Stargrave – A long time ago on a gaming table far, far away…

I covered my initial rant about StarWars as a tabletop wargaming IP, and where it works and where it does not. And in the mean time, between having ordered 3d printed models for this setting and printed my own as a patreon of Skull Forge Studios, I have narrowed down the rule set(s) and time frame.

As mentioned in the initial post, this is not going to be Star Wars Legions - for multiple reasons - but a skirmish on a troop / squad level and for that, in my opinion among other systems, Stargrave works quite well.

This idea started last year, that prior to me owning a 3d printer on my own, but I already fancied the 3d sculpts by Skull Forge Studios back then. With the models being outside of the patreon around 5-6 USD per sculpt on Gumroad and Wargames3D offering them for 9 to 11 EUR incl. free shipping from Spain via Etsy, I chose to order some. Among others I got myself these:

• Bill Burr / Migs Mayfeld - Wiseguy Crackshot
• Giancarlo Esposito / Moff Gideon - Authority Viscount
• Gina Carano / Cara Dune - Veteran Mercenary

Moff Gideon for example, would make for a great Investigator (using the Stargrave Supplement The Last Prospector) or Aristocrat (SG supplement Quarantine 37), where Migs Mayfeld would either be a Rogue or Veteran, with Cara Dune being more of a First Mate, Background Veteran or maybe "just" a special soldier like a Gunner or Commando.

The list of Background from Stargrave is generic sci-fi, but works very well for a Star Wars theme. For example the following backgrounds

• Cyborg - Khaleesh characters like Grievous or a leader of the seperate droid army
• Mystic - This is a no brainer, a force sensitive being of all alignments (Jedi, Sith etc.)
• Robotic Expert - Once again someone either affiliate with the Droid army or a technician (this is really interesting as you can make your soldiers robots)
• Rogue - Smugglers, Bountyhunters, people piloting the Millenium Falcon.
• Psionicist - another chance to bring in force sensitive being, depending on the force powers you want to use.
• Tekker - Similar to the Robotic Export, a lot of droid affiliate character ideas could be used with this background
• Veteran - very flexible, as this could be an officer of the Empire, Rex himself, Rebell leaders etc.
• Investigator (The Last Prospector) - Could be a Bountyhunter or an officer of the ISB
• Fatewinder (The Last Prospector) - And another chance for force users, in this case someone more rogue or unorthodoxly trained, like Rey in the sequels.
• Aristocrat (Quarantine 37) - Higher Imperial Officer, a rebell Senator, more successful smuggler (think Lando)
• Hunter (Quarantine 37) - This is meant to hunt animals / game, but I think this will fit a bounty hunter quite well.

As you can see, Stargrave provides a fitting framework to use Star Wars as a setting without bending the rules or shoe-horning it in. This would give me easy choices of Rebel commandos lead by Veterans, political figures, rag-tag crews of smugglers and various squads of the Empire.

And this continues with the choice of the remaining crew, speaking soldiers and special soldiers. All of them can be recruited as "robots", which gives you the chance to include your R2-units, KX-series droids and protocol droids you may need. With various classes of soldiers, to include Stormtroopers (Trooper), Death Troopers (Commandos for example) and of course mechanics, medics etc. and this still gives you the option to play Clone Wars, Empire etc. But as most of the units for Star Wars Legion obviously cover the options for a platoon sized wargame (so you have regular soldiers, special weapons and heavy weapon teams, along with officiers), but lack the specialists of a skirmish and that's where 3d printing comes in. With Skull Forge Studios, Squamos Miniatures and a few other digital sculpters come in and give the fitting models for classes like Codebreaker, Medic, Chiseler and such.

I am not a die-hard star wars fan and could explain the detailled timeline of BBY/ABY, but I'm going for the fall of Old Republic, between 0 to 9 ABY, giving me the option to have narratives in some of the late battles, along with remnant conflicts in the outer rims. Basically roughly between Rogue One, the original trilogy and The Mandalorian / Book of Boba Fett series. I don't want to cover full Jedi vs. Sith games, but Rebel guerilla warfare, Bountyhunters, classic Stormtroopers and Remnants. But not going full Space-Italo-Western, and making use of my green / summer terrain, going for areas where I could make use of Swamp and Shore Troopers, in the field grey-greenish tones of what we just recently saw in the Andor episode, The Eye.

Of course, you are not limited to using Stargrave for a Star Wars themed skirmish. You could use Five Parsecs from Home, other Osprey books like Rogue Stars, Scrappers or with a bit more house rules Black Ops or Zona Alfa. But we're going to take a look on the miniatures next.