Hi All,

I am dipping my toe in the water for some competitive Imperial Assault, I am by no means a noob to wargaming in general but just wanted somewhere to bounce ideas and stuff hence this post.

I plan on having it evolve and may up load some Photos once I get around to painting but for now lets just jump in to the lists and stuff.

So I played my first game of Skirmish on Monday (24th Aug 2015) and ran the following;

Royal Guard Champion

Royal Guard

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

Stormtrooper

Stormtrooper

I felt like a solid enough list and seems like the best I can do with what I currently own as I am not really one for borrowing stuff. I do have a couple of Officers and some more Royal Guard on the way (cos who needs friends...)

I played against;

Luke

Diala

Jyn

Sabs

Sabs

Gidion

R2

3PO

We played Close to Home with me having initiative.

Turn one he took it easy on me (I think) whilst I tried to come out the blocks running, I managed to "New Orders" to reactivate one of the Stormtroopers and got to celebrate Killing 3PO which made me realize that the Command Deck is really important and maybe I should have put some more thought in to it...

Not going to do a full battle report but it was a close game that I think finished 37 - 46 to him as Luke killed the Royal Guard Champion with his last activation, had I lived I would have won through taking control of a Crate putting me on 43 points and him on 31.

I don't think I passed an activation in the whole game and was not very focused on what I wanted each piece to do, I really could have gotten more use out of the Officers and wasted one of the Royal Guard but it was a fun close learning game.

I plan on taking the same list to an event on Friday so hope to get a little more experience in and try to pick up some more of the expansions from Twin Shadows as they had sold out of everything except Boba on Monday

Any advice and commentary is welcome so feel free to chime in.

Not sure how long I will stick with Imperials but I really like them at the minute (I have had to play as them in the campaign for the 2 sessions I have ran since the game came out so it is where I was most comfortable.)

Main thing I need to learn is as follows;

1 - The Missions and how to best go about maximizing VP gaining

2 - What the heck all the Rebel things do...

3 - What a good Command Deck looks like and how much focus I should put in to it

4 - How the dice interact and how the damage out puts look for different roles as I am not 100% what is scary and what I can run in to yet.

Thanks

Kris

1. Look carefully at the missions and decide how important it is to you to gather the VPs from objectives. Depending on your squad and your style of play, sometimes you might find it more valuable to kill off a 5pt Deployment card from your enemy than to gain a 7 VP objective. Part of the beauty and art that is IA Skirmish is that it's a delicate balancing act to make these decisions in every match. You'll become better with the decisions and more comfortable with them after you get more games under your belt. And definitely: play all of the missions that will be involved in the tournament...play them several times, from both starting zones. It is a big advantage to know what your main tactics will be before you even roll the dice.

--> Also, pay attention to what maps are currently in the Tournament rotation. Not all maps are used in every tournament. You can find the current and up-to-date list here: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/5b/7b/5b7b4035-656b-4f81-b646-7327d9417683/swi-tournament-rules-111-high-res.pdf

[On the last page: "Starting July 29th, the legal maps, and their accompanying missions, for the season are: Kuat Space Station , Ord Mantell Junkyard , and Moisture Farm . All competitive and premier tournaments must use these maps and missions unless otherwise specified by Fantasy Flight Games."]

2. Lol...yeah, you've just gotta read the cards and get used to them in this case. The main thing is to watch out for the Elite Rebel Saboteurs...Blast 2 is huge, and they can trigger it multiple times per attack. And they have Priority Targeting. And +3 automatic Accuracy. Just don't clump your guys together when your opponent is using them...just trust me on this.

3. Yes, pay close attention to your Command deck. Some cards can only be used by characters with certain traits (ie, Spy, Trooper, Heavy Weapon, etc). Your Command cards will be easier to use if they are usable by a majority of characters in your squad. That is, it's worthwhile to take the Reinforcements card (2pts out of your available 15pts) if you have 2 or more groups of Stormtroopers (with the Trooper trait) in your squad. But if you've only got 1 group of them, then it's likely that you'll have a harder time using that card, which means that the card will be a less valuable part of your Command deck. Therefore, it can be good to try to limit the variety of pieces in your squad. Maybe try to focus on a few of the traits (Troopers or Brawlers or Leaders or Force Users) in squad construction, rather than cramming a hodge-podge of stuff together. In the end, you have to find a Command deck that you enjoy. Oh, and Take Initiative...always use that card. It wins games for you.

4. Basically, Red dice do the most damage (but no Accuracy), Yellow dice have the most surges (but meh on damage and Accuracy), Blue dice have great Accuracy (minimum of 2, up to 5) but low damage. And Green is your jack-of-all-trades die (minimum 1 Accuracy). Black defense dice have lots of Blocks but no way to completely avoid damage (think heavy armor), while White defense dice have fewer Blocks, but they have the Dodge result, which negates all the damage (think Neo in the Matrix, wearing no armor but not caring).

I hope this helps! And I hope you enjoy IA Skirmish...it's my favorite game to play of any that I own--and that's saying something!

Which sets are the current tourney maps from? Where would a newbie get access to them?

Which sets are the current tourney maps from? Where would a newbie get access to them?

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/4a/96/4a9680b4-3c9c-4543-8932-88ec85b4795d/swi-tournament-rules-111.pdf

It doesn't actually say which set they come from, just the name of the maps.

Follow up question: do any of these maps use twin shadows tiles, or are they all core set tiles?

It doesn't actually say which set they come from, just the name of the maps.

Follow up question: do any of these maps use twin shadows tiles, or are they all core set tiles?

Core set tiles.

They are from wave 1.

Hi all,

So after 4 days of thinking about my first game and doing a bit more reading I got to play some more games today.

I wanted to stick with the same list and just moved around the command cards for a little more synergy with Guardians/Leaders/Brawlers.

First game was the IG-88 mission where you pick a bounty hunter then kill each other against;

Kayn Somos - 10

Elite Heavy Stormtrooper - 8

Heavy Stormtrooper - 6

Stormtrooper - 6

Stormtrooper - 6

Imperial Officer - 2

Imperial Officer - 2

I was not overly confidant about this match up as the map and mission left me with no real way to not face those heavy troopers...

I made a mistake turn one where I didn't pass which really crippled me and then him having drawn take the initiative to go first again meant it was as good as game over. I knew what I did wrong but still think it was a bad match up but decided to perceiver with the list in to the even we had coming up.

It was only a 4 player affair so very casual but we did 60 minute rounds and drew from the legal maps as normal.

Game One was Kuat Space Yards with the mission where you get 10 points for controlling the data core.

Played against;

Weiss

Elite Stormtroopers

Stormtroopers

Stormtroopers

Officer

I was interested to see what the General Brought to the table in this match but he deployed him to walk in to the Data Core room once he opened the door which I saw as an opportunity to just bum rush the terminals to make sure that he could not get in with such a large chunk of points not helping.

The RGC and an Officer took the far Terminal while the rest of my force (minus 1 trooper from each squad) took the contested one in the corridor. Was a good game as he figured out turn 1 that he had made a mistake and then sent Weiss to take a terminal but by that time i had thinned out his endless reinforcements a little and ended up with a 47-10 point win.

Question that came up in this game was if I could Stun Weiss as it didn't seem right for me to be hitting him with a stick and his big scary AT-ST losing and action?

Game 2 was the other mission on the same Map against Rebels this time, Incoming Transmission?

This was almost the same list that I lost my "intro" game to;

Luke

Jyn

Elite Sabs

Elite Sabs

Gidion

R2

3PO

I was aware of not wanting to get blasted off the table on this game so came up with a plan of attack.

I was going to hold back the RGC and some Stormtroopers to storm the contested door but not open mine until he had either committed to not opening his this round or had moved in while the rest of my list was going to try to play around the terminals first and see what happened.

Turn one he didn't open his door so I took the opportunity to dive in grab the easy 3 points and then leave that side uncontested with no points to be claimed, I also took the easier to hold one as well as i dint want to fight over too many areas of the map, I wanted to get in close and dirty where my Troopers would die to let me go again the the RGC.

With that and some fun use out of Hold Ground forcing him to have to commit with Luke early I managed to get a good early lead by Celebrating killing Luke and finishing off one group of Sabs.

After that I never really let him get back in the game as I was always clustered around his guys or spaced out to not suffer too much from Blasts with the RGC killing something every activation it didn't take long to get to 40 points with the final tally being 41-10 to me.

Game 3 was back to IG88's Junkyard but this time there was a death laser to worry about.

Due to us having only 4 players this last game was against the guy who had lost his first two games as he had only just started playing too.

He had;

Luke

Gurkhaan

Mak

Jyn

Sabs

Sabs

Gidien

Balance

I got the deployment I wanted and passed early and after he activated bot Sabs first I just took advantage but ordering some troopers in to a good northern (so safe from laser) flanking positions and then had the royal guard protect on terminal while the troopers got the other. The points train started rolling and as I knew I had won (even if I lost the game my MOV would leave me safe) I sent the RGC on a solo mission in to his squad to see what would happen and let him have a fair chance to get some point on the board

Lots of dice were rolled and lots more Rebel Scum died but eventually the champion went down and when time was called it was 37-15 with me controlling the last safe terminal and Luke down to 1 hit.

So I have my first wins and my first event under my belt.

It was nice to see the list work how I thought it could and I defiantly got better with the Royal Guard Champion. I picked up Twin Shadows and R2/3po as well (still no Kayn as he was sold out in this store too...) and am waiting on some more Officers and RG to arrive still. I don't really want to run 4x4 but am not 100% on the RGC in the overall meta and think some extra activations would be more worth while. I am thinking of running the following once the stuff arrives as I think it will be more balanced;

RG

RG

Elite Stormtroopers

Elite Stormtroopers

Officer

Officer

Officer

Adds in 18 extra hit points, an extra move order and and extra activation but I lose a Beat Stick?

All in all, I'm loving IA and hope to get some more events in soon.

Kris

Another day and another event played in!

Was just another 4 player event (was disappointed as I was hoping for 6 players this time) I decided not to change anything and ran the same list and command deck as yesterday which was as follows;

Royal Guard Champion

Royal Guard

Stormtrooper

Stormtrooper

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

Command Deck is;

Flurry of Blades

Sit Tight

Cripple

Celebration

Regroup

Rally

New Orders

Recovery

Hold Ground

Take Cover

Pummel

Pummel

Strength in Numbers

Element of Surprise

Emergency Aid

Getting right in to it Game One was Mind of its Own, I played against a Rebel Saboteur List;

Luke

Gideon

Rebel Trooper

Rebel Trooper

Elite Saboteur

Elite Saboteur

Balance of the Force

I was at 39 to his 40 points so I took Initiative and took the deployment zone on the East side of the map with the Door. Went for a balanced deployment with half on the door and half at the Northern exit whilst he was a little more Trooper heavy to the north side of his deployment zone.

I stalled a little moving my Officers and sending one Stormtrooper from each activation to the north whilst I waited for him to show himself, after a slow start I popped the door and moved to take the lower terminal and shot and killed two troopers who were covering the Sabs, I was pleased here as I remembered the order I needed to shoot and move to get re-rolls and took some chances with a slightly longer range but had the re-roll (only range 4 so not massive...)

He exploded the Trooper who was covering the South Terminal but left a Sab in laser range to get the shot and I just moved to take it with a Royal Guard and then my other Stormtrooper activation snuck one around and got the North Terminal as well!

The Royal Guard Champion moved north to hang around within 3 squares of the Stormtroopers who were around the North Terminal and that was turn with me getting 10 points and having two troopers and one saboteur dead for only 1 stormtrooper.

He had initiative and went to kill the trooper on the north terminal which let the Royal Guard Champ start his free kill gravy train with him moving up and killing a Saboteur taking both groups down to 1. Luke moved up to start shooting the Royal Guard Champ for a few damage but Protector from one of the RG's kept him safe enough.

With Luke having activated I wanted to either force the use of Son of Skywalker early or if he didn't have it punish him.

The Stormtroopers group that had two members in the north activated to crowd around the Royal Guard and Shoot at Luke hitting him for 3 damage between the two of them. He Shot in to the Group with and Elite Sab killing another trooper with blast but putting 2 more damage on to Luke and focusing my Royal Guard. Meanwhile the fight over the south terminal was going well for me and I killed some more Troopers and kept my other Royal Guard down their holding the line (I had Hold Ground in my hand and was planning to pop it to keep him in laser range but ended up just killing him...)

Royal Guard Champion ended the round well killing a Saboteur for 7 points but Luke Dodged the attack, turn ended with me only having 1 terminal but him having none and only having killed an Officer.

I have initiative turn 3 and don't want to let him do anything with Luke as I don't want that recovery to kick in, so RGC just B-lines him first activation, no dodge this time and I Celebrate his death for an extra 14 points. He goes and moves his last Sab to put damage on to my Royal Guard in the north but does not kill him and then I just walk up and smack the last Rebel Trooper in a group over the head for the win.

It was a good game and I feel good about how I want to play that mission against a few different builds now, Alex could have played it differently as giving me free moves and attacks with the RGC was a mistake that ultimately cost him the game, but then again I was better at placing my troops in positions where even their death would give me multiple benefits.

On to Round 2 and it was Close to Home against another Rebel Build;

Luke

Gideon

Mak

Elite Saboteur

Elite Rebel Trooper

Rebel Trooper

Rebel High Command

I took the West Blue deployment zone as I was again at 39-40 and had the weight of my force ready to go south with 2 troopers, 1 royal guard and the RAC ready to fight the contestable objective between the two deployments. We both staled out not wanting to be the first to open the door so I used my time to order Some Troopers out to the south as I wanted to occupy the space first so that I could get the better shots in later especially with the rebel troops Get in to Position ability.

Once he opened his door I opened mine and took a shot at the trooper he had moved through, 2 troopers shot and he rolled two dodges leaving him with the chance to move out and start killing me first

He moved out the Elite Troopers but sent two south and only sent one in to the room who he sent all the way in to the corner so that he would be behind me if I pushed in. I decided to just go for it and Brutalized the two troops with the RGC killing them both and giving me control of the terminal. he then committed Luke to the fight against the RGC which was what I wanted as I then got to Strength in numbers my Stormtroopers to bring Luke down (which was again Celebrated) amongst all of this the RGC got some free moves to attack that was the game really as I had position on the bottom of the map with a Royal Guard and 2 Troopers against just a Sab and a lagging Trooper.

Again Celebrating killing Luke won me the game as it forced him to try to rush an objective that I had better positioning on or the game was over anyway. I was happy with my play in this game as I deployed well in what I think was the better position used my speed well and pressured where I needed to.

Game 3 was against the same guy who gave me the Intro game last week, and who beat me yesterday in the warm up game where I played my list in to his Stormtrooper list on Most Dangerous Game. I had beaten him to take First Place last night so he wanted revenge for that (and the Summer Kit medal) and I wanted to level the score between us to 2-2 as he won the regionals in Calgary so was one of the stronger players for me to test myself against.

Low and behold we drew Most Dangerous Game again and he was running A Heavy Stormtrooper list again so I was a little worried about the match up but had some plans as I think I miss played in out match up yesterday.

His list was;

Kayn Somos

Royal Guard

Elite Heavy Stormtrooper

Elite Heavy Stormtrooper

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

Imperial Officer

He chose an Elite Heavy Trooper for his Bounty Hunter and I went with the Royal Guard Champion, it being 39-40 I forced him in to the Red Deployment with the door and I set up in the Blue area in a balanced deployment not wanting to give my cunning plan away.

I finally got to pass this game and he started ordering his Heavy Troopers in to a position to the north of the map. I was mentally rubbing my hands together as I had no intention of going that way but needed to play it cool, so I ordered an Officer to move to the south giving me a speed boost for anyone I sent around that way later and moved the ordering officer slightly to the north so as not to give the game away too soon... He officered the other Bounty Hunter Heavy Trooper to the north and I had to stop myself from thanking him but wanted to weigh the trap a little more and activated a Stormtrooper group and ran one over to claim the northern terminal, sent another to the south next to the unactivated officer and left the other save in my deployment zone. This leads him to use his last officer who is now not in a position to open the door as he needs to order another heavy to the north so that he can get in position to shoot my trooper on the terminal. I then Officered the trooper I had sent down to go and stand on the South Terminal which forces him to open the door with his Heavy and then to explode him. With the door open its time to start making my move and my last storm trooper group activates and I swing two around the middle of the map and take a couple of shots at the heavy troopers as I am passing putting a hit on here and there. He then moves his Bounty Hunter Heavy Troopers round the top of the map and gets a shot on one trooper but only does 2 damage. I send the RGC in to hang around in range to pounce in to the Kill Zone next turn and sent both my Royal Guard in as well.

Turn 2 I sent the Royal Guard Champion in early and Killed the heavy trooper who was solo in the middle he then moved Kyan to get a shot on the Champion who took a couple of wounds (didn't dodge a single attack with him all day) and he focused one of his Royal Guard, I then moved my Royal Guard in, wanting all of my heavy hitters in position and put 7 damage on to one of his RG. He then retaliated with his RG before the focused one died and he destroyed one of my RG which Focused the other and let me move the RGC in and put 8 Damage on to Kyan. At this point all of the threats to my big hitters had already gone and he had to double move to try to get his Bounty Hunter Heavies in to position. I sent in some stormtroopers and some officers to finish off the wounded RG and we went on to turn 3.

I Activated the RGC first again and used Flurry of Bladed to make sure that Kayn died scoring me 20 VPs then the big fight really got going but I had Stormtroopers helping me where as he had officers, I managed to Stun one of his Heavies with my Royal Guard while putting 4 damage on to his with troopers and only lost a couple of troopers, although my RGC's Free move and attack did nothing as his officer dodged the attack. At this point I had dragged down another Heavy Trooper with paper cuts and he had to run his RG way from my RGC as if I got the kill that was game, unfortunately for him, I still had an officer to order him in to position and that was game...

I felt that I played this match up quite well and although he committed early I think the plan of circling his heavy hitters was sound, had he gone heavy in to the middle of the map I think it could have been harder as I could not have gotten in to kill Kyan as easily. as scary as his list is for all of that damage to come out is has to be fairly static and even with 3 officers I found it fairly easy to not just walk in front of his big guns. The Heavy Stormtroopers are scary but they go down to shooting especially if you can fight around a corner to bounce in to range 4 then back out. The blast is not as scary as I first though and the lack of any ability to reliably shoot past people makes them fairly easy to work around with a little though (and a couple of extra activations...)

That left me 3-0 again \o/

I am really glad I stuck with the list as I felt is could do well and didn't just want to keep bouncing from list to list. I did however sit down and look at my command deck and there are a couple of cards I think I could lose.

I am thinking that with the Pass Action being what it is now there is much less need for Sit Tight now, I have still not used Cripple yet although Hold Ground has been awesome for me and as much as I like Flurry of Blades I have two Pummels which offer move versatility and I cant see many games where I would get that many opportunities to double action for multiple combat attacks.

Any thoughts of input is as always welcome

Thanks

Kris

You are missing Take the initiative, Planning, Reinforcement and the one that makes your Brawlers move 1 space and could consider single purpose

Kris, I'm loving your play reports! Thanks for posting them.

You are missing Take the initiative, Planning, Reinforcement and the one that makes your Brawlers move 1 space and could consider single purpose

-Take the Initiative...yes. This one changes (and wins) games for you. I think this one will still be an auto-include even a year from now. It's that good.

-Reinforcements is golden...especially if you have the Elite troopers. But it's still solid with regular troopers too.

-Close the Gap (Brawlers move 1 space) can be wonderful, especially for getting you guys positioned for a key Protector usage at the top of the round when your opponent has the initiative...but at 2pts its one of those cards that people seem ambivalent about. If it was 1pt it would be used all the time, but at 2pts I think you really need to have a good reason for it. I have used it quite often myself.

-Single Purpose I have no experience with.

...Planning...I'm not so sure about that one. At GenCon this year I overheard some people talking about the Planning card, and I found it enlightening. As a result of hearing that discussion, I no longer use Planning, whereas I used it all the time before. Here's why:

- Planning takes up one of the 15 slots in your Command deck. I always find myself short on space (both for points and also for space) in my Command deck, so this is significant.

- **Here's the main thing: I'm getting rid of 1 card to draw 2...so that's only a net gain of 1. Furthermore, if I didn't draw Planning, I would've drawn another card instead. This, combined with the next point, is important.

- Planning takes an action to use. Now, it's not often hard to find a spare Officer to spend/waste an action using this card, but it can be a factor in the late game. However, the main thing is that it delays you at the start of the round. When combat has been fully joined, everyone is activating their big hitters and their almost-dead hitters at the top of the round...they don't want to wait for an expendable/inexpensive Leader to activate so that they can draw the card they need in order to fully utilize their big beat. For example, if my Vader is adjacent to several guys but he has a Stun on him, I would rather have drawn Rally or Lord of the Sith so that I can activate him right away and do lots of damage, than draw Planning and have to activate an Officer first to hopefully draw the right cards. During that activation my opponent has the opportunity to move his guys away or use those guys to kill off another one of my pieces before I can activate Vader, etc. Obviously, there's no guarantee that I would draw into Rally or LotSith at the start of the round without Planning, but it's an example to show that Planning actually delays your options when you get into the thick of combat. Now, I can imagine that Planning could be useful if you draw it in the first round or maybe the second (that is, before combat is fully joined)...but after that it just slows you down.

So anyway, I'm sure others will come up with good defenses for the value of the card, and that's fine. I'm just sharing my perspective, which I've picked up by accident. I will say this, though: since making the decision to no longer use Planning, I have not missed it. I have always been happy to have that extra slot available in my Command deck. Food for thought.

I would agree that 'Sit Tight' really isn't very useful anymore, and 'Flurry of Blades' may not be needed if you already have the pummels. I absolutely love 'Cripple' as it keeps a figure in place but isn't a condition so it can't be removed. It really shines against large damage single figures such as Vader, RGC, the AT-ST, and possibly against Boba and Chewie. That said it may not be really useful if you are facing swarms of smaller figures.

I think that you should consider 'Parting Blow'. Initially I didn't like it because of the stun on the figure that uses it, but being able to apply just a bit of extra damage onto a figure, hitting a figure as they move past, or scaring your opponent into not moving away from you can be a big help. Its even more scary with the Royal Guards because they can stun. If a figure tries walking away and then they receive a stun, then they have to clear the stun to continue moving but now both actions for that figure have been used.

The 'Take Initiative' card really should be an auto include in everyone's decks unless you only have 4-5 activations.

'Guardian Stance' is another one of those amazing cards that you should look at. For 1 point you get to re-roll any attack/defense dice on a defensive encounter when standing next to a guardian.

'Planning' is an interesting card but may not be worth it for your group of command cards as you are not reliant on drawing anything specific. If you are trying to get through more of your deck to get to those rare but special or unique cards then 'Planning' can be useful even at the cost of 1 card in your command deck. An example of a special card you want to pop up more would be reinforcements in a trooper list.

Just want to add here at the bottom, that I have been loving the write ups.

Hi all,

I am currently at the NOVA Open so have been a little light on IA but am trying to play some games at some point...

I actually thought I had posted this already but I have updated the command deck, not tried it in game yet thought.

New deck is as follows;

Take Initiative (I actually thought this was in my original deck and could not understand how I was never drawing it...)

Hard to Hit

Fleet Footed

Take Cover (not 100% on this one)

Rally

Recovery

Element of Surprise

Celebration

Strength in Numbers

Hold Ground

Emergency Aid

Parting Blow

Parting Blow (may swap on out for a pummel)

Close the Gap

Covering Fire

I think that this is a really solid deck to go with the list I have been running, I will try it out in a couple of games at least before I make any changes. I still need to play against a Vader list but I feel like I could handle it depending upon the mission.

As always thanks for the input and advice is always well received.

Once I get the list painted I will be putting better write ups on my blog with some photos and am just trying to capture the flow of the game and my rough thoughts.

Kris