With a droid based wave, the only thing I'm bummed by is there'a no K2-S0. It's a perfect opportunity for him.

Remember that the development time of an IA product is about a year from concept to production.

They got two Rogue One releases out for X-Wing already. If they can manage that turnaround, they could've done it for IA... if they'd wanted.

That's interesting... I wonder how they manage that. Maybe the level of thematic tie-in is less important for X-Wing ships/crew than it is for Imperial Assault figures and missions?

Am I reading BTs missile strike differently than everyone else? I read it as you get to pick which die you use red, blue or yellow. So 3 one die attacks against 3 different targets. Where are you getting the 6 die attacks? Or can you focus each of those with assassinate? He looks way too good for his health and points(1st time I've said that I think) what a beast!

I love all of them

I've been looking for a jawa type figure ( ugnaughts don't quite fit the bill)

Regular Jawa looks like pierce 1 surge, +2 dmg surge and native +1 accuracy, I'm guessing 3 health a strain causing ability and + 1 block

Elite has Leader and Smuggler which really opens up a lot of the Leader command cards for Mercs. I think they are more balanced and useful alone and more likely to be taken as a single figure ( who wants 3 short ranged easily killed figures, look at their abilities, they wouldn't work as a group) look out for super droid lists in Mercs with the elite jawa, HK, BT1, OoO, 3po and chopper or R2 to get your command cards

He becomes focused for each attack of the missile salvo ability. So it's either one 4 die attack with one of each color (my group likes to call that taste the rainbow) or three separate attacks with 2 dice each, one from the ability, one from focus.

My reading is that it doesn't work that way. He can auto focus when declaring an attack, yes. But the wording of missile salvo is very specific. You may perform three attacks with a red, yellow, and blue dice, only once per die. So that means you get one red attack, one yellow attack, and one blue attack. Not sure you can focus any of those, as the dice pool is specifically laid out. At most you would get to add the green to one of them. Otherwise, you would be performing the Assassin special ability more than once per activation, because Salvo is three separate attacks.

The first step of an attack is always declare target, and that means BT-1 gets focused for every attack he performs. For every attack the BT-1 performs, focused adds a green die to the dice pool.

(There does not seem to be once per activation limit in Assassin. It is performed once per timing instance, i.e. every time BT-1 declares an attack. Yes, it is the same thing as declaring a target.)

Am I reading BTs missile strike differently than everyone else? I read it as you get to pick which die you use red, blue or yellow. So 3 one die attacks against 3 different targets. Where are you getting the 6 die attacks? Or can you focus each of those with assassinate? He looks way too good for his health and points(1st time I've said that I think) what a beast!

I love all of them

I've been looking for a jawa type figure ( ugnaughts don't quite fit the bill)

Regular Jawa looks like pierce 1 surge, +2 dmg surge and native +1 accuracy, I'm guessing 3 health a strain causing ability and + 1 block

Elite has Leader and Smuggler which really opens up a lot of the Leader command cards for Mercs. I think they are more balanced and useful alone and more likely to be taken as a single figure ( who wants 3 short ranged easily killed figures, look at their abilities, they wouldn't work as a group) look out for super droid lists in Mercs with the elite jawa, HK, BT1, OoO, 3po and chopper or R2 to get your command cards

He becomes focused for each attack of the missile salvo ability. So it's either one 4 die attack with one of each color (my group likes to call that taste the rainbow) or three separate attacks with 2 dice each, one from the ability, one from focus.

My reading is that it doesn't work that way. He can auto focus when declaring an attack, yes. But the wording of missile salvo is very specific. You may perform three attacks with a red, yellow, and blue dice, only once per die. So that means you get one red attack, one yellow attack, and one blue attack. Not sure you can focus any of those, as the dice pool is specifically laid out. At most you would get to add the green to one of them. Otherwise, you would be performing the Assassin special ability more than once per activation, because Salvo is three separate attacks.

The first step of an attack is always declare target, and that means BT-1 gets focused for every attack he performs. For every attack the BT-1 performs, focused adds a green die to the dice pool.

Abilities trigger once per timing window; there is no limit to the number of times per turn they can activate. The timing window is when you declare an attack. a1bert has it right, every time he declares a target, he becomes focused, and focus adds a green die when you roll your dice. He hits one target like a train, or he can basically perform attacks equivalent to a similarly priced trooper group, with three two-dice attacks.

The three attacks need to be targeting different targets though, which is the compromise you will be making between the normal and Missile Salvo attacks. Maybe there aren't three viable targets, so BT-1 only gets to perform 2 attacks. Which target you choose for each attack is also an interesting choice, because you can only use each "type" of attack once.

Missile Salvo is an interesting option if BT-1 is close to being defeated.

The three attacks need to be targeting different targets though, which is the compromise you will be making between the normal and Missile Salvo attacks. Maybe there aren't three viable targets, so BT-1 only gets to perform 2 attacks. Which target you choose for each attack is also an interesting choice, because you can only use each "type" of attack once.

Missile Salvo is an interesting option if BT-1 is close to being defeated.

I'm imagining how much fun he could be with the nemesis class deck and indomitable... Extra black die, no harmful conditions, a couple of the other buff cards, and playing mostly droids... IG88, HKs, Probe droids, Jawas (for their buff)...

It's very interesting to think of BT-1 compared to the regular stormtrooper deployment. Has one more health. Now more points denial potential. Can hit one figure like a truck. Can hit three different figures if there's nothing worthy of truck hit or you'd like to try and finish off multiple things instead. You can use red green to hit one hopefully hard enough. Blue green to try and hit something far. And yellow green to try and get some surges. Those three attacks likely balance out to the static blue green three times of the troopers.

There's tons more to think about of course. New droid cards. New synergy from 000 and jawas maybe. And BT-1 is a hunter.

But it's cool to see how his cost and abilities and health really are very close, plus and minus the bonuses and drawbacks, to a very basic/baseline unit. It shows how they really are keeping the game inline power wise while being creative in how to make single units more worth consideration versus multi figure deployments.

Yet more reason to argue powercreep is not happening so much as the designers continuing to strive for units lining up with the desired power curve (new term I picked up from those extra credits YouTube videos about game design and power curve. Was familiar with the idea and just not as much with the terms).

With a droid based wave, the only thing I'm bummed by is there'a no K2-S0. It's a perfect opportunity for him.

Remember that the development time of an IA product is about a year from concept to production.

They got two Rogue One releases out for X-Wing already. If they can manage that turnaround, they could've done it for IA... if they'd wanted.

That's interesting... I wonder how they manage that. Maybe the level of thematic tie-in is less important for X-Wing ships/crew than it is for Imperial Assault figures and missions?

Much so, you may recall that Poe was a Pilot in X-wing months before TFA came out.

And now let us partake of the old ritual wherein two geeks argue at great length and with heroic fervor over whether or not something sucks, to what degree it sucks, and whether or not the other person should be branded a heretic.

I personally hate Chopper. He reminds me of prequels R2D2 and that was not a memory I like. I dislike Rebels for a number of reasons which I won't bore anyone with. Hera is the only decent "good" guy in the show. I like Thrawn, they seem to have done well by him. I would have much rather seen Thrawn and not Chopper. I do like Hera though, and it's a great sculpt.

For me Jawa is all about skirmish. There really is no reason to have Jawa (as there was no reason to Ugnaughts) in game based on squad based combat. It's gimmick-y and only done for the sake of the brand. Also that Chopper is there and Zuckuss is not, is a person affront to my sense of aesthetics. I too would rather have seen the RA-7 sculpt and not another C3-PO. That's pretty lazy, FFG, to just repose your 3D model.

It's very interesting to think of BT-1 compared to the regular stormtrooper deployment. Has one more health. Now more points denial potential. Can hit one figure like a truck. Can hit three different figures if there's nothing worthy of truck hit or you'd like to try and finish off multiple things instead. You can use red green to hit one hopefully hard enough. Blue green to try and hit something far. And yellow green to try and get some surges. Those three attacks likely balance out to the static blue green three times of the troopers.

There's tons more to think about of course. New droid cards. New synergy from 000 and jawas maybe. And BT-1 is a hunter.

But it's cool to see how his cost and abilities and health really are very close, plus and minus the bonuses and drawbacks, to a very basic/baseline unit. It shows how they really are keeping the game inline power wise while being creative in how to make single units more worth consideration versus multi figure deployments.

.

His health and defense is better with recover, I'd say he's underpriced. If you'd like to shed tears, compare him to Chewbacca --- same dice pool, but almost 3 times the cost and very one dimensional.

It's very interesting to think of BT-1 compared to the regular stormtrooper deployment. Has one more health. Now more points denial potential. Can hit one figure like a truck. Can hit three different figures if there's nothing worthy of truck hit or you'd like to try and finish off multiple things instead. You can use red green to hit one hopefully hard enough. Blue green to try and hit something far. And yellow green to try and get some surges. Those three attacks likely balance out to the static blue green three times of the troopers.

There's tons more to think about of course. New droid cards. New synergy from 000 and jawas maybe. And BT-1 is a hunter.

But it's cool to see how his cost and abilities and health really are very close, plus and minus the bonuses and drawbacks, to a very basic/baseline unit. It shows how they really are keeping the game inline power wise while being creative in how to make single units more worth consideration versus multi figure deployments.

.

I disagree a little, I think they're trying to keep things fairly balanced, but I'd take the droid over regular stormiest any day. His shot is way better except against dodge, his abilities are much better, his surges are better, he is focused for all of his attacks without spending an action or command card, his rocket launcher shot is better than all three of the regular Stormtroopers combined even with rerolls. He has droid (which is about to get better) Hunter (really good now and plentiful) and heavy weapon (imagine the potential of his shot with current heavy weapons' cards)

His health and defense is better with recover, I'd say he's underpriced. If you'd like to shed tears, compare him to Chewbacca --- same dice pool, but almost 3 times the cost and very one dimensional.

Oh I think he's stronge than the reg stormies (he's arguably based on two elite stormies). But not in an overpowered way. He still has drawbacks. Multi figure storm troopers have a different role they can play too. He doesn't suffer from a lot of the problems with many original single figure deployments. I won't even try to compare him to chewy because we know he was sadly balanced for campaign play before the game really found its curve.

As for his mission salvo, 2 dice attacks aren't super powerful. Don't get me wrong I think his is really intriguing, but his missile salvos will never be three dice attacks (without command cards) because they are already focused. He doesn't surge for 2 damage - just pierce 2. His potential to recover three times or blast three times sounds awesome though! And targeting computer could be really fun for him. And those hunter and heavy weapon cards we already have plus droids make me excited.

As for his mission salvo, 2 dice attacks aren't super powerful. Don't get me wrong I think his is really intriguing, but his missile salvos will never be three dice attacks (without command cards) because they are already focused. He doesn't surge for 2 damage - just pierce 2. His potential to recover three times or blast three times sounds awesome though! And targeting computer could be really fun for him. And those hunter and heavy weapon cards we already have plus droids make me excited.

My point was while he has to target different figures, his salvo is already better than 3 Stormtroopers, guaranteed 4 accuracy. Don't discount 2 dice attacks either. I've pushed 3 dmg through with 1 feral swipes roll which is just 1 die. Against both black and white, the defender can roll pretty poorly as well.

I've been waiting for droids to get a kick ( didn't necessarily need it but having command cards that are useful will make my probe droid uber powerful )

The real question is how are the the Jawas going to work? If they work like saska's shady contacts works, there's going to be a scary Merc droid list imagine this

HK 8

HK 8

eJawa 3

BT-1 6

eJawa 3

eProbe droid 5

Temp All1

C3p0 2

Chopper or mhd19 or R2 for scomping cards

As for his mission salvo, 2 dice attacks aren't super powerful. Don't get me wrong I think his is really intriguing, but his missile salvos will never be three dice attacks (without command cards) because they are already focused. He doesn't surge for 2 damage - just pierce 2. His potential to recover three times or blast three times sounds awesome though! And targeting computer could be really fun for him. And those hunter and heavy weapon cards we already have plus droids make me excited.

My point was while he has to target different figures, his salvo is already better than 3 Stormtroopers, guaranteed 4 accuracy. Don't discount 2 dice attacks either. I've pushed 3 dmg through with 1 feral swipes roll which is just 1 die. Against both black and white, the defender can roll pretty poorly as well.

I've been waiting for droids to get a kick ( didn't necessarily need it but having command cards that are useful will make my probe droid uber powerful )

The real question is how are the the Jawas going to work? If they work like saska's shady contacts works, there's going to be a scary Merc droid list imagine this

HK 8

HK 8

eJawa 3

BT-1 6

eJawa 3

eProbe droid 5

Temp All1

C3p0 2

Chopper or mhd19 or R2 for scomping cards

The list could be really fun. Can't wait to see the jawa power to bring droids.

I agree two dice attacks can get damage through. Especially when those defense dice fail. (The junk droid is a pain with one dice!) They just aren't as often reliable as three (which can also roll horrible sometimes). All I was saying is his two dice attacks are capped permanently at two dice attacks because of his always focused ability. That's how it gets balanced back down. I think that's a really neat way to give him more power while capping the way it can be abused. I think he's really good. While price wise being really comparable to two elite stormies and not super powered compared to regular stormies who are arguably relatively weak on their own anyways (yes they can be buffed or spammed, etc). We can compare him to davith for the cost to health ratio

Good stuff .

The first step of an attack is always declare target, and that means BT-1 gets focused for every attack he performs. For every attack the BT-1 performs, focused adds a green die to the dice pool.

(There does not seem to be once per activation limit in Assassin. It is performed once per timing instance, i.e. every time BT-1 declares an attack. Yes, it is the same thing as declaring a target.)

Assassin reads "Before you declare an attack, become focused." To me, that says that you can become focused before you declare AN attack. Not EACH attack. Once you have declared an attack on your activation, you have exhausted that timing instance. If you read it your way, then it makes very little sense. As you pointed out, the first step of attacking is declaring the attack. In order to trigger this ability, you would have to announce that you are going to declare an attack, but have not yet done so. But in stating that you are going to declare an attack, you have just declared the attack, so the timing window would no longer be "before".

But for the way I was interpreting, they could have just said "At the start of your activation, become focused." He cannot roll for attribute tests, so there would be no other way to spend the focus, so it would not make a difference.

Then again, "When you declare an attack, become focused" works just as well too. Why does it say "Before" at all?????

It's very interesting to think of BT-1 compared to the regular stormtrooper deployment. Has one more health. Now more points denial potential. Can hit one figure like a truck. Can hit three different figures if there's nothing worthy of truck hit or you'd like to try and finish off multiple things instead. You can use red green to hit one hopefully hard enough. Blue green to try and hit something far. And yellow green to try and get some surges. Those three attacks likely balance out to the static blue green three times of the troopers.

There's tons more to think about of course. New droid cards. New synergy from 000 and jawas maybe. And BT-1 is a hunter.

But it's cool to see how his cost and abilities and health really are very close, plus and minus the bonuses and drawbacks, to a very basic/baseline unit. It shows how they really are keeping the game inline power wise while being creative in how to make single units more worth consideration versus multi figure deployments.

.

I disagree a little, I think they're trying to keep things fairly balanced, but I'd take the droid over regular stormiest any day. His shot is way better except against dodge, his abilities are much better, his surges are better, he is focused for all of his attacks without spending an action or command card, his rocket launcher shot is better than all three of the regular Stormtroopers combined even with rerolls. He has droid (which is about to get better) Hunter (really good now and plentiful) and heavy weapon (imagine the potential of his shot with current heavy weapons' cards)

His health and defense is better with recover, I'd say he's underpriced. If you'd like to shed tears, compare him to Chewbacca --- same dice pool, but almost 3 times the cost and very one dimensional.

Troopers will generally be better. They can split up for objectives, they get rerolls, they can be focused, it takes a minimum of 3 attacks to kill them rather than 2, they aren't as crippled by conditions. Having 3 targets simultaneously with him isn't going to happen much, but the blast is nice. He's most comparable to heavy troopers, which no one uses because they're meh.

He's most comparable to heavy troopers, which no one uses because they're meh.

Except the world champion.

Assassin reads "Before you declare an attack, become focused." To me, that says that you can become focused before you declare AN attack. Not EACH attack. Once you have declared an attack on your activation, you have exhausted that timing instance. If you read it your way, then it makes very little sense.

If Assassin were a once per activation ability, it would be written differently. It would say edit: "Once during your activation, before you declare an attack, you may become Focused". During your activation would make the timing instance the activation.

"Before you declare an attack" is not needed for focused, so we'll see if the final product has the same wording. Whether Assassin reads "when you declare an attack" or "before you declare an attack", the trigger is declaring an attack, so you can perform it once per declaring an attack. It thus must be used for every attack the BT-1 performs.

We really do have a "before declaring an attack" timing instance associated with each attack due to having several abilities that allow to affect the declaring of target itself. It is not a new thing, but we just recently noticed it.

0.Before Declaring Target

- Trick Shot (Jyn, before declaring, for LoS)

- Target Acquired (Mak, before declaring, for LoS)

- Combat Spotter (Loku, for LoS)

- Marksman cc (before declaring, for LoS)

- Priority Target (for LoS)

- Mandalorian Heritage (Shyla Varad, melee attack, gain Reach or surge abilities for this attack)

- Nowhere to Hide (Hutt Mercenarices, hero with a Bounty token, figures do not block LoS, add a blue die)

If Assassin were a once per activation ability, it would be written differently. It would say "during your activation, when you declare an attack, you may become Focused". During your activation would make the timing instance the activation.

No, that would just mean it wouldn't work if you are Executive Ordered to attack, or get some other out-of-activation attack. If it were a once per activation ability, it would say "Limit once per activation".

If Assassin were a once per activation ability, it would be written differently. It would say "during your activation, when you declare an attack, you may become Focused". During your activation would make the timing instance the activation.

No, that would just mean it wouldn't work if you are Executive Ordered to attack, or get some other out-of-activation attack. If it were a once per activation ability, it would say "Limit once per activation".

Right, but I think the point was made. (Not allowing out-of-activation use would be a design decision though. There is no rule that an ability should work out of your own activation.)

He's most comparable to heavy troopers, which no one uses because they're meh.

Except the world champion.

Except... no, he didn't, he used eHeavy, which are not comparable to the droid as they are substantially better and cost a lot more.

Only thing BT has in common with regular Heavy Troopers is the surge to Blast 1, Deployment Cost and one out of his three traits. Literally every single other thing about him is different.

By that logic, he's crap and outperformed by regular Saboteurs, because they have Blast 1 and are 1 point cheaper.

I'm not sure why everyone is comparing BT to other cards. He's very unique.

Cheap, good health, solid attack, great traits and pretty insane abilities. The usefulness of his missile strike remains to be seen, but a free focus every attack is amazing.

His lack of surge for damage is the only thing keeping his cost down, otherwise he'd have to be about 8 pts.

I'm not sure why everyone is comparing BT to other cards. He's very unique.

Cheap, good health, solid attack, great traits and pretty insane abilities. The usefulness of his missile strike remains to be seen, but a free focus every attack is amazing.

His lack of surge for damage is the only thing keeping his cost down, otherwise he'd have to be about 8 pts.

I was mainly doing to allay cries of power creep. Basically to show he's not out of line with the power curve - at least not automatically and without lots of testing to prove otherwise. He has many aspects that are priced comparably to other units and then has very different things too, that make him unique and different and fill different spots. I don't think he acts like any other units at all really. Just that his power is within range of similarly priced things. The whole baseline argument of elite storms and elite probe droids from the developer interview.

Only thing BT has in common with regular Heavy Troopers is the surge to Blast 1, Deployment Cost and one out of his three traits. Literally every single other thing about him is different.

By that logic, he's crap and outperformed by regular Saboteurs, because they have Blast 1 and are 1 point cheaper.

Also comparable average damage, generally 2x GR +3 accuracy vs. 2x BR +2 accuracy, lower health, lower suvivability.

But whatever. You're not really trying to make a point here, you're just being argumentative.

I'm not sure why everyone is comparing BT to other cards. He's very unique.

Cheap, good health, solid attack, great traits and pretty insane abilities. The usefulness of his missile strike remains to be seen, but a free focus every attack is amazing.

His lack of surge for damage is the only thing keeping his cost down, otherwise he'd have to be about 8 pts.

Why WOULDN'T you compare it to other cards? That is exactly what you do every time you pick your deployment cards.

Only thing BT has in common with regular Heavy Troopers is the surge to Blast 1, Deployment Cost and one out of his three traits. Literally every single other thing about him is different.

By that logic, he's crap and outperformed by regular Saboteurs, because they have Blast 1 and are 1 point cheaper.

Also comparable average damage, generally 2x GR +3 accuracy vs. 2x BR +2 accuracy, lower health, lower suvivability.

But whatever. You're not really trying to make a point here, you're just being argumentative.

A BT-1 deployment card is different amount of figures with different speed, health pool, abilities, traits, surge abilities, amount of attacks, amount of attack dice, type of attack dice, and uniqueness than a deployment card of Heavy Stormtroopers.

But yeah, they're 'generally' the same and I'm just a **** on the internet trying to ruin your day.

Why WOULDN'T you compare it to other cards? That is exactly what you do every time you pick your deployment cards.

Because pure numerical comparisons are of little use in a system as complex and as assymetrical as this game. You could have two figures that are statistically 100% identical, but if they differ just by one trait, they would play radically differently.

Heck, if they'd differ by just the card back they'd be completely different. The 2pt Alliance Smuggler would be insane value for Mercenaries to have outside of Temporary Alliance, but is barely passable in Rebels.