Getting people to play skirmish is difficult. It isn't helped by the realization that the gatekeeper is 4 Royal Guard and 4 Royal Officers when there's only one RG gray card in each $65-100_cost box.

FFG should come out with an Imperial Assault skirmish starter set. It would serve 2 purposes:

• Make it more obvious that there's Skirmish game. I think a lot of players only think Imperial Assault is a campaign game. ala Descent.
• Make it more affordable for players only interested in Skirmish

No map tiles. No AT-ST. Only 1 squad of Stormtroopers. +all the other figures the core set comes with.

I think this is a great idea. I think printed maps that would eliminate the need for tiles would be welcome by many people, including me.

The issue with IA picking up traction is that new players will want to play a campaign first, which takes a few weeks, then the transition from Campaign to Skirmish is a little odd. Skirmish is great but it'll definitely take some time to build steam and the new player growth rate will be slower than other similar titles. That said, it's at least not going away! I attended a regional IA tourney today, many people traveled anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to show up. It wasn't a huge event, but it was nice to see some competitive players bringing their A game.

It may take sitting some non-believers down to play skirmish a few times, primarily those who enjoyed the campaign but for whatever reason haven't played skirmish for more than a passing moment.

^ This so much! I bought Imperial Assault before Christmas so I could bring it to my in-laws' and play a campaign. Then I started playing in a campaign at my local store and it has been a blast! I tried Skirmish a handful of times but I kept thinking, "I'd rather be playing X-wing." Now that the campaign is winding to a close (two more meetings left, I believe), I'm excited to try pitting my skills against other players competitively. I've attended one skirmish game night and it was underwhelming because there were only 4 other people, and by the time I got there two of them had to leave. I'm hoping the game picks up because I absolutely love the variety that the missions grant to each map.

The transition from campaign to skirmish will get easier over time.

Right now competitive skirmish squads require multiple cores/expansions.

Once we have enough expansions a campaign player could make make multiple good skirmish squads.

Once that happens IA will really take off.

Is that really true? After playing Descent and not enjoying the experience, I have no interest in playing an IA campaign. I bought it for the skirmish. I haven't played either yet, though. Still working through my backlog of unplayed games, but looking forward to my first IA skirmish.

The issue with IA picking up traction is that new players will want to play a campaign first, which takes a few weeks, then the transition from Campaign to Skirmish is a little odd. Skirmish is great but it'll definitely take some time to build steam and the new player growth rate will be slower than other similar titles. That said, it's at least not going away! I attended a regional IA tourney today, many people traveled anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to show up. It wasn't a huge event, but it was nice to see some competitive players bringing their A game.

It may take sitting some non-believers down to play skirmish a few times, primarily those who enjoyed the campaign but for whatever reason haven't played skirmish for more than a passing moment.

We finally got around to playing the Tutorial scenario and then the Core set Skirmish at our FLGS tonight, with two other players who are both die-hard X-Wing players too. With all the hype from Armada, we just hadn't had time to fit in IA games into our game nights. They enjoyed the Campaign taste of the tutorial, but they *really* enjoyed the skirmish map way more. I doubt we'll get a lot of interest in a campaign group where we are, and instead it'll be more skirmish battles - either the two included in the Core, or any other ones that are released.

Is that really true? After playing Descent and not enjoying the experience, I have no interest in playing an IA campaign. I bought it for the skirmish. I haven't played either yet, though. Still working through my backlog of unplayed games, but looking forward to my first IA skirmish.

Yes it really is true.

Right now there are 5 classes of IA player.

People who don't own the game (one copy allows 5 players to join in)

Campaign only players.

Campaign and skirmish players.

Skirmish only players.

Competitive skirmish players.

Right now IA is in the awkward new game phase, where the 3 factions are not evenly matched and players who buy multiple core sets have a distinct advantage.

Over time the number of units will increase and players who only buy 1 of each pack can make better and multiple good skirmish lists. Then players from the first two groups will find it much easier to start skirmish, casual skirmish players will also stand a much better chance against the competitive players.

There will be a point next year where skirmish play for this game will suddenly take off.

I hope (and would like to think) that you're right, Mulletcheese. As the game moves along, it will no longer be as necessary or valuable to have multiple copies of each item, because there will be continually more and more options available for squadbuilding. But right now, with a very limited pool of figures, those who spend the extra $ on multiples will have a distinct advantage.

Well its a game with inside of a game. Then add in the unbalance problems the core set has(Maps and figures) so show someone the game for the first time I could easy see people getting turnned of really fast.

No being painted I think hurts getting the younger crow. Last its kind of hard to share a collection since you need a core box to play. So its not that easy to bring your kids a long at a regional. it can be done just harder than other games. I think locally you can print out maps etc to cut down what you need. There is a lot going on its a pretty easy game to learn but it does take time to understand all the rules and little things going on.

I do think it will get bigger over time for example this has happened in other star wars games before.

SWM and the SWCCG both had unbalance problems if you got obi early on the table it was like a auto win in the core set. In the Swm playing Vader was crazy good in both games they became balanced over time and I think once that happens it will take off. The LCG was a little more balanced but again Vader/Emperor really controlled the meta for a while. In X-wing it was all about the Tie swarm. Again over time both those games became balanced.

Once all those games became balanced is about a year-year in a half in and they took off. With the new movies coming out is what did it for the SWM game during ROTS. I think the same thing could came in dec for this game.

The biggest thing is a lot of people have tried the game and once someone gets a bad taste in their mouth about something they are turned off fast DON'T COME BACK.

It's easy to get a bad impression of skirmish, right now playing the wrong map with the wrong squad can be a very negative experience.

I think it helps that IA comes with two modes, if people are turned off by skirmish they will still buy new stuff for the campaign. While they are collecting there is still a chance they may try skirmish again.

IMO,unless FFG comes out with character packs more frequently skirmish will always be 2nd fiddle to x-wing,Armada,etc.

With 3 factions off the bat and no balance really among the 3 or enough characters really,you can tell they lumped skirmish mode in there because of the hasbro license for SW board games,so in other words "hey this is the a board game nooooooo it's a tactical minitures game,please don't sue..."

It's been 6 months since this post went up.

Wondering if anything has changed and if skirmish getting popular in your area.

With so many expansions, its getting even harder trying to get players into the game.

Skirmish is starting to pick up here. I know there are other players in Denmark/Copenhagen too. Unfortunately I didn't have time to attend the Nordic Championship in IA this year. I honestly don't think the amount of expansions is a problem for Skirmish players unless you want to own everything. I'm playing Scum mainly, and Rebels a bit (since I can ally them). So I don't buy any Imperial packs, and as of yet, haven't bought Twin Shadows, though I might at some point. I do love those Tusken Raiders.

Bottomline, I think Skirmish players can get away with being more picky on which expansions to get.

Skirmish has been stalling in my area. low turnouts at events, slow sales according to store managers. Word has spread that 4X4 is the only 'competitive' build so it creates a stigma.

There is a small following in the Atlanta area, but it can be difficult to arrange events as most of the players also play larger games and those events fill several days a month. I definitely think that the meta has gone stale and new releases have done little to correct that. Rumors fly and new players quickly hear that there are few competitive lists and the winningest one requires several core sets, so they aren't interested in dipping a little money and trying it out for fear it won't be worth their while.

We do get a small tournament in now and again and I really like the game but overall in my area it cannot compete with X wing or even Armada.

In my area the store owners all say that Imperial Assault sells very well, but there isn't a lot of organization or demand for skirmishing. The games they play a lot are Warhammer 40K, MTG, Heroclix, X-Wing, and I've even see them playing (*shudders*) My Little Pony CCG.

My LGS was interested in setting up some sort of skirmish tourney thing and asked me about it (i was buying a pack). I told him dont bother, that it was too high a price to get into. $60 just to sit down at the table, and far more to actually compete. He looked sad and asked me if it would help if they had a store copy open to encourage new players. Nope, I said, One core set per player.

The buy in is just too high. Its not like magic where you can just buy a precon and play. Asking someone to drop a hundred bucks on a game they *might like is ludicrous.

Skirmish has gained some traction in the past six months at my LGS, but that's going from one player (which is the same as zero) to five. We're still a far cry from being able to support even a small tournament. What might help is that three of the five players are co-owners of the store, and they're really stocking the game, rather than just waiting for special orders. On Monday I played a skirmish match at the store and we had a bunch of people stop to watch and ask about it.

The high price tag to get into it is a big hurdle, though. I think some kind of skirmish starter set, without any of the campaign stuff and with just enough map tiles for two maps, could go a long way to getting more people into skirmish. I'm not sure how far you could get the price down with that, though.

My LGS was interested in setting up some sort of skirmish tourney thing and asked me about it (i was buying a pack). I told him dont bother, that it was too high a price to get into. $60 just to sit down at the table, and far more to actually compete. He looked sad and asked me if it would help if they had a store copy open to encourage new players. Nope, I said, One core set per player.

The buy in is just too high. Its not like magic where you can just buy a precon and play. Asking someone to drop a hundred bucks on a game they *might like is ludicrous.

Do you play any other FFG games? I'll submit that IA isn't the cheapest to but in, but it is the only Star Wars mini Game they offer that is a complete experience out of the box if you have any interest in the campaign. That cannot besaid for X wing and Armada and the latter core set is still $100.

IA falls between X wing and Armada and even behind many of the LCG options that FFG offers as far as competitive buy in. A core set and a few packs of Saboteurs and another pack or two can get you not just into skirmish, but winning tournaments.

$150 sticker or about $100 online is a perfectly fair price for a competitive game. Like I said, for less you can hey into X wing, but Armada is far more expensive. The coop LCGs like LOTR can be played out of the box, but for the competitive ones you really need multiple cores.

If your complaints come from a Magic background, then you'll probably have similar ones for the other FFG offerings.

Having a store copy would be more than enough to get players to bite, and even if they don't line skirmish, there is about 30 hours of coop content inside the box, which many other games don't offer.

My LGS was interested in setting up some sort of skirmish tourney thing and asked me about it (i was buying a pack). I told him dont bother, that it was too high a price to get into. $60 just to sit down at the table, and far more to actually compete. He looked sad and asked me if it would help if they had a store copy open to encourage new players. Nope, I said, One core set per player.

The buy in is just too high. Its not like magic where you can just buy a precon and play. Asking someone to drop a hundred bucks on a game they *might like is ludicrous.

I think this is a little harsh. If the store really wanna get the ball rolling, there are a few things they could do to make it easier. One or two Core sets in the shop to 'borrow' from, if you're new player. Printed maps for the game nights and tournaments, so that people can start out sharing cores. Is this the official way? Probably not, but if it means that the shop gets 4-10 new players, who buys into IA, I doubt FFG cares if they cut a few corners in the beginning.

X-Wing and Imperial Assault are pretty cheap for miniatures games. CCGs and LCGs are completely different types of games.

He wasn't asking me about coop (about that I have nothing but glowing nice things to say) but the viability of starting a tourney out of thin air... without already interested core players.

I love the game, but I'm not dropping *another $120 on core sets so I can play their vestigial skirmish mode. The whole idea of buying multiple core sets is totally repugnant to me. It reeks of forced scarcity and other ethically questionable business models.

I cannot in good conscience recommend someone to buy the game just for the skirmish any more than I could recommend Black Ops 3 to someone for the parkour foot racing mode.

I've bought it just for Skirmish, and haven't (and won't) buy more than one Core. I grabbed some cheap WOTC minis for another group of Hired Guns (though I'm not even sure I need two). Skirmish is perfectly fine without 4x Core set.

You could just get 1 core, 1 elite trooper card (pack or spring gnk) and kayn and you have a fine trooper list which is fun to play and does quite well. No need for multiple cores.

I hate the idea of multiple cores as well. Everyone I play with just uses whatever I have, so that fixes that. On a competitive level, I don't think anyone would have to buy an extra core unless they insist on going 4x4. Even if they wanted to go 4x4, you could probably buy the figures online (Team Covenant?).