ANZAC Cup

After my first Legion tournament experience at Cancon, I was itching for more. When Legion was announced as part of ANZAC Cup 2019, I signed up eagerly. Once proper authorisation from the Mrs was given of course.

There wasn't too much painting to do for this tournament, as I had done a lot of it and made a display board for Cancon. Even so, I still added two Scout Sniper Strike Teams, two units of Stormtroopers and most importantly Bobba Fett to my collection in between the two tournaments. Here are some happy snaps of the army I took to ANZAC Cup.

The Bobba, Veers and Troopers Extravaganza!

Trooper Spam is a thing.

He's coming for your commanders and supply boxes.

791/800

General Veers 98
Esteemed Leader, Improvised Orders, Environmental Gear,
 

Boba Fett 156
Hunter, Emergency Stims, Recon Intel,

Stormtroopers 83
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Imperial Comms Technician, Comms Relay,
 

Stormtroopers 88
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Imperial Officer Upgrade,
 

Stormtroopers 87
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, FX-9 Medical Droid,
 

Stormtroopers 68
DLT-19 Stormtrooper,
 

Stormtroopers 44
 

Snowtroopers 73
Flametrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
 

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 47
DLT-19x Sniper, Grappling Hooks,
 

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 47
DLT-19x Sniper, Grappling Hooks.

No surprises here. Bobba, Veers, trooper spam and snipers has been the primary Imperial meta for a while now. A very similar list piloted by LJ Pena recently took out 4th place at Adepticon Legion High Command. May it bear me to similarly good fortunes here!

Command Hand

Maximum Firepower, Whipchord, Push, ZX Flamer, Coordinated Fire, Jetpack Rocket.

Objective

Recover the Supplies, Breakthrough, Intercept the Transmissions, Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators.

Deployment

Advanced Positions, Major Offensive, Battlelines, Long March.

Condition

Clear Conditions, Minefield, Rapid Reinforcement, Hostile Environment.

For my battle deck I cut Key Positions because I lack a Vader/Luke type piece to strongly contest the central position. I cut Disarray as it is horrible for my single-commander army , and I cut Limited Visibility because of all of mine range 4+ weapons.

I managed 3 practice games with this list. Not ideal, but it was the best I can do whilst juggling family, work and hobby. I tinkered with the list after each practice game, and received some valuable advice from Pascal Tiger (Cancon Legion Champion). I gradually added more specialists to the list and ended up taking one of each except the Astromech Droid. The Comms Tech is there for Coordinated Fire obviously, the Officer helps me manage suppression and the Medical droid is primarily there to support Bobba as he goes into danger. The specialists also help to bulk up my DLT Stormtrooper squads, making them more resilient to attrition. The extra white attack die ain't bad either when they have Precise 1. Finally I took a largish 9pt bid, so that I can play with my battle deck.

My first impression of ANZAC Cup was how well organised it was. The registration process pre-tournament and on-the-day was a breeze, the player's pack was available months before and very professionally put together, and the tables were all set up ready for play.

It was a fair-sized convention, with 135 registered players across 9 game systems. There were also combat simulators (more on that later), demonstration games and traders. The convention raised funds for Soldier On, a charity that supports our service members, which was great.

Legion was one of the smaller tournaments with 7 players. If you're reading this I would encourage you to come and play Legion next year. It is a quality game at a quality event. We were right next to the X-wing tournament and the two events were linked. If you won your game, you can give in-game bonuses (e.g. orbital strike) to players of the same faction in the other event. That was a cool little touch and brought two events closer together as a Star Wars community.

This convention is organised by serving members of the ADF (Australian Defence Force) who are also members of the ADFWGA (ADF Wargaming Association), so naturally a high level of organisation and efficiency was expected. Even so, I was blown away by how well run it was. A big shout out to Ty Casey the convention organiser, his crew and Ben Jordan the Legion TO, for their amazing work. Ty is an amazing individual who provided most of the kit including tables and terrain for this convention, and also runs TAOR. Ty's day job is to train army recruits, and he certainly used his Drill Sargeant's voice to good effect throughout the weekend! Ben was TO for both Legion and X-wing, playing in Legion, whilst having his two little kidlets there! I also tip my hat to Ben's Mrs who kept the said kidlets entertained through the weekend and watched their little fingers didn't knock anything over!

The Legion tables are in-a-word stunning. Each table is beautifully themed. There is also a good variety of terrain, LoS blocking/scatter, open/difficult etc.

That U-wing!

Desert village. On Jakku perhaps?

Industrial Town

Endor

Sullust Industrial Facility

And my personal favourite the City Table. The posters and street art are incredible and added so much character to it.

Sabine's handiwork?

My favourite poster tucked away under a staircase - "Remember Scarif". Many valiant Shoretroopers fell that dark day.

Those rebel scum!

"He can do it alone on the Implacable turn." Pascal Tiger

Damn straight!

Every man, woman and child has a role to play in supporting the Imperial war effort.

Join the ranks of the elite Stormtrooper Corp and bring order to the galaxy!

Angus brought an interesting Imperial Army: Krennic, 1x Deathtroopers, 2x Bikes, 1x E-web, 2x Stormtroopers and 2x Snowtroopers.

We played Key Positions, Battlelines and Clear Conditions. A classic scenario.

I enjoyed all of my games at ANZAC Cup and all of my opponents were great sports. If I had to choose a game I enjoyed playing the most, it would be the one with Angus. It was self-deprecating humour, Star Wars and Legion stories all game long.

I deploy in a standard gunline along my table edge.

Angus also deploy in a gunline, but more spread out into a double flank attack posture. Note the Mimban Stormtrooper heads. They look ace.

Krennic (subbed by Mud Officer from Skullforge Studios), Deathtroopers, Bikes and Snowtroopers deploy on Angus' right flank, whilst another squad of Snowtroopers on his extreme left.

We maneuvered and traded some long range shots in Round 1, and then Angus played Annihilation Looms in Round 2. Let me tell you, it hurts. Even with Veers and the Officer inspiring my troops, they still struggled to get 2 actions this round. I was able to wipe out a unit of flanking Snowtroopers on my right flank though.

After this, I was able to get the attrition advantage, suppressing Angus' stormies, picking off the E-web with Bobba and reducing the Deathtroopers to just one model (yep, they're vulnerable to piercing sniper shots).

Angus' bikes swing around the U-wing on my left flank. Here comes that flank attack!

The bikes inflicted casualties on the Snowtroopers and Bobba. However they fell short of contesting the central key position. With most of Angus' army out-of-position or too suppressed to contest it, I pushed three squads forward and claimed it decisively on the final round. I've opened the tournament with a win!

On a slightly sour and very comedic note, my Bobba got suppressed eight times, managed to rally only twice, and panicked on the last turn. At least he didn't run off the board!

Brian took a Veers AT-ST list, with 3x DLT Stormtroopers, 1x Snowtroopers, 1x full Scout squad with sniper and 1x E-web.

This game was won and lost on Turn 0. We played Recover the Supplies. Brian was trying to spread his objectives out, however he placed one of the supply crates just outside range 1 of MY deployment zone. It was also placed on top of a building, which is connected by a bridge to a neighbouring building IN my deployment zone. I proceeded to set up my gunline on top of that building and adjoining bridge.

Besides some minor movements to capture objectives and obtain better firing lanes, my army sat in place for the rest of the game and aimed and shot. Here's a good shot of my gunline. Bobba on the left had capped a supply crate in Round 1. There's a sniper team out-of-shot on the right, with Veers, Snowtroopers, another sniper team and two objective-capping Stormtrooper squads out-of-shot on the ground floor.

"Your unit is covered from an elevated position, Commander. I'm not gonna ask you again. Don't do anything stupid. No-one has to die here."

I had secured three objectives (two I placed and one Brian placed) early. The naked four-man Stormtrooper squad is great for this sort of task. I did make a significant error by pushing the other objective carrying stormie squad forward just to get a DLT shot at Veers. They got mauled by the Scouts, and I quickly withdrew them behind cover.

Brian's forces tried valiantly to turn the tide. The Scouts captured the centre supply crate. The Snowtroopers swung around the building and flamed/grenaded my Snowtroopers. In return my gunline opened up and mowed them down.

By the end of Round 5 Brian had Veers, AT-ST, half a squad of Stormtroopers and the Scouts left .

Oh the AT-ST. I love the model, but it's so under-powered. Brian's AT-ST (mortar, light blaster cannon) managed to put out some suppression and kill half a squad of Stormtroopers in 3 rounds of shooting.

Bobba has quickly become my supply crate grabbing specialist. The last three times I played Recover the Supplies he has captured a supply crate and carried it back to my lines.

At the end of Day 1 I was 2-0, which is the best opening day performance I've ever had at a tournament.

Being second on the ladder on the morning of the second day, I knew I was gonna face some stiff competition. Lo and behold I drew Ben the TO who is a very experienced Legion player. His list was a bit different. He fielded an Imperial Officer as his Commander, 4x Snowtroopers (Flametrooper, Frag/Impact grenades, 2 with Officer upgrades), 1x Stormtrooper with Medical Droid, 2x E-webs, 1x IRG with Electrostaff and 2x Sniper teams. I'm gonna call it the Snowtrooper Avalanche. Hey I'm a dad so I'm allowed ok?

We played Transmissions, Major Offensive and Minefield.

I deployed in a compressed gunline AKA Imperial blob formation. Through this tournament I found that deploying my units close together maximised the effects from Inspire, Spotter, Heal and Comms Relay. All of these buffs have a range of 1 or 2.

Ben deployed most of his forces (and there were a lot) next to the transmitter on his end, with a flanking force of IRG and one Snowtrooper squad on his left.

The game started well when I destroyed the IRG with sustained fire. Ben returned the favour and picked off one of my sniper teams with one of his.

After this the game became a gigantic rugby match as both armies pushed to contest the central transmitter sitting on top of a building. A massive scrum forms with the transmitter being the ball. I'm gonna call this game the Transmissions Cup.

Everyone's heard of the Zergling Rush, but have you ever seen a Snowtrooper Avalanche?

Ben had taken an early VP lead of 2-1 in Round 2. The game ended in Round 3 due to time, and double-VP scoring was moved to this round. We pushed our units into range 1 of the central transmitter one after another. I had issued an order to Bobba for this round, and held him right till the end. At this point the Trooper Unit Leader count contesting the central transmitter was 7-6 in Ben's favour.

Bobba goes for the hail mary. He jumps to the other side of the building where he could draw LoS to Ben's Commander. She's just a generic officer with 4 wounds and a 5+ save, and NO Esteemed Leader. Bobba had 4 shots with his carbine and wrist rocket, sharpshooter 2 and pierce 1. If he succeeded in killing the Commander he would level the Trooper Unit Leader count, collect the bounty and tie up VPs. I would then win on kill points because I had taken out a unit of IRG whereas Ben has only taken out a sniper team. I roll the dice and get... 3 hits!! None were saved, but it matter not. Ben's army had won the day and carried home the Transmissions Cup.

The Galactic Civil War rages on. The Rebel Alliance operating out of their secret base on Hoth, makes a daring raid on the Imperial-occupied world of Sullust. This obsidian world supplies vital fuel, minerals and manufactured goods to the Imperial war effort. Crippling its infrastructure would strike a serious blow against the Empire.

Led by the notorious scoundrels Han Solo and Chewbacca, the rebels use their hit-and-run tactics and quickly leave a path of destruction across the planet. Local Imperial forces are too slow to pin down the elusive rebels.

Han and Chewie's latest mission is to sabotage moisture vaporators supplying the Imperial army base garrisoning the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility. Their plan was to draw out the garrison who had to protect their water supply, ambush them and then destroy the important facility itself.

However the hunters became the hunted when an Imperial Task force emerges from hyper space. A rapid response force led by General Veers lands close to the Rebels staging area. Imperial forces were further bolstered by the unexpectedly appearance of Bobba Fett, as he pursues Jabba's bounty on his old nemesis Han across half the galaxy. The stage is set for an epic battle over a strategic facility as well as a very personal confrontation between old foes.

With a 2-1 record after 3 rounds, the fourth and final round is going to decide where I place after the dust settles.

My opponent for this round is Barks. He ran a Walking Carpet list with Han, Chewie, 3x Wookie Warriors (Tenacity, Recon intel, no Bowcaster), 3x Z6 squads and an AT-RT with Rotary Blaster.

We played Vaporators, Long March and Limited Visibility. It was my first time playing Sabotage the Vaporators and it was quite different experience compared to the other missions.

A gorgeous shot of the armies arrayed on this cinematic table.

Barks deploy the Wookie Warriors, Han and AT-RT on his left, a Z-6 squad in the middle, and Chewie and two Z-6 squads on his right.

On the other end of the table I deploy in my standard gunline. I choose to place Bobba on my right flank, as that is where the main threat in the form of a Walking Carpet Tsunami will be coming from.

The first two rounds go by quickly. Due to limited visibility there weren't much for either of us to shoot at. Barks send Chewie and two units of Wookiess to sabotage the Vaporators on his side, and I send two Stormtrooper squads to repair the Vaporators on mine.

Crucially though, Han pushed forward in Round 1. Bobba saw an opportunity and jumped forward to get within range 2. He then attacked last/first over Rounds 1 and 2 and inflicted 3 wounds on Han. Bobba jumps back with his last action of Round 2 and away from some flanking Wookies. A DLT squad also chimes in and inflicts 2 more wounds on Han in Round 2, leaving him bloodied and on his last wound.

Round 3 I play Bobba's Z-6 Jetpack Rocket to finish Han off. However Han goes first and inflicts 2 wounds each to Bobba and Veers. Bobba returns fire and land 5 hits on Han. In a severe case of overkill Han goes down and Bobba takes his bounty to break the Vaporator deadlock!

There was also an entertaining sideshow taking place right in between the dueling nemesis. A massive brawl erupts between a unit of Wookies, an AT-RT and three of my trooper squads. I win that one too, losing a couple of troopers in return for a full unit of Wookies. Their hairy friends were still climbing down from sabotaging the vaporators and couldn't come to their aid in time.

Having won my final game (thanks Bobba, you're the star), I finished the tournament with a 3-1 record. I was awarded Best Painted, making it back-to-back best painted across Legion tournies. And streuth, put another prawn on the barbie son, cos yours truly took out Runner Up!! It was a small tournament of 7 players, but I was still over the moon about my first ever podium finish in over 15 years of tournament wargaming. And as the cherry on top, I received some beautiful alt-art cards and acrylic tokens to add to my loot.

In the grand scheme of things, the convention raised over $5.5K for Soldier On! A fantastic result. So good to know that a bunch of hairy and smelly wargamers can help to make a difference to our service men and women's lives.

1. Bobba is easily my MVP for this tournament. The Mandalorian Army Knife has the ability to capture crucial objectives, hunt enemy characters, mess up trooper units and vehicles, and collect bounties for that valuable single VP to break ties. 
2. The Imperial blob works. Deploying my units close to each other and keeping them that way meant Veer and the Specialists can reach a large proportion of them with buffs. Also when faced with flank attacks, which happened in every single game I played, my formation was able to put out much greater counter-fire at range 3/4/infinite. Each flank attack was repelled or destroyed outright. 
3. Take advice from more experienced players. I did not follow Pascal's advice on battle decks and choose to be Red Player every single game, as I preferenced deploying second and cutting battle cards last. What I ended up with are two games of Limited Visibility where my gunline sat mostly silent for the first two rounds, and a game of Vaporators as Red Player. I managed to pull that one off, but I would have been in a much stronger position playing Vaporators as Blue Player. I wouldn't need to take so many risks with Bobba to capture a bounty and break the VP deadlock. 

Being run by the ADF, we were spoilt with some really cool combat simulation trainers. I had a go on this tactical simulator. That rifle is the same as the standard issue infantry rifle the Australian Army uses, with the insides replaced by electronics. It was heavy, it was loud and it recoils. To operate it you need to load, chamber, unsafe, aim through the scope and press the trigger just like a real rifle. To top it off, the scenario is set in an Afghan village where the zombie plague has broken out! I got to shoot a battle rifle... at Zombies!

Vehicle combat simulator. The gunner uses VR goggles to shoot and interact with the driver. Also I was reliably informed (corrected) that's a 7.62mm mounted on the back, not a .50 cal.

This absolutely knocked my socks off and then they spontaneously combusted on the spot. It's a 30,000pt game of Horus Heresy (30K of 30K, get it, get it?). In this photo only half of the armies have been deployed. They would continue to play this game over the whole weekend, adding more and more reinforcements as the epic battle unfolded.

Reinforcements have arrived in the form of an entire Space Marine Armoured Battalion!

A column of Knights.

Some of the 40K/30K tables on show.

Sorry for the long Blog, here is a photo of an empty field next to the convention building, which would make a perfect Legion learn-to-play battlefield at 1:1 scale.

Until next time, may the force be with you, and I hope to see you across a Legion table soon. Peace out.