Hello there, and welcome to another squad review and tactics analysis for Star Wars Shatterpoint! This time, the Wisdom of the Council Squad Pack! One of the first things I noticed about this box is the apparent inspiration from the now-Legends canon Tartakovsky animated Clone Wars series, where Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi and Shaak Ti dueled General Grevious alongside their padawans. In that show the Jedi do not fare well; will they perform better in Shatterpoint? Let’s find out!
Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi
Ki-Adi-Mundi’s initial stat-line and abilities start out looking pretty stock. 8 squad points and 3 force points with 10 stamina and 3 durability are the exact baseline primary stats. His tactic, Wise Council, while also stock, is good. Granting a global dash then dashing himself if a Jedi was chosen has similarities to Plo Koon and Kanan Jarrus, and their tactics have proved their worth on the battlefield, so I except this ability to perform well. Force Push is one of the most impactful control abilities in the game, and Ki’s improved Reflect, Force-Enhanced Reflexes, is solid chip damage. Even with this solid suite of abilities, however, the most interesting part of Ki’s kit is his identity, Guardians of the Republic.
This identity comes in two parts, the first of which allows you to choose a friendly Jedi to recover and dash when an enemy is wounded. The recover is critical, as a common strategy that traditionally cripples Jedi is applying the pinned condition. Being able to remove a pin (or another condition) coupled by a global dash will set up some huge swing plays on turns you manage to wound an enemy figure. Don’t forget the recover can heal any friendly model with range 2 of the chosen Jedi, so even if you bring a non-Jedi (like say, Darth Vader, or Ahsoka, Jedi No More) they can still be healed by Ki’s identity if they are close enough to the target.
The second part of the identity is at least as impactful as the first, if not more so. Once per turn an allied Jedi can reduce the cost of one of their abilities by 1 force if within range 3 of a wounded ally. This is a big deal, and I think will be pretty easy to get online. You never want your figures wounded, but Galactic Republic supports tend to be wounded often anyways and Jedi use the Force often, so you should get frequent discounts. I expect this part of the identity to make Ki feel like he brings 5 force instead of 3.
Turning to stances, Ki outshines many of his Jedi Council counterparts by having two useable options. Makashi grants consistent movement or shoves, while Shien offers an incredible amount healing, and the potential of free force push. The Shien stance synergizes particularly well with Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter, as you’ll be more likely to trigger the free force push plus you recover the damage caused by Vader’s identity trivially. Both defense expertise charts are solid, though I am a particular fan of the recover on 1 expertise on Shien, as that allows you to remove pin, the bane of all slow melee only character like Mundi.
As far as synergies with other primaries go, I think Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter is going to be Ki’s best friend. Not only is Vader incredible at wounding enemies, which triggers Ki’s identity, Mundi’s supports Vader by mitigating his self-damaging downside by providing a large amount of healing. Jedi Master Luminara is another interesting consideration, as you can stack their identities to get two dashes on a wound! I would avoid paring Master Mundi with General Kenobi though, as there is some anti-synergy between the two, as Ki’s identity favors Jedi, and Kenobi’s favors clones. I prefer to build lists that maximize synergies instead of going half-way into a couple different ones.
Jedi Master Shaak Ti
Not only is Shaak Ti our first Jedi master to be a secondary, she is also the first secondary unit in the game to add force to your pool, granting you one additional force! However, that force isn’t free, as she also costs a hefty 5 squad points. Those 5 points buy you more than just force though, as her tactic ability Unity Wins War grants a global dash to a friend and jump to herself, and she has the powerful displacement ability Force Repulse. The tactic ability is incredibly flexible, as it grants the dash to a Galactic Republic character or Mercenary character, making Shaak Ti function surprisingly well with Cad Bane or the Mandalorian, though timeline restrictions keep Shaak from going in Mando’s squad.
Her other two abilities I think are both slightly worse than they read. Virtuoso, which grants immunity to disarm and expose, feels oddly unthematic for a Jedi most know for getting killed multiple times. Why then would she be immune to expose? Despite my minor quibble on flavor, the expose immunity is the better half of her immunity, as her offensive expertise is really quite poor, especially in comparison to other 5 costs, so the disarm immunity provides limited value. Swapping one condition immunity for pin would increase the abilities effectiveness ten-fold, but even so, immunities are always welcome.
Feinting Blow is more conditional than it appears at first glance and has anti-synergy with the most common Republic support, ARF Troopers. Initially, changing one block into a failure if the opponent rolls an expertise may seem like Shaak will consistently remove a block, but that is not the case. Due to the timing of the ability, Shaak must change the block to a failure before the defender applies their expertise chart, so if they roll an expertise without a block the ability does nothing. Additionally, the timing of Feinting Blow is after the expose condition is applied, which removes any expertise from the defense roll, so again Shaak’s ability would do nothing is the target is exposed. Furthermore, removing a block does not guarantee you rolled enough strikes for removing the block to matter, especially because Shaak’s own offensive expertise coverts strikes to crits, making Shaak a character more reliant on crits than strikes. To round it out, Feinting Blow is a reactive ability so force costs will start stacking once Shaak is wounded. Don’t misunderstand me; there will be times this ability absolutely results in an extra step down the tree when attacking and feels powerful, but do not be surprised if that outcome is less frequent than your initial impression suggests.
I already spoke about her expertise, but Shaak Ti’s stance card, Form IV Ataru, is worth discussing as a whole. Her dice pools on offense and defense are fine, but not noteworthy. Her tree is quite interesting, but there are two features I do not particularly care for. The first is that her early reposition terminates on step 2, so if you need the movement you forfeit any results beyond the second. Note however this is somewhat mitigated by a jump on step 3, so if you get a smaller amount of mobility without wasting steps. A common play pattern I expect from Shaak is to attack for movement to get to a faraway point and then force repulse, and the early reposition and jump will be critical in making those plays happen. Secondly, Shaak’s second shove is not until step 4, and with her poor expertise getting 4 is not particularly likely. Due to this weaknesses I think that Master Ti will become fast friends with Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter who will give her the extra dice she needs to consistently hit that crucial second shove. As a final thought, note that if you high roll Shaak Ti dishes out a respectable 9 damage in 6 steps.
Padawan Learners
Perfectly on theme, the Padawan Learners will be wounded fast! Whether it be Anakin’s saber blades or the blaster fire of super battle droids, that 7 stamina is going to disappear quickly. In the context on this box though, wounded padawans are not the end of the world, as they will start offering force discounts to allies within 3 via Mundi’s identity. Due to their squishiness allowing them to be easily wounded in a single activation, I expect the tactics ability of Lessons Learned to be used to heal nearby allies rather than themselves. Still, a start of activation heal that potentially removes a pesky pin is quite welcome. Force Rush is very mandatory for these padawans, budget your force so you can use this almost every time you activate them. Triggering the focus should be fairly elementary, as you can trigger it with just their unit, and it will become increasingly trivial for every additional force user in your strike team. The fact Deflect costs an extra force oozes flavor (these are just padawan learners after all) but weakens the ability significantly. Still, with a unit this fragile any deterrent against attacks is welcome.
The Padawan Learners stance card, Form I Shii-Cho, represents the first time we have seen Form I in Shatterpoint, and if this is weakest the form gets, I’m excited to see how the form is represented in the hands of a master! Shoves on steps 2 and 3 offer solid control, and early recovers complements the Padawans last ability, Search Out With Your Feelings. Effectively doubling the range of your recovers (range 2 is 3 inches, while range 3 is 6) increases their impact by a significant amount, and I think will be a handy ability used to make sure your most important units remain in fighting form. The padawans’ expertise is also quite flavorful, as it demonstrates that while these padawans certainly have not gone through the trials yet, they are still competent. Despite their weaknesses, I think Padawan Learners serve adequately as a 3-cost support in Galactic Republic lists, opening up new list building opportunities.
Sample Strike Teams
As noted in the article, I think Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter synergizes incredibly well with this box. Here is where I will be starting:
Vader’s Council
Squad 1: Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi; Jedi Master Shaak Ti; ARF Clone Troopers
Squad 2: Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter; Obi-Wan Kenobi, Out of Hiding; Padawan Learners
This strike team is aggressive, but also offers plentiful healing and strong defensive tech. It does miss out on theme though. For those looking for a more thematic list, consider this force push maximizing list:
The Council Assembles
Squad 1: Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mudi; Jedi Master Shaak Ti; Padawan Learners
Squad 2: Jedi Master Plo Koon; Barriss Offee, Jedi Padawan; Republic Clone Commandos
Overall, I expect this box to open up a Jedi-based archetype in Galactic Republic, and I predict this box will become a staple for competitive Galactic Republic Squads. If Jedi or the galactic republic speaks to you, I highly recommend adding the Wisdom of the Council to your Shatterpoint collection. May the force be with you!
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