This was our third game (Serge vs Francis) playing Star Wars Legion. The first game was just the basic forces given in the rule set. The second game had a couple more troops, but was also to learn the game.
The third game included forces that were painted in 2023 and included mostly forces from Echo base.
The list that Francis used was the following:
The force that I used was the following:
We then picked the deployment, objective, conditions.
For deployment we picked Battle line which is basically the same set up as usual.
The objective card was to move as many leaders to the opposite side set up zone.
The condition card was heavy fog. So the forces were not allow to engage further than range 3 in the first turn and range 4 in the second turn.
The choice of the long side of the table to setup your forces or who get to place a Unit first is based on the side that has the lowest point. If both sides have the same amount of points as was the case in our battle, on of the players roles a defensive red die. If you role a shield you get to decide if you are blue or red. The red player gets to choose the long edge he wants and the blue player gets to place first.
The following image is at the end of the set up. My forces (Rebels) are on the bottom of the image and the imperials are at the top.
The following is a close up of the end of the first turn. Since we were not allowed to fire over range 3 all troops just advanced. My main plan was to advance aggressively on left flank. Francis had fewer troops on this side. On the right flank I would send my Tauntauns on a suicide mission to slow Franci's advance. I think that Francis want to advance slowly. The main strength of the Snow Troopers is that they can advance on then fire with no additional action. They only advance with template 1 vice 2 for my rebel troops, but in effect can do two moves with the template 1 and then fire, which is basically the same. They also have better defence (Red die vice the white die of my rebel troops, but worse shooting skill white die vice my red dies.
Star Wars legion is played over a series of six rounds. Each of the six rounds in a game are divided into three phases. The command Phase. Here you choose the command card you will be using. These command cards have one, two, three, or four dots on them. The smaller the number of dots the higher is the initiative, Then there is the Activation phase. This phase each units get to do two actions. Only a move action can be done twice. The last phase is the End phase, where you remove some conditions, such as dodge, aim, etc. The first phase we both ended picking a 4 dot command card. In case of a tie the blue player executes the effects on the card first. To determine priority if there is a tie one player rolls a red defence die. If a shield is rolled then they get initiative. In this case it was not really important who got the initiative as we were both quite far from each other and we were not allowed to attack at ranges over 3.
The following images are a close up of the left and right flank:
The second turn was a little more interesting. The Imperial Speeder bikes must always do a compulsory move prior or after their actions, so they move a lot. The imperial force decide to concentrate a lot of forces on their left flank. (Right of image) My Tauntaun decide to advance up and shoot. (probably not a good move) The speeder bikers shoot and move right past my Mark II blaster troop. Most Units take some hits, which cause a suppression after each attack The imperial force manage to take out a Tauntaun and the rebel forces manage to take out a Speeder bike. Speeder bikes always have cover 1 so this eliminates a hit. Also once a unit get a suppression this also eliminates a hit. Unfortunately the Creature troopers (Tauntaun) do not get this rule.
End of turn 3, the Speeder bikes on my right flank and the Imperial Special forces manages to almost take out the Rebel FD Laser Cannon. At the beginning of each turn you choose a command card to play that gives you who has priority. This turn the Imperial Force use a card that gives three suppressions to units close to DarthVader. Liea had a command card that called in a bombardment. So three units further than range 3 of liea where hit with three red dies. My leader Princes Leia, can prevent forces range 3 from her to panic. So my forces are reduced to 1 action, due to the suppressions. All leaders have this rule. It can be extended to range 4 with command presence card. Our units are trading kills, but as can be seen, the snow troopers have not started to advance. They have 3 turns to make it to my zone for the victory conditions. They will have to start moving if they want to achieve their objective.
The following image is the end of turn 4. Star Wars legion is also a 6 turn game. Just out of the image I have a rebel trooper unit advancing on the loan Snow Trooper unit. My second Tauntaun is finally killed. Chewbacca decides to engage Darth Vader. (To keep him occupied). Leia was able to take out the last of the imperial special force unit, so my rebel troopers are making a double move up the middle. The snow troopers on my left flank have 5 suppressions. At the start of a turn the fist thing that happens is rally. So you get to roll a white defences die for every suppression. If you get a surge or shield you get to remove suppressions. In this case Francis did not roll one surge or shield on five dice. Since the Snow trooper panics if it has 2 or more suppression markers, he definitely is in the panic mode. Since Darth Vader is not within range 3, the snow trooper are panicked and most move the the closest edge at full move.
The end of turn 5 sees the Snow Troopers on the left flank panic of the table. The Strom Trooper unit in the middle gets killed by the rebel troops, the Snow Troopers on my right flank manage to continue to advance and take out the Mark II Medium Blaster troop. Darth Vader and Chewbacca trade hits.
End of turn 6 right flank. France manages to bring one Snow Trooper unit within range 1. The Imperial officer and the second Snow trooper unit do not make it. So 1 victory point for Francis. Darth Vader manages to kill Chewbacca.
Liea kills Darth Vader and moves into the Range 1. Three other Rebel trooper units also make it in range 1. The Mark II medium blaster does not quite make it. So 4 victory points.
All in all was very fun to play. It took us 4 hours to play, but we were looking at the rules a lot.
