hi all,

i have played aprox ten games now and the imps have only won one. the first game that was. many games have been close, but we just can't get the emperors forces to win it in the end. Some games are just pure rebel massacre with the rebels advancing the marker effortlessly and avoiding beat downs in space. When the imps have the base, they need to have a fleet ready to go to the system and be able to punish the rebels in one fell strike. most games the rebels kan just stack the base and wait for the imps to come. Then they can either move the base no problem with the starting mission or just wait it out. cards like veers action card, some of the "move dudes to system" missions can help, but its very hard to actually destroy the base without the rebels just moving it if the opposition is to hefty.

first of all; im a good player. I know what im doing and I have never lost with the rebels.

with the imps:

- i have tried to spend all my time on just sheer moving around and checking systems. didn't work

- knock rebs out of space by going 100 percent after SDs and stuff to smash all their space so they wouldn't be able to really do anything but wait for me to find them. almost worked.

- capture a LOT of their leaders and even managed in turning one to the dark side. the pain here was to simply out-activating them. This didn't work either. Thing is, they dont really need a lot of activations. In this game I used a lot of missions to capture and torture guys and make them tell me where the base is instead of moving so much around with my fleets. Super fun approach that almost gave me the much wanted impy win. BTW Yularens action card is insane.

- play a more balanced game where I dont have a clear cut strategy but try to do a little of everything. a lot of thwarting rebels missions and so forth. More sneaky, very difficult and less effective. I feel this could be a strong approach, though. if you can focus hard on foretelling and then thwarting all the rebs attempts at objectives you should be good. it just takes a lot of skill to get it all right, I guess.

Questions:

- how many fleets should I have?

- how good a tool is blowing up planets?

- what are good search patterns?

- is capturing really worth it?

- when to do what? I feel like one or two errors is all it takes to lose the game with the imps.

In my case it was the exact opposite. I haven't played many games, but all of my games as the Empire I won and with the Rebels I just won one.

The Imperial strategy always was to expand and cut the options for the Rebels to escape as they cannot move to a system that contains an imperial unit. And if they can move, maybe it has to be to a system that has imperial units in an adjacent system, so as the new base would be empty (or with only 2 units), the destruction can be done without much effort

i find that impossible to do. the rebs just need a few systems to be able to move the base. thats why im asking for search patterns etc.

But yeah, you're right, putting an imperial unit in every system would obviously be good : ) thats more an end, though. What im looking for is the means to get there.

I watched this video recently and I think it's a great break down of 2 main imperial strategies. Give it a watch!

I've played 30+ games and I've only lost once as Empire (with one movement away from victory). Here's how the Empire wins: Subjugate EVERYTHING. I'm serious. Subjugating is better than loyalty because it gives you troops to build AND deploy AND allows you to move troops closer to their Rebel Base. Here are some tricks that I've picked up as Empire. Also, the reason you let the Rebels build so many units is because you didn't subjugate enough.

1. NEVER play Rule by Fear. The ONLY exception to this rule is if you start your first turn WITHOUT either Corellia or Mustafar loyal to you. Ideally you just have Corellia loyal so you can continue your steady production of Star Destroyers. Other than that, rely on cards like "Brilliant Administrator," "Address Delays," and "Build Factory" to ramp up your unit production if you really need troops.

2. NEVER play Planetary Conquest unless you're close to winning the game. This is one of the best cards in the game. Only use it if you're absolutely sure where the Rebel base is. This is especially effective right after they've moved the Rebel base because it's likely to be empty. The only other time I can think of you to play this card before winning is if you're torn between 2 possible planets the Rebel base is on, and the two planets are on opposite sides of the map.

3. There are 5 really good Diplomacy cards in the Imperial Missions deck. There are 2 Trade Negotiations, 1 Display Of Power, 1 Imperial Propaganda, and 1 Fear Will Keep Them In Line. For the former 3, only use them on planets that are too far for you to subjugate or check. Don't use them on useless planets or planets that are close enough for you to subjugate. Fear Will Keep Them In Line is great for when you enter a newly unchecked region of the map (like the region with Nal Hutta or Geonosis) and you want to quickly be able to place troops there next turn. Imperial Propaganda is amazing to play when the Rebel player is clearly going for the "Regional Support" objective. It can also be played after this get this objective to snuff out all rebel loyalty in a region.

4. Hold Vader or Boba Fett back in the leader pool to oppose Spec Ops missions every turn. The Rebels have a few devastating Spec Ops missions like "Wookie Uprising," "Demolition," "Rogue Squadron Raid," and "Sabotage." If the Rebel player doesn't play these, use Vader to move troops instead. The exception to the rule is if you really want to stop them from trying a Death Star run with a "Retrieve the Plans" mission. For Boba Fett, only send him on specific missions like "Collect Bounty" but if you suspect the Rebels have a spec ops missions they will attempt, have him around to oppose them.

5. On that note, hold the Emperor back in the leader pool to oppose diplomacy missions. Don't let the Rebels get a free loyal planet every turn. There are a few other rebel cards like "Establish Trade Alliance" or "Public Uprising" that can lead directly to them getting objectives. If the Rebels don't have any worthwhile diplomacy missions (or whatever planet they make loyal can be subjugated this turn) then use the Emperor to move troops instead.

6. Use General Tagge to do "Capture Rebel Operative." Nobody ever expects Tagge to be the one to do that mission. This is effective because you can stack him on whatever planet Vader was just used to oppose a mission on to get 4 dice. Or Boba Fett.

7. Always prioritize capturing leaders with rings over leaders without rings. The capture ring replaces the ring they have on. On that note, always prioritize capturing Luke Skywalker (Jedi) if possible. You know if Luke is on a solo mission, it's likely to be "Seek Yoda" so you know exactly where to move your troops and play "Capture Rebel Operative." Always have troops at least one planet adjacent to Dagobah to set this up.

8. Don't destroy planets unless you're about to win the game.

9. Don't leave more than 3 health worth of ground units on Imperial subjugated systems. I usually keep 2 stormtroopers max if I don't plan to move them.

10. Subjugate Ord Mantell early. Subjugating that planet gives you an Assault Carrier, so why not? It's adjacent to Coruscant.

11. Don't leave the Death Star exposed. If you do get attacked for whatever reason, put your strongest Admiral with the highest tactics value on that planet and take out their fighters.

12. Don't play "Research and Development" unless it's to remove a Sabotage marker.

13. If you ever get to draw from the Project deck or get an effect that allows you to look through the Project deck, always prioritize constructing Super Star Destroyers. Second Death Star is too risky. Blowing up planets isn't that useful. The other cards just aren't as good as having that sweet Super Star Destroyer.

14. If you ever get the "Intercept Transmission" mission, be sure to play it as your last mission and expand as quickly as possible to as many planets as you can during that command phase. I once got 7 probe cards from 1 "Intercept Transmission" card, it's amazing.

15. Always spread your units fairly evenly among your starting planets. The Rebel player can place their starting troops anywhere they want, so expect to be attacked first turn literally anywhere. Starting Action cards like "According to My Design" and "More Dangerous Than You Realize" are incredibly important to help mitigate first-turn damages from Rebel attacks.

EDIT: One more point I'm going to make about leaders.

16. You get to recruit 4 leaders. If possible, these are the 4 leaders you'd like to aim for: Boba Fett, Admiral Ozzel, Colonel Yularen, and Janus Greejatus. Most of the time you don't have control over who you can recruit. If you do, go for these leaders. Note that other leaders like Admiral Piett, Moff Jerjerrod, General Veers, and Soontir Fel are good too in their own right and may be a higher priority for recruiting, but in very specific situations in which their actions or missions are imminently needed.

-Boba Fett for obvious reasons. Great number of skill icons, two really strong action cards and one awesome mission (Collect Bounty).

-Janus Greejatus also has two decent action cards (he shares one with Boba Fett). The other allows you to get 3 free stormtroopers. This is important because as Empire, you're going to be spreading out a lot so it's important to have some extra stormtroopers to subjugate new planets or defend existing Imperial planets. Also, 2 diplomacy on him means you can free up the Emperor to do more important or specialized missions.

-Admiral Ozzel is my favorite. He has two of the best Imperial action cards in the game. One allows you to pick any project card you want and immediately assign him to do it. I like using this to construct a Super Star Destroyer. The other action card allows you to get first strike against the Rebels. This is important because the Rebels get a huge advantage of being able to move troops and attack first, but with Ozzel's action card this advantage disappears for one turn. Ozzel also has the amazing "Probe Droid Initiative" card which can get you 4 free probe cards.

-Colonel Yularen is a strong pick. He has decent tactics values, really high intelligence, and one of the best Imperial missions in the game. One of his action cards (Local Rumors) is really good because it allows you to check an entire region of the map for the Rebel base. This can significantly simplify your search. His mission "Interrogation Droid" is amazing when you're close to finding the Rebel Base or have a few options/possibilities of where it might be. Having 3 Intel is good because it allows you to free up the Emperor and other leaders for the intel requirement. He's also needed if the Rebel player has Obi-Wan Kenobi or Luke Skywalker (Jedi) who will likely either be used to go on important intel missions or oppose some critical intel missions of yours, like "Intercept Transmission", "Long-Range Probe", and "Gather Intel." He's also great at countering Rebel rescue attempts.

17. This should go without saying, but always save the "Retrieve the Plans" mission for when you suspect the Rebel player has the Death Star Plans card so you can quickly get rid of it. If they don't have that card, get rid of some of the easier rebel objectives like the combat-related ones (Crippling Blow or Liberation). You want to target these because they are fairly easy to achieve but also allow the Rebels to get more than one objective per turn. Usually they can only get one per turn with "Start of the Refresh Phase" objectives but the Combat ones can happen more than once per turn.

When I play Empire, the Rebel player seldom goes one turn with more than one non-subjugated loyal planets on the map.

thanks all. I think I need to focus more clearly on probing maybe. but most of the tips here are things I've been trying to integrate into my playstyle already. I very rarely go for projects, Im careful not to get ambushed t1 etc. Guess I just have to improve : )

R&D and completing projects is a waste of effort in my opinion. I stay away from it. Use it to clear sabotage, and only complete the missions that are clearly helpful.

I tend to suggest 3 'large' fleets (spread out in a way that they are 1 or 2 jumps from hitting any system). ISD(s) and support (transports/ties). But you also need several small transport fleets with some ties and troops. The small fleets are focusing on a system to system search, subjugating systems, securing resources, and looking for the Rebel base. The larger fleets are in position to move on a discovered base, or react to larger rebel movements. Your large fleets don't need to exist immediately. You can take a couple turns to develop them as you are playing aggressive early on.

Be aggressive with the Death Star early. It's unstoppable till they pull the plans in the tier two objectives. So use it's might to bully the rebels. Once they start getting into tier two objectives, I typically stick it with one of the 'large' fleets. Watch for nearby fighters though. If you see a group of fighters amassing nearby, take the offensive and crush them before they get a chance to attack the Death Star.

Production control in this game is key to winning. If Rebels can curtail Imp production/deployment, then the Imps can't amass enough units to search for and destroy the base. If the Imps can move quickly and wipe out Rebel production early though, they can severely cripple their ability to complete objectives. Set yourself up to hit their worlds hard and fast at the start. Yes, they'll make new friends and start to rebuild, but if you can at least subjugate most of their power base, they won't be able to build much. If you let them get and keep a foothold, they will have way more forces to throw around the board and complete objectives.

Know the objectives, and the tiers they exist in. Know what you have to watch for. If you know what they might be trying to complete and when, you are in a better position to react to it.

Another big factor of this game is initiative. I find that the player that takes the initiative early tends to have the best chance of winning. What I mean by this is who is making decisive actions and who is reacting to them. You want to put the other player in the reactive position. Make the aggressive moves. Predict when certain missions will be played so you can counter them the same turn. To this end, activations is a strong element of initiative. Capturing leaders can be VERY helpful, but make sure you have a plan for it so you aren't wasting activations.

Blowing up planets is powerful, but a real double edged sword. I only use it if I know they don't have the objective to get points from it, likely won't have it soon, and I can gain something from it's use. Destroying a rebel system to avoid combat losses with ground units while also flipping loyalty for another system that will hopefully stop an objective helps me in several ways (avoiding losses, flipping loyalty of two systems, avoiding loyalty objectives).

I find probes to be very important. There is some debate here, and there is merit for it, but I like to probe. It cuts down the amount of places they can run to later. It helps focus my searches. Plus it puts a lot of mental stress on the Rebels to see those options disappearing. If you are in a pinch and can't afford to do the probe mission one round, that's fine, but stick to it otherwise. Keep the pressure out.

BTW I edited my previous post above to add two additional tips (16 and 17) that focuses on leaders and the ones you want most.

I'm also in the boat of being an Imperial player, and I've also maybe only ever lost one game.

The problem that I have with many of these pieces of advice - and I'm not sure how to actually answer it without burning more brain cells than I currently want to devote to the project - is that they are either:

1. A list of things to do (or not do).
2. A number of alternative strategies.

However, this is a strategy game. By definition that is about anticipating what your opponent is going to do, and choosing a set of tactics that will defeat the tactics being used by the opponent.

Let's take the Prognard's otherwise awesome video. Simply put, he says the Empire has two options: Seek & Destroy vs. Capture & Torture. However, he does not really say much about when to choose which of these, in the light of the Rebel player's choices. The only thing that I can recall is that he said not to do Capture & Torture if the opening mission card hand did not include a certain card. But should it not be about discerning from the Rebel's opening moves what their likely strategy is going to be, and then choosing the Imperial strategy that best counters that Rebel strategy?

On 8/12/2017 at 5:27 PM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

I'm also in the boat of being an Imperial player, and I've also maybe only ever lost one game.

The problem that I have with many of these pieces of advice - and I'm not sure how to actually answer it without burning more brain cells than I currently want to devote to the project - is that they are either:

1. A list of things to do (or not do).
2. A number of alternative strategies.

However, this is a strategy game. By definition that is about anticipating what your opponent is going to do, and choosing a set of tactics that will defeat the tactics being used by the opponent.

Let's take the Prognard's otherwise awesome video. Simply put, he says the Empire has two options: Seek & Destroy vs. Capture & Torture. However, he does not really say much about when to choose which of these, in the light of the Rebel player's choices. The only thing that I can recall is that he said not to do Capture & Torture if the opening mission card hand did not include a certain card. But should it not be about discerning from the Rebel's opening moves what their likely strategy is going to be, and then choosing the Imperial strategy that best counters that Rebel strategy?

This.

As much as it's helpful for noobs to have a list of things to "always" or "never" do those statements come with a huge list of qualifiers that there really are no "always" or "never" statements.

There are core strategies but those rely on predicting what your opponent is doing.

My best advice is to read this post on the three core imperial strategies and their weaknesses/strengths: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1646194/3-archetypes-empire-players

5 hours ago, davidumstattd said:

This.

As much as it's helpful for noobs to have a list of things to "always" or "never" do those statements come with a huge list of qualifiers that there really are no "always" or "never" statements.

There are core strategies but those rely on predicting what your opponent is doing.

My best advice is to read this post on the three core imperial strategies and their weaknesses/strengths: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1646194/3-archetypes-empire-players

Thanks and agreed.

So to the degree that each side has three core strategies (which may be debatable, but let's run with it), then it means that you can create a 3x3 payoff matrix . Taking your two typologies, the matrix essentially looks like this:

(Hopefully, it doesn't look that bad for people reading on their cell phones. EDIT: yup, it looks bad. Sorry.)

Empire

| Expand or die | Rule by Fear | Capture Style |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sabotage | A | B | C |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rebels Infiltrate | D | E | F |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rapid Mobilization | G | H | I |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The question then becomes: which pairings result in which advantages/disadvantages for whom? I'm afraid that the games that I have played have not been all that varied. As the Empire (always), I've usually opted for 'Expand or die', whereas my opponent seems to have usually gone for the Infiltrate option, and so in my experience: D = E>R.

You've doubtlessly played many more games than I have. How would you fill in the rest of the matrix.

Should a lot of people start reading this matrix, would that have the effect of people getting clued into the tic-tac-toe nature of it (knowing that if your opponent makes a certain move - ie. put their 'O' in the center - you have no rational choice but to choose a corner, and so the game becomes a dud), and so alter the nature of the three dominant strategies?

I've actually thought about this a bit.

The way I see it

Capture style is strong against turtling (rapid mobilization) because you can find the base quickly before they can get strong and throw your death star at them. And if they move they lose their build up.
Capture style is weak against sabotogue because in capture style you produce the least and are thus the most susceptible to aggressive rebels
Capture style is about on par with infiltrate style because infiltrate opens you up to being captured but capture style isn't the best at stopping the rebels from scoring objectives. Both sides basically race evenly at that point for who can gain their victory condition first.

Rule By Fear is strong against infiltrate because you focus on keeping the rebels from scoring objectives so no matter how good the objectives are the rebels can't score most of them due to the lack of reputation.

Rule by Fear is weak against Rapid Mobilization because it's the least effective strategy at finding the base, and by not using RBF to get good units they won't have sufficient units to defeat the rebel garrison in time

Rule by Fear is on par with Sabotogue because while it makes it more difficult for the rebels to score objectives the empire also has less good quality units due to the mass subjagation. And sabotogue can be strong against subjagated planets. But only marginally so. And the rebels aren't really in a good position to score non combat objectives with this strategy so it's kinda like both these strategies shut each other down.

Expand or die is on par with turtling (Rapid mobilization) because while you can find the base quickly you rarely have a sufficient force to stop it. And the rebels can easily put you on wild goose chases with their probe card information. However the rebels rarely score a lot of obectives other than DSP with RM strategies so again it's a toss up on if the empire will find you fast enough or not. These games also can tend to be slow.


Expand or die is Strong against sabotage because you literally only do R&D to counter the sabotage mission and build a massive fleet which the rebels simply can't compete with. Some could argue that Sabotage style is strong because you tend to focus on weak parts of the empire and the empire expands out away from the core. This potentially could work but the Expand or Die strategy tends to have fewer weak parts.

Expand or Die is weak against infiltration because it does little to nothing to stop rebels from scoring objectives. And the rebels score more points the better the objectives they get. almost everything that needs to be done to stop objectives (take away loyalty, have lots of troops in every system, not leave weak subjugated places, capture at least one leader) are things the Expand or Die strategy doesn't tend to do. Also the infiltration strategy is the most conducive to a Heart of the Empire gambit since you potentially get that card quicker and the Expand or Die strategy tends to leave Corescaunt undefended. And if the rebels can divert your attention away from the rim it buys you the time to score other objectives. Really a lose lose situation.

Some of this is theory though. I'm interested to hear how it is that Expand or Die does well against infiltration. Simply having someone do a lot of infiltration missions doesn't mean they're invoking the infiltration strategy. It also requires a medium aggression on the part of the rebel player to accomplish those objectives and usually an aggressive opening move to distract the imperial fleet.

Again these strategy arechtypes are for really experienced players. At an early level strategic play isn't this nuanced. Figuring out one of these strategies is the main goal of a new player. Figuring out all six is a goal for experienced players. Even I haven't mastered all six. And a true master is one who has mastered all six AND is good at figuring out which strategy their opponent is using and which strategies counter it. And I'm not sure which counters what.

That's my analysis at least. Could be wrong. And I'd agree there could be more major archetype strategies but I haven't found them yet. These lists were made based on my experience and what I've seen on BGG and the Play by Forums as well as youtube playthroughs.

Right now a big strategy some people are liking is equal parts RBF and Expand or die. Basically you do expand or die but also assign someone to RBF every turn to take away loyalty and only do that (mostly) so you can expand quickly but also keep rebel victory point and production low.

And it's possible there's an archetype where the empire holds back and protects the core worlds to gain massive production with RBF before venturing out. Though some could argue that's the capture style because you're basically setting up for when you locate the rebel base. And I think that might be true. I may need to update the synopses for these strategies.

The more I think about it the more I think Expand or die is actually pretty weak to sabotogue. Because Expand or die again mostly has subjugated systems and thus doesn't produce as much as I thought. Also all those subjugated systems can really be shut down by sabotogue. And the last thing an Expand or die empire player would want is to waste time removing sabotogue by having to rbf a rim planet with little production.

Sabotogue also exploits a weakened core and the core stays pretty weak in this strategy. Which is an argument for why Expand or die may be much better against turtling. Because turtling does take advantage of weak imperial systems usually and Expand or die relies less on probe cards.

I read that you're coming back from Expand or die being strong against Sabotage, but let's just stick with it for the sake of theory. I built the matrix you suggested below (E means favors Empire, R means favors Rebels, = is the tossup).

I think it is to be assumed that FFG had a model in mind when they created and playtested the game. To the degree that that model involved each side having three dominant strategies (which is speculation, but it would be a good model), then the matrix below creates a balanced game. The questions are:

• Are these the dominant strategies that they also came up with? and
• Do the game components that they came up with actually fit the model that they aimed at building? (FFG is great, but they're not infallible, by any means.)

Empire

| Expand or die | Rule by Fear | Capture Style |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sabotage | E | = | R |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rebels Infiltrate | R | E | = |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rapid Mobilization | = | R | E |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming from less experience, I have felt that as the Empire, I could try to do Capture & Torture ( I do like Prognard's phrase for it), but it always strikes me as more risky. I always get the feeling that the game is about the probe cards, and so I effectively try to play the intelligence game - backed up with 3+ fleets going around trying to chance upon the rebel fleet. I don't let the Rebel get my eye off the ball with her annoying missions. That looks like Expand or Die, but the point is about quickly eliminating the places where the Rebels could hide. The Achilles heel to that strategy is that Rapid Mobilization can undo all my fleets' efforts by hiding in a place that I already had them search, which is why I try to do the missions that give me more probe cards. Thankfully my opponent has been reticent to use Rapid Mobilization, and so the hunt has continued to work, not giving me an incentive to change my strategy.

The If-Then-Else system of planning starts to fall apart in this game a bit due to the random factors.

Capturing is incredibly powerful, but if they can counter it, or you do it at the wrong time (no targets), then it's a waste of effort. Expanding fast leaves you open to certain things, but if you prepare for those things by expanding faster than the sabotages and only correcting key sabotaged systems, it hardly matters.

The big thing though is what cards do you have, and what do they have. Capture is a fine strategy, but it's much more powerful if you can do things with the captured leaders. Turning them or milking them for intel makes a capture that much better. If you don't have the right cards though, a captured leader can just be a liability. The expansion strategy tends to be very powerful, but can be ripped apart by a rebel that has a lot of the unpredictable movement cards. But I've played entire games as the rebels where I never drew one of those, or where by the time I did, I didn't have enough military to make a move.

All of that leads me to a comment I made before. Take the initiative. This is important no matter what side you are playing. Take the initiative. Set an aggressive early pace and maintain it, or even accelerate it as the game goes on. This forces the other player to react to you.

Naturally. You shouldn't go into a game of rebellion with much of a pre plan. You should pick/change your strategy based on what cards you draw and what your opponent does

Yes, nobody is saying you shouldn't adapt. The game is good because there are multiple ways to win and no two games are the same. There are just some things you notice over the course of many games that seem to work in a number of situations.

On 8/16/2017 at 7:25 AM, kmanweiss said:

The If-Then-Else system of planning starts to fall apart in this game a bit due to the random factors.

On 8/16/2017 at 8:36 AM, davidumstattd said:

Naturally. You shouldn't go into a game of rebellion with much of a pre plan. You should pick/change your strategy based on what cards you draw and what your opponent does

I agree with davidumstattd. the luck of the draw matters somewhat, but that doesn't negate the strategic element by a longshot.

Of course there is a random element to this game, as with most of FFG's Star Wars games. However, I think it is a bit fatalistic to suggest that one is entirely at the whim of one's cards. It seems to me that especially the Empire has a number of good options regardless of the random card draw. Personally, I tend to not play so use that many non-Starting Missions, because I like to have my leaders moving the fleets around. Also, you can always pursue any strategy based on your Starting Missions. Let's also not pretend like the randomness of the cards generally available is particularly prohibitive. Sure, there will be time when you've got an outlier's bad luck, but don't judge the game on outlier probabilities.

On 8/16/2017 at 11:36 AM, davidumstattd said:

Naturally. You shouldn't go into a game of rebellion with much of a pre plan. You should pick/change your strategy based on what cards you draw and what your opponent does

Thats pretty much true of any adversarial game, even chess, especially chess.

On 8/17/2017 at 6:15 PM, Jobu said:

Thats pretty much true of any adversarial game, even chess, especially chess.

That doesn't mean that there are not standard openings.

I suppose the real question is: Are there advantages to more closely aligning your actions with particular types of tactics (moving your forces around, or investing in capture missions, & etc.) or is there greater advantage in doing a little bit of this or a little bit of that? Is more effective to doggedly pursue victory through a particular strategy, or is it better to be adaptive and flexible, at the cost of some efficiency?

You should probably start with a strategy and choose to change that strategy around turn 3 as by then you will have drawn 6 cards and gotten a chance to see what your opponent is doing.

Heh, don't they say that "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable"?

The thing is that I'm not really confident in the matrices we have up-thread. I'm not teally sure what tactics I should choose in response to the chosen tactics of my opponent. I tend to choose a particular strategy, and it works. I suppose it's all my opponent's fault for not coming up with a strategy that beats my relentless search for the Rebel base.

On 8/19/2017 at 7:45 PM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Heh, don't they say that "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable"?

The thing is that I'm not really confident in the matrices we have up-thread. I'm not teally sure what tactics I should choose in response to the chosen tactics of my opponent. I tend to choose a particular strategy, and it works. I suppose it's all my opponent's fault for not coming up with a strategy that beats my relentless search for the Rebel base.

Maybe you should find better opponents? :-/

10 hours ago, davidumstattd said:

Maybe you should find better opponents? :-/

Well, she finally beat me (as Rebels) yesterday. She played far more aggressively than she's done in the past, which is also more her style in Armada. So, there's hope yet!

I do need to do more to build my Rebellion-playing community. I've just also had the organization of the Armada, X-Wing, and Imperial Assault communities fall into my hands (in the form of the administration of their Facebook groups), and I don't even really own any Imperial Assault or play that game all that much!

What really struck me is that it's kinda hard to stick to any particular strategy. When my hand gets loaded up with capture & torture cards, and I have both Vader and Boba Fett, how am I not tempted to go and capture and try to carbon freeze hapless Rebel leaders? (And, yes, my efforts to try do do so were met with bad luck, and the Rebels slipped through my fingers.)

I'm curious to know what overall Imperial strategies, if any, have changed with the release of the Rise of the Empire expansion.