If you have lived here for just a short time in a galaxy not that far away, then you may have heard of a little thing called Star Wars. They have had several successful miniature games out for play for a long time now, and the only system that I had ever tried was Armada way back in 2014. I picked up the first edition starter set when it was half off on Amazon a long time ago, my son and I built it all up and even painted everything that came in the box but we never found our way to play it on the table. At that point it was because the only game I really played on table top was 40k, because I was playing video games heavily at that time too. The collection got put in a box and set on a shelf for a very long time. I think when Cody and I were out looking for Necromunda stuff Cody had mentioned that there was a new edition of Legion coming out, so naturally I got to looking into the system. I picked up the Rebel and Empire starter sets so that I can introduce the game system with very familiar pieces and have a range from small Recon style matches to the standard matched settings. I really feel the power of this system is going to be having fun in the narrative, Star Wars is my first true Nerd love and I will always have a soft spot for it, it would be easier for me to get into the lore since I have been swimming in it my whole life. 

One of the first things you will notice is that all the rules are online for free! This is great as I could download the rules to my tablet and read them on the go when I travel for work. Having the cards digital too is nice, however it really is kind of a struggle to read on a device, and I really think that a codex like book with written upgrades might help here. I would be willing to pay for some rules that are printed as paper is always the superior way to consume books. However, the cards are extremely handy during the game and you have some options to tap cards like in magic so they do have their place. My critique mostly stemmed from the buyer’s remorse that GW has given to me from buying their library of rule books for so many years, so yeah it’s awesome when it’s all free and doesn’t take up physical space! The models are fantastic, they have about 7 to 8 pieces per model and they have slots to fit pieces in, so when after you glue them together they normally stay together allowing you to fly through the miniature building process. I think I built a box in about 3 hours, so you could easily assemble two of these over a weekend and get to playing with a buddy.

The rules are pretty straight forward, if you have never played a wargame before, however there are so many little differences from 40k that make you really appreciate what is going on in this game. The way you determine the map and missions is probably my favorite part of the system, you have so much control over what kind of mission you are going to play, so you can build a list to do those missions and have somewhat good knowledge going in that you are going to have a successful game. The order system which is a little bit of a gamble to see who has priority, the lower number of pips your command card has the higher chance you are going to go first, but you are only going to be able to control one units activation, the rest of the activations you are going to have to draw from your activation pool. (Each unit has a type, Hero, Troop, Special, etc… you take a token for each type they are and put them in a bag and draw from there, that’s how you know which unit you play with during your activation). If you chose a card with 3 pips then you are probably not going to get priority as the player with the fewer pips on their cards gets priority, but you will get to choose which units on that card (could be three) to know that you will not have to draw for them. This can make for some pretty important decisions. If you act first with any unit you could save an objective or save that unit, but if you go second with a unit that can finish something off? The possibilities are endless, and this makes for some really fun swings.

Deployment is something else that is interesting, you deploy units that have Prepared Positions first on the table itself. Then when a unit activates they move onto the table, you do this by putting the move tool on the edge of the board and then placing the leader at the end, then place the rest of the models into coherency. This game does movement right, you move the leader model and then place everyone else within half a range (the measurements in this game are a defined measurement of 1 range, 2 range etc.. so half a range is about 3 inches) A move costs an action, just like most things do, all units get two actions in an activation, once everyone has activated you go to the end phase and count points and go to the next turn.

The system is a ton of fun and it has a lot of depth, the abilities are like 10 pages in the rule book, which we will try and get a printable copy on here, but we might need a bigger printer for that. I think that Atomic Mass Games has a great system on their hands and it really makes me excited to play this game and other games that they have produced. Look more here for how to play articles, faction focuses, battle reports, painting guides, but for now you should go and get a starter set, they are a great value for 100 dollars, and by the time you get your head wrapped around the rules you should have everything built and ready to go!