I played a one-shot side mission (Ko-Tun's side mission, which was fun, though tough on the Imperials with Legendary heroes) using Reactive Defenses vs. Ko-Tun and Jarrod. I gave the Rebels 550 credits and 2XP, and the Imperials 1 Influence and 2XP, and set the threat level to 3. The Rebels bought the Charged Ammo Pack (given to Ko-Tun), Gaffi Stick, and Reactive Armor (both given to Jarrod). The Imperials bought Mechanical Protocol, and a 1-influence card that amounted to 2 extra threat.
My Initial Impressions:
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Ko-Tun: I was quite impressed with Ko-Tun.
-Being able to hand out Damage power tokens is very useful to make sure units get finished off even with early weapons.
-Inch By Inch is just as good as you'd expect it to be, a modified but still quite powerful version of Tactical Movement.
-Auxiliary Training was useful too, being used for both attack and defense die rerolls a few times. If it were just for attack rolls it would be bad, but because it can be used for either it's like a mini Admiral's Uniform (note that there is currently no restriction on which power tokens you can use while attack vs. while defending. This means you could theoretically spend an offensive power token during an enemy attack to enable Auxiliary Training, allowing you to reroll a white die in an attempt to Dodge).
-The Rebels mostly ignored crates (most of them were too far out of the way) but with any of the numerous abilities that allow heroes to interact with crates without spending an action, her secondary ability would be used a lot more.
Overall: Seems solid, and would only get better throughout a campaign as many of her abilities synergize. -
Jarrod: I seem to remember people had their doubts about Jarrod, but after seeing him in action today I think he could end up being a serious pain for Imperials (I'll comment on Jax next, so for now I'll just talk about Jarrod).
-He picked up the Gaffi Stick, which continues to be an impressive weapon (particularly for its cost), and it ended up having great synergy with Reactive Armor, giving him a more useful surge option than Weaken. Because of this he never attacked with the Vibro-Claws, but they were still useful for Parry.
-Speaking of Parry: despite being a melee hero with only 10 HP, Jarrod is potentially the tankiest hero I've seen in IA. Combining power tokens from Reactive Armor and Ko-Tun, his ability to Parry, and his damage recovery from Balanced Approach, and I could barely put a scratch on him. Now, this is partially because he was Legendary, and got to refresh his weapons for Parry at the start of each of his activations. But still - he's tough to take down. And he can pick up and ability that gives him and Jax an auto +1 block. Plus he has 5 endurance.
-Forward Momentum is really, really good. The +1 movement point for him or Jax is great at getting both into position to use Jax's Supporting Fire, and the +1 movement point whenever you use parry was only not used because I gave up on attacking him early in the mission and focused on Ko-Tun instead.
-Balanced Approach is great as well. As I mentioned earlier, the damage recovery makes him even tankier, and the extra movement point added to Forward momentum keeps him in the fight even as a close-range melee character.
-Jax: Jax ended up being quite strong as well. His damage is inconsistent (though there are ways to buff it in his class deck), and his Supporting Fire was used less than it could have been because of the auto Pierce 1 from the Gaffi Stick. But he did at least 6 or so damage with just his own attacks over the 4.5 rounds of the mission, so I think he'd probably end up being quite good.
Overall: Jarrod seems really good. I think he'll end up being a good tanky melee fighter, with some interesting team-support options too. -
Reactive Defenses: I like this class so far. Granted, I only had 1 class card, so I didn't get too much information on it, but that one card was seriously strong.
- The card was Mechanical Protocol, and it ended up dealing 3+ damage per round (when I was able to use it). Pretty impressive for a 2XP card! One round it actually did 5(!) damage. Needless to say I'd recommend picking this one up at some point. The fact that you can activate 88-Z right before the group that gets the 2 surge tokens makes it remarkably reliable. I gave them to Riot Troopers and Sentry Droids, both of which have multiple damage surges and so could make great use of them. The only downside is that 88-Z can almost never attack and give tokens in the same activation, but there are some class cards that would let you do this.
Overall: Like I said, it's hard to tell with only 1 class card, but I think this would be a fun class. You'd have to be careful to balance additional activations/movement points for 88-Z with better things for him to do, or you'll end up having a bunch of things you want him to do but only 1 action available. So build order will be super important for this class, I think. - Charged Ammo Pack: not bad for a 100 credit item. It was good to attach to Ko-Tun's starter, as she has no damage surges, even with her ability to give herself power tokens. I think it's a good attachment for any weapon which has the potential to roll wasted surges, because it's basically a +1 damage surge on a 1-attack delay.
- Reactive Armor: Again, a good item for people who roll extra surges. Maybe a good item for Biv, because he can use the surges from the C&P melee attack to generate Power Tokens? Also the +2 Health, for such a low cost, is great too. I think this is overall a very efficient item and would recommend prioritizing it even over the Combat Coat.
- Sentry Droids: With the Surge power tokens from Mechanical Protocol, these guys were quite good. Even with those tokens I never wanted to use multi-fire, but that's expected in campaign I think. Their Charged Shot did just fine anyway, and having the 4 range minimum and built-in reroll was really nice.
- Riot Troopers: I really like these guys. They're tough to take down, deal reliable damage, and adding Strain can mess with the heroes plans. The only issue with them is their 5 threat deployment cost, which makes them somewhat awkward to redeploy once they're defeated. So unless you have a discount from Endless Ranks, you should either try to keep one alive to reinforce or just use them til they die. 2 Threat for one of these guys is a great deal anyway.
- Elite Shapeshifter: I used the Streetrat form, and did some serious damage. But only 8 health for 6 threat seems a bit weak though. Maybe it would be better in Sharpshooter form. The regular version might be better too (though I wanted 6 threat instead of 4), but I can't imagine taking it over a Nexu or some Hired Guns with buffs. I guess if you want to be more thematic Shapeshifters are fun, but otherwise you'll probably want to just use them when the mission gives them to you. Though I guess there is something to be said for flexibility: you can take one of these as an open group even if you don't know which form will be most useful.
- Power Tokens: Power tokens are an interesting addition to the game because their value is a little difficult to assess. How good is "~: +1 Damage Power Token"? Because of the items and heroes used, the Rebels ended up having a lot of power tokens. Each hero had 1 or 2 most of the time, which was surprising to me. And it feels a little silly to use a Block power token when your opponent has used a Damage power token, because you know they'll end up cancelling out. So I'm not really sure what to think of power tokens. At least they're not very complicated.
In general, it was a fun mission, and Jarrod and Ko-Tun seem like fun, interesting, and powerful heroes! I'll have to look more at the Reactive Defenses deck, because I think there are some builds of that deck which would be abysmally bad, so I'll have to think carefully about how to build it if I want to use it. And it's hard to resist the lure of the Dark Side... 