Star Wars: Legion | TFT Mini - Failed Negotiations (Objective Guide)

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:05]What's up, troopers? We're here for another TFT Mini. We are still going over all of the the brand new uh battle cards and battle card. Yeah, newish now.

[00:00:16]Uh I guess we're recording this a little over a month after they came out, so they're still pretty new. Um >> is it only been a month? I feel like >> Well, it was it was like late It was late March. It was like a month and a half. Uh so >> um at least for everything except for the three that they revealed early, but this was >> uh the new hostage. It is no longer called that. It is called failed negotiations. Uh if you want to hear our commentary on the thematic weirdness of this, then you can listen to that episode on Detroit Scoundrels, but that's TFT Minis is not the place uh for talking about why you would be moving closer to the middle rather than running away with your hostage. Uh but this is the uh this is the the new version of of hostage exchange. So uh let's go ahead and read it. So setup, you place an exchange POI in the center of the battlefield uh even if there is already an objective token there. Then starting with the blue player, each player chooses one of their core or special forces trooper units. Each chosen unit gains an allied prisoner, which is an asset. Uh and then starting in the second round during the end phase, players score one VP for each unit they they control that is holding one or more prisoners that is within one uh range one of the exchange. Now notice we said range one. That will become important.

[00:01:31]Uh special rules. A unit that has one or more prisoners increases its courage by one. Uh at the start of the first activation phase, units that are holding one or more prisoners gain incognito until the end of the round. Uh, additionally, each um core and special forces trooper unit uh gains claim prisoner, which is a full action. Uh, and so there's there's multiple things there's multiple parts of this that end up being super important in terms of how this actually works. Uh, maybe the first thing to comment on, Mike, is that would you call this a fast objective or a slow objective when it comes to secondaries?

[00:02:14]As far as this is a fast scoring scoring.

[00:02:16]>> Yeah.

[00:02:16]>> Yeah. This is I think a lot faster than it looks.

[00:02:20]>> It's faster than it looks. Yeah.

[00:02:22]>> On on paper it looks like oh I'm going to score one VBB each turn and that's like sort of like recon mission and recon mission's not very fast. The reality of the situation is that like your objective score is going to be like at maximum range two away from their objective score.

[00:02:40]>> Yes. Like that's that's the farthest away it's going to be. Exactly.

[00:02:44]>> Um >> so you're going to be somebody's going to drop it >> at some point. Like it's not like other ones where you're like I have this token and I can kind of play the game safely and in a way that even if I drop it, I can like repick it up for sure. Like recon mission is pretty easy to set that up. Even service scan is like I might drop it, but I can definitely pick it up again if I've planned out the sequence, right?

[00:03:11]>> Yeah.

[00:03:12]>> Generally, this one's like, no, I might drop it and they're going to pick it up in the same activation. Um, >> you know, and then it's just gone pretty much until you do that to them.

[00:03:24]>> And then your opponent is scoring two and you're scoring nothing.

[00:03:27]>> Yes. Um, so, and once they're scoring two, it speeds up quickly. It becomes a primary, right?

[00:03:35]>> Exactly. Uh and I think that this is probably even more than supply drop is that this is a secondary that that really where like the build of your list really affects how good you are at it in a major major way. uh which is to say that there are some lists that have like extremely good options for hostage carriers. Uh because again it has to be core special forces. Uh and then there's some lists that have uh basically no good options for hostage carriers. Like if you if if you're a list to where like if you're running sort of the the old version of like the Grievous mega vehicle list that I used to do where the only options were your 3B ones. Uh like none of those are fantastic. Um be you know like they're the the courage thing doesn't really even matter there but it's just that they're very killable and that they have to be hanging out near the middle in order to be competing there. Whereas there's other factions that have like pretty good options. And so the the ones that would have put in that category are like the beefier like either either a core super squad if you are running that is a good option because it's got a lot of uh it's it's got indomitable and it's got um extra minis uh or what you'd call like your your beefier um special forces options such as like a full BX or uh a Chewbacca Wookie melee wookie trooper squad would be a really good hostage carrier. um anything that is going to be able to sort of uh take the heat as far as that goes. Um but then you can actually pile on extra advantage if you have a hostage carrier to where you're actually going to benefit from the fact that they have that incognito token until the end of the first round. uh because it allows you to um deploy them more aggressively uh going into round two than you might normally have been able to do because if they didn't have incognito then they would be at risk of like taking a range three shot from somebody else. Uh, and so when you put all that together and then there's there's various other things that we'll talk about is that this is one to where I think that there's like a certain kind of list that really wants to take failed negotiations and that there's a lot of other lists that are either okay with it or that really don't want to take this.

[00:06:04]I don't know what your thoughts are on that, Mike. I think if you want to play close the pocket like really badly, fail negotiations should probably be in your list probably and you should and I think um >> fail negotiations is a secondary that it is a requirement if this is in your battle deck that you have a tailor made unit for this objective. Otherwise, you shouldn't put it there. Like you just shouldn't do it. If all of your options for failed negotiations are courage one, you should not put this in your deck, >> right?

[00:06:41]>> Like it's it's just you should not put it in there. Um >> if you don't have a courage three or higher commander, you probably shouldn't put this in your deck.

[00:06:50]>> Oh, yeah. You really pay the price if you drop that thing.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah. Um and you know, there there are a lot of I think requirements in the list building phase to put this in your deck.

[00:07:03]um you really should probably have a super squad. Like realistically, there are a few special forces that it's like tenable to put this on, but most special forces are geared for being um a little bit more glass canned than other units.

[00:07:19]They they tend to be priced significantly higher than their their um like corresponding same size units in the other slots. They just do more damage, right? And so those units are not I think you gave a good example with the Wookie unit um of of one in the special forces slot that's okay with running this but you know outside of like a chewy Wookie squad like I wouldn't really recommend picking a special forces unit for this. I think >> I wouldn't feel great about Sleeper Cell as a hostage carrier, >> right?

[00:07:53]>> They're just going to get killed pre-activation and then like they're in trouble. Uh e even like a full arc unit like I'm not I'm not like in love with that. It's they're they're still pretty fragile. Like you know you lose two or three guys in that unit off of a shot and you're like I've got a strike team, you know. Um >> so you think this is mostly about super squads in the core slot.

[00:08:14]>> I do and I think that there are a couple reasons for that. The first is super squads obviously have indomitable that like keeps the suppression sort of under control. You definitely have to have some side of either uh a courage bubble that is three armywide or you need a way to that the super squad needs to be like naturally courage too. Whether that's because like I have Luke Skywalker in this squad or I have fives or or whatever.

[00:08:42]>> Fives is naturally courage three which you know courage for super squad is pretty good.

[00:08:47]>> If it's if it's a clone super squad it's obviously just like courage two off the rip, right? And you know, um >> I think I think those angles are pretty good. Um you also like really don't want to be losing actions with this. But perhaps the biggest reason the super squad is the most important and viable target for starting with this is that the within one of the POI does not count your unit leader. It counts the squad.

[00:09:16]>> It is any model in the squad. So you because the super squad coheres at a much higher range band than a normal squad, >> you can keep you have more flexibility, right? You don't have to >> have to poke a guy out there and Yeah.

[00:09:31]Uh >> you got to be careful with that because you don't don't pick that guy that's fulfilling that requirement as the first guy to die in the squad or whatever, right?

[00:09:39]>> That means that you can have a squad that's alive but you're no longer contesting, >> right? Um, and like obviously best case scenario is that your unit leader is contesting at one, but you know, you can realistically have your unit leader be range two from that center POI and still be scoring failed negotiations. Yeah.

[00:09:58]>> Um, because of how it works. So, >> um, >> I also think that like super like you also get more incognito value on the super squads. It's like giving two squads incognito instead of one, right?

[00:10:11]Um kind of >> yeah give like if you can give incognito to like your your big Cassian fleet squad and then just like fearlessly move him up twice in round one and just be like okay get ready y'all get ready for this because this is happening in round two is I'm going to just like start the activation with with Cassian and uh uh shoot a lot of dice at you. Um, >> it could be Big Ouch.

[00:10:39]>> Any of those squads like the Fives, you know, super shotgun squad, the Ahsoka super shotgun squad, great targets for this, right? Um, I think as they continue to add squad leaders >> um that add that kind of like versatility into the core slot, like there are going to be more options for this.

[00:10:59]>> Yeah. Um, you know, I I mean, I'm not gonna um say that you should do this, but like Assange B1 super is probably not the worst target for this. You know, it's still like 13 health >> and it's got incognito on turn one.

[00:11:16]>> If you're doing that, you would need to have Duku or Pago because the advantage to using a BX as your carrier is that it'll naturally be courage three when it has the hostage.

[00:11:25]>> Yes. Um and whereas like the Assange B1 would need to have Duke or Apogle and it is super duper duper duper important that you are not panicking at uh at force suppression with this thing. Uh because you know it takes a full action to grab it back.

[00:11:40]>> Yes. Uh, and so that means that like there is no time, you know, it's it's different from surface scan to where like if you drop that early, you can just like go pick that up with whoever as long as not too many things have happened in the game state. But with this, like you need a plan in order to get it back. Um, and >> and you got to hope that your opponent didn't pick it up.

[00:12:02]>> Exactly. So that's also different from surface scan. Um, and so like the consequences of dropping it are severe, one might say, which means that you don't want to you don't want to just drop it because somebody did two overwhelmed sniper shots at you and then your guy panicked and just like, you know, barfed the hawk host back out into the field.

[00:12:21]>> Uh, that is not a thing that you want to happen. Um, and it is uh it is very bad for trying to win this. Um, >> I think a good rule of thumb here is that if one super tac activation can make you drop drop your hostage, you need a different hostage carrier.

[00:12:38]>> Uh, to be to be fair, Mike, if it's on the super tech one pip, then uh, one super attack activation can get up to seven suppression on one target, but >> I'll say it again.

[00:12:50]>> Yeah. So, really, it should only players with fives. Um, no, but >> or you know, I mean, like you can have commander Vader, right? sitting like there are a bunch of different options.

[00:12:59]>> Yeah.

[00:12:59]>> Um but the that does also mean that if you have >> either demoralize or slice coms or uh Jedi mind trick does actually work in this specific circumstance for the same thing. Uh but if you have that stuff in your list and you have a good hostage carrier, then that is a situation similar to uh basically what I would say is that this and uh surface scan and supply drop are now sort of like the three make them drop the asset mini games that you can play when you compile uh shot list suppression onto your opponents.

[00:13:34]>> Yeah. Um, and uh, so if if your list can do all that and they have a good carrier, then you can be in really good shape to run failed negotiations in your list.

[00:13:42]>> Yeah. I would secondarily like to say that once you get past the like I have a good objective carrier kind of checkbox.

[00:13:50]>> Yeah.

[00:13:51]>> You also should be thinking about is my objective carrier going to have backup that can pick up this box if I drop it?

[00:13:58]Because one of the examples that we gave earlier was the Cassian Fleet Squad.

[00:14:04]That's like good in theory a lot of the time, but if there's not a second unit that is like wanting to be up there and close with the Cassian squad, like maybe you've got a bunch of vets and marks or or whatever. Um, >> yeah, but they don't want to be in the middle of the battlefield.

[00:14:18]>> They don't want to be in the middle of the battlefield, right? And so like it's notable that only core and special forces can pick this back up. Yes. Like your characters, your your Hanon that's in there picking this up, >> right? like they're not going to be able to help out uh your Cassian super. So, you got to make sure that like in the event that you're It is pretty likely that over the course of the game, whoever started with this will probably die.

[00:14:42]>> Yeah, I think that's happened in every hostage game that I've played.

[00:14:46]>> One person's failed negotiation carrier is going to die. It's It's like almost a certainty.

[00:14:52]>> Yeah. And you need a plan for if that ends up being you, how you're going to respond to that. Which means you need a second unit that you are maybe not thrilled about carrying it, but at least can do it and you're not like, "Oh, this unit's going to instantly get vaporized." Um, >> so just something to think about. I would also say that when if you're if you're thinking about including this in your deck, then uh it it is often the case that both of the objective cards that are being played for one reason or or the other came from your battle deck. Uh and so probably think about the fact that you want battle decks that focus on having like a center objective. So like you talked about close the pocket. Uh, and I guess like if you're really playing chess, there could be situations to where you like you're okay with having very few units in the middle and that like you're okay like sort of sending them out on breakthrough. Um, like that certainly yeah sort of spread things out a bunch. Like I I see that as being possible especially especially if you have like a five super squad to where it really is very very hard to kill. Um, and so your opponent would have to dedicate like uh a a weirdly like a um unbalanced amount of attack dice in order to actually ever be able to think about taking it down.

[00:16:18]>> That's like a this was like 300 series TFT mini level.

[00:16:22]>> Yeah. Yeah. But that again that would that would be really advanced stuff to sort of plan ahead for that. So for most players, I would basically say uh often the lists that are going to like this are lists that are are very like range two or melee focused anyway. And so very often those lists are gonna like objectives such as close the pocket or uh you know they they might be pretty okay with payload. Um it's it's >> on intercept it creates some sort of funky situations because you're like not in the middle of intercept but >> um honestly outflank you're having a big fight in the middle on out flank and so this would actually you know go pretty well with that. Uh, so just just think about what's in your primary slot if you're if you're wanting to play failed negotiations because stuff happens and you often end up with two objective t cards that both came out of your deck and you don't want to be sort of upset when that happens.

[00:17:14]>> Yeah. And I would also say like if you're putting this in in your deck, you are a list that wants to fight >> and brawl. Like you just want to get in there and brawl. Yeah, >> like you're going to have a lot of like melee bruisers, a lot of things that like want to be at range too, you know.

[00:17:31]Um, this is a this is a I want to brawl objective, not a I am trying to like play around the outside and like spread you out a ton. G generally objective like this is a we're we're going to fight.

[00:17:46]>> Yeah, >> we're going to have a fight. There's a bunch of objectives such as like retrieve the data where you know sort of just like sort of hiding and hanging out is rewarded by the secondary but this in failed negotiations that is certainly not the case. So >> and there there's some lists that are like more uh sort of like objective focused like very mobility focused. Uh, so, uh, I I certainly even though especially because Teimus can't take this anyway because they're not trooper units, but you know, if you're like a big wheelbike RAF or Teimu list, then you don't want like to be sort of hanging out in the middle on failed negotiations and having a big fight like you want to be flanking. And this is not this is not a flanking objective. It is a get in the middle and brawl objective.

[00:18:28]>> Yeah.

[00:18:29]>> Uh, all right. So, that's what we got for Failed Negotiations. If you like what we're doing, please do consider checking out our Patreon and we will see you on the next TFT Mini.