I can't count how many threads I've seen in the X-Wing and Armada forums regarding this topic, so I apologize for this post in advance:

Is there a pinned post somewhere with good resources for players just starting Imperial Assault? (Squad building, expansion summaries, strategy)

If you had to choose one expansion that opened up a lot more of the game for you, what would it be?

(Asking regarding both individual figure expansions (Fett, Solo, Bantha Rider) and the larger boxed size expansions (i.e. Bespin, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth)

Thanks, all!

Here's a topic that was assembled for new players.

As far as expansion summaries, I don't know if anything like that exists. Might be a good thing to do.

As far as where to go next from the core, personally I'd go with Twin Shadows, as that's just taking things chronologically by release as far as the bigger boxes go. You might get more mileage out of Return to Hoth though. Hard to say.

If I had to pick just a figure pack I'd say maybe Rebel Saboteurs or perhaps Leia?

Are you looking to be competitive?

If you had to choose one expansion that opened up a lot more of the game for you, what would it be?

(Asking regarding both individual figure expansions (Fett, Solo, Bantha Rider) and the larger boxed size expansions (i.e. Bespin, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth)

Thanks, all!

Ally Pack:

Leia is pretty strong. C-3PO/R2-D2 is a close second. Rebel Sabs is likely third. I do not think you can go wrong with any of those 3 for what they bring to Skirmish.

Villain Pack:

Bantha Rider would likely get my vote here. Its command cards bring some new life to the Tusken Raiders. Bossk may end up as *the* expansion pack to get from the next wave and become the best villain pack out there.

Boxed expansions: This one is a toss up. I think Return to Hoth would be the leader here as the HKs are pretty good and I've seen the Wampas used to great effect in Creature builds. However, the Wing Guard may end up being the unit that Mercs needed to truly round them out as a whole so it could upset RtH. However, RtH is the best campaign thus far (again, unknown if Bespin's mini campaign is going to upset that...).

Here's a topic that was assembled for new players.

As far as expansion summaries, I don't know if anything like that exists. Might be a good thing to do.

As far as where to go next from the core, personally I'd go with Twin Shadows, as that's just taking things chronologically by release as far as the bigger boxes go. You might get more mileage out of Return to Hoth though. Hard to say.

If I had to pick just a figure pack I'd say maybe Rebel Saboteurs or perhaps Leia?

Are you looking to be competitive?

Thanks for the new player link. That's exactly what I was looking for.

I'm planning to keep IA very casual. X-Wing and Armada suck up a lot of my limited gaming time, but Imperial Assault is something different and provides extra painting fun. That being said, I'd prefer for my first few expansions to be strong so my gameplay options are as wide as possible right out of the gate.

I'm planning to keep IA very casual. X-Wing and Armada suck up a lot of my limited gaming time, but Imperial Assault is something different and provides extra painting fun. That being said, I'd prefer for my first few expansions to be strong so my gameplay options are as wide as possible right out of the gate.

Han Solo

Chewbacca

Royal Champion Guard

General Weiss

Rebel Troopers

Rebel Sabotuers

IG-88

They may not appear in the campaign you run, but in case they do, those are the ones you will have ready to use.

But so far the best introduction set is Twin Shadows mini-campaign. Its a 4 mission campaign and lets people get a good feeling for the game. It is something you can run in 8 hours. Get the Boba Fett, Han Solo, C-3PO & R2-D2, and Kayn Somos expansions for that.

~D

Thanks for the new player link. That's exactly what I was looking for.

I'm planning to keep IA very casual. X-Wing and Armada suck up a lot of my limited gaming time, but Imperial Assault is something different and provides extra painting fun. That being said, I'd prefer for my first few expansions to be strong so my gameplay options are as wide as possible right out of the gate.

Are you looking into skirmish as your avenue of play? I'm thinking so from the above. If so, are you planning on participating in Organized Play?

I only ask as you may want to talk to the TO at your local store if you are planning on playing in OP events. If they run events by the book, you will need the following items necessary for OP to ensure you can build all of the maps and have all of the missions:

Map Tiles from:

Base set

Twin Shadows

Return to Hoth

Missions:

Stormtrooper villain pack

Leia ally pack

Twin Shadows

Then you really need to determine what faction you may wish to utilize for builds. The Base set and box expansions provide plenty of choices for Scum and Imperial teams. Unfortunately, you need all three expansions to play in OP (in the strictest sense) so you have those figures from which to choose.

If you are wanting to play Rebel teams in skirmish, the ally packs tend to provide the most used figures for Rebel players (outside of Gideon and Luke from the base set, though I'm also partial to Fenn and Jyn). Again, you will already have Leia *if* you are looking at playing OP and she, Luke and Gideon actually make a pretty good foundation for a Rebel team. Add troopers to taste and you are set.

Thanks for the new player link. That's exactly what I was looking for.

I'm planning to keep IA very casual. X-Wing and Armada suck up a lot of my limited gaming time, but Imperial Assault is something different and provides extra painting fun. That being said, I'd prefer for my first few expansions to be strong so my gameplay options are as wide as possible right out of the gate.

Are you looking into skirmish as your avenue of play? I'm thinking so from the above. If so, are you planning on participating in Organized Play?

I only ask as you may want to talk to the TO at your local store if you are planning on playing in OP events. If they run events by the book, you will need the following items necessary for OP to ensure you can build all of the maps and have all of the missions:

Map Tiles from:

Base set

Twin Shadows

Return to Hoth

Missions:

Stormtrooper villain pack

Leia ally pack

Twin Shadows

Then you really need to determine what faction you may wish to utilize for builds. The Base set and box expansions provide plenty of choices for Scum and Imperial teams. Unfortunately, you need all three expansions to play in OP (in the strictest sense) so you have those figures from which to choose.

If you are wanting to play Rebel teams in skirmish, the ally packs tend to provide the most used figures for Rebel players (outside of Gideon and Luke from the base set, though I'm also partial to Fenn and Jyn). Again, you will already have Leia *if* you are looking at playing OP and she, Luke and Gideon actually make a pretty good foundation for a Rebel team. Add troopers to taste and you are set.

No OP for me, definitely not to the extent that I would need all box expansions. I plan to play both skirmish and campaign with friends at home.

I want to clarify (just in case it isn't clear) that there are two different sizes of Expansions, in addition to the Ally/Villain packs.

-The "large box" expansions (in this case just Return to Hoth)

-The "small box" expansions (Twin Shadows and soon-to-be-released Cloud City)

Personally, my opinion is that after the Core (which is both necessary and the best value) Return to Hoth is the expansion to get if you can only choose 1 expansion after the Core Set. It has a full campaign which many players consider the best so far, along with several really great heroes (we're using MHD-19 in my current campaign), and lots of figures. Lots of bang for your buck. Then yes, Twin Shadows and Cloud City are good choices too, when you get the chance, but I'd get them after Hoth. It seems so far that Twin Shadows has been the least-well-liked of the expansions so far, and lots of people are really excited about Cloud City.

What follows is my opinion specifically with regard to the Skirmish mode of the game:

As for the Ally/Villain packs, it depends on what appeals to you. The ones that tend to not be very competitive are Han, Chewie, Kayn Somos, Dengar, Sorin...and maybe the RGC and Boba (though those pieces have been used effectively in different ways). Apart from that, it seems like almost all of the Ally/Villain packs bring something significant to the table. Some of the most powerful Ally/Villain packs are the Rebel Saboteurs (suggest 2 copies), Leia, R2&3P0, Bantha (start with 1, but some people play 2), and Hired Guns. I'm probably missing some, but I honestly think that you'll find good value out of all of the Ally/Villain packs other than the first ones I mentioned. And even those ones are worthwhile in the end, so that you at least have access to them (and their various cards) if you want them. I have at least copy of everything released so far (4x Saboteurs, 3x Wookiees, 2x Bantha, etc) and I don't regret any of those purchases.

If you are wanting to play Rebel teams in skirmish, the ally packs tend to provide the most used figures for Rebel players (outside of Gideon and Luke from the base set, though I'm also partial to Fenn and Jyn). Again, you will already have Leia *if* you are looking at playing OP and she, Luke and Gideon actually make a pretty good foundation for a Rebel team. Add troopers to taste and you are set.

No OP for me, definitely not to the extent that I would need all box expansions. I plan to play both skirmish and campaign with friends at home.

Then completely ignore everything I said except for the part about Rebel units.

Base game plus Leia and Rebel Sabs would be my suggestion for initial purchase. You have everything needed for the campaign in the base set. If you want the figures to use instead of the cardboard chits, buy those. I also usually suggest the Hired Guns as well. You can use them as Open Groups in the campaign and they play well in skirmish.

Leia and the Sabs will work well with the Starter Rebels to build skirmish teams. Plus the Sabs pull double duty as they may show up in campaign.

I second that. If you're just looking for Campaign at first then the Core truly is all you need. There is already a LOT of replayability in that purchase alone.

It is a fully self-contained game, if you're content to use cardboard tokens for some of the rebel heroes that you'll encounter in campaign (Han, Chewie, Troopers, Saboteurs). At home we sometimes use the old Star Wars Miniatures from WotC to represent IA figures, since they are the same scale.

What follows is my opinion specifically with regard to the Skirmish mode of the game:

As for the Ally/Villain packs, it depends on what appeals to you. The ones that tend to not be very competitive are Han, Chewie, Kayn Somos, Dengar, Sorin...and maybe the RGC and Boba (though those pieces have been used effectively in different ways). Apart from that, it seems like almost all of the Ally/Villain packs bring something significant to the table.

To add:

While the above Ally/Villain packs are much maligned in the community, since you are playing at home, you can always adjust the figure cost to make the figures more playable. thereisnotry also left off IG-88 who is also generally thought to be significantly over-priced.

What follows is my opinion specifically with regard to the Skirmish mode of the game:

As for the Ally/Villain packs, it depends on what appeals to you. The ones that tend to not be very competitive are Han, Chewie, Kayn Somos, Dengar, Sorin...and maybe the RGC and Boba (though those pieces have been used effectively in different ways). Apart from that, it seems like almost all of the Ally/Villain packs bring something significant to the table.

To add:

While the above Ally/Villain packs are much maligned in the community, since you are playing at home, you can always adjust the figure cost to make the figures more playable. thereisnotry also left off IG-88 who is also generally thought to be significantly over-priced.

True about IG-88...and that's further evidence that he's not very effective...he's so ineffective that he's forgettable! lol

If you want to use pieces like Han, Chewie, and IG-88 at home, here are my personal suggestions of what they should cost:

Han: 9pts (not 12)

Chewie: 12pts (not 15)

Boba: 10pts (not 13)

IG-88: 8pts (not 12...is he 12? I haven't looked at him in forever!)

RGC: 12pts (not 15)

Dengar: 5pts (not 7)

Kayn Somos: 7pts (not 10)

Sorin: 6pts (not 8)

Vader: 15pts or less (not 18)

Each of these pieces is really cool and flavorful and fun. My favorites from this list are Boba, Han, Vader, and RGC...they're always fun to use. But they just don't win very often, because they're not worth their points. So making these cost adjustments would really go a long way toward adding new life into these pieces.

The answer is going to be very different based upon whether you want to play skirmish or campaign.

Knowing you want to play both my question would be, which PRIMARILY do you want to play?

If campaign: then start by buying the core and all the ally/villain packs that are correspond to the tokens inside. Good deals on MM and free shipping over $100. The ally/villain packs are cheaper on MM, but the core is cheaper on Amazon. I recommend 2 Rebel Sabs, 2 Rebel Troopers, Han, Chewy, IG-88, General Weiss, and the Royal Guard Champion. If you buy that you will have a very full campaign experience, tons to paint, and some decent skirmish options.

If skirmish: that's tough because there are so many good builds. Then it comes down to what faction do you want to play? Do you really want to dump a bunch of money into one faction and then have a unbalanced collection? It can get overwhelming very quickly, especially if you are just wanting casual-at-home-play. I'd recommend the balanced approach of focusing on campaign and let the skirmish game naturally build up on it's own around that. You'll get everything in time, but just take it slow and enjoy the ride - you only have so much time to play and paint anyways.