Looking at knocking out the 'Imperial Crackdown' campaign, which came with the Gozanti cruiser, this weekend.

Curious on something, though, which seems odd (thematically). Is it really only the core Rebel 'wing leader' or Imperial Gozanti that you are moving from mission to mission? IE., the four fighters is starts with on its docking clamps on mission 1 are not necessarily the same four docked fighters it has in the immediate next mission? That seems...odd. Sort of building on that...no limitation on unique pilots across the campaign? IE., I could add Howlrunner to the Mission 1 plan, have her destroyed...but I can run her again right away on Mission 2?

Or am I missing something on those things?

Otherwise - what are folks running for the two sides?

Of course a lot of the build for the Gozer is decided, and Kallus seems a pretty obvious choice on top of that. I have a hunch that the 'Suppressor' title and a Weapons Engineer might be useful? That leaves 52 points for the fighters in mission 1 and 2. 4x Obsidian pilots? (Or knock them down to Academy pilots to get a sensor team on the cruiser? That would definitely synergize super well with the weapons engineer and title. Or maybe drop the weapon engineer down to a WED-15 droid since the title only works once a turn, anyway, and instead put on the ship Automated Protocols? Of course, if we end up stuck fighting Mission G3A...putting a lot on the Gozer ends up handing a MASSIVE set of upgrades over to the Rebels...)

In contrast, the Rebel side is a lot more challenging, in that it has so many more options. The requirement of a 'large' base ship as the wing leader puts some framework around it - but that now includes the Ghost, so....should we go for the thematic build? Or use the Falcon or Outrider?

I haven;t got the Gozanti, but the raider campaign requires you to make a note of any unique pilots or upgrades destroyed in each mission, and they can;t then be used in future missions.

I started it last week and decided to play it very thematically using the ghost and a wings ... the ghost with a boost killed it in the first mission and went for the draw in the second (it would have been draw or loose)

I started it last week and decided to play it very thematically using the ghost and a wings ... the ghost with a boost killed it in the first mission and went for the draw in the second (it would have been draw or loose)

I'm kind of surprised a Rebel list would be able to destroy it that quickly - especially with its ability to jam the Ghost (basically denying it actions forever), taking Kallus for the focus conversions otherwise difficult to get on Huge ship, and it's ability to regenerate SO fast. What else was it running beside the base equipment, and what fighters did you have?

I haven;t got the Gozanti, but the raider campaign requires you to make a note of any unique pilots or upgrades destroyed in each mission, and they can;t then be used in future missions.

I really don't see any notes to that effect in this campaign.

Indeed, I don't actually see any indication that the Rebel 'wing leader', or the Gozanti itself, being destroyed ends the campaign.

I suppose we could always impose such thematic elements, ourselves, just...odd?

Ran through the missions, today. Got to say, I wrapped up the series a bit disappointed in the balance of them. And, well, per the questions in the thread (which both the other player and I agreed seemed a bit off), the theme as well.

In general...

Mission 1: This was a *cake walk* for the Rebel player, and he didn't even have a large ship with an engine upgrade. If he'd taken something with EU and Push the Limit, I can't see how this would have lasted more than 4 turns, tops. As it was, it took two turns for him to reach each beacon and perform the action on it, so the mission was over in 6 turns. That's just not enough time for any kind of set of fighters on the Gozanti (given the required loadout) to kill it, nevermind dealing with the rest of the Rebel forces (which focused on my TIEs, since they correctly assumed they wouldn't be able to materially damage the Gozer).

Net result was a Rebel win on turn 6, 3 of my 4 TIE Fighters destroyed, and no deaths on the Rebel forces (granted, the Outrider was down to 2 hull left when it blew off the map holding the last satellite).

Mission 2: Started this with the 'Rebel Win' conditions from the previous mission. Honestly, starting with no energy was a bigger penalty than the shield damage, but even so, that damage took all of one turn to repair (did FFG forget about the 'recover' action or something?), and even winning the previous mission wouldn't help there.

This mission was the first time I think that player skill played a major factor, in that the Rebel player REALLY needed to send his escorting forces ahead of his wing leader, and effectively burn themselves out trying to knock down my shields and damage the hull before his wing leader flew in to attempt the capture. As it happens, he flew all of his ships in at once to try and concentrate fire...which meant I could just ignore every one of his ships except the wing leader (killing it ends the mission). The 'concentrate fire' wasn't a bad ploy, per se, and some very good shooting managed to (by the end of turn 5) knock down my shields and deal me a hull damage which I had not expected. However, his Outrider was down to 1 hull, and I was hugging the map edge to prevent him docking on that side while keeping a TIE Fighter one the racks to deploy (1-hard and barrel roll) to block his ship from attempting to dock, so he couldn't make the roll on that last turn. Return fire from the Gozer killed it - I did lose all 3 fighters I had deployed, and obviously did no damage to his B-Wings, but I killed the Outrider with only 1 hull damage on the Gozanti and a TIE Fighter remaining. This one *did* seem like a mission that could go either way, depending on how well the Rebel player played.

Mission 3: Obviously we are playing the 'Base Assault' mission per the result of mission 2....annnnnd, there's the wing leader, again, exactly as he started mission 2. Laaaaaame. Anyway, Rebel player fielded the rest of his 100 pt base list as it was (which was somehow an option - in this case, not a big deal as I never killed them, but still...), and brought two fitted-out Y-Wing aces as his 60 pts of reinforcement. Since I had 100 pts to play with IN ADDITION to the Gozanti, I decided on a flight of 4x Tempest Advanced with Accuracy Corrector, Cluster Missiles, and Guidance Chimps (for the LOLs). But that was so overkill, there really are no words to describe it. Asteroid placement had the Gozer able to ID a rock, itself, on the first turn...oh, after deploying 3 of the four TIE Advanced which were able to ID two more of the rocks (as it happens, that turn amounted to 2 decoys and 1 shield generator). Next turn saw a TIE Advanced close in and lock onto the identified shield generator, while the rest kept going on to the other asteroids.

We basically just ignored the Rebel fleet, entirely (which saw the Advanced taking damage, but they survived it). That second turn saw 2 more asteroids revealed - 1 decoy, 1 real. Turn 3 had the Rebels finally kill an Advanced, I killed 1 more shield, and identified the last one along the way (it was pretty obvious at that point - the farthest asteroid from me that I had not yet ID'd). Two shields down and the last 1 ID'd at the loss of one TIE Advanced and heavy damage on 2 others made the arrival of the Rebel fleet on turn 3 (first really doing anything on turn 4) kind of 'too little, too late'. They did manage to kill another TIE Advanced, but we easily took out the third shield. No damage to any Rebel ship (why would we - not the objective), Gozanti and two TIE Advanced survived.

As noted, I think it was really this last mission that felt like the biggest dud. Having a previously-destroyed unique ship appear unscratched, same upgrades it had before, just felt...silly. On top of that, the asteroid bases were FAR too easy to destroy via combat (only 3 hull and 2 agility? huh??), so we never even tried the other identified methods (huge ship spending 4 energy at range 1 of one of them; huge ship just running them over).

Suggestions:

• I really think it would make sense for both sides to have a 'B-roster' of ships/pilots/etc that are set in advance of the campaign, and are what they get to draw reinforcements from to build out whatever numbers they need in a mission. Obviously not re-using unique pilots, and probably not quite sufficient to completely rebuild the entire force pool from scratch (IE., Rebels have 100 pts in mission 1, 100 pts in mission 2, and 160 pts in mission 3B for 360 pts total. Maybe give them only 300 pts for a reinforcements pool, so if each mission is a TOTAL blowout with complete losses, by the third mission things are very grim, indeed. Ditto for the Imperial side.)
• The first mission felt too easy for the Rebels. And THAT given a 'bad' Rebel list. If the Outrider had been running PtL and EU to pair with his barrel roll...ugggh. Short mission! I think maybe just adding a fourth satellite...or heck, debris fields...could work, here.
• Third mission (B, we didn't play A) felt too easy for the Imperials. I think being able to custom-build a fleet for the mission to put on the Gozer really tipped it over. If I had been stuck with the TIE Fighters I'd had all along as the only 'sensor' craft, that would have slowed me down a bit (rest of the points made up in hyperspace-capable units, only, which would lack scanners). And if you had to "spend" the sensor token from the fighter when using it, that would have also had an impact (as it was, I did have one Advanced ID two of the asteroids on its own).

I dunno, so it didn't feel far wrong, just...meh. Like it wasn't quite fully baked, or maybe had 2 pages cut trimmed out of it or something.