Power to Shields is also good against Shyla's Cleave 3 from Full Sweep (and possibly Cleave 2 from her reward and Cleave 2 from Electrostaff).

I'm actually playing chicken with Fenn and Shyla - if they go for Full Sweep or Rebel Elite, I'm getting Power to Shields.

1 minute ago, a1bert said:

I'm actually playing chicken with Fenn and Shyla - if they go for Full Sweep or Rebel Elite, I'm getting Power to Shields.

?

Nice.

Stare 'em down!

On 24/01/2018 at 3:43 PM, Tvboy said:

If you are willing to take some losses early on but want to win the finale, one of the strongest Imperial combos I've found in the game is Imperial Industry and Find the Weakness from the Precision Training deck

Curious - what's the argument for Find The Weakness (4xp) over savage weaponry (1xp)? Because of the number of units it can theoretically apply to?

Thanks for all the replies thus far. In addition to the excellent strategy suggestions, seems like there are a few good options for class deck:

1. Subversive tactics - load the strain on MHD and Gideon to limit their effectiveness.

2. Armoured onslaught - power to shields to mitigate Fenn and Mak's effectiveness, mortar to splash heros with unavoidable damage

3. Military Might - show of force and sustained fire to maximize damage, some buffs to make my troopers a little more hardy

4. Precision training - Find the Weakness to increase damage from all figures, especially cheap units with guaranteed attacks like hired guns (the death by a thousand cuts approach ?)

5. Tech superiority - adaptive weapons FTW

Oh, and get imperial industry. Dear God, please, get imperial industry.

Am I missing anything? Anyone care to rank these for me? ?

If you're good at positioning and planning, Inspiring Leadership should be quite good in the first few missions of Return to Hoth. It isn't otherwise particularly powerful though, but allows very powerful combos with its class cards and elite Imperial Officers.

If the rebels are experienced, I would also consider a house rule of +1 Threat Level starting from the first side mission. (It isn't as big of a change as it seems.)

14 minutes ago, a1bert said:

If you're good at positioning and planning, Inspiring Leadership should be quite good in the first few missions of Return to Hoth. It isn't otherwise particularly powerful though, but allows very powerful combos with its class cards and elite Imperial Officers.

Will definitely review this! I suspect my positioning and planning as a newbie imperial will suck though ?

3 hours ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Would this mean spending no threat in round two, so that I could double up on threat in round three AND use the free group? Are you saying that having a "weaker" round make sense if it allows you to swarm a hero a round later? Interesting!

Exactly, by concentrating your threat into a single turn on top of free deployments from the mission, you overwhelm the Heroes ability to remove your figures before you can counter-attack with them. Just make sure you're spreading out your deployments as much as possible or deploying higher health figures so you don't lose 9 figures to 3 Fenn attacks.

Hired guns are intriguing. They look as fragile as paper, but are you saying that the "guaranteed" attack compensates for having the units one-shotted and losing that threat purchase?

Yes, the Rebels will be trying to kill your figures before you get a chance to shoot with them, and the Hired Guns are a counter to that strategy. The most annoying thing about them is that they are only 2 points per figure, so they will respawn nearly as fast as the Rebels can kill them. Just make sure you deploy them close to the heroes, their accuracy sucks so they are susceptible to long range attacks, but they don't have to attack the hero that kills them so you're good as long as you have a target nearby.

Yes. I like it! Are nexus limited by habitat?

Nope, they can show up anywhere and everywhere.

2 hours ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Curious - what's the argument for Find The Weakness (4xp) over savage weaponry (1xp)? Because of the number of units it can theoretically apply to?

Weakness is all your figures, Savage Weaponry is only one group, which can be killed off before they even attack. Weakness is a force multiplier that's great with lots of cheap units, BUT in this context where we are talking about Imperial Industry and Fenn, Savage Weaponry is actually a really good option that I hadn't considered.

I have to say, I'm not wowed by ST's starting card - prey upon doubt (only one figure gains one extra evade per round). But precision training with strike force (whole groups gain a reroll when attacking! ) and MM with show of force (any character gets focused!) are amazing for the first mission. With Hoth so tough to win against this group of heroes, maybe early wins might be a way to get on a roll, even the odds?...?

11 hours ago, TeethAlmighty said:

I have to say, I'm not wowed by ST's starting card - prey upon doubt (only one figure gains one extra evade per round). But precision training with strike force (whole groups gain a reroll when attacking! ) and MM with show of force (any character gets focused!) are amazing for the first mission. With Hoth so tough to win against this group of heroes, maybe early wins might be a way to get on a roll, even the odds?...?

Eh, in my opinion it's not a big deal to lose the first mission. The rebels would earn the Hoth troopers, and if they bring them on future missions you get the extra threat to help. Don't choose your class deck based on the starting abilities, choose them based on their potential.

40 minutes ago, KotasMilitia said:

Eh, in my opinion it's not a big deal to lose the first mission. The rebels would earn the Hoth troopers, and if they bring them on future missions you get the extra threat to help. Don't choose your class deck based on the starting abilities, choose them based on their potential.

Ah, that's good to know. I was afraid an early win or two by the rebels would quickly snowball into an avalanche.

3 hours ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Ah, that's good to know. I was afraid an early win or two by the rebels would quickly snowball into an avalanche.

Nah- plus, first missions are notoriously Rebel-favored anyway.

You'd be far more likely to see snowballing if your deck in general is sub-par, not if you lose the starting mission.

Hey guys, sorry for butting in here.

I am gearing up to running Return to Hoth and want to maximize the fun in this one. We're playing friendly, story-focused games, and I'm not afraid to change things to make things more fun (and I'll definitely use @IanSolo_FFG 's famous BabyLuke-returning-to-base-with-an-ATST-in-towe story addition in the first mission to up the ante and tie the campaign even closer to Empire Strikes Back ). Furthermore, we have a house rule that says that in the first playing of a particular campaign, we HAVE to use only campaign components as far as possible. So, I will face MHD, Verena, & Loku, +someone random who ISN'T Gideon, and will probably use Armored Onslaught (although Precision Training looks easier to use well).

Well, knowing all that... to fix the problem of Rebels running for cover to heal for 3 rounds all the time, what about just adding a timer to the non-timer missions? Even a stupid timer like, "Rebels lose at the end of round 8", will give the Rebels reason to avoid wasting too many rounds. Would something like that work, do you think?

11 hours ago, angelman2 said:

Hey guys, sorry for butting in here.

I am gearing up to running Return to Hoth and want to maximize the fun in this one. We're playing friendly, story-focused games, and I'm not afraid to change things to make things more fun (and I'll definitely use @IanSolo_FFG 's famous BabyLuke-returning-to-base-with-an-ATST-in-towe story addition in the first mission to up the ante and tie the campaign even closer to Empire Strikes Back ). Furthermore, we have a house rule that says that in the first playing of a particular campaign, we HAVE to use only campaign components as far as possible. So, I will face MHD, Verena, & Loku, +someone random who ISN'T Gideon, and will probably use Armored Onslaught (although Precision Training looks easier to use well).

Well, knowing all that... to fix the problem of Rebels running for cover to heal for 3 rounds all the time, what about just adding a timer to the non-timer missions? Even a stupid timer like, "Rebels lose at the end of round 8", will give the Rebels reason to avoid wasting too many rounds. Would something like that work, do you think?

I would mimic the legends of the alliance app regarding the rest action. A hero who spends an action to rest can only recover strain. I would also borrow from the app the concept of medpack. Maybe allow the rebels to have access to 2-3 medpacks at the start of the mission. Like in the app. A hero who take an action to rest may also use a medpack to recover 5 damages. Rebels could gain a few more medpacks by collecting crates. This would prevent heroes healing over and over. To recover damage they would have to rely on MHD and on the limited medpacks and medical cards they could find in crates. That being said I would leave missions without a round timer as is.

In general I normally pick, Royal Guards, Assassin droids, maybe e-web. They sure are hated by the rebels, especially having two royal guards standing next to each other. Providing one garantied defence plus they have reach and stun.

An overrun tactic is also evil, because they cannot handle you making "12 attacks" on one unit each turn.

Stun and bleed is often a perfect action stealing choice. Lockdown heroes. Make attack and retreat moves can be a nasty pain. You Only need to wound em all or stall them.

Save up to 4 xp, buying the strong passive abilities, that for instance say every time an imperial unit attacks/defend...

Accept that some missions are in favor of the imperial player and others are not.

Many time-preassure missions, you can stall or just block everything, forcing them to use tons of actions on your meat-walls.

I often experience that if the Rebels do not win, and they do win quite often, our games are mostly 60/40, they get a little whiney about the mission being a little too hard. Keep in mind that as the imperial player you know much more than they do, and sometimes it comes down to lady luck on the dices, either dodge or massive overkill. ?

I hope my comment helps a little

Not sure where this question fits as it is more about game mechanics, but since I'm already in a Hoth thread, might as well throw it out there ?

It's a question about imperial deployment phase, so please avert your eyes if you don't want spoilers...

Am I to understand from this that these are the only figures I get to use? What if most of them are already on the map and I have additional threat to spend. How do I spend it? Or does it go to waste?

Sorry for the noob question, but the RRG was less illuminating than I hoped.

No Open groups means exactly that.

If you have no deployment cards in your hand to deploy, and no figures to reinforce, you save the threat until you have and until you decide to spend the threat.

6 hours ago, a1bert said:

No Open groups means exactly that.

If you have no deployment cards in your hand to deploy, and no figures to reinforce, you save the threat until you have and until you decide to spend the threat.

Thanks a1bert! Exactly what I needed to know.

On ‎27‎.‎01‎.‎2018 at 5:50 PM, angelman2 said:

to fix the problem of Rebels running for cover to heal for 3 rounds all the time [in RtH], what about just adding a timer to the non-timer missions? Even a stupid timer like, "Rebels lose at the end of round 8", will give the Rebels reason to avoid wasting too many rounds. Would something like that work, do you think?

Hey all,
I know I'm high-jacking this thread, but I'm hoping it is a valuable contribution to the discussion. So, would it be possible to get a few feedback comments on the above suggestion? Can anyone see a reason why adding an 8 (or whatever) round time limit to RtH missions that lack time limits would ruin the game? (Or at least to the 1 or 2 missions where the constantly healing Rebs is a game breaker?). Is it a good, workable solution to fixing the perceived problem? Thanks, (and sorry for being percistent )

On 28.01.2018 at 6:26 AM, StochX said:

They sure are hated by the rebels, especially having two royal guards standing next to each other.

you know, that they cannot protect each other after errata?

Won the first battle of Hoth! Could not have done it without you folks! ?

The rebels decided to show some mercy on me and ran a team of MHD, Diala, Mak and Jyn. I was going to use subversive tactics, but when they dropped Fenn and Gideon, I also eased up and countered with technological superiority. MHD healing everything was a massive headache, and the white dodges caused no end of teeth gnashing (4 dodges in a row Jyn? Really?), but Dengar and mission effects helped out a lot and the mission came down to the final roll (exploding probe droid ftw!)

A little worried how I'll handle this crew as they gain superpowers and WMD's but feeling more hopeful now.

Here's how I'm strategizing. Open to feedback!

Build:

Experimental arms(0xp) > technical support(1xp) (not sure about order for the next 2) > arc blasters(3xp) > adaptive weapons(4 xp)

Then cloaking device (3xp) if I can afford it, if not, probably hidden detonators (2xp)

Open group priorities: probe droids, HK's, hired guns, nexu, snowtroopers (dewback?)

Agendas:

Agents of the Empire

For the right price

Imperial Security Bureau

Imperial Discipline

Devious Droids

Imperial Industry

(I think BT-1, 0-0-0 and Means of Production rewards will synergize well with ST. Hopefully I win them! )

Again, any and all feedback welcome. Cheers!

29 minutes ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Here's how I'm strategizing. Open to feedback!

Build:

Experimental arms(0xp) > technical support(1xp) (not sure about order for the next 2) > arc blasters(3xp) > adaptive weapons(4 xp)

Then cloaking device (3xp) if I can afford it, if not, probably hidden detonators (2xp)

I'm currently running TS in a RTH campaign, we're a little over half way and I've gone with the build path as follows:

1. Experimental Arms (0xp)
2. Technical Support (1xp)
3. Cloaking Device (3xp)
4. Superior Augments (4xp)

I plan to pick up Arc Blasters and Jet Packs (assuming I have an extra XP to spare). Adaptive Weapons can be pretty good too but I just don't like to lose the extra accuracy you usually are giving up to replace a blue die with a red die. Upgrading from a blue to red die is pretty similar to the +1 damage you gain from Superior Augments but obviously Adaptive Weapons is a bit more flexible in that you don't need to spread your attachments around but losing accuracy tends to leave your figures more exposed. You can definitely make arguments in favor of both options. I do also have the Imperial Industry reward card so I have another attachment that I can use. Based on how the campaign is going, I probably should not have not gotten that agenda but my Rebels wanted me to go all out... so I am.

36 minutes ago, TeethAlmighty said:

Open group priorities: probe droids, HK's, hired guns, nexu, snowtroopers (dewback?)

With TS and Technical Support, Probe Droids are really nice early on - healing 3 damage early in the campaign is pretty frustrating when starting weapons require almost two attacks to do that much damage. Downside is that Mak is pretty good at removing higher health figures such as Probe Droids. Hired Guns are always good. Nexu and Dewback can have the same risks as Probe Droids but Nexu might be effective early on (Dewback maybe a bit too expensive until mid campaign at which point Mak can probably take it down reasonably easily). Snowtroopers will often be tough to deploy as an open group early in the campaign without any bonus threat. HKs are a bit too pricey for my liking and will be way too pricey early in the campaign for sure.

One thing to consider is that against that group of Rebels, you will probably have a lot of success massing a lot of cheap figures since they don't have any of the typical multi-target heroes other than Diala if she gets Way of the Sarlacc (which is not too tough to work around). Also, don't underestimate Imperial Officers. They provide good utility and more importantly can help you gain activation advantage which is huge. If you have the Jawa blister pack, Elite Jawas do really good damage and Haggle is very solid.

On 05/02/2018 at 6:05 PM, machfalcon said:

Arc Blasters...

I see these as a priority against a team with lots of focus (via Diala and MHD) - thoughts?

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Adaptive Weapons can be pretty good too but I just don't like to lose the extra accuracy you usually are giving up to replace a blue die with a red die.

I hadn't considered this, but yes, would definitely make hit and run tactics more challenging! (Perhaps less so for droids if I replace a yellow instead).

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Upgrading from a blue to red die is pretty similar to the +1 damage you gain from Superior Augments but obviously Adaptive Weapons is a bit more flexible in that you don't need to spread your attachments around

This is what I was thinking. Plus, with three white die heros I like a die that is less surge dependant. But, yes, one less blue means more exposure. Is it possible to spread enough attachments around for superior augments to enhance more imperials? Something to think about...

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I do also have the Imperial Industry reward card so I have another attachment that I can use.

I want this card. So. Bad.

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With TS and Technical Support, Probe Droids are really nice early on - healing 3 damage early in the campaign is pretty frustrating when starting weapons require almost two attacks to do that much damage.

Plus focusing! Amazing!

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Downside is that Mak is pretty good at removing higher health figures such as Probe Droids.

I hate him. Lol

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Hired Guns are always good. Nexu and Dewback can have the same risks as Probe Droids but Nexu might be effective early on (Dewback maybe a bit too expensive until mid campaign at which point Mak can probably take it down reasonably easily).

Dewback is 5 threat vs 4 for Nexu - pretty close no? Would you tend to go one or the other instead of both?

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Snowtroopers will often be tough to deploy as an open group early in the campaign without any bonus threat. HKs are a bit too pricey for my liking and will be way too pricey early in the campaign for sure.

Yeah, 7 and 8 threat is tough. But those HK's with technical support and troopers with cloaking device...yummy.

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Also, don't underestimate Imperial Officers. They provide good utility and more importantly can help you gain activation advantage which is huge.

I have been underestimating them! Lol

But good point about activation advantage. Do you see that primarily in terms of number of attacks per side?

TechSup have 2 main builds: You either rush Adaptive Weapons or slowly build your attachments and get Superior Augment last

I like the first one more: no restrictions on who got attachments. Upgrading Stormtroopers to Green+Red with rerolls x3 is pretty painful for Rebels. Think that dumb rProbe is just hovering there? Well now it'll shoot with Blue+Yellow+Red. Even Officers are much more deadly (on-par with heavy Stormtrooper) with Blue+Red

Activation advantage are not necessarily damage-related. Let's say you got a Stormtrooper group and Jyn left and it's your turn

Activate Stormtrooper = Jyn quickdraws

Now if you got another group (ex. Officer), even doing nothing is better than letting Jyn quickdraw your Stormies. The ability to "pass" or "do nothing and see what rebels will do" as imperial should not be underestimated

4 hours ago, ricope said:

TechSup have 2 main builds: You either rush Adaptive Weapons or slowly build your attachments and get Superior Augment last

When you say rush, you mean wait to make that your first xp purchase, even before technical support? I'm worried the losses will accumulate if I wait too long. Thoughts?

4 hours ago, ricope said:

I like the first one more: no restrictions on who got attachments. Upgrading Stormtroopers to Green+Red with rerolls x3 is pretty painful for Rebels. Think that dumb rProbe is just hovering there? Well now it'll shoot with Blue+Yellow+Red. Even Officers are much more deadly (on-par with heavy Stormtrooper) with Blue+Red

You're selling me!

4 hours ago, ricope said:

Activation advantage are not necessarily damage-related. Let's say you got a Stormtrooper group and Jyn left and it's your turn

Activate Stormtrooper = Jyn quickdraws

Now if you got another group (ex. Officer), even doing nothing is better than letting Jyn quickdraw your Stormies. The ability to "pass" or "do nothing and see what rebels will do" as imperial should not be underestimated

Excellent advice.

What do you think of the other choices (arc blasters, cloaking device?)

Also, do you think it's worth doing the droid agenda mission for bt1 and 000? Seems they were born for a TS deck.