Hey everyone. Just looking for a bit of advice for expanding my Rebel collection. I have 3 core sets and one of every trooper expansion so far - Sabine, Cassian and 2nd set of Commandos on order. Basically everything except the Airspeeder. I usually have a sniper strike squad in my list, and want to expand that to 2 or more for sure, but not sure what way to go for building up the rest of the list. Pathfinders seem to get wiped easily, Veterans hold out ok, but once they're in the heat they get taken down. Fleets work ok for me, but can be a bit slow to get stuck in. Wookies are also OK, but don't use them much. Do any of these units come alive with a second or third expansion in the same list?

Am aware I probably just have a poor strategy though. With Imperials, it seems much more obvious what I'd buy duplicates of.

The answer is no. Fleets are amazing offensively, and as a result they never get to range 2 to get a shot off (snowtroopers get it on the imperial side for the same reason). Both fleets and the hairy beasts do well in skirmish games .

Pathfinders are often called a bad unit but are starting to see more limited play thanks to Cassian who syncs well with any spec ops.

Rebel Veterans are good because they surge to hit, however thanks to the rebel troopers DLT 20a that works almost as well because at least one surge in the 7dice pool can be converted. The problem is that they benefit from having an order at the top of the round, and to have an order they need a commander that can give them that order and Cassian isn't it. In fact rebels order tokens are best dropped on the support (ATRT or Tauns) or spec forces units (Sniper strike teams or Bistan/pathfinders)

Rebel Veterans can be interesting if you want to use their training slot, people can run them with comms specialist and an hq uplink, or you can throw offensive push on them thanks to their training slot. If you do the latter your better using Leia as your commander.

The Corp slot for rebels is kind of weak in choice IMO compared with mood which is why you are a lot of lists running 3 naked rebel troopers (or without upgrades). I actually recommend against this.

I've seen someone so well with a list that's very close to mine which has cassian /Jyn/K2 , rebel veterans, mk2 blasters Pathfinder with Bistan, and 2 strike teams. this has the potential to have a turn where your entire army is immune to suppression or panicking thanks to one of Jyns cards, which can be great turn 5 /6 lifesaver.

Ultimately it's up to you , but Cassian leans into spec forces units so if have 3 of those to start with

5 minutes ago, syrath said:

The answer is no. Fleets are amazing offensively, and as a result they never get to range 2 to get a shot off (snowtroopers get it on the imperial side for the same reason). Both fleets and the hairy beasts do well in skirmish games .

What you're talking about is called a "taunt" or "tank" effect in other games. If the inclusion of a particular unit makes the rest of your army invulnerable ("unattackable") and you can't figure out how to use that in an objective-based game, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I have a pretty good history of including 1-2 in many a list to good effect. Sometimes they get off an attack, sometimes the enemy focuses them down. Either way they did their job. However, the main negative for them is that the Flamer AT-RT does the job of being scary a bit better and can usually soak a few more hits.

5 minutes ago, arnoldrew said:

What you're talking about is called a "taunt" or "tank" effect in other games. If the inclusion of a particular unit makes the rest of your army invulnerable ("unattackable") and you can't figure out how to use that in an objective-based game, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I have a pretty good history of including 1-2 in many a list to good effect. Sometimes they get off an attack, sometimes the enemy focuses them down. Either way they did their job.

Yeah it can be used to good effect and can be used to feint , also depends also on the quality of player you play against. I use infiltrate in a similar manner , a player has to account for it in their positioning until the point you infiltrate and forcing them to cover the bases can change how they deploy, even if you plan to just place it just outside your deployment. Example holding back Bistans placement against a tank forces your opponent to be anti infantry on any side you can deploy on so you have immediately limited them.

If tables were better planned at events Id include fleets as at least a one of.

Example though the recent invader league with the huge number of participants had not one fleet trooper unit. Not that that makes them not worth taking

2 hours ago, Alan Noir said:

Hey everyone. Just looking for a bit of advice for expanding my Rebel collection. I have 3 core sets and one of every trooper expansion so far - Sabine, Cassian and 2nd set of Commandos on order. Basically everything except the Airspeeder. I usually have a sniper strike squad in my list, and want to expand that to 2 or more for sure, but not sure what way to go for building up the rest of the list. Pathfinders seem to get wiped easily, Veterans hold out ok, but once they're in the heat they get taken down. Fleets work ok for me, but can be a bit slow to get stuck in. Wookies are also OK, but don't use them much. Do any of these units come alive with a second or third expansion in the same list?

Am aware I probably just have a poor strategy though. With Imperials, it seems much more obvious what I'd buy duplicates of.

It's WAY more obvious on the Rebellion what you don't buy duplicates for, tbh XP. Good instinct on the Commandos, but do remember that you are limited to a max of 3 special forces (that means you get no wookiees, and no paths). Furthermore, if your Paths die quickly, you're playing them VERY wrong. Paths love two things: Duck and Cover, and deploying in heavy cover close to an objective. You manage to accomplish that first turn and then back them up with your main force, they'll last a game with few casualties and likely will win you the center obj. Wookiees meanwhile are situational at-best, with their cruddy DEF dice. If you neglect any special forces units, they would be the one's I'd vote for.

Naturally you only ever need one of each Hero, so if you already have all of them, you're golden.

DO NOT BUY Fleet Troopers. If you spend ANYTHING on Corps, do primarily Troopers, the Trooper upgrade (but don't overuse heavy weapons), and Vets. Honestly right now, unless you really want a strong defensive line, I would avoid Vets and MKIIs and just go with 3 regular Rebel Troopers with nothing on em.

Don't bother with Heavy. The points aren't worth the tears.

Support is your other big spender aside from Spec Forces and Heroes. AT-RTs with rotary is great, Tauntauns are AWESOME, and the 1.4 Laser is pretty good (would only have one tho). Again, you only get 3, so choose wisely, but these guys are going to be the biggest bang for your buck outside of Heroes.

19 minutes ago, syrath said:

I've seen someone so well with a list that's very close to mine which has cassian /Jyn/K2 , rebel veterans, mk2 blasters Pathfinder with Bistan, and 2 strike teams. this has the potential to have a turn where your entire army is immune to suppression or panicking thanks to one of Jyns cards, which can be great turn 5 /6 lifesaver.

A little bit misleading there.

Jyn's 3-pip gives all the troopers with "face-up order tokens" immunity to panic and suppression, which is still awesome for turn 5/6 as you mentioned, but definitely not the whole army (unless things have gone terribly wrong the previous rounds XP)

1 hour ago, Cruzer said:

It's WAY more obvious on the Rebellion what you don't buy duplicates for, tbh XP. Good instinct on the Commandos, but do remember that you are limited to a max of 3 special forces (that means you get no wookiees, and no paths). Furthermore, if your Paths die quickly, you're playing them VERY wrong. Paths love two things: Duck and Cover, and deploying in heavy cover close to an objective.

Lol, that's what I do. Must be a bit reckless.

Thanks for the advice everyone. We try buy two expansions at a time, one each for rebel/imperial. Seeing as how my wishlist is very imperial heavy it's hard to know how to fill up the rebels. 2nd tauntauns could be a possibility alright, maybe veterans. Dont have a huge amount of experience with both, but theyre fairly recent purchases. Probably used each a max of 3 times

1 hour ago, arnoldrew said:

What you're talking about is called a "taunt" or "tank" effect in other games. If the inclusion of a particular unit makes the rest of your army invulnerable ("unattackable") and you can't figure out how to use that in an objective-based game, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I have a pretty good history of including 1-2 in many a list to good effect. Sometimes they get off an attack, sometimes the enemy focuses them down. Either way they did their job. However, the main negative for them is that the Flamer AT-RT does the job of being scary a bit better and can usually soak a few more hits.

So my main opponent in my at home games is a Rebel player, and he likes to spend the 2 points to put Recon Intel on the Fleets to give them a free range 1 move at deployment. While it's not a big distance move, that extra little bit can help him get his Fleets into firing ranger before I can pick them all off.

2 hours ago, Cruzer said:

A little bit misleading there.

Jyn's 3-pip gives all the troopers with "face-up order tokens" immunity to panic and suppression, which is still awesome for turn 5/6 as you mentioned, but definitely not the whole army (unless things have gone terribly wrong the previous rounds XP)

I first used this tactic a long time ago not long after the rebel veterans dropped but you have 3 orders to give out

Give orders to Jyn, Cassian, and a sniper strike team

Bistan pathfinder unit w/ HQ Uplink

2 Rebel Veterans both with comms specialist and hq uplinks

2 mk2 blaster replacements

K2 w/ HQ Uplink

Leaving 1 sniper strike team w/o an order. So the entire army is pretty much immune to suppression /panicking assuming you have at least one sniper team in a safe position. I've won a few games pulling off that trick to ensure no units loses a late game action or runs off the board.

Edit to clarify I had another unit of veterans instead of Cassian at the time.

12 minutes ago, syrath said:

I first used this tactic a long time ago not long after the rebel veterans dropped but you have 3 orders to give out

Give orders to Jyn, Cassian, and a sniper strike team

Bistan pathfinder unit w/ HQ Uplink

2 Rebel Veterans both with comms specialist and hq uplinks

2 mk2 blaster replacements

K2 w/ HQ Uplink

Leaving 1 sniper strike team w/o an order. So the entire army is pretty much immune to suppression /panicking assuming you have at least one sniper team in a safe position. I've won a few games pulling off that trick to ensure no units loses a late game action or runs off the board.

Edit to clarify I had another unit of veterans instead of Cassian at the time.

That's a lot of HQ uplinks on a lot of units that honestly will die more than 50% of the time if they're faced with exactly the amount of hits that could kill them. Rebel Corps with personnel upgrades is a risk that frankly I've been burned enough by to say "nah, don't bother". I couldn't possibly expect to still have all those vets by turn 5 or 6, much less both the vets AND the MKIIs. On paper, it's a nice idea... but in practice, it's better to just use it on the best units you can give the orders to without HQ uplink.

2 hours ago, Cruzer said:

That's a lot of HQ uplinks on a lot of units that honestly will die more than 50% of the time if they're faced with exactly the amount of hits that could kill them. Rebel Corps with personnel upgrades is a risk that frankly I've been burned enough by to say "nah, don't bother". I couldn't possibly expect to still have all those vets by turn 5 or 6, much less both the vets AND the MKIIs. On paper, it's a nice idea... but in practice, it's better to just use it on the best units you can give the orders to without HQ uplink.

Actually used by someone who got to the 2nd round of invader league, so I don't know if it's that bad an idea. I had actually ditched the hqs and vets for troopers with DLT after I dabbled in naked trooper units, however the list I run now is the similar, although have had much chance to run it though I think I may ditch one of the hqs to get C3PO or get a comms jammer on K2 for some disruption.

I actually quite like the idea of giving Jyn her blaster and the idea of landing 4 suppression on a unit before it activates, but I prefer her not quite so front and centre. Not sure if this gives the OP any ideas though

Jyn Erso (110 + 11 = 121)
--Strict Orders (5), Offensive Push (4), Recon Intel (2), A-180 Rifle Config (0)

Cassian Andor (90 + 24 = 114)
--Hunter (6), Offensive Push (4), Ascension Cables (4), A280-CFE Sniper Config (10)

Cassian Andor (Loadout)

K-2SO (70 + 10 = 80)
--Jyns SE-14 Blaster (10)

R2-D2 (35 + 0 = 35)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 0 = 40)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 26 = 66)
--DLT-20A Trooper (26)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 26 = 66)
--DLT-20A Trooper (26)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 26 = 66)
--DLT-20A Trooper (26)

Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) (20 + 28 = 48)
--DH-447 Sniper (28)

Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) (20 + 28 = 48)
--DH-447 Sniper (28)

Rebel Pathfinders (68 + 48 = 116)
--Bistan (32), Offensive Push (4), HQ Uplink (10), Recon Intel (2), A-300 Long Range Config (0)

I honestly keep forgetting to use HQ uplink when I equip it. We do get some good use from the DLT20A, so perhaps another set of those upgrades would be good. The rest are seldom used though, and I already have 6x rebel troopers anyway, so not much point just making them plain.

9 hours ago, Alan Noir said:

I honestly keep forgetting to use HQ uplink when I equip it. We do get some good use from the DLT20A, so perhaps another set of those upgrades would be good. The rest are seldom used though, and I already have 6x rebel troopers anyway, so not much point just making them plain.

I mean, more points for better units is a pretty good point I think

I like the dlt 20.

You may wait til the Clan Wren stuff shows up if nothing jumps out at you. It should release at the end of summer. I have duplicates of all the rebel stuff except the heavies, but i haven't really been impressed with anything the rebels have except the heroes. I think they are designed that way

13 hours ago, buckero0 said:

I like the dlt 20.

You may wait til the Clan Wren stuff shows up if nothing jumps out at you. It should release at the end of summer. I have duplicates of all the rebel stuff except the heavies, but i haven't really been impressed with anything the rebels have except the heroes. I think they are designed that way

Yes and had the benefit of providing perhaps 2 slots on your spec forces , here's hoping we don't end up with people taking the two man unit only ala commandos

1 hour ago, syrath said:

Yes and had the benefit of providing perhaps 2 slots on your spec forces , here's hoping we don't end up with people taking the two man unit only ala commandos

I think they'll be viable as both. If armor becomes a thing, a squad of those rocket mandos, will cut it down quickly. We really need to see Ursa Wren, and the cost of the regular unit vs small Duelist unit and see what abilities they have

21 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

I think they'll be viable as both. If armor becomes a thing, a squad of those rocket mandos, will cut it down quickly. We really need to see Ursa Wren, and the cost of the regular unit vs small Duelist unit and see what abilities they have

Viability is almost 100% tied to how long they last under fire or how soon they're at effective range before enemy units. The reason why the original commandos/scouts are almost always limited to strike teams is because they just have the silly white+surge and the half-measure improvement of "Low Profile" vs something like "Danger Sense X". Special forces units only count as an improvement over standard corps when they:
A: Have a gun that out-ranges the standard 1-3 range.
and/or
B: Have DEF dice and/or keywords that keep them alive longer.

I'm pretty sure if there wasn't a strike-team option, you'd still see Commandos/Scouts... just definitely not more than 1 or two per Legion. The high-vel sniper is just that good.