Tempest Force

This article will discuss the newest Battle Force for Empire in Star Wars: Legion, Tempest Force.

Tempest Force is modeled after the Empire’s forces at the Battle of Endor.

This battleforce brings a few key advantages. The first, as with many battleforces, is command cards. Additionally, Tempest also gets a unique AT-ST, the ability to take three AT-STs as well as up to six scout trooper units. Let’s dig into all this.

Tempest Force Org

The force organization chart has three big changes from the usual. Likely the most eye-catching is probably that three heavies (AT-STs) are allowed in Tempest. Already this opens up some big boi lists. The other big change is that two to six special forces are required. Firstly, you are required to take two which is important. But more importantly you can take up to six which means you can bring a lot of scouts. The last change is that you take one to three corp options. To take note of here is that you only have a minimum of one corps squad, which can open you up to take other more exciting options, but only three corp can also be quite limiting in some regards.

Command Cards

Tempest force comes equipped with three command cards to add to your hand. Tempest also has access to the regular generics as well as the Empire specific command cards.

The three-pip for Tempest force is quite interesting. First off it orders three units which is a good start. Then we get to the card text. The TLDR is this: if you have enemy units at range 1, get as many aim tokens as enemy units at range 1. If not, get a standby token. This is a solid command card effect, especially on AT-STs which we will likely see a lot of in this battleforce. AT-STs like both aims and standbys so both are good. You probably want to try to control the range bands however so that all your AT-STs get standbys, as a full second attack is better then a few aims. Heavy vehicle standbys are great for area denial and zone control.

The Tempest two-pip is a very niche but important one. This card gives friendly units with faceups Disengage. Disengage is an incredible keyword to have, especially in an army that will include close range scout units. This keyword also gives a bit of a jedi counter as you can move out of melee and shoot, or double move to gain some distance. Disengage can also be clutch for objectives. Allowing you to slip out of melees to complete the things you need to do to win. While playing Tempest your opponent will always need to keep in mind the possibility that you can always just slip out of melee.

Tempest’s one-pip is quite interesting. This card has echos of Shadow Collective abilities. There are two parts to this card. The first is that all friendly vehicles gain Demoralize 1. Demoralize hands out suppression tokens at the start of an activation. This is excellent for stripping any standby tokens, and/or just handing out extra suppression. The other part of this card is that the first time a friendly vehicle (with a faceup) displaces an enemy unit they must roll white defence dice for each mini in the unit and take wounds on paint. This effect is certainly interesting and can help deal with units that have a great save. You will likely see displacement come up in Tempest Force a lot as the vehicles get plenty of movement.

Other Abilities

Tempest comes with three additional rules, two good, and one bad.

We’ll start with the drawback. “Units that are not in command range of a friendly Commander unit and do not have a comms upgrade equipped remove 1 less suppression during the Remove Tokens step.” This is a serious drawback and will have to be managed, especially as you will likely have scout units that will outpace an imperial officer. The other thing to note about this drawback is that it specifically calls out the commander rank, field commanders do not have the commander rank and therefore won’t qualify for this stipulation. So in the lists with only a Field Commander you will have to manage the suppression you will take and keep.

Now on to the good abilities.

The first is that all vehicles in Tempest Force gain Scout 2. It should be fairly self evident that this is amazing. With the size of vehicle bases this gives you so much extra range right off the bat. AT-STs will often be able to get setup in firing positions right out of deployment. Remember that if you play Bombing Run that whatever units you want to put the bombs on must start in the deployment zone.

The other ability is that you get to rapid reinforce one special forces or support unit. This allows you to open up parts of the board that you normally wouldn’t be able to get to, as well as applying pressure on your opponent with close range units early. A redeploy when your opponent doesn’t have one is incredibly powerful.

Major Marquand

Like Blizzard force, Tempest force comes with a battleforce specific unit that you can field. In this case the unique unit comes in the form of a named AT-ST that happens to be a field commander.

Major Marquand is a great addition to Tempest force. Similar to the Chewie AT-ST we saw for Bright Tree, Major Marquand comes fully loaded with no optional upgrade slots. Plus, a great ability on top of the AT-ST kit.

It’s an AT-ST

We don’t really have to delve too deeply into the parts of major Marquand that are the same as a typical AT-ST. Marquad is basically a typical AT-ST you’d load up. A big benefit that he has is that surge:hit, which you’d usually have to pay for with the hammers pilot. Marquand also comes equipped with three weapons. These are the Grenade Launcher, 88 Twin Blaster, and MS-4 Twin Blaster cannon. This is a great weapon complement. To note is that instead of being able to kick in melee, Major Marquand can use the Grenade Launcher and 88 Twin Blaster.

The big ability that Marquand brings is Direct: Vehicle. This ability is excellent, especially as whichever vehicle you direct could also have a Linked Targeting Array which would give you a free aim. Marquand can also direct himself which is still good, but not being able to get LTA means you will likely send your orders to those vehicles that have an LTA.

Major Marquand is also a Field Commander which is excellent as it allows you to build Tempest force lists that don’t take an Imperial Officer. This can be dangerous though, because as discussed you will not clear any suppression on your troopers.

Command Cards

Major Marquand comes with a full complement of three command cards. These are all to some degree focused on movement, this gives an inkling to the types of vehicle lists you can run in Tempest.

Major Marquand’s 3-pip has quite a bit of text on it. The TLDR is that when one of your friendly vehicles activates at range 1 of Marquand it gets one of three effects, depending on which arc it is in. Front arc is a dodge, side arc is an aim, and rear arc is a speed-1 move. If you are in multiple arcs then you’d have to choose which effect you want to use. All of these effects are great. If you need to get your forces up the table you could go with Marquand first and move him up a bit which could put all your units in his rear arc. You could also just use him as a firing line. If you’re running triple AT-ST then you’d place Marquand in the middle and then have them all aim shoot. This would mean you’d get three nine dice attacks. One would have only one aim, the other two would have three aims.

The 2-pip is fully focused on Movement. When Marquand Activates all other friendly units at Range 1 may make a pivot and then speed-1 move. This nets you 2 free actions on other vehicles which is excellent value. This card could easily be a turn one play to just yeet all your vehicles forward and into your opponent’s face. Especially if you have grenade launcher AT-STs then you just want to yeet them forwards.

The 1-pip is entirely focused on Major Marquand. This card reduces Marquand’s speed to 1. In return you get Tactical 1 and Suppressive. As Marquand comes equipped with a grenade launcher you will want to close range at some point, and this is a great card to do that. There isn’t much to say about this card other then both of the positive effects are really good.

Lists

The first thing that came to a lot of people’s minds when we first saw the force org was triple AT-ST, and here it is. coming in at eight activations with three loaded AT-STs what more can you ask for? How about two astromechs to help repair AT-STs (and especially pull of an ion that might find its way onto them.) Also you get three scout squads which are excellent for doing objectives and just being a general nuisance. Remember that one of those squads can drop in just outside of range two of the enemy. This will be something your opponent has to contend with.

Think snipers are good? How about six of them? This list can outrange basically anything in the game and pepper it which shots before closing and doing even more damage. One aspect of this list that you may want to beef up a little bit will be the impact. The bikes do bring impact 6 in total, but adding an HH-12 might be a good way to get that to a more necessary level in the current meta.

So if you don’t like snipers but like saboteurs then here’s the list for you. Again, remember one of these squads can drop close to the enemy. This list can truly just litter the field in bombs. This will be an absolute headache for your opponent. Plus, if/when you close to range two each of those squads will be throwing ten black, with Sharpshooter, that’s weight of dice for sure.

So after the two extremes of scouts it might be the reality that the better list might be somewhere in the middle. This list brings three each of snipers and sabs, you could easily go 4 and 2 of either. This list combines the perks of both mass snipers and mass sabs which no other list in the game can really do.

This list has a major perk right off the bat. If you own a ‘complete’ Empire collection (ie one that maxes out units in the regular force org) then you can run this list right now. This list balances a lot of what Tempest wants to be doing. The biggest thing that this list can do excellently is vehicle mobility. All your vehicles will end up moving alot which can be a headache for your opponent to deal with. Additionally this list would be excellent at Breakthrough or Bombing Run.

Final Thoughts

Tempest Force is an interesting addition to the game. Bringing a slate of units that can combine together to make some very powerful lists. One of the most interesting questions to pose to Tempest force is its list building. Which list will come out as the best doesn’t seem to be nearly as obvious as compared to the other Empire Battleforces. This should be a benefit as we won’t see as many copies of the same list likely. A problem that can be foreseen however is that Tempest force could continue the trend of forcing every list that wants to be viable to bring a ton of impact. This can really limit list building and hopefully the meta will be diverse.