I'm an X-Wing player, looking to get into Imperial Assault. I've not played it yet. One thing that bugs me about X-Wing is that although it's mostly alright, the balance is a bit off. You regularly see the same squadrons in the top 8. How is Imperial Assault in regard to this?
How balanced is this game?
I'd say it's something similar but maybe a little better. Right now the top lists are generally trooper lists. But top 8 isn't only trooper lists. You see double Bantha, or just single Bantha, troopers for rebels and imperials, Scum now just got some troopers so I'd expect to see them soon as well, and now we are seeing spy lists due to their support and so on. The thing that makes trooper lists most desirable is due to the cost/activation ratio and how many attacks and reliable attacks you can get. Also there are quite a few good trooper skirmish cards. I'd say Imperial assault has a slightly more diverse group of lists than X-wing. Some people don't even use lists that are similar to the popular ones and can do alright.
Currently FFG is doing better on getting unique figures costed, so I expect to see a lot more of them in lists. Agent Blaise was a great addition as well as Bossk and Lando. The Grand Inquisitor is expected to make a splash and based on cost we may be seeing Obi-wan in competitive lists.
I think something that helps make lists more diverse as well is how army/fleet building differs between the two games. There is room to bring far more units to the board in Imperial assault than in X-wing.
I hope I helped answer some questions.
My personal opinion:
1) IA, for a number of reasons, has a proportionately much greater variety of 'good' figures that can be combined into lists. Ever since the nerf to Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs, there is only one truly overpowered figure left--but Gideon is unique, and only worth 3 points, so he's not that bad to deal with. So there is actually slightly greater list variety currently in IA than in X-Wing, despite having significantly fewer figures/ships to choose from.
2) However. Proportionately, IA has many (many many many MANY MANY MANY) more equivalents to X-Wing's Fel's Wrath and Knave Squadron Pilots: figures that are pretty much laughably overcosted to the point of unplayability. There are more of those in IA than in X-Wing as well, despite the fewer overall total figures/ships. The good news is that most (but not all!) of those horribly overcosted figures are from old waves; FFG seems to be getting costing more or less correct with recent waves.
My personal opinion:
1) IA, for a number of reasons, has a proportionately much greater variety of 'good' figures that can be combined into lists. Ever since the nerf to Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs, there is only one truly overpowered figure left--but Gideon is unique, and only worth 3 points, so he's not that bad to deal with. So there is actually slightly greater list variety currently in IA than in X-Wing, despite having significantly fewer figures/ships to choose from.
2) However. Proportionately, IA has many (many many many MANY MANY MANY) more equivalents to X-Wing's Fel's Wrath and Knave Squadron Pilots: figures that are pretty much laughably overcosted to the point of unplayability. There are more of those in IA than in X-Wing as well, despite the fewer overall total figures/ships. The good news is that most (but not all!) of those horribly overcosted figures are from old waves; FFG seems to be getting costing more or less correct with recent waves.
I'd rather have something over-costed, than under-costed. It's easier to buff than nerf. Of course, I'd hope that they do indeed buff them so that every unit is playable. How did they nerf "Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs"?
Edited by slowreflexI'd rather have something over-costed, than under-costed. It's easier to buff than nerf. Of course, I'd hope that they do indeed buff them so that every unit is playable. How did they nerf "Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs"?
Like this:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/21/great-change-in-the-galaxy/
Alternatively, see the FAQ.
I'd say the IA meta is more fluid than x-wing.
The release schedule has a bigger, more frequent, impact on IA.
FFG have shown a willingness to be brutal with the FAQ.
The map rotation changes the viability of all the lists.
Skirmish attachments can make new lists viable.
Like this:https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/21/great-change-in-the-galaxy/Alternatively, see the FAQ.I'd rather have something over-costed, than under-costed. It's easier to buff than nerf. Of course, I'd hope that they do indeed buff them so that every unit is playable. How did they nerf "Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs"?
Is there a way to get printed versions of these cards?
I agree with what all of these people have been saying.
Really, I think the competitive meta has been very healthy ever since the errata to the Royal Guards, Officers, and Saboteurs (linked above). It is perhaps a little bit trooper-heavy right now, but considering that it seams like about 1/3 of all figures released are troopers of some sort, that kinda seems about right. It seems to be important to have enough figures on the map to do everything that you need to: hold terminals (so that you can draw more Command Cards, which can win games for you), collect and/or control Mission Objectives, and of course smack your opponent's guys around. It seems like this game is easier to play when you have too many figures on the board, rather than when you have too few. However, there have been some Unique-heavy Rebel squads that have been doing well, so there is definitely room for experimentation on the competitive scene.
And as others have also said, it seems that the Grand Inquisitor is going to be causing some real trouble to trooper-heavy squads, and so we'll have to see how things develop. I'm also eager to see what kind of impact Obiwan will have.
...in other words...dude...DUDE!...give Imperial Assault a run! My boys and I regularly have 3-4 competitive squads built at one time, and it's always a blast!
Like this:https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/21/great-change-in-the-galaxy/Alternatively, see the FAQ.I'd rather have something over-costed, than under-costed. It's easier to buff than nerf. Of course, I'd hope that they do indeed buff them so that every unit is playable. How did they nerf "Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs"?
Is there a way to get printed versions of these cards?
Yes, they are in the League Kit. The Spring 2016 kit had the Royal Guards, and the Summer 2016 kit will have the Saboteurs. Perhaps new Officer cards will be part of the Fall kit? (They haven't announced that yet.) Until you get officially printed versions of the cards, you can simply color-print the cards in the link at your local print store and place the printouts inside the card sleeve in front of your original cards...that will be legal for any big tournament event, and obviously for any simpler local event too.
I'd imagine that most local stores have already played these events and given out their Spring kits, though. So you might look on Ebay, where you can usually find them for a decent-ish price, but I'd suggest looking now rather than several months from now, because promos like this tend to become rare and difficult to obtain after a few months.
And BE SURE to find a local gaming store for July (ie, now), when the Summer League kits are released. Our LGS is hosting its tournament on July 31. So if you don't have an LGS then you can start looking on Ebay for Saboteur promos in mid-late July and afterward.
Edited by thereisnotrySleeves and printing them is fine for me, but card printing services can also be used.
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/223659-reprints-based-on-faqs/
Although IA does have a few attachment cards and the command deck, it doesn't reach the level of the pilots/mods etc. that X-Wing has so there is a lot less TO break. Also while the missions in IA aren't hugely different, they're different enough to make it so you aren't going to see some degenerate deployment lists winning everything.
I'd rather have something over-costed, than under-costed. It's easier to buff than nerf. Of course, I'd hope that they do indeed buff them so that every unit is playable. How did they nerf "Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, and Rebel Saboteurs"?
Like this:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/21/great-change-in-the-galaxy/
Alternatively, see the FAQ.
Wow, they actually significantly changed the cards. I'm not really a fan of printing out temporary cards that look like proxies. I assume they've changed the ones in the expansions? Obviously there might be some old stock still out there though.
Well having just acquired a copy of IA within the last 3 weeks, you would think that they would have reprinted the nerfed cards? At least FFG if they will reprint the cards should ideally put them up for sale or at least allow those that have the core set (with proof of purchase) to exchange or get the new cards without having to print them out.
Still hopefully they have the new cards for the likes of Reb Sabs printed in the expansions.
Well having just acquired a copy of IA within the last 3 weeks, you would think that they would have reprinted the nerfed cards? At least FFG if they will reprint the cards should ideally put them up for sale or at least allow those that have the core set (with proof of purchase) to exchange or get the new cards without having to print them out.
Still hopefully they have the new cards for the likes of Reb Sabs printed in the expansions.
Maybe they didn't have that data available when the box you purchased was printed? They might issue the corrected cards in future reprints of the Core box, but they've made it pretty clear through their communication when the errata was added to the FAQ that they plan to use the Organized Play kits to distribute the Royal Guard, Saboteur and Officer replacements as double-sided alternate art cards.
You could hold out for confirmation that future printings have the corrected cards in them, but a quicker and more realistic solution would be to do one of the following;
a)keep the current FAQ handy at any Skirmish tournaments you go to
b)print out the corrected card images through whatever quality means you find makes sense for you if you plan on using them in a tournament
c)keep tabs on your local game stores for news of when/if they will be hosting an Imperial Assault tournament featuring the Spring and Summer kits so you can get your Royal Guards and Saboteurs
d)the Officer's release hasn't been announced yet, but let's assume you do the same for their 2017 quarterly kits as it will now doubt contain the Officer on the first release
e)go on eBay and grab a few Royal Guards now. they typically come in singles or pairs, but all for around $10 US
If you're going with the eBay option for these cards, do it now while they're still circulating. Promo cards tend to inflate in value over time as the distributed cards all land with people that are generally keeping them (especially if it's something in demand, like errata'ed cards people will want several copies of) and not selling them. The lack of supply will inflate the cost.
Right now your cost to get a Royal Guard errata card or two is roughly the cost of a tournament entry anyways, so in terms of pure dollars, you're not really spending anything out of line with your cost to enter the event. You're just trading the time you spend in the event and potential fun factor for getting the card anyways, which is even more appealing if your local shops don't have the community traction to host an event, but that's something you could always try and bolster for future kit releases.
I strongly want to techo what cleardave said: Time is money when it comes to promo cards. Get those Royal Guard cards now, while they're still available on Ebay. And then get the Rebel Saboteur cards soon, once they show up on Ebay (in July-August-September). If you wait too long you'll be out of luck.
A quick eBay search lead to this;
That's 2 for about $20 US, including shipping. You won't find too many deals better than that, so strike while the iron's hot.
$20 for you but $34+ for me for two cards, I can get almost 2 maybe 3 single expansion packs for that price. I'm printing out the cards and slipping them in over the originals.
$20 for you but $34+ for me for two cards, I can get almost 2 maybe 3 single expansion packs for that price. I'm printing out the cards and slipping them in over the originals.
That's the route many have taken. It's a straightforward cost-benefit analysis for us players. Ultimately though, taking action either way will get you your results much faster than praying for a reprint with errata.
The game seems pretty balanced to me. Plus FFG puts together new skirmish maps a few times a year, so a list that is good now, may only be meh when the new maps come out, and a list that was terrible may be pretty decent. That's the nice thing with IA, the maps used for tournaments change regularly, so there is no telling what list will be good.
There's 3 main differences for me compared to X-wing.
The missions....
Some can be a bit boring but usually they add lots of interesting strategic options and change the way each game is played. You have to play the map not just the opponent. X-wing can be a bit dull when it's always the same 100pt dogfight.
It's also interesting for list building. Do you make a squishy fast list, that grabs objectives better? Do you make a tough points denial list but one that might struggle with objectives? Do you take long range lists for bigger open maps or short range melee lists for tight, close quarters maps? Etc.
There's a bit of that in X-wing but no where near the same level.
The luck aspect....
X-Wing has a lot of hard counters. 2 dice attacks are pretty much useless against 3 agility ships. Doesn't really matter how many attacks you throw, with no modifiers you have a 70% chance to do zero damage.
With IA, the attack/defense ratio is more equalized. It's rare to not do at least some damage unless your shooting from very long range or the opponent rolls the dreaded Dodge (1/6 chance) on a white defense dice.
What this means though, is that there's far fewer situations where no damage is done. And through smart positioning, strategy and activation order, you can really maximize your chances.
I find a lot of the time in X-wing, you simply need more luck. Sometimes no matter how well you fly, you just can't get any damage trough.
In IA, that can still happen of course, but it's less often. It evens out a lot more.
You also get more actions and more attacks each turn, so the dice average out more and aren't as "spiky". For example I could have 6 stormtroopers and get 6 attacks each turn, which would be the equivilent of a 6 tie fighter swarm. Except that only takes up half (or less) of my list and I can still have more offensive or support units.
The alternative activation....
With X-wing, you really have to decide if you're flying aces or lots of crappy low PS stuff.
IA isn't really like that. There are some support units with little or no offensive power, but other than that, every other figure has great damage potential. A crappy imperial officer can still do damage to luke or vader even though it's highly unlikely. They can't kill them alone of course, but the order in which units activate is super important. Very often you'll have to make decisions where to strike first at the risk of taking return fire somewhere else. You have to be careful not to over extend or fall into a trap.
In X-wing because the activation order is so fixed, it takes away a whole aspect of strategy. Yes it's replaced by predicting your opponents maneuvers, but just like in Chess, in IA you still have to do that, and more.
In IA you rarely get a situation where you simply can't catch Whisper or Soontir because you just don't have the right kind of ships to do it. And then just get picked apart for 75 minutes. Sometimes it can happen when someone plays for time or points denial but the objectives and list variety make that fairly rare.
As for balance, it's a bit hard to say really. We haven't really seen any one list dominating everything since last year's Royal Guard nerf.
It's not like X-wing where palp aces, crack swarms and U-boats are pretty much the only high end competitive lists.
That being said, the game is still quite small (Regionals are 10-15 players not 80+ like X-wing) so the meta is very dependent on your local player base.
There are also a lot more counters to specific units. Banthas are great against some things, bad against others. Some things are glass cannons so smart, strategic play is is more important and mistakes are easier to punish. You also don't need to buy $150+ raiders just to get a palpatine card =P
Finally, even though some updates can be a bit slow, the IA team has shown multiple times they are great at fixing problems and trying to fix older non-competitive units. This happens in X-wing as well of course but in IA they actually went back and completely changed cards which doesn't happen often. The willingness to do such a big change to fix the game is a great sign.
There's 3 main differences for me compared to X-wing.
The missions....
Some can be a bit boring but usually they add lots of interesting strategic options and change the way each game is played. You have to play the map not just the opponent. X-wing can be a bit dull when it's always the same 100pt dogfight.
It's also interesting for list building. Do you make a squishy fast list, that grabs objectives better? Do you make a tough points denial list but one that might struggle with objectives? Do you take long range lists for bigger open maps or short range melee lists for tight, close quarters maps? Etc.
There's a bit of that in X-wing but no where near the same level.
The luck aspect....
X-Wing has a lot of hard counters. 2 dice attacks are pretty much useless against 3 agility ships. Doesn't really matter how many attacks you throw, with no modifiers you have a 70% chance to do zero damage.
With IA, the attack/defense ratio is more equalized. It's rare to not do at least some damage unless your shooting from very long range or the opponent rolls the dreaded Dodge (1/6 chance) on a white defense dice.
What this means though, is that there's far fewer situations where no damage is done. And through smart positioning, strategy and activation order, you can really maximize your chances.
I find a lot of the time in X-wing, you simply need more luck. Sometimes no matter how well you fly, you just can't get any damage trough.
In IA, that can still happen of course, but it's less often. It evens out a lot more.
You also get more actions and more attacks each turn, so the dice average out more and aren't as "spiky". For example I could have 6 stormtroopers and get 6 attacks each turn, which would be the equivilent of a 6 tie fighter swarm. Except that only takes up half (or less) of my list and I can still have more offensive or support units.
The alternative activation....
With X-wing, you really have to decide if you're flying aces or lots of crappy low PS stuff.
IA isn't really like that. There are some support units with little or no offensive power, but other than that, every other figure has great damage potential. A crappy imperial officer can still do damage to luke or vader even though it's highly unlikely. They can't kill them alone of course, but the order in which units activate is super important. Very often you'll have to make decisions where to strike first at the risk of taking return fire somewhere else. You have to be careful not to over extend or fall into a trap.
In X-wing because the activation order is so fixed, it takes away a whole aspect of strategy. Yes it's replaced by predicting your opponents maneuvers, but just like in Chess, in IA you still have to do that, and more.
In IA you rarely get a situation where you simply can't catch Whisper or Soontir because you just don't have the right kind of ships to do it. And then just get picked apart for 75 minutes. Sometimes it can happen when someone plays for time or points denial but the objectives and list variety make that fairly rare.
As for balance, it's a bit hard to say really. We haven't really seen any one list dominating everything since last year's Royal Guard nerf.
It's not like X-wing where palp aces, crack swarms and U-boats are pretty much the only high end competitive lists.
That being said, the game is still quite small (Regionals are 10-15 players not 80+ like X-wing) so the meta is very dependent on your local player base.
There are also a lot more counters to specific units. Banthas are great against some things, bad against others. Some things are glass cannons so smart, strategic play is is more important and mistakes are easier to punish. You also don't need to buy $150+ raiders just to get a palpatine card =P
Finally, even though some updates can be a bit slow, the IA team has shown multiple times they are great at fixing problems and trying to fix older non-competitive units. This happens in X-wing as well of course but in IA they actually went back and completely changed cards which doesn't happen often. The willingness to do such a big change to fix the game is a great sign.
Wow, Inquisitorsz, you nailed it on the head in that post! You showed it was possible, even if not by a computer. You bullseye'd that wamp rat, and they're not much bigger than 2 meters. You used the force. Massive +1 here. 
I often Like posts here on the forums, but I would LIKE this one. It is quite simply one of my favorite posts ever on these forums. You really helped to capture the feel of the game, in contrast with X-Wing. X-Wing is obviously a great game, and it has a lot going for it, but you've really helped to articulate how IA stands out on its own, apart from X-Wing. Hopefully our OP and other X-Wing players will be helped by this to see the awesomeness that is IA.
Thanks, that's a useful comparison. All I would say though, is that X-Wing doesn't have as much luck involved as people may think. If that was the case, you wouldn't have repeat World Champions. I'm definitely going to try IA out. Sounds like something I'd enjoy, maybe even more than X-Wing.
Thanks, that's a useful comparison. All I would say though, is that X-Wing doesn't have as much luck involved as people may think. If that was the case, you wouldn't have repeat World Champions. I'm definitely going to try IA out. Sounds like something I'd enjoy, maybe even more than X-Wing.
Ha, that's exactly the same argument I use when my friends complain about the luck in X-wing.
Maybe luck isn't the best word.... maybe something like probability distribution is a better description. The more dice your roll during a game, the more the results average out. X-wing usually rolls relatively few dice, and thus is much more susceptible to "spiky" results.
Obviously rolling natural dice without abilities, target locks, focus etc.... won't get you far, but in general, the low dice roll sample size can be a problem.
I read an interview with Paul Heaver once where he was talking about using play mats. He said that he would memorize different positions and got to a stage where he could very accurately predict the range of movement templates based on the star pattern of play mat, and because of that he found it very difficult to play as well on a blank black table.
Now that's very creative and a skill anyone can learn, but it's also a significant disadvantage if your local club just plays on plain black boards or if you're used to your own painted boards or one of the fancy planet playmats. Stuff like that can change the dynamic of the game.
You can't do that with IA. Everything is set, the missions and maps are the same. It allows you to learn and practice different strategies for different situations, but it's an even playing ground for everyone.
I always consider IA to be a lot more like Chess. It has elements of luck of course but it's also heavily dependent on predicting your opponents moves. X-wing is the same but I always felt there was a little bit less logic and a bit more guesswork in X-wing.
I think for me the split is something like this
IA: 50% strategy/skill, 25% luck, 25% list building
X-wing: 40% strategy/skill. 30% luck, 30% list building