Star Wars: Legion/Tactics/Empire

Why Play Empire

Pros

• The Empire has lots of heavy weaponry and tanky units, able to both take and deal out a lot of firepower.
• You have the AT-ST, one of the best units in the game.
• Versatile Corps choices that allow you to be prepared for any situation.
• Support choices are solid and will compliment your Corps nicely.
• Good support leaders that will make your troops even better.
• Strongest force-users in the game with a lot of killing potential.

Cons

• Units tend to be higher cost, so you'll have fewer units and upgrades than a Rebel opponent.
• Stormtroopers have movie quality shooting without buffs.
• Unless the commander is a force user, chances are their offensive capability is limited at best.
• Force user commanders move at a snails pace
• You're going to need to use white to paint most of these guys, you have been warned.

Units

Commanders

Darth Vader

Vader is an absolute glacier, with the slowest movement speed a unit can have, and being melee only without using force powers it's going to be a few turns before he's doing any damage. However when he does, it is the most terrifying and destructive force you could ever imagine.

At 200 points he's a good chunk of your army as well. But, what he does, he does well; with 8 wounds, a red defense die, and Immune: Pierce awesome- he's difficult to take down. Deflect allows him to send wounds back at his attackers if you spend a dodge token, so be sure to have a dodge available if he's likely to take a lot of enemy fire to make your opponent think twice.

Master of the Force 1 lets you ready an expended force upgrade token. What's that? Vader activates and dodges FOR FREE EVERY TURN? that means he has a 3+ save on a red dice, and has a 1 in 6 chance to send lasers back at your enemy. Terrifying. Finally, Relentless gives a free attack action when he engages an enemy, but as you only get one attack action per activation (free or not) be sure to use your other action on something productive like Saber Throw.

Once in combat, he can attack with an amazing six red dice with Impact 3 and Pierce 3, sure to tear up whatever he comes in contact with. He can be equipped with three Force upgrades, so be sure to give him Force Reflexes for that dodge token as well as Saber Throw for dealing a bit of damage before he closes the distance. His final benefit is his infinite-level Courage: this means that he will never be Panicked, and the same applies to units within 3 distance of him as well, ensuring you get the most out of those Stormtroopers.

Command Cards:

-3 pip: Master of Evil: When Darth Vader is issued an order (during the command phase), he gains one dodge token. When darth vader activates, every enemy trooper within range 1-2 gains 3 suppression tokens. - oh what's that? you have rebel troops all around darth vader that have been focus firing him for the last turn or two? got him down to 3, maybe 2 wounds? SIKE. All those troopers are going get some serious rape thrown their way. Seriously an awesome card to use Vader's strength in an explosive fashion, because if you're within range 1-2 of any troops anyways, you're going to kill them.

• Another Blaster magnet:

Seriously Vader really will cop a huge amount of fire power once he starts to get closer, your opponent knows he's going to rip his units to shreds if you close the distance. Keep your Stormtroopers near and support him, otherwise he's toast.

• • Distraction Carnifex:

Despite his hefty price tag, he soaks up so much enemy fire it might be a good idea to just charge him at your enemy as a distraction from speeders or AT-STs. Use this in conjunction with Stormtroopers with concussion grenades and grappling hooks to get in the enemies face. No matter the range, everyone is scared of Vader. Use that knowledge when you plan your lists accordingly.

Emperor Palpatine

Emperor Palpatine is similar to Darth Vader in both points and force abilities but can buff nearby units easily. Slowest movement speed, extremely deadly in close combat, have him and some royal guard get into close combat with a rebel unit and feel the unlimited power as they cry.

General Veers

First, at 80 points, he's less than half the cost of Vader, letting you gear out your other units a bit better or throw an extra unit into your army. He's very much a support commander rather than combat, with a modest 3 white attack dice with Pierce 1 at range 1-3 and 2 black in melee with Precise 1 and Sharpshooter 1, so he's best kept in the backfield in cover.

His Inspire 1 ability lets him keep nearby units in the fight, though not to the same degree as Vader, but his greatest boon is his Spotter 2 ability: Giving a free Aim token to two nearby units can let Stormtroopers move while still shooting more accurately, or for laying down serious firepower have an AT-ST perform its own Aim action and fire with two aim tokens, letting it reroll up to four dice during its attack action. Veers can be equipped with two Command upgrades and one Gear.

• Stormtroopers who can hit:

Give your Stormtroopers targeting scopes, use one action to give them an aim token and use Veers' spotter ability on them and enjoy as you re-roll dice up the wazoo, your blast points will finally be too accurate for sand people.

Imperial Officer

Essentially a worse General Veers. He is 30 points cheaper though, with less options and slightly worse offensive capabilities. Take this guy if you want the extra points to use on your unit choices.

Director Orson Krennic

A recently new addition to the legion tabletop, Krennic brings a couple different things to the party. Coming in at 90 points base, he is near the cost of Veers, but packs a different kind of punch. Veers' command abilities are less tethered to dishing out tokens or pure damage like with Vader/Palpatween, and more in applying a more tactical use of your forces during the game.

His ability compel lets a friendly trooper perform a free move action after it rallies and if it is still suppressed. when is this ability really useful? see below...

OH! But not only does Krennic bring compel to the table, but he also has the keyword cunning which lets you take priority in the event of command card ties. A very, very powerful ability if you manage your command cards correctly, and even more so if you combine Krennic with any other HQ choice, allowing your cards to be treated with priority in the event of ties.

The other trait he has is one seen on emperor pepperoni sorry... palpatine... I'll stop is entourage: Death Troopers. An interesting keyword, and in my experience, very handy. The current meta for this game is to bring 2-3 sniper teams, since they are very cheap, and then a ton of corps choices. Now, Krennic's entourage allows him to bring a squad of Death Troopers, and ignore their rank. This is important, because for any official list, you can only bring up to 3 special forces choices. Since snipers take up a special forces slot, usually everyone's slots are full. Krennic's Death Troopers however, are quite strong special forces. See below again for more details.

A pistol rather than Veers' E-11, does limit him to range 1-2. However, the pistol fires rainbow spray, meaning one red, black, and white dice. This, accompanied with pierce and sharpshooter however, can make for a reliable removal of models when given an appropriate escort.

Command cards:

-3 pip: Annihilation Looms: Nominate Director Krennic and 2 trooper units. Each trooper unit gains one suppression token. If it is round 5/6, they gain 2 instead. -- This command card is, in my opinion, the cake that Krennic is built around. The usual composition of a list that includes 2 death trooper units. Read below for the insaneness that is death troopers. A very useful card against any lists except for one that includes Darth Vader, and therefore a must have in my opinion.

-2 pip: Deploy the Garrison!: Nominate 2 units. -- Deploy the garrison is my trap card. I love this card. This card issues a standby token to the two units that you nominate. Seems kind of meh, right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. In the hands of a capable commander, this card is your linchpin. It is the best card Krennic has to offer. You see, in order for a trooper to gain a standby token, it can't perform an attack action. The rules say nothing for already having a token. Since the token is issued before the unit performs any actions, a smart commander would take two troops (preferably death troopers) run them up into close quarters (or take the over watch training upgrade, which is sometimes incredibly useful) and fire with your squad. THEN when the enemy activates, spend your standby token and fire AGAIN. Or as they say on tatooine, awesome Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. This card cannot be exaggerated how powerful it is in the right situation. For more info on why death troopers are the preferred nomination, SEE BELOW BABY

-1 pip: Voracious Ambition: At the start of the activation phase, place 3 random facedown order tokens on this card (in addition to nominating Krennic face up) at any time, you may look at those tokens, and when you would draw from your random pool, you may instead draw from this pool. -- overall, better than ambush! It breaks ties because it's a commander specific card, and it gets you (4) possible nominations instead of 1. No other special bonuses, but useful if you think Luke is gonna use his "wham bam alakazam" card that turn, just to get ahead of him a little ;)

Operatives

Boba Fett

Boba Fett is a very strong ranged operative, with his wrist rockets dishing out 2 black dice with Impact 1 & his E-3 Carbine also putting out 2 black dice with Pierce 1. This coupled with Arsenal 2 and Jump 2; he can practically ignore obstacles and make enemy units paste. He also has the Impervious rule, if your opponent has "Pierce x" roll x amount of extra defense dice, very helpful in some situations.

Fett has an ability where he can select the enemy commander or operative, if that unit has a victory token and you kill them, he steals it off him. Watch the salt in your opponents eyes as you take that victory token off his hands.

• Alternative take:

While good, for 140 points it could be argued how effective this is to take, especially if you're running an expensive commander like Darth Vader & Emperor Palpatine, or if you want to bring an AT-ST with all the bells and whistles.

• • Alternative alternative take:

Fett is expensive but upgrade him right and he really will delete almost any units off the board, this guy can cause absolute havoc considering he's only one model, just be ready to pay for it.

Corps

Stormtroopers

The bread and butter of the Empire, stormtroopers have an advantage in armour over their Rebel counterparts, but their shooting skills are shit in exchange, with only a white die in ranged combat. To compensate, they have Precise 1, so maximize on this by having them get aim tokens as often as possible, such as with Veers' Spotter ability.

They can take one upgrade each of Gear, Grenades, Heavy Weapons, and Personnel; like 40k's Tactical Marines, kit them out for their desired role, such as grappling hooks and concussion grenades for if you want to rush them into close combat to take objectives, or targeting scopes and heavy weapons if you want them to sit in the backfield shooting.

It really can't be understated how shit stormtrooper shooting is, if you're not upgrading these guys with targeting scopes and you're focusing on range then you're doing something wrong.

• Imperial Officers:

These guys can definitely be worth attaching to the squad with useful abilities to keep your men in the fight.

• • Alternative take:

HH-12 Rocket Launchers can sometimes not be worth it for stormtroopers, as you are unable to move and fire it. This can be a huge pain in certain game types, not totally useless by any means but definitely something to keep in mind.

Snowtroopers

Snowtroopers are just a tad more expensive while losing Precise 1 for Steady, giving them a free ranged attack action after completing a move action. This frees up an action to get an aim, dodge, or a second move action (remember they only get one attack action per activation, free or not) depending on the situation. Rush them up the board with a flamethrower and laugh maniacally as you're throwing as many as a half-dozen black dice when lighting up enemy infantry units, while getting Ignore Cover for all attack dice.

• Important thing to note:

Snowtroopers have the slowest movement speed in the game, this can cause some issues with positioning, keep that in mind.

Special Forces

Scout Troopers

Scout Troopers are incredibly good at early game board control, especially if you take more than one unit. With 2 black dice and the the ability to reduce the defenders cover by 1 with the sharpshooter special rule; they can be surprisingly deadly, especially if you upgrade them with hunter. Scouts can also improve their cover by 1 with the low profile rule, meaning suppression gives them heavy cover out in the open, and anywhere else is like being behind a brick wall. For 60 points they're not an auto-include but they're definitely useful.

Cool loadout idea Run a squad of these guys upgraded with hunter and emergency stims, supported by a sniper team. use the snipers to pick off a model or two, and then rush in with your scout troops, shooting 2 black dice per model, with a free aim token from hunter, reducing cover by 1 because awesome - and if your opponent cries, bonus points (just make sure to understand that these guys have very little to no survivability out in the open, so cover positioning can make or break this squad)

Imperial Royal Guards

For 75 points these guys are Awesome with two wounds a piece, the ability to remove 2 suppression tokens when given an order and being able to divert fire from friendly units with Range 1, these guys are beasts. This is before you consider the fact they're Awesome in combat with their range attack dealing 2 black dice at Range 1-2. Their melee doing 1 black & red dice with the neat ability Charge, allowing them to make a free melee attack after charging. Upgrade them right and they will absolutely destroy almost anything besides vehicles.

Support

74-Z Speeder Bikes

These guys are your typical hit and run type squad, being able to dodge incoming fire while dishing out a respectable amount back. With 1 White, Black & Red dice each these guys can make rebel infantry squads cry. With "Cover 1" you can improve your cover by 1, not bad. "Speeder 1" allows you to ignore terrain at height 1 and if activated you can make a compulsory movement, again not bad. Speeder Bikes are incredible at getting around the board, with the best movement speed in the game and the ability to move three times. However being 90 points does make them slightly less awesome.

E-Web Heavy Blaster Team

For 55 points these bad boys can put out an impressive amount of firepower with the E-Web Heavy Blaster and depending on how you upgrade them, they can either suit anti-infantry or vehicle. With 2 white, 2 black & 1 red dice attacks base.

• Anti-Infantry:

The low cost of 10 points will give them "Barrage Generator", add 2 white dice and they apply suppression to the attack pool, take a couple of these and watch your rebel scum friend cry as you make his units useless.

• Anti-vehicle:

For the same amount of points you can kit them out with "Overcharged Generator", adding 1 black die and giving them Impact 1 in their attack pool. Particularly useful against AT-RT'S which are relatively weak

Heavy

AT-ST

At 195 points the AT-ST is almost as costly as Vader but is worth every point. For starters its main ranged attack gives two of each die in the front arc with Impact 3, while Arsenal 2 lets it use two of its equipped weapons; General Weiss ups this to Arsenal 4, letting a single fully-equipped AT-ST fire all 4 or its weapons: Twin Blaster Cannons for general offense, grenade launchers for up-close enemies in cover, twin light blasters to support the cannons, and a mortar launcher to punish any backfield units, for 10 points extra this is arguably an auto-include if you want to dish out the ranged attacks. With 11 wounds and Armor, your opponent will struggle to deal with it, even if you kit it as a close-range walker without Weiss and the mortar launcher. Take 2 with General Veers and keep them in the backfield to pepper your opponent with double-aimed blaster cannons, or focus down their commander: firing twice with 3 white dice with 4 rerolls can put wounds on Leia or Luke before they can start causing problems, and can also be used to spam suppression.

• Alternative take:

Wow this thing becomes a blaster magnet, chances are your opponent knows how good this thing is and they'll try and take it out before you can take those guns for a spin.

Army Building Advice

General advice

• Something important to keep in mind is that your commander will more or less determine the kind of army you're going to be running, keep this in mind when making your list.
• Make sure you have a reliable way of dealing with vehicles no matter the list you're making unless you want to have a bad time.

Melee focus

Definitely either run Darth Vader or "it's ya pal" Palpatine, get some royal guards and equip your Stormtroopers with grappling hooks and concussion grenades, this will make them very maneuverable and versatile. Your Stormtroopers will make for good distractions so that your royal guard and commander don't get toasted straight away, just make sure you get up the board as quick as you can. Snowtroopers can make excellent distractions as well, if your opponent knows the power of flametroopers then expect some fire to be diverted away from the things you want to keep alive

Ranged focus

If you decide to run General Veers or an Imperial Officer, you'll most likely take more of a ranged approach, setting your Stormtroopers and other units up in advantageous ranged positions to give them the best shooting potential and really make your opponent suffer.

If you're going for this style of play then General Veers with 3 Stormtrooper squads equipped with Targeting Scopes and DLT-19's (And Imperial Officers just to keep them around) along with Concussion grenades; with two E-Web Heavy Blaster Teams (Upgraded with Overcharged Generator just to deal with vehicles) makes a very solid base to build up from. With this you still have room for a fully upgraded AT-ST.

• Alternative take:

For your Stormtrooper squads, you could equip 1 or more with HH-12's and impact grenades as with all the re-rolls you're getting, these things can be devastating to vehicles.

• Alternative alternative take:

Snowtroopers with Ion rifles will fulfill this role nicely too while still being more maneuverable, not having the cumbersome rule.