Our group played the ‘Dark Obsession’ Imperial side mission last night, and unfortunately it left a bad taste in all of our mouths… We made the mistake of not clarifying the mission objectives prior to starting the game and it ended with no one being happy with the results. The rule sheet states that the mission ends after round 6, or if all rebel heroes are wounded, or if Vader locates Luke. At the end of round 6 Vader had made it just outside the door where Luke was ‘hiding’ and was able to open the door, but did not have enough movement to get into the room. The rebels argued they had won, since Vader did not reach Luke. The Imperial player argued that ‘locating’ Luke only meant opening the door. Of course there is no clarification on what ‘locating’ actually means, so the game ended on a technicality. The rebels ganged up on the Imperial player and declared victory, and everyone went home slight disenchanted. Has anyone played this mission? If yes, how was the end game interpreted? Hopefully the next batch of expansion missions have clearly defined objectives!

I posted an answer on BGG as well but Ill copy here as well:

This mission does not end when hereos are wounded.

One of the bullet points in the Mission Briefing reads:

When all the heroes are wounded Darth Vader can interact with the sabotage site to locate Luke.

So you have to open the door and get adjacent to the Rebel token (which represents the sabotage site) Now Vader must use an action to interact. This is when he finds Luke.

The mission ends either when Vader is defeated, Luke has been located, or the end of round 6.

So the Rebels were correct in their victory.

Vader has to open the door, then spend an action to interact with the mission token. I thought that was pretty clear in the mission rules.

The Imperial player is on a really tight schedule in this mission. I counted it out, and it takes Vader 6 move actions to get adjacent to the token, if he takes as direct a route as he can. Add in an interact action, and that means Vader really only has 5 free actions. If the Rebels close doors, the mission gets even tighter, because either Vader will have to spend actions opening the doors or his troops will have to blast them open instead of blasting away at the Rebels to wound them all.

When my group played the mission last week, Diala was able to stun Vader early on. That put me on an even tighter schedule, and I just wasn't able to finish it. I probably made a mistake with my open groups, though. I put in an E-Web engineer, and he was able to wound and then defeat Diala, but speed 2 wasn't enough to even get a good shot at any of the other Rebels. Royal Guard probably would have been better.

Leveton has this almost spot on, the key to this mission is Vader's movement. The only chance at victory you have is to play the mission with a *ahem* "Dark Obsession" to find Luke. Vader must spend every movement chance he has getting closer to the objective, while all your other forces should be relentlessly attacking the rebels, trying to get them to a wounded state before Vader reaches the objective. If the heroes are targeting Vader, then that means they aren't targeting the other models that should be blasting the ever loving crap out the rebels.

Vader should only attack if the following two conditions are met:

A) Vader does not need to spend an action to get rid of stun, open a door, or interact with the objective this round.

B) During the course of his movement, via the shortest route possible to the objective, would allow for a passing attack (or Brutality, if you get lucky and the heroes decide to try to make you spend more movement getting to the door).

If Vader is stunned, he needs to take it in stride (pun intended), and continue moving. Focus your offensive efforts on the hero than can stun and turn her into a crater.

Thank you all for the feedback!! I will have to go and read again, but I do not remember seeing anywhere about Vader having to interact with the rebel token, just that he had to 'locate' Luke. I did nothing but move on the optimal path every turn except one, where the rebels got smart and jammed the hallway so I could not proceed. I used royal guards to attempt to clear a path in front of vader, and storms to stay one square behind and absorb damage, but that hallway makes it nearly impossible to get this one done in 6 turns!

I played this one this weekend myself. End of turn 6 Vader was 1 square away from Luke. So close but so far away...

One square away seems a common theme! managed to keep vader from getting to Luke in ours too :-)

It would be interesting to see how many other missions are this unforgiving as far as victory conditions are concerned. In this mission, there is no room for error. if you make one mistake with Vader, you have lost.

We played this one and it was a farce. The rebels just ran around the board or double healing if they needed too. With two rebels they have +10 health and two activations a turn. With running around and massive healing it was impossible for the imperial player to wound both Heroes in 6 turns.

Deeply disappointing game, I wouldn't bother with this mission if it came up whilst I was running the imperials.

Yeah, with Legendary and two heroes, it makes it tough to would them in any mission. You have to effectively ignore one hero, and completely target the ever loving crap out of the other until he is wounded. Also, make sure you are forcing your rebels to activate alternately. It is a common mistake with Heroic and Legendary to see the same hero take two activations back to back every time, when the rules state every other hero must have taken one action before a hero can resolve a second activation.

Try playing it with 4 heroes.

Also, make sure you are forcing your rebels to activate alternately. It is a common mistake with Heroic and Legendary to see the same hero take two activations back to back every time, when the rules state every other hero must have taken one action before a hero can resolve a second activation.

The problem is if you have less units than heroes. Ex, if hero "H3" has the double token: H1, Imp1, H2, Imp2, H3, H3. Having the same hero act twice without interruption is a real punishment.

Also, make sure you are forcing your rebels to activate alternately. It is a common mistake with Heroic and Legendary to see the same hero take two activations back to back every time, when the rules state every other hero must have taken one action before a hero can resolve a second activation.

The problem is if you have less units than heroes. Ex, if hero "H3" has the double token: H1, Imp1, H2, Imp2, H3, H3. Having the same hero act twice without interruption is a real punishment.

Well, if there are more heroes than imperials, you've got bigger problems on your hands!!!

I'm planning on dropping that mission during the next game night since I drew the card last time.

Any more Tipps? I really want them to be afraid of vader for the rest of the game.

The general strategy seems to be that you do not slow down, Vader must move every possible time. Protect him units with cloaking devices or assault armor, but be carefull not to allow the rebels to cleave/blast dmg him too easily

so, lots of royal guards and give vader armor attachement (the one from imperial might skill deck)?

rules question:

Mission briefing states -- doors are locked. a figure can attack a door, health 5, defense 1 block.

Under deployment and set up: special setup: increase threat by twice the threat level and resolve an optional deployment. Open all doors on the map.

Huh?

So I'm going to lock them just to open them before the mission even begins?

edit: when heroes interact with a terminal to close the door next to luke, does it become locked or just closed? Locked would mean the imperial would presumably have to bash it down, while closed would just require an interaction of any figure or vader using the mission special open door rule.

So I'm going to lock them just to open them before the mission even begins?

yes. You would open all the doors, and then the heroes can interact with the terminal to close the doors, starting with the one nearest Luke, then moving up the hallway to close the second door on the second activation, and so on.

We played this one and it was a farce. The rebels just ran around the board or double healing if they needed too. With two rebels they have +10 health and two activations a turn. With running around and massive healing it was impossible for the imperial player to wound both Heroes in 6 turns.

Deeply disappointing game, I wouldn't bother with this mission if it came up whilst I was running the imperials.

This was my EXACT experience, including the deep disappointment. Worst thing was that I looked at the next mission we're doing and it's ANOTHER one where I have to wound all the (Legendary) rebels. No doubt it will be another complete waste of time with no chance of Imperial victory. FF should invest more in playtesting...