Starting a campaign at my FLGS and the very first side mission chosen is Temptation. I love the lore of this mission but a few things are bugging me about prepping for this one:

1. At threat level 2, this almost feels like I'll be handling the mission (and thus the reward) to the rebels. When Vader appears, if I'm reading this correctly, he will have 4 health. I'm not too sure this is going to be a hard opponent for Diala to overcome. Part of me wants to use the Grand Inquisitor instead of Vader for a little more flavor since there's always a chance Vader will show up later in the campaign but I think Vader's 2 black defense will likely hold up better than the Inq.

2. Open groups. I really dig that the open groups are supposed to be ghosts of past foes. I'm looking at Trandos as one group (slavers that Gaarkhan once faced?), ISB Infiltrators (casualties of an old mission for Gideon?) and Hired Guns (Fenn's surely faced some scum in his days...) but part of me wants to ditch the HGs and toss in Greedo for an odd choice since he's technically dead during the current time period (but that would be breaking the rules since I've not "earned" him yet).

However, I'm still dealing with 2 threat per round so it's not like I'm going to be banking a ton of threat to get these groups out. Even with the threat increase and optional deployment at the begining, I'm scared my troops are just going to get overrun very quickly.

Thoughts?

I often find that in my campaigns, side missions tend to favor the Rebels until later in the campaign, when I can really put that high threat to work.

Here's the thing about Temptation that might work for you- the relatively strong starting units. You've got an eNexu, rRoyal Guards, and rStormtroopers. That's a pretty brutal combination, because the Rebels really have to make some choices- if they ignore the guards and nexu, then those units are gonna do some serious damage (and maybe more importantly, stuns) for a while. If they focus on the bigger guys, those stormtroopers can whittle them down, and most of the nexu and royal guards will probably still survive turn one anyway.

As far as Vader goes- 4 health is not a lot at all. However, with two black defense die and the possibility of an adjacent Royal Guard, Vader may be difficult to get much damage on with early campaign heroes, depending on their rolls. Black die can be so incredible swingy, but his Foresight ability should also help mitigate at least some bad luck.

Basically, in a best case scenario, you could have an automatic block of 7 (two 3s on black and the +1 block from RG), which I seriously doubt many heroes could outdo that early in the campaign. That's not all that likely, though, so I wouldn't count on it. Focus on using brutality and getting in good positioning (that is, behind other units) if you can.

If you want to be mean, add a regular nexu. At two threat you can bring it back every two rounds which is about how long they'll take to kill it.

With temptation, getting to Vader will be the hardest part early in the campaign. Whereas to the end of the campaign, Vader himself will be the bigger threat

Don't forget (like we did) that the Royal Guards can only use Sentinel on the Nexu if the hero is targeting a SPACE that's adjacent to the Royal Guard.

2 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

As far as Vader goes- 4 health is not a lot at all. However, with two black defense die and the possibility of an adjacent Royal Guard, Vader may be difficult to get much damage on with early campaign heroes, depending on their rolls. Black die can be so incredible swingy, but his Foresight ability should also help mitigate at least some bad luck.

Just ran the damage calculator on this. Without factoring Sentinel, Foresight, and weapon mods both Diala and Fenn with starting weapons get 35% or less of putting 1 damage through two black dice. Gharkhaan's got a 52% chance, and with Precise Strike Diala shoots up to a little under 80%. Even at 4 health the Rebels really need to work for that one.

I know I lost this mission in my latest campaign, but it was a ton of fun. I really loved the theme and story on this one - plus Vader is involved which is ALWAYS cool. As IP don't overlook the "You can deploy to any empty space rule". If I remember I was able to deploy things that could block Vader and help with the defense. Its a small thing, but it really opens up strategy especially if you are going with "large force in numbers" approach.

If you have Restorative Supplies Agenda card - that, as always, is super helpful too

Good luck!

Temptation is a good mission for a Probe Droid bomb if you can afford it.

49 minutes ago, Uninvited Guest said:

Just ran the damage calculator on this. Without factoring Sentinel, Foresight, and weapon mods both Diala and Fenn with starting weapons get 35% or less of putting 1 damage through two black dice. Gharkhaan's got a 52% chance, and with Precise Strike Diala shoots up to a little under 80%. Even at 4 health the Rebels really need to work for that one.

Interesting. Was this also considering the possibility of a Royal Guard adjacent for +1 additional block?

4 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

Interesting. Was this also considering the possibility of a Royal Guard adjacent for +1 additional block?

Sentinel wasn't factored, no.

I ran this with Fenn in the group and his Blast ability is what killed Vader in the end. Don't matter how many defense dice he has in that scenario. Something to watch out for.

22 hours ago, pheylorn said:

I ran this with Fenn in the group and his Blast ability is what killed Vader in the end. Don't matter how many defense dice he has in that scenario. Something to watch out for.

If a hero has blast, it's never a good idea to have figures adjacent to each other...