Steel Legion - Unit Guide (english)

Steel Legion
The remnants of the last legion that led the survivors to the new lands. Brave protectors of humanity with long, pointed stick two-handed swords and one of our elite infantry regiments.

Overview and gameplay

The third of the Imperial Officer's three Restricted selections seems quite expensive at 165 points for the Hundred Kingdoms. Especially since there is also a Movement 5 infantry class that is also heavy as a class and has very clear taker qualities. W4 with D3 R3 is also just not good with Oblivoius (every two failed Resolve rolls are a wound) and Bravery (Fearless and auto-collect at the start of activation) when sneaking across the board with Movement 5. Offensively, however, they are a dream of humanity! Finally 5 attacks in the profile, solid Clash 3 and the only Cleave 2 regiment in the entire army. With the Drillmaster Doubletime and +1 attack per stance, which gives us 6 attacks and can also partially solve our movement problem, but Double Time is rather very situational with them and the Drillmaster is more often a cost trap than really necessary. What they're much more excited about, like any infantry in the Hundred Kingdoms, is the Imperial Officer's Supremacy. This means you get Vanguard and can always be where we really need you. Without Vanguard the boys are simply too slow and it doesn't help that the standard only costs 10 points and in my opinion is almost mandatory for the regiment. The Legion's attacks are simply too important to play it safe and with Movement 5 they won't see a fight that they win. Because they always have to be the regiment that attacks the enemy first, otherwise the losses are absurdly high. Of course there are exceptions and one of them is the character whose warband they are in, the Imperial Officer. If we put this in the Legion with Bastion, an Armor of Dominion and possibly a Banner, we suddenly have a more stable block that also hits back well. You just have to be careful that the Legion always has to be activated beforehand, that the character is not killed in duels and that the character does not receive any attacks from the Drillmaster and is completely impressive in close combat. In other words, you take 5-6 Cleave 2 attacks from the front row so that the regiment survives a little longer. In that case, I would increase the regiment to 5+ stands straight away so that no one gets any stupid ideas anymore. The only question is whether, for the same points of character upgrades, I can get two more regiments that can protect the Steel Legion and thus give me better angles for the attack. Difficult decisions and both are playable as well as just three stands with standards waiting in the second row for unwary opponents. You also shouldn't forget. that they can still get Broken with Bravery. In other words, blocks of 4 are broken after 8 life point losses and are simply gone after 12. We really need to be careful, as the protection values sound more tempting than they are.

Veterans

An interesting option is Veterans, as it brings us to Clash 4 and allows us to reroll every 6 through Inspire. For 215 points we get our own Dragonslayers MSU, I don't think it's worth it, but I see that quite often. The advantage is that you can still hit usefully even if you don't get Inspire due to terrain or something else..

Relentless Drills
It's free and that's why we take it, but if the table allows it you should always play a line with the Legion. Rear stands lose 3-4 attacks despite support 2 and the additional stands are too expensive "only" as a life cushion.

Conclusion: Brave can crackers that are unfortunately extremely slow and not really stable. But if we want a lot of attacks that hit well and also have Cleave 2, we won't find anything better.