Over the course of his appearances in Clone Wars, Rebels, numerous novels and comics, and even the Galaxy’s Edge theme park attraction, Hondo Ohnaka has demonstrated an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, often with unpredictable results. The colorful and gregarious Weequay pirate has had memorable team-ups with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ezra Bridger, and Chewbacca (among others), and has had a past romantic relationship with Aurra Sing, so he definitely won’t be out of place on a Shatterpoint battlefield.
Hondo, Honest Businessman is joined in the That’s Good Business Squad Pack by his trusty (but probably untrustworthy) lieutenant Gwarm, and a pair of Weequay Pirates that are fairly representative of the sort of scoundrels that make up the Ohnaka Pirate Gang.
Hondo, Honest Businessman
As this squad’s primary unit, Hondo provides 7 squad points and 2 force. His Fall of the Jedi era is a little limiting if you want to swap out his secondary or support units, as that era doesn’t have many Scoundrel units to take advantage of his Fair? What’s Fair? ability. However, Gwarm and the Weequay Pirates are probably the best choices for Hondo’s squad anyway.
Hondo has an interesting range of abilities, starting with his tactic ability, That’s Just Good Business. It allows him to refresh a force for each active objective another player controls. This provides Hondo’s player with a good catch-up mechanism if they’re behind on controlling objectives. Since Hondo only provides 2 force but has three abilities that cost force, refreshing regularly will be essential.
Hondo has two active abilities, which focus on either giving his strike team extra mobility, or slowing down his opponent’s forces. Inspiring Stories, So Many of Them True costs 1 force but gives both Hondo and an allied unit an extra Dash, great for getting around the battlefield quickly. What Have We Here? also costs 1 force to use, but it will usually be worth it to give a nearby opposing unit within range 2 Strained and Pinned conditions, and also shuffle their order card back into the deck if it is in reserve. This will severely limit that character’s next activation, which should give Hondo and his allies more latitude to move around unhindered.
This Effort is No Longer Profitable, Hondo’s reactive ability, will be especially useful in the second and third struggles, when the priority objective has the potential to move around the battlefield. For 1 force, when one of his allies wounds an enemy character, Hondo can Reposition, giving him a full Advance that ignores enemy characters within Engaged range. This should help him keep moving to where the action is.
Fair? What’s Fair?, Hondo’s identity ability, allows allied Scoundrel units to gang up on opposing characters. When a Scoundrel makes an attack, if there is another unwounded, allied unit engaged with the target, the attack adds two extra dice. Allies within range 2 of the defender get a Strained condition after the attack is resolved, but it’s a small price to pay. Those extra dice could be the push you need to cause a wound and set off This Effort is No Longer Profitable, allowing Hondo to Reposition where he might be of more use.
Stances
Like all primary units, Hondo has a double sided stance card, giving him two options to choose from.
Clever Captain is the more defensive of the two, with a combat tree heavy on healing, shoving, and repositioning, as well as giving out condition tokens. All the expertise results for attacks add critical hits, and defense expertise turns opposing crits into misses, as well as adding block icons.
Pugnacious Pirate is his more aggressive stance – the combat tree is filled with hits, shoves and conditions, with a lot of leeway as to how you navigate the tree. His ranged expertise is so-so, but his melee expertise adds a lot of critical hits, and defense expertise results of two or more gain healing and jumps in addition to blocks.
Gwarm
Hondo’s secondary unit comes in at a point cost of 3, with a good range of supporting abilities. Gwarm’s tactic ability, Get Moving, You Dogs, gives another Weequay unit within range 4 a free Dash – great for keeping the Weequay Pirates or Hondo himself moving to where they’re needed. Spotchka Rations is an active ability that costs 1 force to heal 2 damage (or removes conditions) from any allied Scoundrel within range 3, a more broadly useable ability since it’s not limited to Weequay units.
Gwarm rounds out his usefulness with two innate abilities. Pack Hunter works similarly to Hondo’s Fair, What’s Fair?, with a narrower scope and no real down side – he simply gets two extra attack dice when making a melee attack, as long as another allied Weequay is engaged with the same target. This squad now has two incentives to gang up on opposing characters. I’ve Got You In My Sights beefs up Gwarm’s usefulness on his own, giving him Sharpshooter [2], allowing him to ignore cover when making a ranged attack, and also giving him a free hunker token when he takes a focus action. All great abilities that don’t rely on nearby allies.
Stance
The combat tree on Gwarm’s Enforcer stance is almost identical to Hondo’s Pugnacious Pirate. It focuses on dealing damage and conditions, with a lot of options for paths to follow on the tree. His expertise charts add critical hits when attacking, and blocks and climbs when defending. The climbs are particularly interesting – as long as Gwarm stays close to elevated terrain, he should be able to move out of danger when defending and avoid getting ganged up on by multiple enemies.
Weequay Pirates
The supporting unit in this squad consists of two characters, with a point cost of 4. They have the Scoundrel and Weequay keywords that will allow them to take advantage of Hondo and Gwarm’s abilities, along with Mercenary and Trooper. Their abilities are fairly versatile, giving you a few options for how to use them during the game. Raiding Party, an active ability that costs 1 force, gives them a climb action – useful for getting around the battlefield quickly, especially in combination with Hondo’s Inspiring Stories and Gwarm’s Get Moving, You Dogs.
Their Greedy innate ability gives them Steadfast as long as they’re controlling an active objective, which should make it more difficult for attackers to push them out of control range. Pack Hunter adds two extra dice when they make a melee attack against a target that’s in engaged range with another Weequay, which will make the Weequay Pirates a little more effective in combat.
Stance
Like Hondo and Gwarm, the Weequay Pirates’ combat tree is focused on dealing damage and adding conditions, along with a Reposition icon right in the middle that should keep them moving, and a heal if you can get to the end of the tree. Their expertise charts aren’t terribly exciting, with just a few extra hits, damage and blocks, but they do get a climb on their defense chart at 3+, adding more movement to a unit that is already highly mobile.
Adding Hondo and his Pirates to a Strike Team
Gwarm and the Weequay Pirates have several useful abilities that target the Weequay keyword, and since these are currently the only three Weequay units in the game, it makes the most sense to keep them together as a squad instead of swapping out for different units. Plus they all have the Scoundrel keyword, which Gwarm and Hondo both make use of.
There’s no shortage of other Scoundrel units to add as the second squad in a Hondo-themed strike team. The Stronger Than Fear squad pack would be a decent choice: Kanan and Ezra are both Scoundrels, and Kanan would add some much needed extra force. It also makes sense from a story point of view, as Hondo and Ezra team up fairly often in Rebels.
If you want to play right out of the box, the What Have We Here squad pack featuring Lando Calrissian and his right hand man Lobot looks like it would be a great choice to ally with That’s Good Business. Lobot’s Detain and Security Network abilities will keep everyone moving, and while Lando only adds 2 force, he can use Sabacc Shift to keep your pool of force points refreshed. Additionally, Lando’s How Ya Doin’ Ya Old Pirate could work well with Gwarm’s Spotchka Rations – Lando moves his conditions over to another Scoundrel, who Gwarm then heals.
Plus, “Lando and Hondo” sounds like a comedy double act that you might see at Oga’s Cantina on Batuu…
I’d love to hear about how you are using Hondo and his pirates in your Shatterpoint games. Drop me a note in the comments below.
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