Yet another first campaign thread...

By WasabiPrime, in Imperial Assault Campaign

Posted at

Hi folks,

we will be soon starting our first IA campaign with me taking the role of the imperial. I already decided for the Nemesis class deck to use my nice villians, but I could use some help with several other decisions. :)

Here are my facts:

* Heroes are Diala, Fenn, Mak & Verena - I think my group picked pretty solid heroes there. Will get tough for me - i like that. :D

* All players have a very strong Descent experience (1st and 2nd edition), but nearly no IA experience

* The play very tactical and always play to win... ;)

My choices:

* I have not yet decided on the campaign we are going to play. I own everything released for IA up to date. Should we start with the core campaign (all my core minis are painted!)? Or better with Jabba (not much painted yet)? Since we meet only once or twice a month, the campaign will keep us busy for the next year and should be cool. :)

* I currently tend to pick Jabba and Captain Terro as my villians, if we go for core campaign. I would also include the agenda set for the Grand Inquisitor, since I like his mission very much. Probably also the one for the Royal Guard Champion. With Jabba I would probably pick Greedo and ... well, no clue. Would you still pick Terro? Which villians would you recommend? Why?

* Which agenda sets would you recommend for this setup? Why?

Thanks folks and kind regards,

Wasabi

Posted at

Welcome to the dark side!! I own Core, Hoth and Jabba, and have run Core (few times) and Hoth as IP, we are working our way through JR now.

I would start with the Core, even though I really enjoy JR and Hoth. Especially if your minis are painted - I am very jealous! :)

I am also running Nemesis in my JR campaign, its a lot of fun thus far. I chose BT-1 and Bossk for my Villains. Bossk is pretty strong in campaign, especially if you can get some attachments that give him some additional movement. Plus there is the starter XP card which grants you an extra surge if a trait on your figure matches your Villain. Bossk has great traits. Same goes for BT-1, for 6 threat he can get off a very strong attack. I also like the Elite Jawa which gives him a speed of 5, while on the board. If you play Jabbas Realm, I would not choose Terro for your Villain. There are several missions in JR that already include Terro, so you won't have the option to bring him in those.

For agenda cards I like the following:

For the Right Price

- includes High Value Target, one of the best cards in the game (deplete when hero is wounded to increase threat by threat level)

Imperial Industry

- includes Means of Production mission which yields Imperial Industry reward attachment which is very strong. Also includes Restorative Supplies which I find is very good for those defeat the big baddy missions

Agents of the Empire

- Imperial Informants, 1 influence for a one time threat increase of threat level at the end of the round

Lord Vaders Command

- Its Vader. That is a period. Just kidding, Vader at 18 is usually not a great tactical play, but it might be the most fun. You could buy the 1 influence card just to add him to your hand, then use the Nemesis XP card to reduce deployment by 5 to get it to 13 threat.

I dont have Royal Guard Champion, but I think his agenda cards are quite strong as well. I have the Inquisitor, and his agenda deck is cool too. There is one card where you can include him in your hand, deploy him for free (can only attack one hero) even when not earned. Combine that with Nemesis Villain like Bossk, and you could have some serious figures on the board at once.

Good luck, and long live the Empire!

Posted at

I'd agree that Core is probably the best place to start, if any of these reasons resonate with you:

- Its missions, while not the most exciting, are generally pretty straightforward.

- It includes some of the most iconic units and allies/vilains

- If your group has any interest in running through subsequent campaigns, Core would be underwhelming after superior entries like Jabba's Realm or Heart of the Empire.

The only reason I'd not suggest Core is if you're already worried about your group having a waning interest in campaign.

Posted at
On 2018/03/13 at 10:58 AM, WasabiPrime said:

Hi folks,

we will be soon starting our first IA campaign with me taking the role of the imperial. I already decided for the Nemesis class deck to use my nice villians, but I could use some help with several other decisions. :)

Here are my facts:

* Heroes are Diala, Fenn, Mak & Verena - I think my group picked pretty solid heroes there. Will get tough for me - i like that. :D

* All players have a very strong Descent experience (1st and 2nd edition), but nearly no IA experience

* The play very tactical and always play to win... ;)

My choices:

* I have not yet decided on the campaign we are going to play. I own everything released for IA up to date. Should we start with the core campaign (all my core minis are painted!)? Or better with Jabba (not much painted yet)? Since we meet only once or twice a month, the campaign will keep us busy for the next year and should be cool. :)

* I currently tend to pick Jabba and Captain Terro as my villians, if we go for core campaign. I would also include the agenda set for the Grand Inquisitor, since I like his mission very much. Probably also the one for the Royal Guard Champion. With Jabba I would probably pick Greedo and ... well, no clue. Would you still pick Terro? Which villians would you recommend? Why?

* Which agenda sets would you recommend for this setup? Why?

Thanks folks and kind regards,

Wasabi

Note that the Descent experience can actually be negative as the game plays rather differently and there's certain key differences and small rule changes that are often overlooked.

Posted at

Hi folks,

thank you for the replies. I will go for core then. :)

Agenda-wise totalnoob suggested the same sets that I had in my short list.

But something that I do not understand is, why is Descent experience negative? I though IA would be basically Descent 3.0... Am I missing something?

Kind regards, Wasabi

Posted at
On 3/13/2018 at 8:58 AM, WasabiPrime said:

* Heroes are Diala, Fenn, Mak & Verena - I think my group picked pretty solid heroes there. Will get tough for me - i like that. :D

Those are all very strong heroes, with Diala and Fenn in particular being two of the best heroes in the game. They might not be the best _team_ though. They have three ranged characters (Verena could be a melee character I guess, but you'd miss out on K'Tara Maneuver, which is a solid ability) so they may end up "competing" for the best ranged weapons and mods. They might also struggle for credits, in that every hero (except Diala, if she gets her lightsaber) needs money spent on better kit to shine.

They are also short on support abilities, with only Diala able to fill that role. I usually think of her as a semi-support character, so they might be lacking a bit there.

Posted at
1 hour ago, WasabiPrime said:

But something that I do not understand is, why is Descent experience negative? I though IA would be basically Descent 3.0... Am I missing something?

You can say that.

But there are crucial differences (like resting mechanics, or the fact that you can go through enemy figures) that changes tactical aspect of the game a lot. Therefore:

1. having strong playing habits from Descent may be detrimential, because different approach will be needed

2. it is easy to overlook small differences in the rules (like number of the items in the shop)

Posted at

keep in mind that core was made before JR Hoth, HotE or any other expansion was released, I brought in a tinkerer on a story mission and pretty handily won, I had Kayn rgc and blasie on the board all at once with a good shot at winning, I recommend limiting yourself to go no farther than hoth to start ( they have verena) unless you really need a win.

I would do some research on class decks, there are plenty of good threads on the topic.

for agendas don't bring in to many side missions and forced missions, something I am learning now.

Posted at
On 3/19/2018 at 5:39 AM, WasabiPrime said:

But something that I do not understand is, why is Descent experience negative? I though IA would be basically Descent 3.0... Am I missing something?

I wouldn't say it's negative at all- you just have to learn the differences.

I used to be a lifeguard, and I had two different jobs, each with their own certifications; Ellis & Associates and the American Red Cross. When starting my second job (the Red Cross one) I had a distinct advantage over the other kids in the class, because I already knew CPR, various saving techniques, etc. There were problems when I would do things the Ellis way, but generally my experience was beneficial in the long run.

My boss would say that I just had to remember which "hat" to wear at each job: Ellis or Red Cross.

That's how I feel with these two games. They're very similar and I think knowing how to play one is very advantageous when learning the other. In fact, when I teach my Rebels Descent in the coming year, I'm going to teach them how to play exclusively by the differences from Imperial Assault. Far easier to learn the exceptions than to learn an entire new game!