Star Wars Legion has finally made the leap to a new edition after a long period in limbo, with the finalised version of the core rules and updated unit cards now available to download from publisher Atomic Mass Games’ website. AMG detailed some of the most pressing changes in a Developer Update: here’s what you need to know about the changes to the core rules.
Star Wars Legion has been experiencing growing pains as it makes the transition to an upgraded rules set. Many new and updated model kits appear on the Star Wars Legion roadmap, which AMG revealed at Adepticon at the end of March, all of which come with printed cards featuring the new rules.
But you don’t need to wait for the new Star Wars Legion starter sets to release in the fall to get started. You can download the new rules from the Atomic Mass Games website, and if you already have an army you’ll find print-and-play Unit Cards, Upgrade Cards, and Command Cards.
The rules have been gradually updated from the first edition, with a previous update to points changes and Unit Cards in November 2024. AMG states that it is watching the ripples from that update, and there are minimal points changes to most lists – though it is already watching tournament data for a few key areas.
The latest update brings the following changes:
Core rules changes
Clearer Wording
Atomic Mass Games has overhauled all the cards in the game with a new style guide, designed to make them clearer and easier to read. The designers say that card durations are more explicit, keywords are easier to pick out, and range terminology has been overhauled.
Area terrain
The rules for area terrain like forests, ruins, and wrecked vehicles, have changed. While area terrain retains a vertical silhouette, it’s now not possible to fire across the footprint of the terrain – though you can shoot into and out of area terrain, and models inside it benefit from cover.
Movement clarifications and line of site errata
There are clarifications for rules with odd corner cases or exploitable interactions. When moving a unit leader, the other models in the unit do not impede its movement. When firing into a unit, models in the unit don’t block line of sight to the rest of that unit, so it’s not possible to position one speeder bike sideways to stop shots hitting the other models in the unit. And models with legs or arms sticking out to the side (like crab droids) can’t block line of sight to models behind them.
Changes to command cards
Aside from any wording changes to specific Command Cards, there has been a slight refocusing: Command cards are no longer necessarily accessible to every version of a named character, but may be restricted to one version.
According to the designers at AMG, this came because unrestricted Command Cards made it hard to design new versions of characters. For example Luke’s “I am a Jedi” card, which shuts down the attacks of nearby enemies, was far too easy on the upcoming Tauntaun riding version of Luke.
Keyword changes
- Three keywords have been removed: Contingencies, Flawed, and Loadout.
- The tokens provided by an Upgrade Card with the Cache keyword can be used, even if any models also added by the upgrade are defeated.
- Strafe Moves are now just a kind of Standard Move, to which some extra restrictions apply (ie, the unit moves sideways, and at a reduced speed.)
- The ‘X’ in Self Destruct X is no longer the amount of damage the unit needs to have taken before it can blow up: now, if the unit is at least halfway to its Wound threshold, it gets to make an attack with X black attack dice.
- Tow Cable weapons now apply an Immobilize token to the unit damaged, as well as pivoting it.
- Small has been clarified: it’s now not possible to target a unit if the only visible model is a Counterpart miniature with the Small keyword.
- A new keyword, One Step Ahead, has been added. When players reveal Command Cards, a character with One Step Ahead can make a speed one move if the command pips on both cards are different. If the pips match, another friendly unit gets to move instead.
- Shien Mastery has been added to the book: the unit cannot suffer Wounds or gain Suppression tokens when it’s defending against a Ranged attack. If your opponent for some reason decides to shoot this unit, and it has Deflect, the attacking unit will suffer one Wound per Defense Surge in the defender’s die roll.
Retired Units
Several units are going away, though for most of them Atomic Mass Games has indicated what rules you can use the existing models for:
- DC-15 Phase-1 heavy weapon trooper upgrade – can be used as Clone Marksmen.
- ARC troopers JT-12 Jetpacks upgrade – models can be used for ARC troopers – they’re very fast and they’ve got the Scale ability.
- Rebel Pathfinders – can be used as Rebel Troopers.
- Generic Rebel Officers, Imperial Officers, and Super Tactical Droids can all be used in place of the upcoming customisable leader figures.
- Emperor Palpatine and the Imperial Royal Guard are entirely gone.
Retired Upgrade Cards
Five universal Upgrade Cards have been retired, mostly because they were just a little too efficient at what they did, or they made it hard to balance an upcoming release.
- Aggressive Tactics
- Battle Meditation
- Comms Relay
- Esteemed Leader
- Refurbished “Gonk” Droid
There have been minor changes to many unit profiles; we’ll cover the most significant ones in a follow-up article.
We’re hyped for Star Wars Legion this year – we have a separate article explaining why we think it’s going to be a good one. In fact 2025 might be an all around great year for Star Wars fans – if our predictions about a mystery game coming from Days of Wonder are correct, we might be about to get the best Star Wars board game in years!
Are you an existing Legion player, or just keen to get started? Come and join us in the Wargamer Discord server. It’s like the Mos Eisley Canteena, only no-one has ever cut somebody’s arm off with a lightsaber. Not yet, anyway.
Source: Wargamer
