I recently wrote an article talking about the website I created for simulating Star Wars: Legion attack rolls. If you missed it, you can find it here. Today, I’m going to talk about some of the ways that the simulator can be used to help you become a better Legion player.
Many Bothans died to bring us this information
The most obvious way to use the simulator is to provide a data point for building your list. Which corps unit has the best offensive output? Which special forces is best against armor? To illustrate, let’s look at Stormtrooper DLTs compared to T-21B Shoretroopers firing into a T-47 Airspeeder when each has one aim at range 3.
First up, the Stormtroopers:
From the stats, this is a median of 2 and mean of 1.716.
And then the Shoretroopers:
Here we have a median of 1 and a mean of 1.075.
This was actually a good example for me of using the tool. Generally, the Shoretroopers are considered the better unit and my gut reaction was that this was going to prove out in this case. As we can see, in this scenario the Stormtroopers perform better.
It’s important when looking at numbers in the simulator to remember what they do and don’t represent. These two graphs provide information about attacks in very specific scenarios. But that is only one part of the game. How are you going to get the aims onto these units? It’s easier with the Shoretroopers since they have the Target 1 keyword. And if they are issue an order, you can coordinate to either a Mortar or E-Web if they are in your list. This is a tool to help you figure out one part of the game, but there are many other components that go into successful list building and execution.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this
Probably the way that I use the simulator most is to prove or disprove gut reactions about the role that luck plays in my games. I’ll use a specific example from a game I recently played. I had an opportunity to try to last-first a B2 squad with the ACM upgrade into a 3-man unit of Mandalorians, with the Mandolorians being in heavy cover. I figured I would remove 1-2 minis and be in a good position to cripple the unit. After I successfully pulled off the last-first, I had only done one damage and then had to face the return fire. Needless to say, at the time I was frustrated.
When I looked at the sim, here is what I found for the expected attacks from the B2s:
That means that there is a good chance to defeat one mini, but it’s more likely that the full squad survives. Not only that, but on the follow-up shot, I am most often going to lose one B2 and quite frequently 2.
After looking at this, I was able to realize that it was not in fact unlucky dice and was rather a bad use of two activations to set up the scenario.
As a reminder, please be courteous of your opponent. Don’t stop a game for several minutes to check a result or determine the best attack if you are time limited or at a tournament. Make a note of the scenario and sim it at a later time
I’ll be there for you. Cassian said I had to
There is one final method that I have heard of a few people using that I haven’t tried. When practicing a list, sometimes you want to play an “average” game to work on strategy with less variance. In this case,
you can use the simulator rather than rolling dice for your attack rolls. Then, take the median result as the damage. This is probably not as much fun for most people but can allow you to focus your time on other aspects of the game such as positioning and strategy.
Uncertain, the future is...
I’m sure there are other ways that creative people will find to use the simulator. (Maybe just reminding a friend of some amazing luck that turned a game.) But however you use the simulator, I hope you find it useful.
You can access the dice simulator by clicking the Red Button on our website, or navigating to www.tellmetheodds.net
