So, I've been craving a good scale, big box Star Wars game for board game collection.I've decided against Armada and X-wing for several reasons, and Rebellion is way too intimidating as an option, not for me, but it's kinda tough to get someone for that large of a time commitment. I've got a few games now(although no group yet, kinda prepping for where I end up next), and I got a great FLGS for some gaming, and where I'd grab this.

Now with that out of the way, I'm wondering how beginner friendly the game is, I've got a sister, who's up to trying anything, and capable of medium difficulty games. And a cousin that's smart(he's 14 now), but needs thing to be fast paced or else he has interest issues. And given some more time I hope to build a gaming group, just the occasion has not presented itself yet. Then, my next question is how much do you get out of the Starter? I know there's only the one for now(and a new one isn't likely for a while). I've been reading that that you usually want to start with a Skirmish to get familiar with the game play, then mess with the campaign modes.

What additional heroes are a must have? as a casual focus on this I'd probably stick to unique characters. Main ones I'd want personally would be Leia, Han, Chewie, and either Obi-wan or C3PO/R2D2, and then the bounty hunters Boba, IG-88, Dash, and Bossk for some fun flavour. Maybe throw in Sith Inquistor and the Hera/Chopper pack. But that's probably it for the start, other than maybe Twin Suns when I need to freshen things up. So would those combined with the Starter make for some fun playing? Is there any other must haves? Although, with the classic trio it seems they have tokens in the game, so maybe I could focus on the characters who have no representation in the game

This game seems pretty easy to manage and limit, my FLGS has most of it. Although, perhaps I'd order the Starter through Amazon. So what's your recommendations/thoughts? I will definitely give it a try at my FLGS with their demo first though

1. You only need the core box. You get 2-3 campaigns out of it without needing expansions. (30 missions while you only play 11 during a campaign, although story missions have only two alternatives, they still play differently.)

Also, you don't much benefit from more options until you have played for a while, because you don't know what to base your decisions on.

2. All the players need to be on the same page about whether to play very competitively or more in a "story mode".

3. Don't worry about making rules mistakes. It takes a long while to get all the nyances, but that should not prevent you from enjoying playing.

4. The community is great for both the campaign and skirmish - also see the IA forums at BoardGameGeek.com .

7 minutes ago, a1bert said:

1. You only need the core box. You get 2-3 campaigns out of it without needing expansions. (30 missions while you only play 11 during a campaign, although story missions have only two alternatives, they still play differently.)

Also, you don't much benefit from more options until you have played for a while, because you don't know what to base your decisions on.

2. All the players need to be on the same page about whether to play very competitively or more in a "story mode".

3. Don't worry about making rules mistakes. It takes a long while to get all the nyances, but that should not prevent you from enjoying playing.

4. The community is great for both the campaign and skirmish - also see the IA forums at BoardGameGeek.com .

So it does work well as a stand-alone, That's nice to know compared to a lot of other FFG games. So there is no reason to get any other characters straight away? even if I just like em, they just wouldn't add much? hmm contemplating ordering it through Amazon at the discount for Easter(visiting family, have a cousin who's older and also a big Star wars fan)

They're nice to have, but I'd buy the core box first and actually make sure you like the game. Also, look at the "waves". As a general rule of thumb, you'll need the Boxed set of a wave before you purchase any figures in that wave.

So, if you have the core set, you'd be able to pick up Solo, Chewie, IG-88, Royal Guard Champion, General Weiss, Rebel Troopers, and Rebel Saboteurs. But, if you wanted Lando, you'd have to buy The Bespin Gambit first.

And honestly, as someone who likes the game, I think they're all worth it. Each pack comes with the deployment card and figure, but also many feature rewards, items, and they all add a side mission for campaign. I think they're pretty cool- but again, you'd do well to make sure you and your group actually really enjoys the game before you go making such an investment.

The campaigns are really a fun experience for a group, and the skirmish is really fun when you want to go head-to-head.

The campaign plays just fine without any additional expansions, but you will have cardboard chips for a few characters like Han and Chewie. I went ahead and just bought the first wave, along with the core set. It also opens up some fun side missions and skirmish upgrades.

I don't know if you like to paint, but it really comes alive when you start putting painted minis on the board.

I've run a campaign over a few weeks, with a group of 11 - 35 year-olds, and everyone had a blast. The mechanics are not too hard to grasp.

Have fun!

36 minutes ago, FreddieG said:

The campaigns are really a fun experience for a group, and the skirmish is really fun when you want to go head-to-head.

The campaign plays just fine without any additional expansions, but you will have cardboard chips for a few characters like Han and Chewie. I went ahead and just bought the first wave, along with the core set. It also opens up some fun side missions and skirmish upgrades.

I don't know if you like to paint, but it really comes alive when you start putting painted minis on the board.

I've run a campaign over a few weeks, with a group of 11 - 35 year-olds, and everyone had a blast. The mechanics are not too hard to grasp.

Have fun!

Oo, so I could potentially teach this to a 12 year old. Just discovered my Cousin is hoping I can hang out with her step son so that'd be fun. I am definitely not a painter, I have neither the skill or precision required XD, but I like the characters. Well Saturday is when I decide for sure. Planning to try out the game, then if it's still on sale on Amazon I'll order it shipped to my Grandma's house... and probably give into an IG-88, only wave 1 character I really need

15 minutes ago, MandoBard said:

Oo, so I could potentially teach this to a 12 year old. Just discovered my Cousin is hoping I can hang out with her step son so that'd be fun. I am definitely not a painter, I have neither the skill or precision required XD, but I like the characters. Well Saturday is when I decide for sure. Planning to try out the game, then if it's still on sale on Amazon I'll order it shipped to my Grandma's house... and probably give into an IG-88, only wave 1 character I really need

12 year olds can definitely learn. My little sister is 11 and I taught her a few weekends ago.

1 minute ago, subtrendy said:

12 year olds can definitely learn. My little sister is 11 and I taught her a few weekends ago.

admittedly I'm used to dealing with my only cousin on my dad's side of the family, who has major focus/attention issues who's tough to teach XD

One thing to be aware of with the packs you are mentioning: Leia, Han, Chewie, etc. Those are not playable heroes in the campaign. They are allies that can be earned in the course of a campaign that can join in and support the heroes. They do not gain experience and do not follow hero rules (no strain abilities, no ability to rest, no ability to use two attack actions in a turn, etc).

In addition, you can only ever bring up to 1 ally in a mission. That means that Han, Leia, and Luke will never be on the board at the same time in campaign play.

I just wanted to give you and your group a heads up that in Imperial Assault's campaign that you do not play as any of the iconic movie characters. A lot of people tend not to realize this when they start looking into the game.

Figures from ally packs are supplemental characters that at worst show up once in a campaign (actually, there might be a chance they don't show up at all) and at best can be earned as an ally that can tag along in future missions.

12 minutes ago, nungunz said:

One thing to be aware of with the packs you are mentioning: Leia, Han, Chewie, etc. Those are not playable heroes in the campaign. They are allies that can be earned in the course of a campaign that can join in and support the heroes. They do not gain experience and do not follow hero rules (no strain abilities, no ability to rest, no ability to use two attack actions in a turn, etc).

In addition, you can only ever bring up to 1 ally in a mission. That means that Han, Leia, and Luke will never be on the board at the same time in campaign play.

I just wanted to give you and your group a heads up that in Imperial Assault's campaign that you do not play as any of the iconic movie characters. A lot of people tend not to realize this when they start looking into the game.

Figures from ally packs are supplemental characters that at worst show up once in a campaign (actually, there might be a chance they don't show up at all) and at best can be earned as an ally that can tag along in future missions.

Hunh, so they only come into play during Skirmish matches really. Makes sense, campaign tends to be your own story, whereas skirmish are what-if battles. And like I said I don't have a group yet. I'm guessing villain packs can come into story play more?

Non-unique villain packs add their deployment groups into the imperial player's arsenal, so they are ready to use. Unique villains also need to be earned to be able to be used (through purchasing, and then winning their mission - skipping some details here).

15 minutes ago, MandoBard said:

Hunh, so they only come into play during Skirmish matches really. Makes sense, campaign tends to be your own story, whereas skirmish are what-if battles. And like I said I don't have a group yet. I'm guessing villain packs can come into story play more?

Not quite. For campaign, ally packs and unique villain packs have a mission card that goes into the campaign decks (either hero mission deck or villain agenda deck). For the heros, you if the ally pack mission comes up, you can play it as a side-mission. If you win, you gain the ability to include that ally on all future missions.

Unique villain packs are similar. Except, that the villain play must spend influence points to buy the mission from the agenda deck to include the mission as an additional side-mission for the heros. The heros can chose to play or ignore the villain pack agenda. If they play and the imperial wins, the imperial has the option of adding the unique villain to their open groups. If the heroes ignore the villain side-mission, then the imperial player gets the unique villain reward for free.

Non-unique villains play as a1bert described.

I just got the game in January, and we recently finished our first "family campaign" (with my wife, 12 yo son, 9 yo daughter). Everyone had a blast, and was sad when it was over. We are going to start up the campaign again (core box should have decent amount of replay value). Couple notes:

- totally agree that there is no rush to buy expansions or extra ally/villain packs. Just get the core game, and decide if you enjoy it first. There is plenty of content on its own. If you do like it, then buy IG 88, Boba, Obi wan, whoever to add more figures and missions. If you are playing campaign be warned that certain figures need expansions to be able to "earn" the figure to play in the campaign (if you follow official rules). You can look at boardwars.eu website which breaks down which figure pack needs which expansion tiles for campaign play.

- To finish the core campaign is a decent time commitment. It is 11-14 missions I think. Each mission might take a few hours to play. Setup can take some time as well. I was the Imperial Player so setup was on me. We finished it over 6+ weeks, playing multiple times a week for an hour or so - sometimes more on the weekend when we had time.

- we had never played anything like this game. So the rules and mechanics were very difficult for us to grasp. We just searched this forum and boardgamegeek.com and could always find answers. Also keep the Rules Reference Guide handy.

Overall, this game takes a little patience to get started, but it's well worth it. Our family has become borderline obsessed with it now. We have been playing Skirmishes lately, and checking out which new packs will help our respective lists.

Yeah, first chance to play this would just to hopefully to do a mission or two... kinda wish they had a mini-campaign out of the box like the expansions do

As for young kids learning it, YES! When the game first came out my boys were 8, 10, and 11, and they were OBSESSED with it! We played Campaign first, but very quickly got into Skirmish; we love both. We're a gaming family so maybe that helped, but still, my 8 year old had no trouble getting comfortable with it. It immediately became our family's favorite game, and today (2 years later) it still is.

I've played a whole pile of "big" games over the years (whether long games like Twilight Imperium III or D&D or other collectible miniatures games of various sorts), and IA is far and away my favorite game ever. So maybe I'm a bit biased, but hey...I'm also just bein' honest!

I'd definitely recommend that you try to get a demo game in at some point, just to be sure that it suits you. And then (assuming that you like it) get the Core. After the Core, just do your best to hold onto your wallet, because it tends to develop a mind of its own after that.

as for the age...

My son was 7 when I teached him this game. Of course, he was rebel for first few campaigns.

Now, he is 8, and as an Imperial Player he has better tactical skills than I

Hunh, well thanks @Jarema, @thereisnotry got me really considering it. For reference my current game collection is Munchkin Marvel, Street Fighter the Deck Building game, Legendary Villains(+... well quite a few expansion), Vs System Marvel battles(+A-force), Star Trek Frontiers(Mage Knight retheme, pretty solid, but pretty complex), Heroclix(which I have just started to stop expanding, I play competitively, but there's no long term payout overall so I'm not buying anymore), and Star Wars destiny(plan to bail out by wave 3, should have have a good standalone by then). I don't have a group yet, just the occasional game at the FLGS, and my family are all pretty far away at the moment so I don't have regular oppurtunities to try. In fact part of the reason I'm considering this is next week I'm going to visit my grandparents, and have several family members on that side of the family that'll definitely be willing to join in.

That, and I know how to pace, and save for expansions. I'd take my time getting additional stuff, and later when I have people to play it with. Now mind you if the next core expansion and connected pieces are Rebels focused I'd definitely grab that. Thanks for the understanding of how the expansions work as well. Also not too worried about the difficulty myself, I got competent at Heroclix in a few weeks, and I get pretty good at games in a few matches. Just a matter of seeing if the gameplay clicks, and how hard it'll be to teach others. Kinda wish I could try it sooner, but my FLGS owner is out of town till saturday for spring break. mind you it'll be dependent on whether or not the Clix group shows up... but they are sporadic so odds are good

12 minutes ago, MandoBard said:

Hunh, well thanks @Jarema, @thereisnotry got me really considering it. For reference my current game collection is Munchkin Marvel, Street Fighter the Deck Building game, Legendary Villains(+... well quite a few expansion), Vs System Marvel battles(+A-force), Star Trek Frontiers(Mage Knight retheme, pretty solid, but pretty complex), Heroclix(which I have just started to stop expanding, I play competitively, but there's no long term payout overall so I'm not buying anymore), and Star Wars destiny(plan to bail out by wave 3, should have have a good standalone by then). I don't have a group yet, just the occasional game at the FLGS, and my family are all pretty far away at the moment so I don't have regular oppurtunities to try. In fact part of the reason I'm considering this is next week I'm going to visit my grandparents, and have several family members on that side of the family that'll definitely be willing to join in.

That, and I know how to pace, and save for expansions. I'd take my time getting additional stuff, and later when I have people to play it with. Now mind you if the next core expansion and connected pieces are Rebels focused I'd definitely grab that. Thanks for the understanding of how the expansions work as well. Also not too worried about the difficulty myself, I got competent at Heroclix in a few weeks, and I get pretty good at games in a few matches. Just a matter of seeing if the gameplay clicks, and how hard it'll be to teach others. Kinda wish I could try it sooner, but my FLGS owner is out of town till saturday for spring break. mind you it'll be dependent on whether or not the Clix group shows up... but they are sporadic so odds are good

If you can play a Mage Knight retheme, you should have absolutely no problem with this game. The way I typically describe it to people is as being "deceptively simple".

As the Imperial player (especially for campaign) you'll have to have a better understanding of the game, if not simply for running the behind the scenes stuff of the campaign itself. But your Rebels probably won't need any more than 10 minutes of instruction, and even then that's being overly generous.

14 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

If you can play a Mage Knight retheme, you should have absolutely no problem with this game. The way I typically describe it to people is as being "deceptively simple".

As the Imperial player (especially for campaign) you'll have to have a better understanding of the game, if not simply for running the behind the scenes stuff of the campaign itself. But your Rebels probably won't need any more than 10 minutes of instruction, and even then that's being overly generous.

Like I said, issue isn't me(I've got high adaptive skills when it comes to games), it's for others. Although it sounds like I'll generally be Empire as Rebels is the best way to learn

6 minutes ago, MandoBard said:

Although it sounds like I'll generally be Empire as Rebels is the best way to learn

I'd absolutely suggest that. Rebels are much easier to learn to play as- plus, some Imperial players adopt a more "GM" approach to the game- that is, rather than min/maxing their forces during every mission, they play thematically (bringing in units that would make sense in a mission's context regardless of strategic value) and try to make the experience fun for everyone. It's no fun to play a 12+ mission campaign where one side is continuously steamrolling the other.

1 hour ago, MandoBard said:

Like I said, issue isn't me(I've got high adaptive skills when it comes to games), it's for others. Although it sounds like I'll generally be Empire as Rebels is the best way to learn

Re: bolded section....

Yes, you could be the Imperial player most of the time, if you'd like...but you won't have to!

Gencon 2016 Fantasy Flight Games In Flight Report

From approximately 3:30-7:30, Chris Petersen (CEO of FFG) discusses what FFG has been doing with computer/tablet apps to improve their games (X-Com, Mansions of Madness). He goes into detail about the "Road to Legend" expansion for Descent 2.0 (and IA's Campaign game is basically an update and a re-skin of Descent 2.0). FFG has developed an app that takes the job of the Imperial Overlord player, so that all of the human players can be heroes. Then he mentions how sales for Descent tripled when the app was released. Then at 6:45 of the video, he says that they're now working on a similar app for Imperial Assault! So at some point in the not-so-distant future, you could play the IA Campaign game without needing to find someone to play as the Imperial player! In fact, even though playing with a group is always best, you could even play it solo (as one player controlling 4 heroes) if you wanted.

He said we can expect it in 2017, but we all know how deadlines can sometimes be a bit more optimistic than realistic. Regardless of whether it comes out in 2017 or 2018, we do know that it's coming. I seem to recall hearing an update about the IA app with a recent FFG announcement that was dealing primarily with SW Destiny, but I can't remember where; what they did say is that they're still working on it and that they were hoping to release it in 2017.

So yeah...IA Campaign is about to get a LOT better! And if FFG's work in app-integration with X-Com and MoM and Descent is any indication, the IA app is going to take IA to 11.

At GAMA the Asmodee representative did say that they can't talk about upcoming IA expansions but let us know that the app is still in the works, i.e. at least we know it has not been scrapped, but still worked on.

I think if you're looking for a more "Beer and Pretzels" Star Wars experience, the Edge of the Empire beginner game would be more up your alley. IA campaign, if you follow the rules, is more of a (definitely still fun) competitive 1v4 than a fun coop game. With experience, it is completely possible to make changes on the fly as the IP to maintain balance, but for that experience out of the box the RPGs are better.

If you've played DnD or something, there is nothing stopping you as the Imperial Player from playing more in the spirit of a Game Master. I have to say, the IA core game is one of the best values out there. Due to the tree diagram of cause and effect for wins and losses, you could play through the core game several times and and never have the same campaign twice. Adding either the Hoth or Bespin boxes (as much for the extra PC choices as anything) turns Imperial Assault into a pretty solid little RPG. Not as free form as old D6 or anything, but definitely enough to keep 4 Star Wars fans occupied for a very long time.

As far as getting kids to play boards games like IA, this is a great idea not only for the fun of it but also their cognitive development.

I love this article on CNN about the CIA using board games to train their operatives:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/13/technology/cia-board-games-training/

Very good read.