Atomic Mass Games has revealed the rules for the elite Death Troopers and the Death Trooper Specialist in Star Wars Shatterpoint, which will be available in the upcoming ‘Deploy the Garrison’ Squad Pack. These guys have the energy of celebrity bodyguards, with strong defences, the ability to bundle your Primary units out of harms way, and brutal reprisal against anyone that threatens their ward.
For any Star Wars fans who aren’t familiar with Star Wars: Shatterpoint, it’s a miniature wargame about small Fire Teams packed with familiar characters. We don’t think any tabletop game does a better job of recreating the feeling of lightsaber duels and close quarters shootouts from the movies. Our glowing Star Wars Shatterpoint review explains how it manages that.
The unit cards for both the Death Troopers and Death Trooper Specialist were revealed on publisher Atomic Mass Games’ website on Wednesday. They’re both sturdy units, with the ability Protection reducing the damage they take from incoming attacks, and immunity to the Exposed condition meaning there’s no way to weaken their armor.
The Death Troopers have some really interesting capabilities to support your other Galactic Empire units. First, they grant nearby Primary characters Cover [1], giving them a real defensive boost in a blaster fight.
They also have a very unusual Supporting Fire ability. Instead of adding making your other troops ranged attacks more powerful, the Death Troopers allow another Galactic Empire character to make a dash move after it completes an attack. This could be to duck back into the protective cover the Troopers provide, hustle onto an objective, or reposition for a later turn.
The Death Troopers attacks are respectable for a supporting unit, particularly if you spend a Force point to let them make a Tactical Advance, which gives them a useful Dash move and then lets them Focus to power up their next attack. Their six dice ranged attack is respectable, and comes with fairly easy access to Shove, Disarmed, and Pinned results to move enemy models off objectives or debuff them.
The Death Trooper Specialist is relentlessly aggressive. It starts every activation by making a dash and then giving either a Strained or Pinned condition marker to an enemy at mid range.
For one force point, it or a supporting unit can barge forwards yet more, inflicting the Exposed condition on an engaged enemy. The unit that makes this move also gets an Exposed marker as it hustles out of cover – unless it’s a Death Trooper and therefore immune.
The Specialist has a strong seven dice attack in melee and at range, with options to quickly inflict a lot of damage, or to quite easily shove an enemy twice in succession. And if you have force points to burn, an Unrelenting Assault lets the Specialist follow up with a second one, made with five dice.
It’s a really interesting set of capabilities for a pair of units that, on the surface, look like big dumb defensive and offensive bricks. They certainly can perform in that role, but they have great tools to bully opponents off objectives, or reposition your own forces.
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Source: Wargamer
