So I am brand new to star wars legion and miniature wargaming in general. I played my first learning battle last night, made alot more sense after rolling some dice and had a load of fun. (Managed to pick up the core set for 40 bucks on black friday sale from my FLGS. Anyway I wanted to experiment more with more of the rules and upgrades as well as get my full enjoyment out of it. Given that i'm the only one in my friend group who owns the game, all the minis are mine and unless they invest in their own is going to make acquiring enough pieces a bit more than I want to spend right now to maintain two functioning armies. According to a point buy calculator i found the imperials can get an army up to about just over 500 they tend to be expensive, and it looks like rebels can get almost there but not quite. So in an effort to not just stomp rebel players every time and being 1 corp unit short on both sides for a standard game, what should i do to keep it fair. I was thinking to do a 400 point game, or maybe 350. Keeping it small and allowing both players to field all of their units but not all of their upgrades.

Any suggestions for playing with only the core set until i acquire enough pieces for 800 point armies?

If you are sticking with the core set for now I would recommend using some of the Operations that FFG has released. There are currently 9 different ones to choose from and they offer a variety of scenarios with different army sizes. Everything from an RPG-like Raid to escalation events.

Other than that, make the points as close as you'd like and enjoy getting your friends or other players hooked.

First, welcome to Legion! I've really loved this game since its inception, and it is only getting better.

I am in a similar situation as you, where I'm the only friend in the group who's bought any pieces. When I started out, I found the most effective way to fielding two full armies was to go with 2 core sets. You can buy another one for ~$70 on Amazon w/ Prime. Maybe you'll get luck and find another cheap on at your FLGS (nice find btw!)

If you want to branch out into other units, I really recommend picking up Scout Troopers/Rebel Commandos and Leia Organa/General Veers. The mechanics for these units are way different than anything offered in the core sets and you can get the commanders on the cheap.

I'd recommend steering clear of the AT-ST and T-47 Snowspeeder, because the acquisition of one almost certainly begs the acquisition of the other, like an arms race. That said, both units are an easy way to shore up ~200 points, but there is plenty of lively discussion regarding the effectiveness of these units (I'm personally of the opinion that the AT-ST is OP but you'll find lots of others who disagree.)

Happy gaming!

Amazon had core sets for $44 including shipping. I bought an undisclosed number of them... Fewer than I wanted to buy. More than my wife understood the need for.

Being as that you "need" a 3rd corps unit for each faction (about $50) and trust me, you will want more dice ($12) a second core set ($70ish) is indeed the best option by far.

The best way to eventually get two 800 point armies is two core sets plus any one rebel add-on (Leia or Han being the cheapest options). Going insane with rather useless upgrades still only gets the rebels to like 773.

So yeah. If you are pinching your pennies, second core set and any extra rebel thing is what I'd recommend after you paint up this set and play some small missions. T-47's, while much maligned, are fun and at around 200 points they quickly bulk up the rebel ranks.

If I were you I'd go butter up your FLGS manager to try to get them to sell you a 2nd core set for $40 if you promise to also buy one of his T-47's and an AT-ST at normal retail. He probably has trouble selling those T-47's... Two legal 800 point armies with enough extra points for some list building options between games.

5 hours ago, Ocule said:

Luke Skywalker 160
Battle Meditation, Jedi Mind Trick, Targeting Scopes,
Rebel Troopers 40
MPL-57 Ion Trooper, Rebel Trooper, Targeting Scopes, Concussion Grenades,
Rebel Troopers 40
MPL-57 Ion Trooper, Rebel Trooper, Targeting Scopes, Concussion Grenades,
AT-RT 55
Long-Range Comlink, AT-RT Laser Cannon,

Another piece of advice.... Take the Z-6s. They are a rebel player's best friend.

If you like playing with army lists, have you tried 'Tabletop admiral'. No install needed. Great tool for making lists.

You can tell it what items(Core box for example) you have and it lets you build lists just using what you own.

1 hour ago, Xiervak said:

Another piece of advice.... Take the Z-6s. They are a rebel player's best friend.

That is the reason a lot of Rebel players feel the ATST is OP. Because they never use the ions which totally neuter the ATST.

1 hour ago, weebaer said:

That is the reason a lot of Rebel players feel the ATST is OP. Because they never use the ions which totally neuter the ATST.

Yeah, you say that, haha. But this discussion is for another thread.

Yeah the two builds there were just taking all the most expensive core options to see how expensive i can make an army out of the core set.

On 12/1/2018 at 10:54 AM, Ocule said:

Yeah the two builds there were just taking all the most expensive core options to see how expensive i can make an army out of the core set.

I played around with similar ideas when I started.

Another house rule you can use to cram some points: use BOTH heavy weapons in each squad!

On 12/1/2018 at 10:54 AM, Ocule said:

Yeah the two builds there were just taking all the most expensive core options to see how expensive i can make an army out of the core set.

Worth noting, you don’t have to field a full 800 points. Until that’s even a possibility, just consider that the side with fewer gets to select who is blue/red which determines who does placements first/wins ties/composes the objective deck for if/when you get more options for that.

As long as you want to hit the minimum composition requirements, you just would need 2 corps expansions. Which, if at a discount runs about $40

On 11/30/2018 at 6:45 PM, Xiervak said:

Yeah, you say that, haha. But this discussion is for another thread.

Hi, I'm still kind of new and would love to participate in the discussions of game balance. I really feel its getting unbalanced but I'd like to read more. Can you point me out to one of the discussion you mentioned?

20 hours ago, BRPort said:

Hi, I'm still kind of new and would love to participate in the discussions of game balance. I really feel its getting unbalanced but I'd like to read more. Can you point me out to one of the discussion you mentioned?

That may be one post.

There's another.

Just google "AT-ST Star Wars Legion FFG Forums" and you'll find a bunch more.