Today we look at the new Empire Gimmick - the
Imperial knights. I really like all of these
and wish we saw more Jedi like this in the mid 30
range that are solid pieces. Antares isn't
anything awe inspiring, but is good. For 33
points his stats are very solid. The +10 is
not real great, but when you run a squad of Knights,
his attack becomes a very solid +14.
His force powers are pretty blaze'. He has
block and force push 2. However, the new
ability of the knights in Cortosis Gauntlets is a
pretty wicked ability. If you block a Jedi's
melee attack with an 18 or higher, you reduce the
attackers damage by 20! Most every Jedi will
not be able to do any damage unless they have some
sort modifier or roll a crit. Having your Loda
or Vader left without being able to cause damage can
be a real moral sinker. And just an FYI - CG
is treated as a modifier. It does not make the
damage stat a 0. You figure out all your
damage and then subtract the 20, so a Jedi with
Cunning or opportunist can still do 10 DAM on an
attack with thier modifier. A crit would also
do 20 DAM.
100pts: Nope. Antares and Knights are not big
enough to run here. Barring a CG block, they
will be dropped very fast by the meta jedi, and they
have no defense against shooters.
150pts: He is not quite good enough to run here.
If you are playing fun games give him and the
knights a go, but otherwise, hejust will not stand
up to the meta squads that rule 150.
200pts: Here they can be much more effective.
Antares can have the Emperor for more force points,
Vader or Fel for a more powerful Jedi, or just lots
of back up troops. Antares is solid for his
price, but he wont be game breaking. Granted
Jedi are really going to fear that CG.
willis
maximus
Antares Draco Faction: Empire Cost: 33
HP: 100 Def: 20 Att: +10 Dam: 20
SA: Unique Pilot Imperial Knight Melee Double Attack Synergy (+4 attack while an
allied Imperial Knight is within 6 squares) Cortosis Gauntlet 18 (whenever
this character rolls an 18 or better on a save when
using Lightsaber Block against an enemy with a
lightsaber, that enemy gets -20 Damage fo the rest
of the round
Force 4: Lightsaber Block Force Push 2
There are a handful of new
Imperial pieces in this new set that offer new
playstyles for this particular faction.
Antares Draco is an extremely effective mid cost
beatstick that works best with other Imperial
Knights. What you end up with is a melee heavy
squad that doesn't have to depend on a "Thrawn Swap"
or other CE's to be effective. At
first glance, Draco's stats will probably feel a
tad low to you, which is a familiar feeling in this
set. 100HP is average for a melee piece in
this price range and the 20 Defence seems to be a
new standard. A +10 attack is low by itself
and of course the 20 Dam is standard. The
trend I'm noticing in this set is that we're getting
pieces with deceptively low stats, as their special
abilities tend to make up for them. Draco is
one of these pieces.
First off, that +10 attack
turns out to be plenty when you consider that
running Jagged Fel (who, btw, costs 10 pts and
grants Gregarious to Pilots boardwide) will grant
Draco a +4 when within 6 of any ally. It gets
even better when that ally is another Imperial
Knight which will give him ANOTHER +4 for synergy.
So now what to we have? We have a 33 pt
beatstick running around with a +18 attack.
Block helps out that 100HP as well, so we're set
offensively and defensively stat-wise, especially if
your opponents squad is melee heavy. In fact,
there's one more reason that you'll actually be
*hoping* your opponent is running lightsaber beats:
Cortosis Gauntlets have to be
one of the coolest, most demoralizing and game
changing abilities in the game since Disintegration.
There are various levels of the ability so be sure
you know which one you're dealing with. Draco
has Gauntlets 18 which means exactly this: if you
roll a block save of 18 or higher (15%
chance) against an opponent with a lightsaber, then
that opponent gets -20 damage on all their attacks
for the rest of the game. In other words, that
means your opponent's beatstick becomes useless
barring a crit, CE or some other ability that
increases damage. Take Shaak Ti, Jedi Master
for instance. If Gauntlets went off on her
then for the rest of the game she would swing for 10
damage with cunning and 0 damage without.
Amazing. Something to keep in mind though is
that the penalty is applied like bonuses . . . in
other words, after doubling base damage for crits.
If your opponent crits it will
do 20x2=40-20=20 damage. Regardless, it's an
amazing ability when it goes off and it does so more
often then you might think.
100pts 3/5: Draco can do
ok here with the right support, namely other
Imperial Knights. However, you will most
likely need to make good block saves and even get a
Gauntlet to go off to beat the dominating beatsticks
in this format. Fortunately this format is
melee/lightsaber heavy so it's definately worth a
shot.
150pts 3/5: More support and
even a solid shooter to help out will be a huge
boost to his effectiveness. However, your
opponents will field more shooters here which means
Draco is defenseless against them. Bottom
line: If fighting melee, he's good. If
fighting ranged, he has trouble.
200pts 3/5: A lack of
defence from ranged threats hurts him a lot
especially since shooters tend to dominate here.
It would be fun running a bunch of Knights here, and
you'd probably do ok, but don't expect it to be top
tier.
