I have not played in years is there anything to get me up to speed on the strategy of skirmish?

Listening to some of the podcasts would help. New Orders gives a good overview of a whole wave at a time. Twin Troopers gives good analysis of single figures, one per episode.

The other best thing is to just dive in on Vassal. People on there are awesome and would help you get caught up to speed through playing. You just need to get the Discord app and the Boardwars code to join their server.

-ryanjamal

Alternatively, the best advice is probably: choose the figures you like; smash stuff. :-)

-ryanjamal

Check out Eric Dietz's Twin Troopers podcast featuring Jake Petersen. Jake gives some good tips on building lists. He breaks it down into Fighters, Grabbbers, and Support. I find thinking like this helpful.

You have not played in years... being as that the game will be 3 years old in December, that's not saying much. Don't worry about it. Grab some minis and get them on the table. Roll dice and count movement squares and see who wins and loses. That is how one gets up to speed. Don't be like those people who want to do everything to improve their grouping except spend more time at the range. Paint the figures that look like fun to paint and put out the maps that look the most interesting and fight a galactic civil war.

Here's an article that seemed to be pretty popular back when @ThatJakeGuy wrote it:

Planning for Victory: Applying Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Planning to Imperial Assault Skirmish

13 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

You have not played in years... being as that the game will be 3 years old in December, that's not saying much. Don't worry about it. Grab some minis and get them on the table. Roll dice and count movement squares and see who wins and loses. That is how one gets up to speed. Don't be like those people who want to do everything to improve their grouping except spend more time at the range. Paint the figures that look like fun to paint and put out the maps that look the most interesting and fight a galactic civil war.

While I agree that practice, practice, practice is important in any skill, don't assume everyone prefers to learn like you. There are loads of different models for this, but the one I've used most at work splits people into Activist, Pragmatist, Reflector and Theorist. The Theorists will want to know all the theory before having a go for the first time, the Reflectors will want to digest that information to help them learn through their games, the pragmatist will more likely be reading something, giving it a go, reading something else, giving that a go, and so on. The Activist will just jump in with both feet and start learning, even if there's no structure to how they're doing that. There's pros and cons to each preference, and people will move through them depending on their comfort with the thing they're learning.

The reason I bring this up is that sometimes we can get frustrated with people who learn in a different way, because we either, at one extreme, think they're wasting time, or at the other end, just charging in with no concept of what they're doing. If @TylerTT wants some theory before he has a go, that's probably down to his learning preference, not a lazy desire to get good without putting the time in. Probably. ?

Oh I am pretty lazy!

Last time I thought about IA 4x4 was the terror on the streets.

For the record I imedietly went and played the models I had already painted and got my bum handed too me because I took normals and I guess the elite troopers are a much better bang for buck.

That kind of intel is generally what I was after.

7 hours ago, TylerTT said:

Oh I am pretty lazy!

Last time I thought about IA 4x4 was the terror on the streets.

For the record I imedietly went and played the models I had already painted and got my bum handed too me because I took normals and I guess the elite troopers are a much better bang for buck.

That kind of intel is generally what I was after.

I feel like they've advanced the game nicely. They've fixed what needed fixing and have brought it some new fun stuff with each wave. The next wave promises to even out the playing field among the factions and trait type. Yet still this game still has lots to explore as far as design space goes. I think in general, it's much easier now to run something you think you would like or have fun with.

28 minutes ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

I think in general, it's much easier now to run something you think you would like or have fun with.

As long as that thing isn't the Royal Guard Champion. *Shudder*

2 minutes ago, ThatJakeGuy said:

As long as that thing isn't the Royal Guard Champion. *Shudder*

hey now, i'm currently 2-1 in the vassal tournament with the RGC, and we have already done both ranger maps!

43 minutes ago, MadFuhrer said:

hey now, i'm currently 2-1 in the vassal tournament with the RGC, and we have already done both ranger maps!

Apparently running RGC with a group or regular stormies and another threat like the Quiz can do wonders. I am going to give it a try in a few weeks.

3 hours ago, MadFuhrer said:

hey now, i'm currently 2-1 in the vassal tournament with the RGC, and we have already done both ranger maps!

Nice job! You probably have a much better idea how to run him than I do. Is this in the RIT?

4 hours ago, MadFuhrer said:

hey now, i'm currently 2-1 in the vassal tournament with the RGC, and we have already done both ranger maps!

and with only 5 activations!

1 hour ago, ThatJakeGuy said:

Nice job! You probably have a much better idea how to run him than I do. Is this in the RIT?

It is indeed the RIT. And yes the RGC requires about 60% finesse and 40% luck. Is he correctly costed for the current meta? **** no, but he is a fun character that I like to play and CAN do well.

4 hours ago, MadFuhrer said:

It is indeed the RIT. And yes the RGC requires about 60% finesse and 40% luck. Is he correctly costed for the current meta? **** no, but he is a fun character that I like to play and CAN do well.

Care to post your game logs so we can see how you played him?

Something that helped me a lot with this game was remembering targeting priority. Let me explain, quickly;

We could all agree that certain units (Bantha, Jedi Luke, IG-88) are big hitters and need to be mowed down sooner rather than later. BUT, consider, in a broad sense that when the Round starts (and I'm thinking Round 2 and beyond specifically here), as the shots fired are going back and forth, it's often much more worth it to try and attack/remove figures that have yet to activate, because you're removing potential damage coming back your way before it can be dealt.

If you stick to a pattern of "opponent shoots you with Unit A, then you activate something and attack/remove Unit A" then you're probably going to fall behind in that damage race.

This is by no means a universal pro-tip on how to win all your games. I only made it in to Day 2 at Worlds, not the Top 16, so take my advice with a pinch of salt.

The other big thing is to keep in mind what the mission itself offers in terms of generating VP's. When the game starts, you should make some decisions early about whether or not you can realistically do well by devoting resources to those objectives, versus going in and bringing the pain to your opponent directly. Keep an eye on your opponent who might also be planning something slippery to scoop some objectives out of nowhere.

Know your list and particularly, study the maps. There are usually ambush points on most maps, by this I mean, places where you can put a small figure that you can see the opposing figures, but they can not see you. I've used this in the past to place some key melee figures out of sight, and then used it to rush the opposing figures (used to use this quiet well with RGC on some of the older maps).

Also, I will say, don't under estimate even the Hire Guns... I know they aren't one of the figures people tend to think of for skirmish, but they are good at grabbing objectives, and even if they die, they usually get to get a shot off to cause some damage that you wouldn't normally get.

Last piece of advice is, Salacious B Crumb can be the distracting annoyance, that keeps another figure alive longer. If they ignore him, you are getting free damage every round. It is a pest that your opponent has to deal with. While not to the level of the Junk Droid, it is still free damage, and free damage without firing is always a good thing.

On ‎03‎.‎10‎.‎2017 at 10:31 AM, TylerTT said:

Oh I am pretty lazy!

Last time I thought about IA 4x4 was the terror on the streets.

For the record I imedietly went and played the models I had already painted and got my bum handed too me because I took normals and I guess the elite troopers are a much better bang for buck.

That kind of intel is generally what I was after.

Pro Tip: Check out, which figures everyone is calling OVERPOWERED and DOOOM in the forums. This is always the fastest way to find some pretty hard list for almost any miniatures strategy game.

Right now, this would be the Rebel Care Package (RCP for us lazy guys) consisting of Gideon and 3PO (that whine is the oldest on my list), elite Weequays, IG-88 with upgrade and some Ugnaughts (the freshest whine). Any combination of these will rock. But be prepared to be treated as a dark evil powergamer overlord by your opponents ...

If someone asks you how you came up with your "unique" list and your answer is the internets, you're probably a dark evil powergamer overlord (and really good at using the google machine).

3 hours ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

If someone asks you how you came up with your "unique" list and your answer is the internets, you're probably a dark evil powergamer overlord (and really good at using the google machine).

...he hopefully stated with a modicum of sarcasm.

I'm neither for or against net listing. It's only lame if you're trying to pass off your "unique" build as your own design when it clearly came from the Internet.

Nobody's going to believe you when you roll out your 6 Ugnaught/IG-88/Onar list and say it just came to you in a vision one night.

On 10/4/2017 at 1:52 PM, DerBaer said:

Pro Tip: Check out, which figures everyone is calling OVERPOWERED and DOOOM in the forums. This is always the fastest way to find some pretty hard list for almost any miniatures strategy game.

Right now, this would be the Rebel Care Package (RCP for us lazy guys) consisting of Gideon and 3PO (that whine is the oldest on my list), elite Weequays, IG-88 with upgrade and some Ugnaughts (the freshest whine). Any combination of these will rock. But be prepared to be treated as a dark evil powergamer overlord by your opponents ...

Or just called "no fun to play with" and "unimaginative and derivative" and other such true things. There are people at the local shops who I simply do not play. If they are my only option, I paint instead. This is not because I'm afraid of losing (I don't think I've ever won anything, ever, I still play miniatures games) it's because I'm afraid of wasting my free time being bored.

Even calling it a "Rebel Care Package" instead of saying "take Gideon and C-3PO" I find lazy and typical of the nerd hobbyists addiction to silly jargon.

I can't tell if you are for or against using these things by the way you call them "whines".

31 minutes ago, cleardave said:

...he hopefully stated with a modicum of sarcasm.

I'm neither for or against net listing. It's only lame if you're trying to pass off your "unique" build as your own design when it clearly came from the Internet.

Nobody's going to believe you when you roll out your 6 Ugnaught/IG-88/Onar list and say it just came to you in a vision one night.

Yes! It was sarcastic. Haha. I've stated many times that people should play what they want to play. I may joke, but I completely understand playing a meta list. Problem is, I like my soul, or whatever is left of it.

I'll never forget when that guy won the X-wing Systems Open tournament the week after Paul Heaver won it. They interviewed him about his win and he said how he used Paul's list. Fifteen minutes later, he was never heard from again.

A mighty Jedi once said: "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged."

Imho, Imperial Assault is not that well balanced. When you play a fun list like Han, Chewie, Farmboy Luke and Leia, it's more than likely, that you will lose against most opponents on tournaments. Some of us may be OK with such an experience, some may want to have a bigger chance to win. Some of us want to define the meta, others want to use the meta, others want to break the meta. Each one should choose for himself, what kind of player he wants to be.

Play by the rules, be a gentleman, respect your opponent, do your best to win ... that's all I'd ask for, when it comes to playing board games.

Maybe it wasn't all that respectful to call that "whine", I apologize.

But it's a fact, that Imperial Assault is accompanied by a canon of voices calling the current meta overpowered, whatever that meta might be. 9act, 4x4, Sabs spam, eStormtroopers, Bantha, Spytroopers, ... RCP, eWeequays, IG, Ugnaughts.

Maybe all that IS (or was) overpowered. Maybe I just got used to that bad balancing.

I just have the feeling, that MANY players create their lists by checking out on this forum, what everyone calls overpowered. And then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. When nearly everyone plays eWeequays, they inevitably will win most tournaments.

1 hour ago, DerBaer said:

Imho, Imperial Assault is not that well balanced. When you play a fun list like Han, Chewie, Farmboy Luke and Leia, it's more than likely, that you will lose against most opponents

Not if everyone used such lists. The earlier note from the King of Argyle about finding ambush spots is the kind of thing that constitutes tactical playing. Or how to prioritize targets from Clear Dave. I know that Tyler T. T. asked for a primer on strategy which is a whole other subject and think we're way off topic by now.

1 hour ago, DerBaer said:

Play by the rules, be a gentleman, respect your opponent, do your best to win ... that's all I'd ask for, when it comes to playing board games.

If I wanted a board game like that I'd play Monopoly or RISK. This is a model diorama that comes to life. These games will never be well enough balanced that someone can't figure out how to make a list with enough unfair statistical advantages that, like the house in a casino, they will win more often than not regardless of the actions taken by the players. Who cares? It's not skill and it's missing the point of hobby games. If a new card came out that made Sand People insanely effective, and I knew some guy who had been a huge Tusken Raider fan for years and had collected every carded Kenner figure variation ever made and he also played a Tusken Raider swarm, fine. If someone is just copy/pasting someone else's list just to win on auto-pilot... YAWN! I'm playing someone else from now on.

1 hour ago, DerBaer said:

Maybe it wasn't all that respectful to call that "whine", I apologize.

But it's a fact, that Imperial Assault is accompanied by a canon of voices calling the current meta overpowered, whatever that meta might be. 9act, 4x4, Sabs spam, eStormtroopers, Bantha, Spytroopers, ... RCP, eWeequays, IG, Ugnaughts.

The "meta" is another odd piece of jargon in this context. The "most effective tactics available" is a misuse of the word tactics here. Units are not tactics so using lots of rancors or something is not a tactic. List tweaking and math-hammering is not tactics. The most effective units available doesn't make a neat acronym though. And more importantly it freely admits that the game is imbalanced so people don't say "meua". I'm fine with the fact that the units can't be perfectly balanced, if I wanted perfect balance I'd play checkers or have coin tosses or whatever. I just don't think it is fun, sportsmanlike, or any other positive adjective, to actively seek to determine what those rules imbalances are and use them to the exclusion of all else. If you take interesting units that go together well and some are overpowered and some are underpowered they'd balance each other out and make for a good game.

1 hour ago, DerBaer said:

I just have the feeling, that MANY players create their lists by checking out on this forum, what everyone calls overpowered. And then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. When nearly everyone plays eWeequays, they inevitably will win most tournaments.

That is an interesting point about the self fulfilling prophecy. It makes sense mathematically. I avoid tournaments like the plague though.