Hi all,

I will be running the Homefront mission tomorrow as the IP, and I just want to check I am reading the mission correctly.

There are 8 rebel mission tokens that represent refugees. My goal is to take these out. 4 health and the hated white defence dice. However, there is a barricade between them and me, that only the rebels can attack. It seems weird to me that I can't get at the mission objectives until after the Rebels clear the way for me. I start off with Snowtroopers, a regular Wampa, and an elite officer, which I expect the rebels to kill pretty rapidly.

Once the barricade is down, I get an e-web and a regular officer they need to kill to win before I take out these 8 tokens with their poxy white die. The tokens are very spread out, and not near any IP deployment point. I can't see any way I will have enough activations to get near the tokens, never mind destroy them. Oh, and they are behind locked doors.

The officer has 13 health, so should survive 2 attacks for sure, and die on attack 3 or 4, probably from an attack using the e-web's attack dice after Verena fillets it.

Have any of you played this as the IP? How did it go? It looks like a cakewalk for the rebels. Threat level is only 3, with 6 bonus threat delivered throughout the mission.

What I expect to happen is that the Rebels will take it slow, eliminate everything I have outside the barricade, then smash it down with their first activation on round 3 or 4, then pour through and murder the e_web and officer in that same turn. The IP doesn't get an optional deployment when the officer appears, so no additional troops can be brought in to defend him until the end of that round.

There are 4 rebels, so they will have probably have an activation advantage every turn.

You probably missed what the second-to-last item in the mission briefing signifies if the rebels take it slow... Just sit on threat.

If the rebels do the right things, it seems hard for the imperial player.

I saw that, so I expect to only have to take out 5 or 6 of the tokens rather than all 8, but that's still probably 10 activations worth of attacks I need to do, plus at least one attack per locked door.

I just crushed my rebels on this one the other day. I'm using black ops so the guaranteed surge on the wampa is scary. I was able to kill a room of refugees before they broke down the barricade and pop open a door. Jan was able to take down a couple of refugees himself because i got him focussed up.

1 hour ago, MadFuhrer said:

I just crushed my rebels on this one the other day. I'm using black ops so the guaranteed surge on the wampa is scary. I was able to kill a room of refugees before they broke down the barricade and pop open a door. Jan was able to take down a couple of refugees himself because i got him focussed up.

Interesting - I'm not familiar with that class deck. I am running Armored Onslaught and haven't bought any skills yet as I am saving up for Mortar.

Did your rebels take down the barrier with their first activation in a turn?

Verena has the DL-44 with Tac Display so she is generally chucking out 5 damage per attack, and with Stims from MHD she can chain-kill multiple units even outside her activation. Pretty nice action efficiency.

My rebels are: mak, diala, vinto, and shyla. mak has the dl-44 with tac. they are seasoned players and took the barrier down with the first activation round 4.

Mine are Fenn, Diala, MHD & Verena. Also seasoned. I expect them to follow a similar timeline, so we'll see tomorrow how I get on. I'll let you know

I had my rebels up against this one recently, and it was a comfortable Imperial Victory in the end.

Rebels rushed the barricade down in round 1 (fearing the benefits the Imperial gets when it stays up) and I wounded Gaarkhan early (end round 1 or early round 2 I think)

Rebels are Gideon, Fenn, Gaarkhan & Verena.

Imperial is Nemesis (BT-1 & Bossk)

Out of curiosity, what Open Groups did you take? I was thinking rHeavies, rNexu & Jet Troopers (can't decide between elite and regular).

I also won this mission as the Imperial Player running the Inspiring Leadership class deck: https://boardgamegeek.com/article/24918508#24918508

I went the route of withdrawing two of the heroes and then using my activation advantage to finish off the refugees.

Side note: Strategic Planning is my favorite 2xp upgade in any of the Imperial class decks.

9 hours ago, udat said:

Out of curiosity, what Open Groups did you take? I was thinking rHeavies, rNexu & Jet Troopers (can't decide between elite and regular).

I don't recall exactly, but Regular Jet Troopers was one of them. Probably a group of Regular Storm Troopers too.

Nexu is always a good unit. Personally I feel the Heavies don't do enough for me to justify bringing them.

The mission did not unfold as I expected at all. The rebels basically ignored my starting figures, and blew the barricade down in the first turn. I got some damage on Verena and Fenn in the process. They had popped out of their starting area to shoot and ducked back though, so they weren't in a position to charge further in.

That mean when the E-Web appeared, they weren't in a position to easily reach it that turn, so it got to activate a couple of times and hurt various heroes and mission tokens. Their general hesitancy to pile in meant that all 4 rebel tokens at the bottom of the map were destroyed.

The rebels were unlucky not to kill my Wampa, so it wandered into the upper right room and consumed the inhabitants, wounding Fenn on the way. I eventually managed to take Fenn off the board completely, and at that point I really should have had the mission in the bag.

However, I messed up. Jann (the rebel target) was protected by a squad of Snowtroopers, but I'd stupidly left him close enough to Diala that she could throw him (so he lost the ability to palm the attack off on another figure) and Precise Strike him, winning the mission for the rebels when there was only a single mission token left for me to kill.

So it all came down to wounded Diala's insight check on the throw. If she'd failed that, she couldn't attack Jann, and my two Elite Jet Troopers would have finished off the last token on the next activation.

It was closer than I expected, and more fun. I'm annoyed with myself for not retreating Jann further from the rebels when I had the chance, which would have won the mission, but I kinda forgot about precise strike.

Hey, can't really complain about a mission that comes down to the last activation.

Well, unless you lost. Then you can complain a little.

Sounds like a fun one, though. I totally get the frustration of a mission not going as you expected, but sometimes adapting to the chaos can be fun, too. It's pretty much all the Rebels can ever do, anyway.

It was fun, and I probably lost because I started having too much fun shooting at the Rebels, rather than achieving my objective. Usually as the Imperial Player, I am trying to stop the Rebels achieving something, so I am quite reactive to their plans. In this mission, it was more the other way around, and I should have concentrated more on my goal and strategy.

11 minutes ago, udat said:

It was fun, and I probably lost because I started having too much fun shooting at the Rebels, rather than achieving my objective.

You achieved the TRUE objective of the game then ... having fun!

21 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

You achieved the TRUE objective of the game then ... having fun!

+1 for that.

Yeah, when the game flips the script and puts the Rebels on the defensive, you really end up with an entirely different strategy. I kind of like it, but it can be extremely difficult.

I'm a little late to this party, but just ran this mission with my rebels and it was a nail-biter!

Diala really stole the show on this one, consistently

Still, I got to the point where there was only one refugee remaining, all heroes had activated, and I still had two hired guns and a Nexu left to activate.

The rebels hung their heads. They knew it was almost over.

And so, the endgame. The first hired gun does two damage, leaving the sniveling refugee clinging to life with one health left. Then the second hired gun does...one damage! Game over! But wait - reroll! And...dodge! Arrrgh.

Next up, the mighty Nexu penetrates the refugee's measly defences and pours in five damage! Game over? Reroll! And...dodge!

I sat there, looking as stunned as Jann, as the rebels exchanged war whoops and high fives. Next round, Diala activates. Rest. Force throw. Precise strike. Game over!

Not sure what I could have done differently to prevent that travesty, but man. High drama!