First I don't know if I'm posting in the correct forum. I hesitated between Rules and Campaign, but thought Campaign was appropriate.

I want to create what I call the "Gall moon" mission. This is greatly inspired from the mid-90s Shadows of the Empire video game. This would be an end of campaign (threat level = 6) type of mission, so you can expect heroes to be very well equipped in xp and items. The plot would follow the 4 heroes escorting Dash Rendar (an alliance smuggler with boosted stats) to locate and fight Boba Fett (with boosted stats like most boss in campaigns). Now my question (and this is where I want to have your input guys) is how much threat-worth of figures should I put on the initial board, reserved group, etc?

The idea I had was to look at the final missions of the core, and expansions and do something similar. For example the mission Last Stand (core) has 22 threats of figures on the board at the start of the mission and 44 in the reserved group (including the boss). Maybe I could look at all final missions and do some average to determine how much threat I should use.

As any one come up with a better idea?

I think a good rule of thumb is that the Heroes can each remove a little more than 1 Threat Level worth of attack in each activation. At the beginning of the campagin, it usually takes 2 attacks to kill a Stormtrooper (cost 2, which is the threat level). Toward the end of the campaign, it isn't unusual for a hero to be able to remove a whole group of regular Stormtroopers (cost 6) in 2 attacks, using other abilities as well of course.

What's important is that it usually takes 2 attacking actions to do this. So if a hero doesn't have free movement and the threat is deployed at a distance, they won't be able to kill as much because they will have to move then attack.

Also, the heroes are usually at their strongest at the start of the mission. They aren't wounded, they haven't depleted anything, they have no strain and they're all in the same place.

One great place to look is at Side Missions. Side missions always (as far as I know) give you 2x the threat level at the start of the mission. They are designed to be played at any threat level. So you can look at the initial threat deployed in a Side Mission and how far away it is, add 2x the threat level to that (and see how close it would be deployed), and that should give you a rough idea of what threat might be good to start a mission with.

Another thing to consider is the objective.

For example, consider one of the simplest mission types from a Rebel perspective- the rare Rebel defense missions (odd they'd be so rare in a game called "Imperial Assault", but that's beside the point).

In missions where the Rebels are defending an area or object, it's likely that they're going to be using almost all of their actions to perform attacks. That's a huge issue for any Imperial player who wants to keep units on the field. So, to compensate for that, the Imperial is probably going to need to be awarded extra threat- either by additional starting groups, reserved groups, missions effects granting additional threat, or other clever methods.

There are dozens of categories of missions, but let's say there's a more complicated one- perhaps the Rebels need to move to one side of the map (involving interacting with doors) and get a handful of successes on a test on a terminal. Now, the Rebels aren't going to be able to just sit back and attack- a lot of those attack actions are now being replaced with moves and interacts, so the game won't need to grant the Empire as much threat early on.

Other things to consider-

A) map size and shape. Is the threat that you're giving your Empire really worth it? For example, let's say a mission deploys Vader as a reserved unit, but spawns him so far away that it'd be at least 3 turns before he's even in position to start doing damage. Now, there's a case to be made for Vader having a psychological effect on your players that alone could sway the course of the game, but that can't really accurately be measured. Assuming your Rebels keep it cool, you could hardly say a Vader that late in the game is worth 18 threat, so you wouldn't want to weigh him as much for that.

b) when is the threat being given? Consider this deliberately extreme (for emphasis) scenario: The empire starts out with only 1 rStormtrooper group. However, if they manage to hold out until the end of round 5, the Empire gets 20 threat! Then at the end of Round 7, the mission ends. In that example, even if the Empire somehow manages to stick around until the end of Round 5, it's not particularly likely that the 20 threat is going to be able to turn the game around quickly enough for them, depending on the size and shape of the map (refer to point A)

Basically, it doesn't matter what you do- no mission is ever going to be perfectly balanced, not even official FFG ones. The game just inherently makes that idea impossible.

What you can do is make it interesting. You can give the mission potential to be close. Start by running some numbers like Stomp suggested, then playtest what you have. Playtest, playtest, playtest. Then, adjust for what you view as issues with the mission.

and then, publish

On 14.07.2017 at 8:44 PM, subtrendy2 said:

What you can do is make it interesting. You can give the mission potential to be close. Start by running some numbers like Stomp suggested, then playtest what you have. Playtest, playtest, playtest. Then, adjust for what you view as issues with the mission.

and then, put alpha version of mission here, and let us playtest it even more

9 hours ago, Jarema said:

and then, publish

and then, put alpha version of mission here, and let us playtest it even more

Are you sure? Send me a message with a session report and critique.

Thanks guys for your input so far. They are all very helpful.

7 hours ago, Jarema said:

and then, put alpha version of mission here, and let us playtest it even more

Yes I intend to do this. It would be nice to have some feedback from others.

6 hours ago, a1bert said:

Are you sure? Send me a message with a session report and critique.

Oh wow! This is so nicely done! I suppose you used the vassal module to assemble the map? If you are willing to share any hints on how you allocated threats I'll be listening!

16 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

Oh wow! This is so nicely done! I suppose you used the vassal module to assemble the map? If you are willing to share any hints on how you allocated threats I'll be listening!

Vassal module for the map, Agency FB font from free download, Tinos acts as a replacement for Times, IA symbol font using fontforge (also redrawing affiliation and expansion symbols), reward card template prepared with Gimp, and everything put together in OpenOffice.

There were design considerations: the mission is supposed to have blocking terrain, so figures with Mobile, objects in spaces with blocking terrain. The 'story' came next, and more mechanisms derived from that to support the story and make it possible for both sides to win.

Due to the rebels having an 'ally', I wanted the initial deployments to have a chance survive, so the rebels would not immediately gain activation advantage without really risking anything, but also allow a few different 'obvious' starting activation alternatives. All this affects entrance placement and initial group selection and placements.

The 2x Threat Level is standard for side missions (to allow customization depending on the class deck and scale to the threat level), other injections of threat and reserved groups throughout are what adjusts the mission. I can't claim that mine are in any way correct.

I had to adjust the map considerably because version 1 seemed to encourage just one strategy.

The endings are the hardest. I'm not sure what I have works (for balance), that is for testing to reveal.

IA Symbol font:

7 hours ago, a1bert said:

Are you sure? Send me a message with a session report and critique.

http://www.iki.fi/a1bert/TheCargo2.pdf

Nice.

I will try it. Probably not as a part of campaign, but as a stand-alone scenario ("pretending" that 2 missions already were played). I must admit, I do not like using custom cards. Now I am not at home, but next week I will have opportunity to play with my family. For the record: we have all box expansions that were released before Jabba's realm; my wife will play 2 heroes, my son other 2, and I will play Imperial (probably with Imperial Black Ops or Inspiring Leadership deck)

3 minutes ago, Jarema said:

Probably not as a part of campaign, but as a stand-alone scenario ("pretending" that 2 missions already were played). I must admit, I do not like using custom cards.

Playing anytime during the campaign with actual heroes, their item and class cards, but ignoring the results would also be fine with me. I'm not a fan of custom either, it would be hard to keep the separation of what is and what could be. The reward is just an idea to tie it in to the theme of the mission, and probably something that FFG would not consider. I would be interested in knowing/seeing whether it breaks actual campaign missions. (I took some care to not make it too good.)

The missions needs core and Twin Shadows tiles, the IP might benefit from Jabba's Realm for open group selection.

If you prefer it to be played during actual campaign, I think I will change reward a little - my son will not like to play mission without good reward (how do you think - what will be equivalent price of such item in credits?). But we will play campaign only after Polish version of Jabba's realm will be available.

Do you think about this mission as "neutral", or rather rebel chosen mission, or agenda mission?

(Sorry for the thread hi-jack.)

There is already a rebel credit reward in The Cargo. If the rebels gain the reward card as well, let them sell it for some suitable amount (600cr ?).