Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
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Adepticon 2024 came to a close on Sunday. For those of us lucky enough to attend, we now prepare to leave town with new goodies in our suitcases, less money in our bank accounts, and many great memories. However, those who were not in attendance can still share in the fun: Adepticon means spoilers! I was lucky enough to attend in person, but I didn’t take a selfie as proof. Please accept this poor photoshop job as a substitute.
Shatterpoint led off the show this year and we got a lot of exciting news. AMG also listened to community feedback from previous events and included projected release dates for all items showcased. Whether or not those dates will be met, especially for us poor Europeans (or, more accurately, one poor Canadian living in Europe) who barely got the latest releases in time for Adepticon, remains to be seen. Regardless, the estimated timeline is a good touch and it’s nice to see AMG listening to feedback.
At the time of writing, you can watch a replay of the stream here, starting at about the 1 hour mark.
Now, let’s look at some spoilers! General disclaimer: the only rules spoilers we got are all unit cards. While these can give a lot of information, we don’t know the points costs, force amounts, or combat trees for any of the following units. As such, no hard and fast value judgements can be made at this time, but that won’t stop me from giving some quick thoughts!
We’ve seen these minis before, so it isn’t a surprise that Inferno Squad will be in the next wave of releases. A target of June 2024 means May could be a quiet month, which makes sense considering we’re getting four boxes in April. Maybe they sneak a surprise in around May 4? They didn’t really hint at that, but you never know. If they told you a surprise is coming then it wouldn’t be a surprise.
One thing that was mentioned is that Del Meeko will be an alternate support option instead of ISF in this box. This means you could run Iden/Gideon/Del in one squad if you want to, which is nice for theme. Let’s get a closer look at those cards.
It was hinted at that Iden is an aggressive, pew-pew powerhouse (my phrasing) and you can see that in the unit card. A dash that can give two extra dice at range is strong; primaries like Obi1, Vader, etc. that have extra offense built into their extra move abilities often feel great in combat. Pair that with Iden’s tactical dash and she should be moving around the board quickly. The dashes for friends are a bit more limited than similar tactical abilities, needing range 4 and no engagement, but you can’t have everything. ID-10 gives some hunker counterplay or a range 3 expose for one force, which seems good if you have the budget for it.
Iden’s identity ability seems … fine? Extra dashes after a wound are great (I’m a well-known Lumi simp), but the dash is only for the character who got the wound, which is significantly less impactful. Dishing out extra strains and disarms after a wound could be fantastic though.
Nothing too fancy on the ISF, but that’s fine for a support unit. Their tactic ability is great anti-condition tech that will make them hard to pin down (pun very much intended). They have the same covert operations ability as Iden, which should help their offense. However, maybe they have low base dice to compensate, kind of like stormtroopers. We’ll have to wait and see! Infiltration is like Ponds on steroids. Deploying range 3 from your primary means that the ISF can reach midline objectives with just a single dash. If you draw Iden early then they can be pushed up to flood objectives early. The drawback of course is that they can get shot a lot more easily before activating. If using Covert Operations is kind of necessary for them to have respectable attack output then you really don’t want them to be getting wounded early.
Like with Iden, we’ve seen these minis before so it’s no surprise they are coming in June. Let’s look at the cards!
Han’s tactic ability is fairly standard, except for the conditional advance part. Getting a full advance on two characters instead of a dash can be a huge difference, but it can be a bit hard to rely on since the chosen ally has to be in the order deck or reserve. The fact that Han can choose a friend at any range is very nice though. As expected, Han also gets a gunslinger-style effect, being able to make a five dice attack against a new character. The value of this ability will depend greatly on his tree and expertise, but I assume it’ll be quite useful.
After a couple standard abilities, Let’s Keep a Little Optimism Here is a new and unique mechanic. An extra momentum or two can be critical when it comes to winning struggles. It’ll get expensive fast, and only happens when an ally gets wound and you’re behind on momentum, which are two bad things. The best use case is probably scenarios where the struggle cube is going back and forth on your side, allowing your opponent to rack up a momentum advantage. Adding a few more to your side could help close out the deal before the tables turn.
Finally, it’s back to the standard stuff with Han’s identity. We’ve seen lots of dash plus attacks (or similar) in response to wounds. However, what sets Han apart is the dash and attack being on two separate lines with two separate triggers. On an enemy wound he can dash, on an ally wound he gets a five dice attack at the enemy who caused the wound. Extra dashes on wounds are nice, but it’s better when anyone gets the dash (remember: Lumi simp). The great thing is that he can remove a condition first, so he can dash even if he was previously pinned. The five dice attack when an ally gets wounded feels a bit lackluster. If Han is engaged with a non-wounded enemy then he’ll be shut down completely if he isn’t also engaged with the wounder. Even barring that, he may be out of range (and a smart opponent will plan for that where possible) and unable to attack. It might be fine, but usually I value the moves much higher than the attacks on these sorts of abilities.
First off, twelve stamina! Needless to say, that’s beefy for a secondary. Even if his defense profile is awful (which it probably is) he can still survive maybe even two big attacks before going down. His tactic gives a self-dash for no force, which is always nice, but the fact that it has to be towards a primary is a bit limiting, especially if you draw him early. His active ability gets some extra damage but is certainly not an “every turn” thing. Extra dice from Bodyguard is nothing I’ve ever regarded that highly, but it’s a fine passive buff. Combined with Intimidating Presence though, the defensive tech starts to add up and could be very handy. Neither ability stipulates “another” character so Chewie can stack them on himself since he’s a rebel secondary. Also important to note: Chewie has the scout tag. Leia/Logray is probably the best Ewok list out their at the moment, but I find Paploo to be the weak link. Assuming his tree isn’t garbage, Chewie can easily take the Paploo slot.
Overall, Chewie’s role seems clear: he’s big and beefy and makes his friends a bit harder to kill too. However, unlike Savage or Wrecker, who fill similar roles, Chewie doesn’t have access to Steadfast. Even if you can’t wound him, he can be knocked off a point fairly easily, which isn’t great. You’ll want plenty of ways to move him to get him back contesting.
Secondaries that don’t move allies or bring diceless displacement have often struggled, but perhaps Chewie can be the exception.
The final item for June is a new mission pack. From what was said during the panel and what I’ve heard second hand about interviews on stream, it seems like this may be the end of the competitive mission packs for a little while, with future packs focusing a bit more on narrative play or alternate game modes. However, that’s a bit fuzzy and unclear, so I’ll stick to the facts from here on out. The most exciting thing for me on first glance is asymmetric objective placement in the first struggle. That should make turn 1 feel very different game to game, which is awesome. In both Shifting and Sabotage I find the first struggle to be quite same-y from game to game. Each struggle there will also be a specific unit type that is Challenging the Odds, so let’s zoom in a bit to read that.
At the panel, Challenging the Odds was described along the lines of “characters will have to take risks and might have to go out on a limb with some decision making” (my very rough paraphrase). Reading the ability afterwards, I don’t see that at all. You get a wound, you pay a force to move the struggle tracker. Pretty simple. Powerful, but simple. Kill-y lists with lots of force to spare will enjoy this (as if Vader and Maul needed the buff). The second and third struggles have the standard “roll a die for the priority objective” thing going on, so we can be pretty much certain that the layouts shown in the previous picture are all for the first struggle. Overall, I’m quite hyped for this mission. I’m not the biggest fan of Sabotage due to the randomness, but this one looks spicy with less randomness. Keep an eye out for a strategy breakdown article on this once we get more reveals!
For those who didn’t know, the Ghost crew will be split into two boxes. This box will be Kanan/Ezra/Zeb.
Kanan’s tactic is an interesting one, and very hard to judge without seeing the stances in question. Force refresh is good. I assume he’ll be three force base so this will kind of make him like Luke or Vader2 when he’s in Soresu stance. However, unless Kanan is in Pack Leader stance and choosing a Spectre to dash, then he isn’t getting any extra movement on his turn (except maybe from his attack tree). That’s rough, especially for a primary since they start further back than supports and secondaries. As such, I think you pretty much have to start Kanan in Pack Leader stance and run him with Spectres. That’s fine from a theme perspective, but it turns what could be a very flexible ability into something much more restricted, at least in the early game. Having multiple ways to move him before activating could open things back up a bit.
Force Push and Deflect are known commodities. We’ll have to see if Kanan can trigger Force Push for free easily in his combat tree, because it may be prohibitively expensive if not. The real spice is that identity. As I said with Han, move-and-attack-when-a-friend-is-wounded effects are common, but Kanan’s has a special twist. His attack doesn’t have to be against the wounder; he can attack someone on the other side of the map if it’s more convenient. He also gets a heal before the move so he can’t be stopped by a pin, similar to Han. Between his identity and tactic, it definitely feels like you want to lean into Spectre synergy with Kanan.
Zeb’s active ability is … unspectacular. It’s a dash towards a rebel friend, which isn’t a huge limitation but not insignificant. Unlike Chewie though, he has to pay for it. On the plus side, he can turn it into an advance, doesn’t have to choose a primary (which makes it still useful if drawn early) and can give him a focus. It just becomes very expensive when Zeb gets injured. Speaking of which …
Lasan Honor Guard is an interesting ability. It’s “free” but triggers off of Zeb being wounded, meaning it’ll always cost one force. Essentially, instead of becoming wounded, Zeb can stay unwounded but at the cost of two injured tokens. This keeps him contesting longer, but makes all abilities much more expensive and puts him closer to being removed from the battlefield altogether. In some cases it may be absolutely clutch to keep him alive and kicking, but it comes at a big cost. Ideal use case is probably late game when Zeb goes early in the deck and probably won’t activate again anyway. Lists with lots of out-of-activation movement (like the Spectres seem to have a decent amount of) are good at taking objectives early, but can slow down in the late game when the bodies to move are all wounded. Zeb helps get around that.
Additionally, Zeb can make a second attack against the same target. Sadly, it costs a force. For a single body support, no tiebreaker keyword, and no free extra attack he seems pretty rough on first glance, but we’ll have to see the rest of the Spectre squad. Karabast is a purely negative ability, presumably put there so you can’t abuse Lasan Honor Guard in certain circumstances.
Here we’ve got the second pack of the Ghost crew with Hera/Sabine/Chopper.
Sabine can move allies, which is usually an important part of a competitive secondary. However, unlike many secondaries, her tactic can only target friends and not herself. Getting the extra hunker is nice, but not essential, so I don’t think choosing a Spectre is all that critical. Sabine’s active ability is Jump+, you don’t have to use the first part if you only want the jump. The damage will be minimal, see below for a simulation of five attack dice. The modal outcome is one damage with about a 50/50 chance of getting two or more. The whiff chance is about 25%.
I Forged This Armor With My Family is Mandalorians are Stronger Together that also triggers off of Spectres. Not bad when you keep reading and see that Sabine has permanent Sharpshooter 2. She also has permanent Protection and can turn any type of movement into a jump, which is very nice. She’ll obviously have good Spectre synergy, but she can splash into the right Mando list as well I think. I’ve been theory-crafting Obi2 as a 4PC secondary to go in a squad with The Mandalorian and Bounty Hunters, but Sabine could flex in there. Getting value out of her tactic could be expensive if the only rebels come from payday, but maybe Mando/Sabine/Han could be a thing?
Strangely, Chopper has no ability called War Crimes, but Mayhem is accurate enough I suppose. Potentially dishing out three conditions for one force could be very good, but the randomness scares me. Generally speaking, “mayhem” is not a word I would use to describe my Shatterpoint strategy, but it’s on-brand for Chopper. His active is pretty standard, and his reactive is pretty spicy. A support unit moving friends around is unusual, but the range is pretty small, which could be an issue. Getting Protection and pin/disarm immunity is definitely a good thing.
Is That One of Ours? is the same mechanically as Clever Disguise on Land and R2. The latter has certainly been a pain in the butt on a few occasions.
Overall, I like the approach AMG took with the Ghost crew. Similar to the Bad Batch, they give one bonus to rebels but a better bonus to Spectres. The squad does seem a bit Force intensive, and some characters may struggle to exist outside of a pure Spectre list, but we have to wait and see. No tiebreaker keywords with two single-body supports is rough, but again maybe there’s something we haven’t seen. Hera seems like the kind of character that could give a global buff to Spectres so that they all break ties when contesting, or something like that. That’s pure speculation on my part though.
It was strongly hinted that Thrawn would have a new mechanic similar to that of the Ewoks. It seems pretty clear that he’ll have one or more battle tactic cards or similar. Kallus is also flexible in that he has shifting loyalties. The impression I got is that he can choose the Empire or Rebel tag at the start of the game and his abilities change a bit based on that choice. That extra flexibility could create some fun list building opportunities, especially in premiere events.
Why didn’t we get Empire Crosshair in the Bad Batch box? Because he get’s his own box, and he’s a primary! Upon release we’ll be able to play a full clone squad. While it may not be completely thematic, units like Hunter and Wolffe will rejoice with more targets for their abilities. It was also hinted that the flamethrower has some spicy and unique mechanics, which apparently generated a lot of controversy (in a fun way) during playtesting, so looking forward to seeing how it ended up.
More Mandos, yay! Speaking personally, this is the pack I’m most excited for from the recent reveals. I love getting Mandos on the table and The Mandalorian looks very solid, so giving him more buddies from his era will be a big boon. Similar to the flamethrower in the previous box, Paz Vizsla’s minigun rules are apparently quite spicy.
This is the way.
“Matt, what’s the difference between a ‘squad pack’ and a ‘unit pack?'” I’m glad you asked, other Matt! And may I say, you are a very handsome gentleman who makes awesome Shatterpoint content. The answer, of course, is that this is an “oops, all secondaries” box. Like true bounty hunters, these guys won’t team up as a single squad, but instead they’ll be available for hire in all sorts of different squads (I know how Shatterpoint squad building rules works, don’t @ me, you know what I mean). The models look great and these are a bunch of cool characters, plus Dengar. There was previously some people who said that unit packs would never be a thing, so I for one am happy that they are. It opens up some space to add units without the need for a full squad that makes sense, which means more cool units in the game.
Veers was the big talking point from this box, as you’d expect. Apparently he can call in AT-AT strikes from off-board and also let’s his grunts do the dirty work. He seems like a commander that prefers to stay closer to the backline while Iden, Vader, or whomever goes forward aggressively.
If you haven’t noticed, Q4 2024 has a strong Empire Strikes Back focus. Much like Kallus, Lando apparently has some shifting loyalties between the Empire and the Rebels. Given that Lando is a primary and Kallus a support, I could see them teaming up in a squad for premiere list building. Start practicing your freehand painting skills now, that cape MUST look glorious when you’re done with it!
Moving into 2025, we’re now only seeing plain computer renders of the models. Kit Fisto is someone I’ve wanted to see on the tabletop for a long time, so I’m excited I don’t have to wait much longer. I also quite like the pose of his apprentice Nahdar Vebb. I’m sure he’ll last a long time and not be removed from the battlefield at all during my games …
It should be noted that, while Kit Fisto is requesting your surrender, Thrawn is not accepting any at this time. Seems like they may not be an optimal pairing.
Who is that on the left? It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a generic padawan! It was said that there will be multiple head options for the assembly, and that republic will eventually be able to field an all-lightsaber team, so that’s exciting too. Oh, and Ki-Adi-Mundi is there too! You may think you make big-brained plays on the battlefield, but no one has a bigger brain than Mr. Mundi.
That’s it for now! Hopefully there are many things above that have you excited for the future of Shatterpoint. Ministravangza is slated for July this year, so keep an eye out for that as we’re sure to get more spoilers. For quick reference, you can check out the timeline below. Do note, however, that the slide for Make the Impossible Possible said July, not June. The timeline date is probably a typo.
See you next time!
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