There’s just something about Dawn of War that makes it irresistible to tabletop wargamers looking to homebrew variants of their favorite game. It’s been done for 40k before, but now an intrepid Star Wars Legion fan at Charlotte, North Carolina based games club Queen City Gaming is applying that ‘tabletop Dawn of War’ formula (resource points, base building, and base destruction) to Atomic Mass Games’ premier Star Wars wargame. It’s early days, but, as a lover of all of the above, you can color me interested.
Queen City Gaming shared its progress and future plans for this expansive Star Wars Legion homebrew project in a 22-minute YouTube video this week (watch it below).
The fan behind the plan is Jordan Sneed, a.k.a. Vanguard Jay, a newly qualified paramedic from Charlotte who started the club’s Queen City Minis and More YouTube channel during covid. Sneed tells Wargamer they’ve wanted to create a Legion/Dawn of War crossover for three years, but were too busy learning to save lives.
Now they’re certified, though, they’re “planning on really focusing on bringing this to the Star Wars Legion Community” – eventually as a “living rule document available for everyone and not behind a paywall”.
“Star Wars has always been about telling a story,” says Sneed, “and I feel Dawn of War rules help bring that story to the tabletop, large battles on big tables with units running everywhere and epic characters leading the charge”.
The general idea is to create a big eight by six foot or even 12 by six foot miniature wargame table setup, with a large collection of custom Star Wars terrain (base buildings in each corner, and an urban cluster in the center) – then play long form Legion games with specially developed rules for capturing resource points, teching up your base, and recruiting units to send into the fight.
Creating that massive play space has been a trial, Sneed tells us. “So far the hardest part of this project has been finding a 12 foot by 6 foot table to play on,” they say – “but it has been doable with multiple folding tables”, and they hope to kick off playtesting soon.
When I say long-form games, by the way, I mean long – in the video, Sneed says they want to make battle report videos based on a six-turn game, but that these would fit into a “long term narrative” that runs for 20 to 30 turns. They’ve apparently been working on the rules for about two months now, and have nailed down three core building types that’ll feature. First, you get a single Command Center, which deals with spawning main ‘Corps’ or troops units, like Stormtroopers and Rebel troopers, and your Commander unit.
Second, you can build two Barracks, which recruit the other troops options, and “non-vehicle special forces and support units” like the CIS’ B2 Super Battle Droids and Republic Arc Troopers. Finally, you’ll have one Mechanics Bay, where you produce vehicles – which, along with the other buildings, will have set limits on how many you can field, analogous to the RTS’ population cap.
Next up, Sneed says they’re developing rules for “a couple more buildings”, including a research building, where you’ll spend resources to unlock unit upgrades, new characters, and more.
As for your resource economy, the plan is to have six to eight set resource points spread evenly across the huge board, which will grant you an instant resource payout on capture, then a passive income each turn for each one you hold. You know how this goes; Relic’s Dawn of War is one of the best Warhammer 40k games ever, and it’s been replicated by other top RTS games ever since. But tweaking those levels of income versus the costs of units and upgrades is quite a job, which Sneed and pals will have to work out through playtesting planned through 2025.
Sneed is also working out a rather interesting system for Command cards that fits into the extended play time and unit unlocking mechanics: you’ll pick a new full command hand every six turns, with access to any cards legal for your faction – but you can only play cards tied to a particular commander if you’ve unlocked and recruited that commander to the table already.
If they can stick the landing and tie all these mechanics together neatly, this play mode sounds absolutely ace to me, with lots of scope for crunching out Legion’s existing list building and strategic gameplay in new ways.
We always love reporting on small local clubs innovating for the tabletop and creating new stuff – check out this German club’s scratch built model of Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer, for example! Darth Tyranus superfans might also enjoy my recent Count Dooku painting tutorial for Legion.
Otherwise, if you’re after a new game to play, try our full guide to the best Star Wars board games – there’s more good stuff out there than you’ve probably tried.
Source: Wargamer
