Legion Dev Diaries: Clan Wren

“We protect our own.” – Ursa Wren

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 clans from the new Mandalorian Battle Force!

A storied warrior family, Clan Wren resides on the frigid world of Krownest under the leadership of Countess Ursa Wren. As part of House Vizsla, they aligned with the Empire and Gar Saxon under duress. The return of Ursa’s wayward daughter, the young Sabine Wren, convinced the Countess to break ties with the Empire and fight for the freedom of all Mandalorians.

A large part of Clan Wren’s story revolves around family dynamics and relationships: those found within Clan Wren itself, and how those dynamics affect Clan Wren’s place in the larger Mandalorian culture. This mirrors our design philosophy for Mandalorians in Legion: to ensure each clan has its own distinct clan identity, while also fitting into a shared thematic and mechanical Mandalorian identity.

WE FIGHT FOR OUR FAMILY: When a unit with the We Fight for Our Family keyword makes an attack action, after the effect is resolved, choose another allied unit with the We Fight for Our family keyword within 2, if able, the chosen unit gains 1 Dodge token.

Similar to the other clans, Clan Wren’s identity is evoked and encapsulated in their signature keyword, We Fight For Our Family. We wanted to convey Clan Wren’s strong family ties, their willingness to fight to protect their own, and what it means to protect, and be protected. Like other Mandalorian keywords, We Fight For Our Family requires proximity to other Mandalorian units, reflecting the greater Mandalorian theme of sticking together to support each other on the battlefield. The keyword is very flexible, allowing a Clan Wren unit to protect a unit in danger, or further empower an ally that is about to make a big play.

If an army contains only Clan Wren Commanders and Operatives, it can use the Affiliation’s special rule. This rule grants Guardian 1: Clan Wren to all allied Mandalorian Trooper units and allows them to use Guardian on other units with Guardian. Commanders and Operatives can also still benefit from backup! This special rule elevates the Clan Wren identity even further, showing how fiercely they will fight to protect their family and friends.

We Fight For Our Family and the Affiliation special rule also presented an interesting opportunity to create an Affiliation of Mandalorians that was more defensive and counterplay focused than other clans. It was fun to explore these mechanical themes of durability, defense through offense, and counterplay in ways that evoked and further cemented both the gameplay narrative and the narrative in the Star Wars story. Mandalorians in general are pretty tough, so it was interesting to explore how Clan Wren could take that even further.

Early in the design process we decided that we wanted each clan to have unique characters, units, character upgrades, and Command Cards. For Clan Wren, this presented an opportunity to revisit and refresh some older units. The Rebel Alliance had the Mandalorian Resistance and Clan Wren units, which have been reimagined as the new Clan Wren Veterans and Ursa Wren.

We believe that these reimagined units are a better thematic and mechanical representation of these iconic Mandalorians, achieving our design goals and evoking the narrative in ways the older units did not.

We also reworked the Beskad Duelist, which now has an improved melee weapon and exhausts to grant Charge to the unit. The unit can now leverage its Speed-3 to engage in hit and run tactics, using Jump 2 to fly over terrain and engage an enemy unit with Charge, delivering a mighty attack pool of 4 Red and 3 White surging dice with Pierce 1. Nimble synergizes well with We Fight For Our Family, allowing other units to give the Veterans a dodge token which they can return in kind when they attack.

Sabine Wren retains her current Rebel Alliance version, and gains a new Unit Card for use in the Mandalorian Battle Force. This version of Sabine has a new weapon profile, trading Pierce 1 for Blast, Overwhelm, and a better attack pool. This new profile leads to a more interactive experience for both players, as it raises both the floor and ceiling of her attack roll, in addition to increasing her average number of successes per attack. This version of Sabine also has more freedom to engage a larger variety of targets, as she is not heavily incentivized to attack elite, red defense dice units to optimally leverage a small attack pool with Pierce 1.

Notably, Sabine Wren, Back in the Fold can use the already existing Sabine Wren Command Cards. Both Explosions! and Legacy of Mandalore work well in a Clan Wren army. Her Symbol of Rebellion Command Card however was not quite hitting the mark we wanted it to. Art is such an integral part of Sabine’s character, and we wanted to make it easier to include that aspect of her in Legion. This resulted in Make the Impossible Possible, a new two pip Command Card. Make the Impossible Possible orders Sabine and 1 other Clan Wren unit, giving the amount of orders players expect from a two pip. In addition to letting Sabine place a Graffiti token, it also gives her Steady, giving her a boost proportional to what a Command Card should.

But Sabine isn’t the only member of the Wren family to get a new unit card! Her mother, Countess Ursa Wren, is now a Commander unit for Clan Wren and a mercenary for the Rebel Alliance! With the removal of the existing Clan Wren unit, there was an opportunity to fully flesh out Ursa’s character in ways that just weren’t achievable as a character upgrade. We wanted to give the matriarch of Clan Wren the Unit Card she deserved!

Ursa has all the keywords you’d expect on a Mandalorian of her stature, along with the powerful Entourage: Clan Wren Veterans and Bolster 2. These powerful support abilities allow her to bring another Clan Wren Veteran unit to the field, ignoring rank requirements, and issue them an order if they are close by. Her Bolster 2 dramatically increases the durability of her fellow Mandalorians with valuable defense tokens. These abilities are also incredibly useful in a Rebel Alliance army, allowing up to 3 Clan Wren Veterans units if someone has Allies of Convenience! Bolster 2 gives Rebel players a rare way to gain Surge tokens, opening up new tactical opportunities!

Ursa’s No One Threatens our Family Command Card further protects her Clan Wren allies by increasing the effectiveness of Guardian and empowers their counterattack by providing Aim tokens each time Guardian is used. The art on this card really drives home its design and Ursa’s design as a character: Leave her family alone, don’t poke the bear! We were very pleased with how Ursa’s identity of increasing defenses and empowering counterattacks fit into the greater Clan Wren and Mandalorian identity.

Although Tristan Wren is not getting a new Unit Card, we did reimagine his character upgrade card. This version of Tristan loses the weapon profile, but now offers more support by granting Precise 2 to the unit. We also wanted to capture more of Tristan’s narrative, particularly when he switches allegiance to Clan Saxon. This is represented by the option to take him in Clan Saxon or Clan Wren units, and the ability to receive orders regardless of Affiliation- incredibly useful in Rebel armies as well!

Counterplay mechanics can be difficult to balance, and it was a challenge to dial in Clan Wren to a place that felt faithful to their story but also enjoyable to play and play against. Many, many internal playtest games were played, many lessons were learned, and many cinematic moments were had. Development Manager Michael Plummer, our resident Clan Wren fan, took great joy in telling us “Don’t talk to me or my family ever again” every time he made a great play!

That’s all for this transmission! Next time, we’re putting the story in your hands. We’ll be taking a look at how to create your own Mandalorian clan, and the narrative and mechanical opportunities that entails!

Until next time, Atomic Mass Games Transmissions, signing off!