Star Wars Legion: The Alligator, The Chosen One, and The Crucible

Some things in this world are simply more important than Legion, which is precisely why this article will commence with an honorary induction into Florida Man legend. Word on the street is, “Only Florida Men can tame the sacred beast.” Well, I can assure you this weekend proved that rumor false. Observe the evidence below and welcome the newest honorary FL Man, Graeme aka, “CanadianBear”.

Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth – “FloridianGator”.

Now for the part that I’ve been purposely prolonging because I truly have no idea how to write articles anymore and am just winging it with every keystroke:

The Star Wars Legion Grand Tournament at Crucible/Quest Con 2024.

Before I dive into my list (actually Luke Cook’s list that I shamelessly borrowed for the weekend because I didn’t get the warm fuzzy with Grievous super squad B2’s), I want to simply thank AMG and everyone in the Legion community for continuing to support this game we all know and love, even if it died its hair, changed its wardrobe, and got a face-lift. It’s STILL plastic Star Wars toys that allow us to escape from the woes and worries of “the real world” and for that, I am forever grateful. A special thanks to Jordan “Luminous Gaming” for TO-ing, Sam “Thor” for judging, and all the groups that traveled from near and far to test their mettle in the Florida Legion Crucible: Crit2Block, StabCast, FL Men Legion, Atlanta Resurgens, Jonathan “Griz” (From the NE) and all the other groups in attendance.

Behold, the Chosen One and his entourage of clone troopers…severely under costed units…clone troopers.

I’m not going to post a text version of my list, as Kyle already did a great write-up of all the lists in Top 8 and you should check out his article here. That and Doc said to focus more on “retro specs“, whatever that is. I think he wants me to stop writing and get into the lens-crafting business. Try to corner the market before it gets over-saturated maybe? I’m not sure though because I don’t get invited to the “What’s the next take over the world scheme” board meetings. Anyways, I digest and I say this to you, Doc. I will build you the best god-dam pair of retro spectacles you’ve ever seen. They’ll be hip, stylish, have built-in friendly/enemy territory shaders, and they’ll make you look like you were doing insider trading (and who knows what in terms of illicit substances) on Wall Street in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

Nice specs! – Doc

The Opponents

Let me begin by simply stating the following: Everyone I played this weekend was not only a blast to compete against, but each game presented a unique and interesting challenge. There will also be a shameless photo dump at the end, but I did want to take a moment to highlight some moments from each of my games.

Game 1: Richard Lavery

This would not be the first, nor last time the Baron of Crit2Block and I face off, and like always we have fun with it. When I saw the pairings for round 1, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, the Crucible had commenced. The dice gods were with me in the opening salvo, as I was able to generate a few crits from my sniper teams to bypass his Armor 1 Wookies and dodges. I believe I took off 3 models between my 4 strike teams and both Commandos. A couple of the full Arc squads were also able to perform what we call in the business, “drive-bys.” I would simply Scout, tactical aim, shoot range 2, then back up so as to be safe from return fire at the beginning of the next turn. This proved quite effective, and forced Richard to fully commit to the charge, which was looking like it would prove overwhelming until my strike teams made a few clutch saves to keep activations alive. All in all, this was quite a fun match, and I had managed to even up the score between Richard and I (2-2 at this point, official games only of course).

Game 2: Paul (Shadow Scout)

This match was essentially a mirror, and one in which I did not have Force Push and Paul did. This made me overly cautious because I knew I had to get ahead on attrition early to even out the objective advantage. It was straight kill mode from the first deployment. Paul played a great game, but ultimately I found the extra activations and 40 points not dedicated to Push allowed me to whittle down and even completely eliminate full acts. Had the dice not cooperated (hard to do with this list because you have 12321390 aim tokens available at any given moment) it would’ve proven much more difficult. Great game Paul, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Game 3: Pierce Tibma

Pierce is actually a friend from MCP, which he’s had a lot of success in and I was excited to finally play a game of Legion with him. He was rocking Grievous, Magnas, B2s, and Dioxis Mine BXs. Our game started off relatively fine, but eventually, the firepower of my list took over and left only a few activations for Pierce to try and scramble onto the objective. Pierce did make it a point to say, “this list hurts, I think it’s under-costed” and he…would be correct. We spent more time talking about local breweries and new whiskeys than actually playing Legion, but it was a fun way to round out Day 1!

Game 4: Tyler Hatfield

Ahh yes, my fellow FL Man. A brother in gator bites and Buccee’s beaver nuggets. It wasn’t too long ago we faced each other in the finals of Lonestar, and I knew Tyler was seeking his revenge. Spoiler alert, he did get it. Our game started out hyper-cagey, and it ended up draining a fair bit of time off the clock, which prevented us from getting into round 4, but for the most part it was probably the toughest game of the weekend simply due to the fact that Tyler had a much more significant R3 presence, 3x medics, and Force Push to all play around. He was able to blow up one of my bunkers at the end of 3, while I was only able to put 2 wounds on one of his, and failed to make my push to his other home bunker point. Round 4 would have certainly been interesting, as our Anakins were attacking each other with no actual results (his Anakin made about 27 saves for a grand total of 1 wound, and mine made roughly 16/17 saves to take 3 wounds).

Game 5: James Sheerin

This match was important to both of us, as neither wanted to risk dropping to 3-2 with the Top 8 cut only taking 3 at 4-2, so it was game on from the get-go. James’ list can also be found in Kyle’s article, and I knew from the beginning it would be a slugfest. We ended up on Intercept Signals, Surface Scan, and I knew his snail tanks would cause problems for my full Arcs, as well as the double Dioxis Mine Commandos. By the end of round 3 I was feeling somewhat confident I had it in the bag, until the last activation of the round my full health Arcs got one-shot by a 3 man B2 squad in melee (5 blanks and one surge on defense) and it lost me the right-most Intercept point. Nonetheless, I figured R4 I could go first with Anakin’s 1 pip, remove the 4 hp snail tank, and clean up the full BX squad all in one fell swoop. That would not be the case, as I lost the roll off and 4 health Anakin died to 6 hits and a crit into heavy cover. This was when I started to worry. My one last chance was to charge a 4 health B1 squad with full arcs, and if I wiped them I’d be able to win the left-most Intercept point as well as deny one of his scanners. The B1s lived with 1 model, and caused many-a-problem in the following round. Needless to say, I did not win this match, as we tied on VPs and it came down to a KP margin of 586 (modified from 606) to 584 (accidentally gave James 86 points per full Arc squad instead of 80. I know what you’re thinking, 86 seems too cheap. Now imagine how I felt when I realized they were only 80).

Game 6 Tanner Lewis

This was it. The last chance to squeak into the cut, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Tanner brought Dooku, B2s with T-Series personnel, Droidekas, Geos/Sun Fac, and an AAT with Lok Durd. The second I saw Bring Them to Heel flip up, I bounced it. I don’t think I need to explain my rationale, do I? Suppression tricks on BTH = Loss 9/10 times if you don’t have suppression tricks of your own. Needless to say, we ended up on Breakthrough which is arguably my list’s strongest Primary, so I was all for it. Tanner did a great job splitting up his army and threatening my home point T3, but I was able to do enough on the right side of the board to allocate more units to defending the left flank. All in all, a hard-fought game from Tanner, and I would like to congratulate him on beating my Dad earlier in the tournament.

Game 7 Travis Clark

This was the first round of the cut on Day 3 and I was facing one of the Crit2Block guys, who I played at Cherokee back in February. Travis was also playing Ani-501st but with Rex. He mentioned that he loves the combo of the two so he can afford to split up his army and get maximum benefit from the Battle Force 3 pip, and I can see why. I actually played a similar list at a local event a few weeks prior but was unsatisfied with Rex’s offensive output in the mirror when compared to the two strike teams. Travis definitely made him work though, as our game was pretty close the entire way through and the major turning point was when his Anakin took 4 wounds from an Arc charge (this is why I definitely think Ani needs ITF) and from there, his flank with Anakin just collapsed. All in all, this was a great back-and-forth game, and I’m glad we got to play each other again.

Game 8 Mowgly

Ladies and gentlemen, this is HIM. He. The Legend himself. Mr. 21 activation Rebels, in the flesh AND I GOT A PICTURE WITH HIM. I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors of his ability to score POIs without even being within a half-range. Let me tell you whatever rumors you’ve heard…they’re all true. Yes, this man even walked his minis on water (the map we played on had some little streams and he was walking minis over them). Mowgly was/is/will always be the People’s Champion, and let me say it was an absolute pleasure to play against him. I had monitored some of the chatter from Discord, and I can assure you part of his game plan was not to slow play and “drain the clock.” He knew exactly what he was doing, and spared no time to position his units. We both looked at each other as we walked up to the table and immediately uttered the words, “Can I/You kill activations quickly enough?” As fate would have it, the answer would be yes. By the end of Round 1 I was slightly worried, as I had only removed 3 units from the table, and he was positioned to storm the center and right-most POIs on Close the Pocket. Fortunately, by the end of round 3 I had all but eliminated his army, and his lone Rebel Officer was in full retreat. This cannot be stressed enough, Legion 2.6 is not just simply about rolling dice. Yes, it’s more variant and dependent on it than ever before, but Mowgly proved to me you can win games with pure strategy and exceptional positioning.

Game 9 Richard Lavery

This one doesn’t get a fancy write-up. This one gets a link to the YavinBase stream provided by the illustrious Dave Zelenka, where you can watch mine and Richard’s epic battle in high-def, 4k, and from the comfort of your own home. Oh, and for those of you who have trouble with vision, I’ll have those Retro Specs in production in no time.

Seriously though, this really was an epic final and the only way to experience it is by checking out the stream.

Honorable Mentions

These are either for those who were just shy of making the cut, made the Top 8 cut and decided to brave the long lines and tumultuous paths of Disney World, or simply had an incredible showing the first two days and made me proud.

I’d like to start by congratulating Florida Dad (my Dad) for going 3-3, he played Wookie Defenders with a Saber Tank and three flutters, in his first Major event. I’d also like to thank him for helping me beat up Red Hulk. Mom, you’re also up for honorable mention for the cool shirts you custom made for me.

Jonathon Grizaniuk for being the ONLY player to go 6-0 days 1-2. Amazing showing bud, and keep it up. I remember our showdown in Atlantic City over a year ago, and I’m proud of you.

Top Empire: Wes Wagner

Wes was just shy of making the cut at 4-2, but brought glory to the Empire with his take on Dave Grant’s “Vader Immortal” list. Props to Wes for carrying the Imperial Banner!

Top 8 – Drop It Like It’s Disney

Final shout outs go to Ryan Grahn and Kameron B for making Top 8, but electing to party with the Mouse on Sunday instead. Click the link. You know you want to…. (Disclaimer: I did it, and I have regrets)

Until next time, this is PoisonDart signing off. May the Specs Be With You.