Now that some time has gone by, let’s just talk briefly about the Clones and what it means for the game of Star Wars Legion:
Two new factions
Iconic characters
New, better plastic for models
Let’s start with those bullet points. For those of you who haven’t watched the Clone Wars cartoon, do so and thank me later. FFG has clearly gone the route of executing these models based on the show more so the prequels, and they should be praised for that. This new core set brings a much needed shot into the arm of the game in the way of two new factions. Having Rebels and Imperials is great, both factions have awesome balance, but more factions is even better. The opportunities are endless with the Clone Wars. Starting with General Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous is just an amazing start. After that, there’s so many different ways they can go. Obviously Anakin, Ahsoka, Yoda, Mace Windu, Asaaj Ventress….on and on and on it goes! It opens up worlds of possibilities and we should all be excited! As for the new plastic sprues, as a completely new gamer they are intimidating to me and maybe to you as well but we need to take that into some context. The plastic will be better, the models will be better and FFG is making an investment into this game, which should be a sign to all that this game is here to stay for a long, long time.
I’m not going to get into details of all the units, I’ll save that for a later date. This is just going to be a short hype post for all of us to read/enjoy, hopefully, and think about the future of the game. They said this will release Quarter 3 of this year, which means probably a GenCon early release if I had to take a guess.
You know what that means? It’s time for demo days and lots of them. I’ve been hearing for months “if they really do Clone Wars I’m so in!” even just last night at our weekly game night we had some 40K guys saying they want in when the Clones come. Start doing demo days as much as your local store will let you. Get the word out that the Clone Wars are coming and plant that seed. Get more and more people in your community out to start learning the game because that way when the new Core set drops, they can just inject themselves into the local community and start playing. This is going to double the community, I hope, and that’s the best part of all. More players will bring more games. The more we play, the more this game thrives and that’s what we want! Help grow your local community and use the Clone Wars to do it!! What a time to be a player in this game, beginner or seasoned veteran. This is an exciting, exciting time.
If you’re reading this and you’re brand new to the game because of Clone Wars, download Discord and join the Legion Discord! Get involved early, even if you don’t have the game just yet! Insert yourself into the community!
Also. new or old to the community, remember that Fifth Trooper is live streaming Adepticon today and tomorrow! Tune in to some our favorite fellas giving us an ESPN type feel to the game we all love today!!!
The might of the Empire as we know it comes in white armor. Whether it be Stormtrooper or Snowtroopers, they’ve got their iconic look….which they stole from the Clones! What a classic rebrand story. Palpatine double identity, steals the armor idea and Galactic Republic logo, tweaks them a little bit and BAM we have the Empire. All right under the nose of the Jedi, too. Right now, we only have two units to go over when it comes to Imperial Corps units, with some on the way (speculation), so let’s get into it!
Stormtroopers
“Let me see your identification!” – A Stormtrooper, probably on Tatooine
Opposed to their Rebel counterpart, Stormtroopers cost a little bit more than Rebel Troopers. Rebel troopers cost 10 per mini, Stormtroopers are 11 per mini. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a lot. Then you start building lists, and run out of points quickly. Especially when you start to talk about their heavy weapon, etc. Also opposed to their Rebel counterpart, they have Precise 1 versus Nimble, which allows Stormtroopers to re-roll an additional die if they spend an aim token. Something that Stormtroopers need, because thematically they roll white dice, the worst attack dice in the game, with their E-11 Blaster Rifle. They do however surge to hit and of course roll red defense dice, no surge. That white armor tends to stop more shots in the game of Legion than on screen, but I could be a bias Rebel scum terrorist. Much like the Rebel Troopers, you’ll only want to add a heavy weapon, for the most part. I will say this, unlike the Rebels, I would consider medical droids in an Empire list/in Stormtrooper squads. I don’t think a Rebel Trooper with white saves is worth the points, but a Stormtrooper, who is more apt to make a save and stay alive after being saved, is worth it. Especially a good idea if you’re running Palpatine, who just has 5 health
.
As a reminder above, Medical Droids cost 19 points and Treat 1: Capacity 2. It is a free action to remove a wound token, but it needs to be within Range 1 and if I’m not mistaken there are some caveats to remember such as:
You can only treat one wound per activation, with a capacity of two
You need to be range 1 AND in line of sight of who you wish to recover
Recovering a miniature has to happen in the same round the miniature was defeated
That last part is pretty important, timing is of the essence when it comes to bringing back some models. As for wounds, I’m fairly certain those can come off at any time. Now let’s get into the heavy weapons.
Stormtrooper Heavy Weapon Upgrade
I’ll go ahead and say it: The DLT-19 is the best 24 points you can spend when making any list in Star Wars Legion. Red attack dice are the best in the game, you add Impact 1 to the attack pool which isn’t necessarily important at the moment BUT if vehicles do become a thing (which they will) you have immediate access to something that can deal with them. Oh, and they give you this option at range 4. It’s consistency is hard to argue, and at only 2 more points than a Rebel Z-6 Trooper, it’s well worth it. Yeah, six white dice on the Z-6 is great but the variance isn’t. The DLT-19 rolls a lot less dice, sure, but with it’s range 4 and consistent dice it’s a little better. As for the HH-12, if you have been reading my stuff I’m sure you know where this is headed, it’s not useful at the moment. It’s expensive at 34 points, it exhausts AND it’s Cumbersome. (Which means you can’t move your unit and shoot the HH-12, it’s less than ideal) If or when vehicles truly have a place in the game, it may become a viable unit with it’s Impact 3, especially with it’s range 2 to 4. For now, they’re on the shelf….like most units that exhaust and have Impact.
Snowtroopers
The Imperial answer to the Rebel Fleet Troopers comes in the form of Snowtroopers. At a cost of 48, they come out to be 12 points per mini as opposed to 44 points for fleets. They move at a speed 1, which at first glance seems questionable, but when you see they have Steady as a key word, that changes real fast. Steady allows you to perform a free ranged attack action after a move action. There’s a couple different ways this can play out, and this is all going to be in theory that you bring a Flametrooper. (which you should) At the start of the game, double move and try to get into short range for the Flametrooper. Maybe in the middle rounds, you can move, shoot, move into cover. Steady truly gives you a lot of options. They surge to hit on offense and have no surge on defense but roll red dice, like most Imperial units. Like their Stormtrooper friends, they roll white dice E-11 Blasters from range 1 to 3. The reason you take the Snowtroopers isn’t for the E-11 Blasters but for their Heavy Weapon so let’s dive in.
Snowtrooper Heavy Weapon Upgrade
The Flametrooper comes at a cheap price of 20 points, shoots at range 1, has Blast to ignore cover and rolls a black die for every person in your unit. This is why Steady is such an important, awesome keyword. If you can move your Snowtroopers into that range 1 band (at full capacity for the example) you’re going to be rolling five black, four white that ignores cover and surges to hit. It’s extremely good. It take a lot of work to get them into the fray depending on the game mode, map and deployment, but it’s worth it. The T-7 Ion Snowtrooper…this is a continuing theme…Exhausts at range 1 to 2(!), rolls one black, two white with Impact 1 and Ion 1 at a cost of 34 points. You’d be hard pressed to tell me that this isn’t the worst Heavy Weapon Upgrade in the game, especially for it’s cost. I don’t even expect it sees the table when vehicles become relevant.
Final Thoughts
Corps units are going to be the filler units in both armies and you’ll see an abundance of them, for the most part. I would like to preface that if you take Stormtroopers, take the DLT. If you take the Snowtroopers, take the Flametrooper. As I mentioned earlier, perhaps a Medical Droid fits your style of play and you bring that on the Stormtroopers. The Snowtroopers could benefit from Recon Intel if you have the extra points, but as we learn building lists: points are a premium on the Imperial side of things.
A way to play the Stormtroopers is to move into range 4 early, take that DLT shot into something, apply some pressure and suppression on your opponent and make them react. As for the Snowtroopers, they’ll be a main focus of your opponent and you need to keep that in mind. You’ll need to keep them in cover as the move up the battlefield and get that Flametrooper into that range 1 band and let it rip. Both units, with the Heavy Weapon Upgrades, will run you 68 points each. Just automatically account for 68 points when using either unit. Play style will determine how many of each you want! I prefer two Snowtrooper units, but I know some only play one and so on! Either way, have some fun making lists….even if you and they are the Emperors minions bringing quote unquote peace to the Galaxy!
Good luck to everyone at Adepticon this week! May the Force be with You…and may the news announcements be in abundance for us all!
As the raging debate on the internet goes on as to whether the Death Troopers are good or not…we need to go to the ground in Scarif to the real battle and take a look at the black armored, word scrambled murder squad. “warble warble warble”
Krennic’s boys and girls are here and they’re expensive. They’re supposed to be the elite of the elit and a base cost of 76 is nothing to write home about, but there’s a lot of things we need to go over. Entourage on Krennic is severely underrated, and they have a great synergy with his command cards in a lot of ways. Giving them those stand by tokens with his 2 pip will get them a free aim token. They don’t really care about Suppression like most units between Compel, Disciplined 1 and having a Suppression threshold of 2, rather than 1. I think the Death Troopers will be a play style unit, of course, which I guess really goes for any type of unit but especially for the DT’s. I think there will be a raging debate about these guys for a while, as in do you take one, two, three….four?! But let’s break it down to the basics: Disciplined 1 allows them to remove a suppression when issued an order. Precise 2 which allows them to re-roll two additional dice when spending an aim, aka re-roll four dice if you want. Ready 1 which allows them to gain an aim token when given a stand by token, which again goes hand in hand with Krennic’s 2 pip. They surge on both offense and defense, while rolling red dice. Let’s get into their weapons and talk about how you’ll probably want to play them, because this is a very interesting unit.
Death Trooper Weapon Options
I’ve talked about exhaustible weapons and how they’re typically not ideal, but I think with the DT’s you’ll want to take the DLT-19D Trooper as well as the E-11D Config to give your DT’s a weapon range of 1 to 4, albeit exhaustible. At range 4, you’ll be able to roll four black, two red, and one white…while being Suppressive and having the ability to re-roll four dice if you take an aim. In theory, you’re going to put multiple wounds through on your opponent and two suppression tokens at range 4. Seems good to me. If your opponent decides to move into range 3 of your DT’s, you won’t even need to recover the Gun Configuration to take the EXACT same shot. This should give you some really interesting board control.
Another way to use them is to keep them in cover and move them up the board towards an objective. While they’re good at long range, they’re just as good short range as well. This can really create some problems for your opponent, who could be walking into six red, one white with blast if they get into range 2 of a full DT squad. While I would prefer the long range type set up, I believe both play styles could be good.
Let’s say you aren’t running Death Troopers along Krennic, you may want to consider throwing in the DT-F16 in order to get Compel in there. Just a thought!
Final Thoughts
If you take them with the DLT and weapon configuration…and say Overwatch, you’re looking at a point cost of 122. Which, that’s a lot of points. Some people will say they’re too expensive. Some will say only take one. Some will say take four(With Krennic). Do what you want! It’s your army. I think they run really well parallel both Krennic and Veers. Veers’ three pip card could give them a free recover, especially in the early rounds, and they could get some quick range 4 shots off in succession. They are susceptible to pierce, but most units are. You still want to keep them in cover, even with the Red dice save.
The Empire has a new bag of tricks with all of these ways to apply Suppression and as a Rebel player it’s going to be on me to figure out how to answer it. Not to mention, as I stated above, the DT’s have a lot of ways to answer Suppression on their side with Disciplined, Compel, and perhaps Strict Orders on a Commander. As of right now, I don’t want to see those Death Troopers on the other side of the board! Have some fun with these awesome sculpts!
Can you hear that in the distance? Is that John Williams’ masterpiece, The Imperial March?! Lord Vader must be approaching…..run!
Honestly, I feel like the Fleet Troopers in Rogue One right now. I went through my beloved Rebels as slowly as I could to hold off this moment, but here I am with the Death Star plans in my hand and I’m getting hunted by a half(?!) man, half machine, lightsaber wielding maniac….the inevitable is upon us. We must go over the Imperials! As opposed to the Rebels, these posts will be from my perspective as a beginner but from playing against these units. Some of them, I haven’t even had a game in against, yet, such as the AT-ST. I’ll still do my best to try and break the Imperials down regardless of the lack of playing as them. I only have two games under my belt as Imperials and both came within my first week of owning the game. Let’s get to it, though, and start with the Emperor’s thug…..Lord Vader.
Darth Vader
“The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” -Darth Vader
You know, thinking about this classic line to Obi-Wan, he was actually wrong. Never the master was our fearless Lord Vader was he? Always in Palpatine’s shadow….never the less let’s get to the real point of our post. At a base cost of 200, Vader is pretty expensive right off the top. There’s been a lot of talk of whether he is good competitively or not, and I think the answer is that it just takes a lot of practice and a certain play style to be good with Vader. The main concern with Vader and Palpatine, in competitive play, is they work best in the mid to late rounds. In tournaments, you may not get the most of them.
Thematically he only moves at the one speed, which certainly makes him slow. On the upside, he has Relentless which allows him to attack after performing a move. Some downside is he has no surges on offense or on defense, unless he spends a dodge token. Dodge tokens on Vader are important and you may want to consider Force Reflexes and Force Push, especially with Master of the Force 1, however the one thing you should include is Saber Throw. Vader is slow on the approach and in order to get maximum use of him you can move, move and throw his lightsaber at range 1-2. Sure it’s half the dice, but it’s better than nothing and it’s still Pierce 3! The only issue now is with Push and Saber Throw, for an example, is that he’s now a base of 225 points, which is over a quarter of your army. Sure he has a healthpool of 8, can’t be suppressed (and also won’t let any of your units panic if they’re in range) and rolls red dice, but he is susceptible to focus fire from trooper units if they’re in range. Keeping your distance, while getting down the battlefield is the key. Keeping him obscured can go a long way!
Command Cards
Basically, this is Darth Vader’s answer to Son of Skywalker. Maybe not as effective, because you won’t get to make the two attacks back to back, because you shuffle his token back into your stack. That said, it’s still really strong even taking the wound to do it, More actions for Vader is always a good thing. You’ll want to use this knowing you’ll be engaging a unit at the start of the round.
This is probably Vader’s worst Command Card out of the three, but it’s still really strong. It will be very situational. Such as where you are on the battlefield: how many troopers are in your squads? Can you afford to take the one wound to make another move or attack? On and on it goes. Keep in mind, it’s completely up to you because the card says “it may”, so you might not even use the card action and just use it as a tactic to maybe get initiative if you’re expecting your opponent to play something with more than two pips!
You get the ever important Dodge on Vader which will allow him to Surge/Deflect, give tokens to two other units, and oh yeah: apply three suppression to any enemy trooper units in range 1 to 2 of him. This is a really strong mid to late game card and can really cripple an opponent if they kept their forces near each other. It’s honestly such a great, thematic card! Darth Vader truly is a Master of Evil.
Emperor Palpatine
“Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.” – Emperor Palpatine
This is truly a beginners part of the article because I have yet to play a game with or against Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious aka our fearless Ruler of the Galactic Empire. I’ll do my best to give some insight on how to best play him. I do think he’s a niche piece that will take a lot of practice to become good with, but if you’re patient with him it will be worth it. He’s a really good unit when the person playing him knows how to play him! Let’s start with some base facts: He’s expensive at a cost of 210. He has a somewhat small health pool of 5, but a suppression threshold of 4. Now to the fun part. He has Pull the Strings which allows a friendly trooper unit at range 1 to 2 perform a free move or attack, which is really strong and is the basis of using Palpatine in the first place. Entourage: Imperial Royal Guard can go a long way as well. Ignoring their rank and being able to give them an order token if they’re in range 1 to 2 is very good. You’ll want to keep the IRG close to Palpatine, anyway, because they have Guardian. Being able to take wounds of Palpatine is best because Palpatine thrives in the mid to late game, you need him to survive. Seeing as he is the true Master of the Sith tandem, he has Master of the Force 2, which allows him to refresh not one but two force cards. Oh! And he actually surges on both offense and defense!
My recommendations would be Anger, Force Push and Esteemed Leader. Esteemed will also help his longevity in the game. I think medical bots are a good possibility to throw on some trooper squads if you’re worried about Palpatine surviving and have the points to do it. That may be easier said than done when you have a Commander with a point total of 230, though. I mean, just tinkering on TableTopAdmiral I just threw a list together of Palpatine, two DLT Stormtrooper squads, two DLT squads with medic bots, one IRG with Electrostaff, and two sniper strike teams. That gets you to 796 points and 9 activations, seems pretty good but I could be wrong! Like Vader, Palpatine is better in the middle to late rounds.
Command Cards
A great late game card and especially good if your target is Luke Skywalker. Depending on how man wounds you have on Palpatine, you’ll be able to take as many attacks as you’d like with this Command Card and the defender gains 1 immobilized token. Hitting your opponent two times is great because now they can’t move. Which we all know Luke needs to be mobile to get his moneys worth. Very thematic card, reminds me of that time on the second Death Star or something.
This seems like a good early round card. It will rely on where your forces and where your opponents forces are. If you can pick a unit that is not going to get in range for an attack, they’re going to take those four suppression and be in danger of panicking next activation. Even if they don’t, I would say odds are they’re only getting one action anyways. Taking actions away from your opponent is always a good thing.
This seems like a likely candidate for turn zero/round one. Putting tokens on every unit in your army allows you to have full control of who activates and when they activate. Not having to go to the stack takes a lot of pressure off if something needs to activate at a specific time.
General Veers
“Yes, Lord Vader. I’ve reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing.” – General Veers
This is going to seem weird in a world where we have Vader and Palpatine….but Veers is your best option as an Imperial Commander. At least until Krennic comes out, which is soon! I still think Veers will be the go to. A lot of Imperial lists start with Veers and Boba, but let’s not get into that, let’s get into Veers himself. The reason Veers is featured in most Imperial lists is because he only costs a base of 80 and points are a premium on the Imperial side, as opposed to the Rebel side of things. He has a health pool of 5 and a suppression threshold of 2. He surges to crit but has no defense surge ability. Veers’ best ability is Spotter 2, which allows you to give out aim tokens. There’s multiple ways to play this, such as give Veers one and a trooper unit one. Typically, you’ll end up giving both to trooper units who can move and shoot with the free aim token, in theory.
Command Cards
The poor mans Coordinated Bombardment! Unlike Leia’s card, where you roll two red dice at three separate targets, Veers gets one attack at the end of his activation with four red dice. It’s not AS good as Coordinated Bombardment, but it’s still extremely effective.
I think this card had a lot of early value, and still does if you’re using the core set and run some bikes! As the game has evolved, and as I have mentioned, vehicles are not as efficient as they could be. If and when vehicles become a big part of the game, I could see this card being pretty good.
This cards value is also going up soon with the Death Troopers coming out soon. A free recover action is really good for things that exhaust. Let’s say vehicles become good again and you start running some HH-12 Stormtroopers, you can recover them with this. So on and so forth. But I really do think this card will be more useful when Death Troopers hit the table!
Generic Imperial Officer
Like the Rebel Commander, we won’t go over the Generic Commander too much. In basic terms: She’s a cheaper, not as good Veers. She has Spotter 1 as opposed to Spotter 2, Inspire 1 , no Precise but does keep Sharpshooter 1. She rolls white dice, instead of red, but does surge to blocks. Surge to hit on offense, with a slightly different gun. Healthpool of 4 and Suppression threshold of 2. Now that I have gone over the basics, the only way I really see her get used is if you’re crunched for points on a high activation/high point total list, or if you want to get a second Command token into your bag mix. Other than that, I don’t see her getting much play in competitive lists.
Imperial Command Cards
Right now, where the game is at, you can probably guess what your opponents hand has. I think the card has value outside of that, though. It is only 1 pip, which will mean you may get initiative when you need it. Maybe you need to activate some Saboteurs or Boba first, too. That said, if you’re running Veers/Boba you most likely will not have this card in your Command hand.
This card can give you some good board control if used properly. In a recent game, my opponent shot my Leia with their bikes and that meant Leia’s token goes to my stack rather than on Leia. Now I can’t activate her unless I pull her from my token stack. In the right moment, I can see this being a good card. Definitely situational and will rely on Support or Heavy Units being in your army.
The “Aim Chain”! This is a really strong card and most likely in a lot of Imperial lists, depending on what the options are. Definitely a mid-round card, where you know you have range on shots that way you can aim and shoot with your Corps units. Then, as long as they are in range, that tokens just going to keep passing and passing around. In theory, you can keep stacking Aim tokens if you position everyone properly. I have yet to see it go as high as some people thought it would, because it’s easier said than done. That said, this is an extremely good card still.
Final Notes
Unlike the Rebel counterparts, it’s somewhat difficult for an Imperial army to sport two Commanders and be effective. That’s the price of being the almighty Empire, I guess, everything cost more. Veers and Krennic(when he comes out next week) will be who you see most in Imperial lists, they’re cheaper and easier to play. That said, I strongly believe that Vader and Palpatine are good units that just need practice. (Update: Palp and Vader straight murdered me in a jank game last night! The Sith were feeling it!) If you can perfect yourself using one of those two, your opponent has a lot to fear. Which, I mean isn’t that thematic?! This was truly a beginner post and hope you enjoy it! Imperial Corps units will be next!
“We were on the verge of greatness. We were this close to providing peace and security for the galaxy.” – Director Orson Krennic
Director Orson Krennic, and all of his lovely quotes, is here!! Compel is a new keyword and it will allow friendly units in range 1 to 2 of you gain a free move action, at the cost of a suppression token if not panicked, which is pretty good. (Actually really good, considering Krennic’s 3 Pip Command Card) Cunning allows you to throw down a Krennic Command Card and if you tie for initiative, you can treat Krennic’s card as if it has one fewer pip. This seems to be an answer to some Han Solo cards, and it’s pretty good to have hanging around. He has Entourage: Imperial Death Troopers which makes it easier to build some lists, and you’ll probably want to run those DT’s with him as it stands. As for his health and attack: he has a healthpool of 6, suppression threshold of 2, throws white dice on defense with a surge to block. His attack seems decent at range 1 to 2, throwing one of red, white, and black, surges to crit and has Pierce 1 and Sharpshooter 1. His role, however, will be supporting the troops. His base cost of 90 is cheap and it seems like some Veers/Krennic lists may be a thing going forward. Running Vader with Krennic could also open up a world of possibilities with all of the suppression, keep in mind Troopers in range of Vader won’t panic. At first glance, Strict Orders might be something you toss on Krennic to keep up with all the Suppression tricks. It’s important to have two Commanders in a list and the Imperials can finally afford to do so.
Command Cards
This card gives you more control of what tokens you pull. You won’t have FULL control, but some control is better than none! When you need a unit to activate and you happen to have that token on Krennic’s card, it’s going to come in quite handy!
“What are we blind?! Deploy the Garrison!” If you don’t yell this when dropping this Command Card, are you even playing with Krennic? All jokes aside, this seems to be a good fit for Krennic’s buddies the Deathtroopers, or any trooper for that matter. Giving stand-by tokens at the start of the round ensures a few things: One your enemy needs to think long and hard about their approach if they’re not in the 1 to 2 range already. OR the alternative is that the enemy is already in the range, and going to take the shot no matter what. In theory, it could/should give you a free attack on your opponent, if played correctly, and then you have the ability to have two more actions when you actually activate.
For starters, this artwork is absolute beautiful. Second, it’s really, really good. It’s actually scary at first glance. You’re looking at one to two suppression tokens on ALL troopers on the table, depending on the round. The Death Star is here and Tarkin is stealing Krennic’s glory. Suppression all around! What an unbelievably thematic card. I love it. Jyn and her Complete the Mission card is starting to make a lot more sense!!
Final Thoughts
Really need to hand it to FFG here with the Rogue One releases. Jyn and Krennic seem like very well thought out units that run extremely parallel with each other. Krennic seems to fit really well into the Empire’s existing units and it will be interesting as to what kind of lists people will conjure up! Not to be lost in all of this, the models in this mirror wave are beautiful sculpts.
Even as a Rebel player, but collects both armies, I’m really excited for Krennic and what he brings to the table. I hope Imperial players are excited, too. He’s a great addition to this great game. Suppression is coming and it’s coming at full force with Krennic’s Command Card, the Death Troopers with Suppressive weapons….better prepare yourselves! Don’t choke on your aspirations.
We’re at the end of the Rebel forces as I am going to bunch up the Support and Heavy units together. That way we can start to take our step on to the Death Star and start going over the Imperials. There’s plenty to talk about these units…even if it is a mixed bag and some niche units. All three current units are great looking models, let’s start there, but they might not make it in the competitive scene. That doesn’t mean you can’t use them when having some fun, relaxed games! Not to mention, we have some more variety coming with the Landspeeder and the Taun Tauns! Both look like amazing models and will seemingly get table time when they get out, as opposed to the Airspeeder. Which we’ll get to. First let’s start with the At-Rt’s since they come with the core set and this is all about us players as beginners!
AT-RT
Ah, these good, old, used bad boys from the Clone Wars era are back and with a rusty vengeance! The Rebels have found some old climbing ground vehicles and piece them together for some anti-Imperial vehicle units. Starting at a 55 base point cost, they’re a relatively cheap unit for some filler. The thought process is they have armor as well, they might be hard to put down. However, the problem isn’t the AT-RT themselves, or armor for that matter, but the Stormtrooper DLT-19 is the real problem. Most Stormtrooper squads will have the DLT and they’ll focus fire on your AT-RT’s pretty reliably. That’s not to say the AT-RT’s are bad. It’s just they’re vulnerable to one of the most used guns in the game. I would say that you most likely don’t run just one AT-RT if you are running them. I would think you need two or three, which will allow them to hopefully move down the board since they wont be able to take all three out. You may lose one quickly but doubtful you lose all three. Then again, they do roll white dice and don’t surge. Yikes. In terms of attack, it’s just two white dice at range 1-3 or three red dice in melee(but not engaged) and they do surge to crit which is pretty good. You will, however, most likely add some hardpoint weapons to them and all three bring a completely different element to the AT-RT.
AT-RT Hardpoint Weapons
For starters, all three weapons are fixed front. Which means they can only fire from your front arc.
The Flamethrower seems to be the most commonly used hardpoint on the AT-RT’s from what I have seen in so called “BBQ” lists. The idea is that you can move the AT-RT’s into that range one band and just light everything on fire. It ignores cover and you add two black dice per every unit in the defending unit. So let’s say you walk up to a full unit of Snowtroopers with an Imperial officer and a Flamethrower trooper….you’re rolling twelve black dice, ignoring cover, and surge to crit. Sound’s rather good on paper to me but probably hard to get off as much as you would like it to.
The way I view the Rotary cannon is that it’s a mobile 1.4 FD Cannon. It rolls five black dice, has a range band of 1 to 3 and again surges to crit. No other key words kind of make it lacking, but it’s still pretty decent.
The Laser Cannon has Impact 3 which is really, really good. However, it’s only rolling the one red, two black and is limited to a 2 to 4 range band. Which is actually good, range 4 is something that’s not necessarily common. But if your opponent gets in close, you lose it from the attack per-say. It’s the most expensive of the three hardpoints which is somewhat of a downfall and the game isn’t vehicle heavy yet either. I think when vehicles start coming around, you’ll find a lot more value in Laser Cannon AT-RT’s. We’re coming for you, Imperial Tank.
1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team
I’m going to go ahead and say it: I think this unit is underrated. Even at first, I wasn’t sure if it was a good unit or what. Then I put it on the table and loved it. I want to say I played two or three games locally with it and it did a lot more than I expected. I ran it naked, got it into some good spots and took aim and fired almost every time. It has a decent healthpool of 6, courage value of 2 which really helps, and rolls five black dice range 1 to 4. You can really take some shots at your opponent as they’re walking up towards you in that big range band. It does have Impact 2 but as I have talked about a few times in these posts, it’s not overly important with the lack of vehicles hitting the table right now. Of course the one downside is it’s stationary. You’ll need to make sure you put it in a good spot when deploying to get use of it. A bad deployment or a full terrain map can really damper it. I haven’t used it lately only beacuse the Pathfinders came out, and I really wanted to get them on the table, but I can see myself getting it back on the board soon. It’s 70 point base cost really gives you a decent option if it fits your play style. I also want to say FD’s did pretty well at LVO, if you follow the competitive scene, even if it was a small sample size.
Possible Upgrades
The upgrades for the Cannon are relatively cheap, however they are exhaustible. Overcharged Generator will give you an extra black dice and stack your Impact 2 to Impact 3. Barrage Generator will add two white dice and add Suppressive to your pool. I’m starting to think that if I do run the Cannon I am going to add Barrage to the package. For 10 points, two more dice and Suppressive seem like good additions to the Cannon. Range 1 to 4, double suppression on a unit is pretty dang good and could hamper some units if they don’t make their rally. I might also contemplate throwing HQ Uplink on it, seeing I will be recovering quite a bit if I am taking a Generator weapon on it. Other than that, that’s about all you’re looking at for upgrades!
T-47 Airspeeder
Well, as a beginner….you may quickly find out through the forums, Facebook or Discord that the T-47 is just not good competitively. You’ll think ‘no way, it’s gotta be good and the model is amazing!’ and I wish you were right. I wish I was right when I thought the same thing, but for now the unit is not good. There is a new pilot card coming out with the Landspeeder that will potentially help the T-47, but it’s real problem is it’s points cost. It will just never make up those points, in my opinion! They are great for casual, fun games at least!
T-47 Upgrades
I don’t really have anything good to say about any of this if I’m being honest. Wedge is exhaustible just to get you Full Pivot, which isn’t horrible but if you’ve flown past your opponent, you’re probably already in danger. Speaking of flying past your opponent, you probably don’t even want to take the rear arc weapons because again that’s not ideal for the Airspeeder. The Ground Buzzer at first glance seems like an okay option but then if you factor that and maybe Wedge, you’re looking at 200 points for an underwhelming unit. Maybe it will get a points fix some day and it will be great again.
Final Thoughts
Vehicles sadly are in a bad spot right now. There is some hope that the Landspeeder can change that, but we’ll see when that comes out in the upcoming month or two! I think FFG is doing a good job to make sure things aren’t static in the game and every unit has a place in it. You may also like running two to three AT-RT’s as a niche thing anyways! The FD Cannon may be the best option out of all of these in terms of point cost and usefulness….that is until those Taun Tauns come out!! Until then, this is what we have to work with! As the great Bill Belichick says: “We’re onto the Imperials”!
We don’t have to much to offer here in terms of variety! Chewbacca has been out for a few months now and Sabine Wren(!) is expected some time this year. Pretty much most of Sabine’s information is out there, after last weeks stream with Alex Davy and Luke Weddy, and she’s looking pretty good! I’ll go over her more when she get’s released, though! For now let’s talk about our favorite walking carpet: Chewbacca.
Chewbacca
“RAWRGWAWGGR.” – something in Shriiwook
Let’s start on a positive note when it comes to our Dejarik winning furry friend. He’s a great model and thematically pretty cool when it comes to Teamwork: Han Solo. Enrage 4 is pretty thematic and cool, too! That said, Chewie is expensive at 110 points. Well, it’s not that he’s expensive, it’s more that he might not give you back those 110 points on the board and in the game. I’ve played a few games with Chewie and , personally, he just didn’t pull his weight for the points he cost. There are some good ways to play him, though, and he might fit your play style! Running lists with a bunch of Rebel heroes is a ton of fun even if it’s not completely competitive! Some recommended upgrades are Tenacity and Hunter. Tenacity is almost guaranteed to go off on Chewie, and I would say it’s almost an auto include. It will give him five red dice in melee, which is really good. If he’s Enraged, it’s even better. Something else I would consider is Hunter, mainly if you’re running him adjacent with Han. Hunter will add an aim to you but also add an aim to Han for free with Teamwork.
His health pool and Guardian 3 are what you need to utilize to get your maximum use out of Chewie, but keep in mind he rolls white defense dice and doesn’t surge. Either way, soaking up damage on other units will help you in the long run. Perhaps running him along side some Fleets or Saboteurs is your best use of him, while maybe keeping him close to whatever other character you brought as your commander for some Command Card synergy. Speaking of Command Cards, let’s review what Chewie has to offer.
Chewbacca Command Cards
All of Chewbacca’s cards go hand in hand with other Rebel characters, so they’re somewhat limited. My personal opinion on this one pip with Luke is that it’s going to be super situational. The upside is you can start by giving them both there command order tokens and won’t rely on drawing them. However, if Chewie is in a position where he needs to activate early but you don’t want to activate Luke yet, you will lose value in the card. Typically I run Luke and Leia, which means this one pip won’t even come close to making it in my list because Son of Skywalker and Coordinated Bombardment are just a lot better.
This card has a little more value than the Luke one. It’ll also be rather situational and you’ll need to run Chewie close to Leia in order to make sure it works. You’ll keep them close in most lists, unless Han is involved, I would think. Adding more dice to the dice pool is always a good thing, and it’s for free. As in it doesn’t count as Chewbacca’s activation. Getting more firepower into Leia’s three dice pool is always a positive. It will just rely on ranges and when exactly to play it!
Hands down Chewbacca’s best card and I think it’s just so thematically awesome all around. Chewbacca and Han play really well together, at least in theory and by my assumptions because I have never played them together(!), and this card really goes a long way. Being able to Change of Plans, or perhaps Reckless Diversion, twice in a game is something that will really change the game. As I talked about in the previous posts, Han’s control of the board and game via his Command Cards is really important to him in this game. Giving him even more control than he originally had is extremely good.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, right now, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about when it comes to Rebel Operatives because Chewie is all we have at the moment. When Sabine drops, there will be some more flavor for everyone to choose from and thats great! Since it’s a small article today, I figured why not toss out a poll on who you would like to see next as a Rebel Operative after Sabine. I’m assuming that these characters won’t be Commanders, but it is possible for some.
May the Force be with you!
-GrandAdmiralThrawn
P.S. Invader League Season Three
LJ Pena, known as TalkPolite-Impact X on the Discord, has put together an awesome new website for season three of the TTS Invade League. Below will be a direct link to the Season three page, which is loaded with great information of the upcoming season! Sign ups start this Sunday at 11 PST/2EST. It will require a few things:
You have your Commander(s) and your Corps units at the ready and it’s time for Special Forces….What do you do! The good thing about the Spec Forces is that there are some really good options out there. Strictly speaking in terms of the “meta”, snipers are still king. That, however, doesn’t mean you won’t want to take the other options. The great thing I love about this game is that there’s no such thing as an “auto include” in any list, really. A lot of things are competitive. Some are held in higher regard than others(Snipers) but again they’re not automatic. You are limited to taking three in a legal 800 point list, keyword Entourage excluded.
Rebel Commandos
We’ll start with the first Special Forces unit to come out in the game with the Commandos. Focusing on them specifically as the unit first, they’re honestly underrated as a whole. Why I say that is because of the Strike Team, which we’ll get to in a minute, costing less and being efficient. A four man squad with courage value of two, low profile, scout two and sharpshooter one can really do a lot of work. At a sixty point base they’re priced according for what you get and surge to hit on offense is very nice as opposed to say the Rebel Troopers who roll the same dice….minus all the key words and surge. I really need to get a fully loaded Commando team(with a sniper) on the table soon. It’s just finding the extra points to do that is somewhat difficult. I haven’t really used the Proton Charge Saboteur, so my focus will be on sniper teams.
Rebel Commando Strike Team
This will be the more common way to use the sniper. At a point cost of forty four total, you won’t find a unit that is as effective for it’s point cost than a sniper strike team. They still benefit the keywords as a full team, even as just a two man unit, and can shoot across the board basically. Most of the time you’ll want them in high ground for line of sight tricks and behind some cover to give them heavy at all times with Low Profile. High Velocity and Pierce really go a long way, as well. Competitively speaking, two to three teams of snipers is what a lot of lists will be bringing. They’re just too good for their cost and what role they fill. They are, of course, susceptible to Leia’s Coordinated Bombardment so if you see her across the board: beware! Typically you’ll run them barebones unless you have some extra points to toss around. Sometimes I’ll put grappling hooks on them just to have but they seem rarely used and I have cut them recently.
A real beginner tip from a beginner and it’s something I learned while perusing the Discord channel. Your sniper miniature is your leader and the spotter miniature is just a regular miniature. If you leave the spotter in heavy cover somewhere and get the sniper not in cover, you still fall under the 50% rule and have heavy cover. Use it to your advantage!
I wish I had more to add in on the Saboteurs, and I intend to play them at some point. I think they’re pretty solid on the face of things, it’s just getting them into that 1 range.
Wookie Warriors
I’ve only used the Wookies once and that was in the special Deep Jungle operation a few weeks ago. After that game, I realized I should have been finding a place for them in my lists. Now I have the Pathfinders and don’t really have the space at the moment for them but that may change. They’re a big time melee unit with a good health pool to be able to help them get down the field. Their biggest down fall, and it’s a pretty big downfall, is their defense. They roll the white dice, typical for Rebels, but they don’t surge either. They arguably have the worst defense in the game. Tenacity seems to be an auto include upgrade with these walking carpets because odds are they’ll suffer some wounds before getting into your face with some Ryyk Blades. They’re a base point of 75, which actually isn’t too bad. But they do have an upgrade that you’ll want to take if you’re running one set of Wookies.
Bowcaster Wookie
The Bowcaster Wookie comes at a ten point over the other Wookies cost, but rightfully so. He’ll give you a threat as you move into range for melee with a 1-3 ranged attack. If you happen to get into range 1-2, don’t forget that Pierce 1 will go into your entire dice pool which is nice. Adding two more black dice in melee and three more health points to your pool is nice, as well. I think most people tend to run the Bowcaster with one unit of Wookies, but I have seen some run two sets of naked Wookies as a complete melee unit only. Which isn’t all that bad when they only cost 75 as opposed to 110 points, 114 if you include Tenacity.
Rebel Pathfinders
This is where things get rather interesting. The Rebel Pathfinders are a new unit and seem to have a mixed bag of reviews across the board. The argument of using Pao or Bistan has been a big interest in the topic. And,of course, how to use them with Infiltrate. I have a few thoughts here, and whether they’re right or not I won’t be able to tell you, it’s just my opinion on them after playing with them in four games so far. Lets start with the basics and their keywords since they bring some new elements to the game. Danger Sense 3 allows them to add more defense dice when defending pertaining to the amount of suppression tokens on them. So far, in my games, this has been extremely useful. Keeping units alive is always a good thing, but if the Pathfinders are in a good spot, they can really be a thorn in your opponents side. Dauntless is really good on these guys for multitude of reasons: 1- any free action is a good action and 2-Pathfinders love suppression….well, to a point. I did have them panic off the board last night in a game. But it was also round four, and they served their purpose. Infiltrate is the most interesting of the group because it allows you to deploy anywhere on the board outside of range 3 of your opponent. Choosing when and where to place them can be tricky and it will probably be relevant to whatever game mode you get. Me, personally, I use them as a deterrent and try to evoke my opponent to focus on them rather than something more important. Another way that has been talked about using them is objective based, specifically dropping them on the middle box on Recover the Supplies. I haven’t played with them yet with Recover, but I like the theory and look forward to trying it out. Duck and Cover is a must include and I highly suggest HQ Uplink and Recon Intel.
Bistan vs Pao
This has been the hot topic. Who is better? What if I told you both are good and Bistan may end up being better when more vehicles drop?
The Pros to Bistan is that dice pool at range 1-4 and the reason for that is because you can bring the A-300 Long Range Confifg(listed below) and have a range 4 Z-6 shot on your hands, which is pretty dang good. Impact and Ion don’t matter too much at the moment, but may down the road. The cons to Bistan are that he’s 10 points more than Pao on an already expensive unit and he exhausts. As previously noted in other posts, exhaustible weapons are not the best. Using an action to recover can be less than ideal. That said, you may be recovering HQ Uplink or your weapon configuration anyways, which in turn would recover Bistan too.
The Pros to Pao is that he costs less, shoots a red and a white at range 1-4, isn’t exhaustible and gives you Inspire 1. His cons….I guess would be that he tosses less dice than Bistan and doesn’t have any keywords to aid the gun. Right now I’m running Pao, but I did run Bistan for a game and enjoyed it.
Their gun configuration is a good add to the list at 6 points. While their 1-3 gun of two whites per mini in the group is good, I do think the short range config if you’re in range is the way to go. The long range config is built for you to be able to take those long shots on your opponent as they move up the battlefield, which is also very, very useful. I think the Pathfinders are very versatile and I like them a lot as a unit.
Final Thoughts
Picking and choosing your Special Forces will all be relative to your play style! You may want to get down and dirty with the Wookies. You may want to hang back and shoot some sniper rifles. Maybe you want to run those Proton Saboteurs into your opponents face and detonate the charge. If you don’t like those options, Infiltrate on ’em!!! Right now, personally, I’m running Pathfinders with Pao, Recon Intel, Duck and Cover, and the gun configuration with two Sniper Strike Teams. Sniper’s really are the go to and close to what would be considered an auto include in the competitive world but again that’s all relative to play style!
In terms of the blog itself, now that I have a foothold here and have gotten some good feedback and readership, I’m going to try and maintain a schedule of a post on Monday and a post on Friday. I figure we can start the week off with some Legion content and end the week on some Legion content.
Someone did ask me when we’ll see the Imperial side of things from my beginner eyes and to answer that: As soon as I’m done my awesome, wonderful Rebel “terrorist” side of things! I promise, Imperial players it’s coming! You’d think as a Thrawn fanatic I would play Imperials but the jokes on you! That said, if there is anything specific you want me to get after in the future let me know! Constructive feedback is also welcoming! I’m new-ish to the game and new to blogging so this is all a learning process! Hope you enjoy!
Core? Corps? Which is it! Truly it’s corps, but many people will say core. Either way, I think most people will figure out which you’re talking about. There’s an upside and a downside to Corps in Star Wars Legion if you want my opinion. Upside: It’s very easy to know what’s good and what isn’t good. Downside: there isn’t a lot to choose from at the moment. Friday we did, however, learn of a new Corps unit coming out soon! That said, not everything is released information wise yet and I’m not going to brush upon them just yet! Hopefully by the time they come out I’ll be caught up on everything that’s out so far and can make posts/articles about units as a whole when they come out!
Rebel Troopers
The cream of the crop when it comes to Rebel Corps. You get two sets of these guys and gals in the core unit but you’ll need more if you want to be competitive. “Trooper spam” is a real thing, but it might change with all the units FFG has slated coming out! At a forty point base, they’re cheap and versatile. You’ll want to beef them up with heavy weapons and other things to flavor of your play style. I’ll go every upgrade underneath and touch up on those areas as we plug along. Before we do that, though, let’s go over some basics here! They offer you a solid unit at a range 1-3 with black dice. Unfortunately, they don’t surge to hit but hey they’re cheap what do you expect. Nimble is a big thing for them, however. As you’ll learn as a Rebel player, white defense dice are not good! Dodge tokens will help and so will surge to blocks….but don’t expect a lot of saves.
Heavy Weapon Upgrades
Most Rebel Trooper units will want to add the Z-6 Trooper. It’s well worth the 22 points. Sure it rolls white dice, which are not that great, but adding 6 dice to your pool is good no matter which way you look at it! If you have the points, take the Z-6!!
The MPL-57 Ion Trooper is a bit of a setback compared to the Z-6 for a multitude of reasons. First, it’s exhaustible and maybe we should go over that real quick. Exhaustible weapons require you to take a recover action and bring the gun back to your dice pool. It’s not ideal because that means both actions will be recover and shoot, more likely than not. That means no aim, no dodge, no movement. Second, right now it doesn’t necessarily have a place in the game. Vehicles are out there, sure, but don’t really validate taking a more expensive, exhaustible weapon. There may be a place soon for them when vehicles start coming out but for now these troopers are on the shelf.
Rebel Trooper Personnel Upgrades
On the face of things, you may think to yourself that you want the extra guy. Especially at only 10 points! However, let’s say you’re running four sets of fully loaded Rebel Troopers (Z-6 and an extra trooper), forty of those points are tied up in those extra troopers. You, in theory, could take those forty points and add a unit to the list which is more important. Why, you ask? Activation counts matter!
That said, there are times where you’ll want an extra Rebel Trooper. Personally, I have one in my list for two reasons. First, I didn’t have room for another Z-6. Second, I want some extra dice in the pool rather than a full naked unit and these guys will be strictly objective based.
Rebel Fleet Troopers
Rebel Fleet Troopers are a little more points at a forty four base and bring a completely different set of skills to your list. They’re range 1-2, which means they need a round or two sometimes to get into the fray and rip some shots. The main issue that I have with Fleets is I can’t keep them alive long enough to get they’re full shot off. That happens for a few reasons: your opponent typically will view them as a threat they want to get rid of and white defense dice. You really need to do whatever you can to keep them in heavy cover at the least but more preferable keep them in complete line of sight blocking terrain.
Like the Z-6 for the Rebel Troopers the Scatter Gun Trooper is basically an auto include for the Fleet troopers. It’s relatively cheap at 23 points, it adds a very reliable dice pool and more specifically it gives Pierce 1 to the entire unit when shooting. A caveat to that, especially as a beginner: keywords from other weapons in your unit will give the ENTIRE dice pool that keyword. Take the Scatter Gun if you have the points to do so!
Similar to the MPL-57 Ion trooper, the MPL-57 Barrage Trooper weapon is exhaustible and more points than the Scatter gun. While blast is a good key word to have, it’s not worth it here with the Barrage Trooper. Again this is a card/unit that may have more impact(pun not intended) later on down the road with more vehicles in the game. However, it’s on the shelf for now.
Fleet Trooper Personnel Upgrades
Like the Rebel Trooper, they come at a cheap price of 11 points. If you’re running two Fleets in an army, you may not really feel the need for an extra trooper. If you’re running one set, they’re may be a place for them if you have 11 points you can spare. They do add two dice to your pool and add a body. That said, I haven’t added an extra trooper to my unit that I run personally. I tend to use those points elsewhere.
Fleet Trooper Upgrade Recommendations
Opposed to the Rebel Troopers, which I tend to run with a Z-6 only or one unit with an extra trooper for objectives, there are some things I would consider putting on the Fleets if you have points to spare. Recon Intel is something you may consider for only two points, it could get them into the battle quicker than normal. Lately I have been testing them with Concussion grenades. For 5 points, if I get into range 1, Blast seems like a good keyword to add into the dice pool along with an extra black die added as well. Ignoring cover can go a long way, and the odds are you will get into range with the Fleets.
Universal Corps Personnel Upgrades
This is assuming you have purchased the Rebel Specialists pack. If so, these are some options you have and they are all going to revolve around play style!
The Rebel Officer is a good upgrade, although it’s not necessarily cheap. Nineteen points for a bump in courage, Inspire 1 and a body is probably the proper cost for him but it’s getting them to fit into your army that sometimes can be puzzling. I recommend using them on Fleets! Giving the Fleets extra courage is good, it will help allow you to keep both actions if you suffer suppression and of course it will add two more dice to your pool as opposed to the one on the Rebel Troopers.
I have yet to use a Rebel Comms Technician, but the general consensus when using them is for the purpose of Comms Relay. Fourteen points for an extra figure and a chance to pass an order token further down the field is not that bad at all. It just doesn’t fall into my personal play style, yet.
While the R5 Astromech Droid doesn’t cost a lot, it is of course list specific. If you’re running some vehicles, such as At-Rt’s, they seem like a good cheap addition to your list!
2-1B Medical Droids add a lot of purpose to your list, seeing as it can help things survive. It’s Noncombatant, which means it won’t add to your dice pool, though. Personally, as a Rebel player, I don’t know if eighteen points is worth it for the medical droid. Only saying this because, as mentioned many times so far in my posts: Rebel White Dice saves are not good. If your plan is to keep Rebel Corps alive, I don’t see it being worth bringing. Using the droids to potentially take hits off of Rebel Characters such as Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie may be in the fold for your game play and then it might be worth the points. I could also see using them to take some wounds of Wookie Warriors, as well.
Final Thoughts
The Rebel Troopers will take up a chunk of your army because you need at least three corps units for a legal list and they’re the cheapest unit available. As mentioned, you’ll want to take that Z-6! They’ll serve a multitude of purposes for you whether it’s shooting at things or running objectives. Be sure to keep them in cover or take dodges when you can! Nimble goes a long way keeping them alive. Right now I run three units with a Z-6 and one unit with an extra trooper.
You’ll end up taking one or two Fleets max because of a few things such as cost and range of their weapon pool. Again, from experience, they’ll be targeted by your opponent if they’re open to shots early on the board. Try and keep them alive as long as you can because they’re real value comes at that 1-2 range in the middle rounds. Use line of sight blocking terrain as much as possible! They’re also a great candidate for Rapid Reinforcements, it gets them on the board close to the action which is ideal! Currently with Fleets I tend to run one with the scatter gun and concussion grenades.
Right now, these are all we have for Corps units but more is on the way with the Rebel Veterans aka Hoth Troopers. Can’t wait until we have that third variety but for now we’ll have to make due with what we have! Find your play style and build your Corps to what you think will suit YOU!!
Have fun on the tables and may the Force be with you.
We’ll go ahead and assume you’ve tackled the learning game with the core set. Now you’ve bought some more units, maybe, and want to build an 800 point list. Where do you begin? What do you buy? Both answers depend on a few things: your budget and play style. For me, I’m all in on buying Rebels competitively and one of Empire stuff to collect and play house games with friends. As I was trying to figure out what to buy, I would go through the Facebook page and Discord to see what was in the meta. Surprisingly, the meta is kind of wide open for the most part. This is where play style comes in the most. I’m new to war-gaming and my thoughts might not be the best on the subject, but I’m going to give you my perspective as a beginner on what I think on the Rebel Commanders out at the moment. I originally was going to write an entire post about the Rebel faction and decided that may come out to be too long. So lets start here and throughout the next week I’ll follow up with the supporting units!
Luke Skywalker
We’ll go ahead and start with the horse of the Rebellion. It’s pretty clear cut that Luke is the best Rebel commander in the game, and possibly the best piece overall in the game. He’s mobile, has a good health pool, RED saves (which we’ll learn is rare in Rebels) with surge capabilities if you spend a dodge token, immune to pierce which always helps and has a decent ranged attack with his blaster on top of his lightsaber attack. He’ll cost a bulk of your points but he’s certainly worth it. The most common way to run Luke is with Force Push and E-Stims. The thought process on that is Force Push will allow you to charge a unit much faster and E-Stims will hopefully elongate his use on the table with survive-ability. There are a couple of things we could go over, such as maybe recon intel on him now with the Pathfinders being released.
Luke Command Cards
Luke’s 1 pip card is certainly his best card. Getting off two attacks simultaneously works wonders in any situation. I think the card speaks for itself! Of course, timing of the card is also a big thing. Which will always be in game relevant and situational.
Not as great as SoS, but still effective. Getting a dodge token on Luke and another trooper unit is always a key to success for the Rebels. Dodges are great on Luke because it will allow him to gain surge for blocks and Deflect. While Red Dice saves are particularly good in general, adding surge to block with Deflect helps!
Certainly a card that will be used situation-ally as well. It will depend on if you have suppressed units that need some help removing them, or if you really need to get that free dodge onto Luke as well.
Getting Luke into the fray is imperative, and ultimately rewarding once you can get Son of Skywalker off. This is important, because it allows Luke to get back to back attacks off. Luke’s other command cards are not as great as Son of Skywalker but they do serve a great purpose for Luke.
Leia Organa
Leia Organa, the second half of the Wonder Twins, is another great commander for the Rebels and comes at a great price. Opposite of Luke, she kind of hangs back with the troopers and snipers giving out dodge tokens and inspiring units. The main reason for her being deployed in the back is to try and get her Coordinated Bombardment off, which is the best counter to snipers there is. Personally, I have a hard time getting value out of Leia in the later stages of the game but early on she’s worth her price alone. I tend to run Improvised Orders on Leia, which is almost an auto include on a lot of Rebel lists with two Commanders.
Leia Command Cards
Easily Leia’s most important command card. Having basically a 3 shot sniper rifle in round 1 is a huge counter to your opponents snipers. Limited Visibility hurts this card a lot, so if you’re going to run Leia you might want to cut it!
I’ve played two or three games so far with Leia and I can’t remember a time where I have used this card. I’m still very young into this game, so my inexperience is showing here! That said, with the new addition of Keyword: Infiltrate I’m curious if this will be a good counter to those units, specifically Pathfinders.
Of course this card is somewhat self explanatory. It’s pretty strong if you have Leia up the battlefield and in range. Getting two shots off at once is always a positive. Whether it’s taking an activation away or suppressing units and hindering their activation.
Han Solo
Han, much like Luke, is a personal character favorite of mine for most of my life. That said, I haven’t played a game with him…yet. From what I’ve seen with Han is that you’ll want to keep him in cover to maximize Low Profile and get him up the field to get into range 1-2 of two units to maximize Gunslinger. Thematically, I think Han was done so well. Personally, I just don’t think he fits my play style. Which is why it’s important to figure out your play style! He works like a control piece more than a mobile, murder machine. (Luke Skywalker) Sharpshooter 1 and Pierce 2 are both great for Han and mostly he’ll get his shots through with those. Han definitely improves tenfold with his Command Cards, however.
Han Command Cards
Sorry About the Mess is more or less about getting Han those free tokens. It will allow him to either double move to set up next round or perhaps a move and a shot.
This is what I mean about Han being a control piece and why his command cards mean a lot. This card can really force your opponent to do some stuff they weren’t planning on doing. Playing against Han it’s always messed up my game plan, for sure. I’m always trying to think two steps ahead and this card puts me two steps back. It’s very good, but not Han’s best….
Change of Plans is….to put it short: Very, very good. If I thought Reckless Diversion messed up my game plan, Change of Plans basically sends a shockwave to it. A prime example to understand it’s use is if my opponent expects me to drop Son of Skywalker down, they toss Change of Plans out. Now I, as the Luke player presumably, need to put SoS back into my hand and pick something else. Again, another great control piece for Han. Speaking of control pieces…..
Jyn Erso
First and foremost: what a beautiful model. Now on to her as a unit…again, this is someone I have yet to run but I’ll give you my best understanding of her. She’s more objective and control based than a shoot/melee unit. Her gun is a free upgrade, so of course you always want to bring that with her. She brings a lot of new stuff to the game and let’s dive into those because they’re important to why I think her role is objective based. Quick Thinking allows her to gain both a dodge and aim token, which helps a lot. More so when she has teamwork triggered, but that’s for later. Danger Sense 4 is really interesting. Adding extra defense dice in theory is great, but too much suppression could really hinder Jyn down. Surviving is one thing, suppression and panicking is another. Infiltrate is the real key to Jyn. Specifically, it will most likely(in theory) allow her to deploy near objectives and force your opponent to answer for it in some way. Duck and Cover seems to be an auto include for her.
Jyn Command Cards
“IT’S A TRAAAAAP!”
At first glance, you say to yourself: Charge is good, I can run into a unit and hit it. Which that might be how you play, and if so go ahead and let that Tonfa swing. However, in my opinion, it might be better to move into cover of some sorts if it’s there for the taking. There certainly will be moments where you will charge a unit if the situation calls for it, but I’m willing to gamble more often than not you’ll choose to shoot or move rather than charge. Either way, the best part of it is that you get to do this before the opponent activates, no matter what you choose to do.
Inspire 2 is a great addition to Jyn for a round but Teamwork is where it’s at! The thought process is you do Quick Thinking to get whatever unit you decide to give teamwork to and everyone has a dodge and an aim. However, remember that Jyn is nimble. So if your opponent decides to shoot Jyn, she’ll keep producing dodge tokens for the other unit. Hello there, Luke Skywalker! Want some dodge tokens?! OR the triplet teamwork synergy with Han and Chewbacca?! A lot of cool things you can do here. Ultimately, you might end up just doing it with a set of Rebel troopers to help them survive up the field and get the free dodge, especially when they have nimble.
This card gives Jyn Low Profile but if she doesn’t have a suppression on her yet and you give her an order token, she basically has heavy cover if you choose to give her that suppression token. Not to mention that also gets her an extra defense die with Danger Sense as well. Jyn is built to get in, get out, and hopefully survive. The biggest part of this card is that you don’t even need to issue Jyn a token but give them to three trooper units. This is certainly going to be a later used card, assuming Jyn has survived(!) to round 5 or 6, because of the suppression aspect on the troopers. Giving troopers cover via suppression is good, however the best part about this is they can’t panic or take the effects of suppression for that round. You can have a unit with a stack of suppression the size of an X-Wing on it and it won’t matter, they’ll get their full activation no matter what! That’s a huge late game swing.
Generic Rebel Officer
Not going to focus a ton on the generic officer here. They are a cheaper option if you feel like you need a second commander. Perhaps you’re playing on a 3×3, points are at a premium and need a commander. Here’s your guy.
Final Notes
Typically as a Rebel your units tend to cost less than the Empire. This will allow you to bring two commanders as opposed to one and that means a lot. Especially issuing orders in the command phase. If you spread out your commanders the more range you’ll have for commands. Some things you may see as a new player and not know are some names of lists. Wonder Twins will be some variation of Luke and Leia. Flyboys will be a variation of Luke and Han. BBQ lists tend to be Han with some flamer At-Rt’s.
Competitively speaking: Luke is the staple for the Rebels. Never Tell Me The Odds has stats from the Las Vegas Open that were eye opening about Rebel lists, in a competitive stand point.
Casually speaking: Build fun lists! Experiment with things. Run thematic lists! Play the game however you want to play it and make it everything you want out of a Star Wars game!
No matter whether it’s competitive or casual there’s a simple formula here. Star Wars is awesome. The characters are awesome. Star Wars Legion is awesome. Just have fun, no matter what. We’re adults(mostly) pushing plastic and tossing dice with characters we have loved for many, many years.
– GrandAdmiralThrawn
PS
I grabbed all of the awesome pictures from TableTopAdmiral.com and speaking of that here are some sites and apps to help you with your list building! Personally, I use both TableTopAdmiral and Legion-HQ the most. TTA I use more for cards and Legion-HQ mainly for list building. I’ll leave that choice up to you, though!
The Jedha Journal 