Rebels, meta and moving forward

Posted on August 17, 2020August 19, 2020 by jocke01

Rebels, meta and moving forward

So it’s been a while since I posted something. Covid has shut down my local playing group, cancelled tournaments and stopped shipping to some extent. However with people dying it doesn’t feel right to complain about my plastic figures, but it has dampened my interest for legion a bit since I didn’t get to play for a long while. I don’t like playing on a tabletop simulator, but now I have been playing a few games in real life again and doing some painting and list building. I decided it was time to start posting again and here is a general rebels meta analysis article about my thoughts moving forward.

First I wanted to try out the unit tier list on this link https://tiermaker.com/create/star-wars-legion-unit-ranking-513478. Below is my explanation
of my choices:

First addendum is that both the rebel and imperial strike teams should be placed at S tier due to the incredible advantage of activation padding, long range pierce and suppression dmg as well as extra bodies for objective holders for less than 50p each.

S-tier
A lot of new operative/commanders here. So what makes them S tier and not A tier? Well Krennic and Rex are incredibly powerful at supporting and leading their armies with a low cost. Krennic’s cunning, command cards, entourage and compel makes him very good at any kind of imperial list and helps to control last/first activation as well as objective capturing with compel, making 3 suppressed corp troopers capable of double move or move – shoot. Rex is perfect for creating tokens to share for clones, capable in his own right and the command card that gives units increased range is brutal for alpha strikes. Dooku is another type. He feels like you took the best from Palpatine, Krennic and Luke. He is expensive in points, but combining cunning, extremely powerful command cards with a mobile lightsaber user that can ignore immune pierce and you got yourself a monster unit. You pay for it, but IMO he is the gold standard of sith units in this game now. Cad bane is maybe placed to high as he can’t be paired with a cheap commander yet, however if CIS get’s one I think he will be an amazing operative. His command card “I’m in control” is gonna be very powerful card to stop enemy units capping objectives and steady with speed 2 jump combined with bounty hunter is gonna be a game winner I believe, since he can either chase down a target with double move – shoot or move – shoot – jump behind los terrain. Moving on to Sabine and Luke, both units are what you want in an operative IMO. Very mobile, very durable, hard hitting and enemy disruption. The one weakness Luke has is that you need a commander with him, so at least 50p atop his own 200p for just 2 models. Sabine has courage 2, but with enough inspire and her 2 pip card that gives her a free recover action, she can often work around it. Both units are a threat that your opponent often can’t ignore, but at the same time will be the tankiest unit in your list especially with the new situational awareness card (more on that later). R2-D2 is maybe not incredible on his own at defeating stuff, but 35 points for secret mission is a game winner. Just deploy him alone somewhere and move towards the enemy deployment zone. Either you get 1 victory token or you gained a 35p distraction and activation that will force your opponent to dump a lot more points than 35 into stopping it. Lastly I put Shoretroopers and Tauntans at S tier. Shoretroopers have knocked Stormtroopers of the table with their free aim, black dice rifles and the best corp heavy weapon in the game the T21-B. These guys combined with their mortar and aggressive tactics gives you order control, powerful and accurate shots even at range 4 and very good durability for any return shots. They are so good that they exceed all other corp units so far IMO (I have only seen p2 once so they might compete). Tauntauns have been talked to death, but their power is still the same. Very mobile, good at both shooting and close combat. This combined with an unrivaled action economy of 5 possible actions in one turn makes them an excellent choice for rebels. Their weakness is critical weapons and standby, one is gonna be fixed soon however.

“Don’t mind me, look at that juicy tauntaun over there” Translated from beepboop.

A-tier
I won’t go into the same detail on all of these units. However they are all very Good units that Will perform well in most cases. What keeps them from S tier is either point cost or weaknesses. These units are really good though and some of the clone units might make it into s tier when I get the chance to play more against them. I think R2 with 3P0 is still good, but I think you use it more as a support activation than a secret mission unit. Each time you calculate some odds you aren’t moving into the enemy zone.

B-tier
Alot of vehicles here and this is because of how vehicles and single non-trooper activations are unfavoured in the objectives of this game. They aren’t bad units, but their value is either dealing dmg, tanking dmg or both. However you can often get special forces or operatives units that do the same, but better or cheaper and capable of taking objectives. The non vehicle units here are often good units, but they either suffer from bad defence, bad offense or their role is just filled by a better similar unit.

C-tier
Here I placed some stuff that are showing signs of early release sickness where some rules weren’t designed yet or done poorly. Some also suffer from a high point cost in relation to their effectiveness. Not saying the units are bad, but they are either using outdated tricks, competing for valuable slots or are begging for an update or point reduction. The rebel laser cannon and officer are perhaps misplaced, but I feel the cannon needed the range 5 rule to even work properly, but rebels just don’t favour standstill gunlines and the Sentinel keyword is pretty pointless now. Same with dewback that wants to be up close, while most empire units wanna stay at range, the units themselves aren’t that terrible, but they aren’t competitive enough to be taken over other support units. They could use some units to work with to really shine. Good in a vacuum, ok at the table. Rebel officer just to show that I feel the empire one is stronger with spotter to combine with electro binoculars and red defense.

D-tier
Now we are talking about bad units. Barc speeder is a weird one. It’s expensive, can do some damage and doesn’t work well with the clone token sharing ball. It is very misplaced in the clone army and I think it will see little use once the clone at-rt is here. Not a terrible unit, but weird design. Wookies, my poor wookies. They are 25p per model with white surgeless defence, but at least they got 3 hp. Their keywords are all about moving forward, but they should have gotten scale if they were released today and when they get in Close, their 2 black dice isn’t very scary. Their heavy weapon option is designed for shooting, but their shooting is worse than their melee so a close combat unit is often just the 3 base models and they will rarely get into close combat at full strength. They need help with defence, a close combat heavy weapon and a point reduction wouldn’t hurt.

F-tier
This should be for units that get’s outclassed in their unit type, struggle to be effective and have anti synergy. Fleet troopers were cool back when there wasn’t much released. Looking at them though shows what a raw deal they got. 1p more per model than rebel troopers and they lose nimble and range 3 guns. They gained surge-hit and 2 white instead of 1 black that seems fair in a vacuum. However with white defence and surge they will lose bodies fast and often stuck with move – move or move – shoot as actions that are very hard to keep up with courage 1. The grenade launcher is such an anti synergy weapon that even the point reduction didn’t help it. It needs recover to reload which you don’t have time for and range 3 doesn’t line up with their range 2 pistols. Blast is great, but poorly combined with impact. Standby keyword gives you an aim for using standby, but who will walk into range 2 of your fleets instead of just shooting them? They are designed for fighting Stormtroopers inside a ship or a terrain heavy 3*3 table, that’s not what standard legion is played on so rebel troopers or veterans will take their spot for me 99% of the time these days with so much powerful firepower ready to attack them at range 4. Their scattergun is amazing though. Scout troopers are in the same boat, with worse save than their other corp counterparts and range 2 guns, as well as the sniper strike team being so much point efficient.

I can’t speak for everyone everywhere, but in my experience the current meta is supporting commanders with powerful operatives. Special forces is the most important slot outside of corps where it’s powerful units like death troopers or sniper strike team spam. The new releases will make this spot even more crowded. Then you fill out with cheap corps. Rebels have tauntauns as a powerhouse unit and the clones have their new phase 2 troopers and arc troopers with supporting rex and padme. There are still a lot of units that aren’t bad, but there exist better options for them in their slot. I feel like vehicles and older units are in a weird spot where they aren’t bad on paper, but other units take their place. Newer operatives have so many options and their command cards don’t just bring small stuff anymore but shower the units in tokens, actions and abilities that the old timers like Boba Fett and Han Solo can’t keep up with. I wished for objectives to be released that give some favours to heavy units and or support units to make them more valuable in the game.

The Future of Warfare

With new expansions coming in and some soon to be revealed I’m sure, we can only speculate on future stuff. However I think I have some ideas for future rebels. With vital assets being out and currently most objectives and conditions favouring troopers, I don’t see rebel heavies having a big role in most lists. What will be popular is special forces. We are getting Clan Wren who looks to be a hard hitting, fast moving unit with potential of having the best defence outside operatives/commander units in the rebel army. These, as well as commandos and pathfinders will be getting help from the Cassian Andor expansion. Especially the card “volunteer mission” is gonna be great for pathfinders giving them a free recover action and more danger sense. I think a list with cassian, jyn and k2 supported by pathfinders/strike teams can do very well. Just add the necessary 3 corp units and whatever upgrades you can afford.

The next thing that will change the rebellion is situational awareness. Dodge tokens have been a paper shield vs all the critical weapons out there, however this card gives a cheap access to outmaneuver. I would have prefered making outmaneuver standard rule for dodges, but we work with what we got. It’s limited to units with training slot, but it will be awesome for:
Luke (operative)
Han Solo
Cassian
Sabine
Rebel troopers (with captain personnel)
Rebel veterans
Tauntauns

Okey option for:
Chewbacca
Commandos
Wookies

Not an option for:
Jyn
Pathfinders

So with this situational awareness we focus on any sources of dodge tokens. Luke and Leia are both great for dodges. Luke gains from a lot of his command cards and operative Luke is gonna be a juggernaut with this upgrade. Leia can with the new upgrade portable scanner give 3 dodges each turn and a rebel officer can be a mini Leia for 56p. Sabine with her nimble keyword is gonna love this upgrade as long as someone gives her a dodge the turns outside of “legacy of mandalore”. Han Solo and Chewie with their teamwork can get some mileage out of this as well, don’t know if it will be enough for him to make a comeback, but fun to try out.

“There isn’t enough life on this rock to fill a space cruiser”

Rebel veterans are perfect for this, with their keyword defend 1. They lack nimble, but as long as you can get some orders they become much more resilient. I have seen my veterans lose half their squad with 2 dodges up far too many times. Rebel troopers lack the training slot, but I’m gonna have a Z-6 + rebel captain squad with situational awareness in most of my future lists. 1 turn ignore suppression and nimble dodges that work on crits for just 6p more than a standard trooper is a nice deal.

Some units like commandos or wookies can use this situational awareness, but they lack nimble or any way of getting dodges outside their actions. One unit that is gonna love it however is tauntauns. They wisely added the +4 point cost for support units and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it would be restricted to non creature troopers only. Getting outmaneuver on a unit that often receive 2 dodge tokens per turn is a steal for 6p and they will be even better than before with this. High velocity will still cut them down though.

Lastly in this article I wanted to mention som example of list archetypes I’m gonna test for rebels moving forward. Some might work out well, some might just be thematic and fun.

Return of the Jedi
I have two variants here, but they are both the same concept with Luke main piece and 10 activations. The difference is one is going with 3 strike team cheese and one is going with at-rt support. The at-rt can be fitted with laser cannons if you expect a lot of armor or flamers for big swarms of battle droids. I go ⅚ Luke command cards with covering fire as the second 3 pip for more dodges and order control to the corps. Operative Luke is a beast and these lists will let him go nuts.

Leia Dodgeball
Leia trying to maximize the new dodge upgrades. She can move and give out 3 dodges a turn, tauntauns and veterans will get dodges on their own and it will be frustrating for your opponent to deal any high amount of dmg. Feels strong in theory, but might be impractical or jank. Tauntauns + awareness + no time for sorrows is gonna be powerful though.

Han&Chewie Saboteurs
Old fun list of mine updated. Han and Chewie will try to be a distraction with Han’s command cards and Chewie’s guardian. In the meantime the commandos will try and place as many charges as possible. Situational awareness will boost Han’s survivability a bit and you can get some dodge tokens with teamwork. These days there is so much firepower but “reckless diversion” will make Han a pretty solid tank with low profile, dodges from Chewie and the officer as well as uncanny luck.

Rouge One
Might actually be time to buy a second Pathfinder box. Jyn and Cassian have a ton of synergy with them already with their command cards and together Jyn, Cassian and K2 can probably be a pretty strong team.

Double Airspeeder
Been playing with the airspeeder a bit after the Wedge errata and I think it’s ok at least. It has done some decent damage, but one doesn’t quite cut it and combining it with a landspeeder didn’t work that well. This list is betting on the speeders. Double ground buzzer and targeting array, keeping orders on them as much as possible for extra aims. Comp move + move shoot or aim shoot, with Wedge and Ryder helping the maneuvers so you can get as many double shots as possible. Might not win tournaments, but will probably surprise a lot of opponents that expect few vehicles from rebels.

Jyn + Wren Clan.
I think Sabine and Jyn make a great team and with the new Clan Wren coming in, I think we can have a strong new rebel list coming.

So that was my article about the current legion thought in my mind. It was kinda tricky finding a good name for it and speaking of tricky. I think my next article will be tips and tricks. Stuff I picked up over the years or stuff I just learned last week. Stay tuned.

terrain

Downed At-st step by step

Posted on August 5, 2019August 5, 2019 by jocke01

When I started working on the at-st I didn’t plan on doing a step by step, but it just kinda happened.

Step 1 preparation. When I opened it I noticed the base was very uneven so I had to put it into hot water in order to bend it flat. I then started with a brown primer.

While the scenario included talks about a recently crashed at-st, I felt that the model screamed old overgrown wreck. I planned on working from the ground up with rust.

Step 2 rust. I painted on a very watered down dark brown to the at-st parts. Followed by splatter on some heavy watered down orange on pieces I though could be rusty (picture mixing)

Step 3 at-st armor. Time to start with the grey parts of the vehicle. I drybrush with a dark grey. The reason I drybrush is because I want to keep the rust I worked on in step 2.

I’m doing 3 coats until I’m satisfied with the coverage.

Step 4 wash. Time for a wash, I used gw agrax earthshade, but any brown wash will do. I’m using brown wash to give a more wheatered look.

Step 5. Time to start lighting up the grey, starting with the grey I used before, but with a little bit of white.

I then go with 2 more steps of drybrushing while adding more white each time.

Feeling it lacked depth, I used very watered down black paint on the blast holes, battle damage and vents.

A few last touches using white with a little grey on a few edges as a final highlight.

At-st part done.

Part 2 the base

Step 1 Dirt. I started by painting all the sand parts with a dark brown, in this case I use gw rhinox hide wich is what I use for base color in my rebel army. Then I painted all the rocks black.

Step 2 sand highlight. I drybrush all the sand with a lighter brown.

Step 3 Rocks. I drybrush all the rocks with a dark grey followed by more coats adding more white as I go until I’m happy with the results.

At-st and base painted and done. I give the model a matt varnish spray then it’s time for flocking.

Part 3 Flocking.

Step 1. I use a mix of pva glue and water (70/30) that I brush on in patches before putting on some flock grass then turning the model over and give some light taps to lose the non stuck grass.

I do this in patches because I find it easier and it dosen’t get as messy with grass every where.

Step 2 extra touches. I then add some grass tufts and lycen so it fits the rest of my rebel and terrain bases. I also added a few patches of bush that I had left over from making trees at a few places on the wreck to make it look a bit overgrown. (Pic missing).

The downed At-st is all done.

This was a fun model to work on and despite it being a bit uneven out of the box it was pretty easy to fix with hot water. The price tag is a bit high, but I look forward to playing the scenario some day soon.

Did you like this step guide?, Do you want to see more like it? Then let me know in the comments and consider supporting me on patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/Rebelsguide

Corps, Unit Analysis

Unit Analysis Fleet Troopers

Posted on July 12, 2019August 24, 2019 by jocke01

Fleet troopers

Coming in at a base cost of 44p with an extra trooper for 11p, just 1 point more than rebel troopers. Same speed, hp, courage and save. They got access to 2 heavy weapons, grenades and gear. They are however quite different in their playstyle. They are a glass cannon or hammer unit. they hit hard, but are very brittle. They require a much offensive playstyle than the normal troopers.

I’m ready for anything, *lightsaber sound…except that

Unit options and abilities

Unlike their normal trooper friends the fleet troopers got both defensive surge and surge-hit. They only have one ability and that is the steady keyword which gives the unit one aim token after they perform the standby action.

The standby action is hard to use successfully since it’s very easy to counter. If you receive a suppression token you lose your standby, so in other Words any unit that attacks your standby unit need only one die with a hit result and you Lost your standby. I have used it successfully once and faced it once or twice. If you can place yourself behind a los blocking piece of terrain and your opponent wants to get past it or if they want to engage in melee and need multiple move actions to so it then it can give you a successful standby attack with an aim token. However since it’s limited to range 2, I recommend that you just move and try to take a normal shot.

“Shotguns? I didn’t think anyone used projectile weapons anymore.”

Fleet troopers have access to 2 different heavy weapons. The scatter gun for 23 points and the MPL-57 grenade launcher for 33p. They can also take grenades, personnel and a gear upgrade. The scattergun is an amazing weapon and the only downside is the range 1-2 limitation, however since fleet troopers have that range on their normal gun it isn’t that big a drawback anyway. The scattergun fires 2 red dice instead of the fleet troopers normal 2 white. This adds a 1.75 average hits thanks to the surge-hit and is a heavy increase in firepower over a normal fleet troopers 0.75 average hits with 2 white. In addition to this the gun has one of the best keywords in the game pierce. Pierce # cancels the same amount of rolled blocks on defence dice, this is taking straight from the descent/imperial assault game system and the thing that makes pierce so powerful is that it cancel the dice after it’s rolled a block. So for a stormtrooper that rolls on average 0.5 blocks per die needs to roll 4 dice in order to safely block a pierce shot (according to statistics). The only downside is that pierce don’t do anything of your opponent don’t roll any blocks, however if your opponent blanks hos defence roll…well you probably didn’t need that pierce.

The grenade launcher is a totally different story and I don’t know what the game designers was thinking. It has range 1-3 which doesn’t synergies with the fleet troopers 1-2 range. It’s expensive coming in at 22 points more than the normal fleet trooper and is an exhaust weapon. So for that investment, what do you get?

Well you get 1 black and 2 white dice so just 1 black die over the fleet standard. 1.375 average dmg so just shy from double the dmg of the standard 2 white. It does have some fitting keywords for a grenade launcher though, impact 2 and blast. Impact 2 is pretty good for a handheld weapon and blast ensures that cover won’t stop your hits from becoming crits. Blast can of course be combined with the rest of the troopers attack if you are at range 2 to give the entire attack blast and ignore cover. This can of course be achieved with concussion grenades at range 1 combined with the scattergun for 5 less points, and no exhaust.

Battlefield role

Unlike rebel troopers the fleet troopers are shock troops meant to be played offensive and attack rather than the multi-purpose of rebel troopers. I also think that fleet troopers works best as 1-2 squads rather than the spammable rebel troopers. Their defence is just as weak as normal troopers and they don’t have the nimble keyword, however their offensive output is much higher. Since their range is limited they need backup by other units that don’t just sit in your backline, combined with units like Luke or Han they can make an hammer to strike at your priority targets.

Builds and tactics

The run and gun

Fleet troopers 44p
Scattergun trooper 23p
Recon intel 2p
Fleet trooper* (optional)

Total 69-80p

This is the basic fleet trooper squad I use, either as 1 or a pair with 2-4 rebel troopers. The scattergun combined with the 4 standard models gets 4.75 hits with pierce 1. If you fire on a stormtrooper squad without cover and score 5 hits you will drop 3.5 dudes from that squad. This is some nice firepower to have. Now the downside is that the unit needs to survive Long enough to get into range. The recon intel helps a bit and is cheap, the extra trooper is optional ,but I recommend taking it of you can as every trooper adds 0.75 hits and you will lose a few on your way forward. My tactic with these guys is to hug los blocking terrain if it’s possible. I try to get them into position where they stand behind a wall or building where they can run out and attack any unit that comes within range of a speed 2 move and range 2. Don’t be afraid to leave them in the open after a attack like this, the dmg you inflict will be worth it, but of course use cover if you can.

This brings me into the Luke Slingshot: Luke Skywalker with force push is these guys best friend. You position these guys with Luke for round 2 or 3, then you use the command card my ally is the force to give both Luke and the fleets an order token and a dodge token. You then save Luke and the fleets for last, again try to hide behind los blocking terrain or at least heavy cover, the dodge token will deter enemy fire. Luke goes first and double move to get into range 1 of an enemy unit and push them out of cover towards the fleets. A speed 1 move + 1 move cohesion which you get to place covers quite a bit of difference. Then you fleet troopers have a fine target right in the open to shoot. Either move shoot or possible aim shoot of you set it up perfectly. Luke can next turn go Son of Skywalker and go after a commander or valuable unit.

Range longer than 2 and in cover
Force push
Speed 1 move
You get to place coheseion. In range 2 and without cover
Double move luke into range 1

The barrage

Fleet troopers 44p
Mpl-57 barrage trooper 33p
Fleet trooper 11p

Total 88p

At first I didn’t see any reason to take fleet troopers without the scattergun and against empire… I still don’t, however vs rebels I actually prefer it. Rebels are far more dependent on cover and very few units have a decent defend die so pierce is not as necessary and against such units like Luke, he is immune to pierce. The optimal way for this unit to work is of you can find a target att range 2 for the troopers then split fire with the launcher att some other small unit, like a strike team or vehicles. This is easier said than done of course. This unit doesn’t have to play as offensive as the scattergun unit and can stay in the middle and use the launcher to hurt vehicles, specifically at-rt’s and landspeeders who either comes with cover or can get it thanks to their relatively small models. Then if something comes within strike distance go and shoot with your regular guns. Depending on what units the clones and cis bring, these guys might be more useful, but for now if you face a lot of rebels with vehicles then these guys are worth a shot.

This is what happens when you don’t take cover

Upgrades

Fleet troopers have access to grenades, gear and personnel.

The only grenade I would give them is the concussion grenades, it gives a nice dmg boost against units in cover and fleet trooper fire at range 1 or 2 anyway. Impact grenades gives you a black die that with surge-hit is worse than 2 whites and frag grenades only gives each trooper a boost of 0.125 average hits and the surge-crit isn’t as powerful when they already have surge-hit.

There is 3 gear upgrades that I would use on fleets

Recon Intel. It’s cheap and gets you closer to your targets.
Environmental Gear. Also cheap and helps you get to your targets faster. It’s however dependent on terrain.
Emergency Stims. Expensive, but it gives you fleets a chance to still strike with their full strength. It’s a backup in case your opponent can activate before you and shoot your fleet troopers, you can still lose 2 guys and strike back at full strength. You will of course lose them after their activation, but these guys are all about dealing dmg, not surviving.