The Fifth Trooper: To Add, or Not to Add?

So far, every corps unit in Legion has a Personnel upgrade slot, which allows you to add an additional trooper mini. Unlike the Heavy Weapon troopers, which almost always pack a punch and bring some extra utility with keywords like Impact, Blast, or Ion, the additional trooper is just another body with the same stats as everyone else in the squad. So when should you add another trooper, and when should you not?

Of course one major limiting factor of army composition is cost. The points costs of the additional trooper upgrades that we have seen have been proportional to the cost of its standard unit; for example a unit of 4 Stormtroopers costs 44 points while a single additional Stormtrooper costs 11 points. So if you do add an extra trooper, you aren't getting any sort of deal for "buying in bulk," but neither are you paying extra "for the privilege" of an over-sized squad. In fact, before bringing any other upgrades into play, and assuming they are all units of the same type (all Stormtroopers or all Rebel Troopers,) 4 units of 5 troopers costs the same as 5 units of 4 troopers.

With neither a price break nor a mark-up, the extra trooper question cannot be answered through the lens of points cost alone. It becomes a matter of quality versus quantity. More specifically, it is a matter of Activation Quality andversus Activation Quantity. Each of these two possible army building approaches tend to lead to very different armies with their own distinct advantages. Listed below are some of these advantages with specific regards to corps units and the extra trooper.

Advantages of Activation Quality (fewer but larger/more powerful units):

• Each activation is more impactful, an advantage which can be magnified if you have the first activation in the round
• It takes longer to defeat any single unit- this is especially helpful if you opt to include an expensive Heavy Weapon trooper as well (for a unit with 6 troopers)
• Fewer but more powerful attacks do more damage against enemies with cover (or enemies with Nimble and a dodge token)
• Upgrades are more cost efficient on larger squads
• Aim tokens are more efficient with larger dice pools, as you are more likely to have 2 or more blanks
• Requires the purchase of fewer expansions- this isn't related to gameplay mechanics, of course and while perhaps not a concern for more hardcore or affluent players, this may be a consideration for some

Advantages of Activation Quantity (more numerous but smaller/less powerful units):

• The loss or suppression of a single unit is less devastating
• Better objective control- for most objectives, having more unit leaders than your enemy in a certain area allows you to score more victory points
• More activations/tempo control- if you want to have the last activation with a specific unit, then you can delay its activation for longer
• More flexibility when you want to divide your forces into 2 or 3 separate groups- for example, with 5 corps units you can do a 3:2 split or a 4:1 split, or even a 2:2:1 or a 3:1:1 split; with 4 corps units you can only do a 2:2, a 3:1, or a 2:1:1
• While less individually powerful, with more attacks you can potentially dish out more suppression tokens
• More attacks can potentially better exploit the Weak Point on AT-STs
• Benefit more from global effects

In short, armies with better Activation Quality tend to be better at killing things quickly, while armies with Activation Quantity tend to enjoy more control and flexibility. Of course, many people will look to benefit from both quality and quantity by bringing a few heavily upgraded units along with several cheap ones to fill out their list. 

Ultimately, when you are trying to decide whether to add an extra trooper to one of your units, it will come down to what you plans are for that specific squad and how many points you have left to spend. Does the unit already have a Heavy Weapon, Grenades, or some other upgrade that could play a pivotal role in the battle? Then another trooper is probably in order. Or are you looking at your fifth or sixth squad of troopers who are mostly there for another activation? Then perhaps those 10 or so points would be better spent on a Long-Range Comlink for your Speeder Bikes or some Targeting Scopes for your squads with Z-6 Troopers.