Wave 9 Ally Pack – Hera Syndulla and C1-10P
Campaign
Hera Syndulla painted and photographed by Matthew of www.oldenhammer.com
Usually, the problem with unique rebel allies in Imperial Assault is, that their Deployment Cost is too high to justify bringing them to a mission. FFG tried to rectify that with Lando last year. Hera Syndulla and C1-10P are carrying on this torch this year. Hera has a robust Health of 7 and a black defense die, all for a Deployment Cost of only 4. Chopper costs only 3, but also has only 5 Health, which can be not enough even early in the campaign.
For more specific abilities, Hera has Smooth Landing, which gives some of your party a step up. Usually this isn’t too impactful in a campaign mission. Call the Shots you can add bonus accuracy, damage or surge to an attack near where she is standing. However, with her Speed of 4, she might have trouble keeping up to make the ability worthwhile for melee characters. Her ranged attack sits at a decent blue-green-yellow. Her Surge Abilities are rather lackluster, with just +1 damage for a surge and Pierce 2 for 2 surges. So don’t expect her to put huge numbers on the board.
Chopper is more like a toolbox than an ally. His most relevant ability for the Campaing certainly is Ram. This Special Action lets you move up to 2 spaces, deal damage with a green die to an adjacent figure, and even push it 1 space. You can also push friendly figures (without damaging them)! So this helps your heroes get to objectives faster or get out of danger more easily. He also has System Shock, which only works in very specific situations and is definitely designed for skirmish games.
To recruit Hera Syndull and C1-10P for your campaign, you need to win the side mission Phantom Extraction included in this pack. This mission only requires map tiles from the core box!
Both Hera Syndulla and C1-10P appear in the following campaign missions:
Hera Syndulla also has the “Spectre” Name, making her available to choose as ally in some of the Tyrants of Lothal missions.
Skirmish
C1-10P painted and photographed by Matthew of www.oldenhammer.com
While Hera’s Smooth Landing is only so-so in the campaign, in skirmish it can be a game changer! Being able to bump your figures up one space, even outside of your original deployment zone, can mean the difference between reaching an objective with a move or not. It does lose some appeal in missions where you don’t need to get to objectives, though. Call the Shots is also a bit tricky. Hera just isn’t built for frontline combat, so using the ability most likely happens in conjunction with Leia or the Alliance Rangers. So unless you tune your list around her, Hera doesn’t seem too good. Unless you run her in a Spectre Cell! She still plays a minor role in the team there, but synergizes well with Sabine.
Chopper is also a bit problematic. Sure, System Shock can deal good damage to opposing figures that camp at terminals to draw additional command cards. But assuming your opponent discards the cards for the Strain, it takes a full 2 rounds to even get rid of an Imperial Officer. This also means you probably have to delay activating Chopper until your oppnent already positioned his figures near the terminal. He can also Ram. His rather low health of 5 makes it more of a suicide move. You can try to combo it with To the Limit so you can essentially move 6, use Ram and then also attack with red and green. Not sure if that’s worth it, though. That being said, he has to be included in the Spectre Cell and his primary role is to camp terminals there.
The neutral attachment Scavenged Weaponry is probably the star of the pack. A flat out +1 Damage bonus boosts any Droid focused lists including HK Assassin Droids, Sentry Droids or even IG-88 in ways that synergize well with other cards. But the cost of 1 is scored each time a group with this attachment is defeated, potentially netting your opponent some sweet VPs.
The signature Command Card for Hera is unfortunately a bit broken. The intent of Evacuate was to deny your opponent half the points of an expensive deployment group. But since the scoring rules changed, it only works for single figures now. It’s conditionally not bad when paired with Jedi Luke or other in the Spectre Cell list, of course. But the fact that you need to draw it, spend an action on it and need to be within 2 spaces with Hera just makes this card one of the worst cards to take right now. Chopper doesn’t fair much better. On a Mission is certainly very thematic and fun to watch and play. It’s just not needed all that often, though. Especially considering that Chopper needs to be pretty up front for this to be used to its greatest effect.
The other Command Cards are good enough. Advance Warning is a Leader only version of fleet footed that can also drag along an adjacent figure. Targeting Network gives your droids more consistency and the ability to use it multiple times per round. It is especially good with Sentry Droids, should you run them in a Droid focused list. Take Position is just weird. It’s obviously geared towards high cost, high Health Vehicle or Droid figures. You only should use this to get an AT-ST or General Weiss in position so you can attack twice in the following round. But why are you including them in your list at all?
Model
Both models are great. The Rebels TV show gives ample reference to get the pattern on Hera’s lekus just right. Chopper strikes a very recognizable pose and is also very detailed. Both of them feature proportions to make them stand out on the table very easily. Job well done!