Terradon
Fhanados
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Hiya LOstrians!
Lately I've been pretty burned out on GW. Not because I don't like it (I'm loving 8th edition 40k!), but because of real life I've found it very difficult to organise games and play to completion and that's really hurt my painting motivation. So to freshen things up I got Star Wars: Legion for my birthday and I've got to say it's a pretty nice little game.
In one particularly quiet afternoon (a rarity for me) I managed to cram in 3 games with one of my friends using the starter box. It was a lot of fun! There's a lot to like about this game and I'll try to gather my thoughts into something coherent. I play WAY more 40k than AoS so you'll have to forgive my constant comparison between Legion and 40k.
Firstly I like that it was roughly equal. This will obviously change if me and my friend ramp things up and start optimising armies and whatnot (which I probably won't - just give me one of everything!) but at no point did I feel like I was on the back foot because my opponent outnumbers me 3:1 on account of spamming cheap units. I also felt that the units were mostly on-par with one another. Stormtroopers and Rebel Troopers feel like they're equals, but are both different enough to feel different. I think the AT-RT is a bit better than the speeder bikes, but that could just be because I was terrible at using bikes...
I like that the rules for a unit come with it and no supplemental books are needed. This is kind of a big deal for me since codexes and battletomes retail at about $80. I still don't own any 8th edition codexes (I play out of the index) and that becomes somewhat restrictive with where I can play and what kind of events I can play in. I'd need 3 Codexes to play the army I have now. That's $240 of books and doesn't even cover my entire 40k model range. With Legion I can download the core rules once I'm done with the starter set, and any new units I buy have the rules in the box. Amazing!
I feel that Legion uses Universal Special Rules in the way that 40k SHOULD have. List the rule on the unit stats with a brief summary of the rule, and the full rule details in the rulebook. My only criticism is that at the moment it does feel a bit bland and my eyes glaze over a bit when someone says "oh he has PIERCE 2 and PRECISE", but I think that's because I'm used to rules with really descriptive and emotive names like "Death to the False Emperor" and "Disgustingly Resilient", but otherwise I like the implementation.
Alternating Activations is something that people seem to constantly be insisting will "fix 40k". I disagree with that stance, but I do like it in Legion. The size and number of units I think has something to do with it. I've tried AA with 40k before but it didn't really work out well. I still like 40k's "I-go-you-go" format, but Legion definitely has a bit more decision making and thinking on your feet than 40k does.
Really, I like almost everything about this game so I won't bore you with the details of every tiny thing, but those are the main ones. Now what don't I like? Well ultimately I think it will change the more I play but....
Tokens. There are soooo many tokens. I don't think there should be NO tokens - tokens can be good, and I'd actually like to see a few more in 40k but token clutter can be a thing. I really feel like the end of turn phase is just "token cleanup phase". I get it, they're trying to make a tight ruleset and make sure there's as little margin for error and exploitation as possible but it's still annoying (more-so with tokens that AREN'T being used taking up table space).
Also cards. I really like stat cards, but holy moly they take up SO MUCH SPACE! Once I figure out some kind of card organising mechanism it will be fine but they just got in the way a lot of the time.
The command phase also seemed pretty unimpressive. Maybe that's because we're still using small armies and aren't getting to take full advantage of it, but it seemed to me that the biggest impact command cards made was determining turn priority and the commands themselves played very little part.
Last complaint - they made the system revolve around custom dice and measuring tools but didn't include enough dice to resolve a single round of shooting with stormtroopers without having to do it in batches! Seriously another 2 of each attach dice would be fine. Ah well, $20 for another set isn't too bad.
So that's me done! Ramble over. Hopefully I'll get some more games in and rant some more later.
Lately I've been pretty burned out on GW. Not because I don't like it (I'm loving 8th edition 40k!), but because of real life I've found it very difficult to organise games and play to completion and that's really hurt my painting motivation. So to freshen things up I got Star Wars: Legion for my birthday and I've got to say it's a pretty nice little game.
In one particularly quiet afternoon (a rarity for me) I managed to cram in 3 games with one of my friends using the starter box. It was a lot of fun! There's a lot to like about this game and I'll try to gather my thoughts into something coherent. I play WAY more 40k than AoS so you'll have to forgive my constant comparison between Legion and 40k.
Firstly I like that it was roughly equal. This will obviously change if me and my friend ramp things up and start optimising armies and whatnot (which I probably won't - just give me one of everything!) but at no point did I feel like I was on the back foot because my opponent outnumbers me 3:1 on account of spamming cheap units. I also felt that the units were mostly on-par with one another. Stormtroopers and Rebel Troopers feel like they're equals, but are both different enough to feel different. I think the AT-RT is a bit better than the speeder bikes, but that could just be because I was terrible at using bikes...
I like that the rules for a unit come with it and no supplemental books are needed. This is kind of a big deal for me since codexes and battletomes retail at about $80. I still don't own any 8th edition codexes (I play out of the index) and that becomes somewhat restrictive with where I can play and what kind of events I can play in. I'd need 3 Codexes to play the army I have now. That's $240 of books and doesn't even cover my entire 40k model range. With Legion I can download the core rules once I'm done with the starter set, and any new units I buy have the rules in the box. Amazing!
I feel that Legion uses Universal Special Rules in the way that 40k SHOULD have. List the rule on the unit stats with a brief summary of the rule, and the full rule details in the rulebook. My only criticism is that at the moment it does feel a bit bland and my eyes glaze over a bit when someone says "oh he has PIERCE 2 and PRECISE", but I think that's because I'm used to rules with really descriptive and emotive names like "Death to the False Emperor" and "Disgustingly Resilient", but otherwise I like the implementation.
Alternating Activations is something that people seem to constantly be insisting will "fix 40k". I disagree with that stance, but I do like it in Legion. The size and number of units I think has something to do with it. I've tried AA with 40k before but it didn't really work out well. I still like 40k's "I-go-you-go" format, but Legion definitely has a bit more decision making and thinking on your feet than 40k does.
Really, I like almost everything about this game so I won't bore you with the details of every tiny thing, but those are the main ones. Now what don't I like? Well ultimately I think it will change the more I play but....
Tokens. There are soooo many tokens. I don't think there should be NO tokens - tokens can be good, and I'd actually like to see a few more in 40k but token clutter can be a thing. I really feel like the end of turn phase is just "token cleanup phase". I get it, they're trying to make a tight ruleset and make sure there's as little margin for error and exploitation as possible but it's still annoying (more-so with tokens that AREN'T being used taking up table space).
Also cards. I really like stat cards, but holy moly they take up SO MUCH SPACE! Once I figure out some kind of card organising mechanism it will be fine but they just got in the way a lot of the time.
The command phase also seemed pretty unimpressive. Maybe that's because we're still using small armies and aren't getting to take full advantage of it, but it seemed to me that the biggest impact command cards made was determining turn priority and the commands themselves played very little part.
Last complaint - they made the system revolve around custom dice and measuring tools but didn't include enough dice to resolve a single round of shooting with stormtroopers without having to do it in batches! Seriously another 2 of each attach dice would be fine. Ah well, $20 for another set isn't too bad.
So that's me done! Ramble over. Hopefully I'll get some more games in and rant some more later.
