I was playing as the Imperial player when this mission came up and after the shock of [spoilers] losing the AT-ST to the rebs, I still was hit with the thought that being able to deploy troops to this board seems a little broken in favor of the imps.

It played out like I thought it would. I got the RGC right next to the AT, then used my 'Show of Force' and 'Sustained Fire' to wail on it. It died by round 3 and I was actually able to wound Mak with the allowable actions (using the RGC to move and attack, then sustained fire again, then his second action to clear stun).

All the while though, I was able to redeploy troops to out-of-sight areas and just hold them there (since the rebels' only win condition is to kill all imps). Granted, the rebs were one-shotting me with the AT and Gaarkhan was cleaning up the squishy dudes, but it ended up overwhelming the rebs as predicted...

Just really seems like a HARD curve of strategy for the side with the objective overall. The other side just doesn't seem to have to work all that hard...

What do ya'll think?

Did you use all events correctly? Because after Round three you will get no more threat and so I got slaughtered after a short while. If I remember correctly.

I'll have to check on that - I don't remember that at all, but it's nothing new for me to miss something that important...

Yeah, your threat gets cut after round 3. I made a huge mistaking in trying to sneak all my unit up along a corridor forgetting the ATST has blast2 which made short wotk of my troops. We also allowed the ATST to attack twice, which we learned was wrong.

That couple with it being a 3 player game so the ATST could attack four times some every other turn made short work of my troops

So, even though it's being controlled by Mak, it's still limited to one attack per activation? Is that an issue of it being a deployment card and not a hero, per se?

It's because it is not a Hero figure, only hero figures can attack twice. The ATST is treated like any Ally cept it is the Mak player who controls it.

So, it is not controlled by the Mak figure, but the Mak player meaning none of Mak's abilities are available

Does it still activate twice then? I'm guessing 'no'...

Another question here - when you destroy the AT-ST, would that deployment card be returned to the Imperial player's hand, or just get discarded?

Does it still activate twice then? I'm guessing 'no'...

Another question here - when you destroy the AT-ST, would that deployment card be returned to the Imperial player's hand, or just get discarded?

Good question? Only hero cards get the extra activation tokens, so I would imagine it would only get one activation per round.

I'm not sure on the second question. But isn't it kind of a moot point if you don't get any more threat to deploy it with?

EDIT: Is the AT-ST referred to as an ally? If so, then as per Allies in the RRG, when the last figure in that group is defeated, the figure is removed and cannot be redeployed for the remainder of that mission. Furthermore, only Open Groups and Reserve Groups mention returning to the Imperial Player's hand. Since the AT-ST is neither, I don't think it would go to the IP's hand.

Hi!

Loose Cannon will be our next Story mission.

Just a strategy question to open groups selection for this mission:

I am pretty sure that the Rebels will bring Chewbacca as an ally into play.

If they do so, I think about to choose as the optional deployment for the ally a 2nd ATST under IP command (ATST expansion is available).

What do you think?

Which open groups and optional deployment would you choose?

I see no chance to win this mission as IP without on ATST

EDIT: Is the AT-ST referred to as an ally? If so, then as per Allies in the RRG, when the last figure in that group is defeated, the figure is removed and cannot be redeployed for the remainder of that mission. Furthermore, only Open Groups and Reserve Groups mention returning to the Imperial Player's hand. Since the AT-ST is neither, I don't think it would go to the IP's hand.

In answer to your first question, the AT-ST is referred to as "a Rebel figure under Mak's control". However, I don't think that precludes the second point: the AT-ST is listed in the Imperial's "Initial Groups", so there is no reason to believe that it can't go back into the Imperial player's hand once it is defeated. If it was late enough in the game, the Imperial could bank their threat and re-deploy the AT-ST in the 3rd round.