Darth Vader

Royal Guards

Royal Guards

Officer

Officer

Officer

Cripple

Cruel Strike

Element of Surprise

Emergency Aid

Fleet Footed

Guardian Stance

Hard to Hit

Lord of the Sith

Lure of the Dark Side

New Orders

Planning

Pummel

Recovery

Take Initiative

Urgency

I'll let you know how it goes, but for now, does anyone have any comments on it?

take pummel x2 and parting blow x2

I find Lord of the Sith and Lure of the Dark Side to be extremely lackluster. I really like running this list and find that Force Lightning and Bodyguard are your game winning cards. Also; try out Jump Jets. Super mobile Vader is terrifying (but the mental image is hilarious).

I find Lord of the Sith and Lure of the Dark Side to be extremely lackluster. I really like running this list and find that Force Lightning and Bodyguard are your game winning cards. Also; try out Jump Jets. Super mobile Vader is terrifying (but the mental image is hilarious).

I agree about Lure of the Dark Side, since you normally just want Vader himself to do the attacking. But Lord of the Sith is simply awesome. Vader Chokes a guy to death, which allows him to move up and use Brutality. Or use your Force Lightning card to kill a few guys and then you can Choke and move and Brutality all day long. Myself, I always take Force Lightning and Lord of the Sith in a Vader squad. Lure of the Dark Side is variably helpful--it's only really good when you string it together with Lord of the Sith...but in that situation it's great.

Well...

The reason I like Lure of the Dark Side is because often I find myself using Vader to one-spot tank, or otherwise not using his actions to move (Officer "suggests" he move into position where he can Brutality). I have always found a good use for Lure, rather it be using Rebel Blast on some stuck together Rebels, or shooting someone that's around the corner that I can't Force Choke, or (more often than not) using an opposing Royal Guard to turn and stun his Protector Partner.

The reason I don't like Force Lightning is because, try as I might, I just can't get it into my hand before I'm all up in the opponent's business and surrounded. My opportunity to use it without stunning Vader himself has been marginal, and seven times out of eight (not really, but it seems that way), I will choose to move up and use Brutality on two figures rather than stunning three. We'll see. Perhaps I'll add it and try again. It sure SEEMS that autostun should be useful, but Range 2 is pretty close.

Lord of the Sith is, I believe, dangerously deceptive to the Vader player. Yes, it sure is nice to string it with Force Lightning and Lure of the Dark Side, but in reality that sure is hard to do. It happens so rarely. Typically speaking, I wind up using it just for extra movement actions after I've run up dangerously close to some opponent Royal Guards, I never seem to have the other command cards in my hand when the opportune moment presents itself. I would shudder to think of keeping it in my hand, hoping and waiting for one of the other cards, all the while getting slowly whittled away until he falls.

If I were to include an additional Pummel, what would I drop? I have found both Recover and Emergency Aid to be quite nice to recoup some of Vader's health, usually opponents are only doing 1-3 points of damage to him at a time, if at all. Especially with Protector around (which doesn't happen as typically my opponents have ignored Vader in favor of putting down the Royal Guards around him first).

I love my Planning and New Orders. I love Element of Surprise.

Maybe Cruel Strike. Hard to Hit?

What would I drop in order to include Force Lightning?

Having been on the other side, I HATE Lure of the Dark Side. I play Focused Rebel Blast, and it is so frustrating to get a Focus on Luke or a Sab, only to have that then unleashed against me. I will regularly end up with Vader getting moved into position by an Officer, then Lure one of my focused guys after shrugging off whatever I throw at him, followed by Brutality. Really despise that card...

Hmm; maybe I should put it back in my deck and play around with it some more. I just felt I get so much more utility out of 3 points worth of other cards.

For reference this is the deck I have been running with this list:

Force Lightning

Counter Attack

Inspiring Speech

Bodyguard x2

Deflection x2

Jump Jets

Pummel x2

Stealth Tactics

Fleet Footed

Rally

Take Initiative

Urgency

The name of the game is keep Vader alive into the end game where you've removed enough of your opponents figures that he can no longer be killed.

Here's that list with a similar command deck:

Neat to see, but I don't think Vader can use Brutality to swing on the same target twice.

Neat to see, but I don't think Vader can use Brutality to swing on the same target twice.

Correct. The wording on the ability says that it has to be vs 2 different targets.

What I saw there pretty much mirrors my own experience and strategy on it. Use Vader, two officers, and two guards (one from each group) to secure the objectives closer to the opposing figures, use two guards and an officer to secure another objective. Keep them close. I've only played it once against a Luke/Fenn/E. Troopers/Gideon list and it did alright.