Key Concepts

This section describes the fundamental concepts around the miniatures and basic gameplay.

This rulebook contains the core rules of Star Wars: Legion. Some special rules, keywords, or cards may contradict these rules. When they do, the special rule takes precedence over the core rules found in this rulebook.

Some rules state that things “can” happen, while others say that things “cannot.” If two such rules occur at the same time, the “cannot” overrides the “can."

Miniatures, tokens, and terrain are all objects. The table or surface being played on is the battlefield.

Objects can rest on top of each other only in the following ways:

• Terrain can be placed resting on top of other terrain but cannot be placed resting on top of tokens or miniatures.
• Tokens that are on the battlefield can be placed resting on top of terrain and other tokens but cannot be placed resting on top of miniatures.
• Miniatures can be placed resting on top of both tokens and terrain but cannot be placed resting on top of each other.

Each miniature in Star Wars: Legion is modeled on a base. A unit’s base depends on its unit type: Troopers, Clone Troopers, Droid Troopers, and Wookiee Troopers are on small bases. Everything else is on notched bases of various sizes.

Many rules in Star Wars: Legion use the term “base contact,” which means that the miniature's base must be touching whatever the rule is referencing. This includes another miniature’s base, a piece of terrain, or a token.

Miniatures cannot Move into base contact with miniatures from enemy units unless the unit leader has a Melee weapon (melee). If the unit leader does, the unit leader can make a Move into base contact with an enemy miniature to start a melee. For more information on Melee combat, see pg. 28.

Because an object can be placed on top of uneven terrain, there are situations in which another miniature cannot be placed into physical base contact with the object because of a difference in elevation between the two bases. In these situations, if the following two conditions are met, the miniature and object are treated as if they are in base contact: when viewed from above, there is no space between the miniature's base and the object, such that if they were not on differing elevations or were both flat on the battlefield, the miniature's base and the object would be touching, and the vertical distance between the miniature's base and the object is no greater than the height of either object's Silhouette. For more information on Silhouettes, see pg. 30.

Star Wars: Legion uses dice rolls to determine the results of the actions the players’ armies make on the battlefield—most commonly attacking and defending. Star Wars: Legion uses five different kinds of dice: three for attacking and two for defending. For attacking, players roll red, black, or white attack dice; while defending, they roll red or white defense dice.

Attack dice have the following symbols: Hit (hit), Attack Surge (surge), Critical (crit).

Defense dice have the following symbols: Block (block), Defense Surge (def. surge).

Die faces that are blank are Blank results.

The faces of each die are as follows:

• hit: Hit
• crit: Critical
• surge: Attack Surge
• def. surge: Defense Surge
• block: Block
• Blank
• There are three colors of attack dice: red, white, and black. Each attack die is represented on cards by the following icons:
• Red attack die
• White attack die
• Black attack die
• There are two colors of defense dice: red and white. Each defense die is represented on a unit’s card by the following icons:
• Red defense die
• White defense die

The dice used by a unit to attack and defend are listed on its Unit Card, or occasionally an Upgrade or Command Card.

Miniatures in an army are organized as units that move and fight together. The rules for each unit in a player’s army can be found on their Unit and Upgrade Cards.

Each unit in Star Wars: Legion is led by a unit leader that has a unique miniature.

Units must always be in Cohesion. For more information on Cohesion, see pg. 23.

Rules in Star Wars: Legion often use the terms allied and enemy when referring to units. Units a player controls are allied to that player. Units that a player does not control are considered enemy units to that player.

Star Wars: Legion uses a variety of cards to present the rules for different miniatures as well as track various game effects.

Game effect refers to any instance, occurrence, or trigger of any rule, card text or effect, unit ability, keyword, or other special rule.

Card effect refers to any effect that originates from the text or rule on any card. Keywords are card effects. Keywords can be found in the Keyword Glossary on pg. 45.

Some cards contain italicized text in parentheses called reminder text. Reminder text is NOT rules text and is only there to remind players how the rule or ability functions. For full rules text, players must consult the Keyword Glossary on pg. 45.

Some rules refer to the active player; the active player is the player whose Turn it is.

Sometimes effects will occur at the same time. The player with priority always resolves their effects first. If neither player has priority, the blue player resolves their effects first. If a player has multiple effects that occur at the same time, they choose the order in which to resolve effects.

Sometimes an effect happens after something is resolved, which means that the effect happens immediately after that thing has been totally completed.

Battle Cards form a Battle Deck and are used in Setup, where players work together to build the mission for that game. Battle Cards are divided into three categories: Objective Cards that have a paired Map Card (Red), Secondary Objective Cards (Yellow), and Advantage Cards (Green).

Objective Cards contain the card title, setup instructions, special rules, and details on how to score Victory Points (VPs) for that Objective. An Objective Card is paired with a Map Card that has the same Card Title.

1. Card Title: The title of this Objective.
2. Setup: Instructions for setting up this Objective.
3. Scoring: Details for scoring Victory Points.
4. Special Rules: Special rules associated with this Objective.

Map Cards show player Territories and Objective placement on a gridded map. Each side of each grid square is 1. Each player will be assigned one of the player Territories during Setup.

1. Card Title: The title of the Objective that is paired with this Map Card.
2. Player Territory: Limits where units can Deploy.
3. Contested Territory: The area of the battlefield that is not part of any player’s Territory.
4. POI Placement: Shows where to place a POI on the battlefield during Setup.

Secondary Objective Cards contain additional rules for scoring Victory Points.

1. Card Title: The title of this Secondary Objective.
2. Setup: Instructions for setting up this Secondary Objective.
3. Scoring: Details for scoring Victory Points.
4. Scoring Table: Some Secondary Objectives have a scoring table. Scoring tables have a column for blue player and a column for red player. When a space in a player’s column is marked, that player scores the VPs shown there.
5. Special Rules: Special rules associated with this Secondary Objective.

Advantage Cards contain additional special rules a player with that Advantage can use during a game.

1. Card Title: The title of this Advantage.
2. Setup: Instructions for setting up this Advantage.
3. Special Rules: Special rules associated with this Advantage.

Unit Cards show the special rules and stats of a unit. Every unit in an army has its own Unit Card, an example of which is shown below.

1. Name: The unit’s name.
2. Subtitle: The unit’s subtitle, if it has one. Rules may reference a unit by its subtitle.
3. Faction: The unit’s Faction. For more information on factions, see pg. 16.
4. Unit Rank: The unit’s Rank. For more information on ranks, see pg. 16.
5. Points Value: The unit’s point cost. Points are used in Army Building. See pg. 16 for more information on Army Building.
6. Number of Miniatures: The number of miniatures in the unit.
7. Unit Type: The unit’s type. For more information on unit types, see pg. 39.
8. Upgrade Bar: The types of upgrades, if any, that are available to the unit.
9. Unit Keywords: The unit’s keywords. Each unit keyword provides special rules and abilities to the unit. Keywords can be found in the Keyword Glossary on pg. 45.
10. Wound Threshold: The unit’s Wound threshold. This is the maximum number of Wound tokens each miniature in the unit can have before they are defeated.
11. Courage Value: The unit’s Courage value, or ?. See pg. 15 for more information on Suppression and Courage.
12. Speed: The unit’s Speed. A unit's Speed indicates the longest Movement Tool the unit may use while moving.
13. Weapons: The unit’s weapons. For more information on weapons, attacks, and dice pools, see pg. 31.
14. Defense: The type of defense die the unit rolls when defending against attacks. For more information on rolling defense dice, see pg. 34.
15. Surge Chart: The unit’s surge chart. For more information on surge results, see pg. 33-34.

Upgrade Cards can be added to units and give them additional rules and/or miniatures. The parts of an Upgrade Card are shown below.

1. Card Title: The upgrade’s title.
2. Subtitle: The upgrade’s subtitle, if it has one. An upgrade's subtitle is separated from its card title by a comma. Rules may reference an upgrade by its subtitle.
3. Upgrade Type: The upgrade’s type.
4. Restriction: The restrictions on which units can take the upgrade, if any. Restrictions may include a unit's name, Rank, type, or Faction.
5. Expend/Exhaust: Some Upgrade Cards require the card to be expended or exhausted. See pg. 17 for more information on exhaust and expend.
6. Effect: The upgrade’s effect.
7. Points Value: The upgrade’s point cost.
8. Wound Threshold: The Wound threshold of any additional miniatures added to the unit with the upgrade. If no Wound threshold is specified, the additional miniatures added with the upgrade have the same Wound threshold as the unit it is added to.
9. Weapon: Some Upgrade Cards add additional weapons for the upgraded unit to use. The card shows the Range at which attacks may be made with this weapon, and the dice this weapon contributes to the dice pool when used in attacks. For more information on weapons, attacks, and dice pools, see pg. 31.

Command Cards form a player’s Command Hand and are used in the Command Phase to determine player priority, issue Orders to units, and grant powerful game effects.

1. Card Title: The title of the Command Card.
2. Pips: The number of pips this Command Card has. Pips are used in Army Building and when determining player priority.
3. Restriction: Some Command Cards are restricted to a certain Commander, Faction, units, subtitle, or Battle Force, which is listed here.
4. Orders: The units the nominated Commander can issue orders to with this card.
5. Effect: The effect of the Command Card.
6. Weapon: Some Command Cards allow miniatures to use a weapon on the Command Card.

Bolded words are special rules called keywords. There are four types of keywords: command, unit, upgrade, and weapon. Their full rules text is written in the Keyword Glossary instead of on the cards. Keywords are found in the Keyword Glossary on pg. 45.

Some keywords have a numerical value, presented as “X” in the Keyword Glossary. These keywords stack with themselves and can be any type of keyword. If a unit gains multiple instances of a unit keyword with a numerical value, add those values together. If a unit adds multiple instances of a weapon keyword with a numerical value to an Attack Pool, add those values together.

For example, Stormtroopers have the Precise 1 keyword on their Unit Card. If they equip the Targeting Scopes gear upgrade, which gives them Precise 1 , they will have Precise 2.

Star Wars: Legion uses a variety of tokens to track game effects and rules. Below is a list of all the different types of tokens and a summary of their effects.

Star Wars: Legion uses two kinds of measuring Tools: Movement Tools and Range Tools. Any distance can be measured at any time, but players may use only 1 Movement Tool and 1 Range Tool at a time.

There are 3 Movement Tools, from shortest to longest: the Speed-1 Tool, the Speed-2 Tool, and the Speed-3 Tool.

A Range Tool can be made up of any number of connected 6-inch segments as well as up to 1 3-inch Half-Range Tool.

• melee: Melee
• ½: Half-Range
• 1: Range 1
• 2: Range 2
• 3: Range 3
• 4: Range 4
• 5: Range 5
• 5+: Beyond Range 5

Sometimes, more than one number is shown—in this case, the first number represents the minimum Range, and the second number represents the maximum Range. If only a single number is shown, then that is the maximum Range for that effect.

Range is always measured as the shortest distance possible between two objects. To measure Range between two objects, take the Range Tool and place it flat on the battlefield so that one end is touching the object being measured from. Then add segments until the total length of the Range Tool is longer than the distance between the two objects. The segment of the Range Tool that object is inside is equal to the Range between the two objects. When measuring to or from miniatures, always measure from the miniature’s base, ignoring the miniature itself.

Melee Range is not measured with the Range Tool; instead, two miniatures are in melee Range with one another if they are in base contact. For more information on Melee, see pg. 28.

When measuring Range between two objects, only take the horizontal distance into account—never the vertical distance. A Measurement Tool should always be flat on the battlefield; if this isn’t possible (due to terrain, for example), hold the Measurement Tool above the battlefield and check positions based on the Measurement Tool.

Some abilities require two objects to be within, completely within, or not within a certain distance from each other.

An object is within a Range of another object if any portion of it is inside that Range as measured by the Range Tool. For a unit to be within a specified Range, only 1 miniature in the unit must be within the given Range. An object is always within any Range of itself.

An object is completely within a Range of another object if it is entirely inside that Range as measured by the Range Tool. For a unit to be completely within a Range, all miniatures in the unit must be completely within the given Range. A unit that is completely within a certain Range is also within that Range.

An object is not within a Range of another object if it is entirely outside that Range as measured by the Range Tool. For a unit to be not within a Range, all miniatures in the unit must be not within the given Range.

The Clone Trooper unit is within 1 of Obi-Wan Kenobi because it has at least 1 miniature whose base is at least partially inside the first segment of the Range Tool. The AT-RT is completely within 1 of Obi-Wan Kenobi because its base is entirely inside the first segment of the Range Tool. The B1 Battle Droids are not within 1 of Obi-Wan Kenobi because all of their miniatures' bases are entirely outside the first segment of the Range Tool.

The scenery and features that make up the battlefield are terrain. Terrain serves more of a purpose than simply being aesthetically pleasing—the terrain over which armies fight can have as dramatic an impact on the course of battle as the abilities of the armies themselves. Players should always discuss terrain before the game starts. There are three types of terrain: scatter terrain, area terrain, and obstacle terrain.

Scatter terrain represents small terrain features such as crates, planters, or lamp posts. It is up to the players to determine the height, special rules, and the type of Cover that scatter terrain provides.

Some terrain features consist of an area of terrain containing multiple terrain elements inside a boundary or footprint, like a forest, craters, ruined buildings, or piles of rubble. The individual elements and their locations inside the area terrain are not relevant, only the boundary.

When determining the size of area terrain, imagine a Silhouette beginning at the bottom of the area terrain and extending upwards to the tallest point of the terrain. The volume of this Silhouette is all part of the area terrain, and blocks line of sight. While drawing line of sight to or from a miniature that is overlapping a piece of area terrain, ignore that piece of area terrain. A miniature is always obscured while it is overlapping a piece of area terrain. It is up to the players to determine the height, the boundaries, special rules, and the type of Cover that area terrain provides.

Obstacle terrain represents large or tall terrain features such as buildings, cliffs, or high walls. When a Trooper miniature wants to Move through or onto an obstacle terrain feature, it may have to make a Climb based on the obstacle terrain’s height.

In addition to being scatter, area, or obstacle terrain, a terrain feature is also open, difficult, or impassable.

Open terrain represents parts of the battlefield that are relatively easy to traverse and free from obstacles or obstructions. Open fields, lamp posts, planters, tall grass, or sandy desert are all open terrain. Open terrain does not restrict movement.

Difficult terrain restricts but does not completely prevent movement. Craters, ruins, woods, piles of rubble, and swamps are all examples of difficult terrain. Difficult terrain reduces the Speed of a unit moving through or into it by 1 to a minimum of 1.

Impassable terrain completely prevents movement. Miniatures cannot Move through or end a movement on impassable terrain unless they have a special rule which allows them to do so.

Some larger and more complex pieces of terrain are made up of various parts that each restrict movement differently. For example, the walls of a piece of obstacle terrain may be impassable, but a miniature may be able to Move through a door or window that is open terrain. Players should discuss the parts of terrain and agree on how they are to be played before the Game begins.

The Clone Trooper unit is preparing to Move. The battlefield and barricades are open terrain and do not restrict the Clone Trooper unit’s movement. The building is impassable terrain, and the Clone Troopers may not Move through it unless they have a special rule that allows them to do so.

When placing miniatures on obstacle terrain, a miniature’s base must completely overlap the terrain. Because the 2 Clone Troopers are hanging off the balcony and only partially overlapping the piece of obstacle terrain, they cannot be placed there and must be placed in such a way that their bases completely overlap the obstacle terrain like the other 2 Clone Troopers.

The main purpose of terrain is to block Line of Sight (LOS) between miniatures and provide them with Cover. Terrain provides either light, heavy, or no Cover. What kind of Cover, if any, a piece of terrain provides is ultimately for players to decide. Before the game begins, players should agree on what kind of Cover each piece of terrain on the battlefield provides.

Each piece of terrain has a height characteristic. To measure this, take the Range Tool and put one end on the battlefield, orienting the Range Tool vertically. Then add segments until the end of the Range Tool is taller than the piece of terrain. The segment of the Range Tool that the top of the terrain is inside is equal to that object’s height.

Some terrain might have various pieces at multiple heights. When determining the height of the terrain for the purposes of making a movement or a Climb, measure the height of the part of the terrain the miniatures are moving or climbing to, subtracting the height of any terrain the miniatures may be on.

Sarah wants to measure the height of this building to determine how it will impede the movement of her Clone Troopers. To do so, she takes the Range Tool and places one end on the battlefield, holding the Range Tool upright. Because the roof of the building is entirely inside the first segment of the Range Tool, the building is considered height 1.

Later in the game, Sarah measures the height of another building. Because this building has multiple levels, it consists of different heights. The first roof is completely inside the first segment of the Range Tool, so that part of the building is height 1. However, the second roof of the building is inside the second segment of the Range Tool, so that part of the building is height 2.

To determine how the building affects the movement of her Clone Troopers, Sarah only considers the part of the building her Clone Troopers wish to Move to—they may make a climb onto the height 1 part of the building but are unable to Move onto the height 2 part from the battlefield. If they begin their movement while on the height 1 part of the building, then they may climb onto the height 2 part of the building.

Cover helps miniatures defend themselves from attacks. Cover is divided into three categories: light, heavy, and no Cover, and is determined during the attack sequence. Some rules refer to Cover having a numerical value that is improved or reduced— light Cover has a value of 1, heavy Cover has a value of 2, and no Cover has a value of 0. The numerical value of Cover cannot be increased above 2 for any reason. Resolve effects that improve Cover before effects that reduce Cover.

For more information on determining Cover, see pg. 33.

Actions are how units of miniatures move and fight their way across the battlefield. A unit will typically make 2 actions during its Activation. The following actions are available to every unit.

• Aim: The unit gains 1 Aim token, which allows it to reroll up to 2 dice when attacking.
• Attack: The unit attacks with its weapons.
• Dodge: The unit gains 1 Dodge token, which allows it to cancel incoming hit results when defending.
• Card Action card action: The unit makes an action listed on its Unit Card or one of its Upgrade Cards. Card actions have this symbol card action. A unit may make more than one Card action, as long as they are different. A Card action with card actioncard action requires two actions to make.
• Free Card Action free card action: The unit makes an action listed on its Unit Card or one of its Upgrade Cards. Free Card actions do not cost the unit any actions to make. Free Card actions have this symbol free card action. A unit may make more than one free Card action, as long as they are different. A unit may only make free actions during their Make Actions step and may only make each instance of a free action once per Activation. Free actions do not allow a unit to make a non-Move action more than once during its activation.
• Move: The unit Moves.
• Standby: The unit gains 1 Standby token, which allows it to make certain actions after an enemy unit makes an action.
• Recover: The unit removes any number of Suppression tokens and readies any exhausted Upgrade Cards.

Luke Skywalker has the card action *Jump 1 Card action on his Unit Card. During his Activation, he may spend 1 of his actions to make the Jump action.*

Luke Skywalker also has the Force Reflexes Upgrade Card equipped. Once per Activation as a free action, he may exhaust the card to gain 1 Dodge token. This is in addition to the 2 actions he is allowed per Activation, but he may only make the Force Reflexes free action when he would normally be allowed to make an action. A unit may make any number of different free actions during its Activation.

Suppression represents the morale and combat effectiveness of a unit—the more Suppression it has, the less effective it is on the battlefield. Suppression is tracked during the game with Suppression tokens. Vehicles do not suffer Suppression.

Trooper units have a Courage value ? on their Unit Card. When a unit has a number of Suppression tokens equal to or greater than its ?, it is Suppressed. If a unit has a number of Suppression tokens that is equal to or greater than double its ?, it is Panicked. A Suppressed unit makes 1 less action each Activation, while a Panicked unit suffers additional effects. For more information on the effects of Suppression, see pg. 24.