So last night our regular IA group was supposed to meet for our weekly campaign mission, which was the centerpiece mission for the Hoth campaign, Return to Echo Base. Sadly two of our rebel players had to cancel last minute and usually I would just play on with 2 or more rebels, but I didn't want them to have to miss such a pivotal mission. I didn't want to just cancel though because I plan my week around these sessions and the other 2 players were already on their way.
So instead I had the remaining two rebel players choose 4 heroes and a side mission from one of the many expansion side mission pamphlets that I have never played yet and we ran the mission like the first mission of the Twin Shadows mini-campaign, 3xp,1600 credits and 10 tier 1 items.
Rebel players chose the Vader mission from the core set, campaign night was saved, and a good time was had by all. Despite the rebels having a good composition to take down Vader and slow him down (loku, diala, Gaarkhan with Cleave 3 and balanced hilt) and me wasting the first turn shooting rebels instead of running for the objective (gotta read thoroughly), it was a very close game, with Vader going down to Gaarkhan's Cleave on the final round right before he was about to take the final objective. Afterwards I applied the mission rewards from the TS rulebook and let them buy upgrades (the most fun part). Next time we have to play this way, I think I'll let them reset their xp choices (which were on the fly and pretty bad) and spend their 5xp how they like.
Anyway, I think using this method is really good for getting some playtime out of this rarely seen expansion side missions, and a really good option for play groups that can't commit to a full campaign but have already played Aftermath and Twin Shadows.