Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter & Paploo, Curious Creature Preview

In this preview we return once again to the pivotal events on the forest moon of Endor, this time examining Leia Organa in her role as a Freedom Fighter, together with her courageous ally Paploo, an Ewok scout noted for reckless courage and curiosity.

While the Rebels have faced down the tyrants of the Galactic Empire on countless worlds and environments, one could argue there is no purer expression of their spirit than what went down during the Battle of Endor. This conflict saw Leia Organa rising to embody the very essence of a Freedom Fighter, putting her life on the line to safeguard the future of Endor’s oppressed tribal peoples, helping these underdogs embarrass and defeat Imperial troopers at every turn despite the enemy’s advantages in numbers and firepower. The subsequent celebration brought Rebels and Ewoks together as members of the same tribe, their differences forgotten.

By the time of her arrival on Endor, Leia Organa was already a veteran member of the Rebel Alliance, and her previous battles had taught her the value of guerilla tactics. She was perfectly suited to take a leadership role alongside the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village, augmenting their ambushes with her own strategies. Thanks to Unexpected Allies, in any force she leads, all members of the Rebel Alliance and Ewoks gain the benefits of both tags for abilities which require them, greatly facilitating the coordination between these two groups. Taking advantage of Ewok camouflage, she can help her allies Infiltrate to where they’re most needed. She can advance on a key objective making use of Defensive Maneuver to Dash into position while keeping to cover, gaining a Hunker token to safeguard against incoming fire.

As a Freedom Fighter, Leia knows that seizing vital objectives may be more important than inflicting casualties. She is particularly well suited for contesting and seizing objectives. Her Explosive Charge Active Ability lets her warn her allies to get clear of the imminent blast she is about to inflict on nearby enemies, who take damage from the explosion and lose all Hunker tokens. She can further use her proximity to arrange for Coordinated Fire to inflict Exposed upon enemies that her allies will soon fire upon. The combination of these two abilities can make would-be defenders of an objective extremely vulnerable to incoming fire, clearing the way for her to seize ground.

Leia’s Stances prove her to be a two-fold threat who can adroitly adapt to cover her weaknesses and take down even the most formidable adversaries. Both Stances are strong and offer similar benefits in terms of bonus maneuverability but have subtly different emphasis in terms of inflicted conditions and combat approach.

Using her Stealth Mission Stance offers higher Melee Attack and Defense stats and a slightly stronger version of her Self-Defense Expertise Chart, making it marginally preferable when she is engaged by a dangerous melee specialist. This Melee Attack Expertise Chart offers good criticals and a reasonable chance of gaining a Reposition to move elsewhere even when engaged. Though slightly more defensive, this Stance has a solid Combat Tree and Leia is quite capable of defeating foes in melee with her Close Combat Training. The tree offers an early ability to inflict Strained, to either Disarm or Shove her foe (potentially Shoving twice), or to inflict Pinned, along with another chance to Reposition at the end of the tree.

Alternately Leia can rely her Frontal Assault Stance, which maximizes her Ranged Attack and Defense stats and offers the highest potential damage output via its Combat Tree. It’s worth noting these two Stances are not clear-cut melee vs ranged, even with their respective stats—Leia can still deliver strong melee attacks using Frontal Assault or ranged attacks with Stealth Mission. Leia’s high mobility can still be exploited in Frontal Assault, given opportunities to Reposition offered by her Ranged Attack Expertise Chart, her Defense Expertise Chart, and the Combat Tree. This Combat Tree also offers the early possibility of inflicting Exposed or Strained, to Shove or inflict Pinned, and possibly to activate an Active Ability, such as Defensive Maneuver or Explosive Charge. It is very dangerous for enemies to linger close to an objective when Leia Organa is performing a Frontal Assault.

With all the benefits of Unexpected Allies, Leia has compelling reasons to fight alongside any of her Ewok allies, including her good friend Wicket. But one could argue she is particularly effective when joined by that Curious Creature named Paploo.

Paploo is a particularly fearless Ewok scout who has shown flagrant disregard for his own safety while diverting or distract enemies, such as when he stole an Imperial speeder to race off between the trees, drawing pursuit after him. His Feigned Retreat Active Ability can be used in just this way to manipulate enemy positions, allowing an allied Ewok (or Leia and her friends) to Reposition away from an engaged enemy, who is then Exposed and will likely Dash to follow. Like any Ewok, Paploo can employ Stealthy Approach. He is also Fearless and Inventive, gaining augmented melee attacks when brave enough to engage multiple foes at once.

Paploo particularly enjoys experimenting with the devices found on his enemies, represented by What Does This Do? This lets him exploit enemies that are Exposed or Pinned by borrowing their Melee Expertise Chart, leading to some potentially unexpected and potent combinations. And because of his own abilities as well as those of his most likely allies, it is usually not difficult for him to find Exposed or Pinned adversaries to investigate in this way.

As his Loaded Questions stance represents, Paploo is most dangerous in melee with his spear, but also able to attack at range with his sling. He’s a reasonably strong attacker with either weapon and both his Ranged and Melee Expertise Charts offer added damage. As his Defense Expertise Chart suggests, Paploo is rather luckier than most Ewoks, sometimes able to mitigate criticals. This Stance’s Combat Tree offers both decent damage and an immediate chance to Shove the foe plus the potential early infliction of useful conditions such as Strained or Disarmed. Higher up the tree, he gains a chance to Reposition and possibly a second Shove.

Both Leia Organa, Resistance Fighter, and Paploo, Curious Creature, are fantastic additions to any Ewok and Rebel combined force, with Leia tremendously expanding the ability combinations for these allied groups. Looked at in its entirety it’s hard not to be intimidated at the prospect of fighting a fully kitted-out Ewok force. I’m excited to see them in action, particularly squaring off against those arrogant and self-important leaders of the Galactic Empire.

Make sure to check back for our next Shatterpoint Unit preview, where we give you a first look at how your favorite characters from the Star Wars™ galaxy translate into the gameplay of Shatterpoint. Pre-order your own copy of Star Wars: Shatterpoint at your local game store or through our webstore today.

Until next time, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!