PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES| RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
For a franchise that has the word war in its title, it has taken quite some time for an actual miniatures table-top war game based on Star Wars to come out. Star Wars Legion is certainly the most comprehensive attempt to create such a thing. Since the game came out in 2018, it’s picked up a cult following and a dedicated fanbase. No small feat in a hobby absolutely dominated by another sci-fi franchise, Warhammer 40,000.
Star Wars Legion: The Clone Wars is the most recent starter set aimed squarely at drawing in new players who’ve enjoyed watching the excellent Clone Wars animated series. It’s also the most obvious place to start collecting as The Clone Wars era of the franchise is absolutely filled with really cool looking things.
The box contains 39 models in total , including two squads of clones and two squads of B2 Battle Droids. (Those are the ones who keep saying ‘Roger, Rogers’.) The Clones also get a BARC speeder bike, which is a cool retro-sci-fi looking thing with a side-car. The Droids get two of the beetle like Droidekas and are lead by a very nicely done General Grievous model. The clones are lead by Obi-Wan himself, a very nicely posed piece which makes look Kenobi look like he’s at his physical peak.
These are very, very well made pieces. They’re hard plastic and you’ll be using super-glue to put them together, but you won’t need to do too much prep work beyond that. Most of the models are fairly straight-forward to assemble and quite fun; though instructions are included just in case. The battle-droids are a little fiddly as they’re essentially a collection of pipes and anxiety. The speeder is a particularly great model; maybe it’s the heavy weapon wielding dude in the side-car that makes it work or the smooth lines of the bike, it’s just really cool.
The art-work and accessories throughout are of the high-quality we’ve come to expect from Fantasy Flight Games and yes, they are lots of counters, cards and bespoke dice; this is an FFG game.
As a war-game, it’s actually very good. It’s sort of character driven in the sense that your commanders will drive a lot of the action but if you try and make the game about simply taking down Grievous or Kenobi you’re in for a lot of hurt; it’s much deeper than that. Command cards drive the action here; you play these to give various units orders and you use counters to signify those orders. You only have so many orders per turn and any unit that hasn’t been commanded will operate at random, though you tend to have a pretty good idea what to expect from each unit.
Not only does this give each side its own feel and tactics, it adds a level of thrill and chaos to the game without bogging things down in mechanics. The rules-set is described in basic terms in the box, with expanded rules available online.
Star Wars Legion: The Clone Wars is a great starter set for one of the more interesting sci-fi wargames out there. It feels a lot different from anything on the market and is both tactically engaging and fun to play, meaning that casual gamers and tournament players can find something in this game. It’s worth it for the models alone, but the fact that the game is great makes this a must buy for fans with a certain point of view.
