Now as a Separatist player first and foremost, I am super excited for this Terror from Below set. I love the Clone Wars era, but more than that, it’s great to see it captured so evocatively. I have to point to the incredible scenic base on Riff Tamson, bursting through the ground vent. It’s so often the case that a base scenic lacks any logic from a game perspective, but this neatly gets round it and adds to the cinematic sculpt in the process. Also, his game design is strongly tied to his storyline, leaping forwards using a Force to place after an attack and/or a force to jump and do extra damage on the attack. More importantly, he can jump and make a free 5D attack when an allied Separatist or Scoundrel supporting unit attacks, and with a reactive Force recovery and damage paired to Recovers and Movement on his tree, he is a dangerously unpredictable foe, especially when paired with Bounty Hunting types – suddenly those newly-balanced Weequay pirates look pretty interesting. Watch your back, Mon Cala. A side note, on this: remember Bounty Hunters can add tags, so can be made Aquatic (or, if you’re like me, run Bossk as an Ewok); for example, Aurra Sing, post balance-update, is a very nasty pairing with him.
Nossor Ri, as a Secondary, is pretty decent, though I would really have liked him to have both Separatist and Republic tags to reflect his storyline overall (and provide some interesting tactical choices). He boosts allied Aquatic Units, and can Place himself or allied Separatist/Scoundrel units if they have any damage on them – so again, this really reinforces the idea of hypermobility. His passive allows him switch into reserve when revealed from the order deck, with the added bonus of being immune to ranged attacks if thus reserved. This is incredibly powerful BUT because you will have had to put a card in reserve, if played with Riff (who only has 2F) it limits your option with him – so I suspect I would be more inclined to run him with a Force User (*cough**cough*), which is not a deal-breaker but is somewhat irritating, thematically.
I was super jealous when Legion got Aqua Droids, too, so delighted that now we can bring them to the table as an option (come ON Crab Droids!) With the recent balance update dialling back Magnaguard (boo, I mean, yay, I suppose), it’s good to have some other options – and they are BIG, a hulking 5SP. On paper, they look just fine, but are better than they first appear. With 7D
R5 and 6D in melee, they can put out a lot of damage along their tree, with movement at every step including an optional side track with extra – these buggers are fast. There is a definite sense of speed and action this wave in both the Jedi and Separatist releases, promising some quick and nasty action. Obviously, they’re designed to play off the bonus dice Nossor Ri chucks out (and likewise share have the passive reserve switcheroo); you’re almost certainly going to take them together, which accounts for the fact that they might otherwise feel a wee bit underpowered. Similarly, if you’re using them with Grievous (was my earlier hint too subtle?) you can benefit from his battle droid shenanigans – so that comes together as a solid squad overall. Adding them to Riff, Jango Fett and some Super Battle droids as your other squad and that’s a fierce and highly mobile list.
A note on ratings, as the standard Zatu ratings have slightly different meanings when we look at miniatures:
ARTWORK – the overall aesthetic quality of design of the sculpts, pose variety etc.
COMPLEXITY – How hard they are to build based on sprue layout and assembly instruction, and how demanding they are to paint.
REPLAYABILTY – How much fun they are to play with and how well they fit with other elements of the same faction for listbuilding, or useful as standalone models for rpgs etc.
PLAYER INTERACTION – How much fun they are to play against, and how well they fit the overall game theme
COMPONENT QUALITY – Physical quality of the product and value for money.
Scores:
ARTWORK 4
COMPLEXITY 2
REPLAYABILTY 3
PLAYER INTERACTION 4
COMPONENT QUALITY 4
About the author:
Sam blogs @big_geekingout and as part of bigcomicpage.com with an emphasis on dad-gaming and IP content. Recovering competitive card gamer, infrequent skirmish wargamer, and average boardgamer. Decent Modeller with a fondness for terrain. Enthusiastic if not especially capable miniature Painter. Media and English Teacher, which is a cover for being a movie nerd. Reasonable cook. Occasional Parent.
