Some might complain at the number of clones that are available for Star Wars: Shatterpoint, I certainly wouldn’t, but Atomic Mass have heard you. If you don’t feel like running clones and want at least one squad that is purely Jedi, Wisdom of the Council is the pack for you. Not only does it come with two famous Jedi, Ki-Adi Mundi and Shaak Ti, but it also comes with two unnamed padawan learners. The fact that it gives players some more diversity in terms of squad composition is of course a huge plus. But what I really like is the species of aliens for the padawans. One is a female Rodian, but the other is one of my all-time famous species in the Star Wars galaxy, an Ithorian. This species I have always thought is so cool looking, even when we used to just call it ‘hammerhead’. To have it added to the game is very welcome.
Now you could argue that this box takes its cue somewhat from the original Clone Wars that saw Mundi, Ti, Aayla and some other Jedi take on Grievous. The padawans don’t quite match but it would certainly explain why the two former ones have been placed together. It would have been awesome to have the padawans match but then again, I really like having the Ithorian!
Anyway, enough pondering, let’s dive into the box. Before I even open the box, the back says that the Rodian padawan comes with four alternate heads. In typical Atomic Mass fashion, they don’t actually show what those heads might be, but I’m glad there is some room for variation with this set. In the actual box is the single sprue containing all the models, four bases, cards and the leaflet guiding players to the Atomic Mass website to load up the instructions.
With these loaded, it was time to start building, beginning with Ki-Adi. And we have a hair piece, a very small hair piece. One of the things that Atomic Mass has been infamous for is their small, small pieces. In Marvel Crisis Protocol, there have been several characters that have been horrendous to build. The Ki-Adi piece is not quite that bad, but his ponytail does require some patience. To help matters, I would glue the head onto the body first, this way you’ve got a ‘handle’ for the head while you are attaching the hair. The arms and lightsaber are in three pieces, which means there is a lot of alignment that can go wrong. Before attaching the right arm, I’d assemble the two left pieces, then glue in the right immediately followed by the left. This way before the glue has completely set on the right arm, you have a slight bit of give to help everything line up just right. Once built, I couldn’t get over the detail on Ki-Adi. The team has really caught his likeness. The face is perfect, and the pose feels very like Mundi, the bracing, ready for anything kind of feel to it. This model is very impressive, and I will forgive the hair piece… this time!
Next is Shaak Ti. This is simpler than Ki-Adi, but I would make sure the two parts of the head are set before attaching the neck. With most things I glue and go straight onto the next step, but finding the neck joint isn’t as easy as I thought. I needed to apply a bit of force to ensure it all fitted together. I actually ended up taking the head off, affixing the back head tail and then placing the whole thing back onto the body, which worked out much better. When assembled, Shaak Ti is just like Mundi. There is a pose that really captures her character as we see it in The Clone Wars. Because of her pose as well, she takes up a lot of space on the base, making her rather imposing.
The Padawan male is next, the Ithorian! Now I find it slightly odd that there would be four head alternatives for one padawan and none for this one. Not that I mind because I love the Ithorian, but I think it would have been helpful to players to have a mix of heads for both padawans. Compared to the other two builds, this is simple and shouldn’t cause any players any issues. The detailing of the Ithorian I love, the head is spot on and the detail on the feet is exquisite.
Finally, it is the female padawan. The build itself is straightforward, with the exception of the head. Bar the human head, all the others are in two parts and a little finicky. The choices are a rodian (the one on the box), a Zabrak, a human and a Nautolan. It’s an impressive array and I was stuck between the Zabrak and the Nautolan. The latter won out… or so I had thought. I assembled the body no problem with everything but the head, to give me some idea, thinking it would be the Nautolan. However, the Zabrak head has a padawan braid and the sculpt is really good. Having just had the Kit Fisto kit, I was well aware there was another Nautolan but no female Zabrak… the Zabrak actually won! All the head sculpts are very good and I do like that it is so difficult to choose. The only tip I would give for the assembly is glue the left arm in first. The right has some give, which is helpful when lining it up, but you will find it easier with the left firmly in place.
With the last padawan done, the squad was complete. They look fantastic and there will be some slight variation between players’ squads. I’m hoping we will see more padawans, I think I might need another Nautolan sculpt!
With the models assembled it was time to have a look at their cards. The first thing to note is that each one of them has a tactic. I always love to be able to do something as soon as I activate a unit! First up is the primary: Ki-Adi Mundi. He provides players with three force and eight spending points, so the usual for a Jedi. His two stances are ‘Form II Makashi’ and ‘Form V Shien. As you might guess, the latter is more aggressive, less defensive compared to the former. Form V allows Mundi a maximum of eight damage which is rather impressive, but he could also instead do eight healing! That’s a rather game changing amount and could completely refresh most units. I could see that being immensely helpful. On the flipside, he can so seven damage but is more about shoving and throwing a few conditions on as opposed to healing. Looking at his abilities, his tactic allows you to choose another Galactic Republic unit who can then dash, if they’re a Jedi, then so can Mundi. ‘Force Push’ costs two force and pushes an enemy within three, three away. ‘Force-Enhanced Reflexes’ costs a force and allows Mundi to do three damage to a unit attacking him if their attack roll contains any failures. People are going to regret going after Mundi! His identity ability means that when a Galactic Republic character wounds an enemy, a Jedi unit may heal then dash. Very helpful, particularly if you’re playing mainly Jedi. Ki-Adi also, once per turn, can reduce the cost of a force ability for an allied Jedi (for active and reactive abilities) if they’re within three of a wounded allied unit. That’s a rather cost saving ability and I can see work wonders if used correctly. I like the idea of Mundi a lot, but I must have some of my units wounded. Although I imagine that won’t take long!
The secondary is Shaak Ti, who costs five but also brings a force with her. She uses ‘Form IV Atura’ and can put out a maximum of eight damage. Her tactic allows a Galactic Republic or Mercenary to dash and then Ti herself can jump. ‘Force Repulse’ costs two force and allows her to push any character within two, two away. ‘Virtuoso’ means Shaak Ti immunity to pinned and exposed, which I really like and I’m sure will annoy my opponent. Her last ability is ‘Feinting Blow’. When Ti makes a melee attack, if there is one or more expertise in the defense pool, she can change one success to a failure. Ti doesn’t seem bad although she is five cost. The thing that really attracts me to her as a character is her immunity as opposed to her abilities.
Finally, it is the Jedi Padawans that cost three points. These are padawans so a maximum of five damage and no ranged, I wouldn’t expect too much. But with seven health they are going to be rather squishy if used incorrectly. Their tactic does allow them to heal one on activation, although I think I’d still be tempted to keep them near Ki-Adi, with all his healing potential. ‘Force Rush’ costs a force and allows each character in the unit to dash. If they are within two of another force user, they then gain focus. ‘Deflect’ also costs a force and allows the unit to cause two damage to a unit conducting a range attack if they roll any failures. ‘Stretch Out with Your Feelings’ means when making a melee attack, this unit can heal with a range of three instead of two from its combat tree. Not a bad ability. I do think these are going to need a careful watch as they might get destroyed very quickly if they are rushed in, or don’t have the backup of someone with lots of heal.
This seems like an interesting squad. I can see how they will work together and a lot of the advantage of the squad is the sheer amount of healing they can put out. But healing means they’re not striking the enemy; Let’s get them to the tabletop to see how they work in a practical sense.
Let’s start with Ki-Adi. As you would expect from a primary, he can hold his own really well. The ‘Force-Enhanced Reflexes’ ended up causing my opponent the same amount of damage as he did to me. But it’s the ‘Force Push’ that pushes opponents away three that is truly impressive, particularly when you see that firsthand on the battlefield. Throwing your opponent so far across the board really makes a difference. Shaak Ti is also solid, her immunity is very good and her tree, while complicated, can do a lot of shenanigans to your opponent.
The only weak link are the padawans, who are extremely squishy and were already wounded by turn four. That’s not great! They do have good abilities, but they really need to stay out of the way to be able to use them.
As a set I really like this box, Ki-Adi and Shaak Ti are worth the money alone. It doesn’t surprise me that Ki-Adi is top of Meta at the moment, between his awesome damage and healing, he is a force to reckon with. While I like the idea of the Padawans, they are a little too easy to deal with for my liking. I definitely need to try and find better ways to use them. This set is something a little different for players as it has no clones, a direction that I find refreshing. Hopefully we see more of this in future releases for the Galactic Republic.
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