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).

Customizable Commanders, Part IV: The Separatist Alliance

Good morning gamers,

This is our third post in reviewing the new customizable commanders and operatives for the four factions in Star Wars Legion. We've already looked at the Rebel and Imperial options and today we're tackling my beloved Republic and the customizable Jedi heroes that you can field. If you haven't seen the article yet, you can view it here.

Like the previous article, we'll be looking at the four doctrines provided in the new kit and how that shakes out with the SEVEN different Jedi builds you can have (max of four, of course, since the doctrines are unique . . . some might say max of two, depending on whether you think two of the doctrines are playable). We'll start off with the one that is unique to Commanders . . .

Super Tactical Command Droids: What's The Difference?

In the previous three posts, we looked at the minor differences between Rebel Officers/Agents (Inspire vs. Independent: Dodge and Nimble), Imperial Officers/Agents (Inspire vs. Relentless), and Jedi Knights (Master of the Force 1) - there are sometimes stat differences (Courage or Wounds) as well and it translates into differences in cost, but by and large, the points cost difference isn't the biggest difference between models. The doctrines you can take are also different - some doctrines are unique to the Commander or Operative choice or can be shared between the two with a maximum of one per army.

The Super Tacs . . . don't really work this way. The difference between the Commander and Operative Super Tacs is incredibly small - the Commander is 10pts more expensive and has -1 Courage (huh?), +1 Hardpoint upgrade, +1 Command upgrade, -1 Armament upgrade, and doesn't have Aid: Droid Trooper. In short . . . unless you want 3 Hardpoints or a Command upgrade, the Operative variant is cheaper, has high Courage (that can't be used to cancel AI/prevent panicking), and has the ability to shuffle tokens to friendly Droid Troopers (like Kalani?).

In addition, there are only two Super-Tac doctrines and they can both be used by both variants . . . also, all of the Hardpoints can be used by both variants . . . so if you prefer the Operatives, take them with whatever combo you want. If you prefer the Commander variants (though I feel like the Commanders lot is in a LOT of contention between Dooku, Wheelbike Grievous, Poggle, and Kalani), take those. I don't think it matters - take whoever you want. As a result, this article is going to be a lot shorter than the previous ones because I'm only going to evaluate the two doctrines against a universal "Super Tactical Command Droid", as I don't think the differences matter that much.

Super Tactical Command Droid with Seek and Destroy: 65+ pts

The cost above reflects an Operative taking the 5pt doctrine (limit 2), but I actually think this is better on the Commander variant. The boosts from this is Demoralize 1, Marksman, and Target 1. The combination of Target and Marksman is great if you're using this guy with the Optimized Task Flow upgrade (8pts) to get Direct: AI Unit. This is cheaper than an HQ Uplink on B1s and can be used to spin the Coordinate chain and he'll end up with an order token at the end if you play it right. With an aim by default, you can guarantee 1 hit from your 3-die attacks makes it through, which gives you reliable suppression output between Demoralize 1 and your shooting attack if you didn't pay for a weapon - and very reliable damage if you paid for an Electrostaff (10pts). Doctrine Rating: A-.