I have been fiddling around the Nemeses Deck and figuring out a nice build order before starting Jabba's Realm Campaign.

EDIT: It was brought to my attention that my understanding of Prepare the Ambush is not what it was meant to be. Therefore I tweaked the build accordingly.

So, basically the are 2 obvious ways you can go with the deck. The first being buffing up your villains with movement and defense with reduced deployment cost. The second way would be using the presence of your villains to empower other imperial friendly figures. I would like to share my build order for both playstyles.

Build order Buffing up Villains:

Core Build : I'm On the Leader -> Leave Them To Me -> Ringleader -> Indomitable ( for a total of 2 + 3 + 2 + 4 = 11xp ). Based on your balance xp before the final mission, you can get any other class card. My recommendation would be to get "Punishing Force " for consistency,

Notes : Prepare the Ambush can be comboed with Leave Them To ME to activate a villain even when exhausted *. Also, I'm on the Leader is such a good card overall, it is very similar to the 0xp card of Military Might, adding a focus die to your attack but with a guaranteed chance of getting +2dmg. The condition of the card only being applicable on least damaged hero is valid 90% of the time.

Build order Buffing up friendly figures:

Core Build : I'm on the leader -> Punishing Force -> Ringleader -> Devastating Legion ( for a total of 2 + 3 + 2+ 4 = 11xp ).

Notes : To get the most out of this deck, you need to play with low-threat-costing villains with lots of cheap units around your villain, i.e. Hired guns, Storm troopers, Trandoshan Hunters, HK- Droids? Since you will almost have a few figures standing before end of a round, Prepare the Ambush will allow you to activate them again for another attack. . A free activation is king in both early game and late game. The potential of strategic options is provides is unparalleled. Imagine deploying an HMG trooper during optional deployment after the rebels' 3rd activation knowing when 1 rebel attack will not kill it. Then attacking rebels 4 times with Prepare The Ambush . Punishing force translates to 3 rerolls per round to any number of attack dice. The consistency this card provides to attacks is insane! Now you have better chances to apply that pierce or bleed or stun or squeeze out that extra damage you needed to wound the hero. Devastating Legion decreases the rebel's defenses, however, it is not always guaranteed to have a villain alive on the board. That's why Punishing Force must be rushed first right after I'm on the Leader .

Fearsome Presence: . I'm not a fan of this card because this is against my playstyle. I usually position my units in such a way that the rebels have to spend 1 action to move in order to be able to attack them. Sacrificing/exposing a figure or two, or the villain, to get the maximum effect out of the card is not worth the best case of 3-4 strain.

I would like those who have actually played with the deck to share their experience because everything i have done so far is theorycrafting on paper.

Nemeses Class Deck Cards for easier reference. http://cards.boardwars.eu/index.php?album=Expansion-Boxes/Jabbas-Realm/Imperial Class Decks/Nemeses

You appear to have massively misread Prepare the Ambush. It lets you exhaust itself to essentially pass an activation, and it passively gives the first group you activate each round 2 free movement points. It does nothing to allow you to activate an already exhausted group.

In addition, I feel like I'm on the Leader is a potential trap, because if you're relying on wounding all of the heroes, you'll want to focus your attacks on one target at a time, not spread out between whoever is the least damaged at the time of your attack.

In my current Jabba campaign, I went Leave them to Me, Prepare the Ambush, Indomitable, and I just got Punishing Force. I'm also helped by having Fire At Will from my agenda deck, and Somos as my imp villain, so the leave them to me downside isn't super crippling. If you're not planning on using Inspirational a great deal, you can probably skip Leave them to Me.

You're using prepare the ambush incorrectly. It is only a 1xp and it's use is to pass your turn and give the rebels another activation before you do anything. It does not say anything about allowing you to activate an exhausted deployment card.

neosmagus is correct. You can only choose ready groups to activate. Prepare the Ambush lets you perform an activation without activating a group. It doesn't allow to activate a group without it being ready .

See Strategic Planning from the Inspiring Leadership class deck. That one allows you to ready a deployment card (by exhausting another) so that you can activate the same group twice per round.

51 minutes ago, a1bert said:

neosmagus is correct. You can only choose ready groups to activate. Prepare the Ambush lets you perform an activation without activating a group. It doesn't allow to activate a group without it being ready .

See Strategic Planning from the Inspiring Leadership class deck. That one allows you to ready a deployment card (by exhausting another) so that you can activate the same group twice per round.

According to Neosmagus, you don't activate any group. You just skip your turn and hold on to the activation for later. Kind of saying " i will wait and see what the rebels will do, and THEN act accordingly."

With this new understanding, I found the card to be underwhelming and very situational.

I can only think of a few scenarios where i can put this to use :

1) The first round of a mission where the rebels start more than 8 spaces away from imperial units.

2) Delaying the activation of a probe droid to make better use of self-destruct.

3) If you have 2 deployment cards and a villain on board, AND if your villain is hidden behind a corridor, you can delay his activation so he can move after all rebel activations.(That is if the rebels did not knock out an imperial group before their activation).

It is not underwhelming for 1 XP. The scenarios happen more often than you think.

It forces the rebels to 'waste' an activation where they cannot defeat your figures, or they need to come near you to be attacked.

If the rebels have an ally it is even better. For example in Return to Hoth where the rebels have very good probability of having a cheap ally, the rebels have a large activation advantage. Either imperial groups move closer and still not be able to attack, or stay put and waste their activations. Then the rebels move and defeat the non-activated groups before they can activate.

And don't forget the other ability, which gives 2mp for all figures in the first group that actually activates. That's 6 movement points to get into position for your Stormtroopers or elite Jet Troopers, or maybe 5mp for Captain Terro for coming around a corner with a Flamethrower and an Attack.

12 minutes ago, a1bert said:

It is not underwhelming for 1 XP. The scenarios happen more often than you think.

It forces the rebels to 'waste' an activation where they cannot defeat your figures, or come near you to be attacked.

If the rebels have an ally it is even better. For example in Return to Hoth where the rebels have very good probability of having a cheap ally, the rebels have a large activation advantage. Either imperial groups move closer and still not be able to attack, or stay put and waste their activations. Then the rebels move and defeat the non-activated groups before they can activate.

Sorry A1bert, I have to disagree with you on the practical use of passing an activation.

However, we are not talking about the 2nd half of the card, which is 2 movement points to the figures in the imperial group that activates first every round.

This can be used in a number of ways:

1) better positioning to activate Fearsome Presence

2) If your villain was stunned last round, in combination with Ringleader, you may activate the villain first , remove the stun, free move up to 4 movement points, and perform an attack. ( Especially good with melee heroes)

But even with all the bonuses the card provides, you can still do without it with careful positioning and planning. To me, it's a luxury card than a core card.

I think it is good value for 1 XP, whether you take it after the first mission or as a filler card later.

Don't underestimate the value of activation advantage, even when you have to do nothing during an activation. That's a powerful effect, as is 2 free movement points for a whole group.

If the rebels know what they are doing, You won't have an activation advantage if you exhaust that card. You just lost 4-10 threat from the board without doing anything. >_>

Edit: This card is my last choice of a filler.

If you deploy in the rebels' face this card won't do you any good, I agree. If you on the other hand deploy in another room that the rebels have trouble reaching without spending multiple move actions, this can be really good as they will essentially waste several actions moving up. It will occur more often on some maps than on others.

On 3/4/2017 at 0:27 AM, Serox said:

Also, I'm on the Leader is such a good card overall, it is very similar to the 0xp card of Military Might, adding a focus die to your attack but with a guaranteed chance of getting +2dmg. The condition of the card only being applicable on a damaged hero is valid 90% of the time.

Not sure if you are reading this card correctly but the +2dmg only applies when attacking the healthy hero who has suffered the least damage. Typically when trying to defeat a Rebel hero, it helps to focus fire, which this card does not allow you to do. However, the first activation of the first round, the heroes typically have suffered 0 damage and so you can likely use it on whichever hero you want in that round. I assume that after a hero becomes wounded it would be counted as if that hero has suffered 0 damage which would then allow you to use this card when attacking that hero.

With all of that said, +2 damage is pretty solid and the "while attacking" wording helps ensure you don't have to waste it on a dodged attack. Against a white die hero you could get close to a one-shot with some of the villains or with a Rancor.

Regarding Prepare the Ambush-

It's probably not gonna make or break your game, but it's well worth the 1 XP. Let's remember, we get those 2 extra movement pts per figure. Also, I see a lot of value in passing the turn. It could easily and often be the difference between activating a group to move and attack but remain otherwise vulnerable, or attacking before the end of the round without being vulnerable at all (until the beginning of the next round- but even then, that's at least one Rebel activation dodged entirely).

1 hour ago, machfalcon said:

I assume that after a hero becomes wounded it would be counted as if that hero has suffered 0 damage which would then allow you to use this card when attacking that hero.

Yes, when defeated the first time, the damage tokens are removed, the hero sheet flipped, and the hero has suffered 0 damage. This is not an issue though.

I'm On the Leader : ... the healthy hero who has suffered the least ...

1 minute ago, a1bert said:

I'm On the Leader : ... the healthy hero who has suffered the least ...

Good point. Missed that part there.

18 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

Regarding Prepare the Ambush-

It's probably not gonna make or break your game, but it's well worth the 1 XP. Let's remember, we get those 2 extra movement pts per figure. Also, I see a lot of value in passing the turn. It could easily and often be the difference between activating a group to move and attack but remain otherwise vulnerable, or attacking before the end of the round without being vulnerable at all (until the beginning of the next round- but even then, that's at least one Rebel activation dodged entirely).

Yeah, if it changes a turn where you would have to either move your units into a vulnerable position to attack or not attack at all, into a turn where the Rebels are faced with that choice instead, it can be a very powerful effect. And the Rebels will have a harder time even than you will, because they'll have to play around the +2 movement points.

You know the game is going well for you when the rebels need to make the choice between bad and worse.

Prepare the Ambush and the Shoot First agenda card is a winning combination as well.

Prepare the Ambush is an amazing card for 1 XP, just with the activation buff alone it is great, then you can add in 2 movement points per figure off the bat.

I totally get that the 2 movement points can be key for positioning.

What I don't get is how passing an activation will help (other than in a very few number of cases)

More often than not the maps are small, and the Rebels will be within attacking distance of most of your units.

Passing an activation will very often lead to two Rebel activations cleaning up a lot if not most of your board presence.

Unless I'm vastly underestimating the number of large maps where early activations aren't key??

The passing can be key if you have >1 more groups than the rebels. Being able to activate multiple groups at the end of a round can give you attacks you wouldn't have otherwise. Chances are you can attack with one group at the end of a round with no response that you wouldn't be able to without that card. And, it forces the rebels to deal with multiple groups already in position to attack at the start of the next round.

I see it as an easy 1 XP spend.

there is, in my feeling, quite a lot of missions where one of your important groups start in a position that is too far for them to be reached by heroes, and too far to attack them before they move. Then, it is very helpful to have means to delay their activation. In some missions it is a reason why I take officers and probe droids - so, after optional deployment, I can have more activations than rebels and save my important group for the right moment. I think Prepare the Ambush can play the same role.

Again, I wouldn't see myself using this every turn- but I think it could still be useful.

Consider this possibility, based off of a real mission (details changed to avoid spoilers).

The Empire needs to interact with various terminals to win. To do so, an Ugnaught adjacent to a terminal must spend two actions to interact with and discard the terminal. At the beginning of each Ugnaught's activation, it gains 4 movement pts.

Now, an Ugnaught is within 4 spaces of a terminal. He could move now and get the terminal, but he'd be very vulnerable to a double attack from the Rebel and would most certainly die. Or, he could pass turn- the Rebel could potentially move and attack, but the Imperial player is confident that the Ugnaught stands a decent chance of surviving that attack, and then could move take his turn afterward.

Now, the Ugnaught is probably going to die at the beginning of the next turn- but that's an entire hero's activation that he's slowed, and that's something the Imp player is going to have to plan around. Either way, I see it as a beneficial move. Especially, remember- no one is saying that this is a top tier card- just that, in certain situations, it can be pretty useful, and it never hurts for even just having that free 2 pts of movement.

It's the cost of the card that makes it so good, for 1 XP you can have activation advantage in key missions.

I also take Imp's for this very purpose, to have an activation to burn to force the Rebels into an uncomfortable situation.

If it comes down to min/max-ing, i wouldn't spend " Prepare the Ambush " even at 1 xp for the sole reason that it is situational. While the situational delayed activation may be beneficial, there are much better cards in the Nemeses deck that you need to get the deck going. I rather spend the extra 1 xp to rush for 2/3/4 xp cards that I know I will use every turn and inflict maximum pain to the rebels (Just like how you rush for Mortar followed by Heavy Firepower when you are playing Armored Onslaught imperial deck; Edit: because the power of those 2 cards is higher than the power of the remaining cards in the deck combined)

Back to the Nemeses builds, the only time i see myself purchasing Prepare the Ambush is when I have 1 xp left to spare before the Final Mission .

Build order Buffing up Villains:

Core Build : I'm On the Leader -> Leave Them To Me -> Ringleader -> Indomitable ( for a total of 2 + 3 + 2 + 4 = 11xp ).

Build order Buffing up friendly figures:

Core Build : I'm on the leader -> Punishing Force -> Ringleader -> Devastating Legion ( for a total of 2 + 3 + 2+ 4 = 11xp ).

If you feel that Prepare the Ambush is a key card, instead of arguing about the card in vacuum, please post your build order with it and supporting argument why it should take up that spot.

You will likely be able to use the 2 extra movement points every round. It makes it easy for things like eJet Troopers to get within 2 and get their extra die and 2 free movement meaning they can move 8 and still attack. It also lets melee like Rancor and Gamorean get into range and attack when they otherwise couldn't. It lets Banthas trample, stampede and attack. It lets anything with an ability like an officer or snow troopers reposition, attack and use their ability. It also breaks one of the missions as objectives are 6 away from the spawn. It was pretty useful for the Imperial player every round in our last campaign. I don't think I'd prioritize it, but it's definitely a very useful card.