“I used to believe that being a good soldier meant doing everything they told you. That’s how they engineered us. But we’re not droids. We’re not programmed.”
Hello there!
Here is the First part of our “Start Collecting” series and today I want to talk about how to start a GAR army for Star Wars Legion in September 2022. In my opinion you should start with a Core Set for 2 Units of Phase 1 Clone Troopers, 1 BARC speeder and, of course, the Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s better than the Battleforce because units in that box, especially ARC troopers, are overpriced now and you won’t need 3 units of ARCs. Even if you ever want to play as a 501st legion battle force, cards in it are just print-to-play, so there’s no problem!
You can also look at our other article, where we spotlight some GAR lists!
Now I’ll present you all of the units going by their ranks:
Commanders:
Anakin Skywalker
We’ll start with one of the most iconic characters of the whole Star Wars universe.
He’s a solid choice for a list due to his low point cost (as for a force user) and quite high effectiveness. Anakin is a specific commander. He snowballs through the game, becoming stronger in subsequent turns due to Permanent effects of his command cards – they’re not discarded at the end of command phase, but remain on the field, giving him new keywords/abilities. As a consequence – Anakin becomes a beast in a late game.
Anakin’s lightsaber is slightly worse than Vaders’ but still, there are 5 red dice (best dice in game), with Pierce 3 (you break up to 3 block results of opponents’ unit) and Impact 3 (which will help with taking down heavy armored vehicles). That leads to high probability of making 4-5 damage with a single swing of his saber, especially in late game.
Deflect ability (classic for Force users) is replaced by Djem So Mastery, which has more stable damage output then classic Deflect and can be used in melee fight (but can only make 1 damage per use). Due to his temperament (and Tempted keyword of course), Anakin can equip Light and Dark Side Force Upgrades. One of his drawbacks is the Flawed keyword that will give your opponent a single use card at the start of the game, that for 1 turn prohibits you from issuing him an order (but he still can be activated from stack).
Clone Captain Rex
This commander is nearly dedicated to run with 2 units of ARC Troopers.
He’s Scouting 1 (performing a speed-1 move after being deployed) and then lets his Scout Party (up to 2 units) do the same (with his scouting speed) but must select units that don’t perform Scout move yet. He can perform up to 2 attacks against different targets (Gunslinger) ignoring opponents’ light cover (Sharpshooter 1). He also gains 1 aim token after move due to his Tactical 1 keyword.
Nowadays he’s a little overpriced but maybe one day he’ll be back in all his glory. I recommend running him with Up Close and Personal (Training Upgrade) to get some free dodge tokens after attack.
Chewbacca
He’s dedicated to play with another commander due to his Guardian 2: Commander keyword (which lets him protect your second commander from up to 2 damage when Chewie is in range 1 to him).
When he’s wounded, he becomes Enraged (gets infinite courage and a Charge keyword which lets him perform a free melee attack straight after moving). At the start of each turn he gains 2 free tokens that can be used in defense.
He’s best when paired with Yoda due to their synergy in the form of the Command Card “Size Matters Sometimes“. He’s a pretty niche choice at all.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
He’s a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, just an okay fighter and just an okay support.
Like Anakin he doesn’t have the Deflect keyword but his Soresu Mastery is kind of it, extended with capability to use it during Guardian (same as Chewie, but not restricted to guard a commander and with value of 3 rather than 2). His most defensive keywords and Command Cards don’t pair well with his Charge, which also don’t pair well with his lightsaber (one of the worst in the whole game, sadly).
At the starting point he’s a viable option but I will swap him with Anakin as soon as I get him.
Wookiee Chieftain
Decent melee fighter with a sort of good keywords (all-known Charge and Duelist that lets you make some shenanigans with tokens in melee fight). He also ignores difficult terrain and can reach highground easily (Scale) while also getting some free dodges after moving (Agile 1).
He also opens a few more options for your Wookiee soldiers if you play dedicated Command Cards.
Yoda
The hardest of all Force Users in the whole game. He has only 5 health and speed-1 and needs planning forward for 1-2 turns due to his Command Cards (which are designed for literally juggling). It’s worth mentioning that Yoda has a Master of the Force 2 keyword, which lets him prepare 2 Force Upgrades at the end of each turn. There are two important layers of playing Yoda:
First of all I want to say something about his high supportive potential. His Guidance keyword lets him choose 1 one friendly trooper in range 1-2 to perform a free non-attack action. It’s a very powerful tool – you may regroup your army for reaching a better position before activating the chosen unit, give them a token that they need for attack or defense or even let them perform a Standby action to be more reactive for your opponent’s actions.
Second, but not less important, is to properly juggle his Command Cards. His pip-1 makes him a beast that can Jump straight between opponents, chopping and slicing them with his little lightsaber ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Pip-1 also gives you back his pip-2 from the discard pile. This one has mostly defensive purposes but also gives him and a trooper that was issued an order by this card a Relentless (Free attack action after move) and recycle pip-3. This one makes Yoda start meditating, supporting all friendly units in range 1-3 with his tokens (and he gets a bunch for free just after playing this card). Pip-3 recycles Pip-1 and the circle’s complete. Yoda, as I said, has a very high learning curve but at the final point he’s definitely high effort – high reward.
Clone Commander
You can find this one in Republic Specialists Personnel Expansion (where there are also 3 new Command Cards that are close to mandatory if you want to play Clones).
This one is now nearly an auto-include in all lists due to his high-supportive potential (giving free tokens) and not-that-bad fire power. He also has the ability to Directly issue orders to one unit of Clone Troopers at the start of each round, so they will be ready with all of their potential everyturn (more details in their paragraph).
Nice!
Operatives:
R2-D2 & C3P0
Here we have a GAR tie-breaker.
Due to his Secret Mission ability (if in any point of game you’re in deployment zone of your opponent you can put a victory point on R2 and if he’s still alive at the end of game you’re scoring that point to your final result of the match). He’s a cheapish activation that can win games and that’s a fact. If needed he can also Repair some vehicle or even himself.
As a Counterpart to R2-D2 you can equip a C3P0 miniature that will give you an ability to taunt your opponent units (Distract keyword) or generate some tokens for your soldiers (Calculate Odds keyword).
Padme Amidala
One of the strongest supportive operatives in the whole game.
Her role on the battlefield is to provide a huge amount of tokens to your soldiers every turn due to her Quick Thinking (action that will provide you both aim and dodge token) and Exemplar (other friendly units at range 1-2 can spend her tokens).
If needed she can become your second tie-breaker, gaining Secret Mission with one of her Command Cards.
Corps:
Phase I Clone Troopers
One of the most expensive corps units in the entire game. But hey, you’re playing an elite faction and, they are also one of the most flexible units in case of building. They have many good options for Personnel and Heavy slots, but also have a combination of some of the best keywords in-game.
At the start we’ll need to talk about their overall stats. Black attack dice, range 1-3 Attack is quite good, especially combined with a Heavy weapon. They Block with red defense dice which makes them also quite resilient (but they can have troubles blocking attacks with Pierce X). Their issue is the Courage value of 1, so they need to stay close to the commander to not panic too fast.
Now I wanna talk about their keywords. Fire Support is one of the strongest keywords in the game. It lets you flip your order token face-down to add your attack pool (with all the keywords) to the attack pool of friendly attacking units. With a good choice of Heavy weapon, a good Fire Support can annihilate the whole enemy unit just in one blow, especially if the supported unit has a surge/hit or crit.
The second keyword is hidden on their card and we can find it just under the picture of a clone in the upper right corner of a card. Clone Trooper is a keyword that allows said trooper to spend aim, dodge and surge tokens from other friendly clone troopers in range 1, but only one token at time.
This makes clones one of the best corps units in the game in case of action efficiency. Their token sharing makes them more resilient and even more deadliest than they are supposed to be.
Phase II Clone Troopers
These are a bit different Phase 1s.
Higher Courage value and a bonus Reliable 1 keyword (it means they will gain a free surge token at the beginning of every turn). It’s so good with the Clone Troopers token sharing ability! In the drawback of these two things they’re a bit more expensive (10 points) and have less options of building them.
Despite that, they have a pretty interesting counter to one of the best units nowadays – Pyke Syndicate Soldiers. A Mortar Trooper with his Suppressive keyword is a good option to quickly suppress or lead the mercenary units to panic out of the battlefield.
Definitely worth considering in 1-2 copies.
Special Forces:
ARC Troopers
Full units of ARCs are not the cheapest option now, especially in comparison to what they offer.
They’re still fun to play (especially with Rex) and quite resilient (they’re more immune to Pierce keyword than their brothers due to Impervious keyword, which gives you additional dice on defense equal to the Pierce value of enemies attack).
They gain Aim token after move due to Tactical keyword and don’t worry about opponents’ cover with their Sharpshooter keyword.
They can be very maneuverable if equipped with their Jetpack Upgrade that lets them “ignore” high terrain while moving.
And naturally they’re Clone Troopers so they also have an ability of token sharing.
ARC Troopers Strike Team
Huge amount of lists plays exactly 1 copy of this unit, equipped with Echo.
Strike Team has the same statistics as a normal unit except it consists of one miniature and must pick a Heavy Weapon Upgrade; a trooper added this way becomes your unit leader.
This unit is picked for 2 things:
1) It’s a cheap filler of your list that will provide you additional activation (that’s important in GAR due to its small amount of activations at all; as I said, elite faction).
2) Echo provides a decent sort of keywords to this unit and is a good sniper himself. I will describe two named Clones from this Box (Echo and Fives) later in this article.
This unit is designed for area control, especially when Fire Supported by one of your corps when the opponent thinks he’s in quite safe range.
Wookiee Warriors
*There are two kinds of Wookies and here in this paragraph I will describe these with the Charge keyword (after a move they can perform a free melee attack action).
These ones are stronger in melee fights than the other kind, not only due to their Charge but also a Duelist (that can give them Pierce 1 in melee or immunity to Pierce in melee, depending on if they’re attacking or defending).
They also have stronger weapons (so they’re also good at shooting) and an additional Training Upgrade Slot.
They almost don’t panic at all, and they’re also hard to kill and slightly better than the other option. They’re cheaper in list building too which makes them my favorite.
For the Heavy weapons I highly recommend Bowcasters due to a huge increase of their firepower but Battle Shields are also neat if you want to go mostly in melee (however speed reduction can be dangerous for you and make them hang back).
They’re also not Clone Troopers so they will not be a part of the token sharing chain.
Wookie Warriors Kashyyyk Defenders
*This option is the worse one.
They were designed to be better shooters than their “brothers” but something went wrong.
Maybe they have a bigger shooting range but at the expense of worse dice. They also gain Sharpshooter 1 (can reduce opponents’ cover by 1 while shooting to him) but at the expense of losing Charge, Duelist and 1 Training Upgrade slot.
They are also slightly more expensive than the previous option and in GAR literally every point matters.
* Don’t suggest on pictures. On these photos there are mixed kinds of Wookiees
Support:
AT-RT
Small, ground vehicle that is able to climb.
It can be hard to kill if your opponent doesn’t have any Impact weapons due to the Armor keyword (you will neutralize every hit that is not a critical hit).
Fairly cheap unit that can hit hard if equipped with one of its weapons. I prefer Laser Cannon as an anti-armor option or a Rotary Blaster for anti-infantry.
Third weapon is a Flamethrower and sometimes it can be hard to get that close to your opponent but if you do so, a Flamethrower can also be devastating.
BARC Speeder
Literally a king of support units at this moment.
It’s a cheap activation (only 55 points), that’s designed to harass your opponent by flanking them (due to its compulsory move before performing actions and a speed-3 move).
Red defense dice and Cover 1 (neutralizing one hit before defense roll) makes them resilient and if you equip them with additional weapon they may hit hard.
People tend to play 3 copies of it everywhere they can and I think it’s an important point to look about.
Raddaugh Gnasp Fluttercraft
Third support unit at our disposal as a GAR players.
This unit introduced an Overrun mechanic to the game which means they just fly over their opponent and immediately after that attack them with their Gnasp Bombardier. They’re extremely fragile, so it’s preferable to run them in duets or even triplets.
Their Overrun weapon also have a Suppressive keyword so it’s a good counter to Pykes (like I said in Phase 2s paragraph).
HeavY:
Infantry Support Platform
This is one of the most interesting heavies in the game.
Not only is it quite fast (speed-3 move), it can also perform side-slips due to side notches on the base. Pretty cheap itself (65 points) but you will almost never run it naked.
It’s quite fragile and doesn’t have a good offensive power without upgrades but can be harshly boosted with Hardpoint Upgrades.
These are pretty interesting and open options for multiple attacks due to Gunslinger and/or Beam keywords. ISP is a great combo opener with your Fire Support units and can be devastating to your opponents infantry or even heavy armored units, depended on which weapon you decide to pick.
LAAT/le Patrol Transport
Full armored transport for your units.
It may be fun to run it with a squad of Wookiees on-board that will just YWARGGHHHHHHHHHH! in the middle of a fight.
Due to its huge size it will never get out of LoS of your opponent units and in consequence will eat many free shots. The firepower is also not-that-good even if you equip some ordnance to this vehicle.
It’s also expensive naked and in GAR you should be aware about every point you spent.
TX-130 Saber-Class Fighter Tank
One of the best tanks in-game.
It’s 170 points naked and something around 200 points when builded up and you should never bring it to the table without equipping it with one of the available Hardpoint Upgrades. Pilots are also worth taking.
This tank needs additional ~150 points of worth in other units just to support it and makes it to its best.
This vehicle is pretty maneuverable and has a decent attack range, as well as big damage output with quite big HP pool (especially compared with full Armor, red saves and Outmaneuver keyword which lets you cancel crits with dodge tokens).
It’s definitely worth trying, but losing it during a fight will hurt a lot.
Worth to mention:
Echo
He’s designed to pick in the ARC Strike Team.
Very good sniper weapon (huge range and sort of good sniper keywords) and Reliable 1 (like Phase 2s, free surge at the start of every turn) makes him a perfect supplement for a sniping unit.
Fives
This one is provided in ARC pack as well, but definitely shouldn’t be run in there.
He pairs well with Phase 1 unit, increasing their Courage by 1 and providing them a Coordinate keyword (so every turn you use Direct from your Clone Commander you will have 1 additional order token on board, ready for Fire Support shenanigans).
Mercenaries:
Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldiers
They’re a perfect suit for GAR due to low cost per unit so they can act as cheap activation, even when fully builded.
They’re a big threat of meta and shouldn’t be underestimated. They have good defensive capabilities and also a decent firepower when equipped with their P13-M Heavy Weapon.
It’s definitely worth trying in Republic, even if they’re not Clone Troopers so they won’t share tokens with your clones.
I hope this guide helped you with your choice about buying order and see you in the next article, where I’ll describe another faction for you!
Credits:
Writer: Gerard “Alchemistttt” Zyśk
Reviser: Bartosz Chrulski
Reviewers: Sparks27, Ryfterek
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