Wide Open Meta: Exploring Star Wars Unlimited in Early Twilight of the Republic
November 22, 2024
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I had the privilege to be able to attend NOVA open this week and participate in the Star Wars: Legion Maximum Firepower Tournament. Sadly I was only able to attend two days of the tourney, but suffice to say it was a blast.
Herein I’ll briefly recap my experience, as well as get to what I know you are all interested in, the undefeated lists. Strap in!
For those of you that haven’t been to NOVA Open, it is in a classy venue in Crystal City, Arlington, at the Hyatt hotel. The bathrooms are clean and they have, like, free water and stuff. Plus escalators. I rode said escalators down with my peg leg to where the tourneys are being held.
We were told the tables would be pretty similar to the GenCon boards, and low and behold, they were. I snapped a few pics:
That is pretty sparse.
There is much debate on what units this sort of setup benefits. That conversation has been raging rather capably on the Facebooks, so I won’t get into it here. Suffice to say, it is boring. Besides the lack of terrain pieces in general, nearly all of it is effectively impassable. Your units are either out of line of sight completely or totally in the open. There are few if any pieces where your troopers can take cover and shoot at other targets from.
It wouldn’t be as interesting of a conversation if there wasn’t some official FFG position on the issue, but there is. From the offical forums:
“Question: How much terrain should be on a battlefield when playing Star Wars: Legion?
Answer: While players can use however much or however little terrain they would like when playing Star Wars: Legion, the Rules Reference suggests that players fill at least a quarter of the battlefield with pieces of terrain, as densely packed as possible, and then spread that terrain out over the entire battlefield. It is recommended that players follow this suggestion for the best Star Wars: Legion experience. In addition, including a variety of terrain types adds interesting tactical decisions to a game. A mix of terrain that includes several pieces of height, 1 or 2 line of sight blocking terrain, a few pieces of area terrain that provide light cover, one or two pieces of difficult terrain, and 8 to 12 barricades is a great starting point that players can add to with their own custom made terrain or other favorite terrain types.”
The GenCon (all days) and NOVA day 1 boards clearly did not meet that standard, despite the terrain being provided directly by FFG. What terrain did exist seemed rather impractical (the largest pieces were corner pieces) and classified in odd ways. The boards had a yellow sheet next to them that articulated how terrain should be treated. Most rocks were listed as light cover, despite being basically line of sight blocking, while the AT-ST in the pic below was listed as impassable. The AT-ST is a particularly sad case, simply because it might be the most interesting piece (tactically) on the board, and they just made it entirely impassable.
My understanding is the yellow sheets (and the terrain) came directly from FFG, not the NOVA TOs. Also most of the ‘hills’ were technically classified as area terrain (light cover), but were very pointy and steep, and impossible to actually balance a model on top of.
Enough griping about terrain.
All of my opponents were relatively chill. It was definitely a competitive vibe, but nobody I met was a douche. Most everybody knew what they were doing, but there was certainly a rules question or two, especially about the cover rules.
If you are planning to go to a tourney, make sure you know your cover rules. They are not terribly intuitive. Captain Rocket has a good breakdown on the FFG forums.
Day one had only 24 participants, with 7 Rebels and 17 Imperials. Sign ups were full with 32, and there were more than 15 people on the waitlist, so it was odd that so many didn’t show up. Its not like you get your entry fee back.
Let us look at some lists, shall we? Here are the undefeated Adepticon Invitees from Day One.
Gordon brought an unusually eclectic Rebel list. No, he didn’t have a T-47 (nobody brought one). He did have wonder twins, a smattering of troopers, and three AT-RTs (two Laser, one Rotary). This is a little different from the ‘standard’ wonder twins build in that it goes a little lighter on trooper upgrades and includes an extra AT-RT. Gordon prepared well for the sparse boards.
Gordon is a local. I’ve never managed to play him myself as his game store is a little far for me, but I intend to seek him out for a schooling sometime.
++ Standard (Rebel Alliance) [790 Points] ++
+ Commander +
•Leia Organa [90 Points]
•Luke Skywalker [160 Points]
+ Corps +
Fleet Troopers [67 Points]: Scatter Gun Trooper
Fleet Troopers [44 Points]
Rebel Troopers [40 Points]
Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper
Rebel Troopers [62 Points]: Z-6 Trooper
+ Support +
AT-RT [90 Points]: AT-RT Laser Cannon
AT-RT [85 Points]: AT-RT Rotary Blaster
AT-RT [90 Points]: AT-RT Laser Cannon
++ Total: [790 Points] ++
I had the pleasure of getting murdered by Austin in the last round. This is a very standard Veers triple bikes list. I can tell you it is brutal. I was still sore the next morning.
Day two was a little weird, as there were only 22 players. As a result, we only played three rounds, so there were four undefeated players.
There were 7 Rebels and 15 Imperials.
The terrain situation was much better. The TO’s moved several of the big corner pieces to the middle, and allowed us to use barricades. Here is a pic from day 2:
Much better.
John is another local, from the same store as Gordon. Maybe there is something in the beer up there (yes, they serve beer).
This is a Veers triple bikes list. The HH-12s are different, but this is a pretty standard Veers triple bikes list. John said he was worried about AT-RTs. HH-12s certainly do murder AT-RTs, and it frees the bikes up to go trooper hunting. There were a lot of AT-ST lists on Day Two as well; several Weiss lists and two double AT-ST lists, so the HH-12s did some work. Between the two triple bike lists I probably prefer Austin’s from Day One, but I am not partial to exhaust weapons.
This guy is pretty local too. Lives in my house actually. Weird.
Standard, boring wonder twins list. Just the one Fleet Trooper, but otherwise Z-6s and laser AT-RTs.
I typically use the Fleets more defensively, as I only have the one. Generally this is a very cautious list over all; I like to methodically move across the board with dodge tokens, throwing down some Z-6 fire. When the time is right, Luke goes ham on something. Leia does all the awesome things she does. I am not afraid to split the twins up if the objective calls for it, but generally I keep them at least within command range of each other if so they can give each other orders. Usually if I am not playing a one pip command card, Luke and Leia each get an order, to dish out dodge tokens in a timely fashion and help control the contents of my token bag. The one exception is if I am in a position to No Time For Sorrows a group of Fleets so they can delete something (they do that).
I did not have much time to talk to Billy. He runs the bikes and AT-ST up the flanks and lets the troopers do the important bits.
Dude, you left before you got your Adepticon invite! And also before I could get your list. If you are Adam, hit me up and I’ll get your list on here.
Sadly I was unable to attend day three, so I didn’t get to bear witness myself. Day three had three undefeated players.
Matt is another local. Same game store as Gordon and John? Yup.
Matt also makes some awesome terrain boards.
Matt runs a pretty standard wonder twins, with less flare for a strong 15 point bid. It worked out as he forced key positions twice.
Another local! And another good dude. Raul runs Veers triple bikes.
800/800
Darth Vader 200
Saber Throw, Force Push, Force Reflexes,
General Veers 80
Esteemed Leader,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper,
Snowtroopers 48
Snowtroopers 48
74-Z Speeder Bikes 90
74-Z Speeder Bikes 90
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