To me Star Wars has a lot to do with the Jedi, and I love including Jedi in my lists, but I always find it hard to get into melee combat. It can be tricky, even challenging if you’re facing an opponent that knows what they’re doing. I’m hoping that some kind of “Force Speed” (maybe tappable) upgrade card comes with Maul/Anakin. Something that temporarily increases their speed somehow so they can close more of a gap.

But would something like that be broken? When Jedi get into melee, especially near the bulk of the enemy forces, they can take down several units and still have a few health left (unless your dice hate you, then you get punched out by a naked trooper unit). I haven’t seen much Jedi in games of late as commanders like Rex, Leia, Veers and Krennic are usually taken (especially in competitive circles), because they’re cheaper and give a better return on points spent, especially from their command cards which tend to help the army as a whole, not just the Jedi (though I suppose a Jedi like Obi can help reduce damage).

Also, as a side note, shouldn’t FFG have been starting up the hype train for Anikin/Maul a few weeks ago? There’s only about a month before they’re supposed to be on the shelf. Or do we have yet another delay and/or not enough stock made?

Anyway, I’m kinda on the fence on whether a card like that would just be good, or broken. What do you guys think? Is there some kind of alternative to help Jedi become a little more versatile?

The inserts for Maul and Anakin got leaked on here a couple of day ago and the only new Force upgrade is Force Barrier. It doesn't seem like most people have issues getting them into melee. If they die before getting stuck in it's usually either my dumb mistake or my opponent outplayed me somehow. If priced correctly a Force Speed upgrade could be fine, I guess.

I do like that ability, but I'm on the side it'd be a little much. Particularly on both Master of the Force 2 characters in game right now. If it affects all movement their turn, you're gonna be dealing with a speed 2 Palp and speed 3(!) Christopher Lee basically every round since it's be an auto include for them. This would also be a dramatic boost to both Vaders, especially OP Vader who can now also hit speed 3 at the cost of suppression.

That said I think the ability is workable in game. Make it that you have to use the card for the first move and have a negative effect that makes attack actions and the use of other force powers impossible.

I like the idea on paper but in practice it sounds pretty strong since most already have charge/relentless and jump. 2 speed 3 movements is almost R3 while 2 speed 2 movements is almost exactly R2. They could cover a lot of ground in a single activation and still be able to attack.

I’ve never had a challenge getting a Jedi into melee unless his name was Vader or Palps.

Now, doing so at the right time and being smart with it is another matter

19 minutes ago, codytx2 said:

On the other hand you could have Overwatch standby Jedi.

Do you mean move on a range 3 Standby? The only problem is that a Standby can be easily shot off. Unless you’re around a corner, but then it’s generally just other Jedi types that would move in like that and though it would give you a preemptive attack, it doesn’t give you the ability to launch attacks on the main force as Jedi types usually work far enough in advance of their troops. So I don’t really see a benefit. Have you tried it and it worked for you?

17 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

I’ve never had a challenge getting a Jedi into melee unless his name was Vader or Palps.

Now, doing so at the right time and being smart with it is another matter

That’s the problem, I’m neither smart nor well timed. 😳 😜

31 minutes ago, arnoldrew said:

The inserts for Maul and Anakin got leaked on here a couple of day ago and the only new Force upgrade is Force Barrier. It doesn't seem like most people have issues getting them into melee. If they die before getting stuck in it's usually either my dumb mistake or my opponent outplayed me somehow. If priced correctly a Force Speed upgrade could be fine, I guess.

I can’t find that post for the spoilers, do you have a link, or has it been taken down?

3 minutes ago, JediPartisan said:

Do you mean move on a range 3 Standby? The only problem is that a Standby can be easily shot off. Unless you’re around a corner, but then it’s generally just other Jedi types that would move in like that and though it would give you a preemptive attack, it doesn’t give you the ability to launch attacks on the main force as Jedi types usually work far enough in advance of their troops. So I don’t really see a benefit. Have you tried it and it worked for you?

No my mind went immediately to standby, move, move, attack instead of standby, move, attack before I caught my error lol.

24 minutes ago, JediPartisan said:

That’s the problem, I’m neither smart nor well timed. 😳 😜

Same, dude.

20 minutes ago, JediPartisan said:

I can’t find that post for the spoilers, do you have a link, or has it been taken down?

If you have issues to get into melee with close combat units, I guess there are 2 situations:

a. Too little terrain. If the tables you play on all look barren or with very few tall structures (in 40k terms, 'LoS blockers'), units will be killed too fast by ranged weapons. Terrain is an ally of melee.

b. Chosen deploy cards and deploy in general. Always aim to pick deploy cards that keep deploy areas closer. Also, deploy your melee stuff last to counter the concentration of enemy forces

I personally won't like something like Force Speed. Lightsaber users can be super strong and almost unstopable if they get into melee and the opponent doesn't have some strong melee units, so it's OK if it's a bit tricky to get them there. It's a high risk high reward situation.

But as mentioned by others, if there's enough terrain it isn't too difficult for them to get into melee, but you always have to be careful on how to move them and don't get anxious to get them into melee as soon as posible without caring for anything else, because it can have terrible consecuences to you (it happened to me and my opponents plenty of times 😀 )

I wouldn't mind it in principle, (I don't think its needed) but it would have to be one of the 'X' type cards, one-use-only and 25pts.

If you look at Obi Wan on the deathstar as an example and not cartoon anakin charging into melee against tens of thousands of droids/sandpeople/whatever you'll get a better idea of what to do with your Force Users. Don't try to get into melee until turn 3 at least.

Play in such a way that, no matter what, you can't get into melee until turn 3 (even if you can). Tiptoe, Dodge, Hide, whatever but practice that and you'll learn to keep your Force Users alive. Then you'll be ready to play the overly aggressive opponents, and you'll learn patience to play against those hard core, over-thinking slow players.

I feel your pain on Jedi. I like Obi-Wan, but it's hard to justify him when he isn't really in the game for half of it. Then again, I've been clobbered enough by OP Luke enough times that I don't want anything that makes him even more OP. Obi-Wan would be good with a Force Speed bonus, and Vader absolutely needs one, but OP Luke would be ridiculous. Unfortunately, the game doesn't offer any way to limit upgrades a few, but not all eligible units.

3 hours ago, Alpha17 said:

I feel your pain on Jedi. I like Obi-Wan, but it's hard to justify him when he isn't really in the game for half of it. Then again, I've been clobbered enough by OP Luke enough times that I don't want anything that makes him even more OP. Obi-Wan would be good with a Force Speed bonus, and Vader absolutely needs one, but OP Luke would be ridiculous. Unfortunately, the game doesn't offer any way to limit upgrades a few, but not all eligible units.

Arguably it does offer such a mechanism, it's just.... unwieldy. Explicitly naming the units that can/can't take the upgrade.
Like I said, it's very unwieldy and would lead to more text on the card for who can/can't take the upgrade than actual rules in some cases...

Outside of the Tartakovsky cartoon (which made the Jedi characters pretty godlike unless they were fighting Grievious), we only see force speed being used defensively. I think you could reflect that in the card to prevent crazy charge/relentless rampages.

Exhaust, Free action: When you activate, gain Spur, you can only perform move actions this activation.

Or, alternatively

One time use, Free action: When you activate, immediately perform a speed 3 compulsory move. You cannot perform attack or standby actions.

12 minutes ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

Outside of the Tartakovsky cartoon (which made the Jedi characters pretty godlike unless they were fighting Grievious), we only see force speed being used defensively.

I think your idea is more balanced, I would say the only exposure I saw to Force Speed was in the old Jedi Outcast games, when Kyle Katarn or his acolytes would run circles around the stormtroopers slicing them all down. There were times you used your speed to escape from something. But some more recent video games also had Jedi chopping down large vehicles or bringing crashing spaceships down

@KommanderKeldoth The only problem I have with Compulsory Move on a Jedi is you could theoretically end up with them slamming face first into a wall. Not super likely with a small base model, but still it is possible and makes for an amusing mental image.

10 hours ago, Caimheul1313 said:

@KommanderKeldoth The only problem I have with Compulsory Move on a Jedi is you could theoretically end up with them slamming face first into a wall. Not super likely with a small base model, but still it is possible and makes for an amusing mental image.

Yeah I deliberately wanted it to be a compulsory move so that it would be a little trickier to use.

1 hour ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

Yeah I deliberately wanted it to be a compulsory move so that it would be a little trickier to use.

Fair, but it doesn't really feel quite right thematically as Jedi can block blaster bolts, but can't avoid running headlong into a wall?

So will the PK-series worker droid have the "repair" keyword?

1 minute ago, PhoenixOfCopper said:

So will the PK-series worker droid have the "repair" keyword?

That's what the guess is, but we won't know for sure until it gets spoiled.

5 minutes ago, thepopemobile100 said:

That's what the guess is, but we won't know for sure until it gets spoiled.

Well I used google translate and found a similar keyword to treat, but not repair on the rules sheet.

It would make sense that the Pk would have repair from what is said on this page.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/PK-series_worker_droid/Legends

Not going to lie without repair I only need 1 or 2 of these sets, with repair I could see myself buying 4 to 6.

5 minutes ago, PhoenixOfCopper said:

Well I used google translate and found a similar keyword to treat, but not repair on the rules sheet.

It would make sense that the Pk would have repair from what is said on this page.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/PK-series_worker_droid/Legends

Not going to lie without repair I only need 1 or 2 of these sets, with repair I could see myself buying 4 to 6.

Not every keyword will necessarily be on the insert for a unit. If there is rules reminder text on the card, the keyword might not be mentioned in the insert.

Just now, arnoldrew said:

Not every keyword will necessarily be on the insert for a unit. If there is rules reminder text on the card, the keyword might not be mentioned in the insert.

ok, That is true. Thank you for the reassurance.

Vader is the only jedi that legitimately needs help getting into melee. Speed 1 makes him unplayable.