Stargrave – A Star Wars Story Pt 3

What is Stargrave about? I covered the main rulebook and what it is about in a review on here, and now it is time to start with our Star Wars themed skirmish. We got the rules, what's next? The miniatures.

Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight Games as the coordinating company, has a bit of a problem ensuring the stock of Star Wars Legions, so you maybe not as flexible as you want to be - depending on what kind of army or warband you want to play. I had to order at multiple stores to get my hands on these boxes. Absolutely chosen by the rule of cool, so no meta, weaponry, rule decisions so far. I just bought what I fancied, and would make for a stock of Rebels as well as Imperial troops.

In detail I got to start with;

• Rebel Pathfinders
• Rebel Commandos
• Rebel Troopers Upgrade
• Rebel Specialist
• Luke Skywalker Limited Edition (but once I realized, those are traded for 50-70 EUR, I sold that one to boost the hobby budget)
• Imperial Scout Troopers
• Imperial Shore Troopers
• Imperial Specialists
• Boba Fett
• Darth Maul (this was more about the probe droids)

And now let's grab two boxes of each faction, to start somewhere.

I wanted something that is not just the regular Imperial Stormtrooper, so I went with the Shoretroopers, as they have a tan on their uniforms (a bit like a camouflage) and added the Specialists box to it. With the Shoretroopers, I'd get 5 soldiers with E-22 blaster rifles, which would count as carbines and cover the slot of Troopers in game. I could classify the T-21B targeting rifle as a carbine as well and use him as a Trooper, but could classify the model as a Commando. The DF-90 mortar trooper would not be a reasonable choice for the game itself, unless you want an oversized version of the Grenadier.

With the Specialist expansion, you would have an Imperial Officer, who could be your Captain, with background veteran, the comms technician could be a Codebreaker, with the R4 astromech either as Chiseler or Hacker and FX-9  medical droid obviously a Medic. This already a quite decent setup for the game. But I want more narrative, so I written up an Empire Task Force, where I need to add further weapon options and different leaders.

Empire Task Force

Captain Aristrocrat (Free Upgrade)
1st Mate Tekker (Tactical Droid)

Trooper 50 Cr
Trooper 50 Cr
Trooper 50 Cr
Trooper 50 Cr
Guard Dog (Robot) 10 Cr
Burner 100 Cr
Sniper 100 Cr
Chiseler (Robot) 20 Cr
Hacker (Robot) 20 Cr

I will probably replace the Shoretroopers with Swamptroopers, keep the droids as models (using the Robot trait with soldiers) and even add a few more and make room for a higher ranking officer to lead the task force. I see them as a patrol unit, guarding an outpost, a bit cut off from the main supply lines.

And for the Rebels, we have this to start with. The Rebel Commandos cover 5 models with A-280 blaster rifles, which make great Troopers. The saboteur armed with proton charges counting as grenades, could be a Commando and a commando with a DH-447 sniper rifle  obviously a Sniper. The Specialists are the same classes as with the Empire, so you get a Captain, which would be a Veteran as well, with the two droids covering Chiseler, Hacker and Medic. The comms technician could be a Codebreaker here as well, or a Pathfinder.

For my Rebel Cell, I wrote up a list as well. As they don't have the bonus of the Aristrocrat, they have 50 Credits less to recruit their crew.

Rebel Cell

Captain Veteran
1st Mate Rogue

Trooper 50 Cr
Trooper 50 Cr
Medic 100 Cr
Commando 75 Cr
Codebreaker 75 Cr
Sentry 50 Cr (Robot)
Recruit free
Runner free

As I spend the credits on some more specialist characters, I used the chance of using free soldiers to add numbers to the rebels. And I think that is something that works, because as a Soldier you had at least a bit of training, but for a Rebel, you might just be a civilian believing in the cause. I could add a smuggler type character as a 1st mate, and 2-3 variants either from the Rebel Trooper upgrade or from the 3d printed range to round it up. But I'm pretty close here.

As you can see, depending on the will to convert your models (with bits from the Stargrave kits for example) or access to 3d printers, you are good to go with a trooper box and a specialist upgrade, adding up to about 50 EUR. But 3d printing is the key topic for the next articles. What can you do on a budget? What can you expect for your money and is it cheaper to make or buy.