Vibroknives in the Dark: Imperial Special Forces, expanded!

Almost two years ago, I painted up a squad of Imperial Special Forces for Star Wars: Legion. They were fun, but with games fizzling out, I didn’t touch the game for a while.

That is about to change. My usual Team Yankee opponent seems to have an interest in almost every game I play, which is incredibly convenient. He asked if I also played Legion…which I did, in theory.

I have easily enough to play, but no real idea how. Luckily, I have actually quite a potent force as it turns out, and the Facebook group pointed me in the right direction.

I had purchased a second box of Imperial Special Forces(ISF for short!) as I had read that two boxes was enough to build the named Inferno Squad unit and two generic ISF squads. So out came the clippers, glue, and paint!

Of course….now I was on a roll. I had also picked up recently the Black Legion contrast paint, a much deeper black contrast then the original Black Templar contrast paint. To try it out, I decided to paint my Scout Trooper models as Storm Commandos.

Storm Commandos were a unit in old Star Wars legends, raised by Crix Madine, who later defected to the Rebellion over moral concerns. I must have rescued him in various video games during his defection at least twice as a kid.

Back when he was loyal to the Empire, Madine had formed the unit as the best of the best of the Stormtrooper Corp, to do the raiding of rebel installations and various other tasks that you needed a dagger for, not a hammer.

Under his command, they even were known for their ethics, but this deteriorated over time and eventually got bad enough that Madine could no longer abide it. The unit took an ethical nosedive after he defected, becoming just another tool of imperial oppression…if not a bit more subtle than normal.

Now, I did have enough ISF left to build another squad. These went together much the same as my previous squad I did in 2020, but this time I did a yellow squad marking, to contrast with the blue of the previous squad.

Honestly these ISF models are among the neatest I’ve seen for Legion, and easily my favourite so far!

I did rebase all my Legion models with the new mud texture paint I’m using by MIG, as it’s got the nasty wet mud look. As my collection is almost entirely based on the Mimban Campaign(a muddy trench war in the setting, which we briefly see in Solo, and is mentioned in Andor), the mud needs to look good!

So, here is all of the Imperial forces for Legion I’ve amassed so far!

As I got the Blizzard Force battle-force for Christmas, I should be adding a lot to my Mimban Campaign project. I will be adding 3D-printed Imperial Army troopers in their distinctive campaign specific gear as well!

The bloody war over this muddy desolate rock will need all the men the Empire can provide. Luckily, the Legion expansions are no longer nearly as hard to buy.

Finally, my friend Ty over at Hussars and Handgrenades has suggested a counter-insurgency Star Wars campaign using the Spectre Operations rules. I’ve been workshopping in my head combining those tight modern-setting rules with Insurgent Earth’s AI and Reinforcements rules, for a tight, gritty Star Wars feel.

I’m definitely looking forward to fielding the Empires Finest in Legion or any other game I end up using these models for! But, for now, Happy Wargaming wherever you are, and Long Live the Empire!