When I purchased Star Wars Imperial Assault, I was primarily interested in the campaign. However, it is not always easy to get the same group of people for a consistent campaign game. I started looking into the skirmish game and so far played two games (same map and list).

As I learn more about the Skirmish I feel confused and somewhat overwhelmed by all the lists, meta, and competitiveness. It seems to me that most of the blog and forum posts as well as podcasts are created for people who have been playing skirmish for a while.

Is there a collection of link or perhaps someone can recommend some resources for a players that wants to learn skirmish? Specific questions that I would like to have answered:

- What are the top three points that I have to know/learn about skirmish (80/20 rule)?

- Is skirmish all about exploiting game mechanics and mathematically calculating which combination of deployment and command cards does the most damage? What if I want to enjoy the gameplay and keep it somewhat competitive? For example, I enjoyed playing with Kayn Somos and all of the regular and elite stormtroopers in my list. Although, it may not be the best list, it was fun.

- How do I go about choosing the deployment cards? How do I go about choosing the command cards?

- How may lists do I create? Do I get better with just one or three or keep mixing?

- What are some of the strategies that I should be aware of other than making lists?

Ive only played two games but so far Ive learned that the command deck is just as important if not more so than the actual squad. The number of activations is generally more important than the number of figures but there is a balance point.

I also really like kayn with heavies.

When I purchased Star Wars Imperial Assault, I was primarily interested in the campaign. However, it is not always easy to get the same group of people for a consistent campaign game. I started looking into the skirmish game and so far played two games (same map and list).

As I learn more about the Skirmish I feel confused and somewhat overwhelmed by all the lists, meta, and competitiveness. It seems to me that most of the blog and forum posts as well as podcasts are created for people who have been playing skirmish for a while.

Is there a collection of link or perhaps someone can recommend some resources for a players that wants to learn skirmish? Specific questions that I would like to have answered:

- What are the top three points that I have to know/learn about skirmish (80/20 rule)?

- Is skirmish all about exploiting game mechanics and mathematically calculating which combination of deployment and command cards does the most damage? What if I want to enjoy the gameplay and keep it somewhat competitive? For example, I enjoyed playing with Kayn Somos and all of the regular and elite stormtroopers in my list. Although, it may not be the best list, it was fun.

- How do I go about choosing the deployment cards? How do I go about choosing the command cards?

- How may lists do I create? Do I get better with just one or three or keep mixing?

- What are some of the strategies that I should be aware of other than making lists?

-This is a solid article with some good info for new players. Some of the info is outdated, like the rebel sabs, Royal guards, and Imperial officer have had their cards changed, and vader isn't as big of a deal anymore, but there's some good info there. Everything at the end about executing during games is great.

-Skirmish is not all about exploiting game mechanics and mathematic calculations. However, there are some units that are generally considered over costed or ineffective, like Chewbacca or the AT-ST. Theres also some units that are considered auto-includes in lists, like Gideon or maybe the Imperial officer. There is still a lot of variety and freedom to create a fun list.

-Create however many lists you want. If you want to get really competetive find one that you're really good with, but by experimenting with different types of things you'll have more fun and find out certain things that do or don't work, and learn more about the game.

-Choosing deployment cards - the rule of thumb is to have a healthy balance between powerful offensive figures and support, and having at least maybe 6 or so activations(deployment cards), along with a good amount of actual figures. So for example for some theory behind crafting a rebel list, most people include Luke since he is great at offense, can heal himself, and provides support to other units with his reroll. He is one of the few units, if not the only unit, that fulfills both the offensive powerhouse and the support role. You would also want Gideon, and maybe C-3P0 or R2 for cheap some support units, and then mix in whatever you like for offense. Rebel Sabs, Diala, wookie warriors, etc. Things around 6-8 points. Other nice things to have access to are high speed units(5+) and units that can stun.

-For choosing command cards - it can be a bit of a challenge, since you need exactly 15 cards and 15 points of cards, and theres a lot to choose from. Check out the Vaders Finest podcast on the command deck for info.

Hope that helps answer some questions!

-This is a solid article with some good info for new players. Some of the info is outdated, like the rebel sabs, Royal guards, and Imperial officer have had their cards changed, and vader isn't as big of a deal anymore, but there's some good info there. Everything at the end about executing during games is great.

Someone cited my blog post! Hooray!

But seriously thanks - and you're right - it's a bit outdated - the skirmish game is in a real good place. Time for an update at some point...

-This is a solid article with some good info for new players. Some of the info is outdated, like the rebel sabs, Royal guards, and Imperial officer have had their cards changed, and vader isn't as big of a deal anymore, but there's some good info there. Everything at the end about executing during games is great.

Someone cited my blog post! Hooray!

But seriously thanks - and you're right - it's a bit outdated - the skirmish game is in a real good place. Time for an update at some point...

Haha sorry, didn't mean to dump on your post or anything! There's a lot of good stuff in that article, just wanted to make sure that the OP knew a couple things changed since that post.

Thank you for your replies.

For anyone interested in some good answers to the questions, take a look the replies in this post - https://www.reddit.com/r/ImperialAssaultTMG/comments/48v3rm/friendly_guide_for_new_skirmish_players/

-This is a solid article with some good info for new players. Some of the info is outdated, like the rebel sabs, Royal guards, and Imperial officer have had their cards changed, and vader isn't as big of a deal anymore, but there's some good info there. Everything at the end about executing during games is great.

Someone cited my blog post! Hooray!

But seriously thanks - and you're right - it's a bit outdated - the skirmish game is in a real good place. Time for an update at some point...

Haha sorry, didn't mean to dump on your post or anything! There's a lot of good stuff in that article, just wanted to make sure that the OP knew a couple things changed since that post.

I tried to find this blog post to link to someone and it didn't work? Any ideas?

-This is a solid article with some good info for new players. Some of the info is outdated, like the rebel sabs, Royal guards, and Imperial officer have had their cards changed, and vader isn't as big of a deal anymore, but there's some good info there. Everything at the end about executing during games is great.

Someone cited my blog post! Hooray!

But seriously thanks - and you're right - it's a bit outdated - the skirmish game is in a real good place. Time for an update at some point...

Haha sorry, didn't mean to dump on your post or anything! There's a lot of good stuff in that article, just wanted to make sure that the OP knew a couple things changed since that post.

I tried to find this blog post to link to someone and it didn't work? Any ideas?

Looks like the sites down.

Here is a link to my site, I have a few IA articles up. mostly some hero guides and a guide on what units and expansions to use. Not sure how helpful it will be but you can check it out.

http://theboardgamereviewer.com/index.php/2016/07/07/star-wars-imperial-assault-buying-guide/

Other than that, I would dig around on the Team Covenant site and Boarwars.eu, they both have some good articles

The reddit thread linked above has some good info. I won't repost my comment from there because it's huge, but most of that info is still current.

Index of helpful Imperial Assault Links: https://community.fa...-assault-links/