Star Wars Legion: LVO And The Legion Meta

Let’s take a look at the current state of the Star Wars LEGION meta after LVO.

The Las Vegas Open has come and gone and, the 115 player Legion tournament was a major significant event. The event was won by reigning Legion World Champ Luck Cook, who smashed face with an impressive (most impressive) Imperial list. A major event like this can tell us some big things about the current meta, so let us look at some of the lists and stats.

Some Stats

According to the stat guys over at Legion Discord out of the 115 players at LVO there where:

• 57 Imperials
• 36 Rebels
• 12 Separatists
• 10 Grand Army of The Republic

The relatively small number of Clone Wars era faction players is to be expected; these factions are new and underdeveloped with only a handful of units each, I’m surprised that so many players showed up with them given their limitations. Of more considerable note is the definite slant towards Imperial lists, with them being by far the most taken faction. They also made up 3 of the top 4 lists and, of course, won the whole thing.

Some other interesting stats:

• The average number of activations was 9.72
• General Veers was the most popular commander overall
• Leia was the second most popular
• While only 7 people took Palpatine, two of those made it into the top 4
• Shore Troopers were tied with Rebel Troopers as the most popular units (110 of each showed up)
• Tauntaun Riders were the most popular heavy or support unit by far
• 40 AT-RTs and 15 AT-STs showed up; none made it into the top 8.
• The T-21B Trooper was the most common upgrade at the event with 107 showing up (you’ll note this means only 3 units of Shore Troopers at the whole event didn’t take the upgrade)
• There was an average of 2 Shoretroopers per Imperial Lists and 1.5 Tauntauns per Rebel list.

I think the considerable take away here is the absolute dominance of Shoretoopers and the T-21B Trooper upgrade. Every Imperial list had multiple of them, and if there is a unit that needs to be looked at, it’s likely Shore Troopers. While Stormtroopers did show up as well, generally as the cheap choice, Snowtroopers were effectively unseen. The Rebel’s Tauntauns are the heavy lifter and did a lot of work. Rebel lists rely much more on their cheap Rebel troopers, and very few other corps units were taken.

Top 8

Let’s turn from general stats to the look at the top eight. The Fifth Trooper has a good breakdown of the top eight lists. Of them, we’ve got 5 Imperial lists and 3 Rebel lists. Considering how badly the Imperials outnumbered Rebels in overall numbers, this isn’t a bad showing for the Rebels at all. Sadly no Clone Wars Era armies made the top 8. Breaking down the commanders we’ve got:

•  2 Emperor Palpatine
• 2 Director Krennic
• 1 General Veers
• 3 Leia Organa

Considering Veers was the most taken commander, it’s a pretty poor showing for him to only get 1 in the top eight. Krennic was the 3rd most popular commander and Leia 2nd, so I’m not surprised to see them do well, as mentioned before Palpatine punched above his weight. Though you can take up to two commanders, none of the top eight lists took a second.

The top eight were dominated by Shore Troopers and Tauntauns. All the Rebel lists had triple Tauntauns, and all the Imperial lists had at least 2; this is a major meta factor. Snipers were also very popular in the top eight lists; players wanted anything they could with longer range. Only one of the top 8 lists contained a vehicle of any type (not counting Tauntauns). The game right now is pretty clearly a mostly ranged infantry game.

The Winning List

Luke’s winning list has a lot of long-ranged firepower with Mortars and Snipers and T-21B troopers. It also can throw out a lot of suppression, allowing you to cripple enemy armies. The 2 Medical droids help give the army extra toughness. Palpatine is an excellent close-range monster and will enable you to get double attacks out of a critical unit, like the hard-hitting Shore Troopers. The Royal Guard not only help keep the Emperor around longer but form a nice melee element to push forward and grab objectives. This is a list that hits hard, aside from the one unit of objective holding Stormtroopers, everything in this list is deadly and a real threat. It’s a well deserved to win.

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.