I was thinking there are so many options, weapons, cards for the rebels that it's hard for the Imperial Player to compete, even more if the rebel players are very good.

Is there any tips against very good rebel players on Hoth?

We are going to start a new campaign, Rebels will play

Verena

Loku

MHD

Saska or Gaarkhan or Biv.

What is a good Imperial Class? What would you suggest? one of the newest, or one of the old imperial classes?

I have no experience with the 2 new Imperial classes.

And Rebel players are very very good, so I need a strong imperial class, even if not so fun to play. Not subversive tactics.

Do you have any advice (for imperial class, but also strategy against specific new hoth heroes)?

Thanks a lot.

I think that is a relatively weak team. Your biggest threat there is Verena but on Hoth she's a bit weaker as you can spread out more easily.

All of the decks are reasonably balanced with each other, except maybe Armored Onslaught which might be tricky getting the full potential from on Hoth, much like Verena. The go-to deck is probably Military Might with Combat Vet, Sustained Fire, Assault Armor and Shock Trooper for it's ease of use and all around effectiveness.

Stick with agenda cards that are deplete so you can use them every mission. Only get the one shot cards when they're really good and then don't waste them. Don't bother with forced or side mission cards, there aren't many that are worthwhile, or in the case of Imperial Industry, it's way too good and will ruin your game.

Don't spread out your damage, this is especially true with MHD on the board, focus fire down the most annoying or most vulnerable (strain spendy) character first, likely Verena or MHD-19. Play conservatively at first, run away if possible, gather your forces so you have enough guarantee being able to wound out a character in one round.

Does Military might work well with Snowtrooper too?

+2 HP on stormtrooper is more than +50% hp, less on a Snowtrooper.

Percentages are irrelevant. What matters is whether the heroes can one-shot the figures or need to make another attack.

Military Might is a good choice if you are new to being an imperial player. It is straight forward and I find that is easier to remember to actually use the cards, compared to other classes with cards that activate at start/end of round or when a player declares an attack, etc that I find are easier to forget about.

we will start in a week or so. Players choose the following

Loku

MHD

Biv

Saska

Anyway they are very "smart", each of the 4 players already played about 7-8 campaign, Hoth included)

Military Might is a good choice if you are new to being an imperial player. It is straight forward and I find that is easier to remember to actually use the cards, compared to other classes with cards that activate at start/end of round or when a player declares an attack, etc that I find are easier to forget about.

Thanks for the advice.

I am not new as Imperial player, I played Subversive tactics and Inspiring leadership.

I don't have experience at all with other decks. I read Military might is very week in the second part of the campaign, doesn't scale well with heroes. Maybe influence cards can help with the gap.

Combat Vet, Sustained Fire, Assault Armor and Shock Trooper could be a good build.

Military might is just fine in the 2nd half.

Combat Veterans + Assault Armor on Elite Stormtroopers are very hard to deal with (It would also work with Elite Heavies and Elite Snowtroopers).

Sustained Fire is really great for the back half of the campaign when you have units that are easily one-shotted.

And show of force never ceases to be great.

Personally I really like endless ranks (the -1 threat cost). It allows you to much more easily bring out elite stormtroopers in on the threat 4 missions, as well as Heavy Stormtroopers in the threat 5 missions.

Endless Ranks just gets better the more threat you get, because the more Trooper units you bring out, the more times you get to use the discount. It does also allow you to bump up the quality of your starting groups.

Could the following be a good build order? (against Loku, Biv, Saska, MHD on Hoth)

Assault Armor (2 xp)

Combat Veterans (4 xp)

Endless Ranks (2 xp)

Sustained Fire (3 xp)

Eventually

Shock trooper (3 xp)

I'd honestly go with endless ranks first, them assault armor.

In my opinion, you don't really need endless ranks until the 4 threat missions. But you do want to make sure you have when you get there. Being able to bring in elite stormies in for 8 threat instead of 9 when the threat level is at 4 is huge. At threat level 2-3, you will save some threat, but it wont really enable to bring in a group you wouldnt normally be able to (unless you really like snowtroopers).

So yeah, I usually get Assault armor, endless ranks, combat veterans, sustained fire, then whatever.

If you want Shock Troopers, you would have to give up Endless Ranks or Sustained Fire. But I dont think it is worth it because most of the troopers only have 1 surge ability that does damage.

I would get Sustained Fire early, maybe even before Assault Armor. I overlooked it in my first-ever campaign, but it proved to be very effective in the second time I played with Military Might, and ever since when I have played one-shot missions.

I've had luck with Assault Armor (keeps you from getting one-shot, and makes your deployments quite a bit more valuable - especially when reinforcing) followed by Sustained Fire (combine it with Show of Force to get some huge burst damage on a single hero).

I agree, Endless Ranks is not a priority until later. Combat Vets is quite good if you can afford to wait for the 4XP.

Does anybody understand how you're supposed to use Shock and Awe? It just seems so weak to me; I can't figure out what you're supposed to do with it, much less how it's worth 4XP...

Shock and Awe is really weak. It is basically +1 damage (or 2 if you spent a threat) per round. I'm not sure what they were thinking, Show of Force does more than that.

Really it should have been: At the start of the round, you may spend 1 threat. If you do, all Troopers gain +1 damage to their attacks this round.

Shock and Awe is really weak. It is basically +1 damage (or 2 if you spent a threat) per round. I'm not sure what they were thinking, Show of Force does more than that.

Really it should have been: At the start of the round, you may spend 1 threat. If you do, all Troopers gain +1 damage to their attacks this round.

that might be a little to powerful but I agree that its pretty weak

The order I've went with MM was combat vet -> assault armor -> shock troopers/sustained fire -> combat medic

combat vet+assault armor on e.stormie or e.snowie is a pretty huge threat & hard to deal with, and shock troopers are good to mitigate the lack of surges (ex. stormie's reroll)

I never bought shock and awe, I think even the 1xp Savage Weaponry from sub.tactics deck is better than S&A

The only thing I can think of that Shock and Awe has going for it is that you can save up a bunch of damage and then unleash it all in one round, with a horde of units that all have +1 damage to their attacks. But is that even a good strategy? I can't see how it could be; this game seems to be all about getting your damage in early enough to make a difference. But I guess it could work.

The only thing I can think of that Shock and Awe has going for it is that you can save up a bunch of damage and then unleash it all in one round, with a horde of units that all have +1 damage to their attacks. But is that even a good strategy? I can't see how it could be; this game seems to be all about getting your damage in early enough to make a difference. But I guess it could work.

Ironic that how you described it with the possibility to be effective is what the name says lol.

Your first card with military might should be Assault Armor.

Speaking from core game experience only
Show of Force - Great. A focused attack each round is excellent.
Riot Grenades 1xp - fair. I tried these for a good while but found them to be only useful against gaarkhan. Value will depend on the insight die pool of the rebel team

Comat Medic 1xp - decent. Can be great in the right situations. However, great care needs to be taken around a Fenn player.
Assault Armor 2xp - Awesome. May be the most valuable card in the deck as its often the difference between getting killed in one attack or 2. Forcing the rebel to use another action. Remember that you can use attachments on initial groups as well
Endless Ranks 2xp - Just ok. The reason being that most of your troopers are going to come from initial groups, events (reserved groups), and reinforcements.
Shock Troopers 3xp - Just ok. The problem is that stormtroopers only get one +dmg surge ability. They dont need more surges. Ewebs already roll plenty of surges as well. It will have a little more value with snow troopers or heavy troopers from the expansions.
Sustained Fire 3xp - decent. Being stunned means not moving after attacking so its usually a suicide move for the trooper. Useful in the right situations
Shock and Awe 4xp - horrible. For 4xp....jyou get +1dmg on 1 attack per round. Show of force is much better.
Combat Veterans 4xp - awesome. Best used on elite stormtroopers in conjuction with assault armor. Turns them into a very cheap wrecking crew.

my 2cents

Thanks for all the advices!!

Your first card with military might should be Assault Armor.

Speaking from core game experience only

Show of Force - Great. A focused attack each round is excellent.

Riot Grenades 1xp - fair. I tried these for a good while but found them to be only useful against gaarkhan. Value will depend on the insight die pool of the rebel team

Comat Medic 1xp - decent. Can be great in the right situations. However, great care needs to be taken around a Fenn player.

Assault Armor 2xp - Awesome. May be the most valuable card in the deck as its often the difference between getting killed in one attack or 2. Forcing the rebel to use another action. Remember that you can use attachments on initial groups as well

Endless Ranks 2xp - Just ok. The reason being that most of your troopers are going to come from initial groups, events (reserved groups), and reinforcements.

Shock Troopers 3xp - Just ok. The problem is that stormtroopers only get one +dmg surge ability. They dont need more surges. Ewebs already roll plenty of surges as well. It will have a little more value with snow troopers or heavy troopers from the expansions.

Sustained Fire 3xp - decent. Being stunned means not moving after attacking so its usually a suicide move for the trooper. Useful in the right situations

Shock and Awe 4xp - horrible. For 4xp....jyou get +1dmg on 1 attack per round. Show of force is much better.

Combat Veterans 4xp - awesome. Best used on elite stormtroopers in conjuction with assault armor. Turns them into a very cheap wrecking crew.

my 2cents

Combat Medic is pretty bad. It's hard to get much healing out of so the 1 threat is almost always better to put more units on the board with.

Sustained Fire is awesome. Having your eEngineer fire 3 times is ruinous, even probe droids are great as they hit hard and it gives them another chance to heal. Just using on troopers for burst damage is great, with show of force and combat vet, that is usually enough to take a Rebel from full health to wounded without giving them any chance to heal.

The eNexu is a great friend of sustained fire as he can easily pounce to the next hero on most of the maps and doesn't care for the stun.

And if the figure is already in place, it can performa the Attack action, Sustained Fire to perform another attack, then spend the other action to Remove Stunned and be ready to attack again from Executive Order (or Fire At Will).

Sustained Fire also combos well with Fire At Will, which can be triggered after any activation, so an E-Web Engineer can attack by itself 4 times in one round, and one more with Executive Order. Naturally the rebels spend a lot of their actions, strain, and other resources to prevent that. So, even if you can't pull it off, you come out ahead.