When Shatterpoint debuted, everything was about The Clone Wars. It’s the era with the most variety of characters to be able to play a skirmish game like this. One of the most successful Star Wars shows, and the reason many of us would have subscribed to Disney Plus, was The Mandalorian. I wasn’t sure when – or even if – we’d be getting characters from the show but thankfully Atomic Mass were not going to make us wait long. There are two sets directly from the show that they have released at the moment, this one and another that contains the main villain of the series: Moff Gideon.
I love that they have given us both sides but are also not rushing to give us two full squads for each side. Technically if you want to stay canonical, you can achieve this with the Certified Guild Squad by using Bo Katan and the Mandalorians from the core set – which I fully intend to try. This is not going to be the only release from the show, I mean a few more Mandalorian style sets would seem fairly obvious (and if you watched some reveals from Atomic Mass, you’ll know the confirmed ones so far). But the game is now in full swing, it’s established, and I don’t need release after release for a certain part of the franchise. A gradual release over time keeps my level of enjoyment for the game and that’s exactly what Atomic Mass seems to be doing. If you look at their other huge skirmish game, Marvel: Crisis Protocol, they move releases between a variety of factions continually, ensuring everyone has something in the year to look forward to (assuming you’re not just getting everything!).
I’m starting with the Certified Guild Squad Pack because – well – it’s got Grogu in it (you can keep your Grogu thank you very much!). Just like with the Ewok packs, my daughter saw this and her face lit up. Grogu is a force onto himself and captures the hearts of fans – and small children. Having just started my daughter the show as well, she was rather eager to see what these were like when assembled, as she knows all the characters. My point here is that this set is sure to draw a lot of fans, probably a few fans who weren’t even playing the game. At the larger scale I imagine this model is going to look impressive, never mind that there are two other characters included! I mean just look at the box art: those eyes on Grogu, who could resist.
Before I look at the box itself, let’s start with the elephant in the room (or should that be Rancor!?), the cost. The RRP for the set is £49.99, the standard cost of a squad pack. This would usually be fine; you get your four models, and you get your squad. However, you’re not getting four models, you’re getting three. For the five model packs, you pay extra (£10 extra) so why not less for less models? This is going to be coming up more and more I think, as the Rebels sets are exactly the same. You are – in essence – paying for the squad, not the models. With the five model boxes, they have options to give you more than just a single squad, there is usually an extra secondary that can be switched out. There’s a part of me that wants to say that the price should be cheaper, even just a little, but when you look at what the reduction is of things in the box, it really isn’t that much. Let’s talk about the contents so you can see what I mean.
When you open the box, there is everything you would expect: leaflet, cards, sprue and bases. This is what we always come to expect. Yes, they’ve put the initiative card with Grogu at the front, yes you can instantly see the Grogu miniature on the sprue and yes he looks adorable! In all seriousness, you have a full sprue here – Grogu and his pod are going to be taking the space of the ‘fourth’ character – four bases and lots of cards. Really you are missing three cards from what you would expect in a four-character box, not much of a saving in terms of money at all. So, for me, the standard price seems rather justified. If you are looking at it in terms of just miniatures per squad box, I can see why some might be bitter, but this squad back is for more than just the miniatures, it’s for the ability to play this squad within the game.
Loading up the instructions on the Atomic Mass website (use the QR code on the included leaflet) and it’s time to start assembling. First up is The Mandalorian and – sigh – Grogu. The build for The Mandalorian is relatively straightforward. One thing I did have to take my time with was the initial two pieces, as there’s quite a bit of movement when placed together. Make sure you have the sides lined up while the glue is setting. Also, once you’ve completed The Mandalorian himself, give some time for the glue to dry fully, as the weight of Grogu could be enough to pull the head off if it’s not set. Grogu is equally easy to put together, just make sure you switch steps nine and ten, placing Grogu in first and then the hood. It would have made my life a lot easier! In fact, I ended up taking the hood off – even after glueing – just so I could position Grogu correctly. He is very fiddly, although I’m amazed at the amount of detail they’ve been able to get onto such a small piece. Joining the two pieces together is surprisingly easy, I don’t think I’ve ever hidden how much I hated some certain ninjas from Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Atomic Mass certainly isn’t wanting to repeat that, and Grogu goes on and stays put with a well-placed tab.
The model itself is stunning. The detail on both parts of the model is incredible. It’s so good that I found myself going “wowwer wowww oo wowwer wowww” through most of the build (hopefully that’s distinguishable as the sound it should be). The weapon, which is mostly hidden by the cloak, still has exceptional detail. Even with the cloak, with Grogu, I still find that I can build the model completely and not worry too much about how I’m going to paint it. The larger scale and the choices of the sculptor, still give you enough room to be able to get a brush to the different parts. And of course, Grogu himself. For something so small, there is still huge amounts of detail that really capture the character perfectly. A great model all around.
Then it’s the other two models, the ones that haven’t even had a look in until now! First is Greef Karga, which I think is a great selection for the squad. In fact, with both him and IG-11, I’m very glad they went with characters that weren’t Mandalorian. Karga is a straightforward build that shouldn’t cause anyone problems. The final model captures his aloofness. There’s not too much motion here, solid feet on the ground and a leadership pose. It’s very in keeping with the character – a more dynamic pose just wouldn’t have worked.
I was a bit worried about the thinnest of some of the parts of IG-11. Thankfully, none of that is an issue, the larger scale of the miniatures means that – if you are careful – there shouldn’t be any snaps or breakages. The only part I found I had to take my time with was step two, attaching the second leg. Make sure both legs are on the ground when the glue is setting, they should both sit almost flush (but don’t make my mistake, it’s not completely flush).. There’s a bit of movement in the joint so make sure it’s in the correct place. I ended up with a slight gap in the right leg. Rather than try to adjust it again, I filled it in with some filler. It did mean that IG-11 had a much stronger attachment to the base this way so is certainly not likely to fall off anytime soon. The model itself is superb, if it wasn’t for the rest of the high-quality miniatures in this set, it would have been my favourite. Having the right arm go behind the droid adds a little something to the model I don’t think it would have had otherwise. The sculptor has really captured the essence of the character.
In all three of these models, I keep coming back to capturing the character. Every character here is well detailed and the poses are a perfect match. This is a stunning box to assemble and model. The Mandalorian has to be my favourite, mainly because the pose and look is straight out of all the promotional posters that were circulating for season one. Painted up, these models are going to take your breath away.
But models are one thing but how do the cards look? The Mandalorian is the primary and it’s obvious that you are going to want to run him with units having the keyword bounty hunter, Mandalorian or Scoundrel. Running these will allow you to make full use of The Mandalorians abilities. His active ability costs one force but allows Mando to dash, then, if all allied units have one of the key words within two, Mando can either do a five dice attack or push the enemy. It’s rather powerful when used correctly. Other abilities allow him to add dice to his attacks or give damage back to an attacking opponent. But what really interests me is his identity ability which is when an allied unit is wounded, one character in this unit may heal two, then move. Then each ally with the keywords mentioned within four can remove a condition and gain a hunker token. I think played correctly; this could be immensely powerful. It will mean keeping units quite close together, so how well that plays in an actual game, we will have to see. Finally, it’s The Mandalorian’s stat card, one side ‘Bring you in cold’ the other, ‘bring you in warm’. Love it! As you would imagine, one is focused on combat, the other ranged. Thankfully neither affects the armour which is standard on both sides. Now while the ‘Bring you in Warm’ side is nice, the other side looks horrific. With enough dice, you could be causing ten damage, with four or more expertise, you automatically cause five damage. Hideous! I can’t wait to try it out! A solid primary.
Which then brings us to the secondary, Greef Karga. Costing three points, he’s on the cheaper side. He’s not going to cause too much damage with his dice, doing a maximum of five damage at any given point. Looking at his abilities, for a force, he is able to have each allied Bounty hunter within four heal and then dash. This works well with The Mandalorian who wants to keep units close together. ‘Close the Deal’ I really like. It costs a force but it’s when an enemy activates a unit from reserve, a Bounty Hunter character can dash and then make a five dice attack on that unit. In my experience, if a player is putting a character into reserve, it’s so they can use them at an optimal time. Having them suffer a five dice attack first will make the enemy have to think a little bit more. ‘There is One job’ seems ok, where you place a marker on one of the opponent’s cards. When that unit is wounded, you can move the struggle token one space in your favour. It seems very situational and there isn’t too much control over who gets it. I’m not sure how well this will work, we shall see. ‘Wolves At My Back’ means if there’s a tie for an objective, this unit wins, something that happens far too often so this should prove very useful. I’m not convinced on Karga yet, it’s going to take some persuading to have me use him on the battlefield over others.
Finally, it’s the five cost support; IG-11. Now we are starting to see single models as supporting units. While not bad, it does limit your ability to get around the board as effectively. If your opponent is playing with more models, this could put you at a disadvantage from the very start of the game, so these single supporting units need to be bringing a lot to their squad. His stat card is fairly decent, rolling seven dice no matter whether it’s ranged or close combat and causing a maximum of nine damage. Certainly, someone who can wound a character in a single good roll. When you look at IG-11’s abilities, this probability increases rather quickly. ‘Are You Refusing My Request’ means that when you target an enemy who is contesting an objective you don’t control, you add three dice. That’s suddenly ten dice. If you don’t wound them, you do lose a momentum but that is surely going to be hard not to do with such a powerful attack. ‘Multithread Targeting Protocol’ allows IG-11, after an attack, to make a five dice attack against a different unit. What is great about both of these, in fact of all IG-11’s abilities, is that none of them cost any force, which frees them up for your other units to use. IG-11 does have a tactic, ‘On the Hunt’ that allows it to remove a condition from itself and then dash. Finally, ‘Victory Through Combat is Impossible’ is IG-11’s self-destruct which, if all the criteria are met, can see it cause five damage to units nearby. Very thematic and in keeping with the character. He seems very damage heavy and with no force cost, I can see it being a huge advantage on the table. Enough to forgive the unit only being one model? That we shall have to see.
Which brings us to how the squad worked in an actual game. As you would expect, they work really together. Let’s start with The Mandalorian. He is able to block a tremendous amount of hits with his armour. My opponent looked at me in shock when I reduced his attack to nothing. That said, if you have any conditions like Exposed, they will seriously hamper this. My opponent made sure I had Exposed on before attacking and the health of Mando went down considerably quickly.
Karga, I had underestimated from his cards. His ability to give out condition after condition came in surprisingly helpful, particularly against Dark Troopers. One thing I did find though, I had paired the squad up with Mandalorians. Although I had taken down the bounty I needed to trigger ‘There Is One Job’, because I had done it with the Mandalorians and not a Bounty Hunter, I didn’t get the bonus. I think for Karga to really come into his own, your other squad needs to be all bounty hunters.
IG-11 was simply wonderful, blasting apart at everything in range. He felt very thematic! He’s certainly the one out of the three that I’m planning on taking in other squads as I think he’ll do very well. He’s just a quick moving tank. His self-destruct I think will need some work but surely that’s half the fun!
This squad is very thematic, it really brings The Mandalorian to life. This is what I most want. I think partnered with a Bounty Hunter squad; this squad has huge potential. Splitting them up and using them alongside other units is going to take me some time to think about but I certainly think there is a huge amount of potential, particularly as more sets based on the series are released. In terms of models, these are some of the most detailed models Atomic Mass have produced. The first thing my son said when he saw Grogu was the incredible detail. Another strong set for Shatterpoint and one that will please fans of the show.
