by Would you like to start Star Wars Legion ? But you don’t know yet which faction suits you the best ? In this post, I’m going to briefly describe the strengths and weaknesses of the four factions. In addition, I’ll give you my opinion on which army would please you the best, depending on your budget, time you devote to the hobby or on how important the SW universe is to you.
The factions
There are four factions in Star Wars Legion :
- The Empire
- The Rebel Alliance
- The Republic
- The Separatist Alliance (CIS)
Certain factions include sub-factions, like the Rebel Alliance’s Ewoks or the Republic’s Wookies. Additionally, one can field independent armies that operate outside the standard faction/sub-faction structure, such as the Shadow Collective or the Mandalorians.
What’s the difference between a faction and an independent army?
The publisher Atomic Mass Games provides ongoing support for the main factions through regular releases of new units, command cards, and upgrades. In contrast, sub-factions and independent armies should be viewed as ‘complete’ forces, with no further content or expansions planned for them.
Description of each faction’s play style
The Rebel Alliance
The Rebel Alliance’s competitive advantage over their opponents lies in their flexibility during the deployment phase. Several Rebel units (mostly heroes) have the Infiltration keyword attached to their profile. It gives them the opportunity to deploy within range 3 of any enemy unit, instead of being confined to the starting zones.
Furthermore, the Rebel Alliance can count on a lot of famous heroes to lead the troops into battle. In average, Rebel lists contain more heroes than other factions’ lists.
On the other hand, rebel units are fragile. Most of them defend themselves with white dice, having only one chance in three to save a hit. This means that you need to analyse the terrain carefully and protect your rebels behind structures to increase their chance of survival.
The Empire
Just as the Death Star, the Empire has an impressive strike force, both at a distance and in close combat. Basic units have aggressive long-range weapons to put pressure early on in the game, such as the Stormtroopers’ DLT-19 or the Shoretroopers’ DF-90 mortar to name a few.
Once the Empire has weakened the enemy, it can send in the heavy cavalry for close combat, via Darth Vader or the Dewbacks for example. On the defensive side, the army is not to be outdone as it defends itself mainly with red dice.
The Empire’s major problem is the slowness of its units. Whether it’s Darth Vader (commander version), The Emperor, Dewbacks, Snowtroopers or DF-90 Mortars for example, all move at a speed 1. This is the game’s weakest movement capability. Fortunately, there are tricks you can use to counter this weakness, which you’ll discover as you play!
The Republic
“Unity is strength” sums up the Republic’s credo. Clone units help each other out when they’re range of each other: when attacking or defending, a clone unit can spend a green token from another clone unit within range 1 (approximately 15 cm). The green tokens regroup the “Aim”, “Dodge” and “Surge” tokens. This advantage means that clones must maintain a compact/close formation during the game (who said “turtle” formation?).
The Republic therefore faces a tactical challenge when it comes to capture objectives that are scattered across the playing field. This type of mission forces them to divide their troops and therefore restrict their group bonus. Note that even an isolated clone unit is still resistant thanks to its red dice defence.
The Separatist Alliance
The Separatist Alliance has access to extremely effective tools for controlling the activation of its units. This advantage comes from the Coordinate keyword which allows droids to give a short-range order when they receive one. If you position your units correctly on the battlefield, you can create a chain reaction from a single initial order!
On the other hand since droids are stupid, they also suffer from the ‘Artificial Intelligence (IA): action’ keyword. This keyword forces droids to take a mandatory action (such as move, aim ot attack) as their first action if they did not receive an order.
Independent armies
These are not factions in the strict sense, but rather mercenary fighting forces that are not affiliated with any faction. At the time of writing, there are two of them in Star Wars: Legion. These forces typically follow special army-building rules, such as being allowed to field more or fewer units of a certain rank compared to standard list-building restrictions.
The Shadow Collective
The Shadow Collective is a criminal organization founded by the former Sith Lord Darth Maul during the Clone Wars. This alliance brings together various criminal groups, including Death Watch, Black Sun, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutts, and Crimson Dawn.
The competitive advantage of mercenaries lies in their autonomy. All units have the Independent keyword, which grants a bonus (in the form of a green token or an action) when they do not receive an order during the command phase. This mechanic provides strong efficiency for the Collective, allowing them to generate action advantage more easily.
The Mandalorians
The Mandalorians are a legendary warrior people united by a culture centered on combat, honor, and clan structure. In Legion, you can field an army drawn from one of five clans (Kryze, Children of the Watch, Wren, Death Watch, and a generic clan), each with its own visual identity and special abilities.
Which faction is the most powerful?
Unlike Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars: Legion is a balanced wargame. The free rulebook is adjusted at least once a year and ensures that no faction stands out from the crowd. But it’s true that, depending on the updates, some factions are slightly superior or inferior to others but there’s nothing unfair or timeless about that. As a proof, have a look at the top 8 of the 2023 French Championship. All 4 factions were represented among the eight best players in the competition!
Which faction is the most faithful to the cinematic universe?
Whether you’re a connoisseur of George Lucas’ universe or just a nostalgic, any faction will give you satisfaction. Most of the iconic characters* and troops from the movies have their own miniature: Fleet troopers, Phase I and Phase II Clones, Wookies, etc. Even Cad Bane and Iden Versio are part of the game as the range of miniatures doesn’t stop with the films but also extends to video games (Battlefront II) and TV series (Clone Wars, The Mandolorian, Book of Boba Fett,…)
For those of you who are perfectionists, please note that this wargame does not respect the Star Wars chronology of events. As this is a game first and foremost, the designers had to insert some uchronies to enhance the gameplay. For example, you can create an army list using Cassian Andor and the Jedi Luke Skywalker, even though the former died before the other had even touched a light saber in his life. Don’t pay too much attention to this kind of detail. It may seem strange at first but you soon get used to it.
*The big absentees so far are Mace Windu and Jango Fett.
Need advice building your army list?
Join your country’s Star Wars: Legion Discord community and get answers to your questions.
Join Germany Which faction requires the least involvement in the hobby?
Although most players are attracted to the hobby, some are reluctant to paint miniatures. If painting miniatures and modelling aren’t your thing, I’d advise you to opt for an army that’s easy to paint and assemble. The Empire faction, with its range of colours from white to black, is an obvious choice. Although the Separatist Alliance has a less varied colour palette, I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like the hobby. B1 units (the core of the army) form the densest battalions in the game, requiring six miniatures to make up a single unit as opposed to four for the other armies. More miniatures means more assembly and painting…What’s more, they are very tricky to assemble.
Written by :
Jack Brussell, the driving force behind Critical Hit
I discovered miniature games in 2020 through Star Wars: Legion, and soon felt the urge to share insights and strategies about the game with others. That’s how Critical Hit was born in January 2022. What began as a one-man venture into Legion became a true team effort in 2025: As new writers joined the project and I explored more wargames myself, the site expanded to cover many more miniature games, reaching an ever-growing international audience.
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