Calo Nord

Calo Nord was supposed to be the Boba Fett of his day, 4000 years before Boba was a twinkling in his father’s genetic material. Compared to any version of either Fett, however, Calo falls rather short. He shouldn’t feel too badly, though; almost everyone falls short of the illustrious Fett family.

For 31 points, he has decent damage output, with Bounty Hunter +4 helping to compensate for his mediocre Attack value. He also has a respectable Grenades 20, which is helpful as a Bodyguard deterrent.

The problem with Calo is his survivability. With only 60 hit points and a lowish Defense of 18, he’ll only take two or three shots from your opponent’s main damage dealers. He does have the Avoid Defeat ability, which generally means that he will take a third or fourth hit to kill about 25% of the time. This is cute, a neat nod to how the character worked in Knights of the Old Republic, but nothing to plan for.

So is he worth 31 points? Maybe, but you should definitely be planning to compensate for his weaknesses. Consider teaming him up with Rodian Black Sun Vigo and keeping him in the back, well away from legal targets. For an interesting build, try him with the original Yoda, who will let him reroll his Avoid Defeat saves, bringing that 25% to a whopping 56% or so (assuming I’ve done that math right; probability class was a long time ago for me).

The bottom line is that Calo Nord isn’t the best choice around, but he’s certainly not the worst. As a Fringe piece, there are lots of choices for his squadmates, and there just might be some great combo out there that I haven’t thought of. Happy hunting.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (not enough room for support)
Overall rating in 200: 3 (exactly average, really)

Battle Droid Officer

Writing a review of the Battle Droid Officer is almost pointless. The simple fact is, if you’re using non-unique droids in a Separatist squad (and they’re not just there to combine fire with your real pieces), you should include a Battle Droid Officer. If not, you shouldn’t (‘cause, you know, duh).

Obviously Fire Control is the big, important part of the BDO’s card. It works like the best Commander Effect ever. It’s like if Michael Jordan and Leonardo Da Vinci were combined and given a Commander Effect, it would be Fire Control. First of all, it gives +4 to Attack to all your non-unique droids. It doesn’t even discriminate against commanders, like so many CEs that only work on followers. It also works anywhere on the map, rather than the mamby-pampy “within six squares” of so many lesser Commander Effects.

But the single thing that might be the most remarkable about Fire Control is that it isn’t a Commander Effect, which means... wait for it... it stacks with actual CEs. Even a lowly basic Battle Droid, with a normal Attack rating of +0, can shoot at an amazing +12 with the help of a BDO and the Super Battle Droid Commander and General Grievous, Supreme Commander. Those droids that start with a +8 (the Destroyer, Bodyguard, Hailfire, and X-1 Viper droids) get to shoot at a +20, higher than pretty much anything in the game.

The bottom line, as I alluded to above, is that the Battle Droid Officer is so good as to not even really be optional in any squad that relies on non-unique droids. If you don’t have one, get one (yeah, it’s Clone Strike, but at least it’s only an uncommon).

Overall rating in 100: 5
Overall rating in 200: 5
Overall rating at pretty much any other point value you care to name: 5