Hello Readers,
Fred here. Continuing our special on Star Wars Legion and compare to Flames of War. Skippers of Part 1 can keep on skipping and welcome again to the ones who stayed with us last week. Today is the debriefing of the French Championship, the most prestigious competition of SWL in France.
Did I manage not to be ridiculous? Was my goal for 3 wins over the weekend reached? How does a SWL tournament goes compared to a FoW one? Sharpen you blasters, change the neon light on your sabers, fear the Dark Side, and may the Force be with you!
Tournament Day 1
Game 1 vs Theo – Republic
As a starter, I played Bunker Assault (BA) and Sweep & Clear (S&C) against a 501st Republic force all with Clones and no Jedi. BA is basically Probe, where both players have to control objectives close to their deployment area, and try to claim opponent’s ones by crossing the board. S&C is getting points by killing troops around the field.
Theo has limited AT capacities (only 1 unit of Commandos), so I was quite confident my AT-STs can wreak havoc in its line, unhindered. On the other hand, its AP capacities were huge, so any time the rest of my force will pop up their heads, they will got properly destroyed. I need to use my core armor as strong anvil, and my utilities to play hide and seek to protect objectives or finish off units.
I decided to push in force with my armor, with my Scouts and Stormtroopers securing my objectives. The Bikes backed up my space chicken. Unfortunately, I underestimated the lethality of Theo’s troops, and a jetbike unit which I believed safe got destroyed. More importantly, my general in its AT-ST, Major Marquand, fell victim of a very lucky strike (considered being hit on 7+ and only failing save on 1s). This blow cripple my force, but I relentlessly advanced, only to be met with fierce resistance by the Clones. I managed to snipe units to get points, but Theo’s Clone Commander escaped death by a lucky roll, negating me precious points for S&C. My armor finally got blow away by the volume of fire the Clones dropped at them, and all fell, followed quickly by the rest of my force collapsing, causing me a clean slate I hadn’t experienced in decades and didn’t see coming!
Regardless of the dice rolls, Theo totally deserved its victory, I crushed my force in its line, which was perfect for its plan, and he outplayed me (Theo will finish 6th overall).
Game 2 vs Yohan – Empire
While I was quite unhappy with my first defeat, it was good to have the top 8 pressure removed. From now on, I knew all the 5 remaining games would be only for practice, against great opponent. We end up playing Close the Pocket (CP), a kind of Counter Attack, with 3 objectives in the middle of the map, and an additional one for each with Destroyed Enemy Base (DEB) needing a unit equipped with a bomb to secure a far flung objective to blow it for points. We played on a beautiful imperial city board, printed and painted by David (https://www.billouprint3d.fr/).
Yohan is accustomed to play Tempest Force, so knew how to handle my list. He brought a melee heavy list, with 6 close combats specialists, including Darth Vader and 2 Inquisitors! My army have close to no hand-to-hand specialists, I would have to play this one more carefully than the previous game. I thus scouting the field lightly, not exposing my force and preparing to dash for the left and middle objectives. I popped shot its troops as soon as they approach, baiting with a unit of bikes (which was, as expected, destroyed) but this let time for my space chicken to move and anchor on the Objectives, securing them, taunting Yohan’s forces to approach to face the deadly fire of the AT-ST (a very FoW approach indeed!). I started scoring fast and managed to corner the majority of my opponent’s force on the left, where I contested the position and concentrate on the center. My right flank, too lightly defended, fell to the might of both Inquisitors, but by then my scoring was too important for Yohan to catch up. All the enemies but for the mighty Vader and its pretorian Red Guard fell to my shooting, and I planted the bomb to seal victory.
Game 3 vs Enguerrand – Republic
The satisfaction of a clean victory according to the plan was promptly erased by the dissatisfaction to play against another 501st Republic army, this time lead by Anakin Skywalker with 2 units of Commandos. We plaid Breakthrough (BT), which plays quite similar to Free For All, both armies having to guard Objectives in their deployment area and contesting opponent’s to score. We doubled that with S&C.
Thanks to Round 1 lesson, I knew rushing the field won’t be a suitable option. So I played conservatively, and tried to keep the distance with the Republican force, using attrition to cripple them. I used my Scouts to lure into killing fields the Clones, but while I was logically losing troops, the return fire was totally dismissed by Enguerrand’s forces super resilience. I also set a distance with 2 AT-ST which believed they were safe from harm, but were actually into damaging range of the Commandos and Anakin; daddy Skywalker dashed in one space chicken and opened it clean with its light saber, while the Commandos chased the other and crippled it to death. My force melted, and every attempt I made to catch up on points were denied by super natural resistance. Ultimately, I let half the Clones units and characters with 1 life point/model remaining, denying me any scoring, while I got tabled again. A very hard to swallow defeat, I knew my poor Tempest struggled against the mighty Republic, but Enguerrand felt really sorry how the dice rolls from both made it a one-way street.
With 1 good victory and 2 heavy defeats, this 1st day wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I should have played better in both losses, yet I touched the glass ceiling of my Tempest Force, unable to compete with the super-efficient Republic.
Tournament Day 2
Game 4 vs Florin – Shadow Collective
I was super happy to restart on Sunday against Florin. He is an absolute gentleman to play with, has wonderfully painted AA5-Speeder trucks, qualified on the same Montpellier’s open, and his fan of football like me! We played Bunker Assault (BA) and Sweep & Clear (S&C) again, but this time against a Shadow Collective force (the mercenaries force of crime syndicate led by returning Maul to take on Mandalore).
Florin’s list is quite similar to mine, he has 3 key pieces with super-angry Darth Maul, his retinue of Mandalorian commandos, and a deadly transported Black Sun unit. Those will be a match to my AT-ST, while my utilities have to take care of his (3 speederbikes and 3 Pikes). We would both have to use our Core units to breakthrough enemy line, while our Utilities will harass each others, still keeping the bunkers safe. We both let the center of the map clean, while fighting two separate battles on the flanks. I delayed Florin’s advance on my left flank, claiming a bike unit, and buying time with a group of 2 units of Scouts and 2 units of Bikes. Meanwhile, on the right left, I brought on the full might of my AT-STs, backed up by a pair of Scouts, obliterating everything standing in their path. I infiltrated my Scouts to contest his left objective, putting me ahead in points. One my AT-ST got slightly off-centered not allowing me to increase my lead, yet the battle was in good shape. My right flank collapsed as expected, freeing up Maul to run toward my other objective. The battle took an expected turn while I missed finishing off three single 1 life point models while shooting with my mighty chicken (something you would call in FoW a Reckless T-60 dodging point blank shots from a pair of JadTigers), denying me precious S&C points and putting back Florin in the game. We thus had to fight it until the end, with only my 3 AT-STs remaining, while Maul got home pretty battered with its escort of commandos. Nonetheless, when the dust settled, the Imperials claimed victory.
Game 5 vs François – Empire
At least Sunday started better than Saturday! For the 5th game, I was paired up against François who played two Concepts at once, a GunLine and Double Bounty. GunLine is quite similar to what you can find in FoW, with tons of troopers heavily armed shooting straight in the face of the opponent while soaking up damages by the numbers. Double Bounty is a pair of hunting characters, mobile and deadly (see them as two units of OT-34, great firepower, decent resilience, but that will crumble when exposed to concentrated fire). We played Bunker Assault (BA) and Surface Scan (SS), which is a nice secondary objective, having 2 of your units scanning the area around your friendly territory while dodging fight to stay alive (something that can be great for Recce in FoW).
As a true Imperial doctrine follower, François brought huge firepower to submit my force in attrition. While the AT-STs can soak up lot of damages, they won’t last 5 turns of blasting. I could have tank in my deployment zone and popshot, but reducing the gunline that way would have felt like trying to submit a position in Covering Force while hitting on 6+ and 7+. Besides, Bobba Fett and Din Jarin would have had the liberty to infiltrate my lines and prevent me from scoring fully. I thus decided to take the bull by the horn, lure my opponent on one flank with a Bikes unit, a pair of Scouts and sacrifice one AT-ST to draw enemy fire, while the rest of my force will blast their way through the opposing flank, in force. This work decently, cutting the board with a diagonal, one battle that I was losing and one that I was winning. François made a mistake Turn 3 allowing me to take the lead on scoring and essentially giving me the game, but I decided it was not the purpose of such training game (not of us could have apply for podium ranking), so corrected his mistake by doing the same. This has two immediate effects: it balanced the game so we can play it until the end and eased up the relationship around the table. After dealing with our respective targeted flank, we both cross the diagonal to take the fight to the other part of the battlefield, his bounty hunters chasing my troops holding my Objective and my troops smashing in his castle. After a fierce firefight, his Officer gallantly survived the rain of fire from Major Marquand (something like a Formation Commander surviving 3 rounds of knifing by British Commandos), raise his blaster and suppressed my Scouts, securing the last point of the game. Victory turned into defeat but hey, fun was there, so worth it!
Game 6 vs Frederic – Separatist
For the last game, I met Frederic whom I provided carpooling from Paris to the event. We sympathized during the trip and it was great to start what I think will be the first of a long series of gaming together. We plaid Breakthrough and Sweep & Clear, a similar configuration to my 3rd round, and I was eager to better myself in this one. Frederic brought a Separatist list based around Grievous and a CAB tank, two mighty centerpieces which he backed up by a horde of B1 droids with repairers, a supporting tactician droid, and 4 nasty units of close combat experts Magna Guards.
Facing such list, I knew it will rush me to contest my Objectives, and I thus have to control where it go to avoid my lines being severely breached. At the same time, I would have to deal promptly with the tank which has the capacity to demolish an AT-ST in 3 turns of shooting (technically, I can ignore it and concentrate on something else, but removing it from the game will make the life of my chicken fine the whole game). I used a “British Desert Rats” tactics, creating two poles of competitiveness, each including an AT-ST and two units of Scouts, in order to protect my Objectives. Frederic protected his Objectives with his B1 and Super Tactical commander, while sending 2 units of Magna on each flank, backed up by the CAB on the left and Grievous on the right. I knew it was well sufficient to break through my pole of competitiveness, and I thus decided my axis of attack when his CAB appeared, throwing in my Major and my Bikes toward the threatening heavy (which act quite like a Tiger, it hurts a lot when it attacks, can soak up big damages, but will eventually break to attrition). I also managed to infiltrate my Scouts in the backfield to add another threat. Now we were truly in a race for points, where I had to obliterate the flank with the CAB while delaying the one with Grievous. The tank proved a very hard nut to crack, contested my Objective to deny me points, and even took out one AT-ST in 2 turns instead of 3! Meanwhile Grievous and its boys break through my right flank and the backfield Super Tac and B1 even managed to cripple my Bikes with lucky shots. But those were merely delaying actions, my Major and infiltrated Scouts overrun the left flank, securing points, while the other Bikes mirror the CAB in denying Frederic points for 2 turns. The CAB was finally shot down and, despite the complications, my plan worked. I secured the win in the last turn.
Wrapping up
You know what? I didn’t win and it’s fine! Competition is not all about winning. It’s about enjoying the social moment and trying to achieve the reasonable objective you’ve set before its beginning. I succeed in both, I learnt a lot, and I had fun. Goal completed.
While the 3/3 score was decent in such prestigious event, I should definitely have played better to achieve a more rewarding result. Incidentally, opposite to FoW, my defeats came from me being too agressive while I should have plaid more conservatively. Committing too hard and too fast put my toys in situation where they have to secure their actions and kills, and let me dependent to opponent soaking up the damages while I couldn’t hold the distance in the duel. Interesting.
I also most probably should have taken a different list. I knew my Build wasn’t great, but it could have been slightly more optimized to be better at playing certain missions, less fragile and include a somehow decent close combat unit which I dearly missed all weekend. It still won’t be top of the meta, but at least it will still be fun to play against and challenging to get it on tabletop. My modified list quite matches a FoW US Sherman Company backed up by a Recon Squadron and a Regular infantry platoon.
Comparing this event to a FoW one, SWL is more dynamics and more timed. Meaning 6 games squeezed in the weekend, excellent for optimizing the time dedicated to play, and obtain a fair and objective ranking. 2:30 hours is plenty enough for a Round, but this will surely merit several adaptations from FoW and its Community.
I’m not convinced the Top 8 system is better than the Swiss Round. In a FoW tournament, losing a game is not great but you still have chances to catch up in the end. With a single loss eliminating you from the Top 8, players have to not lose any round and this put a significant pressure (and unnecessary additional) from the start.
From a game perspective, the full interaction SWL offers is something I miss in FoW: having both players with equal chances to win, same victory conditions, and alternated activations, mean a lot of commitment in the game and great socializing experience. I don’t think the pure “Attack vs Defense” from FoW should disappear, but maybe considering more “Fair Fight”, missions with objectives in the No Man’s Land, and even in AvsD, have Units coming on board as part of their Turn 1.
I was super happy to have spent a whole weekend gaming. This becomes rarer as time goes by. Letting the kids 2 straight days with their mom is hard (for her and for me!).
Thanks to the organizers for letting this happen, thanks to my gentle opponents for 6 nice games. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones from all over France and Belgium. Congratulations to the all attendees, and all hail to Antoine for its 3rd consecutive win. A ton of worthy great gaming and social experience.
Now let’s turn to sand, sweat, and gasoline…
Let us know in the comments if you were happy reading this one and if you want us to keep on talking about other games than BF’s one.
Knowledge is power: share it widely!
Fred