I'm going to start playing the FFG missions (the ones that come with the ships) with my little boy today, and I wanted to see if you guys thought they were balanced or not.

Thanks.

I wouldn't play them as if they were professional-competition-worthy, no. I'd say they are aimed more at being reasonably fun for both sides, with achievable victory conditions, based on the ships/pilots/upgrades available at the time they were released.

Ships/pilots/upgrades since the release of the mission may well completely break it, so be careful with those.

I've never won as the Imperials in the YT-2400 mission...

I haven't played a lot of 'em, but I'd say they're pretty well balanced, with a slight bias towards whichever ship they came in the expansion pack for.

Not really no they tend to heavily favour one side in my experience.

Just play them twice and swap sides... see who does best.

It's hard to tell. I play both sides against myself and haven't won a game yet.

Just play them twice and swap sides... see who does best.

Exactly this. A mission doesn't need to be balanced, because you can switch it up and see who performs better. It doesn't feel as bad to get crushed in a mission if the other guy gets crushed as well. You can both then shake your heads and say "Well, that mission is tough as Rebels!"

some of them are broken by newer additions, They play pretty well when sticking closely to the ships / upgrades available at the time of printing. Some of them hold up really well though.

Depends on the mission. I've reviewed the first 2 in my podcast. Not so keen on the 3rd. Others are a mixed bag. Should be fun enough to play with your son.

Most are designed asymmetrically to favor one side or the other. Not to say that fun will not be had. Some of them are quite interesting. But if you're looking for a really balanced experience, this is probably not where you'll find it.

The victory conditions change the equation. You can be destroying the other factions ships and still lose based on that. I like that the victory conditions make the game play different. There really needs to be more mission support with preset lists that make it more balanced.

They're ok and fun if you approach then casually. Start approaching the FFG missions with a competitive mindset and they tend to fall apart, generally speaking. If you are looking for missions that are not easily broken, then I can make some recommendations, but for some casual fun the FFG set is fine.

I agree with the sentiment: they are brilliant in a casual setting. In particular, the IG-2000, Punishing One, and Rebel Aces missions are my favorites. Also, don't discount the core box missions! Both cores have 3 missions, and they're all different!

Most break horribly in the face of fixed ordnance. If you avoid them, they tend to be good.

Some later ships definitely break missions.

The bounty mission that I believe comes with the Firespray is one we tried.

Rules in summary: Imperials need to destroy a particular enemy ship.

Rebels get one ship that gets:

- Point total doubled

- Then reduced by up to 10pts (On upgrades)

- 2 EPTs

So, being the rebel player, I took the Ghost. Fully kitted with Hera piloting. Taking VI and PTL, Kanan and Navigator crew. Bunch of other stuff that I don't remember.

And Biggs.

Imperials just couldn't handle it.

--

We also did the one from the Falcon expansion, this time I used the Falcon and it was great! Got super close at the end. I had one last chance to grab the container before it went off the board and just managed it.

The one in the Ghost expansion is fun too, particularly since it forces you to use the Ghost. Makes it difficult to unbalance. Imps get the advantage until Sabine is picked up. Then, once all the asteroids are gone, the Ghost has the advantage.

--

Basically, don't try and break the missions, keep them thematic and you'll have fun.

I definitely recommend trying them out if you're feeling burnt out from 100pt games.

My son and I played the fist mission where the Rebels can blow the mines... really fun!

Most are designed asymmetrically to favor one side or the other. Not to say that fun will not be had. Some of them are quite interesting. But if you're looking for a really balanced experience, this is probably not where you'll find it.

It really depends on which mission. The ones that come with specific ships do tend to lean towards the ship it comes with, but not all of them. The ones in the starter set are also even. I especially like the Senator's Shuttle.

The others that I have played and liked are Imperial Vets one and The Ghost one.

Ordnance doesn't always break the mission and sometimes you can both ordnance each other. Sometimes it's the type of ordnance, as well. You start getting things like Ion ordnance and it can be really tough, but in a different way.

The base pack missions are pretty well balanced. The one with the Senator's Shuttle is an all-time favorite of mine! I wish I had one of those awesome custom plastic Senator's Shuttle minis I see floating around these threads sometimes!

The base pack missions are pretty well balanced. The one with the Senator's Shuttle is an all-time favorite of mine! I wish I had one of those awesome custom plastic Senator's Shuttle minis I see floating around these threads sometimes!

Mission one handles 100 points the best, but I think it is still fairly easily broken if you are moderately creative in list building. At 100 points, Mission 2 is a nightmare for the rebels in my opinion. Biggs is an auto include and high-damage high-mobility imperial lists are murderous. Mission three is a bit of a nightmare when you go to 100 points. First of all, the reinforcement rule is easily gamed by the rebel player- try starting with 8 Z95s facing the table edge and trade them all in for reinforcing X-wings on turn 1. But beyond that, the Imperial player can very effectively execute the mission with several generic phantoms, which can move very quickly while being relatively hard to kill.

I think the Senator's Shuttle is balanced at 100 pts. There are issues with the reinforcements, though. That's not really a problem with how the missions match up with today's meta, though. It's more an issue of reinforcements not really being that great a thing (in Babaganoosh's mind). If you did use them, it would probably be better to have them come from the side board edges instead of where the Shuttle is trying to get to. It is a bit cheaty that way.

Some missions are balanced, some not. Depending on the ships and Upgrades you use as they may habe not been around when the mission was designed.

In either case: CAPS ARE UNBALANCED AS ****