Welcome to a new recurring feature on The Fifth Trooper focused on event results. Regularly we will highlight lists that have performed well at recent tournaments and review several key metrics shaping the competitive Star Wars: Legion scene. The purpose of this article is not to prescribe what players should bring to the table, but to provide an objective snapshot of the current meta using the best available data.
Because these results are drawn from a limited number of games, particularly in the months immediately following balance updates, some fluctuation is expected. In our experience, trends become more reliable once a data set reaches approximately 500 to 1,000 games.
This analysis includes results from tournaments entered in Longshanks as ranked singles events. We are reporting results for the four primary factions, Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), Galactic Empire (Empire), Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), and Rebel Alliance (Rebels), as well as the Shadow Collective (SC) battle force. It is worth noting that the developers have stated that battle forces will not receive new unit releases as frequently as the main factions, although they have so far been treated similarly in balance updates.
The first metric we will examine is faction win rate (Figure 1). A commonly accepted benchmark for a healthy meta is a post–mirror match adjusted win rate between 45 and 55 percent for each faction. Early results from the new edition showed several factions outside that range. Continued releases and balance changes have since brought win rates closer together. A special note should be made about Shadow Collective for this set of data, at only around 100 games their data is very unreliable.
Figure 1: Faction win rates since the Star Wars: Legion 2.6 update
Since the most recent balance update, CIS and Rebels currently sit at the top with 53 percent win rates, followed by GAR at 48 percent, Empire at 47 percent, and Shadow Collective at 33 percent. One consistent trend in the data is that higher-activation armies are performing better overall. This aligns with mission design that generally rewards objective control over simply contesting POIs. Related to this, the data suggests that red-save units, particularly corps units, may be slightly over costed relative to the value of additional activations. CIS and Rebels can leverage higher activation counts while maintaining strong order control, a factor that continues to show up in faction-level performance.
Head-to-head results show most faction matchups clustering near a 50 percent win rate (Table 1). The primary exception is CIS versus Empire, where Rebels currently hold a 56 percent win rate.
Table 1: Faction head to head win rates
Objective performance is another area of interest, as choosing missions best suited to your army will increase your chances of winning. Each article we will highlight some strengths for each army, especially as new objectives are released. While most factions perform across objectives in line with their overall win rates, several clear strengths emerge (Table 2). Rebels perform particularly well on Shifting Priorities, likely due to high activation counts combined with moderately durable units. CIS shows strong results on Intercept Signals, aided by an array of fast units and Breakthrough, likely leveraging the high mobility and attack power of General Grievous, Wheelbike Warlord to dominate weakside deployments. GAR performs well on Close the Pocket and Intercept Signals, where clone token sharing synergy can be maximized. Empire shows strength on Outflank, using ranged units to pressure multiple flanks simultaneously.
When looking at performance on secondary objectives, Rebels perform well on Sweep and Clear where they can leverage their glass cannon units like Sleeper Cells to reliably score near maximum points on the objective. CIS armies have higher win rates on Recon Mission where they can again leverage the strength of the new General Grievous, Wheelbike Warlord who wants to be at Range 2 of units on Turn 2 for playing his Trained in Your Jedi Arts command card. GAR armies win frequently on Surface Scan, since vehicles (CIS and GAR) and high courage (GAR) help make that objective more reliable. Once again, because each of these (especially Shadow Collective) has fewer datapoints, the actual numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
Faction popularity provides additional context. Popularity is measured as a share of total games played, including mirror matches. In an evenly distributed field, each main faction would sit near 25 percent. Historically, Empire has exceeded this mark due to the appeal of iconic units such as Darth Vader. With the release of the new starter sets, GAR has taken that role, with many newer players entering the game by joining the ranks of the clone army (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Faction popularity since the Star Wars: Legion 2.6 update
Current participation rates show GAR at 29 percent, Rebels and CIS each at 23 percent, and Empire at 22 percent. This represents a relatively healthy distribution among the four main factions. Shadow Collective sits at 3 percent usage, reflecting that it is a battle force that has not been reprinted for the new edition.
We can also look at performance through tournament finishes. Specifically, we examined players finishing events with three or more wins and one or fewer losses. Comparing each faction’s share of these finishes to its overall popularity allows us to calculate Finishes Over Expected (FOE, Figure 3).
Figure 3: Faction popularity (x-axis) vs each factions percentage of all winners/top finishers
Most factions are finishing close to expectation. Rebels and CIS are slightly overperforming, with FOE of +5% an +2%, respectively. GAR, Empire, and Shadow Collective underperform modestly with FOE of-4%, -1%, and -4% respectively.
Finally, we reviewed lists performing well at larger events with at least five rounds of play. These events tend to provide clearer signals on successful archetypes. To date, two rated singles events meet this threshold: PAX GT in Philadelphia and Berliner Stadtmeisterschaft in Germany.
PAX Unplugged GT was won by a Bright Tree Village list featuring 15 activations. The top cut also included two CIS lists at 12 and 13 activations, along with an Imperial Remnant list running two Dark Trooper units at 8 activations. Berliner Stadtmeisterschaft was won by a 10 activation GAR list featuring Yoda, Commandos, Bad Batch, and ARC Troopers. According to the event winner, the list was built to leverage high volumes of ranged pierce to counter General Grievous, Wheelbike Warlord, armies. Other top finishers included a 14-activation Rebel list and an 11-activation Imperial Remnant list with three Dark Trooper units and two speeder bikes. Winning lists are shown below.
