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#79 Battle Droid Squad, Assault Unit
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Entry: 7 September 1999
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy.
Compiled by jinnandtonic, September 1999.
Thoughts? You like this? You hate this? Email me!
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy is THE card strategy reference for Decipher's Young Jedi CCG. Starting with the first expansion, 'The Menace of Darth Maul', each individual card will be discussed until it can be discussed no further. Nevertheless, if I have missed something, email me at jinnandtonic@yahoo.com.au, and I will update it accordingly.
jinnandtonic's Grades:
Economy: A
Somewhat surprisingly, this card is quite economical. Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit has deploys for 3 and has Power 4, with a total of Power +3 in location bonuses. While it's Damage of 3 is not altogether lovely, it is not utterly objectionable either. One only has to compare this card with the current benchmark in terms of economical characters (ahem) to see that well, this card is not *that* far off. Note the fairly pleasing Destiny of 4, also.
Decipher: B+
A similar complaint to that which I noted in my Destroyer Droid Squad / Security Division entry is also aired here. A Battle Droid Squad, with a base Power of 4, considering that your standard single Battle Droid has a Power of 2? Eh? Well this time it is a bit less dubious, simply because I am not all that convinced that multiples of Battle Droids would increase their total strength to any great degree. How many Battle Droids did Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn effortlessly slay during SW: Episode I? I've ran out of fingers. And the location bonuses fit in okay, given that the card is an 'assault unit'. Reasonable enough overall.
Overall Usefulness: A-
Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit is a very economical character, probably one of the top five most economical characters in the game. Unfortunately, (and I have iterated over this several times already) it is a red-dot character card. In other words, this card is directly competing with the indefatigable Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter for inclusion in your Dark Decks. I suppose it is a bit like being the next magic act after David Copperfield, or the next animated comedy series to follow The Simpsons (smirk), but that is just the way it is. Fortunately, there is at least one wonderful theme deck opportunity using this card, which makes it that little bit more useful overall.
FLAVOR TEXT: "There are too many of them!" -- Captain Panaka
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CARD FACTS:
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RARE, RED-DOT, STACKABLE
Deploy: 3
Power: 4
Destiny: 4
Damage: 3
Power Bonuses:
Tatooine/Mos Espa: +1
Tatooine/Desert Landing Site: +1
Tatooine/Podrace Arena +1
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Multi Troop Transport
[#115, Menace of Darth Maul, Uncommon, Non-Unique, Orange-Dot]
This Battle card gives any Destroyer Droid Power +2 and a Destiny ? draw in battle, or a Destiny ? draw to any Battle Droid in battle. Unless you are planning on trying out a joint "droids" theme (see #78 Destroyer Droid Squad / Defense Division), *don't* use this card. There are better Power bonuses and Destinies available elsewhere.
STAP
[#116, Menace of Darth Maul, Uncommon, Non-Unique, Orange-Dot]
This Battle card gives any Battle Droid Power +2 and a Destiny ? draw in battle. Very nice, although the Destiny of 3 could be better. Obviously this is the perfect card for the totally Battle Droid dedicated deck, (coming soon, a few scrolls down...) and is quite similar to the Light Gungan card Kaadu.
Battle Droid Blaster Rifle
[#118, Menace of Darth Maul, Common, Non-Unique, Orange-Dot]
This Battle card gives any Battle Droid or any Neimoidian Power +1 and a Destiny ? draw in battle. It is slightly tricky to work out which is the superior Battle card to use with Battle Droids, (STAP vs. Battle Droid Blaster Rifle) and it largely depends on what kind of cards you decide to use. If you don't have many Battle Droid Squad / Assault Units, you may be forced to plug the red-dot category with Neimodians, so then this card is probably the better option. A combination of both Battle cards is likely still better.
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IN BRIEF:
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Another jack-in-the-box card which you may overlook until you actually think about how useful it actually is. I certainly had never used this card in a deck (or even considered the possibility) until I set down to write the review, and was pleasantly surprised at just how good it actually is. Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit has one more Destiny than Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter, and one less Power. That is pretty close to perfection if you ask me. Further, there are better theme opportunities to be exploited with Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit than Aurra Sing, due to the fact that the Battle Droid theme is the most comprehensively implemented in YJCCG at present. In my opinion, if Decipher want a template showing the extent to which each individually conceivable themei YJCCG can be realisable, then the Battle Droid theme is the one to look at. And the scary thing is, there are more of the mechanical contraptions to come! Roger Roger!
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* Wow! It is time to build a theme that can spread across all dot-colors! Amazing! For red, we will use 10 copies of Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit. It feels pretty strange having no problems with this category when building a theme based primarily on non-unique characters, but it is great, isn't it? With the Tatooine / Desert Landing Site location in mind, let's fill blue up with 10 copies of Battle Droid: Infantry / MTT Division, and green up with 10 copies of Battle Droid: Infantry / AAT Division. Okay, now lets look at weapons. The problem in this area is that there are too many to include! With Destiny in mind, let's settle for 4x STAP, 2x Battle Droid Blaster Rifle and 4x Blaster Rifle. If we really want to be effective we might try 10 copies of Blaster Rifle, but that's no fun at all. For Battle cards, try 4x In Complete Control, 1x The Invasion is On Schedule, and 5x Opee Sea Killer. Finally, remember to include multiples of Tatooine/ Desert Landing Site and a few transports to make sure your Battle Droid Squads don't get stranded.
* Don't get ahead of yourself and deploy a Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit when you have an In Complete Control in hand (unless you have some other Battle cards). Remember, In Complete Control can only be used by non-unique Battle Droids! The same applies for The Invasion is On Schedule. Think you finally have those three Battle Droids in play? Think again.
* Battle Droid Squad / Assault Unit + STAP (Destiny = 6) + Opee Sea Killer at Tatooine nets you a total Power of 16. Not bad at all: more than enough Power to clean up those pesky Jedi.
* Style Tip: Mow down those pesky Jedi Ambassadors before they even leave the gas-filled room at the start of the film. What would have happened then?
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ADDITIONS:
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Up to you. Think of anything else cool about his card, or combos that you have used to great effect? What about a particular game in which this card made you win? Send anything like that to jinnandtonic@yahoo.com.au and I'll add it here. Nien Numb, as I recall, mumbled something very similar to the flavor text on this card during the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.
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