Star Wars: Legion Starter Sets: Which Faction Should You Start With?

Star Wars: Legion is the miniatures game where you finally get to field the battles from the films and shows: a squad of stormtroopers pushing up a street, clone troopers holding a ridge, Luke Skywalker cutting through the line. It is a two-player game played with painted (or not yet painted) miniatures on a table with terrain, and it rewards planning more than luck. The easiest way in today is one of the four faction starter sets, and the most common question we get at the counter is simply which one to buy. Here is how we answer it.

What is in a Star Wars: Legion starter set

Each starter set is a complete, ready-to-play 600-point Recon-level army for one faction, plus all the dice, movement tools, range templates and tokens you need to play your first games. That last part matters. Legion uses its own custom dice (red, black and white attack dice, red and white defense dice) and its own measuring tools, so a starter set saves you from hunting down accessories one at a time. The Galactic Empire set, for example, comes with 37 miniatures on 27mm bases and seven unit cards, which is a real army, not a sampler.

Recon-level games are smaller and faster than a full battle, which makes them a good way to learn the rules without a three-hour commitment. When you are ready for bigger games, the starter becomes the core of your army and you add unit boxes from there. The newer sculpts in the line are hard plastic with noticeably crisper detail than the original release, so they also take paint well.

Legion is built around two eras, and each era pairs two factions who are natural opponents:

• Galactic Empire. Darth Vader and stormtroopers. Disciplined, tough infantry and a commander who can wreck anything he reaches. A great pick if you like a steady, hard-to-move battle line.
• Rebel Alliance. Luke Skywalker, Rebel Troopers and Wookiee Warriors. Flexible and scrappy, with strong heroes leading lighter troops. Good for players who like to maneuver and pick their fights.
• Galactic Republic. Clone troopers, Jedi and vehicles. Clones are some of the most reliable infantry in the game and work well together, so the Republic is forgiving for new players.
• Separatist Alliance. Battle droids, Separatist commanders and support vehicles. Lots of cheap, fragile droids that win by numbers. Fun if you enjoy flooding the table and do not mind losing models every turn.

How to choose, and what to add next

Our honest advice: pick the side you love on screen. You are going to build, paint and play these models for a long time, and the army you are excited about is the one you will finish. If you are starting with a friend, buy opposing starters from the same era (Empire and Rebels, or Republic and Separatists). Two starter sets give you two complete armies and two sets of dice and tools, which is the simplest way to start a regular game.

Once you have a starter, most players add a second box of their faction's core infantry, then a vehicle or a hero. A few good next steps we carry:

• Empire: the new-edition Stormtroopers box, Imperial Death Troopers or Dark Troopers for an elite punch, and Imperial High Command for more leaders.
• Rebels: the new-edition Rebel Troopers, Rebel Commandos or Rebel Veterans, and Heroes of the Rebellion if you want more named characters.
• Republic: Clone Trooper Infantry or ARC Troopers, Clone Commander Cody, and the Republic AT-RT for a fast walker.
• Separatists: B1 Battle Droids (12 droids plus a leader and a heavy weapon), STAP Riders, the DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid, or the Persuader-Class Tank Droid if you want a big centerpiece.

If none of the four main factions grabs you, Legion also has scum-and-villainy options, and we stock pieces like Leaders of the Shadow Collective and Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldiers for players who want to go that route later.

On supplies: you do not need to paint to play, but most people eventually want to. A small set of brushes, a primer and a handful of colors is plenty to get a starter army table-ready, and our staff are happy to point you toward a sensible first paint set.

All four starter sets and a deep range of unit expansions are in stock in our Star Wars: Legion collection. Like the rest of our miniatures wargaming, Legion is stocked and played at our Lemoyne, Pennsylvania store, so that is the place to see the models in person and talk through an army. Everything can also be ordered online and shipped nationwide, or delivered to Maryland if you shop with us in Pikesville. If you are not sure which faction to start with, stop in or message us and we will help you pick.