes her feel like she is very timing dependent, which in turn means she'll probably spend a lot of time in reserve, which also means you can't reserve other things, so its a toss-up for me. I will have to see how useful it is on the table before deciding how good she actually is.

Difficult Choices

This seems like her more straightforward damage stance. She is throwing seven attack dice at range four and six in melee. She also gets four defense dice at range and five in melee. Her ranged expertise is solid, she gets one crit, one strike at one or two and two crits, one strike at three or more. She gets at least one crit at each level and maintains a 1:1 ratio until 4+ expertise, which is very good. I wish she had some form of mobility here though, even just a Dash would go a long way. Her melee expertise is okay. A crit and strike at one to three is fine. A crit, strike, and expose at four or more is also just fine. She is not going to be killing super well but she can okay in a pinch. Her defensive expertise, on the other hand, is amazing. At least one block and one heal at every level is very good. She maintains a 1:1 ratio until five or more! She does not have any crit mitigation, but honestly, I'm at the point where I think heals are just as good. The combat tree is okay. It tops out at seven possible damage. She only has access to one shove and it's not until four successes, which blows. She also does not get access to her reposition or active ability until five successes, which also kinda blows. It's nice to see some extra mobility and a free active but I am not sure she will be getting that many successes all that often. I will likely spend most of my time on the other stance.

Spread a Little Light

This seems to be her more effect/support-oriented stance. She once again gets seven dice at range four and six in melee. Her defense suite is swapped to five at range and four in melee. Her ranged expertise is very similar to the last one but instead of a strike at three or more, she gets a heal. This makes her combat efficacy go down a little bit, but I like that it leans into her support role. I still wish there was some built-in mobility here. Her melee expertise, once again, is the same except the expose is swapped for a heal. Again, her defensive expertise is the same. Again, it is very good. The combat tree is the biggest difference here. It tops out at seven again but she gains access to some more goodies. A shove on two and three is very good. Her active being on four instead of five is solid, but still maybe a bit far. She can also heal up to five times if you need her to, which is very good. She still has no mobility until five which blows, she is going to be slow.

Overall, I think she appears to be a little weak and a little bit slow. I think her Identity and Active are a bit hard to judge without playtime so I will withhold final judgment until I see her in action. I am still very excited to play her. Her model is wicked and I think she has a good place in Spectre lists, but will take some practice to use effectively.

Secondary - Sabine Wren

4 PC - This is what I was expecting and I am glad about it. My mix-and-match hopes are alive!
0 FP -
8 Satmina / 2 Durability - This feels kinda low but she has Protection, potentially cover from Hera, decent defenses, and access to a lot of heals and defensive abilities.

My Friends Make the Impossible Possible - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, choose another allied Rebel Alliance character. The chosen character may [dash]. Then, if the chosen character is a Spectre, it may gain [hunker]. This is a neat ability. Extra moves are good and they are very common for the Ghost crew. Once again, I wish she could move herself with this but that's okay. She and Hera can play leapfrog. I loke the addition of the Hunker for Spectres. I am a big fan of all their abilities that boost Rebels and extra boost Spectres.

I'm Gonna Go Add Some Fireworks to the Celebration - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 Force. One character in this unit may choose an objective within [range] 4 and roll 5 attack dice. Each unit within [range] 2 of that objective suffers [damage] for each [expertise] result in the roll. Then one character in this unit may [jump]. Yesssss, big boom activate my neurons. I like that this ability can target any objective and not just controlled ones or even just active ones. It's any of them, which I think is neat. I think it's fine that this also hurts your allies if you use it near them. I think there will be times when that is actually the right call. One to five extra damage on Chopper is probably worth one to five extra damage on Vader, for example. I could see myself using this ability quite often, maybe even every time she goes.

I Forged This Armor With My Family - This is a Reactive Ability with a cost of 0 Force. 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 or another allied Spectre character, this unit immediately makes a focus action. This is very similar to what most of the other Mandalorian units have except this one also procs off of Spectres. This means she has a good spot in some Mando lists, probably with Maul, Bo, Kryze, Mando, Sabine, etc. One thing to note here is something a lot of us got wrong at release, this only procs off of move actions. This is not as much of a potential issue with her since she does not have a Jetpack ability, but, for example, the Jump from Fireworks will not proc this ability. It is not a move action, just a move.

Daughter of Mandalore - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. Characters in this unit have Protection and Sharpshooter [2]. Additionally, when a character in this unit would [Dash], [Advance], [Climb], or [Reposition], it may instead [Jump]. Woah! This is great! She gets all of the fun Mando toys with the addition of a bunch of jump options. Protection is very good and Sharp 2 is also very good, especially with a free focus. Being able to Jump whenever she would do another kind of move is very nice. I like that it's an option though, the ability to use a normal reposition is good.

My Way

This is a fairly good stance for a secondary. She starts off with six attack dice at range four, though that should usually be nine in practice. She also gets six in melee which is not bad, and can sometimes be seven. She defends with four dice for both ranged and melee, which is okay, but it feels like she will be relying heavily on Hera's cover and Her own protection to stay alive. Her ranged attack expertise is solid, but not amazing. A strike at one is meh, a crit and strike at two or three is good, and two crits and a disarm at four or more is fine. It's a bit lacking in my opinion, but not terrible. Her melee expertise is identical. Her defensive expertise is okay. Two blocks from one to three is solid and three at four or more is okay. I wish she had a heal or maybe a dash in there, but it's fine without them. Her combat tree is wicked. It tops out at eight possible damage. She has a shove on two and three which is very good. A free active on three is excellent. A Jump on five is nice and all of the conditions she can possibly do is nice. I'm glad she has that free active and seems to be pretty decent combat-wise.

Overall, I think Sabine is great! I am very excited to get her on the table. I think she is going to fit in some good Spectre and Mandalorian lists. I wish her expertise charts were a tad better, but I think it will be okay in the long run since she has some very good abilities and a goo combat tree.

Support - Chopper

4 PC - This is good. Puts him in line with everything else.
0 FP -
8 Satmina / 2 Durability - I'm actually a bit surprised he has eight stamina. I was expecting six or seven. The fact that he has eight with protection means I have no idea why clone commandos are six with protection.

Mayhem - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 Force. Choose an enemy unit within [range] 2 and roll 3 defense dice. If there are any [block] results, the chosen unit gains [strain]. If there are any [expertise] results, it gains [disarm]. If there are any [failure] results, it gains [expose]. This is a very cool ability. I like random abilities like his and Ezra's. Sure, it will feel bad when you spend one force to roll three Expertise and all your opponent gets is one Disarm, but when it spikes and rolls one of each Icon it's going to feel great. I think you can use this ability fairly often but sometimes it will just whiff, which happens. I like it a lot.

Rocket Booster - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 Force. One character in this unit may [Jump]. Good, this will help get him into the fight since I am likely never using Hera's, Kanan's, or Sabine's Tactic moves on Chopper. I don't think you always need to use this, but when you need it, it is good. Getting him away from a pesky Vader or Grand Inquisitor sounds like a worthy use of one force.

Chopper, Sometimes You Do It Right - This is a Reactive Ability with a cost of 0 Force. When a character in this unit wounds an enemy unit with an attack, after the effect is resolved, this unit may use this ability. Choose an allied Rebel Alliance character within [range] 2. The chosen character may [dash]. If the chosen character is a Spectre, it may instead [Reposition]. I love this ability. It could add a lot to the Spectre's overall mobility. However, Chopper is probably not going to be wounding anything very often so don't expect this to proc more than maybe once in a game. He maxes out at five (kinda six) damage. He can use mayhem, hope for an expose, and then attack, but that will work out so rarely that it's not worth relying on.

Sturdy Construction - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. Characters in this unit have Protection, Immunity [Pin], and Immunity [Disarm]. This is fantastic. Protection is amazing, especially on an eight-stamina support. Immunity Pin is also amazing. Being able to always move when he needs to could be game-changing under certain circumstances. Immunity Disarm is actually quite good here, since his expertise is amazing. Darktroopers, eat your heart out!

Is That One of Ours? - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. While this unit's order card is in the order deck or reserve, characters in this unit cannot be targeted with [ranged] attacks. We've seen this on Lando and Bar2 in Disguise. I like it, I love the theming of this ability and, as it turns out, it's actually very helpful in many situations. He's a support, so he'll likely be the first unit on the chopping block of your opponent, but they can't shoot him until he activates and even when they can shoot him, he's got protection.

Droid Rage

This stance is kinda nuts, especially when you look at it next to Sabine's. He starts out with six attack dice at range three and EIGHT in melee. Two quick thoughts here: 1. I think? He's the first character whose printed attack range is only 3? That's neat. 2. EIGHT melee dice is Jedi levels of dice. It's so funny, our little war criminal is punching better than some force users. Anyway, he also defends with four at range and five in melee. His ranged expertise is good. At least one crit at every level is excellent, a strike at three is okay, and the pin at four is fine, but meh. The fact that he has a strike at every level and Sabine doesn't both make me laugh and make me sad. His melee expertise is the same, but it has extra damage at four instead of the Pin. That's good, it seems like he wants to be punching anyway. His defensive expertise is also very good. A block at one is nice, two blocks at two and three is okay, and two blocks and a reposition at four or more is pretty good. His combat tree is also quite nice. It tops out at six damage or seven with expertise. He has a Shove on one! and three! Lovely. He has an active on five, which is very nice. The only negative aspect about Mayhem is that sometimes it'll cost one force for one disarm. With the free active, that downside goes away completely. I also love how simple his tree is. No conditions, no moves, none of that fancy stuff. Just damage, shoves, and MAYHEM!!!

Overall, Chopper seems fairly good. I think he has a solid place in Spectre lists. Rebels outside of Spectres, I'm not sure. With how many four-point supports Rebels have, he has some serious competition cough Commandos cough.

Overall, I think this Squad looks very good. Hera seems like the weak link to me, but she also seems like the type of unit that his hard to gauge until you play her. Also, with how good Kanan is, it's probably fine that she's maybe a little under-tuned. Sabine and Chopper look sick. I can't wait to throw the two of them into many different lists.

Let me know what you think! YouTube Review will be out later this week, so keep an eye out for that!

Thanks for reading!