If you are in the market to upgrade your tabletop gaming experience than you absolutely need to check out some of these amazing terrain pieces from Imperial Terrain. They were kind enough to send over a few for me to look at and I’ve got to admit that I’m pretty blown away. The detail on these pieces are extremely high, and all of them have some type of battlefield functionality that makes them superior to simple rocks and trees.
The Small Mechanics Shop
These little shops make perfect buildings for any setting. They feature a mostly flat roof, which accomodates fitting troops on top, and even the occasional speeder bike. The feature a built-in ladder on one side to facilitate easier climbing up and down. They are tall enough to easily fit troopers inside as well. The two doorways offer multiple paths in or out, and the removable roof allows you to separately move and measure units above and below.
Having buildings with an interior that is accessible during the game, really enhances the possibilities. Perhaps you place an obstacle inside, rather than on the roof? Perhaps you hide units leaders inside after grabbing an objective! These little shops are very versatile and beautifully detailed.
Landing Pad
The Landing Pad is simply amazing. It’s hard to say more than that, simply because the size and detail here are unparalleled. In the above picture, there are actually two landing pads, joined by a leaf, which extends the top platform, however it is possible to connect 4 or more for even larger platforms. Each individual landing pad has an elevator door, a ladder, and enough space to land a standard starfighter on the top. They areabout 7 1/2 inches tall, which means they are considered height 2 as well.
Having terrain that is height 2 offers some very interesting game mechanics, in addition to simply being big and beautiful. Luke Skywalker, for example, cannot simply jump up there from the ground. Though if he were on a tall enough roof of a nearby structure, then possibly he could. The ladder however, does allow easier access to the top. The elevator, if you allow it to be used in your game, can offer alternate paths to the top as well.
Imperial Forward Oupost
The Imperial Forward Outpost has several modular pieces that allow you to build it however you wish. There is also a gate that can rise and fall as well. Perhaps there is a control panel, or perhaps you agree that it will be closed until the beginning of turn 3, or perhaps you decide that the get is a destructible piece. There are so many possibilities with this outpost, that you may want to get multiples.
The interior is also full of intricate details, such as supply crates on the ground, and highly detailed floor grating. It allows troops on the top or the bottom, and can be set up as a small garrison, a wall across the battlefield, or with enough sets, a fully fledged castle!
Summary
I absolutely love these pieces and will be using them in many future battles. Look for them in battle reports! I can’t wait to see how they influence the game! If you’d like to get your own, head on over to Imperial Terrain and either get an STL file to print yourself, or if you prefer they can print them for you and ship it! I might be ordering some more in the future!
Here is a video review if you’d like to see more!
Here are some pictures of the pieces after a quick paint job.
Imperial Assault just got a new announcement! It seems Thrawn, and the remaining heroes from Star Wars Rebels are making their way to Imperial Assault with this next expansion! This is great news for fans of Imperial Assault, especially those who feared the game was “”dead”, but this is also potentially good news for Legion players looking to spice up their game a bit.
As with most other Imperial Assault expansions, this one comes with it’s own wave of blister boxes in addition to the Tyrants of Lothal small box. This wave is going to be loaded up with more principle character than almost any wave we’ve seen so far! We’ve already seen a glimpse into the possibility of them making a Rebels wave, since they released The Inquisitor, Ahsoka, Hera, and Chopper last year, but now we are going to fully complete the crew of the Ghost (or very close to it).
With the inclusion of virtually every main character from the show, it begs the question of whether of not FFG is simply trying to tie up loose ends, and wrap up this game permanently. The release of Legion, in a very similar scale has seemed to be a total replacement for Imperial Assault, allowing battles in a larger scale, with better miniatures, on better terrain. And the best part is that you don’t have to assemble a new map out of dozens of puzzle pieces every time!
Not everyone was included however. Some characters simply didn’t make the cut. Noteworthy absences include Ruhk, Governor Pryce, Kallus, Ryder Azadi, and the short time crew member, AP-5. If they do eventually keep Imperial Assault going, there are certainly more characters available that would fit naturally. Don’t forget about the increasing popularity of Dr. Aphra, and the fact that IA already has her two droid friends from the comics. There are still a few minor loose ends.
What does this mean for Legion?
Deathtroopers! For starters, if you’ve wanted Death Troopers in your game, but didn’t want to paint your stormtroopers black, well now you’ve got a proxy model that’s going to look the part and be ALMOST the same size. It’s long been speculated that Death Troopers will be coming to Legion at some point, and this might be the perfect mini to hold you over and practice your painting skills on, (because an all black trooper can be tricky sometimes!)
There’s also everyone else! If you’ve longed to use the entire Ghost crew on your tabletop, you now have your chance. Weather you want to paint them and proxy them all as a Rebel Trooper unit, or swap them out for unit leaders, you will soon have that option. You can use them as-is, or perhaps you’ll want to re-base them, but cutting them off at the feet and gluing them to Legion bases. Personally, I’d sign Zeb up to be my Z-6 Trooper, because I think he’d love that huge gun! The same goes for Thrawn – Using him in place of a Stormtrooper leader, or even swapping him out when using General Veers, it gives you some additional customization options for anyone who has been eager for Thrawn, Deathtroopers, and the crew of the Ghost!
Keep in mind however, making modifications like swapping minis in from other games, wouldn’t be legal in any Organized Play scenarios – so if you want to play in a tournament you’ll need to use the correct miniatures. But for other times, this could be a great way to spice up your game! Just be sure and make sure your opponent is OK with you proxying models.
The original cards from the core set for Legion. Which ones should you eliminate? What do they do? What choice is best for me? I’m going to talk about all of that.
Deployment Cards
Deployment cards are going to tell you where your deployment zone is. The blue zone for the blue player, and the red zone for the red player. The numbers on the edges of the card, indicates how many range tools each section is, in terms of length and width. A (3) indicates it is range 3, or 18 inches (since each range unit is exactly 6 inches). Many of these deployment cards are going to force you to take a look at the terrain on your board, and determine which one will work best for your army.
Each card is going to by symmetric between the blue player and red player. For this phase, there really isn’t any difference between the two colors, so if you end up being the red player, don’t worry.
Battle Lines is easily the most basic of all deployment cards. It allows you to deploy anywhere on your side, within range 1 of your edge. This is fairly universal and gives most armies a lot of flexibility. It’s worth noting that starting with this deployment can have the highest potential of having shots fired on the first round, so be careful how far forward you start marching those first few troops.
The Long March, is also fairly basic, but will have you playing at the short ends of the table, marching towards your opponents from potentially a longer distance. This one can be favorable to fast units, especially those with compulsory moves. This one can also benefit extreme long range attacks, like the mortars from the AT-ST, which have a minimum range of 4.
Major Offensive is giving each of you opposite corners, but it also extends moderately far into the center. This one is interesting in how it extends into different depths of the board, and can really depend on how your terrain is laid out, on weather or not this one works best for you. Generally, I tend to prefer this deployment only if I have blocking terrain near the center, but slightly closer to my side, allowing me flexibility of deployment, as well as covered approach paths, to objectives.
Disarray is the most difficult to set up for new players, and easily the most chaotic. Newer players are likely only have a single commander, and since it requires you to deploy units in BOTH corners, you are going to be forced to split up your forces in different areas, leaving some units beyond standard command range. This can work well however, with builds using cards to mitigate this distance, such as Long Range Comlink. Another way to utilize this deployment is to simply ignore the disadvantage, by focusing on corps units, and simply putting all of them on one side, and your commander plus whatever remains on the other corner. You’ll be able to issue orders to Heavy, or Support units for example from your commander, and then pull from the pile to get your corps units with ease. If you have 6 corps, and heavy, for example, this might work for you.
Condition Cards
Condition cards are telling you something about the condition of the battlefield you are fighting. Maybe it’s a bright sunny day, maybe it’s foggy, or snowy. Whatever the condition, it’s going to have an impact on your tactics. You’ll want to avoid certain conditions that might cripple your army’s strengths.
Clear conditions is simple. It has no effect. This is equally good for everyone, and that means sometimes you’ll purposely want to eliminate this one if the one behind it might hurt your opponent worse than you.
Hostile Environment makes it more difficult for troopers to remove suppression. It also means that trooper units are less likely to end up in the open, while trying to move from one objective to another. If you are particularly trooper heavy, and your battlefield has lots of wide open spaces, you may want to avoid this one. If you are using a lot of vehicles, your penalties here could be minimized.
Rapid Reinforcements is unique in that it doesn’t reference the battlefield itself, but rather the availability of the troopers within it. This one could potentially hurt a build that is maxing out on heavily upgraded troopers, as it will be far more difficult for a player to set aside 2/3rds of his stronger configured trooper units for a few turns of the game. If you feel like you have plenty of troopers, and can afford to play without them for the first few turns, then perhaps you may enjoy this one. As a side note – any future trooper units can also be effected by this card, so as more troopers enter the game, the tactics for this card may evolve.
Limited Visibility is the best condition to have, if your opponent is equipped with long range attacks that they’d like to use on the first turn. If they are using Leia or Veers, then they’ll have command cards capable of striking you at distance 4 or beyond from the first turn. If they have long range weapons, like the AT-RT Laser Canon, or AT-ST Mortar Launcher, then they’ll also be at a disadvantage, unable to fire at you until after the fog has died down.
Objectives
Objectives are how you win the game. Well, technically you can also completely destroy all of your opponent’s units – but more often than not it’s going to come down to objectives. The right objective can make or break the game for you, so make sure you pay close attention to these.
Intercept the Transmissions turns the game into area control. It’ll will most likely be a fight for the center, as typically one player will end up having an advantage on the left, and the other player will gravitate more to the right. If you have a build that can lock down 2 areas of the battlefield that you’ve built, then this might benefit you. Troopers are crucial for this objective however, in that only trooper unit leaders can give you control of one of the three objectives. A vehicle-heavy list is likely to struggle with this objective in that while vehicles may have some firepower, they have no ability to gain victory points.
Key positions heavily favors the blue player. There are only 3 tokens to be placed and the blue player gets to pick two of them, which means they can select the two terrain pieces that are easiest to defend. Any type of unit leader can compete for control of the terrain pieces however, so vehicles are fine for this one. I like to think that AT-RTs with long range weapons like the AT-RT Laser Canon can be great here, since they can climb on top of an obstacle and hold it, while firing at a distance to cover another one. If you are the red player I’d seriously consider eliminating this objective.
Recover the Supplies is another objective that heavily favors trooper-heavy lists. You are going to have to claim an objective, and keep it safe until the end of the game. If your build can put out a lot of suppression then you may be able to force enemies to panic, and drop their supplies, so that is worth considering. Also if terrain allows for strong hiding spots that block line of sight, you may want to consider claiming supplies and staying safe. Vehicle heavy lists may struggle with this one if they cannot get at least 3 tokens claimed and kept safe.
Breakthrough is a pretty fun objective and perhaps has the most interesting dynamic of all objectives that come with the Core Set. It makes your game almost feel like a sporting event that I might compare to a Star Wars version of Football. It favors the most units, and also favors fast units. Slow units will have difficulty making it to the enemy’s deployment zone, so if you have slower forces like Darth Vader, this one might not be the best for you. Personally, I’ve had success with this mission when using units that have high speed and compulsory moves. Even though rebel snowspeeders cost alot of points, they have the speed and survivability to spend a few turns shooting, and can make a break for the enemy zone right before the end of the game to make the difference. Generally however, if your opponent has several more units than you do, I’d steer clear of this objective.
In Summary
If you prefer a video instead of reading all of this, here is a video as well!
Hopefully you found this information helpful! Out of all the three card types, objectives are easily the most important, but they are also influenced heavily by the other two. The one constant that I’ve found, is that most winning builds tend to favor quantity, over quality – so the more units you have, and thus, the more unit leaders you have, the better your chances of gaining victory tokens and winning the game!
The AT-RT is one of those units that can go from very cheap to very expensive with just a single upgrade. The price of hard-points tend to be significant, and units that have the ability to take them, often very much want to do exactly that. But at what point should you leave that slot empty?
At only 55 points the AT-RT is the second cheapest unit available for the rebels at launch. But it’s price dramatically increases as you add hardpoints. In fact, you can bring it up to 100 points with enough upgrades – which is almost double the starting price. This may be a bridge too far for many lists, in which you’ll want extra activations more than simply extra upgrades. It may be easier to pass on Let’s take a look at each hardpoint available.
The Extra Guns
F
The AT-RT Rotary Blaster comes in at 30 points, and is the most general purposed hardpoint available. Like all of the weapons that you can add, it has Fixed: Front, restricting it’s fire to the frontal 90 degrees only. It does however, offer five black dice, which paired with the AT-RT’s offensive surge to crit, can do some great damage to enemy targets. It doesn’t have any additional keywords however.
The AT-RT Laser Cannon is the most expensive and has the longest range of the AT-RT’s weapons. It only has 3 dice, but one of them is red and combined with the surge ability, this means the AT-RT is virtually guaranteed to get some damage in. And with it’s Impact 3 keyword, it can be a great tool when used against enemy targets with the Armor keyword. The downsides are that this weapon can’t be used at Range 1, and that it is the most expensive, at 35 points, nearly the cost of an entire rebel trooper unit. Is it worth sacrificing nearly an entire unit’s worth of troops and firepower just for an alternate weapon that you can’t use up close?
The Flamethrower has the opposite problem that the Laser Cannon has. It ONLY works up close. It makes up for this weakness by costing only 25 points, which might be easier for some to pay for. Against larger formations of troopers, this weapon can potentially roll the most dice and deal the most damage out of all available options, if you can make it work. But if you end up not making it work, are those points wasted?
Leaving the Slot Empty
One thing to keep in mind, is that the AT-RT doesn’t have the ARSENAL keyword, like the Snowspeeder and AT-ST. This means that the AT-RT isn’t sacrificing a free weapon being fired, by leaving the slot empty. Those other vehicles are virtually required to take at least one hardpoint due to the opportunity cost of missing out on what is effectively a free attack. The AT-RT doesn’t miss out on this attack. It still can shoot at Range 3. It still has an offensive Surge, which means it still has a reasonable chance of being able to suppress enemies that are fairly far away. And it still can do serious damage to enemy units if it can close into melee range of them.
Support
Freeing up points also allows you more room in your squad for extra units – which could go towards another AT-RT. Having an extra unit can often be more advantageous than simply having an upgraded unit that has several options on which weapon to use. This is especially true when you consider the survivability and support that AT-RTs can provide your other units.
Troopers behind an AT-RT will receive light cover. Having a front line of AT-RTs can help keep your troopers safe while you are advancing toward the enemy, or when storming an objective. And keeping them up front also allows them to have early opportunities to engage enemies with the three red dice from those terrible Grappling Claws!
Front Line List
I like the idea of being able to run Naked AT-RTs so much I made a video list about it. Check it out if you’d like to learn more!
So you just picked up Legion and you are trying to figure out what to do next? This guide should help you get started putting your first squad together to wage war against the rebel scum or the evil galactic empire!
A standard game is 800 points, so you are going to need more than just a core set. For most people interested in full 800 point games, that’s going to mean buying multiple core sets, and possibly a few expansions as well. For now, I’m going to assume that you’ve either bought 2 core sets or split two with a friend, and have at least one other expansion to round out your army.
Commander and Command Cards
Selecting a commander is going to be an important part of your overall strategy. For now however, since each faction only has one readily available, you are going to be stuck with either Darth Vader, or Luke Skywalker. However, General Veers and Leia Organa are on the horizon, and will soon offer new, cheaper options. You can have up to 2 commanders, so we may see dual commander lists fairly soon.
Command cards go hand in hand with choosing a commander. You must have 7, and must include a Standing Orders card. You must also have two of each “pip” cards, so two 1-pips, two 2-pips, and two 3-pips. Additionally you cannot duplicate any command cards, so you can’t include two Ambush cards for example. This means at launch, you won’t even have any choices here, since Luke and Vader offer you exactly enough to get you up to that minimum requirement. Once the next wave of commanders comes out however, you’ll have some choices to make. It is worth noting however, that you won’t be able to use Leia’s command cards, if she isn’t in your army. The same holds true for any character specific command card.
The Corps
You need a minimum of 3 Corps units, and a maximum of 6. So at least 3 rebel troopers, or 3 stormtroopers. If have more than 6 you won’t be able to use them all in a standard game. Once we have fleet troopers and snowtroopers, players will have more diversity in their corps options. For now, there are multiple ways to outfit your existing corps troopers and make them cheap, diverse, strong, or tough.
The corps troopers are crucial to winning the game. If your commander is the head of your army, the corps is the backbone. This game is not just about killing the enemy. It is about accomplishing the mission and completing objectives. Most of the mission cards favor builds that have the most unit leaders – and the troopers you’ll get at launch are the cheapest way to get unit leaders. You may want to maximize their numbers by running very few upgrades. You may also want to help ensure their survival by adding extra miniatures to their ranks. Try to outfit your initial corps units in various different ways for the first few games to get a feel for what works best for you. You may want to swarm troopers with no upgrades. You may want to give them all extra weapons to split up their fire. You may want to run every one of them completely different! It is important to get a good feeling for the corps units because they more than likely will be the difference makers in the games that you win.
The Rest of Your Squad
We haven’t seen any Special Forces units announced yet, so for now, that just leaves Support and Heavy. These are the larger units that are going to give your army a battlefield presence to really help it stand out! These are the units that may tend to be more focused on one particular play-style, and may even require you to build your list around them. Vehicles in this game are going to be extremely fun, because they represent one thing that wasn’t really well done in FFG’s last ground game, Imperial Assault. Vehicles here are absolutely gorgeous and having a few of them on your battlefield can really help make your game come alive.
Vehicles tend to be more expensive than troopers, so it’s generally a good idea to have fewer of them, in order to facilitate a more balanced list. Running two fully loaded AT-STs might look cool, but would leave you with very few points for the rest of your list. Generally, newer players may want to limit their first builds to only one heavy, and at most two supports. You’ll want enough points to allow you some hardpoints and other upgrades, especially on those vehicles with the ARSENAL keyword, which allows your attacks to use additional weapons.
Videos
If you want some additional help, here are some videos to walk you through the process.
As Legion gets closer and closer to reality, I find myself at a loss because I still haven’t decided on a color scheme for my armies! It’s got me thinking more and more about how I’m going to approach painting and customizing the game once it arrives.
When to Paint
I’ve made the mistake in the past, of getting a game and refusing to play it until I’ve finished painting it. There are several problems with this approach. The most obvious of which is that it means I’ll have a brand new game but not actually be playing it for awhile. The second problem is that I’ll be anxious to play, and perhaps be tempted to do rush jobs on my miniatures just so that I can get them finished and start playing. Additionally, this doesn’t allow for an intermediate time of reflection. For example, if I painted one squad of miniatures, then went to go play a game or two, I might see some other paint jobs that could inspire some variation on future models. This helps establish some depth of variation and design.
So this time around, I’m going to assemble everything right away, and possibly even prime them immediately, but I don’t think I’ll have that much of a rush to fully paint everything before playing. If you are torn on this, I could suggest a black prime and maybe a light dry-brushing, just to bring out the detail on your models to hold you over until you decide to sit down and hammer out a squad or two of troopers.
Pink Stormtroopers?
Do I want everyone to be standard? I generally do, or at least I think I do. When I got into playing X-Wing, I remember going nuts and painting a ton of my ships in all sorts of wild colors, like red X-Wings, purple TIE Fighters… and now as I look back on these I think I was overanxious to do something different. For now, I think I’d rather have the majority of my troops looking standard. But there’s something to be said for doing a squad or two with some special paint scheme.
The key is (in my opinion) not doing a paint scheme that will overwrite something that’s likely to show up in the future. I wouldn’t paint my stormtroopers black for example, because that might make them look too similar to Death Troopers if those show up. Same goes for Chrome, as if they ever do sequel trilogy units, I wouldn’t want confusion with Captain Phasma. So while I may not go so far as to do Pink Stormtroopers, I think some variation may certainly be a think. Dirty stormtroopers, Sandy Stormtroopers, and maybe even some regular stormtroopers with a touch of snow on their uniforms for my Hoth terrain. (To hold me over until snow
Bases
It looks like the figures don’t actually come attached to their bases. This will help people who want to customize their bases have more freedom to do so. The only risk with doing that however, is that it might look strange if you end up playing on new terrain at some point. In my case, my terrain is all going to have a snowy theme, so weather I’m on Hoth, Starkiller Base, or the snow-crested mountains of Alderaan, my snowy terrain will be appropriate. However, if I made all of my bases snowy, it might look strange when I eventually bring an army to a tournament and play on an urban setting, or an Endor map. I may just paint all of my Imperial bases in grey, and all my rebel bases in tan, like I did for Imperial Assault.
Additionally, I won’t want any base decorations to cover up the sides of the bases. This is specifically for the outer rings, which I plan to color differently for each unit. One stormtrooper unit, for example, will have a red ring around it’s base. Another might be blue, then purple, then green, etc. This will prove helpful when units get close together and will help players differentiate between them. This might be less of an issue for rebel units, which are more likely to have uniform variation between them.
Magnetization
In a recent videos by Sorastro, you can see the bases from below, and it appears that they have a recessed section that would allow for easy placement of a magnet. This would be great for metal trays, and transporting armies.
This is something that could provide a ton of ease when transporting armies in a manner that will keep them mostly locked in place, and also look pretty cool to your friends. The downside here, is that gluing a magnet into every miniature is likely going to be expensive, and time consuming. It will also require a metal tray system for storage, which is great if you already have one from previous wargames, but if you are just getting started here with Legion and don’t have a system like this, you may want to wait a bit before magnetizing your miniatures.
Are you as excited about painting and playing Legion as I am? It’s looking like February is going to be the month that we finally see it! I’m hoping it’s not delayed! There’s a lot of painting to do!
It’s been a great contest with over 60 submissions! I’d like to thank everyone who entered! Submissions are now closed, but you are still more than welcome to add some more paint jobs to the forums if you simply want to share!
I’ll be announcing the winner of the Legion Core Set, as well as the winner of the door prize in the next day or 2, so make sure and check back often!
I’ll be narrowing down the paint jobs soon, but here are some of the finalists:
Here are some thumbnails of the submissions we got over on the forums!
The video, which covers most of the same material:
As Star Wars Legion’s launch date approaches, many people are asking “Do I need multiple Core Sets?” and I think it’s easily one of the most frequently asked questions, so I decided to do my best to answer.
The Short Answer : No, 1 Core set is fine.
The Long Answer : You might actually want more than one. (Keep reading!)
To first answer, we’re going to need to answer a few key questions:
What comes in the Core Set
What is Required to Play?
What is the cost of each core-set expansion separately?2
Do I really need to buy the individual expansions at all?
Am I planning to play a single faction only, or both factions?
Core Set Contents
The Core Set comes with rules, tokens, cards, and all teh essentials to get you started. In terms of Miniatures, it has Vader, Luke, 2x Stormtrooper Units, 2x Rebel Trooper Units, an AT-RT, and a Speeder Bike Unit.
Required to Play
A standard game has an 800 point limit. You’ll want to get as close to 800 points as you can. The Core set will get you about halfway there. You have the option of playing a smaller point game if you want, but keep in mind that official play will be at the 800 point cost.
Legion also has minimums and maximums for units. This means in the case of the empire, you can’t just build an army completely full of stormtroopers. However you also won’t be able to do without stormtroopers either. You’ll need at least 1 Commander, which each faction gets in the Core Set(Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader), and you’ll need a minimum of 3 Corps units (Stormtroopers, or Rebel Troopers, respectively). So right away you’ll need more than the Core Set comes with.
You can have up to 3 Support Units (the AT-RT, or Speeder Bikes), and a maximum of 6 Corps. There are other restrictions for other types of units, but for this article I’m focusing just on the Core Set. So right away it would seem like THREE Core Sets would grant you the maximum number of Corps and Support units. So why not just buy 3 and keep it simple?
Upgrade cards
In the past, FFG has almost always thrown out a few exclusive upgrade cards in each expansion pack, to give you an incentive to buy an expansion for a miniature you already own. We can expect they will likely do something similar this time around. However, I will note that in their latest miniatures game, Runewars, this actually was not so much the case. Some individual core set unit expansions didn’t have a single exclusive upgrade card. The upgrade cards they DID have were shared among multiple expansions. Considering this game does have a few mechanics in common with Runewars, and seemingly a very similar distribution method, I wouldn’t be surprised to see upgrades in these expansions show up in multiple different boxes. In short – you MAY not need to buy 4x Stormtrooper Expansion packs.
Cost
The Core Set retails for $89.95. This is actually an incredible deal when you consider what is included. In addition to the rules, tokens, cards, and essentials to get started, you also get Luke, Vader, 2x Rebel Troopers, 2x Stormtroopers, an AT-RT, and Speeder Bike units. Plus all the normal materials you’d need to play the game. Now lets look at those expansion prices. (We are excluding the unknown variable of Expansion Cards when we factor in cost).
They are each $24.95, and the extra dice and range tools are each $14.95, which means if you were to buy out everything in the core set separately, it would cost you $179.60! You could almost get 2 Core Sets for that price, and you’d have twice the miniatures! Not to mention the extra tools and dice. Oh dice….
Dice
I’m making a separate paragraph to talk about dice. You are going to want a ton of dice. This game gives you the ability to chuck a TON of dice and you aren’t going to have enough in the core set. I actually made the mistake of proxying dice for some test games, and didn’t make enough. I got sick of having to record results and re-roll over and over again. If you don’t get multiple core sets, you are going to want at least 1 more dice pack, if not 2 more.
What if I’m planning on playing a Single faction?
If you are running a single faction, I think it’s a safe bet to only get one core set. But first, find a buddy who is doing the same, and arrange to trade the opposite factions with each other. This way you’ll have double the Imperial contents, while your pal will have double the rebel scum… (Or vice versa).
There are other reasons why multiple core sets might be considered wasteful. For example, the extra Luke and Vader won’t do you much good, unless of course you want to have extras to paint, or run multiple paint schemes, (Red Vader anyone? Also, you might not be certain you’ll like the game yet, and simply want to run a few smaller test games. If that’s the case, then by all means start off with just one and test the waters.
Maxing out
If you want to have the maximum legal number of each type of unit, three core sets will easily be the cheapest($269.85) but like I said earlier, you’ll run the risk of not having any exclusive cards that come with the expansions. If you max out, I would instead suggest 2 Core Sets, and 2 of each trooper expansion, and 1 of each support expansion. This will get you access to each upgrade card. However, if for example, the stormtrooper expansion ends up having a “MUST-BUY” exclusive, that will change the entire formula… but as of right now I doubt that will be the case.
This would have a total cost $329.60 at MSRP.
From what I’ve seen thus far, this game doesn’t really need you to load up your units with that many upgrades to really be effective. The best upgrades, (in my opinion) are those which add a miniature to the unit. Since we can see the miniatures in the spreads, it is reasonable to assume that those “top-level” upgrades will be the same between the core set and the expansions.
A Balanced Approach
If you don’t want to completely max out on all units right away, I’ll share with you my current plan. 2 Core Sets and only ONE of each expansion. This will get me started with a wealth of options, and also leave plenty of room for those new Heavy units that were also spoiled. It’ll also be more sparing on the wallet.
This will have a cost of only $279.70
In closing, I recommend two core sets, based on what we know now, and the tremendous savings involved. Unless of course, you are only planning to play a single faction and want to split cores with a friend. Once we get more details on the individual expansion exclusive cards, then this MIGHT change, but I wouldn’t bet it will change all that much. Thanks for reading, and may the force be with you!
I’ve had so many entries that I’ve decided to include a door prize! This one is open to all of my youtube subscribers and as a bonus, everyone who enters the painting contest also gets a bonus chance to win the door prize! It’s a $20 gift card to Miniature Market that you can use for an expansion of your choice!
I announce it in the video below.
The video itself is about all games in general. If units had no printed point cost, do you think that would help the need to errata cards all the time?
