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Thrawn, painted and photographed by Eric Wentling on BoardGameGeeks.com

Campaign

Grand Admiral Thrawn arrives on Lothal with a bang, and a Stardestroyer. You can get quite some out of him, provided you can back him up. He really only is strong in company of other imperial troops! His campaign deployment card costs a reasonable 6 Threat with decent 9 Health, a standard Speed of 4, a black defense die and a blue-green-yellow ranged attack. A built-in +2 Accuracy enables him to stay back, but if he shoots, he can convert two Surges into +3 Damage and a single Surge into Pierce 1.

But we really are not here for his combat prowess. True to his character, Prediction enables him to control who the rebels activate first each round. Should they ignore his master-mind, they are punished with a Stun. This helps in keeping your troops alive, by predicting their strongest or most threatening hero to go first next round. And what does he do for your troops? Make them stronger, of course! Patience lets you distribute X Power Tokens of your choosing among an imperial deployment group. Where X is the number of exhausted Rebel Activation Tokens. So you always get at least one, but up to four Power Tokens. And since they are distributed at the start of the activation of that group, there is no threat of losing them during rebel activations.

In his Agenda Set “The Art of War” the “Salami Tactics” card Piece by Piece is another tool in your arsenal to gain threat. A hero does get the chance to lessen the threat by testing Insight, but since this is played after a Rebel attack, the hero can’t be focused. This makes it best played in high Threat Level situations. And it only costs one Influence! Three Steps Ahead is not cheap for two Influence, but if you want it, you really should buy it as early as possible. Letting you scry the Agenda Deck for what you want and put cards you are less keen on (like Piece by Piece early in the campaign) in the discard pile. It is not the best card in the world, as you do draw four cards anyway and the cards you don’t like are discarded, never to be seen again, even if the card itself would allow you to shuffle it back. Not a good card at all.

To recruit Thrawn for your campaign, you need to win the side mission The Admiral’s Grasp, which is included in this pack. This side mission requires tiles from the Tyrants of Lothal box expansion!

Skirmish

The Skirmish deployment card of Thrawn is not bad. Deployment Cost of 6, Health of 9, Speed of 4, three dice attack good range and okay Surges. He is not meant to dominate the battlefield, but can hold his own. Long-Laid Plans lets you distribute Power Tokens among friendly figure in an amount equal to the current round number. Since this only works when you activate Thrawn, it kinda pressures you to activate him early in a round, which can be a negative in certain situations. But since your figures are not as fragile in Skirmish as they are in the campaign (this really is debatable, I know!), you can get away with activating him later, especially in the earlier rounds. Strategize gives you a bit of control over your and even the Command Card deck of your enemy. Seeing an Assassinate and discarding it before your opponent has the chance to draw it certainly is satisfying. Only being able to discard either your or your enemies Command Card can be tricky. Do you want to ditch your weak card or a strong card of your opponent? It certainly takes some skill to make best use of this ability.

Speaking of Command Cards, Combat Resupply would be amazing if it would cost zero, but it costs one and can be hard to fit in. Also, there are a lot of sources for Power Tokens already, making this often not worth to include. Believe it or not, Induce Rage is even worse. If you are not playing against Dengar, and you probably are not, discarding a multitude of Conditions is not something you usually need. Maybe Darth Vader with Driven by Hatred profits from this, but you are not including it for the gained Power Tokens then. It is very niche. Price of Glory marks the low point of the pack. With a cost of two, it does multiple things at once. But you have to suffer one Damage to gain the two Power Tokens. So it is expensive, has restrictions on its effects and can only be included once in your deck. Skip this card. At least Thrawn’s signature card Forsee is not a total dud. Kind of being Strategize on steroids, you get to cycle the card (good), discard a minor or medium power Command Card of your opponent (great) and know his next Command Card (good). It costs zero as well. Of course, you are including this in your Command Deck if Thrawn is in your list.

I have to close out with Heavy Fire. What to say? Maybe it would be okay if you play a vehicle list where the vehicles get repaired by droids? Otherwise, the additional damage, even if it’s direct, you deal is definitely not worth the Stun and Weaken Conditions your enemies will inflict on you. If you run it with Elite Heavy Stormtroopers or Elite Rebel Saboteurs, you not only get not that much of a benefit, but you also don’t avoid most of the downside.

Model

His pose is very iconic. Broad chest, fist raised, other hand, also in a fist, behind the back oozes control. Exactly what he does in both of his versions on the battlefield. The service ribbons on his chest can be tricky to get right, but if you find a good blue color for his skin, no one will notice.