Man guys, really? Another box full of minitures that has the box art character represented as a token.

Ffg is doing this on purpose and I don't like it.

Are you fine with this practice? Cool you don't need to attack me.

But seriously I don't like what they are doing. Here.

Put characters in the thing you but once. Put troops in the thing you buy many times over.

The product model for this game is highly frustrating.

Sorry to say that;

who cares?

To quote Chinatown: "Its Imperial Assault, baby"

I don't really care. With all the details about the game that is mearly a minor detail, in my opinion.

I agree that the generics should be in the cheap boosters and the uniques, or some of them, in the expansions. It's annoying that you have to buy duplicate expansions and throw away the extra campaign stuff JUST so you can you have enough deployment cards for skirmish.

I think this is a big contribution to the failure of skirmish compared to X-Wing and Armada, people hate feeling like they're being scammed when they find out the only way to get multiples of certain generics is to buy multiple big-box campaign expansions. You could argue that it all adds up to the same amount of money in the end, and some people don't like having to buy into both factions in those games to get all the upgrades, but the visceral emotional reaction of knowing that you have to drop another $30-60 just to throw away everything in the box except for a couple of deployment cards is a really big turn off for people that want to really explore skirmish.

Get over it. It's not misleading as pointed with Suns. What you need to use Bossk(and Fett and Dengar and IG-88) is in the box for campaign play. FFG selling the mini separately allows them to add the components to use him in skirmish. Ally/Villain packs are pretty much for skirmish and the mission cards for gaining access to the figure permanently during the campaign, IMO. The packs expand the line to sustain the line.

I don't have a major opinion on the fact that Bossk isn't in the new set, I AM very concerned that this appears to be another set with almost no new minis included.

The Imperial Assault core set is handily the single best miniatures set FFG has done. After buying it, I could immediately see why the game took off on BGG and other sites. Hoth doubled down with another great collection of miniatures so that made me want to collect the remaining heroes and villains. But I have no particular desire to get the minis from the Twin Suns expansion, and I don't see much argument here too. I'll grab Lando, I'll grab Bossk, but i don't care about the rest of the pack and I may never run enough campaigns to get through all the stuff I have (and i genuinely don't care for the skirmish mode idea, I get enough competition gaming with Armada and soon X-Wing).

I'm glad Boba and the Droids didn't require a full purchase though. They were the only reason I'd have considered Twin Suns.

It doesn't show a photo of the Bossk miniature, so it's not misleading.

This expansion looks like it is going to hit a 4th consecutive home run for Imperial Assault. Why are you so angry?

The game wasn't based on skirmish as the main game mode, unlike X-Wing which is Skirmish 1st Campaign later. The campaign is what got me into the game in the first place.

I am fine with that.

I dont care either... Ill buy one of each anyway because 1) Im a collector of IA 2) Im a campaign player (imperial side).

Twin Shadows and Bespin Gambit are campaign mini expansions that include some stuff that skirmish players might want. But it is primarily a campaign game. And the box cover doesn't lie, because the box does include Bossk, just like Twin Shadows included Boba Fett.... as tokens, sure, but they were there, part of the missions and the story...

I'm primarily a campaign player, and I'm 100% happy with everything they've released till now, lots and lots of awesome with plenty of variation for the several campaigns I run with different groups. And its become a big favourite amongst many of my friends.

The skirmish is secondary to me, I play it occasionally, but not often. And since none of my friends own the game (they donate money to me to make sure I have copies of everything), its pretty much a case of "This is whats available to create your army, and then we figure out how to divide the command cards." And that has worked perfectly fine as well.

Same as Descent.

I would like to play 4 units of Wing Guard in skirmish. Sucks to have to buy the expansion 4 times for that.

2 times would be OK for me ...

I would like to play 4 units of Wing Guard in skirmish. Sucks to have to buy the expansion 4 times for that.

2 times would be OK for me ...

Look to eBay for your singles. You would probably do well by picking up 2 copies of the box, which isn't too unreasonable to get most of the groups fleshed out.

From there, just keep an eye on eBay for someone who is splitting boxes. Alternatively, you could do a draft tourney where everyone pitches in for the box, and you split the components up by deployment group, starting with the first place player, all the way down.

Ultimately though, if the box is ~$40, buying more than 2 will provide diminishing returns if you're hell-bent on the Cloud City trooper groups. Trade and eBay, or other singles sales might be comparably costed, so you just need to crunch the numbers.

I don't like having all that wasted material I'm basically tossing in the bin, but dollars and cents being what they are, if it's $40 for a box, and someone is selling a thing of regular Cloud City troopers for $15 each, you're better off buying the singles.

When we probably get to a big box expansion after Cloud City, there will probably be better value in the box, similar to Hoth.

I would like to play 4 units of Wing Guard in skirmish. Sucks to have to buy the expansion 4 times for that.

2 times would be OK for me ...

You will only need to buy two boxes of Bespin Gambit to run 4 units of Wing Guard and 6 Ugnaughts. The box comes with 6 Wing Guard (3 figures per deployment card) and 3 Ugnaughts Tinkerers (1 figure per deployment card).

Buying two of the box is a good deal for Skirmish players.

Jim

Twin Shadows and Bespin Gambit are campaign mini expansions that include some stuff that skirmish players might want. But it is primarily a campaign game. And the box cover doesn't lie, because the box does include Bossk, just like Twin Shadows included Boba Fett.... as tokens, sure, but they were there, part of the missions and the story...

I'm primarily a campaign player, and I'm 100% happy with everything they've released till now, lots and lots of awesome with plenty of variation for the several campaigns I run with different groups. And its become a big favourite amongst many of my friends.

The skirmish is secondary to me, I play it occasionally, but not often. And since none of my friends own the game (they donate money to me to make sure I have copies of everything), its pretty much a case of "This is whats available to create your army, and then we figure out how to divide the command cards." And that has worked perfectly fine as well.

Right on. Completely agree. I don't even play skirmish so I like that I don't pay extra if I don't want to. If FFG makes money, so much the better. I want them to keep producing this game, so I say "go for it!"

I'm always shocked at this otherwise good community's "I got mine" attitude and complete inability to empathize with a perspective (campaign vs skirmish) that doesn't match their's.

I don't think the box art is misleading, I just think they could throw skirmish players a bone by not making generic units big box exclusive and 1 deployment card per box. Not surprising that all the campaign players happy, their sales model is designed to appease campaign players and suck money out of skirmish players that want to use more than one of each deployment card in their list.

You can't even sell the leftover campaign stuff because once you've removed the deployment cards the campaign becomes unplayable. An expansion box becomes worthless once you take out the generic deployment cards.

I would like to play 4 units of Wing Guard in skirmish. Sucks to have to buy the expansion 4 times for that.

2 times would be OK for me ...

You will only need to buy two boxes of Bespin Gambit to run 4 units of Wing Guard and 6 Ugnaughts. The box comes with 6 Wing Guard (3 figures per deployment card) and 3 Ugnaughts Tinkerers (1 figure per deployment card).

Buying two of the box is a good deal for Skirmish players.

Jim

To be more precise: I would like to run 4 regular groups at a tournament ...

I'm always shocked at this otherwise good community's "I got mine" attitude and complete inability to empathize with a perspective (campaign vs skirmish) that doesn't match their's.

I don't think the box art is misleading, I just think they could throw skirmish players a bone by not making generic units big box exclusive and 1 deployment card per box. Not surprising that all the campaign players happy, their sales model is designed to appease campaign players and suck money out of skirmish players that want to use more than one of each deployment card in their list.

You can't even sell the leftover campaign stuff because once you've removed the deployment cards the campaign becomes unplayable. An expansion box becomes worthless once you take out the generic deployment cards.

I think everyone is forgetting about their friendly local stockists as well. For all the outcry about the "I got mine" attitude, let's not forget that there's a "I want mine" attitude to go with it.

Your local shop needs to merchandise the product well in order for customers to come in and browse the selection. That means also making easy to browse through the blisters. If we imagine that everyone on here got their way and the Core Set sold singles, that's a dozen SKU's right there, plus 2 more for the Tuskens and Heavy Troopers in Twin Shadows, and what, another 5 or so for Hoth? So even if all the heroes in the boxes were included and not "falsely advertised" with tokens, thus not needing to have separate packs on the stands, your store would need to have space for at least 20 different blisters on pegs, as well as planning to have room for future content. As it stands, with all the hero/ally/villain packs, if they made everyone happy now, the people that would get the worst of this would be your stores.

That's that much more inventory they need to have on-hand and to manage in order to appear to have a "full selection" of Imperial Assault goodies at any point in time. For a large store this might not be a concern, but a smaller store might be choked for space.

As well, for a player getting into the game at this point, seeing all these expandable materials may also have the opposite desired effect and scare them off the plate, thinking they need to buy "all of that" to enjoy the game.

This game was probably designed for campaign play first, skirmish second, following in the tradition of 2 versions of Descent and DOOM before it. The Organized Play push that FFG is making clearly influenced the decision to make a competitive tournament-friendly game and this is the result.

It is what it is, and they're not going to change this any time soon. I'm sorry some people find this so disagreeable. To me, the biggest obstacle for skirmish play is lugging around map tiles that can be lost or stolen. I roll with printed maps myself, which I've accepted as a "hidden cost" to make skirmish smoother to play, both casually and at events.

Twin Shadows and Bespin Gambit (probably in the future) are campaign mini expansions that include some stuff that skirmish players might want. Need to have to play tournaments.

Because of the Cantina tile, Twin shadows is a requirement to play skirmish in tournaments, so sadly its not just a nice to have.

Additionally you will find that the skirmish players are more likely to actually buy multiples of certain expansions than strictly campaign players so i would argue that Skirmish players might very well be putting more money in FFGs pockets than the Campaign players. (but certainly debatable)

To this end I think some on the forums would like to have FFG throw the skirmish players a bone by giving us appropriate deployment cards for the minis in the box and/or actually having minis in the box that are on the box art, particularly as FFG also prohibit the use of tokens for minis in tournament skirmish games.

It frustrates me to no end that I have 2 C-3PO deployment cards for 1 mini, but I cannot play all 3 of my imperial officer minis as regular officers because I only have 2 deployment cards.

To this end I think some on the forums would like to have FFG throw the skirmish players a bone by giving us appropriate deployment cards for the minis in the box and/or actually having minis in the box that are on the box art, particularly as FFG also prohibit the use of tokens for minis in tournament skirmish games.

It frustrates me to no end that I have 2 C-3PO deployment cards for 1 mini, but I cannot play all 3 of my imperial officer minis as regular officers because I only have 2 deployment cards.

Just because FFG doesn't sell you the option to stock up on Officers doesn't mean the option doesn't exist.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Star-Wars-Imperial-Assault-Base-Game-Imperial-Officer-X-3-Nexu-X-2-/262315079256?hash=item3d13327658:g:ys4AAOSwPc9W1f4A

Shipping included, that's ~$40 for eNexu, Nexu, eOfficer, 2x Officer. Not a bad price considering that if these were sold in singles, you'd for sure only get 1 Nexu to a box, and maybe if you're lucky get Officers in multiple inside one SKU.

Also, if they did sell them in singles, you'd have extra elite cards easily. When I bought 2 Stormtrooper packs, I was left with extra deployment cards I couldn't use, because I had gone beyond the allowable maximum. Not really frustrating at all, just a touch of cardboard waste.

Also that auction took me less time to find than it did to type all of this out, and I found 3-4 other ones at the same time, all with more or less reasonable costs plus shipping.

When you realize that eBay will provide you with those extra deployment groups, usually for a reasonable price, you'll stop worrying about FFG's model and spend the time painting up your new Officers.

I think the only time the pricing was out of whack was when the Guards and the Officers were pre-errata. Then they were so in demand that it was ridiculous.

To this end I think some on the forums would like to have FFG throw the skirmish players a bone by giving us appropriate deployment cards for the minis in the box and/or actually having minis in the box that are on the box art, particularly as FFG also prohibit the use of tokens for minis in tournament skirmish games.

It frustrates me to no end that I have 2 C-3PO deployment cards for 1 mini, but I cannot play all 3 of my imperial officer minis as regular officers because I only have 2 deployment cards.

Just because FFG doesn't sell you the option to stock up on Officers doesn't mean the option doesn't exist.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Star-Wars-Imperial-Assault-Base-Game-Imperial-Officer-X-3-Nexu-X-2-/262315079256?hash=item3d13327658:g:ys4AAOSwPc9W1f4A

Shipping included, that's ~$40 for eNexu, Nexu, eOfficer, 2x Officer. Not a bad price considering that if these were sold in singles, you'd for sure only get 1 Nexu to a box, and maybe if you're lucky get Officers in multiple inside one SKU.

Also, if they did sell them in singles, you'd have extra elite cards easily. When I bought 2 Stormtrooper packs, I was left with extra deployment cards I couldn't use, because I had gone beyond the allowable maximum. Not really frustrating at all, just a touch of cardboard waste.

Also that auction took me less time to find than it did to type all of this out, and I found 3-4 other ones at the same time, all with more or less reasonable costs plus shipping.

When you realize that eBay will provide you with those extra deployment groups, usually for a reasonable price, you'll stop worrying about FFG's model and spend the time painting up your new Officers.

I think the only time the pricing was out of whack was when the Guards and the Officers were pre-errata. Then they were so in demand that it was ridiculous.

Whilst I genuinely appreciate your help, and im not at all having a go, but due to my location in the world buying from Ebay is not an option.

I have been quoted on many auctions for JUST a card (for alternate art cards both IA and X-Wing) $30US+ just for the shipping!!! (not including the auction price)

Were I to live in America yes it would be an option but for those of us in the Outer Rim its not a financially viable option.

Edit:

Also just to reiterate, I dont actually want more models of the minis, I just want enough of each deployment card to actually play the ones I already have.

I cant even begin to imagine building a tie swarm in x-wing were the to only have given you 1 academy pilot tile and pilot card in the core set to go with your 2 tie fighter models (then in theory not have the Tie expansion as well).

We shouldn't have to go to ebay just to pick up one or two extra cards.

It's a stupid model to require two core set purchases just to run two regular nexu, which I already have the models for.

If you're supplying the models, you should give me all the cards to use all the options.

I don't mind some characters being tokens and then models coming in packs (though I hate having multiple cards for the same unique hero). But limiting the skirmish options because they couldn't be bothered printing 3 more cards is very annoying.

I too am a bit disturbed by the campaign players' attitudes in this thread. The whole thing that makes this game popular is that it's two games in one. Both should be supported equally. Skirmish players are what will drive this game further. They buy multiple expansion packs, they buy multiple core sets. Without a thriving skirmish scene you wouldn't see new wave releases as often.

How about some common decency and understanding?

Back on topic, Even from a campagin point of view, it's irritating that the Cloud City expansion doesn't have Lando in it. Bossk being front and center on the cover doesn't help either.

Saying "I don't care because I'm going to buy it anyway" is the world stupidest opinion. I'm going to buy it too but that doesn't mean I agree with the business practice.

And saying that you still get the cards and the cardboard tokens is moot too. You may as well play the whole game with just tokens in that case.

In X-Wing players apparently lend cards to other players in need for organized play tournaments. I would like to think IA Skirmish players are equally supportive if you just ask around. You can print proxy cards for casual play and training, you only need the actual cards for organized play. (As long as we're not talking about the figures themselves.) And if you take part in organized play, you start to collect alternate art cards you can use as currency to trade cards for different cards.

I have been quoted on many auctions for JUST a card (for alternate art cards both IA and X-Wing) $30US+ just for the shipping!!! (not including the auction price)

Were I to live in America yes it would be an option but for those of us in the Outer Rim its not a financially viable option.

Edit:

Also just to reiterate, I dont actually want more models of the minis, I just want enough of each deployment card to actually play the ones I already have.

I cant even begin to imagine building a tie swarm in x-wing were the to only have given you 1 academy pilot tile and pilot card in the core set to go with your 2 tie fighter models (then in theory not have the Tie expansion as well).

I feel your pain on the shipping costs as well. I've been disappointed to see some reasonable rates for promos cards (as in just a card, not figures and deployment groups like IA) where the seller buries a $30 shipping cost in there too. As if putting a card in a small envelope is costing that much.

By contrast, a seller in Germany was doing deployment groups for a good rate, and even packed it well in a small box. From Germany to Toronto, it was pretty fair.

It's like any market, you'll see prices fluctuate depending on availability at any moment, so to that I would say "keep looking".

As for getting cards only, that's going to prove more difficult, as selling a card without the figure(s) and vice versa devalues both in terms of selling them quickly and getting rid of the inventory. The good news, sort of, is that it appears that the seasonal tournament kits this year will contain promos with the new errata for the guards, sabs, and officers as a double sided card. If you can make it to an event, you should be able to get one, and if you're really industrious, work with the store owner and some people to maybe split the cost of the kit, and distribute the extra cards among yourselves so you'll all walk away with several, depending on the size of the group.

Locally, we organized a deployment group draft tournament once, and six of us got to plunder a Core Set. If you had some kind of local player group, this could also be a way to celebrate the release of a new box set.

Again, I'm just pitching some real-world solutions to help fill in your ranks, as it is highly unlikely that FFG is going to flood their stockists with dozens of extra SKU's to support the game.