Hi everyone,

My group and I are about to do "Last Stand", our final mission for our first Campaign! It's been a total blast, and we want to dive in and do more campaigns! I don't own any of the Big Box Expansions, so I am curious if the base game has enough content to warrant a second play-through with meaningful difference, or am I better off purchasing an expansion, and if so, which one?

You could totally do another playthrough! I've actually played the core campaign a handfull of times now (admittedly as the Empire, and not necessarily with the same group each time). In fact, if you wanted to "cheat" and make sure you get entirely new missions, you can:

1) Whenever a mission is completed, award the rewards to the correct people based on who won. However , you then read the flavor text for whatever mission you didn't play last campaign, then put that mission into play. There might be a little disconnect between gameplay and story (for instance, if the Rebels win but the victory text does not reflect that) but you could always add a "Despite their best efforts..." or something to the front of the text to make it gel better with the story.

2) As much as possible, make the Rebels choose new characters. If you only have the core box and you're running 4 heroes (as well you should) then I'd suggest adding the two new ones in for sure. Then, if there are any heroes that didn't get their red side missions played last campaign, Rebels must pick first from them.

3) Put the side missions you played (not just ones that were in the deck) last time back into the box before making the side mission deck. The core campaign has 15 side missions, I believe. You should have plenty left over, even if you don't necessarily have enough cards to fill out each color (4 red, 4 green, 4 grey).

Other than that, your options would be to either get blister packs (for more side missions), a smallbox expansion (for more side missions/ a mini campaign), or a big box expansion (for another full campaign). Of course, I'd only invest more into IA if you like it enough to do so. It's a pricey game, but I at least think it's worth it.

As I said, I've run the core campaign many times now. From my first campaign, I had all of the items from waves 1-5. Then, I've collected as stuff released. I do like having all of the expansions as it really expands your possibilities in a campaign and makes the experience more full. It's fun to make my Rebels wonder what horrible thing I'm going to throw at them after each round, instead of simply wondering if it's gonna be a Trando/Stormtrooper/or Probe.

Personally, I'd suggest either getting Wave 2 (Twin Shadows) or Wave 5 (Return to Hoth) next, if you're interested in getting more components.

There's plenty of stuff in the core box to warrant a second campaign with it. There are 30+ missions and you played only 11-14.

Even the missions you know will play differently with different heroes and a different imperial class deck, but you can still house-rule a bit to avoid playing some of the story missions twice.

Nothing wrong with adding new missions through expansions either.

What you can also do is buy the figure packs that aren't bound to the box expansions, since they won't require tiles or components from them, these will add additional allies or villians. Especially fun to use are the hired guns, I often bring them in as cheap annoyances.

Then you can consider getting Twin Shadows and Bespin. These add characters and are entirely side missions. While they do come with a mini campaign to let you play the side missions as a campaign, I would rather use them in the main campaign. So now you'd have new characters and a whole lots of side missions, agendas, allies, and villians and non unique bad guys. Bear in mind when you get the boxes, you can then get the associated figure packs as well.

Finally when you've had enough of the original campaign, you can then get one of the other big boxes and you'd already have so many extra components to make those a rich experience.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! I would definitely want to try one of the expansions once we have experienced all the Imperial Classes. In the meantime, I think I am going to invest in some Ally Packs (Obi-Wan, Imperial Inquisitor, Wookie Warriors, Han Solo, and Bobba Fett; I already have Weiss and the Royal Guard Champion) to have their missions provide some additional flavor for the next Campaigns. Plus, give some options for the Skirmish Mode, which I dabble in occasionally.

Thanks again!

2 minutes ago, Kunitzu San said:

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! I would definitely want to try one of the expansions once we have experienced all the Imperial Classes. In the meantime, I think I am going to invest in some Ally Packs (Obi-Wan, Imperial Inquisitor, Wookie Warriors, Han Solo, and Bobba Fett; I already have Weiss and the Royal Guard Champion) to have their missions provide some additional flavor for the next Campaigns. Plus, give some options for the Skirmish Mode, which I dabble in occasionally.

Thanks again!

Just a heads up- you need Twin Shadows to play Fett in campaign.

That's how they getcha.

6 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Just a heads up- you need Twin Shadows to play Fett in campaign.

That's how they getcha.

Well, that's certainly problematic.

5 minutes ago, Kunitzu San said:

Well, that's certainly problematic.

Yeah...

I don't know if you've seen this or not , but it's a good resource. A good rule of thumb is that if a figure pack comes in the same "wave" as a boxed expansion, you'll need the expansion before you can get the figure. So, you need Bespin Gambit for Lando, Jabba's Realm for Jedi Luke, etc.

There are some exceptions to this, but if you click on the figure in that list, it'll specifically say what you need for it.

Always check before you buy, and if you have the slightest inkling your friends might decide to gift you something from this, make sure they're aware of it too. Can't tell you how many people come on here talking about a Jabba or whatever they got for Christmas and asking how it works in the core campaign.

4 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

Just a heads up- you need Twin Shadows to play Fett in campaign.

That's how they getcha.

I have Boba Fett and only the core set, and you can play his campaign mission with only the core tiles. It is his skirmish mission which required twin shadows tiles. So for campaign play, you are good to go! He is a great looking figure, and his agenda deck (if you are the IP ) has some cool cards too.

For replay ability, we replayed the core campaign for a second time - with all the same players. I was the IP for both, and I changed my class deck, one rebel player changed his hero. We also bought some villain /ally packs so we built the side mission deck to add more allies stuff and removed a couple missions we already did.

There is a ton of content in the core set, if you enjoyed it the first go - you'll have a blast the next time too! Different IP class decks (core has three choices), building different agenda decks, different side missions maybe different heroes all will allow for a unique and fun play experience even if you have already played a mission.

Since we have run through it twice we are now looking to buy another expansion. Thinking Hoth, but maybe Jabba. Enjoy!!

11 hours ago, totalnoob said:

I have Boba Fett and only the core set, and you can play his campaign mission with only the core tiles. It is his skirmish mission which required twin shadows tiles. So for campaign play, you are good to go! He is a great looking figure, and his agenda deck (if you are the IP ) has some cool cards too.

For replay ability, we replayed the core campaign for a second time - with all the same players. I was the IP for both, and I changed my class deck, one rebel player changed his hero. We also bought some villain /ally packs so we built the side mission deck to add more allies stuff and removed a couple missions we already did.

There is a ton of content in the core set, if you enjoyed it the first go - you'll have a blast the next time too! Different IP class decks (core has three choices), building different agenda decks, different side missions maybe different heroes all will allow for a unique and fun play experience even if you have already played a mission.

Since we have run through it twice we are now looking to buy another expansion. Thinking Hoth, but maybe Jabba. Enjoy!!

Huh, I forgot about that. Yeah @Kunitzu San , if you look at that Boardwars link I posted and check out Boba's page, it does indeed confirm you only need the core set to play him in campaign. That's neat.

@totalnoob , have fun! Personally I'd suggest Jabba if you're only gonna get one, but it's really up to you. What campaign looks more fun to you? What associated figure packs look better? Do you want more of a focus on Imperial units, or Merc?

16 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

Just a heads up- you need Twin Shadows to play Fett in campaign.

That's how they getcha.

Twin Shadows OR the Nemeses deck from Jabba's Realm. Which is the best Imperial Class deck anyway, so why not?

1 minute ago, Stompburger said:

Twin Shadows OR the Nemeses deck from Jabba's Realm. Which is the best Imperial Class deck anyway, so why not?

True. Though, I really wouldn't suggest taking Fett as the Merc nemesis.

30 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

True. Though, I really wouldn't suggest taking Fett as the Merc nemesis.

Yeah, probably not, though if you were going the Ringleader/Devastating Legion route he would be very hard to remove... he just isn't that much of a threat otherwise.

1 hour ago, subtrendy2 said:

Huh, I forgot about that. Yeah @Kunitzu San , if you look at that Boardwars link I posted and check out Boba's page, it does indeed confirm you only need the core set to play him in campaign. That's neat.

@totalnoob , have fun! Personally I'd suggest Jabba if you're only gonna get one, but it's really up to you. What campaign looks more fun to you? What associated figure packs look better? Do you want more of a focus on Imperial units, or Merc?

Well, I'd love to say "I'm only going to get one" - but I have a sneaking suspicion that would be a big lie!! I am sure I'll get all the big boxes eventually, so right now thinking Hoth but really just because its "next" - not really for any other reason. We probably won't have time to play until the end of next month, so I have some time to decide. If it seems like Heart of the Empire is really going to be available in September - then that will add another wrinkle to this already tough decision. I want the Emperor sooooooo badly!! A full length campaign story with the emperor as the main antagonist doing emperor things??? Yes please!

32 minutes ago, totalnoob said:

Well, I'd love to say "I'm only going to get one" - but I have a sneaking suspicion that would be a big lie!! I am sure I'll get all the big boxes eventually, so right now thinking Hoth but really just because its "next" - not really for any other reason. We probably won't have time to play until the end of next month, so I have some time to decide. If it seems like Heart of the Empire is really going to be available in September - then that will add another wrinkle to this already tough decision. I want the Emperor sooooooo badly!! A full length campaign story with the emperor as the main antagonist doing emperor things??? Yes please!

Emperor looks pretty cool, but a lot of the stuff in HotE is from the Rebels TV show. So while I'm totally excited for it (probably more than any expansion so far, even) I can get why it would turn some people off.

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 5:22 PM, subtrendy2 said:

Yeah...

I don't know if you've seen this or not , but it's a good resource. A good rule of thumb is that if a figure pack comes in the same "wave" as a boxed expansion, you'll need the expansion before you can get the figure. So, you need Bespin Gambit for Lando, Jabba's Realm for Jedi Luke, etc.

There are some exceptions to this, but if you click on the figure in that list, it'll specifically say what you need for it.

Always check before you buy, and if you have the slightest inkling your friends might decide to gift you something from this, make sure they're aware of it too. Can't tell you how many people come on here talking about a Jabba or whatever they got for Christmas and asking how it works in the core campaign.

Thanks, subtrendy2! I actually have the Grand Inquisitor and Obi-Wan on their way, so I'm excited to add them to my next gaming sessions, be it Skirmish or Campaign!

I also want to say that everyone in this discussion thread has been incredibly supportive and helpful to this newbie! All of you are great representatives of the community and have been incredibly welcoming! It has not gone unnoticed, and is highly appreciated!

Another thing you want to consider when getting expansions if you are playing as the imperial, is the imperial class decks. It's a joke between my friends that the twin shadow's class deck is called "un-inspiring leadership". I've liked the classes from all of the other expansions, but heavies are a pretty solid six point group to bring.

On 7/17/2017 at 5:10 PM, subtrendy2 said:

Just a heads up- you need Twin Shadows to play Fett in campaign.

That's how they getcha.

Of course, it's important to note that you can easily play with figures from figure packs in a campaign if you're willing to bend a few rules. They give you the miniature and the deployment card, and really that's all you *need* to play with that character (heck you could use your own mini and print the card off the internet yourself if you were desperate - though that might be violating copyright or something so this is neither advice nor legal counsel )

Technically, to use a villain or ally in a campaign, you need to either be granted that character as an initial or reserved group by the mission, or earn that character by drawing, choosing, and playing their mission. However, all villains and allies are conveniently balanced by their threat cost. So if you really want to play with an ally or villain but don't want their associated big/small box, just come to an agreement with your gaming group (maybe the Rebels get one ally of their choice, and the Imperial gets one villain of their choice) and follow the appropriate rules for deploying those groups in a mission.

In case you're not familiar with those rules:

An ally can be deployed with the Heroes after the Heroes deploy at the start of the mission. If the Heroes choose to do so, the Imperial player gains an amount of threat equal to the deployment cost of the ally and may resolve an optional deployment.

For villains, all the Imperial player needs to do is choose the villain as one of their open groups, then pay their cost in threat to deploy them as an optional deployment.

As a side note, I have been reading more and more on The Heart of the Empire Expansion. Needless to say, it's looking to be a very enticing purchase!

Just wanted to give another update that last week my group and I finished the mission, ending in a decisive Rebel Victory! With the first campaign really serving as a learning experience for everyone involved, I'm eager to see what new options can be explored with the other two Imperial Classes and other components! Although it will probably be some time before that group will want to commit to another Campaign, as I think we need a bit of a palate cleanser.

21 minutes ago, Kunitzu San said:

Just wanted to give another update that last week my group and I finished the mission, ending in a decisive Rebel Victory! With the first campaign really serving as a learning experience for everyone involved, I'm eager to see what new options can be explored with the other two Imperial Classes and other components! Although it will probably be some time before that group will want to commit to another Campaign, as I think we need a bit of a palate cleanser.

Congrats on finishing a campaign!

Yeah, I've definitely found that the learning curve tends to be steepest for new Rebel players at the beginning, but quickly becomes more difficult for a new Imperial player as the campaign progresses. Learning to adapt to increasingly stronger heroes is definitely a skill that takes some getting used to.

So Heart of the Empire appears to be officially out in the wild. Has anyone had a chance to play it? I'm really intrigued by it, especially considering the overarching story on Coruscant with the Emperor himself on your trail!

This campaign is only 8 missions long but has greater story mission variety. I know that will be appealing to some.

53 minutes ago, Deadwolf said:

This campaign is only 8 missions long but has greater story mission variety. I know that will be appealing to some.

Any idea how many missions are there in total from the campaign guide? I've been hearing 12 or 16

1+11 Story missions, 4 side missions.