You might be noticing in my last few reviews that I have the bug for the Separatists. The high numbers of basic troops, the really cool bigger units and the different play style has got me in its grasp. After finishing building the wheel bikes, there was one thing I was a little disappointed by: not being able to utilise the commando droid pilots. Ever since episode five of the very first season of The Clone Wars – Rookies – this model of droid has looked absolutely amazing (honestly, none of that needed checking on Google, that’s how much I adore that episode!). Seeing the actual models in person but not using them had left me wanting. It had been the right decision, the Magna guards are the right call for that unit, but I wanted my commandos!
Thankfully, Atomic Mass Games (AMG) have also released a special forces unit of just commando droids. I say ‘a’ special forces unit, but on the back of the box it claims that actually two are included in the box, even better. With seven models and the option to include vibro swords, this set already sounded right up my street. To just add to the desire, the box art on this set is incredible. I don’t try to focus too much on the artwork as it has no game value, but AMG are really knocking the artwork on the boxes out of the park at the moment. It captures the creepy nature from that Clone Wars episode perfectly. It was the final thing to convince me that this was going to be my next addition!
I opened the box and found everything I would expect sprues, bases, tokens, cards and leaflets. While I was eager to assemble the models, I mean that was what started me down this route, I knew I needed to first look at the cards to see what I was getting myself in for and if any choices in terms of upgrades needed to be made for the models. As stated on the box, there were two units and I could instantly see that these units worked – at least superficially – very much like the scout units for the Imperials. There were also four upgrade cards: two armament cards and two heavy weapons.
The first unit is the normal droid trooper unit of four models for sixty-four points. Rolling a red dice for defense but only having one wound, they will do better than ordinary droids, but enough shots are going to wear them down. Unarmed melee and they are rolling one black dice (I love that!) and a range one to three blaster rolls two white dice. So far, they are ok, but not enough to necessarily justify that high points cost that can buy me almost two units of B1 battle droids. In terms of keywords, they have Jump 1, which is very thematic and helps make them more maneuverable than a lot of droids. Then we come to the AI, which is Dodge, Move. This seems incredibly thematic and I can already see in my mind’s eye how they are moving on the screen and how that has translated into the game. Impervious means that against pierce weapons, these droids are going to be rolling more defense dice, so their odds of staying alive are going to be even better. Scale means they can climb up terrain which, with their jump, means these droids should be all over the gaming board. Scout three is really going to see this unit in the thick of things very quickly and lastly, Sharpshooter one means your enemy is not going to be able to rely on cover as much. All in all, this unit feels like one of the most thematic units I have so far come across in Legion. They feel like the squads I have seen in The Clone Wars, which at the end of the day, is what I want most. They feel like a squad that are very mobile and you need them to be because you really want them to get into combat quickly, particularly with pierce weapons. We haven’t looked at the upgrade cards yet, but that vibro sword assemble option I imagine isn’t just for show and I have a feeling the upgrade is going to be essential for this unit.
Like the Imperial scout unit, there is also a strike team you can have as well, that is twenty points and contains a single unit. Everything about this unit is identical, every dice, weapon and keyword, with the addition of two keywords. Detachment means you must have the first commando unit in your army in order to play this one – no surprise there. The other is Heavy Weapon Team, meaning you have to have a heavy weapon upgrade for this unit, in essence making this a two-man squad. This may or may not be good and let’s be honest, it depends solely on the heavy weapon upgrade that you can take. With a unit that seems to want to get into combat, a two-man squad is not what I would be thinking of taking, they would get shot down before even reaching combat. So, I suppose the best thing to do is…
…Look at those heavy weapon upgrades! The box comes with two. There was one that made me instantly go, ‘Yes, that works!’ for the strike team: a sniper rifle. Then I saw the cost: forty points. That means your strike team, with nothing else will cost sixty points, almost as much as the regular four-man team, almost as much as two B1 battle droid squads, almost as… ok you get the idea! So, what does this sniper bring with it? Two red dice, firing at a range of five. It has immunity to Deflect (take that Jedi) and Lethal 1. With the flexibility of movement, I can really see this two-man squad taking a few shots, moving and taking a few more. They would be ankle to focus on character units and really cause some problems for your opponent. I don’t think many could argue with that. However, at that point cost, is it worth it, or would the points be better spent elsewhere? That I guess is the real question. If you are playing a recon force that is a tenth of your points spent on two models. That is a lot when they only have a wound each. As much as I like the idea, I don’t know if they are cost effective.
An alternative is to go with the Dioxis Mine Saboteur upgrade for twenty-eight points. Rolling one of each coloured dice, with a range from zero to one, it has blast and poison one. While that sounds like fun, particularly when you are a droid player against all those organics, a two-man squad trying to get in close enough to use this is just going to get cut down very quickly. This seems very impractical for the strike team and far better suited for the larger unit. Which really means for the strike team, it’s go big or go home!
The unit also comes with armament upgrades: BX Deflector Shields and – if there was any doubt – the BX vibro swords. The latter is only six points and instantly gives the commando droids a red and a white dice in melee as well as the Charge keyword. For six points, this is a no-brainer for me. As already mentioned, these seem like units that primarily want to be in melee combat, so you want them as best armed as they can be. The Charge keyword is an added bonus to it. Not having looked at the models yet, I don’t actually know how I want to build them, but I was pretty sure I was leaning to vibro swords without even seeing them; in terms of gameplay, now I know I want them!
The other upgrade – the Deflector Shields – cost eighteen points. They give the droids Shielded two and Recharge two. That means that the unit can cancel two hits and then recover two shields in the recovery phase, in essence, you are stopping two hits each round. However, those hits are only for ranged hits. This upgrade is going to come down to playstyle because I’m trying to work out whether to have the upgrade or not. On the one hand, it makes sense to have, it means they are less squishy as they are rushing into melee, your opponent will struggle to take them out. But, when they get to combat those eighteen points are then useless and, with all the maneuverability, being able to move around the enemy targeting you should be doable, right? For me, I’m not sure an additional eighteen points on top of an expensive unit is worth it, particularly when it is then made redundant when they reach combat – which is where I want them to be. However, I can see completely why other players would want them.
Either way, there are a lot of options here for players. Some of them make sense to me and my play style, others seem a tad bit too expensive. Then again, maybe they should. Droid armies are primarily made up of mindless droids. The expensive specialised units are rare and should come at a premium cost. It is good that as a player that you can take them, but it is at the sacrifice of other units.
With the cards examined and a very clear idea of how I wanted my units to look, it was time to get to building! Loading up the build instructions on the AMG website, I was ready to go. What struck me about the instructions was that you could tell that these were older instructions, certainly not ones that had been redesigned. There aren’t really steps, they tell you the parts you need, show you the finished product and how you get there is up to you! There are five different droids in total (A-E) with two each of droids B and D. You start with the droid leader (droid A). After cutting all the pieces out, I glued the back of the body first then the arms. After that it was the head. I left this till after the arms so I could potion the head in a way that created an effect that worked with the arms. With these three there is a lot of give to move these about. I like this as it means everything has a lot more flexibility. Finally, the vibro sword attaches to the back. Now I say attach, there is no real designated space, pick your spot and away you go! This is something you could easily leave off, and you would never know, but as I was going to be having the upgrade for my unit, I wanted it on mine.
Next it was the sniper model (droid E). The sniper is more difficult because you need to attach the legs. Thankfully, the pegs are very secure, there is no give or room to move, they are going into the correct position! The only thing I don’t like is that there is only one foot attached to the base, something that screams to me that this model is going to keep falling off its base during gameplay. The rest of the model goes together relatively easily, just glue the left arm on before the right arm. The pose on this one is superb, even if it only has one point of contact with the base. You can get a real sense of the rush the sniper is feeling trying to get into the correct position in time to take the shot. To have that sort of narrative in a model is amazing.
Then we’re onto the droids that you must make your decisions for as you need to know what to arm them with. There are options for blasters, swords and deflector shields. While I’m not having mine with deflector shields, I do just want to comment on the models. The shields come with a frame and then a separate yellow plastic to give the energy effect. This is very cool. In terms of assembly, unless you plan on masking the yellow, I would suggest leaving these off until you have painted the model, so you don’t accidentally get paint on them. That left me with the blasters and vibro swords. Now I’m having the upgrade for melee, but my unit still has the blaster, so I wanted a mix. It is slightly frustrating that AMG doesn’t include more of the swords to add to the backs of the droids but guess I’ll have to make do. All the droids follow the same build, the only thing to make sure is that one of your droid Ds is the mine droid. I decided to be a bit clever here as the instructions said droid D comes with two of the vibro swords to attach to the back. So, the mine droid I assembled but left the sword off. The two spare ones I attached to two of the droids I assembled with blasters and assembled the other two with blades. Unit complete… until I looked at my sprue… There was only one sword. Definitely older instructions that hadn’t been updated! I then found myself going down a route to try and get a mix of arms from across the remaining models to have them both with blasters and swords. I don’t recommend it! So… I had a model B assembled with a blaster in both hands and used the spare sword ‘backpack’ to add to it. The other normal droid D I assembled with the designated left arm blaster but then gave it the sword arm form droid B (B05). That left a B and C droid, which I was able to switch their arms so they each had a blaster and sword. While not following the instructions rigidly, it does show just how flexible this kit is. I would have perhaps liked a few more options available to make it a bit easier to customise these, but I would be lying if I said I was unhappy with the unit, they look fantastic. They capture the droids from The Clone Wars perfectly and I can’t wait to paint them!
These droids look and feel so thematic. They’ve always fascinated me, their design, the way they move, the way that they are so different from the rest of the droid army. The fact that they have been captured so well here is even better. I feel like I’ve literally brought the force that I have watched off the shop shelf and brought it home ready to play with. There are a range of options here as well to suit several play styles. While they are expensive points wise, I also think they should be, it’s how the Separatists are. I’m excited to use these on the battlefield and see how they perform against that pesky Galactic Republic!
The Star Wars Legion: BX-Series Droid Commandos pack from Atomic Mass Games retails at £49.99. It is available now from high street gaming stores and online retailers including Amazon UK and Amazon US.
