Any forced or side mission that the imperial purchases and the rebel players play, is there an upgrade stage after the mission is complete?

And is this particular mission the next side mission, story mission or something else you just do in between?

There's always an upgrade phase after any mission.

What comes next is dependent on wether it was a forced or side mission. If it was a side mission that was the side mission that the Rebels chose, so it would go to whatever the next mission on the campaign log is. If it was a Forced mission then it's an "interrupt" to the missions in the campaign log, and you woudl do whatever was the normal next mission after you complete the forced mission.

There's always an upgrade phase after any mission.

Not exactly. It depends on when the forced mission states it occurs. According to "Forced MIssions" RRG, Page 18:

Forced missions are resolved between campaign stages. After resolving a forced mission, players should perform the “post-mission cleanup” step of a Mission Stage. Then they resolve the next available stage of the campaign.

If the mission occurs immediately after another mission is resolved, they resolve “post-mission cleanup” but do not resolve any Rebel or Imperial Upgrade Stages before this mission. The threat level for a forced mission is equal to the threat level of the most recently played mission

They do the forced mission right away before they upgrade, but the imperial player buys the mission after the rebels upgraded already if you follow the post mission steps. Kinda goofy.

Thanks for the help!

there are 2 kind of forced missions:

-purchased forced missions

-forced missions as a result of another mission

the forced missions you purchase have a post mission clean up with rebel and imperial upgrades the same as any other mission.

For example "impounded" is a forced mission the imperial player buys in the imperial upgrade stage and is played instantly but you already did your upgrade stages.

the forced missions as a result of a mission are the ones referred in the rules that you can't have an upgrade stage when that mission happens. Example of this is the mission "Captured". Is a forced mission as a result of one of your Story missions, so when you finish that story mission, you have a post mission clean up but you can't have upgrade stages. you must play the forced mission first, and when you finish the mission "Captured" then you can have upgrade stages as any other mission

Oh, I didn't know about the forced missions as a result of a mission. Thanks for the info!

My gaming-group and I are on our first campaign, and we're a little confused as to what constitutes a "forced mission"???

Specifically, the last mission that we played was one that the Imperial Player *bought* using (I believe) "Agenda" points (or it may have been "Influence").

In any case, the mission was one where we had to hold-off Darth Vader and his hench-men while an unseen Luke Skywalker was monkeying around with a computer (or something).

If we (the Heroes) had not "chosen" to undertake this mission -- as opposed to a different side-mission -- then the Imperial Player would have automatically won Darth Vader as a Villain ("ally") for the Imperials.

So, this didn't really "feel" like a "choice".

Is that a "forced mission"??? Or not???

Do mission cards / briefings use the language "forced mission" so that everyone knows -- for sure -- that a mission is "forced"???

By-the-Way: we kicked Darth's butt and won!!! (The Imperial Player was very disappointed...) ;-)

Forced mission is a mission that tells it is played as a forced mission. (Captured, and agenda forced missions Impounded and Wanted.) Other agenda missions are agenda side missions.

Btw, you can get the rules reference guide from https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-imperial-assault/ . It's a great resource.

Thank you for posting the names of the "Forced Missions":

* "Captured"

* "Impounded"

* "Wanted"

I found that in all cases, the text related to each of those missions specifically says to "...play as forced mission..."

It might be nice if someone wanted to take the time to compile a list of all of the "Forced Missions" from the Core game and all of the Expansions, just as a reference.

That is the full list of forced mission as far as I know.