As a rebel commander, I'm clutching at straws here. Darth's saber gets 3 impact and 3 pierce in melee. Should they still have that when he throws his saber? It seems that the three dice he throws, if they roll a hit (most probable with red dice), those are hits that can't be countered because they all become crits (removing dodge and cover?) and then pierce (removing shield rolls). Seems just a little too inevitable. At least in melee, you can dodge, cover and shield hits 4-6 and feel some satisfaction.

Impact only converts hits to crits after dodge and cover is taken into account and only against armored units. But essentially yes, pierce 3 makes any hit he throws that isn’t canceled with dodge or cover go through. Expect in the case of Boba Fett. Because Boba has the impervious keyword he would gain 3 additional defense dice, one for each instance of pierce, meaning he could potentially throw 6 defense dice against Vader’s 3 hits. In that case he would need to roll 3 blocks to cancel out the pierce then any additional blocks would negate the hits.

8 minutes ago, Arctur said:

As a rebel commander, I'm clutching at straws here. Darth's saber gets 3 impact and 3 pierce in melee. Should they still have that when he throws his saber? It seems that the three dice he throws, if they roll a hit (most probable with red dice), those are hits that can't be countered because they all become crits (removing dodge and cover?) and then pierce (removing shield rolls). Seems just a little too inevitable. At least in melee, you can dodge, cover and shield hits 4-6 and feel some satisfaction.

A couple points regarding impact: it only works against armored units, and it takes effect after dodge and cover.

Also, there’s no such thing as cover in melee.

But yes, he gets both keywords during a saber throw. Just the number of dice change. Vader is brutal!

edit: hah, ninja’d!

Yeah, Sabre throws are effectively unblockable unless you can throw more defense dice than the attacks pierce value.

Yes, those are good points. I guess my main point is, do you think Saber Throw should get the same amount of Impact and Pierce as being in melee provides? Pros and cons? The card only has impact and pierce for melee, it doesn't say anything about ranged. To me, the throw isn't as strong as the melee, or else it would have the same about of dice. Since it's only half the dice, I think at max, it should get half the impact and pierce.

And yes, this situation came up when he was throwing his light saber at my AT-RTs. And, yes, I could have/should have kept them out of range, but that's not always possible.

1 hour ago, Arctur said:

Yes, those are good points. I guess my main point is, do you think Saber Throw should get the same amount of Impact and Pierce as being in melee provides? Pros and cons? The card only has impact and pierce for melee, it doesn't say anything about ranged. To me, the throw isn't as strong as the melee, or else it would have the same about of dice. Since it's only half the dice, I think at max, it should get half the impact and pierce.

And yes, this situation came up when he was throwing his light saber at my AT-RTs. And, yes, I could have/should have kept them out of range, but that's not always possible.

Depends what you mean by "should". Are you asking if that is how the rules work? If so, yes. The keywords belong to the weapon, and saber throw tells you to do a ranged attack with that weapon while modifying the number of dice (and without modifying anything else).

Are you asking if it is good that it works this way? I would say Vader had better be powerful given the points you're spending on him. He is slow and has relatively limited range, making him a strong area-denial piece. Especially when you toss in his command cards. He's certainly not impossible to deal with, though. I've found that concentrated fire will take him down. And if you can catch him without his dodge token, you'd better take that shot (unless there's something juicier to shoot at).

I hope you're asking the question thematically, since the rules are very clear and you shouldn't have a question about that ?

If you need a thematic justification, think about the fictional properties of lightsabers - it's superheated plasma that simply cuts through anything. It doesn't rely on the user's strength, it just cuts. You see in the movie when Vader throws his saber at Luke and it simply goes right through the metal beams.

As for your poor AT-RT's...they're gonna get attacked, yo. As are the rest of your units. He's doing a max of one of these attacks to one of your walkers a round (command card notwithstanding), so worst case scenario it takes Vader two rounds to kill your unit. Do something effective within that time, it's all a unit can hope to do.

But if it becomes a "Ranged Attack" the defender should then be able to claim cover against Vader's hits supposing that the defender is in cover. Though it is a melee weapon the card states "Perform a ranged attack... ". That may help negate some of the pain that is Vader.

2 hours ago, Crawfskeezen said:

But if it becomes a "Ranged Attack" the defender should then be able to claim cover against Vader's hits supposing that the defender is in cover. Though it is a melee weapon the card states "Perform a ranged attack... ". That may help negate some of the pain that is Vader.

Cover works. Before impact and pierce.

I’m pretty sure we played this right with Pathfinders, but if Vader throws his saber and nets 1 hit and I roll 4 defense dice, his attack still has pierce 3, right? So even with one hit, I would still need to roll 4 blocks to avoid it? That’s how we played it since it seemed to make sense.

4 hours ago, smickletz said:

I’m pretty sure we played this right with Pathfinders, but if Vader throws his saber and nets 1 hit and I roll 4 defense dice, his attack still has pierce 3, right? So even with one hit, I would still need to roll 4 blocks to avoid it? That’s how we played it since it seemed to make sense.

Yeah that’s right, assuming you have 3 suppression tokens. If you roll 4 blocks the pathfinders would end up taking no damage in that case.

12 hours ago, smickletz said:

I’m pretty sure we played this right with Pathfinders, but if Vader throws his saber and nets 1 hit and I roll 4 defense dice, his attack still has pierce 3, right? So even with one hit, I would still need to roll 4 blocks to avoid it? That’s how we played it since it seemed to make sense.

not to be to picky but no you didn't if he saber throw and you have suppression you wouldn't of rolled anything as you have cover per your thing you already have 3 suppression so light cover. so the 1 hit would just go away from the cover.

7 hours ago, azeronbloodmoone said:

not to be to picky but no you didn't if he saber throw and you have suppression you wouldn't of rolled anything as you have cover per your thing you already have 3 suppression so light cover. so the 1 hit would just go away from the cover.

I assume by "net" he means after cover and dodge are taken into account.

Had a vader do exactly 0 damage against my troopers when he threw his saber. 2 hits 1 surge, heavy cover. No defense dice to roll (: Then he got shot to pieces - thats when he learned not to put his vader out in the open~