Today we are looking the Good Soldiers Follow Orders squad pack with CT-9904, ES-04 Firebrand, and Elite Squad Troopers. Warning: There are some spoilers for The Bad Batch TV show in this article. This squad box is based on Season 1 and 2 of The Bad Batch after Crosshair follows Order 66 and sides with the Galactic Empire over his brothers in The Bad Batch. He is promoted to Clone Commander and given his own elite squad to train and lead in the service of the Galactic Empire. The Elite Squad comes out of Project War-Mantle which is run by Vice-Admiral Rampart. The goal of Project War-Mantle is to prove that the expensive and aging clone troopers can be replaced with both conscripted and volunteer non-clone soldiers. Eventually this leads into the creation of the Stormtroopers. All the characters in this squad have the era tag Reign of The Empire, and with having only one era tag, this squad loses some list building flexibility. However, with the recent release of Squad Boxes such as Deploy The Garrison and All The Way, this is starting to change.
CT-9904, Elite Squad Leader
As this squad’s primary unit, CT-9904 provides 8 squad points and 2 force. Formerly known as Crosshair, CT-9904 has 9 health which is about average for a primary unit, and while 2 force feels very thematic, it can feel limiting for squad building. You will want to pair CT-9904 with another primary with a decent amount of force. Thankfully, CT-9904 has a mechanic to refresh force, and it is based on wounding enemy characters, which is something he is good at.
Move to Position costs 1 force and allows CT-9904 to either dash or climb, then an allied character within 3 can dash. This is a good ability as a climb can be very useful to gain extra elevation, especially if you have been shoved off an objective. Out of activation movement is always good as well, as it could allow you to steal an objective, or simply remove the pinned condition from a character.
Reflector Discs is a very interesting reactive ability and is another thematic win for the character. For 1 force you can pick another ally in 4, and measure range and line of sight from that character. This can add a massive amount of range to this character, who already has range 5 ranged attacks.  When you absolutely need to wound a unit on the other side of the board from CT-9904 you will use this ability. I find I don’t use this a lot, as I prefer to spend the force on Move to Position instead.
Expendable Distraction is a great way to add 3 attack dice to your ranged attack, and all you have to do is put 2 damage on a friendly unit that is engaged with the target character. This is another thematic ability for the Galactic Empire. We have seen this type of ability a few times now, and this is a very popular method to get extra attack dice, which CT-9904 loves.
Genetically Bred Deadeye is CT-9904’s identity ability, where if he wounds an enemy primary or secondary unit with a ranged attack you can refresh 2 force. This is a great identity that helps with only bringing 2 force, and it also works well with what CT-9904 wants to do – wound enemy units. CT-9904 can dish out 10 damage, which is enough to wound most primaries and secondaries. The second part of his identity is very interesting. When you make a ranged attack, before you roll dice, you can remove conditions from the target, and for each condition removed you can add a strike to the attack roll. I really enjoy putting conditions on my enemies and I am not a fan of removing them. You will use this when you really need to guarantee wounding the target, and you can use this with Expendable Distraction to really make sure you wound your target.
Stances
Like all primary units, CT-9904 has a double-sided stance card, giving him two options to choose from.
Bad Play is CT-9904’s more defensive stance. He has 5 defence dice for both range and melee, and a strong defensive expertise tree that starts with a block and a critical to a strike for 1 expertise, and ends with 2 blocks, a critical to a strike, and a heal for 4 expertise. Having critical mitigation for 1 expertise is really great, and overall, it’s a strong defensive tree. For offense CT-9904 has a 7 dice for his ranged attack, and 5 dice for his melee attack. For a character that prefers ranged attacks, he is a nice melee expertise tree. 1-2 expertise gives you 2 strikes, and 3+ expertise is 2 criticals. Nothing to complain about there. His ranged expertise is comparable to his melee expertise. With 1-2 expertise giving you a critical, 3 expertise giving you a critical, a strike, and a pinned condition, and 4 expertise resulting in 2 criticals and a pinned condition. For his tree you have two paths to go down with each one capable of dealing 7 damage. If you take the top path you can also have 2 shoves and a disarmed condition. The bottom path will result in 1 shove, a reposition and 2 heals. I prefer taking the top path, as the 2 shoves will displace a character off an objective.
Target Eliminated is CT-9904’s more damaged focused stance. There are two pathways with thi combat tree. If you take the top path, you can do a maximum of 7 damage, with a pinned condition, a shove, and a reposition. If you take the bottom path, you can do 10 damage and a pinned condition. 10 damage will wound almost any unit in the game, except for some of the big hitters like Darth Vader. To help achieve this level of damage you now roll 8 dice for ranged attacks and retain the 5 dice in melee. In terms of defence, you have 5 dice for ranged and 4 for melee, which is a bit tough. The ranged expertise tree is really strong, with 1 expertise a critical and a strike. That is really great to get two results (including a critical) for 1 expertise. 2-3 expertise adds in a strained, and 4+ expertise is 2 criticals and a strained condition. I like having the strained on the expertise tree as you should be able to put both pinned and strained on your target given the number of dice you can roll. Your melee expertise tree stays the same for this stance as the previous stance. Your defensive expertise is a bit weaker on this side with 1-2 expertise giving you a block and a critical to a strike, and 3+ giving you 2 blocks and a critical to a strike.
ES-04, Firebrand
ES-04, also known as Firebrand is a 4-cost secondary unit with a fairly standard 8 health, 2 wounds. She is considered one of the best soldiers in the Galactic Empire, and as such she is assigned to Elite Squad by Vice Admiral Rampart. She has some unique abilities that represent her flame thrower weapon. To make the most of her abilities you will want to be within 3 of allies and objectives. Given the number of active and reactive abilities she has, as soon as she gets wounded, she becomes very force hungry.
Marching Orders allows you to choose an allied Galactic Empire support character and you can dash them and yourself. The great thing about this is that there is no range on this ability, so you can choose someone on the other side of the board and dash them onto an objective or move them into a better position.
Prescribed Fire allows you to choose an active objective within 3, and each character within 2 may dash. If any units remain within 2 of the objective, they suffer 2 damage an remove their hunker tokens. We have seen this ability a few times in the game. It is a nice way to push some damage onto your opponent’s units as generally they will rather stay on the point and take the damage rather than give up control of the objective. It’s always nice to have another source of damage to soften up units. Just be aware that this ability will also affect your units as well so keep that in mind when choosing to use this ability.
Obscuring Flames is a straightforward ability where you can give an allied character within 3 a hunker token. As you are allied with yourself, you can always give yourself a hunker token. Very nice while you are not wounded, but it’s not really worth a force once you are wounded.
Can’t Stand the Heat is used when an enemy character ends a move action engaged with you. The enemy character gains disarmed and strained conditions. This is a fantastic ability as it immediately makes your opponent change there plan or have a less-than-optimal attack into you, and they take 3 damage as well. Be aware that the enemy character needs to end a move action, so any ability that allows them to make a move that is not a move action (like Marching Orders) will not trigger this ability.
Stance
The combat tree on Firebrands Flamewall stance has two pathways to follow. If you go along the top path you will be able to do a total of 6 damage, a pinned condition, and 3 shoves. The shoves can be difficult to pull off as they are late in the tree, so it’s more like you will only manage 1 shove on an average roll. If you go along the bottom path, you will do 7 damage, a pinned condition, a disarmed condition, and also an active ability. The active ability being only three steps in on the tree is very good. A free Prescribed Fire is great and might just finish off the unit you are attacking or allow you to take control of another point during your activation. Firebrand has a solid range 4, 7 dice range attack and a 5 dice melee attack. This is rounded out by 5 defence dice for both. For ranged expertise, a critical on 1-2 expertise is great, and a critical and a strike for 3 expertise feels solid, as does 2 criticals for 4 expertise. The melee tree is ok, with 1 expertise giving you a critical and 2+ expertise a critical and a strained condition. Defence tree wise it is the same as clone armor with 1-2 expertise giving you 1 block and 3+ expertise giving you 2 blocks so that could be better.
Elite Squad Troopers
The Elite Squad Troopers are a 4-cost support unit. The Elite Troopers were highly trained non-clone soldiers that were starting to replace Clone Troopers who were considered too expensive. These Elite Squad Troopers could represent either E2-02 and ES-03, or more likely the two new members of the team that joined after Hunter was captured. I have to point out that in Shatterpoint this unit is heavily based on the 212th Clone Troopers that you find in the Hello There squad box, as a number of their abilities are very similar, as is their stance card.
Tactical Advance is a handy tactics ability that allows you dash both characters in this unit and make a focus action all for the cost of one force. Any ability that gives you two effects for the cost of 1 force is always good.
Coordinated Fire (Exposed) is an oldy but a goody. When an allied Galactic Empire unit makes an attack, before dice are rolled, if the target is within range 5 of a character in this unit, the target gains the exposed condition. You will be aiming to use this each activation, as once this unit is wounded you will use this a lot less. So, try and use it as much as you can before that happens.
The Future of Imperial Might gives you Sharpshooter [1] and Impact [1]. This pairs nicely with the focus action you get from Tactical Advance. This increases your ranged attack to a very respectable 8 dice, and even your melee attack increases to 6 dice, making it much more effective than it would otherwise be.
Stance
The Elite Squad Troopers stance card, called Imperial Marksmanship, is very interesting. As I have mentioned above, it is based very heavily on the 212th’s stance card, with a few small improvements. With only four spots on the tree, it is a very short and straight forward tree. With a pinned, a shove, and two damage on the first 2 steps feels good, it feels very hard to get down to the 4th step where all the damage is. With a range 5, 6 dice ranged attack, this unit is focused on doing ranged damage. The preference for ranged attacks is further reflected in the 4 dice melee attack for this unit. In terms of expertise trees, they are somewhat lacking. For ranged expertise, a damage for 1 expertise, and a critical and damage for 2-3 expertise feels a bit light. The melee expertise tree is not bad, with 1-2 expertise giving you 2 strikes and 3+ expertise a critical and an strike. In terms of defence, they have a 5 dice ranged defence and 4 dice for melee defence. This is about average defence. The defence expertise tree is very similar to Clone Troopers with 1-2 expertise giving you 1 block, and 3+ expertise giving you 2 blocks. This continues to reflect the fact that they were trained by Clone Troopers.
Gameplay Tactics
Strike Team:
CT-9904, Firebrand, Elite Squad Troopers
Iden Versio, Gideon Hask, Imperial Special Forces
This is a gun line Empire list. By using Gideon Hask’s identity Defiance Will Be The Death Of You, you will be adding one strike to the attack roll provided your target is within range 5 of a Galactic Empire Scout characters. Now CT-9904 becomes really scary thanks not only to this ability, but also his abiltiy to add 3 dice to his ranged attack roll, but he can also remove conditions from his target to add another strike to his roll. This way you can almost guarantee he will wound his target, triggering both his identity as well as Iden’s identity. Elite Squad Troopers also really love Defiance Will Be The Death Of You, as it makes it easier for them to reach the 4th step on their tree. With Firebrand she can hand out a hunker token to the ISF to help improve their defensive rolls given that they are usually a priority target for your opponent. Overall, you will want to play aggressively by wounding your opponent as quickly as possible, from halfway across the board, to ensure you have the scoring advantage and to negatively affect their force economy.
I’d love to hear about how you are using CT-9904 and the Elite Squad in your Shatterpoint games. Drop me a note in the comments below.
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