Shatterpoint List Building - First Thoughts

This week we got our first real glimpse into how Shatterpoint works. We still know very little about gameplay, but they revealed how list-building works! Personally, I am a fan of the system that they've put in place for list building, and I think it will allow for a lot of really neat combinations. Most of this is a regurgitation of AMG's article, but I do offer my own opinions on how it all works.

Let's start with the basics.

1. Each list is called a "Strike Team." Each strike team is built using two separate "Squads." Each squad consists of, at the moment, one Primary Unit, one Secondary Unit, and one Support Unit. It makes a little more sense once we get into the nitty-gritty.

• Strike Team
  • First Squad
    • Primary Unit
    • Secondary Unit
    • Support Unit
  • Second Squad
    • Primary Unit
    • Secondary Unit
    • Support Unit

Refer to this chart for any confusion.

Now, we do know-ish (from very educated guesses) who from each squad is what rank. At the moment we know of 8 different squads, but only 6 have been explicitly shown.

• Primary Units
  • Anakin Skywalker
  • Ahsoka Tano (Jedi No More)
  • Lord Maul
  • Asajj Ventress
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi
  • Count Dooku
  • Luminara Unduli
  • General Grievous
• Secondary Units
  • Captain Rex
  • Bo Katan
  • Gar Saxon
  • Kalani
  • Commander Cody
  • Jango Fett
  • Barriss Offee
  • Unnamed Super Tactical Droid (TBD)
  • Ahsoka Tano (Padawan) (TBD)
• Supporting Units
  • 501st Clone Troopers
  • Clan Kryze Mandalorians
  • Maul Mandalorians
  • B1 Battle Droids
  • 212th Clone Troopers
  • Magna Guards
  • Clone Commandos
  • B2 Battle Droids

With all that out of the way now let's discuss what we know of list building. Strike Teams are two squads. As far as we know there is no real limit to how the strike teams are assembled, just that you need two squads. A squad is determined by picking your Primary unit and seeing what their Squad Points (SP) value is. Let's use Ahsoka since she's the only one we really know.  

Ahsoka Tano Jedi No More has an SP of 8. That means while assembling the rest of her squad she can not exceed 8 total points. Convinetiley Bo Katan and the Clan Kryze members are both worth 4. Assuming Bo Katan was worth 5 points, Ahsoka could only spend 3 more points on her supporting unit. All of that is really quite easy to understand. We do not know if you are allowed to spend less than your SP value or if there is any drawback/benefit to doing so. It also seems that the lower a primary unit's SP value is, the stronger of a character they are.

While we do not know of any true examples of this, it does seem possible that Anakin Skywalker would have an SP of 7. Rex probably costs 4 and the clones probably cost 3. That is purely a guess though.

We do also know that you can mix and match squads and units as much as you'd like. Any in-era Primary can go with any in-era Secondary. Ventress and Rex? Sure. Obi-Wan and Gar Saxon? Go for it. Might as well throw in some B1s for good measure.

Another big thing we learned was that it seems there will eventually be more eras to pick from. I know a few people who personally are not really excited for shatter point because they can't play as Luke or Vader. You can't build squads cross-era, though it seems like there's a chance you can have s strike team where each squad is a different era.

I am a really big fan of this system. I think it is pretty intuitive and fun. I like the idea of two squads making up a single strike team and I enjoy the Primary, Secondary, and Support limitations. I am stoked to see more rules about list building and if any units allow us to break said rules. I am also just phenomenally excited to play games with Obi, Anakin, Rex, Cody, and some clones to back them up. I hope there are ways to take maybe two secondary units with a certain keyword or something like that.

I am also a fan of how it really seems like we will never need a dedicated list builder for Shatterpoint since there are no upgrades and all of the math seems to be really simple. It should make it a lot easier to adjust and change your list on the fly at local game nights.  

I have two minor complaints. They may seem a bit counter to what I've said previously. While I enjoy the squad-building limitations put in place, it does also make me worry about the expansion of this game. More specifically, I like that we are getting a cool Rex secondary unit, but my hope is that characters like him would be able to lead their own squads eventually. A strike team with two fully cloned-up squads would be really neat. In the same vein, I am worried about larger Star Wars groups and how exactly to handle them. Stuff like Ghost Crew, Bad Batch, and Rogue One. I'm not sure how they would handle them and my hope is that they don't ignore them completely for this reason.

My second complaint is that while I do also enjoy the faction mixing I am worried that each faction may lack its own identity. Droids are cheaper but less effective while clones are more expensive but more effective, force users to get different abilities based on faction, etc.

All that said, I can't wait for June 2, 2023. I think I'll probably take the day off of work and play as many games as I can. I am also very excited to learn more about how the game plays. Thanks for reading! Please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me talk about.