Guys need some advice. My son and I are getting into SW Legion. I'm going to play Imperials and he wants to play Rebels. What Rebels should I avoid for now? A friend of mine who plays Rebels avidly told me to avoid these when starting out:

T-47 Airspeeder

Fleet Troopers

Rebel Veterans

X-34 Landspeeder

What are your thoughts? What are the weakest Rebel units? Are Wookie Warriors or the Hoth Laser Cannon (1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team Unit Expansion) any good? If someone has a Rebel buyers guide for a player starting out I'd appreciate it. What would you avoid buying if you knew what you know now. Thanks folks!

Don't avoid anything. Nothing is horrifically unusable, though the Airspeeder struggles competitively. Wookiees and Fleet Troopers aren't super good at 800 pts but excel in Skirmish. I wouldn't dare to tell someone starting out to avoid something if he thinks it's cool.

I’d recommend watching some of War Corgi’s battle reports to get a sense of which units he wants to try. No need to get everything all at once, so once he gets a sense of his comfort zone there will be units he always wants to play and ones that tend to sit gathering dust.

I have seen Fleet Troopers used to devestating effectiveness in competitive play if the starting cards land well. Limited Visabilities is a miserable condition to face fleets in.

I thought that Veterans were pretty decent? Are they not?

I'd avoid rebels completely. Separatists is where the action is at!

Fleet Troopers and their imperial equivalent snowtroopers get eaten up by range units before they can become relevant in most games, unless you are on a table with a lot of loS blocking terrain. The new objectives pack - Vital Assets - however has engagements where it's possible to get to range 2 and shoot in turn 1 making them much more likely to be effective from the start. The X34 and the airspeeders are also more relevant in this pack where you have objectives like bombing run, so even the airspeeders are more usable. If there is one unit that I'd say avoid its that one unit, but that isn't to say it's not playable.

That being said , not sure why rebel veterans are on the list given in one of the few tournaments before lockdown one player who was in top8 used one. Fleets wookiees and veterans though, I'd not buy more than one (unless you have a specific concept in mind)

If you're not planning to play competitively, I'd throw that list away. Having speeders on the table is cool, and they're fun. Vets and fleets are objectively not bad either.

Unless he plans on playing competitively then there is no reason to avoid any units IMO. Play what seems cool and build a list that would be fun to play. I often find that losing whilst playing with an interesting list is more fun than dominating with a bland one. Legion is relatively well balanced, and even as some of the units mentioned aren't as top tier as Tauntauns, none are seriously bad to the point of hampering your list performance, they all have their own roles and can be effective when played right. Choose units based on what would seem fun or cool, not just to optimise performance.

If you don't plan on playing competitive, just buy what you like.

From now on, all i'll write is exclusively from a competitive point of view:

Heroes to avoid:

Jyn and Han, maybe Chewbacca : the first 2 are just really bad competitive choices right now(jyn has alweys been, to be fair). Chewe may be usefull for is guardian keyword in some lists.

Cores to avoid:

All of them. seriusly, rebels are the only faction that takes 3 cores (rebel troopers because they are cheaper) just because they HAVE to. some lists run more rebel troopers with the dlt-20a (4-5).

Special forces to avoid:

Wookies and Pathfinders. Because they are not sniper strike teams. rebels need the strike teams to add some long-ranged pierce and increase the number of activations. if you take those (wookies and path), i'd advise against buying more then 1.

Supports to avoid:

None of them. they are all at least decent. I wouldn't take more then one 1.4 FD, while tauntauns ad at-rts are best used in multiple copies.

Heavies to avoid:

Both. the landspeeder is probably in the worst spot right now, and the airspeeder is just mediocre. you could field one of those, just make sure to build your battle deck accordingly. To be honest, i'd rather take a rebel hero for the point i pay for one of the two.

Again, those advice are from a competitive point of view. Feel free to buy whatever you like, mosts of those units are fine-just not as good as others.

11 hours ago, Mesrob said:

Guys need some advice. My son and I are getting into SW Legion. I'm going to play Imperials and he wants to play Rebels. What Rebels should I avoid for now? A friend of mine who plays Rebels avidly told me to avoid these when starting out:

T-47 Airspeeder

Fleet Troopers

Rebel Veterans

X-34 Landspeeder

What are your thoughts? What are the weakest Rebel units? Are Wookie Warriors or the Hoth Laser Cannon (1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team Unit Expansion) any good? If someone has a Rebel buyers guide for a player starting out I'd appreciate it. What would you avoid buying if you knew what you know now. Thanks folks!

Balderdash! Get what you want, play what you love.

Buy two core sets, paint em up and play a few games. Then I'd add a character or two per side, and whatever else you enjoy painting and playing with. I hate painting (and transporting!) vehicles so I don't own many. I like painting lots of infantry squads so that's mostly what my armies are made of. Also I mostly just paint Hoth models so I do own veterans and I think they're fine. I find compulsory moves un-fun so my airspeeder doesn't get much play, but against separatist battle droids it inflicts horrific amounts of damage.

Painting complete armies for Legion is easier than people think. Use the "bad" heavy weapons (ion gun, missile launcher) for practice then paint in batches of a whole squad at a time. Go through the group painting blue on each model, then red on each model, etc. in a small assembly line. Using Teri Litorco's method I can assembly-line paint a squad of Hoth rebels in around 45 minutes of actual-paintbrush-in-hand-time, not counting the time I walk away and leave things to dry.

If you guys are just playing together, toss the meta view out the window!

Buy what you enjoy painting and playing with. Yes fleet troopers struggle outside of skirmish (3x3 field 500 points) but with heavily LoS blocking terrain boards they may find a niche.

The t47 you can probably skip though because it feels bad when it doesn’t work. But if you really like it buy one and fly it proud anyway.

Honestly - I think @TauntaunScout has the best idea — buy two core sets plus an extra hero (commander or operative) for each side and start playing with those first. If you like bounty hunters look at Boba Fett or Bossk, or look at Veers or Krennic for a second commander. If he likes Rebels tv show pick up Sabine, or if he likes the original movies look at Leia (really good commander).

Then buy what you like - special forces, other corps units, etc.

Play what looks cool. Esp with kids. We got fleets early on simply because they seemed straightforward to paint and they get used all the time.

Just enjoy yourself

Thanks everyone for the advice. In regards to playing with my son at home, definitely going to use rule of cool. What seems fun.

When things get back to normal and I can play against the guys at the store on Thursdays, I was looking for the more competitive units and which ones to avoid. Ringmaster80 I appreciate the advice. It's a shame so many cool units are not that great in the competitive scene. Just didn't want to drop a lot of money in multiple expansions that don't play well in the tourney scene at the LGS. If anybody has anything else I'd appreciate it.

7 minutes ago, Mesrob said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. In regards to playing with my son at home, definitely going to use rule of cool. What seems fun.

When things get back to normal and I can play against the guys at the store on Thursdays, I was looking for the more competitive units and which ones to avoid. Ringmaster80 I appreciate the advice. It's a shame so many cool units are not that great in the competitive scene. Just didn't want to drop a lot of money in multiple expansions that don't play well in the tourney scene at the LGS. If anybody has anything else I'd appreciate it.

I mean the snowspeeder DOES have one awesome thing going for it. If you shop for deals online you can find them super cheap. I got one for $8 on Black Friday. At 200ish points, they're probably the best way to attempt a rebels "Grand Army" game of 1600 points.

are you planning any skirmish games? I love the skirmish game for beginning. What age range / experience level is your son?

There is a much larger learning curve for the Rebels than the Imperials in my opinion, just due to Imperial Durability. None of the Rebel vehicles are very good for their point cost.

Everything is playable, but some things about Rebels make them frustrating for a beginner, or younger player.

I love playing around and workng with units that dont seem great. Han and Chewy(usually my go to duo) have a teamwork ability that I've used to great effect. Jyn has been another fun one. Before lockdown my group had a skrimmish League for 8 games in 8 weeks. I won 1st(surprisingly) with most winning list involving Jyn, two wookies and two rebel troopers. Very fun. Definitely go with the rule of cool then when playing competitive use what fits you playstyle best. Most of all have fun

https://imperialdiscipline.blog/the-total-beginners-guide-to-legion/

it is dated but I found it quite useful. I apply the rule is cool, theme armies are just plain fun. Hoth, Endor, Scarif, Felucia, Geonosis, Deathstar escape. Can’t go wrong with any of them. I have played in tournaments and placed top 8 using “bad units” the landspeeder is one of my favorites. It has its problems but so fun to do the unexpected! Drive at a “key unit” using its displace knocking them out of cover and chewing them up. Transporting Sabine around like a mini nuke. Is it always going to work no, but I have a ton of fun and my opponent usually has a few huh never thought of using it like that moments

I would skip fleet troopers of you don't really like the models.

Otherwise, most rebel things work, unless you want the biggest chance you can get for winning high end tournaments.

However wookies have it hard in 800p matches due to their price and low defence. Fleet troopers keywords is hard to use and range 2 with courage 1 is a big disandvantage. These work better in skirmish. The landspeeder suffer the same problem as most heavies, but it's not bad. The airspeeder suffer from poor design, but it is at least buffed and cheaper now so it's not unusable and the expansion is cheap.

The Fd cannon is good, but is hard to use as it can't move. However with the new range it is in a much better spot than before.

Jyn Cassian And K2S0 are dynamite together. You may have thought Jyn was no good before, but wait til she has 4-5 dodge and aim tokens and so do her friends. They can literally be near invincible and get 2-3 crits each

On 4/30/2020 at 5:01 PM, Mesrob said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. In regards to playing with my son at home, definitely going to use rule of cool. What seems fun.

When things get back to normal and I can play against the guys at the store on Thursdays, I was looking for the more competitive units and which ones to avoid. Ringmaster80 I appreciate the advice. It's a shame so many cool units are not that great in the competitive scene. Just didn't want to drop a lot of money in multiple expansions that don't play well in the tourney scene at the LGS. If anybody has anything else I'd appreciate it.

It's sadly a part of how FFG do their games. They focus alot on new units and expansions while older units have to hope for "fix" cards or Hard erratas. However it's not like some units are useless, they just aren't as effective as other choices.

54 minutes ago, jocke01 said:

It's sadly a part of how FFG do their games. They focus alot on new units and expansions while older units have to hope for "fix" cards or Hard erratas. However it's not like some units are useless, they just aren't as effective as other choices.

And I would put forth that Legion is as immune to this as a modern slick and pretty miniatures game can be. If you took a high placing Legion tournament champion, gave them nothing but 3 core sets, Veers and Leia to play with for the next year, they'd still be able to wipe the floor with most people in local shops.

18 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

And I would put forth that Legion is as immune to this as a modern slick and pretty miniatures game can be. If you took a high placing Legion tournament champion, gave them nothing but 3 core sets, Veers and Leia to play with for the next year, they'd still be able to wipe the floor with most people in local shops.

Sure, the core set is pretty solid, Leia also. However Legion is looking a bit like x-wing 1.0 did at the later years. Legion isn't more immune, but so far it's doing ok. However with new expansions getting new keywords and ways to impact the game (often without too high a cost), units like fleet troopers looks flat and could use a re-design. I would like the game to be worked at from both enda, not just new stuff. Since often the old get's left behind.

Is the rebel trooper upgrade pack a good idea?

I only have a core set, so is my understanding correct that I could use this pack as a 3rd set of troopers?

1 hour ago, DarthRossi said:

Is the rebel trooper upgrade pack a good idea?

I only have a core set, so is my understanding correct that I could use this pack as a 3rd set of troopers?

Try ebay. The rebel troopers from core sets can often be found for a bargain.

Or you buy one regular trooper expansion with cards in two languages (English/German) so you can build 4 units (with the 2 you already have). If you are missing an officers and/or z-6 trooper check bigorbitcards (UK) for single figures. Cheapest way to go up to 4 units.