Leave Them To Me

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After choosing open groups, add 1 earned villain to your hand of open groups.

Deplete this card when you deploy a villain to reduce that villain's deployment cost by 5. Exhaust that villain's deployment card.

Rulebook page 23

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Status Phase in a Campaign

1. Increase Threat

2. Ready

3. Deploy and Reinforce

So, if I'm reading this right, in a normal story mission, if you use Leave Them To Me at your first chance (Status Phase of round 1) you will not be able to activate that villain before round 3?

I know you get a discount of 5 threat, but that seems extremely weak for a 3 xp card.

I think that's correct. It give Rebels a 1-round buffer time

It's more useful during side missions when you get a 1-shot threat bonus of 2X threat level. So let's say threat level is 4, you get bonus 8-threats in the beginning

Your starter card gives you -3 (spend 1 threat to reduce cost by 4)

Leave them to me gives you another -5

So it's entirely possible for Rebels to see...say RGC in round 1, it's just that RGC doesn't get to activate until round 2

OR

A lot of the missions have the trigger ex. after open door, increase threat by the threat level and resolve an optional deployment. You can use it there too

Also note it says "After picking open groups", so the villain card does not take up one of your open group slots. Combo that with your starter = 2 free slots for villains

Yeah that's true with optional deployment you can activate the villain in round 2.

But, it just seems pretty lackluster for 3xp. There are so many great 3xp cards that you can keep using every round ;/

1 hour ago, Drakim said:

Yeah that's true with optional deployment you can activate the villain in round 2.

But, it just seems pretty lackluster for 3xp. There are so many great 3xp cards that you can keep using every round ;/

Well...not for Nemeses right? Unless you're talking about Punishing Force. Admittedly I haven't played with Nemeses yet but I think that card definitely is not weak

Alternatively, you can save up for the 4xp Indomitable. Since both triggers are "when an attack targeting a villain is declared", you (Imp) gets to choose the order => pay 1 threat to gain 1 extra black dice

On 02/25/2017 at 9:34 PM, ricope said:

I think that's correct. It give Rebels a 1-round buffer time

It's more useful during side missions when you get a 1-shot threat bonus of 2X threat level. So let's say threat level is 4, you get bonus 8-threats in the beginning

Your starter card gives you -3 (spend 1 threat to reduce cost by 4)

Leave them to me gives you another -5

So it's entirely possible for Rebels to see...say RGC in round 1, it's just that RGC doesn't get to activate until round 2

OR

A lot of the missions have the trigger ex. after open door, increase threat by the threat level and resolve an optional deployment. You can use it there too

Also note it says "After picking open groups", so the villain card does not take up one of your open group slots. Combo that with your starter = 2 free slots for villains

But you can't play more than 1 villian per mission.. Right?

You can play more than 1 villian. You just can't redeploy a villain once it has been defeated.

The usefulness certainly also depends on which villains you have available - either earned by Powerful Foes or by winning agenda side missions.

Something like the Royal Guard Champion with two defense dice would keep the rebels busy even when exhausted.

Also, the location of the deployment points greatly affect the usefulness.

It is also good to be able to get more traits by taking two villains, even if you don't deploy. But, there may still be better alternatives to use the XP on.

There is no limit on the number of unique figures you can deploy. Just like Deadwolf says, you just can't redeploy a defeated villain again in the same mission by any means (except by mission rules), not even if you could get the deployment card back to your hand (for example with As You Wish).

And you can also deploy it out of reach of them - either in the direction they eventually have to move in or by using the extra movement points and/or stalling mechanics from some of the other class upgrade cards to be able to strike at them when the Villain is ready.

9 hours ago, Deadwolf said:

You can play more than 1 villian. You just can't redeploy a villain once it has been defeated.

In the rulebook i think it said the villians have the same rules thn the rebel allies. Rebel allies are limited to one per mission.

If i'm wrong it will be awesome to my imperial plans hahaha

Allies said:

Villains follow all general ally rules listed in this section.

If you look at the allies section, there are no limits to the number of them.

The limitation of up to one Rebel ally per mission is in the Rebel Allies section (after hearing the mission briefing and deploying themselves, the Rebel heroes can take only one ally to the mission), not in the allies section. Thus, it does not apply to villains.

If you have an Imperial Officer, you can still get a good attack out of them. Better for ranged threats like Boba Fett of course.

An elite officer mind you, and that's another 5 threat you may have to spend to get some use out of your Villain before he gets pummelled by the Rebels.

I have to agree with OP that the card seems weak when it exhausts the villain.

Potentially 5 rebel attacks without reply is pretty harsh, even with the threat cost reduction. (and that's if they don't even bring any allies)

The only other option is hope that you have a deployment point safely hidden away somewhere, but then you have the problem of the villain you just brought being too far away to get into the thick of it later...

5 hours ago, Majushi said:

Potentially 5 rebel attacks without reply is pretty harsh, even with the threat cost reduction. (and that's if they don't even bring any allies)

If they're shooting the villain, they're not taking other units off the board. If 3 storm troopers live because Terro took one for the team, that's a big gain for the Imperials as 3 troopers will often out damage Terro anyway. And now you're doing a squad of troopers more damage every turn for the rest of the game unless the Rebels completely overpower and wipe everything out.

Usually the Rebels should ignore the villain and wipe other units off the board before they activate. Then deal with the villain on the next round as convenient.

Fair point

Also there's enough triggered deployments before end of round that you could use for this. If the rebels are so careless as to open a door as their last action deploy the villian and have him ready start of the next round...

Running Nemesis during my Hoth campaign. I plan on getting this card soon.

I think, as others have echoed earlier here, that one thing we cannot ignore is the psychological effect villains tend to have. Even for a veteran player who probably knows better, it's hard to justify not trying to bring down a big villain instead of focusing on the smaller guys or the objective.

In fact, I'm heavily counting on that psychological effect in my next mission.

On 2/3/2017 at 5:51 PM, subtrendy said:

Even for a veteran player who probably knows better, it's hard to justify not trying to bring down a big villain instead of focusing on the smaller guys or the objective.

And this can cut both ways, in not trying to take down the Villain, when that is the best tactical choice.

The card does require some planning, but might have been to powerful otherwise.

The card is also super flavourful and thematic, so it is worth it for that alone.

I also like the card (and deck in general) so that I can have a few guys on the table that won't die in 1 hit but actually has *some* staying power.

I took the agenda card that puts Darth Vader into your open groups. I think dropping him with a 5 point discount on top of the discount from Powerful Foes will be worth it even if he comes in tapped. I just wish Jawas were out already. With Blaise and menace and Jawas gambling constantly it'd be hilarious to get Vader in for free.