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')

Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker needs to get a better agent. Given that the whole of the Star Wars film saga is supposed to be about him, his fall, and his redemption, the "good guy" versions of him in the minis game have thus far been sorely lacking.

As a case in point, check out the wretchedly unusable mess that is the Clone Strike Anakin Skywalker. To be completely fair, he's from the original design run, when they hadn't quite figured out how to cost melee-only characters, and he was the cheapest character at that point who could swing twice for 20 damage each time. Throw in Lightsaber Riposte, Lightsaber Precision, and Impulsive Sweep, and he packed a lot of offense into his little 25-point cost.

Even in Clone Strike, however, Ani was outclassed. Quinlan Vos costs only one point more, is mostly similar, and adds 30 hit points and another +5 to his Attack, for the measly price of losing his mind entirely whenever one of his Unique friends is killed.

By Revenge of the Sith, a new Anakin Skywalker came out, with substantially improved stats and still in the same price bracket, but only Rare instead of Very Rare. This was the last nail in the coffin for the idea of anyone ever using CS Anakin for anything besides decorating the top of their computer monitor.

To recap, he's useless for competitive play, and the ROTS version is better for theme play. On the other hand, he's holding not one but two lightsabers. So he's got that going for him.

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

Aerial Clone Trooper Captain

The Aerial Clone Trooper Captain is without a doubt the finest piece in the game with a giant bear trap on his back. For example, he’s way better than Chewbacca, Gnawing His Own Leg Off.

Seriously, what is that thing on his back? I know it’s supposed to be part of his jetpack, but it just doesn’t say “Aerial” to me. It says “dental braces for the Rancor” to me. But I digress before I’ve even gotten started. Sorry about that.

The ACTC, as he is known to brevity-conscious players, is not a great piece. He’s not terrible, but you can probably find a better way to spend your 23 points. With only 40 hit points and a Defense of 14, he’s in serious danger of being killed by your opponent’s fodder pieces. He does have some potent advantages, but they can be hard to get maximum use out of.

First of these advantages is his Commander Effect. Extra attacks for a heavy hitter are always a good idea, and the Republic has a couple of good non-Unique candidates for this ability, such as the AT-RT, the ISP Speeder, and Republic Commando Sev. Unfortunately, the first two are not terribly competitive pieces, and the last one is better paired with Republic Commando Boss for the same effect.

Another advantage is Spotter 20. Adding 20 more damage to an attack while also giving it a +4 to hit is a win-win, right? Again, not so much. First, you have to spend your turn on combining fire, so you have to hang this fragile pieces out somewhere and leave him there. Worse, he has to be within six squares of the target to use Spotter, which is hideously dangerous for this brittle, brittle Captain. Finally, giving up his turn to Spotter means that he doesn’t get an “end of turn” in which to use his Commander Effect, so you can only use one of his main advantages per round.

The last advantage for the poor Cap’n is an Attack of +10 for 20 damage, with Flight to help him get into position. This isn’t bad, and he can use it with the Commander Effect. I’d plan to use this part of the flyboy’s repertoire, if you want to build with him. Keep him safe in the back rank, and either keep him within six of a powerful, non-Unique ally, or use Mas Amedda to expand the range of his CE.

The Rocketeer look-alike isn’t the worst piece in the game, but the Republic has more pieces than any other faction. You can find a better use for your points.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (definitely not worth a quarter of your points)
Overall rating in 200: 2 (a little better, but still too easy to kill)

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

Kit Fisto

If you were playing Star Wars Miniatures back in the (original) Clone Strike era, you may have been aware of the community’s slow realization that 30ish point characters with Melee Attack and only one attack (such as a number of the CS Jedi) are generally pretty crappy. Kit Fisto is an exception.

All of the Clone Strike Jedi have some sort of shtick to set them apart from the others, since Unique characters should be, well, unique. Kit’s is his Commander Effect, one of the easiest ways in the game to get one of the biggest bonuses to Attack rating. +4 to hit is huge, and most enemy pieces will wind up wounded at some point (and if not, you’ve got bigger problems).

Kit’s CE has gotten even better since Champions of the Force. Not only did he benefit from everyone’s favorite loudmouth, Mas Amedda, the Republic got some real shooters in that set. Kit remains the best way the Republic has to enhance the Attack ratings of shooters (if you’re only looking to enhance melee pieces, consider Tarfful instead). The various Republic Commandos (except for Boss, who isn’t a follower) can all benefit greatly from +4 to hit, and no one really suffers for it.

In and of himself, Fisto is a respectable fighter. While he only has the one attack, he at least has Lightsaber Precision to up his damage a little, and Lightsaber Sweep to clear out weenies (or wound several targets at once, triggering his CE). His numbers are reasonably solid (if not spectacular). The big problem is that if you’re using him for his CE, you don’t want him in the thick of the fight, as he lacks any sort of defensive abilities other than a reasonably high Hit Point total. In the Mas Amedda era, consider letting him skirt the edges of the fight to kill support and fodder, while his followers shoot towards the real action.

Of the Clone Strike Jedi, Kit is one of the most playable pieces in the current environment. Use and enjoy.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (hard to use commanders much at this low total)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (much better support here)