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Building Your First Legion Squad

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.

Rebels:

Empire:

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Legion – How Many Core Sets Do You Need?

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:

  1. What comes in the Core Set
  2. What is Required to Play?
  3. What is the cost of each core-set expansion separately?2
  4. Do I really need to buy the individual expansions at all?
  5. 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!