Emperor
Palpatine on Throne
Imperial
Entanglements
#13/40
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2009
Ratings:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the
worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.
100 pt: 3.17
200 pt: 4.87
Killer_Nacho
Emperor Palpatine on Throne - 33 points
Cost: 33
HP: 130
Defense: 21
Attack: 0
Damage: 0
Unique, Emplacement, Evade
Force 3, Force Renewal 3, Force Lightning 3, Force
Push 2
Commander Effect: Characters in your squad can spend
Emperor Palpatine's Force points. (A character still
can't spend Force points more than once per turn and
can't combine its own Force points with Emperor
Palpatine's.)
So here we review one of the best pieces in Imperial
Entangelments. It boggles my mind that Pojo hasn't
reviewed this already. So we finally get a remake of
Emperor Palpatine for the Imperials, one that is
much more "lazy" then the first few. This Palpatine
just sits on his chair, much like what he really
does in the movies. But, like in the movies, he
influences the Star Wars universe without having to
even draw a lightsaber in most circumstances.
First things first, Emperor Palpatine's defensive
capabilities is what you dream of on a support
piece. He has an extremely solid 21 defense combined
with his outrageous-for-33-points 130 HP. To make
matters worse, he has Evade which allows him to have
an even greater chance to dodge non-adjacent
threats. The only real downside is the fact that
Palpatine on Throne is stuck to his chair.. he has
Emplacement, which means he can't move but you can
set him up anywhere on your side of the map. This
allows you to put him in a little safer area than
most pieces, which further increases his
surviveability. Now the main reason you would use
him is because of his commander effect and
rediculous ammount of force. Palpatine has his
normal ability, allowing other characters in your
squad to access his force points but... this one has
Force Renewal 3... that's right, not 1... not 2,
3!!! Combined with its starting force of 3, this
virtually guarentees you won't run out of force
points on your squad. Unlimited force for 33 points?
Sounds like a good deal for me in a variety of
squads! The Imperials don't lack force-users either,
this works well with most Vaders and Vader's
Apprentice, Unleashed (for those hefty-costing Force
Lighting 4s and 5s).
One of the great things about this character is that
he isn't completely defenseless... he has ways to
defend himself. Force Lightning 3 is a very powerful
ability, slightly limited by the fact that it costs
all of Palpatine's force regeneration for a turn.
Still, 40 damage is nothing to scoff at. Force Push
2 can be handy too to handle smaller threats.
Combined with his amazing defensive capabilities,
this is one commander that is simply a pain to take
down. Most opponents will simply let you have the
unlimited force, which is nothing to complain
about... :)
100 points: 2/5, Does too little here. 33 points
spent on something that can't move won't get you
very far and limits what you can do with him.
Combined with a decent Vader or Vader's Apprentince
Unleashed they could do ok, but you will find
yourself stuck when they kill off your small
beastick then camp in gambit without you being able
to do anything about it...
200 points: 4.5/5, Very solid piece! Anyone who
thinks that virtually unlimited force for 33 points
isn't playable needs to get their head examined.
Sculpt: 5/5, Love the sculpt! It's exactly how
Palpatine was shown in ROTJ!
Josh
Emperor Palpatine on
Throne (13/40, Very Rare—Imperial Entanglements;
HP 130, ATT 0, DEF 21, DAM 0, DEP 33)
All stupid “on
Throne” jokes aside, this version of Palpatine is
arguably the best version of Palpatine that
Wizards has ever released. With Force Renewal
3, this version of Palpatine is going to have
Force points to burn and thanks to his Commander
Effect which gives your entire squad access to his
Force points, he is definitely a Force to be
reckoned with. Now, characters like Vader’s
Apprentice and Vader, Unleashed don’t ever have to
worry about running low on Force points even though
they have Force Renewal. As an Emplacement,
Palpatine can’t move but he’s not going to be
defenseless. Evade gives you the ability to
dodge some damage and with two impressive offensive
Force powers (Force Lightning 3 and Force
Push 2) he can still defend himself without too
much trouble. Force Push 2 gives you a great
way to get around Force Lightning 3’s arcing
since Palpatine can’t move away from characters that
base him so you can just make them move instead.
Force Lightning 3 also gives him the ability to
activate your opponent’s pieces if they fail their
saves on it, which can really help keep Emperor
Palpatine safe despite being unable to
move.
For 33 points,
you’re getting a very powerful Force battery piece.
Though you can’t move him, he’s still got plenty of
tricks up his sleeve to keep him alive a lot longer.
100 POINTS: Much like the
original Force battery Palpatine, he is small
enough to run in 100 points without having to
sacrifice your beat stick too much. Considering how
powerful Vader’s have gotten for 50 points, you can
have a pretty nasty squad of just a Vader and
Palpatine and still have room for a couple of
stormtroopers. SCORE: 4
200 POINTS: At this level,
this version of Palpatine is a must for any Force
based Imperial squad. Now characters like Vader’s
Apprentice and Vader, Unleashed can brutalize your
opponent’s with their high damage but high cost
Force powers without too much trouble. With a Force
battery this big and powerful (let’s be fair, by the
time Vader, Unleashed or his Apprentice get in range
to use their Force powers Palpatine will likely have
9-12 Force points already), the Imperial Force users
become even more deadly. SCORE: 5
Gunnar "Darth
Malstrom" Malstrom
Emperor Palpatine on Throne
Cost: 33
HP: 130
Def: 21
Att/Dam: 0/0
Special Abilities:
Unique
Emplacement (Cannot move or be moved. Set up
anywhere on your half of the battle map.)
Evade (When hit by an attack from a nonadjacent
enemy, this character takes no damage with a save of
11)
Force Powers:
Force 3
Force Renewal 3 (This character gets 3 Force points
each time he activates)
Force Lightning 3 (Force 3, replaces turn: range 6;
40 damage to target and 2 characters adjacent to
that target. Huge or smaller characters are
considered activated this round; save 11.)
Force Push 2 (Force 2, replaces attacks: range 6; 20
damage; push back target 2 squares if Huge or
smaller).
Commander
Effect:
Characters
in your squad can spend this character's Force
points. (A character still can't spend Force points
more than once per turn and can't combine its own
Force points with this character's.)
Hey guys… we
are staying in IE again to review another great
piece from that set. Emperor Palpatine on Thrown.
Like a majority of the pieces in this set we get an
updated version of the Rebel Storm Palpy. Now I
believe before IE came out Palpy was one of the few
pieces that still held its own in todays game, and
though he still does he is now far overshaddowed by
Palpy on chair.
Now I don't
know about you guys, but when I played RS Palpy I
usually just left him back in a room somewhere and
used him for his great commander effect. Like the
RS Palpy this piece is a "Force Battery", which
means that people in your squad can use his force
points, but unlike Yoda of Dagobah or Sidious DLoTS,
Palpy on Chair (and RS Palpy) allow anyone in squad
(except for droids and savages of course) to use his
Force Points. They can either re-roll a failed save
or missed attack or move 2 squares faster or if they
have a force power of their own they may use it as
well. As long as Palpy had enough force, your
characters can use them. This could come in pretty
handy.
Rebel Storm
Palpy had "Force Lightning", which is now called
Force Lightning 2, which puts 30 on a piece and two
adjacent pieces as well, the new Palpy has Lightning
3, which does 40 on that piece and two adjacent
pieces, and activates them if they miss their save
11. Palpy on Throne also has Force Push 2, which
can help if your opponent bases Palpy. Another huge
addition to Palpy on chair is that he has evade (I
guess he can recline pretty fast in that thing),
which will help with the fact that people are not
going to want to get close to Palpy and shoot him to
avoid being Shocked to death by Lightning.
There are a
couple more improvement in the new Palpy. This
Palpy has +1 defence, and though it starts out with
three force instead of four, Palpy on chair has
renewel 3 instead of Renewel 1, so he can really
build up those force points. Also something that
might be a surprise is that Palpy on chair is 7
points cheaper… I don't get it, but I am not going
to complain.
There are a
couple small dewbacks… I mean drawbacks to using
this Palpy over the Rebel Storm Palpy. The first is
that he loses Force Storm (but is replaced by the
superior Force Push). The other drawback some
people might see is that Palpy has Emplacement,
which means that he can set up anywhere on your side
of the board but he can not move. You can put him
in Gambit if you want, but you can not move him.
With all
that said lets get onto the ratings…
100pts
3.5/5: Here he could be pretty effective, you are
only going to be using him for his commander effect,
but when paired with Vader Unleashed, or VSA
Unleashed he becomes pretty sweet. He also works
really well with Vader Scourage of the Jedi (you can
throw in a Nightsister or Old School Mara and get a
nice 100 pt squad).
200pts 5/5:
Here Palpy is going to shine. You can run both
Unleashed pieces and possibly never run out of
force. You can run so many different squads with
him. It could be fun to use Vader Champions of the
Force and let those pieces reroll their misses so
they don't die. This Palpy is great and at a very
low 33 points if you run any Force User heavy squad
I don't know why you wouldn't run him.
