Hey guys I’ve been thinking, Darth Vader is amazing,but he can be pretty hard to use. one game he dies in the first 2 rounds another game he doesn’t take 1 damage until the end of the game . And he’s very expensive and I need you guys help me out, And what to do with Him, so I normally upgrade him with saber throw. you have to have saber through! Gives him range and force reflexes, to give Dodge tokens. and with his master of the force, 1 he’ll be able to ready 1 card at the end Phase. and maybe force push or Four choke. normally Vader is 200 points plus all the upgrades he can go to 235 points I need your guises help. help me get the most out of Vader. thanks guys.?

You don’t know the power of the Dark side!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

Check out this guide.

https://swlegionodds.com/2018/09/26/darth-vader-dark-lord-of-the-sith/

Thanks.?

Saber Throw and Force Reflexes (which he can use every turn) are mandatory. He moves slow, but he creates a great morale bubble. And he kills things. Don't be stupid, but keep him moving forward. Make people afraid. Kill things. He can dominate objectives. Use a bit of cover here and there. If the enemy commander is dead, or off somewhere else (looking at you Luke), pop Master of Evil and make the enemy run. He may not be super point efficient versus Veers/Boba, but he can be very effective and reliable.

Here's a few pointers from my experience; A lot of this matches what NTMTO said in the aforementioned blog post, but this is a lot shorter.

-Mess with enemy target priority. If Vader is your only close range threat and he's out by himself, he's going to get burned down. If he's accompanied by some Snowtroopers and some Royal Guards, your opponent has to make some tough decisions. Those two units are also the primary targets for New Ways To Motivate Them; Snowtroopers really, really like extra move actions, and Royal Guards may not even lose any firepower when they take the wound (In the case of a minor miracle in which the squad is unfounded before they charge, New Ways To Motivate Them can actually increase their attack power by triggering tenacity!)

-Cover and line of sight are important. Vader isn't bunny hopping around like Luke, so hiding entirely is harder, but anything helps, since commanders are not actually that durable for their cost (The standard 68 point corps units for the empire pay 13.6 points for each wound. Vader pays a whopping 25!)

3) Force Power choice: Vader has (Post-Emperor) 4 force powers he wants; Force Reflexes, Anger, Force Push, and Saber Throw. They're all pretty valuable; Experiment to see what if anything you can afford to cut when Anger comes out.

4)Engaging Luke is not a great plan. Going in fresh, you can win the fight. But it's a slog, and fighting something that's immune to pierce really hurts Vader's combat effectiveness. That cuts both ways, of course, but next Month you'll have a new melee unit that's immune to pierce in melee but doesn't have any pierce of it's own to lose. Can you tell I'm excited for the Royal Guards?

-With what 40k players call the "T-shirt Armor save" (because a 1-in-6 chance to cancel damage sure feels like you went into battle with nothing but a T-shirt), Wookiees care not about your Lightsaber's pierce value. They are also likely to lose minimal offensive power from casualties; Vader averages 4.5 wounds. That could leave 2-3 Angry Wookiees alive and ready to counter attack. Treacherous Royal Guard should also be avoided unless you've eliminated the electrostaff bearer.

So, in short;

-Bring close range units who synergize with Vader

-Don't needlessly expose yourself to enemy fire

-Prioritize attacking things without Immune Pierce.

2 hours ago, Squark said:

Here's a few pointers from my experience; A lot of this matches what NTMTO said in the aforementioned blog post, but this is a lot shorter.

-Mess with enemy target priority. If Vader is your only close range threat and he's out by himself, he's going to get burned down. If he's accompanied by some Snowtroopers and some Royal Guards, your opponent has to make some tough decisions. Those two units are also the primary targets for New Ways To Motivate Them; Snowtroopers really, really like extra move actions, and Royal Guards may not even lose any firepower when they take the wound (In the case of a minor miracle in which the squad is unfounded before they charge, New Ways To Motivate Them can actually increase their attack power by triggering tenacity!)

-Cover and line of sight are important. Vader isn't bunny hopping around like Luke, so hiding entirely is harder, but anything helps, since commanders are not actually that durable for their cost (The standard 68 point corps units for the empire pay 13.6 points for each wound. Vader pays a whopping 25!)

3) Force Power choice: Vader has (Post-Emperor) 4 force powers he wants; Force Reflexes, Anger, Force Push, and Saber Throw. They're all pretty valuable; Experiment to see what if anything you can afford to cut when Anger comes out.

4)Engaging Luke is not a great plan. Going in fresh, you can win the fight. But it's a slog, and fighting something that's immune to pierce really hurts Vader's combat effectiveness. That cuts both ways, of course, but next Month you'll have a new melee unit that's immune to pierce in melee but doesn't have any pierce of it's own to lose. Can you tell I'm excited for the Royal Guards?

-With what 40k players call the "T-shirt Armor save" (because a 1-in-6 chance to cancel damage sure feels like you went into battle with nothing but a T-shirt), Wookiees care not about your Lightsaber's pierce value. They are also likely to lose minimal offensive power from casualties; Vader averages 4.5 wounds. That could leave 2-3 Angry Wookiees alive and ready to counter attack. Treacherous Royal Guard should also be avoided unless you've eliminated the electrostaff bearer.

So, in short;

-Bring close range units who synergize with Vader

-Don't needlessly expose yourself to enemy fire

-Prioritize attacking things without Immune Pierce.

That was amazing, I like that idea maybe you could move one and saber throw then give him self a dodge token and then, force reflexes will give him another dodge token.?

Thanks guys ?

Much of my success with Vader has been the threat. While small, very few units are willing to move into that space where Vader can threaten them. Keep Dodge tokens on him frequently. A good player will attempt to squeeze off a few damage on Vader while he's "safe" to shoot at without the dodge token.

I often prefer vader to get 2 dodge tokens instead of advance. He is more useful as menance that early close combat. I think. Obviosly saberthrow every turn.

8 minutes ago, naitsirk said:

I often prefer vader to get 2 dodge tokens instead of advance. He is more useful as menance that early close combat. I think. Obviosly saberthrow every turn.

How does he get 2 dodge tokens? You can only do any non-Move action once per activation.

15 minutes ago, arnoldrew said:

How does he get 2 dodge tokens? You can only do any non-Move action once per activation.

He certainly can get up to 3.

1-dodge action

2- free action ( force reflexes)

3- command card ( master of evil)

One game I played with Darth Vader and in the command phase. i played master of evil and his leader was dead. I gave three suppression tokens to four units his entire army collapsed and most of the units already had a suppression token on them. Darth Vader so powerful.?

5 hours ago, naitsirk said:

He certainly can get up to 3.

1-dodge action

2- free action ( force reflexes)

3- command card ( master of evil)

Aha, nice.

I’ve actually spent half of a game just moving Vader through cover (sight blocking) so he doesn’t get picked off on approach and he’s fresh when he gets to his AT-ST target, or troopers. I know that’s a lot of points to have out of the game, but he’s not out of the game. Brightguy mentioned, “keep them afraid”, well having Vader creeping up on your backside with a unit of troopers, should scare the @#$& out of your opponent. It should cause them to redirct troops, change plans or just make a mistake, and that’s when you can do a frontal assult from the rest of your troops. ?

Squark had some awesome advice too, but cover is always your best friend. Most tables don’t have enough terrain. If you can, test it out on the cover you have. Try to put it all in one quarter of the playing field. The terrain should fill the whole 1/4, and if it doesn’t, you don’t have enough. Oh and a lot should be sight blocking, not just cover, but I guess it should be a mix of sight blocking, cover, difficult and impassible. But give me some sight blocking buildings any time. ?

I found that sending Vader with a unit or 2 takes the heat off him.

Timing to take Luke out is tricky. Generally you want to charge him when you play Implacable.

Always give Vader an order token. He will be your most expensive unit, you always want 100% control of when he activates each turn.

On 10/18/2018 at 4:18 PM, naitsirk said:

He certainly can get up to 3.

1-dodge action

2- free action ( force reflexes)

3- command card ( master of evil)

Isn't force reflexes give a free action dodge, so you would still be taking a dodge action twice which is not allowed. using a command card and then either performing dodge or using force reflexes will give him 2, but not sure you can give him 3. Think only Luke and Han can get three (Leia's ability, dodge action, and command card)

12 minutes ago, Gridloc said:

Isn't force reflexes give a free action dodge, so you would still be taking a dodge action twice which is not allowed. using a command card and then either performing dodge or using force reflexes will give him 2, but not sure you can give him 3. Think only Luke and Han can get three (Leia's ability, dodge action, and command card)

Force reflexes text is:

>> gain 1 dodge token.

So this is not performing a dodge action, is the same result but the action is "force reflexes" free action. In your point, the text must be:

>> perform a dodge action.

57 minutes ago, naitsirk said:

Force reflexes text is:

>> gain 1 dodge token.

So this is not performing a dodge action, is the same result but the action is "force reflexes" free action. In your point, the text must be:

>> perform a dodge action.

Yep, i miss read card, so yeah 3 dodge tokens on vadar.

2 hours ago, Gridloc said:

Yep, i miss read card, so yeah 3 dodge tokens on vadar.

Fiuuuuu ?

Hey I was wondering if you could have two force reflexes On Darth Vader. or two Force choke. or maybe multiple force push. Just a thought.

Single copy of a upgrade card per unit. Been experimenting with vader more and more. Boba seems to be a fun sidekick.

Sadly, it is only one per unit of the same title. Man would I love an ATST with several Mortars. Suppression everywhere!

Vader with Fett has some nice synergies. New ways to motivate them works wonders on Boba (fly in, flamethorwer the **** out of a trooper unit and fly back to safety). Came in third in our local tournament with this duo. As for the Vader himself i think it really depends on the objective. Many of them are scored on the final turn, so i tend to hold him a bit back and in turn 3 or 4 close in towards those objectives when some of the threats have been neutralized (with boba or troopers) so Vader can be even more menacing when he moves closer to those vp and start to kill units left and right (recently ive killed whole speeder bike squad in a single attack and in the next activation decapitated half of the trooper squad also panicking them). Our dark lord is great but requires some proper planning to be used to his full potential.