Star Wars™: Legion is more than just a tabletop war game. It's an entire hobby with a community dedicated to collecting, painting, and customizing miniatures from both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War. Today, we're proud to introduce a new series of articles from members of the community, focusing on all aspects of this engrossing hobby. In this first entry, Kevin Valliere gives an overview of what Legion is and how you can begin building your collection today!

Everything is quiet, then chaos erupts! Blaster bolts ricochet off nearby walls as your unit scrambles for cover. You return fire, hoping to create a distraction, but it only serves to embolden the approaching enemy. Then, cutting through the battle, the sound of a lightsaber igniting. Your unit almost panics in fear as the saber’s glow peeks around the corner but your fears are allayed by the sound of another ignition, this time from behind you. A Jedi has your back. The fight is on.

Welcome to the world of Star Wars: Legion!

Begun, the Clone Wars Have

First released in March of 2018, the tabletop miniatures game Star Wars: Legion has recently launched its third and fourth factions into the game. Now, the Separatists and Republic forces join the Empire and the Rebellion as playable armies.

Star Wars: Legion is an exciting combination of game and hobby that provides hours upon hours of entertainment at home or in your friendly local game store. But if you’ve never played a tabletop wargame before—or if you’re coming from another one and want to learn more about what makes Legion unique—then you’ve come to the right place.

In the forthcoming series of articles we’ve dubbed “Star Wars: Legion Basics,” we’ll be exploring what exactly Legion is and how you, too, can join the fight.

To start, let’s take a look at what you can expect when you first start getting into this rewarding hobby.

Objective-Based Gameplay

At its core, of course, Star Wars: Legion is a game about war.

In each match, you and one opponent will vie for supremacy with an army assembled around certain criteria (which we’ll touch on in a later article). But it’s not just about wholesale destruction, no—Legion is an objective-based game.

Two matches with the same armies on each side can look totally different depending on which objectives, conditions, and deployment layouts are drafted from the provided battle deck. Perhaps you and your opponent are running Intercept the Transmissions, where the primary goal is to claim ownership of a series of three beacons strewn about the battlefield. Or perhaps you choose Breakthrough, in which you must try to move as many of your units as possible to your opponent’s deployment zone before the end of the match.

Now, add to that other factors: what if you’re in a Hostile Environment, where not being in contact with a piece of terrain has potentially negative consequences. Maybe the foggy battlefield provides some Limited Visibility, hampering your long-range guns. Or perhaps factors beyond your control have caused your battlefield deployment to be in Disarray, splitting your army in two.

How do you adapt to the situation? How do you overcome your opponent? These questions and more are key to the gameplay at Legion’s heart, and help make sure that every single game of Star Wars: Legion feels fresh and unique.

Hobby Fun For All

But Star Wars: Legion is much more than just a game, indeed, it’s a hobby!

Before you put your completed armies on the battlefield, you’ll want to assemble and customize them in whatever way you see fit. Each Star Wars: Legion Core Set and expansion comes with wonderfully sculpted miniatures that make the Star Wars galaxy come alive on your tabletop, and it’s up to you to decide how you want to stylize them.

Do you want movie accurate Stormtroopers? Excellent! Don’t forget the black strip just above their eyes, it’s easy to miss. But what about a unit with all black armor and red accents? Done and done! The only limit is your creativity. You can give the new General Kenobi commander his classic blue lightsaber, or a fun new color. The choice is yours.

What’s more, you’ll have the chance to flex your creative muscles by painting up terrain expansions like the Downed AT-ST.

And you don’t need to be an accomplished painter or hobbyist to tackle these minis. With just a bit of practice your minis can look table-ready and intimidating. I should know—Star Wars: Legion was my first tabletop wargame, after all!

What Lies Ahead

In the coming weeks, my friends Zach Barry, L.J. Peña, and I will be guiding you through everything you need to know to get started with Star Wars: Legion.

We’ll look at the game’s mechanics from starting to finishing a complete game, and then we’ll look over basic strategy (including building a fully formed army) for each of the two new Clone Wars Core Set factions.

But first, we’re going to take a look at what happens before your miniatures ever hit the table: priming, painting, and detailing. For total beginners to the hobby, this will be a great place to begin looking at what it takes to create a table-ready miniature (and I promise that it’s easier than you might think).

Until then, may the Force be with you, Star Wars: Legion commanders!