This week we take a look at the final non-commander unit from the original bit of unit releases: the T-47.
The T-47 has the dubious distinction of being (arguably) the least competitive unit in Star Wars: Legion. We will delve into the reasons for this, as well as look at ways to use it, if you are a masochist.
I want to like this thing. I really do. Iwas so excited about the model, it was the first thing I bought and painted. I lovingly weathered it, dappling tiny rust spots onto it with a little sponge. I took pictures of it. I stared longingly at it.
And then… I put it on a table. It was… not great. I gave it the ole college try for numerous games. It was still not great.
Why is it so bad? Ultimately it comes down to efficiency, but let us start off with some of the high level strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
- Very fast
- Not terribly inefficient against armor
Weaknesses
- Fragile
- Expensive
- Extremely inefficient against troopers
- Hardpoint upgrades are difficult to use
- Large base causes difficulties with terrain
- High, large model is difficult to hide
That is a lot of bad, and not much good.
Overview
7 Health, 5 Resilience, Armor, white/surge defense. Well, having Armor is better than not having Armor. 7 HP is really low, though, for something that costs 175 points and is impossible to hide.
Arsenal 2. If you have a hardpoint upgrade, Arsenal 2 will let you shoot both it and the Ap/11. Too bad they face opposite directions…
Cover 1. Mostly this is entirely redundant with Armor, as the latter strips off most of the attacker’s non-crits anyway. It does come into play against low-dice, high Impact weapons like Saber Throw.
Immune: Blast, Melee. The Immune: Blast is pretty situational. Immune: Melee is pretty good though. The T-47 dies in all sorts of spectacular ways, but at least Luke can’t hack it up with a lightsaber.
Speeder 2, Speed 3. Fly over terrain, provide a compulsory move. The latter can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. At least the T-47 is fast.
Ap/11 Double Laser Cannon. This looks much better than it is. Covered in more detail in the Offense section.
Pilot, hardpoint, comms upgrades: Usually you aren’t filling any of these and making the T-47 even more expensive, but you have some options.
Offense
Ap/11 Double Laser Cannon
Dice. 3 red, 3 black, no surge. 30/8(6). Not bad; identical to 74-Z Speeder Bikes. For 175 points though… ick.
Fixed: Front. Front towards enemy.
Impact 3. At least there is this. The T-47 is pretty good against armor. It is better on a straight output basis than an AT-RT Laser Cannon (but not two Laser Cannons).
Range. 1-3. Decent range, combined with the T-47’s speed.
First we’ll look at what sort of raw damage to expect from the Ap/11 for various situations.
The Ap/11 is pretty solid on an absolute basis. Decent dice, Impact 3. Surge to crit would be nice.
You can expect to pick up about 2 Stormtroopers and 2-3 Rebel Troopers. If you aim it gives you about one extra hit, on average. You will chunk about 2-3 wounds off an AT-ST with an aim token. Not bad.
So why all the hate? Well… it costs 175 points. Remember those efficiency charts we talked about? Why don’t we look again. The below is with no cover.
That is a lot of things that are more efficient sources of damage output than the Ap/11. All of the things, in fact.
To be fair to the T-47, you often can take an aim token, since you have a free move. Setting aside for a minute the wisdom of taking an aim or a dodge token, why don’t we throw the Ap/11 an aim token. Further, the T-47 is a flanker that can often bypass cover, so let us go ahead and compare the Ap/11 with aim (No Cover) versus everything else attacking targets with Cover 2. This will represent essentially a ‘best case’ scenario comparison for the Ap/11 against a ‘worst case’ for the other units/weapons.
Well, that helps a little. Given how fragile it is, though, one would hope a ‘best case’ comparison against your other Rebel choices would be a little more spectacular. With an aim token and shooting at targets out of cover, the Ap/11 is only marginally better than a naked Rebel Trooper squad shooting targets in heavy cover. That is…. quite bad.
Luckily there are some hardpoint options to up your firepower a little bit.
Ax-108 Ground Buzzer
Dice. 4 black, no surge. 16/8(4). Like a naked Rebel Trooper squad shooting from your butt.
Fixed: Rear. Ass towards enemy. Yeah, it is impossible to get this in the same attack pool as your main gun.
Range. 1-2. Short, but not really that limiting for a rear weapon, since you will generally be using this on something you’ve just flown over.
20 points. Yeesh. Making an inefficient platform (the T-47) even more expensive is not a great idea.
Here is the raw output for the Ground Buzzer. Identical to a naked Rebel Trooper unit.
With an aim token you’ll pick up a Rebel Trooper or two.
The Ground Buzzer presents something of a Catch-22. Since the T-47 is quite fragile, you generally don’t want it in the middle of your opponent’s army. Since it is ass-facing, however, that is exactly where you need your T-47 to be to use the Ground Buzzer. It is a really awkward hardpoint upgrade. Personally I find it hard to justify spending 20 points on a weapon that asks your fragile and expensive T-47 to be in a vulnerable position.
Mo/Dk Power Harpoon
Dice. 1 red, no surge. The harpoon isn’t really meant to do damage. Pretty reliable single hit, though (75%).
Impact 1. You aren’t going to be burning any AT-ST’s down with this, but it helps get that hit through for Tow Cable.
Fixed: Rear. Again, rear towards enemy.
Range. 1-2. Same as the Ground Buzzer.
8 points. Not a huge investment.
Tow Cable. Pivot a vehicle you wound. Turning AT-STs is neat. If your opponent doesn’t have one, though, this is mostly useless.
If you are going to take a hardpoint, I probably prefer this one, because it is cheap. When I run a T-47 the harpoon is what I use if the T-47 isn’t naked. You can actually really mess with an AT-ST with the harpoon. Most of the time you are effectively costing it an action, and maybe getting in some rear shots with your other units to boot.
I don’t think we need a chart for this, but your chance to wound an AT-ST with a harpoon is 50% (75% to hit, 66% the AT-ST fails its save). You would hope it would be higher for such a situational upgrade, but there you have it. Personally I think the harpoon could have Pierce 1 and you wouldn’t have to change its cost at all.
In a pinch you can also use the harpoon to suppress troops you are flying over. It is better than not shooting anything at all.
Defense
I explored the combined benefit of the T-47’s Armor and Cover 1 keywords in more detail in the Effective Wounds article.
Below is the average wounds by attacker to the T-47, accounting for Armor, Cover, and the white/surge save. The color scales are inverted, so red is most damage/most dangerous and green is least damage/least dangerous.
Don’t get caught in the front arc of an AT-ST. Impact grenades actually aren’t on here, but it should be a given that you want to avoid those. Maximum Firepower isn’t on here either but it will take a big chunk off your speeder.
Speeder bikes, saber throw, and AT-RT lasers are also going to ruin your day.
DLT-19s are lower on this list on an individual basis, but often you will be facing, like, 4 of them. A couple of DLTs will reliably chip a T-47’s health down very quickly.
Upgrades
Besides the hardpoint choices, you can also take a Pilot and a Comms upgrade. For those two slots there are really only two things I could recommend.
Wedge Antilles
I love Wedge as a character. Full pivot is kind of neat, but in practice I rarely find myself using it. You still need to use an action to actually pivot. Wedge only gives you the ability to turn all the way around when you do pivot; he doesn’t pivot the T-47 for you. 5 points? Eh… I suppose. There are a lot of other things I would rather spend 5 points on, though.
HQ Uplink
This bad boy comes in the Commando box. It allows the unit to give an order to itself, which is great for a number of reasons. If you play a low pip card (like Coordinated Bombardment) you can still give an order to a unit with this. Card abilities that trigger off units receiving orders (like My Ally is the Force or No Time for Sorrows) also benefit the unit receiving an order via HQ Uplink, though sadly in the Rebel’s case both of the cards this would combo with only work with troopers. I think it is a lot better on a Weiss AT-ST as it combos with Imperial Discipline, but it is still useful on a T-47 given how important activation timing is.
Tactics
So, you are a masochist and you want to actually run the T-47. Or maybe you are just messing around. What can you do to help mitigate its weaknesses?
List building
If you are building a T-47 into a list, you need to think very carefully about the rest of your units. How much Impact do I need? Will I have enough troopers to fulfill objectives?
I think the best way to run a T-47 is to do two of them in a Leia list, and forgo the AT-RTs and Luke. I know that sounds like crazy talk, but taking just one commander frees up some points and gives you the generic command cards, which is important given how timing dependent the T-47 is (see below). Further, your opponent probably brought enough Impact to deal with one T-47, but maybe not two. You’ll still have enough points for 5 or so trooper units, which you will need to take and hold objectives.
Activation timing
The T-47 is highly dependent on careful positioning, and therefore on activation timing. Whenever possible, you want to be giving the T-47 an order.
This doesn’t combo very well with Wonder Twins, since only Luke and Leia’s 3 pip cards can be used to give non-troopers an order. One way to get around this is an HQ Uplink, but you might want to just run 1 commander and use those generic cards rather than throwing 10 more points on top of something that is already points inefficient.
Early in the game, especially on the first turn, you want to make sure you activate the T-47 last. This will hopefully ensure it will stay safe for at least a turn and provide you with a decent target when it activates.
Positioning
The T-47 is actually somewhat prone to getting stuck on terrain, which is a little silly given it flies. Its base is very large, however, and you need a surface to actually place the model on after the T-47’s compulsory move. Keep in mind you must be able to place it so the base is at a 45 degree angle or less. Usually you are okay landing partially on top of barricades, but anything taller is going to cause problems. Plan your moves one turn ahead so you don’t find yourself in an awkward spot after your compulsory move.
The large base can be used to your advantage if you are clever. Repulsor vehicles will displace trooper units they land on during their compulsory move. Use this to push trooper units out of cover or away from objectives. Just remember your opponent gets to place the mini(s) you displace; if you displace a unit leader make sure you aren’t giving your opponent an opportunity for a beneficial re-positioning.
Flanking
The T-47 is a flanker. Use it on the flanks. If you charge it up the middle, it is going to die very quickly. If your opponent has a scary source of Impact like and AT-ST or a Laser Cannon AT-RT, try and stay out of their front arc. Hit trooper units from the side to deny cover.
Key Takeways
- The T-47 is very fragile; positioning and activation timing are key
- Hunt vehicles first, and troopers second. You are paying the points for mobile Impact damage.
- If you want a hardpoint option, the harpoon is your best bet. The ground buzzer is just too expensive on such a fragile platform.
- Think two moves ahead. Don’t get stuck in a vulnerable position.
My T-47. Sadly banished to my case.
