We went down to a learn and play League night and played my first games of IA. Absolutely loved it! The only question I came away with was can you always use Garkhaan's move and attack action? Or does he have to be damaged, thus triggering wookie rage?

Gaarkhan's "move and attack action", Charge, is a single action that requires 2[strain] to use. Gaarkhan's Rage, is a completely separate feature of his character that is not related to or dependent of Charge.

Rage isn't something that Gaarkhan uses, but rather it's something that's always going on. Any time he suffers 3 or more [damage] during an attack, he becomes focused and receives a focus token to use on his next attack or attribute test.

Charge, on the other hand, is something that you have to pay for. By default, Gaarkhan has 4 endurance, which allows him to receive 4[strain] before he would need to recover the endurance that would allow him to use more [strain]. So if Gaarkhan has at least 2 endurance left, he can spend that to receive 2[strain] tokens and move up to 4 spaces and attack with a [melee] weapon using only 1 action. Each unit gets 2 actions during their activation phase. Only hero characters (with some exceptions) can use both moves to attack. Most units would spend 1 action to move and the other to attack. By using all 4 of his endurance, Gaarkhan could move twice and attack twice during his activation. Since a character can only use 1 special action per activation, Gaarkhan could Charge, then attack again. Or Charge, then move out of the way. Pretty nice if you ask me.

Where did you go to a learn and play league night? I want to get involved with something like that where I live in northern San Diego, CA.

[ EDIT: I don't know what I was thinking, forgetting about only 1 special move per activation. I haven't played in a couple of weeks, I must be getting rusty. daa Rocks! ]

Sadly, Stag is incorrect. In so far as a figure may not use the same special action twice in one activation.

Best Gaarkhan can manage is one charge and one attack (possibly using strain to move as well).

daa

We played at the Game Preserve on the north side of Indianapolis, IN. Can you still use strain in skirmish mode? Thats what we were playing at the time and I believe he told me no strain in skirmish.

Skirmish Guide Pg.5:

Suffering Strain: If a figure suffers [strain] in a skirmish, that figure suffers [damage] instead. For each [strain] a figure suffers, the player controlling that figure may choose to discard one Command card from the top of his deck to prevent it from suffering the resulting [damage]. Figures cannot recover [strain] in a skirmish.

There's a few other differences in Skirmish that are detailed in the Skirmish Guide. Make sure you're using the standard deployment cards in skirmish and not the larger hero sheets that are for the campaign.

No strain in Skirmish. Also there a couple rules changes from campaign to skirmish. The biggest change other than no strain is that all figures are limited to just 1 attack per activation unless they have an ability that breaks that rule. With Gaarkhan he can only attack once to start off. Just so you are aware his Charge is considered an attack. But if Gaarkhan has any damage on him he can now attack twice. So he can Charge with 1 action allowing him to move in and attack and with the second action he can attack again if he wants or move back to safety.

Aaah! Thats the rule he was referring to stubo. The whole only one attack unless he is damaged. Gotcha! Thanks everyone for your help!

Where did you go to a learn and play league night? I want to get involved with something like that where I live in northern San Diego, CA.

At Ease Games near Miramar has some folks that play regularly, I believe a number of them also hit Pair-A-Dice Games in Vista as well.

There's a SD Imperial Assault Facebook group that might help you connect with other local players: https://www.facebook.com/groups/326171840922158/