by In Star Wars Legion, units have several slots available for upgrade cards. Frequently used to make up a few points or to copy a high-performance list, we don’t always understand their real impact on the game. Some of us wonder: Is this good equipment? Which upgrades should you put on which units? Should you overload your units? Or conversely, is it acceptable to play with a unit that has no equipment whatsoever? To answer these questions, you need to be able to identify the role of an upgrade card and its (potential) benefits. This is a tricky exercise for the uninitiated. However, by asking the right questions the exercise becomes accessible to everyone. In this article, I’ll show you how to read between the lines on your mini-cards to improve your decision-making.
The process of evaluating an upgrade card
The next four steps will help you assess the usefulness of an equipment card for your unit. For each step, I’ll analyze the following cards as example:
- Recon Intel
- Duck and Cover
- Smoke Grenades
- Targeting Scopes
- HQ Uplink
- Prepared Supplies
- Offensive Push
Evaluate the impact against a firing squad
Imagine a fictive turn zero during which your opponent has the initiative. He has the right to perform a ranged attack action on one of your units, which has no cover. In other words, your opponent has a firing squad and your unit has a serious chance of going down. In this exercise, the objective is to determine the usefulness of the upgrade by answering the following two questions:
- Is the upgrade useful against the firing squad?
- If your unit is decimated during this attack, will the upgrade have paid for itself?
Targeting Scopes and Offensive Push are of no use to you in defence. If your soldiers die, you will have wasted the points from these upgrades. The same goes for the Smoke Grenades: they could have improved your cover but as you don’t have the initiative, you can’t use them.
HQ Uplink and Recon Intel play no role in defence. However they are cost-effective. The first can be activated at the end of the command phase while the effect of the second is triggered as soon as you deploy. In other words, they play a role even before entokening the firing squad. Even if your unit succumbs to the attack, the chances of wasting points in your army list are low. For example, HQ Uplink may have triggered the Coordinate effect, while Recon Intel may have deployed a ‘daughter’ unit with the Detachment keyword, well outside the starting zone. (If you’re not familiar with this trick, here’s an example: assign Recon Intel to Rebel Veterans if you have also the Mark II unit. When the Veterans deploy, they may perform a speed 1 Move thanks to recon Intel. Because the Mark II Blaster Soldier has to be deployed at cohesion range from those Veterans (aka move 1 range), the Mark II unit can be in the end deployed at two speed one movement away from the starting zone!)
The big winners in this exercise are Duck and Cover and Prepared Supplies. These upgrades are useful when faced with a firing squad: they can either increase the unit’s cover or cancel a hit. The chances of them paying off are high (but not perfect, given that no-one is safe from a dice roll containing only critical hits).
| Points to remember: For fragile units, i.e. those defending with white dice, favour upgrades that pass the firing squad test. You’ll have a better chance of getting the most out of their equipment. If you opt for 0 risk, then it’s better not to equip them at all! For more robust units, their chances of survival are higher and they will be able to take advantage of their upgrades later on. You therefore have greater freedom in the choice of equipment you allocate to them. |
Assess the requirements for its operation
- Do I need any particular conditions or actions to trigger the card’s effect?
- If so, do I have control over these conditions or actions?
- Are these conditions rare or frequent? Are they unavoidable?
Targeting Scopes and Offensive Push require another action from you to work: without a green token, Targeting Scopes are useless. Without a move, Offensive Push cannot be activated. These cards therefore imply that the equipped unit must be able to carry out these actions (or receive the appropriate token). Are these actions part of your strategy? For example, if you intend to immobilise your snipers during the whole game, Offensive Push will not be a smart option.
Although Prepared Supplies, Duck and Cover and Smoke Grenades don’t require you to take any action as such, you are dependent on a situation that you don’t (quite) control. You can’t activate the card’s effects whenever you like. The first two require an enemy attack while the second, although free, requires the unit to activate beforehand.
Finally, with Recon Intel and HQ Uplink you are in control of the situation: you are not dependent on any other game effect to benefit from it.
| Points to remember: If you prefer to set the pace for your opponent, favour upgrades with effects you can control. However, as your opponent’s attacks are frequent, upgrades such as Prepared Supplies and Duck and Cover will rarely be wasted. On the other hand, I’d advise you to reduce the number of upgrades that require an action on your part, at the risk of handcuffing yourself during the game. It will reduce your options and in the end give your opponent some virtual action advantage. |
Single use or not?
Recon Intel, Prepared Supplies and Smoke Grenades upgrades are single-use. They require some planning on your part: before the game starts, you should have identified the situation or the moment during which you will use their ability. There’s no room for improvisation if you don’t want to waste those points.
Targeting Scopes and Duck and Cover upgrades are multi-purpose. To get the most out of them, you need to use their abilities as often as possible during the game. Note however that Duck and Cover requires you to use its ability sparingly, at the risk of drowning your unit under suppression tokens.
Other upgrades are halfway between single use and multiple use: tapped cards. Each use has a serious cost: performing a Recover action. This is the case for HQ Uplink and Offensive Push.
| To remember: Multi-use cards are attractive. To make the most of them be sure to use them to the full. However, if your unit can’t afford a Recover action because it has other things to worry about, don’t dwell on this type of upgrade. As for single-use upgrades, they need planning to shine. Think about the cross-cutting strategy of your list and assess whether they can contribute to it. |
Look for the soul mate (if there is one)
Whether through other mini-cards or other keywords, the combination of upgrades can be worth much more than the sum of their respective values! This is the case for example with Prepared Supplies when paired with Situational Awareness. Together, these cards ensure that you cancel at least one hit, critical or normal hit, as long as no enemy effect forbid you to use a dodge token.
- HQ Uplink works well with keywords that require an order to launch their effects, such as Defend X, Coordinate or Fire Support to name a few.
- Duck and Cover work well with Danger Sense and Low Profile abilities. Smoke grenades also work well with the latter ability.
- The Precise 1 keyword from the Targeting Scopes stacks with other instances of Precise X, giving you Precise X+1. Same goes for Intel Recon and Scout X.
- Offensive Push doesn’t seem to have found its soulmate (yet) but only a few companions in the form of Precise X, Marksman, Lethal X or Duelist.
| To remember: By combining the right keywords, you can generate combos. Combos are powerful because their effects are greater than the sum of their parts. Your list will be worth virtually more than 500 or 800 points. But beware, combos are double-edged: Separated from each other, these upgrades perform much less well on their own. |
Which upgrade for which unit?
To answer this question, you first need to ask yourself what your strategy is with your army. Are you looking to crush your opponent? Do you prefer to play objectives? Do you have a specific tactic like this list based on suppression? By finding the answers to these questions, you will gradually build up the profile of your units needed to fulfil your mission. However, I’d like to draw your attention to the following points:
Check upgrade compatibility (beyond the slot)
Just because a unit has an equipment slot doesn’t necessarily mean it will make good use of it. Sometimes appearances can be deceiving indeed. You think you’ve found the perfect upgrade for a unit, but the reality on the ground shows you otherwise. This is the case, for example, with Stormtroopers and the Scopes upgrade. Thanks to this combination, the soldiers benefit from the Accuracy 2 ability, which may well appeal to you. This will allow them to re-roll four dice when they spend an Aiming token. Unfortunately if your Storms only form a quartet, the chances of you having to re-roll 4 attack dice are slim. Worse: if you lose a soldier, the most you’ll be able to do is re-roll 3 dice meaning you would have paid for unnecessary upgrade. On the other hand, if you add a heavy weapon that adds a large number of dice to your dice pool, you come out on top.
| To remember: Consider the performance of an upgrade during the life of your unit: how does it perform when the unit is at full strength? When it starts losing soldiers? And finally, when it’s crumbling under deletion? |
Is it acceptable to play with vanilla units?
Yes and the best proof is Tza‘s list containing 7 vanilla units out of 10 ! Tza is a double time France Champion (2022 & 2023). See his winning list below, played during France’s Championship 2022 (128 players).
Should units be over-equipped?
Yes and no. It’s a case-by-case decision. Some units are too weak ‘vanilla’ and a series of upgrades make them much more threatening. This is the case with Rebel Troopers when they are equipped in this way:
However, you need to be able to weigh up the pros and cons of such a choice. Every point spent on this type of unit is not spent elsewhere. So you have to be sure that the cost is worth it. The illustration that comes to mind is none other than a personal experience with my Rebel Pathfinders. During a match against Enguerrand, I proudly deployed this special unit high up thanks to their Infiltration keyword. Probably too high… The first activation of the game was for my opponent. His CRA Soldiers launched the assault and made short work of my poor Surveyors. Even before my first activation, I’d lost almost 100 unit points. In other words, I started the game with 700 points against his 800 points…
Conclusion
What can I say, except that the upgrades are legion (badum tsss)? I hope that Atomic Mass Games plans to release many more. After all, upgrades play an important role in metagames over time. They can completely change the way you approach a unit and extend the replayability of Star Wars Legion. It’s therefore essential to understand them better in order to improve your gaming experience. I hope I’ve given you the keys to improving your army lists so that you too can produce lists worthy of champions.
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