Post a Comment On: Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

[Image]30mm Storm Troopers from Fantasy Flight Games' "Star Wars: Legion" game - these are the fellows from the Core Box starter set.

More Star Wars Legion on the blog? Why yes, of course! "Star Wars" content is hardly new to this blog at all, but painting it is new to me. I have finally been sufficiently tempted to dive into Fantasy Flight Games' "Star Wars: Legion" myself. The figures seen here are my first (pretty uneven) attempts at painting some figures from the range. These are the Storm Troopers that come with the Core Game box, and I finished them off this week.
[Image]While I dislike the soft-ish plastic, the figures are nice sculpts - they really capture that awkward pose the Storm Troopers always seem to manage (right before they get drilled).

As someone prone to diving into new wargaming projects, I guess that is odd, in retrospect, that I held off so long from starting on these figures. There are a number of reasons - the odd scale, the strange, soft-ish plastic, and then there is the fact that the "Legion" rules themselves leave quite a lot to be desired. The game is overly complicated.  To take just one example, Legion requires different bespoke rulers for both movement of units and measurement of distances, trying to structure the rules such that "distance" and "range" are different concepts. This is, at best, absurdly complicated and a little grifty, while leading to rules that read with the same flow of a post-modern gender studies paper. And this is before you get into the cards...and from there, the small galaxy full of tokens that pollute the board..."Legion" makes any skirmish rules written by the Too Fat Lardies look like "Tic-Tac-Toe". Without the passionate - and very, very patient - guidance of Dave V, I never would have made it through my first game of "Legion"
[Image]Storm Trooper carrying a support weapon that looks an awful lot like a spaced-up MG-42...

But the main reason, I think, I have avoided "Star Wars: Legion" is because, well, the rest of the Conscripts have the period and setting so thoroughly covered. Looking through the blog, you will see many, many games set in the "Star Wars" universe, from fleet battles to skirmishes. I have been spoiled for years and years...I did not have to lift a finger to enjoy "Star Wars" with the Conscripts. So many great memories - although I have to say getting the opportunity to zap C-3PO with an orbital strike remains a great highlight. I love "holo-Veers"...
[Image]A view showing some the rear detail on the Storm Troopers.

Of course, that has changed now that I have moved. I can no longer take "Star Wars" gaming for granted. If I still want to enjoy "Star Wars", I'll need to get into it myself. So, here we go...I thought I would start with these Storm Troopers from the Core Box. I mean, if you can't blast a bunch of Storm Troopers, what kind of "Star Wars" game - regardless of rules - could you realistically expect to ever enjoy, right? I also find that (finally) having some "Star Wars" figures of my own completed serves as a nice reminder of the many, many great "Star Wars" games I have enjoyed over the years with my friends in Winnipeg. Even if takes a while to get a game in with them, I will enjoy having them on the shelf for that reason.
[Image]Another view of one of the squads.

The Storm Troopers were harder to paint than I expected, although in retrospect I should not have been surprised - they wear armour that is a very pure and bright white, with an undersuit, weapons and accessories that are all black - both notoriously tricky colours to paint, and in particular, the flat surfaces are not a great match for my painting style. But I stumbled through it, and now have a nice little start on the Imperial forces for "Star Wars: Legion". I am moving on to the basic Rebel infantry before trying to screw up the courage to tackle the biker scouts - with their ever trickier mix of white armour and black underneath - up next...
That's all for now - Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to folks out there. Thanks for reaidng!