I'd be more inclined to give it a 2. A Massiff has 10 more HP, Speed 8, Vicious Attack, and trades 1 defense for 1 attack. It's also 1 point cheaper.

For 11 points, a Tusken Raider Scout only loses 2 defense for Evade and Stealth.

So I wrote a simulator to exhaustively evaluate squads. As you might expect, the number of possible squads gets out of hand very, very quickly. So the simulator only covers Rebel Storm, only covers squads of up to 25 points, and doesn't do anything but register attack/defend/HP/damage. All special abilities are ignored and it is assumed everyone is adjacent to each other.

In that scenario, the Royal Guard is an absolute star. Probably the single best piece in Rebel Storm under 25 points when you ignore all special abilities and fight in a toe-to-toe battle.

That may not be significant, but I thought someone might find it interesting, since you were having trouble coming up with anything interesting.

PS - I love love LOVE that you said WotC had 790 pieces. You must have seen my sig on gamers.

(For those confused, WotC released many more than that, but tons were just the same stats with a different sculpt, or a complete re-release of the exact same thing like the rebels and imperials mini set. I rejected all the repeats , and went to great lengths to count only original stat sets and preach that the others don't count.)

Holy cow I am an idiot, I did it all with pencil and paper! That took a lot of time!

On the flipside I'm glad it has been confirmed that I came up with the correct number the old fashioned way.


And Amen to the reprint choices. Nikto Soldier reprint still makes my blood boil.

The randomiser obviously has a sense of humour, because it came up with the Nikto Soldier.....

Nikto Soldier, from Clone Strike






There are better cheap Fringe shooter options than this bozo - the Bespin Guard has access to more boosts, if you want a combine fire piece the Peace Brigade Thug is cheaper, even the Toydarian Soldier has better stats and flight. This piece doesn't need deep analysis, so here are some witty comments on it:









1/10

Hahahahahahahah awesome!

Also I didn't think about that combo with the Zann underboss and Grievous. Deadly!

Death Watch Overlord, from Armed and Operational





Death Watch pieces got a couple of boosts in Armed and Operational - Darth Maul, Death Watch Overlord has a commander effect that hands out +4 attack and +10 damage, while the Death Watch Overlord has prideful, so that when he starts as the highest cost piece in your squad, Death Watch allies gain +4 attack and +10 damage. The good thing about Prideful is that since it's a Special Ability, it's not affected by Disruptive or Bastila and it stacks with all Commander Effects, but the drawback is that the Overlord can't hand out Prideful if he's in a squad with Pre Vizsla or Maul DWO. Since Prideful is the Death Watch Overlord's main selling point - he's weak for his cost otherwise - he's best utilised in squads where he's the leader for a bunch of Death Watch pieces. The eligible Death Watch pieces are a motley lot, and they all have drawbacks:

Death Watch Mercenary - 6 point fodder with Mercenary and Deceptive
Death Watch Saboteur - 11 point piece with Traps, Cloaked, and Internal Strife
Death Watch Raider - 15 point piece with Cunning, Mobile, and Internal Strife

The Saboteur's a good piece, but generally it's best with Pre Viszla to get around Internal Strife or to play one as a Cloaked piece with Traps. But +4 attack and +10 damage from Prideful is enough to make mediocre shooters into great ones - just ask Snow Troopers - but I do think in this case, it's more about making subpar pieces into passable ones, rather than the backbone of a Tier 1 squad. Having said that, Raiders with Cunning, Twin from a Mando Captain, and Prideful do start to look quite scary, and there might be an interesting Mercenary squad in there somewhere, but my impression is that the Overlord is more of a Tier 2 build.

Apart from Prideful, the Overlord also features a minor movement breaker in Ba'slan Shev'la, which seems relatively negligible given that the Overlord is likely to be in a squad with Kelborn and his Resol'nare. He's also not a bad attack with Double and Dark Saber, although if you're using his Prideful you won't want to risk him apart from during cleanup time.

To be honest, I've been avoiding profiling Armed and Operational pieces because there are a lot that I haven't seen on the table yet, and I feel like I have to resort to theorizing to some degree. My impressions of this piece are that he's a tier 2 build, mainly due to the low power of the death watch followers we have to date, but I am happy to be proved wrong if someone comes up with something good for him; Prideful is a really strong Special Ability, so this guy might have some potential somewhere. 6/10.

SpecForce Urban Combat Specialist, from Galactic Heroes





The SpecForce sub-faction for the Rebels has been introduced by the v-sets, and has gradually fleshed out with a band of teenage pieces (ie mostly priced in the 15-17 point price range) with a Crix Madine commander. The Urban Combat Specialist is a support piece for the subfaction - with Satchel Charge and 50 hit points, he provides sturdy door control and like other SpecForce pieces he can pick up Opportunist from Crix. He also has Proximity Mines, providing a direct damage option. The SpecForce subfaction is starting to look very respectable, and while the Urban Combat Specialist isn't their heavy hitter, sturdy door control that synergises with the rest of a SpecForce squad is a very useful option to have. 6/10.

Agreed. (Stand by, more on the way)

Snowtrooper Officer, from Command of the Galaxy





One of the biggest additions to the meta over the last 12 months has been the emergence of Imperial Trooper swarms with Admiral Daala. While a few different trooper swarms are viable - Raxus Primes and Elite Scouts have both made a splash, the biggest impact has arguably come from Snowtroopers, and their Officer is pivotal in their success.

The Snowtrooper Officer adds a few benefits to a Snowtrooper swarm - he provides Rapport, taking Snowtroopers down from 7 points to 5 points. He also adds squad firepower (+10 Damage while 3 allies with the same name as this character are within 6 squares) and makes squad bonuses from himself and the Snowtrooper Commander easier to pick up by allowing any character to count as an ally for commander effects. With all the extras he provides, he's a no brainer for any Snow Trooper squad - after all, he only needs 6 troopers to pay for himself with his rapport. Additionally, he also benefits from Daala's CE, so he can also run 12 and shoot for 30 at +11 with Prideful.

He's already seen a couple of Regional wins in a relatively short time, and with the power he provides in Snowtrooper squads, in which he's essentially free, he's (was) a power 11 piece. 10/10.

PS. With the errata to his rapport, I've taken him down to a 10.