Who is planning on playing the skirmish part of the game?

By Jonnyb815, in Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Hey so I am a old SWM gamer but love RPG games too so I am in love with this game. I was able to sit down at my local game store and play a few Skirmish games last night. It was epic and blows SWM out of the water. Man that was not a good game for tournament play. It was a great system just not made for tournament play.

I just wanted to know who all planned on playing the skirmish mode?

Depends on if I can find a community for it

I am. There's already three of us buying it and playing skirmish here. Tournament kit has been ordered and event planned. There's an earlier event planned in January at another store I go to.

We have a group that plans on playing it. Our store had 25 copies pre-ordered so hopefully when the spring game night kit comes in we get a good turn out

Definitely playing!

My current Imperial Squad has been doing pretty good:

x2 Regular Stoormtroopers (12)

x2 Elite Stormtroopers (18)

x2 Elite Officers (10)

Definitely playing!

My current Imperial Squad has been doing pretty good:

x2 Regular Stoormtroopers (12)

x2 Elite Stormtroopers (18)

x2 Elite Officers (10)

I would drop a Elite officer for two reg officers. You get 7 acts vs 6 and have more movement also go down to 39 meaning you have a chance at getting deployment/init first which can be big on some of these maps.

Still not sure a straight swarm is the way to go. with not a lot of area damage out yet and command cards that do multi damage I guess they are good.

From what we have seen from some of the upcoming command cards I am not sure a straight swarm is the way to go. Also I think the Rebels Sab decks should keep Swarms in check because of that blastx2 combo and the tricks they could have with their command cards.

To be honest I would go Vader, reg Trooperx2, Officer x2, Probe droid x2 but thats just me. Probe droids are going to be great because of mobile. The more missions we get that damage characters, cards like Lighting and More guys with blast the better they will be.

A really strong combo I see coming is getting your opps squad down to 1-2 health then unleashing that with the Sith lord card. I think it can happen if the imp ever get a cheap blast with the droids they have now with SD.

By the way whats up with everyone wanting to play Trooper swarms unless FFG didnt balance this game Swarms aren't going to be that good from what we have that is coming. They will be good but you will need a balanced squad.

Edited by Jonnyb815

So far I've only played one Skirmish game but high cost figures scare me one bad dice roll and your opponent is way up on score. You can let the dice gods kill off a few from your trooper swarm and still have a VP chance. :)

I'm all-in on Skirmish, baby! It's gonna be fantabuloustic!

Actually, I'm working on programming a Vassal module so that we can play it online. Vassal is a java-based click-and-drag interface that allows people to play games online in real time. There is already such a mod for X-Wing, and a PILE of other games. Some games lend themselves well to Vassal play, and others not so well. It seems to me like the Skirmish mode of IA will be perfect for Vassal play. As always, vassal is best used in conjunction with Skype (so that you can speak your communication during the game, rather than type it all out).

I'll update when it's ready.

But yeah, I'm definitely in on Skirmish. My biggest thing is that I hope I can find a gaming store nearby (in northern New Jersey) that hosts regular events and orders the league kits.

I am still kinda new to this. I know I want to get it for the Dungeon Crawler part, but what is the Skirmish Rules? Is it like a normal mini game (ala 40k) or do you still use the tiles and just build your own "squads" so to speak?

Very intrigued

I am still kinda new to this. I know I want to get it for the Dungeon Crawler part, but what is the Skirmish Rules? Is it like a normal mini game (ala 40k) or do you still use the tiles and just build your own "squads" so to speak?

Very intrigued

You build your own squad and pick a skirmish mission which comes with a map that you set up with the tiles.

I am. There's already three of us buying it and playing skirmish here. Tournament kit has been ordered and event planned. There's an earlier event planned in January at another store I go to.

I'm curious, have you ordered the tournament kit as a retailer, or as an event organiser?

What are the rules for this? As I'm keen to organise events, but I am not a retailer.

I am. There's already three of us buying it and playing skirmish here. Tournament kit has been ordered and event planned. There's an earlier event planned in January at another store I go to.

I'm curious, have you ordered the tournament kit as a retailer, or as an event organizer?

What are the rules for this? As I'm keen to organize events, but I am not a retailer.

Stores order the event kits.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5249

Edited by Toqtamish

you need to get your store to order them before Dec 29. I believe they are like 20 dollars.

Edited by Jonnyb815

You build squads using the Deployment cards, and you play on the same tiles that the Campaign uses, though obviously on different map configurations. So the Stormtrooper Deployment cards (regular/gray and elite/red) used in the Campaign mode are the same cards used in the Skirmish mode. And then all the heroes (Fenn, Gideon, etc) also have separate Deployment cards for the skirmish as well.

Each player builds 40pts of guys into his squad (a group of 3 regular stormies costs 6pts, just as in the Campaign), and then they pick a map and try to blow each other away. The first person to reach 40 Victory Points/VPs wins. There are also Skirmish Mission objectives, which give you more options for gaining VP during the match.

I am. There's already three of us buying it and playing skirmish here. Tournament kit has been ordered and event planned. There's an earlier event planned in January at another store I go to.

I'm curious, have you ordered the tournament kit as a retailer, or as an event organizer?

What are the rules for this? As I'm keen to organize events, but I am not a retailer.

Stores order the event kits.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5249

The deadline to order is December 29th. Make sure your store orders one (or three so you can run an event 1 per month).

If I can get people locally to play skirmish with me, I'll definitely build some skirmish squads. I'm already looking for ways to defeat Vader without using my whole squad to do it. For 15 points you can get Han and Gideon, and Gideon can focus Han to give him an attack pool of Blue/3xGreen, which looks like the best way to punch through Vader's armor. I've also considered lists with a lot of stun or relentless to force strain on him. Gideon/Fenn/troopers is 18 points, and a focused Fenn hits pretty hard, too, while the troopers can shoot non-Vader things or go after objectives.

Vader isn't great at accomplishing skirmish objectives because of his average speed. It's hard to kill him while he's getting an objective, but 18 points for a single activation at speed 4, he's going to need to accomplish a lot. He'll get victory points a lot faster by murderating your opponent's figures. There aren't many that can stand up to 2xRed/Yellow with possible pierce 3. Chewie is basically it for the rebels, and you really need to see some dodge results on his white die for that to happen. Speaking of Chewie, he plus Argus match Vader's 18 points. A focused Chewie rolls one of each attack dice. Not as good as Blue/3xGreen, but any time you roll 4 dice, it's a winner.

I really don't think we can judge the meta until the next set hits since its pretty limiting with the command cards we have right now and missions

I am kind of glad the kits don't hit till March.

Edited by Jonnyb815

I was more excited about the skirmish mode than campaign mode when the game was first announced. After getting the game in my hands and playing a couple of campaign games I'm really pumped for skirmish games. I have been hoping FFG would make a character driven skirmish game since X-Wing came out.

I know I will focus on the Alliance more than Imperials when we get going. To bad Han and Chewie combined take up so many points :(

I will most certainly be playing the Skirmish mode. A lot.

I was more excited about the skirmish mode than campaign mode when the game was first announced. After getting the game in my hands and playing a couple of campaign games I'm really pumped for skirmish games. I have been hoping FFG would make a character driven skirmish game since X-Wing came out.

I know I will focus on the Alliance more than Imperials when we get going. To bad Han and Chewie combined take up so many points :(

I think Chewie + Han is a good squad just use Rebel Saboteur x2 then Gideon. Yeah if they take down Chewie it hurts but its not a bad squad

Edited by Jonnyb815

Not me. I have a few other games that I would prefer for tournaments. Maybe if my local store gets the kits.

Haven't even looked at the command cards yet, so that tells you about my plans :P

Our group will certainly get around to it once we complete a few campaigns. But right now we are leaving skirmish gameplay to X-wing :)

Edited by Armandhammer

My first squad will likely be something like this:

12 Han

10 Luke

9 Fenn (or 8 for Gaarkan)

5 Jyn

3 Gideon

That's 39pts (38 w Gaarkhan over Fenn)

I think that Luke's "Inspiring" special ability will be really powerful. Diala might be a good choice too, since she already gets to reroll her Defense die, and Luke would allow her to do it again...that's 3 chances to completely Dodge an attack. Plus she has Recover 2 for a surge ability, so I think she could be difficult to take down.

Anyway, those are my thoughts without actually having the game in hand. It's due to arrive on Saturday (possibly Friday), so I'll be able to really dig into it then.