We have a couple that love the Empire (myself included) that are interested in playing like Imperial Assault campaign. But we will probably just play rebel scum and secretly love it.

We are working on an Imperial HotAC here . I have made Imp pilot cards (pg 11).

We have a couple that love the Empire (myself included) that are interested in playing like Imperial Assault campaign. But we will probably just play rebel scum and secretly love it.

We are working on an Imperial HotAC here . I have made Imp pilot cards (pg 11).

I have seen that, and you guys are doing an awesome job and I can not wait. It will be cool to flip back and fourth.

Has anyone played with one player as the Imperial player? I know the book mentions lowering the TIEs from the standard but nothing much other than that. I would be interested in what has and has not worked for this.

We have a player that runs the missions as the Imperials for us...but still follows the AI to the letter. It really helps to speed thingsup, sicne that person reads all the rules for the mission ahead of time and preps it, so that it takes less set up time and nothing unexpected happens.

Why aren't there any Elite TIE/Ln in HotAC campaign? I guess that was asked before, but if so I missed it. Sure, upgrading to Advanced or Interceptors is dangerous and thus challenging, but why no improvement for the normal TIE too when the players go up in PS? Is that too strong then?

Just wondering...

TIE/Ln always were PS 1 and had no cards.

Probably just because the Fighters are the grunts and the cannon fodder, and their relatively weak attack makes them poor Elites. Realistically, the only advantage the unique TIEs have in the regular game is that they are cheap in points value. Statwise they are still inferior to pretty much every other ship in the Imperial arsenal.

Plus, ultimately, the PS of the cannon fodder Imperial pilots is kind of irrelevant. They will still go after the players, so PS4 is the same as PS1 if the players are all higher than 4. Thus you either make all the TIE Fighters elite, or you just have scrubs with different stats because they only thing they will outfly are the NPC ships like HWKs or transports that appear in missions.

I don't think Elite TIE Fighters would bring much to the table, honestly. Unless they came in pairs or something. Otherwise I'm far more afraid of Elite Cheaterceptors and the like. Honestly, at 2 Attack, even the Elite TIE Advanced aren't all that scary at lower levels. The only one that ever did any damage had Proton Rockets. Expose is a terrible ability for the Elite Advanced because it makes it incredibly vulnerable to damage, and the ship with Expose is also the only one with the Advanced Targeting Computer. Mix that with the subpar dial the Advanced has, it's a disappointing ship, compared to an Elite Interceptor which can be downright terrifying. Hopefully Josh is considering an upgrade to their card combos because right now an Elite Advanced is far and away the least powerful Elite ship in the deck. At the very least, ATC should be standard on all of them. Would go a long way towards fixing that.

Here is my Combat HWK-290:

HWK-290

Title: Moldy Crow 3xp

- Do not remove focus at wnd of round.

Crew: Sabine Wren 2xp

- REBEL ONLY.

Your upgrade bar gains the bomb upgrade icon. Once per round, before a friendly bomb token is removed, choose 1 enemy ship at Range 1 of that token. That ship suffers 1 damage.

- Bomb: Proton Bomb 5xp

When you reveal your maneuver dial, you may discard this card to drop 1 proton bomb token.

This token detonates at the end of the Activation phase.

Detonation

When this bomb token detonates, deal 1 faceup Damage card to each ship at Range 1 of the token. Then discard this token.

Illicit: Cloaking Device 2xp

- SMALL SHIP ONLY.

ACTION: Perform a free cloak action.

At the end of each round, if you are cloaked, roll 1 attack die. On a focusresult, discard this card, then decloak or discard your cloak token.

Turret:

- Ion Cannon Turret 5xp

Modifications at pilot skill:

2: Stygium Particle Accelerator 2xp

- When you either decloak or perform a cloak action, you may perform a free evade action.

4: Hull Upgrade 3xp

6: Hull Upgrade 3xp

8: Hull Upgrade 3xp

Elite talents at Pilot Skill

3: "Zeb" Orrelios 3xp

- When defending, you may cancel critical hit results before hit results.

5: Sabine Wren 5xp

- Immediately before you reveal your maneuver, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.

7: Lt. Blount 7xp

- enemies are considered hit by your attack, regardless of rolls. (This includes the ion turret)

9: Lone Wolf 4xp

- Unique; When attacking or defending, if there are no other friendly ships at Range 1-2, you may reroll 1 of your blank results

(Note: This is under the assumption that we aren't buying the actual named crew, only the abilities and thus can, as above, or two people could buy Luke Skywalkers pilot AND Crew abilities)

Why Hull and not Shield upgrades?

Why Hull and not Shield upgrades?

I was wondering the same thing. I'd also trade Lone Wolf for Miranda for the regen.

Why Hull and not Shield upgrades?

I was wondering the same thing. I'd also trade Lone Wolf for Miranda for the regen.

Hull upgrade because they are cheaper. With Zeb letting you cancel kabooms before booms, shields aren't as necessary.

Lone Wolf is becaue of the bomb use, clustering together is not advisable, and while Miranda would be good, yes, she is better on a higher attack ship I find, like a B-wing or X-wing. Sure, the auto ion from Blount's ability means you would always get a shield back, but with the cloaking device, And potential bomb, I prefer to take chances with the green dice and lone wolf does that.

Yeah they're cheaper but you only save three points on that build. I mean, that can't be worth it. It's basically shooting down one TIE more.

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once. Otherwise it was really difficult to not just take Sabine Wren (pilot) on every single ship...

Has anyone else found that certain pilot abilities become very common in their campaign? I understand the popularity of Predator but see no reason to try to limit that since it isn't limited in any way in normal games of X-Wing.

There's a lot of stuff you don't take in any case, like practically every ability that's "discard", because that's just not effective. Also, many smaller ones are not worth the slot most of the time.

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once. Otherwise it was really difficult to not just take Sabine Wren (pilot) on every single ship...

Has anyone else found that certain pilot abilities become very common in their campaign? I understand the popularity of Predator but see no reason to try to limit that since it isn't limited in any way in normal games of X-Wing.

I honestly do not seewhy you wouldrestrict players on pilot abilities, that could be really unfai for some that get less points and then dont get to unlock Wedge or Jake or someone else first. and I can only see restricting abilities to even be more limiting if people just ant to experment wih different pilot abilities for a game or two.

By the way, I would like to have the option for elite Decimators and standard options, and this is what I came up with. Let me hear your thoughts!

Actually, I have taken some of the discard abilities. As everyone should be working together, and you can get multiple elite talents, using discardable talents, like crackshot, can be quite good.

The AI is limited, you aren't playing against a foe that has fine tuned his build, being sub optimal is not going to hurt you.

Using the elite talents to try unique, even if not optimized, builds can be fun.

My group plays with the rule that you can only take each unique ability or crew once, though as my build above, you can take both the crew and pilot ability version.

By the way, I would like to have the option for elite Decimators and standard options, and this is what I came up with. Let me hear your thoughts!

I would drop autothrusters from both. Not everyone uses turets (only 1 person in my group). I would think anti-pursuit lasers would be a better fit. And PTL on decimators? They only have 2 actions, would be better to put one of the decimator pilot ablitlites IMO.

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once.

Isn't that how it should be played as per rules? I mean, "Unique pilot abilities":

And yes, I prefer it this way too, as it encourages some creativity.

Actually, I have taken some of the discard abilities. As everyone should be working together, and you can get multiple elite talents, using discardable talents, like crackshot, can be quite good.

The AI is limited, you aren't playing against a foe that has fine tuned his build, being sub optimal is not going to hurt you.

Using the elite talents to try unique, even if not optimized, builds can be fun.

My group plays with the rule that you can only take each unique ability or crew once, though as my build above, you can take both the crew and pilot ability version.

Good points there.

By the way, I would like to have the option for elite Decimators and standard options, and this is what I came up with. Let me hear your thoughts!

I would drop autothrusters from both. Not everyone uses turets (only 1 person in my group). I would think anti-pursuit lasers would be a better fit. And PTL on decimators? They only have 2 actions, would be better to put one of the decimator pilot ablitlites IMO.

Good point about the lasers; as you might be able to tell, I only copy-pasted from the original selection, because my graphic skills suck So I was a tad limited in what I could use.

Good point about the lasers; as you might be able to tell, I only copy-pasted from the original selection, because my graphic skills suck So I was a tad limited in what I could use.

I know it's hard to get stuff looking right. You've seen my stuff in the Villians of the Aturi Cluster. I do everything with just MS paint and it's a major pain in the rear.

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once. Otherwise it was really difficult to not just take Sabine Wren (pilot) on every single ship...

Has anyone else found that certain pilot abilities become very common in their campaign? I understand the popularity of Predator but see no reason to try to limit that since it isn't limited in any way in normal games of X-Wing.

Sabine Wren pilot is really good and I lover her ability on my Ywing that drops bombs. but many other people in my group havent taken her, and we have 12 players. In fact I can only think of myself and one of the others that uses her ability, and he also took Blue Ace to help with the boosting.

I honestly do not seewhy you wouldrestrict players on pilot abilities, that could be really unfai for some that get less points and then dont get to unlock Wedge or Jake or someone else first. and I can only see restricting abilities to even be more limiting if people just ant to experment wih different pilot abilities for a game or two.

I guess it's very different when you have so many players. Only 4 (including me) in my group so it hasn't been restrictive at all... just means we all end up with our own unique combos.

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once.

Isn't that how it should be played as per rules? I mean, "Unique pilot abilities":

And yes, I prefer it this way too, as it encourages some creativity.

Good spot. In my head it was the other way around... so upgrades were a free for all unless you added the rule. In this case, I haven't house ruled anything!

We started and had 15 people making characters on the first night. There aren't that many people left who play, but we often get 6-8 players who want to. There are a lot of R2-D2's out there. I've got a Targeting Astromech on my Y-wing and Focus-bot on my X-wing. I went with Focus-bot because there were times in my Y-wing when I needed to get the heck away from somewhere and doing a green would've just put me right in everyone's sights again. So, I figured that I'd rather grab the Focus to regen. Might also get some help from Squad Leader, too. I haven't had to really use him yet, though.

Good point about the lasers; as you might be able to tell, I only copy-pasted from the original selection, because my graphic skills suck So I was a tad limited in what I could use.

I know it's hard to get stuff looking right. You've seen my stuff in the Villians of the Aturi Cluster. I do everything with just MS paint and it's a major pain in the rear.

Me too. And yes, it is. ^^

I've house-ruled in my campaign that each of the Rebel unique pilot talents can only be taken once, in the same way that the unique crew, astromechs etc. can only be taken once.

Isn't that how it should be played as per rules? I mean, "Unique pilot abilities":

And yes, I prefer it this way too, as it encourages some creativity.

I guess. but it also just rewards the first player to get to the higher levels, and gets the most ideal abilities.

Given how powerful some of the unique cards are, like R2-D2, R5-P9, Jake Farrell, Sabine Wren, etc, seems like you're just punishing the players who advance more slowly. An average pilot in a Y-Wing will get more XP than an average pilot in an X-Wing, for example. Imagine you're the last person to make it to every PS because of some bad luck in early missions.

It's not really encouraging creativity. It's just giving some players a distinct advantage. In my current group, my X-Wing has been consistently 1 PS ahead of everyone else because we are 9 missions in and I haven't been shot down yet and thus have quite a few more kills than everyone else. But I'm really good at the game because I'm always thinking 1-2 turns ahead and where I want to be and where the Imperials are most likely to end up. Is it fair if I end up buying both Sabine and Jake Farrell because I was the first one who could? Not really. That's the rich getting richer, because it means I'll get to 9 first as well, and snag Wedge. Then suddenly I'm Super Action Economy Outmaneuver Wedge dropping in on 1-2 Agility TIEs while everyone else flying an X or A Wing is stuck with the scraps. And you know this will happen, because there are too many That Guys out there who wouldn't care about anyone else having fun. I use the fact that I'm better at the game to help out my buddies and maybe I'd let the better abilities slide down the flight roster. But that doesn't mean there aren't others out there who come from the WAAC camp and would be perfectly fine hoarding the best stuff. We see them all the time posting shamelessly in the tournament threads, lol. I'm sure some of them play Aturi too.

Let's be realistic. This is the Aturi Cluster. R2-D2 isn't really R2-D2, hanging out in your scrub pilot's X-Wing on his days off from flying with Luke Skywalker, lol. It's just an astromech kinda like R2-D2 that repairs shields using the R2-D2 card ability. it's a big Star Wars galaxy out there. I'm sure R2-D2 isn't the only droid who can fix shields, even if he's the droid everyone is looking for.

The single best card in the game, mathematically, is Predator, and it isn't restricted. It's so good, to the point that not taking Predator at PS3 is foolish. In any ship, it will repay its own cost in the span of a single mission most of the time. What's the big deal about restricting pilot abilities that let you do any extra boost or barrel roll? Or the droids that give a higher margin of error for the less-skilled pilots?