Greetings! The upcoming release, and recent spoiling, of Operative Luke Skywalker has cast quite a decision upon the community: do you continue to use Commander Luke with some new command cards, or do you pay the extra points to get an even beefier version? Today, I’d like to touch on some comparisons and command card scenarios for each unit, and attempt to lay a case comparing the two. In terms of raw stats and general command card usage, Op Luke seems to be slightly advantaged, but time will tell if the extra 40 point cost (plus an upgrade or two) is a fair price for some new abilities and a better lightsaber. First, let’s briefly cover the new command cards coming within the Operative Luke expansion.

New Command Cards

You Serve Your Master Well (YSYMW) is one of the most interesting, potentially powerful cards the rebels have access to. It functions in the same manner as the Emperor’s Pulling the Strings ability, but adds the caveat of a non-commander or non-operative, as well as the ability to use it on a suppressed enemy unit. Why is this so good? Well, using Jedi Mind Trick with Luke will suppress any valid target for this card, allowing you to use an enemy unit to attack another enemy unit (those Deathtroopers never cared for Krennic anyway), or have one of your powerful friendly units (tauntauns perhaps?) attack twice in a turn. Yes, this move triggers relentless. This action is a free action, and allows Luke to retain both of his own two actions, leaving him free to attack or pull some force push shenanigans of his own as well.

Full of Surprises helps to boost Luke’s survivability. He gains a dodge and the ability to roll extra white defense dice for the difference between his courage and number of suppression. The short version of this is that the “earlier” Luke gets shot at, the better his defensive rolls will be. Seeing as Luke is usually a prime target for the enemy to focus down, he will generally have a few suppression, meaning that the primary ability of this card is giving Luke access to a “better deflect” for the first volley fired his way. Full of Surprises is potentially a strong turn 2 or 3 card, where you have to expose Luke to a dicey position and want to boost his defense in preparation for a 1-pip assault the next turn.

Have you every thought, “I wish Luke had a change of plans card like Han does?”. Well, he has a version now. I am a Jedi removes Luke’s ability to attack for a turn, and in return gives him Surge to Block and allows you to choose two enemy troopers at range 1, and deny them the ability to attack this turn as well. This card is extremely powerful, but comes with a large opportunity cost, as you are giving up 200+ points of offense for an entire turn. Just like change of plans, this card is extremely timing dependent, and some of the best cards to counter with this card include Son of Skywalker, Implacable, Trained in Your Arts, and And Now You Will Die. 

Unit Cards

Commander (160)
Health: 6
Courage: 3
Attack: 6 Black  with Pierce/Impact 2 (Melee) and 2 Red  with Pierce (Range 1-2)
Keywords: Charge, Deflect, Immune: Pierce, Jump 1
Upgrade Slots: Force, Force, Gear
Surge Crit

Operative (200)
Health: 7
Courage: 4
Attack: 7 Black with Pierce/Impact 2
Keywords: Charge, Deflect, Disengage, Immune: Pierce, Master of the Force 1, Jump 1
Upgrade Slots: Force, Force, Force, Training
Surge Crit

Right off the bat, Op Luke is 40 points more expensive. What do those 40 points get you? An extra health, courage, force upgrade slot, and attack die, a training slot, Disengage, and Master of the Force 1. These are all substantial upgrades, but you also lose the commander courage bubble, stims slot (gear slot), and the built in ranged attack. Having an extra force slot can only be seen as a net upgrade, but the training vs. gear slot can definitely be debated. Having a gear slot grants Commander Luke access to emergency stims or recon intel, thereby staying alive for an extra round or getting into the action quicker with a free speed 1 scout move at the start of deployment. However, the training slot gives access to tenacity (an extra red for a crazy 8 die pool), endurance (shedding an extra suppression to keep Luke moving), and offensive push (gaining an aim token after a standard move when you need to double move and kill something). The importance of Disengage cannot be overstated as well. Having the ability to move out of a single melee combat at will not only saves force push for protection purposes later on, but also ensures the enemy can almost never tarpit Luke or slow him down to keep him away from his terrified target.

Considering all testing with Op Luke so far has been through proxying or TableTop Simulator, much more data is needed to make a definitive answer to which is better point for point. I believe this will come down to play style, as Commander Luke functions better as a linebacker unit that holds down the troops while waiting until the late game to pounce; due to his courage bubble and one less health and courage. Meanwhile, Op Luke functions as the ultimate melee alpha strike, as his higher courage value and greater health and damage output mean he can get into the enemy lines before they can stop him. (Picture that with triple tauntauns or even wookies) Once he gets there, he can also hop from engagement to engagement through his use of force push and disengage. 

Both Luke models have the ability to use either’s set of command cards, so with six options per mini I think its worth quickly going through the cards and noting some stylistic differences between commander and operative. Spoiler alert: there aren’t too many, but Op Luke appears to have a slight edge here.

One Pips: Son of Skywalker & You Serve Your Master Well

Honestly, there’s not a whole lot of difference here. Son of Skywalker functions the same for either model, two giant melee attacks with pierce tend to kill their target. One caveat for Op Luke, you may want to invest in a 5 point Saber Throw, as a 4 black pierce 2 range attack is a fairly decent second strike if you kill your first target. Its also not terrible on its own. YSYMW edges slightly in favor of Op Luke here, as Jedi Mind Trick is capable of suppressing any enemy unit, and Master of the Force ensures that Op Luke has the option of having it every single turn, whereas a mistimed Jedi Mind Trick by Commander Luke can leave you high and dry. 

Two Pips: My Ally is the Force & Full of Surprises

My Ally functions identically for both Luke’s, as both have deflect and the same raw defensive stats. Full of Surprises once again edges slightly towards Op Luke, as he has an extra courage value to boost those additional white dice. Pretty straightforward here.

Three Pips: Return of the Jedi & I am a Jedi

It seems like FFG might be telling us Luke is a Jedi, doesn’t it? Just like My Ally, Return of the Jedi functions the same for both versions, and arguably I am a Jedi does as well. However, you can make the argument once again that Op Luke has a slight advantage in his usage of I am a Jedi because of his extra point of health. This is a very edge case, but having an extra health can allow Luke to survive the current turn and make it to the command phase of the following turn to play the card before he dies. This same argument can also apply to Commander Luke with Stims, but considering Stims is an optional upgrade, I give the slight, slight, slight edge to Op Luke. 

So, you’ve heard the cases, seen the evidence, and had some time to digest the information, which version of Luke is more worth your points? It’s still very hard to say, and I’ll offer a cop-out. If you already run Luke in a Wonder Twins-style list, I give the edge to Op Luke, as he hits harder, has better survivability, and slightly better action economy through his Master of the Force ability. Additionally, Op Luke comes with a “commander tax,” where you are forced to run a commander to accommodate the force organization chart, and having Leia as an integral part of your list removes that tax. In a Luke-Sabine style list that Zach and I are fond of, Commander Luke takes the day, as he presents a better courage bubble than the Generic Officer for Sabine and the troops, and costs 40 points less so you don’t have to skimp on any upgrades that are direly needed, such as Sabine’s Darksaber or squad officer upgrades. I’m personally interested in which version will better suit a tauntaun list, as fitting 2/3 tauntauns plus Leia and either version of Luke is a sizable investment. Personally? I’m taking Op Luke and a fleet of lizards into Invader League 4, so I’m betting Operative. 

Next week, Zach will take a look at Operative and Commander Vader, so be sure to stick around for that, as the Dark Lord of the Sith is primed for a resurgence on the tables following his points drop and new command cards. As always, if you have any questions or comments be sure to fire away, and join in on the Facebook group and Legion Discord for some discussion on which Luke will be swinging his way into your upcoming lists.

-Mike

As we plug along here at the Jedha Journal I’m going to try and take the writing and the posts to another level. I’ve kept everything somewhat simple for the most part, as this is a beginners blog, and it’s meant to keep things nice and light. However, as I evolve as a player I want the blog to evolve with me as well. I’ve been playing a lot of games and want to say I think I’ve taken my game to the next step with a lot more room for improvement. The best key to that is reps. Playing more than once a week is so great for fine tuning your skills in this game and if you want to get better at this game it’s your answer. Today, on the heels of Sabine and Bossk being released, I want to focus on Sabine and her synergies with the Rebel Commanders. As we all know, I may be known as Thrawn on the Discord but I am a Rebel player through and through.

If you have never watched Rebels the TV show, I recommend you do so. Personally, I think it’s Disney’s best Star Wars entity other than Rogue One. Sabine Wren is arguably the best character of the show, I’m a big fan of Ezra myself and I know that may be a minority take but Ezra’s so important to the success of the Rebellion. I’m sure that’s going to be considered a hot take, but if you want some insight on to why I think all of that message me! Back to the banksy, explosive machine that is Sabine: her character development over the show was great. She changes hair styles every season, she paints everything and anything she can get on, she’s a Mandalorian, Darksaber!!!, she’s just straight up a lot of fun. I think FFG has done a great job with her thematically, even if I am not a fan of her two courage! Either way, it’s nice to have our own Rebel version of Boba Fett and I’m super excited to get her on the physical table rather than just on TTS. (Which I have done quite a bit for practice) Let’s Jump 2 the Rebel Commanders and how they synergize with Sabine, because this is going to be important with list building.

Luke Skywalker 

Did you really think I would start somewhere other than my favorite farm boy who I can never not put on a table? Putting these two characters together almost seems like a no brainer. They both have Jump abilities, they both are very fast and versatile. Luke’s command range and panic bubble is big for Sabine who WILL get focus fired on by your enemy any chance they can get it. The real questions comes down to what is the best version of Sabine to bring along with Luke and what is the best way to run them? In the answer of the former: I think, and this is an opinion piece this isn’t a binary of right or wrong, that budget Sabine is the best version to run with Luke. What I mean by budget Sabine is no Darksaber, with just Recon Intel and Endurance. I think Endurance is stapled on her, she is going to have suppression issues in any list, and taking off two at the end of the round is big. Her two pip is also an auto include in any kind of Sabine list building, in my opinion, too. Darksaber is great for the Dauntless aspect and the immune pierce but I’m having a hard time accepting those twenty five points into a list. Especially when I have a melee unit like Luke in there. In this instance, how I would run her and how I have been running her is to be a backfield harasser. She doesn’t have Sharpshooter, but her speed three moves can easily set up out of cover Gunslinger shots. Not to mention, you can try and play Luke a little more defensively while Sabine moves up the front lines to set up some shots and a big “Explosions!” play. Fun fact: “Explosions!” is real good.

As much as you’d like to play aggressive with both, and I’m not saying you can’t play that way, I recommend choosing one or the other to play aggressive and use the other in a more defensive standpoint until you can set the other up to be aggressive later. The reason for that is command tokens and command cards. Out of the seven of your cards, if you want to count Standing Orders (which I use round one often), you’ll only get to order the two of them together on three of those seven. So effectively, if they both live long enough, you have three rounds where you will have one sitting out there like a duck. Two of those cards are “Explosions!” and “Son of Skywalker” which is why you need to not move both up aggressively. If you have played Fly Boys at any point you’ll see that this runs quite similar, it just doesn’t have Han’s command cards to allow for some more aggressive play. (i.e Reckless Diversions turns. More on that in a moment)

Personally, I think bringing the Rebel Generic Officer with Improvised Orders is the way to run them together. I played several games of just Luke/Sabine, Luke/Leia/Sabine and just one so far with the generic but I think it’s the right move. The reason for that is 1: you get to add a second commander token to your stack. 2: you don’t have a command card conundrum with Leia in the mix. 3: Improvised Orders is the second best upgrade card in the game only behind Force Push. I need more testing because I could see Strict Orders being a possibility, however, GhostWalking and I have been doing some combined theory crafting and Improv just works better. I guess it comes down to is Improvised Orders worth 60 points to the list? I tend to think it is, because the turns you have order issues you have a couple of possible solutions to them. Playing Luke very defensively could prevent such issues, too, but more testing is needed. Here are a couple of the lists I have played recently:

– Luke Skywalker (160) + Force Push (10) + Jedi Mind Trick (5) + Emergency Stims (8) = 183

– Rebel Commander (50) + Improvised Orders (10) = 60

Operatives:

– Sabine Wren (125) + Endurance (6) + Recon Intel (2) = 133

Corps:

– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Rebel Officer (19) = 81

– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + 2-1B Medical Droid (18) = 80

– 2x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Recon Intel (2) = 128

Special Forces:

– 3x Rebel Commandos Strike Team (16) + DH-447 Sniper (28) = 132

Total: 797/800

Commanders:

– Luke Skywalker (160) + Force Push (10) + Emergency Stims (8) = 178

Operatives:

– Sabine Wren (125) + Endurance (6) + Recon Intel (2) + Emergency Stims (8) = 141

Corps:

– 2x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Rebel Officer (19) = 162

– 2x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Recon Intel (2) = 128

– Rebel Troopers (40) + 2-1B Medical Droid (18) = 58

Special Forces:

– 3x Rebel Commandos Strike Team (16) + DH-447 Sniper (28) = 132

Total: 799/800

Han Solo

“Habine” could become some serious rage, and it becomes a lot easier to plug Leia into the list if you do choose to do so. The issue with that is Command Cards yet again, mainly in just the two pip list though, so Han/Leia/Sabine is less crowded than lets say with Luke. For the time being, lets focus on just Han and Sabine. Gunslinger times two? Sounds pretty good. It’s another in your face type of list with two characters that want or need orders in certain rounds to make their effectiveness be felt. That said, if you can get both into a position to gunsling, all bets are off. Like it was said above, Sabine lacks Sharpshooter but you can work around that. Of course, we know Han has it, and they both have Pierce (two for Han and one for Sabine, respectively) That’s a lot of firepower even with so little dice. You’re basically guaranteeing six figures come off the board when both are getting shots in, that’s pretty dang good.

Here’s where some real theory crafting comes in, though, and you need to think long and hard about how you want to build Sabine when with Han. Han is only a courage 2 Commander, so Suppression could be an issue for both of them. I recommend getting some officers in there for Inspire, or of course if you want to bring Leia go right ahead. I almost want to say you want Endurance on both Han and Sabine. I even might go as far as to say that you want the Darksaber on Sabine in a Han list. The reason for that is because you have no melee threat worth taking other than that Darksaber. (Wookies are in a not as good place right now, but the argument can be had for them) That said, you need to be weary of the Suppression issues that will come in this list. It’s a lot easier to use Dauntless with commanders with Courage 3 versus Courage 2. The last thing you want is Sabine to panic. The best synergy I see from Habine, and man get the “Habinero” sauce out because this can be quite a spicy tandem, is Reckless Diversion to set up Sabine to move forward. Especially if it can set up a Gunslinger shot into an “Explosions!” round. Maybe Sabine is in your opponents face and you’re expecting a Whipcord or a Son of Skywalker? Bam, Change of plans. I haven’t had a chance to run Habine, yet, but here’s something I could see working just fine:

Commanders:
– Han Solo (120) + Endurance (6) + Environmental Gear (3) = 129
Operatives:
– Sabine Wren (125) + Endurance (6) + Recon Intel (2) + Electro Grappling Line (5) + The Darksaber (25) = 163
Corps:
– 2x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Rebel Officer (19) + Recon Intel (2) = 166
– 2x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Recon Intel (2) = 128
– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + 2-1B Medical Droid (18) = 80
Special Forces:
– 3x Rebel Commandos Strike Team (16) + DH-447 Sniper (28) = 132

Total: 798/800

Leia Organa

Oh yes it’s Ladies Night and the feeling’s right….the feeling to get up to eleven good activations that is. Leia being 90 points allows you to open up a lot of doors with Sabine, who can replace Luke in a Wonder Twins list basically at a cheaper cost. I’m not saying Sabine is better than Luke, but she offers some different tools than Luke for sure. “Explosions” and Coordinated Bombardment? Talk about some unique Rebel firepower. Leia is only a Courage 2 Commander as well, but her Inspire 2 can help, especially if you sprinkle in an officer somewhere in the Corps. Similar to what I said about running Habine, I think Darksaber might be a thing to bring with a Sabine/Leia list because you need some melee deterrent in a list, in my opinion. I still don’t think you WANT to Darksaber something, again I think Sabine is better as a backline harasser and objective grabber, but it’s a nice to have when you have it type of thing. It will play a lot similar to Wonder Twins, where you’ll advance Sabine while leaving Leia behind. However, you need to be careful with placement with Sabine more so than with Luke. Because of the courage. So advancing them as a tandem might be better suited, especially if you can get some dodges on Sabine from Leia if you think Sabine might get exposed. Basically you’ll have an entire army with Nimble, which brings up the value of dodges in the right moment. Something I seem to be doing less and less of, but the synergy is there and that’s the point! No Time For Sorrows on an exposed Sabine to get into some safety seems pretty good to me! I haven’t run Leia and Sabine by themselves yet, but if I were to do so it would be a super boring but oh my effective list like this:

Commanders:

– Leia Organa (90) + Improvised Orders (10) = 100

Operatives:

– Sabine Wren (125) + Endurance (6) + Recon Intel (2) + The Darksaber (25) = 158

Corps:

– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Rebel Officer (19) = 81

– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + 2-1B Medical Droid (18) = 80

– 4x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) = 248

Special Forces:

– 3x Rebel Commandos Strike Team (16) + DH-447 Sniper (28) = 132

Total: 799/800

Jyn Erso

Okay, I won’t lie here: I needed to go re-look at a lot of Jyn’s cards to remember what they did exactly. Which is sad, because I love Jyn as a character and was so excited when she came out. Only to have her not be great in terms of a competitive standpoint. However, we (as in the Discord) have been saying for a while that she could be good when another piece that supports her comes out. Is Sabine Wren that piece? It’s possible! Codec on the Discord has been openly talking about running a Jyn/Leia/Sabine list and I just built one to see if I’d like it? Well, I can’t say I hate it! Let’s take a look at the list and talk about why this could be a thing that could get Jyn on the table!

Commanders:

– Jyn Erso (130) + Duck and Cover (8) + A-180 Pistol Config (0) = 138

– Leia Organa (90) + Improvised Orders (10) = 100

Operatives:

– Sabine Wren (125) + Endurance (6) + Recon Intel (2) + The Darksaber (25) = 158

Corps:

– Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + 2-1B Medical Droid (18) = 80

– 3x Rebel Troopers (40) + Z-6 Trooper (22) + Recon Intel (2) = 192

Special Forces:

– 3x Rebel Commandos Strike Team (16) + DH-447 Sniper (28) = 132

Total: 800/800Commands:

– Coordinated Bombardment (1)

– Explosions! (1)

– Trust Goes Both Ways (2)

– Symbol of Rebellion (2)

– Legacy of Mandalore (3)

– Complete the Mission (3)

– Standing Orders (4)

I added in the command cards in this one because they need to be discussed quite a bit here in terms of the synergy the ladies bring. Losing Jyn’s one pip cards means you need to play her a little more conservative than normal, I suppose, and that’s honestly a good thing. FFG overcosted Infiltrate a little but so do we as players. We think deploying anywhere we want can work in our favor but there’s definitely a science to it. (I have a guest post in the works from someone who plays Jyn on the regular to speak about her in more depth) But, if you can deploy her a little ahead of your army and wait for Sabine to jump up towards her, there are some real synergies. First of all: Jyn is a Courage 3 commander, which is great for Sabine. Then if Jyn is parked on an objective, say, and in a safe spot, you get Sabine into range two or less of her in a round and then drop ‘Trust Goes Both Ways’ and gain teamwork with Sabine. Why does that synergize well? Because Jyn has quick thinking. All of a sudden, Sabine has an aim and a dodge token with Nimble. Is that a corner case? Maybe, but maybe not as much as you think. There’s a lot of ways to get dodges on Sabine between that and Leia with Take Cover. It’s a really strong list in terms of going for objectives and it’s pretty durable if you play it right. Sabine can be a tank at times. Jyn when Danger Sense is charged up is really hard to take off the board. You have a lot of ways to deal with suppression, especially if Sabine is getting focused on by the opponent. Jyn’s three pip card is so good, it’s up there in terms of what the Rebels have to offer for Command Cards, but she rarely seems to find the table. I have to say, I’m excited to give this a whirl. This is TRULY Ladies Night!

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”!

May the Force be with You!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

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:

• Sign up on the Invader League website
• Join the Discord
• Buy Tabletop Simulator
• Download the Star Wars Legion mod

http://www.invaderleague.com/league/season-3

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!

May the Force be with you!

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

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.

-GrandAdmiralThrawn

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!

Sites:

• https://tabletopadmiral.com
• http://legion-hq.com/home

Apps: 

• Star Wars Legion Builder
• Battlescribe
• Legion Army List Builder

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