26 minutes ago, Norgrath said:

The thing is: "power creep" implies to me, and I think most people, that the problem is with the new figures rather than the old which is rather counterproductive.

To add to this, the reason we have this discussion is because power creep is a matter of perception. Imperial Assault skirmish is doing well in a lot of areas and far from struggling overall, but we don't have the numbers of X-wing or Heroclix where we can afford to be so casually negative. Suggesting stuff coming out is power creep is going to turn off potential new players, since it will seem like purchasing anything older than the latest wave is going to be a waste of money, and the new stuff only has a few months before it too becomes obsolete.

Norgath hits the nail on the head, when we discuss power creep it creates the perception that the new figures are exceedingly powerful relative to older figures, and the blame is placed on the new figures for being too powerful. But in the case of Imperial Assault, the problem is and always has been the old figures, which fell well below the power curve established by non-uniques in the core box. This upgrade for IG-88 pulls him up from the depths of uselessness and puts him along the power curve. He isn't better than other 12 similarly costed viable figures, but he's far from a bad investment.

I certainly understand the argument. I agree that the original uniques were not good for skirmish. I will place the power curve at Bespin. If I start reading how Bespin figures were always worthless when (IF) new figures make Bespin+ figures obsolete, then we must agree that power creep is happening. Right now I don't see it, and I'm watching a close as anyone. Still I have much more faith in the current designers, who definitely seem interested in not allowing creep to get away from them, but it happens in so many games, including the Star Wars fan's sister-game by the same company, X-wing. I cannot blame people sitting on their horse preparing to ride out, yelling Tthe power creep is coming! The power creep is coming!"

1 hour ago, a1bert said:

The combined card should also say "Cannot have Skirmish Attachments with this version".

Updated, updated version.

You forgot the strain icon. *Hides in the corner*

2 hours ago, tomkat364 said:

Would you say that Gaarkhan is even LESS useful now than he was when the core box was the only source of figures? This focus on the meta, which includes very few lists which are considered to be the creme de la creme, is like saying you cannot make the statement that "cars have gotten a lot better in the past 30 years" by comparing the 2016 Honda Civic to the 1986 Gremlin, because the Gremlin was never a particularly good car. It existed, people drove it. It may have sucked then, but it sucks more now. Right?

Well, there is no such thing as a 1986 Gremlin, because they were only produced from 1970-1978. Regardless, the proper comparison for a Gremlin wouldn't be a Honda Civic (subcompact vs. compact), it would be something like a Ford Fiesta (subcompact vs. subcompact). Is a 2016 Ford Fiesta better than a 1978 AMC Gremlin? Yes, because we don't have the same technological stagnation that the Star Wars galaxy does. If you drive a Fiesta now, you probably have very similar reasons to a Gremlin driver in 1979. Either you really want the fuel economy, or the subcompact size matters, or you just don't have many other options. A Fiesta is still a joke in 2017, even if it will never be as much of a joke as the Gremlin (or the Fiesta's predecessor, the Pinto).

But even that misses the point.

I DON'T WANT FFG PRINTING NEW STUFF THAT IS AS BAD AS GAARKHAN, BECAUSE I DON'T WANT THEM PRINTING NEW STUFF THAT IS UNPLAYABLY BAD. FFG dramatically overpriced or underpowered a majority of unique figures in Wave I: Gaarkhan, IG-88, Darth Vader, General Weiss, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Fenn Signis, and Mak. And then the RGC, Diala, and Jyn are all moderately overpriced or underpowered. The only Wave I uniques that were good even during Wave I are Luke and Gideon (who are both still playable). Yeah, there is probably some powercreep. The only way to avoid that is to never print stuff that is as good as the good stuff in the core set. Because as soon as you print one figure that is as good as the good stuff in the core set, bad stuff from the core set will be replaced in lists with the new good figure. In fact, if you want to avoid power creep at all costs, you have to print stuff that is specifically worse than existing figures, because even average-strength new releases can introduce strong unforeseen combos.

The history of Imperial Assault's balance isn't primarily one of powercreep. It is one of constantly trying to bring unique figures' power level in line with spammable options like Royal Guards, Imperial Officers, elite Stormtroopers, and the like.

3 hours ago, tomkat364 said:

Would you say that Gaarkhan is even LESS useful now than he was when the core box was the only source of figures? This focus on the meta, which includes very few lists which are considered to be the creme de la creme, is like saying you cannot make the statement that "cars have gotten a lot better in the past 30 years" by comparing the 2016 Honda Civic to the 1986 Gremlin, because the Gremlin was never a particularly good car. It existed, people drove it. It may have sucked then, but it sucks more now. Right?

Gaarkhan is more like a 1977 Gremlin with no engine built in. Noone ever drove it.

27 minutes ago, Rikalonius said:

You forgot the strain icon. *Hides in the corner*

Updated, updated, updated form. If I make another mistake at least I'll have four 'versions' of IG-88.

I'm going to test this tonight thanks for your work.

4 hours ago, tomkat364 said:

Would you say that Gaarkhan is even LESS useful now than he was when the core box was the only source of figures?

No, he's exactly as useful. He's gone from never played at all to never played at all.

1 minute ago, Union said:

No, he's exactly as useful. He's gone from never played at all to never played at all.

Reminds me a joke I heard from a comedian whose name I can't remember. "What do you do to control people who are in prison for life? They are never getting out. What, do you up to never ever?"

Are these official cards that FFG are producing or just fan fixes? Thanks!

5 minutes ago, Totengraber said:

Are these official cards that FFG are producing or just fan fixes? Thanks!

The four cards in the first post are from the upcoming skirmish wave. The IG-88 with the Focused to Kill ability is something I made to consolidate it with the skirmish card from the first post.

Would not Hera be a good combo with Rangers? More range and extra surge seems great for them, guaranted shots at range 6.

On 1/26/2017 at 9:48 AM, cosmic said:

No he can not work with Sorin as IG's skirmish upgrade is merc only.

His Skirmish Upgrade is a Deployment Card.

9 minutes ago, Daner0023 said:

His Skirmish Upgrade is a Deployment Card.

No, it's a skirmish upgrade, which is different. The designers mentioned this in their video, saying that the method of upgrading locked him into Scum.

-ryanjamal

You can only use skirmish upgrades of the affiliation of your army.

FAQ, Deployment cards said:

"Some Deployment cards have the Skirmish Upgrade trait. Rules and abilities that reference Deployment cards do not affect, do not include, and cannot manipulate Skirmish Upgrade cards unless the rule or ability states otherwise."

For example, a player cannot use the card "Temporary Alliance" to add Skirmish Upgrade cards from other factions to his army. Or, as another example, when using "Take Initiative," players cannot choose to exhaust one of their Skirmish Upgrade cards.

I really like the three new sets of characters they are coming out with. An "evil" C3PO and R2D2 is nice to add to the mix. Chopper can be an entertaining addition, however he does seem a tad overpowered. My only complaint about the new packs is that it looks like there is only one jawa in the pack? Why not 2 or 3? A single, rogue jawa seems out of character. It took a village of jawas to catch R2D2 and I'd guess they'd travel in packs or at least use the buddy system wherever they traveled. 2 or 3 per pack just makes sense.

sometimes gameplay trumps movie reinactment. I think the Jawas are like this. I can't wait to play them and was hoping for something similar from the ugnaught and didn't get it.

18 hours ago, Yeldarb31 said:

I really like the three new sets of characters they are coming out with. An "evil" C3PO and R2D2 is nice to add to the mix. Chopper can be an entertaining addition, however he does seem a tad overpowered. My only complaint about the new packs is that it looks like there is only one jawa in the pack? Why not 2 or 3? A single, rogue jawa seems out of character. It took a village of jawas to catch R2D2 and I'd guess they'd travel in packs or at least use the buddy system wherever they traveled. 2 or 3 per pack just makes sense.

I don't disagree, but I also like decent, cheap activations, which Scum doesn't really have at this point without Temp Alliance. There could also be some benefit to running multiples that we haven't seen yet. Probably not, but it would make sense.

I'm much more concerned about BT-1 being OP than Chopper, to be honest, but everything looks about right based on newer power curves.

On 1/26/2017 at 10:37 AM, Animewarsdude said:

Updated, updated, updated form. If I make another mistake at least I'll have four 'versions' of IG-88.

Just so you have four. Imperial assault doesn't refer to this faction as the "Scum" faction, but instead as the "Mercenary" faction. So Scum should be Mercenary.

Duplicate

Duplicate

Can I play as imperial faction, use temporary alliance to bring Elite Jawa and then use Jawa to bring in C-3P0?

13 minutes ago, robertpolson said:

Can I play as imperial faction, use temporary alliance to bring Elite Jawa and then use Jawa to bring in C-3P0?

I'm not totally sure that's how it works. I was under the impression that the Jawa pack just contained a card similar to Temporary Alliance.

13 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

I'm not totally sure that's how it works. I was under the impression that the Jawa pack just contained a card similar to Temporary Alliance.

Yeah, that's something I really hope gets spoiled this week, as I want to start testing out lists. Have we seen the elite Jawa yet?

-ryanjamal