Star Wars: Legion just released it's first ever points update (along with some other stuff) and since I have an RPQ this month, I thought it would be a good idea to run down what the changes are, but, more importantly, what they mean.
The Nerfs
The biggest by far was the snipers. Technically all strike teams took a hit, going from 16 to 20 base, but snipers were far and away more common. The snipers themselves also took a hit going from infinite range down to range 5. That's still really far and, realistically, most sniper shots took place between 4-5 anyways with only the Long March deployment really stretching the range to the limit. Regardless, the cost increase up to 48 along with the increased danger offered by non-infinite range will both be issues. Personally, I think the meta moving in more aggressive directions (Tauntauns spearheading this push) is already rendering snipers as pretty mediocre picks to begin with that could struggle to get value into the rebel matchup (and whenever the Dewbackle resolves, the Empire matchup might go the same way). Snipers will still show up, but I don't see them dominating the meta in the same way they have in the past.
The only other nerf to speak of was Emergency Stims going from 8 to 12. This will negatively impact Rebels more than Empire as Emergency Stims was a common counterplay for aggressive characters when confronted with Bounty since it allows you to have more fine control over when a character dies, potentially denying the bounty. It's not a big change since you likely only have one stims in a list, maybe two on a stretch, so it won't be a dealbreaker.
Generic Upgrades
Both the Long Range Comms and Comms Jammers dropped to 5pts, making them vaguely playable. Actually the Comms Jammer becomes pretty viable and annoying on aggressive units like Tauntauns potentially complicating an opponent's turn. It wouldn't surprise me to see Jamming Tauntauns be a thing. Along those lines, Commanding Presence also went down to 5pts, so maybe that sees play (although Strict Orders, Improvised Orders and Esteemed Leader are still much higher pics for me).
Three Force upgrades also went down by 5pts, Battle Mediation, Force Reflexes and Saber Throw. Since Saber Throw is only really used by Vader (and almost Certainly Obi when he releases) it's an understandable and targeted buff. Nobody plays Battle Meditation...maybe they will? I'm not sold, but at 5 points, you could do worse. Force Reflexes is big because it's also a mostly Vader Upgrade (although dropping it to 10 does make it viable for anyone with Master of the Force and still at least okay on Luke). There are basically two near-mandatory Vader upgrades here and that's probably the biggest takeaway is that Vader got a -10pt buff and some other force users will pick up 5-10 points here and there.
Targeting Scopes and Duck and Cover also got reductions. Targeting scopes is very mediocre on most units (you have to aim, shoot, then have at least 3 results to reroll...and the third result has to reroll into a non-blank result). Shoretroopers probably get good value out of it simply because they can get aims for almost free, but for most units 4pts is not bad, but not stellar, so this will likely only be a niche upgrade even with the reduction. Duck and Cover going down to 4pts might seem similar, but it's practically stapled to Jyn and Pathfinders and Wookies with Indomitable can use it really well too. In that respect, this is both better for Rebels and is a stealth buff to underused units.
Heavy Weapons
All Exhaust heavy weapons got a substantial reduction (around 8pts or so). The T-7, easily the worst weapon in the game also got a bump up to Range 3. That puts the T-7 firmly in the "unterrible" category, but it's dice pool and exahust still render it fairly mediocre. The HH-12 also still has Cumbersome, so still has some issues even with the cost reduction. Here again, the rebels make out a fair bit better as their only real restriction is the Exhaust. The ion launcher has a good dice pool and grenade launcher has Blast allowing it to be the most flexible of the group. The Grenade Launcher of the fleeties is the most likely to see real play off of this as it offers good Impact, Blast Keyword for dealing with infantry and fleeties naturally have a good gun so even if you can't ready the weapon, you can still chuck two white dice at the target. The CM-0/93 also went down by 5pts, but there's some claims floating around about a playtest issue and the points at release seemed a bit off, so I guess we won't count that one.
Empalcements
Both the 1.4 FD and the E-Web got buffs. The 1.4 went up to range 5 and the E-Web lost Plodding. The two generators, Barrage and Overcharge, also got reduced by 3 pts. The E-Web, meh, it's about the same level of grim mediocrity that it always was and might see limited play in specific lists. It can at least get into position more easily, but its impact on the game when it's there hasn't gotten better.
The 1.4 is the real sleeper hit. It's always been a bit of a sleeper hit just because of it's long range and good dice pool, but with snipers going down to range 5, and 1.4s going up to 5, the big weakness of this unit is just not there anymore. The only things that outrange it now is the AT-ST Mortar and a pair of one-time use command cards. You're no longer going to be punished by snipers for putting a 1.4 in a really good fire lane. You can also just shoot people from your deployment zone into their deployment zone on most deployment maps allowing the 1.4 to start getting immediate value which was another failing of the model. They're still limited by being immobile, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see more of these appearing on tables.
Support Units
Speeder Bikes dropped to 75 and all AT-RT weapons went down to 20 pts (making all AT-RTs equipped with a weapon 75pts). This changes is positive and makes sense, but I'm not sold on the viability of either unit. Speeder Bikes were hurting more because of a preponderance of melee, sharpshooter and effective dice pools, all things that could get through their relatively limited defense of Cover 1. On the other hands, 15pts is not nothing...on the other other hand, Tauntauns beat the hell out of this unit. AT-RTs might see more play because of this, but with both heavies getting buffed, there's a risk of more impact hitting the table which is problematic for their weak defense die that relies on Armor. I'm on the fence on this one, mostly because I haven't seen enough of them recently against more common and recent units to know if the 15pts on speeders and 5-15 pts on AT-RTs is enough for serious consideration from a competitive level.
Commanders
Darth Vader got reduced by 10pts and Jyn got reduced by 20pts, but that's not 100% correct for either. Vader also got discounts on 2 common force upgrades and Jyn also got a discount on her most common upgrade (also her Pathfinder friends got their config dropped to 0pts). Vader is probably dropping by 20pts in most lists and Jyn 24. Considering that they were two of the least used commanders, this seems in order. Jyn becomes really appealing, not the least of which because she's a dirt cheap courage 3 commander and she actually has a pretty solid gun only being held back by some mediocre command cards. Vader gets appealing not just because of the points drop, but because the introduction of Tauntauns and Dewbacks take away a bit of the "slogging through a hail of bullets" problem he's had in previous metas. Vader is still expensive and Jyn still has to compete with Leia and Sabine, so we'll see what happens, but I am looking at Jyn more seriously for the upcoming RPQ, so that at least says something even if I'm not bully on the idea.
AT-ST
AT-ST got a healthy 20pt drop and the Hammer Pilot was already allowing at least minor showings by AT-STs, but none of their weapons or common upgrades dropped, so it's just a flat 20pts. I like where it's at, but Imperial list-building is weird enough that the AT-ST might still struggle to see serious play especially because of the hard cap on the value provided by this decrease (at most 40pts, but realistically only about 20 which doesn't alter listbuidling that much).
T-47
Oh boy, this is the big one. The T-47 got the most love of any unit. The Baseline vehicle got a whopping 35pt reduction, the ground buzzer went down by 10pts and it also gained Immune: Range 1. Not only is a ground buzzer T-47 45pts cheaper, but it's also just better (Immune to Impact Grenades, Frag Grenades and mines). With an Outer Rim Speeder Jockey and a Ground Buzzer, this thing is only 160pts and it's...borderline an uninteractable game piece (can't be meleed, can't be targeted by range 1 weapons, can't ignore it's cover 2 with blast and can't hurt it with normal hits).
I've been messing around with a speeder in conjunction with Tauntauns to overwhelm the opponent and most players simply can't afford to stop dealing with Tauntauns long enough to deal with the speeder, so it got to do what it wanted every game, but was just a little too expensive for it's damage output. To kind of put emphasis on this, when Tim Krakowski was going to the ATC Legion tournament, I suggested an X-34 with the rocket girl, rifle and speeder jockey and posited that there wasn't a good way to deal with it for 130pts or less (which ended up being correct as he won that tournament), so it could roll a flank very easily...the baseline T-47 for 140 is better in virtually every way...for me, trying to build a list for the upcoming RPQ, I'm not asking "am I taking a T-47?" I'm asking "1 or 2?". It seems weird to ask if this model is too good considering how maligned it's been, but these are pretty massive buffs and it's always worth looking at when this substantial of a change happens. We'll see..
Conclusion
The things we're seeing here, by themselves, might not be enough to completely alter the current meta, but in conjunction with the much more aggressive playstyle of Tauntauns could easily create a meta that's unrecognizable from the previous one where you have to answer weird questions like "what do you do about double T-47's?".