Star Wars Legion Tournament Report - Queensland States 2022

Welcome folks,

On Saturday the 2nd of July the Queensland States for Legion was held at EPIC Games in Ipswich. I was lucky enough to get an invite and several spots opened up due to other player not being able to make it unfortunately. Aaron was the TO and Bryant from Phoenix Games supplied prizes and hearty banter throughout the tournament.

I didn't have a great deal of time to alter my list so ran the same Vader/Tank list that I did at the last Unnatural Resources event a few short weeks ago.

799/800

9 Activations

Director Orson Krennic 75

Darth Vader (Dark Lord of the Sith) 190 + 23 = 213

--Burst of Speed (3), Force Push (10), Saber Throw (5), Vigilance (5)

Snowtroopers 44

Stormtroopers 44

Stormtroopers 44 + 9 = 53

--R4 Astromech Droid (9)

3x Dewback Rider 70 + 5 = 75 x 3 = 225

--T-21 Blaster Rifle (5)

TX-225 GAVw Occupier Combat Assault Tank 140 + 5 = 145

--Governor Pryce (5)

Implacable•, Vader's Might•, New Ways to Motivate Them••, Deploy the Garrison••, Master of Evil•••, Darkness Descends•••, Standing Orders••••

Major Offensive, Advanced Positions, Roll Out, Hemmed In

Key Positions, Payload, Intercept the Transmissions, Hostage Exchange

Limited Visibility, War Weary, Supply Drop, Hostile Environment

Game 1 vs Morgan

Morgan was running a Anakin lead Clone ball backed up with Padme. It's the second time I've played a competent Clone player and boy did I pay for my mistakes!

We ended up with Sabotage the Vaporators, Major Offensive, and Clear Conditions.

Deployment was all the Empire gear lined up, Vader on his ride facing off against a Clone ball with a sniper team on a flank which would sit in that spot all game.

The opening turn saw me lose a Dewback to combined fire and fire support for no return whatsoever. This was due to a combination of inexperience and simply not paying attention to what my opponent's army can do. My return fire accounted for very little between Padme's dodges and solid dice rolls from my opponent.

Beginning of Turn 2

Beginning of Turn 2

My army kept advancing under a hail of fire and for the second turn I played New Ways to Motivate them catapulting my remaining Dewbacks into units of Clones in order to rack up some kills. It certainly didn't account for much other than a few suppression tokens and thanks for more fire support I was now down three lizards with only a few dead clones to show for it. My confidence was fleeting. Vader would fix everything right?

In turn three Vader finally hit the enemy lines with dodges and an aim. Anakin and Vader dueled and Anakin was left on three wounds whilst Vader took a revolting amount of damage after being force pushed out of combat, then a shiny light saber thrown at him backed up with fire support. Well played Morgan.

The rest of my army advanced by this stage securing two of the Vaporators whilst the Clones had one.

The fourth turn rolled around and Vader dispatched Anakin. I ended up Force Pushing a unit of activated clones into combat with me to prevent further shooting and by this stage Vader was limping around with a single wound remaining. The snipers continued to drop stormtroopers from afar and Krennic and the full strength unit of Stormtroopers lined up the uncontested Vaporator.

Morgan made a play and rushed the last Vaporator and although I killed the unit, I couldn't prevent them from removing wound tokens onto it. I pushed both my units up meaning next turn they'd be able to pile wounds back on effectively nullifying that objective.

The last turn I didn't have an answer for until it was staring me in the face in the form of Vader's Might. As you can see in the last image taken at the end of the second last turn, Padme is in range of the final objective. Vader's 1-pip card allowed me with him ensuring that I could embark allowing a greater range band to use Vader's Might to move Padme on the far side of the tank preventing her from getting into range of the objective. Blaster dodged.

The Empire very narrowly creeps through with a victory.

Morgan was a wonderful player and certainly schooled me with how Clones can be competently played. I've taken a lot of lessons away from this game.

Game 2 vs Robert

My self appointed arch nemesis Robert appeared across the table from me. This would be my third game against Rob in local tournaments and his game plan is just on par with the amazing paint job of his army. He is fast becoming a master of the Rebel playstyle in my opinion and something I'd like to emulate one day.

Rob was running his usual setup of Op Luke, Shriv in a tooled up bus, triple wookiees in various configs and triple rebel troopers. Finally everyone's favourite (most hated) astromech rounded out the list hell bent on stealing the Empires secrets.

We ended up with Disarray, Payload, and Clear Conditions. 

Deployment

Rob split his forces up where I just anchored a single zone and then allowed a single Dewback Rider to flank the Rebel cart pushing force and start the harassment. 

I dropped some models and did some damage but I had a strong feeling that although I might win the morale victory, R2 was happy to witness the back of the Dewback nearby and wander off into the sunset.

Vader catapulted into the enemy lines whilst Luke attacked my soft spots. Although I'd prevented Roberts cart from moving and even managed to keep Luke heavily suppressed, classic Rebel misdirection meant that the objective was never going to matter.

I pushed, and I huffed and puffed but unfortunately the cart wouldn't go any faster than speed 2.

7 suppression Luke is a well behaved Luke. 

Vader jumped back onto his delivery wagon to make the last desperate play. The Dewbacks doing sneaky moving and disrupting and then shooting ensured Luke took a run to the board edge.

I played Implacable as my final defiant act. I had a great plan, the tank reversed, Vader jump out, Rebels died, he pushed, took a wound, activated again, Rebels died, he pushed ensuring I could move my cart. We measured and I was just shy of being in range two of the target and scoring any victory points whilst R2 happily cruised off into galaxy with the lone VP scoring Robert the win. What a tragedy.

Well done mate. Until next time!

Game 3 vs Callan

Intercept the Transmissions was the objective followed by other parameters I can't re-collect.

Callan was running the Shadow Collective with Maul, a tooled up unit of close range Black Sun hooking a ride on a Bus, Lots of ranged Pykes and some Mandos for good measure. In all of my wargaming history I'm normally content to be on the losing end against a new faction before somehow I can figure out how to best dispatch it. With a recent loss still fresh in my mind against Todd and his Black Sun army, I was confident of the Black Sun's abilities to remove Dewbacks as well as put gaping holes in the side of armour so they'd be high on the priority list.

Then Callan revealed he was going to infiltrate Maul and do the crazy ivan bolt at my lines hoping to take something out of action in a blaze of angry glory. I countered this hard and put my entire plan on hold for a turn anchoring a flank opposite Maul with a Dewback and Vader.

Maul on my right flank.

Deploy the Garrison was the command card for the first turn ensuring I could react well enough to keep Maul occupied. He made a play for Vader who spent his standby to move back and lob a sabre doing some wounds onto Maul. The Dewback then added to the suppression with shooting. He hit something but didn't do a great deal of damage. I charged with Vader, did some more wounds then force pushed him out of combat allowing the rest of my army to light him up giving him a healthy collection of suppression and wounds. He eventually ran off the table or died of blood loss.

Callan easily grabbed his objective and rolled onto the centre one meaning I'd have a heavy lifting to do late game and that was only if I could get Vader back into the heat of the action. The mandos took some heavy fire and withdrew onto the top of the bunker as my Dewbacks got pumped with fire before charging into the Black Suns.

The tank pulled a full reverse whilst Vader used Burst of Speed to ensure I could embark on the vehicle. The tank was taking some wounds but by the stage my R4 Astromech had repaired all he could. Some critical shots take out the remaining Mando.

Master of Evil turn was played and the tank screamed forward before Vader dumped his suppression and threw a beat stick. The Dewback was finally free after the Black Suns were dispatched but on a single wound remaining the glory was short lived. My remaining forces begun to spur and circle around the bunker to get shots onto a unit of Pykes.

The final turn saw me play Implacable again. Vader disembarked, swung and pushed. The tank went boom, Dewbacks charged and ate things and Vader went again. Lots died and I moved Krennic and Stormtrooper units into the bunker ensuring I scored the middle objective. I drew on objective points so it went to points destroyed and I scraped through a victory.

Once again, a lot of lessons learned from this game and I'm only really starting to learn how to use Dewbacks properly as opposed just to walking target practice for the opposing army. Having them move through enemy units twice to gain suppression tokens and then finally get some shots off for a third suppression token is an amazing way to help the Master of Evil turn be much more beneficial. 

Conclusion

I placed 8th from 16 players. Although I'm my worst critic and it was my third tournament I don't suppose its too bad. My biggest take away from this day was however I didn't manage to play the entire six turns out in any of the games. An extra turn in Roberts game could have been crucial but alas it was not meant to be. 

This is something I'll have to make a conscientious effort to improve my decision and reasoning skills for a faster outcome. For this army, more turns means Vader is playing more command cards which often means more enemy units dying which I'm not upset about.

Thanks for reading.