Shave and A Haircut: Two Bits
We already started talking about Kanan in @Rogue Dakotan 's thread about the Nationals announcement . Some folks were underwhelmed by his abilities comparative to his cost. Let's break those down a bit more and figure out where he stacks up versus other Force Users and how he could be used in your lists.
Attacking
Kanan's attack pool of green/green/yellow was exciting to see on elite Sentry Droids because they had all sorts of surge abilities to use. Kanan just has two surge abilities, but they're probably two of the best attack surges in the game. As usual, we'll be looking at the expected damage output from the calculator and are not factoring in any rerolls granted to Kanan by others.
red: vs. 1 black die
green: vs. 1 white die
Also, when Kanan is Focused, he has a 49% chance vs. 1 black die and a 35% chance vs. 1 white die to do at least 7 damage . That might seem like it's going to one-shot Jet Troopers or Riot Troopers. It won't: Jet Troopers will use Agile to convert a block to an evade and Riot Troopers should have their block token to save them. Weequays and Alliance Rangers should run, though.
Now check out how Kanan does against some common defenses. These are results from his normal attack pool:
Red: vs. 1 black die + 1 block
Green: vs. 1 black die + 1 evade
Blue: vs. 1 white die + 1 evade
Yellow: vs. 2 black dice
And these are results from when Kanan is focused:
Red: Focused vs. 1 black die + 1 block
Green: Focused vs. 1 black die + 1 evade
Blue: Focused vs. 1 white die + 1 evade
Yellow: Focused vs. 2 black dice
Not factoring in Vader's defensive reroll or using Zillo Technique to reduce the Pierce 3 to a Pierce 1, Focused Kanan has a 51% chance of doing at least 6 damage vs. Vader. If Zillo's Pierce reduction is tapped, that changes to a 22% chance of doing at least 6 damage and a 47% chance of doing at least 5 damage.
Now let's compare Kanan's basic attack vs. 1 black and vs. 1 white with other Force Users. First looking at the Force Users vs. a black die:
Red: Kanan
Green: Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker
Blue: Ahsoka Tano
Yellow: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Teal: Focused Maul
And this is Force Users vs. a white die:
Red: Kanan
Green: Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker
Blue: Ahsoka Tano
Yellow: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Teal: Focused Maul
From these results, we can see that Kanan is about the same as JK Luke and Ahsoka vs. a white die, but is worst of the bunch vs. a black die. We can also see that Force Users in general rely heavily on their surges to get a chance to do at least 5 damage. It would be great to set up a target for a Force User with Weaken. That means any ranged attacker can use Cruel Strike or you can include one of the following figures in your army: Saska, MHD-19, Tress or R2-D2. (It would be exceptionally helpful if either Ezra or Sabine had attacks that can Weaken.)
With a Speed of 4, Kanan suffers from the same issues that Obi-Wan and the Force Users of old have: limited mobility. There's speculation that more Force User cards are on the way to help. His Soresu Form ability (which we'll discuss more in-depth below) may help him move into more exposed places on round one so he can be in range for an attack on round 2.
If loading up on Force User cards isn't feasible, at least he'll benefit from Leader cards like Officer's Training, Advance Warning & Prepared for Battle.
Defending
14 Health is 2 more than Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan has the built in evade and Kanan does not. Speed 4 means he's not outrunning anyone. The black die is a black die... except it can be rerolled all game long.
The Soresu Form ability reads as follows:
QuoteWhile a friendly figure within 3 spaces is defending, it may reroll one defense die. If it does, convert each DODGE result to 2 BLOCK and 1 EVADE, and, if that figure is not a Force User, you suffer 1 STRAIN.
Given this wording, we can deduce that Kanan can use Soresu Form on himself. And since he's a Force User, he does not suffer a strain to do so. With a few decent rerolls, Kanan can expect to be defeated on the 4th attack from regular figures, 3rd attack if he's hit with harder attacks. Without decent rerolls, he might just go down on the 3rd attack no matter what.
And, of course, Soresu Form may backfire if your opponent has Tough Luck.
Kanan's command card, Protect the Old Ways, can also be applied to himself. The card allows you to add where you apply block results equal to 1 plus the number of discarded Force User cards. In the right conditions, it may block enough damage to keep Kanan alive and force your opponent to spend another attack defeating him. In the not-so-right conditions... at least it adds a minimum of 1 block.
Utility
With his defense ability, Kanan could hold down a control point for a turn, provided there's appropriate support from friendly figures. He's too expensive to collect crates with until the end of the game. He needs to be a secondary attacker on your squad.
The biggest utility will be from his Force Vision trait. It probably won't tell you too much in the first round of a game -- you'll likely have 1-2 deployments left and so will your opponent, and based on all of your opponents previous moves, you should have some idea where the rest of his figures will go. However, using Force Vision at the start of the 2nd and 3rd rounds will yield the most fruitful information. Knowing what deployment group your opponent is going to use next can help you decide if Kanan should attack that group (to remove the final figure) or a figure of another group (weakening it before it can go). Keeping Kanan in the thick of things is important if you want to immediately punish your opponent for the choice.
Soresu Form is great for helping other figures. With the penalty of a strain when using the ability on non-Force Users, Kanan should use it sparingly. (Though discarding Force User cards is a great way to amplify the effects of Kanan's command card Protect The Old Ways, which then can be applied to any figure within 3 spaces of Kanan for a big defensive buff.)
Conclusions
Kanan is built to be run with other Force Users. Soresu Form buffs nearby Force Users (at the risk of getting Tough Luck'd). Force Vision allows you to eliminate one of your opponent's deployments from the guesswork of who goes when on your opponent's turns... so your other Force Users can activate in the optimal order. Assuming there's more Force User buffs coming, we may find running Kanan with one or more Force Users become more viable. It'll be interesting to see lists where Kanan is paired up with Jedi Knight Luke (who tries to stay closer to Kanan) or Ezra and/or Obi-Wan.
We also know that Ezra will likely have an ability that requires nearby friendly figures. Currently on the teased campaign-only deployment card for Ezra, he is allowed to reroll dice based on the number of non-red eyeball skill dice of a player within 3 spaces. l think we can project that this ability reworked for skirmish will be similar mechanic of Ezra rerolling dice when near other friendly figures.
Putting Kanan as the only Force User in your list might not be too terrible if you're playing Jyn and Han Solo. Soresu Form's usage will be limited (Kanan and your command card deck can only be strained so much), but it will also allow Jyn and Han to reroll a blank result. Maybe some players will value having Force Vision over someone like Drokkatta, so that Jyn can get into position for a Hair Trigger shot on a wounded, unactivated figure. If he doesn't go early in the round, Kanan's lightsaber should be able to perform finishing blows on figures wounded by Han or Jyn.