Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
No Comments
Read More »
“Light It Up.” – Cassian Andor
Greetings all! I had the pleasure of attending the Highlander Games Rallypoint Qualifier (New Jersey) this past weekend. Not only was this my first actual Legion tournament, but it was also my first in person competitive gaming event…ever. Having gotten my feet wet in Invader League 3, I decided it was time to drive a few hours and take the plunge.
Going into the day, my goal was to simply get a single win to justify the trip. I ended up going 2-1, and if not for my own huge mental mistake in game one and some slick play by my opponent, could have gone even farther. After spending the better part of the last two months deciding between Wonder Twins and Fly Boys, I ended up going with Leia over Han. As much as leaving Han’s command hand at home hurts, consistency wins the day, and I found myself extremely grateful for Leia’s cards and gun in nearly every round.
My List
There you have it, nothing fancy beyond tons of white dice and the occasional flashing lightsaber. The fleets ended up in there due to a combination of not wanting to purchase the sixth Z6 and hoping to play some standby and push shenanigans, which ended up working quite well in the end. I run Environmental Gear on them consistently, as I find that guaranteed speed-2 move solves many of their “closing speed” problems. I did not use esteemed leader once, but more than earned back my points on JMT. My general strategy is pretty basic, utilize Leia’s Coordinated Bombardment and the triple snipers to get a quick activation advantage, usually not too unusual with having 11 myself, and pushing a flank with Luke supported by two Z6’s and the fleets.
Overall Tournament Thoughts
I carpooled and arrived to the tournament before the doors opened, but I was impressed that the store owner was already prepped and had all the tables built and ready to go hours before we were due to begin. Alex Young judged the event, and did a fantastic job being accessible and clear with all his decisions. He took his time with each question (and there were many) and did just as much teaching as ruling. The lists themselves had a large amount of variety; the factions were split eight and eight. We had two Palpatine lists, two Falcon Crew, four lists with armor, and even the meta lists had some flavor to them, be it Wookies, Fleets, or extra Death Troopers. Not every table was perfect, they all looked great, but not all meshed with Legion’s style of play and mechanics. However, no two tables played the same and they forced each player to be flexible with deployment and play style.
Game 1
Battle Cards: Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators/Battle Lines/Clear Conditions
Stepping up to the board, my opponent declined his bid and offered me blue player, seeing as I outnumbered him 11 to 10. As a result of this, having vaporators fall into play gave me quite a bit of confidence to get the day started. This table was interesting; the entire board was modular and consisted of two plateaus with some buildings on top of them with a fort in the valley between. This created an enormous dead man’s area in the middle of the board, fortunately this was a rebel mirror and neither of us wanted to get stuck there. I placed my vaporators on the right side of the tent on top of the right plateau and centrally just right of the fort in the middle. My opponent chose to place one behind the turret on the far left and one of the north side of the fort opposite of mine.
Turns one and two consisted mostly of posturing, trading sniper fire, and interacting with the vaporators. I managed to wipe a strike team with Leia’s CB and go up a second activation on turn 1, and on turn two had taken another Z6 down to its leader. However, his Luke and Landspeeder managed to come up the right flank to threaten troops along the “tent” on the top plateau.
Things began to unravel quickly on turn three for me. Falsely believing that the Landspeeders base leaving the board meant instant removal, I pulled Son of Skywalker and attempted to kill his Luke with my own and the Fleet Troopers. Failing to do a single damage, I left my own Luke exposed and his Luke and Landspeeder free to assault my far right vaporator. He was able to wipe my squad holding the position, which forced me to move towards his own vaporator on the north tower side. During my mad dash across the middle, I managed to get myself into a position to add enough wounds to claim victory, but a clutch roll by his Leia on a single wound combined with a great melee tie-up from his final strike team stole the day, and left him a point ahead on vaporators for the victory.
Game 2
Battle Cards: Key Positions/Major Offensive/Minefield
The Hoth table for Round two presented another set of unique challenges. The table was dominated by two large hills that funneled both armies into a middle zone centered around a bunker, large enough to hide multiple squads, yet still small enough a player with Boba and Luke could jump it. Both units were present, of course! The size of the bunker, which ended up the middle KP, and the major offensive deployment setup forced me to choose a KP so far out of the way it’s actually outside the picture on the left hand side. My opponent chose the middle right turret, ideally giving him a clear shot at any of my troops assaulting the bunker, this turned out to be a mistake.
Being up two activations to begin with, 11 to 9, I made it my mission to try to eliminate his single sniper team early. Despite CB catching both models in the open, the snipers passed both saves, and proceeded to weather three consecutive sniper shots without losing a model. The remainder of my turn one activations were spent positioning my models to remove mines while dealing with the effects of a turn one Annihilation Looms from his Krennic. Early in turn two, I managed to eliminate his sniper squad with the help of some aimed sniper fire, and moved up my fleets to the bunker alongside Luke while I massed Z6s on the other side of the middle by the hill.
On turn three I decided that taking his home KP was going to be much easier than holding onto my own on the right side. Using an effective Leia 3-pip, I was able to use her and the Fleets back to back to eliminate his advancing Stormtrooper squad, and use Luke’s criminally underutilized pistol to combine with the snipers to kill a second full trooper unit on the same turn.
By turn four, Luke had successfully chopped and subsequently pushed Krennic into a fleet shot, and had SOS’ed into both his Death Trooper squads. My opponent was punished for leaving Boba on his own on the far right side, and he melted under the focus fire of five separate Z6 rolls. On turn five he conceded and we ended early to enjoy a break before the final round.
Game 3
Battle Cards: Key Positions/Major Offensive/Minefield
My two games against the Imperials ended up with the same battle cards….ironic. This table was actually determined to be too dense during the pre-tournament setup, and ended up with fewer pieces by the time my opponent and I began. Unfortunately, this still resulted in a table that was far from optimal for tank play, and I quickly used this to my advantage. Our middle KP ended up as the TIE fighter/staircase in the hangar, while I chose the double vaporator on the right hand side and my opponent took the house in the far bottom left corner. During deployment, I was able to concentrate my forces in one large group on the right side of the hangar bay, while my opponent split his forces in half to the north and south of the bay. This ended up backfiring in the end.
Turn one went about as scripted as you’d expect. As in my previous two games, I was able to deploy Leia in view of full strike teams, this time two to be exact, and got my CB off successfully. After managing to kill only one of the four sniper models I hit, we engaged in a mini sniper war along the north corridor above the hangar bay. Veers was able to wipe all but a leader of a single Z6 squad, so I ran the leader inside a building and he sat inside for the next five turns, providing a delay tactic and keeping MOV (Margin of Victory from kill points) off the table for my opponent. The only clear pathways into the hangar were the openings to the north and south, otherwise you were forced to climb or clamber over the walls. Half of turn two consisted of us positioning our unit leaders into the base contact with the walls to prepare our coming assaults. The other half continued the sniper war and dealt with the tank advancing to the south with a squad of Snowtroopers. I was able to use No Time For Sorrow to wipe out his first E-Web with my Fleets on the turns first action, starting the activation snowball that quickly began rolling next turn.
The action began in earnest on turn three. My opponent positioned his remaining E-Web and sniper to guard the northern entrance while moving Veers and a DLT squad into the hanger arena. In response to this I was able to use my three strike teams to pick off the sniper squad and heavily damage the E-Web with a Z6. Meanwhile, his tank had reached the southern entrance but also realized that he could not enter the hanger without giving up his ability to shoot anything outside of range 2, so he hung back and blocked off the entrance for my troops. I responded by ignoring the tank, panicking his Snowtroopers off the board, and slowly chipping away at the two DLTs Stormtrooper squads to the south. Holding Luke until the end, I jumped over the walls and prepared to engage his DLT squad and Veers on the next round.
The game was decided on turn four. Despite losing the priority roll on my SoS, Luke was able to weather a single Stormtrooper shot, charge into Veers, push the Storms into melee as well, and one shot each with his double lightsaber attack. My opponent then drew the tank early, removing only a few Fleets, before I continued to pick off activations, starting with the last remaining E-Web before moving onto the south DLT squads. We agreed to play out the remaining two turns, and I ended up scoring two points to one, being up on activations 11 to 3.
Final Notes
Mike, also known as GhostWalking on the Discord, came to me last week before his Rallypoint Qualifier and asked to do a write up, which of course I was all for it! (I have data from my personal RPQ that I’m sifting through and will write up in a different format some point this week!) It’s always great to get points of views from all over, even more so from these early RPQ’s! It’s a shame that he lost his first game with a ruling that he did not understand, but he rebounded well winning his next two games and I can tell you right now that he’s not bothered by the loss at all! He’s taking it in stride, as he should, and we all should if this were to happen! We need to remember: we’re playing a game. Have fun, even amidst a loss at an important tournament! Good luck to all in any upcoming RPQ’s!
May the Force be with You!
Copyright © 2024 The Fifth Trooper. All Rights Reserved.
