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. 

Star Wars Legion Guide: Aqua Droids

Good morning gamers,

Last time we looked at Droidekas, one of the new "Heavy Droid Trooper" choices for the Separatists. Today, we're looking at the Heavy corollary to Droidekas, Aqua Droids. These things are super good in Legion, even after the changes to their points cost and the change from Ground Vehicle to Heavy Droid Trooper.

Aqua Droids: The Profile

Let's review again what a "Heavy Droid Trooper" does: unlike Ground Vehicles, they do not block line of sight, they have a suppression value, and are prevented from being given orders by most of the Wheel Bike Grievous command cards. There were minor modifications to their unit card - they also lost the "Move" action from their AI keyword (now it's just AI: Attack) and they picked up Reposition (which gives them a full 90-degree pivot before moving instead of the standard 45-degree pivot) and Unconcerned (so they can't be fixed, restored, or benefit from Cover - and they don't have a Wheel Mode option to ignore Unconcerned, like Droidekas do).

They're still good though - 3 wounds each and 2 Courage is fine, they surge-to-hit on offense and have surging-white saves on defense, and they're speed 1 but have Infiltrate to make that less of an issue. Their relatively fragile defense stats are augmented by their Armor 2 keyword, which should help them shrug off two hits from each attack that comes their way. With three models base and the option for a fourth, they end up being a little more survivable and a little more expensive than Wookiee Warriors (who also have 3 wounds each, but have Armor 1 with their Battle Shield in Defense Mode and non-surging white saves).

Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Droidekas

Good morning gamers,

My son and I got started in our Star Wars Legion journey with the old Clone Wars starter set. I started with Republic but eventually bought out my son's Separatist collection by trading him Shadow Collective units (we discovered they're much more his play style). In the old starter, you got General Grievous, some B1 Battle Droids, and some Droidekas - at the time, they were a little expensive for what they brought to the table, but with the advent of Legion 2.6, these guys have come into a good place and are still able to compete for the Support slot in the current edition.

Droidekas: The Profile

Let's get the most recent update to these guys out of the way first: in early 2026, Droidekas (or 'dekas) went from being Ground Vehicles to "Heavy Droid Troopers," a new unit type that doesn't block line of sight, gives them a suppression value, and prevents them from being given orders by most of the Wheel Bike Grievous command cards. There were other modifications to the card - they lost the "Move" action from their AI keyword (now it's just AI: Attack), their weapons are now range 3, and they picked up Reposition (which gives them a full 90-degree pivot before moving instead of the standard 45-degree pivot). All in all, I think they're still a perfectly good units.

Their stats are good for their cost - 3 wounds each and 2 Courage is fine, they don't surge on offense but they have surging-white saves on defense, and they're speed 1 (with the option to be speed-3 with Wheel Mode - more on that shortly). Their relatively fragile defense stats are augmented by their Shielded 4/Generator 1 keywords, which gives them 4 super-dodges when they deploy and they reset one of those shields tokens at the end of the round. Unlike Clone Commandos, 'dekas don't have Recharge X, so performing recover actions will not reset any of their shield tokens (which is pertinent since one of Kalani's command cards allows units to perform a recover action), so you're dependent on Generator to bring them back. Still, knocking 4 hits or crits off an incoming range attack should help these guys survive the first wave of shots. Despite having 4 shields and 2 models, I will note that you keep all 4 shields even if you lose one of the 'dekas- perfect! All that said, these guys can't benefit from cover while they have Unconcerned active (more on that later) and similarly can't be repaired while Unconcerned is active.

Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: Geonosian Warriors

Good morning gamers,

The Separatists have access to very efficient Corps units in B1 Battle Droids (who we talked about last month), but the punch on these droids leaves something to be desired (even if you buy a Heavy Weapon on them). B1s have easy order control (which has been made even better now that the Infantry Support upgrade is available for vehicles) and that's what you're buying them for - bodies that can sit on POIs and survive a few shots. If you want cheap and efficient punching power, your option is probably Geonosian Warriors. Getting order control on these guys is a lot harder, but they're very, very punchy for their cost. Let's see what they do - and more importantly, how to plan for having their Corps order tokens in your lists!

Geonosian Warriors: The Profile

"Geos" have stats very similar to B1s - 1 wound each, Courage 1, surging-white saves (better than B1s), no surge on offense, and Speed-2. At 45pts base, they're 7pts more expensive than B1s, but only start with the standard 4 bodies. If the story stopped there, I think it would be pretty clear that you'd just take B1s every time. Their special rules and offensive capability is really where they shine: with 1 black in melee, they're more effective than B1s (who probably aren't trying to fight in melee anyway - but if they didn't take a Heavy Weapon, aren't any worse in melee than they are at range) and at range 1-2, they've got 1 black/1 white, which is very solid for being a Corps unit.

They have four special rules, three of which help them tremendously. Their best rule is a free-action Jump 3, which not only gives them a free Speed-3 move, but it allows them to perform that move without reducing their speed and moving over any terrain/models that are shorter than height-3 . . . which is 18" high! They can use this to get onto terrain that is up to height-3 above their starting position, which might be able to trigger their Death From Above rule, which allows them to ignore enemy cover if the Geonosians are higher than their opponent (this will trigger so long as they are on any piece of terrain, even if it's just a box). They also have Scale, which means that they ignore speed-reduction modifiers for difficult terrain and can perform climb moves (at speed-1) over terrain/models that are less than height-2 (so not as good as the Jump move for both height and distance traveled), but it does make them very maneuverable units. Finally, they have a negative keyword (Weighed Down) which prevents them from using their free-action Jump 3 special rule if they are carrying an objective token . . . which won't always matter (and it also means you want to use your free-action Jump to get to the objective token).

Star Wars Legion Unit Guide: General Grievous Part I

Good morning gamers,

For reasons I cannot explain, General Grievous on foot has always been my favorite CIS Commander option. Yes, he lacks the Force abilities of Dooku or the speed/lethality of his new wheel bike version - and he's a much worse support commander than Kalani or the generic Super Tactical Droid, but he's my favorite. Perhaps it's because my son and I started his-then-my CIS collection with Grievous leading B1s. Maybe it's because a lot of people have dunked on Grievous until recently and that made me look for things to like about him. It could be that he has four lightsabers and that's really cool. Whatever the reason, I've been running foot-Grievous since I got into Seppies and I think there's a lot to like about the guy. While there's certainly a discussion to be had about whether to take him on foot or in his new vehicle form, that will be a discussion for another day.

General Grievous: The Profile

The "Sinister Cyborg" profile of General Grievous has some pretty weak stat options for a "big hitter character": Courage 2 isn't great (though with the release of Mando characters, it's becoming more common?), Speed 2 is fine, no surging on offense or defense can be punishing, and 8 wounds is fabulous but also highlights his inability to surge a lot (he's expected to take 16 hits before he dies - which is slightly better than being a 5 wound hero with surging red saves).

That said, his offense is fantastic and he has some very useful keywords. His "glamor weapon" is the trophy lightsabers that he wields, which gives him 2 red/4 black/2 white, or basically 8 black in melee with Critical 1, Impact 2, and Pierce 2. The pierce matters more in an era when Impervious knocks down one of your Pierce results, but this pool makes him very reliable into all kinds of targets (he should get 4 hits past armor with Pierce 2, he should get 2 crits past dodges, and roughly 4 hits with Pierce 1 against Mandos). He's so-so against force users who are Immune: Pierce because he also totes Immune: Pierce. His alternate attack option is the DT-57 "Annihilator", which is a melee-to-2 weapon with versatile, which allows him to shoot out of combat if that's better for you (or if you were engaged by something that just wants to quagmire you). With Critical 1/Pierce 1 on his gun and 2 black/2 white, it's definitely a subpar option to the lightsabers, but since he has Relentless, it's not uncommon to get a range-2 shot in after you double-move onto the board if your opponent has been a little aggressive (or if you have some movement help, more on that later).

Star Wars Legion Unit Review: B1 Battle Droids

Good morning gamers,

There might not be a single faction in Star Wars Legion that has a go-to Corps unit choice like the Separatists do. Yes, you will see lists that feature six Geonosian Warrior squads (or fewer than six in a Rapid Interdiction Force battle force list) or six or seven B2 Battle Droids with Poggle the Lesser, but by and large, if you're playing against a Separatist player, it's only natural to expect to see several units of B1 Battle Droids in their army. Yes, these are iconic prequel trilogy units for the Trade Federation/Separatists, but they're also fabulous units in Legion. Let's see what they do and why everyone seems to be keen to take them.

B1 Battle Droids: The Profile

When my son and I got started playing Legion . . . we both hated B1s. I was playing Republic and my son was playing Separatists and the Republic units were durable while the B1s were . . . well, easy to squish and didn't do a lot of damage, no matter what you put in their unit to help them out. This was before the current version of Legion and the release of the "super size squad" personnel option, but even today, B1s aren't paying for a good profile. On offense, these guys roll 1 white die each and can't surge natively - that's bad. They roll 1 white defense die that also doesn't surge natively - and that's bad too. Each model has 1 wound, the unit has Courage 1, and they're a normal speed-2 . . . there's seemingly nothing to recommend this profile.

Except the cost - and in some respects, the special rules. Because their profile is so bad, their cost is incredibly low at 38 points (lower than any other Corps unit in the game). They have AI: Attack, which has both positive and negative ramifications, based on whether you're suppressed or not and whether or not you have an order token. If you don't have an order token and the unit is suppressed (which will usually be the case if they've taken 1-3 suppression tokens), the first action they have to take is an Attack action . . . which might not be the worst thing in the world, but also might not be what you want to do with them. As we'll see below, though, there are MANY ways to work around this, not least of which is having Courage 3 commanders in your list or access to Override.

They also have Coordinate: Droid Trooper, which has always been the reason to take B1s in your army - issuing an order to one of them likely means you have an order on ALL of them, so long as each squad has at least one model within range-1 of each other. While you can certainly do "chains" of B1s this way, a "web" of B1s is far more reliable at keeping the order control going - and it helps if you have another Droid Trooper (either a Droid Commander/Operative who started the chain and is near the end of the chain or a combat-oriented unit that's operating near the B1s) at the actual end, so they can benefit from the last coordinate. The only units that are unlikely to benefit from this chaining are your vehicles and Force Users (and geo-bugs, I guess), so they will be dependent on your command card to make sure they get the orders they want. Still, if all of your Corps units are B1 Battle Droids (or up to 1 of them is a Droid Trooper/has access to Direct from someone else), you shouldn't have any Corps units in your order pool, which helps with order efficiency and reliability a TON.

Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Count Dooku

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off a several-month dive into the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS/Separatist) faction and we're starting with "the big guy," Count Dooku. Dooku is a staple of my playing group - there's a guy who basically JUST plays Dooku/Seppies - and he can be a NIGHTMARE to deal with on the table. He's also healable by the cheaper of the medic options that the Separatists have, so if you're running a medic (maybe to support Grievous, Asajj, or Geonosians), the disincentives of dealing with him can really stack up. Let's see what this guy is bringing to the fight and how much you should invest in him.

Count Dooku: The Profile

Dooku starts at 165 points and that makes him one of the cheapest "heavy hitting" pieces among the factions. His offensive power is very good with 5 red in melee with Impact 2/Pierce 2 and Makashi Mastery (so he'll have Pierce 1 against units that are normally immune to Pierce or the newly revamped Impervious) and 6 black dice with Pierce 1/Scatter/Suppressive at range 1-2 (which is not nearly as good against units with Impervious or Immune: Pierce, but still useful for bringing units out of cover with Scatter - and potentially into melee with Dooku to keep him from being shot at by other units).

Defensively, Dooku is very solid - 6 wounds with surging-red saves, Deflect, and Immune: Pierce means that he needs to flub a lot of saves to go down (or get shot at by snipers - there's that too). While Dooku is likely to end up being very expensive, he's well kitted out to retain his points from going to your opponent for most of the game (if you're not completely reckless with him).