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Alliance and Empire Preview 7Jawa Trader and Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel | ||||||
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In May, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars saga, Wizards of the Coast is releasing Alliance and Empire, the next great set for the Star Wars Miniatures Game. Today, we conclude our previews of the new minis with a look at the Jawa Trader and Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel. Jawa Trader
Jawas. Tatooine visitors and residents alike regard these small creatures as deceitful and conniving. Jawas are well-known scavengers that comb the desert for bits of scrap or abandoned technology they can patch up and sell to the planet's far-flung residents. Of course, a Jawa's opinion of what is abandoned doesn't always match that of the owner of the item in question, and more than one unlucky farmer has had to buy his own droid back from a sandcrawler. Still, the Jawas provide a useful (if annoying) service, and their sales form the backbone of their economy. Central to this process are Jawa traders, experienced Jawas that have marginally better social and dealmaking skills than average members of their species. These traders can't be trusted any more than other Jawas -- in fact, they can probably be trusted less -- but they can facilitate local deals or locate obscure technology, which can come in handy in the middle of a desert planet. Of course, a buyer must understand the Jawa Trade Language to negotiate a deal, and he'd better learn it well or the Jawas will use the communication gap to their advantage. In the Star Wars Miniatures Game, the Jawa Trader is an improved version of the original Jawa from the Rebel Storm set. While the stats are largely the same except for cost and Defense, the Jawa Trader gains two special abilities that boost his defensive and offensive capabilities. Cunning Attack makes this character more dangerous to all opponents, and combining this with Ion Gun puts most droids in great danger. Finally, while the Jawa Trader still has only 10 Hit Points, Evade should extend this character's usefulness for another round or two. Faction: Fringe
Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel
A few years before the Battle of Yavin, Lando Calrissian won the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc on Cloud City when a gambler couldn't cover his debt. Not too long after, again in Cloud City, Lando lost the Falcon to Han Solo when he used a marker good for any ship on his second-hand starship lot (not knowing that Han was aware that the Falcon was parked there at the time). Years later, after fighting in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa and the Battle of Taanab, Lando found himself a game of sabacc against the Baron-Administrator of Cloud City, Dominic Raynor. The pot was enormous. Lando bet 4 million credits (loaned to him secretly by Lobot, using pooled funds from the Ugnaughts who desperately wished to get rid of Raynor) and his used starship lot against Raynor's post as Baron-Administrator, and Lando won. The gambler, smuggler, and occasional mercenary suddenly found himself in a respectable position of authority, looking after the well-being of the inhabitants of Cloud City while pulling down a good income from the Tibanna gas mines. Everything was finally working out after years of struggle, years of gaining and losing fortunes, and Lando felt as if he could relax and enjoy the fruits of his labor. And that's when Vader showed up. In the Star Wars Miniatures Game, Lando Calrissian, Dashing Scoundrel is decent for a mid-range Unique follower -- certainly not a "beatstick," but good for supplemental harassing attacks. Mobile Attack and Opportunist produce a nice synergy if you use him as one of your last activations in a round: Move to get a good shot, attack a character that has already activated, and then get back into cover with the rest of your movement. Given that you can move both before and after the attack, you can usually keep Lando out of harm's way without having to use an early activation the following round (or simply leaving him exposed). Even if an enemy moves to get a shot at Lando, Evade will help keep him alive twice as long -- unless the enemy can get adjacent. But that's usually easy enough to avoid as long as you keep Lando more than 6 squares from an enemy. Combined with his respectable Hit Points and Defense, Lando can probably survive for quite a while. Often, your opponent won't want to devote the effort necessary to take him down, given that he's a difficult target and probably fairly low in priority compared to your heavy hitters. Just keep Lando on the edges of the fray, and he can harass enemy characters and thin out the ranks of the cannon fodder for a good chunk of the skirmish. Star Wars Miniatures Game Stat Card Preview Faction: Fringe
About the AuthorsSterling Hershey is an architect and freelance game designer. He regularly creates Star Wars Miniatures and Starship Battles scenarios and previews for the Wizards of the Coast website. He also wrote the Scenario Book for the Attack on Endor Scenario Pack. Previously, he authored and contributed to many Star Wars The Roleplaying Game products from West End Games, as well as Star Wars Gamer Magazine. Gaming in a galaxy far, far away is the focus of his starwars.com blog, Delusions of Grandeur. Sterling lives in the Midwest with his wife, Mary. Gary M. Sarli is a freelance designer, developer, and editor whose credits include the Saga Edition rulebook and Ultimate Adversaries (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) and Power of Faerūn and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (Dungeons & Dragons). He also moderates on the Wizards.COMmunity message boards as WizO the Hutt, cheerfully feeding Code of Conduct violators to the Sarlacc. Gary recently opened GMSarli Games, an online retailer specializing in non-random miniatures packs designed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. | ||||||
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