by Are you looking for an effective imperial army list? Does the competitive scene appeal to you and would you like to shine in big tournaments? In this article, I share with you the best Empire Army lists of 2023. They all finished in the top 8 of the biggest Star Wars Legion tournaments held in Europe and the US.
Foreword
| Beginner’s alert: Beware of unit cost updates Some lists may be worth more than 800 points at the time you view them, making them illegal for tournament play. This may happen after the units cost update, which generally takes place once or twice a year. Please note that this is not done systematically for all Star Wars Legion units. Only the ones Atomic Mass Games deems to be over-performing (or under-performing) in tournaments. To find out the current value of the lists presented in this post, please check them on LegionHQ. The corresponding link is provided below each screenshot. |
Open lists
Double Bounty
Performance:
List played by Luke Cook, 2023 World Champion at the conclusion of the 128-player US World Championships 2023 tournament.
Explanation:
Not only fun to play, army lists incorporating two bounty hunters consistently make the annual top lists. This is because they have several advantages:
Firstly, they provide you with up to two bonus victory points per game thanks to the Bounty keyword. This advantage is all the more noticeable in scenarios where the scores are generally close. For instance, the Hostage Exchange scenario leads on average to scores such as 2-1, 2-2 or 2-0. Having access to bonus points in this scenario means you have a bigger shot at winning the game compared to your opponent.
Secondly, with a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of its leaders, your opponent develops an aversion to risk. So you can indirectly force him to make decisions he wouldn’t have made if there wasn’t a price on its heroes’ heads. Put simply, the bounty keyword generates some virtual action advantage.
Thirdly, bounty hunters have the advantage of being autonomous. They don’t need the rest of the army to perform and they’re not there to support it in return either. This selfishness is reflected in their command cards, which target only themselves (Boba has been the exception since the release of his Daimyo version). This independence gives you some flexibility in both their play style and their deployment at the start of the game. This character trait makes them difficult to predict.
The final advantage (not from a competitive point of view this time but rather from the point of view of your collection) is that a Double Bounty list gives you access to many different lists by lining up just a few miniatures. In fact, since the core of the army remains the same, all you have to do is swap your hunters to create a whole new list. And there’s no shortage of choice on the Imperial side: Boba, IG-88 or 11, Cad Bane, Bossk and Mando. That’s 15 possible combinations and therefore 15 different lists !
I haven’t even gone into the content of Luke Cook’s list yet, and I’ve already mentioned the big advantages of the Double Bounty lists.
Moving on to the World Champion list, Luke Cook has opted for Boba Fett. Since his profile card has been revised and he has access to the command cards of his Daimyo version, it’s hard not to reserve a place for him in the duo.
Usually, Double Bounty lists are played with a large number of activations (between 11 and 12) to maximise the chances of being the last player to finish the round. The idea is to be able to apply the LIFO method. In simple terms, this is an order management method for linking two consecutive activations (spread over two turns) with a targeted unit.
Palpabounty
Performance:
List played by VuaRapuung, finalist in the French Championship 2023, which had 152 players.
Explanation:
This is an interesting army list because it mixes two popular lists:
- The Double Bounty, which I’ve just mentioned.
- The Lizard Wizard list, in which Emperor Palpatine uses his Pulling the Strings ability on Bossk so that he can shoot two times each round.
Palpatine can pull the strings of several puppets in this list. Apart from one Stormtrooper unit, all units are equipped with heavy/special weapons which are ideal targets for the Emperor. However, I think you should target the Bounty Hunters as often as possible. This trick increases their chances of getting the bounty. As a reminder, it has to be the Bounty Hunter who finishes off his target to get the prizing. If Palpatine uses Pulling the Strings on one of them, the bounty hunter has an extra attack per turn and therefore an extra chance of chopping the head of the enemy commander/operative.
Boba Fett and Triple Speeder Bikes
Performance:
List played by Alex Daedry, ranked 3rd out of 152 participants in the French Championship held in September 2023.
Explanation:
The list has an aggressive profile looking for quick position taking:
- The three Speeder Bikes and Boba Fett all move at speed 3;
- Almost all the other troops have range 4 weapons to support the cavalry and/or attack enemy units very early in the game;
This 787-point list gives you a good chance of playing a battle deck containing objectives where speed is important: Breakthrough, Recover the Supply, Bombing Run and Key Positions. Note that a similar version exists but with Kallus instead of Iden.
Darth Vader gunline
Performance:
List played by Safsouf, ranked 4th out of 152 participants in the French Championship held in September 2023.
Explanations (by Safsouf):
“This is an army list that aims to be as versatile as possible so that it can stand up to any opposing list. The list is originally based on the Gunline archetype, an archetype that the Empire has in its blood, but with the addition of units capable of handling hand-to-hand/short-range combat. This is the task of Darth Vader, the Royal Guards and the Snowtrooper unit. Dark Vader is a very big threat in almost all the scenarios I chose (Hostage Exchange, Key Positions and Intercepting Transmissions). His command cards can be very effective. To manage armour, the list includes impact grenades, Vader’s sabre throw and 5 crits. The remaining units will take a back seat, as they can easily attack opponents at range 4 or 5 in the first few turns.
Given that the meta was clearly evolving towards fast, aggressive oppression, I needed a significant bid to avoid battle decks that didn’t smile at gunline lists. I dreaded close deployments along with Breakthrough, Bombing Run and Supply Recovery scenarios, as they forced me to move forward and therefore get very close to enemy units.” explained Safsouf
Battle Forces
Blizzard Force – The banned version
Performance:
List played by Kyle Dornbos, overall winner of the 143 participants in the Las Vegas Open 2023 American tournament.
Explanation:
This version of the Blizzard Force has been banned by Atomic Mass Games, as the oprative version of Darth Vader is no longer allowed. Nevertheless, it’s worth talking about it because of the impact it had on the first six months of 2023. The Blizzard Force crushed everything in its path. It systematically won major US tournaments in the first half of 2023. Poorly thought out* and badly balanced, Atomic Mass Games had to punish this BF. Players were quick to sound the alarm, but it took nearly six months for AMG to react. Today, it is still present in the top 8 of major tournaments but is no longer the best (imperial) list in the game.
*Heavy Response Stormtroopers and Speeder bikes on Hoth, really?
Blizzard Force – The updated version
Performance:
List played by Olly Dier, winner of England’s Milton Keynes: Grand Tournament in August 2023.
Explanation:
Blizzard Force, based on the Oppression archetype, draws its advantage from two sources:
- Its 4 motorbike units, which offer enormous mobility and speed to the list. It will therefore favour scenarios where mobility is important, such as Bombing Run or Breakthrough.
- Its Stormtrooper units – Heavy Response Units – which are a variant of the classic Stormtroopers. They can be equipped with a second heavy weapon, which is phenomenal!
Imperial Remnant – Dark Troopers
Performance:
List played by Andrew Terell, ranked 4th out of 128 participants in the 2023 World Championship.
Explanation:
Army lists based on this battle force build themselves, in the sense that the player doesn’t have much choice in his units:
- Only two Commanders are accessible (Moff Gideon or a generic General).
- No opratives allowed
- Base troops cannot be duplicated, unless you have already taken a copy of every other unit.
- Dark Troopers are the only truly threatening units on the list, so it’s hard not to line them up.
The only point worth looking at is the choice of heavy weapons for the base units. As a reminder, this BF allows you to mix special weapons between units. This means you can mix Stormtroopers with Shoretroopers for example. The underlying idea is to take units that convert surges natively and combine them with a special weapon from a unit that doesn’t normally convert such surges. For example, if the DLT-19 sniper from the Scout Troopers joins the Stormtroopers, the guy now benefits from a red die defence and his two black attack dice will convert surges.
In the case of Andrew’s list, he wanted to create an anti-armour list by maximising the occurrences of the Impact X keyword:
- via HH-12 rocket launchers, which are good value for its cost. The association with the Death Troopers makes sense, as they have to Recover to untap their excellent E-11D blaster, so you might as well take the opportunity to reload the HH-12 in the process.
- via the Dark Troopers’ SM-9.
Don’t be fooled by the 9 activations on the list. Given that the Dark Troopers can activate twice per turn thanks to their Unstoppable keyword, the list actually gives you 11 activations per turn.
Summary
Compared to the other factions, it’s interesting to note that a large majority of the Imperial lists that marked the year 2023 exceed 800 points or are no longer legal. The Empire faction was very popular in 2023. This faction was systematically present in the top 8 of the big tournaments and often in numbers. This explains why AMG had to nerf a few units in an attempt to restore some ‘balance in the Force’.
