Am I correct in thinking that when the B2s launch that if they where to gain the guardian 1 rule from esteemed leader they would just shrug off the damage passed to them with the armour 1 key word as you can only pass a normal damage not a crit... effectively allowing to use a big shiny distraction (say something with four arms and as many lightsabers) to attract all of your opponents fire, to then pass all non Crit hits to b2S who can’t get hurt by it?

21 minutes ago, Rebel-Smuggler said:

Am I correct in thinking that when the B2s launch that if they where to gain the guardian 1 rule from esteemed leader they would just shrug off the damage passed to them with the armour 1 key word as you can only pass a normal damage not a crit... effectively allowing to use a big shiny distraction (say something with four arms and as many lightsabers) to attract all of your opponents fire, to then pass all non Crit hits to b2S who can’t get hurt by it?

No. The rules for Guardian are very explicit. Once you Guardian a hit, the hit is canceled. Then the unit doing the guardian has to roll defense dice “matching” it’s defense dice and suffers wounds for each blank die, but at that point it’s not an attack or a hit that comes through it’s just damage from the Guardian rule mechanic. At least that’s how I read it.

pg 41 RRG Guardian

”While a friendly trooper unit at range 1 and in line of sight is defending against a ranged attack, a unit that has the guardian x keyword may cancel up to x hit results. For each hit result canceled, the unit with the guardian x keyword rolls a defense die matching its defense. After converting defense surge results according to its surge chart, the unit with the guardian x keyword suffers 1 wound for each blank result.“

Which means they aren't that really good targets for Guardian... well, except they have 2 wounds

Magnaguards might have Red defense die and (at least) 2 wounds, so they'll make a lot better targets for Guardian (just like IRG)

Good point... thanks for correcting my misread

3 hours ago, Vector Strike said:

Which means they aren't that really good targets for Guardian... well, except they have 2 wounds

Magnaguards might have Red defense die and (at least) 2 wounds, so they'll make a lot better targets for Guardian (just like IRG)

B1s are the perfect guardian targets.

doesnt work cause the armour keywork is only triggered if you are the defender, the guardian unit is not a defender.

Wow...I really thought the guardian keyword with armor was gonna be awesome!

Now the B2's are really not impressive, and I am disappointed

1 minute ago, Uchidan1 said:

Wow...I really thought the guardian keyword with armor was gonna be awesome!

Now the B2's are really not impressive, and I am disappointed

I actually like the B2 design space. Very very different than B1s. Also, both B2 heavy weapons seem pretty sweet.

At least, you get two different type of troopers. Republic essentially has two identical trooper options which decreases flexibility and list diversity.

2 minutes ago, R3dReVenge said:

I actually like the B2 design space. Very very different than B1s. Also, both B2 heavy weapons seem pretty sweet.

At least, you get two different type of troopers. Republic essentially has two identical trooper options which decreases flexibility and list diversity.

I feel like the range 1-2 hurts them though...with only 2 health I am not sure if they are better than just taking more B1's

16 minutes ago, Uchidan1 said:

I feel like the range 1-2 hurts them though...with only 2 health I am not sure if they are better than just taking more B1's

armor 1 helps a little, but yes I feel range 1 -2 does hurt coordinate droid trooper and putting them at the end of a chain can help them hide and come out at the right time

31 minutes ago, R3dReVenge said:

I actually like the B2 design space. Very very different than B1s. Also, both B2 heavy weapons seem pretty sweet.

At least, you get two different type of troopers. Republic essentially has two identical trooper options which decreases flexibility and list diversity.

I find that very ironic and also fairly funny, lore wise, the Republic was supposed to have pretty high unit diversity, far more than the CIS.

Hilarious.
-Arctic

41 minutes ago, Uchidan1 said:

I feel like the range 1-2 hurts them though...with only 2 health I am not sure if they are better than just taking more B1's

I might just be optimistic, but I think the range 1-2 limitation is to keep the B2's from being too good. B2's already hit harder than B1's, and with Armor 1, I'd think they can be much more survivable. A base squad of them even has the same total health pool as a base squad of B1's, just with less units on the board. The lack of Coordinate sucks, but it keeps the B1's necessary to Separatist armies.

I don't think they're meant to be an option that replaces B1's by any means. Instead, they're a corps unit that better supports B1's by being the heavy-hitting squad while B1's take the hits. Maybe 2 squads of B2's might be good in a Separatist army.

13 minutes ago, Derpzilla88 said:

I might just be optimistic, but I think the range 1-2 limitation is to keep the B2's from being too good. B2's already hit harder than B1's, and with Armor 1, I'd think they can be much more survivable. A base squad of them even has the same total health pool as a base squad of B1's, just with less units on the board. The lack of Coordinate sucks, but it keeps the B1's necessary to Separatist armies.

I don't think they're meant to be an option that replaces B1's by any means. Instead, they're a corps unit that better supports B1's by being the heavy-hitting squad while B1's take the hits. Maybe 2 squads of B2's might be good in a Separatist army.

What I'm worried about is B2's never seeing more than 2 units on the mat per army.

I've only played a couple of times with droids but so far the B1s really are just cannon fodder. They're really only worth their points if you bring a lot.

I flood objectives with them using heavy cover and LoS blocking terrain to prevent total unit deaths in the event of coordinate fire attacks, I keep 'em close to Grievous to use operation bullet stopper as he does work, they shoot if they can but even the couple of unit's I usually take with a heavy weapons only seem to add suppression. They basically exist to clog the enemy guns with disembodied droid parts...

I fear that by removing 12-16 HP worth of bullet catchers the remaining B1s become less useful as their numbers may no longer overwhelm objective points. That and B2s become an obvious target since the B1s have such a low risk of dealing damage.

(It's all anecdotal, and with only two games I'm hoping more time in will change my mind. )

4 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

What I'm worried about is B2's never seeing more than 2 units on the mat per army.

I've only played a couple of times with droids but so far the B1s really are just cannon fodder. They're really only worth their points if you bring a lot.

I flood objectives with them using heavy cover and LoS blocking terrain to prevent total unit deaths in the event of coordinate fire attacks, I keep 'em close to Grievous to use operation bullet stopper as he does work, they shoot if they can but even the couple of unit's I usually take with a heavy weapons only seem to add suppression. They basically exist to clog the enemy guns with disembodied droid parts...

I fear that by removing 12-16 HP worth of bullet catchers the remaining B1s become less useful as their numbers may no longer overwhelm objective points. That and B2s become an obvious target since the B1s have such a low risk of dealing damage.

(It's all anecdotal, and with only two games I'm hoping more time in will change my mind. )

I think 4 units of B1s and 2 units of B2s each at the end of a coordinate chain of the B1s seems like a good way to run them and still have lots of bodies of B1s

Just now, TheHoosh said:

I think 4 units of B1s and 2 units of B2s each at the end of a coordinate chain of the B1s seems like a good way to run them and still have lots of bodies of B1s

That's my point. Any more than 2 units of B2s and the B1s lose the "numbers" effect. Without that, I'm not sure the B1s are even worth it.

Just now, Darth Sanguis said:

That's my point. Any more than 2 units of B2s and the B1s lose the "numbers" effect. Without that, I'm not sure the B1s are even worth it.

Yep and I think the expense and short range of B2s also precludes me from even considering more than 2 units. I like that ratio and then I'm still able to put the B1s on the table

Just now, TheHoosh said:

Yep and I think the expense and short range of B2s also precludes me from even considering more than 2 units. I like that ratio and then I'm still able to put the B1s on the table

Ultimately I hope we get Nute Gunray or one of the Nemoidians as a cheap Veers/Leia style support commander that buffs units and has support keywords. I'm hoping he also includes something like Entourage 2: B1 battle droids.

4 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Ultimately I hope we get Nute Gunray or one of the Nemoidians as a cheap Veers/Leia style support commander that buffs units and has support keywords. I'm hoping he also includes something like Entourage 2: B1 battle droids.

Now yes that would be awesome, especially the free order to chain. I would love to run that army

4 minutes ago, TheHoosh said:

Now yes that would be awesome, especially the free order to chain. I would love to run that army

I would even go as far to say he gets a keyword like non combatant or maybe something implying he's cowardly that makes him flee if there enemy units within attack range and Los but no friendly unit's at range 1.

B2's have the potential to be too expensive. The additional normal trooper puts the unit at 64 points base. Spitballing based on the fact that B1 heavy weapons cost 12-16 more than the base trooper, means a minimum B2 squad with the cheapest heavy weapon will be somewhere around 76-80 points. Is that B2 squad really worth 2x minimum B1 squads?

Just now, Mokoshkana said:

B2's have the potential to be too expensive. The additional normal trooper puts the unit at 64 points base. Spitballing based on the fact that B1 heavy weapons cost 12-16 more than the base trooper, means a minimum B2 squad with the cheapest heavy weapon will be somewhere around 76-80 points. Is that B2 squad really worth 2x minimum B1 squads?

Good average damage, armor, courage 2 base, unsupressable. Seems fine, just maybe not a ton of them.

17 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

Good average damage, armor, courage 2 base, unsupressable. Seems fine, just maybe not a ton of them.

At that cost, I'd rather have a unit of Droideka or two units of B1.
Armor 1 is akin to a dodge token with the exception that dodge doesn't give your opponent's impact weapons a boost. A base unit of B2 will have 3 additional black dice over a unit of B1 with an extra trooper at the cost of six points and four white dice. The courage is definitely nice, although I think once Dooku enters the fray, it won't be as big of a deal. B1 can't be supressed either, so no advantage there. An innate defensive surge would have gone a long way on these guys, but at their current cost, it would have been excessive. The thing I think this unit will have in spades over B1s will be the reduced assembly time/frustration.

12 minutes ago, Mokoshkana said:

The thing I think this unit will have in spades over B1s will be the reduced assembly time/frustration.

I hope so. Though... all my B1s are already assembled and painted.

9 minutes ago, Mokoshkana said:

At that cost, I'd rather have a unit of Droideka or two units of B1.
Armor 1 is akin to a dodge token with the exception that dodge doesn't give your opponent's impact weapons a boost. A base unit of B2 will have 3 additional black dice over a unit of B1 with an extra trooper at the cost of six points and four white dice. The courage is definitely nice, although I think once Dooku enters the fray, it won't be as big of a deal. B1 can't be supressed either, so no advantage there. An innate defensive surge would have gone a long way on these guys, but at their current cost, it would have been excessive. The thing I think this unit will have in spades over B1s will be the reduced assembly time/frustration.

Armor 1 doesn't boost impact weapons. The change to crits from impact happens after dodge and cover, so unless they have literally zero normal hits to cancel after impact conversions, Armor 1 still works really well against Impact. Armor 1 is never a drawback and still works fine against impact because the number of cancelled results is so low. Impact doesn't do anything to Armor 1.

I am with Mokoshkana, I'd rather have more B1's especially with the "snipers" coming out. Longer range, more bodies, and they're cheaper.

B2's seem unimpressive...I was really hoping for the Guardian thing to be like their "thing", but without it...sigh.