Im hoping that we will see some generic commanders like a rebel or stormtrooper captain. It would be a shame to always have to have a named character leading your force. Any thoughts?

Almost certainly not, but I'd hope we get something akin to a "named" Stormtrooper or similar. That also probably won't happen...

I certainly hope there will be. No generic commanders would almost certainly be a deal-breaker for me. I never run named characters in miniature wargames outside of demo games.

At the moment I suspect that the leader will lend a certain benefit to having a particular strategy in mind. More because this is what the commanders do in Armada, and even though there are only Rebels and Imperials there are quite a few differences if you favour one leader over another. I also think that as each leader comes with it's own set of command cards this could well be the case. Veers may give walkers and tanks a bonus save or surge effect, Han may make hit and run tactics better as he allows a unit to make a move action for free if he joins it.

When I played 40k I found it wasn't fun playing against the all singing all dancing swiss army knife characters that would take down whole units with little to no risk. As long as having named characters doesn't replicate this level of power I am happy enough.

In Armada you have to have a named Admiral of your fleet, I would expect the same in Legion. If there is a generic style commander, say Stormtrooper Commander, I would expect them to be released as Commander PhasCodyWolf or something with an article saying to paint it how you like to customise your commander.

17 minutes ago, srMontresor said:

I certainly hope there will be. No generic commanders would almost certainly be a deal-breaker for me. I never run named characters in miniature wargames outside of demo games.

Warmachine/Hordes armies always need to be lead by a named character, there are no generic commanders in that game afaik. I would expect Legion to be similar in that respect.

1 minute ago, DarkHorse said:

Warmachine/Hordes armies always need to be lead by a named character, there are no generic commanders in that game afaik. I would expect Legion to be similar in that respect.

And that was one of the reasons I never got into that game.

I want generic commanders. My forces will be fluff-bunny to the max and at least for my imperials no established character works smoothly.

Commanders are named in runewars as well so I'm guessing that will be the model here. I do prefer generic heroes so my force has its own story. Since your fluff is all in your head anyway though, most models can easily be painted in a unique way and just because it says their name on the card doesn't mean it can't represent your own hero. Some iconic characters like Vader May be hard to pull off, but give Luke different hair, skin, and lightsaber color and he can be any Jedi you want.

Thats my plan, especially if I get two core boxes. One classic Luke and one custom Jedi rebel.

We may always get some named commanders from Imperial assault. General Weiss, or Kayn Somos.

The problem with generic commanders is that liscenced games, especially Star Wars, need the name recognition of established characters. Mainly for new people to the hobby, which many gamers forget about.

So, I would expect General Veers, Emperor Palpatine, Thrawn, or Agent Kallus.

Rebel side we will get Han, and Leia, maybe even Luke in His Return of the Jedi outfit.

I think there needs to be generic characters. Or at least named generic characters, like Kayn Somos in IA.

10 hours ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Almost certainly not, but I'd hope we get something akin to a "named" Stormtrooper or similar. That also probably won't happen...

I could see them doing named stormtroopers or rebel troopers to come in as sergeants and captains and give the group some kind of bonus.

8 hours ago, srMontresor said:

And that was one of the reasons I never got into that game.

It's actually a very common reason not to get into WMH. And they know it too. It's one of the reasons their planning to release Company of Iron, where Warlocks/Warcasters aren't included.

I understand people looking at Armada or X-Wing for guidance, but when you look at many other successful tabletop wargames, having a generic unnamed character can be a great boon, as long as you balance their character building correctly. It'd be a shame if they didn't include it.

While the key named characters will surely be the headliners of the release. I hope they add an expansion for those who want to make a custom fleshed out force in the future. It still really kills my immersion when Luke and Darth Vader are at every battle. It makes me feel like I should be limiting my skirmishes to the several battles they were actually both present at. Generic commander's would be a great way to avoid that feeling.

I would love for a generic officer that can be kitted out with a load of different command upgrades.

But I doubt they'll do that, they'll want to sell us a load of named/niche filling characters. Because names sell toys.

I suppose a balance could be a named officer type, then have generic versions in the same uniform. Much like ships in X wing,

Yeah. I could see that. I just hope FFG realizes that they're catering to a whole new crowd of players now, including many whose first real introduction to the Star Wars universe could be this, or who come from other tabletop wargames with the desire to make their own dent in the universe. It's definitely the far end of the FFG spectrum, and I love it. The mechanics of RWs are great and I'm sure these will be too. Just hope they don't bottleneck it too much. It could be huge.

I hope they do some generic non-hero commanders, even if they are named.

9 hours ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Almost certainly not, but I'd hope we get something akin to a "named" Stormtrooper or similar. That also probably won't happen...

Phasma? She'll almost certainly be in game sooner or later.

In imperial assault they already have imperial officers. I would assume they would be ported over to Legion as a generic commander. Just makes since.

Just my two cents to keep this thread alive, I really like this idea. Generic commanders would be great. It's a little harder to personalize an army if it always has to be lead by a character from the movies.

Do you mean generic squad commanders? or a generic overall leader? I am sure they will make additional command leaders for squads like they did for IA and Runewars but the overall command will most likely be named. Although the named leaders might be made up just for the game, like they did with heroes in IA.

Generic overall leaders. Would be great to have a stormtrooper captain lead your forces. Or a Rebel LT or even your own jedi. Something you can buy and paint with its own upgrade bar and points cost. I dont want luke or vader or general veers etc.... all the time.

3 hours ago, bigwebb24 said:

Generic overall leaders. Would be great to have a stormtrooper captain lead your forces. Or a Rebel LT or even your own jedi. Something you can buy and paint with its own upgrade bar and points cost. I dont want luke or vader or general veers etc.... all the time.

I advocated for a very similar thing in another thread. If we ask long enough, maybe we can get it, like those gunboat people.

I doubt that you will see any commander that isn't a named character. After a couple of waves we may see a commander that is more along the lines of a ST Capt or Rebel Lt, but they will still be named.

Having looked at the other thread about Courage and Suppression and how big an impact they can have I think this might be more likely now. Your named characters might have a lot of damage potential or special powers but maybe generics could effect courage scores or other more mundane but useful effects.

I really don't want to always have a movie hero infront of my troops.

Plus having named heroes at every battle really breaks the immersion of the game. Its different in Armada there are only so many fleet admirals just like in real life. However ground commanders are a dime a dozen. Luke and Han cant be all over the galexy.