Diplomat: This character is not a legal target, and
doesn't count as the nearest enemy if an enemy
without diplomat is in line of sight even when
adjacent.
First off this character is indeed fringe, not rebel
as his card would indicate. His stats
are...well...there are none. He costs five points.
Now given that he is a follower, he can benefit from
CEs that grant bonuses allowing him to shoot (that's
right - shoot. He does not have melee on his card so
he can shoot, just not combine fire). Anyway, you
aren't playing this guy for attacks anyway. This is
one of the coolest new pieces from the set, not
because of offense, but because of defense.
His diplomat ability basically means that as long as
your opponent can see another of your pieces, he
cant attack the Caamasi. It the famous "you cant
kill him or i will tell on you" scenario. So what
good does this do? It makes him incredibly annoying
for starters. The only things that can work on him
are chaining effects like missiles or grenades, or
blanket powers that do not target such as repulse or
Jacen's force bomb. Sweep does not work even though
it does not target because you are not allowed to
attack the Caamasi in any form.
Again, so what good is this piece? Well, there are
lots of options, especially at only 5pts. Have you
ever tried to use a melee attacker to attack an
enemy that you cant reach? You put a few Caamasi in
front of a shooter between walls or doors, and a
melee figure cant reach teh shooter to dispatch it.
In DCI play, you can run this guy out as soon as you
make your attack and you have instant gambit
collector that cant be killed. Getting shot up by
that pesky Golan Turret from Wednesday's review? Run
a Caamasi up to its base and you just neutralized
the Turret. It cant attack the Caamasi, but because
the Caamasi is adjacent it cant shoot anyone else.
Just because you cant attack it doesn't mean you can
ignore the adjacency rules.
The downsides to this piece, well other than the
whole no offense thing, the only real downside to
this piece is that you have to be very carefull on
your placement. Some maps have wicked line of sights
and characters can sometimes find shoe string shots
that really shouldnt be there.
People have tried to build offense around this
piece, but it really isnt what it was designed for.
You dont build squads around it, but you can bring
them in as filler that can really aggravate your
opponent. It is playable in all three formats.
