I've been playing X-Wing casually and love it. I was told to check out Imperial Assault, so I have some noob questions for y'all.

1. What's the youngest age that can play this? I have a couple kids between 6-8 that can play X-Wing ok, as long as their pilots and abilities are straight-forward. Are the rules in IA able to be "simplified"?

2. Can this game be played solo or co-operatively? A co-op campaign against a "AI/script" would be fun for my kids.

3. Are there different "game modes"?

4. If I get the game what are considered "essentials" to start with?

5. I love bounty hunters like Dengar, Boba Fett, IG-88 and Bossk. Do these all come in their own separate "expansions"?

6. Does the game have a lot of replay value if played non-competitively?

7. Is IA coming out with an IOS app in the near future?

8. Does amazon.us have a good price for IA, or are there better websites to purchase from?

Thanks for your time and help!

1. Basic rules are fairly simple. For campaign, there is a lot of extra stuff going on though - characters can pick up lots of different abilities. This would probably be the toughest part. One other thing is that some campaign missions can be somewhat complicated. You may be able to simplify the game, but depending on how simple you want to go you might lose a lot of the game's depth. Though you may be able to get around this by picking some of the simpler heroes/abilities - things like 'exhaust this card to do extra damage' are much easier to keep track of then totally new abilities. Skirmish is simpler, particularly if you take out Command Cards (essentially, a random deck of extra effects each player uses).

2. Campaign is played with one Imperial player, 1-4 Rebels. Though less than four heroes gets a little wonky - honestly the game plays better with at least 3 or preferably 4 heroes, even if someone has to control more than one. Though this adds to the difficulty of running a character. There are unofficial options for automating the Imperial player.Skirmish is 1 v 1 as standard, with 3-4 player options first introduced into Return to Hoth.

3. As mentioned, Campaign vs Skirmish. There are two kinds of campaigns - full (10+ missions) and mini (Around 4 missions). Big box expansions have full, small boxes have mini.

4. The Core Set, of course. Boxed expansions then usually give you the best bang for your buck, and a lot of figure packs need them. Value of figure packs is harder to judge, as it depends on what you are looking for.

5. Yes, currently all the ESB bounty hunters are available as their own villain packs, with the exception of 4-Lom/Zuckuss (Who we will get at some point). One thing to note is that you don't need the villain packs to use them - they are each associated with a boxed release which provides a cardboard token/card for them, the packs are just to get the mini and a mission to take them in campaign (plus some other stuff like skirmish maps that each pack comes with).

6. Sure. Each campaign is probably worth at least two-three runs, and skirmish has a ton of options.

7. Define 'soon'. We know that they are working on one, but that's about all we know at this stage.

Thanks for the reply Abyss! What are the current "boxed expansions"?

Thanks for the reply Abyss! What are the current "boxed expansions"?

1) https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-imperial-assault/products/twin-shadows/

2) https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/8/1/return-to-hoth/

3) https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/4/the-bespin-gambit/

And soon, Jabba's Realm; https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/8/5/jabbas-realm/

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164153/star-wars-imperial-assault/expansions

Core Box

Twin Shadows (small)

Return to Hoth (big)

Bespin Gambit (small)

Jabba's Realm (big - not quite yet shipping, but soon)

The figure expansions either replace tokens of their corresponding boxed expansion, or are completely standalone "Reinforcement Waves".

Always start with the core box. After playing a bit you'll have a better idea what you will want out of the game.

There are 30+ campaign missions in the core box. Each playthrough of the campaign is 11-14 missions (1-3 hours each), so there is a lot of replay value. With the different heroes, different skills for them, different items drawn and purchased, and different imperial class decks, and other variables like hidden choices and dice rolls, even the missions you might play again in a second play of the campaign will play differently.

The core campaign has at least 2-3 plays in it without anything additional needed. But you probably will get expansions at some point, probably sooner than later.

One further thing to note about the Bounty Hunters (and almost all ally/villain packs, really)- You need to have the boxed expansion they're associated with. Basically, you need each box expansion to play the ally/villains from that wave.

This list breaks it down pretty well for what you need to have for each hero.

If you want to be on the same team as your kids, try looking at redjak's automated empire varient. Not sure how well it works, but I know it has been tested. I am pretty sure there is an app as well.

Great stuff! Thanks! Is there anyone who paints these things for a reasonable price? I wouldn't trust myself to do it right, but I think it would make the game more immersive. Kind of why I like X-Wing so much.

My Daughter is 11 now and she's been playing Heroclix for a couple of years. She was able to pick up IA pretty quickly - she loves the narrative/campiagn style of play (even in HC, we build stories to theme up the game); my son is 14 and has been into 40k since he was about 8, the more complex the better for him, X-Wing and Armada were hits straightaway but he's only just warming up to IA Skirmish now that there is some diversity.

You know what your kids can handle, but the game is pretty self contained - just like the other FFG Star Wars offerings - everything is in the box, and there's enough to keep you keen.

Great stuff! Thanks! Is there anyone who paints these things for a reasonable price? I wouldn't trust myself to do it right, but I think it would make the game more immersive. Kind of why I like X-Wing so much.

Honestly, I'd suggest giving it a try yourself. I'm not at all a painter (I used to casually paint Games Workshop's LOTR line a little as a kid, but I was honestly pretty horrible) but I picked up some acryllic paints at Wal-Mart this October and had all seven waves painted much to my satisfaction within a month. Honestly, I was amazed at what I did. It's far from professional quality, but it's really something you can still take a lot of pride in, and it's a ton of fun.

Great stuff! Thanks! Is there anyone who paints these things for a reasonable price? I wouldn't trust myself to do it right, but I think it would make the game more immersive. Kind of why I like X-Wing so much.

Honestly, I'd suggest giving it a try yourself. I'm not at all a painter (I used to casually paint Games Workshop's LOTR line a little as a kid, but I was honestly pretty horrible) but I picked up some acryllic paints at Wal-Mart this October and had all seven waves painted much to my satisfaction within a month. Honestly, I was amazed at what I did. It's far from professional quality, but it's really something you can still take a lot of pride in, and it's a ton of fun.

I'm guessing there are youtube tutorials on it. My issue is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm rarely satisfied with work that I do if I know a professional could have done it better. But, anything is probably better than non-painted grey figures.

It doesn't take much to produce very good tabletop-quality painted miniatures.

The issue is that for each technique you learn, your own goals go up.

When you have the equipment ready, it might take an hour to get half a dozen figures into a passable condition, but washing, shading and highlighting, retouching, basing and coating can take 4-5 times that. You just have to stop tinkering at some point and finish the job.

Great stuff! Thanks! Is there anyone who paints these things for a reasonable price? I wouldn't trust myself to do it right, but I think it would make the game more immersive. Kind of why I like X-Wing so much.

Honestly, I'd suggest giving it a try yourself. I'm not at all a painter (I used to casually paint Games Workshop's LOTR line a little as a kid, but I was honestly pretty horrible) but I picked up some acryllic paints at Wal-Mart this October and had all seven waves painted much to my satisfaction within a month. Honestly, I was amazed at what I did. It's far from professional quality, but it's really something you can still take a lot of pride in, and it's a ton of fun.

I'm guessing there are youtube tutorials on it. My issue is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm rarely satisfied with work that I do if I know a professional could have done it better. But, anything is probably better than non-painted grey figures.

I'd check out Sorastro, or some of the threads here even. There are some techniques you'll want to try, like drybrushing and washing.

As far as $ goes, you can do it pretty cheap. Since you're not a pro (as neither am I) there's no reason to invest in expensive Citadel paints.

Just get acryllic bottles for like 50 cents apiece at Wal-Mart. You can probably get all the paint you need for under 20 bucks, which would be like only 4 or 5 colors with Citadel (not to mention, you'd get less of each color with name brands, too).

Invest in a good brush- Army has a set on Amazon that has 3 brushes and runs about 10 bucks.

Get some primer, about 3-4 dollars.

Total, you're looking at roughly $35, and that's assuming you get a ton of paint.

And I wouldn't worry about perfectionism- first of all, it's not that hard to paint over figures. Second, just know your limits. You don't need to paint eyes if you don't think you can. You can barely even tell, anyway, especially when they're on the table.

Great stuff! Thanks! Is there anyone who paints these things for a reasonable price? I wouldn't trust myself to do it right, but I think it would make the game more immersive. Kind of why I like X-Wing so much.

Honestly, I'd suggest giving it a try yourself. I'm not at all a painter (I used to casually paint Games Workshop's LOTR line a little as a kid, but I was honestly pretty horrible) but I picked up some acryllic paints at Wal-Mart this October and had all seven waves painted much to my satisfaction within a month. Honestly, I was amazed at what I did. It's far from professional quality, but it's really something you can still take a lot of pride in, and it's a ton of fun.

I'm guessing there are youtube tutorials on it. My issue is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm rarely satisfied with work that I do if I know a professional could have done it better. But, anything is probably better than non-painted grey figures.

I'd check out Sorastro, or some of the threads here even. There are some techniques you'll want to try, like drybrushing and washing.

As far as $ goes, you can do it pretty cheap. Since you're not a pro (as neither am I) there's no reason to invest in expensive Citadel paints.

Just get acryllic bottles for like 50 cents apiece at Wal-Mart. You can probably get all the paint you need for under 20 bucks, which would be like only 4 or 5 colors with Citadel (not to mention, you'd get less of each color with name brands, too).

Invest in a good brush- Army has a set on Amazon that has 3 brushes and runs about 10 bucks.

Get some primer, about 3-4 dollars.

Total, you're looking at roughly $35, and that's assuming you get a ton of paint.

And I wouldn't worry about perfectionism- first of all, it's not that hard to paint over figures. Second, just know your limits. You don't need to paint eyes if you don't think you can. You can barely even tell, anyway, especially when they're on the table.

As I think you know, painting minis is a hobby all unto itself. but you can get good table top quality even from craft paints. Just invest in a good couple of brushes, and make sure you thin your paints down enough so you don't lose the details. FFGs plastic figures have gotten very good quality to them, and you can get really good results with just a bit of effort.

There's repetition, but my tips:

- get a good fine brush for detail work, a little bigger for general work (basecoating, area painting)

- thin the paint enough

- don't worry about errant strips of paint, you are expected to paint over at least once anyway (if you make a mistake, clean a bit, paint again)

- get a magnifying visor to save your eyes (if you want to take pictures, this is a must, because the camera sees everything)

- don't try to learn it all at once - keep it fun

I have a 6, 11 and 13 year old. The campaign doesn't really work in my opinion, however skirmish is a lot of fun. We sometimes just build random maps(they like that) and just battle it out using skirmish. I would say infinite replay value…but really who cares, its not like they will play the game forever..it hits the table once a month maybe. I can't see playing any board game more than once/twice a month. We have absolutely zero time to paint, between lacrosse, swimming, etc etc…so what I like is no assembly, maps (no terrain) and a simple dice driven combat system..all contained on a card that they can easily read/visualize. I'd buy the box set through Amazon, if you don't like it..return it. Simple enough.

May want to wait for the app to be released. Even then it may take a while before the app is really good.

In the mean time, Descent has it's app out and is nearly the same game.