Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Star Wars: Legion Test Play

Went to my friendly local gaming store with the boys recently to check out Star Wars:  Legion.  Here's my brief review based on a test play recreating the Battle of Endor.  The Empire and the Rebel Alliance clash over control of the bunker housing the new Death Star's field generator.

The forces:
- The Empire had two fire teams' worth of storm troopers, a three-vehicle unit of speeder bikes, and Darth Vader.
- The Rebel Alliance had two fire teams' worth of troopers, an open-topped mini-walker (like an AT-ST, but smaller), and Luke Skywalker.

The two sides seek cover and exchange fire.  The speeder bike trio, partially obscured by the tree trunk at left, advances on the Rebel flank.

The Rebel troops exchange fire with the storm troopers.
The speeder bike trio has already been reduced by Rebel fire, and then Skywalker jumps out and cuts down the remaining bike.
Skywalker seizes the initiative and jumps into melee combat with the nearest storm trooper unit, wiping them out.  You can see that the storm trooper team to the right of Vader has taken casualties from accurate Rebel fire.


Skywalker, however, proved no match for dear old dad.  Vader closed the distance and promptly cut Luke down.
Unfortunately for Vader, the rest of the Empire force has been destroyed by the combined weight of Rebel fire.  Now he has to brave the whole weight of Rebel blasters while closing the distance with the Rebel line.
Vader couldn't close the distance in time.  He almost made it, but a lucky streak from the Rebel firing line brought him down.
 
A quick run-down of my impressions:
- Unit activation runs on different command schemes that let a different type and number of units activate, and in different priority.  I generally liked it, and prefer it to 40k's system.
- The proprietary dice system is apparently a carryover concept from the X-Wing system.  It took a minute to get used to, but I thought it worked well from what I saw.
- The unit types played true to Star Wars orthodoxy.  Vader proved slow moving but a wrecking ball in melee combat.  Luke was more agile and still formidable, but unable to go toe-to-toe with his old man.  Rebels outshoot storm troopers but don't have the same armor and, hence, ability to soak up damage.
- I didn't get a chance to really ring out the possibilities that the vehicles might offer.  The small-ish board meant that the speed and flanking possibility of the speeder bikes weren't really in play.  And they proved surprisingly fragile in the face of Rebel fire.
- I'm not a fan of the scale of the miniatures.  The existing Star Wars miniatures used in the 28mm-ish Imperial Assault are much smaller than the Legion line.  For perspective, I'm of the mind that anything bigger than 20 or 25mm is ridiculous for anything primarily involving gunfire, and the 32mm/heroic scale figures in Legion go well beyond that.  I readily admit that they aren't as complex as 40k minis to assemble, and paint up quite beautifully.  I'm just not sold on the size, and was told that the AT-ST model will be as big as 7-11 Big Gulp cup.

Bottom Line:  While enjoyable and more nuanced than some other sci-fi fire team-based games, I personally didn't care for the large scale of the miniatures.  I don't plan to invest in the system, but won't be opposed to my boys getting in to it.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Battles of the Week, 27 June 2016

The boys and I played a game of Car Wars.  Our three mostly-painted cars had a close fight, you should read the whole thing.
Everyone else on the internet was reasonably busy.

Kaptain Kobold has a game of SAGA up, with Vikings squaring off against a coalition of folks who don't appreciate being raided.  A close-run thing.

Speaking of close-run things, go check out the MASSIVE Waterloo game that Kaptain Kobold pointed out to me.  Truly epic.

Baron Von J has a post-apocalyptic variation on Fistful of Lead in playtesting.  Pretty cool, but the playing cards-western shootout thing is a much tighter connection than poker and the end of the world.

Found a new (to me) gaming blog, Double Six, which has a couple neat batreps up:  one from a Mordheim game, another from a LoTR game.  And a Dux Bellorum mini-campaign from 565 AD, part 1 and part 2.  Site added to the blog roll.

Speaking of eras I've never gamed, here's a prehistoric wargame report.  Beautiful miniatures, surprisingly cool.

Wargaming with Barks continues a Star Wars comic-formatted campaign - part 1, part 2, and part 3.

And here's some video batreps I've stumbled upon - one in a system called Relic Worlds, which is based on the Savage Worlds Showdown system, which I'm a fan of and have used in fantasy gaming (see here and here).  And here's a video batrep in the LoTR world - the main page and the YouTube video link.

Wargaming4grownups has a World War I AAR up, with a neat way to play 'cards' for initiative.  Campaigns in Miniature has a World War II desert game up replaying the Italian invasion of Egypt in 1940.  Their result is characteristically Italian for the period.

Hook Island has a rather good-looking game up played in Liber Militum Tercios, while Platoon Forward has a "milk run" mission in the Green Zone posted... no such thing.



Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Battles of the Week, 19 June 2016

In case you missed it, the boys and I played some more Force on Force, posted here.  It's an expanded version of the Contracting Trouble scenario from the FoF rule book.

And here's what everyone else was busy with:

Into the Maelstrom wins the internet this week with a great game of Bloodbowl featuring Elves versus Humans (Part 1).  Narration is in the pictures, so if your browser supports it, you may be able to just click through the pictures like a slideshow.  Works great in Chrome.  He also has an LoTR battle posted, with Nazgul chasing Hobbits.

Speaking of click-through slideshows, the same worked for this Star Wars:  Imperial Assault game from Wargaming with Barks.

Joy and Forgetfulness has a quirky Napoleonics game up and a Victorian Afghanistan battle posted.  The latter is quite fun.

For some more Napoleonics, check out Kaptain Kobold's big Waterloo game.  I've always wanted to play one of these expansive affairs.

Fawcett Avenue Conscripts has a tournament dungeon crawl game up, played with the Otherworld fantasy skirmish rules.  I'm not acquainted with the rules, but it looks like it was fun.

Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles has a LoTR battle report posted in two parts - Part 1 and Part 2.

And, as usual, we close with Frostgrave.  Nerdly Darkness has a game on a neat hand-crafted board up, complete with an ancient library.