We played Star Wars Legion for the first time a few weeks ago. Everyone enjoyed it, so we got together for another go. Hopefully, we would correct the mistakes from the last game and move a little faster with our more secure knowledge with the rules!
So, since I am the first one to finish painting troops and terrain, I would host and do the set up. I decided to pull out some of my desert terrain to switch things up. I started with a Cigar Box Battles desert map and Gale Force Nine terrain. I added some scatter alien looking plants (various plastic plants from Michaels) and resin throw terrain. I tried to ensure there was plenty of cover and blocking terrain to limit cross board shooting.
I built two forces for the game. I tried to keep them simple, so players would not be too overwhelmed by key word rules. The game would have two players on each side (we added one more player for a little while), so I did even numbers of each troop type.
The Republic force was lead by Captain Rex and a Generic Clone Commander (Cody?). Both had a couple of upgrades (I cannot remember all of them). The force included four units of Phase I troopers with grenades. The had Z6 blasters and two had rocket launchers. There were two Arc Trooper sniper teams with grenades. Closing out the force were two AT-RT with laster blasters. I preferred the rotary blaster, but did not have the points.
I wanted the CIS to be a numbers force, with a little punch. So, I started with two T Series as the commanders (with some upgrades to help with commands that I do not remember). Six units of B1 driods. Three had EC15s and three had rocket launchers. The force also had two Dwarf Spider droids with Laser Blasters. To add some close combat bit, there were two units of BX battle droids with Vibro Swords and Frag Grenades.
The CIS used the generic command cards (no special leaders, so no special orders). I guess I really need to paint up my Super Tactical droid! The Republic used Rex’s cards and the generic clone cards. The clones had less points, so they got the blue player award.
I let my buddy pull out the scenario (we did not do the normal selection rules to save time) and he went with clear conditions, center objectives and opposite corner set up, with 1-2 reserves. I do not remember the actual names… Give me a break, I am old.
We did our set up and started the game. Both sides quickly grabbed the objective on their end of the table and moved slowly towards the center to get the middle objective. Each side trickled their units into the center. It was at this point that I realized that I need to pay a little more attention when setting up the terrain, so that once side does not get an advantage. I did this by adding blocking terrain on one side of the center objective to allow models to hide within range of the objective. If we were better players, this could have been used very effectively to win!
The game started with the Clones shooting up a handful of droids the first few turns without loss. This trend was ended by the arrival of some BX battle droids into close combat. Seeing the potential carnage, the clones redoubled their efforts to eliminate those two units with fire. While that mission was being achieved, the CIS got their B1s forward and started putting have fire into the clones, with support from the Spider Droids (these things hit hard). The clones started falling in numbers, as more came forward to relive their fallen comrades. Captain Rex was not having a good day and took a lot of wounds. These losses were returned against the B1s, that rare rather squishy, so also fell, despite their heavy cover. One of the Spider droids was taken out by concentrated AT-RT fire.
At this point, both sides managed to keep the center objective contested. However, the droids had been substantially whittled down. The CIS conceded, as it was clear that the clones would be able to clear the objective pretty easily the next two turns. Besides we were all hungry and decided to get some dinner and do some theory gaming!
Another fun game. We made a couple of mistakes that we generally caught during game play. A couple we did not. The biggest point of discussion was over line of sight. The rules are not as clear as they could be. The player guide is, but everything is spread out, so a little harder to find. The take away is to refresh read those rules the next time and to be clearer on the effects of terrain at set up.
Now, what terrain will we try for the next game…….
- Manteuffel