With the new starter sets out for several weeks now, new Legion players will be looking around to see what else they can use to make their armies even bigger. If you are a new player, the attraction of the older sets, that will need a card upgrade set to use, is probably not high on your list. Like me, you are probably waiting for all the rereleases, some with new sculpts, to be able to expand your force. While some more commandos might be an option, something completely new and not included in the starter set is certainly going to be more appealing.
As the Empire players get a customisable officer and agent, so do the Rebels. While the box is almost half of the size, the box still boasts that it has over twenty different parts to completely customise these two characters. That level of customisation will allow players the ability to really create a unique character to field in their army and reenact untold battles against the Galactic Empire. You might tell that I’m very for this! While it is fun to use characters that you know in battles, Luke going up against Vader just wouldn’t have really happened that much. These sets allow players to add a touch of realism to battles that are fought a long time ago, in a galaxy… well you know what I mean! Players can carve out their own stories through battles and campaigns and that sounds pretty good!
The box might be smaller than the Empire equivalent, but it is still full of things! There are only two sprues compared to the Empire set – which has three. But you can instantly see the host of pieces that you can use to create your model. Lots, and lots of choices. I thought I’d take a look at the cards before I started to try and figure out how I wanted to build these characters.
The Rebel Officer serves as your commander and costs 55 points. That’s over half the cost of Luke, allowing you some flexibility in the rest of your army. That said, you do need to equip them with a doctrine upgrade, which adds more points. The officer provides inspire one but only comes with a blaster pistol and six health. This is very comparable with the Empire counterpart and I like that, they should almost be the same, they are, after all, both commanders in a galaxy far, far away. Where there is a difference, is that there are two doctrines that only the officer can take. The cheaper of the two is ‘Frontline Commander’ that costs eight points. When within one of trooper units, those units gain dauntless. The officer also gains ‘Aid: trooper unit’, Indomitable, Spur and Tactical one. A lot for your points. This seems slightly better than the Imperial version. The more expensive doctrine is ‘Proven Tactical’ that costs ten points. This increases the morale of the officer by one, gives them ‘Quick Thinking’ and ‘Exemplar’. It also allows certain units within one to gain ‘Reinforcements’. This also seems very useful, making your troopers a bit more mobile, as long as you stay close. The officer also gives you access to a three-pip command card that allows you to order three trooper units, giving them a dodge and observation token.
The Rebel Agent is just like the Imperial Agent. Costing fifty points, with five health, they too need to be upgraded with a doctrine. They also get dodge one and nimble, for me, making them a little better over the Imperial counterpart. There is only one doctrine in the set that is exclusively for the agent, and it costs ten points. ‘Reluctant Hero’ gives the unit infiltrate and relentless. It also adds a critical to the attack pool for every suppression token it has. As well as this, it also gives the Rebel player access to a two-pip command card, that allows you to order any unit and an operative. When you make your pass pool, you add advantage tokens equal to the round number. Certainly, something you want to wait as long as possible to get the maximum benefit of it.
That brings us to the rest of the upgrade cards. There is only one doctrine card that can be utilised by both the officer and agent and of course, it would be the cheapest one! At five points, ‘Unseen Saboteur’ will save you points. It gives your officer or agent ‘Low Profile’ and ‘Prepared Position’ but also allows you in set-up to select a non-commander or operative to gain ‘Prepared Position’. Particularly with the recon game set-up, having dodge tokens so early can be very useful.
There is only one gear upgrade card in the set, which is also found in the Imperial set; combat armour. At fifteen points, it is anything but cheap, but if you are like me and not very good at rolling dice, rolling black dice instead of white for defense could make all the difference. For three points you can use a thermal detonator, which I think looks fantastic: four red dice, blast and impact four. I don’t think I want to be on the receiving end of that! That then brings us to the weapons. There are two that cost eight points, one for melee, one ranged. Vibro axe gives the unit charge, and you roll a red dice and three black dice. The heavy blaster pistol costs the same but gives the unit arsenal two and allows the player to roll one red and one white dice. However, the final upgrade is a whopping twenty-five points. That’s half the cost of the agent! The repeating blaster reduces your units speed by one and costs a lot, so why take it? Precise two is given to the wielder and you are rolling one red dice, two black dice and three white dice. Critical one, impact one and long shot, I mean this weapon does give you a lot, but for that cost I’m not sure how effective it will be.
Just like the Imperial set, there are a lot of options here, possibly less but there are some more extremes in terms of points. None of this really helps me with how to build the models, I mean the repeating blaster seems too expensive but… it looks so cool! Like with the Imperial set, I’m not going to hold the model to be absolutely perfect to my list, but it would be nice if it was similar. So, with that in the back of my mind, it was time to start building the models.
Having learnt from the Imperial set I knew that the easiest way to do this was to assemble both sets of legs and bodies, then attach the heads then figure out the arms. There is a small selection of backpacks to add as well, which was a nice touch. I quickly made up both bodies, gluing both sides of the body and for the ‘agent’ attaching a leg. I use the term ‘agent’ loosely at this point, as it would be easy enough to switch the bodies and say they are the officer. I was happy with how they were allocated so it didn’t really matter in this case.
Onto the heads, there is a togruta, a nautolan, zabrak, duros and three human heads. While not a bad selection, I must admit I was slightly underwhelmed after having the choices from the Imperial set. There were a lot more choices, both male and female that seemed to be lacking somewhat here. I decided to go for the togruta for my officer and the nautolan for the agent. Having only human heads for the Empire, I wanted to make use of anything not human for the Rebels. These heads came in several parts. I have never been shy complaining about the small parts that came with Atomic Mass Games’ other big game – Marvel Crisis Protocol – but I must admit that none of these small parts caused me any problems and fitted like a dream. The angle of the head is very set, which initially I found a little annoying, but because of their head tails, I presume this is so there is no way they will get in the way of the backpacks.
It was then onto the arms. Again, I found myself a little disappointed, The Imperial pack had a vast array of different arms that I found it very difficult to choose what I wanted. With the Rebels, there are some choices, but the really cool options just aren’t there. I’m not too sure what was missing but I could just feel it wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. For my officer, I went with a thermal detonator, and a commanding pointed finger, which worked well enough. For the agent – well – the lure of the big gun was too much for me! I did notice there was a vibro axe that looked very cool as well, but as with the big gun, the arms were designed for the armoured suit rather than what the officer is wearing, so it would look a bit silly if I tried to give the officer that cool combination. In fact, the officer I feel gets left out from the cool weaponry a little.
With the arms attached it was just the backpacks. Now while there are three backpacks to choose from, there’s only one that fits with the big gun, as it has a tube that runs to the back and needs to be connected. Not a big deal but good to know. That left me with two to choose from with the officer.
With that done the two models were finished. The agent I’m very happy with, he looks formidable and a sight to behold. The officer – less so – and I do feel like the Rebel players have lost something compared to their Imperial counterparts. In that set, there were cloaks, more heads and a security droid to add lots of individuality. In the Rebel version, that just isn’t there. When the two sets cost the same, having a smaller box and one less sprue does unfortunately show when you compare like for like. I’m not saying this is a bad set, the options it gives you as a Rebel player are fantastic and it really opens up the army building element of the game, particularly if you are just starting out. The models, while beautiful, just don’t have the variety that the Imperial version does. But models and words can only get us so far in judging how good this set is. My next review will be a battle with my son, Imperials versus Rebels, to see just how these two sets fare against each other and how much value – as a player – they give you. I will of course be the Imperials… I might regret giving that Rebel Agent that big gun!
