Interested in reliving some of the greatest battles in a galaxy far, far away? If you said yes, Star Wars Legion is the game for you!
This is first installment of a 4-part series that will give you all the information you will need to start your own adventures in the Star Wars Tabletop universe. Today I will introduce you to the 4 factions currently in the game with a quick overview of each factions’ strengths and weaknesses. In future posts I will review the contents of the core boxes. I will also discuss each faction in greater detail and finally wrap everything up some advanced concepts, touch on terrain, and competitive play.
Your most important decision will be which faction to play. Your faction choice will determine which Star Wars: Legion Core Set you buy. It will determine what style of play your army will use and, of course, determine which models you purchase going forward. Let’s look at the first faction.
The Empire.
The Good:
- The Empire has a lot of cool toys. They utilize a lot of heavy weapons like the AT-ST, which is one of the better vehicles in the game, and the newly released Dewbacks.
- They use lots of heavy weaponry and their units are very resilient. They can take damage just as well as they can dish it out.
- Versatile Corps unit choices that allow you to adapt to a wide variety of opponents and battlefield conditions. Stormtroopers and Shoretroopers are 2 of your Corps unit choices, which offer some very nice options for the core of your army.
- Support choices are strong and versatile. They work well with your Corps choices to fill out your list.
- The power of the Dark Side of the force is strong with the Empire. With access to both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, they do not lack for powerful force users.
- Commanders like Veers and Krennic, along with operatives Bossk and Boba Fett, provide exceptional support for your troops.
The Bad:
- Higher unit cost than the other factions.
- Vanilla Stormtroopers shoot like the movies without buffs.
- Your non force user commanders are not offensively threatening and simply play a supportive role.
- Vader and Palpatine are both SLOW and costly.
The Rebels:
The Good:
- The Rebels units are generally cheaper than the Empire.
- Corps Rebels shoot much better than Corps Stormtroopers.
- Han solo not only unlocks some amazing command cards, he shreds infantry with a fury.
- Their Commanders Luke, Leia, and Han are, like the corps units, cheaper than the empires but also offer some exceptional support.
- Operatives Sabine Wren and Chewbacca are exceptional killing machines. Chewie has synergy with Luke, Leia, and of course Han Solo
- WOOKIES!!!!!!
- You can get to a high number of activations.
The Bad:
- Poor defense. Everything except for Luke and Sabine roll white defense dice, which will require you to use valuable actions to generate dodge tokens.
- Anti-Armor can be an issue with your army.
- You will either love the Z-6 or hate the Z-6.
- The white defense dice are the downside to the Rebels and sometimes it is hard to overlook.
The next 2 factions are brand new. They have not had the number of expansions that the Empire and Rebels received. This is a negative for both the Clone Army and the Separatist Droid army.
The Clone Army:
The Good:
- If the Clone Army gets a large number of Jedi (most of the community believes they will), this is reason enough to play them.
- Obi-Wan is very strong; one of the best commanders in the game. Best of all, he comes in the Clone Wars Core Set.
- Clone Army firepower is right up there with the Empire.
- The Clone Army also rolls RED dice for defense. This is a very good thing.
- Lots of buffs are easily available to the Clones.
- The Clone army has amazing synergy, from fire support to token passing they are a machine.
The Bad:
- Your army has a very high point cost.
- High point cost means low activations.
- One bad roll, especially on defense, may cost you a game. Though powerful, they are Elite and scarce in number.
The Droid Army:
The Good:
- The droids can bring a LOT of models. They also roll a lot of dice.
- Coordinate is insanely powerful.
- Most units are Immune to suppression.
- Count Dooku is VERY powerful.
- General Grevious is strong when played aggressively, he is also very good against Force users.
The Bad:
- It is a horde army, so you will be moving a lot of models.
- You will lose a lot of models in combat. Droids are very weak against flamethrowers.
- Your units still panic.
- Basic B1 Battledroids roll white dice across the board.
As you can see the 4 factions all play differently enough to keep the games from getting stale. The injection of the Clone Wars Core Set has really changed the game in the best possible way. With exciting new match-ups and amazing new models, Star Wars: Legion seems to have all the elements of a successful game. Normally I would do a deep dive of game system itself next, however I feel there are enough amazing reviews and learn-to-play resources out there that it would be redundant. Thank you for reading and watch for the next article in the series, Faction Deep Dive: The Empire.
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