So I decided to wade into the mire that makes up the Legion forum. Some of these have been talked about here before, but these are my takeaways:

It seems that more than a few people are suffering from packaging mistakes (eg. missing components). So much so that users are complaining that FFG support has been having issues. I don't remember much packaging trouble with any IA release except for Jabba's Realm, and that was just broken pieces, not missing items. I could have a bad memory for this though, someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Legion and IA figures are fairly compatible. The bases need modified, but the size difference can be ignored:

Every figure in Legion needs assembly. This has created more than a few issues, noticeably with the speeder bike

There's only rebels and empire in Legion (at time of writing), and there is some clamor for a third army. I really enjoy the mercenaries in IA, I just wish they would bring a third faction to Armada as well.

I remember HOTE having packaging issues too. Especially with the extra figure madness around the world.

Actually there are very few packaging errors most of them are attributed to lack of reading the contents by the purchaser.

The assembly is minimal at best

5 hours ago, QuarrenKing said:

I remember HOTE having packaging issues too. Especially with the extra figure madness around the world.

There have been some extra Riot Trooper figures, yes. (But the 4 Clawdite Figures is intentional - due to the announcement article promising 16 figures.)

A note about the scale.... on the rebel side they are fairly close, and several converters are making good use of both ia and wotc minis for conversions. Stormtroopers however have been on the roids and don't gel as well.

So I've played a bit of Legion now. It's fun! I've looked through 40K manuals before and thought, "this is too complex and expensive"; Legion is much simpler and (slightly) cheaper. The command card system is really nifty - do you try to win initiative and depend on more randomness in activating your units, or do you put out more orders to your troops (so you can activate them when you want) and know your opponent's getting that first activation on you? Combat is less about running-and-gunning and more about getting units into strong positions on the battlefield. And you can use a snowspeeder!

Yet, Legion hasn't gripped me nearly as much as IA Skirmish does. Skirmish currently shines in army customization and tactical depth. There are many more options of creating of top-tier and near-top-tier skirmish armies for all 3 factions thanks to Jabba's Realm & Heart of the Empire. Players are taking a look at older figures that, thanks to new command cards & skirmish attachments, are viable for play: not just Han/Chewie/Vader/IG-88, but Jyn Odan, Lando, Leia, most older figures with the Brawler trait, etc. Tactical depth comes not just from the kind of list you're playing but 1) how your list works on the current map and objective and 2) with restricted play time, how decision you make with your figures, command cards & initiative order changes the board state. And you can get a Skirmish game setup, played and cleaned up in an hour and a half.

I still think Legion appeals to people who want that kind of wargaming experience... which is a significantly different experience from IA's campaign or skirmish battles. And we can encourage new players by accentuating the positives about IA -- Two games in one! Tactical depth! Reasonable mission or battle lengths! Moderate entry price point! -- without having to directly compare to Legion.

To Legion's credit, it's sitting on the alternating activations routine of IA and Armada, which is good for player engagement and keeps that order of operations in the forefront.

The mission drafting has some good potential to also keep scenarios relatively un-stale through a tournament, especially with the new material the moisture vaporator expansion promises. It won't need a map rotation per se but it should provide enough tactical variability round to round.

You'll be able to know for sure when FFG gets around to releasing tournament guidelines, which still amazes me that's it's a thing that doesn't happen at launch.

Biggest thing with IA is the grid. No more "cheaty" movement, no questioning line of sight. It's all right there on the table. I've very infrequently had anything come up in that department, and usually it's more been bizarre situations others have come up with that I've read on here.

11 hours ago, cleardave said:

Biggest thing with IA is the grid. No more "cheaty" movement, no questioning line of sight. It's all right there on the table. I've very infrequently had anything come up in that department, and usually it's more been bizarre situations others have come up with that I've read on here.

Quoted for truth!

On 3/25/2018 at 10:05 AM, thestag said:

I really enjoy the mercenaries in IA, I just wish they would bring a third faction to Armada as well.

No

On 3/25/2018 at 11:32 PM, cnemmick said:

Yet, Legion hasn't gripped me nearly as much as IA Skirmish does. Skirmish currently shines in army customization and tactical depth. There are many more options of creating of top-tier and near-top-tier skirmish armies for all 3 factions thanks to Jabba's Realm & Heart of the Empire. Players are taking a look at older figures that, thanks to new command cards & skirmish attachments, are viable for play: not just Han/Chewie/Vader/IG-88, but Jyn Odan, Lando, Leia, most older figures with the Brawler trait, etc. Tactical depth comes not just from the kind of list you're playing but 1) how your list works on the current map and objective and 2) with restricted play time, how decision you make with your figures, command cards & initiative order changes the board state. And you can get a Skirmish game setup, played and cleaned up in an hour and a half.

I still think Legion appeals to people who want that kind of wargaming experience... which is a significantly different experience from IA's campaign or skirmish battles. And we can encourage new players by accentuating the positives about IA -- Two games in one! Tactical depth! Reasonable mission or battle lengths! Moderate entry price point! -- without having to directly compare to Legion.

Of course IA Skirmish has more army customization. It has had many years of expansions! Though I do find that you are relying on the same old stuff especially Gideon/3P0 which turned me off skirmish. Though I still enjoy the campaigns of IA a lot.

9 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

Of course IA Skirmish has more army customization. It has had many years of expansions! Though I do find that you are relying on the same old stuff especially Gideon/3P0 which turned me off skirmish. Though I still enjoy the campaigns of IA a lot.

I do think Rebels are very Beneficial condition-dependant and Gideon/Threepio are a serious boon to Merc lists. But the new material is slowly changing the skirmish game so that old standbys aren't the answer 100% of the time. For example, there's been Merc lists running an elite Clawdite Shifter (instead of the Rebel Care Package) that have had success in Regionals.

It'll be interesting to see if we end up with some sort of change in how Focus works OR the game continues to change so that other mechanics and figures are worth choosing over Gideon/Threepio. But the movement towards change is there!

The thing that draws me away from Legion is that IA has the small, more intimate battles that mimic the movies. We don’t see Han Solo leading the charge wtih 800pts of Rebels in the movies, but we do see him, Leia, and Luke escape the Death Star fighting off a squad or two of Stormies at a time.

Just now, Hawkman2000 said:

The thing that draws me away from Legion is that IA has the small, more intimate battles that mimic the movies. We don’t see Han Solo leading the charge wtih 800pts of Rebels in the movies, but we do see him, Leia, and Luke escape the Death Star fighting off a squad or two of Stormies at a time.

Exactly! What I've been saying from the start. The 'huge' battles of Legion with lots of troopers and vehicles usually form the backdrop of the more personal, character-motivated drama and action in the movies and shows. To name the most recent example, which can hardly be represented with Legion, but fits the playstyle of Imperial Assault perfectly: The liberation of Lothal. I think Legion is a fine game, but Imperial Assault is spot-on what excites me most in Star Wars - it's all about the characters.

12 minutes ago, Fourtytwo said:

Exactly! What I've been saying from the start. The 'huge' battles of Legion with lots of troopers and vehicles usually form the backdrop of the more personal, character-motivated drama and action in the movies and shows. To name the most recent example, which can hardly be represented with Legion, but fits the playstyle of Imperial Assault perfectly: The liberation of Lothal. I think Legion is a fine game, but Imperial Assault is spot-on what excites me most in Star Wars - it's all about the characters.

As I've said since before Legion was even announced- a prequel era miniatures war game would've made a ton more sense.

We barely ever see any large scale ground conflicts in the original trilogy, at least ones where both sides are on relatively even footing. Hoth was a tacitcal retreat, and Endor was a war of atrition. We don't see the Rebels really going head to head with the Empire for much more than a few tactical offenses.

32 minutes ago, Hawkman2000 said:

The thing that draws me away from Legion is that IA has the small, more intimate battles that mimic the movies. We don’t see Han Solo leading the charge wtih 800pts of Rebels in the movies, but we do see him, Leia, and Luke escape the Death Star fighting off a squad or two of Stormies at a time.

Wait for it, soon you will be able to have Wicket leading an 800pts ewok army! Yub yub!

33 minutes ago, Hawkman2000 said:

The thing that draws me away from Legion is that IA has the small, more intimate battles that mimic the movies. We don’t see Han Solo leading the charge wtih 800pts of Rebels in the movies, but we do see him, Leia, and Luke escape the Death Star fighting off a squad or two of Stormies at a time.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ll start by saying, Legion does nothing for me. I’m not handy, so I’m never going to build terrain, setup shop in my garage or whatever. But I want to focus on what IA brings to me.

This is going to sound super geeky, but on a S.W. messageboard - I guess it’s safe

The intimate battles involving characters and a storyline/mission totally strikes a chord with me. It reminds me of my childhood and breaking out the big black Darth Vader case of kenner figures (anyone over 35 knows what I am talking about), and just getting figures out and replaying scenes or battles or whatever. Except it’s packaged with these wonderful mechanics, and it’s an actual structured original game, with its own storyline and characters woven in to it. Anyway, I’ll keep playing IA as long as possible

1 hour ago, totalnoob said:

Couldn’t agree more. I’ll start by saying, Legion does nothing for me. I’m not handy, so I’m never going to build terrain, setup shop in my garage or whatever. But I want to focus on what IA brings to me.

This is going to sound super geeky, but on a S.W. messageboard - I guess it’s safe

The intimate battles involving characters and a storyline/mission totally strikes a chord with me. It reminds me of my childhood and breaking out the big black Darth Vader case of kenner figures (anyone over 35 knows what I am talking about), and just getting figures out and replaying scenes or battles or whatever. Except it’s packaged with these wonderful mechanics, and it’s an actual structured original game, with its own storyline and characters woven in to it. Anyway, I’ll keep playing IA as long as possible

Absolutely- Imperial Assault is a total toybox of a game.

For me, Legion just doesn't feel like that. It's lost the soul that Imperial Assault had.

9 hours ago, totalnoob said:

It reminds me of my childhood and breaking out the big black Darth Vader case of kenner figures (anyone over 35 knows what I am talking about), and just getting figures out and replaying scenes or battles or whatever.

This.

23 hours ago, totalnoob said:

The intimate battles involving characters and a storyline/mission totally strikes a chord with me. It reminds me of my childhood and breaking out the big black Darth Vader case of kenner figures (anyone over 35 knows what I am talking about), and just getting figures out and replaying scenes or battles or whatever.

I was a huge collector of figures when I was a kid (my collection still resides at my parent's house in Northern Ontario). I can honestly tell you that I never owned more than 2 of a non-unique character because using the iconic characters was more fun! I also never dreamed of re-creating the great ground battles from the movies. Why? The rebels should always lose the battle for Hoth and Endor (with no Ewoks)! LOL!

Just an observation: Whenever IA gets an expansion (including with the app announcement late last year) we're pretty high up on the BGG hotness, at least for a while.

Legion just released its core set last week , and it's pretty far from the top. 26th right now, I believe. If I can count right.

I mean, it's a pretty arbitrary measure of success, but I think it at least implies that interest outside of the FFG community in Legion may not be what people were hoping for.

Granted, results may be skewed because of GAMA, of course.

21 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Just an observation: Whenever IA gets an expansion (including with the app announcement late last year) we're pretty high up on the BGG hotness, at least for a while.

Legion just released its core set last week , and it's pretty far from the top. 26th right now, I believe. If I can count right.

I mean, it's a pretty arbitrary measure of success, but I think it at least implies that interest outside of the FFG community in Legion may not be what people were hoping for.

Granted, results may be skewed because of GAMA, of course.

Here my post from around the time the app was released

3 minutes ago, The Cocky Rooster said:

Here my post from around the time the app was released

Nice, thanks!

So yeah, we didn't even get a physical release, but managed to remain higher than Legion for at least over two weeks.

Again, The Hotness is hardly a perfect metric to judge by, and I'm hardly saying "Legion is Dead", but I think we can derive at least some meaning from it.

After all, it's only been one week.