Alright folks, last Spoiler day for Season 10, and it’s a Blast!
First up, the Heir to Deathwatch, himself, Paz Viszla!
Sporting an impressive RRG attack profile, this Heavy Infantry Mandalorian packs a punch! You’ll note, however, that he doesn’t have any surge abilities that improve his damage. This serves to keep his damage from getting out of hand, but also makes him resistant to evade-heavy defenses, such as that of Jedi Knight Luke or Jet Troopers. If he does get surges through, though, he can turn them into block tokens to stack onto his sturdy 13 health.
Paz sports a unique array of traits, never seen on another group in that combination. On top of that, this Mobile Mandalorian comes with a pair of signature abilities. His first, Heavy Repeater, has been compared to a one-man Call the Shots, vis-a-vis Hera Syndulla. It’s not exactly the same, but that should give you a sense of the power and versatility of this ability. For one strain, he can choose to increase his damage or accuracy, or tack on some Blast damage. But why does it mention making a ranged attack? We’ll get to that in a second.
Next up, Submit or Fight makes Paz Viszla an absolute powerhouse at managing incoming strain. This ability works in tandem with the usual strain mechanic to functionally amount to being able to sacrifice half the number of cards usually lost from incoming strain, as long as he is willing to send them to the game box. Paz Viszla, our knife fighting Mando, is no stranger to a Grisly Contest. Which is why this ability was named after the words he said to Axe Woves before challenging him to a knife fight.
Oh right, I said I’d get back to that bit about ranged attacks. If we look at Paz’s unique Command card, we’ll see a recreation of his powerful scene in The Mandalorian Season 3, when he continues to rain fire from his Heavy Repeater until the weapon overheats, practically melting in his hands, forcing him to discard it and switch to melee. We see that represented here in a 1-point Command Card that lets Paz make a free attack with his blaster, but at a cost. Once his Heavy Repeater is hot slag, dealing him 4 strain, he has to switch to melee attacks for the rest of the mission. Not only does this make for a change in his attack type, it also means he can no longer make use of the Heavy Repeater ability, as it only works with ranged attacks. Also, the ranged requirement keeps this card from being played by Mara, who has no Blaster to Overheat, or excavated by Aphra; He can’t melt the same Repeater twice.
Next, straight out of Empire Strikes Back, the unit we were all sad to see was left out of Return to Hoth, it’s the Tauntaun Rider!
Rebels finally have Creatures! Ezra’s gonna be so happy he’s not just talking to Loth-Cats anymore!
This Trooper/Creature unit will draw immediate comparisons to the Empire’s Dewback Rider, and they were a helpful metric in this design for sure. Like the Dewback, they are a 5-point single-figure group on a 2×1 base with the Mounted ability and a special action ability that helps improve their damage in the thick of the fight.
Unlike Shock Lance, Headbutt doesn’t Weaken, but it makes up for that difference in mobility and damage, allowing the Tauntaun Rider’s player to be very efficient with their action economy if positioned just right.
But Tauntauns aren’t just useful while they’re alive. Once defeated, their Useful Hide can be used to help clever Rebels evade Imperial capture, especially the Cunning Han Solo and his ilk.
Speaking of Solo, the keen-eyed blaster afficianados among you will notice that the Rider wields a DL-44, just like our favorite Rogue Smuggler. Because of that, we decided to match the Tauntaun Rider’s surge profile to that of Han Solo and the campaign weapon DL-44, albeit with an extra accuracy over Han – Old Ben Kenobi said it had something to do with the high ground.
Lastly, the return of a classic. This card hasn’t seen competitive play since before this author started playing this wonderful game, so forgive him if any details are incorrect. Cross training is a fairly simple premise. You want access to Spy Command cards, but you don’t want to bring a Spy, just have your Troopers go on some training missions with the ISB and the Scout Troopers, and boom. Cross-Trained Troopers doing the Empire’s necessary intelligence work. Historically, this card was attached most commonly to Riot Troopers or Death Troopers.
However, as both Imperial Spies and Imperial Attachments have each starkly improved since the days before IACP, it was time Cross-Training got a glow-up.
First, it grants a starting Hidden to each figure in the group. If that was the only change, it might already start to look appealing on some groups. But the change to the defensive ability is also a significant improvement. Instead of being able to opt for a white die before you roll Defense, Cross-Training now lets you see how your defense went, then if you don’t like the result, reroll that into a die of the opposite color. Look out for this on Migs Mayfeld and Speeder Bikes, in particular, as the only Troopers with white Defense dice, because they can roll their white die, see if they Dodge, and if they don’t, use this ability to reroll into the sturdier black die.
That’s it for Season 10.0 spoilers, folks! With luck, there should be a Vassal update out soon. Have fun out there!