On Tuesday we felt a great disturbance in the Star Wars Legion fandom, as if thousands of Empire players cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. The finalised rules for the new edition of the Star Wars miniature game have been published, and Emperor Palpatine and the Imperial Royal Guard are no longer part of the game.
Atomic Mass Games released the updated version of the rules for Star Wars Legion on its website on Tuesday – we covered the changes to the core rules in this article. It represents the final version of the rules for the current edition of the game, with the complete set of updated Unit Cards for units released during first edition.
Several units and upgrades have been cut from the game rules, but for most of them AMG has listed official ways for players to use their models to represent other units. However, ‘Palpatine, Galactic Emperor’, his Command Cards, and the Royal Imperial Guard are all gone, with no official way to use the models.
In an interview with Gray Squadron Gaming – which we’ve embedded above – VP of creative development and strategy Will Shick lists the factors that apparently led to the discontinuation of Palpatine and Pals.
When evaluating how they could update the model’s design, the developers had to consider “a) do we have a great idea for where he could fit, b) did he fit within Lucasfilm Ltd’s vision of where they see the story and the game… and c) if we do do all that work, are we going to wind up in a situation where we [have to make new units] less cool in the future?”.
Shick says that “outside of a few trick plays” the Emperor “wasn’t really blowing anything up… he wasn’t making or breaking Empire”. And the team “felt that there were definitely places where we could utilise aspects of [his and the Royal Guard’s] kit better in future releases, i.e. the Imperial High Command box”.
Apparently “a lot of the things we wanted to do with those characters… Palpatine kind of stepped on their toes”. The wrinkly grey space wizard “made it so that we had to be less exciting, or we had less space to really move with those characters”.
The other major unit cut was the Rebel Pathfinders. Shick states that “it was a similar discussion for Pathfinders”. Since “they were the fourth Special Forces option” for rebels, the team asked “is it just better to spend the time [we would spend working on the Pathfinders] in other places?” This was apparently an easier decision to make, since their models can be readily used to represent Rebel Commandos.
Palpatine’s removal stings for enfranchised players, particularly anyone who has built their game plan around him. And the developer update didn’t bring much to raise the spirits of Empire players, who have seen their faction underperforming in tournaments and were hoping for points changes or unit upgrades.
There are new Unit Cards and Command Cards for Iden Versio and Agent Kallus. Other than this, AMG states that it is watching the entire Empire faction but not making any hasty changes. Players will have to wait until November and the next developer update before they get any points changes or other amendments to their forces.
The Star Wars Legion roadmap is packed for the next two years, with a mixture of new sets, resculpts, and re-issues of out of production kits. The upcoming Star Wars Legion starter sets that will arrive in the fall are priced to compete with Warhammer 40k aggressively, a big draw for new players – but anyone exploring the online fandom of existing players right now will encounter some discontent.
If you’re a Legion player – and particularly if you have a lovingly painted Emperor Palpatine – we’d love to hear from you and see your models. Come and join us in the official Wargamer Discord server!
Source: Wargamer
