I know Vader is getting a lot of attention right now, but I think Luke is the best points pound for pound you can spend in skirmish. I really do feel like he can do pretty much anything and brings a ton to the table.

He has nice surge abilities, a pretty great ranged weapon, a really brutal melee attack (particularly if you can focus him), decent defense/health, hes fast, AND he buffs all the units nearby. On top of all that, his unique Command Card is probably the best one of all the uniques. Compared to the other units right around 10 points, I think it is hard to argue what a good value he is.

Other units I think come close:

-Royal Guard Champion - Not quite as flexible and 50% more expensive, but his speed, melee attack, and unique abilities make him really painful to deal with.

-Gideon Argus - This guy is amazingly useful for 3 points. While not going to take on entire squads by himself, being able to focus units alone is very, very strong. His gun is actually pretty hilarious if you surge to focus himself, he actually can be really annoying if that happens

Thoughts?

I might argue that Regular Officers are the best points you can spend in the game. They add so much to an imperial team that I can't see fielding an Imperial squad without 2 or more. Stormtroopers are also a pretty great buy as well but I think Officers edge them out.

I agree Gideon and, to a lesser extent, Mak are great values for their points. Luke is probably the best points for Rebel like you say.

Vader is the best beat

Luke is the best support beat charcter.

Officers/Gideon are two of the best tech pieces in the game.

Yeah mak+Gideon is very underrated. I think the rebels will be just as good as vader under control of a top player once we see all the command cards.

Thats how I view it

I know Vader is really popular right now but the best beat stick per points is RGC, IMO. I guess I can give Vader the edge at this moment because we have a known quantity on his command cards but if RGC has equally good cards, I'd back him more often. 3 points is a lot when talking about including a "set" piece in your squad, especially on the Imperial side. And even with Vader's cards, I still think RGC keeps pace.

I know Vader is really popular right now but the best beat stick per points is RGC, IMO. I guess I can give Vader the edge at this moment because we have a known quantity on his command cards but if RGC has equally good cards, I'd back him more often. 3 points is a lot when talking about including a "set" piece in your squad, especially on the Imperial side. And even with Vader's cards, I still think RGC keeps pace.

Yes but Choke is pretty big. I like RGC better but think Vader vs RGC is 70/30 with vader even with dodge because of choke.

I know Vader is really popular right now but the best beat stick per points is RGC, IMO. I guess I can give Vader the edge at this moment because we have a known quantity on his command cards but if RGC has equally good cards, I'd back him more often. 3 points is a lot when talking about including a "set" piece in your squad, especially on the Imperial side. And even with Vader's cards, I still think RGC keeps pace.

I 100% agree. IMO the RGC is better regardless of his command cards. The speed matters a lot. Choke is nice, but the RGC's move/attack ability is also really good since it punishes your opponent for killing his officers/other support.

We do know the RGC's unique command card is 2 actions for 3 attacks (was spoiled in magazine) which IMO makes him beat Vader as a melee'er hands down because his interaction with the officer. Moving 6 spaces for free, then getting 3 attacks + potentially 2 more if you get/take init from Pummel will pretty easily be too much for even Vader to weather.

It's pictured here on the site

hmm. I might have to revise my statement. Played a game last night where I was up 26 pts to 17 pts. Opponent was playing Vader's fist (Vader, Guards, 2 Stormies, Officer) and I just finished a turn where Gideon used his card to have Luke shoot Vader in the face, then Luke activated, ran up and sabered Vader. Then played Luke's card to have him go again, sabering Vader a second time. Round ended and I gain initiative and have Luke Saber daddy a third time but only get Vader to 1 health left. Luke runs away. I'm pretty confident that I'll get the win only to watch Vader activate, trigger his card, run over and kill my last Rebel Trooper (6 points), one shot Jyn and Celebrate (9 points), gain 2 actions from his command card, run over to Luke and play Lure of the Dark Side to convince him it's a good idea to shoot my wounded Finn (who I was hiding in a corner since he only had 2 health left). Luke finished the job. Extra 9 points- 24 points in that one turn to win the game. I was pretty shocked at the power of the darkside. I hope RGC has more than just that triple attack card or I might need to swing my vote in favor of Vader.

Vader was rocking some great defense rolls with his reroll and some of Luke's Saber rolls weren't that impressive but I still wasn't worried as I figured someone else would be able to bring him down. I'll have to modify how I play against Vader in the future

hmm. I might have to revise my statement. Played a game last night where I was up 26 pts to 17 pts. Opponent was playing Vader's fist (Vader, Guards, 2 Stormies, Officer) and I just finished a turn where Gideon used his card to have Luke shoot Vader in the face, then Luke activated, ran up and sabered Vader. Then played Luke's card to have him go again, sabering Vader a second time. Round ended and I gain initiative and have Luke Saber daddy a third time but only get Vader to 1 health left. Luke runs away. I'm pretty confident that I'll get the win only to watch Vader activate, trigger his card, run over and kill my last Rebel Trooper (6 points), one shot Jyn and Celebrate (9 points), gain 2 actions from his command card, run over to Luke and play Lure of the Dark Side to convince him it's a good idea to shoot my wounded Finn (who I was hiding in a corner since he only had 2 health left). Luke finished the job. Extra 9 points- 24 points in that one turn to win the game. I was pretty shocked at the power of the darkside. I hope RGC has more than just that triple attack card or I might need to swing my vote in favor of Vader.

Vader was rocking some great defense rolls with his reroll and some of Luke's Saber rolls weren't that impressive but I still wasn't worried as I figured someone else would be able to bring him down. I'll have to modify how I play against Vader in the future

I sincerely hope you didn't forget that Luke's saber has Pierce 3 innately =).

Honestly, it sounds like your opponent got away with one. Not only did he manage to not take 1 more pt of damage but had the command cards and you had setup probably the most advantageous position for him to succeed..Maybe not extremely lucky, but definitely notably lucky. 1 more damage on the red dice and the game would end the other way.

hmm. I might have to revise my statement. Played a game last night where I was up 26 pts to 17 pts. Opponent was playing Vader's fist (Vader, Guards, 2 Stormies, Officer) and I just finished a turn where Gideon used his card to have Luke shoot Vader in the face, then Luke activated, ran up and sabered Vader. Then played Luke's card to have him go again, sabering Vader a second time. Round ended and I gain initiative and have Luke Saber daddy a third time but only get Vader to 1 health left. Luke runs away. I'm pretty confident that I'll get the win only to watch Vader activate, trigger his card, run over and kill my last Rebel Trooper (6 points), one shot Jyn and Celebrate (9 points), gain 2 actions from his command card, run over to Luke and play Lure of the Dark Side to convince him it's a good idea to shoot my wounded Finn (who I was hiding in a corner since he only had 2 health left). Luke finished the job. Extra 9 points- 24 points in that one turn to win the game. I was pretty shocked at the power of the darkside. I hope RGC has more than just that triple attack card or I might need to swing my vote in favor of Vader.

Vader was rocking some great defense rolls with his reroll and some of Luke's Saber rolls weren't that impressive but I still wasn't worried as I figured someone else would be able to bring him down. I'll have to modify how I play against Vader in the future

I sincerely hope you didn't forget that Luke's saber has Pierce 3 innately =).

Honestly, it sounds like your opponent got away with one. Not only did he manage to not take 1 more pt of damage but had the command cards and you had setup probably the most advantageous position for him to succeed..Maybe not extremely lucky, but definitely notably lucky. 1 more damage on the red dice and the game would end the other way.

Oh I know. The first shot with Gideon was a blaster and I rolled probably as crappy as you could with those dice and only squeaked 1 damage in. Vader had 2 damage on him at this point. The two Saber hits at the end of the round did 4 damage each (both rolled red: 3 hits, yellow: 1 surge, Vader rolled double defense on both dice, and the same rolls again on the 2nd saber). My init turn followed up with Luke and this time he did well landing 5 hits as Vader rolled 3 total defense. one...more...damage...

I agree that, odds-wise, I should have won that game easily but what it really made me realize is Vader's potential with good cards and set up can be amazing in just one turn. Luke can do some great things but I don't know of a figure yet that can even set up an activation like I saw with Vader. My opponent showed me his hand and he had Force Lightning and Telekinetic Throw in there too. Crazy command draw. If the game hadn't ended with Finn's death, Vader still would have had another action to play one of those force command cards. While I don't expect that to happen every game, the potential is out there and so I'll have to be more mindful of figure placements.

hmm. I might have to revise my statement. Played a game last night where I was up 26 pts to 17 pts. Opponent was playing Vader's fist (Vader, Guards, 2 Stormies, Officer) and I just finished a turn where Gideon used his card to have Luke shoot Vader in the face, then Luke activated, ran up and sabered Vader. Then played Luke's card to have him go again, sabering Vader a second time. Round ended and I gain initiative and have Luke Saber daddy a third time but only get Vader to 1 health left. Luke runs away. I'm pretty confident that I'll get the win only to watch Vader activate, trigger his card, run over and kill my last Rebel Trooper (6 points), one shot Jyn and Celebrate (9 points), gain 2 actions from his command card, run over to Luke and play Lure of the Dark Side to convince him it's a good idea to shoot my wounded Finn (who I was hiding in a corner since he only had 2 health left). Luke finished the job. Extra 9 points- 24 points in that one turn to win the game. I was pretty shocked at the power of the darkside. I hope RGC has more than just that triple attack card or I might need to swing my vote in favor of Vader.

Vader was rocking some great defense rolls with his reroll and some of Luke's Saber rolls weren't that impressive but I still wasn't worried as I figured someone else would be able to bring him down. I'll have to modify how I play against Vader in the future

I sincerely hope you didn't forget that Luke's saber has Pierce 3 innately =).

Honestly, it sounds like your opponent got away with one. Not only did he manage to not take 1 more pt of damage but had the command cards and you had setup probably the most advantageous position for him to succeed..Maybe not extremely lucky, but definitely notably lucky. 1 more damage on the red dice and the game would end the other way.

Oh I know. The first shot with Gideon was a blaster and I rolled probably as crappy as you could with those dice and only squeaked 1 damage in. Vader had 2 damage on him at this point. The two Saber hits at the end of the round did 4 damage each (both rolled red: 3 hits, yellow: 1 surge, Vader rolled double defense on both dice, and the same rolls again on the 2nd saber). My init turn followed up with Luke and this time he did well landing 5 hits as Vader rolled 3 total defense. one...more...damage...

I agree that, odds-wise, I should have won that game easily but what it really made me realize is Vader's potential with good cards and set up can be amazing in just one turn. Luke can do some great things but I don't know of a figure yet that can even set up an activation like I saw with Vader. My opponent showed me his hand and he had Force Lightning and Telekinetic Throw in there too. Crazy command draw. If the game hadn't ended with Finn's death, Vader still would have had another action to play one of those force command cards. While I don't expect that to happen every game, the potential is out there and so I'll have to be more mindful of figure placements.

I am surprised you didn't Focus Luke instead of attacking with Gideon. That extra green die can do a lot of work with the Saber Strike. Not saying it mattered necessarily, but it could have.

This is why I think Shadow ops with Mak is big late game since it shuts down all vaders crazy cards for around.

The more I think people play the game the more they will find out the combos.

I am surprised you didn't Focus Luke instead of attacking with Gideon. That extra green die can do a lot of work with the Saber Strike. Not saying it mattered necessarily, but it could have.

Just to make sure I was clear, I used Gideon's card to have Luke attack Vader with his blaster (you may have understood that but I wanted to make sure). Gideon giving a focus to Luke I felt was inferior to giving Luke an additional attack with a +2 damage bonus out of turn. I think the extra attack from Luke's blaster attack + 2 damage exceeds the potential of losing an attack and only gaining a focus die to the regular saber attack. Had Vader not roll 5 defense or had I not rolled 6 total damage (2 coming from the card), Vader would have fallen. Adding the Green had the max potential of add 4 damage (assuming the only surge I got was on the green die) to his saber strike but I felt the math didn't support that over the extra blaster attack with a 2 damage kicker. I'd be interested to see if I was wrong though.

This is why I think Shadow ops with Mak is big late game since it shuts down all vaders crazy cards for around.

The more I think people play the game the more they will find out the combos.

Reg Officers hands down are the best minis in the game. They help counter the Vader counter of Stun. Let you play Regroupx2 if you want and not having to worry if there is a leader to use it. They only cost 2 meaning you can use them to out act your opp since most squads are 6 acts. Having those 2 extra acts can be just as big as winning init since they could help you get missions without being shot. Every one is talking about take init but not act control. Wow I havent even touched that they have the whiite dice and can reroll it.

Wait I didnt talk about them having Focus and the movement breaker.