Legion 2.0?

By Shadowhawk252, in Star Wars: Legion

1 hour ago, Squark said:

I think the fact that online games tend to be more cutthroat is exasperating some of legion's underlying issues.

*exacerbating

Quote

Keyword Bloat: New keywords ought to be rare. The rules reference is starting to look like 6th and 7th edition 40k's special rule chapter. THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING

A lot of the keywords are superfluous.

For example Han Solo having uncanny luck 3. He could just have a red save and 7 wounds and it works out basically the same.

While its certainly thematic for han solo to have an ability called uncanny luck the problem is the ability doesnt actually do anything that cant just be done by giving him a better save and an extra wound which makes it entirely superfluous. You could argue it even slows down the game by making you roll more dice unnecessarily.

Theres also keywords like blast and sharpshooter 2 that essentially do the same thing. They could be combined into one keyword like Penetrate X.

I do think a lot of the keyword bloat could be streamlined out of the game.

Edited by Khobai
22 hours ago, Squark said:

I think the fact that online games tend to be more cutthroat is exacerbating some of legion's underlying issues.

The macro-issues I personally see are;

-Keyword Bloat: New keywords ought to be rare. The rules reference is starting to look like 6th and 7th edition 40k's special rule chapter. THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING

I absolutely agree with this. The focus on Invader league because of the absence of local and regional games has skewed people's perceptions of the state of the game in a bad way. Probably one reason why I don't see all the doom and gloom is I tend to ignore Invader league, and have played a lot of local games recently.

And yes, they really need to cool it with the New keywords every wave. It's getting ridiculous, fast. New keywords aren't a bad thing, but no more than one should be introduced every wave, and older keywords should be used instead when possible to achieve proper "feel" for a unit.

23 hours ago, Squark said:

-Keyword Bloat: New keywords ought to be rare. The rules reference is starting to look like 6th and 7th edition 40k's special rule chapter. THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING

I don't think this is a problem. Maybe other tabletop companies address this differently although looking at Infinity's rulebook with an abundance of special rules or the ton of unique abilities on Hero cards in Marvel Crisis Protocol don't let me think so. FFG's other miniature games, X-Wing and Armada, introduce a ton of new unique abilities on ships and upgrades with each expansion. The only difference to legion? They don't codify it as keywords but that doesn't mean that they don't introduce more rules and game effects.

19 hours ago, Khobai said:

A lot of the keywords are superfluous.

For example Han Solo having uncanny luck 3. He could just have a red save and 7 wounds and it works out basically the same.

While its certainly thematic for han solo to have an ability called uncanny luck the problem is the ability doesnt actually do anything that cant just be done by giving him a better save and an extra wound which makes it entirely superfluous. You could argue it even slows down the game by making you roll more dice unnecessarily.

Theres also keywords like blast and sharpshooter 2 that essentially do the same thing. They could be combined into one keyword like Penetrate X.

I do think a lot of the keyword bloat could be streamlined out of the game.

I tried playing Heroclix and they have different keywords for the same ability simply for the flavor, and it was daunting/exhausting when you are a new player. I definitely prefer the K.I.S.S. method.

There's some good suggestions here, but I feel like a big part of this game's future will be in the units themselves. The rules get more complex as you move through expansions, but that's just the nature of the beast unfortunately.

What I would love to see is more corps units for each faction. Having to take three helps to balance the game a bit, but I wish that corps units were a bit more diverse so as to allow for better synergy with the more specialized units. This would also get the two older factions more up to date with the new factions, which both have macro mechanics to build off of.

23 minutes ago, evo454 said:

What I would love to see is more corps units for each faction. Having to take three helps to balance the game a bit, but I wish that corps units were a bit more diverse so as to allow for better synergy with the more specialized units. This would also get the two older factions more up to date with the new factions, which both have macro mechanics to build off of.

That is one of the big unknowns about this game. When you look at special forces, tanks, and commanders they have a lot of options for every faction. Corps units become a problem for some factions and even possible future factions. I have heard them call Legion small skirmishes and not large pitched battles, so it will be interesting to see how they handle corps unit in the future.

Rebels are now down to just 3 naked corps units. I don't know if I like that, but it like your said they have never been that diverse when it came to corps.

17 minutes ago, RyantheFett said:

That is one of the big unknowns about this game. When you look at special forces, tanks, and commanders they have a lot of options for every faction. Corps units become a problem for some factions and even possible future factions. I have heard them call Legion small skirmishes and not large pitched battles, so it will be interesting to see how they handle corps unit in the future.

Rebels are now down to just 3 naked corps units. I don't know if I like that, but it like your said they have never been that diverse when it came to corps.

I know one game philosophy is that Corps units are supposed to be the meat of your army. They're the men in the trenches who hold the line and take objectives, with other special units supporting or modifying the strategy in some way. This is fine, but the unit variety/customization for corps units kinda hurts that ideology. It's not uncommon to see people take 3 naked corps units just to meet the list requirement and then load up on other units that just generally perform better. I'm guilty of this too, as I'll sometimes just take a naked Stormtrooper and then a Shoretrooper with their mortar and then leave my corps at that.

A lot of the older corps units do need to be buffed.

Especially stormtroopers, snowtroopers, and pretty much all rebel corps units. Shoretroopers are fine how they are.

Stormtroopers should lose precise 1 because its borderline useless. Instead they could have a new keyword called subjugate X that lets them reroll 1 attack pool dice for each suppression token on the defending unit, upto a max of X. Stormtroopers are a symbol of subjugation and should get better the more suppressed enemy units are.

Snowtroopers need a lot more help to get them into flamethrower range. Maybe give them courage 2 and a new keyword (motivated by fear?) that gives them a surge token if they start their activation, after rallying, with at least 1 suppression token. The E-Web could also get a bonus if it activates near Snowtroopers since the E-web is manned by snowtroopers (maybe give the E-web reverse retinue so it gets a free aim or dodge token if it starts its activation within range 1 of a snowtrooper unit). That buffs the E-web and helps promote inter-army synergy between units.

The goal here is to give empire more mechanics that interact with suppression.

The Rebel corps units are sufficiently diverse but all essentially have the same exact problem of dying way too fast. I would like to see rebel units get a game mechanic that makes them stronger as they suffer casualties. The Rebels always perform best under pressure when things are desperate for them. Rebel Trooper or Fleet Trooper units could get a keyword like desperate hope X where whenever the unit gets wiped out you get X desperation tokens. And then during any command phase you can spend any number of desperation tokens to distribute that many aim or dodge tokens among your units. Veterans could probably gain courage 2 or reliable 1. The Medium Blaster could also use a slight buff, like Critical X or something.

I think scouting party would be a good rule for rebels to get on some commanders as well, Han Solo is an ideal candidate for that. The further up the board rebels start the less casualties theyll lose.

Lastly I feel there needs to be new ways to spend surge tokens for Imperials and Rebels. A lot of the time for Imperials and Rebels (less so for CIS and GAR) surge tokens get wasted because you never roll a surge. I think Imperials and Rebels should be able to spend surge tokens to get a 0.5 aim or dodge effect. Imperials could spend surge tokens to gain subjugate 1 and Rebels could spend surge tokens to roll a red saving throw die and on a block result they dodge a hit.

Edited by Khobai