As far as I can tell, Agenda Missions don't take up a Side Mission place on the Campaign Log, they are extra missions that are recorded below.

That said, are they worth it? Most of them Grant the heroes with credits and XP, regardless of whether they win or lose. The Imperial player gets his Reward and a point of Influence if he wins, but that doesn't stop the Rebels from getting more powerful.

If two Agenda Missions are played during the campaign, even if the Imperial player wins them both (not a guarantee), the Rebels show up at the Finale with 800 Credits of equipment and 2xp worth of Class cards over what they would have without playing the Agenda missions. Yes the Imperial player gets XP, but in my experience, one Imperial Class card is not as good as four Rebel Class cards.

Is that worth it? Am I doing that right?

That's no different than a normal side mission but with Agendas the reward is higher for the Imperial player like getting access to Vader. I think they are absolutely worth it.

There are two types of Agenda Missions, Side and Forced. Only the latter add an extra mission. The side missions actually replace the position of the normal side missions on the campaign log.

Thank you, that was the thing I was missing. That they replace a Side Mission I'd they decide to play it makes it worth it I think.

Thank you.

Re: Vader. Getting Vader as a villain is a trap I think. 18 threat is a lot.

Additionally, if you play an agenda side mission, and the rebels choose to play any other side mission, you score the reward automatically.

Later in the game, when you are generating more threat and when the rebels start bringing allies, 18 threat isn't too big of a deal.

Yeah 18 threat is nothing if they bring along Han or Chewie or the like. Plus in later missions you get a lot more extra threat per turn etc.

And you either get the reward or deny them the chance at one of their rewards because they select the agenda mission.

Forcing or rather encouraging the rebels to go on an Agenda mission can be good just for the sole purpose of denying them a better reward. And if they don't take the bait, then you get something. Getting Vader as a villain isn't very good in my opinion as I've never reached 18 threat during a mission. But this is my evaluation based on a single campaign. We did lots of tiny mistakes in the start and I think that enabled rebels to win many of the early matches (that and some mistakes from my part in the start. I should have played more for time) an now the rebels I face are pretty much immortal. Usually 1 rebel activation kills an entire stormtrooper group or 2 of the 3. The E-Web Engineers are a threat to them but usually they get cut down early too so I can maybe do 10 damage to one hero if I'm lucky before the Engineer is killed. And Vader is just a single figure with a single activation. So I favor cheaper groups with multiple units in them. I get more dice to roll and the rebels can't get them all. I can do at least some damage.

So, in my opinion the best benefit from an Agenda card mission is denying the Rebels from the better rewards. Especially if the other 2 Agenda cards you drew are not good and you can spare the points. Agenda missions can be extremely useful if the Rebels have a choice of 2 Hero Side missions. Those can give pretty good rewards so using a side mission slot for an Agenda mission can prevent rebels from getting 2 hero rewards (if they win the hero side missions).

But is it worth the 3 Influence points? Isn't it nice to play a game which require you to make difficult decisions?

Here's the fun thing (stop reading if you are one of my rebels!):

Re: Vader. Getting Vader as a villain is a trap I think. 18 threat is a lot.

Plus that mission is nigh unwinnable if you are going against a pair of Legendary rebels as they can easily out heal the damage potential of the Imperial forces without breaking their 20+ Wound thresholds.

Re: Vader. Getting Vader as a villain is a trap I think. 18 threat is a lot.

Don't forget that all (if not most) side missions require you to increase the threat by the threat level in the beginning, which you could save to bring out Vader.

That and there are currently three agenda cards that make deploying groups easier for the Imp player (A Dark Power, High Value Target, Imperial Informants).

Especially during the later parts of the campaign, accumulating high levels of threat is very much doable.