Witches of Dathomir - Squad Reactions

They have now shown Mother Talzin, Savage Opress, and Nightsister Acolytes. I will talk about how I think they'll all work 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 - Mother Talzin

• 8 SP - I couldn't see her being anything else really. I think this makes total sense.
• 3 FP - Once again, I think this is perfect. I have to remind myself that Force Points are not indicative of Force Powers and more of how the force flows around certain characters.
• 10 Stamina / 3 Durability - This is a slight bit surprising to me. I would've figured she would be in the 9/3 range but there's not much of a difference between 27 and 30 EHP. She's going to be decently sturdy either way.

Obscuring Shadows - This is a Tactic Ability with no cost. At the start of this unit's activation, choose another allied Dathomirian unit. One character in the chosen unit may [Dash]. I'll continue to say it: Extra moves are very good, especially if they're free. This is going to help get Maul, Asajj, or Savage close on their targets or it can help the Acolytes position around to threaten objectives.

Manipulating Hand - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 2 FP. Choose an enemy character within [Range] 4. The chosen character [Dash]. You resolve this move. This ability is so cool. What is different about this ability vs the shoves, pushes, and pulls we've seen so far is that this ability is considered a move. This has a lot of really neat implications, but until we can get an official Forum ruling I am not sure what does and does not work. (Here is a Link to the Forum, it is an essential tool for understanding the game) Anyway, I think it is highly likely that this move will allow you to do stuff like use Ingress points or trigger innate or reactive abilities, but we will have to wait and see. The other thing to consider is that this ability is quite expensive. 2 Force for just a dash is a bit pricy, but there is another way you can trigger it for free! We will cover that later on.

Life Drain - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. After an allied Dathomirian character makes an attack, if the defender suffered one or more [Damage], this unit may use this ability. That Dathomirian character may [Heal]. I like this a lot, just like free moves, free heals are nice! There is simply no downside to this unless maybe you're using Maul, but even then it's still decent. I like this to help with the Acolytes' fragility and Asajj's too. It's also quite cool with Maul since he can do the big swing with lots of dice from having damage and then heal some off.

Wrath of the Great Mother - This is an Identity Ability with no cost. Once per turn, when an enemy character wounds another allied unit, after the effect is resolved, one character in this unit may [Dash] and then may make a 5-dice [Ranged] attack targeting that enemy character. Woah! This is really cool. Free move and attack. It is also very nice to note that this is not faction or tag locked, so any other unit in the game can benefit from this ability so far. There is essentially no reason not to use this and since you can use it every turn, for free, that means pretty much any and every time an ally gets wounded, you should use this.

Great Mother

This stance is actually pretty incredible. She's rolling 7 attack dice at range 4 and 6 in melee. She gets 7 defense dice at range and 5 in melee. Her ranged attack expertise is pretty good, generating Crits at each level along with at least 1 strike. The melee expertise is decent, focusing more on guaranteed extra damage vs getting dice results. The defensive expertise is not the best we've seen on a primary, but it should do some decent work. The big thing is that she's rolling a buttload of defense dice. The combat tree here is incredible. It caps out at 10 damage or 11 with melee attack expertise. It also hands out a whole bunch of abilities and conditions depending on how you choose to go down the tree.

Wrath

This is definitely her more condition/ability-oriented stance. It's rolling 6 attack dice at range 4 and 7 in melee. This one is a little less defensive with only 5 defense dice at range and 6 in melee. The ranged attack expertise is worse, it essentially loses an icon per level. The melee attack expertise is better since it is providing more crits than Great Mother. Her defensive expertise is identical. The combat tree is still quite good but in a different way. It only caps out at 7 damage or 8 with expertise. The huge thing here is that with only 3 successes she gets to use an active ability for free. Procing Manipulating Hand for free is crazy good, especially since it's so expensive. It also gives her a few heals and all conditions except Pinned.

Overall, I think she is going to be an incredible unit. She's not a bad brawler with good offense and decent defense, but what she is particularly good at is causing issues for your opponent. Between Manipulating Hand and Wrath of the Great Mother she is going to be a real problem.

Secondary - Savage Opress

• 4 PC - I don't need to repeat myself here. 4pc is the best spot to be in at the moment. Makes him bringable with Maul, Talzin, and/or Asajj.
• 0 FP -
• 10 Stamina / 2 Durability - This is a solid place to be in, especially with Protection on his unit.

Dark Fury - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 2 Force. Choose an enemy unit within [Range] 2 and roll 5 attack dice. The chosen unit suffers [Damage] for each [Critical] and [Strike] result in the roll. If the chosen unit is a Force User and suffers [Damage] from this ability, that unit gains [Expose]. This ability is nuts! It's very similar to Jango Fett's Not So Fast due to the fact that it gets around defensive abilities. Straight lucky damage that ignores defense dice, defensive abilities, and Cover is incredible. I could see a good reason to use this ability almost every time you can, and definitely, every time he can near a Force User.

Furious Rush - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 Force. Each character in this unit may [Dash]. If this unit is injured, each character in this unit may [Advance] instead. Extra moves are good, very good. This ability is pretty neat in the way that it allows different lengths. Dash if he's healthy, Advance if he's injured. This is a good ability to help him get to where he needs to do the beatdown. It's an expensive seeming ability, I wouldn't use it every time he goes, but it can definitely help when you need it. Locate a Force User -> Advance -> Furious Rush -> Dark Fury -> Attack -> Profit.

Overpowering Monster - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When a character in this unit makes an attack targeting a Primary character, add 2 dice to the attack roll. This is solid. I don't think he still enjoys being engaged with Anakin or Dooku, but this could be quite good against them in a pinch. I think he probably wants to be attacking weaker primaries and trying to wound them as his main objective. If they're a force user, cool. If not, I wouldn't stress. I think Savage could be the bane of Cad and Padme when they come out, but we will see. I still like his chances against people like Asajj, Maul, Luminara, or maybe Talzin.

Pain is Weakness - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. Characters in this unit have Protection and Steadfast. Protection on a 10 Stamina unit is nice, very nice. Steadfast is also an incredible ability to have. This should help his durability by a ton, which is going to be really good for a beat-stick-type unit. Steadfast should also help him sit on objectives that he stole from an enemy.

Unwitting Brute - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When an allied Separatist Alliance Primary unit or an allied Dathomirian Primary Unit starts its activation within [Range] 3 of this Unit, one character in this Unit may [Dash]. Ouuu boy, Savage is going to be a speedy boy. He's going to be dashing and running all over the place. This ability feels like it will help him play the more reactive game when it comes to hunting Primaries.

Unchained Rage

This stance is incredibly solid. He's rolling 7 attack dice in melee and none at range. He gets 4 Defense dice in both melee and at range. His attack expertise is quite nice, he's generating Crits and extra damage at each level. His defensive expertise is, not great. He's going to be taking damage pretty easily. Stuff like Protection and Talzin's Life Drain should help him out quite a bit. His combat tree is pretty great. It's capping out at 8 Damage on 4 successes, or 9 with Expertise. His top tree gives him only 5-6 damage but comes with 3 out of 4 possible conditions. His last box is a free Active Ability, which seems like you want to use his Dark Fury ability. The thing to consider is if you're planning on attacking a Force User, I would probably use this ability before attacking and then maybe use his dash ability off the Active Box. It will take a little testing to see, but just like Cody, you want to take advantage of his expose ASAP so your enemy can't clear it before you can use it.

Overall, I think Savage is going to be pretty incredible. I think his main gig is to play the beat stick game and try to just keep things wounded, especially Force User Primaries. He synergizes well with the rest of his box and Maul since Maul is not force-hungry but Savage is.

Support - Nightsister Acolytes

• 4 PC - I don't need to repeat myself here. 4pc is the best spot to be in at the moment.
• 0 FP -
• 7 Stamina / 2 Durability - Very low. They are going to be wounded a lot. Don't let them get focus fired and absolutely under no circumstances allow them to be engaged with a primary or arguably a secondary.

Acrobatic Advance - This is an Active Ability with a cost of 1 FP. Each character in this unit may [Jump]. If any characters [Jump], this unit gains [Hunker]. There is an interesting theme with this unit and I'm not sure what to say about it. They seem, in a vacuum, like better Clones. This is essentially a defensive maneuver but with a Jump instead of a Dash.

Coordinated Fire: [Expose] - This is a Reactive Ability with no cost. When a character in another allied Dathomirian unit makes an attack as a 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 unit gains [Expose]. The theme continues! CF: Expose is insanely good. I am so excited to get this on the table and see what kind of issues I can cause.

Darkness and Shadows - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. While this unit has one or more [Hunker], characters in this unit add 1 die to their defense rolls against [Ranged] attacks. This is once again sorta on theme. The theme is the ability to gain and benefit from Hunker tokens in abnormal ways. This ability is pretty incredible. It does two really cool things. First, the clear benefit of gaining extra defense dice is excellent. Second, and not as clear, is that this ability gets around Cody and Gar Saxon's abilities to negate any cover. They will still gain the 1 extra die against their attack which is neat.

Night Hunter - This is an Innate Ability with no cost. When a character in this unit makes a [Ranged] attack as a part of a combat action, if it targets an enemy character that is engaged with another allied Dathomirian character, it adds 2 dice to the attack roll. When you consider the units that these ladies will be paired with, this ability is incredible. Use Asajj, Savage, Maul, or Talzin to set this off. It should be something that is pretty easy to proc since most of those units want to be engaged anyway.

Shadow Hunters

This stance is not too bad for a support unit, but it's not great either. 6 Attack dice at range 5 and 5 dice in melee. They're also getting 5 defense dice at range and a measly 4 in melee. The ranged attack expertise is not bad actually. It doesn't generate any crits until 4, but you're getting a pretty decent ratio of strikes until then. Their Melee attack expertise is kinda neat, but I wouldn't say good. Guaranteed damage from expertise is nice in a lot of scenarios, but don't let it trick you into thinking Melee is a good place for them. Their defensive expertise is flat-out bad. It only generates 1 block at most no matter how much expertise you roll. The Reposition is neat, it makes it feel like their mobility is their defense. I actually quite like the combat tree. It caps out at 7 damage from 5 successes. It's got all of what a unit needs to be pretty independent: conditions, decent damage, heals, and some sort of mobility (in this case jumps).

Overall, I think the Nightsisters are going to be a real problem once people figure out how to use them. They're quite mobile and sneaky. They have pretty good offense for a support unit when you start to look at their synergies and lists they want to be in. Their defense is not great, but if you can keep them far away and hide then you should be able to keep them alive.

I think this Squad Pack is going to add a ton of really neat units. This is another one where I had no idea I'd ever want these characters in a game, but now that they are I am super stoked. Mother Talzin is an absolute Boss and I'm glad they made her cast of fellow Dathomirians great too.

Thanks for Reading!