Your First Steps Into a Larger World
An Intro to Star Wars: Legion Strategy
Written by Jeff Van Laethem (@Painting_For_The_Emperor)
Understanding a rule set is one thing, but learning a game's strategy is something else entirely. In Star Wars: Legion I find myself doling out the same few pearls of wisdom to new players time and time again; thus, an article!
Here are five basic tips that should prove useful to anyone, but especially to newer players struggling to find a foothold.
1.Know Your Path to Victory
It sounds overly simple, but having a specific plan to win a game at any given point is important, and is often overlooked by newer players. It's easy to think "we're playing Breakthrough, so I'm going to get my units into my opponent's deployment zone", for example. But in practice, this is not specific enough and will leave you scratching your head at the end of the game. You'll never see a game of Breakthrough where both players double-move every unit every turn and you need to consider this: Conflict arises, imbalances reveal themselves, and choices are made. And thus, understanding how you need to try to win the game is paramount! To quote the interview with Stephen Velasquez, one of the undefeated players at Genghis Con: You need to “[Give your] troops jobs, such as ‘what objective they are going to do?’, ‘who they are going to attack?’, and ‘where they are going to move?”,"
In our Breakthrough example, suppose your opponent has 1 more activation than you. Your opponent would love for both players to do nothing but move past each other peacefully, as their 1 extra unit will win them the game. That imbalance alone means your victory plan has to include trying to force more combat or include a strategy for tying units up. When you deploy your units, assign them jobs related to this strategy. “This unit will try to tie up my opponent’s units at this choke point and even out activations”. “This unit will try to sneak through without fighting, but can pivot to help at the center if I’m not winning the battle there”, etc.
In a different example, suppose you are playing Bombing Run. In this scenario, your opponent has the ‘Secret Mission’ keyword on R2D2 and you do not have access to Secret Mission (Or Bounty). This changes your path to victory since your opponent has the opportunity to score more victory points than you from the get go. Do you try to score all of your bombs, destroy R2, and win on kill points? Do you forego scoring some or all of your own objective points to focus entirely on stopping your opponent from scoring? There's no concrete answer here, since your army composition, your opponent’s army composition, and the deployment affect this equation significantly. Regardless, in your games you need to have a plan for how you’re going to win and what each unit’s job is in that plan before you start rolling dice.
2. Understand Your Turn Zero Choices
‘Turn zero’ is the term legion players use to describe what happens in a game before you start activating units. This involves the process of identifying blue player, selecting a board edge, banning battle cards to determine the objective, deployment, and condition played, and the deployment process itself. Turn zero is a fun and important strategic element of Legion that makes every game unique and keeps games fresh, but the importance of turn zero strategy is often overlooked by newer players. Turn zero literally defines the game you'll be playing, so not focusing on turn 0 choices is like trying to build a house without a blueprint.
The first considerations here actually happen during list building. Does your list want to be blue player, or is it happy to be red? Lists with a heavy skew (such as a high mobility list like a rebel list with 3 tauntauns) likely want to be blue player to select objectives or deployments that lean into their strengths. In this case, taking a bid of 5-15 points could be a good choice. If your list is more well-balanced and you have a good path to victory on most objectives, taking 800 points and being more objective ambivalent may be the right call.
Regardless of that, understanding which battle deck cards your army wants to play and which it doesn't is vital. Do your list not include a force-user? Hostage Exchange might be tough against an opposing force user. Do you have a bunch of vehicles? Key Positions might be better than Intercept the Transmissions for you. Thinking critically about what your list wants to do turn zero, what your opponent’s list wants to do turn zero, and then evaluating how both of those impact your choice of board edge, battle card bans, and deployment is a complex process that takes time to learn. Many experienced legion players call ‘turn zero’ the hardest turn of the game for good reason. Don’t expect to become a master immediately, and expect to make some sub-optimal turn zero choices in your games as you gain experience. Turn zero mistakes happen to even the most veteran players, so your focus should be turning those into a learning experience that you can grow from. You could write a novel dissecting turn zero, and many resources exist on this topic. For starters we’d recommend the Turn Zero Lists series from the Legion 99 podcast and articles such as this one from the Fifth Trooper.
3. Understand Ranges, and Measure Them
Nothing feels worse than having moved slightly closer to an enemy force-user than you should have, thinking that your unit is safe, and then having them to charge you, decimating your unit you thought was in the clear. Legion allows you to pre-measure anything with movement tools or range tools, so ultimately, if you understand ranges and measure them before committing to moves, you can prevent this type of situation from occurring.
Understanding "threat range" is a large part of this. Threat range is essentially the distance a given unit can influence in a single activation. Imagine a speed-2 force user with Saber Throw, and no relentless keyword: moving and saber throwing with them has a threat range of just shy of range 3. So staying at at least range 3 away from them should keep you safe. Common threat ranges to know are:
Most troops can move speed 2 (which is just shy of range 1) then shoot range 3. In order to not be shot by them, you must be beyond range 4.
Most melee units can move speed 2 twice and then attack using the ‘charge’ keyword. To stay clear of being engaged, you must stay beyond range 2 from them.
Force users require special attention! While they typically behave like a melee unit, they also have a bunch of tricks up their sleeve to extend their threat range. These include using force push to move your units speed 1 (about 4”) closer to them, utilizing burst of speed to move a whopping 16” (About range ~2.6!), and utilizing their command cards and mastery keywords to give them potent effects such as relentless, extra attacks, or a third action in a round.
Of course, things like a unit being suppressed, difficult terrain, keywords like relentless or steady, and command card effects can all affect a units practical threat range. But, if you get in the habit of assessing an enemy’s threat range and then measuring it, you’ll find yourself making far fewer mistakes in your games.
4.Make Use of Cover and LOS Blockers
A simple, yet most foreign concept for newer players seems to be understanding the importance of keeping your units hidden or in some kind of cover. "But Jeff! My Darth Vader has 9 health and deflect! He didn't get burned in a volcano just to hide behind a bush!" Yes, he did.
It doesn't matter what unit it is, whether they have a lightsaber, or what their defensive profile looks like; if you leave an important unit in the open it WILL give your opponent an opportunity to shoot them and kill them. If you give your opponent an easy choice to make, such as ‘Shoot everything I have at Darth Vader’ they will do so. All defense dice eventually fail, and even the most resilient units in the game will fall to enough concentrated fire.
If you expect units to 1. be shot when you let your opponent shoot them, and 2. expect them to fall to concentrated fire - you will make much more strategic decisions about positioning. Utilizing LOS blockers and range to prevent your units from being shot, and then when they do need to move into line of sight and range of your enemy, utilizing cover, are both critical to keeping your models on the table.
Like any rule, there are exceptions. Maybe you have a character with Nimble, Situational Awareness, and 300 dodge tokens. But until you understand when it's safe to run in the open, don't. A more advanced concept on this topic is threat saturation which we will discuss in a future article.
5. Talk It Out After Your Game
Discussing your games with your opponents can be fun in its own right, and it can also be an important learning experience. Talking through your choices and thoughts after the game can give you a different perspective to carry with you to your next game. Most Legion players I've met are more than happy to point out things they may have done differently (in a friendly manner). In fact, it can be very beneficial for you to sometimes outright ask "what would you have done about your tank?", “what did you think about my deployment” or "do you think I moved my ARC troopers too early?" Explaining your thought process about some of these actions can also help you re-evaluate some of your decision making: “I didn’t shoot Op Vader then because he had a dodge token and I was afraid of deflect” might get you an interesting answer from your opponent that changes your perspective. For all you know, they may reply “Ahh, well I was terrified that you would shoot Op Vader then because I needed him to get engaged without being suppressed!”
You'll get a mix of some useful thoughts, some irrelevant ramblings, and maybe even an opponent who doesn't have time, but it is still worth asking. An important note - be careful when giving advice to others after a game. If it's solicited, go for it by all means! If it's not solicited, however, and you don't know the person well, it’s best to tread lightly. A good way to start the conversation is by asking for advice yourself.
What do You Think?
These tidbits are all my opinion, of course, but I feel they'll serve a newer player well. If there are other bits you like, spread the love on Discord, Facebook, wherever!
Thanks for reading, and may you roll nothing but crits!
Written by Jeff Van Laethem (@Painting_For_The_Emperor)
Edits and contributions by: Stephen Cobb (@ASpaceViking)