AAT Battle Tank Expansion from Star Wars: Legion Review

Atomic Mass Games recently re-released the AAT Battle Tank for the Separatist faction this year as part of their relaunch of expansion packs they've been converting from Fantasy Flight Games. The AAT Battle Tank, probably one of the most iconic ground vehicles to come out of the prequel trilogy, is available now available to bolster your troops and lob artillery rounds at the Republic (or Gungans).

AAT Trade Federation Battle Tank - atomicmassgames

Atomic Mass Games

atomicmassgames

As part of the new edition of the game, "new" expansions now include the new and updated unit and upgrade cards along with improved sculpts (sometimes). It's a fantastic model, pleasing to build, and if you're a droid army player on the fence about adding one to your army, the only right decision is "yes."

Unboxing 

The AAT comes packaged in two bags. Within the packaging, AMG opted to put the bottom of the tank (which is two parts) together for shipping, likely to save a little production costs on sprues. Even the tank body came separated, which is fine because the parts were packaged well enough that nothing was broken.

Like all of the latest AMG expansions, there are four sets of cards, each for the four languages (English, French, German, and Spanish). I usually save my extras for the inevitable card update and use them as backers for my print-and-play cards.

Assembly 

The newest Star Wars: Legion expansions, especially those that have been converted into the new hard plastics are really nice. The engineering with many of the sets are very clever and makes assembly is pretty easy. Always dry-fit your pieces before committing to the glue, just to ensure you don't end up with gaps or misaligned parts.

I chose to do some sub assembly on this piece because it's so large. The tank base and body I assembled, but I left the turret, droid commander, and hatch separate. I also did not glue anything to the support base as I will be storing that separately. I really don't want to transport the tank and run the risk of something breaking at that tiny little support that connects it to the base. Additionally, I want the freedom and flexibility to paint the base without the tank being in the way.

There are some gaps on the sides and front of the turret, side cannons, and a few along the back. The gaps on the front of the turret are uncomfortably apparent, and so when I go to paint this, if I don't fill them, they're really going to stand out and not look great.

If you want to fill gaps, a simple plastic gap filler, like Tamiya or Sprue Goo, is an easy way to fill gaps and then smooth them out after they dry. There are so few mold lines throughout the model, which is nice.

Droid Commander & Hatch 

When I build my army lists, I like to give myself some flexibility when it comes to upgrades. Not that there is a tournament-play legality reason for having the options; I just would like it to help with my gameplay immersion and help remind my opponent what's equipped on the tank at a glance.

After I assembled the hatch and droid, I decided to put magnets the inside of the turret hatch (~8.5mm), underneath the droid commander, and the hatch. Since the hatch sits so far up, I designed a printed a little cylinder, used green stuff to affix it and also help it align with the top of the tank. You don't have to magnetize the hatch; it actually sits just fine in the grooves on the turret.

Pre-apply Basing Materials

For my Separatist army, I chose to go with a the fields of Naboo for my basing. The grassy plains of Naboo are very flat, but I wanted to give my very large, flat base some variation in height, to give some "rolling hills" feels to it. In addition to the iconic green, I will add in some grass (after painting). To give the varied height to the very large, flat base, I added in some Vallejo Diorama Brown Earth texture paint. This will get covered by the primer, so I am not worried about the color now. I want to give the texture some variation throughout the base so I applied it in a few patchy areas.

Once the basing is dried, the glue settled on the magnetized pieces, and the gaps have been filled and smoothed, it's ready for priming and painting!

Cards & Abilities 

AAT Battle Tank

It should not be a surprise that the tank is a beast. Like most of the units in the Separatist army, it has the AI: [Action] keyword, meaning if it does not have a face up order token, and is not at Range 3 of a friendly Commander unit, it must perform one of the specified actions as its first action that activation, in this case it Attack. Hover allows it to perform standby actions, reveres, and is treated as a ground vehicle by other units for line of sight. Weak Point 2: Rear is a game-balancing feature that gives the attack unit Impact 2 if it attacks the AAT in the rear firing arc. So, at 165 points, it's already bringing a lot to the table.

Offense

Tanks do tanky things. It has two weapons; Anti-Personnel Lasers (Range 1-2, 3 black dice) and the Artillery Cannon (Range 2-4, 4 red dice) which grants Critical 2, Impact 2, and High Velocity. The AAT surges to hits, so getting 2-3 crits is not unreasonable, especially with the aim token, and High Velocity prevents the defending unit from spending dodge tokens.  The Anti-Personal are Fixed Front, meaning they can only be shot out the front. The Artillery Cannon swivels, so it can attack in a full 360 arc.

Where it gets really fun Is Arsenal 2 and Barrage. Barrage allows the AAT to attack twice, so long as it didn't use Arsenal 2 (two cannon shots? Yes please). Arsenal 2 allows it to use both of its weapons in the attack pools. So, if you need to move and shoot, you can use both weapons, but if you're positioned where you want to be, you can attack twice. Ouch (for the defender).

Defense

The AAT can tank a beating. 9 Health, 6 Resiliency, red Defense Dice, and no conversion. It has Armor 5 (so it cancels 5 hits when defending). Now obviously, don't throw it out in the middle of the field, but this can hold its own and take a few hits. You don't have to be cautious, but don't be reckless, either.

Upgrade Cards

The upgrades included are just for the Pilots. There are Ordnance upgrades, which give you more options for Arsenal 2, and Comms upgrades, which are available in the Upgrade Packs or by downloading and printing them (both are acceptable for tournament play). The pilot upgrades are similar to the old versions, just updated to the newest edition, all of which drop the AI: Attack for something specific to the pilot.

OOM-Series Droid Pilot - Gains Coordinate: Droid Trooper, which is great for those B1 swarm lists.

T-Series Tactical Droid Pilot - Gains Field Commander, which is a great ability if you want to treat the tank as the Commander for most game rules.

Lok Durd - Ah yes, Star Trek-Alumni George Takei's contribution to the Star Wars Universe; the arrogant, portly, Neimoidian who tested the Defoliator Tank (another version of the AAT) and was subsequently defeated at the hands of Anakin Skywalker. So, it seems fitting that his upgrade grants Suppressive (as a free action exhaust). That's really nasty if you're attacking multiple times (oh my).

AAT Battle Tank Expansion Pack is available now!

Tanks for reading! Be sure to follow Gaming Trend for more Star Wars: Legion articles. Interested in a painting it but not sure where to start? Check out our second part of this review (coming soon) where we paint it up in a step-by-step guide.