Wow, worst skirmish loss I've had as Rebels. Had Dalia supported by Luke against Vader supported by a Royal Guard, basically like this:

R

VDL

Twilek already had a bunch of damage. Imperial player smiles, activates Vader. Plays force lightning which kills the heavily wounded Twilek, and causes Luke a couple damage. Then Force Chokes Luke for two more.

I activate the rebel gunner, can't remember his name. Use his assault ability for two shots on Vader, small amount of wounds. He activates the Royal Guard, who was previously focused and rolls godly against Luke, killing him. Mission went way downhill from there.

Normally I try to avoid Vader, but we played Get To The Ship, which ends up very close quartered. So, I had no choice but to try to face him. Bad news man, bad news...

Vader is a boss man

Yeah, Vader + a RG for +1Block = TANK. A tank with a force-choking bazooka on top.

Throw in Lure of the Dark Side and/or Force Lightning for extra funness

That mission heavily favors melee-oriented lists, which means most DS lists right now. It is actually, imo, the worst-designed mission out of the 6 available currently. All the others you split up and can use the weaknesses of the enemy list against them. In that mission you pretty much have to have a guy or three that can stand in the middle and tank, which very few of the Rebel heroes can do, at least against the very potent melee-ers the DS has.

I wish 2 of the points had been in the corners somewhere and 2 on the ship itself, so that it was less of a "king of the hill" kind of deal. I think that would make it much more interesting. It makes sense from a fluff perspective too, you have to open the door, release the landing clamps, etc.

On the plus side, it is possible to win that mission by killing the weaker units in the enemy list and then simply dog piling the middle (intelligently) and hopefully stunning their big guy, maybe even killing him. But a lot of things have to go right for the Rebels, especially if you are playing against Vader, or even worse, the RGC.

Also, when the first wave of packs comes out, the odds of getting that mission against the wrong opponent factoring in the other 15 or whatever is pretty unlikely.

Vader really scares people in this game and that's a good thing.

When he gets on board, I can feel their dread from across the table, heh.