Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Stormtrooper Heavy Response Unit

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at the stock-standard Stormtrooper unit that's available to the Empire in every single army list (and was included in all but the Blizzard Force battle force starter box as your Imperial Corps choice). Today, we're looking at their Blizzard Force cousin, the Stormtrooper Heavy Response Unit (HRU from now on), which has many of the same attributes of normal Stormtroopers, but with one big exception: you have to take two Heavy Weapon upgrades and you can't take any other upgrades. Since this is exclusive to the Blizzard Force battle force, you also can't take as many Heavy Weapon upgrades as the normal squad can (none of the named guys - Gideon Hask, Del Meeko, or Agent Kallus) and per the usual, you can't take multiple copies of the same upgrade. This gives us a few different combos that we can play with, but we have a way to determine what the "best choice" is, depending on what you want your squad to do. Let's see how the profile has changed and how this modifies the way we think about fielding the unit.

I will note before we begin that Blizzard Force allows you to run both standard Stormtroopers as well as Stormtrooper HRUs AND you're limited to 2 of these units - any additional Corps units that you add (one of which is mandatory) will be Snowtroopers. Choosing whether to take Standard Stormtroopers or HRUs (or just more Snows) is a real decision point - and I don't think there's an obvious answer when you get down to it.

Stormtroopers HRU: The Profile

Many of the attributes of this Stormtrooper profile are the same as the standard version - Speed 2, non-surging red saves, surge to hit on offense, and Courage 1. These guys retain Precise 1 (so they're still a bit aim hungry - but probably not AS aim hungry as their standard cousins), but they pick up Unhindered, which is kind of like having a standard Stormtrooper unit that paid 2pts for Environmental Gear. Since Snowtroopers also have Unhindered (ignores difficult terrain when moving), these guys are able to keep up with Snowtroopers (sort of - double-moving Snows are hard to keep pace with, especially with Imperial March . . . also, it's unclear if you want to keep up with Snowtroopers, but more on that in a moment). Their Flexible Response 2 special rule requires that they take two Heavy Weapon Upgrades - but unlike Strike Teams, neither of these Heavy Weapon units gains the Leader keyword (which has big implications on the attrition effect for this unit).

Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Stormtroopers

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off the new year with a unit I have been using a lot: Stormtroopers. These are the OG Corps units for the Empire and in many ways, they've been surpassed by Snowtroopers (and maybe other Corps options). Still, these guys are still the default Imperial Corps for the starter sets and they also have a lot of customizability (for both Heavy Weapons and Personnel choices, and unit cards - though we'll be looking at the Heavy Response Unit variant next time). With a new battle force that allows you to run seven of these guys, maybe we're in a new era for the humble Stormtrooper to shine. Let's see what these guys bring to the table.

Stormtroopers: The Profile

Stormtroopers are only 44pts base and have red saves - this puts them top of the list (tied with Snowtroopers) for cheapest red-dice-save unit in the game. They keep their cost down by having surging-white attack dice and a single situational special rule - and if you have ways to generate aim tokens on these units (or on units with Exemplar within range 2), these guys don't feel like they're rolling white dice. Beyond this, you have some standard stats of Speed 2, Courage 1, and 4 starting models - all in all, not bad for just over 40pts.