Begun the Clone Wars Has - Part 1: Primary Characters
Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Atomic Mass Games has just been released, and epic duels in a galaxy far, far away are right at our fingertips! For those of you asking, “What’s Shatterpoint?” well, I’m glad you asked! It’s only the best skirmish miniatures game on the market! I don’t have the space to explain everything here, but please stop by the shop and we’ll happily play a demo game with you! For those of you as excited for the game as me, you might be asking, “Which heroes or villains should I take to the battlefield?” or “Which characters are the best in the game?” While I don’t feel qualified yet to give a definitive answer to those questions, I do feel like I’ve obtained a decent grasp of various units' strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully this quick guide will help you in making the tough choices regarding which characters to put on your table, whether playing at home or at an event! Today, I will be sharing brief thoughts on the primary characters from the first wave of releases. Anakin Strengths: Best offensive unit in the game. Can gain you extra momentum. Has excellent movement options on one of his stances. The best part of his identity (scoring extra momentum) doesn’t care about key words, so I give him high flexibility in list building. Bringing 4 force points to the table is excellent. Weaknesses: All displacement relies on dice, as he has no displacement force powers. Incredibly force hungry, plan on spending 3 each time you activate him, and he is often going to be your shatterpoint target. This means he pairs really well with Dooku to get a large force pool and force refresh. Highly defensive characters that can punish you for attacking them like Ashoka and Dooku check his power somewhat, though they aren’t straight up counters. Only having 7 points to build with limits the options of who you can bring with him. Ashoka Strengths: Incredibly mobile, highly defensive, can ruin your opponents scoring with her identity giving her out of turn movement to get onto a point.The out of turn recovers on a key piece can be increíble relevant as well. She has the potential to wound enemies on their turn with her reactionary abilities, but most of the time it will just be chip damage on them. Incredibly self contained, can be played with literally any other character in the game without losing on any of her synergies. Weaknesses: Offense is pretty weak for a primary. Her control stance has less dice and a worse expertise than her damage, making it so she has little reliable control. Strain shuts her down hard, taking 3 damage to use her reactive abilities is brutal. Her own activation can sometimes feel a little lackluster, and all her best stuff happens on the other players turn. Doesn’t have a force jump to get on top of terrain. Lord Maul Strengths: Almost has it all, guaranteed displacement that comes with a status condition, high damage, high mobility, excellent ranged and melee options. His force economy is amazing. The more damage he takes, the more consistent he becomes. A self contained unit that can go in any team. Weaknesses: The one thing that I think keeps him from being the best in the game is that he only has 2 stamina, which means it’s reasonable for your opponent to remove him. He’s also not great at getting up elevation without a force power jump. Offers no synergy benefits to the rest of your team. Asajj Strengths: Highly mobile, incredible displacement, and surprisingly good at recovering not just herself but her allies as well. Her identity lets her refresh force, which is excellent. A character that does a lot on her activation, making her a good shatterpoint target. Has powerful out of activation movement if you build your list around her. Weaknesses: Frail defensively for a primary. Needs separatists/dathomirians around her to get the most out of her abilities, making her not as splashable. Very force hungry. Dooku Strengths: Makes the rest of your army more mobile, has two very solid stances, and incredible defense. His identity is crazy good, in contention for the best. Refreshing force when your opponent wounds your units is amazing, it makes every unit you have better. Twice the Pride, Double the Fall, triggers may more than you think it would, as every block removes a strike from the dice pool. Additionally his 5 dice attacks tend to hit pretty decently as 1 expertise equates to 2 crits. Oh, and he comes with 4 force points. Weaknesses: Bad at getting up elevation, and relatively slow for a primary. Lacks guaranteed displacement. All of that is somewhat made up for with early displacement on the stance with his absurd expertise. He also needs mostly separatists around him to be getting his full value, so he’s not very splashable. Other units can get splashed into a Dooku separatist list, but not Dooku into their lists. Obi-Wan Strengths: Can hit hard consistently, mobile, and defensive. His identity is a powerful buff to your strike team, making everyone harder to kill. His order card manipulation is excellent, and he force economy is pretty decent, as he only needs to spend 1 force to have a full activation. Three shoves and a pin if you make it through his Ataru tree is incredible. Weaknesses: Not super splashable, you really need to be playing galactic republic to take advantage of his identity. No guaranteed displacement, though that’s not a huge deal with how many dice he can roll with Ataru, which can easily result in many shoves. If you feel I missed anything, found this article useful, or disagree with anything, please leave a comment or stop by the store to let me know! May the force be with you!-Samuel Sweeten
