Just curious what builds people have come up with for this deck. I just started a campaign with it and through two missions I haven't really utilized anything. I took Bt (hunter trait) and greedo ( really cheap effective unit) as my starting villains but haven't really found the right troops to synergize with them. I didn't want to take Terro as we're going to see him a lot in the jabba campaign already, but his trooper trait would be really nice right now.

the only other option for trooper is Somos...

I've found the starting card, Inspirational, to be pretty lackluster. Greedo and BT work well with some of the mercenary bad guys common in the campaign (Trandoshans, Weequays). In the Imperial centered missions, BT sharing a trait with Probe Droids might be your best bet unfortunately. Even in Jabba's Realm, I don't think there's much harm in taking Terro -- in the missions where he features, you should be able to include Greedo instead without much concern. Early on, even if he never hits the table, his traits support a lot of Imperial staples.

That said, I don't think Inspirational should totally dictate your choices. There are plenty of other great class cards (Prepare the Ambush and Punishing Force are the two standouts in my book), and so long as you've chosen solid villains being able to bring them into missions at a discount is often enough of an advantage.

I have BT and bossk. Bossk in particular seems to synergize with a bunch of troops. Weequays, Nexu, hk droid, transdoshans, royal guards, gamorrean guards just to name a few units that work well with the Hunter/Brawler traits.

Punishing Force is amazing.

My group banned me from using it for HOTE. Sadly I took Reactive Defenses to "try the new stuff". It's a running joke so far.

Interesting, is punishing force the card you just go straight to? Seems pretty stupid op. Potentially 3 re rolls per round.

Maybe not straight to. Punishing Force gives 5 rerolls when the rebels have an ally. You need to concentrate on keeping 3-dice figures on the board though.

Attack consistency is what makes Vinto (and any group with Diala and Force Adept) so good.

I was looking at ringleader that seems pretty solid, then I could save for punishing force next.

I was looking at ringleader that seems pretty solid, then I could save for punishing force next.

18 hours ago, NeverBetTheFett said:

My group banned me from using it for HOTE. Sadly I took Reactive Defenses to "try the new stuff". It's a running joke so far.

Yeah, I have *not* been impressed with it so far either.

3 hours ago, GyldenDamgaard said:

Yeah, I have *not* been impressed with it so far either.

I suspect the rebels sabotaged me by insisting that I use "something new" and not to use the nemesis deck. So, I kind of blame myself. Art of War right? LOL

You having trouble with reactive defenses? It's my first campaign as imperial and I took RD as my class deck. Currently won 3/5 story missions with the deck. 88z starts off as a waste of time but with the class cards, now is a lynchpin to my entire game plan

3 hours ago, LordDraigo1 said:

You having trouble with reactive defenses? It's my first campaign as imperial and I took RD as my class deck. Currently won 3/5 story missions with the deck. 88z starts off as a waste of time but with the class cards, now is a lynchpin to my entire game plan

Yes. I suppose it's possible that things will start to change and he will be more effective. I have won 1 and lost 1 story mission so far, but he has not been a factor in any of my missions including side missions. In fact, I usually find he's pretty pointless so far. Now I have a few VP's saved up, so I'm hoping to bring in a good class upgrade after next mission. I'll report back after a few more missions.

Ok, lets provide a more in-depth response. I'm playing a Jabba's Realm Campaign against 4 Rebel Heroes. The heroes are Shyla, Vinto, Jarrod & Ko-tun. The group itself is playing a very aggressive style game, trying to blitz away my activations with the damage output of Vinto, but the group has short range, minus Ko-tun. I didn't enter the campaign with a specific build order in mind. I ended up going Mechanized Protocol (2xp) -> Electromagnetic Disrupters (3xp) -> Targeting Sensors (4xp). I however regret purchasing Electromagnetic Disrupters, since the - Accuracy part never comes up and I feel that the cancel surge token isn't particularly helping me at this point. However, now that I'm 3/4 into the campaign, I feel that 88-Z is effectively "All Imperials within 2 spaces get +1 Surge, +1 Accuracy, +1 Damage & +1 Cancel Surge." I feel that bunkering around 88-Z can easily grant +4 Damage a round from Targeting Sensors alone.

Of course, 88-Z has drawbacks. Almost all the decks upgrades correspond to 88-Z, which can telegraph your plan to your enemy. (Oh, is that 88-Z over there? well, I wonder where everyone is going to move towards.) In addition, 88-Z can be interacted with, and even removed through Blast, Cleave or Vinto. Remove 88-Z, your deck is significantly weaker. Finally, since you have to deploy 88-z, you are telegraphing a deployment zone.

Some synergy I found amusing:

Split Fire from the Sentry droids, Targetting sensors remove the damage penalty.

Need to move 88-Z post activation without Overclock? Imperial Officers can bump 88-Z.

Remember that all cards have a second part to them. It's actively pushed me into playing droids because I want to use the damage bonus.

With most units having surges for accuracy and mechanized protocol giving surges, my units are shooting from roughly 6-7 spaces away and still hitting.