Star Wars: Legion has all you need to start your adventure
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away epic battles rage across planets and moons of star systems seized by social and political turmoil. An evil dictatorship rules this universe with a mighty force choke and only a slap-shod group of freedom fighters stand in its way from total domination.
On both sides of this conflict are mystical space wizards who utilize super powers and often times leave swaths of dismembered bodies in their wake regardless of intent. Like the Warhammer 40k universe this is a galaxy that knows only war. So a tabletop miniature game within this sprawling intellectual property seems like a no brainer.
Let’s be honest here, our very first Star Wars miniature games involved us and our Kenner action figures a long time ago in sandboxes far far away. Remember that age of imagining the sheer size and scale of blaster fights and saber swinging bad-asses fully realized on large scale battlefields?
Remember a time when you imagined yourself being a battle hardened rebel commander leading the Alliance to victory against totalitarian evil? I sure do, and thankfully Fantasy Flight Games run the full gamut of Star Wars tabletop games to flex the tactical mind muscles and up the midichlorian count.
Fantasy Flight Games seized ground with Armada and X-Wing for those who enjoy space combat. (If you’re into that sort of thing.) However, back in March 2018 Fantasy Flight Games released a ground combat version known as Star Wars: Legion.
Star Wars: Legion made full terrestrial landfall at gaming stores across the country with an already eager fan base built up from the Armada series. When Legion hit the shelves it did so with everything players needed from the jump along with eight expansions sold separately from the core set.
The core set contains 33 miniatures for both the Rebel scum and the Imperial space Nazis, and an Imperial destroyer load of dice and tokens. At first, unboxing it can appear daunting to construct. Never fear though, the rule books and learn to play guides come with the set. There are also handy movement and line of sight measurement tools included to help track unit range and attack distance. A demo battle is easily mapped out like a LEGO diagram to build up a starter scenario to get two players into the action.
Turns work in phases where the first phase or the Command phase where four or six cards are drawn by both sides. The players will choose the action cards to designate which units are activated during the next phase and which player makes the first move. Players then will place unit tokens next to the corresponding units or heroes they want to activate then move on to the next phase the action phase.
Action phase is where the opening moves for designated units begin their movements towards their opponent. Cover bonus and rough terrain features being factors to consider when moving units. Unit movement only requires the focus on the unit leader or designated sergeant miniature figure.
So say you move your aim challenged storm troopers up to cover you can measure out the move of the leader and place the corresponding support exactly one move space distance apart. Action phase consists of moving and shooting with buff tokens placed at player discretion to better their unit odds of dodging attacks or improving aim from cover.
Yoda knows the troopers need every aim buff they can get.
Once the moves burned and shots taken the cleanup phase resets the tokens and buffs back and command cards are once again drawn to start the next turn. This will continue until preselected battle requirements are met or all player units are massacred.
A skirmish game can get hot and heavy pretty fast with a bone fide contention cluster over the board center by the second turn. Star Wars: Legion has the fun frantic struggle for victory with a bit more ease of entry compared to Warhammer 40k.
The added bonus of expansions released upfront means that if you love it you don’t have to wait around to build up your forces for bigger battles and greater bragging rights.
Many fans of Warhammer 40k also pack kits for Legion for some game variety, so both communities intermingle quite often.
Plus the thrill of commanding the Dark Lord of the Sith against a moisture farmer from Tatooine in heated battles of attrition is a blast for both fans of Star Wars and miniature war gaming.
When not vaporizing zombies or leading space marines as a mousepad Mattis, Brandon Watson is making gourmet pancakes and promoting local artists.