Okay I am interested in the Campaign style that Imperial Assault offers, yet I know barely anything about it or what I should get to have fun campaigns.

I am posting this in hopes to gain more knowledge about the game so I can plan out what to buy.

Can anyone be of assistance?

Buy the core set and play the campaign. After the first campaign you will know whether you want to do it again with different heroes and imperial class and whether you want to get figures to replace some of the tokens of the core box.

There are 2-4 campaigns worth in the core box.

(There are ~30 missions in the core box, 11-14 missions are played during a campaign. Even if you play some of the story missions a second time, they'll still play differentely due to: different heroes and imperial class, different class cards and items bought, different agenda cards bought, different strategies, hidden imperial choices, and how the dice roll.)

Or you can play 1 core campaign, then Twin Shadows minicampaign, then Return to Hoth Campaign. Or any combination, with additional content from the figure packs you prefer.

Coming from a Star Wars minis background I was all about the skirmish, but then I started playing the campaign by myself and then found some friends to be rebels. I found I was having more fun with the campaign than with skirmish.

Buy the core set and play the campaign. After the first campaign you will know whether you want to do it again with different heroes and imperial class and whether you want to get figures to replace some of the tokens of the core box.

There are 2-4 campaigns worth in the core box.

(There are ~30 missions in the core box, 11-14 missions are played during a campaign. Even if you play some of the story missions a second time, they'll still play differentely due to: different heroes and imperial class, different class cards and items bought, different agenda cards bought, different strategies, hidden imperial choices, and how the dice roll.)

Or you can play 1 core campaign, then Twin Shadows minicampaign, then Return to Hoth Campaign. Or any combination, with additional content from the figure packs you prefer.

What are the ally and villian packs for? Just full characters to use or sidekicks/NPCs?

Ally packs provide: model, skirmish mission, campaign mission, deployment cards and rewards (some packs).

Allies can only be played by drawing their side mission from the side mission deck + winning that mission or they pop up in the odd mission via special setup/deployment.

They are controlled by the Rebel players using their corresponding deployment card. Our group let's the support heror take control of the ally.

Villain packs are very similar in style.

Unless you hate the idea of mixing tokens and figures (like me!) it's best to skip on the packs until you've played a base campaign. Which is really fun on its own!

The single package expansions...

Allies - Figure, deployment card(s), side mission, two skirmish missions, maybe a reward card and usually three command cards for skirmish

Villians - Figure, deployment card(s), agenda set (three cards which will include an agenda based mission), two skirmish missions, maybe a reward card and usually three command cards for skirmish

The Han Solo expansion, for instance, has his deployment card and a quick draw holster for the reward card for winning his side mission. That reward can be a pretty effective equipment upgrade for one of the campaign heroes.

Honestly, the campaign game style is a ton of fun, especially if you enjoy games with a progressive story feel to them.'there were some very epic moments in my first time through the campaign.

I would suggest picking up the Core Set only to begin with.

If you're a type of player who likes using figures only, you would have to pick up all of the Core Set Ally and Villain Packs to ensure this.

Then, if you've played campaign and enjoy it (and have a regular group to play it with), I would suggest picking up Twin Shadows and Return to Hoth.

Again, if you want figures instead of tokens I'd suggest picking up the Ally/Villain packs.

The remaining items you can pick up are an extra set of dice, as it saves on too much hunting around for correct dice all the time.

Also, there are stand alone Villain/Ally packs you can pick up, but these would be on a case by case basis.

Some information which might be interesting but most people only wrote implicitly:

The characters of the first wave of ally/villain packs (Han,Chewie,Rebel Troopers,Rebel Saboteurs, Royal Guard Champion, IG88) are playable with the Core Set you don't need the packs to have them show up (but they will be represented as card board chits not as figures). The packs include the figures and a side mission+reward (Allies) or an Agenda set (Villains) for the Campaign. We can get deeper into what those are if you want.

Most of the Ally and Villain packs are associated with boxed expansions (so far Twin Shadows and Return to Hoth, soon Bespin Gambit) in the same way. Important: often that means some of the missions need the Tiles from there associated boxed expansions and thus are not playable without them.

There are some Ally and Villain packs which are not associated with boxed expansions (so far Wookiee Warriors, Hired Guns, Stormtroopers, Bantha Rider, Alliance Smuggler). With the exception of the Stormtroopers (which are in the core Set) this provides new characters which are not included in any of the boxed expansions. Careful: the Bantha Rider needs tiles from Twin Shadows.

The core set includes 6 playable heros. The ally and villain packs don't include heros. The boxed expansions include new heros and Imperial class cards as well as new (Mini) Campaigns.

So with this information in mind: I agree with the opinion voiced above, that the best way is to get the core set and get playing. For the first campaign all the Ally and Villain packs give you are the figures (and additional choices but that means you will have to leave out content of the core set which you haven't played yet, so the addition of choices is no real addition and might be more confusing than helping).

To go into a bit more detail as why were suggesting first wave ally/villain packs:

The great thing about the core set is you can play it straight out of box without any additional costs. Heroes can put in their side mission deck the cards to potentially win Han, Chewie, and Luke. Luke is the only "bonus" figure for the heroes. So if youre like some of us and hate the cardboard tokens (which are legal in campaign), then you drop the money into the ally packs. So as stated, Chewie and Han's side mission in their packs dont give them as a reward as that side mission is already in the core set, it gives a "Reward card" which are pretty cool anyways.

Villains are the same way. You can substitute one of the 6 "Core" Agenda sets (each set is 3 cards that share the same reference title, but each card brings different things to the Imperial player) as the Imperial Agenda deck consists of 18 cards, for one 3 card set that comes with the Darth Vader "bonus" pack to maybe get a chance to win Vader.

Now when we say "win" that gives you an opportunity to bring them to different missions. Throughout the campaign/side missions those heroes and villains can very show up at anytime and when they do, they get to be played by the appropriate side. So you get SW "main" heroes and villains all the time.

Its a lot of fun. We do a weekly game night with 5 of us and we get 1-2 missions done each week. It took us 7 weeks to do the core campaign (most of the heroes were 1st timers) and now we are on to Twin Shadows.

P.S. people forgot to mention the General Weiss/AT-ST villain pack as part of the core campaign. Nothing like whipping that out during a campaign mission and see the eyes of the heroes go wide for the first time hahahaha...

~D

Since no one has mentioned it, it is really important to note that the early allies and villains are badly over priced (except the rebel troopers and the rebel sabs), which means that unless the mission calls for it, you will likely never use them :-\ So if you get the game and love it and want to add more, unless the tokens really bother you, get ally and villain pack from wave 2 on.

EDIT: something I had trouble with when I was looking into this game: A&V only give you a figure + deployment card, a mission for campaign, mission for skirmish, and an agenda set if it is a villain. They do not contain new items, supply cards (consumables you pick up in campaign missions), or heroes. Those only come in big box expansions.

Since no one has mentioned it, it is really important to note that the early allies and villains are badly over priced (except the rebel troopers and the rebel sabs), which means that unless the mission calls for it, you will likely never use them :-\ So if you get the game and love it and want to add more, unless the tokens really bother you, get ally and villain pack from wave 2 on.

EDIT: something I had trouble with when I was looking into this game: A&V only give you a figure + deployment card, a mission for campaign, mission for skirmish, and an agenda set if it is a villain. They do not contain new items, supply cards (consumables you pick up in campaign missions), or heroes. Those only come in big box expansions.

Which ones are wave 2 onwards?

Coming from a Star Wars minis background I was all about the skirmish, but then I started playing the campaign by myself and then found some friends to be rebels. I found I was having more fun with the campaign than with skirmish.

Which ones are wave 2 onwards?

Anything after the unique figure expansions for the core box (Chewbacca, Han Solo, IG-88, Royal Guard Champion, General Weiss - Rebel Trooper and Rebel Saboteurs are quite ok as allies).

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164153/star-wars-imperial-assault/wiki

Which ones are wave 2 onwards?

Here's the list for wave 1: http://imperial-assault.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Wave1

So everything but those.

So the big box expansions have more items than the core? Like the 3 tier stacks.

There are additional supply and item cards in the boxed expansions. (Twin Shadows is a small-box expansion, Return to Hoth is a big-box expansion.)

Note that, as usual, the core set has more than any of the expansions, so if you like the game and get the expansions, don't expect Hoth or twin shadows too have nearly as much stuff.

From memory

Core game

6 heroes

9 storm troopers

2 e-web engineers

3 imperial officers

3 imperial probe droids

4 royal guards

1 AT-ST

4 Trandoshan hunters

2 Nexu

1 Darth Vader

1 Luke Skywalker

Wave One

3 rebel troopers

2 rebel saboteurs

1 Han Solo

1 Chewbaca

1 General Weiss

1 Royal Guard Champion

1 IG-88

Twin Shadows

2 heroes

4 heavy storm troopers

4 Tusken Raiders (ie same people)

Affiliated expansions

1 R2-D2 and C3PO

1 Bobba Fet

1 Kayne Samos

Unconnected Wave

2 wookie warriors

2 hired guns

3 storm troopers

Return to Hoth

3 heroes

6 snow troopers

1 tank thingy

2 wanpas

4 HK assassin droids

Affiliated expansions

1 Leia

1 Dengar

2 rebel echo base troopers

1 General Sorin

Unconnected wave

1 rebel smuggler

1 bantha rider

I would play the campaign with not to many player hard to get 4 other people to play every so weeks.

1 tank thingy

I think what you mean is *awesome* tank thingy

Buy Imperial Assault. Holy cow, this game just keeps getting better and better.

How do you upgrade allies in Campaign?

I find the campaign to be more fun than the skirmish, by a long way. I play imperials like a DM in D+D, and scale the game so my players are successful most of the time, rather than simply trying to crush them competitively.

I've played the Core Campaign twice now and I'm starting a Hoth Campaign soon. First time I ran through was alot of fun but I hated using the card tokens for the Villains. My gamers decided that as I was buying the core box, they would each buy an expansion. They spent a little and get a much better game experience. Find good friends like that and you'll love the campaign side.

It's not as involved as D&D as the missions are more focused and play is very streamlined.

If you want my advise though. Buy one of each faction booster. One Imperial that you love, one rebel allied and one Scum. Either your bounty hunter of choice or the Hired Guns as there amazing and they really draw fire away from your stormtroopers

If you're in Europe, buy it on Amazon.co.uk because it only costs rougthly (Is this the way to white it, I'm no native speaker?) 75 euros, or about 50 pounds if you live in the UK ( includin shipping prices).