Blizzard Force of Galactic Empire: Ruthless Attackers in the Battle of Hoth
The Imperial forces during the Battle of Hoth were led by Darth Vader and consisted of a variety of troops and vehicles. They launched a surprise attack on the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base on the ice planet of Hoth, with the goal of destroying the base and capturing or eliminating the Rebel forces stationed there. The Imperial troops included Snowtroopers, who were specially trained to fight in cold environments, as well as AT-ST walkers, which were heavily armored and armed vehicles. The Imperial forces used these vehicles to break through the Rebel defenses and wreak havoc on the base. Despite the fierce resistance put up by the Echo Base defenders, the Imperial forces were ultimately successful in forcing the Rebels to evacuate. However, the Battle of Hoth proved to be a costly victory for the Empire, as they suffered significant losses and were unable to fully eradicate the Rebel threat.
Special Rules of List Building:
1-2 Commanders/Operatives (one must be a commander)
3-6 Corps Units
1-4 Support Units
0-2 Heavy Units
List of Allowed Units:
Commanders: Darth Vader, General Veers, Imperial Officer
Operatives: Darth Vader
Corps: Snowtroopers, 0-2 Stormtroopers
Support: 74-Z Speeder Bikes, E-Web Heavy Blaster Team
Heavy: AT-ST
Worth to know:
Stormtroopers (Heavy Response Team) – another kind of Stormtroopers, available exclusively for this battleforce. This unit is always composed of 3 regular troopers and 2 Heavy Weapon troopers.
Battle force – specific command cards:
[Pip-1] Unrelenting Fire – This one is not complicated, just gives order to two of your units and unables your opponent from removing more than one Suppression token in their Rally steps. It may be easier to panic out your opponent but keep in mind that this card doesn’t restrict Recover action.
[Pip-2] Overwhelming Barrage – Also gives orders to two of your units. At the end of the activation of a friendly Commander unit (no matter how many Commanders you have, each can use this effect), it may perform a 4B attack with surge to hits, Blast, Beam 1, Immune: Deflect and Suppressive. Best part of this attack is that it has a range from 4 to unlimited so can be used to remove distant snipers or finish off opponent’s units that want to run away.
[Pip-3] Debark for Ground Assault – last one lets you give orders for 3 friendly units. Then each Corps unit issued by this card gains Spur and Suppressive on all of its weapons. With this you can come closer to your opponent and then toss some Suppression tokens on them.
Short description of Strategy:
One of the biggest pros of running this battleforce is the possibility to play 4 74-Z and one of the strongest force users in the whole game – Darth Vader himself (you can read more about these units in our article. Try to outflank your opponent with Speeders and in the same moment try to shorten distance with the Sith Lord and troopers. Best scenarios for you are ones with the moving objective (like Payload and Hostage) so you can play when circling around them and scenarios in which you need to be fast (like Bombing Run or Breakthrough).
Example List:
