I know what you're thinking, "what is he thinking?!" but hear me out. Our group has had a few discussions about neat attachments that represent gear, such as Combat Suit. Granted, Combat Suit should never be Neutral because the additional Pierce negation might be too strong for Imperials, but what if the Empire had their own equipment attachment?

This idea was designed to bring back Stormtroopers and Snowtroopers in a fair way, but we've debated whether the existence of Jet Troopers would make this card impossible to balance. Please let me know what you think:

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Laminate Armor - Imperial faction - 0pt (yes, I know)

Skirmish Upgrade, Attachment

Trooper Only (maybe also Figure Cost 3 or less?)

Increase each figure's Health by 2.

Increase each figure's Figure Cost by 1.

The prevailing idea here is that the 0pt ugrade would not inhibit army building but you are still paying for the upgrade on the battlefield. Your Stormtroopers are now 7 Health but 4pt/figure, your Heavy Stormtroopers are 10 Health but 5pt/figure, etc. etc.

This upgrade would push Stromtroopers out of Reinforcement-range and into Call The Vanguard-range as far as Figure Costs go, without making the group cost 3 more points during army creation. Let's be honest, 12pt, 7 Health elite Stormtroopers still wouldn't hold up to a squad of elite Rangers, but in this way you can field them at 9pt and then end up yielding 12pt through the course of the battle.

Hit me with all your thoughts, criticisms, rocks, anti-Imperial propaganda, etc. etc!

Interesting idea but from a development perspective 0-Point attachments that aren't tied to a specific card are a non-starter. The reason is that they block off future design space since players will almost never not attach them at 0 cost.

An upgrade that cost a few points (not 0) and increased the survivability of small figures by upping their health is a good idea though.

In practice this is a 3pt attachment whereas similar attachments like Cross-Training (1pt to gain Spy and a white die) and Vader's Finest (2pt to earn two new special actions) are effectively cheaper and suit different lists and play styles. I hear what you're saying though. I just felt that a flat 1pt for 2 Health per figure would be too cheap while 2pt might be too expensive, from an army building perspective.

I think we're more likely to see an attachment that adds defense to the units. I'd like a Trooper attachment that adds a block or an evade. It would do the same thing as adding health (extend figure longevity) in a cleaner fashion.

Cost 1/Imperial Trooper only/ Experimental Armor/ apply +1 Evade

Riot Trooper - Riot Control - Riot Trooper and all adjacent friendly units gain +1 evade while defending I'd still like to see blast protection specifically but the evade is a more powerful variant to that ability. Would come down to the cost of the units.

How about limiting an attachment to a Regular deployment card to try and promote the thematic swarm of bantha fodder Troopers?

"Wilhelm Scream" - 0 cost, unique attachment, regular Trooper group only

When a figure in this group is killed, your opponent recieves one victory point less.

I'd really love to see the eStormtrooper back on the table. To me, Stormtroopers are really iconic, when it comes to fights in Star Wars.

But I think they are still OK. They just need some new good Command Cards to back them up. Maybe HotE comes with some new goodies for Troopers.

I don't think any cost-3 Trooper is okay right now. You're not bringing a 3-figure deployment card that costs 9 or more in for just running objectives. You need these deployments to do some damage. Of all them, eStormtroopers are the most effective damage-dealers w/ Blue-Green, surge for +2 DMG and the ability to reroll one die when adjacent to a friendly trooper. But it's near impossible to get all 3 of them anywhere near the enemy without losing one or more, thanks to the increased damage output since Jabba's Realm. Furthermore, Reinforcements command cards take up a big part of your command card points, without the guarantee of being able to use it every game. Even if you do use it, you're granting another 3 points for your opponent to easily get in one attack.

Recently I've tried to address the issues with all the troopers in my Skirmish Overcost document. What I did was try to take a sweeping approach at fixing all the elite Trooper units that have a figure cost of 3:

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Unique Elite Skirmish Upgrade Card: Battle-Hardened Veterans

Cost: 0

All Elite Troopers With A Figure Cost of 3 in your army gain the following:

Increase Health +1.

If you have "SURGE: Pierce 2", replace it with "SURGE: +2 DMG".

If you have "SURGE: +2 Accuracy", replace it with "SURGE: +3 Accuracy".

If you have Squad Training, you now can be within 2 spaces of a friendly Trooper to use it.

I've tested this out with eStormtroopers & eRebelTroopers. With the Stormtroopers, the Squad Training range extension works fantastic, but it is still difficult to keep all 3 Troopers alive through the 2nd round. The Rebel Troopers (with their Blue-Yellow attack) need more help -- they're not averaging 2 surges enough to use both the +3 Accuracy and the +2 DMG on an attack.

I've talked with my son about adding a Reinforcement-like option to this card that can be depleted at the start of the round to return one Cost 3 figure to the game. But I'm also wondering if this kind of Reinforcement should be it's own card... and allow you to replace a non-Unique Elite Trooper up to cost 4. That would make running eEchoBaseTroopers & eHeavyStormtroopers more viable, but may make eJetTroopers way too powerful for thier cost.

2 hours ago, cnemmick said:

Unique Elite Skirmish Upgrade Card: Battle-Hardened Veterans

Cost: 0

All Elite Troopers With A Figure Cost of 3 in your army gain the following:

Increase Health +1.

If you have "SURGE: Pierce 2", replace it with "SURGE: +2 DMG".

If you have "SURGE: +2 Accuracy", replace it with "SURGE: +3 Accuracy".

If you have Squad Training, you now can be within 2 spaces of a friendly Trooper to use it.

This sounds like a great way to help out Rebel Troopers and regular Echo Troopers, if you open it up to "Figure Cost 3 or less" and convert the benefits to something more figurative like:

If you have a Surge with the Pierce keyword, gain a Surge for DMG of equal value. (Figures with Pierce 1 also gain surge for +1 DMG, etc, helps out Rebel Troopers)

If you have a Surge for DMG, gain a Surge with the Pierce keyword of equal value. (Like above, but helps out Stormtroopers, Echoes)

If you have a Surge with the Accuracy keyword, increase that value by +1 Accuracy.

@cnemmick: Actually, with all the damage output done by hunters, does it really matter if you have an eStormtrooper or an eWeequay, when you are on the receiving end of such an attack?

Worst case is 5 health vs 6 health and hidden. Standard case is 5 health + Zillo vs 6 health. In any of these cases the standard resolution of a hunter's attack ends in the application of the DEAD condition. At least the Stormtrooper didn't bring 4 points.

If all Hunter and Smuggler cards also had the trait Trooper, would this topic exist at all?

We need more good Trooper Command Cards!

Command cards and offensive upgrades aren't going to keep older Troopers on the board. It is more about their stats not lining-up with the new Waves and less about their options during play. I mean this in regards to all Troopers too, not just Imperial. cnemmick made a great point that units like Rebel Troopers and Echo Base Troopers are also well under the curve. I think these guys need more Health or defense instead of more offense.

11 hours ago, DerBaer said:

@cnemmick: Actually, with all the damage output done by hunters, does it really matter if you have an eStormtrooper or an eWeequay, when you are on the receiving end of such an attack?

Worst case is 5 health vs 6 health and hidden. Standard case is 5 health + Zillo vs 6 health. In any of these cases the standard resolution of a hunter's attack ends in the application of the DEAD condition. At least the Stormtrooper didn't bring 4 points.

Ok, let's take a look at the damage range an eWeequay can do on a Trooper. The attached two images shows results from the IA Calculator for a single eWeequay attack at Accuracy 4 (meaning the eWeequay will always hit). The colors represent the following:

• Red - vs. Black Die
• Green - vs. White Die
• Blue - +1 Surge, vs. Black Die
• Yellow - +1 Surge, vs. White Die

There's a 25% chance that a eWeequay that's hidden can do 5 damage vs. a Black Die, which would kill a Health 5 Trooper in 1 shot. These calculations don't factor in rerolls, which would push the 5 damage chance percentage up a bit. However, there's no way a hidden-only eWeequay can go over 5 damage. If we up the Trooper's health to 6, there's a 0% chance that a hidden eWeequay can one-shot a Trooper.

If your opponent uses a Focused eWeequay (or a eWeequay using Hunter cards) to try to one-shot your Trooper, it could mean that your Trooper is doing something important (like sitting on an objective or terminal). It could also mean your opponent is wasting a eWeequay shot on your Trooper instead of hitting a higher-value target.

I agree with you that Troopers need better Command card options. To spitball a bit, I would like to see:

• A "Call The Vanguard"-like card for Troopers with a figure cost of 3 or less.
• Giving a figure "overwatch", where the Trooper can attack when an enemy enters his line of sight at the cost of a Special Action (this would be most helpful for the eRebelTroopers)
• +1 Evade until end of round if adjacent to a friendly Trooper
• Something that gives all figures in the Trooper deployment card +1 TOKEN of some sort (DMG, BLOCK, etc.)
• Reinforcements card cost reduced to 1

How about

Dispendable - 1 pt

Skirmish upgrade (not attachment)

When a trooper figure costing 3 or less is defeated, you may exhaust this card to have that figure's opponent gain 0 vps instead of that figures cost. Vps are still scored from other abilities and from attachments to defeated groups.

Makes Reinforcements playable again.

I really like that idea. Nefarious would still trigger and it could only work for one Trooper a round but that just makes it even more balanced.