So the new commandos have been fully revealed and its exciting to get some new units to mix things up. Im gonna buy some regardless but lets look at their stats and see if there really worth the points or not and start a discussion.

Commandos base 4 man unit-60pts

First, 60 pts is 2pts less than a rebel squad with a z-6 so i will use this as a rough baseline for comparison.

-They both throw black dice at 1-3.

-Commandos have surge to hit with 4 black dice so average 2.5 hits.

-rebels w/z6 have 4 black and 6 white dice, no surge average 3.5 hits.

-Commandos have sharpshooter 1 so in theory they do the same average hits to enemys in cover as rebels. But rebels are still better due to doing more overall damage when cover is not a factor.

-Both have white defense dice surge to block.

-Commandos have scout 1. One time use at beginning of the game is not that exciting really.

-Commandos have 2 courage but if your keeping them close to your commander and mitigating suppression this is no big deal. If there on there own this can make a difference.

-rebels have nimble keyword. This is huge difference. And make rebels synergize with leia and luke with the force is my ally card giving out two dodge tokens.

-Commandos have low profile so having one supression grants them cover 2 essentially. So out in the open they have heavy cover. So combined with duck and cover they always have heavy cover but they will usually always have suppresion on them too. The problem I see is if you keep them near leia to manage their suppression, but they dont benefit as much from dodges without nimble. Away from leia on there own they cant manage suppression as well.

-also for roughly the same points the rebel squad is 5 man unit vs commandos 4 man unit.

So overall, the rebels will have a larger unit, are better being near leia to be supported with dodge tokens to make the most of nimble and dealing out more avearge hits with the z6.

The Commandos will want to be near leia to help manage their suppresion, or off on their own running ahead to capture objectives. With their low profile and 2 courage they can be very tough and independant, but their suppression has to be mitigated to keep them mobile. If there on there own, away from their commander and cant move twice to get away they could be focused fired off the board or forced to panic.

So this is just the base squad of commandos compared to a rebel squad w/z6. But what are your thoughts? And if i made any mistakes let me know so i can correct them. Thank you.

So now looking at heavy weapons for the Commandos they have a sniper rifle for 28pts and a charge mine for 26pts. The mine sabatour will be best in the small unit configuration beacause dropping the mine is an action so making a unit with black dice with surge to hit have to choose between move and shoot or move and mine drop, your wasting good black dice to drop a mine instead of shooting in my opinion. So lets just compare the sniper rifle heavy today. Now also i will assume you will be shooting at range 1-3 because if your gonna pay 88pts and just use the sniper beyond range 3 your waisting alot of points. Beyond range 3 is just a bonus to use once in a awhile.

Commandos with sniper is 88pts so lets compare to rebels w/ extra trooper and z6 at 72 pts.

The sniper rifle adds high velocity (opponemts cant use dodge tokens) and pierce with infinite range and averaging 1 hit with their one black and one white dice with surge to hit.

-Commandos at range 1-3 will average 3.5 hits with sharpshooter 1, high velocity, and pierce. Not bad for an additional 16pts compared to rebels.

-rebels will average 4 hits, but against an enemy in cover, or with a dodge token, or red dice, the Commandos are superior.

So it comes down to if you got the extra 16 points availible and can give up a full rebel squad commandos are a more offensive assault squad.

This is some excellent early analysis. I don’t see anything here I disagree with or seems factually wrong, but look forward to hearing from others.

Thanks for posting!

Important note: the 'high velocity' keyword only works if the sharpshooter has a different target than the rest of the squad (in this case the pierce keyword is less efficient).

The Commandos are of course better against cover than Z-6 trooper units - but not by far, due to the many crits that are filled by 6 white dice.

Another small thing: commandos have scout 2!! Which is not to be underestimated IMO - it will allow them to be in quite a good position from early.

Besides that, I fully agree with your post ?

Well if high velocity doesnt add to the whole pool of black dice thats a big point against the commandos. Thank you for pointing that out.