About time!

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/12/29/pitched-battle/

Nice. It’s easier to suppress/rout enemy units than I thought, unless Commanders are near. This makes Vader’s immunity to morale MUCH better.

Nice to see how melee engagement/retreat works too.

Not much else new, but nice tidbits nonetheless!

I guess vader is much more worth it at 200 pts. With him leading, troopers around him basically become an unmovable blob

So it pay to either outnumber your opponent, or run multiple armor. Mind you, a unit has to be half dead before it breaks anyway,,,,,,

Supression tokens increasing your cover means you need to pay attention to activation order when shooting the same target more than once - imagine Rebels with a Dodge token in heavy cover, after the first shot brings them up to Cover 3.

Also means that to maximize total damage output, you want to shoot a different target with every unit that can, which means all your suppression will dissipate at the end of the round and you'll take forever to actually kill anything.

1 minute ago, svelok said:

Supression tokens increasing your cover means you need to pay attention to activation order when shooting the same target more than once - imagine Rebels with a Dodge token in heavy cover, after the first shot brings them up to Cover 3.

Also means that to maximize total damage output, you want to shoot a different target with every unit that can, which means all your suppression will dissipate at the end of the round and you'll take forever to actually kill anything.

cover only works against ranged attacks. get them to hit the deck and then charge!

Am I reading it correctly that suppression required to "flee" will get lower as units die, but will be hard to initiate when a squad is more full.

Assuming 5 Stormtroopers, they each have 1 courage. So 10 suppression tokens (double the courage) to make that squad flee. However, if you do damage and whittle the squad down to just 2 troopers, then its only 4 suppression tokens to cause them to flee.

Is my understanding accurate?

1 minute ago, Copes said:

Am I reading it correctly that suppression required to "flee" will get lower as units die, but will be hard to initiate when a squad is more full.

Assuming 5 Stormtroopers, they each have 1 courage. So 10 suppression tokens (double the courage) to make that squad flee. However, if you do damage and whittle the squad down to just 2 troopers, then its only 4 suppression tokens to cause them to flee.

Is my understanding accurate?

Yep.

And since the game is 6 rounds, that could be really crucial on turns 5/6, where losing a round really hurts. Conversely, you'll want to keep a babysitter Commander near your own low-health units so they sit put.

7 minutes ago, Copes said:

Am I reading it correctly that suppression required to "flee" will get lower as units die, but will be hard to initiate when a squad is more full.

Assuming 5 Stormtroopers, they each have 1 courage. So 10 suppression tokens (double the courage) to make that squad flee. However, if you do damage and whittle the squad down to just 2 troopers, then its only 4 suppression tokens to cause them to flee.

Is my understanding accurate?

I believe this was how it was understood prior to this article. But based off of this article, it won't matter how many minis are in the unit. There courage is 1. So 1 suppression token gives the cover. Double that (2) reduces their actions. Anything over double (3+) will cause them to flee.

6 minutes ago, Copes said:

Am I reading it correctly that suppression required to "flee" will get lower as units die, but will be hard to initiate when a squad is more full.

Assuming 5 Stormtroopers, they each have 1 courage. So 10 suppression tokens (double the courage) to make that squad flee. However, if you do damage and whittle the squad down to just 2 troopers, then its only 4 suppression tokens to cause them to flee.

Is my understanding accurate?

well, since they show a group of 3 rebel troopers suppressed with 2 suppression tokens, I think Courage is by squad, not by figure.

5 minutes ago, Copes said:

Am I reading it correctly that suppression required to "flee" will get lower as units die, but will be hard to initiate when a squad is more full.

Assuming 5 Stormtroopers, they each have 1 courage. So 10 suppression tokens (double the courage) to make that squad flee. However, if you do damage and whittle the squad down to just 2 troopers, then its only 4 suppression tokens to cause them to flee.

Is my understanding accurate?

Given the example, I don't think so.

In the example a unit of 3 Rebels is shown as suppressed with only two suppression tokens on them. (Suppressed by exceeding their courage value)

So it looks like 1 more token and they start to flee. (Exceeding courage value by more than double)

Of course it also mentions removing tokens and, that sounds pretty common, so you'll have to really hammer a unit to get them to turn tail and run, and I suspect unless they are near the table edge they'll also be likely to rally before leaving battle.

2 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

In the example a unit of 3 Rebels is shown as suppressed with only two suppression tokens on them. (Suppressed by exceeding their courage value)

7 minutes ago, skotothalamos said:

well, since they show a group of 3 rebel troopers suppressed with 2 suppression tokens, I think Courage is by squad, not by figure.

Oh yeah, my brain actually somehow deleted a model from that squad when I read the article and interpreted it as 2 models with 2 suppression.

I'm still not totally convinced it's not multiplied by squad size; FFG preview articles have been inaccurate in the past. But until we have the full rules, that's definitely the most official answer.

has to be just one.

But the attack has to do damage (or is it just roll hits?), which means you have to fire at a unit 3 times possibly with damage to break it. It does make vaders master of evil command pretty brutal though ( when he activates every trooper enemy at range 1-2 gets enough suppression to break)

Just now, Ralgon said:

But the attack has to do damage, which means you have to wound a unit 3 times to break it. It does make vaders master of evil command pretty brutal though ( when he activates every trooper enemy at range 1-2 gets enough suppression to break)

It says " A single suppression token is gained after a trooper unit suffers a ranged attack that produces at least one hit or critical", which means you get suppressed even if you block the hit - as indicated by the bikes giving the squad another token but not removing another model.

2 minutes ago, svelok said:

It says " A single suppression token is gained after a trooper unit suffers a ranged attack that produces at least one hit or critical", which means you get suppressed even if you block the hit - as indicated by the bikes giving the squad another token but not removing another model.

yeah, i just updated my post, confused on that. That though encourages even more "swarm tactics". On rebs especially where the black dice are more likely to naturally hit filling out your 6 troopers is a valid tactical choice

Interesting, so volume of fire weapons like repeating blasters, and accurate weapons with better dice, will both be good at keeping the other guy's head down...

Yep. Supression is based on the courage rating of the squad. So to suppress Rebel troopers for example, you need 1 token. 3 will break them.

A supression token is gained when the squad suffers 1or more hits or crits from an attack, regardless of whether they are blocked.

Commanders are really, really important for keeping your troops steady under concentrated fire, as they probably should be.

0 tokens - fine, gain cover

1-2 tokens - suppressed, lose an action, gain cover

3 - panic, gain cover

That is right I think.

Plus any command cards that will add or remove suppression tokens.

Yes indeed. Looks like a pretty interesting system, and should play nice and fast.

I wonder if one of the common elements of special forces units will be higher courage values, representing the ability to work away from command units without risk of immediately fleeing when things get a little rough.

34 minutes ago, Lickintoad said:

I wonder if one of the common elements of special forces units will be higher courage values, representing the ability to work away from command units without risk of immediately fleeing when things get a little rough.

Should be, as well as vader speeder bikes are already immune.

To be fair @Ralgon , the speeder bikes are immune because they're vehicles.

4 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

To be fair @Ralgon , the speeder bikes are immune because they're vehicles.

And yet they dont have the armor keyword....... it's probably got more to do with how far they can move, and how easily they would end up tabled if they coulld be broken.

1 hour ago, Ralgon said:

And yet they dont have the armor keyword....... it's probably got more to do with how far they can move, and how easily they would end up tabled if they coulld be broken.

All vehicles are immune to suppresion. The gear symbol is how much damage the unit can take before it starts to malfunction. The bikes have a dash there because they only have 3hp.

4 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

All vehicles are immune to suppresion. The gear symbol is how much damage the unit can take before it starts to malfunction. The bikes have a dash there because they only have 3hp.

And cause if they crash they die instantly