I'm finally getting back into Legion after several months. The last time I played was right after the rebel commandos came out so I have literally no experience with the laser cannon. I am currently assembling 2 and was wondering what the opinions were. I went back 10 pages and it seems there is not a whole lot of discussion on them.

Is the lack of movement too restricting? Are the upgrades worth it? AT-RT or laser cannon?

I have had some success with it, I think it's a 2 unit minimum though. If you only use one your opponent can often manouver around it.

The pros vs at-rt is the dice pool and 80 points with generator gives a pretty good impact punch when needed. I think supressive is more effective for empire. It also have 6hp with defence surge + easier to get cover wich I think is better than armor and no surge.

Cons is the fact that it can be avoided depending on objective + deployment. It's also very dependet on the terrain and table, something that isn't always in your control.

For me I think it's 2 naked or with overcharged generator or not at all.

I concur with @jocke01 although I've run two with Barrage Generator + HQ Uplink. If you end up on a Long March deployment you can end up with your FD's being useless for the entire game, depending on the Objective so placement is important but Turn 0 is imperative.

I might get some grief from what I'm going to post; but in my opinion the 1.4 FD is about forty percent (40%) better than the 1.0 FD. But that's just me!

3 minutes ago, Chili-52 said:

I might get some grief from what I'm going to post; but in my opinion the 1.4 FD is about forty percent (40%) better than the 1.0 FD. But that's just me!

Boo

I love it. Even naked.

Makes for a great distracter that your opponent focuses on.

Welcome back!

For me, it's either run it cheap with no upgrades or give it both HQ Uplink and Barrage Generator. I've had more success with 2 cheap versions than with 1 in my games. As others said, it definitely requires you to be more diligent during the scenario setup because that will have a strong impact on its effectiveness.

Avoid Limited Visibility. Rapid Reinforcements is fantastic (especially after the errata buff).

I actually think Long March is one of the preferred deployments (depending on the objective, of course). The battlefield is much narrower which means your range-4 bubble covers a larger percentage of the effective play area, and the opponent has less room to avoid you. Long March with Breakthrough, Vaporators, Intercept, KP are all great. Especially Intercept because you could sit in a scoring position on your objective while overwatching the center one.

Either way, I think you've identified its weakness and the trick is to turn it into a strength in your list. The fact that it can't move means it's an area-denial piece and your opponent will absolutely try to maneuver around it. That means their movement will be more predictable, so put another scary thing in the other path. Whether that's a second FD, or some fleet troopers, etc. Not to mention, it's a pretty good source of Impact for the Rebels. And activation control will be important, so if you're not running Uplink try to get Improvised Orders in there somewhere.

The risk is that if mission or deployment doesnt give it a good position.

But if its in a shooting position in cover you have to get rid of it. Especially with barrage gen it is really nasty you cabt afford to let it keep firing.

Edit

Rapid deployment works really well for it too

14 hours ago, nashjaee said:

Rapid Reinforcements is fantastic (especially after the errata buff).

5 hours ago, Ophion said:

Rapid deployment works really well for it too

I was just about to dive back into the rules since it got updated. I'm guessing Rapid deployment now works on the turret since it's considered a trooper?

Have you had any success with sentinel and standby?

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

I was just about to dive back into the rules since it got updated. I'm guessing Rapid deployment now works on the turret since it's considered a trooper?

Have you had any success with sentinel and standby?

Yes, It's a trooper in almost all respects (differences are in the rules reference guide entry). I haven't bothered with standby except when I don't have a shot, and it's never actually gone off. Unlike the E-Web, they outrange their Sentinel range.

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

I was just about to dive back into the rules since it got updated. I'm guessing Rapid deployment now works on the turret since it's considered a trooper?

Have you had any success with sentinel and standby?

Rapid Reinforcements has always worked with the turret, actually (because it is indeed a trooper). They made 2 changes to RR:

1. You must hold 1-2 units in reserve. So it's no longer optional, or "just another Clear Conditions" as people often joked.

2. They drop in on turn 1 instead of turn 2. This is the real buff. You only miss 1 round of potential shooting, and the enemy has less time to move their forces forward to "block" your drop-in positions.

Sentinel is ok. It's better on the E-Web because you're not giving up any range when you do it. With the turret, I prefer to control my activations as much as possible and activate it later in the round. Even if I don't get to shoot, that range 4 threat is there for the whole turn.

2 hours ago, nashjaee said:

1. You must hold 1-2 units in reserve. So it's no longer optional, or "just another Clear Conditions" as people often joked.

2. They drop in on turn 1 instead of turn 2. This is the real buff. You only miss 1 round of potential shooting, and the enemy has less time to move their forces forward to "block" your drop-in positions.

I missed that in the RRG, when did that change

1 minute ago, thepopemobile100 said:

I missed that in the RRG, when did that change

The most recent update, dated November 20th. It's all the way at the back in the Errata section.

Do I have to run rebels in parkas on the mini? I want a big cannon, but I don't want my gunners to be overdressed on the battlefield.

I like them naked. If you put upgrades on you probably want a generator and HQ uplink to get the most out of the recover action. They work better the more you have because they can cover each other and not have as many bind spots. If you fing FDs you often win and lose when defining the battlefield.

5 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

I was just about to dive back into the rules since it got updated. I'm guessing Rapid deployment now works on the turret since it's considered a trooper?

Have you had any success with sentinel and standby?

Ive only been subjected to it and it was painful. Any unit not in command range is basically stuffed. Anything trying to fight is taking major damage.

The sentinel hasnt been that big an issue so far but it does create problems that first turn when you are trying to approach

New Commanders get command cards that are basically created for the FD1.4 (right now) Inspire 2 for 2 support or Heavy

Thought: It was fun to paint. Filled me with fond memories of finding my Kenner one in the 80's at Salvation Army in a falling apart box. I'd like to play it sometime but I always wind up playing empire cause no one else around here wants to and I find mirror matchups weird.

7 hours ago, buckero0 said:

New Commanders get command cards that are basically created for the FD1.4 (right now) Inspire 2 for 2 support or Heavy

How many units do you have clustered around your 1.4FD to benefit from it? Remember, Inspire X doesn't work on the mini that has the ablility. I don't see the Inspire 2 being that useful for them.

8 hours ago, Ophion said:

Ive only been subjected to it and it was painful. Any unit not in command range is basically stuffed. Anything trying to fight is taking major damage.

The sentinel hasnt been that big an issue so far but it does create problems that first turn when you are trying to approach

Can you explain this? Paticularly your first paragraph? What is "it?"

6 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

How many units do you have clustered around your 1.4FD to benefit from it? Remember, Inspire X doesn't work on the mini that has the ablility. I don't see the Inspire 2 being that useful for them.

Perhaps sniper teams? I was considering running 2 of each in pairs for that long reach. Turret protects against flanking which allows the snipers to aim n shoot instead of moving to cover. And when they get shot by enemy snipers, inspire will help.

17 hours ago, qwertyuiop said:

Do I have to run rebels in parkas on the mini? I want a big cannon, but I don't want my gunners to be overdressed on the battlefield.

Should be pretty easy to use the new arms on Rebel troopers. The Snowtrooper arms certainly work on regular Stormtroopers (HH-12 and the standy abouty pose)

7 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

How many units do you have clustered around your 1.4FD to benefit from it? Remember, Inspire X doesn't work on the mini that has the ablility. I don't see the Inspire 2 being that useful for them.

I was just saying that it exists now, before it didn't. When they release the landspeeder it will become an option as well.

48 minutes ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Should be pretty easy to use the new arms on Rebel troopers. The Snowtrooper arms certainly work on regular Stormtroopers (HH-12 and the standy abouty pose)

Thanks!

I have found them to be pretty effective. Rebels have limited access to range 4 so the 1.4D really helps with board control. It can be tough for your opponent to get rid of if you place it in cover.

The generators are interesting from the standpoint that after the first shot, as long as you don't have to pivot you are usually faced with the decision between recovering or aiming. In a lot of cases aiming is better from a pure damage standpoint unless you really need/want to add the generator keyword to the attack pool.

It would be great if there was an efficient way to get and aim from another unit or upgrade.

As other people have said there are ways for your opponent to play around it but similar to the explosive charges it is hard to put a value on something that makes your opponent change the way they would have played the game.