So we just finished the Bespin Gambit mini-campaign recently and it was the first campaign where the Rebels got pummelled.

4 straight Imperial victories, no “came down to the last roll/activation” moments.

While we all agreed that the two new heroes are great additions to the game (alongside the official retirement of the Twin shadows heroes) and a lot of the missions were super fluffy, we always felt bogged down and couldn’t find a balance between completing objectives and eliminating deployment cards.

Heroes: Murne, Davith, Saska and Gideon

Imperial class deck: Imperial Black ops

Mission 1: Reclamation. All four heroes wounded before opening a single door. Heroes atrocious at testing fist (and Saska decided to save XP so no tool kit). Intimidating mission setup: stormtroopers, wing guard, officer, optional deployment + tight corridors =

Mission 2: Panic in the streets. Couldn’t get a single citizen into the safe room. We were able to move them pretty efficiently (was even aware that you can move multiple citizens) but imperial force was far too overwhelming. Intimidating mission set up: officer, probe, trandoshan hunters, wing guards, optional deployment + tight corridors =

Mission 3: Freedom fighters. Couldn’t free the last citizen. Clogging up hallways and blocking doors =

Mission 4: Hostile Takeover. Moved Blaise a bit but all heroes easily wounded. Felt we needed more time. Freeing Lando triggers optional deployment and Bossk. Sweet goodness! For some reason, taking Blaise hostage still allows him to attack and use optional deployment ability. Seriously?

Final thoughts:

- We definitely didn’t have the best hero makeup but we thought we’d do okay. Gideon and Murne might have been support overload. Some good synergy with Gideon’s command and Murne’s solidarity. And oh Saska. It’ll be tough to bring her to the table again. I know there’s a bunch of threads out there already about her.

- Strategic redeployment and True shadow are wickedly annoying class cards!

- Imperial player used all the hidden agenda cards in the finale. I’m pretty sure a house rule is in order (as suggested by members in other threads). When you’ve got 4 in play and like 6 hidden plus unknown mission triggers… it’s a little much

- Bossk as the secondary baddie is hit and miss. Really fun to see him in action but a white defence die Imperial villain cancels out some genuinely good Rebel planning. It’s a luck mitigation game of course, but it was still hard to see Saska’s 12 damage attack go to waste. Good for skirmish play, but not so much when he’s a focus in missions (Hello, Diala!)

- Small, narrow maps bring out the worst of IA in my opinion. It’s just so difficult to move around the map, take out enemies and spend precious actions on attribute tests with so many figures on the board. Felt like the Imp player really has to adopt the DM role in this campaign (we’ve been fine in previous campaigns with both sides playing competitively)

- I’m sensing that Verena and Fenn will really shine here

- Narrative was really good here, and missions felt like Star Wars. Trying to carbon freeze Blaise just brings a smile to everyone’s face. Seeing Darth Vader as a reserved group in Cloud City’s secret is awesome.

Any success stories or tips for future Bespin playthroughs?

I'm not surprised of the result when you have 3 support characters. Fenn with Rebel Elite would be pretty much the opposite.

Data is being collected:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1624965/poll-how-balanced-each-scenario

Murne can be made SUPER aggressive with Lead From The Front and Solidarity so it's not really bad to play her with Gideon, her strain removal makes her super annoying and she's fast and hits hard. But, yeah, Saska + Davith on top is way too much as neither are heavy hitters and neither are great options for Masterstroking which Gideon needs to be doing.

I don't think there's any reason to play Bespin without some combination of Fenn, Gideon and Verena unless you like being whipped and beaten over and over.

Saska is hard to play well, I've found. And Gaarkhan (or Diala with Art of Movement) would be nice for charging through those tight corridors.

Data is being collected:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1624965/poll-how-balanced-each-scenario

Thanks! Will keep an eye on this

Murne can be made SUPER aggressive with Lead From The Front and Solidarity so it's not really bad to play her with Gideon, her strain removal makes her super annoying and she's fast and hits hard. But, yeah, Saska + Davith on top is way too much as neither are heavy hitters and neither are great options for Masterstroking which Gideon needs to be doing.

Ya, we first dismissed Lead from the Front and went with Walay instead. Probably not the best idea with this hero makeup. I’m liking the idea of an aggressive Murne though!

Gaarkhan (or Diala with Art of Movement) would be nice for charging through those tight corridors.

Some good ideas here, though I feel a lot of this mini-campaign is “run to the objective and pray for a dodge” which doesn’t make for interesting gameplay.

This is our next campaign, and I don't want to utterly crush the heroes as is usually the case with the Bespin-campaign, as has been said elsewhere. Any advice I should give to my players? We're most likely trying out Murne and Davith, but what about the other two heroes? Fenn? Jyn?

My rebels (Davith, Loku, Diala, Fenn) handily won Reclamation because I was not able to defeat Lando early enough, Reclassified is turning out to be a close call due to Fenn getting Underbarrel HH-4 and Rebel Elite for Havoc-Shotting Blast 3 any groups in sight.

Fenn (Tactical Movement, possibly Trench Fighter) and Diala (Force Adept, Force Throw) are always good choices, and probably more so in Bespin Gambit. Davith fills the melee spot, so any of the ranged characters would be good for balance - Fenn, Mak, Jyn, Loku.

This is our next campaign, and I don't want to utterly crush the heroes as is usually the case with the Bespin-campaign, as has been said elsewhere. Any advice I should give to my players? We're most likely trying out Murne and Davith, but what about the other two heroes? Fenn? Jyn?

Time is extremely tight, bonus actions (e.g. Gideon) and bonus movement (e.g. Fenn) are important to even get to objectives in time. There is an overabundance of enemies (much more threat than other campaigns) in small areas, so heavy hitters who can deal with multiple targets are a must (e.g. Fenn, cleave).

Cheat. Read the mission ahead of time. It's the only way you're going to win. Knowing where things will spawn so they can't immediately run away and make a couple of the missions unwinnable is vital. Knowing that when you open a door a Nexu will spawn on top of the objective and cost you an entire extra round is necessary. Also remember you can't open a door in the middle of a move so when the Imperial player keeps sticking things in front of the door requiring you to kill them first, threaten his life until he cuts that crap out. Hodor indeed.

I've actually found the Bespin campaign to be the easiest on the Rebels so far - primarily because each box expansion, naturally, tends to draw on the new deployment groups that came with the expansions, loading the scenarios with the otherwise underwhelming non-elite Wing Guards.

I've actually found the Bespin campaign to be the easiest on the Rebels so far - primarily because each box expansion, naturally, tends to draw on the new deployment groups that came with the expansions, loading the scenarios with the otherwise underwhelming non-elite Wing Guards.

But as mentioned in the OP, most of the missions started with wing guards, stormtroopers AND an optional deployment. We’re talking 8+ figures off the start. Don’t forget the narrow corridors blocking progress.

Who were your rebel heroes?

I've actually found the Bespin campaign to be the easiest on the Rebels so far - primarily because each box expansion, naturally, tends to draw on the new deployment groups that came with the expansions, loading the scenarios with the otherwise underwhelming non-elite Wing Guards.

Bespin puts more than 6 extra threat on the board, so those Wing Guard (which BTW are still one of the most effective units point for point) are basically free. So your argument is nonsense.

If you found it the easiest, then you've done something wrong, because it is provably the hardest and not by a little bit. It's missions have more threat on the board, better units (Bossk/Blaise v Boba v Dengar), (Wing Guard v Tuskan v Snowtroopers), require more actions to complete and distance traveled under shorter time limits.

It's not hard, it's broken.

When I say I find Bespin the easiest, I don't mean it in the sense of being *too* easy. I actually find that all the campaigns are fairly well balanced (though some of them with more interesting mechanics than others) and to a large extent the balance in any campaign is far more decided by the combination of choices made in putting the Rebel team as well as the Imperial class and agenda deck together than by the specific campaigns in themselves.

With that caveat, I do think it is somewhat easier than the other three campaigns and I also think - in the line with other previous posts - that if you were struggling in your playthrough, it was likely due to your choice of Rebels more than anything else. Saska, together with Biv, is one of the heroes that struggles the most to pull her weight and put together with another two support characters and a melee as the only non-support, you have given yourselves a significant challenge, regardless of campaign.

I've actually found the Bespin campaign to be the easiest on the Rebels so far - primarily because each box expansion, naturally, tends to draw on the new deployment groups that came with the expansions, loading the scenarios with the otherwise underwhelming non-elite Wing Guards.

But as mentioned in the OP, most of the missions started with wing guards, stormtroopers AND an optional deployment. We’re talking 8+ figures off the start. Don’t forget the narrow corridors blocking progress.

Who were your rebel heroes?

The Rebels were playing Fenn, Gideon, Diala, and Davith - a very potent combo.

Diala's Force Adept was, as always, the most valuable investment of the campaign, in giving both rerolls on all the attribute rolls in some of the missions as well as giving Lando additional opportunities for his Gambit ability.

You had Fenn + Gideon which is the strongest combination in the game. Fenn by himself is OP and breaks a lot of missions. The problem is that if you don't have (Fenn/Verena) + (Gideon/Murne) there is no point even attempting Bespin as you're just going to get completely stomped.

Even if you DO have Fenn + Gideon there are a couple missions where Imperial uniques appear and can immediately flee, making the mission pretty much impossible unless the Rebels know ahead of time.

Just finished Bespin Gambit campaign with Diala, Davith, Murne, and Fen. We played well but lost 3 out of 4 games. Overall, I did not like the design of the missions as some of them rebels needed more time and some were not designed with balance in mind. I agree that Bespin is the hardest campaign so far for the rebels.

Haven't played The Bespin Gambit campaign in full, as we prefer to play the long campaigns with TBG and TS possible as side missions, but the missions we have played did seem pretty difficult.

Well, this isn't sounding good... We're doing this campaign next, and it's going to by first try as a Rebel and someone else's first time as the IP. He was great in our Core campaign as the Rebel's tactician.

(I had already skimmed the Campaign book when I got it as I wasn't expecting someone else to play the IP, so I wasn't terribly worried about the spoilers)

Easier for rebels than Twin Shadows if you ask me (especially the Cloud City's Secret finale). Ask someone else and you will get a different opinion.

Easier for rebels than Twin Shadows if you ask me (especially the Cloud City's Secret finale). Ask someone else and you will get a different opinion.

To get to Cloud City's Secret you have to win Freedom Fighters, which isn't possible unless the Imperial player gives you the win.

We've won Fire in the Sky (Twin Shadows). We've never even gotten close in Cloud City's Secret, although we only tried it once.

Fire in the Sky requires 28 squares of movement by a single figure. Cloud City's Secret requires 33, 5 of which are on difficult terrain, so likely 38 movement points.

FitS requires a 2W test by basically any character and a 2WoE by a character who has run the furthest. CCS requires a 3W test by a character that has run all the way to the exit.

FitS starts with 23 threat. CCS starts with 27 with bonus health to Blaise, although you get a 6 point Lando for free.

FitS gives 39 bonus threat. CCS gives 18 bonus threat... which is unkillable. However FitS threat is spread out with objectives. CCS basically spawns on top of you.

If the players don't know Darth Vader is going to appear literally on top of them, which is what happened with us, they're screwed. If the Imperial player brings on an officer and moves Darth Vader, the Rebels are screwed. Basically the Rebels are screwed.

FitS is hard because you have to hit a couple objectives, do a 2WoE test, then kill whatever has spawned by the entrance in 9 turns.

CCS is impossible because it requires you to run even further, do the hardest test in the game after killing whatever the Imperial has decided he wants to have stand in front of the door and you have unkillable Vader smacking you constantly.

Well, this isn't sounding good... We're doing this campaign next, and it's going to by first try as a Rebel and someone else's first time as the IP. He was great in our Core campaign as the Rebel's tactician.

(I had already skimmed the Campaign book when I got it as I wasn't expecting someone else to play the IP, so I wasn't terribly worried about the spoilers)

I wouldn’t worry too much, I edited the OP and highlighted the fact that our Bespin playthrough had a less than optimal hero makeup.

Heroes that would really shine in Bespin:

Verena - Close Quarters

Fenn - Blast damage, Tactical movement

Diala - Art of movement, Force Adept, precise striking Bossk

Vinto - pinging off low health ugnaughts/junk droids/wing guards

Onar - pushing figures to make room for other heroes

Regardless of balance I still recommend going through it because the missions are ultra fluffy, still plenty of fun to be had.