Stronger Than Fear - Squad Reactions

They have now shown Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and Zeb Orrelios. 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.

Side note here before we get started. I am experimenting with expanding my reach as far as content creation goes. I have made a posted my first YouTube video here. I would appreciate any and all feedback on how I can improve the video reviews, I have never attempted anything like this before. Thanks!

Primary - Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1

• 8 SP - Yessss, this is good. Without knowing what Hera will be, my assumption is that she will also be an 8SP Priamry so that these two boxes can be mixed and matched. This also lends itself nicely to overall Rebel list building.
• 3 FP - This is the standard and it is good. I am hoping that Hera is 8/3 as well, but I would not be terribly surprised to see her 8/2 or 9/2.
• 10 Stamina/ 3 Durability - This is solid. I think 10/3 is pretty much the standard for Force User Primaries so not much to say here.

A Man With Two Names - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, if its active stance is Form III Soresu, refresh [force] and one character in this unit may [heal]. If its active stance is Pack Leader, choose an allied Rebel Alliance character. The chosen character may [dash]. Then, if the chosen character is a Spectre, one character in this unit may [dash]. I love this. I am a huge fan of abilities that give you options based on the Stance Card you are using. I think generally speaking this is going to mean starting the game in Pack Leader for those dashes and then likely swapping and hanging out in Soresu for most of the game.

Force Push - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 2 FP. Choose a character in this unit and an enemy character within [range] 3 of that character. Push the chosen enemy character [range] 3 away from the chosen allied character. We've seen force push a bunch now, and it is always good. Diceless displacement is very valuable for any team and force push is the best we've seen for that. I have yet to play a game where I had access to force push and it was not game-changingly good for me.

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 [damage][damage]. Once again, Deflect is very common and pretty helpful. If you have no other reactives to proc off of this defense, then there is no downside to using this every chance you can.

Now I Know There's Something Stronger Than Fear - This is an Identity Ability with no cost. When an allied Rebel Alliance unit is wounded by an enemy attack, after the effect is resolved, one character in this unit may [heal][heal] and then [jump]. Then, if the wounded unit is a Spectre, one character in this unit may make a 5-dice attack. Oh man, this ability is great. Wounding is something that your opponent will be doing anyway, so the condition for this to proc is already nice. Kanan getting heals is cool but that Jump is super. The second part is also excellent. Kanan getting to make a small attack if the wounded ally is Spectre is amazing. It doesn't care about who did the wounding. It also doesn't specify Ranged or Melee so he is free to do whatever he pleases. He will get a jump so he can also move into range of whatever he wants to attack. The other huge part about this is it is not stuck behind being a Reactive ability, so it will always be free and will never get in the way of any other reactives you may have that proc at the same time.

Form III Soresu

This stance is great! He starts off with eight attack dice in melee. He gets six defense dice at range and five in melee. That is a very respectable base. His attack expertise is also pretty good. Generating at least one crit at every level is wonderful. A crit and strike at one to two is solid. A crit, strike, and jump at three is good and two crits and a jump at four or more is amazing. It seems like he is going to be very mobile, which I love. His defensive expertise is also very good. Two blocks at one is bonkers, two blocks and a CritFail at two or three is fantastic, and two blocks, a CritFail, and a Heal at four or more is great. He is not going to be easy to wound. The combat tree here is also excellent. It tops out at seven damage from four successes. He also has access to a ton of good conditions and moves. The two big standout things for me are 1. He has a shove on one, which is incredible. and 2. He has a free active at five, so free Force Push. Considering Force Push costs two Force, this is excellent. I know whenever I am punching on this side I will be aiming for all five successes. Love this stance, a lot. I will probably be spending most of my time on this side.

Pack Leader

This stance is also very good. It starts with seven attack dice at range four and six in melee. He also gets five defense dice for both. His ranged attack expertise is excellent. Once again, at least one crit at every level with the added strike at one and reposition at three or more (I'm sure there will be an errata for this chart, since "2" is nowhere to be seen, but two "3's" are). His melee expertise is solid with one or two getting you a crit and strike, three getting you two crits, and four or more getting two crits and a reposition. I love how many repositions he has access to, he is going to be a speedy fella. His defensive expertise is not bad, but not as good on this side. He at least gets one or more blocks at every level. The big thing on this side is those dashes and that repostition. Once again, he is going to be very mobile while this stance is active. The combat tree is good. It tops out at ten damage from five successes. He also has access to up to two shoves, a pin, a reposition and either one or three heals. The loss of the free active ability is very sad in my opinion, but I get why they would not want it on both sides. If your primary objective is to wound stuff, this is the side for you.

Overall, Kanan looks like a beast. The biggest thing for me is a Refresh and Force Push. Those two abilities combined make for a very good leader and primary unit. I cannot wait to get him on the table and see what he is capable of.

Secondary - Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6

• 4 PC - Nothing surprising here.
• 0 FP -
• 8 Stamina/ 2 Durability - EEK! Eight stamina is a bit low. He does have access to a good amount of heals and defensive abilities but eight is still a bit scary on a secondary.

Force Jump - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may [jump]. We've seen it before and we've seen how good it can be. The ability to move up elevation is almost always helpful and being able to do it while you're engaged is great.

Unreliable Informant - This is an Active Ability with a cose of 1 FP. Choose an enemy Supporting character within [range] 3 and roll a defense die. On a [expertise] result, the chosen character [dash]. You resolve this move. On a [block] or [failure] result, the chosen character gains [pin]. I love it! This ability is both quite good and also hilariously thematic. The potential to do a sorta push is very nice but so is the potential for a pin. This ability paired with his final ability makes it feel like they tailor-made him to hunt Supporting units.

Helpful Hand - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. When an allied Force User Primary character ends a move action within [range] 2, this unit may use this ability. One character in this unit may [Jump]. This is another very good and very thematic ability. I like to think it resembles Kanan running up to Ezra and using the Force to move him around. This will also pair well with teams running other force users. Luke, Grand Inquisitor, Maul, and Vader all come to mind as units I want to try with Ezra.

Thanks For Doing The Heavy Lifting - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When determining control of an active objective that a character in this unit is contesting, if there is a tie, this unit's controlling player takes control of the objective. This is just Inquisitorial Mandate and it is very very good. The fact that this is on a secondary unit makes Ezra a very good choice in essentially any list. If you put Ezra on a team with a two-body support it means you have potentially more contesting power than your opponent with 4.5 bodies instead of the normal 4.

This Helmet Is Property Of Ezra Bridger - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When a character in this unit wounds an enemy Supporting Unit with an attack, after the effect is resolved, gain an additional Momentum. WOAH!!! As we all may know already, attacking Supports is generally the best way to win the game. They are generally weaker and easier to wound or defeat so it is usually a good idea to attack them first. It also gets around the fact that a lot of Primary and Secondary units defend VERY well. So, Ezra is getting an additional benefit for what is already the best play. Great! He is going in all of my lists that he can be.

Fast Learner

This stance is the cream cheese icing on top of an already scrumptious carrot cake. He starts with six attack dice at range four and seven in melee. He also gets five defense dice for both. His ranged attack expertise is not bad at all. Two strikes at one is good, a crit and strike at two or three is solid, and two crits plus a shove at four or more is wonderful. I don't think it's the best we've ever seen, but it's definitely not bad. His melee expertise is also solid. At least one crit and damage at every level is awesome. The extra strike, crit, and jump at various levels are also all excellent. His defensive expertise is pretty good too. At least one block at every level is great with the additional block and dash at two or more and a CritStrike at four or more. Not bad at all. Once again, just like Kanan, he can move all over the place with his abilities and expertise. The tree is very similar to Padawan Ahsoka's. It tops out at seven potential damage with a whole bunch of abilities and conditions to boot. The standout bits for me are the Shove on one again, very good. The Reposition + three heals box in column three is amazing. Since they're in the same box he can choose the order of ops for them. Being able to run to an ally across the map and heal them three times on a whim is excellent. A Jump on four/five is also very good, especially when paired with the repo on three.

Overall, I am VERY excited for Ezra. He looks like he is going to be amazing. I think it is highly likely that he and Chewie will be finding their way into almost every Rebel list I make. I was not expecting Ezra to be the standout unit from this box, but he absolutely is.

Support - Zeb Orrelios, Spectre-4

• 4 PC - This tracks. Keeps him pretty flexible.
• 0 FP -
• 9 Stamina/ 3 Durability - Woah! Nine and three are very good for a supporting unit. I love it.

This is Gonna Hurt, Pal - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 FP. Choose an allied Rebel Alliance character in LOS. One character in this unit may [dash] toward the chosen character. If the chosen character is a Spectre, one character in this unit may instead [advance] toward the chosen character. After this move is resolved, if one or more characters in this unit are engaged, this unit immediately makes a focus action. I love this. It is similar to the Covert Ops, Defensive Maneuver, Run and Gun, etc. type ability. Spend a force -> move-> do a special thing that fits the theme of your unit. The fact that he can potentially get an advance off of this and potentially a focus is wonderful. Advance-> advance-> focus-> attack sounds like a lot of fun.

Lasan Honor Guard - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. When this unit becomes wounded, after the effect is resolved, this unit may use this ability. This unit gains two Injered Tokens. Then it removes one wounded token, all [damage], and one condition from itself. Okay, so this is his most controversial ability. It is a little bit confusing to understand but it basically allows him to avoid being wounded at the expense of adding an additional Injured token to his card. Now, you might wonder "Why on earth would I ever want to add an extra Injured token to my own unit?" To which I say "I'm still not sure, lol." I think this ability could be very good, even game-winning under the right circumstances. It is definitely a mid to late-game ability. You should probably never use this during struggle one and very rarely, if ever, use it during struggle two. However, if you can use it during struggle three, then why not? It can potentially allow you to keep a point under your control and therefore win the struggle. If your opponent HAS to flip a point that Zeb is on to win the game, consider yourself lucky because it is essentially not possible to do so via wounding.

It's Just Something About the Feel of Their Helmets on My Fists - This is a Reactive Ability with a cost of 1 FP. After a character in this unit makes an attack as part of a combat action, this unit may use his ability. One character in this unit may make a 5 dice attack targeting a character in this same enemy unit. This is good. This ability kinda helps keep him in line with other supporting units that normally get two attacks. The sad bit for me is that this costs 1 FP and that it has to attack the same unit. I think it is still a decent ability, but I am not sure it's going to be worth the force all that often. Spectre teams seem pretty force-hungry so far, and this ability is near the bottom of the "I want to spend force on this" list for me.

Karabast - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. While this unit has one or more Injured Tokens, its order card cannot be placed in reserve. This ability is thematic, which is cool. I'm not really sure why it's here other than that? The only good thing I see about this is that it will stop me from wasting force reserving him.

Lasan Honor Guard

This is... a stance. Without the full picture of Hera's squad, it's a bit tough to say what is going on here. Maybe she brings some busted mechanics to the stage that will really help Zeb. He starts out with six attack dice at range five and seven in melee. He gets four defense dice at range and five in melee. His ranged expertise is not bad. Two strikes at one or two is okay, but not amazing. A crit and strike at three are solid. Two crits at four or more are also solid. His melee expertise is similar but with a swap of two expertise. It's a bit better than his ranged one, but still not the best. His defensive expertise is actually pretty good. Two blocks at each level is amazing and the additional two heals at three or more is nice. He could prove to be decently tanky for a support. The tree is okay, but once again not amazing in my opinion. It tops out at six damage, which is a tad low for a single attack support. He does have a shove on two, which is very good. The rest of the tree is fine, dealing out a good amount of conditions and extra movement. A dash + reposition on him is actually very good. It means he can potentially advance up to three times in one activation with the added dash. That is enough movement to threaten the entire board.

Overall, Zeb is the weak link in this squad. I think he is slightly lacking in a few departments but is not terrible overall. I hope that Hera has some abilities that will help him shine a bit more.

I am very excited about this squad pack. I think it is going to add a lot of good utility to Rebel, Scoundrel, and other lists. Kanan and Ezra seem like the type of characters that will be happy in just about any list. Zeb needs a little love, which hopefully Hera can give, but one out of three units being meh is fine with me.

Thanks for reading!