November’s releases for Star Wars: Shatterpoint shone a spotlight on The Empire Strikes Back, and the Maximum Firepower squad pack is no exception. Featuring the cunning commander General Veers and his Snowtroopers, this box brings further reinforcements for the Empire and new Stormtrooper synergies to build around.Â
General Veers, Tactical Genius
Who Are They?
Maximillian Veers was a famed ground general of the Galactic Empire who preferred to lead the army’s assaults on the planet rather than command from the fleet. In Episode V, he led the attack on the Hoth base, supported by legions of Snowtroopers and AT-AT walkers to lay waste to their shields.
On the Tabletop
General Veers has the profile you would expect from a Primary who is not looking to get stuck into the thick of things. He sports 9 Stamina and 3 durability. He comes with the standard three force points, but only 7 squad points—annoying, but not the worst in Empire, which hosts several other 7-point squads.
Tactic – You Have Your Orders
As befits a mastermind tactician, Veers can command a character in an Empire Secondary or any Stormtrooper to dash at the start of his activation with no range limitation but without the ability to dash himself. However, options will expand next year as Krennic is slated to come with both Death and Shore Trooper supporting options.
Active – I Will Have Results
Battle droid fans will recognize this ability – Tactical Network for Stormtroopers, except that only Supporting characters can be chosen. The most common mode we will look for is the additional 5-dice attack; regardless, an OOA dash is always handy.
Running an attack through the Fifth Trooper dice simulator suggests we should not expect this to achieve more than applying a pin or some chip damage, as the average expected steps is just a shade over 1.
Innate – Prepare for a Surface Attack
This is, to me, the most unique and interesting part of Veers’ kit. You get to choose any Stormtrooper unit, set them aside in reserve from the get-go, and dash them forward at the start of the game, which can help cover points on maps such as Never Tell Me the Odds.
Combining this with I Will Have Results will easily allow you to park support on the midline before it activates. They’ll also benefit from an additional defense die to try and weather the storm. Alternatively, reserving the Stormtrooper Sergeant can be a good call for letting you precisely control when he activates.
Identity – We Are the Storm
Veers’ signature ability is evident when he calls upon an AT-AT to bombard the table. This is the first ability of this type we have seen that lacks a range limitation, allowing Veers to influence points from a tremendous distance. The opponent gets the choice, so this is not guaranteed damage. Still, it can enable you to win objectives that were tied and potentially Wound without attacking – useful against models like Kanan Jarrus and Gideon Hask. Just be aware that friendly fire to any of your troops contesting is not optional!
General Veers, Tactical Genius Stances
Let the Rabble Come
The main utility here is recovers both early on the tree and the expertise chart, so can be useful for Veers to do some patching up. Otherwise, the late shove, limited condition application, and 5th step active make this a hard sell unless you desperately need to just hit four damage.
Lay Siege
Range 5 is welcome to see. His expertise is acceptable, with a two-for-two success conversion on two expertise results but no criticisms on one. Lay Siege yields shoves on the first two steps, an active ability on four, and even a higher damage cap, so generally, this will be the stance to use most of the time.
Defensively, Veers has stormtrooper armor with a bonus recovery, so he will not be terribly durable – understandable for a backline commander. The only difference is an extra die on ranged or melee.
Veers brings a lot of interesting support abilities and can move three models on his activation, but pays for this with sub-par stats in combat for a Primary. While his options for a supporting cadre are limited currently, he has room to grow over time as more Stormtrooper units are added.
Snowtrooper Lieutenant
Cost—Four points—We would hope to expect a well-rounded character. Despite this, we will end up drawing many comparisons to the cheaper Stormtrooper Sergeant.
Tactic – Press On
Dashes a single Support character in addition to clearing a pin or strain that would punish them for doing so. Perfectly solid for free.
Reactive – Dogged Assault
Action economy is always welcome, and it’s nice that only one model in the unit has to be in range to take advantage.
Innate – Commanding Presence
Another tool to remove pesky conditions. This has a limited range band of 3 and mirrors the tactic ability of the regular Snowtroopers, so there is a bit of power duplication in this box.
Innate – Only Stormtroopers Are So Precise
There is nothing new here; like the Sergeant, this character cannot focus without taking action, which makes it fringe and a tougher pill to swallow for a 4-point character.
Snowtrooper Lieutenant StanceÂ
Disciplined Assault
The tree and dice pools are again identical to the Sergeant, making the fact that he is a 4pt slightly perplexing. He trades a pin for a strike at 1 expertise but converts less once you get to 3+. He offers a shove on 2 and some recovery to mitigate the Empire’s damaging effects but low spike potential.
Overall, the Lieutenant has a narrow band of power against special condition spam. Still, it’s hard to see him stacking up competitively among the Empire’s smorgasbord of great Secondaries at 4PC. It also looks straightforward to accidentally stack up on characters that can only make a single advance between Veers, the Lieutenant, and the Stormtrooper Sergeant, which is rather scary to think about in our mobility-focused game.
Snowtroopers
8 Stamina – perfectly solid for a 3-point support.
Tactic – Forced March
Sometimes, you just need to remove a pin or take 1 damage from a strain. It would be perfect to have a budget version of the ability found in the Imperial Special Forces.
Active – Assault Tactics/Innate – Only Stormtroopers Are So Precise
Solid on the Stormtroopers and solid here. The basic troopers rely on higher dice pools to hit their second expertise reliably or get enough strikes to climb their tree. Overall, I’m quite happy to see a dash + two ranged dice for one force on a cheap Support.
Snowtroopers Stance
Blizzard Tactics
Once again, it is very similar to the 4-point Stormtroopers, exchanging an early strain for a pin but losing out on the condition on most levels of their expertise chart. Early recovers can let you fish for a shove with Assault Tactics and recover any self-inflicted damage.
The Empire is glad for more 3-point options to pair with its powerful 7-point Primaries, and while the Snowtroopers won’t offer much in the way of offense, they will be a serviceable option that is hard to pin down.
Example Strike Teams
Out of the box:
Maximum Firepower (General Veers) + Fear and Dead Men (Darth Vader, the Emperor’s Servant)
For those who want to get started with a bunch of Stormtrooper synergies right out of the box, it’s hard to look past this pairing. Veers is your anvil and Vader is the sledgehammer!
Advanced:
General Veers, Master Tactician/Death Trooper Escort/Snowtroopers
Commander Iden Versio/Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad/Imperial Special Forces
This involves a little more outlay picking up the Death Trooper Escort from the Moff Gideon box. However, that box is the first box I would recommend to any Empire player and he carries the Stormtrooper tag along with an impressive and reliable kit.
Looking to the future, keep an eye out for the upcoming Director Krennic box which is dropping soon with a number of brand new Stormtrooper options!
Box Summary
General Veers opens the door to a new Empire Strike Team focused on Stormtroopers. He’s likely to land on the trickier end to get results out of, as he demands a lot out of his positioning and his troops around him, but only stands to become more interesting to play as the releases flow. His supporting cast in the pack is a mixed bag, but the Snowtroopers should make a welcome cheap addition to a number of Empire strike teams. Thematically, AMG did a great job and General Veers truly represents the implacable nature of the Empire’s invasion force.
Thanks for reading and may the order deck smile on you!
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