3 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

I'd say none of the Core decks are particularly weak, but MM certainly is the most straight forward. It's just easy for beginner Rebels to warp their head around when you compare it to Subversive Tactics, and easy for a beginner Imp to wrap his or her head around when compared to Technological Superiority.

I would have to second this. Military Might is extremely powerful, I would argue it is the strongest or at least one of the top 3 strongest IP class decks available.

Combining Assault Armor with Combat Veterans makes both regular and elite Stormtrooper extremely threat efficient and significantly more durable. This in conjunction with all of the offensive capability of the deck such as Sustained Fire, Show of Force, Shock Troopers (if you can afford it) makes it very well rounded.

12 hours ago, Deadwolf said:

That mission is all about controlling the board and if the rebels can efficiently do so, they win. But to do that, relies on several factors including luck (especially on the terminals), how good your heroes are in the early game, as well as party tactics (especially how they use the terminals).

Regarding the first mission in RTH, I've also seen it go any number of ways. I've played as the Rebels with a relatively new IP and seen it go strongly in favor of the Rebels and I've also played it twice as the IP and seen it end in a really close Rebel victory one time and a landslide Imperial victory the other.

Side note: I find RTH to be a really fun campaign. Maybe this is because the campaign is slightly tilted towards the Rebels and being the most experienced person at the table playing as the IP, it presents a fun challenge and makes the missions a lot closer. The only downside is that you see a lot of the same content every time due to the way the threat missions work but they're fun missions and they fit into the theme of the campaign - they almost feel like story missions actually.

For what it's worth, I finished a RtH campaign recently using Armored Onslaught, and I found it to be incredibly effective.

By the end of the campaign, I'd gotten all of the cards except for the 4XP ones- not a big fan of spending threat on abilities.

Mortar obviously was incredibly powerful. My heroes really started hating that card- and honestly, I felt kinda bad for them. Eventually they learned to spread out a little, but even then there was little they could do when they were all bunched together at the start of the round. To be totally honest, I think this card can be kind of broken. Even though I didn't hold back with it (much) I think it's the one thing that would convince me not to use this deck again. It was fun to use at first, but eventually just felt mean.

I know people tend to not like Heavy Firepower , but I found it extremely effective when paired with Explosive Munitions . If I'm rolling at least one red ranged each round anyway, might as well max out that damage, right?

Automated Repairs and Reactive Arms were fine enough. They kept my vehicles and droids alive longer. In fact, I would make a pretty fearsome combo with them on Jet Troopers (so both could benefit from the cards) and picked up the group for only 1 threat via Armored Division in Sorin's Agenda set. Two rJets 5 Health apiece, damage recovery, and the chance of scoring extra damage blocks may well be the best 1 threat someone could spend for in this game.

Explosive Entry was the last upgrade I acquired. It was fine, I guess. Only used it once or twice, and I think the larger maps in RtH kinda nerf its power. Direct damage is always fun, though.

Out of the 4 Decks that I've played so far, here's how I'd rank them, in ascending order

Difficulty for Rebels: Technological Superiority, Nemesis, Military Might, Armored Onslaught

Fun: Technological Superiority (with different builds, I may enjoy more), Armored Onslaught, Military Might, Nemesis

For me, Nemesis is the most fun, followed by Inspiring Leadership and Technological Superiority. I suppose, it depends on preferences.

I think the most powerful were Military Might and Technological Superiority. I would rank Black Ops and Inspiring Leadership as weaker.

(I have played all decks as a Imperial player, with exception of Hutt Mercenaries)

I've used Hutt Mercenaries in our most recent campaign. It's absolutely brutal . By the time you've got the best cards in the class deck, you're at the stage where you can almost guarantee to wound one Hero per turn - very nearly in just one attack, if you've got a decent unit on the board. Since almost all missions end when all Heroes are wounded, they basically end up with just four turns to complete each mission (or maybe five, if one of them is particularly good at tanking damage).

5 hours ago, Bitterman said:

I've used Hutt Mercenaries in our most recent campaign. It's absolutely brutal . By the time you've got the best cards in the class deck, you're at the stage where you can almost guarantee to wound one Hero per turn - very nearly in just one attack, if you've got a decent unit on the board. Since almost all missions end when all Heroes are wounded, they basically end up with just four turns to complete each mission (or maybe five, if one of them is particularly good at tanking damage).

Honestly that doesn't sound very fun.

6 hours ago, Bitterman said:

I've used Hutt Mercenaries in our most recent campaign. It's absolutely brutal . By the time you've got the best cards in the class deck, you're at the stage where you can almost guarantee to wound one Hero per turn - very nearly in just one attack, if you've got a decent unit on the board. Since almost all missions end when all Heroes are wounded, they basically end up with just four turns to complete each mission (or maybe five, if one of them is particularly good at tanking damage).

I've just finished Jabba's Realm myself, using Hutt Mercernaries , and with a pair of Legendary heroes (especially when one of them were Onar) it was still very difficult to wound both heroes. I think the heroes won all but three missions, but I won the last two. I'd imagine that wounding 4 ordinary heroes would be a matter of routine with this deck, however.

@TallGiraffe , I was expecting this deck to be interesting, but I indeed found it a bit booring. The mechanism of "have an additional handful of wounds" on the first attack each round wasn't very interesting. It is very unlikely I'll use that deck again, which is a shame, really, as I chose Hu tt Mercenaries for thematic reasons.

With MHD-19 as one hero, Hutt Mercenaries wasn't even close enough to wound a hero per round in an extended Bespin Gambit campaign. For example a first-strike attack (with Shoot First) with three hidden elite Wing Guards could not get Davith wounded due to him dodging one of the attacks. MHD-19 patched him up pretty well afterwards.

And it's relatively easy for the hero carrying the last bounty token to be unreachable.

18 hours ago, a1bert said:

With MHD-19 as one hero, Hutt Mercenaries wasn't even close enough to wound a hero per round in an extended Bespin Gambit campaign. For example a first-strike attack (with Shoot First) with three hidden elite Wing Guards could not get Davith wounded due to him dodging one of the attacks. MHD-19 patched him up pretty well afterwards.

Well, there's always that 1/6 on a white dice, it's true. Failing that, a single shot can get (for example, based on the skills I got in our campaign, other skills are available):

• +3 damage from Most Wanted (4 XP),
• either +1 damage or +1 surge (which can often be turned into +2 damage for a decent unit, like those eWings) from Wanted: Dead (0 XP),
• another +1 damage and/or Pierce 2 on surges (maybe provided by Wanted: Dead if I didn't roll one naturally) from Guild Hunters (4 XP),
• an extra blue dice from Nowhere to Hide (3 XP) - could just be another surge, could be another couple of damage,
• and if I whiff a dice roll, reroll it with Vendetta (1 XP).

That could easily be +8 damage, maybe even more counting Pierce (or could be a bit less), depending on what you roll and what fixed or surge abilities the unit has.

Most heroes have 10-12 health and I'm getting about 8 of that for free in a single attack . The Imperial player only needs to do 2-4 points of "natural" damage to the target hero, either as part of the same attack, or in later attacks in the turn (maybe even the same activation if there are other models activating). If they can't do that, it's probably because the hero in question got lucky with dodges. Which happens, true, so occasionally it'll take me five times to wound them all instead of four. That's still brutal no matter how you look at it.

To put it another way, if the Imperial player can't do just 2-4 points of damage to a single hero in a single turn by focusing all their firepower at that hero... then the Imperial player doesn't have a chance, right? The +8 (or so - again, it can vary) from Hutt Mercenaries just means that's all they have to do, whereas with most other classes, they'd just be getting started.

To put it another way again - with the class skills above, one of those hidden eWings you had would roll a minimum of 1 damage and 1 surge plus 1 surge from Hidden. Add +3 damage (Most Wanted), +2 damage (eWings surge), Pierce 2 (Guild Hunters surge), and +1 damage minimum (Nowhere to Hide extra blue dice). So with their worst possible roll they've got range 5, 7 damage, pierce 2. With better rolls (or rerolls - at least one, maybe two), add up to another +3 damage; and better units (eHKs? eWeequays? ePigs?) can do even better. Other than a dodge, best result on a white dice is one block, one evade. If the hero hasn't rolled a dodge, it's gonna leave a bruise... and there's two more eWings still to shoot (without most of those bonuses, granted). Davith was lucky in your game, simple as that.

Quote

And it's relatively easy for the hero carrying the last bounty token to be unreachable.

Not so sure about that (apart from anything else: "Nowhere to Hide" => figures do not block line of sight and an additional blue dice), but even if we accept that for the sake of discussion... three heroes wounded (so probably slowed down and with one of their more powerful abilities removed), the healthy one staying the heck out of the way... they're not winning that mission.

Granted, the ideal is to wound all four so they all get their bounty tokens back for the next mission. You can't get close to the +8 listed above if the target doesn't have a bounty token. I'm not saying it's automatic. But I have frequently wounded heroes in a single shot in this campaign, having never been able to do that previously; and more often that not , if I don't wound them in a single shot, I'll do enough to get them at some point later that (activation or) turn.

20 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

Honestly that doesn't sound very fun.

Well, there's the rub...

I think it's more fun (erm... less un-fun?) than Subversive Tactics because the heroes still get to use their abilities... they can still play their own game... until they're all wounded anyway. And if they have a hero capable of tanking, and/or buy all the extra-health armor Item cards they can get their hands on, and/or arrange super-mega healing with somebody like MHD... maybe they can make something work. But if they haven't done those things they're in trouble. There's not an awful lot of challenge to it for me as an Imperial player, it's true. And the heroes have been left feeling a bit shell-shocked by just getting taken out with very little they can do about it (apart from rolling that white dice and hoping). So I wouldn't exactly call it a barrel of laughs, no.

I called it brutal, and it is. Very brutal indeed. I didn't mention whether I thought that meant it was fun or not. Let's just say I won't be using it again.

As a player in a1bert's Bespin mini campaign, I can attest that Hutt Mercenaries is very strong but not unbeatable.

If you have a strong group of heroes, a bit of luck on your side, and the right tactical choices at the right time;

1) MHD helped mitigate the big burst damage by being able to heal up a significant portion
2) White dice dodges were in our favour (only slightly more than average, but it helped)
3) Davith and Shyla were strong single target damage dealers. (good for taking out 2/3 of a strong deployment before it can act)
4) Vinto was good at clearing up near-death figures with ease. (good for taking out 2/3 of a weak deployment before it can act)
5) Keep pressure on enemy units constantly. Do not give the Imperial an activation with a strong deployment when possible.
6) Be aware of who has the bounty tokens, and use them in a away which limits the Imperial's chances to get the most out of class deck
7) be lucky. It helps

Also

8) Hidden E-Wing Guards hurt. A lot. Kill them with fire
9) The E-Jawa hits like a truck. Kill it with fire
10) The Dewback is really good. You know what to do
11) Ughnaughts aren't that scary when there is only a couple of them.
12) Hired Guns are a pain in the behind, but rarely the biggest danger on the board.

Similar experience with Hutt Mercenaries here. No fun at all to play against, and nigh-impossible to beat without insane luck if you don't have MHD. An I can't imagine it's all that interesting for the Imperial to play either. "Exhaust to add X damage to an attack" x 4 isn't exactly a fun and interesting ability set

I am playing Armoured Onslaught, and other than Mortar, I am struggling to see a lot of value in the rest of the deck. Heavy Firepower for 2 XP seems particularly ungenerous. If it was "during an attack" rather than "when declaring" it might be worth it. Reactive Armour also seems stingy compared to the armour in Military Might.

Military Might has been my favourite class deck so far, although Inspiring Leadership could perhaps be the most fun when sneaky and clever plans work.

I'd agree that Military Might is the most enjoyable class I've used so far.

Techological Superiority had its moments, though it was the one I used in our first campaign when neither I nor the heroes really knew what we were doing yet, so not sure if I'd think the same of it now.

4 hours ago, udat said:

Reactive Armour also seems stingy compared to the armour in Military Might.

(Understand that I haven't played this deck yet, so don't take this as an opinion based on practice)

They way I see it, Reactive Armor improves the black die over all overall for all figures in a group versus Assault Armor allowing one figure to reroll. Reactive takes the die from 3 sides with one symbol, 2 with two, and 1 with three; and changes it to 2, 2, and 2. Across two or three figures I think that's worth an additional xp.

I'd be interested in trying Armor Corps with Heavy Troopers. They become support units handing out rerolls on defense and as troopers they can already trigger Squad Training for Stormtroopers and eWGs. Not exactly a game changer, but it could be annoying for a Rebel team without Fenn.

I think the new Sentry Droids will be really good with Military Might (Tech Superiority too). I want to try it out some time.

4 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

The way I see it, Reactive Armor improves the black die over all overall for all figures in a group versus Assault Armor allowing one figure to reroll. Reactive takes the die from 3 sides with one symbol, 2 with two, and 1 with three; and changes it to 2, 2, and 2. Across two or three figures I think that's worth an additional xp.

It is true that it benefits all figures in a group, although I think it only applies to Jet Troopers - those are the only multi-figure (2) vehicle unit I can think of. I think it makes the dice 1, 1, 2, 2, 2+evade, 3 though...

Quote

I'd be interested in trying Armor Corps with Heavy Troopers. They become support units handing out rerolls on defense and as troopers they can already trigger Squad Training for Stormtroopers and eWGs. Not exactly a game changer, but it could be annoying for a Rebel team without Fenn.

Yes, this is something I might explore soon. The fact that they can mutually support each other, plus other troopers, could be quite handy. The rebel team does have Fenn though, with an underbarrel launcher, so his Blast 3 pretty much makes regular Troopers obsolete. They also have Verena, and she can also carve through entire regular trooper squads, without even using an action!

10 hours ago, udat said:

I am playing Armoured Onslaught, and other than Mortar, I am struggling to see a lot of value in the rest of the deck. Heavy Firepower for 2 XP seems particularly ungenerous. If it was "during an attack" rather than "when declaring" it might be worth it. Reactive Armour also seems stingy compared to the armour in Military Might.

Military Might has been my favourite class deck so far, although Inspiring Leadership could perhaps be the most fun when sneaky and clever plans work.

I really liked power to shields. It neutered mak, shyla, and fenn in my campaign! armored division lets jet troopers reroll their defense dice when next to each other, and reactive defenses goes well on them. I had a blast (the rebels not so much) with that deck.

That was going to be the card I buy next. Quick question - can it negate focus? Presumably it could stop someone gaining Focus during the attack, but if they were already focused, it wouldn't have any effect?

Power to Shields? Remember the difference between conditions and condition keywords.

If the target suffered damage, the Focus condition keyword gives the focused condition after the attack resolves, after the existing focused is discarded. Invalidating Focus will prevent gaining focused from that attack.

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant

I doubt I'd ever do that - seems like a waste of the card, but maybe if it was the last attack of the round

41 minutes ago, udat said:

although I think it only applies to Jet Troopers - those are the only multi-figure (2) vehicle unit I can think of.

You can put it on Droids too. So HK's and Sentry Droids can take it.

43 minutes ago, udat said:

I think it makes the dice 1, 1, 2, 2, 2+evade, 3 though...

I specifically said symbols for that reason, but yes.

52 minutes ago, udat said:

Yes, this is something I might explore soon. The fact that they can mutually support each other, plus other troopers, could be quite handy. The rebel team does have Fenn though, with an underbarrel launcher, so his Blast 3 pretty much makes regular Troopers obsolete. They also have Verena, and she can also carve through entire regular trooper squads, without even using an action!

Regarding Fenn, like you and @MadFuhrer said, Power to Shields. You'll be fine (maybe ).

I'm definitely interested in how it goes. My group is considering RtH next and AO is the deck I was considering for that campaign.

I will let you know. Right now we are 2 and 2. I won the first, then they won two, and I won the last. All have been fairly close (last round wins or final roll of the dice type stuff) except the last mission where I won fairly comfortably.

On 10/16/2017 at 8:01 AM, Deadwolf said:

I think the new Sentry Droids will be really good with Military Might (Tech Superiority too). I want to try it out some time.

So I am running a campaign with tech sup. First side mission is for Ashoka with initial ESentries which get experimental arms and technical support.

That one group wounded 3 heroes by turn 3.

17 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

So I am running a campaign with tech sup. First side mission is for Ashoka with initial ESentries which get experimental arms and technical support.

That one group wounded 3 heroes by turn 3.

Although it's tempting to run TS in my upcoming HOTE campaign, I'm already running it in another (Hoth) campaign so will probably be looking at other decks. Most likely, I will play one of the two new classes because I've obviously never played either of them, they both look pretty unique, and they both utilize the new power tokens. Having not played either, some general impressions of the two decks:

Power of the Dark Side

• Manifest Aggression (0xp) - very good starting card, if you can use the top part every round on figures that don't die before they activate it can deal as much damage as Show of Force from Military Might which is one of the strongest starting cards. Also, I like the design in that it requires you to choose to minimize risk or maximize value (bottom vs top part of the card).
• Dark Resurgence (1xp) - I'm usually not very keen on deplete class cards but this card is pretty decent. The way I see it is that it can essentially cost the Rebels two additional actions when used on a figure that has not activated and can deal a decent amount of damage. If the Rebels want to kill the figure, they will have to attack it Again and then also the damage the figure can deal will probably require about one Rest action to remove. Also, it can help maintain activation advantage or be used to keep a mission critical figure alive for one more activation.
• Embrace Fear (1xp) - of the two 1xp cards, this one seems a bit weaker. The top part can be easily worked around by the Rebels in who they activate first and even if you do land the one strain, it seems like it would not have a great impact most of the time. The bottom part could be situationally useful as well but I don't see one total movement point per round making a huge difference in most missions.
• Supernatural Vigor (2xp) - this card plays a similar role to Dark Resurgence in that it helps keep Imperial figures on the board. If the Rebels attack the figure that gains the +3 health, it can often result in requiring an additional attack to remove the figure which can help waste Rebel activations. However, the Rebels can work around this a bit by not attacking the figure with the bonus health or waiting until the end of the round when the bonus health is removed causing the figure to be defeated (at least that's how I believe this works if the figure has 3 or less health remaining at the end of the round). It needs to be used on high "threat" (not threat as in threat level) figures that the Rebels will be gunning for such as Villains, e-webs, etc. in order to get maximum value.
• Embrace Anger (2xp) - this card seems pretty good for the cost. Assuming 4-6 Imperial activations per round and the fact that you might not want to use it on certain units, you will likely get 3-5 extra damage per round from this card (barring any dodges, misses, or really bad rolls). Toward the end of the campaign, the Rebels can remove most low health figures in one attack so the difference between 3hp and 2hp is negligible. However, I suppose depending on the composition of the heroes, if they have a lot of ways of dealing indirect damage without an action (Boltslinger, Shot on the Run, Force Throw, Snap Kick, Demolish, etc) it could save the Rebels an action to remove the figures that suffer 1 damage. Again, I do like the design where the Imperial player has to weigh risk vs reward.
• Embrace Hate (3xp) - honestly, I don't get this card. 1 strain and maybe one damage token for 3xp seems way overcosted. Maybe I'm missing something here...
• Unnatural Abilities (3xp) - I really like this attachment. When deployed on Villains, it seems as strong as the extra black die from Indomitable (Nemeses class deck). I think I would likely use this on single figure deployments for the extra block. If you look at the damage curve of attacks against a unit like the AT-DP with and without this attachment, it's pretty remarkable.
• Embrace Suffering (4xp) - just like I'm not very keen on deplete class cards, I'm also not very keen on spending threat to use my class cards. However, the potential of this card is pretty huge. A focused hero with a surge or damage token and a kitted T3 weapon (especially one like the A-12 with the surge for minus Dodge) could easily flip a hero from healthy to wounded or wounded to withdrawn.
• The Power of Passion (4xp) - pretty solid depending how easily you can acquire damage power tokens on figures. Obviously, there's the starter card but you probably need at least one other method to obtain damage tokens to really make this card shine. An Elite Senator form Clawdite, would be a great way to acquire a few more damage power tokens.

Initial thoughts on upgrade path assuming 10xp: Manifest Aggression (0xp) => Dark Resurgence (1xp) => Embrace Anger (2xp) => Unnatural Abilities (3xp) => The Power of Passion (4xp)

I was planning on writing some thoughts on Reactive Defenses but I'll have to do that later when I have more time.

Others who have looked at Power of the Dark Side (PODS for short?), any thoughts on my comments/initial impressions? I'm still on the fence regarding class decks for HOTE so I'd definitely like to hear some discussion on the new class decks.

I ran Power of the Darkside in my solo campaign which I have now finished.

I went with Power of Passion, Dark Resurgence, Unnatural Abilities, Supernatural Vigor.

I was also was able to get the agenda card that depleted for +3 block.

I really liked it. I was able to use the defensive cards to keep key units alive while using the offensive abilities of the base card+Power of Passion to punish.

It is pretty hard to use the top part of the base card and be able to use both tokens but it did happen.

It was a pretty fun deck but does take some skill because the timing and placement of your defense cards are important.

Tank/AT-DP with Unnatural ability is also pretty awesome.

40 minutes ago, Deadwolf said:

Sustained Rage

Sustained by Rage is one of Maul's abilities. Did you mean some other class card?