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My FLGS ran a Star Wars Legion demo day yesterday and I headed over to try it out. It was nice to play on a proper terrain mat using minis and scenery painted by someone else that's NOT me 😝
It was pretty simple. We played the intro scenario from the Learn to Play book so you only used the core rules, a 3x3 mat and maybe 70% of the available forces. Objective is to kill as many of your opponent's units as you can.
So we set up and started. I took the Rebels.
We traded fire right from turn 1, mainly because of the 3x3 table size and the long ranges the weapons had. My opponent foolishly moved Vader forward and didn't take a dodge token, so when I fired he had no cover and no way of avoiding besides rolling the standard defence dice (which were pretty good since they were all red). Still, out of 5 shots, 4 hit and did damage! An auspicious start.
Our vehicles traded fire next, and I discovered that I had armour so unless he rolled a critical, he could only deal me one damage per turn!
So he moved Vader up and I poured all my fire on him. This time he took the dodge tokens and what happened was just like the movies: Vader managed to parry some shot which were deflected back to my troopers, killing one!
Still, Vader was too slow and ponderous. Take only 1 move per activation so he could get a Dodge token? Or rush forward as quickly as possible?
He opted to move forward.
So my Rebel walker had a dilemma: try to kill the Imperial Jet Bike unit for a point? Or Vader for a point?
Can't remember what I opted for but in the end it was my Rebel trooper squad on the Standing Order card... vs Vader! And they came through!
That was Turn 6 and the end of the game to the Rebel scum ;)
Thoughts: I thought the rules were kind of finicky when I read them, but they worked well once I started playing. There were a few exceptions here and there but that was because we were playing with the basic Learn to Play rules and not the full rule set (for example we only had 4 command cards instead of the normal 7).
The movement rulers worked well and I wish more games would use them, especially for moving round obstacles.
But the dice! Oy the dice. Every single review I read/watched mentioned that there's not enough dice in the box... and yes! A basic trooper squad has 5 men, rolling 5 dice for attack. Guess how many dice are provided? Three. Vader rolls EIGHT dice on his attack. How many are provided? Three. And so it goes... Geez.
I did enjoy the game. It worked well. And the IP is great. We had the Star Was soundtrack playing in the background and it was lots of fun.
But I do question FFG's strategy in making this game incompatible with the Imperial Assault minis. (Legion's minis are noticeably larger by design). So there goes one in-built potential captive market for your game. You'd have to buy everything again since you can't use your IA minis.
Then FFG seems to be targeting the more traditional tabletop minis gamer because you need to assemble and paint the minis... but the plastic (for the most part) is the same as the plastic used for the Imperial Assault minis. Only the vehicles use hard plastic like GW. So... I don't know but I the traditional tabletop minis guys probably wouldn't look at this because not hard plastic. There goes another captive market?*
If only FFG had provided pre-assembled minis in 2 colours at the same scale as the IA minis. One set using a 2-player starter exactly like what they now have. The other just the rules, tokens, dice etc. for those already deep into IA. I personally would've jumped on it in a heartbeat! But as it is... I think FFG wasted a huge opportunity here.
Oh, well. My FLGS owner told me he hasn't seen anyone playing the game, no requests for it until he brought it in. Now he's trying to build up a community. I wished him all the best.
*I did hear the future releases (Clone Wars starter maybe?) will be hard plastic on sprues with weapon options. But I'm not following the news on SW Legion so take that with a pinch of salt.
It was pretty simple. We played the intro scenario from the Learn to Play book so you only used the core rules, a 3x3 mat and maybe 70% of the available forces. Objective is to kill as many of your opponent's units as you can.
So we set up and started. I took the Rebels.
We traded fire right from turn 1, mainly because of the 3x3 table size and the long ranges the weapons had. My opponent foolishly moved Vader forward and didn't take a dodge token, so when I fired he had no cover and no way of avoiding besides rolling the standard defence dice (which were pretty good since they were all red). Still, out of 5 shots, 4 hit and did damage! An auspicious start.
Our vehicles traded fire next, and I discovered that I had armour so unless he rolled a critical, he could only deal me one damage per turn!
So he moved Vader up and I poured all my fire on him. This time he took the dodge tokens and what happened was just like the movies: Vader managed to parry some shot which were deflected back to my troopers, killing one!
Still, Vader was too slow and ponderous. Take only 1 move per activation so he could get a Dodge token? Or rush forward as quickly as possible?
He opted to move forward.
 |
| Come closer. I find your lack of faith... disturbing. |
By this time I was shooting at him for all I was worth. I didn't want him reaching melee range and rolling 8 red attack dice on my poor 5-man squad! (A follow up game saw Vader so exactly that and he wiped out a 5-man Rebel trooper squad with just ONE attack!)
So my Rebel walker had a dilemma: try to kill the Imperial Jet Bike unit for a point? Or Vader for a point?
 |
| Decisions... decisions... |
 |
| Oh how the mighty have fallen! |
Thoughts: I thought the rules were kind of finicky when I read them, but they worked well once I started playing. There were a few exceptions here and there but that was because we were playing with the basic Learn to Play rules and not the full rule set (for example we only had 4 command cards instead of the normal 7).
The movement rulers worked well and I wish more games would use them, especially for moving round obstacles.
But the dice! Oy the dice. Every single review I read/watched mentioned that there's not enough dice in the box... and yes! A basic trooper squad has 5 men, rolling 5 dice for attack. Guess how many dice are provided? Three. Vader rolls EIGHT dice on his attack. How many are provided? Three. And so it goes... Geez.
I did enjoy the game. It worked well. And the IP is great. We had the Star Was soundtrack playing in the background and it was lots of fun.
But I do question FFG's strategy in making this game incompatible with the Imperial Assault minis. (Legion's minis are noticeably larger by design). So there goes one in-built potential captive market for your game. You'd have to buy everything again since you can't use your IA minis.
Then FFG seems to be targeting the more traditional tabletop minis gamer because you need to assemble and paint the minis... but the plastic (for the most part) is the same as the plastic used for the Imperial Assault minis. Only the vehicles use hard plastic like GW. So... I don't know but I the traditional tabletop minis guys probably wouldn't look at this because not hard plastic. There goes another captive market?*
If only FFG had provided pre-assembled minis in 2 colours at the same scale as the IA minis. One set using a 2-player starter exactly like what they now have. The other just the rules, tokens, dice etc. for those already deep into IA. I personally would've jumped on it in a heartbeat! But as it is... I think FFG wasted a huge opportunity here.
Oh, well. My FLGS owner told me he hasn't seen anyone playing the game, no requests for it until he brought it in. Now he's trying to build up a community. I wished him all the best.
*I did hear the future releases (Clone Wars starter maybe?) will be hard plastic on sprues with weapon options. But I'm not following the news on SW Legion so take that with a pinch of salt.
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