Star Wars: Legion announced (by distributor)

By rbaker1978, in Star Wars: Imperial Assault

54 minutes ago, Ace_of_Spades said:

I say the whole IA (and not just the skirmish wariant) is more RPG than Strategy game to me.

And I am more optimistic than many of the forum members.

I'm glad you're more optimistic.

As a lover of great roleplaying games, I do have to take a qualified exception to your categorization, however. Certainly, there are many people (a majority, perhaps) who play RPGs as if they were games like Imperial Assault . I tend to call them roll players, rather than role players, because they tend to get out of character really quickly, and get caught up into the tactical aspects of the game over the narrative aspects. As such, I don't think that (or Imperial Assault ) is really roleplaying at all.

At any rate, I'd say that Imperial Assault and Legion will fondle more of the same pleasure centers of the brain than either will in comparison to real narrative roleplaying.

2 hours ago, Armandhammer said:

I couldn’t agree more with the others above.

I think IA skirmish is in serious trouble and I feel sorry for those small communities out there.

Legion is truly puzzling to me right now. I just can’t stomach the idea of owning two similar Star Wars miniatures games. I feel bloated just thinking about it!

And if you own everything IA, it’s almost impossible to get excited about future Legion expansions cause they’ll have a “been there, done that” type of feel associated with them. I can’t imagine the expansions being much different besides the odd vehicle here and there.

I wish Legion took a similar approach to Games Workshop’s War of the Ring game. They basically created another set of rules to upscale the Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game (new stats, figures were grouped on trays instead of moving them individually, etc.).

Totally agree. I'm really excited for Legion from a gameplay, rules and mechanics point of view, but as someone who owns and has painted literally everything for Imperial Assault and only plays skirmish mode Legion just doesn't present very much value to me at all.

Literally everything that's been released for IA could conceivably (and in many cases is a sure bet) be released for Legion too.

My main problem is that for the last few years I've always been frustrated by IA as a competitive tournament game, because of the tiles and it's non-optimisation for that mode of play and I've been saying that if they ever do 'FFG does 40K' then I'd have to buy it...

now I could (but not really considering it) sell all my IA and get into Legion, but once the app is out, campaign play becomes available to me and all of a sudden my collection has loads more to it

4 hours ago, KnightHammer said:

Hmmm, so each side is 800 points each and you only get 400 per side in the starter

6x3 table. 800 points per side. One commander (hero) required, max of two in an 800 point game.

For reference, Vader with no upgrades is 200 points, Luke is 160, a squad of 4 rebel troopers is 40, and a squad of 4 stormtroopers is 44.

i was hoping for a smaller scale, so we could get some AT-AT action finally. feels like you could just use IA minis

1 minute ago, Spidey NZ said:

i was hoping for a smaller scale, so we could get some AT-AT action finally. feels like you could just use IA minis

bigger scale you mean? I was expecting there to be decent sized AT-ATs and squads, making Legion the Armada to IA's X-Wing.

Instead they've made a game that steps on IA's skirmish toes. hardly ideal for the continuation of an existing line or push of a new.

59 minutes ago, Majushi said:

bigger scale you mean? I was expecting there to be decent sized AT-ATs and squads, making Legion the Armada to IA's X-Wing.

Instead they've made a game that steps on IA's skirmish toes. hardly ideal for the continuation of an existing line or push of a new.

yeah! smaller figures i mean. exactly what you were saying. armada for xwing. legion to Imperial assault. but it seems too similar to IA in scale of figures. with scum faction later to be released ;)

To me IA is the best modern strategy game (tabletop or board).

I'm coming from a competitive tabletop community. I'm playing IA for competitive Skirmish only. From the ca. 80 players in our club there are ca. 5 playing IA. We already have like 20 people that placed preorders for Legion. Just for not playing against the same 4 guys over and over again I would have to play Legion. Just because I don't have the time for 2 competitive games, I would have to quit IA then. I think my fellow IA payers feel the same. Then IA is dead here.

I'm very sad right now. I hope I'm wrong about this.

i understand what IA players are feeling right now, specially if they own every expansion out there for this game. I own the core box and im waiting for the APP to be released, but like it was said IA is more like a dungeon crawling game and skirmish will probably die after legion release. they are close to each other from what i've seen. it really depends if people are willing to spend more money on this.

for what i've seen this game is very strategic and i love that kind of games so i probably will stop buying IA things and just wait for this , since its more my kind of game, unless the app makes me think twice and keep going for IA..

but i cant say skirmish isnt about strategy/skill, because it is. they are different style of games, so people just have to choose what they prefer most.

A few possible outcomes I thought of over the weekend.

- Legion may draw from IA's base, causing IA to die (hopefully not, but it's certainly possible)

- Legion may fail on launch (Honestly, I don't care if it does)

- Legion may split IA, but not very significantly, causing both games to fizzle out (would be sad to see)

- Legion may draw away from IA skirmish, but allow IA to provide an even more deep campaign experience (definitely the best case scenario, in my opinion- not sure how likely, though)

- Legion will have no effect on IA (Also not a bad option, especially for my friends who like Skirmish)

10 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

A few possible outcomes I thought of over the weekend.

- Legion may draw from IA's base, causing IA to die (hopefully not, but it's certainly possible)

- Legion may fail on launch (Honestly, I don't care if it does)

- Legion may split IA, but not very significantly, causing both games to fizzle out (would be sad to see)

- Legion may draw away from IA skirmish, but allow IA to provide an even more deep campaign experience (definitely the best case scenario, in my opinion- not sure how likely, though)

- Legion will have no effect on IA (Also not a bad option, especially for my friends who like Skirmish)

Vote:

- Legion may fail on launch (Honestly, I don't care if it does)

- Legion will have no effect on IA (Also not a bad option, especially for my friends who like Skirmish)
Like this

I looked at the figure 20 minutes of the demo. It looks like but the more I think about the less likely I will be looking into Star Wars Legion:
- Duplicate of the figures I already have
- Game mechanics look like the game will be slower that IA
- Expensive and will need to buy what I already have with IA
- Re-painting the same figures again...
- Expensive if you want to get the terrain
- Storage is a problem especially if you want to play with 3D terrain (you probably will if you start)
- IA is good enough for me. Roll out a mat and play.

Just want to post a Noobish contextual view on the difference I see with Legion and IA. I have never played a miniature game before IA, so this is all I know. I felt like with grid movement and a board to play on - it was at least something familiar and relatable to me (like a traditional boardgame). Now, the rules were totally bananas to me and I really struggled to "get it" for awhile, but I was at least having a lot of fun learning. :) When I see these demos and hear talk about rulers for line of site, and freely moving pieces all over a 6 foot play area, how slow that process must be, etc - honestly my eyes and face start to melt like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It just seems so foreign to me, its way too large a gap to bridge for me to even consider playing that.

I like that for IA, I can sit at my nice gaming table (like I'm playing cards, dominoes, etc) and play a fun game moving pieces around a board strategically. I feel like Legion will not attract noobish miniature players like me to crossover, where as IA at least has a chance. I'm sure the hardcore miniature gamers will be really into Legion, which is fine - I know it does zero for me.

@totalnoob , based on most other miniatures games out there I think you'll probably be right. That said though I found X-wing to be significantly less complicated than IA to start out. It has the range rulers and free(ish) moving pieces. FFG made that kind of miniature gaming relatively simple to grasp and if they can bring that to Legion then they'll have a good game.

Though I don't see myself getting involved in it. I never had to paint or assemble my x-wing minis... that goes a long way to making an accessible game for someone that's not into that.

With just 1 new IA wave on the horizon, not a single new IA physical set/pack announced at GenCon and a new game that will surely 'steal' IA players I guess it's safe to say 'it's been 3 wonderful years of getting new stuff every couple of months'.

It's too bad the game won't live forever...

who-does.gif

I hate the scale difference! : /

3 hours ago, Jedi Bendu said:

With just 1 new IA wave on the horizon, not a single new IA physical set/pack announced at GenCon and a new game that will surely 'steal' IA players I guess it's safe to say 'it's been 3 wonderful years of getting new stuff every couple of months'.

It's too bad the game won't live forever...

who-does.gif

we still have campaign. well for me anyways.

For a while FFG wanted to get into miniature games but couldn't due to an agreement with GW and they're 40k universe. For 3 years FFG has lost profits to hasbro for having a miniature game that "looked" too much like a board game.

FFG wants to make money. It as only a matter of time before they released a miniatures game that they could capitalize on like they have with they're other games. They released the Runewars, after they didn't continue their agreement with GW. Eventually, when IA stops making them any money or when they are ready to phase it out, they will have their replacement up and running already.

it's too bad really. iA is literally the most fun game I've played in the last several decades (partially because I can play with my kids) but as has been discussed ad nauseum here and elsewhere, it is rather clunky to start up and has always had minimal following. There are many ways to fix or resolve this, but I fear due to the Hasbro agreement, FFG's fix will be to slowly let the game die and replace it with Legion.

21 hours ago, buckero0 said:

it's too bad really. iA is literally the most fun game I've played in the last several decades (partially because I can play with my kids) but as has been discussed ad nauseum here and elsewhere, it is rather clunky to start up and has always had minimal following. There are many ways to fix or resolve this, but I fear due to the Hasbro agreement, FFG's fix will be to slowly let the game die and replace it with Legion.

And to be honest, this is the only sane approach. Over the years I have seen many systems die, fade away or change for the worse. As sad as these occasions may have been, in the end I never really "lost" a game or a community... The good news is, those people who loved the games back then still love them today. There might be no new releases (or releases I just don't care for anymore...) but the guys I played with are still around... There's even some people who still enjoy the old West End Games Star Wars Miniatures Battles from the 90s...

Of course it will be harder to attract new players for competitive play but especially as a board game IA still works and will continue to be a blast.

Edited by JohnnyTrash

For anybody who's worried that Legion is going to kill IA skirmish, have a look through this thread on the legion boards:

Everybody's answer seems to be some variation on these responses:

  • Legion looks awesome! I didn't get IA because I like more of a wargame style, but this is right up my alley.
  • I use IA as a campaign game, but have never been interested in that sort of skirmish/there's no skirmish community in my area. I hope that Legion takes off and I'll pick it up, but I'll keep going with the IA campaign at the same time.
  • I already have IA and don't want to have to buy/repaint all the same figures; not interested.
  • I don't like this style of game (measuring, large surface, buying terrain, etc.) and will happily stay with IA.

So we're four pages into that thread now, on the Legion forums no less, and there's not a single person there who said that they're going to be dumping IA skirmish in favour of Legion. One guy said he might give up on X-Wing to come over to this new system.

I bring this up in order to dispel a bit of the doom and gloom that we've seen around here lately. I have no doubt that people will probably buy and play Legion, but those people are not the same people who are interested in a game like IA.

I will speak personally about one who has a limited budget for gaming but really enjoys miniatures. I will not buy into Legion.

I like the scale and scope of IA skirmish. I have yet to try campaign, but will eventually. I already invest in Bolt Action, which I really love, and Legion would compete with that. I can play the characters that matter to me in IA and that is what drew me to it in the first place. If I want faceless armies, even squad based, I prefer Bolt Action every time. For the personal, character driven game, I will stay with IA. Besides, I have so much already painted...

If what you want from a Star Wars game is rescuing the princess from the Death Star, escaping the Imperials on Hoth or Bespin, or rescuing your old friend from Jabba; Imperial Assault is the game for you.

If what you want from a Star Wars game is the battle of Hoth or the battle of Endor; Legion is the game for you.

20 hours ago, ManateeX said:

For anybody who's worried that Legion is going to kill IA skirmish, have a look through this thread on the legion boards:

Everybody's answer seems to be some variation on these responses:

  • Legion looks awesome! I didn't get IA because I like more of a wargame style, but this is right up my alley.
  • I use IA as a campaign game, but have never been interested in that sort of skirmish/there's no skirmish community in my area. I hope that Legion takes off and I'll pick it up, but I'll keep going with the IA campaign at the same time.
  • I already have IA and don't want to have to buy/repaint all the same figures; not interested.
  • I don't like this style of game (measuring, large surface, buying terrain, etc.) and will happily stay with IA.

So we're four pages into that thread now, on the Legion forums no less, and there's not a single person there who said that they're going to be dumping IA skirmish in favour of Legion. One guy said he might give up on X-Wing to come over to this new system.

I bring this up in order to dispel a bit of the doom and gloom that we've seen around here lately. I have no doubt that people will probably buy and play Legion, but those people are not the same people who are interested in a game like IA.

That is really good news.

However, in my opinion, I'm less worried about what Legion's arrival means to the fanbase, and more of what it means about decisions at FFG's head level. I'm sure as long as IA is selling decently it'll get releases in some format, but I think there's definitely a case to be made about Legion adhering to the "miniature" agreement better, and being less complicated to legally maintain than IA- though, we really cannot say that for sure.

SW Legion in a nutshell:

mskwh2J.jpg

First Mecha-Hitler, now Mecha-Vader? Does that mean a Mecha-Epic Rap Battle of History is on the way?

EDIT: There's gotta be something better to call that...

Mecha Rap Battle of History? Eh.

Epic Rap Battle of Mecha History? Maybe.

Mepic rap ba-- No, that one sounds terrible..

Edited by Uninvited Guest

As long as we keep supporting IA, its not going anywhere.

Speaking of: When will we get the new expansions? I want to run new Chewie & Han!!