Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Career Skills: This is a purchasable, additional specialization that layers on top of an existing career.

Separatist Commander Specialization Skills: Coercion, Knowledge (Warfare), Leadership and Vigilance

Due to the Separatists’ hodgepodge nature, their commanders come from all walks of life. Rebels or patriots, fueled more by passion or ambition than experience, can rise in the ranks through undisciplined but daring tactical decisions. Corporate soldiers, having led squads against pirates, have the discipline, but credits might motivate them more than alty. Military commanders from a planetary militia or even ranking members of a civilian police force could find a position in the Separatist army, yet they have not seen battle on this scale before.

These shortcomings do plague the CIS, but unique backgrounds can be, an advantage against the slow, traditionalist Republic. The Galactic Senate still has varying levels of dedication to the war, whereas the CIS military has the full backing of the Separatist government. Enthusiasm and support goes a long way toward giving its soldiers the strength to go on. The Clone Wars offer plenty of opportunities to gain experience, provided they survive the first few sorties.

The Separatist Commander specialization includes not only organic species but also droids given command responsibilities. In addition to Baktoid Combat Automata’s standardized T-series tactical droids and more advanced super tactical droids, the CIS uses whatever and whoever they can. A droid with a penchant for command and a steady success rate may engender more trust than an untested organic. In some cases, the Separatists have no choice. Given the holes in the command structure, an independent droid can mean the difference between victory and defeat, or between a high casualty rate and minimal losses.

As a result of its lack of high-level military experience, the Confederacy of Independent Systems relies heavily on command battle droids and tactical droids to fill in their command ranks. Meanwhile, the Separatists utilize training systems from corporate military programs, small-scale urban riot police procedures, and squad-level professional bounty hunter drills to prepare organic commanders for their new responsibilities in the field.

A Separatist commander must serve multiple roles, commanding fleets, troops, and tactical squads and coordinating surgical strikes while dealing with logistics and Separatist politics. The CIS still doesn’t approach the Republic’s level of organization.

At the beginning of the conflict, sectors pulled troops from local armies, amateur militias, and even mercenary groups; not only did these officers make do with patchwork training, but they also had to contend with patchwork armies. This forced Separatist Commanders to be innovative in their strategies and tactics, using their non-standard militaries to outwit the stolid methods of the Republic forces. With the Techno Union’s and Trade Federation’s industries running at full speed, the core Separatist military has been augmented with innovative weapons such as the Hyena-class droid bomber and the Baktoid Armor Workshop super tank, and contracted designs such as the Droch-class boarding ship. Technology alone cannot win the day, but a technological surprise, when utilized effectively, can turn the tide toward victory. As such, Separatist Commanders must be able to adapt not only to their enemies, but also to their own armies.