The Fifth Trooper Explains Mercenaries

So, what’s up with those mercs? Last week this intrepid website brought you all the news about the reveals at the “Not-Quite-Ministravaganza” and promised to give all the JUICY details on the Rules Reference Guide that was promised in the article posted that day. Granted, that promise was technically only in reference to the rules on mercenaries and the complete Battle Force rules for Shadow Collective but we being curious cats spent the next few days pontificating on what delicious treats would be in that RRG.

• Points adjustments?
• Rules changes??
• Other battle forces???

Well, no. To be fair, we were given what we were promised today though so it’s not like we can fault AMG for OUR hunger to play an Obi list without being ridiculed see how much the game may really change when we get more Battle Forces at some point in the future. ANYWAYS, we did get some mercenary rules so let’s cover em:

Mercenary Rules

Interestingly enough these aren’t actually in the RRG, rather they’re on the page labelled “Shadow Collective Battle Force” so you may have had trouble finding it, I imagine that will be fixed later. Since I think the biggest distinctions for “mercenaries” lie in the difference between how they work in Shadow Collective versus other armies I think a table is helpful.

	Shadow Collective	Everyone Else
How many can I take?	No limit, take as many as you want within the rules of the unit options, minimums, and maximums of units outlined for “Shadow Collective” as a Battle Force (1-4 Commanders/Operatives [1 must be commander], 2-6 Corps, 0-4 Special Forces, 0-3 Support, 0-2 Heavies)	-Up to 2 “Corps” that has your army’s tiny faction symbol next to their larger affiliation symbol on the top left of the unit card. -Up to 1 unit from each other rank, with the same restrictions as above regarding the tiny faction symbol
Do they count towards minimum requirements (for instance, 3 Corps for non-Battle Force armies)?	Yes	No
Who can issue orders to mercenaries?	Only nominated commanders in the same affiliation (the symbol on the top left of the unit card) or any unit that has the “Allies of Convenience”	<- Same deal
What does having a character with “Allies of Convenience” (either naturally or via the “Underworld Connection” Command slot upgrade card) mean for what I can put in my army.	Nothing, for Shadow Collective it’s only about the ability to issue orders to whoever you want. It does not change the maximum number of units you can have for any particular rank.	It means you can pick ONE rank (even if you have multiple characters with “Allies of Convenience”) and have one extra mercenary in that rank. Yes, this means that if you want to play “Double Bounty” with either Empire or CIS, you need to have one copy of “Underworld Connections” in your army. It also means that you can’t have a list with two mercenary operatives and three mercenary corps, because the keyword can only apply to an army once. It also does not change the maximum number of units you can have for any particular rank.

So…yeah, that’s pretty much it! Feel free to list-build away using Legion HQ now that you know what you can really do. We can only hope that we’ll hear more soon about other Battle Forces but…for now, I guess I’m just thankful that this was all I had to write this week! So, see ya!

Admin note: Listen here you little twerp, if you think you can get away with a table that could have just been a hyperlink then you clearly didn’t hear me the last time we went over this. You used the same featured image as last time, the SEO is crap, and you didn’t have a single link to a product in our store. DO YOU THINK THIS IS A LIBRARY??? THIS IS A BUSINESS and I keep you around here to make me MONEY. So, “Doc” I got some bad news about your recent results. The X-Rays show that this article won’t count for crap, and you’re going to have something on my desk this Friday that brings in some scratch OR YOU’RE DONE PAL. Also, don’t forget to delete this before publish moron.

-Jay

Ha! Just kidding guys this ain’t it, look forward to my guide to Canon Accuracy in the Shadow Collective this Friday right here on The Fifth Trooper™…check out the store!

Please!