This mission is insane-o for the LS!

This is the first mission I felt my rebel players had no chance of winning. Granted we had never played it before. but there is a ton of threat and units to deploy in this monster. The mission started with the rebels almost one shotting the probe droid, he had a luck roll against one rebel and almost bloodied her.

The Trandoshans came up and strained out half their team, a luck shot bloodied the Jedi player with the Trandoshans on turn two. The E-web mainly danced in circles waiting for an open shot.

Before they reached the main courtyard I had enough threat to deploy a regular stormtroopers. They delayed the group until Turn 3ish when the Wookiee finally ran into the courtyard to be one-shotted (wounded) with the E-web. Subversssive tactics really helped here as I was dishing out free strain to disable their abilities.

Finally the rebels busted through a door on turn 4 only to see the royal guard and elite E-web placed in the main room. The wookiee of course failed his skill checks and by turn 5 the virus was uploaded at this point they realized they would have to hold all three terminals for the remaining rounds to get 12 mission tokens! Somewhere along the way another hero got bloodied. The elite E-web with royal guards was insane chilling with a static 2 defense.

I made up some rules on the fly so they wouldn't get too crushed with three heroes wounded I could have easily taken out two terminals in the first turn and then another on the next providing them with only one token! Instead we made it so the imperials could only discard one token per turn. By the time round 7 rolled around I just stopped using the static defense on the E-web it had already taken out two wounded heroes and they had little spirit left. Mak did kill it with one final blow but the mission was just brutal.

At the end they still ended up with a ton of cash I think getting 5 tokens (3 were pretty much gifted by the made up rule change but any other way seemed unfair). I think they ended up with 800 credits + crate bonuses so it was a lot of money but the DS wracked up 3 influence which is going to be pretty painful for them.

Has anyone else found this mission really hard. I'm hoping things get easier as we just started the campaign today and had two straight rebel losses.

It can be rough for sure.

Played it this last weekend, I'm still going easy on my rebels so they got all 12 tokens, it's definitely a good exercise in staying focused on the prize. It would be very easy to get tied up on the rest of the map dealing with irrelevant stuff, or get spooked by the initial e-web and play too cautiously.

They only need two healthy heroes to 'hold' all three terminals if you position them right, so once they get 'in' and take out a portion of the garrison they can afford to rest/rest potentially.

Really fun scenario though....although we haven't played any that haven't been really fun. Next session the gloves come off though, going to make them pay for all the xp they've been getting!

It's a mission that is supposed to be brutal for the rebels, the timer has been replaced by overwhelming imperial forces.

There is no win/lose condition, the rebels just have to survive long enough to get some money.

The only bit that is unbalanced is that the rebels can lose 2 terminals the same turn they enter the bunker, because they don't learn this until they enter it can be unpreventable.

It should be more balanced on the 2nd play through.

We will play this today (2nd campaign for some players) for the first time. I will write a short battle report in the coming days.

I had the same feeling when we played it. I voluntarily let the rebels have three tokens out of generosity.

Next time I play it, I plan to change the imperial guards for a single officer, and switch the e-webs positions, so that the Elite is outside. This way, the rebels should play accordingly to the presence of an elite e-web and it may give them a break once they get inside. Getting to the objective to realize that the strongest opponents are there waiting for you is a bit harsh.

I had the same feeling when we played it. I voluntarily let the rebels have three tokens out of generosity.

Next time I play it, I plan to change the imperial guards for a single officer, and switch the e-webs positions, so that the Elite is outside. This way, the rebels should play accordingly to the presence of an elite e-web and it may give them a break once they get inside. Getting to the objective to realize that the strongest opponents are there waiting for you is a bit harsh.

Yeah our problem as two heroes were already wounded when the virus was uploaded. Unfortunately a wounded hero uploaded the virus, I could have discarded all three tokens between Royal Guard and E-web activations within two turns but it just seemed ridiculously unfair. Everyone still had fun.

Short report (will write more with pictures in the coming days)

Setup

Side mission #2 (3 threat per round)

IP class: Subversive Tactics

Rebels: Diala, Fenn, Mak, Jyn

• The Probe Droid and one Trandoshan fell in the first round, doing 2 less damage required to turn Diala
• E-Web danced around the court to secure the crate behind the rocks
• With 9 threat, we didn't deploy anything after Round 1
• Turn 2 the 2nd Trandoshan fell and we couldn't get a shot with the E-Web, still hiding behind the rocks
• The rebels damage the south door, but don't open it (sadly)
• With 12 threat we don't deploy anything
• Turn 3 the E-Web falls
• The rebels open the south door
• The guards and the E-Web hide in the command room
• With 15 threat, we don't deploy anything, banking on action economy after the AT-ST + Stormtroopers spawn
• Turn 4 the rebels gather in the courtyard
• The rebels damage the north door (???)
• They go into the facility and upload the virus
• We deploy the AT-ST + Stormtroopers
• The AT-ST double moves to the courtyard while the stormtroopers double move to block space above the red spawn
• Guards get off hits, but one of them is dodged
• E-Web can't get a shot
• We get 3 threat for the virus being uploaded
• We get 3 threat for threat per round bringing us to 20
• We deploy an elite nexu, elite trandoshans and a regular officer -> 2 threat -> end of round -> 5 threat
• Turn 4 inside hell breaks lose with the guards battling the rebels and the e-web shooting. 4 attacks, 3 evades.
• AT-ST shoots south door, Regular Stormtroopers and Nexu pouring in
• Trandoshans shoot fenn (who was outside at the start of the round) and secure the courtyard
• Turn 5, rebels get 3 tokens, and all of them are still healthy
• We continued to storm the complex and didn't get the damage we needed (4 more full evades in critical moments)
• Last turn we missed 1 damage on mak to turn him (last healthy rebel) and secure 3 tokens for the IP

Verdict:

Rebels got 2150 credits

We didn't deploy in round 3 (which we should have)

7 or 8 full evades made wounding the rebels a pain in the ass

2 healthy rebels can secure all terminals

Action advantage took too long to manifest

Rebels won the mission

Short report (will write more with pictures in the coming days)

Setup

Side mission #2 (3 threat per round)

IP class: Subversive Tactics

Rebels: Diala, Fenn, Mak, Jyn

• The Probe Droid and one Trandoshan fell in the first round, doing 2 less damage required to turn Diala
• E-Web danced around the court to secure the crate behind the rocks
• With 9 threat, we didn't deploy anything after Round 1
• Turn 2 the 2nd Trandoshan fell and we couldn't get a shot with the E-Web, still hiding behind the rocks
• The rebels damage the south door, but don't open it (sadly)
• With 12 threat we don't deploy anything
• Turn 3 the E-Web falls
• The rebels open the south door
• The guards and the E-Web hide in the command room
• With 15 threat, we don't deploy anything, banking on action economy after the AT-ST + Stormtroopers spawn
• Turn 4 the rebels gather in the courtyard
• The rebels damage the north door (???)
• They go into the facility and upload the virus
• We deploy the AT-ST + Stormtroopers
• The AT-ST double moves to the courtyard while the stormtroopers double move to block space above the red spawn
• Guards get off hits, but one of them is dodged
• E-Web can't get a shot
• We get 3 threat for the virus being uploaded
• We get 3 threat for threat per round bringing us to 20
• We deploy an elite nexu, elite trandoshans and a regular officer -> 2 threat -> end of round -> 5 threat
• Turn 4 inside hell breaks lose with the guards battling the rebels and the e-web shooting. 4 attacks, 3 evades.
• AT-ST shoots south door, Regular Stormtroopers and Nexu pouring in
• Trandoshans shoot fenn (who was outside at the start of the round) and secure the courtyard
• Turn 5, rebels get 3 tokens, and all of them are still healthy
• We continued to storm the complex and didn't get the damage we needed (4 more full evades in critical moments)
• Last turn we missed 1 damage on mak to turn him (last healthy rebel) and secure 3 tokens for the IP

Verdict:

Rebels got 2150 credits

We didn't deploy in round 3 (which we should have)

7 or 8 full evades made wounding the rebels a pain in the ass

2 healthy rebels can secure all terminals

Action advantage took too long to manifest

Rebels won the mission

Interesting I just continously pumped out troopers and officers it gave me enough to stall and bloody them before they got to close to the virus. Why did you wait so long to deploy saving for 3 guys at once?

Interesting I just continously pumped out troopers and officers it gave me enough to stall and bloody them before they got to close to the virus. Why did you wait so long to deploy saving for 3 guys at once?

Action advantage. By having more deployment cards active than the rebels have activations, you have a serious advantage. However, like I said, we probably started deploying 1 round too late, though without the additional threat from round the virus, we couldn't have deployed that much anyway. It's a tricky balance in that mission, and I am still figuring out when to save/spend threat.

Ahh I run my campaigns the opposite way.

I know if I constantly redeploy units it will slow the rebels down. They focus fire on my troopers wasting valuable actions which keeps them from their objective.

I think I deployed a stormtrooper group and an officer before they even started hitting the doors. The courtyard E-web also scored some critical hits on the Wookiee and Jedi.

Ahh I run my campaigns the opposite way.

I know if I constantly redeploy units it will slow the rebels down.

I tried this in the first campaign, but this backfired as soon as my deployment groups were less than 4-5. The action advantage of the heros was too strong then, even with the upgrades from Military Might. Like I said: We just went too far this mission.

You can follow our campaign progress with the public tracking sheet here: http://boardwars.eu/follow-stephans-campaign/

Okay, here a few pictures to help with understanding the positioning.

End of turn 1, the Probe Droid is defeated but Mak is fully strained and has about 7 damage on him.

In Hindsight, we should have deployed regular Stormtroopers (which we didn't bring in our open groups) before turn 1.

E-Web moved, so he is out for turn 2. The rebels start to pour into the courtyard.

The E-Web proofed to be more resilient than expected.

Still it's defeated at the start of the 3rd round. Diala and Mak rested in the 2nd round so they lag a bit behind.

They start to attack the south door, but do decide to only open it in the 4th round.

In round 4, they open the south door and attack the top door. I tried to stall by moving the Royal Guards out of the way. In the background, the AT-ST and the Stormtroopers wait patiently for their activation. If the rebels had opened the door one round earlier or we had deployed during round 3, we might have had a better stance here.

We deploy elite Trandoshans, a Nexu and a regular Imperial Officer (hidden behind the AT-ST).

Next round and about a million dodges by the rebels, jyn is wounded, Diala, Mak and Fenn are hurt.

Instead of going for the surefire way to deny 400 credits to the heroes, we go all-in and try to wound them all in the last round to secure 3 tokens for us and get an additional influence. In the end we were 1 damage short on Mak. Rebels get 2150 credits and 1XP, we get 1 influence and 1XP.

I'd say that action advantage is important but we clearly waited to long to actually utilize it.

Folks,

We played this mission yesterday and it went on for quite a bit because I read the last paragraph in the mission briefing as rounds don't begin until the virus is uploaded. This meant the first part until the door opened took a while and then our two rebel characters just had to hold the one remaining terminal by resting around it. I was playing the wife who needed to get on with the roast so we just agreed that she would have done this for the remaining 8 rounds and so I gave her 8 tokens.

Was I right? If so this goes on for quite a tedious time.

I notice that initial setup gets you double the threat so you can deploy an extra unit (I didn't notice that til late so we agreed I could return a fallen tradoshan)

Not sure the wife will ever play again

Folks,

We played this mission yesterday and it went on for quite a bit because I read the last paragraph in the mission briefing as rounds don't begin until the virus is uploaded. This meant the first part until the door opened took a while and then our two rebel characters just had to hold the one remaining terminal by resting around it. I was playing the wife who needed to get on with the roast so we just agreed that she would have done this for the remaining 8 rounds and so I gave her 8 tokens.

Was I right? If so this goes on for quite a tedious time.

I notice that initial setup gets you double the threat so you can deploy an extra unit (I didn't notice that til late so we agreed I could return a fallen tradoshan)

Not sure the wife will ever play again

You were not right. The round counter starts at zero (except for one mission) and goes up at the end of every round.

Norgrath,

Thanks for the reply. What does the statement "The mission begins" mean at the virus event?. I'm learning that Ffg are pretty careful about their terms. The rules say a mission is made up of turns.

Norgrath,

Thanks for the reply. What does the statement "The mission begins" mean at the virus event?. I'm learning that Ffg are pretty careful about their terms. The rules say a mission is made up of turns.

I can't find the statment you're talking about; do you mean in the briefing when it says "The mission will progress when the virus is uploaded"? That basically splits the mission up into stages (the heroes know from the briefing that they need to upload the virus to complete the mission but they don't know what they'll need to do after that.

Are you possibly using a "foreign language" copy? I've heard some of the translations are problematic.

There is no round limit once the virus is uploaded. The game ends when the terminals are both removed or all (12) counters are out.

There is no round limit once the virus is uploaded. The game ends when the terminals are both removed or all (12) counters are out.

atual there is a round limit after the virus is uploaded as there is a round limit for the mission

the mission end one of 4 ways

after 8 rounds,

when all 3 terminals are destroyed,

when all 12 mission tokens are claimed

or all heros have been wounded

There is no round limit once the virus is uploaded. The game ends when the terminals are both removed or all (12) counters are out.

atual there is a round limit after the virus is uploaded as there is a round limit for the mission

the mission end one of 4 ways

after 8 rounds,

when all 3 terminals are destroyed,

when all 12 mission tokens are claimed

or all heros have been wounded

The 8 rounds and heroes wounded end conditions are replaced with the terminals being removed or the tokens all claimed.

No they are not. Why do you think that? It does not say "The previous win conditions are not active anymore" or anything like it.

Ah Norgrath, you're right, I was being lazy and had read progresses as begins. I'm in the UK with English rules so it was my misinterpretation.

The 8 rounds will certainly make the scenario quicker!

Thanks for your patience.

No they are not. Why do you think that? It does not say "The previous win conditions are not active anymore" or anything like it.

Heh, that's pretty silly then. I forced all the heroes to withdraw with 5 tokens. If it went by wounded they would have been lucky to get 2.

so, it doesn't actually say how much health the doors have after being closed again. I just asumed same health and defense as before?

and yes, that scenario is very very brutal. the combination of elite eWeb + Ermergerds is ridiculous.

The amount of Health is a persistent rule. It does not change. Any persistant rule applies to any doors, even those closed/locked by mission rules/events unless specifically overriden. So when the doors close, they are locked and can again be attacked.

There's a cheat for the imperial in this mission too in that he can shoot down the door himself and get guards + eweb in turn 1. If it's early in the campaign it's over before it begins for the rebels.