Listbuilding with Range Troopers and thoughts on the incoming meta

In this month’s article I'm going to explain how you should listbuild with Range Troopers, give you some list varieties to try out (Crit2Block has been busy at work proxying these models) and lastly leave you with some of my thoughts on the upcoming meta that will begin this weekend.  

Let's begin by asking ourselves what a Range Trooper is.

To answer this question you must imagine yourself on a dystopian world, frozen in ice, guarding precious, hazardous cargo against maniacal bandits of unclear morality and backstory who are riding on homemade speeder bikes.  To safeguard that cargo you carry a long-range E-10R blaster rifle.  To safeguard from all sides the train that carries the cargo you wear magnetic gription boots.  To safeguard your neck from a cold draft you wear a fur scarf.  And to safeguard your drip you not only wear a half-kilt, but you ensure that it too is made out of fur.  This is what a Range Trooper is.  

Or, to answer the question another way: Range Troopers are the “Shatterpoint” of Legion.  Just like AMG’s preferred game, these units have to get every cool thing you’ve desperately waited for, long before the units that actually deserve them can have them.  What might these cool things be?  I’ll break them down in just a moment.

As always, I'm going to give my general reflections on the unit and then follow that up by breaking the article into three sections.  After this I will point out synergies within the faction I think you should consider.  Due to the limited upgrade options for the Range Troopers, the listbuilding discussion won’t be as lengthy as others. The three sections are: 

1) Listbuilding decisions that you should be making. These are what I would consider to be the optimal builds for a unit and the best way to invest your 800 points.  If you're looking to do well with your list and do it "right" than you should start here. 

2) Listbuilding decisions that are "neat."  This section will be comprised of build choices that are either sub-optimal (but not terrible) or that offer fun and interesting interactions that may not be obvious at face value.  The options presented here could easily be part of a tournament winning list, but probably shouldn't comprise the entirety of it. Neat "one-offs" that offer great value can often distract or surprise your opponent and give you an edge that did not exist previously.  Alternatively they may provide solutions to issues that your list struggles with or simply "budget" versions of other entirely different units.  

3) Listbuilding decisions that you should not be making.  These are the decisions that I don't make and won't advocate for you to make either.  While I am by no means infallible, I do believe these are the decisions that cost you games.  You've only 800 points to spend in an army; don't waste them on prodigal decisions that hamper your ability to respond to your opponent.  I won't cover every poor decision you could be making, but I will cover those that I see others making and advocating for that I disagree with.

Alrighty then, let’s break down all the cool keywords that make Range Troopers a totally balanced and healthy unit!

I’d be remiss not to begin with the most impressive part of their unit card.  Range four for every man in the unit is quite good.  We’ve seen a handful of range four units in the past, but not like this.  Death Troopers have to recover between every shot, Pathfinders are best when doing the same (Bistan carries most of their effectiveness), FD Pizza Dishes are Stationary and Mortars Cumbersome.  The Range Troopers (perhaps due to their swag) have none of these setbacks.  Range Troopers love themselves the wide open, fetter-free range.  

Courage 2 has become the new standard in Legion.  I know that Ewoks and Geonosians just released with Courage 1, but it feels like practically everyone these days has Courage 2 or above.  More Courage is more better, and these fellas are apparently just as bold as Captain Rex and Leia Organa!  This high, or rather standard, courage value means that when your enemies do manage to close range and return fire, you’re likely to stay below your suppression threshold when it comes time to activate because…

You’re Indomitable!  I’ve no idea how these fellas earned this keyword, but let's just hit it alongside all the movement keywords at once.  The “gription boots” are technically speed one, but functionally will never behave like it.  Spur allows them to increase their speed to two while Scale allows them to ignore difficult terrain.  Indomitable essentially negates the suppression received from Spur, so you’d be hard pressed to explain why you’d ever choose to not go faster when the situation calls for it.  Unless you’re moving a short distance, Spur every chance you get.  

Advanced Targeting: Trooper 1 is a giant meatball of text.  Let’s just suffice to say that when you shoot people, you do it well.  If you split fire, you won’t get the bonus.  I’ve little more to add than to wonder why Range Troopers needed more help?  I’ll save my salt for later, but honestly this keyword isn’t that crazy.  It’s quite good, but it’s not bonkers.    

Armor 1 is such a neat keyword.  Who doesn’t love to ignore a hit whenever they're shot at?  Normally we have to take a range 2 unit like Wookiees or B2’s to acquire this keyword.  Now we can have it on range four units with solid dice pools that’ll surely find cover to stand behind.  Much balance, very excite!  

The “boots with the fur” aren’t so hot in melee.  Unless you’re facing a melee skew this will likely never be an issue, but just remember that masses of white dice are very fickle.  On the plus side, most of your keywords still work while engaged.  Armor 1 is good even against lightsabers, Indomitable keeps you valiant against Suppressive Electro-whips and Advanced Targeting will still trigger when punching.  But, even with an Advanced Targeting aim, the math says you’ll find only three hits.  It shouldn’t be hard to do, but avoid brawling.  

1) Listbuilding decisions that you should be making.

The T-21A (the Suppressive gun)

Perhaps the most frightening of the weapon choices, the addition of two white and two black dice is only a portion of its firepower.  The roughly 1.5 hits that this gun will add to your overall dice pool is on par with most heavy weapons in the Imperial arsenal.  Why then should I choose a heavy weapon that is almost half the price of my full squad?  Because the real fiyapowah of this weapon is in the Suppressive keyword.  We’ve seen Suppressive before, but in most circumstances this keyword is also accompanied by other attributes such as Cumbersome, an exhausting upgrade card, Overrun weapons or the pile of sadness that makes up a Droideka.  Where the Range Trooper diverges is in making this weapon behave like any other normal gun under the sun.  Wanna move and shoot?  Go ahead.  Wanna do it every round?  Knock yourself out.  

Not only can your squad support this weapon on it’s every shot, but doing so at range four is simply wild.  An aimed attack dice pool of six black and two white provides almost 4.5 hits on average.  Accounting for heavy cover will leave the defender rolling 2-3 dice and then taking the appropriate wounds.  This is by no means a huge shot (remember T-21A only adds 1.5 hits, a typical number for heavy weapons across all factions) but it has a big effect.  Suppressing your opponent at range four significantly hampers their ability to respond.  Meaningful dice pools at range four are seldom seen.  The power of the T-21A is not in killing your opponent but in handicapping them.  According to my rudimentary probability calculations, Courage 1 units will have a 15% chance of removing both suppression and thus being able to move and shoot at range three in response.  Courage 2 units favor much better since they need to only remove a single suppression in order to take both actions; their chance of doing so is 66%.  

This scenario I've presented does not take into account the fire and suppression other units in your army will be directing towards the same target.  Once the said unit has to roll for 3 or more suppression, their chances of taking both actions is considerably lower.  Furthermore, if the aforesaid unit gets lucky, removes their suppression and decides they want to move and shoot in response, they’ll do so with fewer models against a trooper unit with Armor 1 and Courage 2.  I’m not going to elaborate further right now, but the future does not look bright for Courage 1 units.  

DLT-20A (the red one)

It feels weird to write this after waxing eloquent on its competition, but this gun is perhaps the better choice.  When you need to kill stuff, this one does it better.  Mathematically the average hits between the heavy weapon options are very similar, but dice don’t care about your averages.  Red dice are more reliable and feel cooler to roll. Furthermore, it’s cheaper and is statistically a rocket launcher.  Picking up again on the theme of Range Troopers getting everything they want, the DLT-20A brings Impact 2 to a range four unit.  Normally Impact 2 comes with caveats: exhaustible, range two or less, Cumbersome, a middling dice pool, or in the case of the MPL-57, all of the above!  Red dice almost always hit and this gun brings two of them.  This means that your free aim token can be spent on rerolling your normal attack dice instead of those added by your heavy weapon.  

Now, I know it can be shot at range five, but there are few circumstances that warrant such a choice (I’ll mention one such occasion in the synergy section).  Not only will two hits never make it past heavy cover, but a range four unit should in no way be pressed for decisions on what to shoot.  If you can shoot at range four from behind heavy cover with Armor 1 and Courage 2 on your side, then the world is your oyster.  Furthermore, if you're facing other Range Troopers the Impact value will make a difference when your attack rolls are lackluster.  

Both heavy weapon options for the Range Troopers are expensive, but this one is much more in-line with the pricepoint of the good weapons available to Storm and Clone Troopers.  The only bad (and simultaneously good) thing about Range Troopers is that you can only take three of them.  With that being said, choosing between the DLT-20A and the T-21A will come down to the composition of the rest of your list.  If you’ve got Impact elsewhere, then bring the Suppressive one.  If you’ve got plenty of guns in your army and your plan is to murder the enemy quickly, then bring the red one.  If you're unsure what type of army you're running, then my suggestion (aside from getting help to figure that out) would be to bring two of the Suppressive ones and one of the red ones.  Not every list will have armor, but every list is guaranteed to have troopers.  

2) Listbuilding decisions that are "neat."

Emergency Transponders

Who doesn’t want free tokens?  To get the best use out of this upgrade you’ll want to spend it on the aim token whenever possible.  It’s highly unlikely your Range Troopers will have enough suppression tokens to warrant using it for that effect; and if you’re playing your engagements correctly you shouldn’t be exposing yourself to that much fire anyways.  If you are exposing yourself to a lot of fire, then a simple dodge token won’t be enough to save you.  In short, take the aim.  Take the aim token, shoot with the capability to reroll at least four dice and alpha strike your way to an advantage that is hard to lose.  

3) Listbuilding decisions that you should not be making.

The Extra Man 

I’ve waffled on whether or not to put this upgrade in the “neat” section, but I think I'll leave it here for the time being.  I wouldn’t take this upgrade every time I build a Range Trooper list; in fact I wouldn’t take it in probably 9/10 lists I would build.  But you have to admit the capability to shoot more dice at range four is alluring.  In almost every circumstance the extra body in a trooper squad is not worth the points, but not every trooper squad has the chassis the Range Troopers do.  Keeping that chassis alive and functioning on a high level isn’t the worst idea in the world, but if you’re taking this upgrade more than once then you should re-evaluate your list.  

Fifteen points for an extra body is exactly the appropriate cost (60/4 = 15) but most other “extra bodies” in the game cost less.  Through errata, almost every other fifth trooper costs around 20% of the unit cost instead of the 25% that the extra Range Trooper costs.  Even the Shadow Collective “extra man” upgrades cost less, and they come with Cache included!  If this upgrade had Cache:Surge then it would be the perfect pairing to provide the Range Troopers with the capabilities they sorely lack.  It seems strange for AMG to include an upgrade this dead on arrival, but frankly the Range Troopers don’t need any more help.  I don’t hate this upgrade entirely, but it’s just sooo many points for the little benefit it gives.  

Grenades (even Smoke)

It shouldn’t really need to be said again, but the entire idea behind this unit is to shoot from afar.  If you find yourself at range one, then you’ve either done goofed or you’re being charged by melee pieces.  Yes, grenades offer surge conversion and cool keywords, but Suppressive and Impact 2 are already pretty baller.  You may think you have a cute gameplan when playing Pinned Down, but that’s a pipedream.  Don’t get so close, that’s not how this works.  

*not how this works meme

As for Smoke Grenades, I dunno… There’s a reason they aren't meta.  They’re neat and effective when you need them, but the ability to shoot from 24 inches means you shouldn’t need much help in finding cover.  If anything, I'd be surprised if you were routinely finding open shots at that range.  To borrow an old Tatooine saying, Range Troopers with grenades are as useless as tits on a Bantha Bull. 

Range Troopers without Heavy Weapons

I don’t think you need me to say this, but naked Range Troopers are a bad idea.  The ability to shoot from afar means you’ll invariably be shooting through cover.  If you don’t have a heavy weapon to increase your dice pool, you’ll never get more than two hits past heavy cover.  Even if you took the extra man, you’d struggle to get much done without a heavy weapon.  A squad with the fifth trooper is 75 points and only throws five black dice, that’s entirely too much when you compare it to the alternatives.  For only ten points more than an extra man, the red gun will double your dice plus give you keywords.  

Range Troopers are way too expensive to be used for activation padding.  If you’re looking for a range four unit to bump up your activation count, then check out the Shoretrooper Mortar.  If you’re looking for firepower, then a unit of Stormtroopers with the HH-12 are the exact same price (60 points), will hit harder and consume one of the mandatory corps slots.  

Synergies to Consider:

As always, the synergies I'm listing will vary from “auto-include” to thoroughly “mid.” Not every synergy can or should be included in every list, that being said, you’d better have a good reason to ignore this first one.

Pinned Down

As close to an “auto-include” as you can get.  Returning order tokens to the bag is huge, and is one of the few times that splitting the dice pool of the Range Troopers is worth it (the DLT-20A can offer you the possibility to strip almost any order token when combo-ed with a move).  With this card you could potentially return up to six order tokens to the order pool!  Or to put it more simply, you’ll force your opponent to activate the units that received orders very quickly or lose the order control they just worked to earn.  Pinned Down can activate AI on Droid Troopers, stop fire-supports, hamper Take That Clankers, shut down Rule With Respect, make Anakin’s day rough, etc.  The versatility and power of this card makes it hard for me to envision a command hand that doesn’t include it.  

Coordinated Fire

Honestly, this card may be overkill in a Range Trooper centric list.  It’s not hard for Range Troopers to get two aim tokens without any outside help.  This command card allows more aim tokens to be passed to them and hone those dice even further.  It’s not a bad card, but honestly Range Troopers don’t need much more aim support.  What Range Troopers really crave are…

Surge Tokens! 

Whether its Aggressive Tactics, Force Guidance or even being Fire-Supported by a mortar, the Range Trooper dice pool craves surge conversion.  Sadly (or perhaps thankfully), Aggressive Tactics isn’t that easy to make work with Range Troopers.  Sure, you can just give them orders whenever possible, but that doesn’t work on most 1-pip cards or character unique command cards.  Aggressive Tactics is really best when used with the Clone Wars era factions.  

As for Force Guidance, there may be a world where Emperor Palpatine or an Inquisitor hangs back near your Range Troopers for a round or two before diving in to mop up.  It’s not a super-duper, wombo-combo of value, but it’s worth exploring.  If you do bring a single Inquisitor, then I’d recommend Seventh Sister since she has a cool synergy with her 3-pip card.

Imperial Officer, Veers, Electrobinocs

To return to our previous discussion, more aim tokens aren’t a bad idea.  Unfortunately Veer’s command cards do little for our furry friends, but spike damage is incredibly powerful in Legion.  The Imperial Officer and other units with Spotter can further boost your arms race, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to add Binocs on units that don’t have native Spotter.  Ultimately, Stormtroopers throwing four surging white dice can be just as valuable as re-rolling two of these non-surging black dice.   

Medics

Honestly, I’m not really sure this is worth the points.  Mathematically it’s a good deal when compared to the fifth trooper (you pay only 9.5 points per wound instead of 15) but Range Troopers really test your points budget.  I’d try and brings medics for other units in my army like heroes or Guardian units, and then only heal my Range Troopers if no one else needed help more.

Imperial Royal Guards

The Guardian keyword is powerful.  With each sequential release it’s becoming more apparent that the Imperial Royal Guard should have received the same Guardian treatment that Chewbacca and the Magnaguards received.  Nevertheless, Guardian isn’t all that powerful when combined with Range Troopers.  If your entire army is knotted together and distributing hate, then by all means protect your Range Troopers when they take fire.  However, due to their incredible range band, it’s unlikely that your Range Troopers will be the first to receive fire.  Just like the medics, use it if you can, but don’t make Guardian a part of your game plan.  

Iden Versio, Inferno Squad, Scout Snipers

It’s nothing wild, but an infinite range sniper pairs well with absurdly ranged troopers.  You could bring the minimum amount of corps required, then spend the remainder of your points on snipers of various varieties to stand even further away than your Range Troopers.  I’m not sure you’d be much good at objectives, but who cares about goals when your enemies are smote off the field?

Now we’ve entered the point in the article where we begin to talk about suppression shenanigans.  I’ll be quick about these topics, because they’re obvious.  

Death Troopers

They're back in black, shoot from afar, bring the Suppressive keyword and also like to kill things before objectives start to matter.  Death Troopers are noticeably more static than Range Troopers, but they have a similar playstyle that dovetails nicely with their strengths.  Together they can put out a stupid amount of suppression and simply bludgeon your opponents into submission.  I don’t like what this combo can do to the state of Legion, but it’s technically legal.

Annihilation Looms

Hey look at that, more ways to bother your opponents! Once again, your Indomitable keyword will render this card largely meaningless to your Range Troopers while they fire T-21A’s indiscriminately.  

Intercept The Transmissions, Key Positions

Technically the suppression gameplan helps you with almost every objective under the sun.  But these two are A) the most commonly played objectives in the game, and B) allow Range Troopers to stand on one objective and fire at the other.  If you manage to put five suppression on a courage two unit, then they won’t be able to score at the end of the round.  Remember, removing suppression is the second to last step of the end phase.  The final step is scoring objectives.  If you are courage two and receive four suppression tokens, you’ll still get to score at the end of the round.

War Weary and Hostile 

The synergy is obvious here.  Suppressive is bad for troopers and these battlecards make it worse.  Your own Indomitable will almost entirely negate these conditions, but be sure it doesn’t bite the rest of your army in their Achilles heels.  

Give In To Your Anger

Yet another opportunity to suppress those poor objective-carrying peasants that dared to oppose the might of the Empire.  It can be handy to give four suppression tokens to a far-away or hiding corps unit that is holding a Supply Box or Hostage.  It likely won’t be enough to stop them from scoring (you’ll need one more suppression than that of their in-range commander) but if you can slow them down they may not make it into a deployment zone.  I’d bring this card if you’re going for a Force Guidance, Pull the Strings, Imperial Royal Guard kind of build.  

Ruthless Tactics

The T-21A pairs well with this card since you’ll have little difficulty in matching your opponent’s courage value.  This is a softer/weaker version of coordinated fire, but it’s nice that you aren’t forced to shoot with your corps units first to power up the Range Troopers.  The ambiguity of “units” on both Kallus’s 1 and 2-pips is another boon that could open up the viability of bringing Aggressive Tactics on Kallus.  

Now that we’ve discussed some of the synergies available, Crit2Block is going to offer you a few lists to peruse that should get your wheels turning on how to best listbuild with your new units.  The goal here is to showcase the versatility of the Range Trooper.  I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Range Troopers are going to become a staple of Imperial list building.  You can bring as many or as few as you like, and they’ll always be viable.  

Here we have a simple gunline cocktail with a shot of sheer concentrated firepower.  This taster has been provided to us by Richard Lavery who would like to note that he has not yet fully finished distilling it.  We can pick up on notes of long-range shooting with an abundance of aim tokens floating around thanks to Spotter, Specialists, Advanced Targeting and Hunter.  This list pairs nicely with a double bounty chaser to secure your end game win condition no matter what sampling of nasty your opponent brought in response.  

This is a list of my own invention, and one that utilizes the “extra man!”  Deploy in a ball, keep the Royal Guards and Medics close and shoot everyone from range four.  Clearly the heavy unit of Range Troopers with the extra body and Emergency Transponders are the ones whose strings are being pulled.  They can pop Transponders on their activation and then save the extra aim token for Palpatine's activation later when they fire again (this time with a surge and two aims!).  You could work the points around to bring Binocs on someone (maybe the Royal Guards?) but like all of these lists, they are a proof of concept for how versatile Range Troopers are.  The neat interaction here is that Advanced Targeting works every time they shoot, so shooting twice with a pair of aim tokens each time isn’t too hard.  

This final list has been submitted by a friend of the blog Joel Demeester.  It’s a true all-rounder list that can flex to fit whatever you see coming.  If your opponent wants to play coy, then rattle them with a hail of range four firepower.  If they decide to charge forward, then Iden and Seventh Sister can be real bullies in a scrum.  You’ve got a soft armor answer, a soft trooper answer (suppression), a soft melee threat answer and lastly Iden and Inferno being the linebackers that tie it all together.  Whatever role they needs to fill, Iden can be sure they will do it well.

Thoughts on the upcoming meta

In case you had your eyes closed for the preceding portion of this transmission, I'm a bit concerned with the direction that Range Troopers are taking us.  While their firepower is good, it’s not the crazy good that we received when Black Sun Enforcers originally hit the scene.  That being said, the strength of Range Troopers comes not from their dice pool but from their range and keywords.  Range Troopers are NOT power creep; they are power leap.  

I think the combination of Spur and Indomitable is a fun and interesting interaction.  It allows a unit to behave as if both their Courage and speed values are higher than they actually are.  Red dice have a 66% chance of rolling paint when rallying, meaning that you’re basically Spurring for free.  I like this combo and hope we see it again in the future.  

My issue is with its implementation.  This combo would feel great on a fragile unit or a short range team.  Wookiees have Indomitable and it feels very thematic.  But a unit that sits at range four doesn’t need to have access to Spur.  They don’t deserve to have access to Indomitable either.  If Range Troopers were speed one then they would essentially “show up late” to most firefights by only getting to engage on round two.  This would be A-OK.  They already throw a solid dice pool at range four, so give your opponents a round of respite before laying into them.  

Instead, this combo of Spur, Indomitable and Scale has built up a long range unit to become practically immune to range control, terrain placement and suppression itself.  Armor 1 only adds to this wild combo by whittling down return fire to paltry defense rolls that still have a 50/50 chance of success. Range Troopers do very well at shooting, very well at moving and very well at defending.  Indomitable and Courage 2 prevent them from being suppressed or panicked while Armor 1 and red saves stop them from taking wounds. What AMG has done is create one of the most two-dimensional units the game has ever seen. In a sense, there is no counter-play into Range Troopers.  The ONLY counter-play available is to just kill them.  Killing them isn’t crazy hard, but neither is it easy.  

It seems quite incongruous for Range Troopers to drop in the state they have while accompanied by Clone Commandos.  In many ways, Clone Commandos show us what proper playtesting (and listening to playtesters) should produce.  Clonemandos, while strong, require forethought during deployment.  Unlike Range Troopers their range 3-4 weapons exhaust. Rather than having Armor 1, their shields need to be recovered.  Instead of being the paragon of movement that Range Troopers are, they are reliant on Complete The Mission tokens and recover actions that make them incredibly static.  Instead of Indomitable, they’re only Courage 2 and vulnerable to being suppressed.  Instead of getting an aim just for shooting(Advanced Targeting), Clonemandos need to receive an order to get that token (Target 1).  In short, they HAVE counter-play. 

Clone Commandos (or ComMEHndos as I've taken to calling them) behave very similar to a FD Laser Cannon.  This analogy begins to fall apart the moment I make it, but I'm crusading forward anyways.  Because of their Complete The Mission tokens they have to choose their firing lanes from very early on, stick near to their friendly tokens and recover/shoot every round.  I know they can retreat when things get bad, but recovering and retreating feels really bad.  

Clonemandos are adept at dodging one small shot per turn thanks to their shield token, but can’t stand up to more than that.  Katarn Pattern Armor is strong, but once you’ve taken the first wound on a Clonemando squad their strength drops precipitously.  They’ve no Sharpshooter, only four dice and only four wounds.  Once they begin rolling only three dice at range 3-4 you quickly realize how “meh” they are.  The stark contrast between Clone Commandos and Range Troopers is painfully obvious.  Furthermore, one of them is from a beloved video game and book franchise with copious screen time throughout all seasons of Bad Batch.  The other was in A Star Wars Story for all of about one minute.  (Don’t even get me started on the injustice that is Delta Squad, it’s a friggin crime.)

Anyhoo, rather than developing a unit that feels unique, thematic or niche, AMG delivered a unit that simply excels at everything.  Range Troopers want to kill you, are decent at it and don’t fear your response.  So then, let’s very briefly talk about how we can put up a meager counter to their prowess.  

If you’re going to a tournament you need to have a plan on how you’re going to deal with Range Troopers.  Range Troopers are not the end of the game, but you’ve got to have a plan or you’ll get steamrolled at the event.

My first tip is quite easy and can be done with any list, bring Limited Visibility!  If you don’t wanna get shot, then try to not?  It’s a small measure of security that’ll surely be vetoed away by Range Trooper degenerates, but maybe it’ll help you get the upper hand in turn zero.  

I should start by pointing out that unless you’re playing Echo, strike teams/snipers will be worthless against Range Troopers (good luck finding a crit to get past Armor 1).  Iden and Cassian are an obvious exception to this because of Marksmanship. If you’re a Rebel Alliance player, then consider more FD Laser Cannons (Rule With Respect can really turn up their potential) and Airspeeders. Lean into Leia’s 1-pip and the fire-supports of your Mark II’s (you’ll invariably lose these, but you’ve gotta alpha strike quick to stand a chance). Mandalorian jetpack rockets (both varieties) work well against Range Troopers since they’ll ignore both their cover and armor all in one fell swoop.  If you play Shadow Collective, be sure to bring Inspire and plenty of dodge tokens.  And if gunlines continue to gain popularity, consider infiltrating Maul into the back line to stop the shenanigans.  The same strategy would work for CIS Maul.  It disgusts me to say it, but the Confederacy should continue to lean into Experimental Droids and Armor.  Line of sight blockers are essential to stopping the absurdity and the Nimble dodges of an Outmaneuvering Snail tank are no laughing matter.  

Republic players should bring Exemplar, Guardian, Take That Clankers, Cody’s 2-pip and fire-supports aplenty.  They’d also do well to bring ComMEHndos and play the range four game themselves.  You’re not going to win a 3 v. 3 of Clonemandos vs Range Troopers, but you can buy considerable time thanks to Katarn Pattern Armor.  Use that time to churn through everything else that’s between yourself and the Range Troopers.  Lastly, if you play Empire, just do the exact same nonsense you’ve always done.  Get a new, overtuned, busted as heck toy every six months and run around slapping everyone else with it.  

Range Troopers are not the end of the game, but they are trooper hunters to the core.  (Ironically, the red gun isn’t half-bad against vehicles either.) Until we get an errata, you need to know your game plan for dealing with Range Troopers.  If you don’t have a game plan, then may the Swiss gods have mercy on your soul.  

Decide whether you’re going to win through objectives, counter-play (killing) or by staying home and playing Helldivers.  Know your gameplan and stick to it.  After all...