The Rebel Troopers, perhaps one of the least glamorous band of heroes in the Star Wars canon. Much of the glory for the rebel antics gets taken up by the main characters, the droids or even the snazzier dressed Fleet troopers or the cool and gritty partisans.  Mostly the Rebel Troopers get their run around in Return of the Jedi or failing that, are shot to pieces by Stormtroopers (of all things) or generally mocked by the villains.  Even their biggest moment in the comics was pretty much to give Darth Vader an excuse to say bad-ass things before mowing through them. It’s no surprise that at geek events you find legions of Stormtroopers and maybe one Rebel Trooper if you’re lucky.

Which is a pity, because they really are the unsung heroes of the franchise. In Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars Legion game, however, they are your slogging footsoldiers, on par with the Stormtroopers in terms of disposable unit.  The variety of the actual models is good enough; we get one alien headed model and a bunch of humans. One of those humans looks a little bit like the bloke with the bushy beard in Return of the Jedi, a fact that may intrigue certain hardcore fans.

They are fun to paint. Unlike Stormtroopers, our rebels have a sense of style and wear a variety of clothing. This makes them not as easy to splash paint on as the bad guys, but for the lazy, a spot of green camo is easy to do and there are plenty of tutorials online.  It is a bit of a pity there’s only one sort of alien and of course these are fixed in their pose, which is great for painting troops but a little dull in the long run.

Rules-wise there’s not a heck of a lot to say here. You get bonus cards such as Impact Grenades and Grappling Hooks, which let you fine tune the unit. (The Stormtrooper set also gets these.) The rest of the cards are the same as the troopers from the core starter set. (As are the models.)  They are potentially the most versatile units in the game, thanks to the range of leaders and commands that Rebels in Star Wars Legion can use. Essential for any potential galactic hero.

STAR WARS LEGION – REBEL TROOPERS UNIT EXPANSION / DESIGNER: ALEX DAVY / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW