Things have really... slowed... down... thanks to the flu. Over President's Day weekend, I managed to get a really extended weekend since I was down with the sickness from Saturday night until Wednesday. So much fun, let me tell you!
Feeling better now but unfortunately that break has really thrown me off my stride. On top of that I'm potentially moving rooms soon so I don't want to break out too much stuff yet. Been itching to set up a table and push some minis around with all the terrain that I built at the end of last year but I'm going to hold off until I'm relocated to minimize my packing.
I did get to watch/referee a game of Legion the Saturday before I get sick and I have to say that I'm really torn. The game looks great visually and it's Star Wars. How can you not love Star Wars? Unfortunately the latest trilogy didn't really hit it out of the park from what I've seen and read, and since it's owned by Disney... well, they are in the market to make money. They make some great things but yeah, ultimately money is the most important factor for any corporation. I don't think that Star Wars is going anywhere soon, but what about the license?
Which brings Fantasy Flight Games into the picture. FFG is a monster in the board game world, the originator of the coffin box games themselves! FFG managed to get ahold of the Star Wars license years ago and they've been doing great things with it. X-Wing, Imperial Assault, Armada, and now Legion. Except Imperial Assault isn't being produced anymore... and X-Wing is in it's second edition now but you can get conversion kits... and recently I'd heard that their digital department either is closing or already has and then I read that X-Wing 2.0 uses an app to track points since the new edition doesn't have point values on the cards.
Have I dug into any of these things deeply to see how much they affect things? No. But hearing about them makes me nervous. I bought a fair amount of X-Wing stuff over the years and for me to use that now, I need to invest $200 just to get the base game and conversion kits for my ships. That's a lot of money to shell out just to use minis that I've already invested in and how soon is this going to happen again? And if the digital content isn't supported, how are they going to support the app that is used to track the points to build forces for the game?
But with all that said, Legion is still a really tempting game. The minis are really well sculpted and have a good variety even within the same unit to avoid the cookie cutter syndrome.
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| This is the Tatooine board my friend has put together. |
There are some great terrain options out there as well, both from FFG and from independent companies that so it's easy to put together a great visual experience as well. The rules seem pretty solid as well. FFG likes to go for the literal interpretation of the rules so in most cases just play them as written. They do a great job making sure that there aren't little nuances that can confuse the issue.
So why not get into it? Even with the other concerns on my mind, it seems to be a solid ruleset, the minis are gorgeous, terrain options are easily accessible... and it's really expensive. I'm kind of old school so I tend to look at GW as my gauge for "it costs how much?!?" but it seems like Legion is right up there too, at least for it the standard format. It seems like the common recommendation with the FFG Star Wars games is "Get two starters" and it does make sense. You get enough minis for the core of both a Rebel and an Imperial army, two sets of all the movement and range templates, and twice the special dice needed for the game. All for just $200 retail and the good news is that you only have to buy a few more things to actually have a legal army to play!
Unlike other games, the default size for Legion is 800 points. Period. To use an example that I'm familiar with, a standard game of Antares is 1000 points but the have lists for 500, 750, 1000, 1250... I'm sure you see the trend here but the point is you can play a smaller game and have it be legal. And considering that the army boxes from Warlord have between 500 and 1000 points in them, you are good to go right out of the gate for an $80 investment. Well, except for the order dice (which you could just get some wooden cubes and write on), a tape measure (which you probably already own), and the rules (the light version of which can be downloaded for free from the Warlord website).
Thankfully FFG has offered an alternative to this by introducing Skirmish level games. These are only 500 points and play on a 3' x 3' table which are both two big pluses in my book. I prefer smaller boards (even though I like Antares which really thrives on a larger board) and 500 points should make it that much more affordable, even if it only functions as a gateway to larger games in the future. I still need to run some numbers in Battlescribe to see just what I'm looking at but it's a start. Until next time...
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