The 50Worst Legion

Today AMG gave us the preview article for one of the leaders of the Imperial Remnant, Moff Gideon. While we currently do not have all the info on his Dark Troopers or any details yet on the Imperial Remnant battleforce, we do have his full unit card and command cards so let’s dive in and see what he brings to the table.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

Holy s*#t this guy is durable. 5 health with surging red defense dice brings him close Mandalorian territory with his defensive capabilities. Courage 3 is also very strong, especially with how panic might be changing here in a couple weeks. His offensive output, while limited to range 2, is also very good. 2 black/1 red with sharpshooter 1, surge to crit and pierce 1 is a potent combo on its own but is made even better with the addition of tactical 1. He’s not going to do a ton of damage with only 3 dice but his damage should be very consistent.

Moff Gideon brings a new keyword to Legion: Ruthless. This keyword allows a friendly corps unit with a faceup order token at range 2 (note that this doesn’t say range 1-2 so units at range 1 would be ineligible) and in line of site of Moff Gideon to suffer 1 wound to perform 1 free action when it activates. While a wound on a corps unit might seem like a high price to pay, the fact that the type of action that can be taken can make it well worth it. This can be great for objective play. You can claim a token and then double move away or triple move with a hostage carrier for example. You still can’t double up on the same action (outside of moving) but performing 3 actions in turn is no joke, just ask Maul. Also important to note is that this free action happens when the unit activates, which is before the rally step. A power move would be to use the free action to recover a unit who has been stacked with suppression and is in danger of panicking.

Rounding out the Moff’s keywords are Entourage: Imperial Dark Troopers, which gives a free order to a Dark Trooper unit at range 1-2 as well as allowing you to take a Dark Trooper unit ignoring the rank restrictions, and Observe 1 as a free action. How good Entourage is depends entirely on how good the Imperial Dark Troopers end up being but it opens up some interesting options for sure. Observe 1 as a free action is also just all around good. A free baby aim token that can be used by any of your units is always going to be welcome.

Moff Gideon comes with 1 gear slot, 1 training slot, 2 command slots and an armament slot. The spicy thing here is the 2 command slots. This is great for lists that want to run Underworld Connections to make use of extra mercenary units as you can run that along with an upgrade like Improvised Orders to help with the order control issues Empire lists sometimes face without having to invest points in another officer. And speaking of points, Moff Gideon only costs a measly 100 points, which at first glance seems like an incredible value. This puts him at the same cost as Iden Versio and only 10 points more than Agent Kallus, both of whom typically want to bring a 15 point weapon and are missing the defensive surge that the Moff has.

I CAN USE IT TOO!

Not to be outdone by some of his fellow Imperial commanders, Moff Gideon comes with a 15 point weapon of his own, and it’s one that we have seen a couple times already: the powerful Darksaber!

This version comes with the same attack profile as the version Sabine Wren uses, 5 black dice with Impact 1 and Pierce 1, granting Moff Gideon Immune to Pierce during melee attacks as well. Where Gideon’s version differs from Sabine’s is in the addition of Demoralize 1 instead of Dauntless. Passing out a free suppression token is solid on it’s own but it can be especially troublesome for pesky force users that want to sit in engagements with a standby token. It also has the potential to be quite potent depending on how exactly the panic rules will be changing later this month.

COMMAND CARDS

Moff Gideon brings 3 command cards and boy are they spicy! Let’s take a look:

DIE AT MY HAND

Short, sweet and to the point. This command card gives Gideon an aim, a dodge and relentless. Nothing fancy here, just free tokens and a great keyword. Combined with his Tactical 1 he can double move for an attack with 3 aim tokens, helping ensure those sometimes pesky black dice hit their mark.

YOU HAVE SOMETHING I WANT

By far the most text heavy of all his command cards. This card cannot be chosen during the first round but when it is played it allows you to move 1 friendly Imperial Dark Trooper unit anywhere on the board that is beyond range 2 of all enemy units. This unit does have to have a faceup order token but with Moff Gideon having Entourage: Imperial Dark Troopers this shouldn’t be difficult to do. This also forces you to flip that units order token facedown but one of the things we know about the Dark Troopers is that they can activate twice per round so this isn’t too much of a loss. The really spicy part of this card is that the unit moving keeps all tokens, which (barring a forum clarification to the contrary) means that this unit can teleport across the battlefield with a crucial objective token that they have claimed.

MOMENT OF CONSIDERATION

While light on text, this card can have a big impact on the battlefield. Issuing orders to 3 corps or heavy units, each unit issued an order by this command card gain Fire Support. The important thing to note is that only units issued orders by the card itself gain Fire Support, so units ordered via Entourage or Coordinate or any other means will not receive that benefit. Even with that restriction, there are many great targets who would love to have that keyword. Currently none of the Imperial heavy units natively surge on offense so adding their pool to a Stormtrooper squad or commander/operative who does could be huge.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER (MOSTLY)

We will get the complete picture of Moff Gideon when we see the rest of the options for the Imperial Death Troopers, but we have a pretty good picture of what the Moff can do even without them. Moff Gideon can be a solid centerpiece to an Imperial gunline. His Observe 1 helps by giving a free reroll to 1 attacking unit. While Observe does require line of site on the target, the fact that Moff Gideon has it as a free action means he can move, observe and then move back out of line of site, keeping himself safe. He can also use Electrobinoculars as his gear upgrade to hand out an aim to a unit that needs it. This could keep him exposed if he is also Observing, but with surging red defense dice he can be hard to remove from the field. His courage 3 also makes it that much harder for the gunline to panic.

Equipping Gideon with the Darksaber not only makes him a threat in close range/melee focused lists, it also makes him a great counter to melee threats that might threaten a gunline. The addition of immune to pierce in melee makes it difficult for lightsaber users to defeat him, and if you equip him with tenacity gives him a pretty good attack pool in melee combat as well.

Electrobinoculars and Tenacity are really the only options I would strongly consider at the gear and training slots respectively, but there are plenty of good combinations you can use in the command slot. Esteemed Leader and Inspiring Presence are the only 2 that I wouldn’t give much consideration too. Aggressive Tactics and Vigilance are a bit more list dependent but can be good in lists that want them. All of the other current command options seem like they could be good on Gideon. Commanding Presence would increase his Entourage range, allowing him to issue orders to Imperial Dark Troopers farther across the battlefield. Lead By Example and Strict Orders are great if you are concerned about suppression stacking up on your units. And as mentioned earlier, Improvised Orders is great for helping with the order control issues Empire lists can have.

Moff Gideon is also commander who can also play well with others in an Empire list. He doesn’t seem very greedy to where he wants an order all the time and you can leave both his 1 and 2 pip behind without feeling too bad. His 2 pip becomes Push without Imperial Dark Troopers and even with them it can be a cheesy/situational card. His 1 pip really only feels great if you are running him with the Darksaber and are planning on melee combat with him. This opens up options for the 1 and 2 pip slots for other unique characters. His point cost also helps give you options for running multiple commanders/operatives if you want.

Moff Gideon’s 3 pip is the only one that feels close to an auto include. Well timed Fire Supports can be huge in swaying the momentum of a game and the flexibility of targets that Gideon can give the keyword too opens up the potential for some big/powerful dice pools. Units like Shoretroopers or a General Weiss piloted AT-ST would love to add their dice to the surge to hit pool of a Snowtrooper squad with a flametrooper or the surge to crit pool of someone like Bossk or Moff Gideon himself. You could also go crazy and combine the dice pools of two T-21 Stormtrooper squads for an 18 white dice slot machine with critical 4.

SAMPLE LISTS

Since we don’t have all the info on the Imperial Dark Trooper lists I won’t be discussing any list options with that unit. We will save that for the Imperial Dark Trooper article itself.

DOUBLE BOUNTY

Moff Gideon leaves the Darksaber at home to support this gunline led by IG-88 and Bossk. Both bounty hunters make for great Fire Support platforms for the Shoretroopers, and a well timed Fire Support can help collect a bounty.

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY

Moff Gideon teams up with Din Djarin to get up close and personal with the enemy. Lead By Example helps to keep suppression off of your Snowtroopers if your enemy is foucsing on them. Which if they are means they are likely not attacking your melee threats.

BRING UP THE AT-ST

Moff Gideon keeps the Darksaber in this list to deal with any melee threats that approach him and/or to increase his damage output in the lower activation list. Give General Weiss Fire Support for a turn and he can add 9 dice to an attack pool at range 3, 11 if he is at range 2!

IN CONCLUSION

Moff Gideon seems pretty damn good for his cost. He has a lot of synergy with the Imperial Dark Troopers, but he can be a solid addition to any Imperial army. He is quite durable and while he won’t necessarily do a lot of damage, he should do consistent damage if/when he decides to get into the fight. He also does enough with his unit card and command cards that you don’t feel the need to load him up with upgrades. Even fully loaded and armed to the teeth he is not likely to get above 145 points which allows for many different list building options. He is cheap enough to be run with multiple unique characters or a big piece like an AT-ST or Darth Vader without having to trim too much fat from your army. The new Pass mechanic that will be introduced later this month will also help the lower activation lists a bit.

Moff Gideon is also going to be a part of the Imperial Remnant battleforce, which we currently know nothing about. I am excited to see how he will fit into that and how that battleforce’s list construction and command cards (assuming it comes with them) will interact with him. Look for a breakdown on both the battle force and Imperial Dark Troopers when we learn more about them from AMG.