I'm starting a campaign with 2 brand new players, and I was looking for some input on what you think the best heroes are for teaching new players. I'm not really concerned about effectiveness or long-term viability as I am the ability to teach concepts and not over-complicate things.

It will be 3 Rebel players vs. myself as the Imperial, so I would want to use 4 heroes. Which 4 heroes would be best for teaching the game to new players?

My first thought was some combination of:

Gaarkhan/Shyla

Gideon

Mak/Vinto

Fenn/Onar

Since the goal is to teach players, you probably want a good variety of heroes to work with:

Fenn/Mak- for teaching damage dealing

Diala- Teaching mitigation abilities

Gideon- Teaching support

Saska/Loku- Teaches them to work with tokens a little bit

Vinto could potentially swap in for either the damage or (maybe) the mitigation spot.

I wouldn't use Onar. He's just weird. Good to know how to play, but his strategies are so unique to him that he might confuse new players for a while if they learn with him.

I would say that any heroes the players are drawn to. If not, then go with the list you get from here.

If I had to pick a single character that's best for new players it would probably be a toss-up between Garkhaan, Gideon, Mak, Fenn and Shyla. These are all sort of "one-trick ponies" in my view - their abilities and XP upgrades are all either generally helpful or centered around the one action that they're looking to do repeatedly (Charge, Command, shoot from 4+ spaces, blast, whip). You're probably going to want to do those actions every turn, so the decision tree shrinks a bit from a general "what should I do" to a more specific "who should I charge/command/blast/etc.?"

You could maybe add in Biv to that list too since he focuses a lot on his Up Close and Personal, but I find that it can sometimes be tough to be effective with him if you don't know how to manage your strain well.

I'd probably be quickest to avoid Davith, who often needs to do a whole bunch of "surge math" on each attack, Verena, who has a lot of fiddly triggers to remember, and Saska, who can be difficult to get good value out of if you're playing her in a straightforward "run up to those guys and shoot at them" kind of way.

But really I guess it all sort of depends on their level of experience with games in general, though, as well as how the imperial player plays. Taking Jynn as an example, her Quick Draw is actually pretty straightforward on the surface and would be fine for a new player - unless the imperial is playing in such a way that they are hiding figures from Jynn so that she can never activate her ability, in which case the newbie would have to put a lot more thought into positioning.

I would also say the core heroes each has a really good reprensentation of the the games mechanics, while still being easy to play. Biv is also easy to play, but he is really simple and boring to play IMO.

Gaarkhan Mak Gideon Diala, is a good Way to get into the game, and is also really effective.

A new wrinkle - turns out it will only be 2 other players, so now I could do either 2 heroes for the Rebels or 4. Has anyone played Aftermath with 2 heroes? Is it any good? Or should I just go with 4 heroes, even though both players are totally new?

11 minutes ago, Stompburger said:

A new wrinkle - turns out it will only be 2 other players, so now I could do either 2 heroes for the Rebels or 4. Has anyone played Aftermath with 2 heroes? Is it any good? Or should I just go with 4 heroes, even though both players are totally new?

Are they new to Imperial Assault or new to board games generally?

Experienced hobby gamers will probably have no trouble controlling two heroes each, especially at the beginning when there aren't many skills to remember. Someone completely new might find it a little tougher, though.

Edit: Just to add, I've played through a campaign with 2 heroes and it's not bad. There are a few missions that seem really hard for one side or the other, though, but if you're alright with that it's still a fun experience.

Honestly, two players/four heroes is my favorite way to play, as it keeps the 4 hero intent of the game along with giving each player 2 activations per round (so they're more actively engaged).

I think that if they can learn to play with one hero, they can learn to play with 2 apiece. The only difference is each has their own abilities and such, but in a full campaign these abilities build up nice and slowly. Plus, they have less to do with gaming and more to do with simple memorization of who has what, anyway.

Okay, thanks for the input. They're pretty experience gamers so I don't think they'll have trouble with 2 heroes each.

I think I'm going to go with Gaarkhan, Vinto, Gideon and probably Diala.

I'm new to the game and so are the two I play against. We are all accustomed to miniature games but only one of the other has experience of boardgames. They play two heroes each and I play Empire. It is a total blast! We all can't wait for our schedules to clear up for another session.

I would recommend always having 4 heroes in play, that's how the game flows best. 3 players (2 rebel players, 1 imperial) is also the best way to play imo.

Update: we played 4 heroes (Diala, Gaarkhan, Gideon and Vinto) and it went well! They picked it up pretty fast and had fun!

They would have had a decent chance of winning too if they hadn't had some of the worst dice rolls I've ever seen. I must have rolled 3 blocks on defense about 5 or 6 times, and Gaarkhan failed to do damage on pretty much half of his attacks. He did 0 damage with a focused attack on a terminal - that's a 1% chance! Craziest rolls I've seen in a game.

If they decide to keep these heroes I think I'll make some tweaks (some of the ones suggested on a BGG thread somewhere, as well as a few of my own) to Diala, Gideon and Gaark, to make them a little more balanced and give them more viable build path options.

17 hours ago, Stompburger said:

Update: we played 4 heroes (Diala, Gaarkhan, Gideon and Vinto) and it went well! They picked it up pretty fast and had fun!

They would have had a decent chance of winning too if they hadn't had some of the worst dice rolls I've ever seen. I must have rolled 3 blocks on defense about 5 or 6 times, and Gaarkhan failed to do damage on pretty much half of his attacks. He did 0 damage with a focused attack on a terminal - that's a 1% chance! Craziest rolls I've seen in a game.

If they decide to keep these heroes I think I'll make some tweaks (some of the ones suggested on a BGG thread somewhere, as well as a few of my own) to Diala, Fenn and Gaark, to make them a little more balanced and give them more viable build path options.

Cool to hear. If one of your party member has a hard time managing multiple heroes, Gideon is a good choice. You don't need to gear him neither, so you save credits there.

How do find out what new miniatures are coming out or in the near future??? I would really like to see the following:

1. Han Solo frozen in carbonite (for the Boba Fett mini)

2. Malakili, Rancor Keeper

3. Max Rebo Band

4. 4-Lom, Bounty Hunter

5. Bib Fortuna

6. Aurra Sing, Bounty Hunter

7. Watto

8. Mace Windu

9. And of course...Yoda

Please let me know what you think and hopefully this information gets to the right people to make these miniatures!

15 hours ago, thewartoad said:

How do find out what new miniatures are coming out or in the near future??? I would really like to see the following:

1. Han Solo frozen in carbonite (for the Boba Fett mini)

2. Malakili, Rancor Keeper

3. Max Rebo Band

4. 4-Lom, Bounty Hunter

5. Bib Fortuna

6. Aurra Sing, Bounty Hunter

7. Watto

8. Mace Windu

9. And of course...Yoda

Please let me know what you think and hopefully this information gets to the right people to make these miniatures!

I'm afraid those are mostly pretty unlikely.

Solosicle, Malakilli, Fortuna, and the Rebo Band are units that would be (and in some cases, may have already been) represented by various game tokens.

Windu and Watto are too prequel-y to be likely. We have some prequel stuff, granted, but it's usually either non-uniques that were probably just still around during the GCW (like the Nexus) or uniques that appeared in prequel stuff but we're getting their Rebels form (like Ahsoka or Maul).

Aurra Sing is a longshot (pun intended) but may be possible.

I think 4-LOM and Zuckuss may come eventually. Given we're already getting Palpatine, I think Yoda is due sometime.

16 hours ago, thewartoad said:

How do find out what new miniatures are coming out or in the near future??? I would really like to see the following:

1. Han Solo frozen in carbonite (for the Boba Fett mini)

2. Malakili, Rancor Keeper

3. Max Rebo Band

4. 4-Lom, Bounty Hunter

5. Bib Fortuna

6. Aurra Sing, Bounty Hunter

7. Watto

8. Mace Windu

9. And of course...Yoda

Please let me know what you think and hopefully this information gets to the right people to make these miniatures!

As cool as this list is (especially Aura Sing) a lot of them wouldn't fit thematically,due to the time period (Mace Windu and Watto) or serve a role in combat (Carbonite Han and Max Reebo Band) Malikli and Bib Fortunate could be in the game as token or figure, but it doesn't seem likely now, when Jabbas Realm wave is over.

17 hours ago, thewartoad said:

How do find out what new miniatures are coming out or in the near future??? I would really like to see the following:

1. Han Solo frozen in carbonite (for the Boba Fett mini)

2. Malakili, Rancor Keeper

3. Max Rebo Band

4. 4-Lom, Bounty Hunter

5. Bib Fortuna

6. Aurra Sing, Bounty Hunter

7. Watto

8. Mace Windu

9. And of course...Yoda

Please let me know what you think and hopefully this information gets to the right people to make these miniatures!

I think maybe you want to post a new topic with this question? It doesn't really have anything to do with the discussion in this thread...

2 hours ago, Stompburger said:

I think maybe you want to post a new topic with this question? It doesn't really have anything to do with the discussion in this thread...

Or just post it in one of the multiple "Predict what units we'll get in the future" threads...

Thanks everybody for the feedback...this was just something that popped into my head...I'm not such a gamer as I'm a miniature collector & painter!