With the Original Trilogy Rebellion Alliance releases in full swing, it’s time to get some love for the Galactic Empire! The Empire has been falling behind a little. There have been the Inquisitors, there’s been a Vader release, but these have been more centered around Kenobi rather than the Original Trilogy. And as much as I love – love – running Vader with Clone Troopers, it’s not really the same feeling as having a whole bunch of stormtroopers moving across the battlefield. Thankfully this pack is the start of that changing.
Now I suppose we better address stormtroopers and why the Original Trilogy wasn’t tackled first. The Clone Wars era is a much better time to start a skirmish game with because of the vast number of named characters and different types of trooper units. Even with the clones themselves, there’s that many versions of the clones that you rarely get the same one twice. Not so with the original trilogy. You only must look at this box to notice that it’s a stormtrooper sergeant and a stormtrooper. And let’s be honest, if another set has stormtroopers, it’s going to be the same again. That’s not to say that this is an issue, in fact, and I feel a little sad saying it, I’m really looking forward to another stormtrooper sergeant and stormtrooper release. I want lots of stormtroopers running around the board! But for a new game (and bear in mind the game is just over a year old), you want to be able to show the range of units and characters it can include, rather than just pulling at the heartstrings of an aged fan! Looking ahead at some of the releases we will be getting, it won’t be too long till the Empire gets all its glory back!
Now this is the second release of Darth Vader. One came along with Kenobi in the diorama pack. That Vader certainly does a huge amount of damage, and I’m very interested to see how this Vader is different in terms of cost and abilities. I’m not going to lie; I’m hoping this one is slightly better because the diorama does come with a higher price tag and I’d rather the more affordable one is the better one for players. Being able to play Vader early on is a huge bonus and one I have enjoyed many times so far. But how do you make Vader different? Well let’s see if we can find out.
Opening the box we have the sprue, cards, bases and leaflet. The sprue itself is very compact, even by Shatterpointstandards, it’s hard to believe there’s four models on there! Following the QR code and the instructions are ready for the build itself. First – of course – is the Dark Lord himself. The model itself is straightforward to put together. Even the arms are a tight fit, so you don’t even have to worry about what order to glue them on, they fit perfectly. Once the model was complete, I looked and had the same issue I had when I saw the image on the box. The cloak. The first rendition of Vader to be released for Shatterpoint was a thing of beauty, it captured Vader perfectly. This time round, the sculptor has decided to try and add some motion into the mix, with Vader’s cloak billowing behind him. In terms of painting, it’s lifted up brilliantly to give you full access to the back. But visually, it looks off. His robes around his legs are only moving slightly, only enough that they fold back. The cloak on the other hand is blowing so far up that it isn’t just bending back, it’s been pushed outward. These two contrasting ways of the air blowing just don’t fit right for the model. The back cloak almost seems too exaggerated compared to the rest of the model. Don’t get me wrong, the detail is there, the model just doesn’t quite work for me.
Next, it’s onto the Stormtrooper Sergeant. Ah and we are back in the days of not different coloured armour but a handy pauldron! Very simple to put together, you are going to want to glue the right arm before the left as the join for the right arm needs to be held in place to set. The model itself is nothing remarkable, but it is remarkable because it’s a stormtrooper. It’s great to see these models in the game finally and they look great. The slightly bigger scale to games like Legion is obvious and I have a feeling these are going to look amazing painted.
Then it’s onto the final two troopers. I said simple for the stormtrooper sergeant – in fact very simple – and yet I wasn’t prepared for it being even simpler. Two steps is all you need for each of these troopers; they are that easy to build. And that they are. For both troopers you’ll want the left arm in first then the right. They look fantastic when built, just like the Stormtrooper Sergeant.
The troopers may all look amazing but do the cards look as amazing? Let’s start with Vader. He gives you seven spend points, three force and can only be used with Rebellion era units. The three force is the interesting one, as the previous Vader (Jedi Hunter) gave you four with the same spend points. His two stance sides are Form V Djem So and Form V Shien. Shien has the ranged option, but you only get five dice (Jedi Hunter gives you seven), but the melee is a bit stronger here by one dice. In terms of damage, you can do a maximum of seven on the track. On the slip side, you get an extra dice over Jedi Hunter and can do a maximum of ten damage (an extra one over Jedi Hunter). From a stance perspective, I don’t think there’s much advantage over the two Vader’s. This Vader (The Emperor’s servant) is better at melee and Jedi Hunter is slightly better at ranged. I like there’s a difference but not a vast one.
So, let’s look at the abilities. His tactic, ‘You Don’t Know the Power of The Dark Side’, allows you to remove two damage or a condition from himself and refresh a force. Very powerful, and like Luke’s tactic, and will see Vader lasting longer before being wounded. He has two abilities that each cost a force. The first is ‘Anger, Hate, Aggression’, which allows Vader to dash, and his next attack adds three dice. If there’s one or more misses, Vader gains exposed. I love this and actually it means with Vader’s tactic he can counteract this. However, it leaves him open for the opponent to take a shot at before he is able to reactivate. I think this is really thematic. It also means Vader potentially could be attacking you with eleven dice! Gulp! The other force costing ability is ‘You are Unwise to Lower Your Defenses’ is if an opponent makes a melee attack, if there were any misses, they suffer three damage. ‘Perhaps I Can Find New Ways to Motivate That means that when Vader wounds an opponent, another Galactic Empire unit may dash. Then we come to Vader’s identity ability, which is insane. If Vader doesn’t wound anyone and his card isn’t in the order deck or reserve (i.e. you didn’t activate him using a Shatterpoint card before using his own card), you shuffle the card back in the order deck. That is horrific! Vader is going to keep coming until he’s wounded someone. That in itself is insanely powerful. Of course, the balance here is that your force (barring Vader’s tactic) isn’t going to refresh. I’m a little scared of this Vader; I’m not going to lie!
So, two Vader’s, where does this sit? Jedi Hunter was all about causing damage to your opponent. This Vader seems a little more rounded and truly terrifying. He is certainly worth the one less force and I think he is going to be a character players are going to hate playing against. I’m glad he seems better and has a really sharp edge to him, particularly that he keeps going into the order deck!
Let’s move on and have a look at these stormtroopers. The first is the Stormtrooper Sergeant, who is a three-point cost secondary. He can do a maximum of five damage on his track, which isn’t the best, but he does have the ability to heal four. It’s a very impressive ability to be able to do, particularly as I imagine Vader will get a lot of the heat. While damage output isn’t huge, I think it’s more than justified with such a powerful potential to heal. His tactic when activated is to choose a Galactic Empire supporting unit, they may move. If they do, they suffer a damage. Helpful at the extreme and very thematic with the Empire causing damage to its own units. The only force cost ability the Sergeant has is ‘Imperial Firepower’, which, if you have two or more Empire units within four, they gain either pinned or disarmed. The fact that it doesn’t have to be this unit and can be played anywhere on the battlefield is rather a strong ability to be able to utilise. The Sergeant also has ‘Coordinated Offensive’ which allows a stormtrooper character to add a dice for each stormtrooper unit within five and line of sight. Again, it doesn’t have to be the Sergeant. I think this again is strong as it isn’t limited to the character. He is certainly here to bolster everyone on the battlefield, and I think if you are running stormtrooper keyword troopers across the board, this unit could really shine. To top things off, he also has sharpshooter, which with a range of five for his blaster, means you can hopefully keep him out of the fray a bit.
Then we have the four-point cost supporting unit, the stormtroopers themselves. Able to do a maximum of six damage on the track, with another possible one on top, these are not a bad little unit. They, like the Sergeant, have sharpshooter, I mean – well – stormtroopers are so precise right? There are two other abilities each cost a force. The first, ‘Assault Tactics’ allows each character in the unit to dash and can suffer a damage to perform a focus action. With nine health this actually seems a viable ability to use. The other ability, ‘For the Empire’, allows you, as an action, to choose an engaged enemy and push them two away. But then your troopers gain exposed. I don’t know if this is worth the cost, although if you are close to an objective and it’s about winning the round, it might be. The stormtroopers aren’t anything too special and to be honest, they shouldn’t be. This is exactly what they should be like, and I think it’s a testament to the designers they weren’t silly with them. Used correctly with the sergeant and they will be a threat, but they do need to be used carefully.
As a squad they are precisely what I wanted. A very strong leader with sidekicks that can be used well, if coordinated and thought about well. But looking at cards is one thing, how easy is it to put all this into practice? Vader is insane, he literally will walk through units and just keep on walking. He wounded two units in a single round of the game and had taken only half damage (and by golly was the opponent trying to get him). His ability to remove a condition every time he activates – or heal – is very powerful as you can either negate conditions you’ve placed on him because of his abilities, or if your opponent is trying to pin you down (as was my case), it gets removed without a second thought. Him continually coming out was amazing, although my opponent’s shoulders visibly slumped when they saw his card again. He is that good, he is that terrifying and yes, he is going to see a lot of use by Empire players.
The stormtroopers are hilarious. I really like them. You have this overpowered primary causing chaos, and the stormtroopers, bless them, find it difficult to compete with such damage output. They do not do a lot of damage but with their expertise, they will slowly whittle an opponent’s units down. They are most certainly back up, or a warmup to Vader coming in. Now there’s part of me that wants to say maybe you’ll be able to pick better units, but I don’t want to. The squad played like we were in the movies. They work exactly like they do in the movies. I don’t want to necessarily be competitive; I want to play like I’m actually in the Star Wars universe. I need to have a play with the stormtroopers and sergeant as I think they can work better than I had them in my game. Vader’s ability to help dash them to keep up did see them enter the battlefield more quickly and I think I need to damage them more to get them even quicker into the fray.
I can’t recommend this set enough. If you are wanting to play games that feel like they are in the original trilogy, this is the set for you. I still have my issues with Vader’s cloak but that is more than made up for by how incredible Vader is. The stormtroopers might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love them, I think they work so well and keep with the theme and character of the movies. This is an essential buy for Galactic Empire players and I for one, cannot wait to use Vader again!
