My group's finale: Last Stand

I was Imperial player. Rebels were Gaarkhan, Diala, Jyn and Gideon.

Outcome overall, 50/50 W/L I guess with Imperial victory in the finale on turn 6(of 12).

My Rebel players and I went back and forth on the wins throughout the campaign and I was kinda dreading the last game. Everyone was maxed out on their gear and upgrades. Rebels usually picked up a crate on average per game and a couple turn out to be extra credits. The bright spot to their upgrades was the denial of the lightsaber for Diala. I very much enjoyed Vader Force Choking her dead in that mission after being denied Vader's deployment card the mission before where Diala ran away to stay alive.

The mission write up.

My Rebel players screwed themselves at the start of the finale I think. They seemed quite worried about the EWeb that was set up at the begining of the mission. They spent like 10+ mins trying to figure out how to not get mowed down by it. In the end, they all moved to spots to avoid it then rushed it with Gaarkhan to kill it in his 2 activations. I did inform them that it was 12 rounds but they seemed terrified of it so had to kill it first. I didn't bring it back on for the rest of the mission...didn't need it.

It took the until turn 3 or 4 to even open the 1st door. I can't believe I managed to bottleneck them on the stairs before the door like I did. I managed to stun 2 of them(Diala and Gideon) with a Stormtrooper group using the Arc Blasters and they both failed the Strength test which I found amazing. That should have tipped them off that the RNG gods frown on them that day. At least 1 if not 2 more atribute tests were failed later on including Diala trying to open a door...with a reroll and still failing.

By turn 5, I had wounded Gideon and Jyn with Diala 1 or 2 away from wounded and they hadn't open the 2 door. The Rebels sorta gave up at that point I think. They decided they just wanted to see what was behind door 3. Jyn opened the 2nd door and Gaarkhan dashed door the door with a Gideon Command. He cleaved some Stormtroopers and the door open, ending his activation. Vader was on the other side of the door who then proceeded to destroy Gaarkhan for the rest of the turn(Vader gets an action after each Hero activation so yeah...from full health to wounded in 1 turn. Best part of that was the 1st & 2nd doors closing cutting Gaarkhan off from the rest of the heroes and me focusing everything on doing 2 damage to Diala to wound her for the win at the bottom of turn 6.

My group's finale: Desperate Hour
I was Imperial player. Rebels were Gaarkhan, Diala, Jyn and Mak.
Outcome overall, Empire won 8 (primarily Story Missions) and Rebels won 5.

The final mission had, as far as I recall, an eight round limit before the Rebels loose. They were, however, vanquished by wounding them all by the very start of Round 5. At that point I had used several agenda cards at my disposal, but I had barely touched any of my threat (In fact the only thing I spent threat on was spawning a Stormtrooper group I forgot to spawn during a triggered event, so I had double digit threat on my dial when the mission was done).

Hardly a satisfying finale for any of the parties, cool mechanics of the mission aside, and I've since wondered if I should have "forgotten" more free spawns to have made it a more exciting and interesting conclusion to the campaign.

^{Frankly if you are play IA as an Imperial player and taking a WAAC approach it very easy to win the last mission, its also no fun for anyone.}

^{One of the main problems with the campaign is the win the last mission win the campaign, and there is nothing to prevent the IP from saving all his/her resources for the last mission.}

^{As an IP the rebels spent too long waiting to go into to the hanger, once they took down the first walker they made much better progress, I fudged it deploying troops to an out of the way spawn and leaving them there to see if they could still complete the mission, they took down the general with their last roll on the last turn.}

^{As a rebel (playing the Vader mission) running all four heroes I rushed to the last room expecting a final confrontation, my opponent had saved all the threat to buff Vader which I think was a mistake although Vader was extremely hard to take down and with out a few lucky rolls I don't think I would have done it even with the perfect approach in hindsight.}

^{IMO both of the final missions favour the IP if you play it as a GM trying to make it as dramatic as possible that is less of an issue but they are less balanced than the majority of missions.}

During our first Campaign the Imperials were playing the military might deck and they got their hands on "Imperial Industry" very early on in the Campaign. Imperial Industry is the attachment card that gives your troopers S: Stun, S: +damage S: move x spaces, and I think something else too.

Elite Stormtroopers with Combat Veterans, Assault Armor, Shock Troopers, and Imperial Industry are nigh unstoppable.

For only 9 threat you get a three figure deployment with 7 health each, automatic surge when 3 spaces or closer, auto +1 block, auto +1 damage, ability to stun, and a focus attack with Show of Force. Once the Imperial player had the Imperial Industry card, it was pretty downhill for the Rebels for the rest of the campaign. The upgrades basically turn E-Stormtroopers into ranged Royal Guards.

That said, the finale mission was surprisingly close. If the Imperial player didn't have such an advantage with his super buffed Elite Stormtroopers, I think the Rebels might have pulled it off. They spent so much time fighting their way through the (constantly reinforced) E-Stormtroopers that by the time they got to Vader they were already in bad shape. Once they got to Vader they were able to do a ton of damage in one or two activations, but by that time they were already pretty much all wounded.

Agreed. In that Military Might, plus Imperial Industry, makes for the 501st. When I played this finale with that group, starting with those and Royal Guards meant that for the first two rounds, every single Rebel was Stunned at the start of the Round.

For added Crushing Power, play that Influence card that allows Stormtroopers to attack twice a round.

^{Frankly if you are play IA as an Imperial player and taking a WAAC approach it very easy to win the last mission, its also no fun for anyone.}

^{One of the main problems with the campaign is the win the last mission win the campaign, and there is nothing to prevent the IP from saving all his/her resources for the last mission.}

^{As an IP the rebels spent too long waiting to go into to the hanger, once they took down the first walker they made much better progress, I fudged it deploying troops to an out of the way spawn and leaving them there to see if they could still complete the mission, they took down the general with their last roll on the last turn.}

^{As a rebel (playing the Vader mission) running all four heroes I rushed to the last room expecting a final confrontation, my opponent had saved all the threat to buff Vader which I think was a mistake although Vader was extremely hard to take down and with out a few lucky rolls I don't think I would have done it even with the perfect approach in hindsight.}

^{IMO both of the final missions favour the IP if you play it as a GM trying to make it as dramatic as possible that is less of an issue but they are less balanced than the majority of missions.}

What is the waac approach?

Elite Stormtroopers with Combat Veterans, Assault Armor, Shock Troopers, and Imperial Industry are nigh unstoppable.

Quoted For Truth. They never had a chance after I got all the pieces of that combo...

^{Frankly if you are play IA as an Imperial player and taking a WAAC approach it very easy to win the last mission, its also no fun for anyone.}

^{One of the main problems with the campaign is the win the last mission win the campaign, and there is nothing to prevent the IP from saving all his/her resources for the last mission.}

^{As an IP the rebels spent too long waiting to go into to the hanger, once they took down the first walker they made much better progress, I fudged it deploying troops to an out of the way spawn and leaving them there to see if they could still complete the mission, they took down the general with their last roll on the last turn.}

^{As a rebel (playing the Vader mission) running all four heroes I rushed to the last room expecting a final confrontation, my opponent had saved all the threat to buff Vader which I think was a mistake although Vader was extremely hard to take down and with out a few lucky rolls I don't think I would have done it even with the perfect approach in hindsight.}

^{IMO both of the final missions favour the IP if you play it as a GM trying to make it as dramatic as possible that is less of an issue but they are less balanced than the majority of missions.}

What is the waac approach?

Win at all costs?

Mission: Last Stand
I was Imperial (Military Might). Rebel players were Jyn, Mak, Gary, Fenn. We played with 5 Rebel Heroes but Dalia had to leave about 2/3 into the campaign and wasn't in the Finale. The campaign went in the Heroes' favor (they went 7-2-1) but about half way in, we had issues getting all 5 heroes together for gameday. We played it where if you weren't in the mission, you didn't get any rewards. The campaign was recorded and put on our podcast. Here is the last episode:

http://www.nerdsandbeer.com/e/swia9/

Since we are still posting episodes, I'm going to put it as a spoiler (I don't know how to do that on the forums). Let's just say it was completely one-sided and wasn't really fun.

Spoiler: The rebels didn't even get to the hanger (much less to Vader). My stroomtroopers with assault armor and combat vets and supported by an E-web pinned them down at the first door. (END)