So for those that don't know me, I come from a background of SW: Armada and various other games.
Having said that, if I wanted to get started in this game what would I need per side? What are the pros and cons of each side, and what issues are seen so far in the game?
Hello, and welcome!
Well, I am sure there could be a lot written about your various questions, but for some basic answers. Right now, the Rebels have slightly cheaper, more dodge oriented units, while the Empire has a bit more expensive and more tanky units.
As for getting started, you will at the minimum need to buy the Core set, which comes with 1 commander for each faction (Luke and Vader), 2 squads of corps troopers for each faction (Rebel Troopers and Stormtroopers), and a support unit for each faction (AT-RT for Rebels, Speeder Bikes for Empire). There have been a number of threads about what a value the Core set is, as just getting the four squads of corps troopers in individual sets is $100, when you add on the two commanders (Luke and Vader ONLY being available in the Core set) and the two support units, you are looking at close to $180 of value in the Core set.
You might well want to get two Core sets, as that will give you 4 corps troopers (per the current rules, you need a minimum of 3 corps units in your army) for each faction and 2 support units for each faction. This is really the most cost effective way of getting you toward 800 points for each faction. If you have a friend that is interested in playing one faction and you the other, it might be worth it to each buy a core set and trade the faction units and related cards for the particular factions each of you want to play.
From there, what you might want to add on is really up to you. Currently other than individual boxes of the corps and support units in the Core set, there is a heavy unit for each faction (T47 Airspeeder for Rebels and AT-ST for Empire), an additional corps unit for each faction (Rebel Fleet Troopers and Snowtroopers) and an additional commander for each faction (Leia Organa and General Veers).
What are the current strengths of each faction
If you get two core sets and basically any one expansion for each side (even cheap ones like Veers and Leia) you will have enough to figure out your own path from there. That gives you two full sized armies (800 points) though admittedly they won't be the list you'll likely eventually settle on. But the stuff in the core sets is so foundational it'll be useful for ongoing list tweaking. The core set has 2 troops units per faction but the rules require 3. Also the core has 50% as many dice as you'll probably want. So... buying 2 squads and a pack of dice gets you to $65, whereas a second core is $90 and gets you that stuff plus 2 more squads and 2 more vehicle units and more scenery. It's a no-brainer. If you're going to collect at least a simple if legal, full sized, army for both factions, then get two core sets.
Rebels are strong on offense, Imperials are strong on defense. That is embedded deep in the design concept it seems, and is unlikely to change.
Some of the strongest in-game stuff in the core set but... there's only a handful of products for this game at the moment so each new release can have repercussions if you like to chase stats.
Changing out a commander can make the same army feel very different, so, my advice would be buy a core set, paint it and play a learning game, then get another core set, paint it, get any rebel squad or vehicle expansion, paint it, and any Imperial expansion, paint it... then you've got slightly over 800 points to pick from including invisible upgrades like grappling hooks and junk. Once you've played some 800 point games, decide for yourself what to do next. At that point you may figure out you prefer one faction to the other or decide on army themes or whatnot.
Later on, a new $15 commander can make your old armies feel new and interesting.
Edited by TauntaunScoutSo, unit breakdown, since the game is young enough that isn't too daunting.
Rebels:
-Luke: Highly Mobile Offensive juggernaut. Provided you can keep him concealed on the way in, he can ruin the opponent's day.
-Leia: Defense-minded inexpensive commander. Pairs well with her brother since Luke loves having dodge tokens on hand.
-Rebel Troopers: Pretty basic unit. Inexpensive with a reasonable offense, but they melt if they get caught out of cover.
-Fleet Troopers: Close-ranged alternative to Rebel troopers. They need line of sight blockers to prevent them from getting out-ranged, but they're the single highest damage corps unit in the game.
-AT-RT: Can be run as an inexpensive source of mobile cover, or as a reasonably impressive pseudo-turret
-Snowspeeder: Powerful flanker, but it's deceptively fragile and tricky to use.
Imperials:
-Darth Vader: Slow-moving with a powerful offense. Can be effective, but he goes down hard if you make a mistake. Will get much better with the release of the Royal Guards and the Emperor, which will make his first two command cards actually worth using.
-General Veers: Cheap offensive support commander. Very popular, and his blaster is surprisingly lethal for his points.
-Stormtroopers: Cheap, durable, and with a great special weapon. If they lose the heavy weapons guy early due to LoS shenanigans, though, they have a tendency to stop doing anything if you can't feed them aim tokens.
-Snowtroopers: Situational, but can wipe out an entire unit if they get into flamethrower range.
-Speeder Bikes: Require some practice to use, but are terrifying when used correctly.
-AT-ST: Fun, but it struggles to make its points back.
Minor addendum to @TauntaunScout's post: Do NOT feel you have to paint things in order to play with them, especially while you are still figuring out which side you want to focus on, and what units you want to field. Plus, no reason to rush into a specific theme, only to decide later it isn't really what you want!
I'd love to give advice @Lyraeus... But I've really only been painting stuff, not playing. Haha
8 minutes ago, Stasy said:I'd love to give advice @Lyraeus... But I've really only been painting stuff, not playing. Haha
You know me I will be an expert in like 2 months and giving my opinions everywhere
The rebels tend to have a little better offense but weaker defense. I think they also have less efficient means of dealer with armored vehicles like the AT-ST. Usually if I am playing rebels and see an AT-ST there is a reasonable chance I will ignore it.
Imperials have better defense (better armor saves) but weaker offense. Since you are an armada player think of it as the imperials throw red dice and the rebels throw blue (ignoring the range implication of the armada dice). The imperials have access to some great heavy weapons and speeder bikes can be a real game changer.
There is a little more faction parity in Legion than Armada at least for now and when it comes to infantry. Also it does not feel like a complete enough game right now to be too definitive on the feel of each faction. IMO there are still some missing pieces (already announced just not out yet) that will really open up list building and provide more solid counters to infantry spam which is the current dominant list archetype.
It is a great game overall and if there is one faction that seems a lot more appealing to you I wouldn't hesitate to just start there. You don't need to buy cross faction releases for specific upgrades. If you split two cores like suggested above you could spend $200 and really have a lot of options for a pretty low entry cost for a minis game.
Thank you @Thevshi for the amazing price breakdown. Armada is far more expensive so this makes things easier to swallow.
Thank you @TauntaunScout for adding a good feel of how subtle changes can make or break things 
I love things like that, it means decent flexibility
Thank you @Squark for the unit breakdown! That's fantastic! Gives me a good idea of what challenges to expect.
Now to find a common upgrade breakdown or something on the dice.
Thanks @Caimheul1313 Yea, I am not a huge "have to have it all painted before play but I think I will end up doing them over time. Most likely more dipping tricks on the mass units
10 minutes ago, Gorthaur25 said:It is a great game overall and if there is one faction that seems a lot more appealing to you I wouldn't hesitate to just start there. You don't need to buy cross faction releases for specific upgrades. If you split two cores like suggested above you could spend $200 and really have a lot of options for a pretty low entry cost for a minis game.
I am the type that likes both sides... I might collect more of one to start... Hmmmm though... Clone Wars... Droid...
28 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:Minor addendum to @TauntaunScout's post: Do NOT feel you have to paint things in order to play with them, especially while you are still figuring out which side you want to focus on, and what units you want to field. Plus, no reason to rush into a specific theme, only to decide later it isn't really what you want!
The reason I tell people to do that is not just because I think unpainted minis are no fun at all. It's also very practical. Painting each product and not buying another until the last one is almost done being painted to a basic standard does the following:
I have been painting models since I was 4, I'm 37. But with Legion I am not trying to do anything beyond tabletop standard, I just make it look cool from 18" away. It allows me to get fully painted armies very quickly (I spent a week on my original core set). For now I just put down one thin coat of spray matte varnish which I can always paint more detail on top of later before adding a second coat of varnish. My take on it is, this is Star Wars, let them have a paintjob I'd have been impressed by as a child playing with Star Wars toys.
This video was extremely helpful for adapting to the scale creep. Using a personalized variation on this method I can assembly-line paint a squad of Hoth rebels in about an hour of brush time, with several long drying breaks in between quick 10-20 minutes panting sessions. She also has Imperial videos but I didn't try those, I had my own ideas for that.
@TauntaunScout No argument here, but a casual read of you post made it seem that one HAD to paint in order to play. Not everyone has a lot of experience with this style of miniature wargame due to it being Star Wars, so wanted to make it clear that painting was not a prerequisite for playing. As much as I would LOVE to get things painted before playing, I just do not always have the time between my various responsibilities. So, I like to try to nail down a specific army list so I can prioritize those units in my seemingly never ending painting queue. In order to do that, I need to try the units out, figure out which ones suit my playstyle the best.
3 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:@TauntaunScout No argument here, but a casual read of you post made it seem that one HAD to paint in order to play. Not everyone has a lot of experience with this style of miniature wargame due to it being Star Wars, so wanted to make it clear that painting was not a prerequisite for playing. As much as I would LOVE to get things painted before playing, I just do not always have the time between my various responsibilities. So, I like to try to nail down a specific army list so I can prioritize those units in my seemingly never ending painting queue. In order to do that, I need to try the units out, figure out which ones suit my playstyle the best.
This is true. Before Legion the most i had painted was a few DnD figures, badly. I played my first few games with unpainted minis, but have sense really started to enjoy this part of the hobby and learn more each time i sit down to paint.
Just now, Caimheul1313 said:@TauntaunScout No argument here, but a casual read of you post made it seem that one HAD to paint in order to play. Not everyone has a lot of experience with this style of miniature wargame due to it being Star Wars, so wanted to make it clear that painting was not a prerequisite for playing. As much as I would LOVE to get things painted before playing, I just do not always have the time between my various responsibilities. So, I like to try to nail down a specific army list so I can prioritize those units in my seemingly never ending painting queue. In order to do that, I need to try the units out, figure out which ones suit my playstyle the best.
Yeah but you're pretty much gonna need most of the contents of 2 core sets no matter what, for the the foreseeable future. I would not, for example, reccomend that to try the game out anyone invest of 2 of anything else unless they wanted to buy the model regardless for collecting reasons.
Once you've got 800 points painted, I find it easy it is to have the discipline to not use unpainted stuff. Or in my case, the discipline not to proxy in old D20 minis that are close enough to pass.
Are there any upgrades in the Expansion packs for the core set units not in the core set? I know FFG does that a lot
2 minutes ago, Hadriker said:This is true. Before Legion the most i had painted was a few DnD figures, badly. I played my first few games with unpainted minis, but have sense really started to enjoy this part of the hobby and learn more each time i sit down to paint.
This is very much how I learned what worked for me: experimentation. If you feel so inclined, you can always soak those old D&D figures in a bath of Simple Green (or local equivalent) and probably strip off all the paint! At the very worst, they would make for decent test beds for paint schemes.
Just now, TauntaunScout said:Yeah but you're pretty much gonna need most of the contents of 2 core sets no matter what, for the the foreseeable future. I would not, for example, reccomend that to try the game out anyone invest of 2 of anything else unless they wanted to buy the model regardless for collecting reasons.
Once you've got 800 points painted, I find it easy it is to have the discipline to not use unpainted stuff. Or in my case, the discipline not to proxy in old D20 minis that are close enough to pass.
Fair enough. I am one of the probably many who are buying one of everything (because they are Star Wars minis dangit, and I will find SOME use for them!). So when I say try the unit, I mostly mean just try out the one I picked up, see how well it works then maybe proxy in another/borrow from my opponent if they are playing the other faction.
14 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:@TauntaunScout So, I like to try to nail down a specific army list so I can prioritize those units in my seemingly never ending painting queue. In order to do that, I need to try the units out, figure out which ones suit my playstyle the best.
You can just take lots of grenades and junk as you slowly build the number of painted items at your disposal. I've never painted anything as fast as I've been painting Legion. This new 1 in, 1 out, system is working amazingly well for me.
Just now, Lyraeus said:Are there any upgrades in the Expansion packs for the core set units not in the core set? I know FFG does that a lot
Impact Grenades, Grappling hooks, and Comms Jammers. HOWEVER! The Impact Grenades and Grappling Hooks are in the Fleet Troopers and Snow Troopers box as well, and the Jammers are also in the AT-ST and T-47 expansions.
1 minute ago, Lyraeus said:Are there any upgrades in the Expansion packs for the core set units not in the core set? I know FFG does that a lot
Yes. But over time they will make every card appear in packs for every faction so it hopefully won't come down to buying useless minis just to get a card.
For example. The 4 squads of guys in the box can take, if they so desire, a piece of "gear" and a type of "grenade". The core set comes with 4x concussion grenades and 4x targeting scopes. Vehicles can take "comms" upgrades, the core set comes with 2 vehicle units, and therefore has 2x long range commlink for them to use.
Other squad/vehicle/hero expansions come with exactly 1 piece of each (say, grappling hooks and impact grenades) so you will always have almost exactly enough cards to fill every legal upgrade slot in your army. Getting the exact ones you want is another issue...
This doesn't count unit-only upgrades, like, a card to take an extra stormtrooper in your stormtrooper squad, or cards for the different vehicle guns, those are all included with each unit be it core set or expansion, exactly as you'd need.
When I build my lists I err on the side of more plastic, less cardboard, so I don't worry about it too much. But the core set's grenades and stuff can let you bulk up on points very quickly with few models at first.
47 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:Are there any upgrades in the Expansion packs for the core set units not in the core set? I know FFG does that a lot
Good question. The answer can get a bit complicated, but the short answer (as others have said) is, yes there are upgrades in expansion packs not in the core set, but from what we know so far, FFG seems committed to ensuring those new upgrades are always available to each faction in the expansions for the particular faction (i.e. an player that only plays the Empire will never need to buy a Rebel expansion to get an upgrade they want) and that there are a number of options for obtaining a new upgrade for a particular faction.
The longer answer requires a bit of explain how upgrades work.
Taking as an example, the Rebel Troopers unit available in the core set (and in an expansion) there are four upgrade slots that "can" be filled, if you choose to spend the points to do so (the other corps units have the same four slots as well):
1) A grenade slot,
2) A gear slot,
3) A personnel slot, and
4) A heavy personnel slot
Addressing the last two first, as TauntaunScout indicated, currently the only options for those slots are unit restricted upgrades that come in the core set and expansions (ie a fifth rebel trooper for the personnel slot and either a Z6 or Ion trooper for the heavy slot). The Stormtrooper, Rebel Fleet Trooper and Snowtrooper units each have their own heavy options that are restricted to them as well.
For the other two upgrade slots, as TauntaunScout stated above, the corps set comes with four versions of each type (one for each corps unit provided in the set), concussion grenades and targeting scopes. Focusing on just the oncussion grenades for this discussion, those grenades provide the unit with an attack that has the Blast keyword (which allows the attack to ignore any cover a unit has), making it useful against other corps units and speeder bikes. The core set is currently the only place you can get concussion grenades.
The other grenade option currently available is impact grenades, which provides the Impact keyword (which is useful for attacking units with the Armor keyword - the AT-RT, AT-ST and T47 currently). Currently, the only place to get an impact grenade is in corps unit expansions (Rebel Troopers, Rebel Fleet Troopers, Stormtroopers and Snowtroopers). I think impact grenades might also be available in the soon to come special forces unit expansions (Rebel Commandos and Biker Scouts), but I am not sure.
So, as you can see, if you want impact grenades, you need to buy at least one expansion set, but have options in which expansion(s) to get. There are a variety of other upgrades that have come with other units (or are coming with others) where FFG has similarly provided options for obtaining the particular upgrade.
Wanted to add an addendum and caveat to my post above.
The upgrades for units that are currently out are not particularly major game changers that makes getting them a necessity. Impact grenades can be useful, but they are not something you will always need or use.
There appear to be some upgrades coming out that are a bit more significant in their effect.
One example is the HQ Uplink, an exhaustible comm. slot upgrade that allows the unit to issue itself an order in the command phase. (without going into too much detail on what effect this has, being able to provide a unit with an order when a player wants gives that player a lot of control over how things will play out in a turn and completely control when they activate the unit). Currently there are four units that have slots for comm. upgrades (the AT-RT, T47, speeder bikes and AT-ST). The HQ Uplink will first become available with the Rebel Commandos expansion sometime this month (and they are able to use the upgrade as well). We also know it will be coming with the emplacement troopers coming later in the year (the Rebel 1.4 laser turret and Imperial E-Web team) and it is likely to be included with the Imperial Biker Scouts. So, this is at least one example of a fairly significant upgrade that can be used by at least four units per faction but is only available (so far) in the expansions for two of those units (again per faction).
Edited by Thevshi3 hours ago, Stasy said:I'd love to give advice @Lyraeus... But I've really only been painting stuff, not playing. Haha
I resemble this remark... However, I do provide advice on occasion, even if it only makes sense to me.
Imperial core box is done with snow troopers started, but other than Luke, core box rebels are only primed.
Thank you @Thevshithat's great information! I was watching some How to play vids for legion to see how turns go and basic things
Finally got a chance to demo legion here at GenCon, so this is good info for me as well.