Tournament rules updated as well.
Starting August 1st, the legal maps—and their accompanying missions—for the season are: Nelvaanian War Zone, Training Ground, and Coruscant Landfill .
Edited by FSDNew FAQ and map rotation announced
"Players cannot take notes or reference outside materials during a round."
Wait, you can't take notes? Like, if your opponent reveals a command card for some reason (like showing it to discard one of your cards via Blaise then getting it back with Espionage Mastery), you can't write it down?
No. Cards in the hand are hidden information. If a card is revealed for any reason and then put back into the hand, you must rely on your memory.
That seems kind of silly. I've never heard of a no note taking rule in any card/board game.
I've heard of them in most games. I find it hard to believe you've never heard of it.
how do you keep track of points without notes? Keeping track and having a written record of all the objective or bonus points in a game is near impossible, especially with a time limit. I think most of the tournament games I've played, it came down to the wire, if I didn't have a running tally going already, it would have been easy to lose track of points, or easy to have discrepancies at the very least.
It makes sense that you can't bring notes with you.
That you can't take notes during the game about things happening in the game just seems ridiculous.
how do you keep track of points without notes? Keeping track and having a written record of all the objective or bonus points in a game is near impossible, especially with a time limit. I think most of the tournament games I've played, it came down to the wire, if I didn't have a running tally going already, it would have been easy to lose track of points, or easy to have discrepancies at the very least.
I use a Death Star dial, others use apps, dice...
That seems kind of silly. I've never heard of a no note taking rule in any card/board game.
I don't think it's that uncommon. It slows down just about every game, and unless the game requires it, I think it's generally discouraged if not outright stated.
how do you keep track of points without notes?
It covers that in the rules, too.
I think in generally most people only use "notes" to keep track of scoring. But even at "friendly" tournaments (mainly for games outside of IA) I've seen people literally jot down everything... what move was made, order of activation, etc. It bogs the game down to a ridiculous degree. I think it makes sense to have the rule in there, so in case someone jots down dice probability and references it before every roll, the TO has the text to back up that not being legal as opposed to just being a crap thing to do to your opponent.
I'm a bit disappointed in this FAQ.
The "shooting unlocked doors" issue on Fallout wasn't fixed. They just made the ruling official.
Why the hell not just fix the wording and keep it consistent with the rest of the game???
All they had to do was change "Attack a door" to "Attack these doors" or "attack locked doors"
Or just put a line in the FAQ that unlocked doors can never be attacked.
Or remove the whole line about attacking doors. Other maps don't even say that, it's implied by the door being locked.
So many simple solutions.
Some Bantha and Junk Droid clarifications, but we knew all of that already.
Sadly nothing about focusing, hiding or interrogating doors =(
I like the new map, it's very balanced with regards to deployment zones but I think "One Man's Trash" favors high model count lists (eg troopers) and the Dianoga mission severely hurts melee characters.
Glad to see Cantina go, but was hoping to rotate more than 1 map. Getting really sick of Training Grounds (especially the boring Deception Game).
Happy but surprised there's no Bespin map
Edited by Inquisitorsz
I like the new map, it's very balanced with regards to deployment zones but I think "One Man's Trash" favors high model count lists (eg troopers) and the Dianoga mission severely hurts melee characters.
Glad to see Cantina go, but was hoping to rotate more than 1 map. Getting really sick of Training Grounds (especially the boring Deception Game).
Happy but surprised there's no Bespin map
Cantina was the oldest, Traning Ground is now the oldest, so it should be out next time around, right?
What do you not like about the Bespin maps? I don't think I've played them all, but some of them I have really enjoyed (hunting ground and isb hq, the actual Bespin map is a little imbalanced)
I like the new map, it's very balanced with regards to deployment zones but I think "One Man's Trash" favors high model count lists (eg troopers) and the Dianoga mission severely hurts melee characters.
Glad to see Cantina go, but was hoping to rotate more than 1 map. Getting really sick of Training Grounds (especially the boring Deception Game).
Happy but surprised there's no Bespin map
Cantina was the oldest, Traning Ground is now the oldest, so it should be out next time around, right?
I'm happy there's no Bespin maps, not because I don't like them (haven't played any yet) but because it's good that Bespin isn't required for tournaments.
It was more of a "growing the game" issue.
Now we only need Core Set and Hoth for new players.
Maybe it's because I've played nothing but the current 3 maps for the last 6+ months, but I'm very much over Trainingrounds. I was hoping to have at least 2 maps rotated out.
I know not all of them might be tournament suitable and they aren't all super balanced, but there's like 32 different maps now. If they rotate one every 6 months, it will be 15 years before we see every map (and that's without adding new content).
They should introduce two new maps every rotation -- that way every rotation they can sell a new play mat with a map on each side, you you don't have to dig through your map tiles to assemble them for a skirmish game.
They should introduce two new maps every rotation -- that way every rotation they can sell a new play mat with a map on each side, you you don't have to dig through your map tiles to assemble them for a skirmish game.
It would be great to have skirmish only cards for Han, Chewie, Vader, etc with better priced deployment too
I usually take some notes to write a battle report afterwards. I do so, while my opponent is doing his stuff, to not hinder the flow of the game. I'm not so happy about not being able to do that anymore.
I kinda like it, I don't like opponents writing down what cards I have when they look at my hand, and I wouldn't do it when looking at them. Remembering their hand is part of the game.
I could probably make a good guess as to most people's decks before the games start, I wouldn't think it was fair though to sit there crossing each card out or marking it as in hand each time I got more info.
I guess to each their own but for me it's a good change.
The time to play has become quite short:
Tournament Regulations Page 6:
TOURNAMENT ROUND TIMES
Each tournament round of Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a predetermined length, giving players a certain amount of time to complete their games. This length includes time for setup.
Tournament Regulations Page 5:
GAME SETUP
- The organizer determines what mission all players will use for the round and announces the start of the tournament round.
- Each player reveals their Deployment cards and assigns ID tokens to each deployment group.
- Players determine initiative.
- Players build the skirmish map.
- The player with initiative chooses one of the deployment zones and deploys all of his or her figures in that zone. Then the other player deploys all of his or her figures in the opposing deployment zone.
- Each player shuffles their Command deck and presents it to their opponent. The opponent may shuffle and cut the deck if desired. Then each player draws three cards from their Command deck.
Once players complete the steps above, players may begin playing immediately upon completing these steps.
After puzzling the maps, there is like 20 minutes play-time left?
Yea that change I don't like so much. I really think they need to allow maps in some way, or release maps themselves that people can buy. Setup time out of the 65 minutes could get silly.
how do you keep track of points without notes? Keeping track and having a written record of all the objective or bonus points in a game is near impossible, especially with a time limit. I think most of the tournament games I've played, it came down to the wire, if I didn't have a running tally going already, it would have been easy to lose track of points, or easy to have discrepancies at the very least.
Keeping score is not taking notes. They means writing actual notes- statements, maths, etc.
Keeping score is not taking notes. They means writing actual notes- statements, maths, etc.
I'm not sure FFG would agree on that, given that they specifically say that you should maintain a "score pile."
I don't know that anyone would care if you're using scratch paper just to take score, but...
Keeping score is not taking notes. They means writing actual notes- statements, maths, etc.
I'm not sure FFG would agree on that, given that they specifically say that you should maintain a "score pile."
I don't know that anyone would care if you're using scratch paper just to take score, but...
Wasn't the score pile in the 2015 worlds faq and it was obliviously done at the final table at worlds, so they didnt seem to disagree.
Wasn't the score pile in the 2015 worlds faq and it was obliviously done at the final table at worlds, so they didnt seem to disagree.
Score pile was definitely in the old FAQ, but the ban on note taking was not. There's nothing in the new one that says whether or not writing down the score is or is not "taking notes." I suppose we'll see at GenCon and at Worlds.
how do you keep track of points without notes? Keeping track and having a written record of all the objective or bonus points in a game is near impossible, especially with a time limit. I think most of the tournament games I've played, it came down to the wire, if I didn't have a running tally going already, it would have been easy to lose track of points, or easy to have discrepancies at the very least.
I use a Death Star dial, others use apps, dice...
None of which let you retrace where points were earned throughout the match. Writing down the score gives you a detailed log of when points were earned and how many, it helps immensely when there is a dispute over the recorded score.
The time to play has become quite short:
After puzzling the maps, there is like 20 minutes play-time left?
Firstly, it's been that way since the last FAQ (although poorly worded), no one complained much about it before.
Secondly, I know you're exaggerating but it doesn't take 35min to set up a map.
Can we please stop spreading the fear of map building.
Time yourself. I think you'll find that it doesn't take longer than 5 min to set up a map, even if you have to dig through a whole box of bits.
Here's a tip. If you're going to a tournament, separate your 3 maps into ziplock bags, with the mission cards and map layout included. Tiles that are used in multiple maps go in a separate bag.
Now it will take you 2 min to set it up. And you don't have to carry a massive box of cardboard tiles to a tournament.
Not to mention that by the time everyone gets their stuff and finds their seat/opponent, you can probably set up the map before the clock even starts.
A little bit of preparation is all you need to solve this problem.
So can we all as a community please stop complaining about it now?
The time to play has become quite short:
After puzzling the maps, there is like 20 minutes play-time left?
Firstly, it's been that way since the last FAQ (although poorly worded), no one complained much about it before.
Actually, on every tournament I've been, it was set up and then the time started at 65 minutes.