Since fleet troopers is coming out I wonder if any of you guys have had any success with standby tokens?


I just don't see how you can use them effectivly. Let's say I have a fleetroopers unit in cover a little over range 2 from a stormtrooper unit. I decide to do a dodge and a standby action. Next the stormtroopers shoot my fleet troopers and rolls one hit. Now I have to discard my standby token and the stormtroopers can spend the move action going straight into range two of my fleet troopers without any trouble?

I haven't tried it in practice, but standby seams pretty weak and weird in theory if your enemy can outrange you.

53 minutes ago, jocke01 said:

Since fleet troopers is coming out I wonder if any of you guys have had any success with standby tokens?


I just don't see how you can use them effectivly. Let's say I have a fleetroopers unit in cover a little over range 2 from a stormtrooper unit. I decide to do a dodge and a standby action. Next the stormtroopers shoot my fleet troopers and rolls one hit. Now I have to discard my standby token and the stormtroopers can spend the move action going straight into range two of my fleet troopers without any trouble?

I haven't tried it in practice, but standby seams pretty weak and weird in theory if your enemy can outrange you.

It doesn't actually even matter if they outrange you, since standby happens after the action that triggers it. If that action is to shoot you and give you a suppression token, it discards the standby and you can't use it (even though being shot is the action that triggered it).

1 minute ago, Orkimedes said:

It doesn't actually even matter if they outrange you, since standby happens after the action that triggers it. If that action is to shoot you and give you a suppression token, it discards the standby and you can't use it (even though being shot is the action that triggered it).

Well if the don't outrange you, you can shoot them when they use a move action to move into range

Yes, but most things outrange 1-2 Fleet Troopers with some of their weapons. Seems it could be useful against Scout Troopers, or Snowtroopers trying to get into flame range, or anything coming in to throw grenades. Or if the unit needs to come around LOS blocking terrain to shoot you. I rarely find myself taking Standbys unless I'm objective camping and don't have any other good options.

So have not played any actual games yet but following others play experiences, I am also wondering how to get the best use out of standby, since Fleet Troopers are something I really want to play with.

Something I think about is that it could be a deterent, if you use a Standby action you create a zone where the enemy does not want to go into without getting rid of the standby, you are then forcing the enemy to shoot at the Fleet Troopers and not something else.
With units getting suppresed and only allowed one action, shooting the fleet troppers or advancing on an objective could be a real decsion you would have to make.

What do people say?

Standby is going to be an action where you want to hold an objective. Intercept the Transmissions is a good example. You have 3 stationary tokens on the field and need to be in range 1. Assuming you have cover, fleet troopers in standby will want to just sit on the objective and dare anyone to come close. Since you score on 2/4/6, those are the rounds to standby. On 1/3/5, you are moving to the objective or moving and shooting. This strategy is even stronger if you can block LOS, even though it seem counter intuitive. Think of standby as a deterrent instead of a delayed attack option.

You can also set up traps against compulsory move units. Standby also works great against melee units, relentless, and charge. Once the spec ops unit drops, I think there is a proton bomb upgrade that lets you set up mines. Combine that with fleet troopers and you can create a very defensible position.

If you're not looking to camp objectives, standby will probably be wasted. It will be more effective to always move and shoot, or double move and assign an order to activate first.

The best time to use it is when your troops are behind FULL cover. As in no LOS to other units. It can be great when you are behind to high cover, defending. Opponent knows they can't move around the cover to shoot, because if they do you will get first shot on them. For the fleet troopers it can also be useful if you have a speeder unit coming in on you that is currently out of range. Rather than moving to the speeder, sit still behind cover and standby, it will move then you can shoot.

Fleet troops are meant to work best in tight spaces, like, say, the corridors of a ship. They are ambushers who stand around a corner and dare you to poke your head out.

1 hour ago, Orkimedes said:

It doesn't actually even matter if they outrange you, since standby happens after the action that triggers it. If that action is to shoot you and give you a suppression token, it discards the standby and you can't use it (even though being shot is the action that triggered it).

A standby token may be spent before any effects that trigger
after an attack, attack action, move, or move action.

- rules reference pg. 41

After an attack, if the attack dice produced at least
one hit or critical result, the defender gains a
suppression token.

-rules reference pg. 42

You can use Standby before getting supressed.

Edit: Nevermind you actually can't.

What I’ve found, is basically, those who dismiss the Standby token out of hand, are also dismissing the 25% tabletop terrain rule.

5 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

What I’ve found, is basically, those who dismiss the Standby token out of hand, are also dismissing the 25% tabletop terrain rule.

I'm not dismissing it and I use more than 25% terrain usually. Just don't see a great benefit for standby with range 2 weapons.

24 minutes ago, Bdolfos said:

You can use Standby before getting supressed. 

There are 2 conflicting passages, actually. The lead designer clarified that the suppression comes before standby can trigger.

edit: here’s the reference. Question #5 of this post:

8 minutes ago, jocke01 said:

I'm not dismissing it and I use more than 25% terrain usually. Just don't see a great benefit for standby with range 2 weapons.

My point was, with my experiences with a proper 25% terrain - outside of one or two specific fire lanes, no shot made was above range 2 ... range 4 and 4- weapons were kinda pointless.

1 minute ago, nashjaee said:

There are 2 conflicting passages, actually. The lead designer clarified that the suppression comes before standby can trigger.

Yeah I just realized that.

Although situational, it could be handy for catching speeder bikes out with their compulsory move. You'd have to be pretty sure you're not going to be shot before the bikers move so setting it up is probably more trouble than it's worth in most cases but every little helps.

For other units, Luke standing his ground on an objective with a dodge and standby token would be useful for picking off a trooper or two as they advance.

Scouts are coming with a lot of black dice but only at range two and with light armour. They may think twice about advancing on a full squad of fleet troopers and vice versa.

I used standby to troll Luke.

55 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

My point was, with my experiences with a proper 25% terrain - outside of one or two specific fire lanes, no shot made was above range 2 ... range 4 and 4- weapons were kinda pointless.

Well not all terrain is line of sight blocking

I think with the Fleet troopers, what you are really buying is their white dice, not their ability. Their ability is pretty weaksauce (unless you can block LOS and create an ambush). For me, the Fleet troopers are meant to go to an objective (like Transmissions), and then lay down heavy fire on whomever is trying to contest the objective. With the shotgun (with pierce 1) or what looks like a grenade launcher (my guess is 2 black dice and Blast), they will be BRUTAL at Range 1-2. The Snowtroopers have a way better ability, but are slower and really need Range 1 to be devastating, while the Fleet Troopers are more effective at Range 2. They are a hard counter to the possibility of a Flamethrower rush, that's for sure. For me, I will like them as 'assault' troops, and feel their ability is just a bonus.

2 hours ago, landoro said:

So have not played any actual games yet but following others play experiences, I am also wondering how to get the best use out of standby, since Fleet Troopers are something I really want to play with.

Something I think about is that it could be a deterent, if you use a Standby action you create a zone where the enemy does not want to go into without getting rid of the standby, you are then forcing the enemy to shoot at the Fleet Troopers and not something else.
With units getting suppresed and only allowed one action, shooting the fleet troppers or advancing on an objective could be a real decsion you would have to make.

What do people say?

Standby is certainly situational and a nuanced tool in a game where you will be doing a lot of shooting and moving (and recovering).

But it rewards the creative player, which I love. Maybe use standby to create multi-unit traps, where the one standing by is there to protect a unit further back of greater importance. Yes, you lose standby if suppressed, but you've created a disincentive to attack your important unit--now you're dictating the engagement instead of your opponent.

Needs a terrainheavy table and narrow passages. They are definitely great for area denial.

Most objectives are about controlling areas of the board.

the standby token is an important tool to do just that.

but if you want surefire ways to use the token try this.

Set up a unit so they are out of LOS untill the the enemy moves and triggers their standby.

Standby will actually be pretty bad since it triggers after the initial action has been performed.

I've had it used once against me and I made it trigger with only 1 enemy mini having LoS on me so only one shot fired. Needless to say, it didn't feel much of a threat. I also used it once because of proper timing against speeder bikes and it was rather effective that one time. Rest of the time, it was pathetic.

3 minutes ago, Deuzerre said:

I've had it used once against me and I made it trigger with only 1 enemy mini having LoS on me so only one shot fired.

So you're saying it prevented you from moving your whole squad into the area? Seems like it's working as intended.

Not really no, I just oriented my blokes in a line, and they actually weren't my objective.

In my opinion/experience, the 25% (or close to it, at least) really needs to be LOS-blocking terrain. The remainder could be area terrain, but scatter should definitely be additional. Some mixture of long and short firing lanes is the idea. Movement then becomes more important, and standby becomes a very useful tool. Otherwise, yeah, I think standby is an edge-case tool. I've played a few games on more open tables. To put it nicely, those games were... uninteresting.

But back specifically to the topic: In either case I think standby has its uses, whether it is area-denial or manipulation of target priority. I personally have used the area-denial aspect to good effect against imperial speeders in particular, using their compulsory move against them. This is probably the easiest case to make use of standby, but I would also echo others' views above about defending objectives.

1 hour ago, Big Easy said:

But it rewards the creative player, which I love. Maybe use standby to create multi-unit traps, where the one standing by is there to protect a unit further back of greater importance. Yes, you lose standby if suppressed, but you've created a disincentive to attack your important unit--now you're dictating the engagement instead of your opponent.

I especially agree with this. Sometimes finely manipulating the opponent's decisions, rather than benefiting from the direct effect of an ability, is all you need.

I kind of get this feeling that Fleet Troopers are to Standby tokens what the Shadowcaster was to Tractor beam tokens in Xwing. Let me explain.

When Tractor beam tokens were first introduced in Xwing, they sucked, because you had to give up a whole attack just to maybe get 1 less AGI on an enemy target, maybe throw them on a rock. Nice, but not worth the time and effort. Just attack them. So, FFG realized it had made an anemic mechanic, so they tried again and again to buff it on certain ships (such as the Shadowcaster) in a desperate attempt to make them relevant. It was like "Hey guys, we made this cool mechanic...Please use it!" Standby tokens, overall, are too weak (Range 1-2 kills them), and Fleet Troopers are an attempt to make them more useful. While in certain circumstances they may be effective, I think the main reason to go for Fleet Troopers is all those sweet dice with surges, which is why they are better than just slapping Z-6 on a Rebel squad, at least at Range 1-2. To be fair, I could see them not succeeding and players just sticking with Rebel Troopers. I plan on a mix, for now.