Hello there,

Ehm… Ok a little bit of backstory. We started to play the game in February this year and bought the Imperial vs Rebels Starter and start collecting these armies. We played many games with these armies and had a lot of fun because every game was close and mostly it was last round victories.

Then in June, we bought the Clone Wars Starter and started to collect those armies too. I do not see that there is the same fun in that era as in the classic era. We played nearly 20 games with Clones against Droids now and the Republic won every single game. Not by a small account but more like landslide victories often with the no enemy model left victory condition.

To be fair… I know that I play the droids not as good as it is possible and I am lousy tactician (otherwise I would not lose that much), but I really struggle with that army. I do not see any advantages in playing Seperatists.

The obvious advantage should be the number of troops. That is no real advantage… I am bound to the six corps limit, with that I cannot outplay the “hey my corps only costs 36 points” card to the limit where I would say that it is advantage. Even Striketeams are no real new tool because it was not the problem to get 10 to 11 activations for the army – so I use full BX squads to get a specialist squad that do not die when something coughs on it.

Last game was so super bad that I am demotivated. Lost my whole army and the clones only lose 10 Models.

So… I must do hard strategic mistakes and want to improve, but I do not see the mistake. My list was Grievous (Aggressive Tactics), Cad Bane (Gauntlet), 5x B1 (with the 3 black dices rifle), 1x BX (Vibro, offensive push, Sniper), 2x BX (ST) (Sniper)

Against

Rex, 1 ARCs, 2 ARCs (ST), 2 P2 Clones and 3 P1 Clones or something like that.

Problem was clearly the deployment… we got Battlefronts so the clones don’t need to run to get in range and could build up the gunline in round 1. My enemy decide at the end of Round 1 that he ignore the objective and go for total destruction and achieved that at the end of Round 3.

OK… as usual a bad game gets even worse with bad luck dices… so I had 2 or 3 shoots with KI that only shows 1 hit and things like that and he had throws with 8 hits (after counting in cover…) and with that lousy T-Shirt saves I don’t get one save roll.

Really a bad game for me.

I heard that CIS is not that bad in the current meta, but I don’t get why. Can an experienced CIS Player say something about the base strategy of that army? I think I don’t get the base idea right.

My thoughts after that many defeats are: that CIS is so bad in attacking and defending, that you can completely ignore to shoot and should try to play the objectives absolutely blind and hope that the enemy needs too long to shoot of your droids from the targets. You only shoot when no other option is left or to get suppression on the enemy squads. A shot off like that game yesterday is always a loss.

Through that thought I rearranged my mission deck to mission that are easier to get or need heavy movement to prevent the clones to get into gunlines and push them to move.

So I chose Hostage Exchange, (for that I will get one B2 squad in the next games, what is a piety because I hate these guys with their useless range 2 weapon), Bombing Run, Payload and Sabotage the Moisture Vaporates (that mission is not good for droids but all others are even worse).

In addition, I take out Battlelines because with that stretched deployment it is too easy to cut the order chain and get the droids in KI routines.

Perhaps I can win with that… At the moment I am a bit… I don’t know. It is super thematic like that. The Droids in the TV show were exactly like my experience in the game… but that is no fun after 20 games. I am in the whiny state of talking bad about balance, but I see too many mistakes on my side of the table. Perhaps I can get help in this forum.

Excuse me for my rusty English. I don’t use English in written form that often.

Thanks in advance.

Please share photos of your battlefield and deployments so we can get a better idea of what you are dealing with.

Do you have enough line of sight blocking terrain?

I'd try this list:

General Grievous (175 + 21 = 196)
--Aggressive Tactics (10), Endurance (6), Strict Orders (5)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 10 = 46)
HQ Uplink 10

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

BX-Series Droid Commandos (68 + 34 = 102)
--Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28), Vibroswords (6)

BX-Series Droid Commandos (68 + 34 = 102)
--Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28), Vibroswords (6)

Droidekas (100 + 5 = 105)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)

Droidekas (100 + 5 = 105)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)

Remember to not just run grievous out in front straight away.

Today is our next match and i will try Seperatists again, and i will make some photos.

I test the following list today:

Grievous
Aggressive Tactics

4x B1 with 3 Black Dice Rifle

1x B1 with an extra b1

1x B2 with 3dice range 2 guy and extra B2

1x BX with sniper, vibro swords and situational awareness

1x AAT with Target link

I got one or two games of the twenty loses were the tank got relativly good work. Problem with that is that its hard to maneuver because of to much terain.

1 hour ago, lologrelol said:

Please share photos of your battlefield and deployments so we can get a better idea of what you are dealing with.

i will try to make some photos today

Do you have enough line of sight blocking terrain?

we have a good amount of 3D printed terrain. with desert huts and imperial defense towers. enough cover and sightblocking from my pespektive. clone player dont care about cover. 9 hits will be 7 hits after cover, what is with white defense dice a good chance of a dead squad... sorry i am really depressed when i am seeing how good the clones hit some times. i already get cynical.

I'd try this list:

General Grievous (175 + 21 = 196)
--Aggressive Tactics (10), Endurance (6), Strict Orders (5)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 10 = 46)
HQ Uplink 10

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

B1 Battle Droids (36 + 0 = 36)

BX-Series Droid Commandos (68 + 34 = 102)
--Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28), Vibroswords (6)

BX-Series Droid Commandos (68 + 34 = 102)
--Dioxis Mine Saboteur (28), Vibroswords (6)

Droidekas (100 + 5 = 105)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)

Droidekas (100 + 5 = 105)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)

Thanks for the list i will save that for the next week... well next week we hopefully get STAPs so i will test them instead of droidekas, but thanks for the list any ways i will keep it in mind.

Remember to not just run grievous out in front straight away.

Ya thats a good advice. in the last game i did a fatal error with cad bane and he got shot super early and half of the board were out of range for orders... and without orders droids are just more of a mess as with orders. so i will try to get my commander in safe distance and let him attack in the last 2 rounds or something like that.

CIS is a very strong faction but it easy to make mistakes with them. Top priority is always order control. If you get wrecked by AI, you probably made a mistake earlier. This takes some practise. Always make sure to have the units overlapping so that losing a few models (or a unit) doesn't break the chain. Bring some HQ uplinks to fill gaps in command cards (you can refresh them as well and you should).

It's also worth noting that droids really don't shoot that bad. A full squad with E-5C is only 1 black die short of Z-6 Clone Troopers while being much cheaper and losing only white dice per model. No Token sharing though.

Clones in general is a hard matchup. But it should not be 100:0, more like 60:40 with equal players. Have you tried the AAT? it's actually quite good against clones and more forgiving to play with than Cad Bane for example.

Do you also discuss the games with your opponent? maybe they can help you out. Or even better, swap the factions for 1-2 games. That way you also learn the weaknesses of the other faction and if you still lose, some strategies from your own faction as well.

53 minutes ago, .art. said:

we have a good amount of 3D printed terrain. with desert huts and imperial defense towers. enough cover and sightblocking from my pespektive. clone player dont care about cover. 9 hits will be 7 hits after cover, what is with white defense dice a good chance of a dead squad... sorry i am really depressed when i am seeing how good the clones hit some times. i already get cynical.

It's important to have many terrain that completely blocks line of sight so the droids have chance to move and get to position without being seen, or just hide until the time is right. As you say, even with heavy cover the droids tend to die pretty fast.

Have you tried your Imperial/Rebels against the republic?

Republic can easily be one of the best / easiest armies to win with especially if you have to go to him.

I'd definitely look for missions where he has to shift his army out of position to break up the overwatch firesupport gang he can form

1 hour ago, SailorMeni said:

Top priority is always order control.

I second this.

SailorMeni is right about playing clones a few times. It will give you a lot of insight into what will work against them.

Oddly, the CIS faction is the only one I haven’t played yet. Not because it’s not good, but just cause I haven’t gotten to them yet.

As far as playing against the clones, you’re not the only one to have problems. Many have claimed the clones are too powerful, but I think it’s just that people don’t know what tactics to use against them yet. The Republic faction plays like no other faction and requires that you play differently against them as well. I may not be able to tell you how to play CIS, but I can tell you what tactics work against Republic troops.

The Republic army uses Standys more than any other faction and usually creat what is named a “castle”. A castle is what it sounds like, a well fortified position where some or most of the army is hidden behind sight blocking terrain. Because of the Republic’s ability to share green tokens, units that are out of sight can share Standbys with their units that are in view of opposing units. This means that you can’t shoot the Standby off the units behind cover because you can’t see them, and with the Overwatch upgrade and the Phase 2 clones (or ARCs) the clones can use the Standby out to range 3. All of the units you selected can only fire out to range 3, which means you will be fired at as soon as you move up, or will be fired at as a retaliatory attack if you take an action. Does that sound like what you’re going through?

If so there are some easy ways to fix that issue:

1. Chip Shots: a chip shot is an attack from a unit that has very few dice to attack with and can’t do much damage, which is why it’s called a chip, because you’re only chipping a little off the unit you’re attacking. Sniper Strike Teams are the best at this and can even remove Standbys from units (If a unit gains a Suppression token, it loses the Standby). Don’t forget to keep moving your snipers though, so you can get that angle on the hidden units with the Standbys on them. Also if you fire at the clone corps troops, the clones don’t have a very high mini count, so losing even 1 mini per attack not only reduces the attacked unit’s dice to attack, but weakens the clone army as a whole.

2. Range 4+ Weapons: much like in #1 above, range 4 (or 5) weapons can do the same thing. B1s actually have a good range 4 weapon (E-5s B1 Trooper). They only roll 2 dice (1red & 1white), but if one hit goes through cover, that’s one less attack die that will be rolled against your troops and being at range 4, no Standby can be used against you. Be very careful of Rex’s 2 pip. It is a very dangerous card and can do a very powerful alpha strike, and after their attack the clones can move behind line of sight (LoS) blocking terrain. So try to anticipate that card being played and know when to have units further back or out of sight. Also keep in mind, you must be patient. Get you back objectives done, but if there is a center objective, you shouldn’t start moving on that till round 4 at least, so you can spend 3 rounds of doing chip shots and reducing the Rebublic to one or two minis per unit for the big show down in rounds 4-6.

3. Critical: though I’m talking about the keyword, rolling a critical is good too. Crits get past cover, doges, even Obi Wan’s Soresu, so using that with the above tactics in #1 and #2 and the clone player will slowly start to lose minis and this will make his army manageable when you both have to make a play for an objective. If a single hit gets through to a clone, there is a 50% chance that the mini will be removed (33.333333% if they have surges), so they should be losing a few minis each round.

4. Standby Rules: just to make sure that you guys are playing the rules correctly, keep in mind that the Rules Reference Guide (RRG) was updated months ago limiting the amount of Standbys a single unit can spend per instance. So if there are two clone units that can see your unit as your unit moves into the standby range for those 2 clone units, both of those clone units can only spend 1 Standby each, even if there are more than 2 Standby tokens available to them.

5. Terrain Scoping: this one is a good tactic to use on any army. Terrain Scoping is done by using the terrain to limit either the attacker’s or defender’s views, so that only specific minis can see and thereby participate in an attack exchange. In this case you will use LoS (Line of Sight) blocking terrain so that the clone unit you are attacking is the only unit that can see your attacking unit. This way if there are Standbys to spend, only that one clone unit can spend it. Even better is if you can use the terrain so that half of the clone unit you want to attack cannot see your unit. That way, if the clone unit does spend a Standby token, they can only roll 3 black against you instead of the usual 4 black, 6 white. Again this tactic reduces their numbers and so also the amount of dice they can use against you, and defending against a 3 black die attack is fairly easy especially if you have cover. Note that this tactic can also be used to take out the heavy mini in the unit you want to attack. This is usually because the targeted player didn’t put their heavy mini more in the center of the unit and has it hanging out at the tail end.

6. Other Units: as someone mentioned above the AAT is incredibly good against clones. Not only does it have the Critical keyword, but it also has High Velocity, so that even normal hits that make it past cover can’t be negated by dodges (that includes Soresu too). There is also the Stap Riders, which can flank the clones, but if you do use them, be patient with them. Don’t just run them up to enemy lines, try to move them around and behind and also don’t forget to use Terrain Scoping for them so there’s not as much retaliatory attacks from Standbys and inactivated units. Stap Riders can get heavy cover if you place one of the two minis behind LoS blocking terrain which can be useful if they get fired at when trying to get in behind the clones.

7. ARC Strike Teams are not as good as you think: by that I mean they don’t have High Velocity, so with the 2 point Situational Awareness upgrade and a dodge, the ARC sniper attack can be negated. So if his snipers are doing a lot of work on your units, dodge up.

I haven’t played in a while, so I can’t remember the other tactics, but these are some of the tactics used against me and my clones. I should probably start a tactics thread about how to beat clones. There have been a lot of people complaining about not being able to beat them, and I know what that feels like (not fun), so I try to help where I can. I’m know for a fact that there are more tactics, I just can’t think of them right now, but mainly it’s all about knowing when to sit in LoS blocking cover or at long range and be patient and when to rush in and attack with everything you’ve got.

Unfortunatly I can’t tell you how to win with clones, but I can tell you how to beat them. 😏

Oh, also if the other player is rolling so much better, share dice. Yeah, I’m superstitious and having a bad luck person rolling my dice always seems to kill the luck. The rules do stipulate that you can use the other player’s dice anyway. Also if he doesn’t seem to roll poorly... ever... his dice might be.... well maybe he left them in a hot car too long. Worth a shot if there’s such a discrepancy.

Very useful tipps so far.

We always play in the same timelines. so its always empire vs rebells and clone vs droid so far. I think that i dont use the terrain correct and get to easiely spotted, and i let the command chain break to easy. that seems to be the core mistakes that i must work on.

As said we play in this evening, and i will try the tank today. i think that it will do better then my lousy attemps with cad bane.

I think i did a mistake by choosing the droids when we devide the box... i really like the droids and just want to paint that army. But as i said i am not really good with tactics and easy to distract... i am more the guy who totally forget the mission and go full rampage. old skaven tactics from warhammer. all-man things must die die... ya... that does not work with CIS i guess .

But i see a lot of good tips here and i will try to adopt them. i am really thankful for all of the kind replies

Oh and i dont have STAPs yet. Hope they arrive on Friday.

For CIS i only got:

Grievous
Dooku
Cad Bane
6x B1
2x B2
3x BX
3x Droideka
1x AAT
(2x STAPS - preorderd)

I try to get another AAT for a fun two tank list (and i would like to paint two of them :P) . But its sold out at the moment.

6 hours ago, .art. said:

So I chose Hostage Exchange

OK, first thing: don't play hostage vs clones expecially if you expect rex. He can just use scouting party to move his hostage back, and the clones hostage carrier can use standbys to move away too (likely with courage 3!).

I see you don't use any hq uplink on your b1s: having one (or 2) can really help you out with order control, wich (to me) is one of the best things about CIS. Even having a unit just hanging back and recovering every round can help.

for example, in a list like this you can achieve complete order control every round:

792/800 (10 activations)
Count Dooku (Force Choke, Force Push, Force Reflexes, Aggressive Tactics)
B1 Battle Droids (HQ Uplink)
2× B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5s B1 Trooper, HQ Uplink)
2× B1 Battle Droids (E-5s B1 Trooper)
BX-Series Droid Commandos (BX-Series Droid Sniper, Offensive Push, Deflector Shields)
2× BX-Series Droid Commandos Strike Team (BX-Series Droid Sniper)

with 6 range 4+ weapons ,3 of wich with pierce, you can poke at clones from a safe distance while waiting the right moment to hit them harder. full order control hepls you with that because it lets you choose when to activate your most important pieces.

16 minutes ago, .art. said:

I think i did a mistake by choosing the droids when we devide the box... i really like the droids and just want to paint that army. But as i said i am not really good with tactics and easy to distract... i am more the guy who totally forget the mission and go full rampage. old skaven tactics from warhammer. all-man things must die die... ya... that does not work with CIS i guess .

By what you say I get that this is the problem as CIS doesn't go well with your playstyle. To be able to charge recklessly to battle and live to tell the tale you need units with good defense like Republic or Empire. CIS is the complete opposite to that, in my opinion is the trickiest faction to play right now, but can be really good if played well.

But if you want to go up front to your enemy then the AAT will help you pretty well with that, so by using it, maybe you can still play as you like but with better odds 🙂

EDIT: and if you end up really liking the AAT, maybe you could consider getting another one and use 2 in your army.

Unfortunately, I tend to play like you sometimes, so a lot of my charge forth and overwhelm them tactics rely on dice rolls instead of actual advantage. (especially with my Rebels or Separatists)

Double tanks with Grievous ready to pop out from behind or B2 or whatever can really wreck anyone, but you've got to roll some blocks on defense and they have to not roll 5 natural crits with their black dice or whatever.

It's super fun when it works. Roll the 2 tanks out in front of everyone and then have the units hide behind it until they are ready or in range to blast. If you can get a tank to last until turn 2, you should be in range and have whittled a couple of units down.

1 hour ago, .art. said:

I think i did a mistake by choosing the droids when we devide the box... i really like the droids and just want to paint that army. But as i said i am not really good with tactics and easy to distract... i am more the guy who totally forget the mission and go full rampage. old skaven tactics from warhammer. all-man things must die die... ya... that does not work with CIS i guess .

Yeah, it's a tricky way to play droids.

Honestly the best way I've found to play CIS is to build simple lists and use the each piece for full advantage.

I typically run something simple like:

General Grievous (Aggressive Tactics, Esteemed Leader, Offensive Push, DT-57 Annihilator)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, OOM-Series Battle Droid, HQ Uplink)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, OOM-Series Battle Droid, HQ Uplink)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
AAT Trade Federation Battle Tank (Lok Durd, Armor-Piercing Shells, High-Energy Shells, Linked Targeting Array)

Or

General Grievous (Aggressive Tactics, Esteemed Leader, Offensive Push, DT-57 Annihilator)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, OOM-Series Battle Droid, HQ Uplink)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, OOM-Series Battle Droid, HQ Uplink)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
B1 Battle Droids (E-5C B1 Trooper, B1 Battle Droid)
Droidekas
Droidekas


The beauty of lists like these is you can control the board. Every round all your B1s will have orders. Leaving the only variables as GG or the AAT/dekkas in the random pool, depending on the card you play. This way you can avoid moving GG up too early or too late and B1s never have to worry about wasting half their activation blasting at something they're unlikely to kill.

Use the AAT/Dekkas to harass enemy lines or target units that are weakened by suppression. Use the B1s to move up on objectives (bunkering in heavy cover as they go) and take shots when they can (remember to break LoS while placing in cohesion, this is absolutely key to getting your points out of B1s. They are weak and they have bad stats, but their numbers make it easier to block LoS to a whole unit. Every time an enemy unit of clones wastes a full power shot on a unit it cannot actually kill is a victory.) Then use GG like a cowardly hostage taker. Jump him out from LoS blocking terrain with scale lock him in engagement with something he's either weakened with one of his arsenal attacks (or is too weak to really fight back) and use his blaster to attack other units. Then When/if the time is right, play his one pip and run him in to finish off a bunch of stuff, or in many cases run him away denying the enemy the kill on GG who they may have allocated too many units towards, freeing up the B1s to do what they need to do.


If you're gonna stick with droids make sure you invest in terrain that is tall enough that GG's scale is effective and always make sure to bring Line of Sight blockers. Games where the best you can do is heavy cover really kill CIS effectiveness.

Along with LOS blocking terrain and cover as everyone has said limited visibility is a great condition for the CIS

CIS play strange, but it's not quite as different as I think people trick themselves into thinking.

The key with the "perfect activation control" everyone talks about is really to just aim for near perfect control. If you can keep all your corps out of your order pool or all your corps plus another unit, you are doing fine.

Remember, the AAT glides over terrain shorter than it is.

When in doubt, bring both commanders, Double the Fall lists are still surprisingly effective. In fact my cleanest list is Dooku, Grievous, AAT, 5 naked b1s.

Don't be afraid to send your B1s into melee against shooty elements. They are there to tar pit enemies in my opinion, lots of troops will get bogged down for multiple turns removing them in melee.

The Droidekas are not very good. They are probably well worth bringing in the right hands, but I don't and I would not suggest taking them unless you really have a good plan for them. This could change if we get one more reliable form of ranged suppression, as a suppression list may become quite potent then.

Grievous is tough, but he is nowhere near immortal, and he panics easily. los blockers are his friend with scale. honestly, same goes for Dooku. Push and Choke don't require los so you can set him up well behind stuff.

One way to train yourself to play the faction is to do a double the fall style list, put esteemed leader on both commanders and let your b1s tank shots for them as you close in. itll teach the order daisy chains and help you with how to pick command cards.

7 hours ago, JediPartisan said:

4. Standby Rules: just to make sure that you guys are playing the rules correctly, keep in mind that the Rules Reference Guide (RRG) was updated months ago limiting the amount of Standbys a single unit can spend per instance. So if there are two clone units that can see your unit as your unit moves into the standby range for those 2 clone units, both of those clone units can only spend 1 Standby each, even if there are more than 2 Standby tokens available to them.

I can standby with more than one unit after an enemy performs an action within my standby range?

18 minutes ago, lologrelol said:

I can standby with more than one unit after an enemy performs an action within my standby range?

Yes, but each unit can only spend 1 token per instance of standby being triggered. For instance if your opponent moves grevious into range 2 of 2 separate clones trooper units, both units can take a standby action. However if it was one trooper unit with multiple standby tokens available to it, it can only take one standby action per triggering instance.

I find B1s to be completely awful I dunno how you guys run so many units of them

Quote

To be able to charge recklessly to battle and live to tell the tale you need units with good defense like Republic or Empire. CIS is the complete opposite to that

Sure if you use all B1s.

If you use B2s and droidekas the army gets way more resilient.

I absolutely love B2s and how much damage they do. I cant stand rolling all white dice.

I think taking more than two units of B1s is a trap.

Dooku is great. The AAT is solid, Grievous does his job well. B1s are the best part of the faction at this point.

I am no expert but I’ve played them every week for the last few months and here are my takeaways. Like most have mentioned the strength of the CIS is their activation control. It’s a powerful faction trait. You can respond to any opponent action this way or activate a unit whenever you want. You really want To be dishing out those 4 surge tokens from aggressive tactics every round. Practice deploying units with a range 1 ruler stick and try to overlap them. March them forward all together and be mindful of this so you can maintain the order “chain” (think of how the droids marched towards the gungans in phantom menace). Don’t forget to say the phrase “roger roger” as you are issuing/chaining orders to all your droids, it’s the secret to CIS players success.

shoot for deployments that benefit CIS like major offensive, advanced positions and roll out. Avoid the ones like disarray. Droids also do well on a majority of objectives and conditions. Avoid the hostage objective versus clones as others have mentioned. Yes the droids do get wasted if shot at but try to not be discouraged. I like to take the extra droid on top of the heavy weapon for an 8 droid squad. That’s still quite a bit to chew through for your opponents. If you have the upgrade expansions I recommend taking a few of the range 4 “sniper” guns (Es5C?). Range 4 is huge and can help keeping your droids away from your opponents gunline while you chip away behind heavy cover. Heavy cover and line of sight blocking terrain is super crucial to CIS, especially the commanders, which are phenomenal. B2 droids are very good, I honestly think they are the best “range2” unit in the game (in comparison to royal guards, fleets, Wookiee warriors). A “one of” of them is fine, bring them up last though late game.

Im more of a count dooku fan (I love force powers) but grievous is also a great commander. I recommend playing them both very conservatively. If they get caught out in the open they can die quickly. Rolling blanks on red dice hurts (that’s why I don’t mind when I blank on white dice haha) Keep them hidden rounds 1-3 depending on how your opponent moves then drop those one pips at the right moment. Use grievous’s gun to his advantage, move, shoot with relentless then dip back into cover. Side note, I have used cad bane a bunch, he is really fun to play but can be tough to use. You really gotta watch how you lay his tokens down. He can be rewarding though if played well. He’s great on sabotage the moisture vaporators or recover the supplies.

I haven’t had a chance to play using the BX droids yet. The tank is phenomenal and really good against enemy infantry. Send it forward, park it, then start barraging your enemy units. You can even hide droids or your commanders behind it to escort them. Here are some of the lists I’ve played:

Count dooku w/ push, reflexes, choke & aggressive tactics

B1 droids w/ 3 black gun heavy + extra droid x6 (1 w/ hq uplink

AAT tank w/ coordinate droid,high energy shells and linked targeting array

or

count dooku w/ same setup as above

Cad bane w/ gauntlets, stims and duck & cover

2 B1 squads w/ extra droid and 3 black gun

2 B1 squads w/ extra droid and r/w sniper gun

1 B1 squad w/ rocket launcher, extra droid and uplink

1 B2 squad w/ extra droid and B2-Acm gun

(I like this list a lot, lots of versatility)

sorry for the long post but I hope this info helps. Thank you for taking the time to read. Roger roger!

Basically everything @Zeph01 threw out there is spot on. I'll give you what I've been using to great success too though just for some ideas:

Dooku with Push, Reflex, Choke, and AT (although I have been experimenting with Guidance over Choke.)

1 B1 squad with the extra and E-5C

2 B1 squad with the extra and E5-S

1 B1 squad with the extra, E-60R, and HQ Uplink

1 B2 squad with the extra and ACM

1 B2 squad with the extra, B2-HA, and HQ Uplink

1 Droideka with LR Comm Link

I'd replace the Droidekas with BX Droids if you have them (I will when I do). There's also quite a bit of fat you can shave off by dropping extra droids on the E-5S and changing them to the 3 black die rifles, or going with 2 B2 squads with ACMs.

Im a big fan of the AAT with High Energy Shells, the Clones can have a mountain of dodge tokens to hand and cant spend a single one of them on an attack pool of 6 red and 1 white dice from the AAT, with Critical 3 no less.

1 hour ago, Mace Windu said:

Im a big fan of the AAT with High Energy Shells, the Clones can have a mountain of dodge tokens to hand and cant spend a single one of them on an attack pool of 6 red and 1 white dice from the AAT, with Critical 3 no less.

You can also print off the new command card that gives you a vehicle command and then starts your chain. I love the aat tank. It's really the only reason i play seppies.

10 hours ago, Khobai said:

I find B1s to be completely awful I dunno how you guys run so many units of them

Sure if you use all B1s.

If you use B2s and droidekas the army gets way more resilient.

I absolutely love B2s and how much damage they do. I cant stand rolling all white dice.

I think taking more than two units of B1s is a trap.

B1's are the best unit in the game, second to none.

18 hours ago, Khobai said:

I think taking more than two units of B1s is a trap.

Of the 14 CIS lists that made it to single eliminations in Invader League Season 5 and the 2 CIS lists in the top 8 at GenCon, none of them used fewer than 4 B1s, and the majority used 6 (9 of 16). And these were online tournaments where B2s weren't artificially limited by low availability. I think only one list used 2 B2s, and 5 lists had 1.