Leia Organa – Unit Guide

This unit guide will cover Leia Organa, commander for the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars: Legion.

One of the most important members of the Rebel high command, Princess Leia Organa was the first character released for the Rebel Alliance after the initial box set came out. While not the front line-leading, unit destroying monster that her brother is, she commands an important role in the back line of any Rebel Alliance force. She may not be able to wrack up the kill count other characters can but she can inspire everyone to fight better which can mean more in the larger picture.

Strengths

• Hands out dodge tokens and pull suppression off nearby units with ease.
• Can launch an early game orbital bombardment to cripple a distant unit early.
• Her pistol has three black dice with Sharpshooter 2, which can do a lot more than you’d think (if you get close)

Weaknesses

• Quite soft with a white defense die and only a surge to defend and Nimble to save her
• So-so command cards which really hurts a backline buff type character
• You absolutely do not want her to get that close

Overview

90 Points: Cheap. Cheapest named character tied with Cassian. For a backline hero meant to improve other heroes she’s not too badly priced for it, though that’s not quite cheap enough…

Defense: White, with surge as you’d expect from the rebellion. Nimble helps keep her alive but you only have so many dodge tokens to hand out.

Offense: Leia’s Defender Sporting Blaster – Range 2, 3 Black, Pierce 1, Surge to Crit. With sharpshooter 2 this is surprisingly good for what the character is intended to do. Of course you ideally do not want her within Range 2 of things but we can’t stop everything. If she gets close enough she’ll probably take out a model or two.

Courage 2 – Average. With Inspire, Leia will do a decent enough job keeping nearby units from being panicked.

Slots: 2 Command, 1 Gear. Command slots are extremely useful and having 2 of them lets you customize Leia in a lot of useful ways. One slot will probably always be taken by Vigilance but that leaves an open one. Gear is less useful but Recon Intel always exists.

Take Cover 2: One of the main reasons to take Leia, she can hand out a dodge token to two different units. Rebels need dodge tokens; it is common to activate her as early as possible so you can get them set up, especially if they might be in a vulnerable spot. She can also assign one of the tokens to herself, and/or dodge herself if you need to protect her.

Inspire 2: After Leia rallies she can remove 2 suppression from other units. This is a pretty flexible power and when it is best used is going to vary based on your current situation. If you took a lot of suppression last turn that was still lingering you can activate early and get it off, or wait for the enemy to pop a few shots at your guys before stripping it off. Rebel’s courage is generally pretty bad so this is going to be crucial to not lose too many actions.

Nimble: Keep one dodge token whenever you use one or more. Combined with handing out tokens pretty freely this can make a difference on whether Leia lives or dies.

Sharpshooter 2: As stated above, combined with her Pierce 1, 3B pistol she can pretty reliably pop off a wound or two if she’s thrust into a combat situation.

The Understudy – Rebel Officer

Leia unfortunately struggles to compete in light of the Rebel Officer who came out a few months after her in the Rebel Specialists Personnel Expansion set. What’s he got?

Rather than break down his stats one by one like a normal character guide, I’m going to compare him to Leia and how he stacks up.

Points: 45 vs. 90. 45 point difference is a lot, that’s another unit of troopers, or R2.

Offense: His pistol does one black and one white instead of 3B, surge to hit instead of crit, no pierce and Sharpshooter 1 instead of 2. In short, he’s plain terrible in combat and will struggle to hit anything. That’s not a huge loss because Leia’s combat bracket wasn’t what you were taking her for either.

Defense: 4 health instead of 5. White die, surge to defend same as Leia. Losing Nimble is a bit of a problem but generally you want to keep either character out of harm anyway.

Slots: Loses one command. Unfortunate, but you only need one.

Abilities: Inspire and Take Cover are knocked down to 1 instead of 2. The Take Cover problem is easily rectified by equipped a Portable Scanner and at 6 pts you’re still far cheaper than running Leia. Shame about the Inspire though.

So why am I telling you this in the middle of a Leia article? They’re essentially clones of each other, though the Rebel Officer is the cheaper, store brand. Many new players should be aware that the Rebel Officer can do Leia’s job almost as competently for a little over half the cost. If you’re considering taking Leia in a list and find yourself brushing up against the point cap then consider the officer instead.

The only really unique thing about Leia is her Command Cards which are not bad by any means but definitely suffer from being released so early in the game. They’re just not terribly exciting and a Rebel Officer in tandem with another character can often be plain more effective.

Any strategies going forward will apply to both Leia and the Rebel Officer unless stated otherwise.

Command Cards

These command cards are only for Leia and are the one unique thing she has going for her.

Coordinated Bombardment

A mirror to Veer’s Maximum Firepower but while Veers focuses on trying to make one unit very dead, Leia tries to chip off a few units. At the end of Leia’s activation she can target 3 units and do 2 red dice to each. Due to its long range (minimum of 4) it’s a common way to open up a game on turn 1 before the opponent has time to get themselves into position.

A key thing to remember is that Leia has sharpshooter 2 and that applies to all ranged attacks not just her pistol! Your opponent has no cover against these attacks so expect it to chip off a few models. A surprising number of people ask if you need line of sight and to be clear, yes you do. Think of it as being the spotter.

Putting Leia in a good spot on turn 1 to see as many units is an important skill. Put her up high if that’s an option (but not somewhere she won’t be able to get down from to support your troops afterwards), otherwise look for a good clear line of sight to juicy units to nuke from orbit. If your opponent has left any strike teams with both models visible, those are ideal targets for a Coordinated Bombardment shot.

No Time for Sorrows

A decent card if you get stuck in a bad situation. Any 2 trooper units can be issued an order and once you do, they get a free speed-1 move. If you get jumped by a surprise attack or fall short of an objective, you can nudge them just a bit into cover or into the objective. This is also great on melee units to get a surprise bit of extra movement to close a gap.

Speed-1 isn’t a lot but timed right it can save you. Make the most out of your options for positioning and you’d be surprised how many possibilities open up to get the majority of a unit in cover or out of sight. Check out Kyle’s Fundamentals – Cohesion for ways to make the most out of positioning your units.

Somebody Has to Save Our Skins

This card can be a bit of a mixed bag. Leia isn’t a combat character, and shouldn’t be. The good news is she is usually accompanying someone much more combat capable, so with this card you can activate her early, help her set up another unit for the offense and then immediately spill over to them.

Rebel troopers are exceedingly delicate, if they start the turn in a bad position and without dodge tokens they likely will get flattened. With this card you can activate Leia, hand out dodge tokens before she runs for cover or some sort of other action and then activate the unit she buffed to get them into a safe position. Between this and her 2 pip you have some decent options for controlling the movement of your allies to keep them secure, but it’s not a cure all. You still have to think tactically.

Recommended Upgrades

Equipping Leia is pretty straight forward. She has some particular cards that synergize with her role extremely well and its unlikely you’ll change those too often. Still, it’s nice to have options.

Command

For Leia you get two slots to play around with which allows a bit of versatility in playstyle, while the Rebel Officer gets one which will almost always be spoken for. Vigilance is the top winner by a mile, don’t be fooled. Everything else is generally competing for second place

Vigilance

Always take this. Staple a copy to the character card even. Regardless of which character you’re using, Vigilance synergizes well with Leia and the Rebel Officer in a way that few cards do. Hand out dodge tokens, then make sure your units get to hold onto them for next turn. Rebels need dodge tokens, they’re delicate and can get shot off the board if they aren’t prepared in cover with tokens. Don’t get caught off guard.

Strict Orders

Combined with Inspire you can help keep the suppression down. Activate your commander first to remove suppression and then when another unit activates you can guarantee the removal of another. Rebels can really struggle with Suppression, their Courage is pretty low, especially since all their corps are locked at a piddly value of one. It’s worth trying to remove as much as you can.

Commanding Presence

Worth taking if Leia is paired with a more frontline Hero like Sabine or Luke. Leia tends to stay in the back which could possibly make her teammate drift out of range. Range 4 is a solid chunk of the board, and can especially help if they get over their head and you use No Time For Sorrows.

Esteemed Leader

Leia and the Rebel Officer are delicate heroes, and a pillar of your army. Your opponent knows this and will try and snipe them out. Give them some bodyguard protection. This isn’t an ideal pick, as you want to avoid them getting seen in the first place but sometimes we can’t help it.

Gear

For Leia you can often leave this slot blank. There are a few potentially interesting options if you have space though.

Portable Scanner

A given for the Rebel Officer as it makes him just as good as Leia while only costing 6 points. On Leia, it does let you hand out 3 dodge tokens and you can never have enough of those so it’s not a total waste here.

Recon Intel

Always a winner for the slot, no matter the character. Cheap and lets you move up early into a good position.

Electrobinoculars

You’re already handing out Dodge Tokens, why not an aim to go with it? Not a great choice because you only have 2 actions but if you’re not moving anyway it at least gives them something else to do as it’s generally not going to be shooting stuff.

Strategy

Honestly there isn’t a lot to Leia or the Rebel Officer we haven’t discussed. You should keep them in the back, though close enough to your troops to keep them properly supported. Range 2 is a dangerous place for you to be, so you should activate them early to hand out dodge tokens and remove suppression before those units go.

These characters are fragile and will die very quickly if your opponent is allowed to focus fire on them. Do everything in your power to keep them out of line of sight. Move them from wall to wall and never stop out in the open. If you do, they’re dead.

Leia is the unsung hero of the Rebellion. She won’t knock down a lot of Imperials but she will keep your forces alive and their morale up. Don’t underestimate the ability of properly supported units.

List Building

Wonder Twins: The Next Generation

Back when the game was new, Wonder Twins lists were popular. Not solely because they were the only heroes we had to choose from either! Luke and Leia have a natural synergy, while he rushes forward to cut through the back line, she supports the troops pushing up to keep the enemy torn between threats.

The big challenge here will be keeping Luke supported, as he’s pretty alone up there. So Inspiring Presence will let you push up while Leia can continue to issue him orders so he can always activate exactly when you need him to.

Gunline

A pretty nasty gunline with a lot of activations. It’s no secret that I love Cassian and with Leia and Take Cover, K2 and C3PO with calculate odds and Cassian and K2’s teamwork you’ll have no shortage of green tokens to go around.

The AT-RT is a bit heavier threat to distract your opponent while the sheer amount of blaster fire will cut down enemy troops and chip away at enemy Armor. Just remember you’re not invincible, stick to those tried and true rebel tactics and focus on the hit and run.

Conclusion

Leia (And the Rebel Officer) are the workhorse of your army. Almost any list you have can benefit from their inclusion as they may not shine on their own they will make all your troops fight better. They won’t kill many things on their own but they will guarantee the survival of your troops and keep their morale up. A great army starts with a great General and these two can lead your forces to victory!