They are LEGION

In July, I picked up a small new game…  Okay, not so small, but the base set isn’t too big - Star Wars Legion, from Fantasy Flight Games.  I was going to write a review shortly after I unboxed the game, but I wanted to live with it a bit before I wrote this.  To be honest, I want to give it more play time before a final judgement, but having played a few games in the last month or so, I thought this would be a decent time to give a first impression review.

FFG Rebels

Good:

1.       It does have a feel of Star Wars.  I felt like I had Darth Vader leading a charge into a rebel force.   I know West End Games had Star Wars miniature skirmish rules back in the (90’s?) and I dabbled with it as I played the RPG back in the day.  I have a fair amount of minis from the WOTC collectable game.  Both had a decent Star Wars feel, but Legion does a good job of keeping the action moving and not bogging down in details.

2.       The miniatures are detailed enough, certainly they match what you expect from FFG and Star Wars.  No confusing Stormtroopers and Snowtroopers – even with nearly all white on both models, they are visually different.  They have done a nice job making the models detailed; I have seen other places online comparing the airspeeder to the Bandai 1/48^th scale fine model favorably.  The bit larger scale does help painting, especially as white and black (for Stormtroopers) is a major pain to make look good. 

3.       The rules and game play is easy to pick up, you can play small skirmishes right out of the box, and build to larger battles pretty quickly.  As expected, the game components are all excellent; FFG has mastered the task of getting art and cards to be high quality.  It looks good, feels good, and isn’t overly complex.  I was able to teach a complete non-mini gamer to play the basics in less than 10 minutes.  Cards have enough rule notes to actually help instead of adding confusion.

FFG Stormtroopers

Bad:

1.       It is not as flexible of a game as I would have hoped.  Full disclosure, I have not purchased any expansions yet, but I have had the chance to play around with extra units.  The basic set is enough to play, but not enough to really play.  It was fun for a few plays, but you quickly find out you need more troops and want more toys to make it interesting.  Hey they need to make money somehow, and as a former 40K player, I understand how this works.  As much fun as it is, Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker does get old, and pretty much everyone has at least one of each of them.  Including a second, minor commander in the base set to give some flexibility would have been nice.

2.       Gameplay is pretty easy to grasp, and there is a good amount of nuance (rock-paper-scissor-shotgun) but it seems to limit the games to smaller affairs for best effect.  The small skirmish game is the most common play style, and with a seeming focus on tournament play similar to X-wing coming through the stores, I can see why.  Aside from painting the miniatures, there is not much customizing (some game modifications from cards, but not creating a custom commander for example) so everyone should be able to play in a Legion event and not question what they are seeing.  Given time and expansions, the customizing will change, exactly as it has in X-wing, with hundreds of options for ship modifications, everyone can find a combo they like.

3.       On the subject of the miniatures, they are a bit larger scale than other games (heroic 40K) and they have nice detail, but they are a PVC based plastic.  That means you have to use a gorilla glue/superglue to put them together, not traditional hobby cement.  They also have a noticeable ‘bendiness’ as the PVC is pretty soft.  In general, this doesn’t cause any problems, but some of the detail is lost and they don’t look as nice under inspection.

 

FFG Luke and Vader face off

Other:

1.       Distance measurements are all from custom rulers and movement gages.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  They work well enough, the shooting ruler is pretty sturdy (a sectioned triangular stick) but the movement templates may be a problem.  The movement gages have a rotation point in their middle, and need to be snapped together to work.  Mine went together okay, with one nearly breaking as it snapped together.  I have heard horror stories from other players whose gages broke during initial construction.  Decent idea, maybe better execution next time.

2.       Scenery is another area I am not sure how I feel.  There is already plenty out there and making scenery is something I enjoy and for Legion it is easy enough to make.  The barricades that come with the game are good for getting started, but a few ‘tournament’ type players who don’t consider any custom terrain ‘legal’ does sour the experience a bit.  It’s easy enough to avoid those folks, but long term I see where X-wing has gone, and I wonder if Legion will go down the same road where tournament play is the focus of the overall game.

3.       Game play is okay, but most of the battles seemed to come down to a lot of ‘fighting in a closet’ to me.  I know some of that is my limited selection of troops.  Plenty of games suffer from a focus on hero units, and Legion is no exception – if Vader crashes into the rebel line with Luke not able to counter him, the results are just what you expect.  It’s just too many games came down to this effect.  I am sure I am to blame for a portion of this, it’s partly how I play, but other players mentioned this effect as well.

4.       Another game play observation – playing Legion feels more like a ‘game’ compared to other miniature wargames.  Moving units around leaders, not every individual is a great idea - it speeds up the game considerably.  Custom dice, I am not a huge fan of.  They are fine; it makes sense for how the game is setup to compare hits, surges, defense, etc.  The old curmudgeon in me wants to see normal dice and +/- modifiers and make us do math.  Just how the game works makes it feel like a ‘game’ and less like a miniature representation of a battle.  That is likely my own personal feeling and may change with more play.

5.       Not a bad thing, maybe, but I feel it is a missed opportunity or possibly corporate influence – there are only two sides, Rebel or Imperial.  This is how X-wing started and after about 2 years (maybe less) they added Scum and Villainy for the bounty hunters and such.  I see Boba Fett is coming out for the Empire, and I think about how long until Legion has the same thing happen.  May be plan ahead a bit for another faction, or maybe even add some sort of sub-factions to the mix, just to make it a bit more varied. 

Conclusion:
In the end, I have to say I have enjoyed playing Legion.  That alone makes it a good game - after all if you have fun playing a game, it has done what it was designed to do.  From a hobbyist point of view, I am not quite as sold.  The models are not cheap, but they don’t feel quite as good of a value compared to some other miniatures.  Not that you couldn’t give your Stormtroopers some custom poses, or head and arm swaps on rebel troopers and such, but it is a bit more difficult with the minis the way they are. 

If you are looking for a fun, quick playing Star Wars themed miniature game, Legion is a pretty good effort.  It plays well, looks nice and isn’t too complex for newer gamers and has enough to it for more veteran gamers.  In a few years we will probably have so many expansions it will feel like the epic war it represents.
For now, I may try some more games, but it's not going to be the focus it was for me for the past couple of months.  Back to the zombie apocalypse!