What to buy and build for your first army!
Written by: David Blanchard
December of 2020 was the month I finally decided to take the plunge and started looking at Star Wars Legion. I went online and even found a local shop to gauge the scene. I got a few tips from experienced players, but it still felt overwhelming trying to figure out what to buy and how to build a decent starting army. A couple years have nearly passed since then, and I continually find new potential players popping in on Legion social media groups asking the same questions: what should I buy, and what makes a decent competitive army?
As always, the foundation for an army is in the Corp and Commander units. The corps units are your “fingers”, moving across the map to grab objectives to help you score points while potentially threatening damage. You will always need at least three, and as it stands the Grand Army of the Republic happens to host the best and (at least currently) most expensive corps units in the game. For us, Phase 1’s are a necessity and are generally our best picks as republic. On the outside they feel like a tax that must be paid in order to meet the requirements of army building (and to a certain extent this will always be true), but over time you will learn that they have decent heavy upgrade options and are amazing when used properly for fire support! Phase 2’s also have a place with courage 2 and reliable 1, but I would heavily suggest sticking with three Phase 1’s for your first army to get a strong ground base for you to springboard off of that’s easier to get (via the core set) and also easier to build an army around.
Commander Who?
Commanders are usually my first thought whenever I build an army though. In the republic we have the awesome option of having force users (we currently have three with Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi) to help lead our forces! This is what drew me to the Republic in the first place and why I still love them. And all of the three jedi stated above are great for utility and keeping your units alive. Take advantage of effects like Exemplar and Guardian to keep those precious corps and other units alive, then charge in and do some hard-to-deny damage with pierce and impact on your weapons.
On top of that, Captain Rex is a strong clone commander that is extremely dangerous for your opponent if you keep him alive to pull off Call me Captain and spend a round fire-supporting most all your units (including in melee!). The Clone Commander is a decent option as well and will make sure that you can have at least one fire support option available every round with his coordinate clone trooper effect
A handmaiden and a Tank!
Okay, so now you’ve chosen 3-6 corps and 1-2 commanders for your army. Now what?
Depending on how many points you have left over, there are several good options to go on from there. Most GAR players choose Padme for a number of reasons, but the primary one is her ability to share her tokens with other units with her Exemplar. Not only does she provide an easy option for dodge and aim tokens (aims allow you to rerolling up to 2 attack dice, dodge tokens blocks 1 hit from attack dice) sharing with her Quick Thinking ability, but you can also use her standby to potentially give one of your units an additional attack or move. This proves to be incredibly strong with other units around like Anakin (or any of the jedi for that matter) and even the Saber tank!
Speaking of the saber tank, or TX-130 Saber-class Fighter Tank Unit, it has enough firepower to potentially nuke most units it hits in a single shot. You want to make good use of the nearly 200 points that it costs to throw into your army, but the tank is great against both heavy units and troopers alike! Add Padme in the same army and you can make it like you have two tanks at once most rounds and destroy oncoming units before they get too close to the rest of your forces.
What's so special about Special Forces?
Wookiees may roll white dice instead of our traditional red in GAR, but don’t be fooled at how tanky these walking carpets can be! I would argue that wookiees are the best non-jedi melee interceptor in the game. Even enemy force users hate to get locked up with these furballs because of their high health and Duelist ability that can let them ignore pierce. On top of that, their melee damage can be incredibly high since they all roll two dice a piece, surge to hit (making them fairly consistent), can run tenacity for an extra red dice (which is usually easy to trigger), and have pierce with duelist. All these things combined can help them steamroll over most units that don’t have immune to: pierce or impervious in a single shot!
Arc trooper strike teams are fairly accurate with Tactical and have a strong natural dice pool of one red and one black (the cheaper DC-15 heavy upgrade) or two red dice with critical 1 if you choose Echo instead. Either way, they are both generally consistent rollers that can hit from a distance and threaten to finish-off units. You may have to choose to spend your aims on another roll instead of using it for Lethal to gain pierce totheir attack, but they can be extremely effective for consistent damage threats. Add on fire support to their attacks and they’re a strong threat to most any unit!
Barc, Barc, Barc!
Last (but certainly not least) Barc Speeders are an amazingly cheap and effective unit for you army. Their ability to fly over most terrain and zip around at speed 3 (2 if you equipped a weapon upgrade) makes it easy for them to flank around the map and pick off enemy sniper and corps units. With cover 1 and red defense dice they aren’t the easiest to bring down either, and surge to hit makes it so that they are usually very accurate.
The best part? You can use (and abuse) their compulsory to move, aim, and shoot to try and force your opponent to roll some dice that they don’t want. For a more defensive approach, you can also shoot, move, then compulsory away so they don’t take return fire after attacking. Once you practice them enough, Barc speeders are extremely effective and are like a mobile corps unit that can terrorize your opponent’s backline!
Assembling an Army
While there are tons of other units to consider when building your first army, these are some of your strongest supporting cast for a successful list that will put you in the mix in most matches! In another article I will go into more depth on how to use them effectively, but here are a few suggested ideas for a balanced republic list!
List 1
794/800 (10 activations)
Commanders:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (170): Force Barrier (10), Force Push (10), Vigilance (5), Offensive Stance (5) = 200
Operative:
- Padmé Amidala (90): Vigilance (5), Looted E-5 Blaster (5) = 100
Corps:
- 2× Phase I Clone Troopers (52) = 104
- 2× Phase I Clone Troopers (52): DC-15 Trooper (26) = 156
Special Forces:
- ARC Troopers Strike Team (27): Echo (42) = 69
Support:
- 3× BARC Speeder (55) = 165
Commands: • Hello There!, • Our Fate is in Your Hands, •• Knowledge and Defense, •• Aggressive Negotiations, ••• General Kenobi, ••• Diplomatic Cover, •••• Standing Orders
To me, this is the starter list of starter lists. It is designed to be both effective and (reasonably) cheap in terms of the pieces you will need to build it. Between Obi-Wan and Padme you will have a lot of defensive capability. Also, two Phase 1’s with a heavy could be great for strong fire support!
List 2
785/800 (9 activations)
Commanders:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (170): Force Barrier (10), Force Push (10), Vigilance (5), Offensive Stance (5) = 200
- Anakin Skywalker (155): Force Push (10), Saber Throw (5), Tenacity (4), Endurance (6) = 180
Corps:
- 2× Phase I Clone Troopers (52) = 104
- Phase I Clone Troopers (52): DC-15 Trooper (26) = 78
Special Forces:
- ARC Troopers Strike Team (27): DC-15x ARC Trooper (31) = 58
Support:
- 3× BARC Speeder (55) = 165
Commands: • Hello There!, •• Knowledge and Defense, ••• General Kenobi, • This is Where the Fun Begins, •• You Underestimate My Power, ••• Hero of the Clone Wars, •••• Standing Orders
This is similar to what I used to love to run when I first started the game! Double jedi equals double trouble. Use those barcs to take most of your ranged shots and draw fire, and once Anakin and Obi-Wan jump into the frey most lists will likely be sliced to bits!
List 3
790/800 (9 activations)
Commanders:
- Yoda (200): Burst of Speed (3), Force Barrier (10), Force Push (10), Vigilance (5) = 228
- Chewbacca (90): Offensive Push (4), Tenacity (4) = 98
Corps:
- 2× Phase I Clone Troopers (52) = 104
- Phase I Clone Troopers (52): DC-15 Trooper (26) = 78
Special Forces:
- ARC Troopers Strike Team (27): Echo (42) = 69
- Wookiee Warriors (69): Battle Shield Wookiee (26), Offensive Push (4), Tenacity (4) = 103
Support:
- 2× BARC Speeder (55) = 110
Commands: • Size Matters Not, • Ambush, •• Air Support, •• There Is No Try, ••• Luminous Beings Are We, ••• Attack of the Clones, •••• Standing Orders
This list is designed for those who love Yoda and strong combo plays! Yoda and Chewie can do a lost of things together, including getting Yoda out of a bad spot with his 2 pip. It has a ton of options at your fingertips. However, because he can do so much, it does take a lot of practice to master Yoda. So if you choose to make this one of your first lists, take you time on your Yoda turns so that you can get the most of your army and think his plays through!
As you can see, I have Barc Speeders in all of these lists and find it hard not to at least run a couple if I can fit them in; for their current cost, it’s hard to deny their efficiency in most any army! I also believe in having a bit of melee in all of them to help support and protect your ranged units and balance your list a bit.
This concludes my introductory article on how to get started with GAR. Tune in next time and keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up on advanced Republic tactics and strategies!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at Indianapolisgarrison@gmail.com!
David Blanchard of the Indy Garrison
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