not sure why only a few people seem to be doing these, but here's a journal of the hoth campaign i just started with a few friends. all but one have quite a lot of ia-experience (and definitely more than me) and it's my first time playing imps. i only played a few skirmish matches and was a player in the original campaign.

i chose subversive tactics without shame, cause some of my players are really good. my agendas will be kept secret until used (which will most likely be in the finale, i have few cards i'd want to use earlier, and then only in very specific circumstances)

the players were:

mak

fenn

davith

gaarkhan

they started aggressively, moving towards the upper left terminal, except gaarkhan, who blitzed the lower right one, squaring off against a snowtrooper and the officer there. bad attack rolls meant that they only managed to kill the 2 droids, and they needed a shot from the terminal gun for both to finish them. my rolls were better and i put a few points of damage on both mak and davith. they kept the echo base troopers in the back, to deprive me of the easy threat.

the tank came as a bit of a surprise, because while a few had already played the mission before, they forgot that it comes out so early. much hectic planning followed the arrival of my big guns!

the tank took mak to 1 health with a double shot and the snowtroopers and the officer in the topleft almost dropped davith (who's def-dice were terrible during the whole game), he dropped to 1 health as well.

attack rolls were still bad for the heroes, gaarkhan was again unable to finish the officer and with most of their fire being concentradted on the tank, they only managed to kill 1 snowtrooper. the tank was not impressed with their fire though, surviving 2 blasts from the terminal gun, both attacks from the echo base troopes (1 at close range with a red die), and, including the first activation on the 3rd turn, 5 hero attacks. the tank being able to shoot again meant that mak was doomed, he was wounded and then taken to half health again. nearby davith as wounded as well, before the rebels cleared everything on the left side of the board. at this point i had 1 officer and 1 snowtrooper, both fighting gaarkhan (and feeling pretty good about themselves, cause they were still alive).

dengar was placed on the central lower deployment point, safe from attack for at least a round, while he could ambush and kill one of the echo base troopers on the left. when i proclaimed that i felt confident of getting enough treath to bring back the tank again the race was on. gaarkhan ignored his enemies and went for the power station, but failed to activate it. the others basically raced towards the two power stations on the other side of the map, davith and mak towards the top one, the others towards the one at the bottom of the map. fenn was kept a bit further back because once gaarkhan was wounded he was the only healthy character left.

when gaarkhan actived the 3rd powerstation that gave me just enough threat to bring on the tank once more. they even failed another attempt to activate the last one, so i could bring in a new probe droid as well.

to make a medium length story shorter, the 2nd tank wounded gaarkhan (while a snowtropper and dengar stunned, bled and weakened the poor wookie ) and during their last, desperate attempts to take down the tank both mak and gaarkhan were defeated completely. at this point they decided to grab the last crate and then gave up.

*cue imperial march

the players saved up their xp, i bought savage weaponry (which is too strong for 1xp imo ). agenda cards were all crap.

an extended haft was bought for gaarkhan's axe.

davith's player dropped out (he didn't enjoy playing with a group, he's more of a skirmish guy) and will be replaced by mhd-19.

threat mission were escape from cloud city and survival of the fittest, preventative measures and precious cargo being the other side missions available. they chose to grapple with a few wampas, so next time it'll be survival of the fittest and then home front. (we will probably be playing once every 2 weeks)

moral of the story: everything is easier with better dice!

yesterday we played again. fenn picked up "tactical movement" before the game, which is obviously a great choice.

next up was survival of the fittest. open groups were an elite officer (=the wampa tamer), stormtroopers, hired guns and heavy troopers (a weird choice, looking back). after being badly beaten during the battle of hoth, our intrepid rebels tried to reach their transport to ison. they commandeered an abandoned speeder, took along a few straggling echo base troppers and flew off towards their extraction point. but those speeders are not built for 6 people and this one was damaged. also, the empire is striking back, so the inevitable happened and they crashed. seperated, in a snowstorm, cries of vicious beast all around them, the received an emergency signal from a rebel trooper. glumly they set out to rescue their comrade...

i put the savage weaponry on the proby droid, hoping to get a shot off before it's certain demise. gaarkhan, mhd-19 and an echo base trooper started close to the wampa, mak, fen and the other trooper on the droids side. they started out with a smart plan, with mhd trying to stun the wampa, so they could take it out without it being able to hit them back. the dicerolls started out similarly to last game, so he failed to do that with his first 4 shots. they also couldn't kill the beast, so when they got pressed for time and had to start exploring during their second turn, it was still around. it also put a nasty hit of 6 damage on mhd-19. to my great surprise it was still around in the end, though it didn't actually do that much after the first 2 turns, being "range-managed" pretty well. i activated the droid first (after the failed stunning attempt) and caused a solid hit on the echo base trooper, leaving him with 1 health. then the droid retreated. the players advanced the trooper next to the droid to scout the next tile, being confident that mak and fenn would be able to kill it. *insane giggling*

they managed to leave it at 1 health after 3 attacks, so i exploded it and killed the first echo base trooper. <--- sad rebel player faces

after gaarkhan scouted/charged into the cave and went after the elite probe droid (causing little damage), i spawned a squad of stromtroopers with savage weaponry next to him, so when he activated first next turn he had the dilemma of going after the troopers or the droid. he chose the troopers and killed 2. in return, the droid killed the second echo base tropper, which had been hurt by the wampa the turn before. then i got to enjoy watching the heroes decide to doom themselves. after short deliberation they decided to scout the cavern in turn 3, definitely not expecting the elite wampa and another droid. at this point it was the elite wampa, the starting wampa, 2 droids (1 elite) and the last stormtrooper vs. a badly damaged mhd-19 and slightly damaged gaarkhan. not the best odds.

meanwhile the other flank was bogged down by bad rolls, after 1 round of "intense" fighting the snowtroopers opposing fenn and mak were all still at full health, thanks to healing. both heroes took a few minor hits.

i deployed the elite officer in the cave, so he could get close to the elite wampa and "instruct" it a bit. (yes, that is totally within the fluff! ) and the hired guns on the pass, to harass fenn and mak even more and delay them. they ignored them and pressed forward as quickly as possible, killing 1 snowtrooper while advancing. in the cavern the elite wampa was focus fired by gaarkhan and mhd and taken down to very low health. in return, i wounded mhd-19 and wampa'd gaarkhan badly.

the cavern was beginning to get a bit crowded by imperial figures at this point. when i wounded another rebel they abandoned their mission and collected what chests they could find, grabbing 2. the elite wampa could have been easily killed, but getting the last healthy hero next to the survivor and reviving him seemed unrealistic at this point.

another win for the empire!

moral of the story: missions always look easier when you know the map, and what will happen. also, better dice still count for a lot.

mak picked up jeswandi training, the others banked their xp and the players bought an e-11 and slapped the tactical display on in for good measure. a much needed damage upgrade for the rebels! i took surgical strike. i then got lucky with my agenda cards, picking up 2 i liked for 3 influence.

now it was time to check out that "haven" in home front. open groups were heavy troopers (should have been royal guard, but i was still in threat 2 mode) as bodyguards for jann, hired guns and a probe droid.

after finally leaving the snowy hell of hoth behind the rebels found themselves on ison. still cold, still has wampas, so only a slight improvement. when they reached the coordinates they had been given they spotted imperials in front of the settlement. it was obvious that there was a raid going on and a checkpoint was blocking their way. shouting could be heard and there were occasional shots fired. the group hid and considered their options, when a wild wampa appeared and caused a perfect distraction. they seized the moment and attacked immediately!

savage weaponry was on the snowtroopers.

this time the heroes took things a bit slower, being cautious after the now infamous "elite wampa scouting incident". they stayed out of wampa threat-range and only a few potshots were exchanged during the first round. 1 snowtrooper died. 1 killed one of the civilians in the top left building and redeployed the dead snowtrooper. 2nd turn was a bit messier, with mostly imperials dying. i misscalculated so there was noone next to the officer for a turn, gaarkhan happiley exploited that and axed him. fenn started doing some heavy blasting damage on the barricade. at the end of the round i chose the strain damage and weaken, hoping to delay their breach of the barricades by 1 more turn. another civilian went down, the hard to reach one in the top right building.

the rebels were very wary of the barricadde and what would happen once they destroyed it. despite my rereading of the rules and promise that only destroying the whole thing would advance the mission they were hesitant to kill even parts of it. it was quite enjoyable. anyway, despite having no opposition the delayed destroying it, preferring to heal up completely (fenn was almost wounded). with mhd-19 doing his thing that was no problem. i reminded them that wounding them was no consideration of mine, but they refused to trust the imperial. must have been the smile on my face when i said it or something...

at the end of turn 4 i spawned the hired guns behind them with savage weaponry, both to harass and distract them (didn't work that well) and to work as last ditch assassins for the civilians just in case. only after they were fully healed up they destroyed the barricade after 4 turns (they could have done so in turn 3 easily) and i deployed jann and the eweb. all civilians in the 2 upper buildings were dead. i thought the e-web would be gone quickly and actually was afraid that i might not get to spend all that juicy threat i had saved up if they killed jann quickly, but they rolled incredibly poorly and after 3 attacks on the e-web it suffered only 3 damage and was still blocking los to jann for the ranged characters. jann was also cleaved once.

at the end of turn 5 i blew up the door at the bottom left building and spawned jann's bodyguard and a droid. the reserve elite droid came soon after. after being a bit careless about the civilians earlier on the rebels soon realised that they need to move quickly now if they were to have any chance of saving them. the endgame was on and it brought some memorable throws on both sides. (jann needed 3 attacks to take down a door! )

the e-web blasted one of the lower-left civilians, but the other was out of range. the elite probe droid and a surviving hired gun chased after the 2 civilians on the lower right (and killed them, despite gaarkhan trying to protect one). the heavy troopers tried to protect jann as best as they could (once he started moving they were too slow). the 3 other heroes all moved to build a wall around the last civilian in the lower left corner. they tried to stun jann (standing on top of the civilian)... mhd- fails again! they tried to kill jann (with 2 health left)... dodge... dodge... in return i tried to kill the civilian... dodge! and then they took jann down and scored their first victory. after those 2 dodges and the luck i had so far i was a bit relieved.

moral of the story: games coming down to that 1 last roll (or even better, 4 or 5 "last rolls") are very exciting and fun! even if you lose.

so 2xp for the heroes, gaarkhan going for unstoppable and mhd-19 turning into a walking bacta radiator. booo! the other heroes saved xp and since no useful itmes were available they banked their money. next mission promised better loot anyway. i picked up another 2 nice agenda cards, sadly not ones that i'd want to use during the campaign.

next up: smuggly escapades in "escape from cloud city" and then "precious cargo".

ps: too many emoticons? come on! *imagine another one here*

aaaand we're back! scheduling 5 people is hard, but we are back on track now (hopefully). people training for ffg tournaments can be a problem.

anyway, when we last left our heroes they had just saved a settlement from imperial oppression. the people there seemed receptive to some rebel propaganda and an outpost was established. all seemed well for a time, but then disaster struck! mhd-19 had started a little side business selling spice he grew in his own chassis (don't ask!), but some probably otherwise irrelevant trouble on bespin resulted in some of his "associates" being in imperial custody. even worse, some of his assets had been seized. this would not stand, so mhd-19 offered his rebel comrades some primo loot and they agreed to help him free his friends.

mission escape from cloud city, open groups were royal guards, hired guns and an ugnaught tinkerer, because **** you, that's why! also we had an awesome mini for it so i couldn't resist. i knew i wasn't gonna use him anyway, so...

i didn't see any reason for a deployment at the start, as i needed to get the royal guard out asap. stunning seems to be my only chance here. the rebels started with their customary bad dice and after turn 1 i still had the elite officer (survived 2 axes to the face) and even a stromtrooper. i brought out the royal guard with savage weaponry to help making those stuns stick. they melted away in 1 turn though and then the game was practially over. the hk's couldn't do much on their own, and the game was done halfway through turn 5. my last deployment didn't even do anything, as there wasn't even a theoretical chance to win it.

moral of the story: a badly designed mission? we spoke a bit afterwards and everyone agreed that there was little chance the imperial player could win this. at least with this class deck and at that threat level. opening the cell should at least trigger an optional deployment (and maybe some extra threat as well?). not having more than 3 imperials in the shuttle seems like a joke when most likely you won't have that many on the board. some class decks might do better, but i doubt there's one with a good chance to win it. there's simply not enough threat on the board.

anyway, mhd had rescued his friends and secured some nice credit in the bespin underworld. some time in the future there would be a great shopping spree. which is a good thing, cause there were no weapons up for grabs after the mission, the rebels settled for a spread barrel and some extra ammo. i picked up "high value target", which made me very happy.

fenn turned rebel elite (booo! ), everyone else banked their xp, even gaarkhan, who refused to be bullied into taking wookie fortitude (more on that later ).

for mhd-19 one problem remained. while some of his associates had been rescued, his right hand-man was still in imperial custody, stored away in a backwater world in a top-level security facility. the missing stash was there as well, which meant that the heroes would have to do another rescue mission, this one probably too hard very challenging.

precious cargo was the mission, chosen for the cheap ally it can provide. 3-cpo is also hidden somewhere in the mission deck. my open groups were royal guards, hired guns, a normal probe droid and another ugnaught tinkerer, for reasons previously explained. i would be using the guards and the trandoshans most of the time anyway.

the mission is very similar to the last one, only much harder. 1 more turn, but A LOT more enemies. will the heroes be fast/deadly enough to make it? i set up the probe droid as an optional deployment, becasue i wanted to to sidetrack/slow them down a bit and becasue that still left me with enough threat to bring in the royal guard once door #2 opens for a nice sandwich. 1 of the stormtroopers survived fenn's activation (2x triple block), while his freinds were blasted. he put a nice hit back on fenn, the droid did the same. then they both died. turn 2 the smuggler was rescued and then promptly ordered to open the next door. i spawned the trandoshans behind and the royal guard with savage weaponry in front of the heroes. 3 activations left, lots of hitpoints on the board.

they tried to take out one of the trandoshans before they activated, but that didn't work (my def-dice were on fire again), so the 2 hunters put a lot of hurt on fenn, who was now close to being wounded. the royal guard tried to stun gaarkahn, managing it on the second attempt. this meant that mhd had to spend his turn unstunning the wookie and healing fenn. less damage on my guys, huzzah! some mediocre rolls later both royal guards had suffered only 1 wound, while one trandoshan was completely, the other almost dead. i respawned the dead trandoshan next to the royal guards.

the heroes were in serious trouble and it was only turn 3. strain was high and they still hadn't secured a single cache. they tried to press forward, but failed to stun a royal guard (mhd) or kill the other (fenn). mak and gaarkhan at least finished of both trandoshans. the smuggler shot himself in the foot or something. i wounded fenn.

i respawned the trandoshans, one of them "covered" by a royal guard (with 4hp left). as expected, fenn wanted to blast all of the to bits, but with guarding and some good rolls all 3 survived and in return the trandoshans caused a lot of pain... again. did i mention i love those guys? cause i love those guys!

while they did manage to kill off everyone and finally clear the room, it was the end of turn 5 and there was no reasonable way for them to win. 2 were also close to being wounded and blitzing was no option either, so they went for the crates and even managed to grab the one from the next room, despite my attempts to block this. 3 crates as a consolation prize, not bad. also, as a lategame highlight, fenn executed 2 freshly spawned trandoshans in 1 activation (4 damage + blast once on both of them).

another win for the empire. mhd-19's days as a drug kingpin are over. or are they...?

moral of the story: this mission is very hard! too hard? i'd say yes. while escape from cloud city could use a bit more threat and another optional deployment, this mission needs 1 optional deployment less. the heroes have too little time, as they need to fight during the whole mission. thre's never any respite.

after the game the rebels picked up an a280 for mak. as a potential bonus mission brushfire was drawn. because he didn't enjoy being stunned and bleeding all the time gaarkhan decided to pick up wookie fortitude after all. who would've thought? mhd-19 took improper procedure (and lamented not taking it before the mission), mak took decoy. i chose weary target for more strain, surbversive tactics really starting to hurt them this game. all hail trandoshans! i also picked up tracking beacon with influence, cause i want to fish for the last few agendas i'd like to grab. lets be honest, they won't spend the money.

so before we "return to echo base" we have the following setup:

imps with savage weaponry, surgical strike and weary target. open agendas are high value target and tracking beacon.

fenn with tactical movement and rebel elite, armed with an e-11 with tactical display and a spread barrel.

gaarkhan with wookie fortitude and unstoppable, wielding his starting axe with an extended haft.

mhd-19 with improper procedure and bacta radiator and a gun unable to stun anything.

mak with jeswandi training (which doesn't synergise well with hired guns... ) and decoy, with the a280 and extra ammo.

argh, dropped to page2, this is an outrage!

with the drugs out of the way the heroes could now focus on taking down the empire again for a change. command had a nice suicide mission in store for them, and back to hoth they went.

return to echo base was the mission, due to a new x-wing release not all players were in attendance. booo! i chose my usual open groups: scum, trandoshans, royal guards and to fill a slot for 6 threat some basic stormtroopers. we all knew it was going to be mostly wampas all the way. (i think i might get the "too many smilies"-warning again...) turn counter and threat level started at 3, the heroes had 1 boon.

after some deliberation the heroes tried to take down the wampa right in front of their starting position, fenn had pretty good chances to take him out. well, guess what, he did not and got smacked by the big hairy guy quite badly in return. the docbot searched for some artificial stimulants (he's still a drug pusher at heart) for gaarkhan and failed to do anything to the wampa. taking on the top terminal first, gaarkhan charged in and (as usual) failed to kill the officer, causing only 2 damage. the officer shot back, causing a bit of damage and focusing himself, then tried to hide, which was kind of impossible. he was promtly taken out by mak, who also finished off the wounded wampa. the elite wampa ran towards the the heroes and the snowtroopers did the same, 2 staying near the center, one taking the long way round. the probe droid hit gaarkhan for 3 damage, focusing him, then ran off (sort of, he didn't get far).

the elitewampa was taken care of by stunning, but only after it got in one solid hit one the healbot. gaarkhan chased after the probe droid, failing to kill it with 2 attacks. mak speeded towards the terminal. mak failed to kill the wampa, but it was unable to threaten anyone in the next turn. the snowtroopers made a few potshots, weakening gaarkhan, but doing little damage. i respawned the basic wampa next to the top terminal, even if stunned he would get a good whack at mak. only by killing it in one activation would they keep it from attacking once.

of course they failed to kill it, so mak got a nice walloping as well (fenn, mak and the healbot now all had suffered a nice wampa-hit, there was some stunning/bleeding as well, i can't remember the details). the wampa was then dispsed of, gaarkhan failed to kill the droid AGAIN! (the poor wookie is cursed with bad dice even if someone else plays him ), but the droid decided to explode at the end of the turn after shooting him anyway. and got 3 damage to add injury to injury.

mak tried his luck at the terminal and got 2 successes. ****, i wanted him to succeed! the healbot searched for a healing item and healed someone (fenn or mak) back up, who was pretty close to being wounded at this point. the snowtroopers tried to assassinate the healbot, who was bleeding out form an early wampa wound, but he was left standing with 1 health after rolling a triple block! the git! i expected them to activate the terminal and with my newly spawned troops, the general + his droids, more threat from wounding a hero (high value target) and what i still had on the board i was expecting to squash them quickly. what i did not expect was for the heroes to ignore the terminal and go for the other one (leaving only the soon to be wounded healbot there), planning to activate both at once (it's fun when players try to outwit the scenario, having no clue what happens when they do stuff.)

so with much less threat on the board the heroes moved through the command center towards the lower terminal (the 2 snowtroopers were dispatched quickly), i spawned some trandoshans at the lower spawn point to stall them. the healbot sacrificed himself by not resting, so i could kill him with "weary target" to trigger high value target. that was quite satisfying. with the threatboost i could spawn both another basic wampa and some royal guards to the lower point. fenn, gaarkhan and mak (all at about half health) vs. 2 trandoshans (1 slightly hurt), a wampa, 2 royal guard and a snowtrooper. with dengar and the general still in reserve. i felt pretty confident that they wouldn't even be able to activate the second terminal.

on to the next turn, fenn failed to kill a trandoshan due to a bad roll, while i stunned gaarkhan with the royal guards in return. he was at low health, full strain, weakened, bleeding and stunned, just how i like my wookies. he got in one attack on the wampa, causing a little damage. mak killed a royal guard. i then tried to kill mak with the wampa, but had forgotten about his decoy skill. i missed, he moved, the he killed the wampa with one shot! and he was close to the terminal i was trying to block. did we have a real game again suddenly?

no, we did not. both gaarkhan and fenn were wounded and when they activated both terminals 1 turn later they were completely surrounded. while they were very close to the command center and most opponents were either dead of far away at the time, the only hero not wounded was mak, who was stunned, bleeding, at full strain and with 2 health in the central cave. so they picked up another crate and that was that.

a great mission, pretty hard for the rebels though. with threat mounting quickly you have to be very fast and not much is allowed to go wrong. so it's like most missions really, only with an interesting threat mechanic.

moral of the story: x-wing steals players!

the players banked xp, i picked up "exploit weakness". depite getting an extra card i got no agenda i liked, so i banked influence. a bd-1 vibroaxe was bought for gaarkhan, but that won't solve his dice problem.

a great mission, pretty hard for the rebels though.

In my game, rebels (Gideon, Diala, Fenn and Verena) crushed the imperials. It was pretty easy for them. Since the beggining, they were sure that they were going to win. And they did. I had no chance. Fenn used his blast to kill the snow troopers with two attacks. End.

a great mission, pretty hard for the rebels though.

In my game, rebels (Gideon, Diala, Fenn and Verena) crushed the imperials. It was pretty easy for them. Since the beggining, they were sure that they were going to win. And they did. I had no chance. Fenn used his blast to kill the snow troopers with two attacks. End.

Pretty much the strongest combination of Heroes, so no surprise that they won comfortably...

hah! you thought the campaign was dead. but it isn't! it's perfectly healthy uhhh... limping along.

everyone was busy doing stuff, so 5 people every 2 weeks turned into whoever has time whenever we can get together. most people will know the drill. ffg world championships were kind of the main culprit here. (ok, let's face it, this post will break the smiley-limit.)

anyway, after the second failure on hoth the "heroes" (i use the term in the loosest sense imaginable) were ordered to go and rescue a rebel sympathiser they didn't care much about. but orders are orders, right?

time for rescue ops.

this was played ages ago, but i forgot to update at the time. now i can't remember much. the rebels were doing great, but didn't anticipate the wall disappearing for their escape route. they suspected that they'd escape through a hatch or something in the base. i was a bit mean and focusfired and incapacitated gaarkhan in a position that made it impossible for him to reach the exit area in time. we checked if fenn's tactical movement could push him, but being incapacitated meant that would not work. so they grabbed a few chests and lost. the other 3 heroes were all in almost perfect shape, with 2 turns to go and little opposition on the board. if they had known about the wall beforehand they would have won easily imo.

during the mission i killed princess leia. or did i...?

moral of the story: nobody expect's the spanish inquisition to destroy a wall!

leia wasn't killed after all, and after the mission she was pretty pissed about the poor performance of the rebel agents. so they were all sacked! forced to take experimental drugs to scub their memories of rebel info they were set on a freighter and shipped off to some backwater planet. what a turn of events! lounging around in a bar, planning what to do next, they caugth another bad break. they were still wanted by the imperium and a few bounty hunters had their sights set on the group. they were... dundunDUNN

wanted!

i had so much influence and almost everything i wanted for the final mission, so i spent some on a forced mission. the door-puzzle at the end seemed like fun and old would would help (especially against gaarkhan).

open groups were royal guards (bodyguards of a bounty hunter), hired guns and some wing guards for fun (representing the police, obviously). i set up the royal guards next to the trandoshan with the keycard. "distractions" was on fenn, so he couldn't double-blast on turn 1.

fenn went first anyway, causing a nice 8 damage combined on his 3 targets, but obviously not killing the keycard-holder. i used this opportunity tu run and hide him as far away from the heroes as i could, to the top left corner. the other trandoshan went in close and attacked. gaarkhan charges after the keycard, killed the holder, but was in turn stunned by the royal guard, so he wasn't able to pick it up in turn 2. the 2nd trandoshan was killed, as was the probe droid. i respawned the trandoshans. turns 2 and 3 the heroes cleaned the rooms, got the keycard and set up to open the office door. i banked my threat for the endgame. turns 4 and 5 were spent setting up a last turn where everyone could escape at once, i swarmed the area around the terminal with as many bodies as i could at the end of turn 5 (trandoshans and hired guns).

the rebel plan was a good one, everyone was in a position to escape easily, the only real danger was that 1 character might be stunned by the royal guard. so the way was clear... or was it? mhd-19 went first and started working on the terminal... blue/green/yellow... no success. we played out the turn and the rebels would have easily made it out, only the bungled opening check stole the win. bad luck.

a great mission that works well even though it's such a tiny map. the puzzle-door at the end is a cool idea, if prone to chance.

moral of the story: is the group cursed?

eventually the heroes got out, but the mocking laughter of the gang of thrandoshans haunted them ever since. so when they found out where the gang's lair was they set out immideately to teach them respect! and they will teach them...

the hard way.

open groups were royal guard, trandoshans, hired guns and whatever 4th joke choice i picked. the royal guard was set up next to the lower assassin droid andi gave the savage weaponry to the assassin drois as well (a terrible mistake that cost me 3 stuns during the game! ). fenn was distracted again.

the rebels heroes group cleared the first area pretty quickyl, i focused on getting chewie down, the medbot had to heal him early on. the royal guard failed to stun becasue they lacked autopierce. shame on me! the imperial officer started taking potshots at the heroes, but never did any damage. he would live on to survive, tagging along after the heroes for the whole mission.

opening the first door, the group was greeted by dengar, 2 trandoshans and another officer. the sight of the hated trandoshans enraged mak so badly that he lobbed his concussion grenade (that i had forgotten about), which made clearing that room pretty simple as well. they pressed on and positioned themselves to open the door to the last room at the start of turn 6. knowing that i had no optional deployment when the door is opened i spawned trandoshans and hired guns to the yellow point.

the door was opened, the fact that the 2 elite trandoshans had 13 health was cause for some swearing, the bossfight was on. mak, after opening the door, moved into the room and took a first shot at a krandt brother. the heroes all moved towards the bunker, blasting away as they came. they largely ignored my lesser forces, while i tried to make a hero withdraw and block the way to the borthers. they did advance once, to shoot mak twice at pointblank range and then once more on orders of the elite officer. mhd-19 had to use his miracle worker skill to keep him upright for another activation. mak did down the first brother, but was himself taken out later that turn. the second brother retreated back into the bunker next to the impassable space, while the 2 hired guns anda royal guard ran after him to protect/block. the first krandt brother was "interrogated" (=killed). at the start of the last turn almost the whole room in front of the bunker was filled with bodies, with the trandoshan hiding in the bunker, at 4 health. fenn activated first, moved out of the pile of bodies tactically, attempting to blast first 1 and then the second hired gun, both standing next to the last surviving krandt brother. he only had 1 strain remaining and wasn't able to get one back on his first shot, so the plan failed. with the trandoshan now still at 2 health th emision was doomed to fail, casue both heroes that were left were unable to kill and interrogate in 1 turn, while i could block the way for the other hero if the first just killed him. so crates were collected and there was much lamenting.

a tight game that nearly came down to the last activation. killing mak won the game, because 1 more activation on that last turn would probably have been enough to ****** a win for the rebels.

moral of the story: don't put savage weaponry on anyone but the royal guards, dummy!

potential items to buy were crap, so the heroes banked their money. i picked up a few more nice agenda cards. i think i really have all i want for the finale.

skills are being debated.

next up: disaster (so more of the same i guess! ) probably brushfire