Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Rebel AT-RTs

Good morning gamers,

Over the past two posts, I've tried to find good things to say about Commander Luke and Rebel Troopers - both of whom are provided in the Galactic Civil War Core Set and both of which got updates (for the better) with the Legion 2.6 release.

Today we're wrapping up the discussion about the Rebel units in the Core Set with the Rebel AT-RT . . . and these guys got a surprising face lift with the new edition (despite taking a big downgrade on one of their special rules). We'll start by looking at what's good in the profile (and how it's changed), what's regrettable about the profile (and Rebel list building in general), and then look at how we can make these guys work. Let's dig in!

Rebel AT-RTs: The Profile

The Rebel AT-RT is Support unit choice that went from having full Armor to Armor 2- that's not a good thing. It still has 6 wounds but picked up defensive surges on its white die (which is pretty good for a Support unit - and a better health-for-cost than you're going to get from any other Rebel Corps or Special Forces unit) with Resilience 4 (so you have to be basically dead before you break - which is also good) and can surge for crit (which is superb). It also has Climbing Vehicle (so it can climb, which most Supports that aren't fliers are unable to do) and Expert Climber (so it can move its full movement while climbing instead of reducing its speed to Speed-1). Finally, the Rebel AT-RT picked up Scout 1, which is excellent for getting up onto the board on the first turn so it can take advantage of its Hardpoint upgrade (more on the options you have for this particular upgrade slot later).

The AT-RT has two weapons innate on it and a Hardpoint upgrade slot. Its melee weapon is pretty good (3 reds with Impact 1) and its ranged weapon is not (two whites with surge for crit, no Fixed keyword). We'll dig into the Hardpoint upgrades a bit later but suffice it to say that most of the time, you're going to want to take a Hardpoint upgrade because it's just going to do more damage than you can normally. With the changes in Legion 2.6, AT-RTs can also score objectives now, which is always nice. All told, for 50pts (5pts cheaper than before), it's not a bad unit . . .

Three possible builds for the AT-RT (60-70pts)
Photo Credit: Tabletop Admiral

. . . except it kind of is. There are three big factors working against AT-RTs: first, there are three other Rebel/Mercenary Support units who are competing with AT-RTs for three Support slots. Second, the Rebel AT-RT is often compared to the Republic AT-RT, which has some marked improvements (and only one downgrade) for basically the same price. Third, Armor 2 is great . . . but only to a point. Let's flesh each of these complaints out a bit so we can understand what we're dealing with - and then figure out where the AT-RTs place is in Rebel lists . . .

Star Wars Legion Unit Review: Rebel Troopers

Good morning gamers,

If you haven't read Centaur's article on Rebel Veterans yet, you should - check it out and then keep reading. Prior to the release of Legion 2.6 (or Legion 2.0, depending on who you talk to), the common advice was that "Rebel Veterans are good and Rebel Troopers are bad." This always felt like a shame to me, since Rebel Troopers are the OG and actually had a rather interesting place in Legion. With the updated Rebel Trooper profile, Rebel Troopers have emerged into a realm of their own - still very squishy, but not as bad as they used to be.

So what we're going to do today is look at the new Rebel Trooper profile first in the light of their competition, and then after we've aired all the dirty laundry, we'll take another look and see what's to like about these units. Let's start off with their profile . . .

Rebel Troopers: The Profile

Rebel Troopers have a pretty average profile - Speed 2, 1 Wound, Courage 1, 1 black die in both melee and at range 1-3, 4 Trooper models to start with . . . nothing to write home about. Their white defense save with defensive surges is better than B1 Battle Droids and Wookiees, but is still pretty garbage, especially if you're coming to the Rebel faction after playing with the Empire or the Republic (like I am) where basically everyone has red defense saves.

Four perfectly valid Rebel Trooper builds (47-106pts)
Photo Credit: Tabletop Admiral

These guys used to have only one keyword: Nimble. Nimble allows you to get bonus saves from each of your dodge tokens (since you get one back each time you spend at least one), but unless you START with dodge tokens on your guys, Nimble isn't going to do anything for you (and since that usually required taking a dodge action, Rebel Troopers were in a much worse spot than Rebel Veterans who got a dodge token that didn't come back when issued an order - they've changed that, by the way). With the Legion 2.6 update, Rebel Troopers picked up Agile 1 as well, which gives them a dodge token each time they move - perfect! I was hoping these guys would get some way of getting dodge tokens automatically and I hoped it wouldn't involve giving them Defend 1 (which would undoubtedly be good, since they wouldn't have to activate to get their dodge token) - I'll take Agile 1 instead.

While 40 points for a Corps squad looks good (especially if you're coming from the Republic where all your guys cost a lot more - and the excellent nature of the Heavy Weapon/Squad Leader choices makes you want to invest a LOT in those units), once you consider the other Rebel Corps units, you realize that 40pts is pretty standard and basically everyone lives in that band.