The parts about tokens expansion packs are nothing new. They announced the ally and villain packs two full months ago, and we've known that at least some of the characters in those packs will be in the main campaign for that long, as well (in fact, if you watch Team Covenant's video of the GenCon demo, you see that the Royal Guard Champion is in a core set mission, back when they were still planning to have it named Carnor Jax).

Yeah, it kind of sucks, but we knew it was happening. FFG is an expert at monetizing its games. Just look at its Star Wars RPG. It uses special dice, and a single set is hardly enough to play with. Even two sets is stretching it a little bit. But I like the dice mechanics. And I expect I also will like Imperial Assault, mechanically, thematically, and aesthetically, even though I would rather get Han, Chewie, etc. in the core box. FFG knows how to make good games, and it knows how to get people to pay enough that they can keep making good games.

Also, I couldn't care less about Luke and Vader not being in full retail packaging.

Edit: Thanks for the photos, though, especially the closeup on the heroes. I don't know if we'd seen their minis close-up yet.

yeah,
Ha! Heros were the one blurry photo! Heres another.



Regarding the missing characters, Just because we expected it doesn't mean we can't express our disappointment. I understand it for the rescue mission - I dont expect to have a mini that's used as a NPC in only one mission.

But the expansion character chits are actually used in about half the missions in the core set.
As shown in this quick scan through the missions:

Also the Rebel Player also has access to these chits/figures as 'Allies' during mission set up.
Only one ally can be taken per mission by paying it's skirmish cost on the threat meter.

Rebel troopers can be taken as an ally by advancing the empires threat meter 6 points.
Han can be taken for 12 threat meter points.

So basically the 7 Rebel chits/figures can be a part of every mission!

Panic...

I am happy since it helps skirmish play. You need the command cards to play so it forces you to buy them. You don't need the packs for the campaign. They help since you get minis and mission cards for the campaign. You can get wotc minis off eBay if the tokens really bother you and you don't want to pay 10 dollars a mini.

Really if they were included in the set the cost for the base set would just cost more which odds are if they did go over the 100 dollar mark they would lose a lot of people that would of both them.

Last if you do play the skirmish it gives you a reason to give store credit for tournaments since having more than 1 trooper or rebel Sab is nice to have.

I like having the cardboard chits and deployment cards in the core box, it gives more playable content without increasing the cost of the box. It lets me know how many small packs will be released between big box expansions.

The included packs come with command cards for use in skirmish mode, side missions for campaign mode, an agenda set for campaign mode and 4 skirmish missions.

That's a lot of content if you play both modes, if you only play campaign mode then a pack would give you a model and either a side mission or an agenda set.... that's very little for the cost of the packs. The chits mean you have almost no reason to buy the sets if you play campaign only, these seem to be more geared towards skirmish mode.

I look at it differently.

The expansions are more than just minis. They have cards and skirmish missions and such.

I see the tokens in the base set as the bonus as they included them so you can play missions that use them without having the expansions.

Lots of people cried over when FFG raised the price, so I can't imagine people would want the base set to be even more expensive had they included all of the expansion material.

The luke/vader expansions are wierd tho. They either market them like that so you get an idea of what to expect with other expansions or they plan to eventually take the luke/vader packs out (like with the 2nd printing).

Thanks for the pics Panic. I think I've held them in person or seen close ups of all the minis except for the smuggler.

That seems like ... an awkward pose.

You can get wotc minis off eBay if the tokens really bother you and you don't want to pay 10 dollars a mini.

Be very careful with that. I started to pick up a few during black Friday on Miniature Market, first to get minis for this game, then I got more with the reasoning being to make the $99 for free shipping and then it spiraled down [spiraled u?] and I wound up spending $200 in minis to "complete" my old sets.

Now I think I have some triplicates of mins.

Yeah,
My gripe is that, the rebel troopers and saboteurs are really needed for Skirmish play.

While IG-88, the Royal guard champion, Han and Chewie don't need to be mentioned in the core missions at all.
General Weise is easily represented in most missions with the AT-ST model using different plug in character and guns!

They could have made IG-88, the Royal guard champion, Han and Chewie pure expansion packs and totally optional.
And extra basic rebel and empire troops expansion packs could contain extra unique command cards.
Like how they have unique pilot cards for the x-wing and tie-fighter in X-Wing.

The set up as is
1) half the characters in the story are missing
2) Rebels missing their core units for skirmish play

All just screams money grab.

Panic...

Companies want to make money. Shocker.

There's tokens for Han, Royal Guard champion, IG-88 and Chewbacca. I'm not sure what you think is missing.

You've got the Saboteur and Trooper tokens if you wanna use them.

yeah,

Companies want to make money. Shocker.

There's no doubt FFG should have their pound of flesh, but they should have some decorum in how they go about getting it.

There's tokens for Han, Royal Guard champion, IG-88 and Chewbacca. I'm not sure what you think is missing.

I thought I made that clear, half the rebels miniatures are missing!

You've got the Saboteur and Trooper tokens if you wanna use them.

I do not.

Maybe I'm odd but I want to use miniatures when I play a miniatures game.
I was attracted to the game because of the miniatures and I'm disappointed at how many missions tell me to use chits!

If it was a game with only tokens I would not have bought it.

Panic...

There's a possibility later printings of this game will lack Vader and Luke, and sell them separately, and this is an early adopter bonus.

yeah,
In my opinion that would be a mistake, having Luke and Darth is important to the epicness!
That's why they are included. I'd guess they were stripped out along with the others, but thankfully someone came to their senses and had them put back!

We are all jumping on the negative aspect of my unboxing!
However It's hard not to do this, because the missing miniatures are so obvious to the point FFG give you a leaflet so you know you will be able to buy them!

I did say that I think the miniatures are great and The game itself looks amazing! It's important when playing that the atmosphere is correct. That's why I have an issue with the two royal guards in this mission having a miniature while their Champion is a 2D disk lying on the floor.


And in this mission, it's all about Han fricking Solo!!! How cools this?
We get to play as Han Solo! Weeeeeeee!
Ok I place Miniatures for the troopers and a miniature for the droid...
And a cardboad chit for the supply crate and Han...

Why am I using a cardboard chit for Han Solo??

Was it really more important to have 2 Nexu (2units of 1) or 4 Trandoshan Hunters (2 units of 2)?
and zero Han Solos...That's well ****...


Panic...

Okay, I think I'm starting to understand what you're saying: You don't like it that you have to use cardboard chits instead of minis for some of the characters. Ok, cool. Gotcha.

Anything else?

yeah,
Does anyone like using cardboard chits instead of miniatures?

Anything else?... Nope I think other than that the game looks great!

That is what I said at the top.

Panic...

Your local store has it already? None of mine do as yet.

yeah,
I'm based in the UK.
Weirdly FFG seem to have released it here first?

Panic...

I still can't get over the fact on how great all those miniatures look.

If this was GW (Games Workshop) you know it would have been well over $200 easy and you wouldn't even get one game out of that let alone TWO.

So yea, we still get quite a great deal for the price, imo.

yeah,

Does anyone like using cardboard chits instead of miniatures?

For the iconic story characters, no. Like I WANT Han and Chewie minis to go with the Luke and Vader ones we have. I can deal with Weiss because we already have an AT-ST but it does blow that i have to pick them up on my own. But the mook squads, especially for skirmish? I could care less. The problem with them is you need so many, like the TIE fighters in X-Wing. Im not spending a bunch of money on no name guys when the iconic characters are so much cooler and interesting. I might pick a few up if theres a campaign scenario for them and itll look nicer. but if i can get away with chits in skirmishes you bet im gonna do it.

Thanks for the pictures Panic.

yeah,

Does anyone like using cardboard chits instead of miniatures?

For the iconic story characters, no. Like I WANT Han and Chewie minis to go with the Luke and Vader ones we have. I can deal with Weiss because we already have an AT-ST but it does blow that i have to pick them up on my own. But the mook squads, especially for skirmish? I could care less. The problem with them is you need so many, like the TIE fighters in X-Wing. Im not spending a bunch of money on no name guys when the iconic characters are so much cooler and interesting. I might pick a few up if theres a campaign scenario for them and itll look nicer. but if i can get away with chits in skirmishes you bet im gonna do it.

You can do it but you will be very limited when it comes to your command deck. since you need 15 cards and a lot of the command cards that work with the pack guys only come in those packs. I am pretty sure the tournament rules will say you need the mini(guessing but it makes sense)

Great photos, thanks for sharing!

I agree wholeheartedly with you about the tokens. I've been expressing my disappointment about them when we first found out about the upcoming "expansions"

"But the game would be that much more expensive!" was never a valid excuse for me because the core campaign should have exclusively used the miniatures included with the core set.

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to my gaming experience, so mixing detailed miniatures with flat tokens is going to irk me deep down inside

I think those that are mainly interested with the skirmish mode will be less bothered by this fact but it will disappoint players who view the campaign mode as the main selling point.

It was never an issue that would deter me away from buying this game (hellz no!), but it does play a factor in my overall rating of the core game.

There's tokens for Han, Royal Guard champion, IG-88 and Chewbacca. I'm not sure what you think is missing.

I thought I made that clear, half the rebels miniatures are missing!

You've got the Saboteur and Trooper tokens if you wanna use them.

I do not.

They are not missing they are purposefully excluded to keep the price of the game down. I mean they could have not given out tokens and cards for Han Chewy and the others etc but then people wouldn't be able to play some key missions. You may not have gotten to them yet but there are quests in the campaign book that use characters such as Han. To make the quests more varied they did this and included a token. That allows skirmish to be played fully from the core-set. If you want to replace the token with figures you'll need to purchase an ally pack. It could have been like the LCG where multiplayer was a box add on instead they chose to give the player a full Skirmish play experience in the core and allow them to expand their figure collection later.

You may not like it but that is how games work. They give you as good of an experience as possible for the price point in a core set, then if you enjoy it you'll buy some addons.

Clearly you didn't play Descent. They had to wait at least a year before they got miniatures for the Lt.s (big boss enemies) or allies.

But it does seem strange to have cardboard tokens for characters, when this isn't even a board game, but a MINIATURES game.