New Years Resolution: Star Wars Legion 2: Electric Boogaloo

New year, new me. Wait, didn’t I say that last year…and the year before?!

Jokes aside, this year has been a wild ride for so many reasons. It is honestly hard to believe that this was one calendar year, to be honest. Like the fact that we were supposed to have Worlds a mere nine months ago….actually feels like nine years ago. While on a personal level this actually was a great year for me and my family (New baby, new house), it was sort of a down year for me when it comes to Legion. Which will have, of course, a major impact on my “Resolutions” here today.

I’m going to start off by explaining how I feel about the game at the moment, take it, leave it, skip it if you want that’s up to you. However, I think if I can articulate the words on paper here maybe it will help propel me to where I want to be with Legion.

When everything hit the fan this year, I have to admit that Legion never took a back seat. If anything, it took a step forward for me. I was running Invader League, which at the time was arguably the most important thing for the competitive scene of the game, I was playing multiple games a week on TTS, I joined the Notorious Scoundrels podcast. The Legion life was really booming for me and I was absolutely loving it….for a while.

After a while…I got sick of TTS being my only option. TTS, as we all may know, is Table Top Simulator. Arguably one of the best things for Legion is TTS, as most of us are unable to play Legion on an actual table still to this day. TTS, while it is great in many ways, is just also a hard pill for me to swallow as being my ONLY option to play this game I love. I hit a plateau, and I’m still ON that plateau. I was going towards burnout. Still am, maybe? I haven’t quite figured it all out, to be honest.

Now, some of this is compacted in the fact that I have two young kids at home. It’s really hard to work all day, come home and be the dad that I want to be, and then sit down and play Legion on a computer for three hours. Because, if you don’t know it already, Legion takes a lot of brainpower. I just don’t have that mental capacity to do it, right now. If I could play on a real table, it’s also just much easier to justify that to my wife. Any dad or husband knows what this feels like! Trust me!

Honestly, I already feel better about the situation as I am typing this out. It’s like a release and it’s coming to me as I go, this isn’t even what I intended when I first thought out what my article would be like. Which can bring me to my first Resolution ,for this year, in regards to Legion.

Find Joy Again

Maybe it’s something we all need as the year turns new. The game certainly has a new outlook with points changes, errata’s, and a new company taking over the game. It’s a shot in the arm the game needed, to be quite frank, and maybe we all need our own shot in the arm. I know I do. Perhaps it will come in the form of playing more fun lists, or maybe it will come in the form of playing Legion at stores/conventions again. (Hopefully!) Either way, if you’re down like I am, we should find a way to get us back into the groove!!

Paint More

This one is really a funny one. I remember when this all started I said to myself: I am going to catch up with all my painting finally, goodbye backlog! That was quite possibly the biggest lie I have ever told myself. I haven’t touched a brush in quite some time and there really has been no urgency for me to do so. I think if real games become a reality again, another big hope from me here, it will be the kick in the you know what that I need to get back on the paint grind. Brings me back to when I was pushing myself last year to get things ready for LVO.

More Reps

I probably said the same thing last year on this one, and I’m not afraid to say it again this year. Especially this year, actually. I really need to get myself out of my funk and getting reps in like I used to. Maybe not the one to three games it used to be, not anymore with another kid, but at least once every two weeks seems like a step in the right direction. As I continually to build this piece on hope, like the Rebellion, when we finally do have a convention/tournament lined up that will be the end game a lot of us need to practice like we used to. The key this time around, though, is to make sure I don’t put myself on the brink of burnout again, and neither should you. I know there are a lot of unknowns going forward, as we have no idea what AMG’s version of OP will look like, but let’s just keep an open and positive mind about it!

Content Creation

I’m not going to lie: I feel like my last few blog pieces have been somewhat of a mail in, which goes hand in hand with how I am feeling in general about the game currently on a personal level. I hold myself to a higher standard than that and I hope I can find the desire I had creating content over these two plus years once again. This community is great and what we have here at the Fifth Trooper Network is great as well. I want to make sure that I, myself!, feel that I am carrying my weight and bringing the community the content it deserves. I’ll be back, I know I will, I just need to find my place again!

Final Thoughts

This past year was a crazy, unprecedented year that none of us expected. We can only hope that things can move forward from here, and we can all go back to playing the game that we love on an actual table when this is all said and done. The moment that first big tournament happens, I feel like a lot of weight will be lifted off our shoulders and we can rejoice. Maybe we can enjoy a beer….or like a dozen…together, too.

Let me know what you have for New Year Resolutions when it comes to Star Wars Legion this year! I’d love to hear them all! Happy New Year to all!