Picked up 3.of each expansion and started putting together a squad or two.

Would have liked to have the officers have an action called reorganize or something, allowing the officer to bring in depleted trooper units into his own to try and make a full squad again. I makes sense that if an officer's squad took losses he/she would not run around alone or bypass a couple troopers get blown to ****.

Also do not understand putting one of the droids with q trooper unit. This takes away firepower, and makes then less likely to engage. Would have preferred to put together some kind of command unit together.

12 minutes ago, Talisker55 said:

Picked up 3.of each expansion and started putting together a squad or two.

Would have liked to have the officers have an action called reorganize or something, allowing the officer to bring in depleted trooper units into his own to try and make a full squad again. I makes sense that if an officer's squad took losses he/she would not run around alone or bypass a couple troopers get blown to ****.

Also do not understand putting one of the droids with q trooper unit. This takes away firepower, and makes then less likely to engage. Would have preferred to put together some kind of command unit together.

For idea 1) I'm very skeptical the mechanical complexity of this idea is worth the fairly marginal benefit it would offer. It would probably have to be a wall of text and one that players would only use in niche cases, so very much not worth it.

For 2) What? They don't replace a trooper, they're in addition to troopers, so you don't lose firepower, you gain a wound for the unit in the form of a droid and an additional ability. There's no downside to including them other than cost and even then the medical droid likely at least refunds some of his value by reviving a trooper and the astro is cheaper than an extra dude in an unit currently available.

37 minutes ago, Talisker55 said:

Would have liked to have the officers have an action called reorganize or something, allowing the officer to bring in depleted trooper units into his own to try and make a full squad again. I makes sense that if an officer's squad took losses he/she would not run around alone or bypass a couple troopers get blown to ****.

Also do not understand putting one of the droids with q trooper unit. This takes away firepower, and makes then less likely to engage. Would have preferred to put together some kind of command unit together.

The "Reorganize" action would cause more issues than it would solve, both in terms of rules and thematically. Since the owning player removes models, typically the heavy weapons trooper and unit leader are the last two models removed. Therefore, in combining units you would end up with an illegal unit if you allowed for the included Heavy to keep their weapon. Also, what do you do in situations where the squads have different grenades? Adding such a rule is not a simple matter, and adds a fair bit of complexity to the game.

For one thing, the fact that the droid does not have a weapon keeps the cost of the unit down. Yes, it costs you the "extra trooper" slot, so you have one less attack die than if you used it for an extra trooper, but the medical droid can effectively give you two more dice as they restore models to damaged squads. Adding in the droid's own wound, and it effectively adds 3 wounds to the squad. The astromech also adds a wound to the squad, but also adds wounds and shots to nearby vehicles. The ability to remove vehicle damage and ion tokens means you can get one or two more effective rounds out of an much more expensive unit, at a points cost of less than an extra trooper. Sure it cost the infantry unit a couple of attack dice, but the damage the vehicle can do, facilitated by the astromech, should more than make up for it.

I'd also say that putting the different droids together in a "command" unit wouldn't make a ton of sense as they have vastly different roles. The medical droid wants to be surrounded by infantry, while the astromech wants to be following around a vehicle, which may be deploying in vastly different areas. The functionality of a "command unit" is easily handled by taking a core unit with the droid being the only upgrade.

Personally, I typically use 3 AT-RTs, both as a threat to my opponent's infantry and as mobile light cover for my troopers. Since my troopers are already following along behind, it's well worth loosing a single shot to increase the survivability of my AT-RTs.

Forgot to mention that I play large games primarily, 2000 points and above.

My thoughts must come from seeing many 1 to 2 unit squads running about starting round 3/4.

For standard it really does not make much sense.

4 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

For 2) ...There's no downside to including them other than cost...

There is actually a downside, though it is subtle. When the unit takes damage, the heavy mini can no longer be the second last, that honour is reserved for the droid, even after it has spent its “healing”. This means that if your unit was reduced to two minis, you will no longer have the heavy and will be reduced to one black die.

Like I said, subtle, but there is a downside.

5 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

For 2) What? They don't replace a trooper, they're in addition to troopers, so you don't lose firepower, you gain a wound for the unit in the form of a droid and an additional ability. There's no downside to including them other than cost and even then the medical droid likely at least refunds some of his value by reviving a trooper and the astro is cheaper than an extra dude in an unit currently available.

True but it takes the place of the additional trooper you could get. It reduces the firepower of a full squad with additional trooper

9 minutes ago, Thalandar said:

True but it takes the place of the additional trooper you could get. It reduces the firepower of a full squad with additional trooper

Actually it doesn’t reduce the firepower, it just doesn’t increase it.

Also you’re adding the droid for its healing, so what you’re talking about is more of a trade off.

1 hour ago, JediPartisan said:

There is actually a downside, though it is subtle. When the unit takes damage, the heavy mini can no longer be the second last, that honour is reserved for the droid, even after it has spent its “healing”. This means that if your unit was reduced to two minis, you will no longer have the heavy and will be reduced to one black die.

Like I said, subtle, but there is a downside.

Adding a medic puts the same number of troopers between the heavy and being dead as not adding the medic i.e. not a downside, it's neutral. If the heavy was killed in the same turn, the medic can just revive him, so net positive. TL:DR, unless you really don't think you'll ever use treat, there is no downside to the medic and even if you never use the astro, it's the cheapest way to add a wound to the unit.

10 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

For 2) What? They don't replace a trooper, they're in addition to troopers, so you don't lose firepower, you gain a wound for the unit in the form of a droid and an additional ability. There's no downside to including them other than cost and even then the medical droid likely at least refunds some of his value by reviving a trooper and the astro is cheaper than an extra dude in an unit currently available.

Well technically yes. Its called Opportunity Cost. By taking a droid you are NOT taking an extra trooper, which does mean you are trading an extra shot for the droid's abilities.

So you are really choosing between several things, and picking one means you are losing all the others.

No upgrade = no additional points spent

Extra Trooper = Extra wound, Extra attack die. Costs points. Till now, this has been the only choice.

Medical Droid = extra wound, healing ability, costs points.

Repair Droid = Extra wound, Repair ability, costs fewest points.

Officer: Extra wound, better attack die, Inspiration, costs more points than all the others

Opportunity cost is a very relevant idea for wargaming, so its worth understanding how it works.

Its why some upgrades can, even if they are "properly costed", never end up getting taken because there is a hidden opportunity cost making them more expensive than they seem on paper. And why they need to actually be cheaper than what their "vacuum value" is.

I remember in 40k all your space marine specialists (medic, standard bearer, tech marine etc) used to have to be concentrated in the command squad with the company commander. Made for a massively expensive squad that struggled to make good use of a lot of the specialists abilities.

I never minded, they made for a beautiful target for my dark reapers.

So i think the legion approach is much more playable especially combined with the specialists ability to do stuff without being in base contact and as a free action.

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

Well technically yes. Its called Opportunity Cost. By taking a droid you are NOT taking an extra trooper, which does mean you are trading an extra shot for the droid's abilities.

So you are really choosing between several things, and picking one means you are losing all the others.

No upgrade = no additional points spent

Extra Trooper = Extra wound, Extra attack die. Costs points. Till now, this has been the only choice.

Medical Droid = extra wound, healing ability, costs points.

Repair Droid = Extra wound, Repair ability, costs fewest points.

Officer: Extra wound, better attack die, Inspiration, costs more points than all the others

Opportunity cost is a very relevant idea for wargaming, so its worth understanding how it works.

Its why some upgrades can, even if they are "properly costed", never end up getting taken because there is a hidden opportunity cost making them more expensive than they seem on paper. And why they need to actually be cheaper than what their "vacuum value" is.

When you take an officer as part of a squad they use the squad's attack die.

4 hours ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

When you take an officer as part of a squad they use the squad's attack die.

same with the comm specialists. when you look at the costs your getting a Stormtrooper with either Relay for only 4 extra points or a Medic for 8 extra points which is less than the cost of an extra trooper.

Personally i think the best place for the Specialists are Snowtroopers and Fleet troopers because you save more on personel than say regular Troopers

2 hours ago, Darth evil said:

same with the comm specialists. when you look at the costs your getting a Stormtrooper with either Relay for only 4 extra points or a Medic for 8 extra points which is less than the cost of an extra trooper.

Personally i think the best place for the Specialists are Snowtroopers and Fleet troopers because you save more on personel than say regular Troopers

The medical and repair droids have the Noncombatant keyword so they can't shoot and have to die second-to-last.

As someone who pretty much always adds the extra trooper to my corps units, replacing that trooper with a non-combatant isn't exactly appealing. The medical droid's net value is one additional life/revive over having a regular trooper, with the downside of the unit lacking that trooper's offensive firepower the entire time. (with minor points differences as well, of course) To me, the additional revive is not worth the unit losing the extra die every time they attack and having to sacrifice my heavy gunner before a noncombatant.

The Comm specialist and Officer, however, very well might be worth the extra points. They add extra benefits, and can still shoot. I always think I'll find a place for a comm specialist, and I'll probably start trying out an officer or two when I'm done test the generic commander.

1 hour ago, Alpha17 said:

As someone who pretty much always adds the extra trooper to my corps units, replacing that trooper with a non-combatant isn't exactly appealing. The medical droid's net value is one additional life/revive over having a regular trooper, with the downside of the unit lacking that trooper's offensive firepower the entire time. (with minor points differences as well, of course) To me, the additional revive is not worth the unit losing the extra die every time they attack and having to sacrifice my heavy gunner before a noncombatant.

The Comm specialist and Officer, however, very well might be worth the extra points. They add extra benefits, and can still shoot. I always think I'll find a place for a comm specialist, and I'll probably start trying out an officer or two when I'm done test the generic commander.

As someone who almost never takes the extra dude upgrade, I'm ambivalent over a potential lost attack die, but pretty excited for Inspire 1 and Courage 2 Fleet Troopers and a few random medics to get soldiers back on their feet or treat characters (comms specialist isn't bad, just not as exciting and the repair droids don't have enough targets right now even though they are some of the cheapest bodies in the game).

21 hours ago, JediPartisan said:

There is actually a downside, though it is subtle. When the unit takes damage, the heavy mini can no longer be the second last, that honour is reserved for the droid, even after it has spent its “healing”. This means that if your unit was reduced to two minis, you will no longer have the heavy and will be reduced to one black die.

Like I said, subtle, but there is a downside.

This is what I like least about the droids. I guess if they turn out to be a underpowered it is a buff that only requires a minor change to the RR.

3 hours ago, NukeMaster said:

This is what I like least about the droids. I guess if they turn out to be a underpowered it is a buff that only requires a minor change to the RR.

you could always use the rule that what can't be seen can't be killed and throw the doids out in the open for someone to pick them off.

A normal extra trooper provides +1 attack die and +1 unit health

A medic droid provides +1 unit health and the ability to potentially provide +2 additional unit health with Treat. The only times this ability is circumvented is if the unit with the droid activates too early or if the unit is wiped out in one attack.

Seems like a fair trade to me, especially if you consider the fact that if you heal a high value unit (Palpatine, Vader or an AT-ST) you instantly get your point's worth and then some.

Medic droid might not be crazy for rebels troopers. However restoring a wookie can add 2 black dice on charge. Give a commander extra staying Power or save from death.

I haven't had chance to try Them yet though.