“I bought my freedom through the skill of my hands and the labor of three of your human lifetimes.” – Kuiil the Ugnaught
We embark on the season of the Technician, those who fix droids, vehicles, and the world around them. Many Star Wars characters demonstrate this quality, but one of the best embodiments of this mindset is the Ugnaught race. The stories of Ugnaughts’ skill with smithing droids are legendary. Ugnaughts are considered the hardest working species in the galaxy. While the Ugnaught has their own deployment card and has recently gained the Technician trait along with others, one Ugnaught is well known to many.
Kuiil the Ugnaught
Kuiil is a simple Ugnaught who longs for peace in his valley, but eventually joins the crew of the Mandalorian Din Djarin to protect Grogu. His skills as a Technician allowed him to rebuild IG-11 into the Guardian that he is today, instead of a bounty hunter. Kuiil is also well known for the Blurrg he teaches Mando to ride. Thus Kuiil enjoys the Creature trait, as we feature him mounted in a combat scenario. His model that we have used is 1×2 spaces, approximately the same size as a Dewback (at least on the Imperial Assault board). We have provided him with the Mounted ability, as previously seen on Dewbacks and Captain Terro. However, Blurrg are not nearly as fast as Dewbacks, thus Kuiil’s speed of 2. Efficient Travel allows for maneuverability of a large figure and depicts the scenes of Blurrg jumping canyons with their riders on screen. While Kuiil’s attack is not that strong, he is intended primarily as a support figure, using special actions as a Technician and protective cards as a Guardian to improve the outcome of your skirmish encounter.
We have chosen to allow Kuiil to use his skills with creatures to provide transportation to others. Hop On! allows you to push a small figure (with certain restrictions for gameplay balance) across the board. This is an action you perform to choose a single figure. Once you have chosen this figure, any time you enter that figure’s space during this activation, you can push them. This allows you to use Mounted and a Move Action along with Hop On! to move a figure up to 5 spaces. This works in a similar fashion to Iden Versio and Dio, as you enter the figure’s space, you push them 1 space. From there you may enter their space again and push them again. Repeat until you are out of movement points. As the special action is to choose a figure, you may stop and start your movement freely, unlike with the Command card Urgency. Free movement outside of your activation is harder to come by in scum lists, and this is an option to provide that support.
“You are a Mandalorian! Your ancestors rode the great Mythosaur. Surely you can ride this young foal.“
Of course, we can’t depict Kuiil mounted on a Blurrg without representing their fearsome charge that manages to take down Mando! This is represented by Kuiil’s command card Blurrg Charge. Being able to use the same surge ability twice means that you can deal significant damage with this attack, or recover 4 damage, possibly both if you get lucky! This ability takes 2 actions which is why it has movement incorporated into the charge. If only there was a way for Technicians to get extra actions… (see our first Season 8 spoiler article for the command card All in a Day’s Work.) https://ia-continuityproject.com/2023/04/10/season-8-preview-things-are-about-to-get-technical/
Along with Kuiil comes our last Technician command card. This may look familiar to you, as it is a rework of an existing command card. Repair seemed to embody the Technician skill set, so we wanted to allow them access to this card. However, as Technicians should be better at repairing droids and vehicles, this does not take them as long, therefore it does not require them to spend an action. However, the action cost is still associated with this card, so even if a Technician uses it without spending the action, it can still trigger All in a Day’s Work.
Of course, we can’t give you just one toy for your creature lists, so we have also decided to recost the Nexu to 5. This is not the first time we have tried getting the Nexu to work. This is an example of a card that we made a design for, that was not approved by the community, so it was reverted to it’s FFG format. This was because it was deemed too strong. But we have noticed that the original Nexu still doesn’t perform up to the standard we would like to see. Hopefully this recost will finally find the right balance for this card. Don’t forget to look for the surprising synergy with another one of our new cards, Gar Saxon! https://ia-continuityproject.com/2023/04/12/commandos-super/