UPDATE 11/21:

FFG have released their own 500-point format. Play that now!

Good news, everyone! The Imperial Discipline 500-point Format is now supported by both Legion HQ and Tabletop Admiral, our premier list-building sites for Legion. Many thanks to my friends there for adding this functionality.

Let’s cut to the chase.

Sometimes, Legion can feel like it goes on forever. Two and a half hours passes by quickly in the heat of a competitive moment, but decidedly less so if the game is lopsided or you’ve been forced into a bye. And with somewhere in the neighborhood 40 of your minis on the table at once, that’s a massive time commitment for newbies to invest just in assembly and organization, let alone actually painting the damn things or getting them on the table for a full match.

So if you’re trying to rope in new players or give veterans something different, how do you manage it?

I’m happy to present a project I’ve been working on for some time now: a standardized 500-pt Legion format for leagues and tournaments. The fast facts:

500 Points

3′ x 3′ map (a la X-Wing)

75-minute round timer

5-turn maximum

Click the image below for a link to the downloadable guiding document which contains the full rule-set and detailed instructions:

A Look at the Format

In order to streamline the Legion experience for a shorter, less-involved format, you’ll notice that a few important things have changed (as noted above).

The shorter time limit of 75 minutes and smaller map size should make this a much more amenable approach for hobby shops that are strapped for space and time. It also makes losses feel much less punishing, and allows for more frequent experimentation.

Unit min/max requirements have also been adjusted slightly, with a min/max of 2/5 for Corps Units, and a lowered maximum for all other units except Commanders (which stay at 1/2).

Unique Objectives

To help facilitate a cohesive league or tournament experience, I’ve created three distinct scenarios that are decided by the roll of a white attack dice at the start of each game.

In Deathmatch, players earn two Victory Points for each enemy unit that is fully defeated before time expires, or the end of Turn 5 is reached. Whichever comes first.

Partially wounded units do not count, only enemy units that are completely removed from the board. Similarly, half-points are not given.

Before placing barricades for this objective, place one objective token in the dead center of the playing field. (Measure Range 3 from one corner along the board’s edge, then measure Range 3 up from that point at a 90 degree angle.)

In King of the Hill, players earn one Victory Point for each friendly unit leader that is within Range 1 of the center objective token at the end of Turn 3, and then two Victory Points per in-range unit when time expires, or the end of Turn 5 is reached. Whichever comes first.

In Breakthrough (a format that will be familiar to regular Legion commanders), players earn two Victory Points for each friendly unit leader that is fully within or partially overlapping any part of their opponent’s deployment zone when time expires, or the end of Turn 5 is reached. Whichever comes first.

A Stable Condition

Update: Fog of War has been updated from its previous iteration.

Further, in order to make sure that long-range units don’t have an absurd advantage on a much smaller board, a unique condition is applied to the first turn of all 500-pt games.

Fog of War is in effect for the duration of Turn 1. During Fog of War, units may not see or shoot past range 3. In effect, this is the second stage of Limited Visibility. With Legion’s current ruleset this means that if one mini of a unit is at range 3 but the rest of the unit is at range 4, only the mini at range 3 is eligible to be shot.

More details about running your own league, scoring, tiebreakers, and set-up steps are listed in the guiding document linked above.

My hope is for this format to be used across the global Legion community; feel free to translate as you see fit.

Got suggestions or feedback? Get in touch with me via the Contact page and let me know what you think. I absolutely intend to publish a 2.0 version in the future and would love to hear from you.

And finally, thanks to the many playtesters listed in the guiding document. You all were so helpful in making sure this initial version was as good as possible!

Happy 500-pointing, Commanders.