I'm really curious, what are your thoughts for choosing open groups as the imperial player? in the beginning I was really overwhelmed with my choices, but now that I tried almost all deployment cards, they really have individual niches. Some are better for offense, some are great to slow those pesky rebel heroes down and some can hold places on the map like no other.

Officer: I almost always try to include an Officer since his special action Order is incredible for repositioning (especially with vader and E-Web)

Stormtroopers are good standard units, they have a good damage output but they drop like flies (non elite) and have a tendency of being killed with one attack. And if you keep them together and away from these nasty blast and cleave attacks their accuracy is pretty stable if you include rerolls and surges.

Probe droids They are great shooters and have mobile. I haven't really tried to blow them into my heroes face, and I'm not using the technological skill tree, so I mostly skip them

Trandoshan hunters ...those guys really scare my players. Causing Strain on RNG 3 and additional Hit symbols on adjacent combined with lots of hitpoints. Tather expensive but still Great. get them to an isolated hero and see him sweat.

Nexu ...now this little furry guy I mostly use as a wrench to slow the heroes down. Cleave and bleed really makes it hard to ignore him and the white die seems to be a proper imperial citizen and gives me lot of dodge.

E-web Engineer as many people have said on this forum, he's a rainbow machine of doom when focused, but he needs to stay a long way away from the heroes, because he will be focused hard (or ignored if the heroes have the chance). Accuraccy +3 helps with that a lot.

Royal Guard awesome roadblock, good offense, incredible defense. if you can attach additional health to them they get on the hero durability level.

Darth Vader boy, that guy puts a lot of hurt on the table. He's expensive as hell, and you need to "win" him with a mission first, but he either had the effect of terrorizing my players so they completely lose focus on their mission, or - on the contrary - he motivated them to succeed in their objecitves as quickly as possible.

AT-ST cannot enter buildings in the campaign, so he has very limited use. If you get the chance to put him in a path the heroes must take, ideally with a looong corridor between him and heroes...things get messy.

(will continue this post in the evening)

What are your thoughts/experiences?

Probe droids : I really like probe droids. I find they have a good quality/cost ratio. Early in the campaign they are a decent, affordable addition to your troops. In the later stages, the elite version is really strong and maybe my favorite of all troops. Surges allowing +2 damage and pierce 2, combined with the fact that they roll 2 yellow dices out of three give them some serious firepower for a figure that cost 5 threat. With the ability to heal, this figure can stick around long enough and mobile makes them really versatile. I almost never make them explode, though, unless I can make a really good use of an additional damage. In addition, I feel the less I make them explode, the most I can surprise the rebels with that option.

Next in my heart comes Trandoshans and E-web.

E-Web : Add the combat veteran attachment (from Military might class) to it and they start at +5 accuracy. Sometimes the rebels won't even realize how far they can be hit before its too late.

Trandoshans : Heavy hitter, but costly. They tend to stick around for a fair time unless the rebels really wants to get rid of them, which they can do quite easily if they concentrate their attacks. I think their best use is against heroes at max strain or non-heroes. Agains these targets they have maximum damage output thanks to their straining ability. The elite version adjacent attack hits pretty hard in that regard, starting with three damage. Add in the imperial industry attachment and they can cause bleed and stun with one attack.

The only troops that sometimes I tend to avoid are the Nexus and Royal guards, but only for a matter of context. They are really good troops but for some missions I feel it would fell strange to use them. For example, I would consider odd the see a Nexu in an imperial base or on a ship, as having imperial guards in a cantina or a remote facility (regarding cantinas, Nexu would'nt fit in either, unless on a plate with corellian gravy). But at this point, its just a matter of context and preference.

Royal Guard's are just straight up awesome. Never really a bad pick. Decent dmg and STUN, oh glorious stun. In any mission the hero's are under pressure, stun is the way to go. For a single attackt you deny an entire action for the heroes.

The Regular trooper are also great. A full squad of these do quite heavy damage, either spread out or on a single hero, all by your choice. Their ability to reroll makes them a consistent 3dmg per head.

That said, I really hope FFG soon will release more groups. The option right now are good and all, but feels kinda limited. Especially with the class cards. Tech supp only works on droids and the trooper only are only viable on Stormtroopers

Havn't played it yet, my heart is full of Storm Troopers and E-Webs.

I've said this before in other threads but my X-factor (in two campaigns) has been the Eweb . I always include one of them. I've also started to keep a Nexu handy too. They're fast (9 spaces w/ pounce!) , cause bleed and possibly cleave too. That's just too good to pass up for 4-6 threat.

I don't worry too much about cheaper units, since just about every mission has storm troopers you can redeploy them for 2 threat. The Imp Officer is nice to have, but if I can drop a stronger unit I'll usually pass on them.

Another factor to think about is, Your threat lvl. Early on it's hard to get those higher costing units in because you just don't bank the threat fast enough. So those early missions it's smart to go for the Probe droids and Imp Officers and other cheaper units. As the campaign draws on and your threat lvl rises, you can change your game up and start equipping those harder hitting units.

It's true you gotta watch your threat level and not bring too expensive units, but one should also remember that the IP is allowed to study the mission and the it's events before starting. Often during a mission you gain substantial amounts of threat allowing you to drop a high threat surprise that otherwise wouldnt be viable. Behind every door, Darth Vader might be waiting.

From my limited experience, E-Web is definitely the way to go (especially elite). Later on in the campaign, I could easily see Vader becoming a staple.

Well, Vader required you to have him unlocked.

Btw, which side mission do you have to win to deploy the Royal Guard Champ? None till the expansion?

Fair point (regarding unlocking Vader). I believe the mission to unlock Vader came in his character pack, so I'm assuming Royal Guard Champion comes in his?

That strike is killing me.