General Grievous, one of the most iconic characters during the Clone Wars is the CIS cheapest commander. After playing around with him for a while I can say that he is also a pretty solid option for a commander for pretty much any list. Let’s take a look at his card.
Grievous is a commander that lets you play a little reckless and get a reward for it. He lets you spend defense tokens a bit more liberally, as you can get them back or ready them later. He also lets you play a bit more aggressively with cheap ships as if they die you can get some value out of it though in the vast majority of cases it should only be seen as a bonus and ships and squadrons should probably not be willing sacrificed just to trigger his ability, however, there are moments when this is worth it.
The biggest issue with Grievous is that a smart player can make it relatively hard to trigger his bonus. First, most players focus on one ship at a time meaning other ships won’t have exhausted or discarded defense tokens when a ship dies. You can get around this by Taking ace squadrons so that when a ship dies the squadron gets its token back, or by taking TRC on a Hardcell.
Providence Dreadnought (105) • General Grievous (20) • Wat Tambor (5) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • Assault Concussion Missiles (5) • Point Defense Ion Cannons (4) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) • Quad Battery Turrets (5) • Lucid Voice (8) = 166 Points
Hardcell Battle Refit (52) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 62 Points
Hardcell Battle Refit (52) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 62 Points
Hardcell Transport (47) • Tikkes (2) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Comms Net (2) • Beast of Burden (6) = 59 Points
Squadrons: • 6 x Vulture Droid Fighter Squadron (48) = 48 Points
Total Points: 397
Another way people play around Grievous is by focusing down ace squadrons first, much like focusing down one ship at a time. Since in most cases squads are activated by a squad command then ships shoot if your opponent’s squads kill the ace they focused on no tokens get readied or come back. However, this can make your squads unappealing to flak as your scatter aces just uses scatter, and then a generic is destroyed by the flak to let it ready or regain the scatter, and then the squadron they just killed comes back because of reserve hanger decks. However, this to can be mitigated a bit by the other player by attacking aces last while performing an anti squadron attack.
Providence Carrier (105) • General Grievous (20) • Rune Haako (4) • Thermal Shields (5) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • External Racks (4) = 147 Points
Munificent Comms Frigate (70) • Tikkes (2) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • Sa Nalaor (5) = 80 Points
Hardcell Transport (47) • Bomber Command Center (8) = 55 Points
Squadrons: • DBS-404 (17) • 2 x Hyena Droid Bomber Squadron (22) • Phlac-Arphocc Prototypes (19) • DIS-T81 (17) • DFS-311 (18) • 2 x Droid Tri-fighter Squadron (22) = 115 Points
Total Points: 397
So how on earth are we going to get value out of Grievous if our opponent can play around him? You are going to need enough squadrons that your opponent can’t just off them in one go and Reserve Hanger Decks. In most cases, Grievous will trigger when a squadron dies and that will give back a token to a ship that spent a token recklessly.
If Grievous is your commander as a general rule you need to salvo every time a ship attacks you. This will lead it to be discarded, but now when your fragile squadrons pop you will get it back. In most cases, I have found I trigger Grievous far more when I have discarded tokens than exhausted ones. I think this is just because how a round is a structured ship activates with a squadron command pushes squads and kills some squads ship attacks ship spends tokens. In some cases that is all the heat, your squadrons will take that round so they won’t die and since your opponent is focusing on that single ship you need to have it aggressively spend defense tokens to discard tokens so that when a ship activates with a squadron command it ether has to kill some of your squadrons letting the ship they are attacking get some defenses back or more or less waste the command.
This can force your opponent to delay their squadron pusher ship’s activations so that the ship they will attack this round does not get tokens back with Grievous. This can be huge as it can let your fragile squadrons really pick apart your opponent’s squadrons particularly if you are the second player. This can leave your opponent with no good choice ether attack the ship with a ship that is not pushing squads and potentially let you get the drop on their squadrons this round or kill some of your squads boosting the defense of the ship they want to attack.
Providence Carrier (105) • General Grievous (20) • Rune Haako (4) • Thermal Shields (5) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • External Racks (4) = 147 Points
Munificent Comms Frigate (70) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 73 Points
Munificent Comms Frigate (70) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 73 Points
Squadrons: • 4 x Droid Tri-fighter Squadron (44) • 4 x Hyena Droid Bomber Squadron (44) • 2 x Vulture Droid Fighter Squadron (16) = 104 Points
Total Points: 397
A few things worth considering while playing Grievous is you want at least 6 squads in my opinion. That does not have to be a huge investment 6 Vulture droids are only 48 points and it will be very useful when coming up against heavy squad lists. In addition to this, I really think when playing grievous you are locked into taking at least Asteroid Tactics, and probably Infested Fields though I could see other arguments for the blue objective. This gives you some flexibility particularly if squad less list is a thing in your meta. It lets you sacrifice a squad to get a token back and depending on the circumstances that can be very much worth it. Factor in Asteroid Tactics letting you ready tokens, and the points you can get from Infested Fields it’s hard to pick anything else.
In addition, both Beast of Burden and Sa Nalor are great with Grievous. Spending your redirect with Sa Nalaor at range while salvoing is so nice then get it back with Grievous to redirect when you need to, it just a good combo. Reading tokens you get back after they were discarding with the beast of burden is also really nice as well. The ruthless strategist ordnance pods combo seems cool with Grievous, but it just does not seem to work that well on the table. I did also try Grievous with Gilded Aegis and I just was not that impressed, but maybe I just did not have the right circumstances come up to make it shine.
Providence Carrier (105) • General Grievous (20) • Tikkes (2) • Thermal Shields (5) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • External Racks (4) = 145 Points
Recusant Light Destroyer (85) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • External Racks (4) • Gilded Aegis (5) = 97 Points
Hardcell Battle Refit (52) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 55 Points
Hardcell Battle Refit (52) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 55 Points
Squadrons: • 6 x Vulture Droid Fighter Squadron (48) = 48 Points
Total Points: 400
Grievous is a commander that you need to use defense tokens aggressively to really get value out of him. I have had great success with him, and he is very annoying to play against. He is also very cheap and sometimes that’s all you need. Any list that has a few squads can get some value out of Grievous making him a good pick for almost any list. What are your thoughts on Grievous and how have you used him? Until next time have a great week!
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