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“Hold your fire, there is no life forms aboard”. That's it, one bad decision and a mighty galactic empire is set on its path to oblivion. We all know the story (hopefully) and how much R2-D2 and C-3PO have been key to numerous event of the Star Wars saga.
Knowing how iconic these two droids are, it seems very obvious their miniatures would be available for us in Star Wars Legion. The good news is that Fantasy Flight Games made them part of the “Crashed Escape Pod Battlefield Expansion”. This kit contains also the crashed escape pod miniature to be used as terrain piece or as an objective for your games and two new scenarios.
Moreover, the C-3PO and R2-D2 miniatures can be used as either scenario objectives or as a Rebel Alliance or Galactic Republic unit with both unit cards provided.
Content And Unboxing
The Crashed Escape pod expansion comes in a well though box as all other products of the series. The contents are all stored in separate plastic bags and protected by two layers of cardboard.
Inside the box you will find:
- 1 C-3PO miniature and 1 R2-D2 miniature with two unit cards each (one for the Rebel Alliance and one for the Galactic Republic) and 1 Crashed escape pod terrain piece;
- 2 Upgrade cards (Comms Relay and Integrated Comms Antenna) and thee Command cards: Blast Off! (1 Pip), Impromptu Immolation (2 Pip), Smoke Screen (3 Pip);
- 2 complete scenarios
- A set of useful cardboard tokens
I really wish FFG would have added somewhere a picture of the painted models as reference but otherwise there is nothing to say about the packaging.
The three plastic miniatures are the heart of the product and they are really well made. The level of detail is quite high considering the scale and there are just a few mould lines to be cleaned before assembly. This aspect is quite nice as it makes the final product look better and saves time to those like me who loves painting their models.
The kit itself is easy to assemble and it can be completed in one hour of work. Surprisingly, C-3PO and R2-D2 miniatures are a bit more posable than the usual ones of this line. C-3PO's arms in particular can be rotated to achieve some of the most renowned poses of the droid.
The kit also offers some space for customize it to your preference. For example, I decided to leave both the top hatch and the door of the pod slightly open to hint the droids just exited it. You could also consider to not glue the base of the Pod and make some variants to be used in different type of terrains.
Crashed Escape Pod Battlefield: Gameplay
R2-D2 and C-3PO possess a very good range of skills that makes them a very good unit for Star Wars: Legion. They are also quite fun to play.
First of all, while R2-D2 can be deployed on his own, C-3PO features the “Counterpart” keyword and it can only be added to your army as a part of R2-D2’s unit, with both contributing their abilities to the single unit.
R2-D2 is a good mechanic that can repair up to two wounds twice per game. Although he can not climb, the droid will keep pushing forward and if it enters an enemy deployment zone, it will complete a secret mission and gain a victory point.
C-3PO can provide a friendly unit at range 1 with 1 aim, 1 dodge and 1 suppression token using its “calculate odds” ability. It can also “distract” an enemy unit at range 1-2 forcing them to attack the droid in the next round.
Unfortunately, both R2-D2 and C-3PO are quite weak in combat and limited to a short-range electro-shock and a melee clumsy kick respectively. Among the two, R2-D2 is the strongest as he can pull 3 white attack dice against the 1 of C-3PO attack.
R2-D2 has also three signature command cards that it could use during the game. Two of them allow the droid to make a free move action and to either cover a friendly unit’s retreat (smoke 1) or to gain an additional range 1 attack. With the last one (“Blast off!”) R2-D2 can increase consistently its mobility by increasing its speed by 1 and gaining jump 1 and disengage.
As initially mentioned, the kit comes with two full scenarios each including 3 battle cards (Objective, condition and deployment). Both scenarios are focused on using the droids as objectives recreating the events after the pod crashed on Tatooine.
Final Thoughts
When I first opened the Crashed Escape pod Battlefield expansion box, I knew I would love it. From a modelling perspective, most of the miniatures of Star Wars: Legion are really well made and these one are not disappointing. Either painted or not painted, they look gorgeous on the battlefield and the terrain piece included in the box could be a great addition to any game. Personally, I think they could also make a gorgeous diorama and I am considering purchasing a copy just for this purpose.
From a gaming perspective, playing with the two droids could be a lot of fun. Obviously, they are not designed to go head-on against other strong units and they may not be your most effective unit on the battlefield. Playing the droids will require a bit more creativity and to use them as support unit or to achieve specific mission goals. Ultimately, they only cost 50 points together and the fun they bring is very much worth it.
