Is this a good deck? It seems very intriguing and draws me in. What do others think? How does it compare to Military might, in your opinion?

It's tricky. Field Officer, Field General and Lead by Example allows some pretty good combos, but if you are a bit short of XP, it lacks buffs to attacks. Other builds are also possible.

Military Might is much easier to play.

I think it is the least strong of the Imperial Class decks, though that doesn't necessarily make it useless.

I just finished using it. I think it was a great deck. It starts off a little slow. But being able to get an extra Officer for free and give them Executive Order (so basically a free 5 threat card in total) its really good. Then giving all your figures +1 damage and free reroll within 3 spaces is awesome. Also when the leader dies gives 5 figures in LoS a focus token. It makes your Imperial Officers that much stronger for 2 threat. And the heroes start thinking twice whether to kill them or not. If they do, good bc thats not touching your other figures and you can replace them quickly for 2 threat each. If not, then their bonus is making your figures just that more dangerous. eTrandoshan Hunter is soooo deadly next to them at +3 damage and reroll.

~D

This is easily my favorite deck! Precision Training is nice, but as noted before kind of boring.

Inspiring Leadership to me has been the most powerful deck. It's focused around Action Economy, and the amount of extra actions over the course of a mission with this deck is INSANE! However, as mentioned, its a very slow starting deck, and takes until late campaign to really shine. Think of it as a classic Wizard, not great in the beginning but insanely powerful at the end.

That LoS Focus is legit. If I were a Rebel it really would make me think twice about killing one of them. Great points everyone. Thank you for your input.

What build paths have you all found most successful?

So I'm thinking of using this deck in my next core campaign. It seems pretty obvious that the following combo is pretty strong:

Internal Affairs (Agenda card, add a regular Imperial Officer to your hand after setup, nice to not take up an open group card)

Supervisory Agent (Deploy said Officer Card for free)

Noble Sacrifice (Makes killing an officer a tough choice)

Optimal Tactics (Make NOT killing an officer a touch choice)

All for 7xp plus 1 influence and some luck. This seems like a pretty powerful combo.

But I wonder about going a different build:

If I read both the cards and the FAQ correctly by taking Field General and Lead by Example I could really stack action economy.

Field General would allow even a regular stormtrooper group to each use executive order. That combined with Lead by Example would let them attack or move as well. An per the FAQ, if they were to use Executive order to make another unit shoot, then shoot themselves with Lead by Example, they could shoot again as their second action. Three attacks in one turn (providing board position, two attacks and a move isn't bad either). This combo also costs 7xp, though it makes the game really hard for the first few missions as you would be saving for 3 and 4 xp skills.

My questions are these:

Does the second combo provide more value that the first? And I calculate minimum 10xp during a campaign (if I lose every mission), 12-13xp being more average. What would I spend the other xp on in this deck for either of the above?

Field General and Field Officer lets one figure in the group to perform Executive Order / Order per round. Like I said at the beginning of the thread, they allow very powerful turns combined with Lead by Example.

I played with:

* Field Officer - 0 XP - Attachment - Guardian , Leader or Trooper only - Exhaust this card. You gain: Order .

* Field General - 3 XP - Attachment - Guardian , Leader or Trooper only - Exhaust this card. You gain: Executive Order .

* Lead By Example - 4 XP - After a figure resolves "Order", he can perform a move. - After a figure resolves "Executive Order", he can perform an attack or a move.
* Strategic Planning - 2 XP - Exhaust this card and one of your Deployment cards before activating a group. Ready another of your Deployment cards of equal or less cost. Each figure corresponding to both Deployment cards gain 1 movement point.
* Supervisory Agent - 1 XP - Deplete this card before activating a group. Deploy 1 regular Imperial Officer from your hand without paying its Deployment cost.

(Purchased in that order.)

See https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1507945/rise-and-fall-twin-shadows-swia024-finished-201607

I lacked a few XP to really make it shine in the finale, but was able to pull a win against all odds when the rebels just could not get the interacts succeed, and then run out of time to escape.

a1bert and I play differently.

To me the most important card in Inspiring Leadership is:

Optimal Tactics - 4XP - While attacking, other Imperial figures within 3 spaces of a friendly Leader apply +1 damage to their attack results and may reroll 1 attack die.

This card is just insanely powerful. Lead by Example is nice, but you're just giving an eImperial Officer (a second if you give someone Field General) an additional attack. The ability to auto add +1 damage and reroll an attack dice (2 if a Stormtrooper is adjacent to another Trooper), is going to outway that one/maybe two attacks each round. And that's all Leaders: so that's Imperial Officers, Kayn Somos, Darth Vader, General Weiss, General Sorin, Agent Blaise.

Second to me is:

Noble Sacrifice - 2XP - Deplete this card when an Imperial Leader or Guardian is defeated. Choose up to 5 Imperial figures that had line of sight to that figure. Each of those figures becomes Focused.

And getting that Supervisory Agent becomes that much stronger. Deploy some eTrandoshan Hunters/eStromtroopers/rRoyal Guards; on turn 1, activate them, get the Supervisory Agent Imperial Officer deployed close to them, and then just go to town doing gobs of strain/damage to the heroes. If they kill the Imp Officer, focus everyone, and then at Status Phase, spend 2 Threat to bring him back into play. Ohhhh soooo delicious!

~D

I would've liked to get Optimal Tactics, because it's an attack buff, but losing one mission too many I needed to skip it this time. Maybe the next time I play with Inspiring Leadership I can afford it.

Good rebels can also neutralize most of the benefit from Noble Sacrifice. (I can think of a combination of blocking and giving focus to figures that have already activated, then defeating them before they can activate again.)

Yep, replayability.

-Pasi

Ah forgot about the exhaust component of the card. (or rather I forgot exhaust only applies to a figure and not a group, for assault armor this is evident because you need to use it as the figure is being attacked, less so in this case.)

I took this class when we started a new campaign on Wednesday and completely botched it lol, I did no research ahead of time and just decided to try something new against an experienced group of four. Luckily it is just a TS campaign and will be over fast.. but I would still like to pull out a victory as we are 1-1 right now.

I bought Field General which is pretty good, but not the strongest on its own, and Press On which has proven to be almost useless lol.I have 3 XP total right now.. with what looks like a guaranteed 2 before the finale, possibly 3 if I win the next mission... any suggestions which route I should go?

Lead By Example comboes well with both Field Officer, Field General, and both regular and elite Imperial Officers. Check out my campaign link above.

Optimal Tactics seems a very good alternative as well.

Then fill up with 1 XP or 2 XP card before the finale, depending on how much XP you have to spend.

I took this class when we started a new campaign on Wednesday and completely botched it lol, I did no research ahead of time and just decided to try something new against an experienced group of four. Luckily it is just a TS campaign and will be over fast.. but I would still like to pull out a victory as we are 1-1 right now.

I bought Field General which is pretty good, but not the strongest on its own, and Press On which has proven to be almost useless lol.I have 3 XP total right now.. with what looks like a guaranteed 2 before the finale, possibly 3 if I win the next mission... any suggestions which route I should go?

Just respend your XP. No one will know....shhhhh!! =P

My choice is Optimal Tactics as a1bert stated, but I'm bias hahaha.

~D

I'm playing this deck currently in the main campaign. I bought Optimal Tactics and have to say that it's pretty amazing. However if you already bought Field General I'd probably lean towards buying Lead by Example. Consider the following combo (and anybody else can double check my work here):

• Give a Royal Guard group both Field Officer and Field General.

• Activate 1st Royal Guard, tap Field Officer to issue an move to 2nd Royal Guard (first action)
• Move 2nd Guard into attack range
• Use Lead by Example to then move the 1st Guard into attack range (still first action)
• Attack with 1st Royal Guard (second action)

• Activate 2nd Royal Guard, tap Field General to make 1st Royal Guard Attack (first action)
• Use Lead by Example to attack with 2nd Royal Guard (still first action)
• Attack with 2nd Royal Guard (2nd action)

Yes I checked the FAQ. Yes you can attack even if you already attacked with Lead by Example:

Q: When a figure performs "Executive Order" and is granted an attack as a result of "Lead By Example," can that figure still use its other action to perform an attack?

A: Yes.

And if I read Executive Order correctly, it's an interrupt so the 1st Guard's second attack is no longer within its activation.

A little gimmicky, yes. Hard to pull off correctly, definitely. But 4 attacks in one activation seems pretty awesome if you're able to do it.

For the rest of the XP, if you only get 5 total and 4 are spent on either Optimal Tactics or Lead by Example, then Supervisory Agent is your only choice (free officer, not great, but it's free if you have the open slot for him). If you manage to win and get 2xp to spend on your last card I'd probably vote for Strategic Planning. Noble Sacrifice is nice, but needs Optimal Tactics to make the Officer worth killing (otherwise he'll probably just stay on the board while the Rebels kill more dangerous enemies). Having the flexibility to reactivate a group that's already gone or in a more advantageous board position seems like a good idea.

Lead by Example and Executive Order (whether from Field General or otherwise) works just like that.

But I think the Field Officer + Field General combo is better with Stormtroopers that can use Squad Training to make more consistent attacks and not leave themselves adjacent to rebel heroes.

If you have a figure with high health, Imperial Officer with Field General may also be a good idea. Imperial Officer being able to Executive Order twice and attack twice with Lead By Example might even Stun someone or two...

We've had this debate in other threads and came to the conclusion that it is great, but a lot of XP to throw on one set of troops. However I find that the extra move is not nearly as powerful without the extra attack. I was using it on elite heavy storm troopers with blast and I was absolutely demolishing rebels off the first activation.

The enemy of this is obviously stun, that wrecks everything. Thanks for the advice though I will take it into consideration, we wont play for a few more weeks so I have time to figure things out.

Question about Strategic Planning. So lets say I have Elite Tuskan Raiders on the board and then regular Heavy Stormies. I could exhaust the elite tuskans, and SP, to re activate my heavy stormies even if I just went with them? Or does it just re up the card but that counts as your turn, exhausting the ETuskan Raiders?

For this to be efficient it seems you would need a higher level unit sitting in the back at all times, which kind of seems like a waste of threat (Besides on canyon run, but I won't have it for that mission).

Strategic Planning happens before you activate a group. After it you need to activate a ready group of choice, and it can be the one that got just readied (but doesn't need to unless you only have that one left to activate).

The text is confusing on the card or maybe it is just me but.. it says to

Exhaust this card and 1 of your Deployment cards before activating a group. Ready another of your Deployment cards of equal or lesser deployment cost. Each figure corresponding to both Deployment cards gains 1 movement point.

That sounds to me like you have to sacrifice a group activation to be able to ready a deployment card you already used.

It says "before activating a group". It does not say "instead of activating a group". You will still be activating a group afterwards. If you would not activate a group, how could you use the ability which is "before activating a group"? There would be a contradiction.

Compare to Supervisory Agent. You can use it to deploy an Imperial Officer from your hand and immediately activate him.

Right, makes sense, you have to exhaust a deployment card to activate a group. I like the sound of this card..

The trick to strategic planning is to use a nearly dead group like 1 stormtrooper to re-activate a single powerful figure like an E-web.