Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Mace Windu

Good morning gamers,

We'll be spending the rest of the year going through the four new Jedi Council heroes that we have for the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Legion. We start off with the one we saw first: Mace Windu. Mace has been highly anticipated for Star Wars Legion, but his launch has met mixed reviews - and while I won't dispute that he feels like he's priced too high given the current cost of Yoda and Obi-Wan (and with it, basically every other Force User in Star Wars Legion), I do feel like there's something here that you won't find elsewhere. Let's see what he's bringing to the table and take the most positive view possible on this very iconic Jedi!

Mace Windu: The Profile

Mace's best comparison in the game is probably Anakin or Yoda - but he's a nice joining of both profiles. He's got 6 Wounds (like Anakin, higher than Yoda), 3 Courage (like Anakin, lower than Yoda), surge for Crit and block (like Yoda, better on defense than Anakin), Speed-2 (like Anakin, higher than Yoda), and access to the standard "big Jedi" abilities of Deflect, Immune: Pierce, and Master of the Force 1 (lower than Yoda). He also has Charge, which is similar to most named Jedi (not Yoda - but he has ways of getting both Charge and Relentless). He has Jump 1 as an action, which many of the recent Jedi profiles lack by default (though most can gain it).

He has two unconventional rules in his profile. The first is Compel: Corps Trooper - this is something you'll see on Commander Vader, but not usually something you'd expect to see on a character who has Courage 2 Corps units (though it can be used on Clones that are taking a beating or on Courage 1 Pykes/Weequay - even with Self-Preservation active). While I don't know how much of his cost is predicated on this, in a game that is shifting to a split-fire-suppress-the-enemy meta, I feel like this could be a useful asset if Mace is kept near-ish to your Corps units. He also has Vaapad Mastery, which is unique to Mace at the moment and gives him an extra white die on attack/defense for each Wound he's suffered (with a limit of +3 dice). While you won't get the full bonus from this until you've taken at least half of your wounds, I will say that this rule encourages your opponent to try to nuke Mace quickly, as slow attrition will make it harder and harder to get wounds to stick. It's also useful in melee duels where the dice pools are likely to be smaller than super-sized units with heavies shooting at him and a surging-white die might succeed in blocking something. The extra dice on offense can be good, but I think you're looking at one of the new Force Upgrades by default to make those white dice more reliable.

Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Anakin Skywalker

Good morning gamers,

When Legion 2.6 dropped, my son Gorgowrath got frustrated with Separatists and started playing Republic - he's always liked elite troops that can hold their own against larger numbers of foes, so Republic seemed like a pretty good fit. After playing a single game with Anakin, he was hooked - and I think it's still true that there aren't many units in the game that punch quite as hard as Anakin Skywalker. With a stellar offensive kit, good command cards that augment his damage output, and some powerful special rules that help him hit even harder still, it's not hard to like Anakin . . . if you can keep him alive. :) Let's see what's up with this guy and how to use him.

Anakin Skywalker: The Profile

There are several special rules that really should be stapled to any Jedi character: Jump 1, Charge (or Relentless/Steady, I'm not picky), Immune: Pierce, Deflect, and Master of the Force 1. Together, these rules give you reliable resistance to shooting attacks (Deflect gives defensive surges and the potential for retributive damage, Immune: Pierce reduces the effectiveness of the hits they get), mobility (Jump 1 - or Jump 2 on some Jedi), and action efficiency (Charge allows you to attack as part of a move action, while Master of the Force 1 allows you to reset a previously-used exhausted Force upgrade). There are actually quite a few Jedi who are missing at least one of these keywords, but Anakin has them all - along with some other very useful tools. 

Anakin is currently the only character in the game with Djem So Mastery, which allows Anakin to do 1 wound to an opponent who attacks him in melee if the attacker got at least 1 blank in his attack pool. This is going to be more effective against enemies with white attack dice (or those that don't have aim tokens to reroll dice - or special rules like Jar'Kai Mastery, Marksman, or Ram X that promote dice rolls from blanks to hits in various ways), but there's always the niggling feeling if you want to deal with Anakin in melee that he might just take a chunk out of you on the way in. He's also the only character in the game with Tempted, which allows Anakin once per round to perform a free speed-2 move action OR a free attack action when a friendly unit is destroyed within range 3 of him. While you can conceivably wait to destroy units until you can get a bunch in a single round, functionally this rule disincentivizes attacking Anakin.