I'm just waiting on my starter set and expansions to arrive but was wondering how commander's work.

I'm from a 40k background where you get generic commanders as well as named ones as I am sure a lot of you know but does SW:L have a similar thing?

So do I have to take Vader or Veers if I am Imperial or can you nominate someone to be commander? Or is that just a promotions thing when you lose your commander?

Thanks in advance and look forward to starting the game.

You have to start with one or two named commanders in the official rules. And you probably want to. You're going to have serious morale problems with no commanders on the board. But I an others wouldn't mind cheaper and less powerful command options.

Rules state you must field one commander unit. For the current time, that means an Imperial must have Vader or Veers.

We may see additional commander options at some point, but that’s all to be determined. I am sure it’ll happen eventually, just no timeframe known.

Honestly, you’ll have some serious handicaps with a generic commander (such as if you lost your commander unit in battle), so you don’t really want to do that unless it’s nearing the end game and the trade is worth it. It’s really easy to panic a leaderless infantry unit.

16 hours ago, Doghouse. said:

So do I have to take Vader or Veers if I am Imperial or can you nominate someone to be commander? Or is that just a promotions thing when you lose your commander?

The former; promotions are only if a commander dies.

Keep in mind that Veers is, effectively, already a generic commander insofar as that's his role in the movie.

Nice one, thanks for the help.

Veers' command cards are pretty useful. I could see a truly generic commander costing half what he does.

On 6/19/2018 at 6:33 PM, Doghouse. said:

I'm just waiting on my starter set and expansions to arrive but was wondering how commander's work.

I'm from a 40k background where you get generic commanders as well as named ones as I am sure a lot of you know but does SW:L have a similar thing?

So do I have to take Vader or Veers if I am Imperial or can you nominate someone to be commander? Or is that just a promotions thing when you lose your commander?

Thanks in advance and look forward to starting the game.

No but I fully intend to use Veers instead of Vader cause he's generic looking, and repaint Luke as jedi-in-hiding # 37, after the fashion of RPG characters.

As a houserule variant: Just using the promotion rule at the start of the game seems to be balanced well enough, at least in a casual environment.