General Grievous: Sinister Cyborg – Unit Guide

This unit guide will cover General Grievous: Sinister Cyborg in the game, Star Wars Legion.

General Grievous was the first commander for the Separatist faction. While some of his command cards are showing their age he has received a points reduction of 27 points making him a compelling option to lead a droid army. He is mainly a melee beat stick but has some minor support potential between his two command upgrade slots. In this article I will first give an overview of Grievous along with some upgrade options and will finish with an overview of how to play him along with some list ideas!

Cover artwork by: Darren Tan https://www.artstation.com/artwork/vJnwJa

Strengths

• 8 health + red saves
• Two command upgrade slots
• Large melee dice pool

Weaknesses

• Courage 2
• No force powers
• Vulnerable to pierce

Overview

Points

General Grievous is 150 points making him the second most expensive commander in the Separatist faction. He is a deadly melee threat with a large health pool and strong attacks but does not contain as many utility abilities as force users. This cost is somewhat expensive for a combat only commander but he can justify his value if played properly.

Offense

General Grievous is primarily a melee unit who has a secondary ranged attack. He has three different weapons, 2 Trophy Lightsabers and the DT-57 “Annihilator”. His trophy lightsabers average 2 hits without surge and ~2.4 with a surge. The DT-57 averages ~1.9 hits without surges but can be fired in melee and at range 1-2. It is worth noting that the Trophy Lightsaber combined with the DT-57 “Annihilator” average more hits (~4.17 hits average) in melee than two Trophy Lightsabers (4 hits average) because of the DT-57’s Critical 1. If Grievous has a surge then the two Trophy Lightsabers are the better option (~4.6 hits average).

Defense

General Grievous has a formidable health pool of 8 wounds with red saves and Impervious. This gives him 16-24 effective wounds depending on whether he has surges or not. 16-24 effective wounds makes him tanky and difficult to kill. It is worth noting he is somewhat vulnerable to Pierce since he only has Impervious.

Utility/Support

General Grievous does not have many support abilities beside his 3 pip. His main utility comes from his two Command Upgrade slots. He has a major drawback which is he only has 2 courage and will panic at 4 suppression.

Mobility

General Grievous is only speed two with Scale. He is slower than a Jedi since he does not have Jump and relies on Scale to cover vertical terrain.

Battle Forces

General Grievous can be played in the Invasion Force Battle Force giving him some extra flexibility in list building along with some new command cards.

Upgrades

General Grievous is dependent on upgrades to remedy some of his shortcomings such as his low courage value. He needs to use upgrades to help him deal with suppression and panicking.

Command:

Aggressive Tactics

Grievous does not surge on offense or defense justifying the expensive cost of Aggressive Tactics. B1 Battle Droids also do not surge and can create large coordinate chains making them a great unit to run alongside Aggressive Tactics.

Strict Orders

General Grievous struggles with suppression because of his low courage and lack of abilities to remove suppression. Strict Orders is a reliable way to remove one suppression each activation. This helps guarantee two actions when you have two suppression tokens.

Training:

There are multiple strong Training options for Grievous, but many consider Endurance to be a must have. Despite this I will cover some of the other options for this upgrade slot.

Endurance

Endurance helps Grievous overcome his biggest shortcoming which is his low courage. He needs both activations each turn in order to properly engage the enemy. So removing an extra suppression at the end of the turn is huge. Endurance really shines when paired with Grievous which is why it is the most common training upgrade in his training slot.

Into the Fray

Grievous does not surge on defense or offense and is primarily a melee unit making Into the Fray a solid option. The extra surge can help increase his effectiveness once he is engaged. If you are not playing Aggressive Tactics, Into the Fray is a good option for surge generation. The one downside to this upgrade is the fact two of his command cards generate surges already so you may already have enough surges without Into the Fray.

Tenacity

Tenacity gives an extra red dice to attacks once General Grievous is wounded. Because he has 8 health and is difficult to kill this upgrade is able to consistently add damage to melee attacks. The one major downside of this card is the fact it is competing with Endurance for the one Training upgrade slot.

Armament:

DT-57 “Annihilator”

General Grievous has one Armament upgrade which is free to equip. The DT-57 “Annihilator” is an excellent weapon giving you a ranged option before engaging which can also be fired out of melee. This gun gives you tons of flexibility when engaging and gives you the ability to finish off nearby units even once engaged. It is also worth noting that the DT-57 combined with one Trophy Lightsaber is more effective than two Trophy Lightsabers when you have no surges in melee.

How to Play

General Strategy

There is one main role that General Grievous fills. He is mainly an aggressive melee beat stick. This means he is happiest when played alongside other aggressive melee units such as MagnaGuards or force users. Because he has relentless and a ranged weapon I will often advance behind cover and take peekaboo shots as I approach. What I mean by this is moving out of cover to shoot an enemy unit with relentless then moving afterward back into cover. You can also last first from just short of range 4 moving twice shooting at range 2 then double moving into melee the following turn. This can be a good move late in the game if you want to have Grievous dive an enemy unit. I would caution against going first into a melee early in the game since the unit can disengage and then the enemy army can fire upon your forces. Be careful on your approach because like all melee units he wants to avoid being the target of any ranged shots before he engages in melee.

Trained in Your Jedi Arts

Trained in Your Jedi Arts is General Grievous one pip and is his most flashy command card. This card gives him Disengage, one dodge token, and a free attack against every enemy unit at range 1. This command card is amazing and can be used in a variety of ways. Disengage makes it so you can leave melee with a unit and finish your turn right in the middle of the enemy army ready to attack. This card is also powerful when in a duel with another melee unit. The dodge makes it so you can activate Block when attacked and the extra attack can help set you ahead in a one on one attrition in a fight. The most consistent and powerful part of the card is the fact you can apply two suppression to each unit at range 1. The cherry on top is the chance of wounding the units you attack as well. It is worth noting that this attack struggles to put hits through cover since it averages 2 hits unaimed. I would not rely on this card to kill many models but think of it more as a free dodge and 2 suppression on each nearby unit. Trained in Your Jedi Arts is a must take in any army with General Grievous.

Supreme Commander

Supreme Commander is General Grievous 2 pip which gives orders to two Troopers. The card also gives him 1 surge token for each friendly unit at range 1 and units with face up order tokens gain Guardian 2 and can use Guardian during a melee attack. This command card is most effective when used defensively in your own lines, or alongside other aggressive trooper units. I often see players use this card to Guardian ranged attacks off General Grievous but I think this is a trap since despite blocking damage Guardian does not prevent the application of Suppression. His low courage is his main weakness and Guardian does not help him avoid suppression. This card is strong alongside units like the MagnaGuards since it gives them the ability to Guardian in melee and they provide Grievous with surges. This card can also be used defensively to protect you from an aggressive enemy unit in your own lines. At the very least the card can generate a few extra surges while still handing out two orders like Push.

Crush Them!

Crush Them! Is General Grievous 3 pip which gives an order to General Grievous and two other units. This is his least powerful command card since it requires you to defeat an enemy unit before it is effective. This command card is typically only played when there is no other 3 pip option in list building. Roger, Roger and Unstoppable Advance are both much better choices for the 3 pip slot. That being said this command card is best when played later in the game once you have killed a few units in combat. The surges slightly increase the defensive and offensive ability of your units.

List Building

Grievous MagnaGuards

This army is built to have General Grievous lead the charge followed by his IG-100 MagnaGuards and a full gunline of B1 Battle Droids. This army can chip at range 4 using the RPS-6 rockets then crashs into melee with the 3 aggressive units. While B1’s are not the most powerful gunline they are there to be a secondary threat behind your melee beat sticks. Because of this you want to focus on objectives and deployments where you can battle the enemy army over central objectives. The 3 melee units together are 24 wounds with red saves equaling ~48-72 effective wounds making them a durable monster once engaged. Overall this army plays much like a force user gunline but uses its melee threats to brute force objectives rather than using force abilities.

Grievous Invasion Force

General Grievous can also be played in Invasion Force to benefit from the extra command cards that are available. AI Coordination gives the AAT a free standby which can trigger to give it two attacks in a single turn. Unrelenting Assault and Unstoppable Advance are amazing when combined with the 8 B1 gunline. These 8 B1 units are 56 models total making up a massive core backbone. You can swarm objective with your overwhelming numbers to fight toward victory!

8 Lightsabers

If 4 lightsabers are not enough for you, you can give this list a try. This army brings 8 lightsabers to the battle field to chop apart your opponent. The army has decent order control despite having 3 lightsaber users. You have the T-Seires start the B1 coordinate chain giving out orders to all your droid troopers, then you only have ~2 orders in the bag which are either two Operatives or One Operative and a Commander. Improvised Orders makes it so you have virtually perfect order control to manage the two orders left in the bag each turn. Additionally, this army has 10 activations to delay the use of your 3 focus pieces. You must be really careful with this army since it fully relies on your lightsabers to do damage. It is important to time your approach so you can engage with all 3 at the same time to overwhelm your opponent. Despite being an unusual list, the army is quite strong and can put up a fight!

Conclusions

I think General Grievous is a fun and interesting commander to play, despite being one of the less popular commanders in the Separatis. When played properly he can tear apart the opposing army with his multiple lightsabers. I hope this article encourages you to take him off the sprue and put him on the table!