After the rebels blew up the first Death Star, the Empire created the Inferno Squad to “recover anything and everything, anyone and everyone who might pose the slightest threat to the Empire.” Del Meeko, featured prominently in Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), is the second member of Inferno Squad to be introduced into Imperial Assault. He joins Iden Versio as a shifty and flexible scalpel to add to your Imperial toolbox.
At 5 points, Del brings moderate damage on a long range attack and is surprisingly defensible with movement points and tokens from Open-Minded and if he recovers each turn with his Gifted Mechanic ability. This is an excellent support skill to help keep himself as well as allied droids and vehicles (such as Sentry Droids, Dark troopers, or even Heavy Vehicles like the AT-ST) healthy and pushing damage through.
The real prize of his kit, however, is his Expertise ability, which allows him recoup the action cost of using a special action, meaning you can use Gifted Mechanic for free, or make use of a card like Urgency to move 14 spaces on your turn! You can even use his signature command card, Support Specialist to grant an additional action to a friendly figure and still have two actions to spend on your turn.
Expertise also works for removing harmful conditions like Stun and Bleed, making cards like To the Limit (for a wild 4 actions a turn!) or Concentrated Fire an excellent addition to command decks in Del lists.
Pair Del with a strong attacker like Iden or a Dark Trooper to grant them an extra devastating attack on your turn.
You might note that there are two versions of the above card. This is intentional as the Steering Committee is exploring using reminder text to guide players where space is available. Both versions are legal in testing and will be made available in Vassal (Use the “Show Adjusted Card” Command) and in our printable cards documents. Use whichever version you prefer. Make sure to provide feedback at the end of the playtesting period if you have strong feelings one way or the other about the reminder text.
There are a ton of ways to use Del and the incredible action compression he gains through his Expertise ability. Try him out with some of the new Technician command cards to give him even more tools to shape the battlefield.
Technicians now have the ability to open doors from up to 3 spaces away, in an explosive manner! Players will need to be careful boxing up behind unlocked doors when technicians are in the game, particularly Del Meeko, as he can move, blow the door, and shoot in a single turn. Editor’s Note: Even if there aren’t any unlocked doors to use this card on, it still works great as a lesser version of Grenadier, especially since you’re always guaranteed to do at least 1 damage, though you can’t get 3 damage per figure like the original Grenadier can.
Well, that’s all for this article. Hope you enjoy playtesting the cards featured above. Let us know what you think, whether on the IACP Discord, IACP Facebook, or Zion’s Finest Slack Channel. Stay tuned for next article, where Destructor will spoil some more Imperial goodies. May the force be with you!