This year for Star Wars: Shatterpoint has all been about the movement away from the Clone Wars and moving into the era of the Original Trilogy. With so many characters out there, so many different species, there is literally a treasure trove of new models to bring into the game. So, what do Atomic Mass Games do? They release a pack of already created characters. We’ve already had Luke Skywalker released. We’ve already had Han and Chewbacca released. We’ve already had two Leia’s released! Why would we possibly need more of these characters in the same year? Put simply, because this new squad pack looks awesome!
Although we have had all these characters released, you can’t actually field them together in a single squad. Not only that, but this is the first appearance of the group together in the films. The nostalgia it brings with it is – quite simply – immense. To see these characters as they are in A New Hope, to be able to play with them as a single squad, well – it’s what I always wanted to be able to do in this game. Even the name of the box, ‘This Is Some Rescue!’ is just perfection. Even my seven-year-old daughter, who hasn’t been into Star Wars that long, laughed when she saw the name of the set. I think, no matter what the characters are like, this is going to be a hugely popular set.
With my five-year old self absolutely beside myself with excitement, it was time to see what was in the box. The first thing I have to make note of is the box artwork. The visuals for Leia look incredible: the imperial blaster in hand, the striking pose, the not quite neat hair. For me the most striking bit of the artwork is the eyes. They capture something about Leia just right. Inside the box is everything we’ve come to expect. A cardboard separator to keep the single sprue and bases separate from the cards. Then finally, the leaflet with the QR code to take you to the instructions on the Atomic Mass Games website.
With the instructions loaded up, it’s onto building the first model, Leia. She is a fairly straightforward build. Simple enough with layers of nostalgia heaped onto it, what could be more perfect. I did struggle slightly with the left arm, having a very slight gap at the back. However, when the hood of her gown is placed on, it flows so perfectly with it that I have a feeling it was designed this way. The garbage chute that Leia is standing on is a work of art. Four pieces that all must perfectly meet for every single wire and crevice to line up. And they do! It’s a testimony to the team at Atomic Mass that they are able to do this so well. The completed model looks fantastic and posed very much like Leia. The one thing that lets the model down is the face, and I am being nit-picky here. Leia has always been an issue for the game and still is. The head sculpt captures the essence of Leia, the hair looks fantastic, and you can tell from this alone who it is meant to be. The face itself though is too long and thin to be that of Carrie Fisher. If you look at her face in the first film, it’s shorter and slightly more rounded. Because everything else is so spot on, it’s very easy to forgive this slight issue, I for one love the model!
The next model is Luke Skywalker. He is just as simple as Leia to put together but what I was surprised was that there is an alternate build. You can have Luke holding his helmet, or not. Why Atomic Mass Games don’t put this on the box is beyond me. It’s a very simple alternative but I love that it is there. I went with the helmet version, just because I love the detail on the buckets. Once he’s finished, I have to say that although perhaps not the right ‘era’ to have Luke in a heroic pose, I don’t actually care! The pose is striking. It reminds me of the Luke that was on the posters for A New Hope. The face looks like Mark Hamil and the detail in every inch of this model is superb. For me, he’s my favourite out of the four in this set.
Of course, following Luke is Han. Han is also in his stormtrooper gear, in a running pose. What the box doesn’t tell you is that there is an alternate head you can have Han with. Again, I love that there is a subtle change that you can make. One is a serious Han face; the other is the screaming Han that we all know from A New Hope. It’s very difficult to decide which one to use. I initially thought the serious face would be more me, yet when you see the pose, the character is doing, running, you can’t help but think of that moment in the film. So, the screaming version it shall be. Han is a similar build to Luke. Just remember when cutting his leg off the sprue, that there should be a peg to fit into the grate. I almost cut it off without realising! The grate itself fits brilliantly with the foot, the rubble goes behind the foot to provide some added support to the model. In terms of arms, I found glueing the left arm in first – which had less give – and then attaching the right arm was far easier. When completed, the model looks incredible. The motion encased within it is amazing and the sculptor has perfectly captured the moment from the film.
Which brings us to the walking carpet, Chewbacca. He is a delight to put together, straightforward and easy. Yet as you see the model build up, you can’t help but admire the craft behind it. The head fitting onto the bottom jaw, the motion of the bag, the movement in the arms. Like Han, this model is full of motion and looks incredible. Even the little mouse droid, which is not needed, adds a little something that you can make your model just that little bit different. Then there’s the size. Like the other Chewie release, this is a towering model and is sure to look amazing on the battlefield.
In all in all, the models for this set are incredible. The sculptors know what they are doing and are always leaning on that level of nostalgia that comes with a set like this. This is surely going to be a set that’s going to attract a lot of fans who have sat on the fence about this game. I wonder if that’s why this is some of the easiest builds, we’ve had in Shatterpoint while also being some of the most fulfilling.
No matter how beautiful they may look, it means nothing if you haven’t got it where it counts, so let’s have a look at their cards. The primary is Leia, who gives players eight squad points and three force, so fairly standard at the moment in the game. Now I keep coming back to that nostalgia and the fact that Leia is called ‘Princess Leia, Charming to the Last’, well Atomic Mass are making sure you get the full force of that effect through every step of this process! On her stance card, Leia’s two sides are ‘Covert Rebel’ and ‘Aggressive Ambassador’. The latter is focused more on ranged attack, with the possibility of up to seven damage. This can be altered slightly to allow some healing and repositioning. On this side, with her defence, you can also manage some healing with the right dice rolls. On the flip side, Leia can do the same amount of damage but is more focused on movement, particularly with her defence. With either side, she should be able to hold her own.
Like most characters, it’s Leia’s abilities that are going to make her shine. Her tactic that she uses when she activates is ‘Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy’, I mean I’m getting goosebumps just typing it! This ability allows a Rebel Alliance or Spy unit to dash and then gain hunker. Useful for some nudges across the board. Units like Chopper, who you don’t want to activate too soon, can really be used best with abilities like this. Her active ability – ‘It’s A Wonder You’re Still Alive’ – costs one force and allows Leia to choose herself and another unit. One of them can heal, the other can then dash. It fits in with Leia’s stance card quite well. There is no range for this ability, so although it seems only slight, the limitless range could prove useful. ‘Crack Shot’ is Leia’s innate ability, giving Leia sharpshooter 2 and whenever she makes a focus action she can dash. Finally, her identity ability is ‘Somebody’s Got to Save Our Skins’. When an allied unit is wounded, Leia can dash to the enemy that caused it and make a five dice attack. Then another allied unit within three gains hunker. To make this work, units are going to have to be quite close together. It’ll be interesting to see if it’ll work. Leia also adds one die to her defence rolls for each wounded unit within three. Some parts of Leia look really good, the Crack Shot will definitely be useful. Others are very situational, and I wonder how many times they will work.
Moving onto Luke, the ‘Daring Hero’ secondary that costs three points. His stance card allows him to do up to eight damage with lots of shoves. He’ll be very handy moving the enemy off objectives. Luke’s tactic, ‘I’m Here to Rescue You’, allows Luke to choose himself or a spy and reposition them. Like Leia, there is no range limit. For one force, Luke can use Grappling Hook so he can climb, if he does, he gets a hunker token. ‘He’s the Brains, Sweetheart’, allows a spy or Rebel Alliance within three of Luke, to reroll two misses as part of a range attack, if they have one or more hunker tokens. Like Leia, Luke needs units close by. His final ability ‘Oh, The Uniform’, means that Luke can’t lose hunker tokens when he becomes engaged. It’s not the bells and whistles Luke that we’ve had previously this year, nor should it be. This is Luke at the start of his journey, and I think the abilities and stance cards really do show that. Luke hasn’t control of the force yet, he’s just a farm boy. I’m going to want to keep him near Leia – and I suspect Han and Chewie.
Which brings us nicely to the five-cost supporting unit, Han and Chewie. The reason – obviously – that Luke and Leia’s abilities have to say the keyword spy, is because at this stage, Han and Chewie aren’t Rebels and can’t have that keyword. It makes it far more interesting for me, because it means Luke and Leia can be just as effective if using another unit with the spy keyword. I can imagine some very interesting combinations presenting themselves. Han and Chewie can do a respectable five damage, with lots of shoves and pinned; it makes sense when you think of them in A New Hope. Their active ability costs one force and allows one character in the unit to dash. If they are then engaged, they can choose one of those enemies to dash. If it is then no longer engaged, they gain disarmed; if they’re still engaged, they gain exposed. Very handy, very in keeping with the characters but gosh there are a lot of steps to it! They then have two reactive abilities: ‘Boring Conversation Anyway’ and ‘I Expect to Be Well Paid’. Both cost one force. The former allows you to reposition after a combat action has been resolved with this unit. The latter allows you, after revealing an Order Card, to give Han and Chewie a tag of your choice until the end of the turn. I have never used this very much within the game yet (as several other units also have this ability), but with so many now having it, maybe it’s time to see what shenanigans I can come up with! Finally, ‘We’re All Fine Here, Now, Thank You’ allows you to heal and refresh a force when you wound an enemy unit. At five cost, that’s rather high compared to some supporting units.
All in all, it’s an interesting array. Nothing is really making me go too wow, yet these are all versions of the characters in their earliest stages. They aren’t necessarily going to be all that. I think considering where the characters are, the designers have done a good job encapsulating the characters as they should be. With that said, I want to see how they perform on the tabletop.
So, let’s start with the negative. Luke is rather squishy for a secondary. In his first defence against an enemy attack, he was wounded very quickly. That said, he is a three-point cost, which is extremely cheap. I say this is a negative, yet isn’t this exactly how Luke should be for this point on his journey? It isn’t helped that Han and Chewie, who are rather manoeuvrable, just don’t seem to synchronise very well with the rest of the squad. Again, that isn’t necessarily wrong, I mean, they aren’t Rebels at this stage, they are just part of this crazy group, they haven’t learnt to be a team…yet. In both cases, while I say this as a negative, I also think the designers have done an amazing job of really capturing the spirit of these characters at this point in the timeline. While it might be frustrating in terms of gameplay, I think they actually play as I’d want them to. They are their movie counterparts, almost too perfectly.
There is a shining light within this squad though, and that is Leia. She is deadly, I mean crazily deadly. My son (my usual opponent) has learnt to hate Leia very quickly. Her sharpshooter two is amazing and means that she is usually causing some damage. However, her ‘Someone Has to Save Our Skins’ is just incredible. When your son uses Crosshair to take Han out, and then Leia dashes forward and wounds him, on his turn, well I just sat back and admired the carnage. Of course, my son then targets Leia to then find on her next attack, she’s healing herself whilst causing more damage. Oh, it’s just too good to be true. She is very versatile and if you keep those wounded units nearby, her defence just keeps getting better and better. Leia is a leader I will be using again and again.
This is a squad that relies on nostalgia, and it provides that to players in bucket loads. The models are stunning, and the squad plays like they should. You are buying A New Hope squad that plays like A New Hope squad. I think players need to bear this in mind, this isn’t a squad that as it is, is going to wow. But it will allow you to play out the sort of scenarios we all imagined as kids. Where I think this box set shines though is the potential with other units. Leia, I think is a very strong primary and I think with a four-point cost secondary and a four-point cost supporting unit, she could be even stronger. Han and Chewie, who don’t have the Rebel keyword, will work much better with other units that are more of the scoundrel disposition. Luke… well Luke I’m still not sure about but I’m sure with other units he might be able to be a bit more playable. What I’m trying to say is that you buy the box for the memories and models, but the squad is for splitting up and adding to other units. I can’t wait to see what players come up with in terms of combination. This is a set not quite like any other. I don’t want to say the ‘negatives’ are negatives as I love that Atomic Mass has captured this moment of the characters so well. And honestly, I want more like this!
