Our group is tossing around the idea of changing the Imperial Officer "Order" ability to affect only Droids and Troopers? Thoughts?

Personally, if you're going to make a change to the Order ability, I think a better change is simply this: "Choose another friendly figure within 2 spaces. That figure gains 2 movement points. " [rather than interrupting to perform a move]

That way you don't get crazy extra speed on your Guards and RGC, and it actually takes some work to push a slow guy like Vader all the way up there into the middle of your opponent's pieces.

I keep hearing that the Imperial officer is over-powered, and I completely disagree.

Yes, he is good, but so are the rebel sabs. They take everything away from imps. Cluster up? Thank you, here is a grenade!

And what happens when Boba Fett turns up?

What i am saying is in the right hands the Imperial officer is a game changer, but so are many of the other groups. In the right hands everything is dangerous. I think you would spend your time better figuring out how to beat those officers. Using some of those long range rebels for example. Or focus on using stun instead of giving damage. That takes away an entire action! Royal Guards or champions may be scary, but if they have to spend an action un-stunning themselves? Not so much.

Just a few ideas.

(...) In the right hands everything is dangerous. (...)

This is wisdom Sonny Sixshooter!!!

I saw on the forum people stating that faction X is overpowered or unit Y is overpowered, but personally I won some games with the imperial officers, and I lost some. It all depend on the way you play and on the mission type.

Three things: Yes unfortunately there are certain missions where the 4x4 (4 reg Royal Guards and 4 reg Officers) make them nearly impossible to compete for the win. Also, we find that the 4x4 have been often times a negative play experience (npe) for many players. This change is to fester a competitive and positive play experience.

The rebel saboteurs are very good and cost effective. And yes they are a counter to the 4x4 but at a sacrifice to the objective win.

Lastly, thereisnotry, I had that same idea about Gideon-izing the Officers, but I like the idea that the lowly officer can only order around their subordinates (droids and troopers). An other idea centered on the Officer's Order ability working only on figures that have a equal to or lower deployment or reinforcement cost. That might be too much of a change.

The capture the flag missions rotating out will make the officers come back down to earth a bit.

The change in missions will be a big help.

Order 44 is probably the best list with the current models and maps, if you are willing to buy 4 core sets to get enough RG deployment cards you will get a great list.

The 5 movement on the RG plus the fetch quests is what makes it too good.

The new maps have less need for speed and the new content is pushing the trooper builds.

The IO order is only 80% as effective on a model with 4 movement and 60% on a model with 3 movement. The IO will significantly less powerful when the new maps/models arrive, houseruling them now is jumping the gun.

...What I am saying is in the right hands the Imperial officer is a game changer, but so are many of the other groups. In the right hands everything is dangerous. I think you would spend your time better figuring out how to beat those officers. Using some of those long range rebels for example. Or focus on using stun instead of giving damage. That takes away an entire action! Royal Guards or champions may be scary, but if they have to spend an action un-stunning themselves? Not so much...

Mak Eshka'rey seems to be a custom-built Officer counter, and it's important to remember that Stun prevents voluntary movement or attacks outside of your activation too, so it shuts down Orders to that model entirely.

...What I am saying is in the right hands the Imperial officer is a game changer, but so are many of the other groups. In the right hands everything is dangerous. I think you would spend your time better figuring out how to beat those officers. Using some of those long range rebels for example. Or focus on using stun instead of giving damage. That takes away an entire action! Royal Guards or champions may be scary, but if they have to spend an action un-stunning themselves? Not so much...

Mak Eshka'rey seems to be a custom-built Officer counter, and it's important to remember that Stun prevents voluntary movement or attacks outside of your activation too, so it shuts down Orders to that model entirely.

The problem was things like smuggled goods. You can have a royal guard IN YOUR DEPLOYMENT ZONE with side crate in 2 activations and middle crate in 3 (so both with 5 total). Even mak and stun can't really do enough fast enough (a.k.a. get the shots etc.). but that map is gone for good reason. Even the holocron one which is also gone was much more reasonable.

4/4 and officers in general will be much more reasonable now. The rebel list is honestly probably the best build now. It was really only those maps that were a real problem.

...What I am saying is in the right hands the Imperial officer is a game changer, but so are many of the other groups. In the right hands everything is dangerous. I think you would spend your time better figuring out how to beat those officers. Using some of those long range rebels for example. Or focus on using stun instead of giving damage. That takes away an entire action! Royal Guards or champions may be scary, but if they have to spend an action un-stunning themselves? Not so much...

Mak Eshka'rey seems to be a custom-built Officer counter, and it's important to remember that Stun prevents voluntary movement or attacks outside of your activation too, so it shuts down Orders to that model entirely.

The problem was things like smuggled goods. You can have a royal guard IN YOUR DEPLOYMENT ZONE with side crate in 2 activations and middle crate in 3 (so both with 5 total). Even mak and stun can't really do enough fast enough (a.k.a. get the shots etc.). but that map is gone for good reason. Even the holocron one which is also gone was much more reasonable.

4/4 and officers in general will be much more reasonable now. The rebel list is honestly probably the best build now. It was really only those maps that were a real problem.

I think a version of 4/4 is still the top list. I just don't think rebels are that good right now. This is coming from a person that has been all about the rebels for a long time.

I plan on playing Imperials at Gencon. As a Rebel player I liked the old list of maps better but hated the missions. Its hard to counter with stun on Luke's or Guards map. On the Guard map if you get the bottom 4/4 can come at you turn 1 without anything that can be done. this is why I am really thinking Rebel builds need Garkaan or go to 39 pts.