The title is a little misleading as many of the announced units may not be available until the end of the year.

This was mentioned partially in another post. But assuming i am able to get my Droid AAT tank soon, and Cad Bane and Commando Droids and now STAP droids, how do i fit all these cool new units in a list and be able to actually function normally when so far the commanders take up a quarter of the list?

Low range for me is under 100pts (think Veers or Leia although generics could be less) and Mid-Range is your 130-150 with upgrades.

Just trying to fit Bane and Commando Droids will be hard without minimizing your B1 units and they are supposed to be released in a couple of months (summertime)

What do you think? When do you think they will announce this future unit?

Or you just run 6 naked B1s and have plenty of room for pretty much everything else. It's not like they do much besides spam objectives anyway

Dooku (aggressive tactics/choke/push/reflex) = 240

Stock Cad Bane = 125

Stock B1 x 6 = 216

STAP (with coordinate boost) x 2 = 150

That's 10 activations for only 736, so you'd have 64 points for upgrades, or you could drop a squad of B1s and have 100 points of upgrades. Or you could replace Dooku with Grievous and get an extra 30+ points depending how you kit him out. Ultimately CIS is going to be sitting pretty with what's been revealed. Would a cheap commander be nice? Absolutely, but it is far from the end of the world if we don't get one anytime soon. Can't have you cake and eat it too!

Where's my AAT and Commando Droids?

Really I'd like to run 2 tanks and some STAPs or Droidekas and that's 550-600pts.

I have barely 4 B1 units (Thanks to some imagination and an upgrade box and a half)

I hate B1s. They're my least favorite unit in the game even though coordinate is kind of cool. I would love to play tanks and Droidekas. That would be cool. If they had one of those artillery guns as well or spider droids.

2 hours ago, buckero0 said:

Where's my AAT and Commando Droids?

Really I'd like to run 2 tanks and some STAPs or Droidekas and that's 550-600pts.

Grievous (AT+Pistol)=197

3xB1s=108

STAPx2=146

AATx2=340

Total=791

It's unfeasible to run double heavy with ANY faction without crippling the rest of your army (droids still do it the best), let alone also trying to run max support. A cheap commander will not help you in this regard if you plan to use the extra points for the third STAP as you'll end up with every trooper shot off the board and lose through objectives.

This is why I am shooting for the possibility of getting Kilani, a Super T actical Droid that we see in both the Clone Wars, and Rebels animated shows.

I’m right there with you @buckero0 . I just bought into both Clone Wars factions (but primarily for droids) and I'm looking forward to both models of Tactical Droids. That said I don't expect them too soon. If they GCW style of releases are any indication we'll see another named character commander or two before they perhaps release the CIS and GAR "Specialist" packs with their own respective Officers, Comm Troopers, Vehicle Repair and Medics (I’m trying to figure the droid version of that).

1 hour ago, Crawfskeezen said:

If they GCW style of releases are any indication we'll see another named character commander or two before they perhaps release the CIS and GAR "Specialist" packs with their own respective Officers, Comm Troopers, Vehicle Repair and Medics (I’m trying to figure the droid version of that).

Droids are in a league of their own. They need a leader, but not a comms droid as all of their corps have that slot. Perhaps they'd get a droid who could unlock a training slot? As for the healers, the could easily make a droid only medic and a vehicle only medic, or perhaps they'd have one capable of both and a special upgrade that does something else? Time will tell.

15 hours ago, buckero0 said:

Where's my AAT and Commando Droids?

Really I'd like to run 2 tanks and some STAPs or Droidekas and that's 550-600pts.

I have barely 4 B1 units (Thanks to some imagination and an upgrade box and a half)

I hate B1s. They're my least favorite unit in the game even though coordinate is kind of cool. I would love to play tanks and Droidekas. That would be cool. If they had one of those artillery guns as well or spider droids.

Why not play 1600 points games?

You need to find a grand army play group. A cheap commander isn't going to fix what you desire in a list and still be a reasonably playable army (ie something that isn't going to have glaring weak points after it's been played against)

I posted this before in an older thread but these were my expectations for the CIS specialist pack.

A T-Series for the generic commander is pretty much a guarantee, and I expect a Super Tactical Droid later down the line as a standalone commander release, possibly with several different cards for different for different named Super Tactical Droids like Kalani or Kraken or maybe a sort of "Title" card system like those in Armada.

The PK droid is a pretty good fit for the Repair unit, not sure If there are any other options and I'd assume it would essentially function like most factions medical droid for units of droid troopers.

For the medic, I'm not exactly sure what options there are, but I'd like to see an organic medic for the CIS. Since 99% of their forces are not organic, I doubt medics would be something standard, and instead something like the personal doctor of commanders or other high ranking officials, possibly an opportunity to see some cool new species on the tabletop.

With the comms, I'm not too sure what the CIS would get, since it doesn't really fit with the idea of their troops being cheap and little upgrades so I don't know for this one.

(I also desperately want a cheap droid commander so I can run my all-droid army!)

@Ralgon

@Krakus

That would be nice, but most of my play group consists of me and my family members here in my home. Especially now that we're all banished from society. Normally, there is little time for regular sized games much less a double sized game. I know there's people with stuff, but there isn't much of a gaming group in my area and the flgs doesn't support Legion, just X-wing.

On 3/27/2020 at 8:59 PM, Mokoshkana said:

Would a cheap commander be nice? Absolutely, but it is far from the end of the world if we don't get one anytime soon. Can't have you cake and eat it too!

Yeah, cheap commanders are for the other 3 factions in this game, don't get greedy. A lack of flexibility and fewer options is the CIS playstyle!

Even a mid-range commander (named or otherwise) would be welcome. Grievious and Dooku are very similar in style honestly.

A 140ish cost figure with a different playstyle and command cards would open up all kinds of options as far as what units you could and wanted to take.

On 3/27/2020 at 11:59 PM, Mokoshkana said:

Ultimately CIS is going to be sitting pretty with what's been revealed. Would a cheap commander be nice? Absolutely, but it is far from the end of the world if we don't get one anytime soon. Can't have you cake and eat it too!

Yeah! Because the CIS corp unit is 4 points cheaper than the next cheapest corp unit, their commanders must be 125 points higher than the cheapest commanders from the original factions. or 85 points higher than its sister faction the GAR! we can't have "equality" in this game. Clearly CIS is a list thats able to spam its corp units. They need to be punished for saving 24 points across 6 corp units. Punish them with more than three times, or even up to 5 times that cost on their commanders.

14 minutes ago, Applebottom said:

Yeah! Because the CIS corp unit is 4 points cheaper than the next cheapest corp unit, their commanders must be 125 points higher than the cheapest commanders from the original factions. or 85 points higher than its sister faction the GAR! we can't have "equality" in this game. Clearly CIS is a list thats able to spam its corp units. They need to be punished for saving 24 points across 6 corp units. Punish them with more than three times, or even up to 5 times that cost on their commanders.

The cheapness is their Corp is more than just their base cost. You can max their squad size, including a heavy, and have it be cheaper and stronger at range 3 than a 5 man DLT squad.

As far as commanders go it's shallow of you to complain about their current costs when they're also the strongest commanders in the game. Grievous is better Luke, and Dooku has pretty much everything you'd ever want short of Charge.

Thinking further on this. It would be rather thematic if the T-Series Tactical droid came with no ranged weapon and a garbage melee attack (1 or 2 White, worse that C-3PO's "Clumsy Kick").

30 minutes ago, thepopemobile100 said:

As far as commanders go it's shallow of you to complain about their current costs when they're also the strongest commanders in the game. Grievous is better Luke, and Dooku has pretty much everything you'd ever want short of Charge.

I'm not complaining about the costs or even quality of the current cost of CIS commanders. I'm complaining of a lack of point options and how they limit the versatility of lists since they are both saber commanders that don't interact with their army in any way. Having options is nice. GAR will be able to take their new operative and Rex for less than Dooku, and almost the same price as grievous. GAR also has the option of R2.

On a side note longer than my main point about the CIS corp unit, an average fully upgraded b1 unit is 7 white dice and 3 black with no surges at a cost of 60. a 62 point corp rebel unit has 6 white and 4 black. Offensively they aren't much. the advantage that the CIS corp has is the bodies, which are worse than paper due to their lack of surges. Spending 10 points on aggressive tactics tax to make them maybe take one less damage a turn feels pretty bad. the TRUE benefit to the CIS corp is the perfect activations they offer. Anything else they offer is matched or surpassed on nearly the same point cost as other factions. But due to the high cost of their commanders, CIS cant take a lot of their 100 point droidekas, their 125 point operative, or their 48 point (without upgrades) other corp unit. The only inexpensive option the CIS have is their B1 corp unit, which really isn't much cheaper compared to other similar options. CIS must jam their corp units, otherwise they dont have enough activations to compete.

As for the DLT squad comparison, Storm troopers are defensive with red dice and have precise with surge to hit. Believe me, I know how bad it feels to throw white dice on offense. But a CIS squad without their E5C are lucky to even land 2 hits due to a lack of surge on those white dice, heaven forbid you used the one pip-command cards that didnt enable a chain of coordinates so your unit can't even aim before attacking .

B1's arent bad by any means, but they arent there to deal damage or take a hit. They are there for suppression and objectives.

/endrant

59 minutes ago, Applebottom said:

Yeah! Because the CIS corp unit is 4 points cheaper than the next cheapest corp unit, their commanders must be 125 points higher than the cheapest commanders from the original factions. or 85 points higher than its sister faction the GAR! we can't have "equality" in this game. Clearly CIS is a list thats able to spam its corp units. They need to be punished for saving 24 points across 6 corp units. Punish them with more than three times, or even up to 5 times that cost on their commanders.

8 minutes ago, Applebottom said:

I'm not complaining about the costs or even quality of the current cost of CIS commanders. I'm complaining of a lack of point options and how they limit the versatility of lists since they are both saber commanders that don't interact with their army in any way. Having options is nice. GAR will be able to take their new operative and Rex for less than Dooku, and almost the same price as grievous. GAR also has the option of R2.

On a side note longer than my main point about the CIS corp unit, an average fully upgraded b1 unit is 7 white dice and 3 black with no surges at a cost of 60. a 62 point corp rebel unit has 6 white and 4 black. Offensively they aren't much. the advantage that the CIS corp has is the bodies, which are worse than paper due to their lack of surges. Spending 10 points on aggressive tactics tax to make them maybe take one less damage a turn feels pretty bad. the TRUE benefit to the CIS corp is the perfect activations they offer. Anything else they offer is matched or surpassed on nearly the same point cost as other factions. But due to the high cost of their commanders, CIS cant take a lot of their 100 point droidekas, their 125 point operative, or their 48 point (without upgrades) other corp unit. The only inexpensive option the CIS have is their B1 corp unit, which really isn't much cheaper compared to other similar options. CIS must jam their corp units, otherwise they dont have enough activations to compete.

As for the DLT squad comparison, Storm troopers are defensive with red dice and have precise with surge to hit. Believe me, I know how bad it feels to throw white dice on offense. But a CIS squad without their E5C are lucky to even land 2 hits due to a lack of surge on those white dice, heaven forbid you used the one pip-command cards that didnt enable a chain of coordinates so your unit can't even aim before attacking .

B1's arent bad by any means, but they arent there to deal damage or take a hit. They are there for suppression and objectives.

/endrant

You've hit the nail on the head with activation control. No other army gets that. With the new units coming, CIS can still get perfect activation control while fielding everything other than Cad Bane. STAPs can coordinate with each other and then drop an order on the tank, which in turn (with the proper pilot) can pass that on to the squads of droid troopers. It would appear for the time being that the CIS trade off is expensive commanders. I'm happy with that for now.

#pogglethelesser

I believe FFG stated that they wanted the CIS to be a mix of powerhouse Heroes and Heavies supported by cheap troops. I would not expect them to get a unit costed similarly to the generic commanders of other factions. Han or Iden-level commanders seem more likely.

The CIS build diversity is suffering from a lack of cheap supports and spec forces to allow them to diversify from just running B1s, though. Controlling AI is also proving to be an issue because of this situation.