We’re at the end of the Rebel forces as I am going to bunch up the Support and Heavy units together. That way we can start to take our step on to the Death Star and start going over the Imperials. There’s plenty to talk about these units…even if it is a mixed bag and some niche units. All three current units are great looking models, let’s start there, but they might not make it in the competitive scene. That doesn’t mean you can’t use them when having some fun, relaxed games! Not to mention, we have some more variety coming with the Landspeeder and the Taun Tauns! Both look like amazing models and will seemingly get table time when they get out, as opposed to the Airspeeder. Which we’ll get to. First let’s start with the At-Rt’s since they come with the core set and this is all about us players as beginners!
AT-RT
Ah, these good, old, used bad boys from the Clone Wars era are back and with a rusty vengeance! The Rebels have found some old climbing ground vehicles and piece them together for some anti-Imperial vehicle units. Starting at a 55 base point cost, they’re a relatively cheap unit for some filler. The thought process is they have armor as well, they might be hard to put down. However, the problem isn’t the AT-RT themselves, or armor for that matter, but the Stormtrooper DLT-19 is the real problem. Most Stormtrooper squads will have the DLT and they’ll focus fire on your AT-RT’s pretty reliably. That’s not to say the AT-RT’s are bad. It’s just they’re vulnerable to one of the most used guns in the game. I would say that you most likely don’t run just one AT-RT if you are running them. I would think you need two or three, which will allow them to hopefully move down the board since they wont be able to take all three out. You may lose one quickly but doubtful you lose all three. Then again, they do roll white dice and don’t surge. Yikes. In terms of attack, it’s just two white dice at range 1-3 or three red dice in melee(but not engaged) and they do surge to crit which is pretty good. You will, however, most likely add some hardpoint weapons to them and all three bring a completely different element to the AT-RT.
AT-RT Hardpoint Weapons
For starters, all three weapons are fixed front. Which means they can only fire from your front arc.
- The Flamethrower seems to be the most commonly used hardpoint on the AT-RT’s from what I have seen in so called “BBQ” lists. The idea is that you can move the AT-RT’s into that range one band and just light everything on fire. It ignores cover and you add two black dice per every unit in the defending unit. So let’s say you walk up to a full unit of Snowtroopers with an Imperial officer and a Flamethrower trooper….you’re rolling twelve black dice, ignoring cover, and surge to crit. Sound’s rather good on paper to me but probably hard to get off as much as you would like it to.
- The way I view the Rotary cannon is that it’s a mobile 1.4 FD Cannon. It rolls five black dice, has a range band of 1 to 3 and again surges to crit. No other key words kind of make it lacking, but it’s still pretty decent.
- The Laser Cannon has Impact 3 which is really, really good. However, it’s only rolling the one red, two black and is limited to a 2 to 4 range band. Which is actually good, range 4 is something that’s not necessarily common. But if your opponent gets in close, you lose it from the attack per-say. It’s the most expensive of the three hardpoints which is somewhat of a downfall and the game isn’t vehicle heavy yet either. I think when vehicles start coming around, you’ll find a lot more value in Laser Cannon AT-RT’s. We’re coming for you, Imperial Tank.
1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team
I’m going to go ahead and say it: I think this unit is underrated. Even at first, I wasn’t sure if it was a good unit or what. Then I put it on the table and loved it. I want to say I played two or three games locally with it and it did a lot more than I expected. I ran it naked, got it into some good spots and took aim and fired almost every time. It has a decent healthpool of 6, courage value of 2 which really helps, and rolls five black dice range 1 to 4. You can really take some shots at your opponent as they’re walking up towards you in that big range band. It does have Impact 2 but as I have talked about a few times in these posts, it’s not overly important with the lack of vehicles hitting the table right now. Of course the one downside is it’s stationary. You’ll need to make sure you put it in a good spot when deploying to get use of it. A bad deployment or a full terrain map can really damper it. I haven’t used it lately only beacuse the Pathfinders came out, and I really wanted to get them on the table, but I can see myself getting it back on the board soon. It’s 70 point base cost really gives you a decent option if it fits your play style. I also want to say FD’s did pretty well at LVO, if you follow the competitive scene, even if it was a small sample size.
Possible Upgrades
The upgrades for the Cannon are relatively cheap, however they are exhaustible. Overcharged Generator will give you an extra black dice and stack your Impact 2 to Impact 3. Barrage Generator will add two white dice and add Suppressive to your pool. I’m starting to think that if I do run the Cannon I am going to add Barrage to the package. For 10 points, two more dice and Suppressive seem like good additions to the Cannon. Range 1 to 4, double suppression on a unit is pretty dang good and could hamper some units if they don’t make their rally. I might also contemplate throwing HQ Uplink on it, seeing I will be recovering quite a bit if I am taking a Generator weapon on it. Other than that, that’s about all you’re looking at for upgrades!
T-47 Airspeeder
Well, as a beginner….you may quickly find out through the forums, Facebook or Discord that the T-47 is just not good competitively. You’ll think ‘no way, it’s gotta be good and the model is amazing!’ and I wish you were right. I wish I was right when I thought the same thing, but for now the unit is not good. There is a new pilot card coming out with the Landspeeder that will potentially help the T-47, but it’s real problem is it’s points cost. It will just never make up those points, in my opinion! They are great for casual, fun games at least!
T-47 Upgrades
I don’t really have anything good to say about any of this if I’m being honest. Wedge is exhaustible just to get you Full Pivot, which isn’t horrible but if you’ve flown past your opponent, you’re probably already in danger. Speaking of flying past your opponent, you probably don’t even want to take the rear arc weapons because again that’s not ideal for the Airspeeder. The Ground Buzzer at first glance seems like an okay option but then if you factor that and maybe Wedge, you’re looking at 200 points for an underwhelming unit. Maybe it will get a points fix some day and it will be great again.
Final Thoughts
Vehicles sadly are in a bad spot right now. There is some hope that the Landspeeder can change that, but we’ll see when that comes out in the upcoming month or two! I think FFG is doing a good job to make sure things aren’t static in the game and every unit has a place in it. You may also like running two to three AT-RT’s as a niche thing anyways! The FD Cannon may be the best option out of all of these in terms of point cost and usefulness….that is until those Taun Tauns come out!! Until then, this is what we have to work with! As the great Bill Belichick says: “We’re onto the Imperials”!
May the Force be with You!
-GrandAdmiralThrawn
