“You just walk in like you belong.”
— Cassian Andor
I think most Star Wars fans will agree that
Cassian Andor is the most interesting and popular character to hit the franchise since Boba Fett appeared in the
Star Wars Holiday Special back in 1978. With a feature film and 24 streaming episodes, he just edges out the Mandalorian as the Star Wars character with the most live action screen hours devoted to him (although that will change when
The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out).
So it's a relief that he’s also a top-tier primary unit in Shatterpoint. He is joined in his squad pack by that most sarcastic of reprogrammed Imperial droids
K-2SO as his secondary unit, and a pair of
Rebel Pathfinders for support.
Images © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Captain Cassian Andor
Cassian Andor has the makings of a first class Rebel unit right from the start, even before we look at his special abilities. He’s got a better than average 10 Stamina and 3 Durability, so he’ll be able to soak up a fair amount of damage. He counts for both Reign of the Empire and Age of Rebellion eras, and has a whopping 9 squad points, so he should be pretty versatile with regard to what units he can pair with on the battlefield. And his Rebel Alliance, Scoundrel, and Spy keywords should help him synergize with just about any other units you care to team him with.
His only real shortcoming is that he provides his strike team with a mere 2 Force – not such a problem for him as he only has one ability that requires spending Force, but it could prove tricky for some of his squad mates whose abilities are more costly.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Cassian is, to date, the only Rebel Alliance primary unit who doesn’t have a Tactic ability. His card starts off with
We Need to Blend In, an Active ability that allows Andor and another Rebel Alliance character to Dash, and if the other character is a Spy, they each get a Hunker token as well, all for the cost of 1 Force. Extra movement is always useful, and the additional defense from the Hunker token should be helpful as well, especially if they can move into cover.
This Town is Ready to Blow is a Reactive ability that triggers when either player claims a struggle card. Cassian’s player rolls 3 attack dice, and each enemy unit that is contesting a currently active struggle takes a damage for every hit and expertise result. This is primarily a catch-up mechanism – if your opponent has won the struggle, presumably they have a lot of units contesting objectives that will take damage from the roll.
We’ve All Done Terrible Things is a thematic Innate ability that reflects Cassian’s willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done. When he makes a ranged attack, if there are any non-wounded allies engaged with the target, he gets 3 extra dice for his attack. However, the engaged ally takes 2 damage after the attack is complete. This might seem like a high cost, but his next ability is triggered by a wounded ally, and these two wounds will be a good way to control when exactly that happens.
When an ally is wounded, Cassian’s Identity ability comes into play.
Make Ten Men Feel Like a Hundred lets you give an Advance move to a unit other than the one who was just wounded or a Reposition move instead if the chosen unit is a Spy. There will be times when it’s useful to tactically put your other units in the line of fire, sacrificing one to add mobility to another.
This ability also has a secondary effect: when you activate a Rebel Alliance character with a Shatterpoint card, that character gets
Impact [2] and
Sharpshooter [2], making their attacks more effective. So Cassian can run them in, have them attack for all they’re worth, use
Terrible Things to boost his own attack, and then hand out a free move when his own ability wounds an ally. It’s a little ruthless, but not bad for a couple of turns’ work.
Stances
None of Cassian’s abilities require him to be at a particular range, so the best tactic might be to have him hang back and snipe from a distance, something that his
Light it Up stance will be very helpful for. He’ll be attacking at range 5 with a devastating 8 dice, possibly more if he can bring
Terrible Things to bear, or gain the Sharpshooter bonus from the second part of
Make Ten Men Feel Like a Hundred.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
The ranged attack expertise chart is focused mainly on adding critical hits, while the defense should help keep him safe by adding block results and changing enemy critical hits into misses. Those extra hits will be well spent with this stance’s combat tree, which maxes out at nine damage and also gives options for adding conditions, shoving the target, and even a reposition so he can keep on the move.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
All the Way is a more all-purpose stance. The combat tree is still pretty impressive, with a potential 8 damage, a few shoves and even some healing. The ranged expertise chart isn’t nearly as good, but melee is a little better. The defense tree offers a heal result at every level, which should help to control the timing on
Make Ten Men’s primary effect, so it happens when you want it to.
K-2SO, Outspoken Enforcer
You will definitely want to keep K-2SO in the thick of the action – almost all of his abilities are about protecting the other characters in his squad.
Why Does She Get a Blaster and I Don’t? is an Active ability that costs 1 Force to use, but it will help him keep up with your other units by granting him a Dash move towards an allied Rebel Alliance unit. That unit gets a Hunker token in the bargain.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Now that K-2 is positioned nearby, he’ll be ready to use his Reactive ability,
Congratulations, You Are Being Rescued. For 1 Force, K-2 can react to another allied Rebel Alliance unit getting wounded by Dashing towards the attacker and then hitting them with a 5 dice attack. It’s always great to get a free attack in, and if nothing else it should make your opponent think twice about attacking your weaker units.
Who didn’t shed a tear during K-2’s tragic death scene in
Rogue One? His innate ability
Goodbye will let you reenact that blaze of glory on the tabletop. After K-2 is wounded, his attacker gets Pinned and Strained conditions. Then, an allied Spy character gets a free Dash move. As if that weren’t enough, if K-2 is wounded, his player can spend up to two Momentum to move the Struggle tracker the same number of spaces in their direction. K-2 is defeated after this, but chances are this is the sort of desperate move you’re only going to make towards the end of the game anyway.
Finally, K-2 has an innate ability he appears to have learned from Lobot:
Lockdown. As long as he is contesting an objective (from any elevation), his side’s Control token can’t be removed or replaced. This means the opponent having more contesting units won’t be enough, they’ll need to wound K-2 or dislodge him from his position.
Stance
K-2’s
Effortless Efficiency stance is about as fearsome as you would expect. He rolls 7 dice for both ranged and melee attacks, and 5 dice for defense. His combat tree maxes out 5 hits and a respectable 7 damage, with a fair number of options for shoves or adding conditions to his target.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Rebel Pathfinders
At 8 Stamina and 2 Durability, the Rebel Pathfinders supporting unit is dead average. They have the Rebel Alliance, Scout, Spy, and Trooper tags, which will allow them to fit in with just about any Rebel-themed strike team. Their Active ability,
Defensive Maneuver, lets them spend 1 Force to gain a Dash move and a Hunker token, and is fairly indicative of this unit’s focus on mobility and defense.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Cloak and Dagger is an interesting Reactive ability. For 1 Force, when this unit makes an attack they get 3 extra dice, and if they’re attacking a primary unit they add 1 damage for each critical hit result rolled. The catch is that this only applies to the first character’s attack; the attack action then ends, meaning the second character in the unit won’t perform their own separate attack. It seems like a pretty hefty cost, but the extra dice and especially the extra damage might be worth it.
The Pathfinders are rounded out with two Innate abilities.
Camouflage lets them start the game with a Hunker token, and
Pathfinders gives them immunity to the Pinned condition as well as the Scale keyword (which allows them to convert any Advance or Dash move into a Climb. On top of that, when they make a Dash move, they can spend a Hunker token to convert the Dash into an Advance, letting them convert possibly unneeded Hunkers into extended movement.
Stance
Covert Strike is a fairly basic stance, with 6 dice for both attacks 4 dice for ranged defense and 5 for melee defense. The combat tree’s only decision point is whether to inflict a shove or a strained condition on the third hit, although it does start with 2 damage on the first hit and max out at 6, which is reasonably respectable. The attack expertise charts add a few extra hits, and the defense adds a few extra blocks, with a potentially useful reposition at 3 expertise.
Image © Lucasfilm © Atomic Mass Games
Adding Cassian Andor and his Rebels to a Strike Team
Shatterpoint players are spoiled for choice when it comes to Rebel squads to pair up. Teaming Cassian Andor with
Princess Leia, Charming to the Last seems to be a popular and effective choice. Of course, Jyn Erso’s
This is Rogue One squad is an obvious choice, and General Han Solo seems like a decent match up as well.
But how about Luke Skywalker?
The
Fearless and Inventive squad pack might have some interesting things to offer. Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker is a heavy hitter who could deflect some attention away from Cassian and his spies, and everyone in Cassian’s squad would benefit from Luke’s
I Am a Jedi... ability, giving them Immunity to either the Pinned or Exposed conditions. Luke can also help make up for Cassian’s low Force count, adding 3 force to the pool and also refreshing one every time he activates.
Meanwhile, Boushh (Leia Organa) can use her
Fan Out Tactic ability to keep all the Spies moving, and she has the Spy tag herself so she could benefit from Cassian’s
We Need to Blend In and
Make Ten Men abilities, as well as getting a Dash move from K-2SO’s
Goodbye. Lando and R2-D2 also have the Spy tag, so they should fit in with Cassian’s group fairly well too.
It might not be a “top of the meta” team up, but who wouldn’t want to see Luke and Cassian share the battlefield? At the very least, I feel like Andor would be more than willing to take advantage of Luke’s idealistic enthusiasm to further his own goals...
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Star Wars: Shatterpoint – All the Way Squad Pack Review