Updated July 2024
When Clone Commandos were first announced for Shatterpoint, I was hoping they would have all sorts of cool, different abilities from your run-of-the-mill clones. While they do have some differentiating features, Commandos, it turns out, play fairly similarly to regular clones. They have some clear relative strengths and weaknesses, making them a relatively contentious unit when it comes to perceived value.
Republic Clone Commandos are available in the Plans and Preparation squad box.
4PC puts these clones at the same cost as the 212th and more expensive than the ARF and 501st. If I’m being honest, the clone trooper units feel very much like they are costed to fit the box they come in and don’t correlate especially strongly with unit power. That being said, commandos feel like maybe a 3.5PC unit, so 4PC is defensible.
With a whoppingly low 6 stamina, clone commandos are the current winners of lowest health pool in the game. They do have some abilities to mitigate the low health, but they still follow the clone template of being pretty squishy.
Defensive Maneuver is a classic clone ability. Extra defense is nice when you’re only rocking 6 stamina. The dash is obviously good to have as well to stay mobile and get into position.
Coordinated Fire: Damage is arguably worse than any Coordinated Fire: Condition. Sometimes the extra damage will be the difference between wounding an enemy or not, but a guaranteed expose, pin, strain, or disarm is useful more of the time, in my experience. Still, better to have the option than not.
Ascension Cables is what does set commandos apart from other clones. The Scale keyword allows them to turn any advance or dash into a climb instead. This ability works well with Defensive Maneuver (though note that you won’t get the hunker if both climb) but is especially useful with other out-of-activation move effects. The Republic has the ability to dish out quite a few dashes, so adding some verticality to those is quite useful, especially on boards with few or non-ideal ingress points.
Brothers in Arms is another standard clone ability and makes clones a pain in the butt to get off objectives. If you don’t have force for Defensive Maneuver, then taking the Take Cover action for a hunker and a little movement is a great choice for these clones.
Commando Armor helps make the 6 stamina feel less rough. Assuming they are attacked at least once, commandos will have effectively 7 stamina or more due to Protection. Most of the time these guys will go down in one or two hits just like any other clone support, but once in a while Protection makes them live one or two attacks longer, which can be the difference in some tight games.
I mentioned earlier that commandos have some clear strengths and weaknesses compared to other clones, and now we have reached the weakness: they can’t shove. For me, this is a huge deal. Not only does that make it much harder to remove enemies from objectives (you basically have to wound them), the extra range 1 move you lose from following up a shove can be quite consequential. The Naboo Handmaidens are another Republic support that can’t shove, but they at least have a jump on one success which keeps them super mobile and opens up playmaking potential. Other than a move action and Defensive Maneuver, commandos are almost certainly not moving on their turn. The advance five places down the tree is mostly a pipe dream.
Some crit generation at range is nice, they can often get two spaces down their tree. If both do that then it’s five damage and a pin, which isn’t terrible but isn’t outstanding. If they get caught in melee they are much better at punching than some other clones, but they still want to operate at range.
Defensively, two blocks on two expertise is an improvement on standard Phase II clone armour. However, going back down to one block on three expertise, in exchange for a reposition, can lead to some feels-bad moments where you roll too many expertise.
| + Pros | – Cons |
| Scale opens up vertical movement options for Republic | No shoves or movement in their attack tree |
| Potentially better defensively than comparable clones | Usually still squishy |
For me personally, maybe 95% of the reason I’d consider taking Clone Commandos is Scale. If you aren’t leveraging that keyword effectively I just think there are better options. As such, units that can move the Commandos around out-of-activation are good pairings, such as Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Padme Amidala, Luminara Unduli, and Captain Rex. The hunker synergy the commandos have makes them a decent choice with General Obi-Wan Kenobi as well. I wouldn’t want to pair Commandos with another support that doesn’t shove, such as Handmaidens, as I feel that would limit my swing potential quite a bit in the all-important objective game.
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