Question about Healbot's buddy and how you defend him...

Last night we opened the door to the room where Healbot's buddy was being held with a Rebel's second action. Imp spawned some HK units. Rebel took 2 strain to move adjacent to the buddy. Imp goes to attack the buddy and the Rebel elects to guard him.

If the Rebel is doing this, does he/she take ALL damage for Healbot's buddy? No, right? We rolled black and white and played it so that the attack hit the buddy "first" following normal rules. Then the Rebel guarding him would take one damage for each block rolled against the attack.

Out rolls against the Imps leading up to opening the second door weren't ideal So we had some beef nearby in addition to what the Imp spawned in the room. And our defense rolls as the buddy's bodyguard weren't perfect, but they weren't BAD either. He still took damage on every Imp attack and died fast.

Did we calculate the defense right? This mission seems really tough as a first side mission in the Hoth campaign. Might have been manageable if the buddy didn't take any damage while being guarded, but I don't think that's how it works...

The attack is still targeting Draylen, the adjacent hero just adds a black defense die. The hero suffers damage equal to whatever number of blocks the black (and white, from the look of the rule, although I think the intent might have been to just count the blocks in the added black die) dice add, regardless of what the damage suffered from the attack is. So, it is possible the hero suffers more damage than is actually prevented by the black die.

The same mechanism is used in Brace for Impact, where barricades can protect Rebel Troopers.

So, looks you played it correctly.

Yeah, that all sounds right.

This feels like a really hard side mission for the Rebels. I'm trying to think of what we could have done differently, and nothing's coming to me other than "get gud" at rolling dice. Maybe if we had Diala (Diala isn't along for this ride, just speculating) and Fenn specced out "right" we could have moved the buddy along more easily. But he got destroyed as soon as he left the containment area. Imps didn't need to stun him or anything. 2 HKs hit hard and the Imps only needed one more activation.

I wonder if it would've been more manageable later in the campaign, but it seems like elite HKs or Hunters could spawn instead, mitigating the usefulness of the extra health the buddy would've gotten. Hmm.

When I ran this, I let me Rebels get the guy out of the room and at the end of that turn, I deployed Snowies to the room. But by the next turn he was running for the door and I could barely stop him. It seems if he can survive that initial onslaught, he has a good chance of making it out alive.

~D

When I ran this, I let me Rebels get the guy out of the room and at the end of that turn, I deployed Snowies to the room. But by the next turn he was running for the door and I could barely stop him. It seems if he can survive that initial onslaught, he has a good chance of making it out alive.

~D

Yeah. Still seems really hard for the Rebels though. HKs roll three dice so he got worked immediately. The only thing that seems like it might work would be someone opening the door with the first activation, straining to get next to the companion, that character being Diala who Force Throws someone else in the way too? Hmm.