Star Wars: Legion/Tactics/CIS

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Why Play The Confederacy of Independent Systems

For commanders who are too cheap for conscripts.

Pros

• No moral obligation to bring your army home alive.
• Get to say, "Roger Roger," a lot.
• Synapse style shenanigans
• Most of your units are Immune to suppression.

Cons

• Jar-Jar Binks can out-think most of your units.
• I lost how many models this turn?
• Synapse style weaknesses.
• Your Units CAN still panic.

Units

Commanders

1-2 Selections

The focal point of you army they often have game changing abilities. Currently lacking any cheaper choices.

General Grevious

As a four-armed, lightsaber-wielding, asthmatic cyborg, General Grevious can do a passable blender impression in melee.

At 175 points, he's a decent chunk of your army. With 8 wounds and a red defense die, he's fairly sturdy, but with only 2 courage, he's prone to "abandon ship" sooner than most commanders. He also has Block, and Impervious, allowing him to stand toe-to-toe against the amount of focus-fire he's likely to draw.

Against force-users, Jedi Hunter allows you to convert surge results to a crit - combine this with the Tenacity (or possibly Hunter) Training to give him a better chance to deal damage to enemy commanders.

Relentless allows you to make an attack after you perform a move action, and coupled with his DT-57 "Annihilator" pistol, he can dish out 4 dice (2 Black, 2 White) with Critical 1 and Pierce 1 while ducking between terrain.

Speaking of terrain, Grevious has Scale, giving him the ability to make a free clamber maneuver after he moves. In addition, he gains Unhindered and Expert Climber, meaning that Grevious can hide attack from places most units couldn't get to easily. Combined with the above Relentless, this lets you fire from atop cover and retreat behind it in one turn.

His melee weapons consist of two, "Trophy Lightsabers," which deal 1 Red, 2 Black, and 1 White dice in damage, with Impact 1 and Pierce 1. Not great, not terrible.

On top of everything else, he's got Arsenal 2, meaning he gets two attacks in melee, and his DT-57 has Versatile, allowing you to use it in melee, if you like.

Upgrade Cards

Command Upgrades (x2 Slots)

Aggressive Tactics (10 pts.) - After issuing orders, give 1 surge token to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. Combine this with Crush Them! to try to get at least 2 surge tokens on four of your units. Really good. Take this.

Commanding Presence (10 pts.) - When issuing orders, you can issue orders at range 1-4. Pretty meh. On smaller battlefields, this isn't even needed. On larger ones, its situational. Having one unit equipped with HQ Uplink costs the same, and allows them to get an order even if your General is dead.

Esteemed Leader (5 pts.) - Friendly trooper units at range 1 gain Guardian 1, helping you defend your points investment. Basically, allows you to have someone else to eat a ranged attack meant for your general; doesn't work in melee, though. Works great if you have tons of cheap infantry to serve as body guard (and you do), and stacks with his Supreme Commander card, giving friendly units at range 1 Guardian 3 for one turn, allowing your general to make it into melee unharmed. Pretty good, in larger point games.

Improvised Orders (10 pts.) - Draw 2, pick 1 token from your order pool. Okay. We have Coordinate: Droid Trooper and HQ Uplink, though, so we don't really need this.

Strict Orders (5 Points) - Guarantees a trooper unit can remove a suppression when they activate, rather than leaving it to chance. Helps make up for our Grievous' pretty low courage value. For 5 points, it's well worth it.

Training Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Duck and Cover (8 pts.) - You can intentionally gain 1 suppression while being shot at, for cover. Pretty meh for 8 points, and with only 2 courage, you risk losing an action on your activation, unless you're also running Strict Orders.

Endurance (6 pts.) - At the end of your activation, remove 1 suppression for free. Pretty situational. If you're getting hit with 2-3 suppression a turn, it might help, but you're probably doing something wrong. Better off with Strict Orders.

Hunter (6 pts.) - When attacking a wounded trooper unit, get 1 free aim token. Pretty okay, if you're only going to attack basic troops, but for 2 fewer points, you could take Tenacity, to get an extra red attack die against any unit (in melee).

Overwatch (4 pts.) - Gain Sentinel, making your standby range 1-3. No, just no. Grievous doesn't even have a ranged weapon that has range 3, so you're better off taking anything else.

Tenacity (4 pts.) - When making a melee attack, while you are wounded, gain 1 red attack die. Pretty good, considering your General is likely to draw a lot of fire. Only works in melee, but that is where he does the most damage.

Armament Upgrade (x1 Slot)

DT-57 "Annihilator" (12 pts.) - Gives Grievous a ranged attack option with 2 Black and 2 White dice. Price is a bit high, but this allows his to do something with Relentless when he can't/shouldn't get into melee. Range 1-2 is meh, but Critical 1 and Pierce 1 is nice. Versitile lets you use this in melee, in place of one of his lightsabers, if you really need to fish for crits.

Command Cards

(3 pip) Crush Them! - [General Grievous & 2 Units] - When General Grievous issues an order to a unit, that unit gains 1 surge token for each defeated enemy unit.

(2 pip) Supreme Commander - [2 Troopers] - General Grievous gains 1 surge token for each other friendly trooper at range 1. While another friendly trooper unit has a faceup order token, it gains Guardian 2, and can use Guardian during a melee attack.

(1 pip) Trained in Your Jedi Arts - [General Grievous] - General Grievous gains Disengage, and 1 dodge token. At the end of his activation, he may perform an attack against each enemy unit at range 1 using the following weapon: (Range 1, Suppressive, Versatile, 1 red, 2 black, 1 white dice)

Tactics

How best to use him goes here.

Count Dooku

(Currently on Pre-Order)

He trains people in your Jedi arts.

On the surface, he looks a lot like Luke Skywalker, with speed 2, 6 wounds, 3 courage, Immune: Pierce, Deflect, a red defense die and the ability to convert surges to crits. Don't be fooled, however, Dooku is a much different animal Jedi Sith.

At 205 points, he's second only to Emperor Palpatine in terms of cost, making him a pretty expensive Commander, but his Cunning special rule allows you to potentially activate first to help keep your army one step ahead of your opponent. Master of the Force 2 allows twice the space-magic goodness per turn, at the cost of sinking even more points into one unit.

His weapons do not disappoint - Dooku is nearly as potent as Vader in terms of raw dice, dishing out 5 red dice (Impact 2, Pierce 2) with his lightsaber, and at range 1-2, he can do 5 black dice (Pierce 1, Scatter) with his throw attack. The Scatter rule on his ranged attack allows you to re-arrange small-base units around their leader (within cohesion), giving your roger-rogers more targets to blast.

Finally, Makashi Master allows you to reduce your Pierce value by 1 on a melee attack ignore Immune: Pierce. Puts the hurt on Commanders and Operatives that don't have good defense, otherwise. Disgusting.

Upgrade Cards

Force Upgrades (x3 Slots) (He's probably a Dark Side user, thought that not confirmed, at the moment.)

Unaligned Powers

Battle Meditation (10 pts.) - When you issue orders, you can give one of those orders to a friendly unit anywhere on the battlefield. Same points as HQ Uplink, but you can change who's getting the orders, and it comes from your commander. Situational, but okay.

Force Guidance (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow you to give a surge token to up to 2 friendly units at range 1-2, as a free action. Very nice.

Force Push (10 pts.) - Exhaust this ability and spend an action to force a trooper unit at range 1 to perform a speed 1 move, even if they're engaged. Very nice. Save your guys from melee, or pull enemies from behind cover/terrain so your droids can blast 'em.

Force Reflexes (15 pts.) - Exhaust this card to gain a dodge token, as a free action.

Saber Throw (10 pts.) - Spend an action to perform an attack with one of you melee weapons at range 1-2, using half of that weapon's dice (rounded up).

This counts as your attack action for the turn, but allows you to throw 3 red dice with Impact 2 and Pierce 2 at someone, instead of using your lighting. The price is a little high for someone who already has a ranged attack with 5 black dice, Pierce 1 and Scatter for free. Situational. If you have this when you use Fear, Surprise and Intimidation you could use both weapons at once, and dish out 2 suppression tokens. Very scary.

Dark Side Powers

Anger (5 pts.) - Gain an aim token every time you take damage.

Fear (3 pts.) - Gain Demoralize 1, letting you give 1 suppression token to enemy units at range 1-2. For three points, its pretty good, but Dooku has to activate that close for it to work.

Force Choke (5 pts.) - Exhaust this ability to deal 1 wound to a trooper mini at range 1, that isn't a commander. Makes sure you get that last pesky trooper.

Command Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Aggressive Tactics (10 pts.) - After issuing orders, give 1 surge token to up to 4 friendly units with a face-up order token. Surge increases a B1 mini's odds to hit by 50%, and doubles their odds of blocking one, when defending. Combine this with Crush Them! to try to get at least 2 surge tokens on four of your units by combining abilities/effects. Really good. Take this.

Commanding Presence (10 pts.) - When issuing orders, you can issue orders at range 1-4. Pretty meh. On smaller battlefields, this isn't even needed. On larger ones, its situational. Having one unit equipped with HQ Uplink costs the same, though, and allows them to get an order even if your General is dead.

Esteemed Leader (5 pts.) - Friendly trooper units at range 1 gain Guardian 1, helping you defend your points investment. Basically, allows you to have someone else to eat a ranged attack meant for your general; doesn't work in melee, though. Works great if you have tons of cheap infantry to serve as body guard (and you do).

Improvised Orders (10 pts.) - Draw 2, pick 1 token from your order pool. Okay. Sort of works with his Double the Fall card, if you happen to have a lot of token in the order pool, but between your B1's, and HQ Uplink, it is situational, at best.

Strict Orders (5 Points) - Guarantees a trooper unit can remove a suppression when they activate, rather than leaving it to chance. For 5 points, it's well worth it.

Command Cards

(3 pip) You Disappoint Me - [Count Dooku & 2 Units] - When Count Dooku issues an order to a unit, that unit gains 1 dodge token. After Count Dooku performs a ranged attack against a trooper unit, he may perform a speed 2 move with that unit.

Hilarious when combined with his lightning's Scatter ability, and force push. Drag an enemy unit/commander into the guns of your droids, and away from his troops, or just into Grievous' lightsabers.

(2 pip) Double the Fall - [Count Dooku & 1 Unit] - At the start of the activation phase, if Count Dooku has a faceup order token, he may return it to the order pool and choose 2 other enemy units at range 1-2, and bring their order tokens back to their order pool.

(1 pip) Fear, Surprise and Intimidation - [Count Dooku] - Count Dooku gains Arsenal 2, Relentless, and all his ranged weapons gain Versatile. After an attack, each defender gains 2 suppression tokens.

This can be devastating, particularly against units that don't have a melee weapon. Normally, they aren't forced to, "pile in," and thus when you kill the one you are base-to-base with, the rest can act normally when they activate. If you go for the unit leader, Scatter on Dooku's Lightning lets you pull the rest of the unit into melee, too. Synergizes with the use of Force Push to help move said squads into range.

Tactics

How best to use him goes here.

Operatives

TBD

Corps

3-6 Selections

B1 Battle Droids

"Roger, roger."

Your basic infantry squad. With 1 wound, 1 courage, and white dice for both attack and defense, don't expect them to do much on their own, but quantity has a quality all its own. In general, try to build the biggest squads you can, unless you can drop enough extra personnel to pay for another basic squad. This makes units harder to wipe in one bad round of shooting, in the former, and more targets to you opponent to spread their fire over, in the latter.

AI: Attack forces each squad to make an attack action, if able, before it can do anything else, if it doesn't have a faceup order token. This is hardly ever what you want to do first, which means your 'bots really start to suffer if your commander is knocked out, but there are ways around this.

Coordinate: Droid Trooper lets you issue an order to a nearby Droid Trooper squad at range one, allowing one order to one of your B1 units to potentially copy+paste orders to most of your army. Handy. If you're concerned about a squad being left out, remember, with so many models in each squad, that range 1 coherence allows you to stretch out pretty far in both directions, at the cost of cover. If you have better things to do with your orders, or if you think your Commander is going to be too far away (or focused to death quickly), you can equip one squad with HQ Uplink (10 pts.) to still allow your droids to ignore their AI: Attack rule. Long-Range Comlink costs the same, but requires your nominated commander to be alive for you to get your points-worth out of it.

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

E-5C B1 Trooper (18 pts.) - Adds a 'bot with a machine gun analog -Always- take this if you take nothing else, as its 3 black dice will contribute about the same statistical damage as all six of your standard troopers put together.

E-60R B1 Trooper (20 pts.) - Try to guess what the 'R' stands for. Adds a 'bot with a rocket launcher, who gets tired when you fire it. Unsurprisingly, this one is pretty good versus vehicles and things with armor. 1 red and 2 black dice is the most any B1 has the ability to dish out on their own, and Impact 2 allows two of those hits to be crits. Range 2-4 is, again, good for hunting vehicles so long as they don't get too close, and the price is fair, considering this one doesn't have cumbersome. A solid buy, when the situation calls for it.

(Currently on Pre-order)

E-5S B1 Trooper (20 pts.) - Adds a 'bot with a sniper rifle. It can shoot range 1-4, rolls 1 red and 1 white dice, and has Critical 1, to turn hits into crits.

Radiation Cannon B1 Trooper (??? pts.) - Adds a bot with... a radiation cannon. Has range 1-2, but no word on its damage.

Personnel Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B1 Battle Droid (6 pts.) - Another basic clanker. Adding one more as a buffer between incoming fire and your E-5C weapon is a good call, if you have nothing better to spend the points on. If you have a lot of squads, however, consider just taking another basic B1 squad.

(Currently on Pre-order)

OOM-Series Battle Droid (??? pts.) -

B1 Secruity Droid (9 pts.) - Add a Security Droid mini, allowing you to exhaust its card to ignore AI: Attack on the attached unit, until the end of the activation. For three points more than the regular B1, its an okay way to get around breaks in your command chain, or function for a turn after you commander dies.

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Really bad if your opponent has this equipped to a melee-heavy squad. Even though our B1s aren't that good in melee, a squad or two equipped with these in a larger point game can prevent vehicles/elite infantry/Commanders from from getting face-up orders, if you're willing to sacrifice a minimum of 51 points per squad to accomplish this. Not useless, but not great, either. Consider something else, for the points.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one. This has the potential to allow a unit at the end of your B1 conga-line to still receive orders, but for 5 more points, you could give anything that's not a Commander HQ Uplink, instead.

You could also arrange your army in such a way that a B1 squad could pass an order to a non-Trooper squad, and still get an order token from another B1 squad through the Coordinate: Droid Trooper rule. This is pretty niche, and relies on you issuing 2 orders a turn, or else having a B1 squad equipped with HQ Uplink. In the former case, you could potentially save 5 points over taking HQ Uplink, though.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to "itself" so cards like Crush Them! don't apply.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

(Currently on Pre-order)

Integrated Comms Antenna (3 pts.) is a Droid Trooper-only upgrade. Cheaper than Long Range Comlink by 7 points, but instead of, infinite, range on your commander's orders, you only get range 1-4, which should be plenty, under most circumstances. Somewhat cheaper than giving your commander Commanding Presence (10 pts.), and more slot efficient, while still having the same range. You could outfit 3 B1 units with this and still save a point over giving Grevious or Dooku the longer range.

Gear Upgrades (x0 Slots)

Electrobinoculars (8 pts.) - Gain the ability to spend an action to give another friendly unit at range 1 an aim token. B1 Battle Droids can ignore this card's Gear upgrade icon requirement.

Tactics

How best to use them goes here.

B2 Super Battle Droids

(Currently on Pre-order)

Very much, "super," compared to the B1s. These guys have 2 wounds and 2 courage, a black dice in melee, and a black and a white die on their ranged attacks, but their range in only 1-2, and they still only save on a white die.

Luckily, they have Armor 1 to soak one hit a round.

Compared to the larger squads of B1s, which can hit 8 models in a single squad, B2s come in groups of 3 by default. Like their smaller cousins, they aren't the brightest minds on the battlefield, and get the same AI: Attack rule, along with all its drawbacks.

Unlike the B1s, they lack the ability to copy orders to other squads, meaning B2s are best deployed at the end of a line of B1s to avoid wasting a potential order.

Upgrade Cards

Heavy Weapon Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2-ACM Trooper (?? pts.) - Adds a big 'bot with a range 1-2 gun that has 3 red dice.

B2-HA Trooper (?? pts.) - Adds a big 'bot with a range 2-3 gun that has 2 red and 1 white dice. Has Blast and Impact 2, and something called Cycle, but no word on what that does yet.

Personnel Upgrades (x1 Slot)

B2 Super Battle Droid (16 pts.) - Adds another big 'bot to the unit.

Comms Upgrade (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Really bad if your opponent has this equipped to a melee-heavy squad.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to itself so cards like Crush Them! don't apply.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

(Currently on Pre-order)

Integrated Comms Antenna (3 pts.) is a Droid Trooper-only upgrade. Cheaper than Long Range Comlink by 7 points, but instead of, infinite, range on your commander's orders, you only get range 1-4, which should be plenty, under most circumstances. Somewhat cheaper than giving your commander Commanding Presence (10 pts.), and more slot efficient, while still having the same range. You could outfit 3 B2 units with this and still save a point over giving Grevious or Dooku the longer range.

Special Forces

Up to 3 Selections

TBD

Support

Up to 3 Selections.

Droidekas

The biggest drawback about these units might be the fact that you have to build them -twice-, once for wheel-mode, and one for its regular mode. Seriously, what's the Wheel Mode token for?

Droidekas excel at defense against ranged attacks. Out of all the Core units, they are the only ones that convert any surge results by default, and they do this for defense.

Upgrade Cards

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Really bad if your opponent has this equipped to a melee-heavy squad. If said squad is getting close enough to your Droidekas for them to use this, you're doing something wrong. No, just no.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one. We have B1s for that, but might have some niche use.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics. Note that this counts as the unit issuing an order to itself so cards like Crush Them! don't apply. Put one on your Droideka unit.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

Tactics

-Avoid melee at all costs-. You don't even get an attack in melee.

-Range is your best friend-. Their guns fire at range 1-3 (dealing 1 red and 2 black dice apiece), but have a Fixed: Front facing, meaning very fast units, or ones very close, can avoid its firing arc simply by moving (or getting into melee with you). In tight spaces, especially with lots of blocking terrain, they aren't very maneuverable. Your best bet is to park them somewhere where they can shoot at something without having to waste an action re-positioning.

-Pivot, Rather Than Move- Moving, even at speed 1, takes you closer to your opponent. Use pivot, when you can, to rotate 90 degrees, without getting closer. See above.

In Wheel-mode, they gain Cover 2, essentially giving you heavy cover while you re-position yourself. In their standard mode, they have Shielded 4, letting you add up to 4 block results while defending against ranged attacks, and Generator 1 allows you to get one of your shield tokens back a round. If you can get an aim token on them (through nearby B1s with Electrobinoculars or Linked Targeting Array) and have nothing better to do, dodging makes these units even more of a pain to remove from the board.

Droidekas are fast in wheel-mode, but this means that they cannot fire or flip their shield tokens (up or down) on the turn they do this. Seeing as one unit of Droidekas costs about the same as 2-3 units of B1s, 1-2 units of B2s, or roughly half as much as Grevious or Dooku, we want to shoot and use their shields as much as possible.

That said, they have the potential to speed around the sides of Heavy units to attack more a vulnerable facing, and can be a distraction for your opponent, because if they aren't dealt with before they can set up, they can do some damage.

Heavy

Up to 2 Selections

AAT Trade Federation Battle Tank

(Currently on Pre-Order)

Upgrade Cards

Pilot Upgrade (x1 Slot)

T-Series Tactical Droid Pilot (5 pts.) - Your tank loses AI:Attack, and you gain Field Commander, allowing you to make the tank your commander, after you play a neutral command card, like Standing Orders.

Lok Durd (??? pts.) - Not even sure if he'll be a pilot, but the pre-order blurb implies he'll be released with this tank.

Ordinance Upgrades (x2 Slots)

(Currently Unknown)

Comms Upgrades (x1 Slot)

Comms Jammer (15 pts.) - Prevents enemy units at range 1 from receiving orders. Since you're vulnerable to attack from the rear facing, and your main gun has a minimum range of 2, you shouldn't take this.

Comms Relay (5 pts.) - Allows a unit with this equipped to pass an order to another friendly unit at range 1-2, but this means the squad that "passes" the order doesn't get one. Let's be honest, if you're issuing an order to this tank, its probably because you want to use it.

HQ Uplink (10 pts.) - Exhaust this to allow a unit to issue an order to itself. Useful, for the turn you need that unit to activate when you need it to, or to get a surge token from Aggressive Tactics.

Linked Targeting Array (5 pts.) - Gain Target 1, allowing you to get a free aim token when the equipped unit is issued an order.

Long-Range Comlink (10 pts.) - You always count as being within range of your commander. Situational, and not very helpful on smaller battlefields.

Tactics

How best to use the tank goes here.