Star Wars: Shatterpoint – Plans and Preparations Squad Pack Review

I’ve really been enjoying Star Wars: Shatterpoint. I’ve said multiple times that tabletop war games are not generally my thing, but win or lose, I always have fun playing Star Wars: Shatterpoint. Late last month, Asmodee Canada and Atomic Mass Games sent over the Plans and Preparations Squad Pack for us to review. After my father-in-law got the figures all painted up, we finally got it to the table. Let’s take a look at this squad!

The Plans and Preparations Squad Pack box includes Jedi Luminara Unduli, Padawan Barriss Offee, and two clone commandos. This squad is really about sticking together and healing allies, and when used properly it can be an effective group – when planned for, the opposition can make this group fairly useless. It takes great care and strategy to play this squad correctly, and I love it!

The Clone Commandos are like most of the other clones that have been included in boxes so far. They can hunker and defend a ton, get a dash for the cost of a force, and are pretty good at holding down the fort on objectives around the board. Their attacks are pretty weak, although getting to attack twice for one unit activation is always nice.

It’s hard to talk about Barriss Offee without talking about Luminara Unduli as well. See, Barriss is most impactful when in close proximity to Luminara, and even more specifically, when engaged with enemies. Being engaged with the same enemy as Luminara grants attacks extra dice, which is always great. Moving these two units together is fairly important, although unlike the Magna Guards and Count Dooku (which can move with each other), both Barriss and Luminara will require their own movements, meaning they can easily get separated for long periods of time.

My strategy the few times I’ve played is to hunker down on an objective and keep them side-by-side – this is particularly effective when playing against melee attack only enemies. Although Luminara is a force hog, her one ability is pretty strong, which allows her to remove all damage and conditions from an allied character within 3. When used properly, this can easily extend the lifespan of a team’s key members, and quickly turn the tide of battle. That being said, if you ever get Luminara out of position, and away from allies, her main benefits are almost nixed!

I also like the ability to look at the top card of the activation deck when you have a card in reserve. This will allow you to really decide whether to use your reserve card, or keep it there and use the next card on the deck. So often I’ve made a poor decision because I didn’t know which card was coming up next, but Luminara’s ability allowed me to really plan for the future. It sounds like a bit of a lackluster ongoing ability, but it’s really great!

The box itself is really great – the painted figures look really good on the field, and both Luminara and Barriss Offee are bringing new concepts and ideas to the table. The Clone Commandos do have a few congoing abilities like Scale and Protection, which makes them slightly different from other clones on the table. Overall, while this isn’t a necessary pack to purchase, it does change how you’ll play. And that, in my opinion, is the key to a good squad pack. I want something different, not just more of the same.