Star Wars: Legion Early 2021 Expansions Review

Lando, Agent Kallus, and oodles of helpful robots add range and flexibility to the tactical miniatures game.


Published: May 4, 2021 11:00 AM /

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Star Wars Legion Early 2021 Expansions

As the battle roars overhead in the atmosphere, and laser blasts screech across the wastes of another occupied planet, who do you want on your side? To your right, a set of droids with exceptional usefulness heals wounded soldiers on the fly, repairs broken bots, scouts ahead, and leads a team of battle droids. To your right, a fearful Imperial agent (with seriously impressive facial hair) brandishes his Bo-rifle staff and devastates the enemy. And skittering around the corner, a flash of yellow and purple and blue, a one-of-a-kind scoundrel rewrites the rules of the battlefield in the middle of combat. Today we take a look at three new expansions for miniature wargame Star Wars: Legion, which include Separatist SpecialistsAgent Kallus, and Lando Calrissian.

Released in February and March of 2021, these three new expansions offer new options to their respective armies: Separatist Alliance, Galactic Empire, and Rebel Alliance. Let's take a quick look at all three of these expansions.

Separatist Specialists: Personnel Expansion

Droid Commander
The T-Series Tactical Droid

First, let's dive into the Separatist Specialists Personnel Expansion. These "Specialist" expansions are meant to add a bit of flexibility and customization to your run-of-the-mill troops. This expansion contains four different droid minis, each meant to augment existing trooper units. What's most exciting about this pack, for Separatist players, is the inclusion of the droid pictured above. That's the T-Series Tactical Droid, and he offers something as-yet unseen for Separatist players: an inexpensive commander. Coming in at a base of 55 points, he's far below other commanders in this army (including Count Dooku and General Grievous). And while his E-5 blaster isn't the best weapon around, he can give orders to friendly Droid trooper units, triggering a pretty fantastic chain reaction. Along with the ability to serve as commander for an entire army, this figure can also be slotted into an existing unit, which removes their AI programming (thus allowing more nuance to how you play that specific unit of troops). 

Separatist Droids
From Left to Right: The EV-Series Medical Droid, the PK-series Worker Droid, and the Viper Recon Droid

The three other droids included in this expansion are the above pictured EV-Series Medical Droid, the PK-series Worker Droid, and the Viper Recon Droid. The EV and PK droids serve similar functions, with the medical droid taking on damage to heal nearby non-droid friendly units, and the worker droid does the same for droid units. Both of these miniatures are "non-combatant," meaning they are added to an existing unit, but don't add any dice during combat (because they don't have weapons). Finally, the Viper Recon Droid can be added to a unit to spy on the enemy, adding valuable "Observation" tokens (which allow attack dice to be re-rolled when attacking said enemy). Along with the four minis included in this expansion, Separatist players also get access to three new command cards, including a devastating "Orbital Strike," which basically just serves as a free, powerful attack from outer space after a trooper unit activates.

Agent Kallus: Commander Expansion

Agent Kallus
Agent Kallus is ready to hunt down rebel scum!

Agent Kallus made his first appearance in Star Wars: Rebels and quickly became a fan favorite for his huge mutton chops and aggressive attitude. Now released as a commander for Empire armies, Agent Kallus is here to add some more muscle to your troops with his versatility and range. Most important to note is Agent Kallus's incredible weapon, the J-19 Bo-rifle, which can be switched on the fly between a staff mode that deals brutal melee damage (that's what's modeled above), and a blaster mode. Each mode deals the same amount of damage, but the blaster mode allows you do attack at far range, while the staff mode allows you to charge (you can move, and then attack for free) and is a great defense tool, as well.

Along with his Bo-rifle, Kallus has plenty of tactical tricks up his sleeve to allow him to aim, focus his shots, and get the upper hand in myriad ways. His command cards are aggressive, with one key card forcing the opponent to temporarily lose access to cards in their hand. Also of note: he has the "flawed" keyword, meant to balance out just how good he is on the battlefield, the "flawed" keyword puts a powerful card in your opponent's hand (flavor-wise, the card is called "Developing Sympathies," the meaning of which fans of Rebels will understand.).

Lando Calrissian: Commander Expansion

Lando Calrissian
Lando's ready to mix it up with his rebel friends.

At long last, after years of waiting and hoping, Lando Calrissian has made his appearance in Star Wars: Legion. The Baron Administrator of Cloud City is ready to sweep into enemy lines, fire off his weapons, and get out before the heat gets too heavy. Armed with his X-8 Night Sniper Pistol, Lando's whole deal in Legion is to keep a player's options open. While his weapon isn't anything absurd (it is sturdy, to be sure), his abilities make him an incredible slippery character.

Along with allowing a player controlling him to set aside extra Command Cards, he can be deployed beyond the normal confines of initial setup, he ignores two levels of cover when shooting at enemies, and he has the incredible ability "Uncanny Luck 2," which allows him to re-roll up to two defense dice every time he's attacked. His Command Cards all break the normal flow of the game slightly, opening up options like rewarding players for Command Cards they've already played, or allowing players to draw directly from the cards they've set aside. He, like Agent Kallus, is also Flawed, giving your opponent a chance to catch their breath against the whirlwind that is Lando Calrissian.

The Miniatures

Star Wars legion Sprues
Attack of the Sprues

A word of warning, not only do all of these miniatures come unpainted and unassembled, they also require copious glueing, snipping from sprues, and fiddliness to put together. Agent Kallus and Lando Calrissian were simple enough to assemble, but I struggled a bit with the Separatist Specialists. In the end, with some patience and a fair amount of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (which I highly recommend when building these models), I was rewarded with a gorgeous set of droids and commanders.

One of the benefits of putting them together piece by piece (as opposed to the more push-fit approach many models in Legion take), is the high level of customization available for almost all of the miniatures pictured. I chose Agent Kallus with his helmet off, holding his Bo-rifle in staff formation, but there were also options for helmet on, holding a rifle, and more. And as for Lando, I loved the dashing look of his cape swept behind his back, but I could also have assembled him reaching for his gun. Fun to paint, even for a relative painting-novice like myself, these miniatures truly reward a bit of extra attention.

The Bottom Line

All three of these expansions offer something unique to their respective armies. For Separatist players, the addition of a 55-point leader has the potential to completely upend their normal army builds (allowing room for vehicles, more droids, and better upgrades). For Empire players, Agent Kallus seems like he'd be an absolutely nasty addition to lists that run less in-your-face commanders like Krennic. And for Rebel players, well... it's just so nice to have Lando on the team. The sculpts for each miniature are stunning, with details that truly capture the look and feel of each character. I really love the way each new unit adds something I didn't even know was missing from their respective armies.

Get These Expansions If...

  • You run any of the the three respective armies and need a breath of fresh air
  • You're looking to add flexibility to your army lists
  • You're specifically looking to add some muscle to your Empire army, some slipperiness to your Rebel army, or some cost-effective utility to your Separatist army

Avoid These Expansions If...

  • You don't own the core sets (these are expansions, and can't be played alone)
  • You play Galactic Republic (sorry... no Clone Army expansions in this round of releases)

The copies of these Star Wars: Legion Expansions used in this review were provided by Asmodee North America.

 

Review Summary

Lando, Agent Kallus, and oodles of helpful robots add range and flexibility to the tactical miniatures game. (Review Policy)

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Giaco Furino joined the TechRaptor team as a Staff Writer in 2019 after searching for a dedicated place to write and talk about Tabletop Games. In 2020, he… More about Giaco