Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
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Well…. That was a lot.
Atomic Mass Games delivered us over the weekend a MiniStravaganza that was packed with information. I’m going to give a brief run down of all the things we learned.
AMG gave us a fair amount of errata to look forward to as well as confirming points changes are coming. The timeline seems to be end of September or early October. AMG also said about errata that they want to use it sparingly, only on things that really need changes. This may give some peace of mind for us that hope the game will keep its core elements.
In terms of core rules AMG said that they will be making some changes but that they should be clarifications and nothing more, I think that we can assume that they will be making changes to help clear up issues and questions that they’ve received within their rules forum. The one huge rule change in the core mechanics though is with turn 0. They confirmed that the battlecard setup will be moving to laying out all four cards in each category. This is a welcome change for many as it will prevent blue player forcing a single objective, (bombing run for instance.) I’m sure this change will have tons of discussion to come and everyone will have their own thoughts about it. However, I think it is fairly obvious that there needed to be a change of some kind.
AMG also confirmed that they will be issuing errata for many units. These changes they said will focus more so on the original factions and older units as those are the ones that needed it. However they did say that errata will not be limited to these factions.
The unit whose errata we had revealed was Darth Vader. If you love Vader, get excited. There were four changes given, two to his unit card and two to command cards. First, Commander Vader will now have a command slot. A change that has long been requested is finally happening! The other change to his unit card is Compel: Corps. An interesting change that will allow Vader to urge his troops forward. It will certainly be interesting to see how this change is used by the community. A definitely interesting unit for compelling is Snowtroopers, as they have Steady. Hopefully we may yet see some buffs to snows yet. The changes to his command cards were on Implacable and Darkness Descends. Implacable now gives Vader a dodge at the beginning of his activation, as well as retaining the old rule. This will allow Vader to gain some survivability, especially considering with Implacable you can end up activating twice getting two dodge tokens. Another huge change is that Darkness Descends will now have a Permanent effect if not Divulged. The effect will be that Vader will get two Surge Tokens every time Vader receives an order. This means that Vader will now be able use Surge results both on offense and defense. This is huge for Vader. Every Vader player knows the pain of rolling a ton of surges, whether they be on offense or defense, or even both.
AMG also did confirm three other characters that will be receiving changes. These three characters tie in with the reveals that I will be covering next. These characters are Boba Fett, Bossk, and Cad Bane.
Tons of stuff was shown off to us over the weekend, the world of Legion grows ever bigger. I’ll start by looking at the reveals for the Republic and Separatists
The first unit revealed by AMG was the Infantry Support Platform. This was/is definitely an oddball in the lineup. A rather obscure vehicle from Star Wars, it will likely see a fair bit of play due to a cheap points cost and some nifty weapons.
These four cards add plenty of spice to a fairly cheap platform. With a weapon the ISP is only 105 pts, leaving it as one of the cheapest heavy options. All three weapon options provide interesting play and flexibility. The Twin Blaster Cannons will probably be the default option and even they provide an opportunity to split the dice pool and use gunslinger, enabling two Fire Support opportunities. Paired with the pilot option to provide Surge:Crit you could see some amazing Fire Support plays. The Twin Beam Cannons also add a beam weapon that may prove very good if played well.
The NR-N99 or “Snail Tank” has finally had its card revealed. A very anticipated unit, AMG has finally shown us this monstrosity. This unit will almost certainly be seen at many Legion tables in the next while. It is reasonably priced, and comes with some great abilities. The Snail tank comes with the elusive Ion Keyword, even coming on a weapon that doesn’t exhaust. The Snail Tank could easily become the bane of CIS, even though it is a CIS unit. AMG also revealed three upcoming Protocol cards.
All three of these cards provide you the opportunity to choose what kind of AI you will have. Right now these protocols will fit onto the upcoming Dwarf Spider Droids and the Snail tanks. Not only do these protocols give you AI but they also give you upsides. Having a Nimble Outmaneuver Dodge on either the Spider Droids or Snail Tank could make those units very hard to get rid of. You can also get Precise 2 on these units, turning them into offensive powerhouses. Combined with a Super Tactical Droid, we could see some incredible CIS armor skews.
Likely the most important thing AMG revealed is that there’s a new type of unit incoming, mercenaries. During 2022 mercenaries will be released. This mercenaries will be made up of various characters and organizations from the Star Wars universe that represent those who are more loyal to credits than any group or individual.
AMG did reveal some unit cards so we will look at those first.
The first unit card that AMG showed us is the Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldiers. These fighters are seen in a few places in the Star Wars timeline. AMG did redact the faction icon as well as the points for this unit unfortunately. From what we can see the Pyke Soldiers will be fairly similar to Rebel Troopers. Range 3, 1 black die, surging only on defense. The unique keywords we do see though is Self-Preservation and Independent: Dodge 1. These combine together to start shaping how the mercenaries in Star Wars Legion will work. Basically they will act on their own and get slightly better when not receiving orders, they also won’t be inspired by non-affiliation commanders (can’t use their courage value), and will have trouble getting orders from non-affiliation Commanders. These soldiers also have Outmaneuver and Danger Sense 2 on their card making them somewhat survivable. The last thing of note is that they throw 2 white dice in combat, which, if they receive surge tokens, can be better than 1 black die.
AMG also revealed these two weapons for the Pykes. One is a fairly standard rifle that will make the unit adept at range, the other is a whip. The Electro-Whip Soldier is incredibly cheap at 10 points. Equipping the whip will turn this unit into a close range brawler, however it still will be fairly fragile so it may end up being a glass cannon. The whip does also bring another instance of Immobilize meaning we are likely to encounter much more Immobilize in the future.
AMG also showed us two personal options for the Pyke Soldiers. One standard mini who is only 9 points, suggesting the base unit will be ~40 points. The regular soldier also brings another new keyword, Cache: Aim 1. This will basically provide and store an aim for the unit until you decide to spend it sometime during the game. The other personal is the Pyke Syndicate Capo. This is the personal version of the commander that will be shown next. It increases the courage by one. This increase to courage is amazing. The Pyke’s can’t use a non-affiliation courage value so are always at risk of panicking at one courage, so the upgrade to two is awesome. The upgrade to courage is also important as the unit has Danger Sense so often wants to carry some suppression, but at only one courage means you will be losing a lot of actions if you do so. The Capo also provides Independent: Surge 1, this allows you to have a surge for offense upping your damage and making the white dice in melee much better. AMG did also confirm that multiple instances of Independent can be used, so a unit not receiving an order with a Capo equipped would receive one dodge and one surge token.
The last unit card AMG revealed is the Pyke Syndicate Capo. Again AMG redacted the faction and points. I’d assume that the points would be somewhere in the 40s-50s based on current point values. The Capo will likely give you access to Pyke Syndicate cards and will be able to order Pyke Syndicate units. Its keywords similar to the Pyke unit. Danger Sense 2 and Independent: Dodge 1. It does have another keyword which is unfortunately hidden behind the redacted block. However it does give us the reminder text which acts to allow the Capo to give tokens to other units. This could get really interesting with Independent: Dodge 1 as it could allow the Capo to provide an extra dodge token to a unit on the front line at the start of the turn.
The Pyke’s above will be joining other organizations and characters such as the Black Suns, Maul, and Mandalorians as units that can be taken together as Shadow Collective or brought into other factions as mercenaries. As a part of this, three existing units will become mercenaries, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, and Bossk. They did also mention some errata beyond this for these units. They did also show off a new Maul model, Mandalorian Commandos who followed Maul, and Black Suns. They did reveal that Boba, Cad Bane and Bossk will be getting card reprints.
Another couple models that were revealed by AMG were some swoop bikes. We don’t know much about these but based on the model we might see the first Melee Speeders, which will be interesting to learn the rules of.
The very last model revealed will be the very first release done entirely post-transition at AMG, Older Boba Fett.
This Model does harken to yet another thing revealed.
AMG revealed that they have The Mandalorian content in the works, including Din Jarin, Grogu, IG-11 and Dark Troopers. This content should be available Q4 2022. Many of these units will likely slot into the original factions as well as into mercenaries. The did hint that Old Boba will be a rebel.
Battleforces will be a new mechanic coming to Star Wars Legion. AMG said that the first battleforce will be the Shadow Collective. The Shadow Collective will allow mercenaries to band together and fight together without needing to slot into the existing factions. Battleforces, depending on the specific one, will give you access to command cards, possibly abilities, as well as different force organizations, ie have different amount of ranks of units.
Shadow Collective will also have a starter box is what AMG said, also coming with a card pack that will have upgrades as well as the Boba, Cad and Bossk reprints.
On top of this already excellent news, they announced four more battleforces. The first two after the Shadow Collective will be based on the Battle of Hoth. For the Rebels there will be the Defenders of Hoth, and the Imperials will have Blizzard Force. These will bring bonuses as well as more starter boxes likely. The next two will be the 501st Legion and a Droid Invasion Force.
I think Battleforces will be an excellent addition to the game in terms of gameplay, as well as a great way to attract and get new players started.
AMG did touch briefly on organized play for the future. Explicitly stating that they are committed to holding World Championships as well as other high level competitive play. They also reiterated that for anyone who received a Worlds invite that it will be honored at the next Worlds.
They also mentioned two new scenario packs, Unnatural Resources and Dynamic Exit. Unnatural Resources will be about resource extraction with rampaging creature on the field. Dynamic Exit will be for a skirmish game and will be a asymmetrical heist mission.
The last few juicy reveals were fan favorite requests. Ewoks and Ashoka are coming to Legion. Ewoks will likely be 2023 to coincide with the forty year anniversary of Return of the Jedi and there is no detail about Ashoka.
Overall the weekend gives the Legion community a ton of content to look forward to, as well as a mid-long term plan which can help give some confidence that there will be tons of Legion to be had yet.
If you do want to check out the streams go to the AMG Twitch Channel.
I hope that you are just as excited as I am for this next chapter of Star Wars Legion.
Cheers,
Timbo
Copyright © 2024 The Fifth Trooper. All Rights Reserved.
1 Response
Yep. Very pleased after 12 months of largely negative outlook this was like cold, fresh water in a desert. Everything looked great, well thought out and packaged. If, and I say if, I have trepidation it will be in how Battleforces are presented, balanced and integrated into the core game (or if they become the core game). But I’m happy enough to be very open to the idea.