The 50Worst Legion

“Commander Cody. The time has come.” We’ve had the unit card for awhile now but now we have the command cards to go with it. Let’s break him down and see what new tools he brings to the Grand Army of the Republic.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

His base stats are pretty normal for a unique commander and are right in line with Captain Rex. Where he separates himself from his clone brother is with his ranged weapon and keywords. Right off the bat we see that his ranged weapon has twice the range of Captain Rex. The actual dice pool is pretty solid as well: 2 red, 1 black, 1 white with Impact 1 and surge to critical. Top it off with Lethal 1 and Cody can do some consistent damage from long range. He is lacking Sharpshooter though so you will be relying on the 2 red to cancel out heavy cover and for one of the other 2 dice to roll paint to get those wounds though.

Commander Cody comes with a nice suite of unit keywords. He has Observe 2 as a free action (more on that later), Jump 1, Take Cover 1 and Target 1, as well as Direct: Vehicle. Observe 2 and Target 1 can really help him push through wounds with Lethal as Target 1 will give him the aim needed to gain Pierce 1 and the observation tokens can provide valuable rerolls without needing to spend an aim token. Take Cover 1 is great for when Cody is playing a supporting role, giving a dodge token to a Clone Trooper to share or even his Jedi general Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Direct: Vehicle might be his strongest unit keyword as it can hand out an order token to a vehicle every round, regardless of what command card is played. This is great for not only having order control on what can be a focal piece of your army, but allows you to allocate orders for setting up potential fire supports with cards that only give out one order. Equip your vehicle with Linked Targeting Array and this keyword also turns into a free aim token for your vehicle every round.

COMMAND CARDS

BRING IT DOWN

This 1 pip let’s Cody perform his free actions up to 2 times during his activation. The only free action Cody comes with is Observe 2, but this would apply to any free actions that he gains from other cards as well. Currently the only upgrade with a free action that he has access to is Ascension Cables which lasts to the end of his activation anyway, but it does keep the door open for future upgrades. This should also apply to free actions gained from objective/conditions cards like the Resupply keyword from the Supply Drop condition as well.

The meat of this command card comes from what it allows your army to do with observation tokens. This card allows a friendly unit that is declaring an attack against an enemy that has an observation token to spend that token to gain Suppressive for the attack if the target is a trooper unit and Impact 1 if the target is a vehicle. The observation tokens are spent when the attack is declared so you would not get the reroll benefit, but it is important to note that the observation tokens do not have to come from Cody himself. The Hound & Grizzer pilot for the LAAT comes with Observe 4. Combined with Cody’s Observe 2 twice, this could allow you to get 8 observation tokens on up to 3 different units. That is enough to allow most, if not all of your army, to gain a keyword for their attacks.

COMBINED ARMS

Much like his 1 pip, Cody’s 3 pip let’s him perform his free actions up to 2 times during his activation as well. The difference between this card and Bring It Down is that only friendly vehicle units may spend observations tokens on a targeted unit to gain an effect. The effect this time is a friendly Clone Trooper unit at range 1 of the attacking vehicle may perform a speed-1 move. Any thing that gives free moves is great. Even more so for units that might want to fire support as they can contribute to another unit’s attack without sacrificing all of their movement potential for the round. 3 moves in a round for a unit is also nothing to sneeze at either. On top of the ability, this card also gives out 4 orders, 2 troopers and 2 vehicles. Even if you are only running 1 vehicle, that still gives you the normal 3 orders you would expect to get from a 3 pip command card.

HAVE I EVER LET YOU DOWN?

The odd card out, this 2 pip does not interact with Cody’s free actions, nor observation tokens. Instead it give’s Cody the opportunity to make additional attacks during the round. After a unit that was issued an order from this card is at range 1 of Commander Cody and suffers a wound from an enemy attack, Cody may perform an attack against that enemy unit if he had line of site to and is at range 4 of it.

The obvious interaction here is a friendly unit ordered by this card that takes wounds from a ranged attack. A little less obvious is the fact that Cody is at range 1 of himself and thus should be able to attack back against any unit at range 4 that wounds him. Potentially even less obvious is if the friendly trooper Cody orders has Guardian. Since the card does not specify the wounds must come while the unit is defending against an attack, wounds suffered while using Guardian should count as a trigger for an attack from Cody as well. What is unclear to me at this time is if Cody would still be able to attack if the friendly unit is defeated. An argument can be made for an interpretation either way so I shall keep my eyes on the forums for a clarification.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Commander Cody comes with 1 Command upgrade slot, 1 Training slot and 1 Gear slot.

There are not really any gear upgrades that stick out to me for Cody. He already comes with Take Cover 1 so Portable Scanner would be a good choice if you are planning on using that action frequently. Outside of Recon Intel or Environmental Gear (which are considerations for pretty much any unit) that is the 1 gear upgrade I am really spending any time considering. I’m in a similar boat with the training slot. Offensive Push is the one that sticks out to me since he has Lethal 1 on his ranged attack. Seize the Initiative can serve a similar role for 1 point cheaper as that order would let him get an aim from Target 1, but it is less flexible than Offensive Push.

The command slot is where you will probably get the most bang for your buck. Aggressive Tactics, while pricey, is still always a good consideration for an army that primarily does not surge on either offense or defense. Commanding Presence is the other main contender for this upgrade slot as it increases his Direct range in addition to his command card order range. This would allow you much more flexibility with how you position your vehicle while still maintaining the benefit of the free order from Direct.

SAMPLE LISTS

THE BIG ONE

The Saber Tank, what we all probably first thought of when we saw Direct: Vehicle. With Commanding Presence you have the flexibility of splitting the tank off from the clone ball, providing threats from multiple points of the battlefield. You can turn the 2 strike teams into 1 full Arc squad at 8 activations instead of 9 if that is your fancy.

I SEE YOU

This list looks to take full advantage of Cody’s 1 and 3 pip command cards through the use of Hound and Grizzer piloting the LAAT. The AT-RTs can be equipped with whichever hardpoints you like and give you 2 more vehicles to trigger moves for your army from the Combined Arms command card, as well as letting you maximize your order potential from it.

ISP GUNLINE

This list leans more into the clone troopers themselves instead of their vehicles. It also looks to utilize Boil to protect his fellow clones, as well as give more of an opportunity for additional attacks for Cody from Have I Ever Let You Down? through the use of the Guardian keyword.

IN CONCLUSION

Commander Cody is a shot in the arm that Republic players have been looking for. At 105 points he is only 5 points more than Rex and arguable does more for your army throughout the course of a game. His command cards and unit keywords really help to support your army through orders and action economy. Getting an order on a vehicle with Linked Targeting Array and an exhaust weapon every round can help them use that weapon each round without having to sacrifice an aim token. His relatively cheap cost also allows you to take some of the more expensive/impactful vehicles without having to sacrifice too much across the rest of your army.

While vehicles are an obvious combo with him, they are far from must takes. Cody is cheap enough and has enough other support keywords that he can fit into pretty much any clone list and not feel out of place. You can also easily swap out the Saber Tank for either Anakin or Obi-Wan if you want to bring a Jedi to the fight.