Hello all,

First time posting here and I have to ask...what the heck is up with all the Z-6 Troopers in Rebel Trooper squads. I tried it out in many of my early games and I don't think it every really seemed worth the cost.

Is it just being used to split fire and spread suppression around? Do you all just roll white dice better than me? Please help me understand!

Z-6 troopers are highly efficient for their cost (which is very low).

Although they roll white dice, they roll a LOT of white dice, which gives them a very high damage ceiling. As a bonus, they do 3x the damage of a standard rebel trooper, they don't exhaust, they have good range, and due to their sheer volume of dice they have a decent chance of generating crits, which means they aren't horrible against vehicles in a pinch. In short, as long as the Z-6 is alive, you have a puncher's chance of hitting anything hard enough to hurt--they outgun stormtrooper squads single-handedly (albeit without the benefit of a surge conversion).

As you mentioned, the white dice give them a lot of variance, and you will miss plenty with them. But, oh boy, when they roll hot...it is a thing of beauty that brings a tear to my rebel eye!

That is why I take Z-6 troopers.

Also because they look sweet and are hip-firing a freakin' mini-gun! 🤪

Z6s add 1.5 avg hits per Attack, with 5 reb troopers average of 2.5 hits equals about 4 hits per Attack. A higher dmg per Attack means you punch through heavy cover more often. Also, 6 white dices means you have 6 more chances of triggering crits

The Z-6s are a numbers game. They are white dice but with a Z-6, you go from throwing 6 dice to nearly 12 dice. Their counterpart is that ion shot which is 1) exhaustible and 2) designed to punch holes in armor.

Ask Imp players what they think of Z-6s. In my experience, they hate them, and for good reason.

I think the Z-6 is largely trash because it is so unreliable. But Rebel Troopers are a really useful Corps unit and the Z-6 is their best option.

If there is ever a 3rd Rebel Corps option (without the range 2 limitation of the Fleets) or new heavy weapons choices for the Rebel Troopers I believe the Z-6 will go away.

If I have the points I won’t run a rebel unit without them, however, I NEVER get a good Z-6 roll. Those white dice don’t like me much at all.

In my opinion I will always go for the personnel before the z6 since it costs less than half as much and it performs just a tad bit worse than the z6. But if the unit is already full then I'd add a z6 if the points are available. That 11 attack dice is a very formidable force and I always hate being on the receiving end of it.

What helped me see their value is having your squad whittled down to the leader and the Z-6. Would you rather roll 2 black or 1 black and 6 white with two desperate troopers?

1 hour ago, smickletz said:

What helped me see their value is having your squad whittled down to the leader and the Z-6. Would you rather roll 2 black or 1 black and 6 white with two desperate troopers?

This is exactly correct. As an imperial player that z6 squad has to die to the leader before they stop being a threat. Throw your z6 behind heavy cover and watch as they stick around with decent threat longer than your opponent wants.

In theory, they are a ridiculously good value.

In practice, mine have never scored a single hit. Ever. Not even hits that get stopped by cover. I'm talking all blanks, all the time.

Looking att the math they so 1.5 hits per shot for 22 points.

4 rebel troopers do 2 per shot for 40.

However using white dice and alot instead of for example 2 red means it can vary alot in result. 0-6 vs 0-2 for red Dice.

It's worth using just for added firepower or to cause supression via splitfire. However People often remember the bad and Good rolls and forget average ones.

They might not fit your playstyle as they are very random IF you look at just the math it adds a bunch of firepower for it's Price in points

6 hours ago, bllaw said:

In my opinion I will always go for the personnel before the z6 since it costs less than half as much and it performs just a tad bit worse than the z6.

The Z6 trooper is much, much better on offense. Add it before the extra trooper.

Others have already hit the most relevant points, but I’ll put it this way:

* The most likely result on that pile of white dice is one damage (about 35% of the time). Even if he doesn’t ever beat that, he’s already twice as good as a regular Rebel Trooper

* The range of reasonably likely results runs from 0-3 damage, which is a lot for one mini to add.

* Every damage result you find is equally likely to be a hit or a crit, so—in comparison to virtually any other single trooper—they’re actually pretty effective at fishing for drugs versus cover, dodge, and armor.

EDIT: Crits. Fishing for crits.

1 hour ago, Vorpal Sword said:

The Z6 trooper is much, much better on offense. Add it before the extra trooper.

Others have already hit the most relevant points, but I’ll put it this way:

* The most likely result on that pile of white dice is one damage (about 35% of the time). Even if he doesn’t ever beat that, he’s already twice as good as a regular Rebel Trooper

* The range of reasonably likely results runs from 0-3 damage, which is a lot for one mini to add.

* Every damage result you find is equally likely to be a hit or a crit, so—in comparison to virtually any other single trooper—they’re actually pretty effective at fishing for drugs versus cover, dodge, and armor.

Wait...fishing for drugs? Is this some common term for crits I don't know about, or is something else going on here?

I mean, I knew those Z-6 troopers were bat-**** crazy, but I didn't know that was what they were doing all game long! Drugs. Huh, who knew?

I will never look at them the same way after this.

I love when my troopers roll blanks on their blacks but the whites of my Z-6 deals 4 hits/crits.

... also i've done twice all blanks/surges 😅

I don't like variance as wide as the Z-6, but running frag grenades on the unit makes it hekkin good

29 minutes ago, Jedhead said:

Wait...fishing for drugs? Is this some common term for crits I don't know about, or is something else going on here?

I mean, I knew those Z-6 troopers were bat-**** crazy, but I didn't know that was what they were doing all game long! Drugs. Huh, who knew?

I will never look at them the same way after this.

Autocorrect on mobile. 😅

7 hours ago, bllaw said:

In my opinion I will always go for the personnel before the z6 since it costs less than half as much and it performs just a tad bit worse than the z6. But if the unit is already full then I'd add a z6 if the points are available. That 11 attack dice is a very formidable force and I always hate being on the receiving end of it.

The personnel performs significantly worse than the Z-6, as in .5 average damage to the Z-6's 1.5. Plus he can't split fire. The Rebel Trooper is objectively worse per point.

Go with what you think works better. My percentage of winning skyrocketed when I dropped the Z6 troopers for extra troopers and was able to put 72 points (12 points [22 point Z6 minus 10 point xtra trooper]multiplied by 6 for each of my corps units) to other places on my team.

I will pretty much join what everyone else has already said. They add the potential for some impressive offense, but the results can vary wildly. I have had Z-6s roll nothing but blanks plenty of times, but I have also seen them add some punch to a rebel squad's attack. Two instances in particular that stand out to me was 1) a Z-6 squad that managed to take out a Scout Trooper 5-man squad caught in the open and 2) a Z-6 squad that took out an uninjured Palpatine in one round! In both instances the Z-6s added some of the hits (and the Imperial players in question rolled very badly for defense, not completely a surprise for the Scout Troopers, but spectacularly so for Palpatine).

9 hours ago, weebaer said:

Go with what you think works better. My percentage of winning skyrocketed when I dropped the Z6 troopers for extra troopers and was able to put 72 points (12 points [22 point Z6 minus 10 point xtra trooper]multiplied by 6 for each of my corps units) to other places on my team.

Some quick math: Rebel Troopers with Z6 only are 62 points and generate 3.5 average damage each, or a little less than 18 points per point of damage.

Rebel Troopers with just an extra trooper are 50 points and generate 2.5 average damage each, or a little less than 20 points per point of damage.

So first, what you did was make your corps units less efficient (and less reliable) overall.

Second, note that 5 x 62 = 310, while 6 x 50 = 300. Because Troopers + Z6 are more efficient, those 310 points go further: they generate 17.5 points of damage on average each round, while 300 points of Troopers + extra generate 15.

So while it may be that you were overinvested in corps units and got better when you moved some points elsewhere—it would have been better to remove a unit of Troopers + Z6 than to remove all the Z6 from your troopers.

a stormtrooper does pew

z6 does pew-pew-pew-pew-pew......-pew

5 hours ago, Vorpal Sword said:

Some quick math: Rebel Troopers with Z6 only are 62 points and generate 3.5 average damage each, or a little less than 18 points per point of damage.

Rebel Troopers with just an extra trooper are 50 points and generate 2.5 average damage each, or a little less than 20 points per point of damage.

So first, what you did was make your corps units less efficient (and less reliable) overall.

Second, note that 5 x 62 = 310, while 6 x 50 = 300. Because Troopers + Z6 are more efficient, those 310 points go further: they generate 17.5 points of damage on average each round, while 300 points of Troopers + extra generate 15.

So while it may be that you were overinvested in corps units and got better when you moved some points elsewhere—it would have been better to remove a unit of Troopers + Z6 than to remove all the Z6 from your troopers.

Math works if you plan on only winning by what you destroy. I have won an insanely large number of games where I have been out damaged and my opponents were baffled they lost even with the math they worked out. I am aware of the math, any competitive player needs to be. I wanted more units and unit leaders for objective capture which wins games, not damage.

Maths makes the Z6 look like a good idea.

Aesthetics makes it look a little silly. Unless Gendy Tartovsky's ARC Troopers are using it.

Which has now inspired me to find a 32mm model of Samurai Jack to replace Luke and a Scotsman to replace Chewbacca, so it's not a total loss.

On 12/27/2018 at 1:49 PM, weebaer said:

Math works if you plan on only winning by what you destroy. I have won an insanely large number of games where I have been out damaged and my opponents were baffled they lost even with the math they worked out. I am aware of the math, any competitive player needs to be. I wanted more units and unit leaders for objective capture which wins games, not damage.

Then it certainly sounds like you know what you’re doing, and good luck in your games.

Thanks! That's a lot to think about. I tend to take more troopers/units for victory conditions purposes. I could see the value upgrading an extra trooper to a Z-6 for 12 points, rather than other upgrades.

Definitely food for thought.