Star Wars: Legion strategy for Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren

Star Wars: Legion is a tabletop game set in the Star Wars universe. A few months ago, Ahsoka Tano was announced for the Rebel faction, and this led to many Galactic Republic (GAR) players scratching their heads as to why. Until now, Ahsoka has been universally known for her roles in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.

The Rebel faction features characters such as Luke Skywalker as a Commander and an Operative. Up until recently, Luke was the only Force user in the Rebels but units like Sabine Wren could take the Darksaber to give them more melee power. Sabine is also paired very well with Clan Wren and Rebel Mandolorians, who feature Speed 3, Beskar Armor that gives them surge on defense (an 80% save rate on opposing hits), and plenty of dice to roll in melee without the Darksaber. Think of a “surge” as a sort of wild card.

One benefit to Mandos in Legion is they have a keyword called Impervious which gives them extra dice when they are being targeted by an opposing weapon with the Pierce keyword that allows them to negate defense rolls as the attacker.

Ahsoka is a very powerful Force user in the Rebel faction. Whereas the Empire is more about powerful weapons with slow movement and likes using Aims, the Rebels use the keyword Nimble which allows them to get a dodge back if they spend a Dodge in combat.

Ahsoka’s Keywords are:

• Jump 2: Allows her to move over height 2 with 1 move or two height 1 moves without penalty
• Charge: Allows her to perform two moves and then perform a melee attack action
• Defend 1: When she is issued an order at the beginning of the round, she gains a Dodge token
• Deflect: When defending against a ranged attack, she gains Surge to Defend. For every surge rolled, Ahsoka defends that wound and sends it back to the attacker. The attacker suffers one wound for every surge rolled
• Immune Pierce: The Pierce keyword cannot be used against her
• Jar’Kai Mastery: When performing a melee attack, you may spend any number of dodge tokes. For every dodge token spent, improve one dice result.

List Building and Command Cards

At the beginning of every round, each player chooses a Command Card. This Command Card gives special abilities to a unit that is listed on this or allows an ability to give to another unit. Each Command Card has a PIP value as indicated on the top right of the card. The player who plays the card with the lowest PIP gets the priority to go first in that round. However, the lower the PIP the more powerful the Command Card is, but as the PIP is lowered, typically the abilities are more focused on that individual unit.

When you are building a list, there are a few things you want to keep in mind. You want your army to synergize together, and you also need to keep it under 800 points. Every unit has a point value and the more powerful the unit, the more the points are. For example, Commander Darth Vader is 195 points without any upgrades that come with the game’s best 8-wound threshold as well as the game’s best Command Cards. On the flip side, a Rebel Trooper group is 1 wound a piece with 4 in a unit and is only 40 points. Each army must take at least 3 Core units: troopers and at least one Commander. There are also other restrictions, but those are the only must-take units when building an army.

Here are the Command Cards Ahsoka can take and their wording:

I Am No Jedi (1 PIP):

Ahsoka Tano gains Agile 1 (for every move she makes, she gains a dodge token). While attacking, Ahsoka Tano adds 1 white dice to the attack pool for every dodge token she has, to a maximum of three. 

This card is particularly useful as it gives Ahsoka an order to trigger her Defend keyword for a dodge, then it gives her a dodge token for every move she makes and then allows her to add three dice to the pool, and on top of all of this, she has three dodge tokens to improve those dice rolls as well. This is a powerful card that can be used against stronger enemies that are weak to the pierce keyword allowing her to cancel multiple defending dice roll results as well as get into the face of the enemy. Combine this card with Burst of Speed and she can move 14 inches attack with 9 dice and improve three of those dice rolls.

Swift Protection (2 PIP):

Ahsoka Tano gains Guardian 2 (allows her to defend up to 2 wounds and roll dice on those). When another friendly small-base trooper at range 1 of Ahsoka is declared as the defending unit, it may gain 1 dodge token. 

This is one of my favorite cards in the Rebel Faction. This card only gives Ahsoka Tano an order which then triggers to Defend keyword once again, but a trooper unit within range 1 of her gains a free dodge token. This is important because the Rebel Troopers have the Agile Keyword and can regain that dodge for the remainder of the round. Not only that, but Ahsoka can Guardian up to two wounds, and with her Dodge token by gaining an order, she can now deflect those back to the attacking unit. Even more interesting is Sabine Wren has Outmaneuver, which allows her to dodge critical hits instead of regular hits, so giving her a dodge and then defending those hits and then sending them back with Guardian is a super powerful card.

Family Reunion (2 PIP):

Ahsoka Tano gains Teamwork: Sabine Wren. At the start of Ahsoka Tano’s activation, Sabine Wren may perform a Speed 2 move. At the start of Sabine Wren’s activation, Ahsoka Tano may perform a Speed 2 move. 

This is another great card being that it is a 2 PIP. This gives three things here. Teamwork allows each of the listed units on this card to gain the same tokens. If Sabine Wren goes first, she can move and dodge, and then Ahsoka gains a Dodge as well, and now she has 2 being it gives Sabine and Ahsoka an order at the beginning of the round. At the start of Sabine’s activation, Ahsoka can now make a move getting her closer to her enemy while Sabine gives her a dodge token to add to her pool. This is also important because then Ahsoka can take her own Dodge, move, and then perform a free melee attack action with three dodges now and improve three dice results. When Ahsoka activates, Sabine can make a speed 2 move. The last time I played with this list, I moved Sabine Wren up to give a dodge token to Ahsoka, and then when Ahsoka activated, I moved her back behind cover and then engaged a Core unit with Ahsoka so the next round, I could bring Sabine into melee with the Darksaber and now I have two power units covering an objective on a scoring round.

A New Beginning (3 PIP):

At the start of Ahsoka Tano’s activation, she recovers. When Ahsoka Tano issues an order to a small-base trooper unit, that unit either gains 1 aim token or 1 dodge token. Ahsoka Tano gains Inspire 2. 

This is the only card that gives someone other than herself or Sabine an order. However, this is a pretty standard 3 PIP card that gives the card issuer an order with a few others. This card gives Ahsoka and 2 other units an order and allows them to gain either a free dodge or free aim token. With this card, I would give an order to Sabine and give her a dodge token that she can use for the rest of the round, make some aggressive moves with them, and then maybe try to get a Rebel Trooper unit up to cover an objective with a dodge token. This also gives Ahsoka Inspire 2, allowing her to take off two Suppression tokens. Every unit that is declared a defender gains a suppression token if they are shot at, eventually, with enough suppression tokens, the unit becomes panicked and must retreat. However, if they are close to their Commander, they may use their courage value instead. However, every unit has a courage value; if suppression tokens equal their suppression value, they lose 1 action. This card allows Ahsoka to remove up to two suppression tokens from one unit or remove 1 suppression token from 2 units.

Overall, Ahsoka Tano for only 165 points is a fantastic addition to the Star Wars: Legion family.