Commander Effect: Allies gain Opportunist. At the
end of this character's turn, 2 allies within 6
squares of this character switch places.
Ah, the new Thrawn... what a great figure. And for
once, the new version of the character doesn't
completely outshaddow the old! The new Thrawn is a
great piece, and so is the older Grand Admiral
Thrawn. Let's compare, shall we? The new Thrawn is:
-5 points
-Ysalamari
-Non-unique followers gain +3/+3.
+ Allies gain Oppurtunist.
As you can see, there is plenty of reason to use
either version of Thrawn. GA Thrawn is slightly more
expensive, but has Ysalamari (an ability to negate
force powers) and gives non-unique followers +3/+3,
while the new Thrawn gives ALL allies Oppurtunist,
which gives them +4 attack and +10 damage against
already-activated opponents. Both Thrawns get the
extremely useful ability Master Tactician, which
allows them to choose who wins iniative every round
(except if you roll a 1, bah). While this is only
REALLY useful once or twice a battle, it's good to
win iniative when it really matters. Also, it does
help this new Thrawn a lot more due to being an
Oppurtunist, he can force the enemy to activate
first on most activations.
For the things this Thrawn does better, is that his
commander effect is NOT limited by distance, and
that his commander effect is NOT limited to
non-unique followers, two things that help the new
Thrawn greatly. You'll probably still want to use
Mas Ammeda to abuse Thrawn's second commander effect
(the one that allows you to switch around
characters), so the first one isn't too big a deal
unless you don't have Mas Ammeda. But still, the
option to run Thrawn without Mas is still pretty
nice. The second one is the big thing... The new
Thrawn works with both other commanders AND uniques.
So all of the cool Imperial Uniques like Darth Vader
will also benefit, while they wouldn't from Grand
Admiral Thrawn. Combined with another unique
commander like Lord Vader, the new Thrawn can be a
force to be reckoned with. Now onto what the
commander effects actually do... the new Thrawn
grants Oppurtunist, which grants +4 attack and +10
damage against already-activated enemies. Damage
boosts are always nice and hard to come by, so this
could be easily better than the +3/+3 that the Grand
Admiral grants. Combine him with a activation slower
like Admiral Ozzel and put him into a pretty
activation-heavy army, and you could get amazing
useage out of the Oppurtunist boost. One espessially
deadly combo is to combine him with Lord Vader, who
gives Advantageous Attack, meaning that no matter
what your units are going to be hitting for +10
damage, which is a very powerful combo indeed. It is
also worth noting that the new Thrawn is 5 points
cheaper than the old. And while this isn't a huge
boost and will practically be irrelevant in most
situations, at worst you can throw in another
Ugnaught Demolitionalist you didn't have before.
Now to the bad. the new Thrawn lacks the Ysalamari,
which allows Grand Admiral Thrawn and all characters
within 6 squares of him to be immune to force
powers. I've used Ysalamari to effective use quite a
few times when playing Grand Admiral Thrawn, so the
loss of Ysalamari is saddening. Also, Grand Admiral
Thrawn's commander effect grants a static +3/+3 that
is not determined by any kind of battle condition,
which is good in its own way. For a squad that
already has a few Oppurtunists, Grand Admiral Thrawn
might be the better pick to the new Thrawn.
Overall, whether you choose Grand Admiral Thrawn or
the new Thrawn (scrabble version!) depends on the
army you intend to use them in. There are situations
where each are better than the other, and they are
both still extremely viable.,, something I like to
see when a new version of the character comes out.
Normally, the new character completely outshadows
the old one or the old one is completely better than
the new. Wizards of the Coast provided us a
character quite balanced to its old version here...
thanks, Wizards of the Coast!
100 points: 2/5, Like the old Thrawn, it probably
won't be able to do TOO well here... a
medium-costing commander usually won't. Now Thrawn
does grant Oppurtunist, which could be good
considering the low ammount of activations your
opponent is likely to have in 100 points, but
espessially without Ysalamari, your team is more
likely to get wrecked by the Jedi beatsticks that
rule this format.
200 points: 5/5, Thrawn stays the king of the
commanders.,, espessially Imperial commanders. Easy
to build a squad around him with 200 points to work
with, just make sure you choose the best Thrawn for
your army!
Special Abilities:
Unique
Master Tactician (You automatically choose who goes
first except on a roll of 1)
Commander Effect:
Allies gain Opportunist (+4 Attack and +10 Damage
against an enemy who has activated this round)
At the end of this character's turn, 2 allies within
6 squares of this character may switch position.
DarthMalstrom here with a review of the man who
ended the dark age of non-Star Warsness with his
trilogy… I am talking about our favorite Alien,
Thrawn (or Mitth'raw'nuruodo as we find out in the
novel Outbound Flight).
So The original Thrawn is still one of the best
pieces in the game, why would Wizards find the need
to remake him instead of say making an Admiral Dalla
or Captain Palleon. Well I think the biggest reason
why they remade him is because the first Thrawn is a
VR from a retired set, now all the new players can
get their hands on Thrawn. If you do have both
Thrawn, who do you play? What is the difference?
Well the new Thrawn is 5 points less. You lose 10 HP
(but still at 70 which means that they still
probably need to hit you four times to kill you).
You also lose +1 Attack. Your defense and damage are
the same. You also still have Master Tactician and
the ability.
Now none of those reasons are real deal breakers to
play one Thrawn over the other, the difference comes
in the non-swapping part of their commander effects.
The Original Thrawn gives non-unique followers
(within 6) +3/3 (Attack and Defense) the new Thrawn
gives Allies Opportunist, yeah allies, board wide
+4/10 Attack/Damage to activated opponents. So what
this means is that AT-ST's are hitting at 50, all
the Vader's are attacking at 30… heck Evo Troopers
are attacking @ +11/40.
Now if you ask me to which to run I am going to
simply ask you what else you are playing. You can
use Admiral Piett and give all troopers Opportunist
then use the +3/3 to boost Evo to +14/40, or if you
are running non-troopers you can run new Thrawn and
Jolee Bindo and still give them +2/2 and Opp.
So the ratings:
100 pts 3.5/5: In a game dominated by big hitters
1/3 of your team on a commander seems pretty silly…
but when that commander can give the other big
hitter +4/10 it might be worth it.
150/200 pts 5/5: This Thrawn (like the old one) is
one of the best commanders. Being in an imperial
faction is a plus too because you can really take
advantage of Opportunist. Throw in Admiral Ozzel and
you can really out activate your opponent. By
controlling the tempo you can almost guarantee your
big hitter can take advantage of opportunist. Try
running Thrawn with different combos, try coming up
with something crazy, you never know what could
happen.
Roque Saber
Thrawn
Imperial
Cost: 32
HP: 70
Def: 18
Att: 11
Dmg: 10
SA: Unique, Master
Tactition
CE: Allies gain
Opportunist. At the end of this characters turn, two
allies within 6 squares who are the same
base size may switch positions.
Thrawn (I’m not even going
to attempt spelling his Chiss name) is another
rehash of an older figure, like Dash from Monday.
However, the original Grand Admiral Thrawn from
Universe was praised as one of the best
minis in the game, so when word spread of a new
Thrawn being released, people started wondering if
Wizards was going to make the new piece playable
without making the original obsolete. Well, I’m
happy to say that Wizards succeeded in that area.
Thrawn provides a much different spin from his
original incarnation.
Starting with stats,
Thrawn’s are a tad lower than G.A. (Grand Admiral),
-10 HP and -1 attack. Thrawn retains the obscenely
powerful Master Tactition ability, which gurantees
initiative unless you roll a 1, but loses the other
ability G.A. was known for, Ysalmiri. Losing the
force-negating bubble is big business (read the
review on G.A. Thrawn and you’ll see why) and a
considerable drop from G.A.
His CE, like the original,
is comprised of 2 parts. He still has the good ol’
swap trick, so B&B can still be done. It’s the first
part that is really different, and will be one of
the main reasons why this Thrawn is played over the
older one. Allies gain Opportunist: this is one sick
CE. A board wide bonus
granting all your allies an attack/damage
bonus against activated enemies.
This CE makes Thrawn very good friends with Admiral
Ozzel (Ozzel’s CE limits you to 1 activation) and
can make some pieces instantly better. If used with
Storm or Noghri Commandos, Opportunist balances out
Cunning so they will always get the +4/+10 bonus.
You can even use this CE effectively with beatsticks.
One of my personal favorites is using him with
Vader, LotF. Opportunist boosts Vader’s damage
potential to 90 (on par with Vader, JH) and because
of Vader’s CE, all your allies will gain Extra
Attack and Opportunist, a very nasty combo to
say the least.
To sum things up, Thrawn
in no way replaces G.A., he just provides an
alternative. If you’re playing a shooter squad with
lots of non-uniques, G.A. is the way to go. If
you’re playing force users or lots of melee, go with
this one. They’re both
extremely powerful and versatile pieces.
100: 3/5 Not enough room
here. I suppose you could try a SC/Czerka combo,
which might be able to even take down some of the
bigger pieces, but in general stay
away from this format.
150: 4.5/5 Thrawn really
starts to shine here. There’s lots of different ways
to play him, but no matter what, he will always be a
help to your team.
200: 5/5 Same thing as
150, lots of room for extra support or maybe even a
small beatstick.
"The Force is like duct tape. It has a
light side,
a dark side,
and it BINDS
the galaxy together." -Anonymous
