Spoiler: "Chain of Command"

By Flatline500, in Imperial Assault Campaign

Posted at

So I'm reading the mission description for "Chain of Command" in preparation for an upcoming session (I'm the Imps, obviously) and there is a scenario that is potentially to my benefit as the rules seem to be written, but which doesn't make sense from a fluff perspective. I don't want to miss out on the benefit if it is valid, but equally I don't want to irritate my rebels trying to argue for something unreasonable. Can the wise folk here suggest any rules points to push us one way or the other?

The scenario in question:

At the start of the mission there is an Imperial Officer representing "Weiss". At the end of round 2, you deploy a reserved General Weiss figure representing an inactive AT-ST, which Weiss (Imperial Officer) can interact with to basically get in and start shooting. So far so good. But until the interaction happens, what can the AT-ST do?

The rules for putting the AT-ST into play are:

  • Deploy the reserved General Weiss figure to the red points. When placing the figure its base must occupy all red points. This is the inactive AT-ST.
  • General Weiss (inactive AT-ST) is an Imperial figure that cannot move or attack but can still be attacked.

As far as I can see, the text about "inactive AT-ST" is just descriptive, like the text naming the Imperial Officer or various other mission-specific characters throughout the campaign. When we deploy the figure, it has the General Weiss deployment card (because that is part of the rules for deploying, and if it didn't, how could it be attacked without knowing the defence or health?). As far as I can tell, the only restrictions on it are that it can't move or attack. But it would seem that means that it can still:

  • Be activated, taking a slot in the turn sequence that could help delay other Imps until after key Rebel actions (if such timing is beneficial)
  • Take two actions during that activation. These can't be Attack (mission rule), Move (mission rule), Rest (not a Hero) or Interact (there is nothing in range to interact with). But that still leaves Special. I can't see anything preventing the use of the "General's Orders" action from the General Weiss deployment card, even though that clearly makes no thematic sense.

Can anyone see a reason that isn't valid? Am I just breaking the spirit of the game if I try that?

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I'm preparing for the same mission, and

I feel like that violates the spirit of the mission rules. It's obviously supposed to just be sitting there without a pilot or gunner. How would an empty AT-ST issue orders?

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I agree it's against the spirit of the mission - it's just we're a pretty competitive, rules-as-written kind of play group and I know if the situation was reversed there'd be some argument in favour from the rebels. I'm torn, and hoping for some justification for my natural instinct to go with the spirit of the mission instead of what appears to be the rules!

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well you could just rush to interact so it's not an issue

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Try not to rush out weiss straight away, make sure you have more deployment cards than player activations so you can make weiss move uncontested to the At-St. I rushed him out in both my campaigns and Garkaan the wookie with a 5 movement focused charge attack, then another attack straight after ended Weiss.

leave him in the room and flood the facility with troops. I will need to try that next time. you need to move and interact with weiss last, get someone else to open his door.

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You said you rushed Weiss out - does that mean he can interact with the door and open it?

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You said you rushed Weiss out - does that mean he can interact with the door and open it?

I'm wondering the same thing. There's no rule stating that he can open the door, so I would assume he'd be stuck in there with it until the heroes open the door. That seems to be a disadvantage for the Imperials.

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he can open the door. it says locked to rebels. not to imperials. Though my advice is to wait until you have more activations than rebels before sending him out, get another figure to interact with the door. give him an officer to move him close first then use his activation to move then interact.

Edited by Spidey NZ
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Ok, so if the one unit can't be moved or attack until after the event, can it also be attacked? Could the rebels take pot shots and the unactivated unit sitting there?

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he can open the door. it says locked to rebels. not to imperials. Though my advice is to wait until you have more activations than rebels before sending him out, get another figure to interact with the door. give him an officer to move him close first then use his activation to move then interact.

That makes so much more sense than my previous idea that Imperials couldn't open doors.

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I played this mission last night.

I left Weiss in his office and tried to flood the board with more units. the At-St came out. the heroes made the decision to attack the inactive At-st, rather than weiss. they Destroyed it in two focussed garkaan and diala attacks. and then two regular attacks, toppled over, it was good, i have only really been able to ever get weiss in that At-St once in all my campaigns.

That forced my general Weiss to either stay still, or fight his way out to wound the heroes. he is quite powerful with two extra damage and 6 extra health. having him with the royal guards makes him more powerful.

the heroes won in the end and it was good fun

the only rule we were unsure of was Weiss using his command ability through doors. I was the imperial, and i did use the executive order through the doors.I justified it by him using a comm-link or something. but i think the counting spaces rules has something about counting through doors

Edited by Spidey NZ
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Certainly. one cannot (executive) order through doors. Since one needs to count spaces.

daa