"Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" jokes aside, I can kind of get the Stormtrooper Precise ability and Surge-to-hit conversion. They're (theoretically) trained troopers and should be pretty lethal. I can maybe even buy the white die for the E-11 vs the black die for the Rebel rifle on the theory that the rifle is more powerful than the standard issue carbine.

I can even buy the "Nimble" trait for the Rebel Troopers, since they're in shirtsleeves, not weighted down by armor, and able to dodge.

But why do Rebel troopers have the defensive surge-to-block conversion when it's the Stormtroopers wearing armor? Shouldn't, maybe, I don't know, the two surge conversions for the two units be reversed?

Stormtroopers roll red dice (3 blocks), Rebel Troopers use white one. So even with the Rebel Trooper's surge to block conversion (1 block + 1 surge), the Stormtroopers has better defense.

The armour is what gives the Stormtroopers the better red dice for defense instead of the white dice the Rebel troopers get. The white die only has a single block and the single surge so gives the Rebel troopers a 1/3 chance of stopping a hit. The red die has 3 blocks on it, so Stormtroopers have a 1/2 chance of stopping a hit.

Surges are Just a way to get higher variance without needing a lot more dice colors, for example:

White w/o surges: 1 block or roughly 6+ save

White w/ surges: 2 blocks or roughly 5+ save

Red w/o surges: 3 blocks or roughly 4+ save

Red w/ surges: 4 blocks or roughly 3+ save

2 dice, but 4 different armor qualities.

Ah! I'd missed the different defense dice (stupid tiny cards on pdf reader). That makes much more sense. Thanks!

.......STORMIES.....love the discussion on the best of the stormies!....

13 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

Surges are Just a way to get higher variance without needing a lot more dice colors, for example:

White w/o surges: 1 block or roughly 6+ save

White w/ surges: 2 blocks or roughly 5+ save

Red w/o surges: 3 blocks or roughly 4+ save

Red w/ surges: 4 blocks or roughly 3+ save

2 dice, but 4 different armor qualities.

And with a simple keyword reserved for super tough units a 2+

31 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

And with a simple keyword reserved for super tough units a 2+

Wait, what?

18 hours ago, Weatsop said:

Wait, what?

The white defense die only has one block symbol so you can make a 2+ defense roll with a keyword. For example:

Defensive- when defending cancel all [block] results. Then change all blank results to [block] results.

This keyword would go on units with a white defense die and no defensive surge conversion otherwise it would be redundant. The keyword would take place during the modify defense dice step of an attack so the surges would have already converted to blanks, making natural blocks the one result that won't save you.

Oh! Yes, that's true. Sorry, I thought you were saying there was something that had that. Thanks for clarifying.