I’m slowly expanding my Imperial army in the hopes that I can start crushing my son and his pathetic band of Rebel fighters. Atomic Mass Games (AMG) have already started to provide players with a wide range of units. Now I say started, most of these units have been out for several years and you can go and pick them up, but you will need the new and revised cards to play them. While my want for certain units might be high, I wanted to stick to the new releases that I could just pick up the box and play with. Next up on my list were the Range Troopers.
These are a more modern trooper unit, appearing in Solo and Andor. Being a huge fan of the latter, I was eager to use them and paint them. Their design means it’s not just a simple coat of white paint, being more like the snowtroopers in terms of colour. While I want to say that it was their playability, the painting aspect of them was really drawing me in. With a full unit to be able to add to my forces and seven models, I was eager to see what benefits they would give me.
On opening the box, I found all the usual things. Sprues, bases, cards, token sheet and the leaflet guiding me to the building guide on the AMG website. I went straight to the unit card to find out what I was getting. With Star Wars Shatterpoint, I always make my models first and then look at the cards. In Legion, I find that I want to check my options, in case I have to worry that I need to decide between building options. This happened with my last unit – the Imperial Special Forces – and I wasn’t too sure if it would happen here. Thankfully a quick check on numbers told me that I didn’t need to worry. A unit of four with three upgrade options; seven models!
The unit itself costs seventy points but looking down the keyword list and my eyes were lighting up. ‘Advanced Targeting: Trooper 1’ was certainly going to help going against troopers; ‘Armour 1’ meant that these guys were not going to be too squishy; ‘Indomitable’ I should be able to rally without too many problems; ‘Scale’ and ‘Spur’ I was going to be speedy, if I needed to be. Already I was seeing a lot of positives of why I should play them. Then I saw the range of their blasters, 1-4! That is quite a large range, one that would mean I could leave them near the back of my forces and force the enemy to come to me. I’m not going to lie; I was already sold on this unit!
So, the upgrades. These upgrades can only be used by Range Troopers, which makes sense, but I always love it when the upgrades are a bit more flexible and can be used by other units. The first upgrade allows for another Range Trooper to be added. For fifteen points, this seems like a no-brainer. That left the other two. Unfortunately, you can’t take both in the unit, but both seem to have a lot of advantages. The first, the T-21A Trooper has a range of four and gives you two white dice and two black to your pool and adds suppressive. The other trooper (DLT-20A Trooper) gives you two red dice but has the bonus of being range five. I can see where both of these could come in useful. That said, I think the former will probably be my preferred choice, just because the range is in keeping with the rest of the unit. That said, having a model that can go just that bit further could be useful in a game, allowing me to hold the unit back from possible enemy fire.
This unit is already impressing me, I can see where it will fit into my army, how I would use it and hopefully wreak havoc on my enemy. With the cards examined, battleplans forming in my mind, it was time for the last part: breaking out the sprues and assembling the models. There are two sets of instructions on the AMG website. I was slightly confused as to which to use, until I realised that they are exactly the same! So, save yourself some time, it doesn’t matter which you use. You’ll assemble one of the A, B and C troopers and two of D and E, to give you a total of seven troopers.
I started with trooper A. The trooper goes together relatively easily. The one part I found slightly tricky was part A09, you need to push it quite forcibly until it clicks as the left arm is in the way. I added mine and then put some ultra-thin glue to where it joins to the model to give me the time to get into place correctly. As you are building it, you can’t help but notice the sheer detail on this model. The fur, the helmet, the armour, it looks superb. The boots are that detailed they come in two pieces to ensure nothing is lost in the creation process. I could not keep my eyes off the model as I was waiting for the glue to set; this is a really impressive model. The pose is a traditional pose but with all the attitude you want from a model; I really can’t wait to paint him!
Onto model B, and this was much the same set-up. It was good to have the instructions saying to add the legs before the rest of the parts to the body, I’d probably go further and say add the coat parts before the arm just to make life that bit easier. The model goes together no problem, and I like that they tell you which arm to put on first. Like model A, the detail is superb, particularly at this scale. Model C will see you moving to the second sprue to get the parts but otherwise is almost the same as model B. Put the coat parts on before the arm and you’re all good to go.
Then it’s the two duplicate rangers. Ranger D follows the same procedure as the previous models which I really like. As you know how to assemble them from the first three, doing both D models together is easy and cuts your build time down. Like the other builds, put the coat parts on first but otherwise it shouldn’t cause you any issues. I love that this model and ranger C have straight forward heads. While it technically reduces the motion of the model, there is something almost sinister about them looking straight forward and with ranger D, striding forward.
Model E is all that is left, building up two copies of it. Unlike the other models, this has a slight variation, which is the weapon. Each model needs a different weapon. It might seem like such a small thing, but I am so happy that they only give you one of each weapon so you can’t accidentally assemble them incorrectly by giving the same weapon to two different models! In any case, just like the others, the models go together easily.
The squad as a whole looks superb, each one is full of details and I love the poses. They are not too dynamic which adds to the impression that these guys are rather heavy, you can almost feel the effort it is taking for them to move. Add this to the impressive stats for the unit and I have to say that I am really looking forward to using these in my lists – not to mention painting them. These are a very strong contender for any Imperial player looking to expand their starter set. Look for a future battle report where I will be putting them (and some other units) through their paces to see how they measure up on the tabletop field! Even at this stage, I’m wondering if I need a second unit of these as I think they suit my play style!
The Star Wars Legion: Range Troopers pack from Atomic Mass Games retails at £49.99. It is available now from high street gaming stores and online retailers including Amazon UK and Amazon US.
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