Probe Droid

Back in the good ol' days of Rebel Storm, each faction had one eight-point droid that was a must-have in any squad, no exceptions. The Rebels had R2-D2, and the Imperials had the Probe Droid. Many sets later, the Probe Droid is still stupidly good.

Obviously what you're paying for with the Probot is Recon, because doubling your chances of winning initiative is pretty much always worth eight points. Note that, because Recon involves a certain amount of risk on the part of the Probe, you probably won't get that many rounds of improved initiative chances, but what the heck, he only costs eight points.

Note that in the post-Thrawn era, the Probe Droid's Recon ability still sees considerable use, despite Thrawn's near-lock on initiative. The main reason for this is the fear of facing another Thrawn squad, which puts the initiative roll back on an even keel, and no one wants that.

In addition to his main use, the Probe Droid sports the ability to combine fire. Technically, he can also attack, but he's got a +1 to hit, so you'd better be feeling lucky. The great thing about using the PD to combine fire is that you already want him to have line of sight to some enemy, so he's just hanging out, waiting to give some lucky shooter a +4 to hit.

Finally, as if the Probe Droid wasn't a giving enough personality, he's also got Self-Destruct 10. This is obviously a double-edged sword, but many is the time that Palpatine has managed to Force Lightning some 40-hit point nuisance to death by just ordering the Probot to stand next to the guy.

For eight points, the Empire really can't say no to the Probe Droid. Look at his cute little face; listen to him whimper his puppy-like desire to be in your squad. Can you say "no" to a horrible spider-like robot that wants to help this much?

Overall rating in 100: 4.5
Overall rating in 200: 5