A New, New Hope: Ahsoka Tano

Amidst the Empire’s current meta-dominating reign of terror, A New Hope for Rebels makes its way into Star Wars Legion, and it’s ironically not Luke Skywalker. This new savior (for just the Rebel faction anyways) is the former padawan of Luke Skywalker’s father, Anakin: fan favorite Ahsoka Tano. Not to be confused with “Snips,” this Ahsoka is the grown-up version and boy do her unit and command cards show it; that’s right She’s A Lady In this article, we’ll sort through Ahsoka’s abilities, Command Cards, come up with some list ideas, and list out her strengths/weaknesses. So, without further adieu, let’s see what Tom Jones has to say about our new Heroine of the Rebellion! 

”Well, she’s all you’d ever want. She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner. Well she always knows her place. She’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner.” 

Is it just me, or was Tom Jones a little before his time? Anyways, let’s dive into her unit card first. 

Unit Card Analysis

165 points base is honestly somewhat cheap for what you’re getting, even at a cursory glance. Ahsoka brings a lot to the table. Two force and training slots make for a solid foundation to ensure you get the best upgrades points can buy. While you’re probably just stapling Force Push to her, you still get one more slot to play around with, but we’ll cover upgrades and whatnot later in the article. 6 health with red defense is pretty much the standard for force users, plus plenty of additional defensive tech built in from keywords. 3 Courage will ensure she doesn’t panic or suppress too easily. Surge to Crit (what Obi Wan wishes he had) with otherwise the exact same lightsaber profile; Impact 2, Pierce 2 will certainly chop through whatever it is you need to chop. All in all, solid stats for her cost. 

Keywords from top to bottom:  

Jump 2: A nice upgrade from the standard Jedi Jump 1. This allows Ahsoka to traverse the battlefield with less worry than most other units. My initial thoughts are as follows: Jump 2 helps keep her from getting outrun or severely out positioned when facing pesky Mandalorians who can just hide on top of ledges/buildings that are height 2 and laugh as she looks up at them. It also helps against enemy force users who may be a threat to her and can only traverse height 1. Hello Vader, how’s the weather down there? No Vader’s Might for you if I’m at height 2! It is important to note that Asajj can still potentially hunt her down since she also has Jump 2, which seems cool and thematic seeing as how they squared off numerous times in the Clone Wars show. 

Charge: This is standard and essential for most force users, so yeah, move and get a free melee on something that excels in melee combat. Good action economy. Nuff’ said. 

Defend 1: A nice contrasting keyword to Asajj’s Independent: Dodge. Initial thoughts are that you ALWAYS need an order on Ahsoka, not just because of Defend, but controlling when she goes, so with that being the case might as well get a free dodge for something you’ll always do. 

Deflect: Another solid, standard force user keyword. Currently, Palpatine is the only unit with a force upgrade slot that does not have access to Deflect (or a mastery that essentially does the same thing), so another great keyword to make her a little sturdier if she must take a shot to get in and take care of business. 

Immune Pierce: Goes without saying, great keyword. 

Jar’ Kai Mastery: Same mastery as Asajj, but on a unit that lives in a faction better focused on dodge token generation than others. Seeing as how she’s an operative, you’re probably taking the obligatory Generic Officer who has Take Cover baked in, so that’s a solid start to building some synergy there. It’s worth noting that Ahsoka surges to Crit, and with this mastery and her lightsaber profile combined, she can dish out some real damage. All in all, an excellent mastery that has a lot of versatility. Initial thoughts are that choosing WHEN and HOW MANY dodges to spend will prove to be trickier than people realize, but we’ll get to that once we look her command cards.

Command Card Time

I Am No Jedi orders just Ahsoka, gives her Agile 1 and lets her add an extra white attack die for each dodge token she has (to a maximum of 3 extra white dice) when making an attack. Initial thoughts are; thank Tom Jones they put a limit on how many dice she could add, because this could’ve gotten absurd if there was no limit. With Surge:Crit and 1 dodge to fuel her mastery she already averages around 4-5 hits. Throw in another 2-4 dodges and 3 white dice on top of that and she’s reliably forcing 8-9 saves. This is a great card for diving into an expensive unit who isn’t Immune: Pierce, or even a unit with Impervious and surging red saves. Math says against a surging red save unit with the Impervious keyword, they take 4 wounds (median), with 3.636 as the mean, and a standard deviation of 1.562. If you’re not into statistics, it basically means that unit has a small chance of getting chopped up in one swing. My my Tom Jones you weren’t joking when you said, “I can leave her on her own. Knowing she’s okay alone, and there’s no messing.” Ahsoka can certainly take care of herself with this card in play. 

Family Reunion orders Ahsoka and Sabine Wren. Just because she can handle things by herself doesn’t mean she can’t do a little team up with her best Rebels pal Sabine. Teamwork is always a solid keyword so long as the units it refers to are good in their own right, and these two are no exception. Before you even start the activation phase, Sabine and Ahsoka both gain a free dodge (Defend 1 triggers Teamwork, which gives a dodge to Sabine so long as she’s at Range 2 of Ahsoka). Seems good. Not to mention, when one activates, the other gets a free speed 2 move. Note that there’s no explicit range restriction on how close they must be to each other to get the free speed 2, only that they most likely must be Range 3 (for Ahsoka to issue the order), and Range 2 if you want to get the free dodge on Sabine from what I mentioned earlier. You could maybe play Battle Meditation on Ahsoka to allow Sabine to be off on her own, but I don’t think that’s necessary because you probably want the Teamwork card to actually be teamwork. 

Swift Protector orders just Ahsoka, but that’s ok because you get some good abilities from this card. Ahsoka gains Guardian 2, which is a great keyword to have in the Rebel faction since many of their units roll white defense dice. On top of having access to Guardian for a turn, Ahsoka turns her Range 1 bubble into a dodge token generating machine. “Well, she knows what I’m about. She can take what I dish out, and that’s not easy.” You said it Tom Jones, this command card lets her army take some punches to the face. Sure, it’s not always easy to keep all the important stuff at Range 1 of something, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Ahsoka. At first look, this card makes me want to run her as a pure support piece with Force Barrier and Protector, but I think she’s more versatile then that and I do think you have to choose how hard you want to lean into this card when building your list. Let’s set up a scenario: your opponent shoots at a trooper unit within Range 1 of Ahsoka on this turn. We can assume it’s into heavy cover because, ya know new rules and checking LoS from people’s toes is here to stay.  Being able to shed 2 hits from heavy, then 2 hits/1crit on top of that with barrier, and then another 2 hits/crits with Guardian (playing Protector in this case), means that most dice pools won’t even force a save on the unit they initially targeted. Oh yea, don’t forget that unit you targeted also gets a free dodge token too. To make matters worse for your opponent, after they shoot you can just activate Ahsoka and recover to refresh Protector and Barrier. It is important to note that the dodge generation only works on OTHER Small Base Troopers. Thanks again for  that one Tom Jones, we wouldn’t want Taun-Tauns getting MORE free dodges. 

A New Beginning orders Ahsoka and 2 units. Solid order control on a 3-Pip, and it enables some excellent abilities for the round. Ahsoka gets to do a free recover when she activates, so this leans into putting Force Barrier on her even more in my opinion. Free recovers on a unit that doesn’t have Master of the Force can come in clutch. Ahsoka also gains Inspire 2 for the round, which is another great way to support your accompanying troops. Lastly, and I saved it for last even though it’s not last on the CC, Ahsoka can give a free aim or dodge to a Small Base Trooper unit when she issues that unit an order. I like seeing this Small Base Trooper clause. I’m not sure what else will have this condition, but I must admit it’s refreshing to see a new requirement for abilities that we haven’t seen up until this point. Giving out free tokens can certainly get out of hand (Pyke spam pre-nerf I’m looking at you) and limiting what gets them via base size seems like a good idea going forward. Yes, Taun-Tauns did horrible things to me when they were in their prime, and yes I still want them to be in time out for their transgressions. What they did was not very Lady-Like, and therefore Tom Jones decreed they would have very little synergy with Ahsoka. 

Now that we’ve covered Ahsoka’s Unit and Command Cards, let’s take a look at some possible list ideas. Although there’s a list where you can run both Ahsoka and Luke, at first glance she seems to shine solo (no, not with Han), or at least being the only saber in a list. Err, I mean the only sabers, because right, she dual wields two of them.  

List Ideas

“Standard Meta Lists” 

This one really leans into dodge token generation and seems very consistent across multiple games. To be frank, I’d probably play this list at a major tournament if I had my heart set on Rebels. It’s worth noting that you can opt to play Force Barrier and Protector on Ahsoka instead of Burst of Speed and Into the Fray. The Burst ITF loadout lets Ahsoka be aggressive and potentially intercept an enemy melee threat before they get close to your lines, and the other hangs back and supports while still having decent engagement range. In this list particularly, you’re taking Sab Comms, Aggression, and Discretion as your Non-Ahsoka cards because they synergize well with what the list is trying to do.  

The second “Meta List” includes, mostly the same stuff but a few different flavors of units. 

Same concept as the other list, except here you have 11 activations and a little more firepower from long range. There is no medic in this list, and no extra dodges on Pykes, but you still get an amazing gunline backed by the efficient support piece/linebacker that is Ahsoka. As I mentioned in the previous list description, you can interchange upgrades on Ahsoka to shift her to a more aggressive/diving force user role. Personally, I like the way she’s loaded out currently because the 11 activations mean you probably get to go last with her in almost all matchups, and therefore she doesn’t have to get too aggressive. Seize is basically for the Aggression or Discretion turn so you can get an extra aim or dodge from the Command Card. 

“Hero Hammer” Cassian K2 Ahsoka 

This list really tiptoes the line between “Meta” and “Off Meta” but I think it has a lot of potential. Personally, I like the DLT Captain troopers just because they have a little more flexibility when it comes to being suppressed on a critical turn, but you can swap in Vets and Mk2s if that suits your fancy. Cassian and three other snipers make for a bad day if your opponent doesn’t have good LoS blocking and/or additional defensive tech to deal with it. Sure Cassian is a little lean, but you’re getting a stunningly efficient lady of a force user for only 190 points. Ahsoka and even the corps really benefit from Cassian’s 3 pip, especially if you opt for Barrier Ahsoka over BoS and play her more defensively. Last Stand is also pretty good on an Ahsoka with a few wounds. 

“Obligatory Team Up List” 

Leaving Sabine at home while Ahsoka goes out to play isn’t very lady-like, and frankly, Tom Jones would be disappointed if we didn’t let the girls have fun (don’t worry, I won’t link Cyndi Lauper’s Girl’s Just Wanna Have Fun, Tom Jones paid us well to use his song and his song only). This list seems more along the lines of a casual list, but I think it has some cool and effective tactics, especially with the two ladies having some synergies together. You probably want to avoid a direct gunfight with a pure gunline, and you definitely don’t want to see yourself stuck on Bombing Run/Breakthrough vs speeders. The strengths of this list play off the guerilla tactics of Sabine, Clan Wren, and Ahsoka backed by 10 the activations and a heal bot. 

“Highly Experimental Skew”  

Ahsoka Luke Double Medic Bus. That’s about it. You have two massive force users with great delivery/sustain platforms, and 4 repair bots in your corps. This is not a list I’d recommend taking to a major tournament unless you’ve had at least 50 practice games with, but in the right hands, it can cause some serious problems for opponents who aren’t ready to deal with double Jedi. It’s a tough choice between My Ally and Swift Protector, but I believe you need to run Full of Surprises, which means there are potentially two turns when Luke won’t have an order if you take Ahsoka’s 2-Pip, and with no Seize, you don’t want Luke’s token just sitting in the bag more than you absolutely have to. For Ahsoka however, there will be at least 1 turn where you don’t have an order, and that turn should be when Luke plays I am a Jedi, because if you set it up properly, Ahsoka should be safe inside a bus, and the things threatening to kill the bus that Ahsoka is in shouldn’t be able to attack due to the card effect. Again, this is a highly experimental skew list that can easily be messed up if you make the slightest mistake, but it’s fun and whacky, and it’s just my kind of list. I’d even consider playing it at a major event if I feel I have enough practice.   

Strengths and Weaknesses

 Now that we’ve covered Ahsoka’s stats, keywords, command cards, potential lists, and tactics let’s wrap up by going over her strengths and weaknesses. 

Pros: 

Relatively cheap (5 points more than Commander Luke seems like an absolute steal) 

Great mastery and supporting keywords 

Great mobility 

Excellent support for gunlines, specifically small base trooper units 

Great command cards 

Versatile upgrade options 

Cons: 

Operative, not Commander 

No MoTF, so it’s possible her action economy could suffer 

Charge vs Relentless which means Saber throw is probably off the table 

Only available in a faction that currently struggles vs the meta-apex predators. 

Vulnerable to High Velocity 

In Conclusion

“Oh, she never asks for very much, and I don’t refuse her  

Always treat her with respect, I never would abuse her 

What she’s got is hard to find, and I don’t wanna lose her 

Help me build a mountain from my little pile of clay” 

And just like that, Tom Jones secretly wrote a song about a Star Wars Legion release some 52 years in the future. Here’s to hoping A: Tom Jones stumbles upon this article and appreciates the recognition, and B: that Ahsoka may finally be the missing piece for the struggling Rebellion in this time of Imperial dominance.  

Thanks for taking the time to check out our preview of Ahsoka, and as always, feel free to message us on Discord through our Patreon with your thoughts on Ahsoka, and some potential list ideas!