Star Wars: Imperial Assault: Bantha Rider Preview

Move over Santa Claus – the Bantha Rider is coming to town!

The Tusken Raiders has come back to Star Wars: Imperial Assault – and this time they have brought the BEEF! It’s the big Bantha Rider fresh off of Tatooine.

via Fantasy Flight Games

The Bantha Rider Villain Pack

The Tusken Raiders have long harried the moisture farmers of Tatooine, riding out of the Jundland Wastes to steal, kill, and destroy. With the Bantha Rider Villain Pack for Imperial Assault, you can hire these lawless raiders to swell the forces of the Mercenaries faction in a skirmish or join the Imperial player in a campaign!

Like other Ally Packs and Villain Packs, the Bantha Rider Villain Packoffers much more than a detailed plastic figure. You’ll find new missions for your campaigns and skirmishes within this expansion alongside new Agendas, Command cards, Deployment cards, and Rewards. Unlike many Imperial Assault Villain Packs however, the Bantha Rider Villain Pack has no corresponding larger expansion, meaning that the Bantha Rider enters Imperial Assault for the first time with this figure pack.

Tusken Raiders commonly ride banthas for easy transport across the desert and for an advantage during combat. Just as the towering bantha commands attention on the field of battle, the Bantha Rideroccupies a unique space among Imperial Assault figures—it boasts the highest health of any figure in the game: twenty-one. However, it’s important to note that the Bantha Rider rolls no defense dice—a figure as large as the Bantha Rider is almost impossible to miss, and any damage that your opponent deals goes straight to this figure’s health. Despite its lack of defense dice, your opponent will need to concentrate fire over several turns to finally bring down the Bantha Rider.

Advertisement

During a mission, you’ll most likely want to incite the Bantha Rider to charge into a mass of enemy figures, where it can take advantage of its Massive keyword. The Massive keyword allows the Bantha Rider to move into blocked and impassable squares and push smaller figures out of its spaces, giving you the perfect opportunity to use Trample and Stampede.

You may also take advantage of the new skirmish upgrade included in this figure pack if you includeCreatures in your skirmish strike team.Beast Tamer is a one-cost, Mercenaries upgrade that you can exhaust at the start of a Creature’s activation to allow that figure to perform a free move. Alternatively, if a figure has the Non-Sentient ability, you may exhaust Beast Tamer to let the chosen figure interact freely during its activation. Since several skirmish missions require figures to interact to accomplish the mission objectives, Beast Tamer goes a long way towards making yourCreatures useful in any situation. Even if the chosen mission doesn’t require the interact action, gaining extra moves every round makes Beast Tamer an important part of any strike team with Creatures.

For even more sneak peaks and info check out the full article from Fantasy Flight Games. I glad to see the Scum & Villainy cards coming out for Imperial Assault, but mostly I’m just glad to see Bantha’s on the board!

The Tusken Terror is on the Pain Train – coming to a Star Wars: Imperial Assault table near YOU!

Author: Adam Harrison

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table. A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam's current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.