2 minutes ago, gibby290 said:

I wonder about spending surges to heal strain...if you have no strain, can you still spend a surge to heal damage?

No. "When a hero recovers more strain than it has suffered, it does not recover any damage ."

7 minutes ago, a1bert said:

No. "When a hero recovers more strain than it has suffered, it does not recover any damage ."

Indeed, I missed that in the rules! Thanks!

13 hours ago, totalnoob said:

Ok thanks for the response. Not exactly what I was hoping for - but it’s still great to have the app. Hopefully the app campaigns will be interesting. Obviously they will release updates and hopefully make use of more expansion content and villains.

Valkyrie lets you create custom missions for MoM and Descent. I would be surprised if it isn't updated to create missions for IA. I could also see people porting those missions over to the app.

17 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

Don't get me wrong, I'm really stoked for the app (and so is my wallet, which can't really afford to get any more blister packs right now). But now that we know that the app is really coming, and it sounds like IA is following pretty much in lock step with the development cycle of Descent, what do we think about the future of the game? Descent had a small box expansion announced the day before the app hit stores, and of course there are the app campaigns, but people overlook how the app was/is pretty much the end of the Lieutenant packs and the Hero & Monster packs that Descent had.

The app may fuel a surge of the core box, but if it doesn't also fuel purchase of expansions, then that's it - no more expansions. To me, getting one more small box expansion, one blister wave to go with it, and maybe one more after that runs counter to those who say that IA will be getting content for years to come. Do people here think IA will follow suit with Descent, or is there some vision for content that I'm missing?

Given that they run tournaments for IA, I don't see them ending the line here.

Additionally, I believe the overall success of Descent had peaked before the app came out. I feel that this will boost existing sales of the game, and I expect it to continue for a while. Doubly if they continue to release characters from Rebels (which they have in Hera, "Chopper", Ahsoka & Old Maul), comics (BT-1 and Triple Zero), and new movies. I do believe that they'll plan future expansions with the app in mind, and that they'll still come with the usual Campaign mode.

As an aside, I can't believe that they won't ultimately bring in Rogue One & Force Awakens' characters for the Skirmish/Tournament play.

Btw do the empire activate random or from top to bottom I really hate the second way.

15 minutes ago, Duciris said:

Given that they run tournaments for IA, I don't see them ending the line here.

Additionally, I believe the overall success of Descent had peaked before the app came out.

I think you're right on on both counts. Even though this game essentially started out as Descent: Star Wars Edition, the fact that they are still actively supporting the organized play side of things makes it seem really unlikely to me that they'd just end it all because of a campaign app. If anything, the app should hopefully help them sell more physical product since there will be more people playing the game.

16 minutes ago, Skuijs said:

Btw do the empire activate random or from top to bottom I really hate the second way.

If you're asking about which figures the empire activates, it's random (well technically I don't know if it's random, but at least it's not in any order that we're privy to as a player)

1 hour ago, ManateeX said:

I think you're right on on both counts. Even though this game essentially started out as Descent: Star Wars Edition, the fact that they are still actively supporting the organized play side of things makes it seem really unlikely to me that they'd just end it all because of a campaign app. If anything, the app should hopefully help them sell more physical product since there will be more people playing the game.

Have any of you actually participated in organized play recently and more than once? Because outside of a few lucky locations, IA OP is not in a great place right now. Where it hasn't died completely, it's struggling to maintain itself at all. 4-6 player Store championships have sadly become the norm for IA.

I, personally, am looking forward to this app releasing and hope "Coming Soon" means just that.

16 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

Have any of you actually participated in organized play recently and more than once? Because outside of a few lucky locations, IA OP is not in a great place right now. Where it hasn't died completely, it's struggling to maintain itself at all. 4-6 player Store championships have sadly become the norm for IA.

Locally here (Halifax, small city on the East coast of Canada) we had 8 at our last store championship with a few more somewhat regular players who couldn't make it. That's not a lot compared to some bigger cities obviously, but it's not bad and it's bigger than it used to be.

Do we actually have any data that say it's struggling, or is it just dying in some unlucky locations?

25 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

Locally here (Halifax, small city on the East coast of Canada) we had 8 at our last store championship with a few more somewhat regular players who couldn't make it. That's not a lot compared to some bigger cities obviously, but it's not bad and it's bigger than it used to be.

Do we actually have any data that say it's struggling, or is it just dying in some unlucky locations?

There's a lot of anecdotal evidence, as well as poor turnout at the big events compared to other FFG games. There's also just a lack of anecdotal evidence of people saying they have consistent turnout for league night and 8+ player quarterly kits and 16+ player store championships. If you only have 1 tournament every 6 months, that's not really an active community.

It would be nice to have some real data on where and how many people are playing, but without something like list juggler that will take a lot of work. Right now there is just a general community consensus from the people that are trying to participate in OP that skirmish participation is not doing great at the local level.

About the whole "they had to work out a deal with EA" thing. There are Star Wars video games out there that are not made by EA.

19 minutes ago, Reddog1134 said:

About the whole "they had to work out a deal with EA" thing. There are Star Wars video games out there that are not made by EA.

EA is a publisher not a Developer though.

On 11/21/2017 at 5:40 AM, ryanjamal said:

It's because Fantasy Flight doesn't have the rights to sell it in the App Store. ?

-ryanjamal

Not sure what you mean; I didn't say I went to the App Store to buy it.

Road to Legend is available in the App Store for free, wouldn't this be similarly available (when it is finished)?

13 hours ago, angelman2 said:

1) Can the app be overruled or will that break the game? I mean, if the app makes a really stupid decision based on arbitrary settings, if the players collectively agree that there’s a better option for the Imperial deployment group, will it ruin the game if the Rebel players choose the more sensible option for the Imps? Basically what I’m asking is, does the app allow/accept cheating (or will it know if you defeat a Hero it didn’t “want” to target, for instance)? (I should mention that we play for story, themes, and Star Wars immersion, not to “win”).

2) How many campaigns can we expect down the road? Is it reasonable to expect one campaign per box expansion or will it be more like three or five or ten campaigns per box?

3) Do you need to be online for the app to work?

4) Is it fun?

#1: Well, I haven't really seen the Road to Legend make 'stupid decisions' per se, but it sometimes does things unexpected and throws you a curve ball. This is a good thing though, because it prevents things from being too predictable. Either way, you should carry out what it tells you to do, but you can always slightly modify what happens if you want (ie. how they move). I mean there is nothing stopping you from thinking "this makes more sense if this happens", or you can re-roll something if you want. One thing we messed up in RTL was accidentally skipping the minion or master monster's move, which isn't an issue here, but you can force the group to re-activate. But I suppose there is nothing preventing you from using the app simply as a guide, and doing whatever you want as long as you follow the basics to prevent the scenario from being broken.

#2: Well RTL has been out for a while now and it has 5x "modules". One is the tutorial, then 2x campaigns and 2x adventures. Perhaps the team that works on this stuff have been too busy with the IA app, and now that the latter is being finished, then content for both might be quicker? Either way, you will be playing the campaigns multiple times because, being a cooperative experience, they are difficult to win (it will certainly test your decision making).

#3: No, you do not need to be online to use it.

#4: Subjective, but IMO yes! It provides a complete well rounded experience to Descent, allowing you to play it either or both ways. We still play Descent the H2H way with the Overlord when there are enough people to do so, but me and a friend are able to play cooperatively with the app in between those sessions. Playing cooperatively has helped us make better (and quicker) tactical decisions in the H2H game, which is good too.

FFG making the app for android, apple, and Steam must take a bit of time.

,this made me finally decide to push a family member to get me the game for Christmas because this seems the perfect way to introduce people to the game(especially family members who get tired of being destroyed by me)

1 hour ago, MandoBard said:

,this made me finally decide to push a family member to get me the game for Christmas because this seems the perfect way to introduce people to the game(especially family members who get tired of being destroyed by me)

Crossing my fingers for an early December release!

38 minutes ago, Armandhammer said:

Crossing my fingers for an early December release!

Exactly, especially if I get it so I can convince my sister’s fiancée to do a full day campaign for his bachelor party. Otherwise it’d be tmnt shadows of the past, which is good, but shallower, and a trickier sell

4 hours ago, Volcano467 said:

Not sure what you mean; I didn't say I went to the App Store to buy it.

Road to Legend is available in the App Store for free, wouldn't this be similarly available (when it is finished)?

Sorry, I was making a joke in reference to the oft-decried fact that IA isn't sold on FFG's website, nothing to do with your comment. Didn't mean to make it seem I was poking fun at you.

-ryanjamal

2 hours ago, Armandhammer said:

Crossing my fingers for an early December release!

Someone on reddit posted a pic when it was first put on the steam store with a release of Dec 4th which changed to coming soon. Lets just hope that's the actual date. I find it hard to believe they won't have this ready to go with the new movie.

"When a hero can gain Class card the Class card icon is displayed next to that hero's portrait in the training screen. Players can undo a class card selection by selecting that card again in the training screen."

I wonder if this means hero's can actually change an ability after playing a mission with it. If so that would allow for two 4xp class cards to be used on the last mission in this campaign. Either way The heroes are going to play a bit differently to the way they normally do for us, as getting certain 3 or 4 xp skills as early as possible has been the priority.

35 minutes ago, coogee78 said:

I wonder if this means hero's can actually change an ability after playing a mission with it.

At least with normal difficulty you can change the class cards freely. You can't have both 4XP class cards though if you read the rules more carefully. In the 5th mission you can have one card of each XP level (or pick one extra from a lower level instead, e.g. 1Xp 2xp 2xp 4xp).

1 hour ago, coogee78 said:

"When a hero can gain Class card the Class card icon is displayed next to that hero's portrait in the training screen. Players can undo a class card selection by selecting that card again in the training screen."

I wonder if this means hero's can actually change an ability after playing a mission with it. If so that would allow for two 4xp class cards to be used on the last mission in this campaign. Either way The heroes are going to play a bit differently to the way they normally do for us, as getting certain 3 or 4 xp skills as early as possible has been the priority.

Technically you can do this in the Descent app as well, but we've always played it as though you could not respec. I guess this is up to the choice of the group playing. It does make it easier on the heroes though - quite a bit.

2 hours ago, aermet69 said:

Technically you can do this in the Descent app as well, but we've always played it as though you could not respec. I guess this is up to the choice of the group playing. It does make it easier on the heroes though - quite a bit.

Descent made it clear that this function was there to support certain items/abilities and did not mean you were allowed to respec at will.

3 hours ago, a1bert said:

At least with normal difficulty you can change the class cards freely. You can't have both 4XP class cards though if you read the rules more carefully. In the 5th mission you can have one card of each XP level (or pick one extra from a lower level instead, e.g. 1Xp 2xp 2xp 4xp).

Ah OK, that would make more sense.