Question about Davith before I write my guide for him.

If Davith has the Shrouded Lightsaber, and rolls two surges on an attack would he be able to use one of those surges to become Hidden, and then gain a 3rd surge for the attack by virtue of being Hidden, and use both of them to get Pierce 3 and +2 damage? Would he also be able to recover 1 strain if he had Elusive Agent?

3 minutes ago, Pollux85 said:

Question about Davith before I write my guide for him.

If Davith has the Shrouded Lightsaber, and rolls two surges on an attack would he be able to use one of those surges to become Hidden, and then gain a 3rd surge for the attack by virtue of being Hidden, and use both of them to get Pierce 3 and +2 damage? Would he also be able to recover 1 strain if he had Elusive Agent?

No, Spend Surges is step 5 and the surge from Hidden is applied in Step 4. Additionally the conditions themselves are applied after the attack, if I'm not mistaken; he must damage the target which occurs in step 7.

Davith - I think FFG really overestimated how useful Hidden would be. I get what they were going for with making a melee character that was based around stealth, but it's just not enough of a merely okay idea. Consequently, there is really only one viable build for Davith, which makes writing his guide much easier. We'll assume a build of Embody the Force, Fell Swoop, Falling Leaf, Covert Operative, Elusive Agent, and the Holocron. It can be tempting to use the Black Ops class deck to counter Davith, but he's honestly not powerful enough to warrant being the deciding factor on what class deck you go with. Even fully tricked out with a great melee weapon, attachments and 12 or 13 XP, he's not as good as Diala or Gaarkhan. You might not realize it, but Davith consumes a surprisingly large amount of strain. It's easy for Rebels to fall into the trap of using Force Speed, and then using strain to take movement so that they can have two actions to attack. If they do that and then use the Holocron to use use Falling Leaf twice, well there goes all of Davith's strain in just one round. This makes Trandoshans and Nexu pretty effective against him. If he does get close, consider backing him up with Wing Guard to act as a meat shield and make sure that he's always low on strain, unless of course he's got a weapon with Cleave or there's another hero with Blast, in which case spread out and switch in units with a bit more muscle. By the end game he will hit rather hard, but he's squishy enough that persistence with mid-range units will pay off.

Condition Keywords (Hide, Focus, Weaken, Bleed, Stun) grant the corresponding condition (hidden, focused, weakened, bleeding, stunned) after the attack resolves if the target suffered damage from the attack.

I think FFG underestimated the power of focused instead of overvaluing hidden. (See power tokens.)

With the right surge abilities hidden does not fall that short of focused because what it loses in max damage it covers with consistency.

My biggest problem with playing as Davith (and conversely the Imperial player's biggest advantage, IMO) is that Davith gets completely neutered when he's flipped to his wounded side. Davith's abilities work best when he's flitting around the board from one target to another using force speed, getting lots of attacks in. Once he's wounded he not only loses his force speed but he's reduced to three speed and three endurance - completely crippling for a melee figure with no other special movement abilities outside of Fell Swoop.

So my advice when playing against Davith? Hit him early and often until he is wounded, then try not to feel too bad for your rebel player who's now stuck with a suddenly terrible character for the rest of the mission

3 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

It's easy for Rebels to fall into the trap of using Force Speed, and then using strain to take movement so that they can have two actions to attack. If they do that and then use the Holocron to use use Falling Leaf twice, well there goes all of Davith's strain in just one round.

I don't know about this. Assuming he starts his activation hidden: he can take 3 strain to move four spaces, attack with Falling Leaf to max him out, regain hidden to recover a strain with Elusive Agent and spend any additional surge to recover. He's already recovered half of that strain used. Using Fell Swoop he can potentially recover two more while attacking. I don't think it's that much of a stretch.

Going to take a brief hiatus from this project. Have to do research on the remaining heroes, finish taxes, and do some travelling these next couple of weeks.

1 hour ago, Pollux85 said:

Going to take a brief hiatus from this project. Have to do research on the remaining heroes, finish taxes, and do some travelling these next couple of weeks.

You've done yeoman's work on this guide, kudos! Take a good break ?

Let's talk about Onar. He may look like a melee character on his sheet, but while he is ALL tank, he's actually more of a bodyguard/short range attacker. By end game, his short range attack is incredibly powerful. Hold Still may look tempting for the Rebel, but if his base skills are actually being used to the best of their ability, the Rebel won't take it.

For this build, we'll assume Haymaker, Don't Make Me Hurt You, Black Sun Armor, Get Down, and either Stay Behind Me and Keep Up or Brute Strength. If I were the Rebel, I know I'd pick the former, but some people may prefer the latter. Either way, it shouldn't really effect the units and basic tactics you use. Note that Haymaker is Onar's only ability that actually consumes strain, which means he'll usually spend that on movement points, making him faster than he seems at first glance.

Melee units are no good with Onar. His Push and Haymaker abilities mean you'll waste movement points positioning yourself once he gets close to you, and you'll be softened up for a huge killing blow with his second action. Most of the time he'll rush his 4XP abilities, and at that point in the game RG's are still too costly to throw away. They'll have a big target strapped to them, and he's too powerful with that extra red die to risk them. Add in the fact that he can't have Bleed or Stun applied to him, and now Nexu and Trandoshans are not viable either. Units with Blast are good to get in another couple points of damage, but often these units are just too expensive and fragile to be worth it.

What you want is lots of cheap units with as much base damage as you can get to wear him down and waste his abilities on. These are things like Weequay Pirates, Jet Troopers, and Stormtroopers. These are okay units to use, but their large numbers are also present an opportunity for Vinto, who is frequently paired with Onar, to deal more damage. The best bang for buck will probably be Hired Guns and Probe Droids. Even if Onar does destroy them, guess what? There's another right behind it.

A real game changer could be the just announced Death Troopers from ToL paired with Jabba. The Death Troopers are a pretty good buy, and their accuracy means they could hang back enough to have Onar waste his action moving or attacking Hired Guns. Once the Death Troopers finished, Jabba's cost of 6 Threat means he could immediately activate and order Weequay or more Hired Guns to attack with his Execution Order. That amount of focused fire would be difficult for anyone to stand up to, let alone a hero with no defense die.

Vinto

The Build - Rapid Fire, Desperado, Merciless and whatever combination of the following gets you to 12XP :Battlefield Experience, Sharpshooter, Shot on the Run, and Dead On. I've also heard of a viable build that gets rid of Merciless and takes all 4 of those other skills, but for this, we'll be going with the Merciless build. Why? B/c having that build effectively removes a major strategy for Vinto, which is to stun him every chance you can. If the Rebel doesn't have Merciless, send in a Royal Guard or Nexu to inflict Stun or Bleed, and then follow the rest of the guide. If he does go with Merciless, then you need to get a bit more creative.

The traditional way to deal with Vinto's white defense die would be to throw mass numbers of lost cost, high figure count deployment groups at him. Unfortunately, the whole point of Vinto is that he will make mincemeat out of those kind of groups once he gets even slightly close to them. There is one major thing that Vinto needs to make his skills work though. He needs Line of Sight. Yes, he can use Thread the Needle and not need Line of Sight during his activation, but for Rapid Fire, he'll still need both Line of Sight AND to have your figures within 3 spaces to use any of his other abilities and inflict damage on your figures. If you can position yourself out of range of his attacks, you can force him to use one attack to move, which will severely cut down on the damage he can dish out. Survive his activation, keep figures more than 3 spaces away, and he's got nothing to improve his defenses.

Recommended units include Elite Weequay, Sentry Droids using Charged Shot and Clawdite Scouts. All consider boosting the Sentry Droids further wtih a Jawa. If you are looking for a class deck, Technological Superiority or Hutt Mercenaries are both great ways to enhance these units, and can guarantee the extra surge you need to also allow you to include throwing Elite Stormtroopers or Probe Droids into the mix. Normally Vinto's white die would make these units too risky, but with the right skills from these class decks, their surge will guarantee enough range to be more effective and still stay out of range of Vinto's abilities.

Question about Vinto: Would being stunned actually prevent him from using Rapid Fire and Shot on the Run?

5 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

Question about Vinto: Would being stunned actually prevent him from using Rapid Fire and Shot on the Run?

No. They are not attacks and Vinto is not exiting his space, so Stunned has not effect.

On 2018. 04. 27. at 3:58 AM, Pollux85 said:

There is one major thing that Vinto needs to make his skills work though. He needs Line of Sight. Yes, he can use Thread the Needle and not need Line of Sight during his activation, but he'll still need Line of Sight to use any of his other abilities and inflict damage on your figures.

Are you sure his abilities are blocked by figures after thread the needle? It says figures don't block your line of sight so it should affect boltslinger.

4 hours ago, NagyLaci said:

Are you sure his abilities are blocked by figures after thread the needle? It says figures don't block your line of sight so it should affect boltslinger.

You are right. That was poorly worded. I'll edit it to clarify. What I meant was that he can't go around corners and that Rapid Fire requires both being within 3 space AND having Line Of Sight. The Rebel can use Thread the Needle so that figures won't be an issue, but map layout and terrain can still be used to one's advantage.

Shyla, the Melee focused Light Tank - The Build: Responsiveness, Full Sweep, Deadly Grace, Mandalorian Heritage, and either Proximity Strike, Remote Detonator or Swords Dance. The final one depends on how good of a melee weapon Shyla gets, (a great weapon will mean Swords Dance is more likely), while a less risk averse opponent will pick Proximity Strike or Remote Detonator.

Shyla's biggest asset is her absolutely terrifying speed. If she's paired with Gideon, she could move 15 spaces and still have an action left over to attack or open a door. She can Cleave a minimum of 3 damage from her melee weapon with this build, and perhaps as much as 5. Thanks to Mandalorian Heritage she'll also have reach. This combination of speed and reach with melee means that you'll want to deployment grounds of just one unit, maybe two if you know she'll have her hands full and you'll have time to spread out, but regardless of that you should spread them out ASAP. Hutt Mercenaries is a solid choice for going after her.

If Shyla is going to get up in your face, you might as well have good melee units to hit back at her with. Gamorreans can be okay in the early game when Shyla has fewer defenses, but there are better uses of your threat out there, and by late game they just aren't worth it. A better buy would be Royal Guards, Nexu, Elite Clawdite Streetrats, Jet Troopers, and Trandoshans can all work well.

Honestly the biggest problem with Shyla is that she's probably the most well balanced hero since Verena. She doesn't really have any obvious weaknesses that make her easier to kill outside of very specific situations. She doesn't do much for other party members, she has poor attribute tests, and she has little strain recovery, but her attack and defense abilities are solid, and her XP skills are great for throwing the IP off balance and having even the most carefully laid plans for positioning go up in smoke.

I feel like this guide is somewhat lacking and would welcome input from others on how to defeat her.

Shyla has a black die, so she is more susceptible to big attacks and conditions (unless she has Bacta Pump).

At least until she gets Deadly Grace.

Tried searching and can't find this info anywhere. Anyone know what's the maximum XP that the Rebels can earn in HotE? I thought it was 10, but can't find anywhere to confirm.

18 minutes ago, Pollux85 said:

Tried searching and can't find this info anywhere. Anyone know what's the maximum XP that the Rebels can earn in HotE? I thought it was 10, but can't find anywhere to confirm.

The minimum is 10 and the maximum is 11 from what I’m told. The winner of the first mission gets a bonus XP, so you know right from the start how much you’re getting.

12 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

The minimum is 10 and the maximum is 11 from what I’m told. The winner of the first mission gets a bonus XP, so you know right from the start how much you’re getting.

This is correct (for HotE).

Questions about Ko-Tun -

1. If a Rebel playing Ko-Tun has both Self-Sufficiency and a weapon with a power charger, would the power tokens offer +3 damage? Pretty sure the answer is no.

2. If Ko-Tun has Squad Cohesion, does Ko-Tun herself count as a friendly figure? What I'm really asking is if Ko-Tun is able to use a power token as an power token, or is it just the rest of the heroes that get this boost?

5 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

Questions about Ko-Tun -

1. If a Rebel playing Ko-Tun has both Self-Sufficiency and a weapon with a power charger, would the power tokens offer +3 damage? Pretty sure the answer is no.

2. If Ko-Tun has Squad Cohesion, does Ko-Tun herself count as a friendly figure? What I'm really asking is if Ko-Tun is able to use a power token as an power token, or is it just the rest of the heroes that get this boost?

1. No. The text in both cases explicitly states to add +2 instead of +1. It does not say to add an additional +1.

2. Figures are friendly to themselves and the text does not say another figure, so Ko-Tun gets the boost as well.

These last three are based only on my analysis of the heroes, and not on actual play with them. Still, I hope they are helpful.

Onward with Ko-Tun: Let's assume an 11XP build with Inch by Inch, Auxiliary Training, Dig In, Opportunist, Squad Cohesion, and Alliance Efficiency. The very nature of Ko-Tun's power tokens means she starts strong. A +1 damage token weighs much more on the first mission than it does in the finale. By the end of the campaign, her abilities will have the Rebels screaming out of the gate, stocked full of a range of tokens that will make them all hit hard and take less damage at the top of the mission. For this reason, I'd actually recommend not going after Ko-Tun right away. Pick off one of the other heroes first to make a crack in their collective armor and for her to exhaust her usefulness. You'll need some cannon fodder to absorb the power token attacks (regular stormies or Hired Guns are a fine enough choice, and guaranteed to at least harm someone), or you can rush Embrace Suffering from the Power of the Dark Side deck and use her tokens yourself. Once you've used up some of her tokens and are ready to attack in earnest, send in Riot Troopers or Jet Troopers followed by Nexu, Trandoshans, or Royal Guards. Riot Troopers with Manifest Aggression will be more likely to get off enough damage to survive an extra round (especially in the early campaign) and take up actions that the Rebels could spend dealing with the objective. Then your heavy hitters will inflict strain or inflict a damaging status. With no way to clear conditions other than taking an action, Ko-Tun will eventually fall to these kinds of attacks. If you can sneak a Probe Droid in to Auto-Destruct, this can also be an excellent way to get around defensive power tokens.

On 5/16/2018 at 10:22 PM, Pollux85 said:

For this reason, I'd actually recommend not going after Ko-Tun right away.

It may or may not be surprising to some, but Opportunist is key to this point. Her abilities require some level of proximity, without it knocking her down to three speed and three endurance either hurts the pace of the group overall or forces them to move out of her support range.

I opted to take Fire Support Specialist in a LotA campaign and she was wounded in the first round of a mission. Not having Opportunist in that situation hurt big time. Inch by Inch was not helpful enough.

If the Rebels have a long way to go in a mission and she doesn't have that card, that's the time to hit her first.

2 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

It may or may not be surprising to some, but Opportunist is key to this point. Her abilities require some level of proximity, without it knocking her down to three speed and three endurance either hurts the pace of the group overall or forces them to move out of her support range.

I opted to take Fire Support Specialist in a LotA campaign and she was wounded in the first round of a mission. Not having Opportunist in that situation hurt big time. Inch by Inch was not helpful enough.

If the Rebels have a long way to go in a mission and she doesn't have that card, that's the time to hit her first.

Agreed. I've always tried to base what I write off the "biggest baddest" version of that hero. FSS seemed more situational, and thus less useful and less common to be chosen by the Rebels. With Opportunist, it is entirely possible for Ko-Tun to never actually perform a move. She can just use her abilities and strain to get where she needs to go. This leaves her with more actions to attack with, and was why I went with that in my build. With FFS, Ko-Tun herself and you are much more vulnerable, while her allies obviously have a real boost. FSS still depends on her being close to them though, so you'll need to bring units that can effectively counter both her, and those in her orbit. If those other Rebels lack Cleave, Blast, or other "splash damage" abilities, you might also try having 88-Z put up energy shields and having units shoot her from behind those. I'd also keep an eye out for opportunities to ambush her and have a Nexu or Royal Guard deploy as she passes an activation point.

Drokatta - Drokatta's biggest weakness is the fact that she has nothing that boosts her defense. Sure, she can get +2 health for just 1XP, which is great, but there's nothing that actually reduces the damage that the IP can dish out. No extra blocks, no cancelling surges, no rerolls, no endurance boost, nothing. There is a build of Drokatta out there that is more deadly to heavy hitters and melee attackers that involves using Shrapnel Rounds and Wookie Wrath, but Wookie Wrath can be played around by attacking with melee after she activates, and the whole build seems like a poor use of her skills. Drokatta wants to be a heavy damage dealer and the player is going to be strongly tempted to go down that route. If you've got four Rebels, and Drokatta feels the need to use that other build, someone else on that team is not doing their job. That's great for the IP, but also not something you should count on.

For this reason, the build I'll be using has Thermal Explosives, Structural Exploitation, Repeater Cannon, Wookie Roar, and either Charging Up or Leave No One Behind. If you're playing a campaign other than HotE and you're planning for a 12XP build, I'd plan for both of the 1XP skills or maybe they go wild card and choose Shrapnel Rounds, but I just don't see most people being able to resist that extra two health for just 1XP.

So with that, I actually think Drokatta is pretty easy to counter. She's plenty deadly, but her weaknesses are glaring. Wide open spaces are the worst for Drokatta, as it's the easiest to play around her Demolish ability. Rush in with a Royal Guard or Nexu on one flank to inflict Stun or Bleed, and have some Jet Troopers or Hired Guns spread out on the other flank and attack. Jet Troopers are great because they can cancel out one surge and it will be absolutely critical to make sure Drokatta doesn't get two surges and take advantage of her Repeater Cannon. If you are expecting narrow hallways or corridors, Electromagnetic Disruptors from the Reactive Defenses deck can get you the extra evade, which gives you more options for other units to use. Drokatta's Blast ability does mean she'll probably have the easiest time of all the new heroes with taking out 88-Z though. You can accomplish the same thing by selecting Power of the Dark Side and giving a group Unnatural Abilities, plus Drokatta is particularly vulnerable to Embrace Fear, and she's an excellent target for Embrace Suffering.