Hello everyone, I'm looking to create a wonderful, memorable experience for everyone involved in my Jabba's Realm campaign through use the Nemeses class deck.

My rebels weren't able to pick heroes before our first session, so I told them ahead of time that I'd just use Mercenaries on the first mission and then pick an official class and agenda before our second session.

The heroes are: Vinto, Mak, Jynn, and Onar

Next session will be Vinto's side mission.

--- Slight Spoilers---

I've decided to use Greedo as my scum villain and will deploy him when the first supply cache is claimed. He'll say something like "Vinto, never thought you'd show your ugly face around here again. The gang belongs to me now and we keep what we take." Then Greedo will gun for Vinto.

I also plan to use all scum open groups (with an emphasis on hired guns) and print out a little rodian face to stick on the imperial officer in the initial group - this way it really feels like the rebels are in a rodian pirate base.

---End Spoilers---

This should be a great way to introduce Greedo and establish a feud between him and Vinto: if the rebels win then Greedo is out for vengeance and if they lose then my Vinto player will be forever enraged by Greedo constantly showing up to taunt him.

Sadly, I have not felt inspired on the imperial side. I intend to use the BT-1 and 0-0-0 agenda because I'd love to have both those villains and I think their mission will fit the campaign well; however, I'm unsure which villain to use as imperial nemesis. Here are my thoughts:

- Terro: seems very appropriate but is already in several missions so probably not the best choice.

- Somos: could be a good fit thematically but he's a little pricey and we did twin shadows last so he's been around a lot lately - that's the main reason I'm hesitant to pick him.

- Blaise: Jabba's doesn't seem like a spy oriented campaign so he doesn't seem to fit well.

- Grand Inquisitor: would be really cool to use if one of them was a force user. But they aren't so I'm not totally excited about him.

He does seem to be a very efficient pick against these heroes with all the white defense die.

- Palpatine: seems totally inappropriate thematically but gosh would it be fun to use him as a nemesis at some point lol

Any insight on the best imperial villain to pick? I'm open to suggestions.

I know agenda/villain synthesis is important so I'd be interested to hear agenda ideas as well.

I also briefly thought about potentially swapping out starting group units of equal cost - in extortion and turf war the only imperial figure is a probe droid which could theoretically be swapped for an equally pointed ejawa - but I've no idea how this would effect balance.

I'm excited to make this campaign a story to remember. From what I've read of it so far, it seems fairly memorable regardless of imperial player choice. Very excited to see how it all goes.

~ Smooches

You sound like a blast to run a campaign with! I would go for BT or 0-0-0 even though they are in your agenda. They are the most mercenarie likes, of the imperial units. Otherwise maybe Somos is out for revenge, or Blaise has to clean up after Somos’ failure.

Or IG-88 going after the rebel gang, gathering droid companions (BT and 0-0-0) along with him. Could also be a good way to fit Sentry droids in, where it otherwise wouldn’t make sense thematically

Well, you villain choices are;

Darth Vader
General Weiss
Royal Guard Champion
Kayn Somos
General Sorin
Agent Blaise
Captain Terro
Emperor Palpatine
The Grand Inquisitor
BT-1
0-0-0

For the most part I'd rule out Vader, Weiss and Champion due to cost/theme.

Inquisitor, Palpatine, Sorin and Blaise don't feel like they fit theme either.

Which leaves you with Somos, Terro, BT-1 or 0-0-0

Terro appears a few times in the campaign, so makes sense not to pick him.

Which leaves you with Somos (I enjoy him, but he's not too powerful), 0-0-0 (eh, not very interesting to me) or BT-1 (my choice in my current Nemesis campaign).

If you think the players need a challenge go BT-1, but if you think they need a more beatable villain go Somos.

Terro does appear a couple times, but I think he is still worth it. He is one of the best villians for traits and effectiveness.

I dont think Greedo is that good. He dies too easily. I think Bossk would be a better choice.

I really like @DKNecrosis's idea of IG-88 recruiting BT1 and 000.

I'm running Nemesis with JR now, too. I have Bossk and the Royal Guard Champion. I'm also looking to gain via Agenda missions IG-88, the Imperial Droids, or Boba Fett.

The Royal Guard Champ I brought along for more Imperial themed side missions.

16 hours ago, Smooches said:

Hello everyone, I'm looking to create a wonderful, memorable experience for everyone involved in my Jabba's Realm campaign through use the Nemeses class deck.

- Somos: could be a good fit thematically but he's a little pricey and we did twin shadows last so he's been around a lot lately - that's the main reason I'm hesitant to pick him.

Did the Empire lose the Twin Shadows mini-campaign? If yes, maybe Somos lost his commander grade in the afermath and therefore defected the imperial forces. He might be working as a "bounty hunter" because well even in a galaxy far far away one needs to pay his rent! Combined this with his hatred of rebel sympathizers who made him lost his job and you have a good reason to bring him back. When he defected, maybe a couple of his most loyal troopers followed him to ensure you can use Firing Squad.

Or maybe he's still loyal to the Empire but was re-affected to the remote planet of Tatooine as a punishment for the Twin Shadows "fiasco".

40 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

Did the Empire lose the Twin Shadows mini-campaign? If yes, maybe Somos lost his commander grade in the afermath and therefore defected the imperial forces. He might be working as a "bounty hunter" because well even in a galaxy far far away one needs to pay his rent! Combined this with his hatred of rebel sympathizers who made him lost his job and you have a good reason to bring him back. When he defected, maybe a couple of his most loyal troopers followed him to ensure you can use Firing Squad.

Or maybe he's still loyal to the Empire but was re-affected to the remote planet of Tatooine as a punishment for the Twin Shadows "fiasco".

That's great, I love it! Makes me think of my Weiss hellbent on Vengeance in the Return to Hoth campaign we ran this summer.

43 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

Did the Empire lose the Twin Shadows mini-campaign? If yes, maybe Somos lost his commander grade in the afermath and therefore defected the imperial forces. He might be working as a "bounty hunter" because well even in a galaxy far far away one needs to pay his rent! Combined this with his hatred of rebel sympathizers who made him lost his job and you have a good reason to bring him back. When he defected, maybe a couple of his most loyal troopers followed him to ensure you can use Firing Squad.

Or maybe he's still loyal to the Empire but was re-affected to the remote planet of Tatooine as a punishment for the Twin Shadows "fiasco".

The Empire did win Twin Shadows.

But I suppose this does mean Somos is already established as a villain in their minds. Plus, Twin Shadows takes place on Tattoine so Somos is already on the planet. All the pieces seem to fit.

So far we've played core, bespin, and twin shadows. It's been fun experiencing the new villains and units in each game. This will be our first campaign using ally packs so hired guns and Greedo will be an absolute surprise (I don't think my rebels even know these figures exist.)

To elaborate on my concern of using Somos: would the rebels have more fun fighting a repeat villain or someone new? I think Somos is a good choice but would a new, unseen villain be a better one?

14 minutes ago, Smooches said:

To elaborate on my concern of using Somos: would the rebels have more fun fighting a repeat villain or someone new? I think Somos is a good choice but would a new, unseen villain be a better one?

Honestly, much as I try to give them character, my Rebels just don't care as much about the FFG specific villains like Weiss and Somos as much as they do big names like Vader and Dengar. Even if they come back and have some existing backstory, they'd still probably prefer to see Greedo for the first time.

I would do TGI as he is pretty fun to play with and I am sure you can put a creative spin on why he is there.

1 hour ago, Smooches said:

The Empire did win Twin Shadows.

But I suppose this does mean Somos is already established as a villain in their minds. Plus, Twin Shadows takes place on Tattoine so Somos is already on the planet. All the pieces seem to fit.

So far we've played core, bespin, and twin shadows. It's been fun experiencing the new villains and units in each game. This will be our first campaign using ally packs so hired guns and Greedo will be an absolute surprise (I don't think my rebels even know these figures exist.)

To elaborate on my concern of using Somos: would the rebels have more fun fighting a repeat villain or someone new? I think Somos is a good choice but would a new, unseen villain be a better one?

You can select another villain if you are concern about the repetitive use of Somos. Me I would not rule him out of the campaign however. Maybe you could try -in your narrative- to have certain events happening, especially the ones that hurts the rebels, be related to Somos. Like this happened because Somos ordered it.

Let's say Commander Somos was promoted to Supreme commander of the garrison stationed on Tatooine because of his courageous behaviors in TS final mission. He does not need to be on the field as often as before. He's the puppet master behind what's happening. Your Rebel players might start hating him even more. You find a way to tell them via the narratives that the bad things that just happened was because of Somos, but yet they can't get their hands on him (sort of like the Emperor in ESB ... you seem him briefly, you know he's the one behind Vader's hunt for Luke but you can't go after him, at least not yet). And maybe bring him in from time to time, or toward the end of the campaign (Obviously pay his threat cost to deploy him, but house rule that your Twin Shadows win granted you the luxury to bring him without having to win his agenda mission ... for thematic's sake!)

Maybe the Grand Inquisitor is working for Jabba in exchange for information on a certain force artifact that appears in the latest expansion.

Part of me wants to suggest the Inquisitor but after hearing that the Empire won TS, I want to suggest Somos with Adv Comm Relay to boost him a bit. While it's a skirmish upgrade, some players have been playing of the other scrimmage upgrades on main characters in campaign and it seems to work out OK. This one seems like it was made specifically for him anyway.

The real issue when it comes to the Imperial figure picked for Nemesis is based off of which branch the rebels end up choosing later in the campaign. You may never actually see the Imperial as an important part of the campaign structure if you're trying to weave a narrative that goes along with their choice.

Thank you so much for all the great ideas! These forums are awesome. Here's an update on choices and such:

I picked Greedo and Kayn Somos. Somos was a tactical coward in twin shadows, so in addition to him fitting the best thematically, I knew my rebels would want a chance at vengeance.

We've only played 3 missions but last time I deployed Greedo and the boys (hired guns) - cause a posse of rodians is far better than one - a rebel player laughed as he said "I hate those guys." My table had never seen Greedo or hired guns before this campaign, so it felt like a real compliment. Greedo's also had some famous lines like "spice so nice it make me wanna move twice," as he ran the game clenching barrel to the imperial stockpile in hostile negotiations. I feel the thematic elements are working well.

However, I won the three missions we played and rebels wanted to switch characters, so - in the interest of fun - I allowed it. They're now using Gideon, Diala, Fenn, and Jyn.

I'm allowed to repick my villains since they switched, so I'm gonna drop Somos like he's hot and probably add the grand inquisitor. Since they added Diala, it would make perfect sense to see him in future missions.

Greedo's gotta stick around. He's been way too much fun to swap. Next mission he and the boys will show up and brag about how they scared Vinto off for good.