Updated: Jun 24
Much like the TV shows, Anakin is a character who can singlehandedly take matters into his own hands and swing a game. He won’t really do much to buff those around him, but does that matter when he can do it all on his own?
General Anakin Skywalker is available in the Shatterpoint core box.
Main card
The force value of a character in Shatterpoint does not necessarily correlate to a character’s ability to wield the force, but Anakin is the chosen one, so 4 force makes a lot of sense. He does only provide 7SP to build out his squad, so his power will be offset by some weaker supporting options.
Abilities
Anakin has the best health profile in the game as of his release, sporting 11 stamina and 3 durability. That’s good because he’s a force hungry character so you really don’t want his force powers getting even more expensive.
Force Jump is very good. In some situations you’ll wish you had Force Speed, but you can’t have everything. You won’t be able to advance twice but you will be able to jump out of engagement, which adds flexibility.
I’m Going to End This is a big reason you take Anakin. You pay through the nose for it with 2 force base, but getting a critical wound on an enemy can be huge. There’s not too much to say here other than “attack twice good”, but do be aware that some characters can move away in between attacks and thus be out of range for the follow-up. Or you could self-inflict that situation by pushing an enemy too far away. So uhh, don’t do that.
Deflect is a pretty standard force user ability and it’s a good one. Sending back damage for free? Pretty nice. Once Anakin is wounded/injured you probably are opting to save the force.
This Is Where the Fun Begins is Anakin’s aptly named identity. At release it’s the only effect in the game that can move the struggle token outside of scoring objectives. You’re also getting momentum for wounding an enemy so on net the struggle token is two spaces closer to your momentum tokens. Anakin can reliably get the wound on enemies with his double attack, just make sure you have the force for it. The healing effect from wounding an enemy primary can be pretty big, maxing out at 8 heals currently with a fully Galactic Republic strike team, but depends on having stuff that’s worth healing and having units positioned correctly to make use of those heals. It’s a nice bonus, but the main strength of this is the struggle token moving. As such, Anakin wants to be targeting primaries and secondaries, not supports.
Form V Djem So
So you know how Anakin likes to wound things? This is the stance that does that really well. Three successes are going to give you a whopping 7 damage and a strain. If he has 501st Clone Troopers around doing Coordinated Fire: Strain prior to the attack then it’s 8 damage for three successes. That is not quite enough to one-shot must fully health primaries or secondaries, but if they have even a little damage before the attack they could easily go down.
Even more impressive is 5 damage moving just two spots down the tree. Most fully healthy primaries or secondaries will be wounded after 10 damage, so if Anakin can do 5 damage twice he’s getting that wound through. Even against Count Dooku in Form II Makashi stance (where he has 7 defense dice and can cancel crits) Anakin still has a 61% of getting at least two successes after defense and averages 1.9. Sure Dooku has some extra defensive tech there but that’s just an example to show just how reliable Anakin’s offense is.
The defensive profile on this stance is not great, so if you also need Anakin to stay unwounded for a while after the turn you probably don’t want to finish on this stance.
Form V Shen
Form V Shen gets less crits in offensive expertise and one less attack die, but uprades defense significantly with one extra die at range and in melee plus a better defensive expertise. It still has decent damage, you’re able to do 4 damage in the first two spots, and it brings in positioning options with shoves or a reposition early in the tree.
I usually keep Anakin in this stance the majority of the game since it’s still pretty good offensively and much better than Djem So defensively. As I mentioned at the top, Anakin tends to spend a lot of force (especially if you’re using the Shatterpoint card on him) so keeping him unwounded is very useful.
Synergy & Wrap Up
| + Pros | – Cons |
| Really good at wounding primaries and secondaries | Consumes a lot of force |
| Gets big bonus for wounding primaries and secondaries | 7SP limits squad building somewhat |
| Brings 4 force to the strike team | Doesn’t support the strike team much |
The obvious synergy with Anakin is Galactic Republic units to benefit from heals on This Is Where the Fun Begins, but I don’t think you really need to maximize that. Anakin does really like having someone around who can give him a move up the battlefield turn 1, such as CC-7567 Captain Rex or Padawan Ahsoka Tano. This increases his threat range and gives him a great chance to start wounding characters early. I have also played around with Anakin in lists with force refresh, such as Dooku, Asajj, or Jango. The extra force means you can go all out with I’m Going to End This.
