How to build your ARF Troopers

Wednesday’s Transmission gave us the full reveal of the upcoming ARF Troopers expansion and finally answered our burning questions about the box’s contents.  What AMG has packed inside is pretty interesting, so I figured with less than two months from the release date it can never be too early to start simmering the ingredients of a good Republic list.  

This won’t be a full comprehensive breakdown of the unit so I'll be forgoing the usual sections on battlecard recommendations and other units with synergies to consider.  However, I’ll still be following the traditional format of expositing on the unit card before discussing builds for it that are either cringe or commendable.  

Those choices will be broken into three categories as follows:

1) Listbuilding decisions that you should be making. These are what I would consider to be the optimal builds for a unit and the best way to invest your 1000 points.  If you're looking to do well with your list and do it "right" then you should start here. 

2) Listbuilding decisions that are "neat."  This section will be comprised of build choices that are either sub-optimal (but not terrible) or that offer fun and interesting interactions that may not be obvious at face value.  The options presented here could easily be part of a tournament winning list, but probably shouldn't comprise the entirety of it. Neat "one-offs" that offer great value can often distract or surprise your opponent and give you an edge that did not exist previously.  Alternatively they may provide solutions to issues that your list struggles with or simply "budget" versions of other entirely different units.  

3) Listbuilding decisions that you should not be making.  These are the decisions that I don't make and won't advocate for you to make either.  While I am by no means infallible, I do believe these are the decisions that cost you games.  You've only 800 points to spend in an army; don't waste them on prodigal decisions that hamper your ability to respond to your opponent.  I won't cover every poor decision you could be making, but I will cover those that I see others making and advocating for that I disagree with.  

I linked the AMG Transmission above, but in case you haven’t seen them yet, I’ll be including the photos from LegionHq2 in this article for you.  

There are a number of keywords on this profile card and they all combine to create what I would describe as a budget friendly, order control ambivalent, diet-Republic Commando unit.  Why do I say this?  Because ARF’s are range four, slow to die, mostly independant and will likely be about as static as Clone Commandos.  

To me, the most striking part of this unit card is the Low Profile keyword.  Someone in glaring white armor does not exactly present a low profile, but nonetheless it’s a really, really strong addition for a range four unit.  It’s not quite as good as the Commando’s shield, but Low Profile is going to make the ARF’s just that much tougher to kill when in heavy cover.  Furthermore, Low Profile takes some of the variance out of your cover roll and opens the door to the possibility of cover removing all incoming hits.  In short, ARF’s are gonna be a tough nut to crack and the difficulty of killing them entirely will probably be on par with that of Commandos. 

Observe 2 is neat, but I think you’ll be hard-pressed to get good value out of it.  For starters, Observe requires range three of the target while all of the ARF’s weapons are range four.  Additionally, two Observe tokens are only better than an aim token if you don’t spend them both, and when ARF’s are throwing 6+ dice each round, you’re going to be spending them both.  The issue with Observe tokens in a Clone list is that the initiative is put into your opponents hands.  

Assuming it is timed correctly and your opponent can’t simply move their unit out of sight, then you’ll still struggle to justify Observing instead of taking an aim token that can be spent by nearby Clone Troopers.  If you put Observe tokens on my commander then I’ll bring corps or Guardian units into range and provide Backup.  If you choose to Observe a corps or other trooper unit, then I’ll just bring my commander into range and Bolster, Exemplar or Take Cover to provide damage mitigation.  

The only circumstance where I could see myself observing instead of aiming is when my ARF Trooper unit is so badly hurt that they cannot provide any meaningful firepower.  Under these circumstances I’m then given the choice of taking a dodge and aim to assist the rest of my army or moving into range three of an enemy unit and observing them instead.  If there’s an abundance of aim tokens already floating around my army (clones can’t share more than one token at a time), and I’m sure my ARF’s won’t get killed by moving forward, then I’d choose to observe rather than just aim and dodge.  Frankly, the only plan I’d make to utilize those Observe tokens is if I’m running ARFs alongside Commander Cody and some vehicles.  

The last two keywords to mention are Unhindered and Scout 1.  Both of these keywords can normally be acquired through gear upgrades, but ARFs don’t have that slot so AMG baked in two of the more popular keywords beforehand.  It’s a pity Targeting Scopes can’t be taken on ARFs, but it’s probably for the best.  Unhindered will probably be a dead keyword in most of your matchups (Environmental Gear is only valued at 2 points), but when it’s free who’s gonna complain.  After all, you never know when it may win you a game.  

Scout 1 makes this unit remind me all the more of Clone Commandos.  That free speed-1 move should allow you to start the game with an aimed shot on objectives like Close the Pocket (Look at me, I’m a Range Trooper!) and an un-aimed shot on other objectives that don’t have side-deployments.  While not quite as powerful as Low Profile, this is probably the second most meaningful keyword on the Advanced Recon Force Trooper unit card.  

1) Listbuilding decisions that you should be making.

The Dynamic Duo

There it is, my favorite keyword in Star Wars Legion!  Nothing says good times like untouchable tokens that require no work to create. Oh Cache, it’s been too long…

Cache: Surge is no replacement for Reliable 1, but it’s nearly the same for a single round so therefore it’s like 20% as good or something like that.  During round one this Cache: Surge could allow for a sweet, highly modified shot wherein the ARFs fire with their own aim and surge and then borrow another token from all the other Clones that couldn’t make it into shooting range during the first round.  Cache good, please bring.  

The Duo is also great because they are the cheapest and most efficient-for-the-points upgrade the ARF Troopers can equip.  You’re paying 13 points per body, which is the going rate for the extra body in a corps unit, except these fifth and sixth troopers can shoot at range four and bring an extra surge token when they arrive.  I think it’s really neat to see AMG explore the possibilities of making a squad larger and more capable, but without double-stuffing it like you do with a corps squad. 

Once your ARFs get to six bodies, it’s gonna be demoralizing for your opponent to do the work of killing them.  Not only will you engage from further than most units, but you’ll have the laughably wild combo of Low Profile, red defense dice, courage two and the Clone Trooper keyword to buoy you up no matter the incoming fire.  It’s an interesting choice to not give the ARFs a second heavy weapon option, but on the flip-side the personnel slot for ARFs is actually incredibly viable.  Normally the upgrade option viabilities are inverted, but I really like this new direction.  From my perspective, these guys are the standard upgrade for ARF troopers.  

Echo

Finally, a good place to take Echo that’s not a strike team!  He costs a ton of points, but if you’re looking to purchase a punishing range four dice pool then look no further.  Immune: Deflect means you can safely fire at Jedi and Sith alike while those two consistent red dice add real teeth to your shots.   Reliable 1 will help with your defense and offense, but do you know what’s better than Reliable?  Critical 1!  Critical is gonna give you a soft (and long range) answer to armor and a neat way to force hits on dodge holding enemies. Combine Echo and the Duo and math says you should find two Crits on each shot!  But I'm getting ahead of myself, let’s move on to the build I'm most excited to try.  

Super ARF’s

This build is wildly pricey at 148 points, but it looks like a heap of fun.  From this point on I'm just going to assume you're bringing the Duo in each squad, it’s simply a no-brainer.  This build is nearly 50% more than an equivalent Range Trooper team, but it’s far more mobile, throws more dice and has slightly better defence (Armor 1 vs. Low Profile/Reliable 1). You’ll have eight health, good offensive modifications, good defensive modifications and the ability to pop Emergency Transponders when you want a second aim to help make those shots pierce.  If you’re running this squad alongside a team or two of Commandos, you’ll have a withering range four gunline that’ll keep heads down while your ARCs or heroes move forward.   Again, it’s crazy pricey, but without aiming you’re expecting at least five hits on each shot.  Add in Lethal 1 and at range four you’ll have everyone hunting for hard cover.  

2) Listbuilding decisons that are "neat." 

The Clone Commander

Now you might be wondering why I didn’t place this guy in the “decisions you should be making” section.  After all, he’s the most popular Squad Leader by a long shot.  Allow me to defend my decision.  First of all, the Clone Commander is 58% of the cost of Echo.  The Commander brings one health, Reliable 1, Inspire 1 and a single attack die.  Whereas Echo the Chad brings 2 health, Reliable 1, Critical 1, Lethal 1 and Immune: Deflect for only 22 more points.  Upgrading to Echo is a no brainer man, Clones don’t really need Inspire and Echo brings Pierce.  There are so many guns in this game that cost more than 22 points and don’t bring Pierce.  Lethal is good, so bring Echo.  

Now Echo is of course quite expensive, so perhaps you’ve not the points for him or you’ve already taken him.  In this circumstance, I suppose you can bring the Commander.  But I wouldn’t just slap the Commander on without thinking about it.  Be sure you need him before burning those thirty points on what amounts to essentially a single attack die and surge token.  

My second argument against taking the Clone Commander is because he belongs on ARCs instead, primarily in 501st lists where the low corps count makes for a limited number of available surges.  In this circumstance the Commander is a no-brainer and you’ll likely be taking two or more of them.  Commanders share the same weapon as the squad they’re inserted into, meaning that a Commander in an ARC team will roll two dice, but in ARFs he’ll only roll one.  Now I’d like to argue that one die at range four is pretty darn comparable to two dice at range two.  Double the range with half the sting is a fair exchange because it’s literally just the inverse of your other unit.  But just because the trade-off is fair, doesn’t mean the Commander is still a good idea.  

ARFs will be playing the gunline battle alongside other range 3-4 units and will need surges less because they’ll defend less (being further away) and have nearby allies to steal surges from (corps and Echo).  ARCs have a different and more aggressive role that requires them to have surges for defense or they’ll just get wiped.  ARFs can certainly benefit from the Clone Commander, but he’s just too many points for such a small increase in offensive potential.  

Smoke Grenades

There’s a "neat" little interaction with Smoke Grenades that allows you to bring Low Profile online once per game when you need it.  Smoke Grenades do give cover to your opponents as well, but in my experience light cover is basically no cover.  For this reason, I don’t normally recommend Smoke Grenades, however Low Profile changes the equation.  So go ahead and give both yourself and your opponent light cover, because the trade will be in your favor.  Just be sure your smoke token doesn’t stack on top of your opponent’s suppression cover or another piece of light cover they’re behind.

But if you’re looking to spend three more points in your Grand Army of the Republic list, then make sure you’ve got Impact Grenades or Droid Poppers on your ARC Troopers before you put smokes on your ARFs.  

Emergency Transponder 

The only comms upgrade worth taking on ARFs.  It’s not cheap, but sometimes the token it gives could swing an engagement decisively in your favor.  It’s four points, so make sure your other units have what they need to succeed before dumping points into trinkets like this.  

3) Listbuilding decisions that you should not be making. 

The Clone Captain

This Squad Leader right here is my favorite one in the Republic.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t mesh all that well with the ARF troopers. Unless you’ve got a Clone Commander directing Fives who is in turn bouncing an order to your ARFs each round (not the best Coordinate choice) you’ll be hard pressed to trigger Defend 1.  With only five opportunities to play command cards, it’s unlikely you can find more than two good chances to issue your ARFs orders.  While 501st does have a pair of cards that order SF units, you’ll likely be leaving those cards at home whenever you bring a hero.  I really, really love the Clone Captain, but this is the wrong place to put him.

Hunter/Offensive Push

Training upgrades haven’t been meta in quite some time, and ARFs aren’t going to change that. Sure, the extra range from your guns can open up more possibilities to shoot at wounded units, but the stipulation that these wounded units must be troopers is disappointing.  If Hunter could trigger off of vehicles, then we could really go Aqua hunting.  Unfortunately, training upgrades on anything non-hero just feel like wasted points these days.  

Fives

Yet another great Squad Leader that doesn’t mesh in this squad.  Fives is only range three, we just discussed the difficulty of getting tokens to your special forces, and Charge is the antipathy of range four.  Even Fives’ courage is wasted on ARFs who are typically going to be on the outskirts of a battle and not receiving much return fire.  I seriously doubt you needed me to tell you this, but the only place Fives belongs is in a corps unit.  

Grenades that aren’t smoke

Grenades require you to be at range one, you don’t want to be at range one, let’s move on.

The Jedi Guardian

Yet again another Squad Leader to avoid taking.  You don’t want Charge, you don’t want to be in melee and you don’t want to throw away 22 points.  This upgrade is in the box for ARC troopers.  I really wish we could have just bought a small box with three of these guys in it, but I think they’re in the ARF box to help move product.  I don’t plan on doing it myself, but I imagine there will be a number of players purchasing more ARFs than they need simply to acquire more Jedi Guardians.  

This gif works for both of these two included upgrades.

The RPS-6

We’re entering into the realm of personal bias here, but I don't like cumbersome weapons anymore. I enjoy the new and mobile world of 2.6 and cumbersome weapons don’t jive well here.  There’s a reason we’re not seeing the Mortar Trooper or corps variant of the RPS-6.  Yes, the remainder of the ARF squad being range four certainly helps the launcher’s viability, but I just don’t see it being that good for the price. For just two more points you could bring the duo instead, find roughly the same amount of hits and earn an additional wound and surge token.  

Even if you build the squad without the duo (a mistake), then the BARFPS-6 is still 20 points more than an AT-RT with the Laser Cannon.  If you’re looking for Impact, then the RT does it better.  If you’re looking for passively modded offense dice, then the RT does it better.  If you’re looking to defend against incoming fire, then the GA-RT’s Armor 2 is about on par with Low Profile (provided you can find cover).  I don’t like the RPS-6, and I just struggle to foresee a world in which you’d take it.  

Naked ARFs

You remember earlier how I said it was a no-brainer to include the duo?  Well, if it takes no brains to include them, then not including them must mean you have negative brains or something.  I’m not good with math, but them’s the rules.

Honestly I just don’t know why you would ever make this choice.  Naked corps units are cheaper and offer more to your army, naked ARCs still make for good diversions and the AT-RT with a Laser Cannon makes for a far more efficient unit for only four points more.  Some may think that stripped ARFs could be used as activation padding like you might a corps unit.  You may think to yourself “I’m only paying ten more points to upgrade my corps units and increase its range to four and become more useful.”  But if we’re being honest, Reliable 1 is more useful than four black dice at range four.  You may yet prove me wrong, but I just don’t think naked ARFs are worth the time.  Don’t take the ARFs without the duo.  The duo is the cheapest way to increase the efficiency of the unit and is a staple as far as I’m concerned. 

That’s all that I’ve to say about building out the ARF Troopers.  They’re rather straightforward to build and are certainly going to add versatility to the Republic army.  I foresee them being played in quantities of 1-2 as either the Super ARF’s I discussed earlier or just two squads each equipped with a duo.  I think they’re going to edge out Clone Commandos in some lists as a cheap backline unit while also working beside them in the majority of their deployments.  ARF’s are going to be a staple in 501st since an ARF team with the duo is 2 points cheaper than an ARC with a Clone Commander.  Furthermore, being a special forces unit means you’ll retain the incredible order control 501st is known for.  They’ll by no means replace ARC’s versatility, but if you’re looking to play a list with slightly more range game than the average 501st then something along these lines will do nicely:

I plan on picking up two boxes of ARFs when they release, though the second box may turn out to be just for the Jedi.  I’m making a bold prediction that two Jedi Guardians are probably the right amount for almost any Republic list.  Clones still desperately need surges, so unless you’re playing Aggressive Tactics or going corps heavy you’re still gonna need to bring the Clone Commander with you.  

This expansion obviously has some synergy with Cody via observe tokens, which then begs the question of why Waxer and Boil weren’t part of this box.  They are ARF troopers, AMG has released the same unit in multiple forms before, so why not now?  

Lastly, I’d like to know how long until we get to take ARF Troopers in Wookiee Defenders.  Kashyyyk is the only film appearance of ARF Troopers we’ve got and it feels odd to not include them in that battleforce.  My guess is that they’re not planning to do so anytime soon since we’ve known for half a year that Clone Marksmen and ARFs were going to enter the 501st Battleforce.  If AMG hasn’t said it yet, it may not be happening.  Regardless, it’s always great to see new units pumping fresh blood into the game of Legion.  Now go out there and spill oil for the Republic!