So my LGS is very on top of things once the license issue was fixed so I have RTH much earlier than I thought I would. I've played a few games of the campaign with myself (currently rebels 3-imperials 0), here are my impressions:

• The first mission was a pretty casual win for the rebels (as opposed to aftermath which in my experience usually feels like it could easily go the other way).
• The maps are definitely more expansive and spread out than in previous campaigns.
• Ready for service is amazing early game (when focus is a higher % damage increase); you basically only attack on turns when you're focused (or something requires your urgent attention) and do other useful things when you're not.
• Verena is harder to play than I initially expected, ensuring you can trigger duck and weave is non-trivial and there are a lot of times where there's an opportunity to do something huge but you forfeit a more certain kill.
• When Loku is good, he's very very good, often you don't have good targets, Spectrum Scanner would fix this.
• Elite snowtroopers feel so much less reliable than Elite stormtroopers (from the one mission they've appeared in), the lack of re-roll hurts and pierce 2 is much worse than 2 damage. Focus as a surge is also the worst kind of focus since it opens the opportunity for your opponent to kill the focused trooper.
• Explosive munitions is great, especially on three dice attacks (you get things like an HK doing 7 damage with one attack).

I'm happy to hear the maps are more wide open. It nerfs blast, but i think making accuracy more relevant will be a good thing. Also, if vehicles are legit , then that will be also be really good.

Your hero impressions do mostly match what I was expecting. My one worry with MHD-19 was that it would be fairly boring to play. Did you find that?

Speaking of maps, how do the tiles look? We get anything big like a Star Destroyer bridge in Twin Shadows? Pics? Thanks.

I'm curious if you have played the return to echo base map yet. If you have, could you explain how you did the threat part of the rules for determining how much threat the empire player would get each turn?

I'm curious if you have played the return to echo base map yet. If you have, could you explain how you did the threat part of the rules for determining how much threat the empire player would get each turn?

It starts out between 3 and 5. That's all I'm going to say.

I'm curious if you have played the return to echo base map yet. If you have, could you explain how you did the threat part of the rules for determining how much threat the empire player would get each turn?

It starts out between 3 and 5. That's all I'm going to say.

Ok, then can you send me a PM on what it does each round? ie does it stay at the number or does it change from round to round during the battle?

Reiryc you will know when the empire player will tell you. Before that you have to be patient.

Reiryc you will know when the empire player will tell you. Before that you have to be patient.

I am the empire player.

I'm trying to figure out how to calculate the threat. The text is too ambiguous to me.

pm me with the part you dont understand of the mission briefing and I will help you.

Halfway through the campaign (Return to Hoth is next mission).

-So far having a lot of fun so far. I agree that the opener was a fairly easy win for rebels (tho it was bit tense in the middIe). The story mission after was pretty rough for the rebels, but much better balanced than A New Threat. The rebels just barely squeaked out a primary win/secondary loss. I also especially like the design of the boon/bane system from the threat missions (Tho the one threat mission I did play was a very easy rebel win).

-Verena was lackluster in the opening mission due to it being quite large and open but on the smaller maps after that, she was absolutely devastating. She was equipped with her starter gun w/ tac display and Vibroblade with balanced hilt and wrecked face, even more so once she got combat mastery. I just upgraded her to deathhammer+spread barrel and I think I am working towards Master Operative next.

-Loku is also really good, he hasn't done quite as much damage as Verena but his ability is excellent at taking down elites. Turns out Verena and Loku are a good combo (Loku deals with elites and verea deals with swarmy regulars). Combat Scanner is a great first buy, I went for Study of Enemies next but I probably should have saved for Mon Cala Special Forces instead. It should be better now that he has tac display. And having a max optimal accuracy of 5-6 has been a lot more useful than you would think. It came up reasonably often, even if only to make it so he didn't have to strain move as often.

-MHD-19 isn't a particularly thrilling hero but it is effective at what it does. It is amazing at removing strain, and since all 3 of my other heroes (Loku, Verena, and Diala) are all strain intensive, it has been a god send (Give Artificial Stimulants to Verena and she can go to town). And as Norgath said, the bonus focus is really good.

-Thus far Armored Assault hasn't been terrible. Explosive Munitions +Heavy Firepower is a good combo. Just got mortar, which seems strong. But I don't really know where to go from here, the biggest problem with the deck is that is isn't very focused and is kind of all over the place. Vehicles do definitely appear to a lot more viable in this campaign tho, tho I haven't used any in open groups yet).

The only minor complaint is that there is less diversity in the campaign as there is a fixed interlude mission and a fixed finale.

The only minor complaint is that there is less diversity in the campaign as there is a fixed interlude mission and a fixed finale.

Which might be good from a storytelling perspective. Is the plot a bit tighter than in the core box (which was a bit ... lose)?

From my brief look through the campaign book it certainly looks like there is a little more detail given to the main plot. Side missions are still a bit brief and cursory, but that always made sense as they have to fit into any campaign at any point.

So what percentage of the mission feature a "wound all heroes or delay them to round X" objective for the imperials?

Also are there huge swings in the free troops imperials are getting (like in the core campaign), practically hardwiring who wins each mission?

Your hero impressions do mostly match what I was expecting. My one worry with MHD-19 was that it would be fairly boring to play. Did you find that?

My group just finished our first two missions from Return to Hoth, we are just running the three Heroes that came with it.

MHD-19 is legit. He's crushing things in our game. We gave him a decent gun (the DH-44). He just alternates turns. Turn One he grabs a medical thing and heals someone, gets Focused because he didn't attack, Turn Two he shoots someone really hard. Rinse and Repeat.