I've got a session this afternoon with my group, I am studying the map trying to figure out how to pull out a win here. I have heard this one is pretty one sided to Imperials, but I figured I would get a discussion going anyway.

I've got two groups I play with, one is quite hardcore with experienced gamers, I always bring my A game there. This other group though was a few beginners so I took it easy on them to start, they have however snowballed a bit now and won 3 in a row leading up to this mission (and both story missions so far) so I would like to put that winning streak to an end.

I am running Armored Onslaught and have Mortar, I was saving up for Reactive Shields. I will have a chance to buy some agenda cards before this mission starts as I didn't upgrade last time so that might help.

For open groups I was thinking another Probe Droid (to pair with Sorin when he comes in), a Nexu (to help block the terminals/hallways to slow the Rebels down) and regular Trandoshan Hunters (because this is pretty close quarters and they might be able to use their full weight). The last one I am unsure, was thinking maybe an E-Web? But the heroes will be so close they could probably kill it before I can use it.

I am thinking I either need to try and make an equal stand at both blue terminals, or collapse to the bottom and just try and bog that hallway up as much as I possibly can. The mission can't progress unless both are interacted with so the longer it goes the better for me as threat just keeps increasing. I am thinking the heroes will bring an ally (either Ob-Wan or the Echo Base Troopers) so I could have some threat to work with off the bat. I think I need to save at least 4 threat at all times once they get that second terminal so I can cancel some surges.

Did you play with a wait for the Rebels to approach the terminals then strike approach or did you take the fight to them and re enforce/deploy as necessary?

Thoughts?

If the Rebels don't split up, it will take them too long and they'll get overwhelmed. If they do split up, try to keep them split up by keeping the ones at the lower terminal stuck down there with a Wampa and reinforcements. Once you get a unique on the board, protect them and try to utilize their abilities, the Rebels should be too pressed to properly deal with them, or if they do, they'll get overwhelmed.

If you just try to slow them down while minimizing your loses the first couple rounds, you should be able to build up enough forces to overwhelm them.

I don't remember what open groups I had. Probably storm troopers, officer and droid, but there are a lot of things that would work well, eweb, jet pack trooper, ISB agents etc. Heck, maybe bust out the Rancor.

Turns out all you have to do to win is just collapse on that bottom hallway. Basically made it impossible for them to get through and by the time they did they were all wounded.

Fenn made it interesting but his blast often would hit his own guys so they were more reluctant to use it, which was to my advantage.

I was thinking one or both trandoshens(diala/biotic arm counter), Ewing guard(recover option and reroll), snow trooper(heal), and a possible royal guard for stun. I am aware that those are all expensive but I thought that with a starting threat of 4 i could make it work. I am running with presion training and have versetle attack and 3 xp going into return to echo base. they could bring echo troopers. thoughts, sugestions and or otherwise? speak now or forever hold your peas.

put everything on one terminal, body block that **** for as long as possible. Save threat for the negative successes.

Yeah, I just let the Rebels have one terminal while I swarmed the other.

To make things worse, their swarm killers (Vinto and Fenn) went to the terminal that was clear, where they were relatively useless- while Mak (relatively useful) and Murne (relatively less so) had to fight all my troopers.

9 month old post.

22 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

9 month old post.

whatever every post has relevance. except for maybe these two

At the risk of seeing someone write "14 month old post..."

I call upon all Imperials for strategy advice!

I'm pretty worried about this mission, to be honest. I know the prevailing wisdom seems to be that you abandon the North terminal, swarm the South terminal, and delay the rebels long enough so that threat becomes overwhelming (while saving sufficient threat to combat the final test). So, cakewalk right? Except... what if they blitz? Now it gets tricky.

My rebels are Diala, Mak, MHD and Jyn. Threat level four. One bane. No allies. Tech superiority deck. (Imperial industry, exp arms and cloak attachments). They have recently been defeated by playing too conservatively, so I'm certain they will split up and beeline to the two terminals.

1. They can blitz and get heros to the north and south terminals (and even be interacting) in round one.

2. All heros have ready access to focus and force adept. Terminals can be claimed and heros can already be advancing to the red terminal by round two.

3. This leaves me with the difficult proposition of abandoning *both* blue terminals and drop all my forces back to the red (final) terminal right away instead of attacking. Once a hero or two reaches that terminal, t he game can be over in as little as two turns.

In any event, ‎ I'm struggling to see a path to victory under these circumstances. Am I missing something? Is an early swarm of the red terminal the right play? What units disrupt a blitz best? How best to use my attachments and wampas? I call upon the master strategists here!

If you have Imperial Industry and Tech Superiority then the mission should not be hard to win. If you can have some combination of Hired Guns with Imperial Industry, Dengar and Royal Guards, you should be basically just stunning all of the Rebels every single round. That's roughly how my playthrough ended up going, the Rebels turned into molasses right at the end and couldn't even get close to the final terminal before time ran out.

The mission actually heavily favors the Imperials, 80% Imperial win rate according to the poll over on BGG. I think you are overestimating their chances in your moment of triumph.

16 hours ago, Tvboy said:

If you have Imperial Industry and Tech Superiority then the mission should not be hard to win. If you can have some combination of Hired Guns with Imperial Industry, Dengar and Royal Guards, you should be basically just stunning all of the Rebels every single round.

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, death by a thousand stuns can be good ?

I guess I just worry that I won't be able to field those units in time to stop heros from getting to the red terminal. Bear with me here:

Round 1 - Jyn reaches south terminal in one activation. After force throw, MHD reaches north terminal, performs first test. Wampas move to red terminal.

Round 2 - Threat 4. Hired guns with imperial industry deployed. Jyn does 2 tests, then gets stunned. MHD does 2nd test, he and Diala head to red terminal. Dengar stuns MHD. Wampas block 4 of six spaces around the terminal.

Round 3 - Threat 5, 4 banked to defend terminal. Diala force throws MHD to terminal, strain moves to terminal, makes a focused attempt. Mhd removes stun, makes his own focused attempt. Wampas take a few swipes.

At this point, 2 heros with 6 dice each, plus force adept, are established at the terminal and already making attempts. Stun no longer makes a difference. The game is over as early as round 4. I simply don't have enough firepower at that point to withdraw them. Most of my open groups remain undeployed.

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That's roughly how my playthrough ended up going, the Rebels turned into molasses right at the end and couldn't even get close to the final terminal before time ran out.

I like the idea of rebel molasses! Now, admittedly, the scenario above assumes no rebel mistakes. But if they are already at both terminals by the end of round 1 (with MHD even interacting in round 1), is my only option pulling *every* imperial back to the red terminal immediately, not even making an attack, and hope for the best? Or placing imperial industry on a droid instead of waiting for hired guns?

6 hours ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, death by a thousand stuns can be good ?

I guess I just worry that I won't be able to field those units in time to stop heros from getting to the red terminal. Bear with me here:

Round 1 - Jyn reaches south terminal in one activation. After force throw, MHD reaches north terminal, performs first test. Wampas move to red terminal.

If you are afraid of the Blitz, you can put Experimental Arms on the normal Wampa, and have him be your first activation. With Hunger, he will be able to reach the Rebel starting point and then use the +1 surge to guarantee a stun on any of the 3 remaining heroes. Put the Imperial Industry (and Cloak) on the Snowtroopers (they will appreciate the +1 dmg surge as well) and have them stun whoever rushed the southern terminal and then move to the middle section, clogging up the tunnel if you can. Looking at the map now, I think a regular Nexu would actually be the better choice for your first deployment here since you will need to deploy Imp Industry early on the Snowtroopers to get the stun train going. If you deploy the Nexu in the north deployment, you can use it to muck up that 2-space hallway leading from the north terminal to the red terminal, and its Bleed condition will pair nicely with your Stun shenanigans.

8 hours ago, Tvboy said:

If you are afraid of the Blitz, you can put Experimental Arms on the normal Wampa, and have him be your first activation. With Hunger, he will be able to reach the Rebel starting point and then use the +1 surge to guarantee a stun on any of the 3 remaining heroes.

I like this idea! The three white dice heros have a lot of evade potential, but if I can stun MHD, that could really slow them down (especially if they are sticking close to him for heal and clearing harmful conditions). Retreating that wampa to the red terminal immediately felt like a waste of potential.

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Put the Imperial Industry (and Cloak) on the Snowtroopers (they will appreciate the +1 dmg surge as well) and have them stun whoever rushed the southern terminal and then move to the middle section, clogging up the tunnel if you can.

Interesting... I thought about that, but hesitated owing to only 30% chance of a surge against white dice. However, it's still 3 figures, and even the *threat* of Imperial Industry might make the heros delay and play more cautiously, which would be a win against a blitz! I got a little hung up on reserving imperial industry for the hired guns with exp arms, but in a mission where the first round is so vital, distributing those attachments to other groups seems like a smart play.

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Looking at the map now, I think a regular Nexu would actually be the better choice for your first deployment here since you will need to deploy Imp Industry early on the Snowtroopers to get the stun train going. If you deploy the Nexu in the north deployment, you can use it to muck up that 2-space hallway leading from the north terminal to the red terminal, and its Bleed condition will pair nicely with your Stun shenanigans.

Yes! The more I think about it, the more a Nexu makes sense. Incredible mobility for a big map, bleed, good blocking ability...

See? Accept no substitutes. Ask the pros! ?

Still debating about moving the elite wampa to the red terminal right away as some insurance against an early blitz, or into the fray in the south to work on wounding them.

For open groups, I'm leaning towards rImperialOfficer (agenda card), rNexu, rHiredGuns, rProbeDroid, , and either rTrandos or rRoyalGuards. Dengar, Sorin and eProbeDroid in reserve.

I will say, I got lucky on this one. I expected that the Ion Canon terminal would take several tests before it was complete, but my Rebels managed to be very successful when testing it. I was only one or two successes away from a loss by the time I managed to track down the final Rebel.

Side note- that final healthy Rebel was trying to escape- this is a big map with some potential LOS issues- make sure you're prepared to pick off any Rebels for trying the "Hide the final healthy hero" strategy, and be ready to punish that tactic by focusing fire on the objective runners, even if wounded already. I hate to eliminate a player from a mission, but that type of strategy can really be taken advantage of by the Rebels if the Imp plays too nice.

4 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

I will say, I got lucky on this one. I expected that the Ion Canon terminal would take several tests before it was complete, but my Rebels managed to be very successful when testing it. I was only one or two successes away from a loss by the time I managed to track down the final Rebel.

Yeah, I ran the numbers through the attack simulator and it looked like a focused hero has a very good chance at 3 successes per attempt, even with using threat to take away a surge. Get two heros at a terminal and it will get ugly, fast.

4 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Side note- that final healthy Rebel was trying to escape- this is a big map with some potential LOS issues- make sure you're prepared to pick off any Rebels for trying the "Hide the final healthy hero" strategy, and be ready to punish that tactic by focusing fire on the objective runners, even if wounded already. I hate to eliminate a player from a mission, but that type of strategy can really be taken advantage of by the Rebels if the Imp plays too nice.

Excellent advice. No quarter asked, no quarter given. These are canny, strategic rebels. It would be disrespectful to *not* withdraw them ?

13 hours ago, totalnoob said:

Also, being able to wound whoever has the strongest attribute tests is significant. Just limiting their options of who the rebels want to take the tests at the end is pretty important. Being able to apply threat for -1 against a wounded attribute test gets pretty daunting.

Good luck, and long live the Empire!!

Good points. Unfortunately they are all pretty strong on the tests, but wounding the advance objective runners will be key, no doubt!

Thanks for the feedback ?

On 07/01/2017 at 2:24 PM, Union said:

If the Rebels don't split up, it will take them too long and they'll get overwhelmed. If they do split up, try to keep them split up by keeping the ones at the lower terminal stuck down there with a Wampa and reinforcements.

This is what I'm trying to prepare for. The blitz. ?

Would you stick to reinforcing the south and bogging two heros down there even if the other two heros advance on the red terminal? ?

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I realize it's an old thread and much of this is probably obvious to you, but as a new Imperial it's very helpful to get the input.

I was successful but the rebels made me work for it! I tried the strategy of experimental arms on the wampa to try to get a stun right off the bat, but the target rolled an evade. Then, as expected, they blitzed the two terminals (Mak and MHD north, Jyn and Diala south). They correctly deduced that the game was headed for the red terminal, so after a focused MHD captured the north terminal in ONE try, Mak beat a path to the red terminal and was camped out on it by the end of round two. One of my snowtroopers with imperial industry managed to stun Jyn, so she was only able to capture the south terminal at the beginning of round three. Then it was endgame!

I was worried, but I managed to keep both entrances to the red terminal room fairly blocked up as all my forces collapsed back from the north and the south. The heros' luck evaporated a bit once it came to the terminal, getting only a couple of successes per try from a focused Mak and I did my best to keep the other rebels out of that room, while building threat and trying to wound him (no easy task when the little goat guy rolled 4 consecutive dodges!). The delay was just enough however, as I managed to flip first Jyn and then MHD, so that by the time they reached the terminal, their wounded attribute tests, along with my threat defence, kept them from more successes. I withdrew both heros amidst a hellish room filled with the blood of rebel and imperial forces, and managed to wound Mak, but not before he got two more successes.

Now it was down to the jedi. Diala managed to get within force throw range of the terminal, tossing away a meat shield and hoping to make a focused attempt by the next round to win the game. It was not to be however. The 2 wampas and the nexu, scenting Jedi blood, converged on her and turned her into a tasty treat, ripping her apart in three attacks. She really could have used a dodge, but got nary a one. To her credit, she went for the victory when she could have run away and healed up. So, tight game, rebels made mostly all the right decisions, had some bad luck with rolls near the end and that was the game!

if Diala is played anything like the way we played it, she probably won't be a problem, Hopefully, trandos will fix any problems with her. mass stun is the best possible way, have expansive open groups because of scaling threat level

The rebels played Diala smart, abusing force throw every turn to advance on or clear out objectives, saving strain for multiple force adept rerolls, resting to provide focus - amazing team support. Unfortunately that role also delayed her getting to the red terminal in time to make a final attempt that could have won the game. It was a white knuckle match.

In my game I used all fairly low cost regulars - rOfficer, rNexu, rHiredGuns, rProbeDroid, rTrandos

They blitzed the objectives so **** fast I would have lost if I'd had to wait for elites! Even the rTrandos only made an appearance on my final round (round four I believe). The Wampas ended up being surprisingly effective as my heavy hitters.

wapas are good at that if you are running away from them, with hunger and proper positioning.