As a very, very, heavy Star Wars: Armada player a part of me genuinely thought I would be able to resist the pull of Star Wars: Legion when it was announced.

‘You already have a Star Wars game’, I said to myself. ‘Think about the cost. Think about all the painting, that’s why you sold all your grey 40k models.’

Things obviously turned out a little differently than I had planned.

In the end, after moving my first Rebel trooper unit in the single turn of the demo I played, I was hooked. I decided I would go mono-faction and force myself to paint everything at the earliest stage possible. Those were my compromises to the voice of reason.

My target deadline was the first Legion tournament at my FLGS, the Games Cube Parramatta, on the 8th of April.

After many late nights, and probably an unreasonable amount of my free time, I just barely managed to finish painting my collection the night before the tournament.

The Desert Rats

In my devotion to painting completeness I had failed to actually play anything beyond that half a turn from my demo, and I had only really given the rules a cursory glance at best.

Rebellions are built on hope though, right?

As a completely green commander I tried to make as balanced a list as I could without having had any actual game experience. In the end this was my list:

Luke Skywalker

Battle Meditation, Jedi Mind Trick

175pts

Squad Hammond – Rebel Troopers

MPL-57 Ion Trooper

72pts

Squad LeMasters – Rebel Troopers

Z6 Trooper

62pts

Squad Nguyen – Rebel Troopers

Z6 Trooper

62pts

Squad Woodward – Rebel Troopers

Extra Trooper, Concussion Grenades, Grappling Hooks

58pts

T-47 Airspeeder

Wedge Antilles, Ax-108 Ground Buzzer

200pts

AT-RT

Rotary Blaster

85pts

AT-RT

Rotary Blaster

85pts

Commands (Self Evident For Now I Know):

Son of Skywalker, Ambush, My Ally Is the Force, Push, Return of the Jedi, Assault, Standing Orders

The list made use of every unit I owned, which was a plus! And really unless I decide to pick up another expansion the Trooper squads are where most of the flexibility in terms of upgrades is.

I felt the list had enough anti-vehicle and anti-infantry capabilities that it could respond to whatever was across the table. It had a decent amount of activations and Corps units. As said, my real concern was my lack of play time, I knew I would get a lot of rules wrong and probably miss the really high level strategic and tactical play, but I was confident in my ability to pick up the game quickly and strategise on a basic level thanks to my years of playing competitive Star Wars: Armada.

Game 1 – Chris Haak

Chris is a newer member of our group in Parramatta. He’s a great guy and honestly probably the perfect person I could have been paired with first round as I knew he would go above and beyond in helping me learn the minutia of the rules on the fly.

Chris was running a nearly identical list to mine, the only real point of difference being that he had 3 Rebel Trooper units compared to my 4, but his were more heavily upgraded.

I foolishly forgot to take a photo of the Define Battlefield process in all of my games, (something I will not forget to do in future!) but in the end we were playing Breakthrough in Hostile Conditions, with a Major Offensive Deployment Zone.

Deployment

Chris’ forces are arrayed in the top left of the map. You can see his two sub-groups separated by the large crater occupying the centre of his deployment. His southern group consisted of his T-47, an AT-RT with Rotary Blaster, and an Ion Trooper unit with an extra trooper. His northern group next to the central river contained his Luke, another Ion Trooper / Extra Trooper unit, and his second AT-RT with a Rotary. In between the two was his final trooper unit (who I cannot remember the upgrades for).

Opposite, and mirroring his southern group, my southern group contained my T-47, an AT-RT, and Squad LeMasters. My dedicated northern group contained my second AT-RT, Squad Hammond (in the forest), and Squad Woodward (hugging the small bunker). While in the middle I held back both Luke and Squad Nguyen as a reactionary force waiting to see how things played out.

My plan heading into the first turn was to set up defensive positions along the river; and, knowing that I could out-activate Chris, I wanted to have my T-47 roll up on his after it had moved forward before hopefully ambushing it next turn.

I figured if I could keep Chris’ units out of my deployment zone, I could score a point with my T-47 and rush up an AT-RT in the later turns to push me over the top (assuming at least one unit of his would make it into my deployment).

Turn 1

Chris: Standing Orders

Luke: Standing Orders

Chris managed to keep the initiative, and with his first activation double moved the southern ion trooper unit towards the river having pulled a Corps token. I pulled a Support token and, now with fresh targets in range, decided to activate my southern AT-RT.

Aiming and firing I managed to knock out half of the unit as they took cover amongst the trees. This basically was the theme for the first turn, I think Chris was too aggressive with his moves and it cost his troopers dearly as a result.

To the north Squad Hammond double moved to set up position behind some heavy cover, while the second AT-RT and Squad Woodward cleared all but two troopers from Chris’ second Ion trooper unit. Luke peeled to the edge of the building, while Squad Nguyen headed south into the trees.

Returning to the south, Squad LeMasters cleared another trooper from the poor unit pinned down in the woods across the river. While both Chris’ AT-RT and T-47 moved up and put damage onto my AT-RT. My T-47, seeing its chance to strike, pushed forward and laid into its opposing number. Putting in some early hits.

Things had gone incredibly well for the Desert Rats on the first turn, they’d gained good positions and scored some really heavy hits on Chris’ vital trooper units.

Turn 2

Chris: Push(?)

Luke: Ambush

Unsurprisingly I assigned my Ambush to my T-47, and that’s what I rolled with first.

I was able to push the T-47 close to death, but not quite push it over the edge. Meanwhile the Ground Buzzer shot into the poor southern Trooper squad, leaving only the unit leader alive.

Unsurprisingly Chris looked to hit back, and activated his Southern AT-RT who put some damage on my T-47. Across the round my AT-RT was able to finish off Chris’ T-47, Squad LeMasters put the last trooper in the woods to the south out of their misery. Chris’ northern AT-RT took damage and was Ion’d. My AT-RT took some light damage, and squads moved up around the board.

Turn 3

Chris: HCR (Honestly Can’t Remember)

Luke: My Ally Is The Force

Mopping up exercises begun for the Desert Rats as they began making their push on the objective across the central river. Chris’ northern AT-RT was destroyed, his two remaining trooper squads reduced to 1 and 2 troopers respectively and his southern AT-RT dropping to one health (after it mauled but failed to kill my T-47).

At the end of the turn, Chris’ forces decided discretion was the better part of valour and he conceded.

A great start for the Desert Rats!

Game Two – Ken “Irokenics” Nguyen

My second game found me paired against my long time partner in crime, Ken. Ken was running his Vader’s Fist 501st with a really solid list containing Vader with Force Push, Force Reflexes, and Saber Throw; an ATST with one or two upgrades; and 6 Storm-trooper squads (3 with DLTs, 3 generic).

The Desert Rats were returning to the terrain they were best suited for, and found themselves tasked with capturing Key Positions in Limited Visibility from a standard Battle-Lines formation.

Deployment

Ken smartly placed his two key positions on the leftmost building and on the sphinx beside it. In reply I placed mine in the bottom right. Ken turtled his deployment, ready to set up a defensive line along the two objectives and dig in. I deployed Squad LeMasters and an AT-RT on my extreme left; Luke, the second AT-RT and Squad Hammond to the left of centre; Squad Nguyen in the centre of my deployment, and my T-47 and Squad Woodward to the right.

At home in the desert conditions, the Rats knew the Imperial scopes wouldn’t be able to effectively draw a bead while the sandstorm raged, and prepared to rush across the open ground in front of them under the cover of the sand.

Turn 1

Kenny: Standing Orders

Luke: Standing Orders

Ken as the Blue player had initiative, which he maintained after the roll-off. He put his order onto the AT-ST, while I applied mine to the left-most AT-RT, wanting to be able to call it when needed.

Turn 1 saw Squad Woodward set up on my objective, which they would hold for the rest of the game (though contributing nothing else to the battle). Squad Nguyen pushed past the hill and into the barricade between the building and the stream. Ken’s troopers started taking up defensive positions in a convex formation around the two objectives.

Squad LeMasters pushed as close to the left most building as possible under the covering fire of their supporting AT-RT (who wiped out half of the trooper squad that had set up behind the central barricade). Luke, the second AT-RT, and Squad Hammond hugged the building beside them, trying to stay out of the withering gaze of both Vader and the AT-ST.

The T-47 shot up along the right flank and turned the corner around the right-most of the three main buildings.

Turn 2

Ken: Master of Evil

Luke: My Ally Is The Force

Expecting both Squad LeMasters and Squad Hammond to come under heavy fire this turn I selected them for My Ally Is The Force (the dodge token being incredibly helpful to their survival chances).

Ken meanwhile gave Darth Vader, his AT-ST and one of the trooper squads orders through Master of Evil.

By the end of the turn Squad Nguyen had pushed up behind the rightmost building. The T-47 was beginning its intercept with the AT-ST. Blasting half of a DLT squad on the way. Another of Ken’s DLT trooper squads ran up the building and managed to take a trooper out of Squad LeMasters but lost 3 of their own to the return fire. Squad Hammond shrugged off the suppression from the Master of Evil with a heroic rally (3 suppression cleared!). They lost one of their number clambering onto the building, before ion-ing the AT-ST. In reply it managed to take down a further trooper.

Meanwhile father and son faced each other down.

Things hanged by a knife edge, with the next few turns looking to prove decisive.

Turn 3

Ken: Implacable

Luke: Son of Skywalker

Both of us looked to cut off the head of our opponents this round. Unfortunately for us we were told that this round would be our final one due to time constraints.

This was additionally unfortunate for the Desert Rats as they had hopped to take a more measure approach and come out on top over Turns 4 & 5. With this change in the game, I threw caution to the wind and put my units out there trying to push Ken off one of the objectives.

In the end I just couldn’t quite manage to completely remove the necessary troopers to neutralise one of the objectives and force the draw, the 501st managing to hang on to score 2-1 on objectives.

This was definitely the highlight game of the weekend for me, and its a shame we weren’t able to play it out to its natural conclusion. Next time Kenny! Next time.

Game 3 – Lindsay Heming (The Games Cube)

My final round opponent was Lindsay, one of the owners and operators of the Games Cube. In this match we were even more pressed for time then before. We ended up playing Key Positions in Clear Conditions with Battle-lines Deployment.

As the Red player for the third time in a row, I had the opportunity to change the mission to Recover the Supplies or the Deployment to The Long March. In the end I passed and left them as they were, but in hindsight I feel either change would have given me a better chance at securing the win.

Lindsay was running Imperials, with a list containing Vader, 3 Jet Bike Units, and 5 or 6 Stormtrooper units (3 of them with DLTs).

Again, because we were pressed for time I didn’t take many photos so this battle can be dealt with in brief.

Deployment

We can see that I placed my Key Position in the centre of the board horizontally, and just in front of my deployment zone. Lindsay placed a position on the left and right of the board. Setting up his jet bikes on the flanks, supported by Stormtroopers, with his centre comprised of 2 trooper units and Vader.

Originally my plan was for Luke, the Speeder, and Squad Hammond to hook to my right and take over that flank while the rest of my army was tasked with holding my central objective.

In the end it actually turned out fairly close to this. My troopers Woodward and LeMasters held on to my objective, while the remaining AT-RT secured the left flank. The issue was that I just wasn’t aggressive enough with Squad Hammond and left my run on the right position until too late. This was compounded by the fact that I had Luke return to centre to confront Vader.

The game was able to go the full six rounds this time, but in the end the result was the same 2-1 victory to the Imperials.

Conclusions:

Firstly, it cannot be stressed how much fun I had in the tournament on Sunday. Not only is it a real giddy thrill to see your painted models hitting the table and taking in the cinematic plays of each game, but the fact that I haven’t mastered the game makes it really enjoyable as I try and learn the strategic and tactical nuances of the game.

Overall I was very happy with how the list performed, I think the core of Luke, a T-47, 2 AT-RTs, and 4 trooper units offered a lot of flexibility and allowed me to stack up against very different lists fairly well (as I had hoped).

Some of my concerns would be with elements of the upgrades. Wedge, for example, I didn’t use the entire day, and I found the Ground-Buzzer rather lacklustre. Similarly, while ion-ing the AT-ST was nice, I didn’t feel as if I got enough return on investment from the ion trooper to justify it over another Z-6.

Largely, though I think the failings were not with the list itself but were with me as I begun to learn the game and as I tried to take in the wealth of tactical and strategic depth. One of the main examples being the fact that I was comfortable taking Key Positions on Battle Lines with this list. In hindsight it allows the Blue player to really turtle their position, and puts all the onus on the Red player to push them off at least one objective. From different deployments this can be managed, but Battle-lines really does make it a challenge.

I definitely came away from the tournament feeling as if I had learnt a lot about the game, and already I have begun to think about how I can change my decision making to improve.

Suffice to say: I’m hooked.

Until next time!

Intel Officer Luke