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The Sacramento Legion League kicked off this past week at Great Escape Games. There are nine of us participating. In this league, a victory is worth three points, a bye two, and a loss one. Games are scheduled to last until mid August, and I have not been awarded any byes, so we’re on for six weeks of glorious battle reports! My intent is to have a new one for you every Friday.

Having never played Legion at the store in Sacramento, I had no idea what lists the local players were using. Hoping to start things off with a win, I settled on a Swiss army knife list with the Wonder Twins in command.

Luke Skywalker (Force Reflexes, Force Push, Environmental Gear)

Leia Organa

Fleet Troopers (Scatter Gun, Extra Trooper, Environmental Gear)

Rebel Troopers (Extra Trooper, Z-6)

3x Rebel Troopers (Z-6)

2x AT-RT (Laser Cannon)

797/800 pts

My opponent, James, is a huge fan of Vader, and he brought the Dark Lord along with a contingent of Stormtroopers and a Weiss AT-ST painted up like the 501st Legion. It was a pleasure to play against such a beautiful and fluffy army.

Darth Vader (Force Reflexes, Force Push, Saber Throw)

3x Stormtroopers (DLT-19, Extra Trooper, Impact Grenades)

1x Snowtroopers (Extra Trooper)

AT-ST (General Weiss, Grenade Launcher, Twin Light Blaster, Mortar)

797/800 pts

James also brought along an assortment of 3D-printed terrain from Imperial Terrain that we arranged into a space port and surrounding structures, rising from the swamps of a planet reminiscent of Nal Hutta. We decided that the walls of the port were low enough that troopers could clamber over them to land on the other side, and that entering doorways to go inside a structure did not require any actions to open the door.

Since I had a big activation advantage (My nine to James’ six) I opted to take Blue player. For this army, I swapped Limited Visibility out and put Minefields in. Normally I despise Long March, but decided to keep it in this deck to leverage the AT-RT Laser Cannons, and I could always try to get it against bikes or airspeeders. I also swapped out Breakthrough for Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators, again to leverage range and defensive play. Interestingly, I passed on Key Positions as Blue because of bad experiences against Vader. We ultimately settled on Intercept the Transmissions, Battle Lines and Minefields.

The Rebellion and the Empire would have to extract information from the Comm Stations around the port. Danger lurked underground as mines were deployed at key choke points to stifle the movement of troops and vehicles.

The space port occupied the center, its walls scarred and blown apart by turbolaser fire from an earlier battle, creating a middle lane that both sides saw fit to exploit. Vader and the 501st deployed centrally, keeping General Weiss and his AT-ST close at hand. Luke and Leia split up, Leia occupying the western edge near the control tower with two Z-6 squads while Luke deployed slightly east of center, commanding both the middle and eastern flank. It became clear that the western Comm Station would be the site of the first clash, being relatively free of mines.

Turn 1:

Me: Coordinated Bombardment

James: Ambush

Deploying Leia as I had telegraphed my intentions quite hard. James tied me at 1 pip, and then I lost the roll off, allowing him to move one of his precious DLT squads to safety. The oblong spaceport wall blocked Leia from seeing much, so she had to move forward to find targets for her bombardment. James’ troopers made average rolls on defense, and two Stormtroopers from a squad near Vader’s position were killed. The move forward left Leia overextended, and the unit of Snowtroopers, despite being suppressed by the bombardment, crept forward and volleyed her with Steady, putting three wounds into her right away. I did not expect her to be on half health so early, and it put me on edge. The rebels near Leia returned fire and killed two of the attacking Snowtroopers.

Meanwhile, on the other end of town, Rebel troopers cautiously moved through alleyways near a repair station, trying to avoid stepping on mines as they approached the eastern transmission point. The RT drivers advanced to hunt Weiss, one staying center and the other moving through the eastern alley, the big game in sight but just out of range. Stormtroopers entered the space port’s central building, setting an ambush.

In the center, the Imperial forces began their advance. Weiss pivoted to launch his mortar but did not score any casualties. Vader took the lead, moving into the gap in the wall where a land mine was placed. It detonated once, but the blast did not harm the Dark Lord. Vader roared a challenge to the rebels to face him.

At the other end of the bay, Luke and the troopers moved quickly through the gap in the wall, using crates to hide their approach. The stage was set for the main battle to begin.

Round 2:

Me: No Time for Sorrows

James: Push

I needed to shuffle the units on the western flank around so Leia could be safe while her companion squads contested the Comm Station near them. Hiding behind the control tower, Leia handed out as many dodge tokens as she could in preparation for the advance. James issued orders to Vader and the AT-ST, making his order pool consist only of corps unit tokens, giving him complete control of his activation order.

General Weiss drove his AT-ST forward and ordered his crew to fire at will, killing two Fleet troopers and suppressing them. The mortar missed its target. An AT-RT found its mark, hitting the side of the AT-ST for two wounds. Then, all hell broke loose on the eastern side. The spaceport door slid open as white and blue-armored Stormtroopers piled out into the street in ambush, their Impact grenades disabling one of the RTs and leaving it on one hull. In their haste, they activated a land mine, but were saved by their Stormtrooper armor with two block results. The rebel troopers counterattacked, claiming two victims and securing the eastern Comm Station.

In the center, it looked as though the rebels would capture the middle Comm Station as well, and the commander of the unit near the AT-ST ordered his Stormtroopers to clamber over the wall. Disaster struck as two troopers broke their necks from two block results, and then…

“What’s that beeping, sir?”

Boom. The two remaining Stormtroopers were blown to bits by a mine.

Meanwhile, Vader moved steadily forward to challenge the bulk of the rebel forces at the western station with his one remaining squad in support, claiming heads with Saber Throw. Luke decided to avoid his father and head east, shooting his DL-44 pistol at the ambushing Stormtroopers, killing one. I had ordered my troopers forward in an effort to prevent James from scoring, but feared I had sent them all to their deaths by being in such close proximity of Vader.

Round 3:

Me: My Ally is the Force

James: Master of Evil

Luke’s move to the east had left him vulnerable to Weiss, so I was in a hurry to get him out of there before the lumbering hulk caught him. Vader struck fear into the hearts of all the rebel squads near him, doling out nine(!) suppression tokens before charging forward and butchering the closest Rebel trooper squad down to its unit leader. Vader Force Pushed another squad into melee with him. The helpless rebel troopers punched at Vader, putting one wound through. Luke made a charge of his own up the east side, finishing off a squad of Stormtroopers in the process. The Imperials were down to Vader, one squad of Stormtroopers and Weiss, while the rebel forces had lost only one unit and sustained moderate casualties in others.

The Fleet troopers, who had spent most of the game hiding behind crates in the docking bay, saw their opening. Using their Environmental Gear to get a full speed movement out of their hiding place, they moved and fired, surging to a ghastly seven hits against the Stormtroopers near Vader which had moved out of cover to contest the objective. James’ defense dice came up with six blanks out of seven dice, and the Scattergun pierced that one away. His last full strength squad was wiped out in a single attack. Weiss fired on the now exposed Fleet troopers in reply, but with a dodge token from My Ally is the Force and some good saves, only one Fleet was killed. Both AT-RTs put more wounds into the AT-ST, putting it over its resilience threshold and giving it a Disabled token.

Round 4:

Me: Return of the Jedi

James: Implacable

With the Imperial forces dwindling, there was little they could do to secure victory. Vader activated first and lashed out again with his saber, adding more to his kill count and shuffling his token back into the pool. Luke ordered the AT-RTs near him to fire, sending Weiss’ AT-ST crashing to the ground before it could shoot. At this point, James and I both acknowledged that the game was essentially over. It was Vader versus the world, and though the Rebels would surely win the battle, Vader refused to give up. We decided to have a little fun and see if Vader could be brought down by the end of round six.

“All I am surrounded by is fear… and dead men.“

Round 5:

Me: Standing Orders

James: New Ways to Motivate Them

Round 6:

Me: Standing Orders

James: Assault

A quick summary of these rounds: Vader continued killing everything near him while the rest of my army shot him when they could. Vader resisted so much damage that he survived to the end of the game with one wound remaining. He personally eliminated three units of Rebel Troopers and cleared the western Comm Station with no help, a testament to how awesome he is. The final score: Rebels 7, Empire 2.

The game began with a serious disparity in the number of activations, and took a fatal turn on some awful variance. James was an absolute sportsman through the whole game, even reminding me about things I would have missed, and we both had a ton of fun despite the lopsided situation. He also provided all the awesome terrain seen in this battle report. I hope we will play again soon, and I wish him good luck in the league!

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