Fear is the path to the dark side.

FFG has finally spoiled the Anakin Skywalker Commander Expansion for Star Wars Legion.
Let’s start with the basics. 160pts 6 wounds courage 3 Red defence no surges on his card (more about that later) Jump 1 Immune Pierce 5 red dice melee lightsaber attack with Peirce 3 and Impact 3.

The new keywords are Djem So Mastery replacing Deflect. In a similar vein though with dodge tokens giving surge to block but if you cancel a result the attacker suffers a wound, from how this is worded on the reminder text the act of cancelling a die with the token would count towards cancelling so would cause the damage to the attacker. This seem amazing powerful as long as you have access to the dodge tokens to spend and a hit comes in that you can spend. From the reminder text it also appears to work in melee which makes thematic sense. Flawed is where this character’s flaw card is added to the opponent’s hand. We do not know exactly how this will work and the timing of this card being played I will revisit this once we have an RRG entry for it. Tempted allows Anakin to equip Light side and Dark side only cards so force choke or anger alongside Mind trick or hope. Really want to see someone play Anakin with Hope and Fear for the Memes.

Anakin’s command cards are where his real power is. All of them are Permanent meaning once played they remain in play for the rest of the game. This has been used in a limited way before with Padme and even as far back as Sabine. His one pip “this is where the fun begins” Adds Outmaneuver and Relentless but if Anakin is not your first activation of a turn he gains a suppression. Outmaneuver with Djem So always cancelling a dice (without High Velocity) and hence always returning the damage to the attacker from them to have. Relentless is great and will help mitigate his two pip’s down side.

“You underestimate my power” gives Master Of the Force 1 and Surge Crit but if Anakin does not perform attack he takes a suppression. This is a huge boast to his damage output and force abilities. The down side probably easiest on its own to deal with especially if saber throw is on Anakin.

Anakin’s three pip “Hero of the Clone Wars” grants Exemplar and Reliable 2 but if he ends beyond range 2 of and friendly unit he gains a suppression. This is also the only card of Anakin that gives orders to other units. This is like having a second stronger Padme in the list one that provides a courage bubble. I could see one way to play Anakin would be to play this card early (turn one or two) and hang back with the clones with Defensive stance equipped generating additional tokens and a courage bubble for the army and saving his other cards for late in the game when you need Anakin to go a mess something up that gets too close to your lines. The down side is completely in your control however trying to prevent all three downsides from happening in any given turn will be extremely hard and very rarely possible. 

FFG also spoiled so upgrades that are coming with this pack. A new force power Force Barrier, exhaustible card that prevents either a crit or 2 hits on a friendly unit within range 1 for 10pts. Seize the Initiative a training that expends for an order token on this character for 5ptsand can only go on a commander or operative. Sounds like I have finally found another useful training for Iden. Padme will love this one aswell Seizing to just hand it to someone else nearby.

 
I can’t wait to put little orphan Annie on the field and see what he can really do.