Wisdom of the Council - Squad Reactions

They have now shown Ki-Adi-Mundi, Shaak Ti, and Padawan Learners 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 - Ki-Adi-Mundi

• 8 SP - This is what I was anticipating for him. For once, this squad's points makeup was exactly what I was expecting/hoping for!
• 3 FP - This is completely fine. He has access to force-saving abilities and some other things later in this squad...
• 10 Stamina/ 3 Durability - This is the Force User standard and fine.

Wise Counsel - This is great! Move tactics are always my favorite. The fact that this gives an OOA move to another unit and can give a move to Ki-Adi is awesome! I think most of the time it will just be strictly better to use this on an allied Jedi.

Force Push - We know about Push, we know how good it is. This solves a few issues for many of the GAR Premier lists I've put together in the past. There is a surprising lack of diceless displacement in the Shatterpoint Jedi world, and Ki-Adi is here to help! This alone almost makes him an auto-include primary for Premier lists in my mind especially, especially once we look at his identity.

Force-Enhanced Reflexes - This is pretty good. As caught for me by someone in Discord, this ability does not specify Ranged or Melee so it can be used against either. It is a better version of Obi's So Uncivilized... It seems like it can be good but is probably not worth the force cost unless it will wound the attacker.

Guardians of the Republic - OOOOO BOY! This is an Awesome Identity! There are two parts to this and both of them are good. First, getting free Heals and Moves for your Jedi is great, especially when you consider both of those could be OOA. You're going to be wounding stuff anyway, so this part of the ability is great. The second part of this ability is even better. Reducing the cost of things like Force Push, Repulse, Hello There!, I'm Going to End This, Etc. is incredible. All you need to get this to work is a wounded allied unit within range three. This should be easy enough, especially if you have ARFs or Padawans around. That might seem like a pretty high cost for a force reduction, but this helps GAR out a ton. They are already usually pretty tight on the force, but hopefully, this ability solves some of those issues.

Form II Makashi

This is a very solid stance. Seven attack dice is a decent start along with four defense dice at range and six in melee. His Offensive expertise is pretty great. Only Crits at all levels is always a nice thing to have. His results ratios aren't too bad either. Defensively, his expertise is also pretty good. There are a lot of blocks on the chart which is always a good start. Add in some dice manipulation and you're on a roll. Top it all off with a 1:1 or better ratio of expertise to results and you have the makings of a perfect chart. With six defense dice in melee, he might make for a very tough nut to crack. The Combat Tree is very very very good. A shove or Reposition on One is AWESOME! I love seeing stuff like this. Topping out at NINE damage is also pretty great, but it does take seven successes. Up to three shoves are also amazing, especially when paired with Force Push. This stance seems awesome.

Form V Shien

This stance also looks pretty great. Eight attack dice is a good way to start off. Five defense dice for both Ranged and Melee is also quite solid. His offensive expertise is different, but not bad. He gets nothing but strikes, which normally would scare me, but he maintains BETTER than a 1:1 ratio until three or more. It is very rare to see any chart in this game have a better than 1:1 split for the whole chart. I love it. His defensive expertise ALSO has a 1:1 or better ratio until four or more. Insane. Ki-Adi is very efficient with his expertise results. The combat tree here is a lot more straightforward. Mass Damage or mass Heals, pick one. You can also do a very healthy split of the two. There's only one shove and no extra movements, which makes me a little sad. It's almost made up for by the fact that there is a free active on here though. I'm not sure we've seen any unit top out at EIGHT heals from one combat tree run. Especially not one that could also do up to eight damage from the same tree. Awesome.

Overall, Ki-Adi seems great. I think he may be finding his way into GAR Premier lists for a very long time. He is versatile, effective in combat, and supports his team in more ways than one. I can't wait to get him onto the table and see what he's capable of.

Secondary - Shaak Ti

• 5 PC - She seems like she might actually be worthy of the five-point cost, unlike many others. The reason is about to become very apparent...
• 1 FP - WOAH! There it is baby! We have known about this little feature for a while now, but it still feels great to actually see. This alone is the reason why I still include the FP count for all Secondaries and Supports in these articles. I knew there would come a day when we have one that actually brings force to the pool. This is awesome. She opens up a lot of options for many different list, not only GAR ones. Bringing just that one extra force to the table is huge. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
• 8 Stamina/ 2 Durability - This is not a bad spot to be in. I'm not exactly sure why she couldn't be nine stamina, but maybe that will show itself as we dive into her stats.

Unity Wins Wars - Another movement tactic! Again, this is great. Not only because it moves another unit but also gives her a move. I also love the little bit of theming with this via giving Mercs moves too. She worked closely with Mercs while training the Clones on Kamino, so this makes sense. It also conveniently allows her to fit into a few other archetypes pretty nicely.

Force Repulse - Very very good. We've seen this before and it is awesome. This ability is one of, if not the best ability for clearing points in the game. It means basically no matter how many bodies are on a point she can win it herself.

Feinting Blow - This ability is wicked. Getting to mess with your opponent's rolls outside of the normal expertise chart is awesome. This ability will be especially good when she is attacking an exposed unit, so ARFs are an easy slot in for her squad.

Virtuoso - Not a flashy ability, but still excellent. It is a little bit weird to me how this is just an Innate ability on her, a secondary, but Jedi Luke has something worse as an identity. No Expose is probably a pretty good reason why she only has eight stamina instead of nine. Unexposed eight > Exposed nine, every day.

Form IV Ataru

This is an interesting stance. She gets seven attack dice, which is a good start. Five defense dice for both is also awesome, especially within an Expose immunity. Her offensive expertise is... interesting. She is the first unit we've seen that does the strike-> crit changing instead of just adding an additional result. I think this is objectively worse than adding a result. At least she's getting a crit out of the deal, but, for me, I'd rather just see an added strike than a strike changed to a crit. The disarms are also neat but again, they don't really help her offensive output much. There's a handful of crits on here, which is good, and hopefully, those plus Feinting Blow are enough to keep her offensively relevant. Defensively, her expertise is fine. At least one block at each level is good and crit->fails are also nice. I do wish she maybe had one more block at two or three, but it's not the end of the world I think/ The combat tree is where things get very interesting. The Reposition on two is great, but a little bit sad unless you get exactly two successes. It does redeem itself later on by having a Jump on three and another Reposition on five. That means the only amount of success where she doesn't get an additional move is one. She tops out at nine potential damage from six successes, which is great. She also has access to up to two shoves, which when paired with Repulse, is awesome.

Overall, Shaak Ti seems great! She looks to me as if she will find her way into every single GAR premier list and then some. I could see her running with Cad and Bounty Hunters for extra force, diceless, and moves. I cannot wait to get her on the table!

Support - Padawan Learners

• 3 PC - This makes sense and is good I think. GAR finally having another three PC support means that they can fit in with Anakin or Mace if you want them to! I think this is a very good thing for GAR premier lists building.
• 0 FP -
• 7 Stamina/ 2 Durability - This tracks. Seven Stamina is scarily low and usually means they're getting wounded very quickly, but I think that's fine for two reasons. 1. They are cheap and therefore it's better they get wounded than one of your more powerful units. 2. Maybe it's weird to say but Ki-Adi kinda wants them to be wounded? It helps him get his Identity to start rolling which rules.

Lessons Learned - This is cool. Not super flashy or amazing, but not bad at all. Means they can basically never be pinned or strained at the same time or individually. Cool.

Force Rush - This is a pretty good ability. It's reminiscent of many abilities in this game. Pay one Force for Move + Effect. They're all at least worth considering and this one is no exception. You probably shouldn't use this every time they activate but it's nice to have when you need it.

Deflect - Deflect is a good ability when it's free. However, unlike every other unit with this ability, the Padawan's Deflect starts off with a force cost of one. So this version of Deflect is never free, and that likely means you're almost never using it. If the attacker would be wounded by using it, then its probably worth it, but I think that is the only situation where it could be good.

Stretch Out With Your Feelings - This is a really neat little support ability. I like the theming and the actual play this ability could provide. The difference between range two and three is not huge, but there will definitely be instances where this wins you the game. Removing a Pin from a Primary who's just a bit too far away is awesome. The nicest part about this is how much area their Heals can cover if you split them up a bit.

Form I Shii-Cho

This stance is not bad for a three-point unit. Six attack dice is a fine start. Four defense dice at range and five in melee is not bad either. Their offensive expertise is fine for a cheap unit. Maybe I would've liked to see a second strike at four or more, but I don't think the lack of that will make them bad. Their defensive expertise is surprisingly good. I know I've harped on it a lot, but a 1:1 expertise-to-results ratio is always great in my book. Plenty of Blocks and a Heal at three or more, nothing to complain about here. Their combat tree is where things get interesting. They have a shove on two and three, which is a great start. A Reposition on five is nice, but I'm not sure they'll be getting up there too often. I wish they had more available heals considering they have a healing ability on their unit card, I think four would have been fine. The expose at four is good, helps one of them set up for the second one's attack. Topping out at five damage is a little bit sad, but again, their cheap so not a big deal.

Overall, I think these guys are fine. They're nothing too special and not super good but they will 100% get the job done for three points. I am excited to see what different heads we can pick for the minis!

I think this box has a lot of potential. I foresee Ki-Adi and Shaak being very popular for many different lists and playstyles. I think both of them will find their way into my own personal Republic lists as well. I am also, as always, looking forward to painting these minis! All of them are beautiful. AMG continues to do amazing work on modeling these minis.

Thanks for reading!