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General Weiss, painted and photographed by Matthew of www.oldenhammer.com

Campaign

He is the main villain of the core box campaign. So you will play with him multiple times during the campaign unless you are really unlucky. Also, since he appears in the last few missions, it is difficult to recommend him to buy for the campaign since even if you earn him, you can’t use him in the last crucial missions in the core box campaign. His Deployment Card shows a massive 16 threat cost. So deploying him before threat level 5 is only viable if you have some means to boost your threat gain massively. On the other hand, you do get 15 Health with 2 black die as a defense. With Epic Arsenal, you can choose your attack depending on the situation. Long range attacks are as viable as short range high damage ones.

But not even his Agenda Cards can redeem him for the campaign. Inspiring Command looks decent. Until you realize that giving the Focused Condition once per mission for 2 Influence isn’t that powerful. You only need to play the Military Might class deck, and Show of Force gives you the same effect almost every round during any mission. And Special Modifications only works on AT-STs and not even General Weiss himself, even though he actually sits in an AT-ST.

To recruit General Weiss as a Villain for your campaign, you need to win the side mission Forest Ambush, which is included in his Agenda Deck. This mission is playable with just the tiles from the Core Box!

Skirmish

Spending 16 Deployment Points for 15 Health does seem very unwise in Skirmish, even if General Weiss defends with 2 black dice. Recently, with the addition of General Sorin, vehicles fair a bit better. But Weiss is still massively overcosted. Some of the Command Cards included in his Pack are worth a look, though. Explosive Weaponry can help you get additional Blast damage if you face Trooper lists. And New Orders still works amazingly for list that run Imperial Officers. His signature card Endless Reserves looks amazing, though once your groups get low on figures, you have a hard time actually using it.

The included skirmish map Imperial Resarch Lab only uses tiles from the core box.

Update – New FAQ as of December 2015: With the new FAQ 2.0 from December 2015, the 4×4 list was significantly weakened. New Order still works in readying Elite Stormtrooper or Elite Heavy Stormtrooper cards that are included in some Trooper lists.

Model

He just looks mighty. Skillfully painted, he surely is one of the best looking figures in Wave 1. He takes time to get right, though, as all the small details need to be properly shaded. Bonus points are to be had if you customize his massive base with some grass, like Matthew of Oldenhammer.com did.