So I have been playing around a lot with Emperor Palpatine and now after many games with many different builds I think I am ready to pass final thoughts on this commander. I have tried him in all sorts of lists from MSU to multiple big ships from squadrons less to squadron heavy. The principals behind using him are really the same in every list but he does perform better in certain lists. So let’s talk about how you use him then in what lists I find he works best.
So Palatine nearly regardless of the list you will come up against, we have almost the same pattern to spend deafens tokens every time in order to maximize his effectiveness:
Turn One: No token spent
Turn Two: Evade or Scatter spent
Turn There: Brace or Redirect spent
Turn Four: Brace or Redirect spent
Turn Five and Six: Evade, Scatter or Contain Spent
This pattern can change when you go up against a list of small ships with no braces but they have lots of aces with braces. Making brace a possible turn two spend so that when you strike in the squadron game the aces have to burn some braces, but outside of that this pattern at least I have found is the optimal way to spend Palpatine's tokens.
So how do you decided on turn two if you spend the scatter or the evade? Or the Brace or redirect on turn three? This is where Palatine starts to show off some of his flexibility. You need to look at your opponents list do they have a lot of scatter aces? If so forcing the squadron engagement on turn two and going in and forcing the scatter burn on that turn is probably the best way to get value out of Palpatine, this also lets you take long range shots that will ether do some damage to flotillas or force the scatter to be discarded early making them very easy to pick off later. However if you opponent does not have scatter aces but has ships with evades in most cases evade is the right call on turn 2 it will get damage to stick, or burn an evade.
As far as when to spend the Brace or Redirect well it’s a little bit fuzzy, but if you have squadrons of your own I would save the redirects for the turns they will be doing bombing runs on ships as they really make it tough on ships to hold on to their redirects. So if you start Bombing on turn 3 that is when I would spend the redirects if you start bombing turn 4 I would wait till then and spend the brace turn 3, also against aces with braces it can be valuable to spend the brace turn 3 then you can strip braces off squadrons and ships for max value. So there are a lot of variables as to when the brace is spent, but it is important to plan out your approach and when you will spend what tokens before you even start deployment.
I had the most success with Palpatine in an MSU style fleet and a fleet with a medium squadron group. I will share the lists and why and how they work with palpatine.
Palp MSU
Gladiator I (56) • Emperor Palpatine (35) • Captain Brunson (5) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (3) • Demolisher (10) = 113 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) • Captain Needa (2) • Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 63 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) • Director Krennic (8) • Slaved Turrets (6) = 68 Points
Raider I (44) • Commander Gherant (2) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (3) • Corvus (2) = 55 Points
Raider I (44) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (3) = 53 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Darth Vader (1) • Slicer Tools (7) = 31 Points
Squadrons: = 0 Points
Total Points: 383
When it comes down to it Palpatine gains the most value from removing high impact tokens, so scatter and Brace this list is about taking advantage of striping the brace with ether the Krennick arqutines or Demolisher and have the raiders finish it off, with the right set up you can strip multiple ships of their braces. MSU by its nature puts stress on defenses tokens Palpatine just increases that pressure it just works. I have not seen Imperil MSU in a while I think it may be making a come back, not just because Palaptine, but I do think he is a good pick for an MSU list.
Medium squadron group.
Imperial II (120) • Emperor Palpatine (35) • Strategic Adviser (4) • Gunnery Team (7) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) • SW-7 Ion Batteries (5) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) = 185 Points
Gladiator I (56) • Skilled First Officer (1) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (3) • Demolisher (10) = 74 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Darth Vader (1) • Comms Net (2) = 26 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Comms Net (2) = 25 Points
Squadrons: • Ciena Ree (17) • Valen Rudor (13) • Gamma Squadron (10) • TIE Bomber Squadron (9) • Colonel Jendon (20) • Maarek Stele (21) = 90 Points
Total Points: 400
So this fleet aims to really leverage Palatine by using squadrons to strip scatter aces, and start bombing to strip redirects and with Demo and an ISD the turn the brace is spent Demo can force the strip of the brace and the ISD can follow it up. Even though you have fewer squadrons than a squad heavy list being able to strip tokens really levels the playing field of your aces vs their aces.
There are a few other things to consider with palatine. You can add in addition pressure with intel officer NK-7s, however I personally found these to be a bit overkill and a waste of points and slots that I could just put other things in that where cheaper and helped round out the list more. A few things that do pair well with Palatine are Avenger, and accuracies. Palpatine limits options Avenger limits them even further in that if a token is exhausted it is not the token targeted by Palpatine this round, Forcing your opponent into a corner where they have to pick between not spending defense tokens or losing one it creates an interesting dynamic. Accuracies also play into this you can lock up a few tokens that Palpatine is not targeting again forcing some tough choices.
So what are my thoughts on Palpatine, well I like him more than I thought I would, however he is in a weird spot. What do I mean by that, well he is expensive, so he really needs to pay it forward, but in some match ups I found that to be nearly impossible. I found myself getting little benefit from him in some games, but in other games I feel that I got an absolutely insane amount of value from him. I have never had that experience with any other commander where the value I could draw from them was limited biased on my match up.
He really struggles to get a lot of value when playing against MSU practically rebel MSU, he does make taking down admonition a bit easier and that’s nice, and TRC90s think twice before speeding an evade to defend with, but for 35 points it feels like a waste in that matchup. Lists that have no high impact tokens like brace or scatter palpatine will really struggle to do anything super meaningful. I find you get the most value out of him when playing against list with lots of scatter aces and a ship with a brace that also has ECMs, so I find he is best against Sloan Aces with an ISD. If that is an archetype that you run into Palpatine with 2 heavy hitters and some squadrons is a pretty solid option.
Personally I feel it is important to have at least 2 Heavy hitters in any list with Palatine, because once you force the brace strip you really want to follow it up with another heavy attack, I can kind of see an argument where you only have big hit coming and you want to force the brace, but if you can't follow it up with another big hit was does it matter? Valen Rudor, and other black dice heavy squadrons are a solid pick with Palpatine as well as you don’t need the accuracies to take out aces you just force them to burn their tokens, IG-88 B if you get his death blossom to go off on a brace or scatter turn can be devastating. I do feel that Palpatine is best with a mixed fleet a good amount of ships and a good amount of squadrons to really leverage his abilities in both the squadron and ship game. However I do think light/no squadron is possible if you are able to use raider flack effectively to strip ace defense tokens.
Palpatine as a commander is pretty interesting and I think he is a good option even at his point cost, however if we start talking competitive viability I think he can do really well in the right “meta”, but in the wrong “meta” he can really suffer and feel like a big waste of 35 points. He will be getting I guess a slight buff when salvo comes out just another token to spend. Palpatine is a good commander in the right match up and can be nearly down right terrible in other match ups, as far as I am concerned he is the only commander that has that issue, and that is why he is in such a weird spot, if he was cheaper or you just named a token each round he would be more than worth it, but as is he is a commander who you bet 35 points will be good, but could be bad.
Palpatine is interesting I want to like him more, but I have had one too many games where I thought he did not give me much if any benefit. Now let me put a disclaimer here I have never lost with Palpatine, but in some games I felt that was really not because I took Palpatine, but just because I out flew my opponent. I also had plenty of games where I thought Palpatine did win me the game so its just weird to me as I have always thought of a commander as enhancing a fleet and Palpatine does that, but his contribution from game to game just varies so widely biased on match up. So while JJ, Thrawn, Darth Vader etc. you build your fleets around them and they enhance them you build your fleet around Palpatine and hope that your opponent you face builds their fleet in such a way that you can leverage Palpatine against it efficiently, because Palpatine's effectiveness is directly correlated with the type and amount of defense tokens your opponent has.
Taking Palpatine as a commander is a “meta” call when he is the right call he can be amazing, when he is the wrong one he can be a 35 point liability. He is interesting in that if he ever really does become wide spread the meta can shift and adapt to try and push him out and then the meta might shift back into a state where he is again a better option so he is interesting, and I think he has the potential to shape and reshape the meta, but that’s only if people are willing to risk bringing him, some days I am tempted others I am not, he can be risky to take in case you face a list he just can not get the bang for his buck, and most days I am just not willing to take that risk. Until next time, have a great week!
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