2024 Michigan GT Top 8

A special shoutout to Matthew Gergley, the Michigan GT staff, and all the great players from Michigan, Indian and Ohio for supporting a truly wonderful event.

# 8 Brian the Mando – Galactic Empire

Brian brought a diverse collection of imperial classics. He seemed to be hedging against heavy armor and the new double sized corps as his list included a large amount of impact and multiple flame throwers.

Ewebs, Del Meeko and the AT-ST, support by Veers, can dish out reliable long-range attacks, while securing rear objectives. Meanwhile Vader, Iden and the flamethrower snows can push up aggressively and secure the remaining objectives.

#7 Jacob Sherman – 501st Legion

Upgrades people, upgrades. A different take on the very successful Anakin 501st list that has dominated the first few months of this new edition of the game, Jacob has opted to load up his Clone Infantry and Arc troopers with plenty of upgrades. Most of these upgrades allow for greater movement and survivability.

The goal here seems to be to get everyone in the best possible position and hold out as long as possible.

#6 Dronus – Galactic Empire

This list relies on the range troopers to suppress opposing units, while the inquisitors move into position to secure board control. Palpatine's 'Give in to Your Anger' is able to essentially shut down a unit for the first two turns and his pulling the strings allows you to squeeze in an additional Range Trooper attack per turn resulting in tons of additional suppression, especially when they split fire.

Palpatine's 'And Now....You Will Die' can still provide a devastating knockout punch late in the game. 

#5 Isaac Van Loh – The Rizz of Skywalker

This list goes all in on the Anakin and Arcs goodness. The inclusion of 4 additional sniper teams allows Isaac to soften up targets before charging in, while providing an excellent counter to clone commandos. 

#4 Trevor Wicks - Ani’s Heroes

My list relies on nearly perfect turn 1 order control to place all of its powerful pieces in the right positions.

Anakin, Bad Batch and the Clone Commandos are usually able to alpha strike at least 1 unit in the opening turn thanks to excellent order control and Rex's scouting party.

Unfortunately a close round 1 lost to Isaac denied me the chance at placing higher than 4th. 

#3 Matt Evans -Rebel Onslaught

The defending champ, as well as the recently crowned GenCon champ, once again brough a ragtag assortment of Rebels, this time lead by OP Luke. His Flamethrower AT-RT are a great cheap activation, especially with plenty of large B2 units running riot. However, even the defending champ couldn't get past the three headed monster of Anakin, Yoda and the Bad Batch. 

#2 Ryan Schneider - Grand Army of the Republic

#1 DeltaDave - The Shadow of Greed

The final table was a mirror match between two undefeated Anakin, Yoda and Bad Batch lists. These lists are truly terrifying, forcing the opponent to pick their poison from amongst the best units in the game.

Dave held a slight advantage in victory points(7-5) and kill points(235-189) when time was called, allowing him to usurp fellow Indy Garrison member Matt Evans' Crown. 

Final Standings

John’s 2024 Michigan GT Thoughts

John’s 2024 Michigan GT Breakdown

Every year I look forward to attending the Michigan GT. Every year Matthew Gergley puts on a great event. There is always great turnout, games run smoothly, and most importantly there is always solid prize support. I also cant say enough about all of the good people in the Michigan, Indy, Ohio, and anywhere else I may be forgetting for showing up every year and being fun people to compete with.

                This post is to put some of my thoughts to paper regarding what I saw, learned, and experienced at this year’s Michigan GT in each game, especially in light of all the changes to the rules that were made shortly before the tournament. My list for the tournament is below.

____________________________________________________
999/1000

10 Activations

Anakin Skywalker 155 + 24 = 179

--Burst of Speed (10), Saber Throw (5), Into the Fray (4), Seize the Initiative (5)

Clone Captain Rex 95 + 13 = 108

--Up Close and Personal (8), Recon Intel (5)

Clone Trooper Infantry 56 + 62 = 118

--Fives (40), DP-23 Clone Trooper (22)

2x Clone Trooper Infantry 56 + 17 = 73 x 2 = 146

--Clone Medic (17)

2x Arc Troopers 58 + 22 = 80 x 2 = 160

--Clone Commander (22)

2x AT-RT 60 + 25 = 85 x 2 = 170

--AT-RT Flamethrower (15), HQ Uplink (10)

LAAT/LE Patrol Transport 100 + 18 = 118

--Armor-Piercing Shells (10), High-Energy Shells (8)

Ambush•, This Is Where the Fun Begins•, Lead from the Front••, You Underestimate My Power••, We're Not Programmed•••, General Skywalker•••, Standing Orders••••

Breakthrough, Shifting Priorities, Recover the Research

Marked Targets, Surface Scan, Bring Them to Heel

Cunning Deployment, Fortified Position, Advanced Intel

______________________________________________

Overall Plan for My List

1)      Get the three As (Anakin, Arcs, Atrts) into melee as quickly as possible and cause as much distraction and damage as possible. Facilitate this by utilizing scout and scouting party on Anakin.

2)      Use my Medic squads, and the Laat to provide support at range and capture objectives while the enemy is distracted.

3)      Rex should be situational and should either be used for killing or objective play depending on situation.

4)      Win by breaking the enemy as much as possible and distracting them from the objectives

Game 1

Win on Victory Points

Breakthrough and Marked Targets

My opponent this game was a droid player, they brought Dooku, Grevious, Magnaguards and a whole lot of B2 with heal bots. The big winners in this game were my AT-RTS, Anakin and my Arc Troopers. With the rule changes to all three they are more powerful than ever and were killing battle droids left and right. The only issue were the medbots that were incredibly annoying to deal with. For the AT-RT the flamethrower was very effective and I was able to use the kick to finish off Grevious. The Arc troopers were great and were able to handle Dooku. Anakin was able to handle the marked targets giving me the win. The Laat and the medics really just shot the whole game and provided suppression. After this game I was feeling pretty happy with my strategy to dive and destroy with the three As while I used the medics and the Laat to capture objectives. Lastly Rex did not do much at all and this was a theme for the rest of the tournament.

Game 2

Loss on Victory Points

                This game was similar to the first one but instead of Dooku he had Poggle and More B2s and Heals. The 7 squads of B2s was just too much for my list. I could not kill enough of them to make my strategy work and my ATRTs were shredded like paper. Even Anakin was beaten to death by super battle droids.

Game 3

Loss on Kill Points

                In this game my opponent had a Rebel Hero Hammer with Cassian, Lando, Mando, Boba Fett, and K2SO with some laser dishes and some rebel z-6s. This list was great and made me want to try it out in the future. The Flame throwers on Mando and Boba Fett were absolutely brutal and they were both obnoxious to kill. The Dishes were severely impeded by the terrain blocking off a large portion of their sight lines, but they were able to essentially block off a major alley for mt ATRTs to advance. Overall he just put more damage on me.

Game 4

Win on Kill Points

                In this game my opponent had somewhat of a mirror list. But instead of ATRTs they had Clone commandos. And instead of Rex there were more Arcs. Not really too much to say here, other than my opponent’s Umbara themed troopers won the painting competition, and deservedly so they were absolutely amazing. Other than that both of us employed similar strategies and it brought us to a stalemate, Killing his snipers were easier points for me and my early focus on torching his republic commandos proved to be the game changer.

Game 5

Loss on Victory Points

                I went up against Palpatine, the inqisitors, Range troopers and Royal Guard. The range troopers completely shredded me and Palpatine is crazy good with the new rules. The inquisitors weren’t as scary as I thought they might be. The new back up/entourage system is crazy good with Palpatine and the Royal guards. Its almost impossible to touch him until he can get to you.

Major Take Aways:

1)      Range 2 is really good now. My best performing units were my ATRTs and my Arc troopers. Having close range screener units are crutial in any list now.

2)      Super Battledroids are really good, especially with heal bots. Their wrist rockets, and range 2 guns were killers for anything that got close.

3)      Vehicles are out and troopers are in. I never had a moment in any of the games I played where I felt like I wanted a saber tank or ATST. Troopers in cover provide a great amount of heft and with the changes to armor its much more susceptible to infantry.

4)      Anakin, and Bad Batch, and Clone Commandos are really good.

Matt’s 2024 Michigan GT BReakdown

This past Sunday marked the end of a spectacular weekend with great friends and five action-packed games of Star Wars Legion. I went into Lansing with some fellow MSU alums (Go Spartans!) as part of our newly-formed legion group, Overly Critical. I have been playing Star Wars Legion since it launched over six years ago - although this year’s Michigan GT marks the first time I have played Star Wars Legion outside of my own circle of friends. The recent announcement of edition 2.6 brought a fresh set of changes to the game, and to my chagrin I have less than a dozen games of the new edition under my belt, but the five games in the tournament gave me a ton of perspective from players of all different factions and playstyles – and I can say with certainty that I walk away as a better player from my time there. The experience was extremely rewarding and nearly everyone I encountered welcomed me into the community with open arms and smiles – being gracious about both my inexperience in the tournament setting, my own evolving understanding of the new rules changes, and my own social anxiety and sensory overload. But once I had the chance to settle in and focus up on the game in front of me and the opponent I was facing, I found that I was feeling much more relaxed and comfortable. Being there with two fantastic, encouraging friends doesn’t hurt either. Below is a breakdown of the list that I brought:

Papi V and the Dewbs 999/1000 – 11 Activations

Director Orson Krennic 65 + 18 = 83 --Esteemed Leader (5), Improvised Orders (5), Electrobinoculars

Darth Vader (Dark Lord of the Sith) 170 + 20 = 190 --Force Reflexes (5), Burst of Speed (10), Saber Throw (5)

3x Stormtroopers 42 + 19 = 61 x 3 = 183 --FX-9 Medical Droid (19)

Imperial Death Troopers 72 + 20 = 92 --DT-F16 (15), Comms Relay (5), E-11D (0)

2x Imperial Death Troopers 72 + 30 = 102 x 2 = 204 --DLT-19D Trooper (30), E-11D (0)

Dewback Rider 70 + 9 = 79 --Into the Fray (4), RT-97C Blaster Rifle (5)

2x Dewback Rider 70 + 14 = 84 x 2 = 168 --Into the Fray (4), CR-24 Flame Rifle (10)

Implacable•, Vader's Might•, Deploy the Garrison••, Fear and Dead Men••, Annihilation Looms•••, Darkness Descends•••, Standing Orders••••

Close the Pocket, Breakthrough, Recover the Research Surface Scan, Bring Them to Heel, Sweep and Clear Advanced Intel, Cunning Deployment, Strafing Run

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Four of the five factions were represented in the GT – Empire, Rebels, GAR, and CIS. While Shadow Collective did not make an appearance as a faction, by some coincidence it happened to be the prize I won for placing 10th overall. I ended up playing all the factions except for Rebels. For the sake of brevity, I won’t go in detail regarding individual game recaps. The long and short of the list is to get Darth Vader and the Dewbacks into the heart of the opponent’s army with a turn-one Darkness Descends, infiltrating Vader and then using Burst of Speed to get him into immediate threat range and being the rampaging murderer that we know and love. The Dewbacks brought their aprons, tongs, and spatulas for the grillout and cooked some squads rather nicely. Krennic’s Exemplar allows him to pass out tokens, especially to the DT’s that bring up the rear line with the serious firepower and hardiness they bring. The Comms Relay on the DT-F16 squad allowed me to have an order on Krennic every turn using Entourage. Improvised Orders helped tremendously with order control, especially on turn one if I drew a Dewback out of the bag too early on.

My first game was a loss to an Empire list that featured Emperor Palpatine, both Inquisitors, and Range Troopers. Game two marked my first victory – one against a CIS list with General Grievous, Count Dooku and buttload of B2s. I managed to cap off the last game of the first day with a second win against a GAR list with Bad Batch at the helm. The second day marked my second time losing to Empire, this time to the likes of Op Vader and Iden with an AT-ST and a pair of E-Webbs raining down from above. But in the fifth and final game of the tournament, I managed to get my third win against another Republic list, this time with Commander Cody, an ISP, and three zippy BARCs. The tournament organizers were super-friendly and went above and beyond in hosting a fun event. I cannot wait to come back next year and see what new ideas the community will come up with. With Crab Droids not that far around the corner, perhaps there will be a new era on the horizon – the Era of the Crustacean.

Signing off, Matt Crabtree

74-Z Speeder Bike Breakdown

Unit Breakdown: 74-Z Speeder Bikes

The 74-Z speeder is one of my favorite units in my favorite faction. When played well speeder bikes can be a very fast and hard-hitting unit. Being that the speeder bike was one of the first Star Wars Legion Units to come out for the game they can sometimes feel a bit dated and simplistic compared to some of the newer units but they can still be effective.

Card Breakdown:

Points: Speeder bikes have been continuously had their points lowered since launch. Currently speeder bikes cost 70 points for 2 models. With only a comms upgrade available you shouldn’t have too much of a problem finding somewhere to put speeder bikes into an imperial list.

Keywords: 

• Cover 1 – You should always have at least one of your speeder bike behind light cover so that your unit benefits from the complete cover 2. It is essential for your speeder bikes to last.

• Speeder 1 – This allows you to fly straight over most obstacles, as well as giving you a free compulsory move, making this unit super-fast and mobile.

Wounds and Defense: The speeder bikes have three wounds for each bike rolling white dice for defense and surging to block. This makes the speeder bikes super squishy and vulnerable if left in a bad position or going against the wrong unit. Take care to always be in cover to benefit from cover 2 and use your speed to keep moving and disrupting your opponent. Ultimately your speeder bikes will die, but your goal should be for them to cause as much damage as possible on the way out. Speeder bikes cannot break, but if you lose a bike it makes your attack pool much less effective.

Speed: Bikes are fast, Compulsory move + Speed 3 can get you where you need to go quickly.

Attack: Speeder bikes come with the Ax-20 Blaster Cannon and the EC-17 Hold-out Blaster. Speeder bikes also have the benefit of surging to hit when they attack. Making their attack pools pretty reliable.

• Ax-20 Blaster Cannon – This will be the weapon your speeder bikes utilize most. Your unit will throw 2 red 2 black, and 2 white attack dice with impact 2. This is helpful in taking out armor as well as mowing down infantry. You are limited to your front arc only.

• EC-17 Hold-out Blaster – This should only be used when one of your bikes does not have a shot in their front arc.

Upgrade Slots: The speeder bikes only have a comms slot available. This is one of those dated elements of the unit, but it is really the only kind of upgrade they need. For the comms slot there are a few upgrades that you may want to consider when kitting your speeder bikes out.

• Linked Targeting Array – This in my opinion is the best upgrade to give your speeder bikes. Should you have three speeder boke units with linked targeting array if you pair it with the Assault command card you can get a turn Where your speeder bikes get two speed three moves with an aim and a shot. Beyond that, one turn giving your speeder bikes a free aim gives them more options and more chances to take dodges to keep them alive a little longer, or the chance to take another move.

• Long Range Comlink – Could be a good upgrade for your speeder bikes but I find that the linked targeting array is a better option. If you are playing something like breakthrough or your intention is to go far ahead of your army this upgrade may be more important. Usually, I can feel comfortable avoiding it especially if my commander has commanding presence or battle meditation.

• Comms Jammer – An interesting card if you want to get right into your enemy’s face as quickly as possible, but I find this only helps for a turn before the bikes are focused and destroyed.

• HQ Uplink – Too expensive, unless you possibly run a single bike that you want to make sure has an order.

General Strategy:

• Take 3 bikes if you can (you can take 4 in blizzard force, but I think that may be too many) one or two bikes is still good but their effectiveness goes up the more you include. You can deploy your bikes together or have them on either flank to force your opponent to split their attention. I typically prefer to deploy them all together.

• Take as many opportunities as possible you can to run your opponent over and displace them causing maximum disruption.

• Bikes work best as a turn one strike unit. Deploy your bikes completely out of sight or hiding as best as deployment and terrain allow. Deploy your officers or Veers close to the bikes. My go to if I am playing Veers or an Imperial officer with the bikes (you should). Is playing assault turn one. This gives all bikes an order and if you have equipped with Linked Targeting, they will all get an aim. Then you can pass aims from Veers or the officers to your bikes. This starts each bike with two aims before they have done anything. Hold your bikes until they are your last units and then drive them towards a soft spot in your enemy’s defenses. Take your shot with all three bikes utilizing your aims to do the most damage.

• Turn 2 you are best using Veers 2 pip or the generic 2 pip. This will allow you to give orders to most of your bikes again giving them another aim. Go as quickly as possible with your bikes (you may even win priority). Take shots on your way out and move your bike to get in position for their next attack.

• Your bikes will eventually die, but your goal should be to distract and cause as much damage as they can on their way out. Hopefully they distract your enemy while you move the rest of your army into position/grab objectives.

Imperial Remnant:

• Not super keen on this list for bikes, don’t see an amazing amount of synergies here over Blizzard force or Tempest force

Tempest Force:

• The one pip and three pip from tempest force synergize well with speeder bikes, Major Marquand’s command cards also buff speeder bikes, the only downside is no Veers.

• Vehicles in this force also gain scout 2 which is beneficial for the speeder bikes if you want to have them up even further.

Blizzard Force:

• Bikes are excellent in blizzard force but besides the ability to take 4 of them they don’t get much more benefit being in blizzard force.

Synergies: 

• General Veers – Veer’s command cards and abilities pair extremely well with the speeder bikes. If you give Veers electro binoculars he can pass aims to three bikes turn one. His two command slots also give him more freedom to take commanding presence to allow for more order control for the bikes. Veers two and three pips also synergize well with the bikes giving them reliable orders and on the two pip turn gives them dodges and outmaneuver

• Imperial officer – Budget Veers, if you don’t have enough points for veers this is your next best option. Or you can combine one officer with Veers or have two officers. Provide them with electro binoculars and they will be able to pass a ton of aims.

• Boba Fett – quick unit that can keep up with the bikes, although they may compete for orders. 

• AT-ST – Pairs well with the bikes by being a more sturdy unit that can back the bikes from afar, also is another unit in the blizzard force that you can take with bikes.

• Corps Units – Having a bunch of corps units to come in after the bikes have done their damage to clean up weakened squads and nab objectives is super important.

List Examples:

The Start of Overly Critical

Hello Everyone!

This post is to announce the start of a new miniature wargaming team, Overly Critical!

We are a Michigan based team of three mainly playing Star Wars Legion and Flames of War.

This blog is for our thoughts on anything relating to the miniature wargaming scene, thoughts on specific units, lists, or strategies, game pictures, or progress on how we are practicing for our next tournament.

Stay tuned as we will be preparing for the Michigan GT in September.

-John