Medics are units that possess the Treat ability. Below you will find the rules associated with this keyword.
Treat X : Capacity Y
Treat X: Capacity Y is a free card ability and can be used as a free action during a unit’s activation. When a unit uses the Treat X: Capacity Y ability, place one wound token on the card that has the Treat X: Capacity Y keyword, then choose a friendly trooper unit at range 1 and in line of sight and remove a total of up to X wound and/or poison tokens from that unit or restore up to X miniatures to that unit. This ability cannot be used if the card that has the Treat X: Capacity Y keyword has a number of wound tokens on it equal to or exceeding Y.
• Wound tokens on cards are not considered to be on units and do not count toward a unit’s wound threshold, nor can they be removed by abilities that remove wound tokens from units.
• Treat X: Capacity Y can be used on units that have the trooper, emplacement trooper, or creature trooper unit type.
• To restore a mini to a unit, that unit must have had one or more minis defeated that round. Choose a mini that was defeated during the current round and place that mini on the battlefield in cohesion with its unit leader. Then, give that mini a number of wound tokens equal to one less than the wound threshold indicated on its unit card.
• If all of a unit’s minis have been defeated, it is no longer in play, and cannot be chosen when using the Treat X: Capacity Y ability.
• If a player has a unit with the Treat X: Capacity Y y ability in their army, it is recommended that the player track which of their trooper minis have been defeated during the current round, in order to avoid confusion. For example, minis can be placed tipped on their side on top of their unit card.
That’s a lot of text. So let’s break it down. Treating a unit is a free action. It basically transfers one affliction (poison, wound, or death) off a unit, turns it into a wound token, puts it onto the medic. The medic can hold up to a certain capacity of wounds (usually 2). You cannot treat wounds that are held on card, i.e. Treat cannot be used to pull wounds off other medic’s cards or pre-heal units using Emergency Stims. And crucially, units can only be revived on the round on which they are removed from the board.
So, why use medics?
Medics are a high efficiency units. On the most basic level, they grant an astounding amount of durability to their attached squad for their points. The medic itself has a wound, and it can revive two additional soldiers from its squad. To give some context, a medic that just heals 2 attached stormtroopers can revive 22 points of units, exceeding the cost (19) spent to include it, and it still has its own wound to preserve the lifespan of a squad before the squad is taken from the table. Now, this is likely not the most effective use of medic, as the Return on Investment can be far greater if charges are spent on more expensive units. At the end of this article is a full breakdown of the Points Per Wound Return on Investment for both factions. In addition, Medics are highly synergistic units, and this is what is covered next…
Medics and Guardian
As discussed prior in the Guardian X articles, units with Guardian and Medics synergize really well. While many Guardian units fall towards the lower end of the ROI spectrum (Esteemed Leader corps units included), Medics can still be valuable when used in conjunction. The goal of this synergy is to prevent your opponent from deciding where wounds land, using both Guardian and Medics to redirect damage and revive high value units, respectively. Here is an example…
Chewbacca fires at an Imperial Death Trooper unit without cover. He lands 1 Critical and 2 Hits. A unit of Imperial Royal Guard are within Range 1 and mitigate the 2 Hits. Average, they save one, fail one. The Critical remains on the Death Troopers and they save. Since Chewbacca has a point of Pierce and really wants at least some damage on the Death Troopers, he chooses to assign it to them, felling one. The next activation, a medic unit moves within range 1 of the Death Troopers and revives the fallen. At this point, all Chewbacca has accomplished is a suppression on his intended unit and a wound on another.
Medics and Emergency Stims
One of the biggest weaknesses of medics is their inability to revive models that fall on a prior turn. Cunning plays who out-activate medic-heavy armies will often save high-damage shots until late in the turn so the fallen units remain down. If only there was some way to mitigate damage so it affected the unit on the following turn…oh wait, Emergency Stims does exactly that. This upgrade is essential if you want you medics healing elite units in armies where activation counts trend low. With this tactic, you will take wounds on the next turn, and because the model did not die on the previous turn, it can be revived with a medic. Activation control is very important for lists running medics. You want to make sure that you are saving corps units with medical droids or activating other units first in some cases to be able to use those medic revives at optimal times and not permanently lose important models.
There are also a couple advanced strategies worth noting when it comes to medics…
Extending Medics
Like the Guardian X keyboard, Treat X is measured from any model in the unit. Many of the same extension strategies can be used to Treat units much further away than might be immediately evident. More often than not, this strategy is used post-move, if the medic squad fell just short of their intended target. By cohesioning a single model as close to the targeted unit as possible, the effective Treat Range is extended a couple inches.
The following image is from our Guardian X mechanics article, and was taken using tabletop simulator, but visually represents the same concept as spreading a medical droid unit out to extend its effective range.
Naked Medic Squads
There is merit to taking corps squads that just include medics. They are cheaper than heavy-weapon squads and can be used to pad activation counts in elite-heavy armies.
“I believe this is a solid strategy for Rebel Soldiers especially, as they get a lot more value out of move, heal, and then dodging or shooting. Stormtroopers want that aim to be effective, so they aren’t as immediately mobile.” – John Griffin
"Unsurprisingly, Emperor Palpatine is the most efficient unit in the game to heal with a medical droid charge. His wounds are not only expensive, but they are a resource for his damage when using And Now You Will Die. Therefore, I believe that running a naked stormtrooper squad or two with just a medic is great in a Palpatine list because it serves two purposes. It acts as a source of guardian to pull wounds away from him with Esteemed Leader, and it brings back any wounds he takes by falling victim to crits and failed saves. I brought two naked stormtrooper medic squads in my 2019 LVO list." - Joe DePinto
Points Per Wound Return on Investment (PPWROI)
Hopefully this chart will help you make optimal decisions related to which units are worth spending medical droid charges on. Obviously, objective scoring units that can be preserved should be prioritized, and tactical decisions should be considered over raw statistical data, but this chart helps to visualize raw value. However, if you can get value out of both medical charges before the corps unit with the medical droid in it dies, it is almost always a net gain in efficiency.
Calculated as:
(Target Points Per Model / Target Wounds Per Model) - (0.5)Medic Points
This chart does not account for upgrade choices, with the exception of strike teams which only include the mandatory weapon choice.
ImperialPoints Per ModelWounds Per ModelPPWROIEmperor Palpatine210532.50Boba Fett140518.50Darth Vader200815.50Scout Trooper Strike Team (Sniper)22112.50Scout Trooper Strike Team (Saboteur)21111.50Imperial Death Trooper1919.50Bossk11576.93General Veers8056.50Director Orson Krennic9065.50Scout Trooper1515.50Dewback Rider9065.50E-Web Heavy Blaster Team5544.25Shoretrooper1313.50Imperial Officer5043.00Imperial Royal Guard2523.00Snowtrooper1212.50Stormtrooper1111.50RebelLuke Skywalker160617.67Sabine Wren125516.00Rebel Commandos Strike Team (Sniper)22113.00Jyn Erso130612.67Rebel Commandos Strike Team (Saboteur)21112.00Han Solo120611.00Rebel Pathfinders1718.00Leia Organa9066.00Rebel Commandos1516.00Rebel Officer5043.50Chewbacca11093.22Rebel Veterans1213.001.4 FD Laser Cannon Team7062.67Tauntaun Riders4542.25Fleet Troopers1112.00Rebel Troopers1011.00Wookie Warriors253-0.67
Below is a chart showing the units with some of the more common upgrades
ImperialPoints Per ModelWounds Per ModelPPWROI Emperor Palpatine +
Anger + Esteemed
Leader220534.5Boba Fett +
E-Stims + Hunter154521.3Darth Vader +
Force Push + Saber
Throw215817.375Imperial Death Trooper + DLT-19D + E-Stims +
E-11D Config + Overwatch26116.5Scout Trooper Strike Team
(Sniper) + Hunter25115.5Scout Trooper Strike Team
(Saboteur) + E-Stims25115.5Scout Troopers + Sniper +
Duck and Cover + Recon Intel19.6110.1Scout Troopers + Saboteur +
Duck and Cover + Recon Intel19.219.7Bossk + Hunter + E-Stims12978.928571General Veers +
Esteemed Leader8557.5E-Web Heavy
Blaster Team +Barrage Generator6546.75Director Orson Krennic +
Esteemed Leader9566.333333Snowtrooper + Flametrooper +
Grenades + Recon Intel1515.5Imperial Officer + Esteemed Leader5544.25Stormtrooper + DLT-1913.614.1Imperial Royal Guard +
Electrostaff + Tenacity2623.5RebelSabine Wren + Darksaber +
E-Stims + Endurance +
Electro Grappling Line169524.8Luke Skywalker + Force Push +
E-Stims173619.83333Sabine Wren + E-Stims +
Endurance + Electro Grappling Line144519.8Rebel Commandos Strike Team
(Sniper) + Hunter25116Rebel Commandos Strike Team
(Saboteur) + E-Stims25116Rebel Pathfinders + Bistan +
Duck and Cover + A-300 Config22.8113.8Han Solo + E-Stims +
Duck and Cover136613.66667Jyn Erso + Config + Duck and Cover130612.66667Rebel Pathfinders + Pao +
Duck and Cover + A-300 Config20.8111.8Rebel Commandos + Saboteur +
Duck and Cover + E-Stims20.4111.4Rebel Commandos + Sniper +
Hunter18.819.8Fleet Troopers + Officer +
Scatter Gun17.218.2Leia Organa + Esteemed Leader9566.8333331.4 FD Laser Cannon Team +
Generator + HQ Uplink9066Rebel Officer + Esteemed Leader5544.75Rebel Troopers + Z-612.413.4Chewbacca11093.222222Wookie Warriors + Bowcaster +
Tenacity28.530.5
Counter-play Tactics
Lock-down
The lock-down strategy includes method that prevent medics from reaching the units that they would like to heal. Because medics can only heal at range 1, it is very possible to prevent them from doing anything besides moving and healing. Also, because medics must be tied to corps units, it is possible to make several key generalizations.
Medic units are weak in melee and locking them down with slightly better units can prevent them from healing more valuable units. Think about ways to counter them with Luke, Sabine, Wookies, Vader, Royal Guards, Bossk, Boba if you take flamethrower, or even Deathtroopers (who have a surprisingly strong melee).
Corps units in general are vulnerable to heavy suppression, hitting them repeatedly with fire can prevent them from healing by limiting their movement if doing so would cost them another useful action. If done early, this can also cause them to lag behind units with higher Courage, further putting them out of position.
If your list includes units that can manipulate the position of enemy squads (i.e. via displacement or Force Push), you can further disrupt enemy healing with these abilities. While this can be a corner case, we demonstrated earlier the benefits of using cohesion to your advantage when using medical droid charges. Force pushing allows you to not only move a unit farther away from their intended heal target, but manipulate their cohesion as well so that it is sub-optimal. There is something to be said for using a combination of force-push and jedi mind trick on Luke to really disturb unit positioning and potential future movement.
Hemorrhage
The hemorrhage strategy revolves around utilizing tactics that force medics to use their charges in sub-optimal ways. This tactic utilizes the idea that a dead medic with full charges is highly detrimental.
The first and perhaps most common way to force medics to use charges quickly is to target the units they ride in. Many players will feel highly pressured once their only units left alive in the squad are the unit leader and medic (and heavy, if applicable). This can force them to revive generic corps troopers to “cushion” the more valuable units in the squad. And as seen by the Return on Investment chart, generic troopers are barely worth reviving on paper.
Of course, cushioning a medic is pointless if the medic gets “terrain scoped”. The idea behind this is utilizing terrain so the only medic can be seen by an attacking unit. This forces the opponent to remove the medic if they fail any saves. If that medic had full charges, an opponent will often use another medic to revive it, losing one net charge. Because this tactic can only be used if an opponent misplays, it will not occur often, but if the opportunity arises…
It is also worth noting that, if one player out-activates the other, attacking units after all medic units have activated prevents the opposing player from reviving units. For this reason, when facing medics, it is often more useful to save more lethal units who are targeting single-wound models till the end of a turn. Make sure that you are using appropriate activation control to allow this to happen. It is not advised to target multi-wound minis with this strategy, as wounds can be recovered on subsequent turns, while revivals cannot.
A note for the fans of the dark side, Sith Lords with Force choke can ignore many of these strategies if armed with Force Choke. This is often better than killing the heavy, as the medic would just revive it anyway.
