BoardWars.eu

Alliance Ranger painted and photographed by Matthew of www.oldenhammer.com

Campaign

The Alliance Rangers are the rebel trooper unit for the Jabba’s Realm expansion. Like Jedi Knight Luke the Rangers are more expensive than usual. 9 points for the regular deployment group and 12 points for the elite deployment group. But you do get quite a bit here. The regular group has 3 figures with 5 health each. That’s basically elite Stormtrooper level on a regular card. But there is more: With a blue-blue ranged attack and an innate +1 Accuracy, the rangers have a minimum Range of 5. With Surge Abilities for +2 Damage, Pierce 1 and +2 Accuracy they can dish out quite good for being regular. With Guerrilla they can become hidden after they defeat hostile figures. They also have the ability Sniper. When their target space is 5 or more spaces away, they can reroll one of their attack die. Their elite deployment card adds an innate pierce 1 (which is amazing!) upgrades the health to 7 per figure and increases the accuracy you can get with a surge to +3. Since they are Elite Sniper now, they can reroll either one or both of their attack dice when they attack figures that are 5 or more spaces away.

All of this makes them super dependent on the actual map of the mission. Maps like we know from Return to Hoth or Jabba’s Realm with wide open spaces or large distances play to their strengths. But missions from Twin Shadows or Bespin Gamit are too narrow and cramped to make effective use of them. So if you should bring their side mission highly depends on the campaign you play.

To recruit the Alliance Rangers for your campaign, you need to win the side mission Strike Force Xesh included in this pack. This mission requires map tiles from the Jabba’s Realm box expansion! They are also earned by a story event in the Jabba’s Realm campaign.

Alliance Rangers appear in the following campaign missions:

• Jabba’s Realm Story Mission: Almost Home
• Wave 8 Pack Alliance Ranger Side Mission: Strike Force Xesh

Skirmish

The Alliance Rangers are expensive. The most expensive Trooper group to date, in fact. However, since the elite status of a deployment card so far has no real effect in Skirmish, you can just as well run the regular group for 9 points. Technically you can include up to 4 of these guys in a list, that does seem like overkill though. With a surge for +2 Damage, an ability to get Hidden and amazing Accuracy, they are decent enough. The reroll is unfortunately a bit too conditional and dependent on the map you are playing on. It can work out great, but it also can fall flat quickly.

The pack also comes with the Skirmish Upgrade Card Survivalist that combines the effects of the Echo Base Troopers and the Snow Troopers. It is partly dependent on the figures ending their turn outside, so unless the map rotation throws out Corsucant Landfill anytime soon, a part of this card is basically dead on one of the 3 maps played in tournaments.

3 Command Cards round out the pack. Call the Vanguard is the star of the pack. You can use it with your expensive troopers to get an unexpected hit in at the start of the round. And action advantage out of turn is what we all want, right? Hightened Reflexes comes in a close 2nd and let’s figures with the Hunter trait remove a defense die during the attack. Another way to get rid of that dodge or 3 block results. Lastly, Mitigate does exactly what it says. It mitigates some randomness around your attack dice. You can use it to reroll a die if you don’t like the result. Not too bad for a 0 cost card, and certainly has a spot in many decks.

Model

It’s … okay? You do get 3 of them in each pack. They feature a lot of green and potential to practice your ability to paint camo patterns. Ultimately, they feel a little overshadowed by Captain Terro and Jabba the Hut, though.

Thanks to /u/Vee492 for pointing out missing missions.