Now I don't own it, so I can't say for certain, but I've heard that most of the campaign missions in Jabba's Realm are tilted towards the Rebel player. I've also heard that Onar Koma is weak, but I have a hard time believing that both can be true. Before I go out and buy it, does anyone here who's played it so far think that Jabba's Realm could become balanced by the choice of Rebel heroes? Would a team of Onar, Loku, Vinto, and Shyla still wipe the floor? What about Onar, Loku, MHD-19, and Biv? Or Onar, Loku, Davith, and Saska?

Another way to look at this: What's the worst possible team you can think up, and would JR still be too easy if you played with that team? What other things could one do to balance JR?

I won the first 2 missions as Rebels, then lost the next 2, then won the next 2. I'm running Vinto, Onar, Shyla and Fenn.

Missions 3 and 4 seemed heavily weighted against the rebels - but I think there are a multitude of strategies that will range from heavy success to heavy failure. So, you have to approach every scenario specifically according to the objective.

It's incredibly difficult to really perfectly "balance" an asymmetric game where the two sides choose from a variety of upgrades and rewards between each round- but IA gets pretty close.

I'd say that if you really wanted to make the Imp player more powerful, have them use the Hutt Mercs class deck.

If you're looking for the worst team possible- again, each hero does have their own strengths and are all very situational.

If I really had to pick, though, I'd go with a team of all White/no dice. Something like Davith, Loku, Saska, Onar sounds horribly squishy, and doesn't have much synergy.

7 hours ago, subtrendy said:

It's incredibly difficult to really perfectly "balance" an asymmetric game where the two sides choose from a variety of upgrades and rewards between each round- but IA gets pretty close.

I'd say that if you really wanted to make the Imp player more powerful, have them use the Hutt Mercs class deck.

If you're looking for the worst team possible- again, each hero does have their own strengths and are all very situational.

If I really had to pick, though, I'd go with a team of all White/no dice. Something like Davith, Loku, Saska, Onar sounds horribly squishy, and doesn't have much synergy.

This sounds like a challenge, I would like to give that hero combination a try and see if I could make it work...

Hmm, Saska and Loku (with the "right" XP upgrades) with tokens on Onar would actually give him a little defense - not that you necessarily want Loku to be spending one of his only two recon tokens on handing out evades...

10 hours ago, subtrendy said:

If I really had to pick, though, I'd go with a team of all White/no dice. Something like Davith, Loku, Saska, Onar sounds horribly squishy, and doesn't have much synergy.

That would certainly be in the running for worst team. If Davith goes right for Fell Swoop and Falling Leaf and Onar goes right for Don't Make Me and Black Sun, they MIGHT be able to clear enough off the board to win with some good die rolls.

Yeah, all the heroes have their strengths and weaknesses, so I'm certainly not saying that's the worst team- just that a team like it that lacks stats diversity is more likely to fail than one that can simply accomplish a bigger variety of tasks.

10 hours ago, machfalcon said:

This sounds like a challenge, I would like to give that hero combination a try and see if I could make it work...

Hmm, Saska and Loku (with the "right" XP upgrades) with tokens on Onar would actually give him a little defense - not that you necessarily want Loku to be spending one of his only two recon tokens on handing out evades...

Thinking about it, maybe playing against Hutt Mercs is the time to take Scout's Guidance. I've always seen it as useless just because he only has the two recon tokens, but the extra evade would make that last Bounty harder to take down. Particularly with Guild Hunters on the table. Add Energy Shield, Get Down, and Stay Behind Me... Davith (if Onar can keep up) or Saska would become pretty defensible characters.

1 hour ago, Uninvited Guest said:

Thinking about it, maybe playing against Hutt Mercs is the time to take Scout's Guidance. I've always seen it as useless just because he only has the two recon tokens, but the extra evade would make that last Bounty harder to take down. Particularly with Guild Hunters on the table. Add Energy Shield, Get Down, and Stay Behind Me... Davith (if Onar can keep up) or Saska would become pretty defensible characters.

Scouts Guidance works extremely well on anyone with combat coat. Similar to how Loku with CC & Mon Cala makes him a tough squid to crack

Are we talking mission balance or balance of the heroes and class decks?

In terms of mission balance, you would have to go to each of the problem missions and tweak them.

For example, in trespass, I think the reserved stormtroopers should be elite. But that is currently is the only mission I would touch right now.

I don't think it needs to be. The imperial player is really a GM. The job is to have fun not have balance. In some missions the odds will be against rebels and that is exactly how it should be.

In reference to Onar. He does seem a little hard done by but his damage potential is impressive if very inconsistent. I awarded him a set of survival gear to make the player feel less like he was getting nowhere.

I have to say in one mission he was just chucking rubbish and doing no damage at all. But then he did the impossible at the end and won it. Very swingy.

His biggest issue is that he never really uses or rolls surges. It effects his strain recovery in my opinion.

On 21/3/2017 at 7:47 PM, subtrendy said:

If I really had to pick, though, I'd go with a team of all White/no dice. Something like Davith, Loku, Saska, Onar sounds horribly squishy, and doesn't have much synergy.

Nice challange!!

White dice has some advantages too

White dice Rebel can be harder to stun and bleed, since 1/3 cancel a surge (plus 1/6 Dodge) and for IP isn't so easy to make 2 surge.

I think Ghaarkhan is overrate. He depend on Strain too much, and can't do much except charge.

46 minutes ago, Eyfrosyne said:

Nice challange!!

White dice has some advantages too

White dice Rebel can be harder to stun and bleed, since 1/3 cancel a surge (plus 1/6 Dodge) and for IP isn't so easy to make 2 surge.

I think Ghaarkhan is overrate. He depend on Strain too much, and can't do much except charge.

True, I'd probably say the same thing about all black defense dice, too. They'd be pretty slow, and more susceptible to bigger attacks (no chance of dodge). Variety is best.

But yeah, those characters are all generally considered pretty "squishy"

On 2017-03-22 at 7:21 PM, Pie Golem said:

I don't think it needs to be. The imperial player is really a GM. The job is to have fun not have balance.

That is true in Edge of the Empire. Imperial Assault is a board/miniatures game that is supposed to be balanced and you have fun through competition.

42 minutes ago, Union said:

That is true in Edge of the Empire. Imperial Assault is a board/miniatures game that is supposed to be balanced and you have fun through competition.

Crap, I've been having fun wrong this whole time.

3 hours ago, Eyfrosyne said:

Nice challange!!

White dice has some advantages too

White dice Rebel can be harder to stun and bleed, since 1/3 cancel a surge (plus 1/6 Dodge) and for IP isn't so easy to make 2 surge.

I think Ghaarkhan is overrate. He depend on Strain too much, and can't do much except charge.

As Imperial, I'd be happy if my Rebel went too far to either side (all white or all black), depending on my class deck:

All white = you'll be facing units like HKs, eISBs, ePigs, eWeequay that eats white dice like breakfast

All black = you'll be facing units like eSnow, eStorm, eJets that eats blocks like chocolate

2 hours ago, ricope said:

As Imperial, I'd be happy if my Rebel went too far to either side (all white or all black), depending on my class deck:

All white = you'll be facing units like HKs, eISBs, ePigs, eWeequay that eats white dice like breakfast

All black = you'll be facing units like eSnow, eStorm, eJets that eats blocks like chocolate

Great. Now I'm hungry. Coco Puffs for breakfast it is.

7 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

Crap, I've been having fun wrong this whole time.

That may be the case.

I've found the campaign to be challenging for me but that's because I'm not that brilliant of a tactician/strategist and the Rebels have 4 people discussing strategies and min/maxing their movement. Plus I've come to hate Onar's push, Shayla's whip and Murne's Sonic Bellow. The last hero is Saska and she's meh. So far I've won Shayla's side mission but lost everything else. I changed my Imperial Class deck at one point since I couldn't get Nemesys to work (okay, changing deck is not allowed by rules but the heroes allowed it as it would probably balance things). I had Bossk and Agent Blaise as the villains. Precision Training has been a lot more effective for me.

Spoilers about A Moment of Fate ahead:

I forgot to say my point which is that I think balancing the campaign is tricky since it depends so much on the players playing the game, the heroes they choose, the items and skills they've bought and the agenda cards and upgrades the Imperial player has bought.

And of course what expansions and units are available.

I agree completely, Elwrath. That mission in particular is swingy for the reasons that you mentioned - if you're up against units who can toss your elite troops into the sarlaac you're going to have a really bad time.