Our group has found that the strongest part if Hutt Mercenaries is actually the Guild Hunters 4xp card. To the point where we concluded that this is probably the strongest Imperial card in the entire game.

Unlike the burst damage cards the strength of this card might not be obvious at first glance, but here are some advantages:

1. All scum starts with the hidden condition, which makes it harder to hit them, and gives them a free surge on their first attack.
2. All Imperial Figures on the board gains 3 new surge options, where one of them is Pierce 2.
3. It's not limited by bounty tokens like most other strong Hutt Mercenaries cards.

These things adds up to an insane amount of benefit when using Scum figures, and it's not some singular attachment but a constant effect on everybody! Just look at these crazy gains:

Green = Hired Guns vs Black Defense Dice.

Red = Hidden Hired Guns w Guild Hunter surges vs Black Defense Dice.

Graph

And even for non-scum figures, such as Stormtroopers, who normally only has one surge option for +1 damage, the extra 2 Pierce option is super useful. The Guild Hunters +1 damage option also grants 2 extra accuracy, so you can hit from really far away and not compromise your damage.

Hired Guns is a favorite (you keep reinforcing them with a new Hidden condition, and even if the heroes kill them before they die they get to shoot!), but it makes all Scum units completely amazing.

And that Hidden application applies to ALL deployments, right? Initial, reserve, and optional? That's really strong.

Initial groups are also deployed - you can add attachments to them. When mission events put groups on the map, the mission rules usually deploy the groups. Optional deployments have both deployments and reinforcements.

Only reinforcements do not benefit, and of course all non-mercenary deployments.

6 hours ago, Bitterman said:

What form is the kicker supposed to take?

I didn't see the Dev's statement myself, but from what I've read:

If one side loses a story mission and they had lost the previous story mission then they receive the full rewards for the recent loss.

So both sides receive the rewards as though they had won the mission. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this house rule. I could see the extra XP or money/Influence, but not both.

6 hours ago, Bitterman said:

I admit I'm only two missions into the Jabba campaign so far, but if the Hutt Mercenaries deck gets OP later I can't wait to see it because so far it sucks.

First mission, five turns, total of +5 damage (total Hero health: 54). Second (side) mission, over in four turns, total of +3 damage (because on one turn I wasn't able to attack a Hero who still had a Bounty Token). In the next mission we play, only one Hero still has a Bounty Token so I'll be lucky to get +5 damage out of it again (all on that one guy - one Rest and the benefit is gone). And since I've lost both missions so far - close in both cases, but I still lost - I only have 2 XP which doesn't seem enough to get any of the good skills (I'm holding out for the 4 XP skills which look quite tasty).

So far, it's basically been worth an average of +4 damage per mission. Meanwhile, Onar Komu just got a Reward from his Side Mission that gives him a free up to +3 damage per turn - enough to outright kill many of the models I can afford to put on the board at this low threat, without even using an attack.

Yeah, y'know what, I can't wait for it to get OP, if that's what happens; because as of now it's practically worthless. It might be better if the Bounty Tokens were restored at the start of a mission so at least I can be confident of getting something out of it each turn. Yeah, my opinion has been formed after only after two missions and so far having taken no extra skills, so I openly admit I'm maybe not in the best position to say. But by the time I get anything good out of this skill deck, the Heroes will all be invincible killing machines.

I don't think you can use a house rule (recommended by dev or otherwise) to tell people they're doing it wrong. If he's playing by the rules, what else is he supposed to do? If the devs think that three wins in a row should give the other guys a bonus, maybe they should write that into the rules instead of keeping it a secret? I've never heard of such a suggestion before. What form is the kicker supposed to take?

I mean, this is just with the starting Class card, right? +1 damage per round is kind of the norm for starting Imperial class cards, in early missions at least. There are ones that start stronger, but not most of them. For example:

Military Might - one of the strongest - exhaust for Focus, which is 1 surge, 1 damage/1surge, or 2 damage, and some accuracy

Subversive Tactics - fairly weak - exhaust for +1 Strain or +1 evade, Rebel's choice

Technological Superiority - very strong - giving up to +3 surge per round, but at the cost of an equal amount of damage to your troops

Inspiring Leadership - weaker (in terms of damage), exhaust for Order, so no damage but added tactical flexibility

Armored Onslaught - very strong - exhaust to swap for a red die and gain Blast 1, so quite a bit of potential damage there but at a cost of accuracy

Precision Training - reasonably strong - an extra reroll on up to 3 attacks, and a reroll equates to ~.5 damage on average so sometimes as much as +1.5 damage per round

Imperial Black Ops - fairly strong - exhaust for Hidden, which is at least +1 surge

Nemeses - fairly strong - +1 surge or +1 evade per round, if you can match traits

So, seems comparable to other ones. You have the disadvantage of only being able to use it on heroes with bounty tokens, but the advantage of being able to choose +1 surge or +1 damage (and having that choice is pretty powerful).

I am halfway through another solo campaign with Hutt mercenaries.

Playing it properly definitely does temper it to where it is strong but not OP.

I will have to give Guild Hunters a shot, went for Most Wanted first again, but i think I can salvage the build.

4 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

I didn't see the Dev's statement myself, but from what I've read:

If one side loses a story mission and they had lost the previous story mission then they receive the full rewards for the recent loss.

So both sides receive the rewards as though they had won the mission. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this house rule. I could see the extra XP or money/Influence, but not both.

Yeah, that's too much. If you (as the side due the "kicker") get the full reward either way, why bother playing the mission at all?

But this is probably best suited for another thread.

7 hours ago, Drakim said:

Our group has found that the strongest part if Hutt Mercenaries is actually the Guild Hunters 4xp card. To the point where we concluded that this is probably the strongest Imperial card in the entire game.

I'm not surprised to hear this; it's why I'm saving up my XP for it, instead of picking up some 1 or 2 XP cards to start with. (The downside being, it looks like I'm going to lose the first four missions before I get it, during which the Heroes will get at least 8 XP). Definitely looks like the pick of the class, without having actually played it yet.

Whatever the campaign, I feel the rebels are usually very well off if they win the first side mission.

Taking that into account, if the rebels are saving XP, you can too.

I think the main appeal of Guild Hunters is that it gives some good surges to units who doesn't usually have that many good surges; that and the fact that hidden makes getting surges much more reliable. The Elite Gammorean Guards, who seldom roll surges, suddenly get the option to Pierce2 almost automatically, and if they roll an else wasted surge they can use it for +1dmg. Hired Guns suddenly get something to use all their surges on, as do Stormtroopers, especially the focused elite ones who often have a surge extra to spare.

Yeah, I think Guild Hunters is the strongest card. Almost any card that helps every unit is going to be the strongest, like the pierce 1 to everything card in Precision Training is very strong when spamming lots of units.

I think it's tempered somewhat by the fact that scum units tend to be a bit weaker. Like Wing Guard aren't quite on par with Storm Troopers, Hired Guns aren't quite on par with Jet Troopers (although parting shot is situationally priceless), Weequay aren't quite on par with ISB agents. Although eGamoreans are probably better than rRoyal Guard even without the stun.

But the surge options are really good for most units and make probe droids really dangerous and even are a pretty big boost to officers which are already top tier units.

5 hours ago, Union said:

Yeah, I think Guild Hunters is the strongest card. Almost any card that helps every unit is going to be the strongest, like the pierce 1 to everything card in Precision Training is very strong when spamming lots of units.

I think it's tempered somewhat by the fact that scum units tend to be a bit weaker. Like Wing Guard aren't quite on par with Storm Troopers, Hired Guns aren't quite on par with Jet Troopers (although parting shot is situationally priceless), Weequay aren't quite on par with ISB agents. Although eGamoreans are probably better than rRoyal Guard even without the stun.

But the surge options are really good for most units and make probe droids really dangerous and even are a pretty big boost to officers which are already top tier units.

Don't forget you have Nexu and Trandoshans, both of which are very good especially in the early missions (when I guess you wouldn't have this card. But anyway).

Also, I'm guessing that if you're playing JR, you get a lot of Mercs as initial and reserved groups.

13 hours ago, Stompburger said:

Also, I'm guessing that if you're playing JR, you get a lot of Mercs as initial and reserved groups.

The theme of Jabba's Realm, at least at the start of the campaign is that you are working for Jabba. For most of the story missions, one choice is an imperial mission (as in primarily fighting imp units), and one is a scum mission (primarily fighting merc units).

On 1/8/2017 at 7:06 PM, Deadwolf said:

hmm, well ****.

Okay, I was playing it wrong. Treats me right for skimming the rule book.

I'm fairly certain that your original interpretation are correct. Bounty Tokens do not persist across missions because tokens cannot persist above missions. One of the steps in concluding a mission is retrieving all tokens. On the start of the next mission, nobody has any bounty tokens so everybody grabs new ones.

To put it another way, lets say a hero finishes a mission with the following tokens: 5 damage tokens, 4 strain tokens, 3 device tokens, 2 activation tokens, 2 crate tokens, a stun token, a weaken token, a bleed token, a hidden token, a mission token, and a bounty token. Which tokens do you carry over to the next mission? None of them*, because only figures have tokens and figures stop existing when there is no mission to host them.

* Actually IIRC, the RRG never actually tells you to collect anything but strain/damage/device tokens, so rules as written you get to keep accumulating activation/crate/condition/bounty tokens. Technically you could start the next mission stunned, bleeding, and with 4 activation tokens (2 + claim another 2 every mission!). But it's obviously silly because the game is designed for you to retrieve all tokens at the end of the mission, just like with bounty tokens.

3 hours ago, xachariah said:

I'm fairly certain that your original interpretation are correct. Bounty Tokens do not persist across missions because tokens cannot persist above missions. One of the steps in concluding a mission is retrieving all tokens. On the start of the next mission, nobody has any bounty tokens so everybody grabs new ones.

To put it another way, lets say a hero finishes a mission with the following tokens: 5 damage tokens, 4 strain tokens, 3 device tokens, 2 activation tokens, 2 crate tokens, a stun token, a weaken token, a bleed token, a hidden token, a mission token, and a bounty token. Which tokens do you carry over to the next mission? None of them*, because only figures have tokens and figures stop existing when there is no mission to host them.

* Actually IIRC, the RRG never actually tells you to collect anything but strain/damage/device tokens, so rules as written you get to keep accumulating activation/crate/condition/bounty tokens. Technically you could start the next mission stunned, bleeding, and with 4 activation tokens (2 + claim another 2 every mission!). But it's obviously silly because the game is designed for you to retrieve all tokens at the end of the mission, just like with bounty tokens.

You're right about heroes discarding all tokens at the end of a missions, but in the rules for the Jabba's realm campaign it says explicitly:

"Unlike other tokens, heroes do not discard Bounty tokens at the end of a mission during 'Post-Mission Cleanup'"

So there doesn't really need to be any debate on this.

Yeah, bounty tokens persist between missions.

The whole point of the bounty tokens is to get around the imperial player always attacking the weakest heroes first, which would not be realized if all heroes started every mission with bounty tokens.

As for conditions persisting: Heroes are deployed at the start of the mission, thus they enter the game ready and with no conditions or other tokens (apart from Bounty tokens), just like any other figures that are deployed.