The Empire’s Dismal Competitive Win Rate

Why Imperials are lagging behind at major events in Star Wars: Legion

Factional win rates, based on a large number of tournament games, are often used as an indicator of competitive faction balance. Raknar of Brews and Blasters recently published a chart showing win rates for each faction using data pulled from Longshanks. Ideally we’d like to see a factional win rate between 45 and 55 percent, but the Empire has noticeably lagged behind. In North America, the win rate for Imperial dipped to 37 percent during the period of September 4th to Nov 11th, 2024.

There are multiple factors that can explain the Empire's low tournament win rate. Version 2.6 brought sweeping changes to competitive Legion with new progressive scoring, new objectives and significant unit revisions. As part of these revisions, several Imperial units had their melee tuned down. In addition, Empire, in my opinion, is not well positioned to meet the demands of the new objective styles present in Legion 2.6.

Empire’s “Faction Identity” is Tactically Weak in 2.6

There is no doubt that 2.6 has put a stronger emphasis on close range encounters. “New Legion” has successfully broken the hegemony of defensive ranged play and Empire has come out the worse for it. With 2.6 pushing close range encounters to the forefront, and with Force Push being increased to 40 points and thus less prominent, units that can succeed in close combat long-term are highly desirable. Every turn a unit survives on a Point of Interest after round 2 means it contributes to scoring. Empire’s “faction identity” (I put this in quotes because as far as I’m aware, the developers never used the term) has been that defensive gun-line archetype. Even Blizzard Force’s best iterations emphasized high firepower and threats beyond range 4 between Heavy Response Stormtroopers, AT-ST and Speeder Bikes.

In addition to this shift, many Imperial units were revised to be weaker in melee. The Imperial gun line used to be able to rely on the surging black dice melee of their Stormtroopers and Snowtroopers to counterattack units that engaged them, but the 2.6 revision has taken it away, replacing it with surging white dice.

There’s an argument to be made that this was a necessary change, since doubled squads would have been capable of producing a very efficient combination of melee and wounds backed by red defense dice. My additional speculation is that this change was partially made to make room for Riot Troopers, who gain surge to hit while engaged, and have black a black dice melee attack. But Riots haven’t lived up to the hype, which we’ll explore further on.

A Lack of Impervious and Immune: Pierce

The Empire has an overall lack of defensive tech at the corps and special forces level, and is starving for protection from piercing attacks. The Empire is primarily a red saves faction and as such, is highly vulnerable to piercing units, many of which are also found in melee. All of the other factions have access to this style of unit, and can field them as a significant and effective portion of their army:

• Rebels: Mandalorian Resistance and Clan Wren

• Separatists: BX-series Commando Droids

• Republic: ARC Troopers and Clone Commandos

• Shadow Collective: Mandalorian Super-Commandos

In addition, each of the above units has some access to scout or has significant mobility, making them more adept at playing the new objectives.

Lack of Wide Melee Availability

Post 2.6, the Empire's sources of powerful melee, outside of their heroes and operatives, are confined to a few units:

• Dewbacks: single-model creature trooper with optional flamer and a strong bite attack. The support slot is also not particularly competitive; arguably the best option for non-Blizzard Empire lists. Has Relentless for high flexibility.

• Royal Guard: Relatively expensive for the offense provided, has Charge. Taking the Electro-staff Guard makes them immune to pierce in melee.

• Dark Troopers: Dark Troopers have Armor 3 and a good melee attack, and activate twice. Armor 3 helps mitigate low-dice piercing shots that don’t have Impact, like snipers. This means that against anything that isn’t a Jedi, when coupled with Aggressive Tactics, they should be durable and pack a decent punch.

The Failure of Riots

Riot Troopers, unfortunately, have proven so far to be a dud competitively, and their lack of Impervious is, in my opinion, the primary reason for it.

Copyright LFL and AMG

A low wound count (6 or less) unit that is supposed to be able to grind it out long-term in melee needs some kind of defense against pierce to be taken seriously, since many strong melee units also pierce. Riots only gain surge to block while in melee, meaning they have to get there as fast as possible or risk being deleted by enemies with ranged pierce, like Fleet Troopers or Black Sun Enforcers. If they don’t get deleted, they will arrive having been rendered ineffective. Taking expensive transports to make them more effective is also throwing good points after bad. They don’t even play the cheap chaff role well given their expensive base cost.

What Directions Can Be Explored?

I didn’t want to leave this article without some suggestions for Empire players going forward. I don’t own an Empire army, so I cannot do any playtesting personally, but here are some speculative options going forward:

• Building around Suppressive: Probably the most-tried of all my recommendations, the Empire has access to myriad units with Suppressive, as well as an excellent secondary in “Bring Them to Heel.”

• Veers & AT-ST: Using Veers’ Guidance: Ground Vehicle to pop Standby on an AT-ST generally means that an AT-ST staring at a Point of Interest with enemies on it will shoot twice every turn. Veers can also Guidance move actions, meaning the ST can move twice per round and still shoot.

• Dark Troopers: Their major issue is their lack of mobility, but I think they are worth a look when upgraded with the Assault Cannon and Programmed Loyalty. Pair them with Standby-containing command cards for additional moves and attacks. Their Standby also can’t be removed via suppression. They will be vulnerable to Impact Grenades and large dice pools with pierce, however.

• Spamming Large Stormtrooper Squads: A new spin on a very old tactic for Empire (think 2018), a mountain of red save bodies makes anything without Pierce very sad.

Are any of these options actually competitive? Testing is required. The meta is soft, and a lot can succeed right now. The Las Vegas Open GT and Invitational is on the way, and of course, the World Open is happening in March in Milwaukee. I predict by April we will have an even sharper picture of the Empire's state, and what fares well competitively in general.

Have you had success playing Empire? If so, leave a comment describing what’s been working for you on the tables.