Hi all

My son and I have not been playing long - mainly focusing on the skirmish and have hardly touched the campaign (we played the tutorial a couple of times - but that's it). He asked if I just wanted to play a side mission or two on their own so I said I would. He picked my rebel players and he was the imperial so read all the rules and stuff. Anyway, I've played the rebels and have been crushed both times. The weapons I have are - frankly - rubbish and it seems easy for him to clear my list out after about 4 rounds. Now he is a better player than me at skirmish but usually our games are pretty close.

I was just wondering if the rebels should have upgrades by the time they get to side missions in campaigns which makes playing them not really viable with just their basic starter weapons. Or am I just terrible at this game lol (which is fine - I just need more practice!). As an example, we played Kayn Somos' side mission and I barely got any damage on Kayn before the rest of the Imperials finished off my rebel heroes. He just overwhelms me with sheer numbers. In that Kayn mission he had three stormtroopers, three elite storms, Kayn, two Royal Guards and an officer. I took down the officer and 3 storms, but the rest of the list just kicked my butt!

I'm not too bothered about the crushings if I just need more practice, but if I never stand a chance because the campaign upgrades the rebels to be more viable then I can't see the point in playing them on their own.

Thanks for any help,

Duke

Download the Twin Shadows rulebook and use the setup rules (3XP, credits, upgrade stages) to play sidemissions as standalone missions.

I'm not sure from that what you do wrong. What do you mean by "clear your list"? For the campaign you use the hero sheets instead of the deployment cards. If you did not do that, it will be a big difference (hero sheets have healthy and wounded side, they need to be defeated twice to be withdrawn from a mission, they have special abilities in their hero sheet, they can attack twice, suffer strain to move, they can rest, etc.). Read through the rules yourself - start with the learn to play, then read through the rules reference guide.

It will probably help if you watch other people play.

Maybe read up some play by forum missions from https://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/1545140/star-wars-imperial-assault/play-forum

Thanks for the reply, a1bert.

"clear my list" = wipe me out! Totally destroy me! We used the hero sheets, and I vaguely knew the rules for campaign but left it to my son to sort out how it was all played

I think the trick we are missing is the fact that the rebels get a tonne of upgrades. He gave me a card that allowed me an extra activation and got +10 health, but with the poor weapons I had it made no real difference! I'm not sure what the 3XP and credits are that the Twin Shadows talks about, so I'll go and look into it.

Thanks for the pointers!

Dule

You would still be better off playing with 4 heroes regardless of the number of rebel players, most campaign missions are more balanced that way.

Yeah try using four rebel heroes, give them the starting xp (and unlock some upgrades from each of their decks) and look at how to do a purchase items step and give them the starting money from a Twin Suns mini campaign too. Then just make sure he only gets the lowest threat level each turn according to the mini campaign. That should hopefully help. Also, remembering some of the differences between campaign and skirmish like rebel heroes can attack as many times as they have actions in campaign as opposed to deployment cards in skirmish only attack once. Also, you can rest to regain strain/health in campaign. The makeup of your rebel team makes a huge difference too. Some characters aren't nearly as good as some others. And some only really get good when they have a near full build. So a one off mission will likely take some tweaking to do. And I'd argue one of the random side missions from the base game might be more suitable than some of the Twin Suns ones. Not sure though.

My one group has pretty competent players - they take their time, work out each move tactically, and win most of the missions I throw at them... When we played Twin Shadows, the mission they had to take out Kayn... I pummelled them so badly they actually forfeited the mission rather than carrying on playing... So I would say that particular mission is heavily weighted to the Imperial Player...

Yeah, play some of the base side missions. Or for example one of the side missions thats hero specific, like Jyn's or Gaarkhan's. Those are more geared towards the Rebel players.

~D

I think the real problem here is you are relying on your son for the rules. if you don't know what the campaign is talking about when it mentions xp and credits, you need to just sit down and read the rules yourself because those are so central to the campaign that if you are unaware out them you are undoubtedly Missing other things. You can down load them and read them on your spare minutes. Campaign has allot for a new imperial to manage, expecting him to manage rebels too much.