Category / Strategy

by Lumberjack Nick

The Fifth Trooper – Legion 101 – Learning to Count in Star Wars: Legion

Star Wars Legion Counting

30
Aug

Learning to Count In Star Wars: Legion

One of the largest goals of Legion 101 is to help new players understand the fundamentals of “good Legion play.” I put “good” in quotations here because it’s a catch-all term for a set of ideas about how the play the game that, random factors willing, produce a positive result.

The number one way to begin to improve is becoming more deliberate about the way the game is played. These articles are written in the hopes of taking some portion of one’s Star Wars: Legion play off autopilot. How many times have certain game states caught me unaware, and victory slipped from my grasp?

So, that said, what does the title phrase “learning to count” actually mean? There are multiple parts of the game where pausing for a moment to gather some data about the board state will help you make better decisions. That’s a complicated way of saying that counting up certain aspects of the board will make you more aware of your win condition, and can guide you towards the next best move.

by Lumberjack Nick

Yavin Base: The General’s Strict Orders

While Luke, Han and soon Sabine headline the popular Rebel lists, there is one woman behind them all: Leia Organa, the bedrock of the Rebel Alliance. She is the best support character available in the game, hands down. The reasons for this are myriad. Among them is Leia’s ability to equip two Command upgrades, so you’ll have plenty of room to add Strict Orders, a relatively new and powerful Command upgrade, to your army. In this article, we’ll explore just how Strict Orders functions in a rebel army, and how it’s especially good on Leia Organa.

Strict Orders is a card avilable in the Jyn Erso expansion. It is a 5 point Command upgrade that says the following:

“When a friendly trooper unit with a faceup order token activates, during its Rally step, it may remove 1 suppression token instead of rolling dice.”

Yet more confirmation that Krennic is just Imperial Leia…

It seems innocuous at first – one suppression token doesn’t seem like much these days in a world of Suppressive weaponry, Dauntless, Compel, Saboteurs and Annihilation Looms. But on the flip side, how many times have games come down to whether or not you can get rid of a single suppression at an opportune time?

Continue reading after the jump: https://yavinbase.blog/the-generals-strict-orders/?fbclid=IwAR20xtTxpmq9ZKpcn813xIpQi01OPt1_AfpjMa8YuIFNyLaVEZ4V6qTw7Zw

by Lumberjack Nick

The Fifth Trooper: Armor for your Armoire – Let’s talk about the Occupier Tank in Star Wars Legion

Remember back in the beginning of Star Wars Legion play when every game had armor in it? Whether you were running the AT-ST, a couple of AT-RTs or the T47, it seemed like we all had armor at one point in our lists and we were having a blast. It was fun because it was thematic, it was also nostalgic and throwing up to 14 dice at another unit is amazing (thanks to Weiss’ giving you arsenal 4). Then the meta shifted and all of us “meta philosophers” told you the age of armor was over and so we (for the most part) moved on.

Star Wars Legion Tank

Out of the gate this once again was a win for the Empire. Why did it make us all so happy when announced? First, unlike the Landspeeder it made sense. This was a replica from an amazing scene from one of our most beloved recent movies, not a round peg – square hole like the Landspeeder. Like the Star Wars Legion core set and the AT-ST and T-47 before it, the Occupier knocked on the door where we hide our inner child and said “come out and play”.

continue reading after the jump: https://thefifthtrooper.com/star-wars-legion-tank/

by Lumberjack Nick

Legion Academy: Medical Droids

Medics are units that possess the Treat ability. Below you will find the rules associated with this keyword.

Treat X : Capacity Y

Treat X: Capacity Y is a free card ability and can be used as a free action during a unit’s activation. When a unit uses the Treat X: Capacity Y ability, place one wound token on the card that has the Treat X: Capacity Y keyword, then choose a friendly trooper unit at range 1 and in line of sight and remove a total of up to X wound and/or poison tokens from that unit or restore up to X miniatures to that unit. This ability cannot be used if the card that has the Treat X: Capacity Y keyword has a number of wound tokens on it equal to or exceeding Y.

• Wound tokens on cards are not considered to be on units and do not count toward a unit’s wound threshold, nor can they be removed by abilities that remove wound tokens from units.

• Treat X: Capacity Y can be used on units that have the trooper, emplacement trooper, or creature trooper unit type.

Continue reading after the jump: https://www.legionacademy.net/2019/05/30/medical-droids/

by Lumberjack Nick

The Fifth Trooper: When Death Troopers come knocking: Why my Star Wars Legion list has changed

If you have listened to our podcast The Fifth Trooper or our sister cast Notorious Scoundrels, you know that since January I have been running a 12-activation list that I loved. It didn’t have any heroes; it didn’t have any truly costly units; it was just a wall of units coming down at you (if you haven’t heard of it or need a refresher it is to the right).

 I loved this list for several reasons:

  • Activation Control: I had 12 activations, generally I could count on having at least 2 more than most opponents I faced.
  • Blue Bid: It had a 5 pt bid. 90% of the time this meant I was going to be blue player.
  • Low Cost Units: The costliest unit I had in the list were the Royal Guard. That was it. So, the fear of losing a centerpiece unit was not a factor. Continue reading →
by Lumberjack Nick

Legion Academy: Sabine Wren – Explosive Artist

Sabine soars into the Rebel roster this week.  Her incredible speed, coupled with tremendous defense, offers a unique option to rebel commanders who are looking for a mobile control piece.  

Unit Summary

Offense (Surge to Crit)

Average Ranged Output (Pierce 1) = 1.88 Net Hits (but you do this twice with Gunslinger)

Average Melee Output without Darksaber = 1.25 Hits

Average Melee Output w/ Darksaber (Pierce 1, Impact 1) = 3.14 Hits

Let’s take a look at the expected average wounds to a group of Rebel Troopers and Stormtroopers. We will always use this as our standard of comparison and this may change with the release of the Clone Wars units.

Continue reading after the jump: https://www.legionacademy.net/2019/05/20/sabine-wren-explosive-artist/

by Lumberjack Nick

Impact X Blog: X-34 Landspeeder: Unit Analysis

The X-34 Landspeeder is one of the many examples of the Rebellion leveraging their ingenuity and limited resources to make everyday items into warmachines. The Landspeeders are civilian vehicles mounted with jury-rigged weapons making them lightly armored, mobile, and versatile weapons platforms and fast troop transports. The Landspeeder is the Rebels second heavy unit and introduces the Transport mechanic. The Landspeeder is usually included in a list with a specific goal in mind and therefore a specialized unit.

 

Base Unit Summary:

  • Damage Output – Ranged: Below Average: 0.65

  • Damage Consistency – Ranged: Average: N/A

  • Damage Output – Melee: Below Average: N/A

  • Damage Consistency – Melee: Average: N/A

  • Damage Resistance: Above Average: 34% + Armor 2 + Cover 1 (83.5% against no keyword dice pools)

  • Wounds: Below Average: 6

  • Threshold: Average: 75%

  • Range: Below Average: 1-2

  • Speed: Above Average: 3 + Compulsory Move

  • Role: Flanker, Transport

Unit Role:

The Landspeeder is a lightly armored transport that can be upgraded into a mobile weapons platform. its primary job is to get troops safely into position and then to harass  and flank the opponents troops. It is of little value on the field and moderately difficult to remove, but able to put out a lot of suppression and disruption, making it an ideal harassing unit.

Continue reading →

by Lumberjack Nick

Yavin Base Blog: Ground Sliding, Part 1

The X-34 Landspeeder: Iconic, regconizeable, expensive. Luke’s ride from A New Hope makes its appearance in Legion as a space jeep with guns bolted on. 

When the Landspeeder was released, I was highly skeptical. As I mentioned in the first article I wrote about the X-34, Rebel players as a whole had been burned by the inefficient and ineffective T-47 in the Heavy role. I vowed to remain a skeptic until I had seen it in action on the table. I can happily say that, after playing five or so games with the X-34, I have warmed to it quickly and find it to be the most fun unit the Rebel faction can currently field. This multi-part series, “Ground Sliding,” is meant as a tutorial and an encouragement to try out this very fun and unique unit in your Rebel lists. In this first part, we’ll discuss why you might include a Landspeeder in your army, and how functional the craft is at its spiciest feature: transporting! Continue reading →

by Lumberjack Nick

NTMtO Blog: Sabotaging the Meta – Daniel Lupo

 

This week we welcome guest writer Daniel Lupo, who won an invite to worlds by going 3-1 at High Command with a list featuring three saboteur strike teams (no snipers!).  Lupo made waves with his skillful and surprising saboteur play.

Sabotaging the Meta

Sabine Wren: “You know what I do in hopeless situations?”

Zeb Orrelios: [laughs] “Yeah, blow stuff up!”

I have been almost exclusively running lists featuring Saboteurs since roughly August 2018, in local tournaments as well as at LVO and Adepticon. These lists have all been focused on squeezing maximum efficiency out of the triple strike team Saboteurs.  I have experimented with full Saboteur squads, but I realized I was almost never shooting their guns I was paying a premium for, and you can make a strike team nearly as survivable with medics, stims, and corner peeking.

Legion is a game of taking territory and of maximizing and balancing your activations.  Well run Saboteurs do this extremely well.

My list for Adepticon:http://tabletopadmiral.com/legion/rebel/p0bu1au2cuEMp04u09u0au2bp06u10u40uEMuEMp06u10u40uEMuEMp06u10uEMuEMuEMp0cu1fu31u25uEMp06uEMuEMuEMuEMp0eu30uEMuEMu2buEMp0eu30uEMuEMu2buEMp0eu30uEMuEMu2buEMc08c02c06c0bc0dc12c13o00o01o02o03z00z02z03z04t00t01t02t04

Luke, Leia, a maxed out fleet trooper squad with officer, two medics, one objective holding rebel trooper squad and the triple Saboteurs.

Each part of the list was built around holding ground and keeping my opponent from advancing on my half of the board.

Continue reading after the jump: https://swlegionodds.com/2019/04/25/sabotaging-the-meta-daniel-lupo/

by Lumberjack Nick

Impact X: Corner Case: Slingshot

Slingshot

Slingshotting is the tactic of using coherency placement to throw your unit out ahead of your unit leader to get a shot you otherwise would not be able to take. Slingshotting is a key tactic with certain units or under certain circumstances to catch your opponent unaware. Knowing when and how to slingshot can often get you an unlikely shot in an otherwise impossible situation.

The premise and execution is pretty easy, the trick is identifying when to take the risk and slingshot. The core of slingshotting units is knowing your positioning and what the risk and reward are of throwing your troops forward.

Continue reading →