Star Wars Legion: Rebel Trooper Tactics
At the heart of any Rebel army are the courageous troopers. These stalwart freedom fighters are the key to any real victory; let’s talk about how best to use them.
Currently, Rebel troopers are the only Corps unit the Rebel army can take, meaning any force you take will have at least three units. Even aside from the necessity of taking them, you’ll want to include them in your army, as they serve a number of roles. Still, these somewhat fragile fighters can appear tricky to use, let’s take a look at how best to make use of this unit.
The Basics
Rebel troopers are a cheap baseline unit to built your army around. They come as a 4 model squad and can add both a 5th trooper and a heavy weapon trooper. Their biggest weakness is their white defense die, which makes them fairly vulnerable to attacks. They offset this a bit with a defense surge and nimble, which lets them gain more dodge tokens. They’ve also got a reliable gun in the A-280 with a 1-3 range and a black dice attack. Overall the unit isn’t that different from its Imperial counterpart the Stormtroopers; they merely have a more offensive nature.
Stick to Cover
The Rebel Alliance tends to fight like a guerrilla force, preferring ambushes and raids to pitched battles. This is also true of the Rebel Troopers. This unit is a bit of a glass cannon and simply should not go toe-to-toe with Imperials in open ground. This is a unit that will be at it’s best in cover putting out powerful long-range attacks. Combining heavy cover with a dodge token and Nimble will make the Rebel Troopers pretty hard to dislodge.
You should also try to avoid getting too close to the enemy. While Rebel Troopers have a better gun than Stormtroopers, the same is not true in close combat. Both units roll black dice in close combat, combined with the better armor of the Stormtroopers and hand to hand fighting is a lost cause.
Heavy Support
How you outfit your troopers is going to determine a lot about how you use them. Rebel troopers have access to two heavy weapons.
The Z-6 can put out a sheer hail of fire. It’s six white dice give the single model the firepower of a whole Stormtrooper squad. The downside is that white dice are the least accurate in the game, with only one hit and one crit. It’s not uncommon for a Z-6 to miss all their shots. An advantage of the Z-6 is that it is pretty mobile, able to move and fire and doesn’t have to exhaust to fire. Put this on a squad that plans to be moving around a lot.
My favorite options for Rebel Troopers is the MPL-57 Ion trooper. Though it only throws out two dice, the fact that it uses red dice gives it about the same average number of hits as a Z-6. Add in Impact and Ion, and it’s a great little vehicle killer. Ion, in particular, is super powerful versus the dreaded AT-ST. A pair of squads with MPLs can take an AT-ST out of the game, for half the points. Its significant weakness is that the card exhausts on use, meaning you need to spend actions to use it each turn. A squad that has an MPL will be deadly but lose some mobility.
Upgrades!
Targeting Scopes is a great little upgrade that boosts your units aim tokens. While this is never going to be a bad option, I feel like it’s wasted on a lot of Rebel Trooper Squads. Between needing to move, fire, recover and dodge to make use of Nimble most Rebel Troopers don’t have the leftover actions to aim. I think its best given to a small four-person squad whose job is to sit back and snipe.
Grappling Hooks is a cheap card. Outside of that its usefulness is dependent on the kind of terrain you are using. Since it doesn’t cost an action of its own to use there is very little reason, other than a couple of points, not to take it.
Grenades
Concussion Grenades allow your unit to ignore cover at range one. While this ability can be nifty, it’s not all that great. At that close range, you might simply be able to get around the enemies cover. Also as we mentioned above, you don’t want to get that close to most enemies. While situationally useful at 5 points it is very much something you can skip. Since Rebel Troopers, unlike Stormtroopers, already have a black attack dice this card isn’t that much of an upgrade.
Like Concussion Grenades, Impact Grenades give you an extra rule at close range. Impact is, however, a much more useful rule for Rebels making them very deadly to vehicles at close range. Since the key words for the Grenade stack and unit of 4 troopers, all attack with the grenades would get impact four making them very deadly to armor. There is clearly a role in most armies for a fast moving squad with impact grenades to hunt enemy armor at close range.
Final Thoughts
Rebel Troopers are fragile but deadly. Think about what role you want each unit to play in your army and equip them to meet their goals. Try to stick to cover and range, and you can stay alive. Fight in the open and die. While Rebel Troopers aren’t the most glamorous unit their firepower gives them a solid role in your army. Also as troopers, they are going to be your key to claiming most objectives. Keep them alive to the end of the game and reap your rewards.
Share your tips for using Rebel Troopers down in the comments!
