Echo Base Defenders: Star Wars Legion

Echo Base Defenders: Star Wars Legion Battle Force Starter Set Provides all you need for the Rebel Alliance defenders of Echo Base on the Ice Planet Hoth. The Rebels were commanded directly by Princess Leia Organa and she is here along with “Chewie” Chewbaccca and the two bickering droids C-3PO and R2-D2.

There’s 4 Tauntaun Riders, 4 Heavy Weapons, a 1.4FD Laser Cannon Team and 24 grunts. What you don’t get are any opponents and you ideally want Star Wars Legion: Blizzard Force Battle Force Starter Set led by Vader himself to compete.

You also don’t get any rules to play with and you must have Star Wars Legion: Core set for all the paraphenalia you need although the rules themselves are downloadable from WWW.AtomicmassGames.com/SWLegion .

With that in mind I’m not too happy with the title Starter Set. It is a Battle Force, yes, but is more of an expansion set than a starter but you do get a great set of miniatures for your Star Wars Legion. The box states 37 Plastic Miniatures but I reckon that’s underselling it by counting the two-man Laser cannon team as just 1 Miniature.

Note: As I’m suggesting that you need to already be a player of Star Wars Legion before buying this set I am not going to give any explanation of the rules and gameplay just detailing the contents.

So what do you get?

Commander/Operative – Personalities

You get 4 different personalities, three of which have their own command cards:

Princess Leia Organa, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO

Given their status as Commanders/Operatives they each have their own Unit card (with subtitle) and the first three also have 3 Command Cards each.

Note: R = Range; BD = Black Dice; WD = White Dice

Leia Organa – Fearless and Inventive

Cost 90 – Wound 6 Courage 2 Speed 2

Upgrades available: Command; Command; Gear

Weapons: Melee – Martial Arts – 3 Black Dice

Range – Sporting Blaster – R 1-2, 3 Black Dice Pierce 1

Abilities: Take Cover 2; Inspire 2; Nimble; Sharpshooter 2

Chewbacca – Walking Carpet (Bit rude!)

Cost 110 – Wound 9 Courage 2 Speed 2

Upgrades available: Training; Training; Gear

Weapons: Melee – Overwhelm – 4 Red Dice – Lethal 1

Range – Bowcaster – R 1-3, 2 Red 2 White – Impact 1, Pierce 1

Abilities: Enrage 4; Guardian 3; Scale; Teamwork: Han Solo (not included)

R2-D2 – Hero of a Thousand Devices –

Cost 35 – Wound 4 Courage 2 Speed 1

Upgrades available: Comms Weapons: Melee/

Range – Electro-Shock – R 1, 3 White Dice Suppressive

Abilities: Repair 2: Capacity 2, Secret Mission, Grounded, Inconspicuous

C-3PO – Human Cyborg Relations

Cost 15 – Wound 2 Can only be added to a R2-D2 unit

Abilities: Distract

“Send All Troops in Sector 12 to the South Slope”

So what about the fighters? You get a nice large force of 11 units: 1x Heavy Weapon Laser Cannon Team; 2x 2 man Tauntaun riders; 4x Fire Support Mark II Medium Blaster; 4x 4 man Rebel Veterans (note there are an extra 2 minis provided for each Rebel Veteran unit as they can be upgraded to get extra men.)

1.4 FD Laser Cannon Team

Cost 78 – Wound 6 Courage 2 Speed immobile

Upgrades available: Comms; Generator

Weapons: Melee – Unarmed – 2 Black Dice

Range – 1.4 FD Laser Cannon – R 1-5, 5 Black Dice

Impact 2 DH-17 Blaster Pistols – R 1-2, 4 White Dice

Tauntaun Riders

Cost 98 – Wound 4 Courage 2 Speed 3

Upgrades available: Training; Comms

Weapons: Melee – Horns & Hind Claws – 2 Black + 1 White Dice Ram 1

Range – DL-44 Blaster Pistol – R 1-2, 2 Red Dice

Abilities: Agile 1; Relentless; Reposition; Sharpshooter 1; Unhindered

Mark II Medium Blaster

Cost 38 – Wound 4 Courage 2 Speed 1

Upgrades available: Comms

Weapons: Melee – Unarmed – 1 Black Dice

Range – Mark II Medium Blaster – R 1-3 4 Black Dice Critical 2; A-280 Blaster Rifle – R 1-2, 1 Black Dice

Abilities: Detachment; Fire Support; Full Pivot; Reposition; Sentinel

Rebel Veterans

Cost 48 – Wound 1 Courage 1 Speed 2

Upgrades available: Heavy Weapon; Personnel; Training; Gear; Grenade

Weapons: Melee – Unarmed – 1 Black Dice

Range – A-280 Blaster Rifle – R 1-3, 1 Black Dice

Assembly – L-Shaped Pegs in L-Shaped Holes

Assembly is straight forward allbeit you have to download the instruction sheet from their website. You could probably get away without doing this as all the units are bagged separately except for the two droids that come on a single sprue. The Rebel Veterans have 6 different poses and each set of 4 come in one bag. You can then spread them out and separate all the pieces for each one and then glue them together in a sort of assembly line (see picture). I was able to fix 4 figures in 5-10 minutes and the whole of the assembly took only a couple of hours.

Individual pieces – arms, heads even packs – all have different shaped deep pegs which make it virtually impossible to get it wrong (don’t look on this as a challenge!) and the parts fit so snugly you almost don’t need glue. I used polystyrene cement for assembly but found I needed a more rubbery adhesive like UHU to stick them to their bases.

The sculpts are great and very detailed with no flash or obtrusive mould lines. You get two types of head for the Veterans. The Tauntaun riders have two different poses. All the characters are totally recognisable and just as you would imagine them. You could concievably buy and build this set just to make a stunning diorama!

It’s on the Cards

3 Unique Command Cards each at 1, 2 and 3 Pip level for: Leia, Chewie, R2-D2. Also specific Command Cards at 1, 2 and 3 Pip level for Echo Base Defenders There is also a set of the four standard Command Cards: 1 Ambush, 2 Push, 3 Assault, 4 Standing Orders.

Note: Chewbacca’s Commands are only effective when he is with another personality: Leia, Luke Skywalker or Han Solo and the last two are not in this set. Luke you will get with the Star Wars Legion: Core set but Han is a Solo figure .

There are 33 all new upgrade cards of 17 different types which can be added to your units that can support the appropriate upgrade type. 12 of these 4 each of Environmental Gear, CM-0/93 Trooper and Rebel Veteran can only be used with

Rebel Veteran units and in the case of Environmental Gear I would suggest only on Hoth. The rest could be used with the rest of your Star Wars Legion units, as long as you pay the costs.

Ice Planet, Hot Set

I am very pleased with my Echo Base Defenders: Star Wars Legion Battle Force Starter Set and so should you be as long as you remember it is a Battle Force and not a Starter Set. I am going to complete my Star Wars Legion: Blizzard Force Battle Force Starter Set as well and recreate the Battle of Hoth.

I have deliberately depicted the items in this set here as they are built out of the box so you can see what you will get. They should paint up wonderfully though, even the base white primer coat I gave them makes them look Hoth ready.

My only caveat would be the price. You are paying a lot for the Star Wars branding and the high level of quality but if you want the best here it is.

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