Wave 11 Ally Pack – Sabine Wren and Zeb Orrelios
Sabine Wren, painted and photographed by Eric Wentling on BoardGameGeeks.com
Campaign
Spectre reporting in! Sabine Wren and Zeb Orrelios are the last figures to complete the full crew of the Ghost of the TV Show Star Wars Rebels.
Sabine Wren is … alright? A Deployment Cost of 7 for 11 Health on a white die is good enough. Since she does not have any additional defenses, she can fold unexpectedly quickly. You better keep her in the back then. With a blue-green-green ranged attack does give her decent range, but you do want to get close to the enemies eventually to throw your enemies a Parting Gift. If you manage to keep damage on her limited, Evasive Maneuvers can prolong her staying power at the expense of her mobility. Surge Abilities for Pierce 2 and +1 Damage do are pretty mediocre as well. Unfortunately, she does not have the Mobile ability like her Skirmish Deployment Card. I understand why that could break certain missions, but without it, especially if she is using Evasive Maneuvers sometimes, she will lag behind in some missions that need Rebels to hustle to objectives.
Zeb Orrelios, painted and photographed by Damjan on boardgamegeeks.com
Zeb Orrelios is better. A lot. For a Deployment Cost of 8, you get 15 Health on a black die. He also has the same Speed 4 as Sabine and attacks with a red-green ranged attack. Don’t worry, Zeb has +3 Accuracy built-in, so his range is good enough most of the time. Surge Abilities for +2 Damage and +2 Accuracy, Recover 1 Damage, just look straight up more useful than what you find on Sabine. But it gets better. Bo-Rifle Staff Strike lets him attack an additional time (only in melee, though) without spending an action. You are rolling red-red with this, and you can even use his Surge Abilities for this attack. This can give the Rebel Players quite a boost early on in a mission, without sacrificing sustainability. It seems the Deployment Costs of the Spectre Allies is largely based around Skirmish, leading to a bit of a discrepancy since Zeb doesn’t have a dedicated Campaign Deployment Card.
Earning both for the campaign works a bit different for them. The included Side Mission Intimidation Factor rewards 1 Spectre Ally of the Rebel Player’s choice, instead of granting you access to just Sabine and Zeb directly! Remember that this technically also includes Hera and, Chopper from their Ally Pack, as well as Ezra and Kanan from their Ally Pack.
To recruit any Spectre Ally for your campaign, you need to win the side mission Intimidation Factor included in this pack. This mission requires map tiles from the Tyrants of Lothal expansion!
Skirmish
Zeb’s Deployment Card is the same for Skirmish and Campaign. And he is definitely good in Skirmish as well. A little slow maybe, and not having access to a 3 dice attack makes him most valuable against troopers and non-unique figures with white dice. Sabine’s Skirmish Deployment Card however gets the Mobile trait! This helps her a lot to move around. She also gets Surge for +1 Damage, Blast 1 instead of just +1 Damage. Overall, both are decent, but not extraordinary.
With Extra Armor the pack also comes with a Skirmish Upgrade Card. It’s neutral, so all factions can use it. Because it “just” gives you 4 Block Power Tokens, you probably should not, even if you can. There are a lot of other ways to get Power Tokens already, so this seems like a pretty bad deal. All is not lost, though. Sabine and Zeb both belong to the Spectre Cell. With this Skirmish Upgrade Card, they instantly gain +1 Block and +1 Damage for free. Zeb also gets this +1 Damage for his Bo-Rifle Staff Strike, really making him a menace up close. The only drawback is, that you need to run all figures that have the Spectre trait, of course. The full list then is:
- Kanan Jarrus for 8 Deployment Points
- Ezra Bridger for 7 Deployment Points
- Hera Syndulla for 4 Deployment Points
- C1-10P for 3 Deployment Points
- Sabine Wren for 7 Deployment Points
- Zeb Orellios for 8 Deployment Points
- Spectre Cell for 2 Deployment Points
This still leaves you 1 Deployment Point to include Balance of the Force or Unshakable and of course Heroic Effort to make this list shine. This list goes hard. It’s mobile, sturdy, can dish out damage, has a good spread of traits and reliable access to bonus movement and bonus attacks. It really does it all. Remembering all effects on all 6 very unique figures can take a while to learn, but it’s very rewarding.
The Command Cards in this pack are serviceable. Escalating Hostility is the most niche. If you run a Mercenary list focusing on dealing Strain, probably even with Under Duress, this card is good and can seriously ramp up in the 2nd and 3rd round. Veteran Instincts gives you one offensive and one defensive Power Token. Just remember that figures can’t have more than 2 Power Tokens in total. If you have other sources for Power Tokens, it might be a bit overkill. With Karabast! Zeb can deal a little damage. It pairs nicely with Parting Blow if that failed to defeat a figure. Sabine is the first unique figure in the game that does not have a signature Command Card only she can use. However, Rebel Graffiti, even if it can be used by any Rebel figure, it really is best used with Sabine. 2 Victory Points for free. Every round. Wow. It’s even good if you don’t run Sabine, in a Mercenary List with C-3PO, Gideon or R2-D2. It helps you enable other Victory Point tricks, for instance with Jawa Scavengers. This is a good pack. Get it!
Models
I love Zeb’s pose. The menacing knuckle cracking and him being very tall makes him amazing to look at on the board. He is also surprisingly easy to paint for a beginner. Sabine isn’t. But her pose and, if you manage to pull it off, her colorful armor, make her easily stand out on the battlefield.