https://teamcovenant.com/podcast/emperor-palpatine-initial-thoughts

The great Emperor Palpatine was revealed today and here is what we think about him! Let us know what you think and if you'll be playing him.

Good review but on the point about "And now you die." Palpatine is not the first unit that can make more than one attack in his activation. Luke can do it with Son of Skywalker. Yes it is enabled by a Command Card but so is Palp's. That said, Palp is the first that can do more than two.

Hard to say how he will go with what we see. At 210 points he a great commander but at 240 I'm not sure if he will be able to do enough damage to justify his cost and I cant see buying force powers for him as it will just make him more expensive if he's 240 points so basically we get master of the force that pretty much does nothing unless you spend more points on him. Well Empire needed another command but another expensive one . . . if hes 210 im ok with that but if hes more I don't know , I will certainly take him for a spin but if he stays I guess will depend on his points vs damage output and survivability

Makes we wonder who the equivalent rebel commander is going to be?

My money is on Yoda.

1 hour ago, Alphastealer said:

Makes we wonder who the equivalent rebel commander is going to be?

My money is on Yoda.

I think the rebels won't get a commander but a special operative to equal out with wave 3 (Han/Boba).
Chewie, Old Ben or R2 + C3 would be obvious choices for the rebels that don't quite make it to a commander but aren't normal units either.

My money is on Chewie.

9 hours ago, Crawfskeezen said:

Good review but on the point about "And now you die." Palpatine is not the first unit that can make more than one attack in his activation. Luke can do it with Son of Skywalker. Yes it is enabled by a Command Card but so is Palp's. That said, Palp is the first that can do more than two.

Leia can do 4

Also, so far every commander with a 1 pip card allows multiple attacks.

Son of Skywalker

Implacable (he might die before you pull his token again but he might not)

Maximum Firepower

Orbital Bombardment

Whipcord Launcher (no damage but gives 2 suppression)

And Now You die

Han just has one printed on his unit card and can attack two units a turn (Gunslinger)

Pulling the Strings is the action that makes Palp a very interesting utility character. The card effect says (as best we can determine) “Choose a friendly trooper unit at range 1-2. That unit may perform a free attack action or a free move action.”

I'm curious how this plays with relentless. Can you give a free move, they can take a free attack because they moved and then they can activate for another?

Am I just wrong on that (I'm probably wrong but I don't know)

3 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

Pulling the Strings is the action that makes Palp a very interesting utility character. The card effect says (as best we can determine) “Choose a friendly trooper unit at range 1-2. That unit may perform a free attack action or a free move action.”

I'm curious how this plays with relentless. Can you give a free move, they can take a free attack because they moved and then they can activate for another?

Am I just wrong on that (I'm probably wrong but I don't know)

I would say yes, because it give a free attack or move action, and those abilities key on move actions. This makes it extra awesome, unless it was a mistake and is fixed.

2 minutes ago, Qwrety77 said:

I would say yes, because it give a free attack or move action, and those abilities key on move actions. This makes it extra awesome, unless it was a mistake and is fixed.

Wait, yes I'm wrong or yes this procs relentless outside of the units normal activation thus allowing for two attacks in a round?

Just now, Zrob314 said:

Wait, yes I'm wrong or yes this procs relentless outside of the units normal activation thus allowing for two attacks in a round?

I think that you are correct, based on the wording. If I'm also wrong, I would like someone to explain why.

Leia usually runs out of valid targets before she runs out of attacks (range or LOS). But her attack isnt anywhere near as devastating.

I dont expect Rebels to get an equiv commander. This is the CivilWar era, the Yoda of this era is a hermit not a battle monster. If we get him he'd probably be some weird Operative not a Commander.

If Rebels ever got a stronger commander it would probably be Obi-wan, and even then he wouldnt be much stronger (3red 3black?) and probably have a self-sacrifice gimick to worry about.
Or, perhaps, ROTJ Luke where he has green saber and has "complete his training" - where hes considerably stronger but way more expensive (and obviously cant have both lukes)

3 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Leia usually runs out of valid targets before she runs out of attacks (range or LOS). But her attack isnt anywhere near as devastating.

I doubt Sheeve will be able to make more than 2 attacks on anything but the rarest of times either.

8 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Leia usually runs out of valid targets before she runs out of attacks (range or LOS). But her attack isnt anywhere near as devastating.

I've played multiple games with her now, and unless it's Limited Visibility I've always had multiple targets to choose from in the first round, even if I had to move or clamber to get LOS

Obviously, Sheev's attack is way more powerful (Pierce, Suppressive), and getting 2-3 extra attacks form "And now..." does seem reasonable. Depending on whether he can get enough targets within his limited range, he can wipe 2 trooper units, or heavily cripple 3.

Leia's attack isnt exactly weak either, 3 black with pierce1 and FU COVER (considering cover is counted before its negated i kinda feel Sharpshooter2 is a bit weird being able to 100% negate cover), but yeah Palp's is definitely stronger.
Leia isnt taken for her offense though. In fact i rarely ever get to attack with her because im usually busy hiding her so she doesnt get zerged suddenly lol. Guardian only works against Hits and only 1 hit per attack (per unit near her thats valid anyway) so she can die pretty dang quick if you arent careful.

I am pretty sure you got his point cost wrong. He is 210 or 270. No way that is a 240 on that card.

On top of his dice being pretty good, he surges on offense and defense! This is the first commander to surge into crits on offense and blocks on defense.

Leia and Han beg to differ

And Boba, but he is an operative not a commander.

1 minute ago, TallGiraffe said:

On top of his dice being pretty good, he surges on offense and defense! This is the first commander to surge into crits on offense and blocks on defense.

Leia and Han beg to differ

It's almost like they haven't played the game.....

2 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

It's almost like they haven't played the game.....

Unless they meant first Imperial Commander.

And they forgot Boba also has Red with defensive surges but he isn't out yet so I will give em a pass there.

Just now, TallGiraffe said:

Unless they meant first Imperial Commander.

Yeah but they had that pretty glaring error that "(Palatine) is the first time a character has been able to make more than 1 attack within their own activation" when he's like the 6th...8th if you count Wedge and Weiss as "characters".

23 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

Yeah but they had that pretty glaring error that "(Palatine) is the first time a character has been able to make more than 1 attack within their own activation" when he's like the 6th...8th if you count Wedge and Weiss as "characters".

No you're right, I should have clarified this Imperial only and focused on primary attack dice and not some special die attack pool from a command card. Thanks for pointing that out, I edited the article to clarify.
I was so excited to see Palpatine I couldn't write that article fast enough

I think "And Now..." is a good, though risky, counter to Son of Skywalker. Luke charges in on the last activation, hopefully hitting the RGs. Then, you both throw your 1 pips down. If you win the roll off, you can activate Palps, tell your RGs to whack Luke, force push him away, then blast him with lightning at least twice. This means Luke is immobilized, suppressed, and probably hurting. All he can do is double blaster shot, which is not exactly ideal. Not something to rely on, but effective if pulled off. You could also do the same thing if he charges in too early in a round, but I like the picture in my head.

11 hours ago, Qwrety77 said:

I think "And Now..." is a good, though risky, counter to Son of Skywalker. Luke charges in on the last activation, hopefully hitting the RGs. Then, you both throw your 1 pips down. If you win the roll off, you can activate Palps, tell your RGs to whack Luke, force push him away, then blast him with lightning at least twice. This means Luke is immobilized, suppressed, and probably hurting. All he can do is double blaster shot, which is not exactly ideal. Not something to rely on, but effective if pulled off. You could also do the same thing if he charges in too early in a round, but I like the picture in my head.

Palpatine using masses of force lighting as a counter to a lightsaber-wielding luke trying to attack him is kind of perfect, to be honest.

On 7/11/2018 at 9:23 AM, Zrob314 said:

Leia can do 4

Also, so far every commander with a 1 pip card allows multiple attacks.

Son of Skywalker

Implacable (he might die before you pull his token again but he might not)

Maximum Firepower

Orbital Bombardment

Whipcord Launcher (no damage but gives 2 suppression)

And Now You die

Han just has one printed on his unit card and can attack two units a turn (Gunslinger)

You’re right. I should have said melee attacks. Vader is different because he gives himself a second activation. Palpatine and Luke are both during a single activation.

Will repeat what I said on a discord with the Tabletop Simulator: Played a battle where I had to kill luke (he was jumping around carrying objectives) and all I did in four shots was 1 wound on him (and 8 suppression) for 3 wounds on me (and 3 supression), and that was with rerolls to attack on three of these attacks, against a target in the open (light cover due to suppression after the first attack).

Palp's way way waaaaaay too slow, because unlike other force users he can't move and do something in the same action. YOu either keep up with your units or you stay behind doing very little.

If you use his special action to make an other unit move or shoot, it really has to be for something special (full list here: Vader moving again and shooting, snowtroopers firing with flamethrower, E-Web shooting despite having moved, Stormtroopers with HH12 that moved or shot then recovered) because otherwise he'll jsut be crawling at speed 1.

He has a great armour save but... Only 5HP on 210 points : That's impressively dangerous and prone to bad rolls (unlike Vader that still has a decent save but is a real monster). Boba has the same save but is much more able to play with terrain thanks to his jump to get some cover/LoS, and is much cheaper. To compensate, you either hire IRG or Stormtroopers around you while getting esteemed leader.

His firepower is impressive... But still range 2 on something that moves at speed 1. Found it hard to reach your target with fleet troopers? Now, imagine with Emperor Palpatine.

in order to use his 1 pip card efficiently, you need force push: Target is at range 3 in the middle of other troops and already activated? Move move then force push in contact with you to 1 pip afterwards: Toast them with your sparks then repeat against anything in range... after that palp is dead because he's low on HP in the middle of (quite suppressed but still alive) opponents.

He's an overprived support unit, and a glorified objectives defender. If you're the blue player and if the objectives are advantageous to the blue player and if you ahve good line of sight blocking terrain taht you can use, then sure, one of the objectives will be safe in his wrinkled hands. But he can't push, and costs so much you wo'nt have anything to push with him.

Thematically I hate it. The Emperor should not be rolling around in some platoon-level ground skirmish. I can see him as the BBEG in an Imperial Assault campaign since that game is more RPG-like for special operations squads, but Palp is just not Legion to me.

But I'll buy him and the Guards anyway, 'cause I'm a slave to FFG's Star Wars marketing machine.