There has been a wealth of releases this year for Star Wars: Shatterpoint. The amount of squad packs and the range of units they’ve covered is immense. Yet towards the end of the year, Atomic Mass Games have dropped a little surprise, a little variation compared to these releases. Enter the very first unit pack for the game. So, what is a unit pack? The unit pack, at least in this case, provides players not with a whole squad, but a selection of units that can be used to enhance squads and provide more options for squad building. Every unit in this pack is a secondary. Up till now, Shatterpoint has always provided squad packs that have synergy, with secondaries to drop into these synergised units, will there be enough there to warrant the replacement?
So, what units do you start with for this new venture? Bounty Hunters – obviously! The last few releases for the year are definitely focused more on The Empire Strikes Back and to bring in four bounty hunters does seem natural. I say four – and they are four awesome ones – but they do miss two: 4-LOM and Zuckuss. It is a shame that not all the bounty hunters are included but I can only guess that this pair will need to be a supporting unit and will be released in a future set. Rather than looking too far to the horizon, I need to get back to the now. So, let’s look at the four bounty hunters we do have.
Opening the box is the usual sprue, bases, cards and leaflet. Follow the QR code will take you to the instructions that begin with the man himself, Boba Fett. So, the build has many little pieces but they’re easy enough. The cape he has at the back has a small attachment, which concerns me slightly if he gets knocked. However, I’m skimming over the build because what is really evident while you are building, is the sheer amount of detail in this model. It’s insane. Boba – of course – has lots of detail to his armour anyway. But the care the sculptor has taken on this is incredible. You’re gluing on the arms, and you can see the Wookiee braids, you can see every single one of the pouches on his belt, it all works beautifully. I’m not even sure you really need to put the helmet on last with this model, yet it is so cool to end by putting it on that I’m glad it’s the last piece. This is a stunning model!
Dengar is up next and there are a lot of steps for him; almost twice as many as Boba. Even with so many steps, he is surprisingly easy to put together and nothing should cause you much trouble. I said Boba was full of detail, Dengar takes this to a whole new level. The detail on this model is incredible form the detailing on the backpack to the armour, to the bandages around his head. I appreciate that they have gone with a Dengar that resembled the version from The Empire Strikes Back as opposed to the Clone Wars. I don’t mind the latter, but much prefer the former. The pose for this model is hands down the best of this entire box. The way the rifle is slung over his shoulder, the way he lounges around with binders. The fact his foot is on a cage with a Kowakian monkey lizard. This model by itself is telling a story of this bounty hunter and I love it. The monkey lizard is a really nice touch and helps to really elevate this model. I’d go as far to say that this is one of the best models for the entire game that Atomic Mass Games has done, and that’s saying something!
Then it is Bossk. Again – and I’m going to start sounding like a broken record with this set – this is a simple enough set to put together. There are a couple of fiddly pieces but nothing that someone who is entering the hobby wouldn’t be able to do. It’s a step up from sets like ‘What Have We Here’ due to them being much shorter, but this is certainly the next part of the progression of skills. And again, it all comes to the detail. Bossk looks incredible. The fact that his head and jaw have to be glued together, is because of the detail on the inside of the moth. The scales are extremely well done, and I can see why these pieces were split to ensure the scales were captured well enough. The fact that Bossk is standing on a Wookiee bowcaster feels extremely thematic, as is the angry stance the bounty hunter is in.
That just leaves IG-88. Like the others, this build won’t tax you too much, there’s even an optional build for the back, although I can’t really see why you would leave it off. The only part that was slightly frustrating were the legs. I found looking at the join from the back helped, and as soon as I had glued them, I glued the feet to the base to make sure that the droid would stand correctly. It’s a different pose to IG-11 from the Mandalorian pack, but I would have liked somehow to have a bit more variation. I appreciate that with a droid like IG that that would be extremely difficult to achieve. Because of that, the pose here is the weakest out of the four. Not bad, and without IG actually flying through an explosion, I don’t even know how you would make a pose to equal the first three. Having IG-11 released doesn’t help either, as these details we’ve seen, so it loses some of that wow factor that the others have.
All in all, this is one of the best boxes Atomic Mass Games have released for Shatterpoint in terms of sculpts. Even with the slightly lackluster IG-88, this set looks incredible together (not that you can have them all together!). The detail is amazing, and this is a really good step up from the more simpler sets that players can purchase.
Onto the cards themselves. Before even looking at the details held within the cards, you can’t help but notice the incredible artwork on them. Ludovic Moulliere has really captured the hunters in a superb way, the cartoon style working perfectly for these characters. Danger – in particular – looks rather terrifying and ready to take anyone down with those eyes! Although the artwork is gorgeous, it’s not going to help us play the game! So, the first unit box to be released and we have four secondaries that players can utilise. This is all about choice for players, giving players as many possible options for their squad building. With that in mind, the four units are a range of point costs, with one three-point cost, one five point cost and two four point cost units. The latter makes sense as this is the most common point cost of a secondary – at least for now. Having a range of costs gives players possibilities and for a tabletop game, that’s exactly what is needed.
I’ll begin with Fett, because, well… It’s Fett! One of the most popular characters in the whole franchise, Fett costs four points to include him in your squad. He comes with the keyword’s bounty hunter and mercenary, in fact the only one in this set to only have two keywords (well technically, more of that in a moment). Whether ranged or melee, he is rolling seven dice for attacking and four dice for defense, although that defense is Beskar armour and likely to result in a fair few successes. He can do a maximum of eight damage on his combat tree, adding a few conditions as well as activating one of his own abilities. It seems like a solid tree and one I would expect from a character like Boba Fett. Moving onto his abilities and I’m going to jump straight to his innate ability: Hired Hand. While he only has two named keywords, that’s because he has to select the other depending on how you want to run him, similar to how Kallus works. I’m liking this function as it allows for more varied play with units and is very thematic. For Fett, he can either have the Galactic Empire keyword or Scoundrel. I’m not going to lie, seeing him working alongside the likes of Crosshairs sounds scary! Fett has a tactic – in fact all the units in this set do come with a tactic – that allows Fett at the start of his activation to jump or make a five dice attack against a primary unit. Thematic to the last (in my best Tarkin voice). Either Fett is moving in by jumping or he’s attacking. I can’t imagine players taking Fett wanting to keep him out of the fray for long. I also like that if you have a lot of levels in your terrain – which in fact I do – that Fett can navigate them very quickly. Fett has two active abilities, which are the ones that can be triggered by his combat tree. Both cost a force and are ‘Knee Rockets’ and ‘Whipcord launcher’. They are simple and straightforward: the former allows you to choose two enemy units within three who both receive a damage; the latter allows you to choose one unit within three and they gain disarm and pinned. I love these are simple and yet so thematic to the character. Fett isn’t complicated, he just has a lot of tricks up his sleeves (or in this case knees). This is what I want from a character that I have adored since I was a child, that feeling of nostalgia, of bringing the character to the tabletop. His final ability, a reactive one, is called ‘Dead or Alive’. When an enemy primary unit ends its activation, Boba can jump towards them. That means Fett, in theory, could be moving twice (possibly three with a Shatterpoint card) from your enemy movements, one from his tactic (possibly two if you use your own Shatterpoint card). That’s a huge amount of movement, particularly if you want to focus on a primary unit. Again, it’s not complicated but exactly how I would want Fett to work. There is that five-year-old in me and I can hear him shouting ‘Knee Rockets’ and ‘’Dead or Alive’ as I’m playing. I might have to want my opponent this probably will happen! There’s nothing quite like nostalgia!
The other four-point cost secondary in the set is Dengar. I’m not going to lie, I thought Dengar would have been the three point and Bossk the four, so lets’ see why it’s this way around. He has the keywords Bounty Hunter, Mercenary and Scoundrel. On his stance card, Dengar is rolling five dice in ranged but eight in melee, even getting a better number of defensive dice in melee. He can do a maximum of seven damage in melee and ranged. The choice on his tree really goes between adding conditions or shoving your opponent. It’s interesting, nothing as impressive as Fett, particularly as there’s no ability that can activate. So surely, his abilities are where the same cost of Fett must have been spent. His tactic is that he can dash towards an enemy. Pretty standard for a unit these days. He has two reactive abilities and two innate abilities. The first reactive ability – Payday – is the only one that costs a force. After you reveal an order card, Dengar can have a tag of your choice till the end of the turn. Now although Fett can choose between two tags, this ability allows Dengar to fit into a lot more squads. Yes it costs a force but it means when you need that tag, you can give it to Dengar. His other reactive ability is ‘Explosive Regards’. When Dengar is wounded in melee, he can roll five dice and the attacking unit takes a dame for each hit and crit. Very handy, particularly as you want Dengar in melee. His innate abilities are ‘Being Underestimated Has Its Values’ and ‘Not Just A Pretty Face.’ The former allows you to put bounty hunter order cards in reserve for one for less. This works well when you might want to be spending that force to give Dengar a tag. The other ability means that Dengar has steadfast and is immune to being pinned. Any sort of immunity on units is immensely helpful. At the same cost as Fett, Dengar clearly needs to bring something different. He is more adaptable than Fett and I think he is more about manipulating the order deck and allowing Dengar to benefit from tags. Fett on the other hand is a rush in and do the job type of unit. They’re different enough, but still keeping in character, to each offer something to squads.
Bossk is the cheapest unit in this set costing only three points, which means that you can certainly afford some more expensive supporting units. But seeing Fett and Dengar, is the reduction in cost worth the reduction in the power of the unit? Looking at his stance card it’s almost an easy yes. Seven dice for ranged attacks and six for melee is nothing to grumble at, particularly as he can do a maximum of eight damage. Lots of shoves with some conditions, it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t pick him over Dengar! Then his tactic, and it’s insane. If he doesn’t have strained, he removes all damage and conditions on himself when he activates. Are you kidding me? You’ve got to make sure that you wound Bossk otherwise it’s all for nothing. It’s certainly in keeping with the character but at three points cost, he seems like a bargain, and I haven’t even got to everything else! His active ability is one of two that costs one force and allows you to choose an enemy unit within five. You roll five attack dice, and the unit suffers a damage for each expertise rolled. Bossk can then dash. Handy when you want to soften (or finish) the enemy up. The other ability that costs a force is payday, the same as Dengar, which allows Bossk to have any tag you want. The final ability is ‘We Have A Job To Do’. When another bounty hunter is wounded, Bossk may dash toward the character and make a five dice attack against the unit that caused the wound. I’m not going to lie, I prefer Bossk to Dengar, particularly when Bossk is cheaper. That said, I wonder if his regeneration ability will put a target on his back so he won’t be able to do all the cool things he can. Then again, if it keeps the rest of my units free from harassment, it might be worth it.
Finally, it’s the five point cost unit: IG-88B. Just the fact they’ve put the correct letter on IG is amazing, particularly from someone who loved the Tales of the Bounty Hunters from the Legends line. IG comes with four tags: bounty hunter, droid, mercenary and scoundrel. With so many tags it isn’t surprising that he doesn’t have the payday ability, but it does mean he’s a bit less flexible. So as the most expensive unit in this set, what do your points get you? In melee and ranged he’s rolling seven dice, doing a maximum of eight damage on the tree but in melee he can easily make this nine. There’s lots of conditions and shoves here and his tree is the most complex out of the four units in the set, so much more flexible in terms of what you want to do with your opponent. His defense is also impressive, five dice ranged (four melee) and with enough expertise, he can reposition himself. Fairly good so far but not what I would think of as five points. His tactic allows IG-88B to dash and then if there’s one or more enemies within five, he can focus. Again, not too bad. Out of the other three abilities IG-88B has, only one doesn’t cost a force, ‘Calculated Plans’. This allows IG to reroll two misses of expertise dice in an attack. As someone who never seems to do well on rolls, this could be extremely useful, particularly as it doesn’t cost a force. ‘Always Gets the Job Done’ costs one force and allows IG to pick an enemy unit within two. Rolling three defense dice, any success rolls, the unit gains strained, any expertise they gain disarmed and any misses they gain exposed. Obviously, you are wanting as many different symbols as possible. This sounds a very handy way to up those conditions onto an opponent, particularly if you have another unit to follow up with it. The last ability is ‘I Engineer Success, yet… It Eludes Me’ which also costs a force. When a bounty hunter attacks a target contesting an objective you don’t control, you can add three dice. But, if you don’t wound him, you lose one momentum. This seems ok but that’s a lot of ifs and buts to make it actually pay off. For the extra cost over the other units, I’m really not sure if IG is worth it, there’s some nice little bits but not ones that justify the extra cost.
It’s easy to judge units by their cards, but how do they actually play in battle? My son and I decided to play a game using all four bounty hunters and tried to split them accordingly. However, one thing that did become evident was the limitation of era. These characters can only be used in the Age of Rebellion era. While that might not seem like such a hindrance, when we were trying to create our squads, the units we really wanted to combine them with (like Cad Bane and Hondo) we couldn’t. While an older Boba doesn’t make sense to have as cross era, Bossk and Dengar, who appear much like they do here in the Clone Wars, doesn’t make sense. It wouldn’t stop me buying the set, however with such great abilities, great models, it’s a little frustrating that the use of them isn’t also great. Of course, Atomic Mass Games will have reasons for doing this and with a few more releases, this may not be as much of an issue.
In the end, my son settled on an Empire led team with Vader and Lando primaries, taking Boba and Dengar. I on the other hand has a sort of Rebel team, with Jedi Luke leading with the other primary being The Mandalorian. This meant I’d be running Bossk and IG-88B. Did I let my son pick – in my opinion – the better two bounty hunters? Perhaps, but let’s see what actually happens.
So, as it turns out, I had the better bounty hunters and that became very evident very quickly. Let’s start with what I think is the top hunter in all of this: IG-88B. While I thought at five points he wasn’t all that, he most certainly is. The rerolls are very helpful, particularly as there is no force cost and my rolls are usually shocking. Yet when I activated, I was able to move straight to Boba Fett, use ‘Always Gets the Job Done’ to soften Boba up (and rolled all three symbols meaning his Beskar wasn’t getting used for the attack) and then wounded Boba in a single attack. My son’s face just dropped and even I was like yikes. We were on a walkway and Boba was shoved over the side. My son then sent some Bespin Guards, they didn’t last long either and were summarily dumped over the side of the walkway. It was very cinematic and gave me a huge appreciation for this droid that took three full attacks from different units to even wound him (which then triggered Bossk… well you can see things just weren’t going well for my son on that side of the board!). Five points is a big ask but IG delivers. He is like a tank. Send him in and the job definitely does get done! He is easily the highlight of this set and also proof why you need to play games with these units and not just judge them by the cards!
Bossk was our second favourite of the four. He has a good damage output and was even able to go against Vader and cause some serious damage. My son’s face was very surprised when Bossk started dealing out so much damage. The Trandoshan would certainly benefit from having a primary with an ability to move other units, as Bossk was quickly getting left out. The fact he can take a tag means this is a very easy thing to do (and one I will be utilising in future games). For the points cost, he is certainly better than Dengar and I think that perhaps the points cost should have been switched on these two with some little tweaks to health.
Boba, oh Boba. My son got very unlucky with activations and had Boba shot to pieces by IG. I did feel sorry for him. Once he came back around to activating, Boba was very good, but he certainly needs to stay out of the action for a little bit, giving time for the enemy to move up. When my son did get to use him correctly, he was able to take Bossk out but because Luke Skywalker was also near, he was able to do more damage and hand out conditions. Boba likes the enemy being grouped together. It’s where he and IG are different. IG wants a single target to just eliminate, Boba wants to drop in on a group.
The weakest of the lot was Dengar. I just can’t see when players are going to use him. Which is a shame as his model is so beautiful! He just doesn’t bring much to the table. He did some ranged attacks with barely causing a scratch to the units because Dengar wants to be in melee. The trouble is, it takes him so long to get these. At four points, when there is a better three-point cost in the box, I just can’t see him ever getting chosen by players.
I love this new style of pack. One that isn’t a squad but gives you a wide range of options to enhance your existing squads. The models in this set are stunning, some of the very best that Atomic Mass Games have given us, and they have already set a very high bar. In terms of game play, there is a lot to offer for Age of Rebellion players, and with further releases I imagine this set will become even more useful. My only criticism is that I would have liked to have had one or two of the bounty hunter’s cross era. This is a small complaint though for what is one of my favourite releases for 2024. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get another unit pack!
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