Flying off the board edge: a tactic?

By Orcdruid, in Star Wars: Legion

So while reading through another thread

One of the posters @Cheek made a comment, "the speeders swoop in and soften up the Rebels, hopefully tipping the field in favor of the troopers. They'll really want to focus fire something down that first round, then hopefully severely damage something during their escape in the second round."

This got me thinking. We know that units can flee off the board edge. We also know that this is a game of objectives not killing. From this point forward I am going to assume that units can leave the battlfield voluntarily, meaning not from suppression.

Proxiers and demoers feel free to chime in on this.

I wonder how effective speeder bikes will be at supprise hit and runs where getting the shot lined up puts them in a position that they fly off the board. For example, you activate the bikes, then with the compulsory move, and maybe one more move, you swing behind cover and eliminate an enemy unit that was preventing you from holding an objective. However, the next time you activate that unit the compulsory move puts it off the field.

Is this something your opponent will be thinking about when considering your bikes? Will it come up often?

Whats the diffrence to sacrifice the Speeder Bikes by let them killing? Away is away... sorry, I don't understand your point.

Tactical sacrifice of certain units is one of the oldest concepts in everything from chess to full blown war. My question would be;

Is it possible to have any objective close enough to the board edge, that for a speeder to attack them they would have to fly off the board?

They have a decent firing Arc, I've been skimming X-Wing ships around board edges long enough. I think speeders might be my easiest unit to use.

Also 6 round games, play speeders a few times and you will see their likely paths through the battlefield for most of the game. So some planning and I doubt you will need to fly them off the board.

However yeah if its gunna win me the game or put the odds in my favour enough, you can be **** sure I will those off the board onto the next table.

1 hour ago, Sk3tch said:

Is it possible to have any objective close enough to the board edge, that for a speeder to attack them they would have to fly off the board?

Typically in games with objectives they have to be placed at least X inches from any board edge. Typically 6 to 12 inches away. So unless Legion departs from that standard I don't really see how, unless you overshoot the objective, but then I don't think you'd be in range of one anyway if you did that.

8 hours ago, Orcdruid said:

"the speeders swoop in and soften up the Rebels, hopefully tipping the field in favor of the troopers. They'll really want to focus fire something down that first round, then hopefully severely damage something during their escape in the second round."

This got me thinking. We know that units can flee off the board edge. We also know that this is a game of objectives not killing.

I'm pretty sure he meant that the bikes can swing in, fire, and then move out of range/LOS before the opponent can really bring heavy fire to bear on them.

Bikes, with the "speeder 1" Special rule can ignore height 1 terrain when moving, so they can pop over walls, buildings, and the like and block LOS.

Typically in games like this a unit that moves off the board is, for all intents and purposes, considered a casualty. Though some games would allow certain vehicles to leave the table and re-enter later.

Anyway, while it remains to be seen, I wouldn't bet on having a unit voluntary leaving the battle space being a way to prevent the opposing player from scoring points or something.

1 hour ago, VanorDM said:

Typically in games with objectives they have to be placed at least X inches from any board edge. Typically 6 to 12 inches away. So unless Legion departs from that standard I don't really see how, unless you overshoot the objective, but then I don't think you'd be in range of one anyway if you did that.

Yes that was my thinking as well. Which renders the scenario pretty much moot.

10 hours ago, Orcdruid said:

I wonder how effective speeder bikes will be at supprise hit and runs where getting the shot lined up puts them in a position that they fly off the board. For example, you activate the bikes, then with the compulsory move, and maybe one more move, you swing behind cover and eliminate an enemy unit that was preventing you from holding an objective. However, the next time you activate that unit the compulsory move puts it off the field.

Is this something your opponent will be thinking about when considering your bikes? Will it come up often?

Unless there's some sort of capture the objective token and move it to the board edge, where you can be sneaky and run for the corner to make it tricky for speeder bikes to engage you. But again, if you have to attack into that corner you can do it from range 3 and come around for another pass or you can be reckless because its the last round or you know that unit won't get a shot again, or that the points for losing the speeder wont effect the game. The movement rulers have a 90 degree arc.

However I don't think such a specific scenario will be likely, if even possible.

On a related note, does anyone know what happens if a speeder is unable to avoid an obstacle on its compulsory move? (assuming the obstacle is taller than height 1).

Edited by Sk3tch
typoo
2 hours ago, Sk3tch said:

On a related note, does anyone know what happens if a speeder is unable to avoid an obstacle on its compulsory move? (assuming the obstacle is taller than height 1).

Boom!

I'm guessing it will be the same as leaving the battlefield. The unit will be destroyed.. bumping X-Wing like makes no sense since u will be looking in the same direction and the object will still be too tall :P

Based off the objectives revealed so far, which can find if you look through this forum, most the objectives will be in the middle of the board or theres abouts.

3 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

I'm pretty sure he meant that the bikes can swing in, fire, and then move out of range/LOS before the opponent can really bring heavy fire to bear on them.

Bikes, with the "speeder 1" Special rule can ignore height 1 terrain when moving, so they can pop over walls, buildings, and the like and block LOS.

Typically in games like this a unit that moves off the board is, for all intents and purposes, considered a casualty. Though some games would allow certain vehicles to leave the table and re-enter later.

Anyway, while it remains to be seen, I wouldn't bet on having a unit voluntary leaving the battle space being a way to prevent the opposing player from scoring points or something.

Don't forget that losing models doesn't gain your opponent points, whether they run for the hills off the board, or get cut down by a light sabre. So far the only victory conditions they've shown us are around capturing objectives, so flying off the board won't be a way of denying VPs if they're not destroyed, and losing them if that destroys them doesn't bring you closer to defeat, other than the fact you've lost some troops that could have been useful.
19 minutes ago, Andreu said:

Boom!

I hope it's this.

We haven't seen the tournament rules yet. There will likely be a need to calculate points destroyed as a tie breaker.

Killing is also still going to be a big part of the game. Just as a way to deny your opponent units to capture objectives with.

6 hours ago, General Zodd said:
So far the only victory conditions they've shown us

Exactly, we don't know the full rulebook. So making assumptions, like fleeing battle providing an advantage of some kind, is premature.

10 hours ago, Sk3tch said:

On a related note, does anyone know what happens if a speeder is unable to avoid an obstacle on its compulsory move? (assuming the obstacle is taller than height 1).

I believe we can look to this for the answer:

PBv5OR.gif

Edited by ABXY