Imperial March - Troopers

Do you like the conflict phase? Do you like to be proactive? Do you like turning the LS objectives into fireworks? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you may want to hang your Sith lightsaber for a while and put your officer cap on because Imperial Navy is the name of the game here.

Why play Navy? Navy is bad, right? WRONG. Navy is big. Navy is powerful. Properly played Navy is the faction that can exert the greatest pressure onto the LS, as no other affiliation offers the sheer destructive power that Imperial Navy has in its arsenal. This faction doesn't care about controlling the board and passive play, it just takes all that's important for the LS and melts it down.

Of course, it's not all as good as it sounds. Navy does have very clear weaknesses that can be easily abused by good players, but where there's a will there's a way. Imperial Navy relies much more in the conflict phase than any other DS affiliation. It's the combat-oriented faction, meaning you have a good deal of decision-making to do. Can't just focus down Home One or turn Dash Rendar into coal with Force Lighting (you have other means though). You must calculate how to deal with them in combat while losing the bare minimum.

So what are some pros and cons of Imperial Navy?

+Possibly the strongest economy out of all affiliations.
+Insane amount of blast damage.
+Shielding.
+Variety of decks, may they be Vehicle-based or Character-based.
+SWAG.
-Weak edge.
-Has a hard time winning the Force Struggle.
-Almost no tactics, and what they have is all edge-enabled.
-Lack of tricks that aren't related to dealing more damage.
-Poor card draw.
-Stormtroopers have bad aim.

As a quick overview, Navy already has 4 very distinctive thematic decks, which can be combined to some degree:

The very fast TIE swarm deck, which is out of flavor since it hasn't received real support since Core. It is still, however, what must be the fastest DS deck out there, being able to win by the third turn;

The rather balanced Hoth Walkers deck. They have a fair amount of cheap, medium and expensive costed units, with a nice combination of unit and objective damage, and lots of shielding;

The imposing Star Destroyer decks. Unlike Walkers, all Star Destroyers are quite expensive, focus on objective destruction and don't have as much shielding as Walkers. They compensate by being sturdy despite that and simply not caring about edge battles. These must be the hardest hitting units in all the game;

The trooper deck. This is the only character-based Navy archetype, and the one we will be analyzing today.

Troopers in particular feature the following characteristics as well. Keep them in mind:

+Cheap units.
+Powerful defense with lots of unit damage.
-Lack of blast damage.
-Depend on numbers.
-Most of their "mains" are support units that don't do much on their own.

When building a trooper deck, there are two clear variants: the aggressive archetype that can deal decent blast damage right from the start and the super defensive archetype that builds up a huge wall of blasters and make a final push in the lategame or use the powerful Superlaser Blast to get those last Death Star ticks and deal with tiebreakers. You could even splash the Sith objectives with protectors (Emperor's Web or Agent of the Emperor) to keep your troops around for longer; maybe powerful Star Destroyers to seal the game (Devastator, Death Squadron).

Let's start with the aggressive archetype. If you are an aggressive player, then you'll want to play Vader's Fist and The General's Imperative. Both have inherent synergies with troopers (example: E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster and General Veers, respectively) and provide cheap units with blast damage, which can be hard to come by when playing troopers, allowing you to gain worthy rewards anytime you wish to go on the offensive.

Without further ado, we present a standard, streamlined and aggressive deck.

Affiliation:
Sith (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

2x Take Them Prisoner (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Detained (Core)
Trooper Assault (Core)
Tear This Ship Apart (Core)

2x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

2x Vader's Fist (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Legion (The Battle of Hoth)
E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster (The Battle of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Battle of Hoth)

2x The Dark Trooper Project (Heroes and Legends)
General Mohc (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Experimental Tech Lab (Heroes and Legends)
Heat of Battle (Heroes and Legends)

Motti and Experimental Tech Lab to get your economy going, many support cards to make your units deadlier in the form of Orbital Bombardment, General Veers, General Mohc, the E-Web Blaster and Trooper Assault, and of course a big, mean army of affordable troopers to gain board advantage.

While unsupported, the Blizzard Force AT-ST and the 501^st Troopers will be your main attackers, and with the rather respectable number of 78 Force Icons, winning the edge isn't a far-fetched idea. Heavy Stormtrooper Squads and Dark Troopers compose the thick of your defenses, and the small Death Star Troopers make for decent bait, all the more when you have your support units out, enabling them to deal 3 or 4 blast damage on their own.

While rather obvious, you want The General's Imperative, Vader's Fist and Dark Trooper Project as your objectives. Sure, the first two can be quickly disabled, but a single turn with their abilities on can be all you need to get the upper hand for the whole game. Dark Trooper Project helps to control the Force without crippling your combat capabilities. Unless you have a bunch of Dark Troopers out, you really want to keep the Force against Jedi. My Ally is the Force is just so nasty against decks that win by the numbers.

Take Them Prisoner is such a good utility yet underrated set. 6 damage capacity is great on DS. Plus it gives you a bit of intel and captures a card that will, most likely, NEVER be played by the LS. They won't bother going against a sturdy objective that has a single card captured.
Nothing to add about the troopers. You get what you pay for, but when you combine them with other cards, they are amazing for 1 cost.

Know what can really ruin your day when playing troopers? Targeted Strike. Last time we checked Luke and Han were still popular units. Good thing we have Detained. At only half the cost of the aforementioned units, it will get rid of those threats, doesn't matter how many angry indebted wookies are in play. As if that wasn't enough, the card has 3 force icons, making it great in edge battles.

Tear This Ship Apart is straightforward yet effective. Enhancement destruction is hard to come by in this game, and Jedi in particular get a lot of power from enhancements. If there's not anything worth destroying in game, you get a 2 force icons card. Not bad.

Last but not least is Trooper Assault. You want to use it on offense to quickly destroy an enemy objective without overcomitting to combat. Think of it as a Heat of Battle on steroids.

You can now do some ironing to better reflect your own playstyle. With 4 Hoth objectives that need to be undamaged to do their thing, Shadows on the Ice is a nice fit. Not only do you get a couple Wampas that will enter play for 1 or no resources at all, you get two copies of Succumb to the Cold for some much required control options. Also another Battle of Hoth to power your edge battles and keep your valuable objectives active.

Sabotage in the Snow nets you more troopers, more resources, another Battle of Hoth and more blast damage. Love this one in shield-heavy vehicle decks, but in this case the Snowtrooper Vanguard and Blizzard AT-ST might not be enough to really justify its inclusion. If you want more resources though, it's one of the better options out there.
While this one has a slightly lower force icons count, the added Battles of Hoth should actually make your edge stronger.

Affiliation:
Sith (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

1x Take Them Prisoner (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Detained (Core)
Trooper Assault (Core)
Tear This Ship Apart (Core)

1x Shadows on the Ice (The Desolation of Hoth)
Wampa (The Desolation of Hoth)
Wampa (The Desolation of Hoth)
Succumb to the Cold! (The Desolation of Hoth)
Succumb to the Cold! (The Desolation of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Desolation of Hoth)

2x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

1x Sabotage in the Snow (Assault on Echo Base)
Snowtrooper (Assault on Echo Base)
Snowtrooper Vanguard (Assault on Echo Base)
Forward Command Post (Assault on Echo Base)
Forward Command Post (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

2x Vader's Fist (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Legion (The Battle of Hoth)
E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster (The Battle of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Battle of Hoth)

1x The Dark Trooper Project (Heroes and Legends)
General Mohc (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Experimental Tech Lab (Heroes and Legends)
Heat of Battle (Heroes and Legends)

Maybe you don't care about defense at all, and what as much blast as possible while keeping the trooper flavor. Corporate Exploitation has nothing but troopers. These guys in fancy clothing don't do much by themselves, but they reproduce like the plague. Add in Lord Vader's Command and your Espo Troopers can really get rolling thanks to Imperial Vader. Communications Officer is one of the worst cards in the game. Don't bother playing him. The Probe Doids, however, are interesting little buggers that will get damage done even if they get instantly blown up. Finally, Imperial Suppression is an amazing card that will force your opponent to think twice before investing in an expensive event. The psychological effect alone can do the trick to protect your units from My Ally is the Force or a Rebel Assault.

Affiliation:
Sith (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

1x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

2x Take Them Prisoner (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Detained (Core)
Trooper Assault (Core)
Tear This Ship Apart (Core)

1x Corporate Exploitation (Core)
Espo Trooper (Core)
Espo Trooper (Core)
Espo Trooper (Core)
Espo Trooper (Core)
Espo Trooper (Core)

1x Lord Vader's Command (The Desolation of Hoth)
Darth Vader (The Desolation of Hoth)
Communications Officer (The Desolation of Hoth)
Probe Droid (The Desolation of Hoth)
Probe Droid (The Desolation of Hoth)
Imperial Suppression (The Desolation of Hoth)

2x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

2x Vader's Fist (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Legion (The Battle of Hoth)
E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster (The Battle of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Battle of Hoth)

1x The Dark Trooper Project (Heroes and Legends)
General Mohc (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Experimental Tech Lab (Heroes and Legends)
Heat of Battle (Heroes and Legends)

You can play around and go for an extra Imperial Command instead of Dark Trooper Project or the other way around, maybe even add in another copy of Lord Vader's Command for more event protection. However, you are sacrificing this one can have economical issues, and trying to solve that can often mean losing much of your early offensive power or going over 10 objectives.

Finally, you may want to include some protectors so that your troopers will get the job done no matter what. A little problem though is that, unlike LS, DS has a single protector on the sets that include them (Emperor's Web and Agent of the Emperor) so you might be better just having more troopers. Thus we get something like this:

Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x The Emperor's Web (Core)
Emperor Palpatine (Core)
Emperor's Royal Guard (Core)
Sith Library (Core)
Force Lightning (Core)
Force Choke (Core)

2x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

2x Vader's Fist (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Trooper (The Battle of Hoth)
501st Legion (The Battle of Hoth)
E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster (The Battle of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Battle of Hoth)

2x The Dark Trooper Project (Heroes and Legends)
General Mohc (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Experimental Tech Lab (Heroes and Legends)
Heat of Battle (Heroes and Legends)

2x Agent of the Emperor (Lure of the Dark Side)
Mara Jade (Lure of the Dark Side)
Imperial Shadow Guard (Lure of the Dark Side)
Mara Jade's Lightsaber (Lure of the Dark Side)
Sith Library (Lure of the Dark Side)
Rage (Lure of the Dark Side)

With less troopers, The General's Imperative and Take Them Prisoner lose value so they get reduced or completely removed, though you can still cut one copy of Imperial Command and/or Dark Trooper Project for them.

What you get are a ton of Sith libraries for resources, big hard-hitters/Force holders like Mara Jade and Emperor Palpatine, some cool events like Force Choke, Force Lighting and Rage, and of course the Protectors to keep everyone alive for longer. For all these reasons you can have a much more stable lategame when you can't get all your troopers in position.

Agent of the Emperor makes a great pair with Dark Trooper Project. You can now commit your 501^st troopers and protectors to lock down the enemy threat and still have them available for battle every turn.

If you are a very defensive player who wants to play Navy anyway, troopers are your best bet thanks to their unparalleled unit damage to keep the LS at bay. Vader's Fist won't really be that necessary, since you won't be using the blast damage. You can even cut The General's Imperative, but do note that General Veers turns even the cheapiest trooper into a very powerful defender.
Where do we get then?

Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

2x The Ultimate Power (Core)
Grand Moff Tarkin (Core)
Superlaser Engineer (Core)
Stormtrooper Elite (Core)
Control Room (Core)
Superlaser Blast (Core)

1x Death and Despayre (Core)
Devastator (Core)
Imperial Officer (Core)
Control Room (Core)
Defense Upgrade (Core)
Heat of Battle (Core)

1x Take Them Prisoner (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Death Star Trooper (Core)
Detained (Core)
Trooper Assault (Core)
Tear This Ship Apart (Core)

1x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

1x Repair and Refurbish (Balance of the Force)
Thunderflare (Balance of the Force)
Logistics Officer (Balance of the Force)
Logistics Officer (Balance of the Force)
Weapons Upgrade (Balance of the Force)
Supporting Fire (Balance of the Force)

2x The Dark Trooper Project (Heroes and Legends)
General Mohc (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Phase I Dark Trooper (Heroes and Legends)
Experimental Tech Lab (Heroes and Legends)
Heat of Battle (Heroes and Legends)

The new star is The Ultimate Power, which we didn't mention for aggressive builds not because we don't think it works there. Thanks to Tarkin and Superlaser Blast it's actually pretty good in the correct deck, but it most likely means you have to drop Vader's Fist and lose much of your early game offensive power.

In this defensive build, however, every single card has its use. The objective itself can royally screw swarm decks like speeders. Tarkin is very strong at keeping the Force and making your life a bit easier when making that last push. Superlaser Engineer isn't too good, but with Shielding, he can make for a great defender against units that only deal blast damage. Stormtrooper Elite will have the LS on his heels. Few other units in the game can instantly vaporize Luke Skywalker or Chewbacca.

Control Room isn't the best, but it's money you may need if you don't see Motti or Experimental Tech Lab. Finally, Superlaser Blast will help you finish the game or can quickly get rid of that very annoying Hoth Operations, Flight of the Crow or Against All Odds.

Death and Despayre grants you another copy of Heat of Battle and the Defense Upgrade, both great defensive cards. When you have The Ultimate Power, Take Them Prisoner and an upgraded objective, it can be really hard for the LS to decide his attacks. As it's been already mentioned, Devastator is a powerful lategame drop to do your last push for the win.

Repair and Refurbish was selected for its defensive properties and streamlined economy. But since economy isn't much of an issue with the deck, this one could easily be another Take Them Prisoner, another Death and Despayre. Actually, this slot can be almost anything you want.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the Navy affiliation's Trooper themes.

- Majestaat