Hi, I play imperial assault in campaign mode a lot with friends and I have all the stuff (except the storm trooper and bantha packs)

I am thinking of dipping my toe in to Skirmish with a friend (nothing serious) but what keeps putting us off is trying to build card decks to take.

I think he'll want a wookie team and I'm thinking bounty hunters and HK droids but we both have found it a non starter due to deck building.

Any advice or ideas of decks and teams we can try out would be massively appreciated?

best thing to get you and your friend into it is to do it with the basic list with the core set to teach you it and get used to playing it

once you done a game or two on each faction it really helps especially when you play command cards then you get a better feel for it

If you're not trying to win any tournaments then you shouldn't need to be so trepidatious about it.

Just build teams that include units you both find interesting or exciting and see what happens.

If one something underperforms or overperforms, then adjust your list building the next time around.

I'm specifically talking about Command Cards. Don't you need a deck of them?

A good place to get started is to look for keywords on the command cards and to match them to your figures. So using your examples, for the wookie list look for any cards that say 'wookie' or 'brawler' and for the bounty hunter list look through for cards that say 'hunter'. I'd also grab the character-specific cards for any uniques that you have (Chewbacca and Boba Fett, for example, each have a card that only they can use).

Just run through your stack of command cards and pull out those ones. After that just grab a few zero-cost cards to fill out the rest. That's pretty much all you need to do to start playing. Once you play a few games you may start to notice that you're not using some of the cards very often and you can swap them out at that point, but by then you'll have a better feel for things.

I always have negation and take initiative in my cc decks. I know this is debatable but it's a personal preference for me. Other than that it really depends on what your squads are but you definitely want some type of synergy like manateex said above. For the unique cc's some of them are good like son of skywalker, or are kinda terrible (i.e. Leia's there is another). Just because you use a unique doesn't mean you should automatically take their cc, too.

I hear you: your main hesitation is around the Command Cards. I'd be happy to offer some starter tips. Please note that all of these are my own personal opinion based on what I've found to work well and not work so well, and that some people may have a different opinion at various points.

• Generally speaking, since the game is relatively short (3-5 rounds of play, so each figure gets just 6-10 actions), and so you want to use those actions as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, I've found that this is a very mobile game (it's not like someone is just going to stand there and let you blast them). As a result, I've found that most of the time I'm using the actions of my figures to both Move and Attack. Therefore, I tend to stay away from cards that require an action to use them, if they are not giving movement or making attacks. So for example, I don't usually use Planning (requires an action to draw extra cards), but I almost always use Urgency (requires an action, but lets you move your Speed +2, so it's a more efficient Move action).
• Likewise, I've found cards that do something without requiring an action are very valuable. Fleet Footed or Rally are great examples, and they are virtually always in my decks.
• Traits are important. Each Deployment Card has a number of Traits on it. For example, Rebel Saboteurs have the Spy and Heavy Weapon traits. Some cards can only be used by a figure with a certain trait; ie, Lock On requires the Heavy Weapon trait and cannot be used by figures without that trait. Therefore, if you want to get maximum efficiency in your Command Deck then you'll want to use Deployment Cards that synergize well together (ie Troopers and Leaders), and you'll also want to choose Command Cards that are usable by as many of your figures as possible. For example, Pummel (Brawler trait) might not be a good choice if you only have 1 Brawler figure in your squad and a whole bunch of non-brawlers. What if that Brawler figure dies before you draw that card?...then you've wasted that card.
• Connected to the point above, several of the character Traits have lots of good Command Card options. Troopers have a pile of excellent cards, that should almost always be in your Command Deck if you want to do well with a Trooper squad. It seems like FFG is starting to give this kind of choice to other traits as well, such as for Spies. Perhaps the new Obiwan and Inquisitor will mean that we have more Force User options in the near future too. When you're playing a squad with some Trait-synergy, then take a serious look at all of the Command Cards that are specifically for those traits. You'll pretty quickly get a sense of what your favorite cards are for each trait.
• Generally speaking, I seriously consider all of the unique cards. That is, if I'm playing Rebels (who usually have several Uniques in the squad) then I'll at least pull out all of the special Command Cards for those unique figures. I won't use them all (because they're usually expensive so you can't fit a lot of them) but I'll at least consider them.
• I'd suggest using all 15 of your points for your Command Deck. You could use just 13-points-worth, but it seems like the cards are generally pretty accurately costed, and so you're getting what you're paying for. I start building my Command Deck by first choosing the Unique cards, then the 3-pt cards, then 2, then 1, and see how many card slots I have left after using all 15pts. Then I fill out the remaining slots with 0-cost cards.
• Learn to USE your command cards in game! Command Cards win games (they sure do!!), but only when they're played. I've found that it's usually better to play a card when a decent opportunity presents itself, rather than waiting until THE PERFECT opportunity presents itself.

Those are my initial thoughts as it comes to Command Cards.

If you want some suggestions, here are my person go-to 0-Cost cards. I don't think I've ever made a competitive Command Deck without them:

-Element of Surprise (removing defense dice is amazing, and this card is easy to set up and use)

-Fleet Footed (free movement so that I can interact with an objective an also still attack? You bet!)

-Rally (removes a condition for free!)

-Take Initiative (this wins games)

-Urgency (movement is terribly important in this game!)

Other 0-Cost cards I consider:

-Of No Importance (preventing your opponent from scoring all the VPs he was expecting to score...that's great)

-Celebration (can be great, but only if you are expecting your opponent to play a lot of Unique-heavy squads)

-Deadeye (can be helpful to have in your hand; it allows you to shoot a little bit further away than your minimum range, knowing that if you don't quite get enough Accuracy you can still make it hit; you can play it after you roll the dice)

-Planning (personally I only take it when I either want to burn through my deck to get my best cards faster, or when I have several 2pt Imperial Officers, who are often not doing much after the first couple of rounds...DON'T use it with an expensive figure!)

If you're playing Troopers:

-2pts- Reinforcements x2 (the 2 little dots on the bottom-left of the card show how many of this card you can have in your deck. This card is a big part of the reason why Trooper squads are so strong right now. Always take 2 in your deck if you have more than 1 Trooper Deployment Card in your squad)

-3pts- Covering Fire (fabulous to play at the start of a big combat round when you have several groups of troopers)

-3pts- Grenadier (dude...ouch. Use this when your opponent has 2-3+ figures in a group. It's also automatic damage so you can get guaranteed damage onto pieces that just won't die)

Some people choose either Covering Fire or Grenadier. If I have to leave one out then I usually keep Grenadier.

If you're playing Heavy Weapon figures:

-1pt- Explosive Weaponry (you can have up to 2 of these in your Deck. Blast 1 is very handy. Can be combined with the Saboteurs' Surge: Blast 1 ability.)

-2pts- Lock On (removing your opponent's X-Men on a big attack is SO satisfying!)

-2pts- Maximum Firepower (requires 2 actions, but it gives a big +4 damage boost, which can be game-changing)

So those are some initial tips and suggestions for you as you start out. I hope they're helpful!

Oh, and FWIW, my 3 boys (ages 9-12) all LOVE Imperial Assault! We play both Campaign and Skirmish and we love them both. But they seem to enjoy Skirmish more. I'd definitely suggest that you give it a shot, especially if you already have almost all of the expansions. Cheers!

I had the same hesitation when wanting to play Skirmish - I wanted to try it but I didn't want to take all the time to build decks of command cards.

All of this looks like good advice on how to build decks of command cards, but if you just want to get into it without taking the time to make the deck, I recommend searching the forums for list recommendations. I looked for ones that won regional competitions just so I knew that each of us would be playing something competitive. You can usually find a good variety there.

Here are I few I found while searching:

Mercs + R2 and 3PO --> http://ia-armies.com/army/xICeHnuv

Edit: Of course, one of the issues I ran into a lot with looking at winning regional lists was that they often use more copies of deployment cards and figures than I have. Of course you can get around this by using tokens or stand-ins for the figures, and printing out the missing deployment cards, but I like using the originals . You can use up to 2 Elite and 4 Regular copies of each non-unique group, but that requires buying additional copies of the base game and/or expansions.

Good question I usually add:

1) cards that give you extra actions like Son of Skywalker

2) cards that use the most common traits of your list so it can be used on as many figures as possible

3) Take Initiative and Negation to get and keep it at key moments

After that it's kind of what you like. Do you want extra movement, better attacks? Take your pick.

Hope it helps.

Some suggested teams to start. These are just based on your suggested themes you may want to play. If it's all for fun, these will likely get you started and you can try out figures you like and tweek as you grow more familiar with the game.

Wookiee Attack

Chewbacca

+Combat Suit

Ghaarkhan

eWookiee Warrior

Jyn Odan (because every wookiee needs a plucky smuggler sidekick)

Command Cards

I like starrius' suggestion. Grab the 10(?) duplicate 0 point Command Cards from the base set and add in 5 of the following:

Adrenaline

Debt Repaid

Furious Charge

One In A Million

Wild Fury

Wookiee Rage

vs

Hunter's Bounty

IG-88

Boba Fett

Dengar

HK Assassin Droids

As above, grab the 10 0 pointers and add in 5 of the following:

Blaze of Glory

Cripple

Dirty Trick

Mandalorian Tactics

Payback

Price On Their Heads

The original Vader's Fist (and its variants) is also a fun squad to play. It's also fairly easy to play, at least on a basic level. IMHO, you've gotta play with (and against) Vader at some point near the beginning of your IA Skirmish experience. He's fun, thematic, and terrifying for the opponent. He doesn't always win in the competitive game right now, but dude...he's Vader, so ya gotta give him a run at least once or twice. [Personally, I won my state Regional and came 10th at the GenCon championship with him last year.]

18 Darth Vader

8 Royal Guards (they give +1 Block to Vader when adjacent to him)

6 Stormtroopers

6 Stormtroopers

2 Imperial Officer

Command Cards: All 3 of the 3pt Imperial ones that Vader can use (Lord of the Sith, Lure of the Dark Side, Force Lightning), and then other cards that people have mentioned.