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.

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. 

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.