<<I wasn't sure where to put this as it references the basic campaign AND the expansion - so I put it here>>

Do all the other expansions end the same way? If you lose the final battle/mission, you lose the entire campaign? A yes or no would suffice.

My friend and I finished the campaign that came in the imperial Assault box. I was The imperials and my mate was rebs. The rebels had won most games, ( my friend is more tactically minded than me - thats ok

The finale mission, "The Last Stand" was won by the Imperials. It seems **** hard for the rebs to win and my mate was so tooled up for that fight. But regardless of all the wins, if he lost the final battle, and lost the entire campaign.

Looking back, its seems like the entire campaign is about the rebs tooling up for a massive fight at the end ( like the movies ) - If he hadn't had all these abilities and gear, he wouldn't haven even got to Vader ( who was on steroids ).

I guess its hard to write a story based mission with a sliding scale of end results, - "its about the journey and not just the destination" - , but the we were left quite un-satisfied by the end result.

Short answer: Yes.

Honestly I like to go with: don't worry about who wins the campaign.

If you look at all the endings in core story wise

If you care about who wins track it mission to mission.

The Last Stand is definitely much easier for the rebels - and very winnable if the rebels have at least one high-damage dealer - than Desperate Hour, the alternative finale in the core. But the fun is in the playing, not in the winning.

There are some pitfalls in how the rebels equip themselves throughout the campaign, so there's much to be learned for the second campaign. (The most obvious: do not buy marginal upgrades, prioritize modifications in the first few Tier I upgrade stages, try to collect crates - especially in missions you see you will lose - crates=credits are a secondary mission objective, learn skills that make the group better as a whole - don't underestimate characters acting as support - not everyone needs to be the best fighter.)

How else would you do it? If one wins the finale but the other side still wins the campaign because of more mission wins, what's the point of playing the finale?

How else would you do it? If one wins the finale but the other side still wins the campaign because of more mission wins, what's the point of playing the finale?

Fun?

If fun is the point, why does who wins the finale matter?

(Yes, having fun is the answer. Congratulate the winner, and be a good winner. Then move on.)

We were having fun until the last mission. After the Rebels winning nearly all the missions, they fail the last brutal mission, that is soon stacked against them, and they lose the campaign. Just feels weird to me.

Maybe my issue is less with the entire campaign, but with the last mission.

Another way of doing the campaign end might be - Win X missions, This is the result.

ie:

Win 0-5 missions? Then read result A

Win 5-10 Missions? read result B

Win 10+ missions? Read result C

The thing though is, had Luke missed the shot into the Death Star, Vader wouldn't have said "Poor luck on that shot, kid, but you were doing really well, so lets pack up the Empire and declare the Rebels victorious"..... Nope, Yavin 4 would have been blasted from space...

Its like any campaign game, or like a video game, the whole game is to prepare you for the finale, and the final boss requires you use everything you've learnt and all the preparation you've done. But it still doesn't mean you'll win at the end...

Personally I like that, doesn't matter in the game who wins or who loses, you make the most of the game, and try your best, and enjoy the story, whether it has a happy or tragic ending...

That said, there's nothing stopping the Imperial Player from taking a more DM roll and nudging the heroes slightly... The harder they try, the easier I go on them, the more they slack off, the more I pummel them. I want them to have a challenging experience, but a purely competive gameplay, for me, is best suited for the skirmish than the campaign.

Also, isn't it a great reason to try again with different heroes and see if you have a better chance of a Rebel victory the second time around?