Welcome to Cloud 9 with Lando Calrissian and his administrative enforcers. Atomic Mass Games has blessed us with one of the most versatile boxes to date. Lets see how this “Ol Pirate” fares in Shatterpoint.
Lando Calrissian
If charm could kill, Lando would be considered the most dangerous man in the galaxy. That being said, he is still plenty threatening. By the end of this, I hope to convince you that this is one of the most important boxes to own in all of AMG’s line. Now that might be a tall order but bare with me because everything you have heard about this man is true.
Going through his stats, Lando brings 8 points with 2 force and we see 9 health for 3 stamina which is an expected health pool for most gun slinging primaries. Lando isn’t as tough as a Jedi but he has his own mind tricks to offer. For example, How You Doin’ Ya Old Pirate? is a fascinating tactic that removes conditions from Lando and applies them to a Scoundrel within 4. The fun part is that if he targets an ally, he can dash the target after. Right away we get to see that versatility in play as you can either use this tactic to condition stack an enemy or use it on an ally to push them up the battlefield. The conditions go on after the dash is made so it’s reasonable to dash up a support and then apply the pin thus avoiding the pin’s negative effect. Or perhaps you have an expose and are within 4 of an enemy scoundrel? Well you can throw the expose on your target then shoot them for good measure!
Moving on, we see Hedged Bets which is a fun ability that allows condition removal or placement depending on how much force you have left when you refresh your order deck. Lando doesn’t use force and thanks to his next ability, Sabacc Shift, it’s fairly likely you end up with a little force remaining at the end of your deck. Sabacc Shift lets Lando shuffle himself back into the deck to refresh two force and apply a condition of your choice to him. You must go with the next order card you reveal which could, in theory, be Lando Calrissian again. This means that if you pull Lando last in your deck, you should almost always use this ability to at least generate 2 force and gain a benefit from Hedged Bets but don’t forget that you are putting conditions on yourself when doing it!
Finally, we have Lando’s unique identity called Conflicting Responsibilities. This ability alone is why the entire box is worth it because with every release, it will only get better. At the end of setup, you get to choose one of two tags to apply to Lando, Rebel Alliance or Galactic Empire. Additionally, whenever you reveal an order card, you may choose an allied Scoundrel Unit to gain one of the tags Lando has. This means that ANY Scoundrel in the game has the option to become Empire or Rebel alliance when fighting alongside Lando, giving you some deep options for list building. I’m going to eagerly look at any new scoundrel, empire, and rebel release now and consider how they fit in a What Have We Here shell.
When it comes to combat, there is an obvious benefit to shooting with Lando. Taking a quick look at his Idiot’s Array side, we notice decent dice and expertise for ranged and poor dice for melee but it’s at least an option. His defense is honestly fine even though he doesn’t get many blocks from expertise. The ability to shut off 2 crits on 3 while rolling 6 dice is reasonable. The tree itself can spike early in damage giving you 5 damage on 3 successes with a shove/heal. I tend to focus on the early parts of the tree just because it’s what’s most likely to consistently happen. Overall, this side is good enough to get work done but… it’s no Pure Sabacc. With his other stance, Lando takes a sizable hit to defense rolling 5 dice with poor expertise but he gains one of the best ranged profiles in the game. 1-2 expertise for 2 hits and 3-4 for 4 hits is outstanding, especially considering he rolls 8 dice. This tree is also shove city! If Lando wants you off a point, you best believe you are getting off that point. He can technically shove 4 times on 5 successes which is a feat not many characters are capable of. The tree does get weird with the criss-crossing but all you really need to know is that the max damage you can do is 8 on this side.
Lobot
Our next Bespin-themed character is Lobot, Computer Liaison Officer. Equipped with a cyborg construct on his head, this security officer is the definition of efficiency and since he is worth 5 pts, we hope that counts for something.
This secondary only has 8 health which is already a bit scary for 5 pts however, Lobot has a plethora of support options to warrant his low health pool. Detain is a powerful tactic that allows any allied scoundrel character to take a dash. Global tactics should always be valued highly and the option to pin/disarm an enemy within 3 is just a bonus. Keep in mind that Lobot is an allied scoundrel and therefore, can pick himself for this dash.
His second ability is Security Network for a force. He unfortunately can’t choose himself on this one but he can choose another allied scoundrel secondary or supporting character within 4 to dash and attack a contesting enemy. Tactical Networks are pretty common at this point, especially from Droids, but what really makes this ability shine is that you can target a secondary with it. The options lead to some pretty powerful repositions and attacks with the best option likely being just Wrecker. His expertise is outstanding for low die rolls! But outside of that, you have so many different bounty hunters with the scoundrel tag and unique trees such as Jango that this ability has major upsides.
Keeping with the support theme, Lobot can focus allies that end a movement within 2 of him allowing impact and sharpshooter characters to love being on his team. The best part of this ability is that it’s tag neutral and free until he gets wounded but let’s talk about his final ability, Lockdown.
This ability, in case you are wondering, is actually as good as it sounds. The intention from AMG has been made clear that if you want a point Lobot is contesting, you must wound him. His 8 health now makes a ton more sense because if our cybernetic friend was too difficult to remove, then he would almost undoubtedly lockdown the game. While it’s fun to just say no, that type of action can result in some negative play experiences. Fortunately, his stance card isn’t helping his defense too much to prevent him from getting knocked out.
With 5 dice against ranged and melee, Lobot doesn’t have a ton of defensive tech. His one real trick is that he will always disarm with expertise as long as he isn’t exposed. Disarm does nothing vs the current attack but say a support decides to put both attacks into him, the second will likely be disarmed.
His offensive expertise is slightly above average. Lobot doesn’t drop dice until his 3rd expertise which 2 is often what you should expect on a 7 die attack. He shoves on 1 and 3 allowing him decent control of the battlefield but he also has yet another way to disarm enemies. Between Detain, his defensive expertise, and his second attack success, Lobot likes to keep his enemies disarmed.
Wing Guard
The security force of Cloud City is composed of the Wing Guard. This unit only costs 3 pts so immediately you know they can fit into most lists. At the same time, 3 cost units tend to be on the weak side and might not be worth your time. Let’s see what the guards have to offer!
Right away we see 8 health with 2 stamina and the tags Bespin, Scoundrel, and Trooper. The Bespin tag means nothing but Trooper might be something depending on who you pair them with. The main tag is without a doubt scoundrel which synergizes perfectly with Lobot and Lando himself.
Their only active ability is Headlong Assault which allows for a dash and conditional focus/impact. This ability is their bread and butter as it gives them movement and gets their melee dice up to a respectable 8. Notably, melee defense tends to be worse for most supports and even some secondaries so having melee focused models isn’t a bad thing as long as they have a ranged option as well.
The other two static abilities are quality of life adjustments. Having a 3 pt cost model often means they don’t have as impactful a turn as say… your 5 pt secondary Lobot. Well have no fear, the Wing Guard can reserve for free with Rapid Response Team. They also offer some resilience in the form of steadfast thanks to Security Force. As long as they are contesting an active objective, they ignore the first push and that’s really the best time to be steadfast.
Fortunately, they do indeed have a ranged profile but it’s unusual. 5 dice at range 4 is miserable and not likely going to do much for you however, their expertise offers a rate of 1 for 2 strikes which might make up for that. They regrettably only have the one step for their ranged expertise so anymore then 2 expertise means you are just rolling fails. That being said, melee is where they want to be as long as they use Rapid Response Team.
Defensively, they have clone armor and prefer melee hits to ranged hits so expect them to go down quickly. The tree does offer 2 pushes if you can get 4 steps down but their damage output is lacking. I don’t hope for much more than 2 damage and a pin on whoever I’m attacking.
Overall, the Wing Guard are extremely cost efficient, have a great tag in Scoundrel, and can throw a good amount of melee dice to hope for those shoves. They fall behind defensively and don’t have the best tree to displace your opponent but they are only 3 pts after all.
Lando’s box isn’t a meta defining thing but What Have We Here will almost certainly change the landscape of the game. Altering tags is extremely powerful and raises the list building ceiling by a significant margin. I highly recommend this box to anyone wanting to think outside the box and shove your opponent to oblivion with Lando’s pistol. Happy Shatterpointing everyone!
