Been thinking about Imperial Assault again. We played the original campaign at the beginning of the year, and I was the Imperial player.

I had fun, but I found that it was really tough, especially after about the halfway point, where I was forgetting about all the little intricacies of the Imperial units. It was almost as if there were too many moving parts and I couldn't keep track of them all. So I'd forget about _this_ thing that makes this unit good, and then this _other_ thing that makes that unit good, etc.

Which made it tough to give the players a good challenge, because they were intimately aware of what their characters could do, just because there's a limited set of abilities...and (probably most importantly) that barely changed through the campaign.

Any suggestions on how to keep everything straight?

Experience helps.

When playing face to face I also have have trouble remembering everything when I play a new class deck or have new agenda cards. I don't have issues with the abilities of the units themselves anymore, because I have played a lot of missions with the core units and new units are introduced a few at a time. But I do have some trouble keeping track of the abilities of heroes I have not played against/with before.

1. Play with a class deck you have played before, so you don't need to spend so much mental energy in trying to remember what options you have available.

2. Consider a second imperial player.

(Play By Forum campaigns have taught a lot of strategy and best uses for the various units, and there is time to consider both imperial and rebel options and see abilities are not unduly missed.)

I play with 2 Imperials - helps a lot, and makes you feel less alone in your victories/losses. For me at least, it's hard being the only one at a table of 5 celebrating or mourning at the end of a mission

it depends on what you like about the game, IMO. I've played a lot of RPGs over the years, and I enjoy the solitude of the GM's seat, telling a story and making my players go through an interesting experience. This means that I place a little less value on winning as the IP by all means, and just having a great game - which is also why I sometimes "forget" abilities on my cards to level the playing field a bit more. The close games are the best games - regardless of outcome.

If you really dig the strategic versus-elements of the game, I can see how a second IP could be cool.

Make a list of trigger events in the mission, cross them off when they're expended.

Make special tokens and place them beside units you are having difficulty remembering rules for. Like a token to remind you officers can cower.

Stick with storm troopers, officers and probe droids as much as possible so you don't have to worry about too many extra rules. They're the best units regardless.