I had a friend teach me Imperial Assault once a couple of years ago (I've forgotten most of what was taught to me then). I found it somewhat interesting and enjoyable but ended up not buying into the game at that time because of time constraints and the fact that I'm almost always apathetic toward "dungeon crawlers" (I've never played Descent ) and because I simply couldn't justify yet another FFG+Star Wars vice.

That changed recently because my wife and I got into Mansions of Madness, Second Edition . We love the exploration of each story that unfolds, so we are interested in the Campaign Mode of Imperial Assault . Plus, we LOVE the MoM2E app because it takes care of the tedious minutiae of the game.

Now I have finally procured a core set of Imperial Assault for a decent price, so I am looking to just play the game casually with my wife from time to time. So, I won't be splurging on getting all of the expansion packs right away, and I don't see myself getting into the competitive scene anytime soon. In fact, I received my core set over a week ago and haven't even removed the shrink wrap yet. This is mostly because my wife and I have been extremely busy these past months. But it's also because--much to everyone's irritation--the IA app is not yet available.

With all of that being said, here are my questions:

1. For those who have used the Descent app for that game, how well does it remove the minutiae from the game compared to MoM2E?

2. For those who played Descent first without the app and later with the app, did the app improve the game to the extent that you think you would have enjoyed the game more if the app had already been available the first time you played?

3. For those who have been playing Imperial Assault for a while, perhaps since the beginning, which would you consider the "essential" expansions for IA for a new, casual player? I'm looking for just a small number of expansions--perhaps more if we end up enjoying it a lot--so that we are not overwhelmed with the gameplay possibilities.

Essential expansions for a new casual first-time campaign player: nothing.

The first campaign is a learning campaign. You have much more knowledge of what you like to add when you have played at least a handful of missions first.

9 minutes ago, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

3. For those who have been playing Imperial Assault for a while, perhaps since the beginning, which would you consider the "essential" expansions for IA for a new, casual player? I'm looking for just a small number of expansions--perhaps more if we end up enjoying it a lot--so that we are not overwhelmed with the gameplay possibilities.

The go-to answer most people will probably say is either "whatever you're interested in" or "Jabba's palace".

Personally, I'd stick with "what you're interested in"- or (and this is definitely a much less popular answer) get all the Wave 1 blister packs. Personally, I'm kind of a completionist, so I hate having to deal with the cardboard chits for characters. Plus, you get new missions and stuff. The negative thing is that it's probably gonna set you back at least another hundred bucks, and you'll definitely be getting your money's worth on other stuff more. Still, if you know that's gonna be something that bothers you and you have the cash, not bad to nip that in the bud.

I pretty much always suggest this page , too. Take a look at what you like, and realize that not every blister is compatible with only the core set. For instance, you'll probably want Return to Hoth if you want to pick up Leia.

Keep in mind that this list is only for the Ally/Villain packs. The boxed sets will fill out your non-unique characters a lot more (like stormtrooper variations, mercenary units, etc), so if you're interested in that, you should check out the components for each box.

edit: Or, as a1bert says- maybe just nothing. If you're really using the word "essential" literally, I'd say you can very easily play the game with just the core set.

I can only answer the third question but here we go:

For casual games I don't think there is a "essential" pack for playing, everything in the game can be incorporated in both modes (campaign and skirmish) and you'll definitely have fun with it. So my tip for you and for everyone that enters this game is to begin buying the expansions that you want the most; are you a rebels fan? Buy chopper/hera pack. Are you a droid theme fan? Buy jawa and bt-1/0-0-0 pack. Are you a Hoth fan? Buy echo-base troopers. Anything that you buy will be used in one way or another. Just know that unique characters in campaign are a little difficult to use since you have to win them by doing side missions.

Even you don't entering in competitive yet, skirmish is a fun mode to play that spends less time than campaign, and is really fun for two reasons: you always have conditions on missions to gain points/add other rules that change the flow of the game, and the list building is so great, you can appeal to thematic lists and have so much fun (I was thinking in playing trandoshans vs wookies when Heart of the Empire goes out). And there's always the chance to use characters that are difficult to use in campaign or using your favorite hero in a different way, since they have their skirmish versions.

Is really difficult to narrow a list, go by what you want the most.
Hope I could help, and welcome to the game (and the app is coming. patience you need to have)

3 hours ago, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

3. For those who have been playing Imperial Assault for a while, perhaps since the beginning, which would you consider the "essential" expansions for IA for a new, casual player? I'm looking for just a small number of expansions--perhaps more if we end up enjoying it a lot--so that we are not overwhelmed with the gameplay possibilities.

I feel like Jabba's Realm or Heart of the Empire are the obvious answers, but try this on for size; take one of the smaller campaigns, Twin Shadows or Bespin Gambit.

They're a good alternative to the longer 10 mission style ones you find in the Core/Hoth/Jabba/Heart.

A nice follow-up if you find committing to the longer campaigns to be an issue, especially with enthusiasm fizzling out from one or several parties involved.

Even if it's just two of you, play it with 4 Heroes regardless of the group size, you'll enjoy it more.

From there, you're basically just adding figure packs for the sake of having a cool miniature on the board with an accompanying Agenda set with a Side Mission to parachute them into your "available" rotation for the Empire in a given campaign. Not necessary strictly speaking but cooler than a token. Maybe get the packs for a campaign you want to play, so for Core grab some combination of IG-88/Royal Guard Champion and General Weiss if you want to "see it all" on the table.

Any given campaign box will give you a new Imperial Class deck and some Heroes to mix up your replayability that much more in terms of the high-level setup for the game, and having a few more enemy groups to fiddle with will spice it up even more.

In the Descent app, you have to let the app know the figure was defeated. Something to keep in mind, the app is static and is what it is. It will deliver the same experience no matter what. How much fun you'll have playing against a person running the imps probably depends on that person. I would say the app is needed if there are only two people though. Co-op will keep you off the couch.

There is a youtube channel called Watch It Played that goes over the descent app so you'll know exactly what that is.

I would suggest buying the big name characters first lest they go out of print. Boba was out of print for awhile and jumped to $40 on eBay/Amazon, so it may be worth getting Han, Leia, Luke, etc before too long. The non-named or lesser named stuff could wait till you find a good deal - which I'm betting may happen after Legion drops.

19 hours ago, a1bert said:

Essential expansions for a new casual first-time campaign player: nothing.

The first campaign is a learning campaign. You have much more knowledge of what you like to add when you have played at least a handful of missions first.

a1bert is on the money. You can have an enjoyable experience with just the core set.

However, I will toss out these two ideas for consideration:

1. If using the cardboard tokens for some the ally/villains bothers you, you can always invest in the blister packs as the missions which use those characters arise. That's purely a preference thing.

2. There are some blister packs that were released that can be used with the core campaign to mix things up a bit for the Imperial player. Hired Guns and ISB Infiltrators are the main two that I usually suggest to add some flavor to the open groups for the Imperial player. The Captain Terro pack can also be configured as a generic Dewback Rider which can be included in Open groups. I'm less certain on the Bantha Rider's ability to be chosen as an open group (as I've been saving him for when I run a Twin Shadows campaign since it has more desert-based missions) but I believe the same can be said of it too.

Bantha Rider can be used in open groups because it's not unique. However, it has a Habitat restriction - it can only be deployed on missions that have at least one sand tile. Also, massive figures cannot enter interior spaces in the campaign.

If I relent, and give one suggestion, I love the elite Jawa Scavenger , and it should work well with the core campaign as well. (Cheap to deploy, hits hard, boosts Probe Droids you get in the core campaign missions.)

1 hour ago, a1bert said:

Bantha Rider can be used in open groups because it's not unique. However, it has a Habitat restriction - it can only be deployed on missions that have at least one sand tile. Also, massive figures cannot enter interior spaces in the campaign.

Outside of Twin Shadows, I wouldn't get a Bantha Rider if you're playing strictly as a campaign player. You won't get many opportunities to use it anywhere, for the reasons you stated.

Skirmish, it's a wrecking ball.

But, if you got only core set and bantha blister, you will not have to obey habitat rules?

You will still have to obey habitat rules for campaign, and you need the Twin shadows box for a tile used in the campaign mission

4 hours ago, Jarema said:

But, if you got only core set and bantha blister, you will not have to obey habitat rules?

There's not only the habitat rules but the general rule about Massive figures being used in interior tiles.

Again, this doesn't apply to skirmish so it doesn't matter, but in a campaign, there are a lot of missions in the Core campaign that won't work out to well for the Imperial player if you're spending your threat on a Bantha that gets stuck on one tile.

A few missions make exceptions for Weiss/AT-ST I believe.

So yeah, the bantha should be the last thing you buy or skip altogether if you're not playing skirmish.

On 9/22/2017 at 4:02 PM, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

With all of that being said, here are my questions:

1. For those who have used the Descent app for that game, how well does it remove the minutiae from the game compared to MoM2E?

2. For those who played Descent first without the app and later with the app, did the app improve the game to the extent that you think you would have enjoyed the game more if the app had already been available the first time you played?

People have already provided some good answers for your third question, but I've played MoM so I'll have a go at the first two.

1. I'd say that the Descent app (and likely the IA app by extension) is pretty comparable to the MoM one in terms of bookkeeping. Monsters are treated in a similar way in both - the app tells you where they spawn and gives basic instructions for what they do (i.e. move towards closest hero, use attack if possible, etc.), but it's up to you to move them around the board and make all the rolls. Just like in MoM you track their health with the app, and once they have been killed the app will stop giving them instructions each turn.

The biggest difference between the two comes from the nature of the games. MoM is more story-driven than Descent/IA, especially within a given scenario. When you're playing MoM you have a lot of text to read and a few key decisions to make, but by and large each turn is fairly simple (do you move, attack, and/or interact? You'll rarely do anything else and most of the fun comes from reading what happens as a result of your simple decisions). Descent by contrast has less text mid-mission (although more with the app than without) but the turns are more tactical, with small things like who you attack first or which square you move to making a bigger difference to whether you win or lose. It starts off pretty simple but as your character levels up you gain XP and end up with more and more abilities to keep track of, so you might feel like it's a bit more complex. To be honest, though, you earn these abilities slowly enough and the campaign is long enough that as long as you play on a semi-regular basis you shouldn't feel overwhelmed.

2. The app makes the game different, but whether it makes it better or worse really depends on what you're into. From the sounds of it you and your wife might lean towards being "app people", since the app certainly brings it closer to a MoM experience (namely: you work together, there's more story text mid-mission). The non-app Descent/IA experience will pit one of you against the other. That's not to say that you need to be hyper-competitive, though, and a lot of people actually seem to prefer to play the Imperial side with more of a role-playing GM mindset than with a competitive board-gaming one. And while there is a story to the campaign, a lot of the story within a given mission comes from the dice rolls and the decisions you make creating a narrative.

Now me personally, I actually like to play competitively without the app rather than with it, so my answer to your question 2 isn't all that helpful. But in either case I don't think that you'll ruin your experience in any way by playing IA as-is before the app comes out. The app campaign will (almost certainly) be an entirely new story that's unrelated to the one in the core box, so you should be able to enjoy both. If nothing else you'll be able to get more familiar with the rules before you start up the app the first time.

12 hours ago, ManateeX said:

From the sounds of it you and your wife might lean towards being "app people", since the app certainly brings it closer to a MoM experience (namely: you work together, there's more story text mid-mission).

Interesting. I hadn't even considered that the app would turn it into a co-op game. I just figured that it would still be competitive but that neither player would have to worry about setup minutiae. That's even better because, while I like to play games competitively, my wife just enjoys hanging out and playing games and would rather play co-op games so that she doesn't have to worry about trying to outthink me or keep track of all of the cards and abilities by herself.

Can the app be used if you want to play competitively?

No, the Descent app is only for co-op but then again its a co-op gmae. It would be cool if you could do a 1-4 player skirmish game in the IA app.

After playing the IA campagn i bought Descent and Nerekhall just to use with the app and i have finished the base campaign. there is a second campaign i have just strated and the unlimeted delve that you pay for which i will buy after ive finished the 2nd campagin.

For IA i will advise getting generic bad guys as well as the big boxes for more hero's and maps,

The main characters dont always show up and you havethe cards and tokens anyway. But actually if a certain character floats your boat then buy them and you can always play thier mission as a one off.