Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
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Greetings! I know it’s been a few months since my last article, but truthfully, I needed a little breather from Legion. Today I’m back, and I’m going to discuss the ins and outs of my favorite Republic list at the moment, a version of Obi-Wan and Captain Rex. Knowledge is half the battle though, right? So let’s briefly examine the list before diving in.
This list is an absolute monster on the table. I know myself, a local player of mine, and my good friend Zach Barry have all been terrorizing opponents with it. It’s built in a similar manner to the old school Luke and Han lists (Flyboys), but brings the power of clones and a stronger command hand.
799/800 (9 activations)
– Obi-Wan Kenobi (175): Force Push (10), Tenacity (4) = 189
– Captain Rex (90): Aggressive Tactics (10), Recon Intel (2), JT-12 Jetpacks (5) = 107
– R2-D2 = 35
– 2× Phase II Clone Troopers (60): Z-6 Trooper (27), Overwatch (4) = 182
– 2× Phase II Clone Troopers (60): Z-6 Trooper (27), Offensive Push (4) = 182
– 2× ARC Troopers Strike Team (21): DC-15x ARC Trooper (31) = 104
Hello There!, • You Can Call Me Captain, •• Knowledge and Defense, •• Eat This, Clankers!, ••• General Kenobi, ••• We’re Not Programmed, •••• Standing Orders
Need to gunline? You’ve got four Phase II Z6s and a couple of ARC trooper strike teams.
Worried about other Jedi or Armor? May I present Obi-Wan, Jedi Knight extraordinaire.
You also have arguably the best command hand in the game with both Kenobi and Rex.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Only nine activations? This will get shredded by a ten or eleven activation meta list.” Bear with me folks, nothing is wasted here, and the lack of excess pays dividends.
The key to this list is in its uniform nature, and the way that the different ranks interact with each other. Therefore, I’d like to break each of them down individually. Much of this article will lean on my own experience and decision making process. If you disagree, let me know in the comments or feel free to leave your own ideas. As you’ll see, flexibility is a common theme in this setup.
Let’s begin with Obi-Wan, probably my favorite Jedi (Op Vader holds the title of my favorite overall force user…). There are two main parts of Kenobi that I’d like to focus on here, and predictably, they’re intertwined: Guardian 3 and Soresu Mastery. Now I know that these topics have been covered ad nauseum in other outlets, therefore we’re going to focus on these keywords within the list’s interactions.
Clone troopers and ARC troopers suffer from the same main affliction: low model count and a weakness to pools with pierce. Obi can be used to counteract this. By positioning him near these high value targets, you can effectively guardian away the pierce, and nullify some of the expensive keywords your opponent is paying for. Don’t forget, Soresu lets you spend a single dodge token while using guardian (provided the pool is not High Velocity), so make sure you utilize that to keep him alive and functioning. As we will discuss, this is especially effective on Kenobi’s 2 and 3 pip turns.
Rex is the key to this entire operation. Free aims from tactical, incredible command cards, and scouting party provide Rex with a huge toolbox; and with only 9 activations, that toolbox needs every asset. Turn 0 I like to focus on using Rex to move the overwatch squads forward into position, frequently for the rest of the game, in order to provide standby covering fire as well as set up fire supported ARC sniper shots. Oh, and don’t forget, every time Rex moves he generates an aim for the entire clone trooper army.
Turns 1-4 I tend to use Rex as a token battery and command card platform, before utilizing the jetpack to set up gunslinger and objective grabbing plays on the final turns, whether that’s claiming a box, tapping an opponent’s vap, or wiping out two small unit leaders.
R2, as befitting his size, gets a small mention here as well. If the deployment allows, I attempt to sneak him around to score his secret mission, but if this is prohibited by something such as long march or rollout, I utilize him as a cheap objective scorer and delay activation, he’s a little bit more of an afterthought in this list.
The meat and potatoes of this list, and basically any clone list, comes in the form of their clone trooper corp units: in this case, they are made up of all Phase II units. Two come equipped with overwatch, two with offensive push, and all four are lugging their Z6 along with them. Between Reliable 1, aim sharing, and surge sharing, these Z6s are capable of outputting a very large amount of damage, and overwatch ensures that they can double tap targets from out to range three, a potent threat.
There is nothing special to the corp strategy used in this list, but I do have a warning to deliver. Only four squads of corp troopers made the trek to this battle, and you must be exceedingly careful you do not hang one out to dry and immediately lose a valuable “beef” activation. Using Obi to guardian for the extended overwatch squads is quite important, and Soresu Mastery can make getting multiple wounds through to the clones very problematic for an opponent.
Oh, by the way, these guys are your main objective scorers for many missions, don’t forget to play the objective in the middle of your bloodshed.
Now, I’m not going to say the ARCs are the most important part of this list, but; they kind of are (don’t forget, Rex is technically an ARC Trooper too…). Think of them as the oil that keeps the gears turning. This oil comes in the form of range 5 firepower, tactical with token sharing (yet again), and access to pierce for clone troopers through the use of the Lethal keyword. They’re also potentially the best guardian target for Kenobi, with only two wounds per unit.
In terms of actual gameplay positioning, I tend to use my ARCs rather aggressively, almost as flankers. They’re slightly more durable than they appear with token sharing and impervious, and as mentioned above, they offer ranged pierce. Being able to fire support an ARC shot, with multiple aims, critical, lethal, and a full Phase II squad leads to devastating attack pools, and is a tactic that can catch people unawares. We’ll examine that more in the command card section.
When it comes to rounding out the battle deck, I am just going to focus on the objective cards I prefer to bring, rather than the full gauntlet of deployments and condition cards. Frankly, I don’t dislike any deployments other than rollout, so I won’t bore you with that section. For conditions, nearly any are fine, but I do prefer War Weary (double commander) and Fortified Positions, since your clones are always in heavy cover that way. Limited Visibility is viable too, as the range three standby sharing means it’s tremendously difficult for your opponent to advance early and pick off standbys that you have, and beating a clone army in a four turn shootout is not exactly common.
The four objectives I like to bring are Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators, Key Positions, Payload, and Hostage Exchange. Sabotage and Key Positions are both low scoring objectives that R2 can swing with his Secret Mission and both are greatly affected by the presence of Kenobi, utilizing his force push to tap opponent’s vaps and push units off of key positions. Payload also works extremely well with this list because of two key characteristics: it is mobile and likes to move as a ball. This means that it can easily move along with the “home” bomb cart, and even send Kenobi to disrupt the opponent’s cart path.
We’ve arrived at Hostage Exchange, the bane of my Invader League existence. It’s also the bane of any clone opponent as well, especially when Kenobi and Rex are both present. Let’s go over a few reasons why:
With Scouting Party, Rex is able to move himself and two other units into the support range of the friendly hostage carrier. This can be incredibly useful, as you can move an ARC trooper to set up fire support via your own carrier or even Obi-Wan to give extra guardian protection to the friendlies. Kenobi is also just that much closer to the opponent’s army and hostage, and becomes perfectly positioned for a turn two strike.
Red saves…well, they’re already the better of the two defense dice, and now they come equipped with surge token sharing, so let’s be honest; it’s always an advantage. Finally, most Republic players keep their army in a balled-up formation, and hostage exchange forces the bulk of the action into the middle, where a tight knit formation becomes much more important, and effective.
Personally, I like to use the following command hand:
I prefer to have access to all six of the commanders’ cards, as I think each one is powerful and brings some real flavor to the list. Let’s very briefly go over my thought process behind each one’s use, and when I prefer to play them, in descending order.
This is blasphemy, I know, but I frequently do not play standing orders in this list; but when I do, it’s nearly always turn one. Due to scouting party and the desire to obtain effective turn one activation control, I usually prefer to play a 3 pip to order Kenobi and the ARCs. However, delaying is always fine too! When this is the case, I order Obi-Wan (via Rex for aggressive tactics) and take my chances.
We Are Not Programmed (WANP) should mostly read, “Your Corp become Deathtroopers.” By doubling up all the Phase II troopers with surge tokens, the entire army becomes lethal offensively and stout defensively. This is phenomenal when advancing forward on turns 1-3, when you really want to put the game in an early chokehold, establish defensive positions, and weather an opponent’s high powered command card, such as Coordinated Fire.
Truthfully, I play General Kenobi the same way. It’s an enormous surge token battery and issues multiple orders. It also super charges the guardian ability of Obi-Wan by increasing his save from 50% to 66%, making his ability much safer. With this card, I also prefer a turn 1-3 usage, and I generally order Kenobi and the two ARC trooper teams, leaving the bag to be mostly neutral timed activation with the Corp units and Rex.
We’ve arrived folks. The best hand of two pips in Legion. Take that Clankers (TTC) is a major flex card here. You can use it turn one, turn six, and anywhere in between. As a refresher, it’s Rex’s card that allows units with a face up token and an aim token to extend their weapon ranges by one, to a max of range four.
This card is the ultimate mistake punisher (with plaudits as well to Iden’s Tactical Strike). I like to use it to even activation counts, get range three gunslinger for Rex, and even kill back-capping units for objectives like Key Positions and Intercept. It’s also an absolutely brutal alpha strike, and I welcome you to check out Luke Cook’s video for a full explanation of that tactic.
Knowledge and Defense is also a fantastic card. As I mentioned earlier, this list likes to ball up and stay condensed upon itself. Well, when it condenses, it also allows Kenobi to gain in excess of five dodge tokens on a regular basis, which perfectly feeds into his soresu mastery. Especially when your troops are in heavy cover, this makes your army an extremely tough nut to crack, and offers great flexibility to counter high powered command cards in the vein of General Kenobi, deny a tauntaun charge, or provide a platform for Obi-Wan and a few units to make a deep advance into enemy territory.
Call Me Captain is an interesting card. It is incredibly powerful if pulled off correctly, but the time to use it does not occur every game. Frequently I use this card simply for priority, and this tends to fall into the later turns, most commonly turn five or six. The exception to this is when opposing Tauntauns have entered my lines, or if Kenobi has fallen and an enemy force user is still present. By all means, fire support away into melee.
Hello There is also quite situational. It’s useful when diving Kenobi into the enemy lines, as it comes with a high priority and a number of free tokens. It also happens to be useful for delaying opponent’s entries due to the ability of Obi-Wan to take standby tokens, effectively giving him the chance to double attack if someone comes towards you. I must admit, I don’t have much of a guide to timing here, as I’ve played this everywhere from turn two through turn six.
There are two main lists that Zach and I have encountered that pose a significant threat to Rex Kenobi: Double AAT and Double Full ARCs (I’m noticing a trend here). Let’s briefly discuss both.
Double AAT involves a large bid, two AATs, and General Grievous. All three of these pieces are large damage dealers and can function either early or late in the turn, adding an extra layer of planning for you to encounter. Frequently, the two tanks are set up in a crossfire, and can easily pick apart an exposed strike team or R2, drastically reducing your activation count. Both tanks can also be used as physical blockers to keep your clone ball out of position and away from crucial locations.
Double Full ARCs, or ArcStar, involves three overwatch squads, two arc squads, a sniper, rex, and five copies of overwatch. Getting anywhere near it is a nightmare, especially with its ten activations, and the piercing arc squads can easily eliminate a clone squad in a single strike. The list has been dominating Invader League Season 5, and our very own Mike Barry has written a guide on it.
If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you! This has been quite a dive into a single list and its workings. However, I hope you were able to pick up a trick or two; as most of these ideas do function in other builds, I simply prefer this combination for my own playstyle! Using only nine activations can be rough, but the sheer firepower and durability this list puts out more than makes up for it. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and roll even better!
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