Legion Dev Diaries: Clan Saxon

“Victory or Death!”
– Gar Saxon

Greetings STAR WARS: Legion players, and welcome to another Atomic Mass Games Transmission!

The development team is back to bring you another look at one of the playable clans from the new Mandalorian Battle Force!

Under the leadership of Gar Saxon, Clan Saxon will do whatever it takes in pursuit of power on their homeworld. They swore fealty to Maul during the Clone Wars, serving in his Shadow Collective. As the Galactic Empire rose to power, Clan Saxon was quick to pledge allegiance, a move seen as a betrayal by their fellow Mandalorians. Eager to fight both Rebels and fellow Mandalorians alike, the Super Commandos of Clan Saxon will achieve their goals or die trying.

Clan Saxon takes the Mandalorian warrior ethos to the extreme. They are ready and willing to use force to further their own goals, even if it means fighting other Mandalorians. This aggression is backed up by a cold determination to accomplish the mission at any cost.

In Star Wars:  Legion, the Mandalorian Battle Force has a gameplay identity of being aggressive, elite, and hard hitting, excelling in close range combat as befitting such renowned warriors. We wanted the design for Clan Saxon to take this identity and turn it up to 11, highlighting their aggressive and uncompromising nature.

Victory or Death: When an allied unit with Victory or Death keyword suffers 1 or more Wounds from an enemy attack, after the attack is resolved, the allied unit may gain 1 Suppression token. If it does, it may gain 1 Aim or 1 Dodge token. 

We captured this identity with Clan Saxon’s signature keyword: Victory or Death. While most would view casualties as a sign to take cover or perhaps retreat, Clan Saxon doubles down and fights even harder. Victory or Death allows Clan Saxon units to gain an Aim token or Dodge token, either empowering them to counterattack or increasing their defenses against subsequent attacks.

An army that contains only Clan Saxon Commanders and Operatives takes this playstyle even further with Clan Saxon’s Affiliation special rule. This rule rewards aggression, allowing an allied unit to make a Recover action or Speed-1 Move after it defeats an enemy unit. This versatile ability can be used to clear any Suppression gained from Victory or Death and ready exhausted upgrades, or move out of (or into!) harm’s way by ducking behind terrain or into melee with an enemy.

It was interesting to work through all of the potential uses for these rules during the playtesting process and how they could be used differently based on factors like positioning, proximity to supporting units, and whether or not the unit had activated. There was also a fun narrative element to the designs: in the Star Wars story, Clan Saxon frequently finds itself at odds with Clan Wren. It was fun to riff on Clan Wren’s identity of defensive counterplay by designing their Clan Saxon rivals with an offensive counter play playstyle that at first glance seems similar, but mechanically plays out differently on the tabletop.

Speaking of Clan Wren, we had a similar opportunity with Clan Saxon to revisit and refresh some older units. We have created a new version of the Super Commandos for the Clan Saxon Affiliation, as well as new versions of Gar Saxon and Rook Kast. Notably, these units do not replace the versions of these units available to the Shadow Collective. We ultimately decided to leave the Shadow Collective iterations of these units as their own distinct flavor of Mandalorians in that battle force.

The Super Commandos at first glance appear quite similar to their Shadow Collective version, but have a few important differences. Stat-wise, Clan Saxon Super Commandos have gained Surge: Hit, granting them an offensive boost befitting such fearsome warriors. Their attack profiles have been altered, with their Dual Pistols now 1 Red 1 White in line with similar Mandalorian units.

We made the 2 Black to 1 Red 1 White change on several Mandalorian Special Forces units and characters, as it increases the “floor” of their attacks while keeping the average number of successes largely the same. This leads to more reliable throughput across the course of the game and eliminates some of the “swinginess” found in previous designs. Players need to get consistent, reliable value out of these units to justify their often expensive points cost.

The unit size has also increased to 4 miniatures instead of 3, and their points cost has been raised appropriately. As you may have noticed with other Legion units, we decided to remove the additional trooper upgrade for the Super Commandos, instead incorporating that miniature into the base version of the unit.

Speaking of upgrades, the Super Commando Marksman and Gunslinger have been reworked. Both options have increased to 30 points. The Marksman no longer provides Precise 1 and has had its attack profile reduced, but now adds Lethal 1 to the attack pool. The Gunslinger has had its attack profile improved and has switched Lethal 1 for Overwhelm. We wanted to update these upgrades to provide more interesting choices to players when army building.

We were very excited for the opportunity to give Rook Kast her own unit card, as befits such a fearsome warrior! Ever the loyal lieutenant, Rook is rewarded by Retinue for sticking close to her Commander, and her Coordinate passes along any Orders she receives to another Clan Saxon unit. Rook is a capable combatant and can leverage her Target 1 and Retinue with Victory or Death to make some very reliable attacks or shore up her defenses.

Rook’s Command Card, Vengeful Strike, highlights her aggressive nature and fierce determination in the face of adversity. Vengeful Strike orders Rook and 1 other Clan Saxon unit, and grants Rook and another Clan Saxon unit a Standby token. When these units spend (or lose!) that Standby token, they gain 1 Aim and Dodge token. This Command Card can be used in conjunction with Victory or Death for some exciting combos. As long as she lives, Rook Kast will strike back!

The man himself, Gar Saxon, has a new unit card for the Mandalorian Battle Force! We were excited to get a second chance to depict this iconic character in Star Wars: Legion. Eschewing the more modular nature of his Shadow Collective incarnation, this version of Gar Saxon goes all in on his signature GALAR-90 Sniper Rifle.

Now a part of his Unit Card, Gar’s GALAR-90 has had its Range increased to 5 and its attack pool slightly improved. It also now has Lethal 2, highlighting Gar’s ability as a deadly sniper. Advanced Targeting 1 and Victory or Death provide Gar with ample Aim tokens to spend on Marksman or Lethal. We wanted players to really feel the flavor of controlling a vicious sniper and have them make important choices on how to spend their Aim tokens to take the perfect shot.

Gar’s Allies of Convenience and Compel will keep other Mandalorians in line regardless of Affiliation, making him a potent Commander of a pure Clan Saxon force or alongside a second clan.

This new version of Gar Saxon can use his existing Command Cards, so he is not receiving any new ones at this time. However, Clan Saxon does get a signature Command Card like each other Affiliation. Death Before Defeat orders 3 Clan Saxon units, increasing their offense with an Aim token or dramatically increasing their durability with a Surge token. It also provides the powerful effect of granting all Clan Saxon units the Ram 1 keyword when making a melee attack. This card rewards aggression and reiterates the Clan Saxon identity: when the going gets tough, go for broke!

Finally, Gar Saxon gets his own iteration of The Darksaber, as befits his status as Viceroy of Mandalore. Like other versions of The Darksaber, we wanted Gar’s copy to reflect how he used this iconic part of Mandalorian culture, in this case, how he uses it as a literal symbol of power to enforce his rule. He gains Charge and Demoralize 2, showing no restraint in using force to gain power and oppress his foes. Some Mandalorians reject Gar’s authority, however. Clan Wren will not follow him into battle if he possesses The Darksaber!

We were very excited to have the chance to make new iterations of Gar Saxon and Rook Kast and really lean into the flavor of these ruthless, driven leaders. Like other Mandalorian characters, our goal was to make them encapsulate the Clan Saxon identity and allow players to inject that Clan Saxon identity into the greater Mandalorian army by including these characters in their armies.

Aggressive playstyles can be difficult to dial in, and it was a challenge throughout the design process to develop rules that faithfully evoked the aggressive and dogged nature of Clan Saxon without feeling overbearing or unfair to play against. Many different versions of Victory or Death and the Affiliation special rule were tried. At one point, Victory or Death was the rule that gave free moves! Early iterations of the rules tended to “snowball,” rewarding Clan Saxon aggression with a runaway game state.

Through lots of internal playtests and the efforts of our external playtesters, we were able to dial in Clan Saxon’s rules to a place that felt thematically faithful and enjoyable to experience. We hope you enjoy your time with them!

Atomic Mass Games signing off!