In an attempt to be of service to the broader Legion community, I’ve read yesterday’s Rules Reference update so you don’t have to! While this update was posted on Nov. 20, 2018, it will not go into effect until Nov. 29, 2018.

This is not a complete summary of changes, but rather a look at some of the most impactful highlights from the perspective of the average Legion player.

As always, leave comments, thoughts, and questions at the bottom of the post.

Errata

Key Positions (pg. 60) has received a much-needed change. Previously, the Blue Player had a decisive advantage with the ability to place two objective tokens to Red Player’s one. Now, the first objective token is placed on the center-most piece of terrain, and each player gets to place one additional token. Say goodbye to that horrible bidding war.

Rapid Reinforcements (pg. 60) was made more rapid, and now takes place in round one instead of round two. In addition, players are now required to put aside at least one non-commander, non-operative trooper unit.

Force Choke (pg. 60) has been changed to read:

Dark Side only. [Action] Choose a non-[commander], non-[operative] enemy trooper mini at range 1. It suffers 1 wound.”

New Sections

Declaring Terrain (pg. 26) doesn’t actually add any new information, but it sets out much clearer guidelines (like the ones I discussed in a very early article) on declaring cover BEFORE the game official starts (i.e. during setup), including the following gem of a paragraph that should dispel some long-lasting myths:

Checking whether a piece of terrain is blocking half or more, or less than half, of a mini is only used during setup to determine whether or not that piece of terrain will provide cover during the game.

Entourage: Unit Name (pg. 31) was added in, and confirmed that the extremely cheese-tastic interpretation of combining Entourage with Battle Meditation to use Entourage with any unit (not just the named unit) is invalid. Sorry, everybody.

Repair X (pg. 47) and Treat X (pg. 53) have been added to the game, outlining new ways to heal vehicles and non-emplacement trooper units, respectively. Repair X specifically works in conjunction with the updated Resilience (pg. 48) which says that a vehicle can’t receive a second damaged token after already receiving one and being repaired. I sense big things coming for vehicles. But seriously, do yourself a solid and go read both of these entries in their entirety. They’re game-changing mechanics.

Team Battle (Optional Rules, pg. 59) lays out lots of details for a four-player battle scenario and looks fun as hell, if I’m being honest.

Updated Sections

Area Weapons (pg. 13) now explicitly can perform ranged attacks against units engaged in melee, provided they’re in range and have line of sight.

Bounty (pg. 17) received a bit of a confusing update: if your Boba kills an enemy Boba that had already received a victory token from killing their chosen enemy unit, your Boba now takes that Boba’s victory token. Capisce?

Charge (pg. 18) now specifies that it is a free melee attack triggered from a move action, specifically. Command cards or other abilities that assign a move (like Force Push) don’t trigger Charge.

Climb and Clamber (pg. 19) added a bullet that clears up climbing over walls. If a unit is in base contact with a wall (i.e. a piece of terrain that is no more than height 1 and has no upper surface on which a mini could stand) it can clamber over that wall by using TWO clamber actions, and subsequently rolling two white dice to check for wounds afterwards.

There are also some clarifications about height and cohesion that can be summed up as: if your unit leader moves up or down, you can cohere to the same level but not higher or lower. But you can also stay put as long as your unit leader only went up height one or less and are within cohesion range.

Cohesion (pg. 20) also added that a mini’s base can’t overhang a ledge, and added redundant language from the previous paragraph in Climb and Clamber.

Compulsory Move (pg. 23) specifies that if difficult terrain reduces a unit’s maximum speed while performing a compulsory move, then there are no other adverse effects (e.g. taking damage for not being able to complete a full move at max speed).

Cover (pg. 25) was clarified so that when drawing a line from mini to mini to check for obstructions, the line is drawn from a top-down, 2D perspective. I raised this as a point of confusion in a previous (and subsequently updated) article on the subject.

It also clarifies another example I did regarding the high ground: units that are higher up will “usually have cover” because of LOS.

Defeated (pg. 26) now explicitly states that if any part of a unit’s base goes outside the battlefield, even while moving along the movement tool, the unit is destroyed. An entry just a bit down the page will clarify that no one can voluntarily do this.

Detonate X: Charge Type (pg. 28) was updated in addition to Area Weapons. Quote game designer Luke Eddy, in the Legion Discord:

…the previous email ruling on the timing of detonate was reversed. They now trigger before any non-standby after-action triggers (i.e. standby beats detonate, detonate beats all other triggers).

Emplacement Troopers (pg. 30) now officially obscure other minis, providing light cover. They also officially cannot use Claim or Sabotage/Repair abilities on their respective objective tokens. Not that the Laser Cannon was likely to, anyway.

Jump X (pg. 36) ignores the effects of difficult terrain, which makes sense.

Leaving the Battlefield (pg. 37) was updated to say that a unit cannot voluntarily leave the battlefield (which could have been used to deprive an enemy unit with Bounty of their victory token) and that card actions like Force Push can’t be used to move an enemy off of the battlefield. Compulsory moves and panicking are still in play, of course.

Range (pg. 46) was updated to be much cleaner, and to confirm (as I discussed in my superlatively recent rules article) that height does not affect range measurements.

Scout X (pg. 49) is not triggered during Rapid Reinforcements.

Standby (pg. 51) received a lengthy update that is worth reading in its entirety, but notably ground vehicles can now take standby actions.

…And For Your Consideration (but Not Mine)

Movement (pg. 40) – specifically Emplacement Trooper Movement Summary

Objective Tokens (pg. 42)

Teamwork: Unit Name (pg. 53)