Star Wars has a ton of exciting vehicles that form the back-drop of the world. From Death Stars to landspeeders, the galaxy far, far away has plenty of options if you don’t fancy walking. Even better, if you rather a huge machine did the walking for you, they’ve got you covered.
The AT-ST is the smaller, chicken walker style machines from Return of the Jedi. They are meant to be All Terrain Scout Transports, though one must wonder what part of ‘scouting’ involves walking a massive tower sized tank-like-thing through a forest whilst it knocks down trees and tramples bushes. The famous cab at the top is hardly conducive to carrying lots of troopers. What it does have is a big gun of the front, and that’s cool. Especially if you’re also using an AT-ST in the Star Wars Legion war game.
Straight out of the box, it’s obvious that some construction is required. However, it really isn’t that fiddly to put together. The model is carefully designed to hold its own weight reasonably well and work on its own as a display piece outside the game. It does need glue and patience, but it is neither fiddly nor challenging. Gamers are going to have to decide what weapons the model will be fitted with, as the kit comes with various options. (Savvy gamers may want to consider magnets to allow chopping and changing of bits. These are easy to fit though obviously they don’t come with the expansion.)
Rules wise, we get plenty of goodies for the model. For a start we get General Weiss, who’s one of the baddies created by Fantasy Flight Games for the Star Wars franchise. He’s meant to be a tank commander style character but mostly he’s known for being the guy who sticks his lightly armoured head out of a heavily armoured vehicle. He allows the player to use extra firepower in game, which is nice. Talking about firepower, the rules of the AT-ST Mortar Launcher are pretty much what you want them to be. A long-range weapon that supresses the target, it’s a fun way to grind those rebels to dust. If you get bored of that though, there’s also a grenade launcher to blow them out of cover and a blaster canon to knock out even well armoured rebels. Choose wisely, or not. They’re all good options.
The AT-ST is exactly what you want out of a Star Wars model; easy to put together, enjoyable to paint and comes with rules for play that are flexible and fun. It’s so pretty it gives you another reason to dislike ewoks!
AT-ST UNIT EXPANSION / DESIGNER: ALEX DAVY / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
