Abilities: Unique, Cunning Attack, Hand of the
Emperor, Sniper, Stealth, Twin Attack
Force 3, Blaster Barrage
So we finally get another Imperial Mara Jade (known
as Arica), and the question is: Is it good? She does
have a long list of quality abilities, but her stats
and somewhat high point cost could turn people away
from her. Let's examine.
As a 31-point non-Commander, she should be able to
do a lot of damage for your squad and stick around
for a reasonable amount of time. However, her stats
are dissapointing. While 70 HP is infinitely better
than 60 HP, it is still somewhat low for 31 points.
Also, her bad +9 attack and average 18 defense don't
really provide reasons to use her, either. To make
matters worse, her base damage is a very low 10. She
does have a few ablilities to make her a better
shooter, though. Arica has access to Cunning Attack,
Twin Attack, and Sniper, which, combined, makes
Arica a legitimate shooter. Cunning Attack is the
ability that gives you +4 attack and +10 damage
against enemies who have not activated. This means
Arica should be among the first in your squad
activated to take advantage of this boost. This
allows her to have a better +13 attack and recieve
that crucial 20 damage. Combined with Twin Attack,
Arica's maximum damage potential for a turn becomes
a pretty good 40, if you can get the Cunning Attack
to work. Arica also gets Sniper, which allowers her
to hit units she otherwise wouldn't be able to
(Although Sniper is really just a bad version of
Accurate Shot, in my opinion, which would've been
much better for Arica). She also gets Stealth, which
allows her to stay hidden around the board as she
picks apart your opponent's non-activated army. And
Stealth is always a valuable thing to have.
Arica also has quite a few Force abilities. She
starts off the match with 3 force, a pretty high
ammount for a non-Jedi force user. She also, like
her original version, has Hand of the Emperor, which
means you can combine her with the Rebel Storm
Emperor Palpatine and use one force of his and one
force of Arica's once per turn, which acts almost
like Master of the Force 2. Her one force ability is
Blaster Barrage, which could be useful but isn't
quite as useful as many people originally thought.
One thing you need to remember about Blaster Barrage
is that it still takes normal firing rules into
account. What this means is you still cannot attack
enemies in cover that aren't the closest unit in
cover. A skilled player won't give you the chance to
get off a Blaster Barrage against a large sum of his
army. Still, when combined with Emperor Palpatine,
her ability to use Blaster Barrage and still reroll
an attack (or reroll two attacks in one turn) will
come in handy.
Overall, while she is frail and her stats aren't
amazing, she is a pretty quality figure. With Hand
of the Emperor, she becomes a legitimate choice to
use in combination with Emperor Palpatine, and she
can still do some major damage without him, too.
However, her naturally low stats seem to be the
downfall of this figure. But she is definatly worth
a try if you are trying to throw an Emperor
Palpatine-based Imperial squad.
100 points: 1.5/5 - I wouldn/'t bother with Arica
here. In a format dominated by large sweepers, you
don't want to spend 31 points on a frail shooter.
Nor do you want to spend another 40 on Emperor
Palpatine. Also, since the number of opponent
activations is somewhat smaller in 100 points, the
chance to be able to use Cunning Attack is greatly
lowered, and is determined by initative near the end
of the game.
200 points: 3/5 - Here she becomes legitimate.
Emperor Palpatine from Rebel Storm is still a potent
piece here (Force batteries never go out of style!)
and the 31 points isn't as big of a blow. Try her
out if you have her!
Jonathan
Arica
Stats:
Cost - 31
HP - 70
Defense - 18
Attack - +9
Abilities:
-Unique (Counts as Mara Jade)
-Cunning Attack (+4 Attack and +10 Damage against an
enemy who has not activated this round)
-Hand of the Emperor (This character can spend her
own Force points once per turn and spend Force
points from a character named Emperor Palpatine once
per turn)
-Sniper (Other characters do not provide cover
against this character's attack)
-Stealth (If this character has cover, she does not
count as the nearest enemy for an attacker farther
than 6 squares when choosing targets)
-Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, she
makes 1 extra attack against the same target)
Alright, this piece is an updated version of the old
Mara from all the way back in Rebel Storm. For an
extra 11 point the stats are the same, except for an
extra 10 hp (which gives her an extra hit from
either 20 or 30 damage pieces, which is good). She
also gains twin attack, stealth, and sniper. The
stealth gives a bit more chance for you to get in
close to use her gimmick (blaster barrage + twin +
sniper), but even with twin she'll only be picking
off little amounts of hp on each piece, and only hit
about half of her shots against high defense
characters. Swarm squads are possibly going to have
some issues with the massive amounts of shots she
can let loose, especially since they can't hide
behind eachother anymore. The Emperor's Hand ability
has some use, but with the hp that Arica has, she
probably won't be around long enough to need to rely
on Palpy's force points. I think that Arica could be
used if you wanted to, but personally I think there
are better options due to the circumstantial nature
of her use (she is only really effective against
swarms).
This version of Mara Jade
is designed to reflect her days undercover in
Jabba’s Palace. On the surface, she doesn’t appear
to be that much different than her Rebel Storm
counterpart, but much like the Emperor’s Hand
disguised as a dancer, looks can be extremely
deceiving.
Arica is 11 points more
expensive than the original Mara and save a boost of
10 hit points, her stats remain unchanged. It should
be noted that extra 10 hit points is pretty
important since it’s going to mean that hitting her
with 20 or 30 points of damage, your opponent will
still need to take an extra attack against her to
take her down. However, like many other characters,
for that 11 point increase you’re picking up a few
good powers the original never had. First of all,
Arica brings Twin Attack along which is always a
plus since it gives her two attacks on a target even
after moving. What’s going to make that extremely
nasty is when you use it with one of her Blaster
Barrages. Like Mara, she also comes equipped with
Cunning Attack, which combined with Twin and a
Blaster Barrage can make her pretty a pretty
dangerous foe. The key power, however, that makes
Arica more worth the points than Mara is her access
to Stealth. Run her with a Bith Vigo and she’s got
access to Evade or run her with the Rodian Vigo and
she can get a form of the much-beloved “super
Stealth.” While she doesn’t have Force Renewal, she
still keeps the Hand of the Emperor power which lets
her draw from Palpatine’s Force point reserves and
now that you have two options for a Force-battery
Palpatine, you won’t really want to run her without
her master anyway. Picking up Sniper can also be
helpful if you wind up in a situation where she can
Blaster Barrage (or shoot, I know I’m really looking
at the Barrage a little too much but she’s a pretty
basic shooter if you ignore the Barrage) past some
of your own power hitters to add some damage.
While the version is an
improvement over the original Mara, it still has the
same problems that she did back in the days of her
first release. An effective grunt screen makes
Blaster Barrage a pretty weak power and that’s the
only named Force power she has. If your opponent has
a chance to move before your Barrages, they can
really hamper her effectiveness there. Her defense
score of 18 is definitely on the weak side; however
thanks to Stealth if you build her properly that can
be less of an issue than it was on Mara. If you
aren’t able to use her Cunning Attack on your
opponent’s larger targets, she’s definitely going to
have problems thanks to her weak +9 attack bonus.
100 POINTS: While she’s a
decent shooter, you’re going to be pretty limited on
points and activations if you decide to build her
with an Emperor for a Force battery. That means you
won’t be able to bring the beat stick you almost
need to survive in a 100 point game. However, if
you’re just running her alone (bearing in mind
you’ll wind up with a limited number of Blaster
Barrages) she’s not that bad but she’s really not
that good either. Score: 2
200 POINTS: Here, where
there’s a lot more room for support from the
Emperor, she’s a lot more effective. While she’s
more effective with access to the Emperor’s stash of
Force points, that still doesn’t make her a very
good piece. While she’s definitely an improvement
over the original Mara Jade, she still doesn’t bring
enough to the table to be a great piece for the
Imperials so, to be honest, your 31 points might be
better spent on some lower level Imperial commanders
to synergize with your squad better. Score: 3
