This article will serve as the guide to the Wookiee Defenders Battleforce for Star Wars: Legion, now updated for Legion 2.6. Original article by Kyle Dornbos, 2.6 edits by Evan “Doc Velo” Paul.
We’ll go over some of the overall strengths and weaknesses of the Wookiee Defenders battle force, special rules, the force organization chart, the unit cards, and some list ideas. We’ll also go over the “Wookiee generic” command cards; though not strictly unique to the battle force, they fit neatly into it (as you would expect for Wookiee-specific command cards) and should be part of your plan when running a Wookiee Defenders battle force.
Despite the sparse text in this bit compared to Experimental Droids (which released at the same time), there is actually quite a bit to unpack here.
First, a Wookiee Defenders battle force is part of the Republic faction. That should be fairly obvious from the unit roster, but a lot of the units on this roster can also be Rebel units (the Wookiees and Chewie, specifically) so it’s worth noting.
Second, Wookiee Warriors (Noble Fighters, that’s the melee one) count as corps for the purposes of army building and battle cards. Basically, this means you can use melee Wookiees to fill out your corps slots. They will also count as corps for the purposes of battle cards which in Legion 2.6 has two sort-of-niche-but-still-true effects:
A note to add to the above: the Wookiee Warriors Noble Fighters do NOT count as corps for the purposes of providing Backup, since that is not called out by the rules, meaning that Chewbacca and the Clone Infantry are the only legal units for providing backup to either Yoda or the Wookiee Chieftain.
Third, the first time a mini in each Wookiee unit is defeated each round, they get to make a free speed-1 move. As Wookiees take casualties, they get free moves! This has myriad uses, from simply keeping the Furvalanche going toward your opponent to popping out of sight to avoid further shots.
Finally, your army must include at least three Wookiee Trooper units. This seems sort of hard not to do with the way the unit roster plays out, but I guess it’s technically possible? If you aren’t taking at least three Wookiees though, what are you even doing here?
Wookiees! Wookiee Defenders is supposed to represent the Republic(ish) forces that defended Kashyyk from the droid assault on said Wookiee Homeworld. What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?!?
One to two commanders. This has to be either the Chieftain, Yoda, or Chewie. Sorry, no generic clone commanders.
Yoda was, of course, famously at the battle of Kashyyk, one of the primary reasons he didn’t fall victim to Order 66. In Legion, Yoda is a ridiculously flexible piece, with an extreme premium cost to match. He also brings command cards that are much more impactful than anything the Wooks can take without him. The advent of Legion 2.6 and its 1000 point limit has made Yoda lists feel much less restrictive than in the past.
Upgrades to consider: Burst of Speed, Battle Meditation (to allow you do move in two Bowcaster melee units or one and an ARC with very powerful Relentless shots), Jedi Mind Trick, Force Barrier, and Improvised orders (so you can dig for a vehicle or trooper when you need to).
Republic Chewie is not as flexible as his Rebel counterpart with respect to Guardian, but he has crazy synergy with Yoda (Size Matters Sometimes blows open that Yoda decision tree even further) and he is also a Wookiee Trooper Commander, which means he can utilize the special Republic Wookiee generic command cards. He’s cheaper than the Wookiee Chieftain for a similar role, giving him some utility even when not running Yoda. He also notably has two more health than the Chieftain and his Reliable 2 means he’ll only NOT be surging to defend under the heaviest of fire. In all, though some would have you believe that an army with a lone Wook commander should be the Chieftain, we don’t think it’s nearly so cut-and-dry.
Upgrades to consider: Tenacity, Recon Intel
One advantage the Chieftain gained from 2.6 is that his dice pool is no longer quite so sad against cover which is nice. He’s still pretty durable, especially when on the move, and his melee profile is above average. You have to have a commander, and if you don’t want to save some points with Chewie you could do worse than this guy. Still, don’t be too enamored with his Agile keyword…it is most useful when charging into an unactivated unit to reduce the return punches, but before he can engage you’re usually going to want to go later in the round with him which makes the dodges from movement less and less useful. At the end of the day, while he is a Wookiee, his effective health is actually only about the same as Cassian Andor (who has 6 health behind white saves with Danger Sense), who isn’t exactly known for his beefiness.
Upgrades to consider: Improvised Orders (if running Flutters), Offensive Push, Tenacity
Note that Wookiee Warriors (Noble Fighters, aka melee Wookiees) count as corps for army building purposes here, so I’ll include them in the corps section.
Basically this means you get 0-4 ranged Wookiees (in your special forces slot) and 3-6 melee Wookiees (in your corps slot). You can also take up to one full ARC as one of your four special forces units.
If you want something in your list that shoots things besides Fluttercraft, ranged Wookiees are basically your option. They’re still decent with a bowcaster, and they do have Sharpshooter 1 to downgrade that pesky cover, but most of their pool is white dice which makes them a bit of a slot machine. I wouldn’t bother with the battle shield or long gun because the attack pools with these weapons just don’t make this unit worth it. They need a way to get aim tokens, which they don’t particularly have in this battle force aside from Yoda’s 3-Pip. Even accounting for the Pierce 1 they get from the bowcaster though, their offense is basically equivalent to a Clone Infantry with a Z6 and a Commander despite being 3 points more expensive, and they have lower effective health than the Clone unit as well.
One thing the battle force does offer them is the ability to pop back behind a line-of-sight blocker if they take heat on return fire (assuming they lose a model) which is a nice consolation prize for the lack of aim support.
Upgrades to consider: Bowcaster Wookiee, Recon Intel
Full ARCs are a hard sell in a list with no Boil, no Echo, and no Exemplar, but ranged attackers are definitely hard to come by in this battleforce, so they do fill a weakness there. I left the old text in here (it was correct at the time) for comedy. As of right now, full ARCs are very likely the most efficient unit in the game, and the addition of charge and a melee option for their Hand Blasters (when they already had Tactical 1) means they usually hit even harder than melee Wookiees do. Thus, for the first time ever, the limitation of one ARC in this army feels like a limitation. Amusingly, they can also benefit from the tokens on the Wookiee generic one pip (since that doesn’t specify Wookiee Trooper for the target) but that is fairly edge case.
The only way to get your ARCs surge access would be to also take a Phase II clone trooper unit, and then at that point are you even running a Wookiee list? Bahahaha, hello Clone Commander you sweet thing you.
Upgrades to consider: Clone Commander, Precision Scopes
Here’s the beef. You need 3-6 corps, but of course melee Wookiees count for that. This is where most of the meat of your list is going to come from.
If there is one thing Wookiees like besides ripping arms off, its moving (to get closer to the bodies those arms are attached to).
There are a few different ways to field your melee Wookiees in this battleforce; naked with just Tenacity (for 75 points) as just a pure melee rush list, or with some combination of heavy weapons (either the bowcaster or the shield).
Alternatively, consider the shield Wookiee. Five points cheaper than the bowcaster, it makes your Wookiees a lot tougher, especially once they get close and don’t really have to move. Impact and critical weapons are also fairly rare in melee, meaning once they get stuck in your battle shield wookiees will be much harder to dislodge. We’d really only suggest the Bowcaster on melee units if you are using Yoda with Battle Meditation so you can get a really powerful Relentless shot in while you’re closing distance (or two, with Guidance) using Yoda’s 2-Pip.
Upgrades to consider: Battle Shield Wookiee, Recon Intel, Bowcaster Wookiee
While this unit was previously only really helpful for Fire Support tricks, its relative cost reduction with 2.6 (the unit and Z6 are all cheaper than Phase II’s were before) as well as the higher-than-before incentive to bring an ARC has made this more attractive in this Battle Force, though still uncommon. You could also consider a medic for bringing back the occasional Wookiee casualty. Running one of these alongside an ARC with a Commander enables two surges to be shared which may potentially be more efficient than running a “shooty wook” but your mileage may vary.
Upgrades to Consider: Z-6 Trooper, Clone Medic, Clone Commander
I’ll admit to being flummoxed as to why these were made more expensive in 2.6 while Fluttercraft costs were left alone, even for non-Wookiee Defender lists. But when you have the option of running a unit with a ton more flexibility, speed, power, and basically the same health pool (since BARC’s can’t get terrain cover anymore) I truly have no idea why anyone would bother playing a BARC in this Battle Force. Even if you only own two Fluttercraft, you’re very likely better off running something else.
Upgrades to Consider: Running a Fluttercraft instead
The unique battleforce Fluttercraft is identical to a “normal” Fluttercraft except for the excellent Attack Run ability, which allows you to change its speed for its activation. This gives them the potential to be insanely fast; with their large bases and speed 3, they can match the T-47 for fastest unit in the game. They also have the option to slow down to speed 1, which can be helpful in some situations when you want to make a really tight turn but don’t want to go too-far laterally.
The Gnasp Gunner should probably be your go-to option here. The increased speed from Attack Run might just give you the ability to actually get the occasional out of cover shot, if nothing else just by flying directly over your target to hit them from immediately behind at point blank range. Even if they have cover, the general downgrade in the value of cover with Legion 2.6 means that this gun is much more deadly than before. There is almost always going to be a hit that sneaks through now, and that hit has Pierce and Impact.
The Bombardier is interesting as well, primarily because Overrun attacks can be made in melee. If your list centers around swamping your opponent with a relentless wave of Wookiees, a couple of Bombardier Fluttercraft on hand to skew objectives and drop bombs on tied up units could be a useful tool in your box.
Perhaps most importantly is this: In Legion 2.6, vehicles can score on every objective. And this is the fastest, most maneuverable vehicle in the game. It’s for this reason that we strongly advocate having order control on all your Fluttercraft for the all-important Turn 1, so that you can choose exactly which side you want to concentrate your craft on (hint, it’s usually their “weaker” side) and use hit-and-run to gain control of that half of the table. If you are coy with them they can force your opponent to either chase them or ignore them, and there are many scenarios where either choice feels bad…for them.
For more tips on Fluttercraft, check out Evan’s Fluttercraft Unit Guide.
This vehicle had gained a lot from the 2.6 update:
So all-in-all it’s actually worth considering now! Additionally, both this and the Saber tank can block LOS for your troopers on the way in which can be helpful if planned correctly.
Not only did the tank gain surge-to-hit but its beam weapon got a major boost from the cover changes. It’s also a very large and decently fast LOS blocker for Wookiees, and the change to 1000 points has taken this out of the meme-zone and is now a real consideration.
Make sure you read these titles out load wherever you happen to be reading this article. Your coworkers, family members, or random bystanders will thank you.
Note that the two and three pip have neither rank nor trooper-type restrictions on the faceup, in case you need to order a clone unit in a pinch. Just keep in mind you are probably giving up the card text effect for that order by doing that. Also, unless you’re taking Yoda, there is little reason to consider taking anything other than the standard Ambush/Push/Assault since the Republic-only generic commands are very clone-focused.
I haven’t the slightest idea what this means in Shyriiwook, but in Legion it means one of your units gets some free tokens. This works on Wookiees, obviously, but it also works on Fluttercraft, BARCs, and (weirdly) ARCs, since there is no Wookiee restriction on the target here (your nominated commander still has to be a Wookiee).
There isn’t much to say about this card is that free tokens are good, and the effect doesn’t have to be spectacular on a one pip.
Additionally, if you happen to use Seize the Initiative on your Wookiee Chieftain or Chewie, they can also benefit from this effect (in addition to whoever you give the card order to).
I recall from an Alex interview that the translation of this one has something to do with trees (either to the trees or from the trees). Anyway, apparently that makes your Wookiees agile, because that’s what the card does.
Agile is a great keyword, especially on units that want to be moving (your Wookiees want to be doing that). Used on the Wookiee Chieftain, this doubles his Agile value, giving him two dodges per move.
Note that Agile won’t proc on the free speed 1 move from the battleforce special rule, since that is not an action or free action.
This is basically Assault with a nice little situational bonus. Demoralize is actually a really solid keyword, especially on melee units, since it can prevent your opponent from taking useful standbys. Think of this one as Assault and be excited when it does more.
We’ll include a couple high-performers from Grand Tournaments as well as one of our own
A list built for maximum efurciency…sorry.
This is very similar to what I’ve been running locally with good success since Legion 2.6. While I can’t speak to Ironpint’s strategy, I start with Yoda’s 3 Pip to maintain order control and save the flutters for last to reduce the risk of them getting shot and to hit-and-runs on the weak side. Meanwhile, Yoda and the boys have an impressive melee ball coming in to hit the strong side.
This is my (Evan’s) personal list at the moment, it stretches the limits of minimum Wookiees (exactly 3!) which may surprise some but it’s got a ton of flexibility due to the speed of the vehicles and the power of the rest of the army moving up as one force.
Huuguughghg gaaa aaahnruh grroooogrrraaaawrrrrrrrrmph. Or something.
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1 Response
I’m curious, is the long gun wookie not a viable option? Could a yoda/wookie list that focuses on suppression be effective?