Updated September 2024
Much like my non-existent wine collection, Leia cards get better over time. Boussh isn’t great, Endor Leia is pretty good, but Charming Leia is amazing. She brings value both in and out of activation and she’s quite flexible when it comes to list building.
Princess Leia, Charming to the Last is available in the This is Some Rescue squad box.
Nothing too special here, 8SP and 3 force are pretty standard.
Leia is on the low end of average for a primary, coming in at 9 stamina and 3 durability. We’ll investigate her defensive profile later.
Into the Garbage Shoot, Flyboy is a strong tactic. Dashing each character in a two-character support unit is always nice, and the target also gets a hunker for their troubles. Unlike some similar abilities, however, Leia can’t also move herself with the tactic. Luckily, she has some other abilities to gain extra movement.
It’s a Wonder You’re Still Alive is maybe the first “choose two units, one gets to choose an ability and the other gets what’s left” ability we’ve seen in Shatterpoint. Critically, one of the chosen units has to be Leia. Often I find myself using this to dash Leia and give someone else a heal, but it can be handy the other way around too. Targeting a unit that just dashed with her tactic is a great way to get someone in position quickly. There is no range condition on this ability so the other unit can be across the board, increasing flexibility.
Crack Shot is a callback to Leia’s mom, Padme. If Leia doesn’t have to move that far then focus > dash > shoot is a common sequence for her turn. If she needs to go a bit further then you can also dash her with It’s a Wonder You’re Still Alive to make up for the distance you lost out on by forgoing a move action. In situations where Leia really just needs to move then you can do a move action plus a focus to be extra speedy. We’ll see later that Leia very much appreciates (some might say relies on) the extra three dice on her ranged attacks.
Finally, Leia takes matters into her own hands with Somebody’s Gotta Save Our Skins. If stormtroopers are shooting up (and wounding) her friends in a hallway then Leia can dash and attack back with a five dice attack. This retaliation attack is similar to Mother Talzin’s but with a few twists. Leia can perform either a melee or ranged attack as needed, increasing her flexibility. However, her dash does have to be towards the wound-er. Sometimes it’s nice to dash away in order to secure or strengthen an objective, but that won’t be possible with Leia depending on where the wounding character is located. In addition to her attack, Leia also gets to hand out a hunker to a friend. Finally, she rolls an extra defense die for each wounded ally nearby. If you strike her friends down then she will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. That’s a Leia quote, right?
In the same vein as Crack Shot, I see Aggressive Ambassador as another callback to Padme. Specifically her Aggressive Negotiations stance. I’ll usually start Leia in this stance in case there’s an opportunity to go for a wound on the first activation. She needs four successes to get past defense to do seven damage, or five successes to do eight damage. With nine dice (if she is shooting and focused) and that expertise, one-shots are certainly on the table, but not something I would rely on. She currently doesn’t have access to Coordinated Fire: Expose since she can’t be in a list with herself. However, she can combo with Rebel Commandos (Coordinated Fire: Damage) to get eight damage with only four successes. The melee expertise isn’t bad, but the dice quantity is low. I’d prefer to be shooting here. The defense is nothing to get excited about.
By the end of Leia’s first activation, I’ve almost certainly swapped off this stance. I prefer to keep her in Covert Rebel for most of the game.
At first glance, this stance may seem underwhelming. Only five ranged attack dice? Yikes! Remember though: Leia can easily add three dice at range. If she’s focused then the attack dice are 8/7 for melee/range, not too shabby with those expertise charts. The tree starts with double shoves as well, which is handy. During revenge attacks early shoves can be even more impactful than normal. If you’re rocking a list that can move Leia upfield out of activation there’s a good argument for starting her in this stance since she may get a revenge attack off before she activates.
Defensively, the dice and expertise are better than Aggressive Ambassador. Five defense dice and nine health still won’t last that long, but the dash on two expertise may scare attackers away if she can threaten a sneaky objective steal with the movement.
| + Pros | – Cons |
| Adds a lot of mobility to the team | Really wants to focus when attacking |
| Flexible revenge attack | Not super durable |
| Most abilities are tag-agnostic | Hunker output may often be wasted |
Princess Leia, Charming to the Last, is a great addition to more than just the rebel roster. Most of her abilities don’t care about tags at all. Heck, You could run her with Kallus and ISB Agents (both spies) and she’d be fine as an Imperial. I especially like her in scoundrel lists that have traditionally lacked out-of-activation movement options. Lobot is a great pairing with Leia because he can dish out free focuses (and he also likes scoundrel lists). Leia can use her first action to advance, ending within range two of Lobot, get a focus via his reactive ability, and then dash via Crack Shot. Without Lobot, she can feel a little slow at times, despite all of her movement abilities.
My favourite primaries to pair Leia with are Kanan and Mando, essentially doubling down on revenge triggers. Mando especially appreciates the out-of-activation movement Leia brings since he can’t move friends on his own activation. Leia also dishes out a lot of hunkers, but sadly those are often wasted due to units being engaged. While it may seem enticing to pair her with General Kenobi, he doesn’t jive well with Age of Rebellion-era units, so it’s a tough team to make work. If rebels ever get their own Kenobi who allows them to hold hunker tokens while engaged then that should be an amazing pairing.
I feel pretty comfortable saying that Charming Leia is the best version of Leia we’ve seen yet. She can provide a lot of value in and out of activation and pairs well with many different archetypes. If she’s consistently able to get a focus on her turn then she will be doing a ton of work.
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