I just dont understand how you'd expect general infantry units to act vastly different from one another...? Even in Star Wars movies and whatnot, the foot soldiers on both sides have a couple different weapons they are shooting each other with and neither force does anything that different than the other.

Like @Undeadguy said, the biggest differences we'll see in the game is when there is more of everything. We know stationary units are coming, so turrets will be a thing, more vehicles are definitely coming, and Im sure we'll start seeing droids here too.

51 minutes ago, Jake the Hutt said:

Again, thats not an actual different play style. Thats just the different units being a little better or worse at the same things. I mean, maybe its an issue of terminology or semantics, but to me a different play style would be if the unit actually did something that other units couldn't do. For example, the speed and compulsory movement of Speederbikes give them a different play style than Storm Troopers.

Comparing vehicles to infantry is like comparing sugar to cyanide.

You can eat both, but they definitely don't do the same thing once you do.

When you get down to it, Legion battles are between humans. Humans are pretty similar in the grand scheme of things, and so they're going to work in a similar way. There are no bio-engineered armies in 4 inch thick armour, green skinned football hooligans or space elves. We may get war droids and so on, but the majority of the variation will be in spec ops, support and heavy choices which is already what we're seeing.

There were no differences between the physical abilities of a British, Russian or Japanese soldier in the 1930s. They all had similar infantry weapons with divergence of technology seen in vehicles and their availability, if at all. That said, they have different play styles in WW2 games through minor differences.

The majority of the play style comes from the player. If you want to switch up your style change the way you use the army, not how you build a list.

6 minutes ago, Katarn said:

When you get down to it, Legion battles are between humans. Humans are pretty similar in the grand scheme of things, and so they're going to work in a similar way. There are no bio-engineered armies in 4 inch thick armour, green skinned football hooligans or space elves. We may get war droids and so on, but the majority of the variation will be in spec ops, support and heavy choices which is already what we're seeing.

Exactly, GW can make their units different because they hold the IP to 40k. They can do pretty much whatever they want with their armies.

FFG is using an already established source material and if they made units to not act like what we see them do in star wars content, then everyone would be up in arms saying "wait! X troopers can't do that!".... So they can't really go too crazy with the abilities even if they wanted to.

2 hours ago, Jman444 said:

Exactly, GW can make their units different because they hold the IP to 40k. They can do pretty much whatever they want with their armies.

FFG is using an already established source material and if they made units to not act like what we see them do in star wars content, then everyone would be up in arms saying "wait! X troopers can't do that!".... So they can't really go too crazy with the abilities even if they wanted to.

Very similar to what we see in Armada - the play styles of each ship matches the on screen ‘theme’.

18 hours ago, Jake the Hutt said:

They don't have to be all the same.

But they SHOULD be. This is a Star Wars game. More important than anything, is that the units act like their on-screen (or on-page) counterparts. And overwhelmingly, this means that similar units should behave similarly. As you say, infantry units all want to move up the board, taking cover where available, shooting at the enemy and gaining tokens were appropriate.

None of the infantry units in Star Wars really DO anything different to that. It's more like a historical game in that regard: You can have twenty different types of soldier in camo with a rifle, but they all do pretty much the same job.

In games like Infinity or 40K there is more scope for variety. They are designed to be games, first and foremost, and the company designing the game can change or add to the IP at will. Let's add deepstriking terminators, let's add units that are psykers, units that can fly, units that teleport, units armed with massive hammers and shields, units armed with stealth devices, etc etc. But Star Wars doesn't have that high-falutin, super sorcery-tech. Part of the charm and appeal has always been the 'real world' feel. Sure there's some crazy stuff in there, but for the most part things look, feel and work much like our real life versions.

Now, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, because I'm not saying it in a "bye felicia" kind of way, but are you sure Legion is a good fit for you? It sounds like you really prefer the style of Inifinty, or even 40K or Warmachine, where the pieces are all added to the game to add diversity to the playstyles of the various factions. And of course the fact that there ARE various factions, instead of just Rebel/Empire. The designers of Infinity can think to themselves "Hey, wouldn't it be great if units could interact in THIS way? Let's invent a unit that does that" and away they go. FFG can't do that with Legion. If Scout Troopers acted different to how Scout Troopers should, then players would be upset. And the way that Scout Troopers act, is loosely the same way that all troopers act, which is move up the board, fire at the enemy, take cover where available and use tokens as appropriate. All infantry in the game are going to follow that model with slight variations, and that's how it SHOULD be, for a Star Wars game.

1 hour ago, Chucknuckle said:

All infantry in the game are going to follow that model with slight variations, and that's how it SHOULD be, for a Star Wars game.

Exactly, the "magic" of Star Wars isnt the troopers we see (even though we've seen a lot of cool ones at this point), its all the aliens, creatures, vehicles and star ships that make Star Wars what it is. Im sure we'll get there eventually, just gotta build up the foundation first

Guessing more scope could also come down the line if they go into Scum / Clone wars or other races....wookies for example. A droi army could be considerably differently handled imo. Might sound crazy but so could a gungan force(take away stupid Jar Jar and the gungans actually looked like they knew what they were doing and it was different)

Clones seemed to have loads of variations, rocket troopers etc ? Even Ewoks....

This game is in its infancy and who knows what will come down the line.

Personally im very happy atm with it focused on the GCW and the battles/characters in it and as somebody said above, those fights are very gritty real world feel to it.

In comparison to real world units you already have some variation. If you want mountain troops, equip all your squads with grappling hooks- they can immediately do something most troopers can't. Sure either side can do this, but it's not like Germany is the only country that trains for mountain combat- both sides can do it, it's up to the player to tailor his force to a theme/ play style.

Likewise, if you want rangers, take environmental gear. Suddenly your force is more mobile and can get encirclement tactics working.

41 minutes ago, Katarn said:

In comparison to real world units you already have some variation. If you want mountain troops, equip all your squads with grappling hooks- they can immediately do something most troopers can't. Sure either side can do this, but it's not like Germany is the only country that trains for mountain combat- both sides can do it, it's up to the player to tailor his force to a theme/ play style.

Likewise, if you want rangers, take environmental gear. Suddenly your force is more mobile and can get encirclement tactics working.

That chews up quite a lot of points for a situational set up. I understand the premise of theme play etc., but you would be equipping gear that might not get any use depending on how the battle unfolds.

Having said that, I’m sure more gear will be coming out that will allow players to customise their troopers. I think the snowtroopers and fleet troopers add variation already so we are already seeing a move towards different armies. Legion is currently like armada was at the start, players only flew Nebs, MC80s, victories and gladiators initially which made the line ups similar.

2 hours ago, Sith Lord Revan said:

That chews up quite a lot of points for a situational set up. I understand the premise of theme play etc., but you would be equipping gear that might not get any use depending on how the battle unfolds.

To a point, the same could be claimed of flamethrowers, ion weapons and grenades.

That may be why it's only 0.5 points per trooper. While I'd probably not bother with grappling hooks, we always seem to have some sort of difficult terrain on the table be it craters, ruins, forests or snow/sand drifts. For 15 points, or 3 lots of grenades, my entire army (minus the AT-RTs) can ignore this and run all all over the place.

Also, it probably costs more to train a specialist unit in the real world, be they mountaineers, marines or paratroopers, whether they use their specific skill set or not. Having a bit of a cost bump is in keeping with this.

In any case, as you say, our options are only going to broaden over time.

2 hours ago, Katarn said:

To a point, the same could be claimed of flamethrowers, ion weapons and grenades.

That may be why it's only 0.5 points per trooper. While I'd probably not bother with grappling hooks, we always seem to have some sort of difficult terrain on the table be it craters, ruins, forests or snow/sand drifts. For 15 points, or 3 lots of grenades, my entire army (minus the AT-RTs) can ignore this and run all all over the place.

Also, it probably costs more to train a specialist unit in the real world, be they mountaineers, marines or paratroopers, whether they use their specific skill set or not. Having a bit of a cost bump is in keeping with this.

In any case, as you say, our options are only going to broaden over time.

In my experience, more dice is better than full upgrades. Another unit can cause suppression or grab an objective. It also increases your activation count which gives you options when you pull random orders. And they are easier to use compared to grenades, because I can sit in cover and shoot. When I have run 5 squads with grenades, I've only had 1 units actually be able to use them in a single game, and they did it twice. In theory they are good, but you will always be better served spending points else where.