I'm starting a new Hoth campaign Sunday night and can't decide which deck to use. PT seems like a safe slow crawl type deck with consistent damage and luck mitigation.. armored onslaught just seems like a whole lot of chaotic fun lol.

For PT I am thinking:

Pinpoint Accuracy

Find the Weakness

and then either Assassins or Single-Minded in either order

For AO I am thinking:

No Fenn - Armor Corps, with Fenn won't bother with this

Heavy Firepower

Mortar

I am assuming you can combo Mortar and Heavy Firepower in the same attack, guaranteeing yourself 3 damage to multiple heroes?

Then not really sure.. I hate the use threat to use cards but I understand their merit.

Just curious what others have used and builds they recommend.

How are your rebels? Are you planning on playing nice, or do you want to rub their faces in the snow under your boot heel?

For Precision Training: get Find the Weakness before Pinpoint Accuracy.

Mortar is not an attack, so Heavy Firepower does not work with it.

Ahh good catch, rookie mistake by me. so it would be Explosive Munitions that pairs with Heavy Firepower, replacing a die for a red and guaranteeing that red to do 3 damage. Both use the phrase when you declare an attack, but I guess you can choose the order of sequence for cards that have the same trigger effect, correct?

The Rebels are a mix of experience and newb, but the newbs are gamers so they will gain momentum fast. I would say out of 10 this group will be a 8, for sure by mission 3 or 4 at least. I'd like to keep the games close but overall I just want them to have fun. One of them is a friend of my wife who is new to board games and I want to make sure she doesn't get scared away by an Imperial that is trying to hard

AO Seems like a great active chaotic class that could result in some tense moments, where as PT seems like the boring but effective class that with a guaranteed pierce would allow me to more easily control the win/loss ratio by either spamming cheap units for lots of damage or holding off on bigger attacks that don't utilize the pierce as often. I guess with Mortar I could also pick to blow up 1 instead of 2 or 3 Heroes depending on how they are doing as well.

In that case, I might choose AO, just because it's a little more "flashy". A newer player might have an easier time remembering big thematic stuff like mortar fire better than some of the PT cards. It's an easy enough strategy to "keep a distance from each other" and I think she might catch on rather quickly to that. Plus, you can focus more on other heroes, so she doesn't feel like she's getting ganged up against (just make sure your wife doesn't get jealous and think you're being flirty!)

I would suggest not to use precision training. I like to use this deck, but I take pleasure from winning and my rebels are good player too. Find the Weakness (pierce 1 on all) is one of the best card, but it looks frustrating to play against. There is no counterplay to it (it's just there, always active) and it often makes their defense die useless (negating anything with only 1 block, leaving only evade), which makes the game less exciting for them.

As for armored onslaught, most of the cards are onslaught, which makes the game more exciting. The rebels can try and guess how you are going to use them and play around them, and as for powerful effects, power to shield looks pretty nice. As a side note, I don't think Heavy Firepower is very good. You only have 50% of having worse than 3 dmg (I consider 2 dmg and a surge usually better than 3), so it might not be worth 2 xp.

Have fun!

In the Return to Hoth campaign the rebels gain activation advantage easily due to probable access to Echo Base Troopers and also allies provided by missions. I think you should try Armored Onslaught. (If you need to choose between the RtH class decks. I have a hunch that Inspiring Leadership could surprise everyone in RtH.)

I think Precision Training would suit other (full) campaigns better.

All good points guys thanks a lot for the contributions. I think Ao is where I will go. Now I just need to figure out purchase order. If there is no Fenn in play then Armor Corps seems appealing for the large amount of Snow/Storm Troopers I will be using. However, if I plan to try and go the technical route automated repairs is really nice.

But the most tempting route is to just bee line for Mortar.

Mortar is the best

I'd suggest Mortar, Explosive Entry, Reactive Armor and Power To Shields in whichever order. Reactive Armor can frequently cost the Rebels an extra action to kill a probe droid which quickly makes it pay for itself. Power To Shields shuts down Mak piercing your big guys or Fenn blowing up entire squads. Mortar is free damage, but the best part is how the Rebels will constantly be trying to figure out how to not be beside each other. Explosive Entry can be hard to use, particularly in Hoth, so YMMV. Automated Repairs can be good too, but usually it's better after Reactive Armor, before and you'll find the probe droid dying too often before you get to use it.

Explosive entry is very situational. I never got that much use out of it.

Heavy Firepower DOES combo with Explosive Munitions pretty well: exhaust two cards to replace one die in the pool with 3 damage. It really adds to the power.

Tonight is the night I think I will just hang tight, we will most likely only get through 2 missions so I won't have enough to Mortar until next time, but the opening ability seems pretty useful. I'm just really looking forward to showing them how annoying it is to play against Fenn's blast all the time

my first run on hoth was Armored onslaught. worked well with heavy troopers and vehicles. and very fun.

Im running precision training in a core campaign at the moment, and it is quite a good all rounder.

Well the Rebels went 1-1, they won the first mission as I kind of let them taking it easy spreading my damage out, but mission 2 was Diala's light saber and I didn't hold back, it went down to the wire but they lost. I didn't use the base ability once in the entire mission as figures were always adjacent to my own since it is such tight quarters. That ability is definitely designed for the larger Hoth maps. I did however find it devastating when combined with the tank, I focus fired down Gideon in one tank round + a snow trooper attack and was able to spread out a lot of blast damage. 2 XP so far so next session I will be able to buy Mortar, I also need to try out some Heavies I think, any other units that you find pair well with this deck? The Probe Droids were also hitting really hard with that added red so that makes me think Reactive Armor is a good choice after Mortar as was mentioned in this thread, gives the droids a possible second attack.

Explosive entry is very situational. I never got that much use out of it.

Yeah, I find it better in Twin Shadows, although it is good in a few Hoth maps too. It's best when the Rebels main DD is melee as they'll tend to end up standing beside deployment points after butchering the last round's deployment. If they're ranged heavy, it can be pretty worthless.

Explosive entry is very situational. I never got that much use out of it.

Yeah, I find it better in Twin Shadows, although it is good in a few Hoth maps too. It's best when the Rebels main DD is melee as they'll tend to end up standing beside deployment points after butchering the last round's deployment. If they're ranged heavy, it can be pretty worthless.

The most use I ever got out of it what if they were near a deployment point and I had enough threat to drop multiple deployments. With some tricky (but still legal) placement I could usually get Explosive Entry to trigger.

Probably not really worth it, although I think I did get enough damage to just about push one hero into wounded once.

Copied from my Hoth Campaign Thoughts and Reflections thread from a few months back:

Armored Onslaught was a complete Blast (pun fully intended). The starting ability to replace a die in an attack roll with a red die and add Blast resulted in a LOT of extra damage throughout the campaign.

My favorite combination was Maximum Firepower (remove a red die from a ranged attack and add 3 damage to the results) combined with Explosive Munitions. This allowed me to get within minimum range and hit really freaking hard. It was especially fun with Heavy Stormtroopers, with whom I could use the inherent +2 accuracy to hit rebels with a RR attack, one of which is guaranteed to be a 3-damage roll with Max Firepower.

The other standout card from this set is Mortar. Unopposed damage to at least one and potentially multiple heroes every round was a very powerful effect that I would not have traded for the world.

Duds: Armored Infantry (defensive rerolls on troopers next to Droids and and Vehicles) did not get triggered once, and automated repairs were only triggered twice throughout the campaign. Explosive Entry is super situational and is only worth buying if it's the last card you can afford on the last mission.

Best units with this deck:

ELITE PROBE DROIDS

I can chock up at least two direct victories to massive attacks from these beauties: Taking C3PO from 2 damage to dead in a single shot in the first side mission (6 damage), and taking Diala from 7 damage to wounded in a single shot in the finale (5 damage). Their low threat cost and high damage output makes them a threat throughout the campaign. Definitely my MVP unit.

HK Assassin Droids

These guys wreck face no matter the deck, but with the Reactive Armor upgrade they turn from Glass Cannon to just plain Cannon. Very fun units that were able to burn through white dice heroes like butter.

SC-2 M Repulsor Tank

Definitely one of my favorite open groups. The repulsor tank with Officer backup is a death dealing machine that can do half or more damage in a single activation to a hero. Great place for Reactive Armor as well as a great unit to use Restorative Supplies agenda on. I recommend buying the Armored Division agenda early on to reduce the threat cost of this beast to a very manageable 7.

Ya so far regular probe droids have been awesome, they die fast but their damage is incredible. Looking forward to the elite version as we move on in the campaign, makes me think that Reactive Armor might be a great purchase after Mortar.. or did you guys hold out for Power to Shields?

So for Power to the Shields, I can wait until the Rebel player says what they are planning to do before I have to pick what key word right?

Say they roll a surge, have a built in cleave but can also use the surge to stun, I can wait to see what they pick then cancel it? Or can they change their pick after I say what I want to use?

Just curious as it says 'when defending' so does that fall under Step 7 of the Attack sequence in RRG or any time between 1 and 7?

Ahh NM found it:

Page 6 Rules Reference booklet, 1st column under "Special situations regarding attacks"

• Any ability that is resolved “while attacking” or “while defending” can be used at any point during the attack with the following exceptions:
- An ability that adds dice to a dice pool can only be used immediately before step 2 of the attack.
- An ability that allows a player to reroll dice can only be used during step 3 of the attack.
- An ability that allows a player to modify die results can only be used during step 4 of the attack.

So basically you can use that at any point, that is very powerful assuming the player can't just change their mind after I say what I am doing?

Power to Shields can be used to remove Pierce just before step 7 of the attack, for Blast, Cleave and Condition keywords anytime during step 7. You can't go back in the attack steps. The decisions for using or not using abilities must be made in the order specified by the attack timing and simultaneous timing rules.

See the Ability Resolution Order During Attacks article from my signature. It also contains the relevant rules and a few other good to know things.

I never bought either of the 4xp upgrades (although I wish I could have refunded Explosive Entry and Armored Infantry) so I can't speak to them.

Reactive Armor is great and I recommend you grab that after Mortar (Mortar is priority one!). Once you start getting access to HKs you can put the armor on them for a massive survivability boost, allowing you to shred more filthy Rebels.

Ok wow so it really comes down to which ability, might have to print this list for reference. At least I know for sure if it is a surge ability then they have to pick first. Makes sense as it is a one use per round card.

There are only a couple of abilities though that are not strictly defined by what they do. Surge abilities are step 5. Non-surge abilities which are adding or removing symbols or accuracy are step 4. Rerolls are step 3. Abilities affecting the dice pool just before step 2. Abilities with Declaring target are of course step 1.

When you interpret carefully what the ability is doing, you know which step it must be used in (if it only has "while defending" or "while attacking").