Getting Ready to Play

Before the game begins, each player builds an army using the Star Wars: Legion miniatures in their collections. In addition to their miniatures, each player prepares a Command Hand, a Battle Deck, and the Unit and Upgrade Cards containing the rules for their units.

Units in Star Wars: Legion are grouped together in Factions: the Galactic Empire (Empire empire) , the Rebel Alliance (Rebel rebel), the Separatist Alliance (Separatist separatist), and the Galactic Republic (Republic republic). A unit’s Faction is shown by the Faction icon printed in the top left corner of its Unit Card. All units in an army must share the same Faction, unless otherwise specified by a special rule.

Occasionally a rule references the Light Side or the Dark Side. The Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Republic are the Light Side, and the Galactic Empire and the Separatist Alliance are the Dark Side. Armies not built using these Factions state whether they are part of the Light Side or the Dark Side in their rules text.

Each army is made up of a collection of miniatures organized into units. These units may further be equipped and customized with Upgrade Cards. Each unit and upgrade have a point cost printed on the corresponding card. The total point cost of all units and Upgrade Cards in an army cannot exceed 1,000 points. An updated list containing the points for all Unit and Upgrade cards can be found at https://www.atomicmassgames.com/swlegiondocs/.

Each unit in Star Wars: Legion has a Rank. When building an army, a player is restricted on the number of units of each Rank they may include as follows:

• commander Commander: Each army must include 1 to 2 Commander units.
• operative Operative: Each army may include up to 2 Operative units.
• corps Corps: Each army must include 3 to 6 Corps units.
• special forces Special Forces: Each army may include up to 3 Special Forces units.
• support Support: Each army may include up to 3 Support units.
• heavy Heavy: Each army may include up to 2 Heavy units.

Upgrade Cards contain additional rules that can be equipped by units during Army Building. Upgrades vary between additional miniatures, weapons, equipment, or even special training or programming.

The types of upgrades available for a unit to equip are shown on the unit’s upgrade bar. The types of upgrades are as follows:

• heavy weapon Heavy Weapon
• comms Comms
• personnel Personnel
• pilot Pilot
• force Force
• training Training
• command Command
• generator Generator
• hardpoint Hardpoint
• armament Armament
• gear Gear
• crew Crew
• grenades Grenades
• ordnance Ordnance
• programming Programming
• squad leader Squad Leader
• Doctrine
• Clan

For each icon on the unit’s upgrade bar, the unit may equip 1

Upgrade Card with a matching icon. Points listed on the Upgrade Card are counted towards an army’s points total. A unit may not equip the same Upgrade Card twice. Some Upgrade Cards have restrictions on which units may equip them. Any restrictions for an Upgrade Card are listed on the card.

Cards with the squad leader, heavy weapon, or personnel icons add 1 or more miniatures armed with the weapon shown on the Upgrade Card to the unit in addition to any weapons on the Unit Card. Only the miniatures added to the unit by the Upgrade Card may use the weapon on the Upgrade Card.

Cards with the armament, crew, generator, ordnance, gear, grenades, or hardpoint icons add an additional weapon, as shown on the Upgrade Card. Any miniature in a unit with an armament, crew, generator, ordnance, or hardpoint Upgrade Card equipped may use the weapon on the Upgrade Card. Only 1 miniature may use the weapon on a grenades Upgrade Card per attack sequence.

Most Upgrade Cards provide a static game effect, but some cards must be exhausted or expended after being used. A card that must be exhausted or expended after use has the exhaust or expend icon on the card. Cards that exhaust or expend start the game readied, and only readied cards may be exhausted or expended.

When a card is exhausted, turn the card 90° to the right so that it is sideways. Exhausted cards may not be used for an effect that would exhaust them until they are readied.

When a card is expended, turn the card 180° so that it is upside down. Once a card is expended, it cannot be used for the rest of the game. Expended cards cannot be unexpended or readied.

After a miniature adds a weapon on an exhaust or expend Upgrade Card to an Attack Pool, exhaust or expend the Upgrade Card. If the weapon is an armament upgrade that exhausts or expends, then any number of miniatures in the unit may add the weapon to the Attack Pool.

The ? and ? icons indicate that an Upgrade Card is exhausted after that action or free action is resolved.

When a unit makes a Recover action, it readies all of its exhausted cards. When a card is readied, turn it 90° to the left so it is in its original orientation. The card is no longer exhausted.

The Fleet Trooper unit adds the MPL-57 Barrage Trooper’s weapon to an Attack Pool, exhausting the card once the dice are added. It cannot be added to another Attack Pool until it is readied.

Luke Skywalker expends Burst of Speed to increase his Speed. The card is expended and cannot be used for the rest of the game.

Some units and upgrades represent specific characters, weapons, or equipment. Unique or limited cards are identified by a number of bullets (•) in front of their name. Unique cards have one bullet, and limited cards have more than one bullet. The number of bullets indicates the maximum number of unique and limited cards a player can field that share the same name. This restriction also applies across card types. For example, if a name has two bullets in front of it, the player could field two units with that name, two upgrades with that name, one Unit Card and one upgrade with that name, etc.

Each player prepares a command hand of exactly seven Command Cards. A player must include two 1 pip cards, two 2 pip cards, and two 3 pip cards, with no duplicates. Additionally, players must always include the 4 pip card “Standing Orders.”

Some Command Cards require certain units, subtitles, Factions, or Battle Forces. These restrictions are printed on the Command Card. The required unit must be in a player’s army for these Command Cards to be included in a Command Hand. If a restriction mentions multiple units, at least 1 of the named units must be included in a player’s army if they are referenced with "or", and all of the characters must be included in a player’s army if they are referenced with "and".

Each player must prepare a Battle Deck of 9 cards before the game begins, consisting of exactly 3 Objective Cards, 3 Secondary Objective Cards, and 3 Advantage Cards with no duplicates. A player must also prepare the 3 Map Cards that pair with the Objective Cards in their Battle Deck.

Once players have built their armies, they must establish the battlefield. Star Wars: Legion uses a 6 ft x 3 ft (72” x 36”) battlefield.

Players then gather any tokens, Measuring Tools, cards, or other game components they might need and place them near the battlefield.

Players determine what pieces of terrain to use in their game and their rules. Players should be sure to agree with their opponent on the rules for each terrain piece before the game begins.

Once players have determined what terrain is being used and any applicable rules, they then cooperatively set up terrain on the battlefield.

In Star Wars: Legion, a player is either the red player or the blue player. Each player rolls 4 black attack dice to determine who will start building a mission as the blue player. The blue player is the player with the most crit results. If there is a tie, the player with the most hit results is the blue player. If there is still a tie, the player with the most attack surge results is the blue player. If there is still a tie at this point, the players reroll the dice and follow the above rules until the tie is broken.

Now that the blue player is determined, it is time to build the mission. Place the game dashboard with the mission side face up near the table. Then each player separates their Battle Deck by type—Advantage, Objective, and Secondary Objective— and shuffles each of their three decks, placing them near the Mission Dashboard.

Place a token on the Mission Dashboard to indicate which player is the blue player. The blue player then chooses to reveal the top card of either their Objective Deck or Secondary Objective Deck, placing the revealed card in the designated space on the Mission Dashboard. Their opponent reveals the top card of either their Objective Deck or Secondary Objective Deck, whichever was not already placed, and places it on the designated space on the Mission Dashboard. Then each player reveals the top card of their Advantage Deck and places it on the designated space on their side of the dashboard.

Then, starting with the blue player, players alternate modifying the mission. A player can modify the mission in the following ways:

• Reveal the top card of your Objective Deck, discard the current card on the Objective space of the Mission Dashboard, and replace it with the newly revealed Objective Card.
• Reveal the top card of your Secondary Objective Deck, discard the current card on the Secondary Objective space of the Mission Dashboard, and replace it with the newly revealed Secondary Objective Card.
• Reveal the top card of your Advantage Deck, discard the current card on your Advantage space on the Mission Dashboard, and replace it with the newly revealed Advantage Card.
• Your opponent reveals the top card of their Advantage Deck, discards the current card on their Advantage space on the Mission Dashboard, and replaces it with the newly revealed Advantage Card.
• Move the token indicating the blue player to your side of the Dashboard. You are now the blue player.
• Pass. There is no effect.

After each player has modified the mission twice, the mission is built. Before the first round, the players set up the mission in the following order:

1. The blue player chooses one of the long edges of the battlefield as their side. The red player gets the opposite side. The player Territory that shares an edge with a player’s side is that player’s allied Territory and the other player's Territory is enemy Territory.
2. Follow any setup instructions on the Objective Card.
3. Follow any setup instructions on the Secondary Objective Card.
4. Starting with the blue player, each player follows any setup instructions on their Advantage Card.

Starting with the blue player, players resolve any abilities and effects that occur during Setup.

Starting with the blue player, players alternate placing units with the Prepared Position keyword on the battlefield.

Units in Star Wars: Legion use Objective tokens to score Victory Points (VPs). Objective Cards and Secondary Objective Cards specify which Objective tokens are used and how to score VPs with them. Miniatures can Move through Objective tokens.

There are two types of Objective tokens:

1. Asset Tokens: Assets are valuable Objects that can be carried around.
2. Point-of-Interest Tokens: Also referred to as POIs. POIs represent critical locations, vantage points, or particularly interesting areas that armies attempt to Secure throughout a battle.

• When determining the number of obscured miniatures and determining Cover during an attack sequence, treat POIs as a piece of area terrain consisting of the volume of their Silhouette that provides heavy Cover. The Silhouette for a POI is a cylinder as wide as the token and ½ tall. For all other rules purposes, POIs do not block LOS.
• Miniatures, Advantage tokens, and other Objective tokens cannot overlap or be overlapped by POIs.
• POIs can be represented by a miniature on a 2-inch base instead of using a token. A POI represented by a miniature still counts as a token and does not count as a miniature for all rules purposes.

A unit is Contesting an Objective token if its unit leader is within ½ of the Objective token and the unit is not Panicked.

Battle Cards describe which units are eligible to claim Asset tokens in that mission by granting them a Claim free action. An eligible unit can claim an unclaimed Asset token it is Contesting by making that free action. When a unit claims an Asset Objective token, remove that token from the battlefield and place it on that unit’s Unit Card. That unit is now holding that Asset token. When a unit drops an Asset token it is holding, the opponent of that unit’s controlling player places that token on the battlefield within ½ of that unit’s unit leader. While an Asset Objective token is on the battlefield, it is unclaimed.

When a unit Panics, it drops all Asset tokens it is holding. When a unit is defeated, it drops all Asset tokens it is holding before removing its unit leader miniature from the battlefield.

Some Objective tokens can be Secured. If an Objective token can be Secured, the player with the most units Contesting that Objective token is Securing it.

Objective tokens must meet the following conditions when they are placed:

• Objective tokens cannot be placed overlapping impassable terrain.
• Objective tokens cannot be placed partially overlapping a non-area terrain feature.
• Objective tokens cannot be placed overlapping obstacle terrain that is height 2 or greater.

During Setup, if an Objective token should be placed at a position where the above conditions are not met, players must adjust terrain placement in a mutually agreeable manner so that the conditions are met. After Setup, if an Objective token must be placed and there is not a position in Range where the above conditions are met, that token is placed in the closest position that meets the above conditions instead.

Each game of Star Wars: Legion ends when one of the following conditions has been met:

• If, at the end of the End Phase of any Round, a player has 12 or more Victory Points (VPs) and has more VPs than each opponent, they win the game.
• If, at any time, only one player has undefeated units, they immediately win the game.
• At the end of the fifth Round, the player with the most VPs is the winner. If both players have the same number of VPs, each player totals the point value of defeated units in their army. Whichever player has the lowest point value of defeated units in their army wins the game. If the game is still tied, the game ends in a draw.