We are going to play Under Siege this evening with the rebels having three heroes (no allies yet - its early in the campaign, and I just got BBQ roasted for a billion credits in Generous Donations). I don't want to spoil the mission, so I'll enclose my question in a spoiler tag (hopefully)

Are you trying to make it harder for the Rebels or easier?

Because removing a point for the Imperials to capture will make it easier for the Imperial Player.

This is why I asked

Think of it like the tables are turned in this mission. Instead of the Rebels being forced to complete the objectives, the Imperial player has objectives to complete.

31 minutes ago, totalnoob said:

This is why I asked

My intent was to make it a little harder for me (the IP), since I thought that only having 3 heroes (they have no allies yet) would make it harder to defend two more tiles than they have figures (5 to 3).

My logic was adding another possible capture site (to say tile 32A) would make it *really* tough for three heroes to try and defend six points, so making it four sites should be easier for the rebels to defend. But maybe my thinking is flawed - wouldn't be the first time

Unfortunately, I think that what you're proposing would definitely make it harder for the rebels.

Thanks everyone for the responses, I never assume anything BTW, in my Campaign Book it says:

Honestly, I could see it going either way. On one hand, more capture sites make it more likely the Empire could capture an area unopposed.

On the other hand, the Rebels will know where they can "lure" the Empire to unopposed areas and use it to their advantage.

I'd just play as the book is written. That way, if there is a balance issue, at least it's not your fault.

Ok thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to err on the side of doing nothing - and playing it as designed.

On a separate note, someone else mentioned how this IA community is really welcoming to new players. I couldn't agree more. Whether it's helping out on rules minutiae, explaining expansions, house rules, skirmish stuff, or just musing (geeking out) about future releases - this place has been great for a new player like me. I definitely would NOT be as in to this game without the support and backing of this community. Thanks all!!

Just to close out the topic, we played it tonight and I won. I thought this mission was going to be really easy for me as the IP, but it was actually pretty tough - it came down to the final roll on my final activation in round 8.

Glad to hear. You can't hope for much more balance than a mission that is decided by a final roll.

i am having trouble, no matter who is the empire, the empire loses, i myself have only won 2 missions one side and one story. we have only played core, any way to make them more powerful?

Play better, choose a better class deck, only allow one of Gideon, Fenn, Diala. (Well, assumes you have more heroes to choose from than just the 6 heroes from core.)

can you explain the reasons of only having one of those three? it would mean heroic at all times and i hate fighting jyn.

Well, with just the core heroes it isn't such a good house rule. Would need to be two out of three ....

the class decks we have used so far include military might and the machine one(presantly i forget what it is called).

1 hour ago, a1bert said:

Well, with just the core heroes it isn't such a good house rule. Would need to be two out of three ....

In that case, I'd take Gideon and Mak. Or, maybe Mak and Fenn. Gideon and Fenn is just too good of a combination, in my opinion.

16 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

In that case, I'd take Gideon and Mak. Or, maybe Mak and Fenn. Gideon and Fenn is just too good of a combination, in my opinion.

I think that's the crux of it. Neither Gideon or Fenn are gamebreaking on their own, but together? Gideon: Command Fenn to attack (blast), Masterstroke, command Fenn to attack again (blast). Fenn's turn: Free movement to get into position, attack (blast), attack again (blast blast blast blast....)

Yes you can play around this as the imperial to a certain extent, but it's tough, and at some point you've got to deploy your troops to one spot, leaving them all bunched together.

32 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

In that case, I'd take Gideon and Mak. Or, maybe Mak and Fenn. Gideon and Fenn is just too good of a combination, in my opinion.

i had mak and gideon far a campaign

i don't know how imp is ever going to win over here. what are some things imp can do in general?

28 minutes ago, ATM2100 said:

i don't know how imp is ever going to win over here. what are some things imp can do in general?

There are generally two ways to win as an imperial: wound all the rebels (in most missions) or slow them down enough that the turn limit expires.

if you're trying for the first condition, the most important thing you can do is to focus down a single rebel at a time. Don't shoot a bit at Diala and a bit at Mak or whatever, instead shoot absolutely everything at Diala until she is wounded. Then shoot with everybody at Mak, then shoot with everybody at Gideon, etc. It's a lot harder for the rebels to rest and heal if they're being constantly bombarded by the whole imperial force. (Side note: are you playing with 2 rebel heroes or with 4? I find that the wounding strategy is often easier against 4 because they can't heal themselves back up quite as quickly)

Edit: And if you find that your rebels are resting and healing themselves before you can do enough damage to kill them, try to focus down the rebel that has already taken their turn for that round.

If you're trying to slow them down, you need to make them waste actions. The three main ways to do this are:

Wasted Attacks. Especially if they don't have a lot of blast or cleave, sometimes it can help to spawn a bunch of lower-cost guys, even in the high-threat missions. Even if they end up getting blown off the map in a single attack, the rebels still needed to use an attack action to do it and then you can just bring them back next turn. Regular hired guns, with their cheap cost and parting shot ability, are perfect for this role. Bonus points if you can somehow work it so that these attacks can stun the rebels as well (e.g. Imperial Industry reward card, Arc Blasters card from the tech superiority class deck).

Wasted Movement. You don't always have to spawn your guys right in the path of the heroes. Maybe spawn them around the corner, and then on your turn pop out, shoot the rebels once and then retreat back out of line of sight. This makes the rebels have to waste one of their actions as a movement if they want to come attack you. It can be done against any team, but works especially well against melee characters like Garkhaan or Diala.

Conditions. Stun and Bleed are an imperial's best friend, since the rebels will need to waste one of their actions doing nothing but getting rid of the condition. Trandoshans, Nexu, and Royal Guards are all units from the base box that can do this without needing any special class cards.

And as a bonus tactic, try the Nexu Block. Do your rebels need to get through a thin hallway, open a door, or interact with a terminal in a corner or in a small room? Throw out a nexu and sit it right on top of the hallway/door/terminal. There's not much more frustrating for a rebel player than needing to clear this one stupid monster before they can prgoress and then seeing that Dodge (X) result come up on the white die.

There are other things that you can do too, like looking for synergies between your class cards and the types of units you bring out, but most of those are more situational. Hopefully something up above there can give your imperials a bit more of a fighting chance.

our place likes three but i like 4 or 2, i like wasted movement and the conditions, but my friends are not stupid, how would i get them to attack a normal stormy in the open? is that possible, thx for the around the corner trick

1 hour ago, ManateeX said:

There's not much more frustrating for a rebel player than needing to clear this one stupid monster before they can prgoress and then seeing that Dodge (X) result come up on the white die.

In this Under Siege mission, I had a Nexu that just....would.....not.......die! The frustration from the rebel scum (i.e. my family) was enormous. You could not be more accurate with that statement! I got my wife to go on tilt and basically ignore the other action she was planning to do with her activation, just to go across the room and try to kill my "stupid" Nexu. Which of course she failed as I rolled like my fourth block with it!!! Bwahahahahhahaa!

From that point on any attack on my Nexu, I gave out a preamble warning how "I have learned to train and deploy immortal Nexus, so tread lightly"!

1 hour ago, ATM2100 said:

our place likes three but i like 4 or 2, i like wasted movement and the conditions, but my friends are not stupid, how would i get them to attack a normal stormy in the open? is that possible, thx for the around the corner trick

Well if they don't kill your stormtrooper, just shoot them with it

In all seriousness, rebels have to walk a fine line between killing too much (wasting actions and running out of time) and not killing enough (and getting blasted). If you're putting out troopers and your rebels are ignoring them, use them to focus-fire a single rebel until he's wounded.

29 minutes ago, totalnoob said:

In this Under Siege mission, I had a Nexu that just....would.....not.......die! The frustration from the rebel scum (i.e. my family) was enormous. You could not be more accurate with that statement! I got my wife to go on tilt and basically ignore the other action she was planning to do with her activation, just to go across the room and try to kill my "stupid" Nexu. Which of course she failed as I rolled like my fourth block with it!!! Bwahahahahhahaa!

From that point on any attack on my Nexu, I gave out a preamble warning how "I have learned to train and deploy immortal Nexus, so tread lightly"!

Hahaha, there are few IA moments more memorable than the Nexu-dodge! Whether it's a good kind of memorable or a bad kind of memorable pretty much just depends on which side you're on

43 minutes ago, totalnoob said:

In this Under Siege mission, I had a Nexu that just....would.....not.......die! The frustration from the rebel scum (i.e. my family) was enormous. You could not be more accurate with that statement! I got my wife to go on tilt and basically ignore the other action she was planning to do with her activation, just to go across the room and try to kill my "stupid" Nexu. Which of course she failed as I rolled like my fourth block with it!!! Bwahahahahhahaa!

From that point on any attack on my Nexu, I gave out a preamble warning how "I have learned to train and deploy immortal Nexus, so tread lightly"!

this is a funny story but be sure your family doesn't catch wind it is up, you might get roasted.