AMG just previewed the rules for how to build squads in Star Wars: Shatterpoint, and it is always good to know how the game itself will play.
We’ve seen the unboxing of the new Star Wars Shatterpoint starter set, and a few small rules, but this is probably the biggest reveal up until this point from AMG. Considering making your force is one of the biggest parts of every game, this is great to see!
If you want to see what the models look like and where you can grab yours, you can check that out here. For now though, let’s check out the new rules from Atomic Mass Games.
AMG Reveals How to Build Star Wars: Shatterpoint Squads
No matter how players choose to approach who to include in their squads, every squad follows the same rules for composition. Each squad must include exactly one Primary Unit, one Secondary Unit, and one Supporting Unit. A Unit in Shatterpoint is one or more miniatures that share a common Stat Card. Each individual miniature in Shatterpoint is known as a character. So, a Unit is composed of 1 or more characters. Abilities in Shatterpoint can affect either a Unit, meaning all the characters in that Unit, or just one character, meaning just the single individual miniature.
Units are further defined by their type, which is Primary, Secondary, or Supporting. Primary Units, as the name implies, are the big central characters around which the squad is built. In terms of theme, the Primary characters are the ones the narrative the players create while playing out their game on the tabletop centers on. In the Core Set the Primary characters are Ahsoka Tano, Jedi No More; General Anakin Skywalker; Asajj Ventress, Sith Assassin; and Lord Maul. When building a squad, players must first select a Primary unit to lead it. The choice of Primary Unit serves two critical purposes. First, every Primary Unit has a Squad Point value listed on the back of its Stat Card. The SP value of the Primary Unit determines how many points a player can spend when selecting their Secondary and Supporting Units. The more powerful a Primary Unit is, the less SP it will provide for fleshing out the squad.
This seems pretty simple, as you basically have three unit types, then each unit has points, so if you spend more on certain units, you still need the other ones but you’ll have to go cheaper so to speak. To buy your squads, each character also has Sqaud Points, representing how much you can spend.
How to Build Star Wars: Shatterpoint Squads: Points
As an example, in the Core Set, Ahsoka Tano, Jedi No More has an SP value of 8. So, she can spend a total of 8 points when selecting her Secondary and Supporting Units. Bo-Katan Kryze is a Secondary Unit that costs 4 points. Having selected Bo-Katan, Ahsoka’s squad has 4 points left to use on a Supporting Unit. As luck would have it, Clan Kryze Mandalorians are a Supporting Unit that costs, you guessed it, 4 points. This means the squad has fulfilled its requirement to have a Primary, Secondary, and Supporting Unit and has a value equal to or less than Ahsoka’s allowed 8 SP.
Obviously, they are going to make the core set just work, and with Ahsoka, you can take both the units above.
Eras
Secondly, the Primary Unit chosen determines the Era that the Secondary and Supporting Units must be chosen from. While Shatterpoint offers players a lot of freedom in mixing and matching their favorite characters, squads are still limited to the Era of their Primary Unit. HOWEVER…the rules on Eras only apply to the squads themselves. So, players can mix and match their two squads freely. If you want to see General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his 212th Clone join forces with Darth Vader and his Imperial cronies, Shatterpoint’s list-building system does allow you to do that.
This makes sense, as you can’t just mix and match every era, but it still seems like there is a lot of freedom.
The only thing to keep in mind when building your two squads to create your strike team is that you can never include two versions of the same named unit in the same strike team. So, you can’t take Ahsoka Tano, Jedi No More, and Padawan Ahsoka Tano in the same Strike Team because both share the Unique Name “Ahsoka Tano”.
This is pretty obvious, so no surprise here that the same character or named unit can’t be taken twice.
Character Tags
In addition to its Unit type designation, every Unit in Shatterpoint has a number of keywords associated with it known as Tags. Unit Tags include things like Force User, Jedi, Separatist, Scoundrel, and Clone Trooper to name but a few.
While a Unit’s Tags have no inherent rules or impact by themselves, they are super important when it comes to determining if a Unit can be affected by allied, or in some instances enemy, abilities as the vast majority of Unit abilities (which we will discuss more in-depth in a future Transmission) in Shatterpoint specify one or more Tags that the Unit or character must have in order to be affected by the ability. So, while you can put Clone Captain Rex in with your B1 Battle Droids, those B1s aren’t going to be able to benefit from any of his abilities that specify Galactic Republic or Clone Trooper Tags.
This should be a good way to denote who can do what without taking up much space. So, when looking at the cards, it really feels like every little spot is actually going to mean something.
Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Set & More Sets Hit Pre-Order
If you read this after June 2nd, 2023, the starter set and first expansions should be fully released and available from your favorite store! To order one for yourself, you can click here or click the header below.
Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Set: $164.99
Click here to order yours from | Amazon | Asmodee Website |
Iconic characters from across the Star Wars galaxy clash in this new miniatures skirmish game! Star Wars: Shatterpoint invites players to collect, assemble, and paint their own squads of heroes, villains, and their allies and pit them against one another in tense duels to control key battlefield objectives. Focusing on dynamic fights between key characters and a unique combat system that brings the feel of epic Star Wars duels to the tabletop, Star Wars: Shatterpoint gives players 16 characters to begin building their squads along with a selection of terrain to begin constructing their battlefields. Rounding out the set are all the cards, dice, movement tools and accessories players need to leap into the tactical combat of Star Wars: Shatterpoint!
As we said, this comes with a decent amount of models, a bunch of terrain, and everything you need to play!
For the price, we expect plenty of people to grab this, and it should be a pretty big launch. The game will officially launch on 6/2/2023, so really not that far away now!
Click Here to Get Your Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Set
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Joined: 2019
Socials: @paschbass
Bio: Dark Eldar Dracon and Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the third edition in 1998. He also loves camping because you can only paint so much! He joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the main daily writer since 2020.
Maybe one day, he’ll finish converting all his Ad Mech models and turn into a true tech enjoyer, complete with sad and happy robot noises!
