Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
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Today we are going to take a look at the new Daimyo in town himself, Boba Fett.
The release of the new/old Boba Fett will open up another great operative to the Rebel line up. Boba will bring a style of play that is a classic for Legion, the linebacker. In many games with Boba it has been seen that he acts as a support hero/part of the gunline for the first, second, and sometimes third rounds. After this he often ends up going off on a solo mission and causing havoc.
We are going to go over what kit Boba will be bringing to your Rebel lists as well has how to play him.
Disclaimer: some of these tips may change with the impending rules not-overhaul on January 16th.
Coming in at 120 points, Boba is not terribly expensive or cheap. He occupies a bit of a middle ground as far as points for characters go. After upgrades your Boba will probably still not be more than 130 points which for his entire kit feels about right. Boba is able to fit into a variety of armies at his point cost.
Boba’s inherent offensive power is decent. Getting access to surge to crit is very important to his overall offense. Boba has Sharpshooter 1, which isn’t nearly as good as his Imperial counterpart’s Sharpshooter 2, but often does the trick. Boba also has Tactical 1, meaning he will often have an aim when attacking which really helps boost his offense.
Boba has two weapons on his card. The first is his Gaderffii Stick which is 3R1B. This weapon is certainly a decent beatstick (literally) and will be able to knock about some enemies. If you plan on getting your Boba into melee you’ll probably want a way of boosting this attack pool though, either with Tenacity or Boba’s Flamethrower which we will discuss later.
The other weapon on his card is Fett’s EE-3 Carbine. This weapon fires 3B at range 1-3. This weapon also features Pierce 1. The carbine allows Boba to provide some plink damage at range. This weapon will not kill entire armies but can provide very important damage where you need it.
Importantly, Boba’s offense is drastically affected by his command cards and flamethrower upgrade. We will look at these weapons further later on. But suffice to say that the story of Boba’s offensive output isn’t complete without these cards. Without these cards there wouldn’t be any point to Boba’s Arsenal 2.
Boba comes with the standard Mandalorian defensive stat line of 5 health, with surging red saves and Impervious. While this is certainly hardy and can take some shots, remember Boba only has five health which can evaporate very quickly.
On top of a limited health pool, Boba doesn’t really come with any surprise defensive tech. As a bounty hunter esque character, his command cards focus on offense, not defense. One way to really give yourself some insurance is to bring a medbot in your army. Turning your Boba Fett into a seven health hero has great benefits. A medbot also really helps prevent one bad saving roll from taking Boba out of the fight.
Daimyo Boba has gotten slower, turns out a Sarlacc pit isn’t the best for staying limber.
Rebel Boba has seen a big mobility decrease versus his Imperial counterpart, coming in at Speed 2 with Jump 1. While most units in the game see Jump 1 and envy his maneuverability, you often really feel that Speed 2 as a hindrance. With only a Range 3 weapon inherently, your threat range doesn’t even fully reach range 4. Your melee threat is also limited without access to charge or Relentless, meaning to get a melee attack in you have to start within a speed 2 move of whatever you want to hit. This likely means they can also get to you.
Probably the headline feature of Boba’s unit card is his Independant: Standby, combined with Sentinel. This means that if you don’t put an order on Boba he will receive a standby token. This can be incredible as it opens up two attacks in a turn, or whatever shenanigans you can pull with standbys.
Independent: Standby can also act as a pseudo order control for Boba. While not the most dependable, having a standby on Boba means that he can be reactive if he needs to be in the bag on any given turn.
While we will discuss this further in the command card section, Ploy is quite incredible with Rebel Boba. Allowing him to receive his standby token while still getting order control is amazing.
Boba features only four upgrade slots, two training and two gear. This will make is easier to pick upgrades for Boba. Boba also comes with a unique upgrade which we will look at.
A now standard upgrade that can find usefulness in lists that feature more than one operative. Seize could even be a consideration for a solo Boba list if you want to be able to play Standing Orders and still get an order on Boba.
While Boba already has Tactical 1, what about Tactical 2? Probably not a recommended upgrade, but certainly one that would help an attack reach peak effectiveness.
While Hunter is a often seen on Imperial Boba, it will probably be seen quite a bit less on Rebel Boba. Though getting aims is always good, Boba does not actually have the Bounty keyword, and already gets aims through Tactical. Boba probably doesn’t need Hunter.
An upgrade that will likely be seen on Rebel Boba is Tenacity. This upgrade raises Boba’s melee dice pool to 4R1B. This is starting to be a pretty serious dice pool that any unit in the game needs to at least respect. Tenacity interacts with Boba’s “Making His Way” command card when he hits units in melee with it. This helps you select a unit to hit with a bigger dice pool.
A card that has one massive purpose for Boba. This card is somewhat useful for just regular fighting as often Boba will end up taking Range 1-2 shots. Up Close and Personal really shines on Boba’s 2-pip, Making His Way in the Galaxy. When your goal for this card is to get a bunch of attacks off, being able to get a dodge for each of those attacks is really good. Sometimes that allows Boba to spring forward a bit earlier than he otherwise could. You can usually stomach taking a big shot or two to the face when you have a bunch of dodges on you.
Another upgrade that probably won’t be seen a ton, but definitely has a use. With Boba having good saves you can often end up taking a lot of shots and facing suppression trouble; Endurance helps with that.
The first gear to look at is Boba’s Flame Projector. This gear upgrade that is actually a weapon gives Boba access to a flamethrower he can use at any time. This card really adds a lot of flexibility to Boba.
There are a couple sneaky things about this card. Combining it with command cards can be fun. If you use Arsenal to use this flamethrower with Boba’s command card flamethrower, you can have a lot of red dice. You can also use this flamethrower at range 2 with ‘A Simple Man’. A flamethrower with a threat range of 4 is pretty good. This flamethrower is also suppressive, allowing you to strip standby tokens in melee, which an opponent might forget.
As a character who wants to be forward from your lines, what’s better then getting ahead of your forces immediately?
Recon Intel is a great investment for Boba.
As a low health character, E-Stims can be critical for getting a final activation with Boba, or keeping him alive until he can be healed. E-Stims is definitely not an auto take or anything, but will always be a consideration for Boba.
The old faithful. Boba’s Jetpack Rocket won’t break any records, but it certainly gives Boba a potent attack pool to utilize. That Blast keyword that didn’t ever do anything for Imperial Boba now does something, taking away all cover. This command card can be combined with Boba’s Carbine at range 3, to give 3R3B with Pierce 1. This also will often have aim support behind with Tactical. You really can do a lot of damage at range with this card.
Now we look at the new kid on the block. This new 3-pip is amazing. Adding dice to attack pools is always advantageous. This card is almost certainly an early turn card to help boost your gunline to even more efficiency. Also remember that Rebel snipers Surge to Hit so you can throw 2B1W with them for a turn. The second black die really ups their offensive output.
This card, if you have held it, also works good later in the game when your squads are depleted. Adding a black die to help rejuvenate their dice pools later in the game is great.
It has also been ruled that Boba himself can benefit from the Command Card. Turning his range 3 pool into 4 Black is very respectable.
One of the most situational cards in Boba’s lineup, even more so now with the flamethrower gear option. This card does have the upside of giving an order to Boba. The weapon itself is a good one, if you find yourself in the position to use it. You can also double up with his gear flamethrower if you really just want to go full pyromaniac for a turn.
Boba’s whirlybird 2-pip is a good one. This card is the way Boba can ‘get in’ to the enemy lines. Boba doesn’t have any access to charge or relentless but he can use this card as an even better version of those keywords. Being able to double move and then attack a bunch of things is really good. Remember that Boba has Tactical 1 so you often start your attack sequence with two aims to get as much output as possible.
With this card you are often looking to try and get into melee with an activated unit to get safe, or wait until most of the threats have gone.
Boba’s best command card is the Whipcord Launcher. Being able to throw immobilize and suppression tokens as a free action is amazing, even game winning in many cases. Being able to get out of melee easily is also a massive part of this card and shouldn’t be underestimated. As a character that wants to be in melee often, being able to leave when you want is crucial. This is a great hedge against aggressive melee threats like lightsaber users.
One of the weaker command cards in his hand, especially when compared to the next one. This card has a dual functionality. The first thing it does is triggered by not giving Boba an order. This part gives Boba Marksman, an aim, and increases the range of his weapons by one. These offensive focused effects are decent. Note that this effect requires Boba not receive an order from the card… he can still receive an order from Seize or other sources, which helps remove the downside of getting the first benefit here.
The part of the card that seems more enticing is activated by giving Boba an order. After this, a unit at range one of Boba can perform a speed-1 move. This is very powerful; out of sequence moves are always powerful. This one is also on a 1-pip, meaning you can often get a free move then immediately activate.
Though not a specific card for Boba, Boba really likes Ploy. This card allows you to have order control on Boba while still activating Independent: Standby. This card is an amazing card to play when you get Boba into the enemy lines, as you wait for them to do something, then hit them with the standby. After that you just activate Boba when he is in danger.
Boba in Rebels is a fairly standard Linebacker. This means that he is there to prevent enemies from getting into your lines as well as be a beatstick to go do some good damage. This is also combined with a great support command card and the ability to add some firepower to your gunline.
Often your goal is to play Rule with Respect turn 1, with Boba going last to get a range 3 shot. After that you play the Jetpack Rocket, get another range 3 shot and then go back to safety. After that is done, then Boba does as needed.
One list building quandary with Boba is that he brings six command cards. Boba kind of wants to utilize all six command card slots so it’s a bit tough to fit him in with other characters.
An updated version with new points of my Invader list. This list takes the great base of the Rebel DLT captain gunline and adds Boba.
Boba works great with this list as he is able to boost the gunline to great heights and then act as the linebacker which it needs. As long as you keep shooting with this list you are probably going to win. Boba helps you shoot better as well as just keep shooting period.
This list could have some issues with the previewed panic timing changes, since you don’t have a Courage 3 commander and there aren’t any free command slots for Lead By Example. Time will tell.
Basically a variation on the last list, this time dropping the medic and a DLT squad to add a sniper and Chewie.
This list will seek to utilize Chewie early game to soak any damage taken by any of the units. Chewie can also act as a secondary linebacker. This list also brings a fair bit more Pierce to the fight. Two extra units with Pierce is nothing to sneeze at.
Boba is a bundle of joy to play. While definitely a hero that requires some finesse and practice to master, he has a very well defined role and does something that a lot of Rebel lists need.
Be sure to check out this article if you want to compare the Rebel and Imperial Boba Fetts.
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