As soon as this game was announced there was an inevitability that it would appear in our house at some point – a 40k-esque wargame but with Star Wars characters – I'm just amazed that I held out so long.
I was at the Tabletop Gaming Live show at Alexandria Palace a couple of weeks ago on my birthday, and saw it being offered for a ridiculous £55. At that point the restraint melted, almost buckling completely as I threw in the Boba Fett expansion as well, and I came home a happy man – happy birthday to me. I'd seen the videos, read the blogs, but now I would finally get to see what was in the box.
The first thing to greet you when you lift the lid is Vader's mug staring at you. This is the rulebook and I have to say I've struggled with it a little. It doesn't seem as clear as the Imperial Assault rules were – maybe because it's a different game, maybe because I'm a year older and my mind is going, but I had to resort to third party YouTube videos to get the drift.
Removing the rulebook and token sheet reveals… lots of plastic bags!
This felt like a bit of a let down. The outer box itself is stunning and maybe I was expecting to have an unboxing experience like the recent GW releases, which in turn is trying to emulate what Apple does with their products. This felt very bargain basement cheap in comparison – all your bits in ziplock bags and chucked into a box to take home. It did not match the quality of the outer box, or indeed the Imperial Assault experience.
Then I was hit with another blow. Six years ago I wrote a blog post about
unboxing a Warmachine Cryx starter set. My main criticism was the material used to produce the models – a sort of plastic resin – which didn't really work with plastic glue (my adhesive of choice) and meant working with excessive amounts of superglue.
Guess what – yup, same material here. The issue I have is how are models without tabs supposed to stay on a base when they're simply superglued in place – it's a disaster waiting to happen. It would mean that I have to pin virtually every model to it's base.
On the upside, the models are that little bit bigger than Imperial Assault which means we lesser mortals have a fighting chance of picking out the amazing details.
The stormtroopers are almost all 2-piece models and go together relatively easily. There are a set number of poses and I thought it was an opportunity missed not to have these a little more posable – my two units are going to look identical without the intervention of some fancy painting.
The big winner for me though has to be the Boba Fett additional model. He came in a host of pieces, which was quite radical compared to the models in the main box, but went together very nicely. I wasn't sure of the pose when I first saw it, but once the model was together it was a winner.
In fact, I don't even feel the need to add the clear plastic flying base – I'm just going to pin him on his base. I'm really looking forward to painting this guy!!
Given that Mr Awdry has now joined the ranks of Legion owners, we can look forward to a game or two next year I think. I have firmly decided to base my models for a snowy Hoth environment, and will (try to) build a few bits of terrain to match. I will also need a new snowy gaming mat (shame!).
I think had this been any IP other than Star Wars then this box set might have found a home in the back of the gaming cupboard never to be seen again. However, once the models were built (the bit I normally enjoy but didn't this time) I am looking forward to getting some paint on them.
