Like the title says.

What are some general tips for winning a skirmish?

Obviously if you're on a mission where the side objective provides big VP, you're going to want to focus on that.

But what about some non-mission specific tips that help overall?

I mean, I know for one, that having more activation's than your opponent is helpful.

One thing I've learned the hard way, and have made this a rule for myself, is not to attack Han Solo with Stormtroopers. His Cunning combined with Return Fire basically makes it suicide if I attack him. On way too many occasions has my friend rolled exactly what he needs to prevent damage from my troopers, only to Return Fire, and kill one.

What's everyone's opinion on kill priority? Is it a better idea to focus on getting rid of lower health groups, then moving your way up the ranks? Or focus on the heavy hitter right away? Personally, I think it's better to get rid of the groups first. I've come to despise Elite Rebel Troopers, and last game went out of my way to make sure they were dead and gone first. This seemed to help in the long run, since I've had trouble with focused Elite Rebel Troopers in the past. Should kill priority be handled similar to grouping in an MMO, where you want to kill the support characters first? What do you all think?

I think it's essential to know the reach of your opponent's big hitters. If your opponent has Vader and an Imperial Officer left to activate this round, then you need to count out 8 spaces, and not just 4 spaces when positioning your pieces.

Personally, I've always tried to eliminate enemy figures from the board. Whether I kill that last Stormtrooper from a group or not...that's not really the main point (though that 6pts is nice). Tactically, I think it's more important to eliminate enemy figures than anything else. Often, that means taking out Vader's minions before Vader himself. If Vader is my only reasonable target then I'll obviously go after him, but I think it's easier to take him out if you've already taken out his support.

I think speed is a bigger part of the game than I expected. I always try to have a couple of units with speed 5, and also include at least a couple of command cards that enhance speed. Mobile is another nice way to enhance speed in a non-traditional sense, but sometimes you really need at least 5 speed on a couple of units to compete for objectives or position yourself well offensively or defensively. That's another reason (besides the extra activation) that imperial officers are so good... they really add to your squad's movement range). If the royal guards were speed 4, I don't think they'd be quite as popular or useful (still good, but their speed 5 on top of everything else really adds to their usability). With a royal guard and an imperial officer, you can move up to 15 spaces each (or 10 and attack). With the imperial officer the Royal Guard Champion can move up to 18 spaces each round (or 12 and attack). With diagonal counting as a single movement, the IO and RG/RGC combo is pretty powerful.

I think it's essential to know the reach of your opponent's big hitters. If your opponent has Vader and an Imperial Officer left to activate this round, then you need to count out 8 spaces, and not just 4 spaces when positioning your pieces.

Personally, I've always tried to eliminate enemy figures from the board. Whether I kill that last Stormtrooper from a group or not...that's not really the main point (though that 6pts is nice). Tactically, I think it's more important to eliminate enemy figures than anything else. Often, that means taking out Vader's minions before Vader himself. If Vader is my only reasonable target then I'll obviously go after him, but I think it's easier to take him out if you've already taken out his support.

wait, what? i guess i've been playing it wrong this whole time

i thought the officers only granted a figure to move 1 space, not it's entire speed

I think speed is a bigger part of the game than I expected. I always try to have a couple of units with speed 5, and also include at least a couple of command cards that enhance speed. Mobile is another nice way to enhance speed in a non-traditional sense, but sometimes you really need at least 5 speed on a couple of units to compete for objectives or position yourself well offensively or defensively. That's another reason (besides the extra activation) that imperial officers are so good... they really add to your squad's movement range). If the royal guards were speed 4, I don't think they'd be quite as popular or useful (still good, but their speed 5 on top of everything else really adds to their usability). With a royal guard and an imperial officer, you can move up to 15 spaces each (or 10 and attack). With the imperial officer the Royal Guard Champion can move up to 18 spaces each round (or 12 and attack). With diagonal counting as a single movement, the IO and RG/RGC combo is pretty powerful.

I agree. I will always now consider running at least one group with a speed of 5 in my squad.

I lost Smuggled goods at my Regional because everyone in my squad had a speed of 4. Well, that and I'm almost 99% sure we played it as if my opponent scored as soon as he entered his spawn, which is incorrect.

I knew that speed was a weakness for my squad, but I didn't think someone would be able to grab all 3 crates as quickly as they did.

I think speed is a bigger part of the game than I expected. I always try to have a couple of units with speed 5, and also include at least a couple of command cards that enhance speed. Mobile is another nice way to enhance speed in a non-traditional sense, but sometimes you really need at least 5 speed on a couple of units to compete for objectives or position yourself well offensively or defensively. That's another reason (besides the extra activation) that imperial officers are so good... they really add to your squad's movement range). If the royal guards were speed 4, I don't think they'd be quite as popular or useful (still good, but their speed 5 on top of everything else really adds to their usability). With a royal guard and an imperial officer, you can move up to 15 spaces each (or 10 and attack). With the imperial officer the Royal Guard Champion can move up to 18 spaces each round (or 12 and attack). With diagonal counting as a single movement, the IO and RG/RGC combo is pretty powerful.

I agree. I will always now consider running at least one group with a speed of 5 in my squad.

I lost Smuggled goods at my Regional because everyone in my squad had a speed of 4. Well, that and I'm almost 99% sure we played it as if my opponent scored as soon as he entered his spawn, which is incorrect.

I knew that speed was a weakness for my squad, but I didn't think someone would be able to grab all 3 crates as quickly as they did.

Well you have the speed thing with Weiss so you should of been able to go get two of them. Move 4 pick up move 1 or 2 back then pickup the other move 1 or 2 back should of been far enough away from not getting shot. Yes you don't score until the end of the round. They were -2 speed even with officers its pretty hard to bring them back turn 1. The thing with officers with that mission is that it takes two actions to pickup. So Stun is your best friend if you set it up right.

Yeah but the -2 Speed doesn't impact your current movement points, only your Speed (which generates movement points). In my regional, I used an officer to push an RG all the way to the middle crate from the bottom, then activated the RG, performed a movement action, interrupted to pick up the crate, and moved 5 to get right outside my spawn, where a second officer was able to activate and get me fully inside on the first round. The other RG was already all up on the second crate, ready for round 2 to start to grab it and walk home at full speed.

I think speed is a bigger part of the game than I expected. I always try to have a couple of units with speed 5, and also include at least a couple of command cards that enhance speed. Mobile is another nice way to enhance speed in a non-traditional sense, but sometimes you really need at least 5 speed on a couple of units to compete for objectives or position yourself well offensively or defensively. That's another reason (besides the extra activation) that imperial officers are so good... they really add to your squad's movement range). If the royal guards were speed 4, I don't think they'd be quite as popular or useful (still good, but their speed 5 on top of everything else really adds to their usability). With a royal guard and an imperial officer, you can move up to 15 spaces each (or 10 and attack). With the imperial officer the Royal Guard Champion can move up to 18 spaces each round (or 12 and attack). With diagonal counting as a single movement, the IO and RG/RGC combo is pretty powerful.

I agree. I will always now consider running at least one group with a speed of 5 in my squad.

I lost Smuggled goods at my Regional because everyone in my squad had a speed of 4. Well, that and I'm almost 99% sure we played it as if my opponent scored as soon as he entered his spawn, which is incorrect.

I knew that speed was a weakness for my squad, but I didn't think someone would be able to grab all 3 crates as quickly as they did.

Well you have the speed thing with Weiss so you should of been able to go get two of them. Move 4 pick up move 1 or 2 back then pickup the other move 1 or 2 back should of been far enough away from not getting shot. Yes you don't score until the end of the round. They were -2 speed even with officers its pretty hard to bring them back turn 1. The thing with officers with that mission is that it takes two actions to pickup. So Stun is your best friend if you set it up right.

Yeah, I just played stupid and didn't expect my opponent to just rush in the way he did, considering the damage potential. I even killed one of his RG's right after it picked up a crate, but he was able to have two other RG's get right next to it, so no matter what, it'd get back to his deployment zone. This is where if I had actually paid a little bit more attention to the rules, I could have still done something. I totally could have chased the guard who picked it up back into his deployment and killed it, meanwhile blocking the other guard from being able to enter the deployment to pick it up.

.... In my regional, I used an officer to push an RG all the way to the middle crate from the bottom, then activated the RG, performed a movement action, interrupted to pick up the crate, and moved 5 to get right outside my spawn, where a second officer was able to activate and get me fully inside on the first round....

Can someone please clarify how the RG's turn went in the above example? What does he mean when he states "interrupted to pick up the crate"? It was my understanding that picking up a crate takes an action? is this not correct? so one action would be to pick up the crate and the second action would be to move?

I had wondered this in my regional as well, but without calling a judge over we figured it would get -2 to speed for the turn. You do a move action, which technically adds movement points to your movement total for the turn (5). Then you use your second action to pick up the box. Then you use the rest of your movement points (still 5).

Does anyone have a reference to a ruling on this anywhere? The above makes perfect sense.

The above is correct. No special ruling is needed. Action 1 is to gain 5 MP and action 2 is to pick up the crate.

The crate reduces speed, it has no effect on MP already gained.

I am a new player so I very easily could be playing wrong. I have been playing that you have to complete your move before taking your next action. But based on the above example you are saying i can do a move action which gives me 5 MP then I can move 2 spaces take an attack action and then move away 3 spaces? Is this right?

EDIT: NVM I just looked online I've been playing way wrong! This changes everything

But you do complete the move action before the next action. All a move action does is give you movement points.

A move action has absolutely nothing to do with physically moving a figure.

Moving a figure a space is not an action, it's spending movement points gained when you used a move action earlier in the turn