BT-1 (BT) occupies an interesting spot in the Imperial arsenal. With 10 health and a three-dice, focused attack (functionally four dice), he is no slouch when it comes to offense and defense. On a standard attack, I find BT’s surges to be average in terms of value. Pierce 2 is excellent for maximizing damage, but I don’t think I will personally be hoping for additional surges over damage to activate Blast 1 and Recover 1. They are obviously better than nothing, but definitely not the best when I’d prefer a way to increase the likelihood of removing the primary target of the attack.

However, where these surges do have the potential to shine is with BT’s Missile Salvo action. In conjunction with Assassin, BT gets to roll three, two-dice attacks on three different targets and apply +3 accuracy to the results. This is very powerful as it gives BT the ability to remove multiple units per turn, as well as Blast and Recover multiple times per turn. Clearly, the ability to heal 3 damage or Blast 3 would provide a lot of value.

The last interesting point I’d like to reference is that BT-1 has the Heavy Weapon and Hunter traits in addition to being a Droid. This is maybe the most interesting aspect of BT-1, as it opens up a lot of new archetypes for the Imperials. Previously, a Hunter-themed Imperial list practically required the use of Temporary Alliance and the Mercenary faction. And even then, a significant portion of the list had to be based around another unit type. With BT-1, Imperials are closer than ever to running a pure hunter list if they’d like. Better yet (especially in terms of list building and encouraging creativity), Imperial players can now splash the Hunter archetype and use Hunter command cards with a reduced fear that those cards will go to waste. Previously, if you wanted to run the Inquisitor with Assassinate, Tools for the Job, or Heightened Reflexes, you had to fear that if he died, a significant portion of your command deck would be valueless. That risk is mitigated with the availability of BT-1.