So my wife and I sat down to play the new pieces today. She ran a squad with Cade.

About 5 rounds in, I based Cade and she won init. She decided to attack with Cade without moving, but then paused as she was reading the card (she doesn't do spoilers and doesn't want me telling her beforehand, so it's all new to her).

She asks, "If I attack does Cade take splash damage?"

I say, "yes."

"That's stupid," she said. "If I pull out my lightsaber to attack the adjacent enemy, then there wouldn't be splash damage. Duh."

I nod in agreement, then shrug.

Keeping in mind that I don't talk to her about message board discussions or my opinion about the state of the game, the next statement out of her mouth shocks me.

"Sometimes I think they just don't playtest this stuff at all."

Wow. I always pay attention to her perception on this game because it's coming from someone with no interaction on these boards, and so it lacks the influence that comes from detailed, complex conversations online.

Anyway, it seems like the character should have had an ability to deal with that so it wasn't a drawback. Maybe if he didn't have a lightsaber, but he does.

She and I agree completely Boris. Good woman you have there Splash on Cade is the one thing that makes me really reluctant to play him. I understand that the idea is to not let him base the opponent's piece, but it seems like you won't have a choice... I guess that's why Trans-Luke-cent Skywalker is really for him, so that he can reroll those pesky splash saves.

The way I see it is this. Cade is a powder keg, just seconds from going off in most cases in the comic so far. He borders so close to the dark side so often, even at his own expense. When he healed Marasiah from near-death, he didn't give a rip whether it killed him in the process. So, taking Splash himself is sort of like just wailing on someone, hoping to kill them, with no regard to whether he lives himself. He's a pretty self-destructive character in the comics, so it doesn't bother me too much I guess.

I understand the reason behind it Lobo, however I just think it's going to hurt his playability in a competitive format if you have to worry about allowing an AOO or possibly 40 splash damage if they base you... lose/lose either way.

Maybe thats why they gave him Heal 40: he can dish out 80 damage, take 40 himself in the process, and then retreat next round to Heal?

the guy is pretty cheap for what he brings (a LOT of offense and crazy healing) splash 10 is his downside.

I agree with the logic, but I hate it when someone who doesn't read the comics or w/e tries to complain. No offense to Boris or his wife. But if she read the comics she would get it more and thus not complain. This is why I read all the Star Wars I can, and don't complain about something until I do.

It makes perfect sense that a almost dark light whatever character does not know how to swing his lightsaber around so he takes some splash damage himself. All the way dark characters show more control then him. All the versions of Luke with his paltry training does not hurt himself with his lightsabers. Yep, they can write this in to explain it!

Splash may be a stupid SA when he's also swinging sabers, but from a distance it's awesome to have. He's going to do well against super D stormies cause he doesn't even have to hit. My guess is it didn't raise/lower his PV since it can be a benefit from distance and drawback for adjacent. So why bother putting it in except to make you think?

I kinda like it......

I love Splash on him, the fact that he has crowd control is BIG. It's a simple fact of, DON'T GO MELEE!

Spoken like a true teenager.

Splash reads:
Splash 10 (If this character's attack hits, all characters adjacent to the target take 10 damage; save 11. If the attack misses, the target and all adjacent characters take 10 damage; save 11.)

Okay, so let me get this straight... Cade does 20 damage with his ranged attack or his melee attack, and a Splash of 10 is tacked onto each of those attacks?

So he does a base 20 damage always (melee or ranged) and then has a 50-50 chance of doing an additional 10 damage from Splash. If he doesn't move he gets Double Attack which works with his Twin Attack, so (assuming he hits every time) he can do either 40 damage + a possible additional 20 to two targets or 80 damage + a possible additional 40 to one target (with the chance of taking 40 himself if we're talking melee attacks)?

Geez...

No. You only do the Splash save against the target if the attack misses. Adjacent figs always have to make the Splash save, however.

Ahhhh! Okay! Thanks for clearing that up.

So he does a base 20 damage always (melee or ranged) and then has a 50-50 chance of doing an additional 10 damage from Splash to anyone adjacent to his target.

If he doesn't move he gets Double Attack which works with his Twin Attack, so (assuming he hits every time) he can do either 40 damage (and a possible additional 20 damage to anyone adjacent to his target) to two targets or 80 damage to a single target (and a possible additional 40 damage to anyone adjacent to his target -- with the chance of taking 40 himself if we're talking melee attacks).

That's essentially how it works Cade makes big booms

A few comments:

I find characters with built-in disadvantages interesting, not "stupid" from the gameplay perspective.

If you're going to ignore the gameplay perspective, and go for the "fluff" consideration it's sort of jumping to conclusions to assume Cade when adjacent is pulling out his lightsaber and ignoring whatever causes his Splash 10 without really making an effort to figure out who the character is, and why he's represented/abstracted the way he is in the game.

And a longshot... Is it possible there's a self-serving element here? In the description, it sounds as if she wasn't aware of this pre-game, as if she's reading the card after making the tactical mistake of letting Cade get based. Perhaps some frustration at being trapped in a bad spot? I can't say--you'd really have to be there and know the person well, but I see that kind of thing a lot in competetive situations. (ie, was there also a complaint about having too many attacks while adjacent because Cade is having to holster his guns while using his saber? It seems unlikely, but it's equally "stupid" from a fluff perspective.)

I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect a casual SWM player, especially one who only does it because it's the hobby of his or her significant other, to want to go out of their way to learn all the background. Besides, I own and have read all of the Legacy comic issues, and I couldn't explain it to her in some "abstract" concept.



I don't know what you mean when you say "let" Cade get based. It's not something you can just avoid. Characters get based all the time; it's part of the game.

To answer your question though, the short answer is no, she probably didn't read the card from the brand new set very carefully before we started playing. The full answer is completely comical to me but I doubt it would translate well in a post. You would just have to know me and my wife, and how we interact as a couple, to appreciate the full humor.

(Imagine Frank and Marie Barone though not that extreme.)
(The "self-serving element" phrase is what I'm referring to, sort of - she bends the rules when we play one of "my" games.)



Well logic isn't the strong-suit of SWM.