Darth Malak

Among his terrifyingly aggressive peers in the Sith, Darth Malak is a bit of an oddity: a fairly balanced character. His numbers are generally excellent, with Hit Points and Defense being just a touch low for his cost. But with Lightsaber Duelist enhancing his defenses, and Lightsaber Throw and Force Stun giving him ranged and defensive options, he's uniquely placed in the Sith faction to serve as a solid anchor for a squad, especially given his reasonable (for the Sith) cost of only 52 points. Naturally, he has the de rigueur Sith Rage for his faction, because if you can't do at least 60 damage in a turn, they don't let you be a unique Sith Lord.

He also has a nifty Commander Effect, which he got by copying off of Baron Fel's paper back in Dark Side Commander School. Unfortunately, unlike Baron Fel, he's way too pricey to include just for the CE, so you definitely want him up front, killing people for the Sith. The risk of being a frontline commander, obviously, is that you have a much better chance of getting killed than those commanders that can hang out in private rooms, far from the fight (Nom Anor, I'm looking in your direction). If you don't want to build around the CE (and with Dark Jedi and Sith Troopers being your only options in-faction to benefit, you might not want to), he's perhaps a bit too expensive (but if you're looking for a Sith beatstick that doesn't cost over 80 points, this is arguably your best option).

So, how to build for his CE? Sith Troopers, with their 20 damage and low Attack bonuses, seem like an obvious choice. If you're using Troopers, you should probably throw in the Sith Trooper Commander for his Deadeye-granting CE. And whenever you're considering a combined fire-oriented lifestyle, you should always remember the humble Aqualish Spy, one of the most efficient Fringe pieces in the game, whose Spotter 10 can give help you reap additional rewards for combining fire. Finally, remember that the CE only has to affect the guys contributing the bonus, not necessarily the recipient, so droids are fair game as your main shooter. HK-47, 4-LOM, and the Sith Assault Droid are all viable options to be a main shooter, backed up by combined fire.

Given the long list of pieces you might want to include with him, Darth Malak is perhaps best suited to 200-point play. You could squeeze him into 100, with just the three Troopers, a Trooper Commander, and a Bespin Guard or the like, but you're officially in the realm of fun theme squads in that case. For competitive play, you can spend points better than on Malak in 100.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 3.5

Yoda of Dagobah

Yoda of Dagobah is very much a tactician's piece. He does a lot of different things, and several of them are either completely unique or shared by only one or two other pieces in the game.

First off, he has zeros in both Attack and Damage, and no damaging abilities of any sort. If you're playing a "kill 'em all" game and he's your last piece, you are dead and don't yet know it (if you're playing a Gambit-scored game, Giant Yoda can theoretically still win by stalling tactics and gaining center points).

The most straightforward usage of YoD is as a Force battery. He has the Commander Effect that lets him share Force Points and the completely unprecedented Force Renewal 2. Not a typo, not an imaginary story, this Yoda gains two Force Points every single activation, making him the best Force battery in the game (except for that elitist bit that he can only share with characters that already have Force ratings; Emperor Palpatine cares about everyone, because he's a nice guy). Not content to just share Force in life, this Yoda also has Force Spirit 6, giving one last gift before he shuffles off this mortal terrain map.

Light Tutor is another crazy ability, unprecedented and unique in the game. It makes any allied Rebel character into a tiny Force-user with a whole Force Point of his own (and, moreover, the ability to share Yoda's glorious bounty). Chewbacca, Rebel Hero is a popular choice for this, but Wedge Antilles, with his suite of "I don't die until I fail some saving throws" abilities, makes for an entertaining choice. Personally, I like to give it to the Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon, because spending a Force Point can give that thing a 50% increase in speed. Note that any figure affected by Light Tutor is now also subject to Jedi Hunter, which can be a major detriment.
Next, we get to Yoda's "neener, neener" abilities, Force Alter and Force Defense. You can't use Sith Lightning on him, and you can't attack him very well, provided he's still got some Force Points (Force Renewal 2, in case you forgot).

Oh, and Master of the Force 3, did I mention that? It's actually really easy for Yoda to run out of Force Points despite the FR2, just because he has so many ways to spend them, and can spend them up to three times per turn.

Finally, this Yoda's bread-and-butter move is Force Stun. By itself, Force Stun is a basic 50/50 chance (worse against most Force-users, who can reroll the save) to activate a character for the round. It's only extraordinary in this case because it doesn't replace attacks or turn, and Yoda has Master of the Force 3, allowing him to say, "Stun you I do! The save you have made? Stun you again, I do! Another save successful? Stun you I do!" Bear in mind you can make these decisions as you go, so you can keep at the one guy you really want to stun, or, if the dice are on your side, possibly stun three different targets on the same turn (remember that Force Stun uses the standard targeting rules, though, so you might have to move to get a new target).

Yoda of Dagobah is a very cool piece (if oversized compared to the other Yodas), and absolutely worth the points, but is not a piece for new or inexperienced players. His collection of weird abilities and the Force Point decisions that he forces you to make put him firmly in the "difficult to play well" camp, but he's eminently worth it.

Overall rating in 100: 3 (over a third of your squad not being able to damage anything is a tough pill to swallow)
Overall rating in 200: 4.5 (extremely effective, especially if kept on the sidelines to build up some Force first).

General Windu

One thing that I really like about Mace Windu in the miniatures game is that all three of his versions have exactly the same basic statistics, down to the Triple Attack and five Force Points. As you probably don't recall from my review of Mace Windu, Jedi Master, I strongly prefer the original Clone Strike version of the character to the ROTS remake. General Windu, however, has stolen my heart.

Ignoring for a moment one of the most blatantly powerful Commander Effects in the game, the General features the triumphant return of Vaapad-Style Fighting, allowing roughly one in seven of Windu's attacks to be a critical. He also features Lightsaber Sweep and Riposte, because that way he gets more attacks that might be criticals. As a nice touch, he has Master Speed, which helps him start making attacks sooner, and finally, he has Force Absorb, which will mostly be used to cancel attempts to block his attacks.

As you can see, General Windu likes to attack. He also helps his followers discover their own inner Windus, with a Commander Effect that just grants all followers Extra Attack. Take a moment and breathe that in... yeah. Republic Commando Sev? He should totally do 60 damage a round. Depa Billaba? She should definitely get three attacks per round to try and trigger her own Vaapad-Style Fighting. Gotal Fringer? Two attempts at that elusive Disintegrate per turn.
Two of the above examples are Good Ideas. The other one is Just For Fun, a euphemism for "not competitively useful." I recently did play General Windu and a load of Gotals in a tournament, and lost (as I deserved to). Not a single '20' the whole time, either. Gotals suck, but at least now I can cross them off the list of "things I haven't yet played in a tournament."

Where was I? General Windu, right. He has one last ability which is interesting enough to merit its own paragraph. Shatterpoint is an interesting way to spend a turn. You should NOT, repeat not, use it instead of a Triple Attack, if the choice presents itself. Giving up 60 or more damage so you can add 20 per round in the future is only a good idea against the AT-AT. But if R2 can't quite tow you up to the Big Bad on your opponent's squad, you can do a lot worse than having Mace take a moment to size up the guy's weaknesses.

All in all, General Windu is some of the most fun I've had in this game. He combos so well with so many pieces, and has so many great abilities himself, he might very well be my favorite piece in Champions of the Force.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (at 72 points, a Jedi with no defensive abilities is probably a bad buy for this point total)
Overall rating in 200: 4.5 (now we're talkin')

Luke Skywalker, Young Jedi

While he isn't the Vader-crushing beatstick I still hope we'll one day get in this game, the Young Jedi version of Luke Skywalker is a pretty great piece.

At 21 points, his numbers are extremely solid, with Double Attack making him one of the highest damage outputs for the cost in the game (with the obvious caveat that he has to be in melee range to do any damage at all). Fortunately, he packs Lightsaber Deflect to help him make it to the fight, and Force Alter to prevent criticals against him or his friends.

Jedi Mind Trick is a cute ability, but generally not as good as Force Stun. The differences are that JMT only has a range of two squares, but also prevents attacks of opportunity. This is know as the "Look over there! Is that an emu yodeling?" defense. You use Mind Trick on some dangerous thing that has based you, then get away without the traditional attack of opportunity. The big flaw with this idea is that almost anything in the game that Luke might want to run away from base contact with will have Force Points of its own, reducing our 50% to a 25%. On the other hand, if you're pulling from the bottomless bag of Force Points that is Yoda of Dagobah, you might be okay spending one just to get your opponent to spend one of their (probably limited) points.

Young Jedi Luke won't see a lot of play, because Luke on Tauntaun offers the much sexier trick of automatic criticals, but if you're looking for a Luke with more than one trick up his sleeve, I recommend this one.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4

Depa Billaba

If you spend a little time on the Wizards of the Coast message boards, from time to time you'll run into someone talking about the notion that the Jedi Weapon Master made all other low-to-mid-cost Jedi obsolete. While this is mostly true, even the JWM's harshest critics tend to make one unanimous exception in the form of Depa Billaba.

While Depa has roughly similar statistics to a Weapon Master, costs three points more, and is missing most of the Lightsaber-related powers that the JWM sports, she's widely considered an auto-include in Republic squads for the simple beauty of Force Sense. Any power that can take an otherwise competitively viable squad type (the Nom Bomb) and neuter it across the entire map for an entire round is a power that you have to consider carefully. There is more than one type of Stealth squad, of course, and Depa is effective against all of them. I singled out the Nom Bomb because, alone among Stealth builds, Jedi always care about it. If you build a squad specifically around Jedi and their melee strength, you are officially licensed not to care about Commander Bacara's squad of well-hidden ninja nancy-boys. You still have to get across the board under a withering hail of blaster fire, but if they're all stealthy when you get there, boo-hoo. A lightsaber doesn't need to target you from a distance, and congratulations to you for making your opponent waste a bunch of points on Stealth. On the other hand, a Nom Bomb squad relies on not only being hidden, but being personally explosive as well. This makes Depa's Force-powered visual acuity doubly important, as an exposed Nom Bomb is a mostly helpless one as well.

Besides her one power that's unique in the game, Depa is a perfectly reasonable fighter, sporting Lightsaber Deflect (the discerning Jedi's favorite way to make it across the field to cut up the shooter) and Vaapad-style Fighting. Depa is the only piece in the game so far who can get so many criticals and doesn't have "Windu" in her name somewhere (and she costs less than half what the cheapest version of Mace does).

To recap, Depa is a fine choice if you're planning to make an all-Jedi squad, even if all she does is standard fighting. She's a must-have if you're making a squad around shooters (or one very powerful shooter), because super-stealth is a major factor against such squads.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

Even Piell

You know that one Jedi master? The short one, with the pointy ears? No, not Yoda. No, that one who costs three points more than a Jedi Weapon Master, and is generally not as good, but has one unique Force Power to set him apart? No, not Depa Billaba. I said "he," didn't I? I'm talking about Even Piell, one of the most overshadowed characters and pieces in Star Wars.

Monsieur Piell had the misfortune of being released in the same set as both Depa Billaba and the Jedi Weapon Master, either of which is pretty much just better than him, and of looking quite a bit like one of the most famous characters in Star Wars, but somehow less cool.

On his own merits, Even isn't bad. He's got the requisite Double Attack, a reasonable number of Force Points, good numbers, Lightsabers Block and Sweep, and Mettle, a power unique to him in the game. Mettle means that any time he uses a Force Point to reroll something, he gets a +4 to the roll. This is very cool, or would be on a character with Force Renewal and/or Master of the Force. The problem is that Even will most likely want to use this power on Lightsaber Block saves, and he can't, because then he'll have used his Force Point for the turn already. He also only has four FPs to begin with, and while that's above average, it still means that Mettle can matter an absolute maximum of four times in a game.

He's not bad; he really isn't. He just costs the same as Depa Billaba, who trades Mettle and Lightsaber Block for Vaapad-Style Fighting, Lightsaber Deflect, and Force Sense, which is strictly better. This wouldn't be a death sentence if it was just a question of using both Depa and Even, but the non-Unique Jedi Weapon Master trades Mettle for a list of lightsaber-related powers as long as your arm, with only a slight loss in numbers to offset it. No matter how many points you have left, you should be using JWMs instead of Even Piell, I'm sorry to say.
Of course, the above applies only to competitive play and the bleeding edge of efficiency (as my reviews almost always do). If you want to use Piell over a JWM, you aren't losing that much (unless you have Commander Effects that only apply to non-Uniques), and you might do just fine with him. But if you're working on your next big tournament squad, the JWM is the better bet, even if the only advantage he brings you is that he comes with a three-point savings. One Ugnaught Demolitionist can be the difference between victory and defeat.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 3

Snowtrooper with E-Web Blaster

The Snowtrooper with E-Web Blaster is decent, but mostly because of the faction it's in, by which I mean Grand Admiral Thrawn's faction. It could be used without the blue man, but it would just seem so silly.

On first glance, we've got a 30 Damage Double Attacker for a mere 18 points. Holy crap. As is so often the case, however, that pesky second glance is what does us in. The E-Web has an Attack of +4, and a Defense of 11. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is an Imperial unit with a Defense score lower than an Ewok's. Yikes. Moving on, we see the ever-unpopular Speed 2/Heavy Weapon combo that all the cool kids are avoiding in droves.

Admiral Thrawn really is pretty Grand, though. With a wave of his hand (and probably a shout from Mas Amedda) he grants +3 to both the Attack and Defense of this misbegotten artillery piece, and can swap its position with any other Large unit (the Scout Trooper on Speeder Bike comes temptingly to mind, with its 24-square range). Presto! In 37 points, we've solved or at least mitigated every problem with the piece.

But a +7 to hit is still really low. You should probably have a bunch of low-cost shooters with whom to combine fire. Conveniently, the Empire has a few of those. You may also want to include General Veers, to grant that all-important Accurate Shot to this big ol' turret. But that's all the advice I'm going to give you; I can't design all your squads for you, you lazy lout.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (Thrawn is hard to use here, and consequently so is the E-Web)
Overall rating in 200: 3

Bastila Shan

Bastila Shan gives me fits. I just can't decide how I feel about her as a miniature. On the one hand, Triple Attack, Lightsaber Deflect, and Lightsaber Sweep say, "I'm a frontline beatstick! Use me to destroy your enemies and we can rule the galaxy as player and piece!" On the other hand, her Commander Effect/Force Powers, and more importantly her modest Defense and Hit Points, say "Keep me away from the action, as I'm a delicate flower who will wilt quickly without proper care."

Herein lies the problem: if you're paying 46 points for a piece, it needs to be doing a fair bit for you. Bastila costs too much too use her just for her command skills, and she's not a good enough combatant to pay 46 points for just combat ability. Consequently, she's essentially forced into the role of backup attacker, a second line piece that handles mop-up duty while providing Force Valor bonuses to more capable (or disposable) primary attackers. Since the Old Republic only has a total of six pieces, those more capable attackers are either Jedi Guardians or Fringe pieces (the dynamic duo of Aurra and Boba leaps to mind). With the Old Republic as limited a faction as it is, Bastila is supposed to be the reason to play them, as the Unique they have. Unfortunately, she's not quite good enough to be a reason to play the faction.

I should make special mention of Battle Meditation. This is one of the most interesting Force Powers they've yet given us. While you can use it just for the extra combined fire bonuses to your squad (and that's perfectly good), it can also wreak havoc for certain opposing builds that may depend on combined fire. Since it's going to be completely useless against many squads (droid-centered or melee-heavy squads, for example), they've gone and made it completely optional, so you don't have to pay the points for it in every battle. Nice. In fact, since her only two Commander Effects are both Force Powers that she can choose not to use, Bastila has the interesting distinction of being the first piece in the game that can be a follower or commander, at the whim of the player. It's not currently very useful, but it's fun trivia, anyway. Incidentally, Bastila now shares this distinction with Komari Vosa, whose Control Minds Force Power/Commander Effect actually stacks with Battle Meditation, so if you really like combining fire and spending too much for Jedi, there's a squad idea for you.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (there's just no one to team her up with, really)
Overall rating in 200: 3 (the more allies to benefit from her crazy CEs, the better)

Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith

Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith may not have great numbers, and he may not have good factional synergy, but he does have one of the longest names of any piece in the game, and by God that still counts for something.

I was deeply disappointed when I finally got to see what the new Sidious does. Once you clear the 60-point mark, you're up against some pretty stiff competition in this game, with the likes of Mace Windu and Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter (not to mention the two 80+ horrors in the Sith faction). The point is, if you're going to cost me 61 of my precious points, you'd better be able to help me defeat the pieces that my opponent will have paid similar amounts for, and this is where Sith Sidious falls flat.

An Attack rating of +14 isn't really acceptable in this point range. A mere 130 hit points is definitely pushing it. But a Defense of only 19 is embarrassing. Sidious, you should be ashamed of yourself. Go back to Defense school; take some summer classes; do whatever it takes, but don't come back here with less than a 22.

In terms of abilities, Sidious is all right. He's got your basic Triple Attack, and Force Lightning, which are both nice. Lightsaber Sweep is an odd choice, and not likely to come up except against grunt armies. The thing that's presumably supposed to sell Sidious to you is that he packs Force Renewal and a Commander Effect that lets him share Force Points with the other Force-using members of his squad. This sounds great, except that he's a Separatist who costs 61 points.
As of this moment, in 100 point play, Sidious has access to Dark Side Acolyte, Asajj Ventress, and Aurra Sing as potential Force-sharers. Of these, only Sing is a competitive piece, but Aurra has better options to team up with in other factions (the old Mace + Aurra team starts to look pretty good again).

So Sidious is exclusively a piece for 200+ point play. Fine. Unfortunately, his options don't really improve all that much in 200 points, because you only have 139 points left after buying him, and most of the options (various version of Maul, Dooku, and Grievous) are in the 50-or-so-points area. You can also bring in Aurra, but the fact is that at this point you're sort of fighting to make him more useful than the Clone Strike Sidious, who can share Force Points with any one Unique figure. The only Force-sharing advantage the new Sidious brings to the table is sharing with more than one ally, but since all of those allies are very expensive, you'll probably blow most of your 200 points on about three pieces, which is usually a Bad Idea.

What I'm getting at in all of this is that while Sidious is probably going to be a fun piece to play, I'll be shocked if he ever finds his way into any serious competitive squads.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 2

Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon

Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon might be the weirdest piece in the game. It has the best hit points to cost ratio there is, but loses most of its utility after it takes a certain amount of damage. It's a Living piece that can be healed with Industrial Repair (as well as normal healing abilities). It's attack works like the Missiles ability, in addition to being a normal attack. It also has Speed 2 and Heavy Weapon, making it effectively even slower than Jabba the Hutt. Oh, and did I mention the very worst Defense score in the game?

Given all this, opinions are sort of sharply divided on the Atgar's effectiveness. No one (to my knowledge) thinks it's top tier by any stretch, but it actually can be used, and fairly effectively.
The first secret to using the thing well is to use it in multiples. It requires a fair amount of support in its squad, so you should probably maximize your synergy by having more than one piece that benefits from that support. Your first stop is the Rebel Captain, who can give the Atgar Twin Attack, thanks to the fact that it's called the "Hoth TROOPER with Atgar Cannon" and not some other variant of the name. Twin Attack makes these guys much scarier, because twice the splash and twice the chance of a lucky critical on that 30 base damage can only help you.

The other completely indispensable support is Admiral Ackbar (or a Rebel Officer, if Ackbar is unavailable). +4 to hit almost brings the Atgar to respectability, and vastly increases the chances of landing some of that juicy damage.

You should probably bring Princess Leia, Senator, who will let you move your Atgars 50% faster than they can go on their own. When you've got Speed 2, getting to move an extra two squares at the end your turn is a big deal. You might also consider Hoth Commander Leia, except that, since the Atgar stops being able to attack when it's reduced to 30 or fewer hit points, most opponents won't finish them off, so the resurrection Commander Effect helps less than usual. You know you can use the speed boost from Senator Leia, though, so that's my preference.

Finally, a piece or two with Industrial Repair is a good idea. Chewbacca, Rebel Hero; BoShek; or an Iktotchi Tech Specialist are all valid options. Keep those Atgars at 40 and above, and they can keep attacking. A sneaky thing to remember, however, is that even an Atgar at 10 hit points can still combine fire. Your opponent may forget about this, and sufficient combined fire can turn even a measly +3 Attack into a virtually sure hit, so remember combined fire if you choose to play an Atgar squad.

The bottom line is that the Atgar is not a bad piece, but it's definitely not easy to play. If you're looking for a challenge, try it out, but watch out for highly mobile opponents.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (tough to get sufficient support in here)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (if you can get them pointed at the main fight, they can be pretty effective backup)