As we have been doing, add extra threat at start and each round - still have to find the right balance of initial threat and threat per round.

The second idea is to give the imperial player a second class, along with a way to earn extra experience. Possibly +1 xp for every two heroes wounded. The down side is that there is already a lot to manage as the imperial player, so it becomes a major book keeping issue.

The third option is to use the skirmish initiative token. At the start of the initial rebel deployment, the imperial player assigns that to a rebel player. That rebel player may only take one action that round. At the end of that round, the token is given to the rebel player to their left.

Since it seems most of the rebel heroes have free movement options, it can hurt, but is a reasonably fair limit the five players but just penalize one person.

Next option is give the imperial player the initiative token during the initial deployment and all imperial deployment phases. This token can be spent in one of three ways: the token can assigned to a deployment card. Each figure on this deployment card gets +1 action. This action allows the imperial to attack more than once, however, any given action can only be done once. This makes it more useful for certain deployment cards, such as an officer, where that figure could move, attack, and then command. Second use, the token can be spent to activate two imperial deployment cards consecutively, effectively as an interrupt to a rebel player. Third option is to spend the token to get a number of threat equal to the number of rebel players. This is my favourite of the ideas I present, as it is minimal book keeping, and adds some versatility to the imperial player.

The final idea, is that wounded heroes can only do one action. Possibly coupling that with. when they wound a rebel player, the imperial player either assigns the hero a bleed or stun token.

i find that the simplest tweaks are often the most elegant. Changes I personally like:

• +X Threat at the start of the mission, and resolve an optional deployment, where X = # of heroes.
  
• +1 Threat per round for each hero above four.
  
• Once the fifth hero is in play, limit the rest action to once per activation per hero (effectively removing double-rest actions). This will make it so that they play more tactically, instead of steamrollering you with a massive number of actions.
  
• Implement the Initiative Token into campaign play, exactly like it is in skirmish, so that every other round, the Imperial Player gets to go first

Personally, removing double rest action does WONDERS for the campaign, keeps your rebels on their A-game.

Another option i've been thinking about for 6-7 players is to create an imperial 'hero'. Almost on par with a rebel hero. One for each class, military might gets a commando, Subversive Tactics a ISB agent, Technological Superiority a droid of some sort, phase 3 darktrooper perhaps.

Can't be reinforced, not as powerful as a rebel hero, but great for a seven player game. Five rebel heroes, one imperial 'hero' and one regular Imperial Player.

Give a few upgrades, and it could work.

I thought about simply giving them an ally to play.

To show the game I might have an extra one or two persons joining for the game, so one will simply play an ally (or a hero player has mentioned that he will play the ally so the new player can play a "full" hero) and the other will help me with the empires side.

I thought about that also, the issue is the group I play with wants to each use a hero. Also, the allies go down pretty quick, unless they are modified ad well. Allowing resting, two attacks, etc. A whole other type of balancing to do.

You could do it just like they balance lower player games. Apply a negative health modifier to make their health pool equal to 4 heroes. So -2 health probably. Then give them 4 activation tokens. They can decide who has to sit out in a given round. Same player can't pass twice.

Rather than only 4 players activating you may try two players only get 1 action each round. It'd probably be a bit more powerful than 4 activations as they all could attack.

You could do it just like they balance lower player games. Apply a negative health modifier to make their health pool equal to 4 heroes. So -2 health probably. Then give them 4 activation tokens. They can decide who has to sit out in a given round. Same player can't pass twice.

Rather than only 4 players activating you may try two players only get 1 action each round. It'd probably be a bit more powerful than 4 activations as they all could attack.

This is an excellent suggestion if we end up over number we'll try it out.