In theory, Mak can do two attacks. After each he can perform no escape

Careful, No escape requires you to exhaust it after use, so a “attack-No Escape-attack-No escape” combo doesn’t work.

Also important to note: "Hero Class cards and Item cards are readied at the start of that hero’s activation, not during the Status Phase" (RRG, page 23).

A legal Gideon and Mak combo would look something like this:

*situation requires that Gideon has masterstroke + Hammer and Anvil, No escape is untapped

* I'm not considering strain, but let's assume surges are spent to recover strain or supply cards are used

1) Gideon uses first action to command Mak to attack. Mak exhausts no escape (2 attacks)

2) Gideon uses Masterstroke to command Mak to attack again (1 attack)

3) Gideon uses his second action to use Hammer and Anvil. Gideon and Mak attack (2 attacks)

3) Mak activates. No escape is readied. Mak attacks. Mak attacks again. Mak triggers No escape (3 attacks)

8 total attacks!

Yes, that is correct. My mistake.

But I also belive that Command and Hammer and Anvil are both special actions, so you can only use one of them.

Gideon and Gaarkhan are powerful. Always have them in your team.

In theory, Mak can do two attacks. After each he can perform no escape

Careful, No escape requires you to exhaust it after use, so a “attack-No Escape-attack-No escape” combo doesn’t work.

Also important to note: "Hero Class cards and Item cards are readied at the start of that hero’s activation, not during the Status Phase" (RRG, page 23).

A legal Gideon and Mak combo would look something like this:

*situation requires that Gideon has masterstroke + Hammer and Anvil, No escape is untapped

* I'm not considering strain, but let's assume surges are spent to recover strain or supply cards are used

1) Gideon uses first action to command Mak to attack. Mak exhausts no escape (2 attacks)

2) Gideon uses Masterstroke to command Mak to attack again (1 attack)

3) Gideon uses his second action to use Hammer and Anvil. Gideon and Mak attack (2 attacks)

3) Mak activates. No escape is readied. Mak attacks. Mak attacks again. Mak triggers No escape (3 attacks)

8 total attacks!

Yes, that is correct. My mistake.

But I also belive that Command and Hammer and Anvil are both special actions, so you can only use one of them.

Bit of a necro-post this, but my understanding is that you can do two different "special actions" in a turn. You just can't do the same special action twice...

Correct, each special action can be performed only once per activation. You can perform any number (normally 2) of different ones in the same activation.

Mak, Fenn, Gideon and Diala.

We are smashing IMP 6-0

We have so much dps, he can not do anything. He deploys units worth of 15 threat and they are all dead round later.

Fenn uses his free 2 movement points, attacks twice with two reds + 1 dmg from scatter barrel + 2 dmg from standing within 3 spaces. Almost guarnateed blast 2 to all adjacent. Then Gideon can order him attack twice again.

Also I was thinking about Gideon and Mak combo. In theory, Mak can do two attacks. After each he can perform no escape (if target is not dead, but lets asume target has 999hp), so those are 4 attacks. Then Gideon can perform Hammer and anvil to perform attack and Mak perform attack. If Mak recovered at least one stress due to surge he can do another no escape. Then Gideon can normaly attack for his remaining action. That makes up for an 8 attacks (3 of them focused) in just two activations. I belive there is no figure that can sustain so much dmg in this game. Even finale vader.

First off your Imp isn't playing it right if he is leaving his units stacked together. I am a master of getting around Jyn's quick shot, Fenn's blast and Diala/Gaark's cleave.

Theoretically you should never be able to hit multiple units in an attack ever. Also what deck is he running? Is he remembering to give himself exp and buy abilities? If you are spending all this time attacking that is a good thing for him as he should be able to slow you down or lead you away from objectives. I feel like he is playing like an Overlord more than an Imperial. And that is fine, but I wouldn't brag about beating someone who clearly wants to lose or is not even close to playing the game right if he wants to win

I will say that I like that team with Jyn instead of Mak. Jyn's fast and her quick shot will keep the Imperial player on his toes for order activation. She's also a beast with ability tests. Between her and Diala you should never lose a map that has ability tests as the end goal. Her ability to hop around after attacks is super useful as well. You run into problems with her if you get a good Imp player, like myself, who is good at avoiding LOS, but if you are adjacent to a target there is nothing the Imp can do about that. Great way to stick his activation order or force him to sacrifice.

Seasoned Imperial campaign player here, and these are the guys that have given me the hardest time:

Finn: He has no weaknesses, he really is a soldier's soldier. He's tough and recovers strain well, in the words of Drago he's a piece of iron.

Jyn: She eats stormtroopers for lunch. You are constantly having to try to avoid it.

Diala: What a nightmare she is, Way of the Sarlacc and the rerolls. With Jyn and Diala you are constantly having to be mindful of your positioning.

Gideon: For whatever reason, I've completely lucked out no one has actually played Gideon against me! But, I know without a doubt he is amazing and I would never build a 3 or 4 man team without him.

If I had to limit it to a 2 man team, I'd put in Finn and Diala. 3, add Gideon. 4, add Jyn.

Yeah, Gideon is my biggest fear as an Imperial player. Fortunately, he doesn't look that appealing to beginners, so I haven't had to play against him! Maybe someday when I'm on the Rebel side I'll pick him up...

Gideon supporting Fenn is a nightmare for sure, it really throws a wrench into a lot of scenarios and actually forces the Imp to play hard versus a wait and see tactic. It has caused me to lop side a few missions though over compensating once Fenn blows troops up early.

The one thing about Fenn is that he does die fast, with just that black defense die and no real way to get around damage combined with the fact people love to get him up close for his extra damage buffs or to get that perfect havoc shot in, he is a sitting duck. My crew has learned to buff him up fast, I think you can get him up to 18 HP in a four player game with Rebel Elite and Laminate Armor, so that helps.

I also love to use elite nexu's against Gideon, they try to hide him in the back and I just pounce over all of them and unleash hell. He dies much faster than Fenn.

I feel like Fenn and Diala are, slightly, the two best in the core box.

Fenn is steady, great against all three Imperial decks. No weaknesses. Easy to equip for effectiveness. Actually even better against Subversive Tactics.

Diala is the most flexible hero. She can be the second best support character in box with enough XP left over for Dancing Weapon or she can be a freaking damage dealing ninja with Way of the Sarlaac and Snap Kick. My favorite build with her so far was in a party without Gideon where she had Force Adept, Force Throw, Battle Meditation and Dancing Weapon. She picked up the Adrenal Implant as a reward and was carrying the Force Pike. Rerolls, movement options and a focus die wherever we needed it + a fantastic ranged attack? Yes! The only drawback with her is she is strain heavy. Maybe not a must bring against Subversive Tactics.

Gideon is great, but I think if you've got two (or more) of Fenn, Diala and Jyn he's less necessary. All three of them seem self-sufficient to me (less likely to be in position to use Command). I think Gideon and Mak are deadly together though.

I love playing as Mak, I don't care what anyone says. No one can deal damage like he can later in the game. He just has to deal all of it in one place. He is great against Vader, RGC or an AT-ST. He's also a good support character with his ability to sort through the item deck and his action economy with the extra interact.

Garkhaan is great in the early game. I feel like he is less impressive later. Also, he is more strain heavy than you'd think... Still, Unstoppable and Rampage together is pretty vicious.

Jyn is incredibly useful. That said, I think she is both difficult to protect, since she is often way in front after objectives, and expensive to equip, since she benefits so much from armor and needs two pistols to be most effective in combat.

I love Gaarkhan, he is my favourite hero to play as.. but I will agree he is almost a liability out there when actions are key. He is great at smashing stuff and the more damage he takes the better he gets at killing stuff. The problem is he can just be ignored and if he isn't attacking he isn't really effective at anything else.

I generally don't even bother attacking him when I am playing against him, I don't even try to go for four wounds just run out the clock and delay delay. Then the Gaark player sits there smashing stuff thinking he is winning the mission but in actuality every action he uses as an attack is a win for me. If I want to take it easy on them and make sure they win the mission I focus him.

Late game, Gaarkhan is really dangerous. He gets additional block methods, when wounded he does an auto 2 damage, he can move and attack with one action, and he is just overall beefy.

This makes it hard as the Imp Player bc if the goal is to wound the heroes, you cannot wait till the end to try and wound him, you cant just "peck" at his health, and if you wound too early, like I said hes doing more and more damage.

He is your typical tank and spank hero though, so very easy for a newbie to play him.

~D

I have played through 6 campaigns, 5 as the imperial and one as the rebel. I would have to say that as the rebel I loved being Gideon. His abilities make escape missions or anything having to do with capturing something extremely easy. As the imp, I can say that Fenn is for sure the most difficult to deal with while Jyn is the most pathetic. Any good imp player can move their pieces in an effective order that nullifies Jyn's interrupt ability which I think is what makes her so potentially good. There were plenty of missions during which I was both the rebel and imp player where Jyn never had a chance to do her interrupt because the imp player was smart enough to not let her see the figures at the beginning of their activation. Fen is probably the best character because he has the best tactical upgrades, and while imperial assault can be mistakenly labeled as a combat game, I would argue it is more tactical than straightforward battle.

As the Imperial opposition with Military Might, my Rebel opponents have gained victory in almost every campaign mission with: Garrkhan, Jyn, Fenn, and Mak (and they usually bring Chewie in for extra muscle). Two of my biggest frustrations and the best boosts for the Rebel forces are 1. Jyn's quickdraw ability (almost automatically eliminates one of my squad before they get an attack) and 2. Mak, who I cannot see unless I'm within 4 spaces and has leveled up to earn 3 attacks on activation. Jyn and Mak are super squishy, but with all their abilities, I can never get close, and when I do, they almost always roll a dodge -- it's so easy for them to run and heal on the rare chance I actually deal any damage. Garrkhan has been the easiest for me to wound because he's tanking out front, but his charge can blow through an entire squad of troopers on activation. Garrkhan usually initiates by charging, Fenn storms in, blasting a hole through my troops, Mak picks off my elites from afar, and Jyn goes for crates and/or terminals. This is my first experience playing Imperial Assault but if I were on the Rebel side, I think Gideon would have paired well with Fenn's havoc shot -- I'm not sure having Diala and Garrkhan's melee attacks together would have gone as well for this group, but I'm sure next time we'll change things up (I would like to try Fenn, Gideon, Diala, and Mak). In spite of only winning 2 missions as the Imperial player, this game is so thematic, well-balanced, and ridiculously intense -- several missions have come down to a single roll of the dice on the final round (3 times, a dodge from Jyn was the difference). We have the FINALE coming up next and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for the Rebel scum...