For quite some time I’ve been very interested in Atomic Mass Games Star Wars Legion. The tabletop miniatures wargame published by Fantasy Flight Games. In all of my gaming endeavors, tabletop miniature wargaming has lagged far behind both RPGs and Boardgames. And while I’ve always had an affinity for the lore of other tabletop miniature wargames (most notably Warhammer 40K) from reading various novels from the universe in question, I’ve never looked to fully enter the hobby space.
Until now.
For close to a decade, Heroclix was my game of choice when it came to the miniature tabletop space. While that game isn’t what I’d call a true wargame experience, it did scratch several itches when it came to miniatures and gaming. In 2019 I decided my time with Heroclix had run it’s course and I wanted to get out. So I sold my collection, save a small amount of figures that I wanted to hold on to, mainly for sentimental reasons, and I called it a day.
Over 2 years and a global pandemic later, here we find Star Wars Legion. This game checks A LOT of boxes for me. Let’s run down the list shall we:
- Barrier for entry to new players is relatively low. Especially compared to other mini wargames out in the market today.
- Extremely familiar canon/lore made conceptually understanding squad/team building a much simpler experience.
- The chance to continue to work on my painting skills with miniatures is a plus. Also there is a ton of photo reference material to work off of in determining your paint schemes.
- While the game has a fairly good amount of rules overall, the games themselves are relatively simple when compared to other similar games available. (Sure, tournament play I’m sure would be an exception here).
- Compared to Heroclix, the idea that I have more direct control over what miniatures I buy due to the fact that it’s not a loot box style business model appeals to me. If I want the Leia Organa figure, I purchase it. I don’t have to chase after it, opening booster after booster, hoping to pull her. (Yes, I understand there is a market for single figures in Heroclix, however I feel like that and what a game like SWL has in place are apples to oranges. In this analogy I prefer oranges).
- With this game, I have the ability to 3D print any amount of terrain for the game, which is nothing but an enhancement and improves my gaming experience.
- The game supports both skirmish style and larger full army style games.
- And lastly, IT’S STAR WARS.
These are just the pros that I pulled off the top of my head, I’m sure there are others I could add to this as I get more games in.
Speaking of games, Saturday the 11th, I finally got to play my first couple of games of Star Wars Legion. Leading up to game day, I had acquired some booster packs and the original core box set. I loaded all my figures up along with my 3D printed terrain and headed my good friend’s Johnny Ray’s place to soak in as much Legion knowledge and fun as I could.
When I got to JRay’s place, we decided to play smaller, 400pt skirmish style games on a 3×3 map. This would allow to get my feet wet, while still able to experience as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. The first game, I built a Rebellion squad and JRay played an Imperial squad.
We played over 5 rounds and the game ended up being very close. My last activation of round 5, I was one wound away from killing his General Veers, if I had, I would have pulled out victory. As it was, he won the first game 154 to 122. Regardless, game 1 was a blast and I learned a lot. After that game was over, we switched factions. I constructed an Imperial squad and JRay built a Rebel one.
I almost went with playing Darth Vader for game 2, however his point total alone gave me pause in a 400pt game, and I decided on a different route, running a generic Imperial Office as my Commander. This gave me the opportunity to play my Boba Fett.
JRay was running an AT-RT vehicle unit, along with Han Solo, Chewbacca and 4 trooper rebel unit and the deflector dish unit from Empire Strikes Back. This game wasn’t nearly as close as the first, as I was able to get 7 wounds on Chewie (2 from death), but could never get him KO’d. JRay had some great rollouts that kept him from getting those last 2 wounds on him. Outside of that, I was only able to KO his rebel trooper unit. I put damage on a lot of things, but couldn’t ever get the last bit of damage needed to fully take a unit off the map.
Both games were a lot of fun and it cemented my feeling that Star Wars Legion was the correct choice for me as the tabletop miniature wargame of choice.
I hope you enjoyed my first look into the world of Star Wars Legion. I hope you enjoyed running through my recounting of it as I did experiencing it first hand.
Until next time, Cheers! And my the force be with you!
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