Looking to buy Imperial Assault coreset and I'm wondering if I need a MUST HAVE expansion or ally villains pack.

Any news for the upcoming APP?

Thanks

It depends. Do you want to play skirmish, campaign, or both?

Long version: If the answer is campaign, get the core set, play a few games, then decide if you want more. Ask yourself tough questions, give yourself honest answers, and sort it out. The core game comes with cardboard tokens (instead of minis) for rebel troops, rebel sabatouers, Han, Chewie, IG-88, an imperial guard champion, and a second, "upgraded" AT-ST. If you find playing with flat cardboard tokens would make your skin crawl, then you might consider buying all those. But you could go through the campaign and never actually run into Han, Chewie, IG-88, etc. so. Yeah. Tough call. I hate flat tokens but I didn't bother buying Han, IG-88, the champion, etc. as I just didn't find them compelling toys to own.

I'm a huge fan of Hoth so I "had" to get the RTH expansion. I was in possession of a very large credit at the FLGS, so I also picked up Jabba's Realm, Twin Shadows, and a bunch of ally/villain packs. I do not recommend buying all that at once if you are paying out of pocket.

Get the core game and enjoy it for a week or so of actual playing, then decide what else to get. If you think you want to play friendly skirmish games with friends, be warned, the core game BARELY has 40 points of rebels to pick from, and doesn't come close to 40 points of fringe/scum/neutral models. Though by using the cardboard counters, Rebel armies will have well over 40 points to select from and Neutral ones can just get there via the IG-88 cardboard token. I call them "neutral forces" but other people say scum, fringe, hunter, etc.. So if you want to bump the game up a bit, the best $ value right off the bat is probably a rebel and neutral ally pack or two, to give you enough physical 3D models to make interchangeable 40 point teams for skirmish. But of you are gonna buy a few of the clampacks, you'll hit $40 worth real fast. At that point you should just buy Bespin Gambit or Twin Shadows, either one will bump up your selection of rebel and neutral plastic figures, plus expand your collection of maps and will even add more "carboard counter" guys to use in unofficial home games.

Competitive skirmish is always changing, to keep it competitive and also, presumably to drive sales a bit. For that, the carboard tokens usually aren't allowed. Also the tournament scene rotates which maps are in use. So that would be another reason to either buy certain expansions or the rubber playmats. The best models to use are always changing in relation to each other, and in relation to various "special ability" type cards that come out in expansions. So until you figure out your playing style it's tough to say what you'd need to be good at skirmish.

Shorter version: the core game alone can keep a bunch of nerd-friends occupied for a whole summer with no expansions. You don't "need" anything else, just buy what you think is coolest. Unless you are gonna play skirmish and seriously want to win tourneys, then, good luck, the list of toys you'll need is ever-changing. I strongly advise that you buy the core game and play through two games of campaign and/or skirmish, then decide if you want more.

(But Hoth. You NEED Hoth. It is the bestest-est thing ever. Everyone needs Hoth. Buy it. It has the most attractive map tiles and a lot of points of neutral models and the best looking Imperial troops in the game. It also has the best clampack ally/villains tied to it. Buy Return to Hoth!)

It would be nice if we could take one of these threads and make it a sticky.

TauntaunScout thanks, really helpful.

I play Descent and I have the main expansions and they're compatible with the APP, which is nice.

I'll buy the coreset and I'll see, but as far I know the good expansion are often the first ones, if I compare with the others games.

Ciao

2 minutes ago, YANN1337 said:

TauntaunScout thanks, really helpful.

I play Descent and I have the main expansions and they're compatible with the APP, which is nice.

I'll buy the coreset and I'll see, but as far I know the good expansion are often the first ones, if I compare with the others games.

Ciao

Actually, the expansions have gotten better as they've come out. If you're interested in getting the most balanced/interesting heroes and Imperial Classes (for campaign), you can skip Twin Shadows. Twin Shadows has odd Heroes and some of the unit balance issues that they were working through in the early sets, and it's a stand-alone campaign so you don't need it for anything else. If you want a big box expansion, both Hoth and Jabba's Realm are good (though, having played a few of the JR missions, they do some really creative and fun stuff with those!). If you want a small box, Bespin is good, though I wouldn't recommend it for a first campaign (the missions and mechanics are a bit more complicated).

As far as figure packs go: Greedo, Obi Wan, and The Grand Inquisitor don't come in any other set (and they're all pretty solid units), so you may want to think about getting them first.

7 minutes ago, YANN1337 said:

TauntaunScout thanks, really helpful.

I play Descent and I have the main expansions and they're compatible with the APP, which is nice.

I'll buy the coreset and I'll see, but as far I know the good expansion are often the first ones , if I compare with the others games.

Ciao

I agree with what Tauntaun said (start with the core and see what you want from there) but I will also add that in this case I wouldn't say that the first expansions are the best ones. This is definitely true in skirmish, where they have become a lot more consistent in how many points each unit should be worth as time has gone on, but also in campaign.

For campaign play my first expansion thought would still be "which characters do I like the most". If you don't have a clear favourite, though, I'd say that you might be better off with the more recent campaigns as they have only gotten more interesting and more fun as time has gone on. Jabba's Realm in particular has some really cool missions in my opinion.

For the pack, I see often like a nice to have

1) Royal Guard Champion and General Weiss.
2) Rebel Troopers
3) IG-88 and Han
4) Chewie
5) Rebel Saboteurs

Just now, YANN1337 said:

For the pack, I see often like a nice to have

1) Royal Guard Champion and General Weiss.
2) Rebel Troopers
3) IG-88 and Han
4) Chewie
5) Rebel Saboteurs

Those are all the ones that you might see in your core campaign (but it's not a guarantee that you'll see all of them). You can play without getting the packs by using the cardboard tokens that come with the game, but if you're running your first campaign and having minis for all of the characters is important to you it might be worth grabbing these guys first.

Some of the standalone packs, like the Hired Guns or the ISB Agents, are also good choices because the imperial player can choose to bring them out in any mission.

Competitively: I'd grab yourself the RGC and Hired Guns packs as they will add a lot of depth to your agenda card and deployment card choices (you will understand this better once you crack open the core, but right now you just need to trust us).

As for the rest, its really based on token vs mini preference. Like ManateeX said, if you can't stand playing with tokens, buy the entire wave, if you've got money to burn, buy the entire wave, if you don't care about tokens or would rather save your money, just crack open the core and play it as is. I still haven't bothered to buy a General Weiss pack and I own everything else (at least one copy), it just offers nothing to the campaign play, I'll never use him in skirmish and I can just proxy the AT-ST for when he does show up in the core.

For fun: Really I would just crack open the core and play the first few missions, after one session you will have a better understanding of your needs/wants and I have no problem adding in side missions or re picking after a few games, who cares its all about having fun.

My recommendation for buying figures to replace the cardboard tokens for allies/villains is: see if either side acquires them in the course of game play. If they do, consider buying them, but otherwise don't bother.

Oh, and if you're into that sort of thing, painting the figures makes the whole thing look WAY better. Even if you're not very good at painting, an OK paintjob is a lot better than none. Remember that most of the time, you're going to be looking at the figure from about a meter away when they're on the board, and at that scale you don't see fine detail much.

Honestly, Jabba's Realm is so good, I don't think it would be a terrible idea to skip the Core Campaign and just play Jabba's Realm. But that would mean buying the core set and big expansion without ever playing the game, and that might be a little risky.

Knowing what I know now, I too would recommend Bespin Gambit instead of Twin Shadows for someone else . I really, really wanted Tusken Raider minis though (and had no interest in an ithorian hero or the Bespin NPC squads) so for my purposes it's still the better deal and I still don't own Bespin Gambit.

It really does bear repeating though. If you are on a budget, the bigger the box, the better the value. Core set is the best money-to-fun ratio. Then the big box expansions, then the small box expansions, then the ally/villain packs. Buying a few singles packs, you will quickly rack up the cost of a big or small box expansion and not come anywhere near the model count, let alone get the maps and stuff.

$40 could get you 4 (or less!) allies/villains OR if spent on a smallbox expansion, 10 assorted models and some maps.

$60 could get you 6 allies OR if spent on a bigbox expansion, 16 assorted models, some of which will be large vehicles/monsters, and a some maps.

Another option if you want to get 3D models for IG-88 and Han etc. is to use old WOTC minis. They at least look better than cardboard coins, and are pretty cheap used if you can find lots of the ones you need from a single seller so that shipping doesn't eat you alive. Just don't try to use them at official events.

If I was going to be locked up with 3 nerd friends to play games for a year and could have the core set and 1 other IA product, it seriously would be Hoth. Here's why:

• Jabba's Realm has rules/token for an upgraded Luke which duplicates a core game movie character. Hoth, on the other hand, adds Leia, a new movie character.
• The Assassin Droids make an ok freebie stand-in for IG-88 if you hate cardboard.
• The Hoth heroes are classic rebellion era types (a Mon Calamari, a very-rebel-droid) so they mesh well with the core game's narrative.
• Dengar, being another ESB hunter, thematically pairs well with IG-88 for friendly skirmish games. Even if they are both tokens.
• Probe droids, AT-ST, and Darth Vader from the core game pair up will with the Imps in Hoth, to make for themed armies.

On the other hand, lets be real, the hover tank is simply not as impressive a model as the Rancor

The above is excluding reasons of purely personal taste such as "Hoth rebels are way niftier looking than Endor rebels".

27 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

The above is excluding reasons of purely personal taste such as "Hoth rebels are way niftier looking than Endor rebels".

BLASPHEMY!! Endor Rebel soldiers are the best looking rebels in the series!

I just grabbed the core and I am looking at buying advise as well. Thanks for the info.

My generic advice is: Play with the core a bit. (Skirmish and/or Campaign.) You'll be much wiser about what you want after that.

10 hours ago, Stompburger said:

Actually, the expansions have gotten better as they've come out. If you're interested in getting the most balanced/interesting heroes and Imperial Classes (for campaign), you can skip Twin Shadows. Twin Shadows has odd Heroes and some of the unit balance issues that they were working through in the early sets, and it's a stand-alone campaign so you don't need it for anything else.

Uh, the early campaigns, Twins Shadows and Hoth, are the most balanced campaigns. Bespin and JR are both wildly unbalanced and have plenty of rules issues. So they've definitely not been getting better. I'd say they've steadily gotten worse except Jabba's Realm at least was sort of interesting missions while you got your face stomped. Bespin was just a pointless face stomp and no fun at all. Played through all the campaigns at least twice and Bespin was a flaming pile of crap that should never have been released. We almost stopped playing it was so bad, but we stuck with skirmish until JR came out and while it's disappointing to say the least, it's at least a step up from Bespin.