Hey All,

Our group is currently involved in an AoR campaign on Tatooine, Our current GM is trying to roleplay the situation out, but our group can't visualize the scene fully.

How adaptable are Imperial Assault game tiles for use in this game?

I do have all the tiles currently released for the game, and my belief is that it would help visualize what is going on, especially for combat encounters, with or without mini's.

Thoughts?

I haven't used those tiles but having looked at pics of the game I don't see why they wouldn't work. I use digital maps in my games for the same reason you described (helping players better visualize the scene). I wouldn't buy the game solely for that purpose since there are cheaper alternatives but if you own it anyway, why not get the most use out of it?

The biggest issue with the Imperial Assault tiles is that they are pretty small. Even the largest tiles won't really let you create much in the way of wide open spaces. That isn't to say they are a total loss - they could be great for mapping out some tight interior spaces, but you might find them limiting if you want to use them for most encounters.

That being said, there are a few other map makers out there that can be helpful. However, the biggest question that comes to mind is how often are the maps going to be used.

Hey there!

I run a game with players that are fairly new to tabletops altogether and they love visuals. What I had decided to do was grab one of those dry erase battle maps and assemble some of my old Star Wars legos as miniatures. It worked really well. It seems to me that the pieces would work fine and if you had a battle map of some sort you wouldn't need to worry about the size of Imperial Assault's tiles. Also though, Legos. lol

Hey there!

I run a game with players that are fairly new to tabletops altogether and they love visuals. What I had decided to do was grab one of those dry erase battle maps and assemble some of my old Star Wars legos as miniatures. It worked really well. It seems to me that the pieces would work fine and if you had a battle map of some sort you wouldn't need to worry about the size of Imperial Assault's tiles. Also though, Legos. lol

I have used Lego and would recommend the old WotC Star Wars Dungeon Tiles if you're going down that route, they are very versatile (no pun intended). The only thing I'd say is that it's a small set and you don't get a lot in one pack so I bought two. They also combine perfectly with other D&D dungeon tiles for less sci-fi terrain such as forests and deserts etc. Even classic dungeon if you're going into an ancient Sith Tomb or Jedi Temple.

Hey there!

I run a game with players that are fairly new to tabletops altogether and they love visuals. What I had decided to do was grab one of those dry erase battle maps and assemble some of my old Star Wars legos as miniatures. It worked really well. It seems to me that the pieces would work fine and if you had a battle map of some sort you wouldn't need to worry about the size of Imperial Assault's tiles. Also though, Legos. lol

I have used Lego and would recommend the old WotC Star Wars Dungeon Tiles if you're going down that route, they are very versatile (no pun intended). The only thing I'd say is that it's a small set and you don't get a lot in one pack so I bought two. They also combine perfectly with other D&D dungeon tiles for less sci-fi terrain such as forests and deserts etc. Even classic dungeon if you're going into an ancient Sith Tomb or Jedi Temple.

I've got two sets of the dungeon tiles and they are very nice. Maps from WotC's old Star Wars Miniatures game are great - they tend to have really memorable, iconic kind of locations that make them good for memorable battles. Christopher West (the cartographer who designed a lot of the Star Wars Miniatures maps) still makes a lot of great generic sci-fi maps under the banner "Maps of Mastery." They are top notch.

If you live in the states, you can take advantage of Miniature Market's Thanksgiving day sale. Next to Maps of Mastery, Armored Cartographer's maps are really nice ( and currently on sale ).

I use a mixture of Imperial assault tiles for situations of great importance (Like a cave with a krayt dragon in it and multiple ways to sneak around) (Or a imperial base with prison sections, etc)

Then I bought some large maps from the old Star Wars miniature game that are large open spaces, towns, or forests.

I love the IA tiles because they can be arranged in different ways and you can build onto the map while the player "Sees" more, allowing for a small gap of player/character knowledge.

My group uses a combination. We have a few table-sized mats with grids on them. We have an assload of dungeon tiles and the latest D&D map tiles. I steal maps from old modules when I can. And we have a stack of 8.5x11" sheets with a 1" grid on them so we can draw maps too as we need.

Having played Imperial Assault I'd say that they aren't very useful for an RPG. As others have said, they are very small and the squares themselves are very small. Plus the scale is all wrong. A two by two tile is supposed to be a large room. Trying to fit a PC party and a bad buy with 10 or so minions on that board will be troublesome.

On 1/5/2016 at 9:50 AM, Hedgehobbit said:

Having played Imperial Assault I'd say that they aren't very useful for an RPG. As others have said, they are very small and the squares themselves are very small. Plus the scale is all wrong. A two by two tile is supposed to be a large room. Trying to fit a PC party and a bad buy with 10 or so minions on that board will be troublesome.

I dunno...I have found the IA tiles to be useful when building maps for interior spaces or even confined outdoor spaces (like busy streets or dense jungles). One thing I like about them is that I can slowly reveal a map as the party explores the area. For me, they are just another tool in my GM bag of tricks that I can draw from when the situation warrants.

https://maps-of-mastery-store.myshopify.com/collections/terrain-card-sets

I have 3 sets of the nightlife tiles, i think 2 of the surveillance station, and 1 of most if not all of the others, but the only ones I've used in an actual game are nightlife, surveillance station, and the cavern ones ("kind of" used the caverns, I had them set up but my players chose not to go into the mines). The nightlife tiles become so very very very useful when you have at least 2 sets of and 3 sets of nightlife is my sweet spot (I don't see a need to buy more of the nightlife tiles but I'm sure I'd use them if I had them). I had 2 sets of the nightlife and 1 set of surveillance station before I pledged at the I think $250 level on a kickstarter and got 1 copy of everything he'd ever printed up to then and the digital omnibus. Totally worth it.

I've also spent probably about $2K on wotc minis over the last 13 or so years. In the current game I'm playing in (I turned over the GM reigns when my son was born last year) I got @Tramp Graphics to customize wotc minis for each of the 3 players, I'm using a Dass Jennie with the hair painted black, a silver right hand (repulsive fist) and a frosted (using sand paper) lightsaber. Another player is using a Jedi Sith hunter that got repainted to be a pantorans. The third player is using a Leia hoth commander with blond hair, a yellow lightsaber in the left hand, and a total repaint. The point is we all have minis that VERY CLOSELY resemble our characters as we envisioned them. How this works is I describe or send character art to @Tramp Graphics and often a picture of a base miniature, sometimes he'll say that the mini isn't appropriate (jedi crusader) and he'll find a photo of a more appropriate one (the leia hoth commander), I'll buy the wotc mini(s) online, usually from troll and toad, have them shipped to @Tramp Graphics He mods them and emails photo proofs, then I pay him $20 (includes shipping which is like $3 for 1 mini) per mini via PayPal, and he mails me the minis. I now live in Albuquerque NM but I met @Tramp Graphics in real life in 2013 or 2014 when I was getting a PhD at the University at Buffalo (we went to the same church), @Tramp Graphics still lives in Buffalo NY. Personally I think, the base cost of a mini plus $20 per mini to @Tramp Graphics is totally worth it. It's character art that you can touch. I have the time, skills, inclination to learn, or supplies to customize minis but I get a pretty professional product for a not unreasonable price by paying @Tramp Graphics to do it for me.