Decided to wait and not get a small box a while back, and now I’ve decided that I’d like to get one of the boxed expansion, regardless of whether it’s the small or big. So I thought I would ask, what’s considered the best out of the expansions? Only on I think I’ve decided against is twin shadows(since I have boba).

oh and for point of reference I have the base game and Boba villain pack.

Are you into campaign? Skirmish? Do you have a particular theme that you like?

None of the boxes are bad, so you really can't go wrong. My best advice is just to pick the theme that you're most interested in (Hoth, Bespin, Jabba's Palace, Coruscant)

Personally I've found Jabba's Realm to have the best campaign and the most interesting heroes/imperial units to choose from, but note that I haven't played through the Heart of the Empire campaign at all yet.

If you think you might want to get into skirmish at some point then I'd grab the Jabba expansion for sure if you want to play as the Mercenary faction, and the Heart of the Empire expansion for sure if you want to play as imperials.

Again, though, you really can't go wrong. And welcome to the game!

Jabba's Realm or Heart of the Empire would be my two choices. So you want a Scum focused box or an Imperial based box?

Well, it really depends on what you are looking for Mando. Are you more focused on the campaigns or skirmish? A mix of both?

I have most of the expansions (save Bespin and Heart of Empire, so I cannot speak to those), and I would say there is more to Twin Shadows than just Boba Fett. It is the only place you can get the heavy stormtrooper, which can add to an Imperial skirmish list and add a nice option for the Imperial player in campaign. It also adds Tusken Raiders, which adds an option for Mercenaries for skirmish. I also believe you cannot get full use out of your Boba Fett blister pack without Twin Shadows, as I believe his skirmish map and campaign mission require map tiles from Twin Shadows.

If you are more focused on campaigns, then any of the larger expansions will add more (both in terms of figures and a longer campaign. The one for Twin Shadows is short, but can be inserted into a standard campaign, and I believe the one for Bespin Gambit is as well).

I have not yet played the Jabba's Realm expansion yet, but I have it. One of my sons and I used two heroes from that expansion for the App campaign and enjoyed them (Onar Koma and Shyla Varad). It adds a lot for the Mercenaries (if you like skirmish).

We have played some of Return to Hoth's campaign and it has been fun. It adds some interesting heroes, but we have only used the Mon Cal sniper and the medical droid (who is a great support character).

For skirmish it's easy: Jabba's Realm if you prefer Mercenary, Heart of the Empire if you prefer Rebels or Empire.

For campaigns it's a bit trickier:

Do you plan on getting them all eventually? If so, buy them in the order they appeared. This because the campaigns/missions get better over time, with more creative mechanics and maps. If you start with the last few, those are awesome, but then the first couple might feel a bit meh. Where-as if you start with Hoth and work your way up it just get's more epic every time, while the early campaigns are still cool by themselves then since you have no comparison.

You don't plan on getting them all? Buy either Jabba or HotE. Those campaigns are the best, and since they are both big boxes, also the longest.

Ironically, if you're into campaign, you're going to want both small boxes first if you want to get any use out of Boba or Bossk... You gotta get figure packs that correspond to the boxed waves you have.

Otherwise, I personally would suggest Heart of the Empire or Jabba's Realm.

Return to Hoth is fine, but pretty overrated if you ask me (come at me, everyone).

39 minutes ago, MandoBard said:

Decided to wait and not get a small box a while back, and now I’ve decided that I’d like to get one of the boxed expansion, regardless of whether it’s the small or big. So I thought I would ask, what’s considered the best out of the expansions? Only on I think I’ve decided against is twin shadows(since I have boba).

oh and for point of reference I have the base game and Boba villain pack.

It probably depends what way you are playing, but all of the boxes have something going for them. If you want to play the campaign, Twin Shadows has missions that include your Boba figure. (if you haven't bought the figure, the box includes a cardboard token)

I think Hoth and Jabba's Palace have the best heroes. HotE might have the best regular Imperial units. Jabba has the best *looking* massive figure, but I think HotE has the most useful massive unit.

all of them are great fun, but the big question that needs to be repeated: are you more of a campaign or skirmish player? In terms of campaign, I would probably pass on the small boxes at first because for me the short campaigns are just... Meh. All the big box campaigns are great and it really depends on what theme you want. I have to agree with subtrendy that hoth is a little overrated.

The heroes from each big box are all great, as well as the imperial class decks. the imperial class deck from twin shadows is on par with the heroes that come in that box (they are NOT good).

51 minutes ago, udat said:

I think Hoth and Jabba's Palace have the best heroes

I think you might be underrating the HOTE heroes. Drokkatta is excellent, Jarrod + Jax is pretty solid, and Ko-Tun is an interesting support/hybrid with some pretty good abilities. I think they're all tier A or tier B heroes at worst - which is on par with the other big box expansion heroes.

To the OP - Jabba's Realm would probably be my first choice because I like the longer 11 mission campaigns but you can't go wrong with any of the three big boxes. I've enjoyed playing through all three of the campaigns from both sides of the table.

Campaign only for now plus ap. Not too intested in twin shadows or jab as realm since the base has plenty of wasteland terrain. I find the cityscapes from HOTE and Bg would be a cool mixup or Hoth, but I’m kinda leaning city. Boba comes with a standard core campaign compatible mission card, so not as big a deal. Also for the foreseeable future I only see myself bringing people in, not fighting other players so outside of for fun skirmish isn’t that big a deal

Ah, I could not recall whether Boba used Core tiles or some from Twin Suns, typically a pack released with an expansion uses tiles from that expansion (it certainly is the case for later ones). There are a number of Core only packs that were released later (like Hera).

Well, I cannot speak to HOTE or Bespin, but I am sure both are good (I have enjoyed all the stuff I have gotten and eventually will get those as well). HOTE has a longer campaign, which might make a difference to you. Bespin's I believe can be used as a side campaign within the longer one from the Core (or stand alone). At least if it is like Twin Suns that would be the case.

You should note that either of those will have characters (allies for players and units for the Imperial player) that will only be represented by tokens unless you get the character packs (like Lando or Bossk for Bespin). You of course can just play with the tokens (there are deployment cards in the boxes). But if you want the minis, that is more character packs you will need to get.

2 minutes ago, Thevshi said:

Ah, I could not recall whether Boba used Core tiles or some from Twin Suns, typically a pack released with an expansion uses tiles from that expansion (it certainly is the case for later ones). There are a number of Core only packs that were released later (like Hera).

Well, I cannot speak to HOTE or Bespin, but I am sure both are good (I have enjoyed all the stuff I have gotten and eventually will get those as well). HOTE has a longer campaign, which might make a difference to you. Bespin's I believe can be used as a side campaign within the longer one from the Core (or stand alone). At least if it is like Twin Suns that would be the case.

You should note that either of those will have characters (allies for players and units for the Imperial player) that will only be represented by tokens unless you get the character packs (like Lando or Bossk for Bespin). You of course can just play with the tokens (there are deployment cards in the boxes). But if you want the minis, that is more character packs you will need to get.

I know about how everything works, that’s why I’m asking about them as standalone campaigns or general addition.

I have core, hoth and Jabba Realm. I liked Hoth, but one thing I like about JR (haven’t finished it yet), is it has replay ability kind of built in. The players choose the next story mission, not the outcome. I think that is kind of nice if you want to play it multiple times you can make sure to play all missions.

The heroes and empire figures in the box are both pretty cool as well. Oh and there is a rancor!! Terrorize your rebels when you drop that bad boy on the table!

I recently added the hired guns pack (must for IP) and it’s great how thematic you can be just flooding open groups with pirates, gamorreans, hired guns, etc. Boba would fit right in

I think Jabba's Realm and Heroes of the Empire will give you the most bang for your buck.

Jabba's Realm has stronger (and, imo, more compelling) heroes. It gives you some more exciting mercenary deployment options, as well as the impressive Rancor. The campaign tells a good story, and has lots of memorable moments. Something noteworthy -- it also comes with a Villain class deck called "Nemeses" that allows you to automatically earn villains at the start of a campaign. It allows you to use some villains from other waves that you might lack the necessary tiles for (like Bossk). The downside is that it relies on more desert and forest tiles.

Heart of the Empire builds more on the prequels/animated shows. The campaign is medium length, but has lots of opportunities for replayability. It introduces a whole new gameplay dynamic (in the form of power tokens). The jury is out on the heroes (some folks love them, some folks think they're weak; my personal experience has been decidedly lackluster), but the villain deployments are all solid. The cityscape tiles are awesome, and the new environment is some welcome diversity.

Hoth offers a new environment and the heroes are solid. However, the campaign's balance is uneven and the various villain deployments won't see much use outside of the Hoth campaign if you're sticking too relatively thematic play (compared to JR or HotE, which include units you could comfortably include in any campaign).

21 hours ago, machfalcon said:

I think you might be underrating the HOTE heroes. Drokkatta is excellent, Jarrod + Jax is pretty solid, and Ko-Tun is an interesting support/hybrid with some pretty good abilities. I think they're all tier A or tier B heroes at worst - which is on par with the other big box expansion heroes.

Aside from Biv and Saska, all of the expansions have good heroes I think, but Hoth and Jabba edge it for me. Shyla, Vinto, and Verena are all very strong, Onar, MHD and Loku are all fairly strong (and Loku is my personal favourite).

Drokkatta turned into a decent melee character when we played him. He had the BD-1 + Vibrogenerator & Focusing beam. With that, the Power Charger, and his Charging Up and Structural Exploitation ability, pretty much anything he hit he killed. Wookiee Wrath was great at finishing off anything he was passing. While his AoE potential looked impressive, it made him very strainy.

We haven't played Jarrod or Ko Tun yet, but both look decent.

Jabba's Realm have the best story, I find (but note: I haven't played Bespin yet), but I'm also really enjoying Return to Hoth these days. If you're not keen on JR, then I'd definitely go for RtH; you also get the Hunter Killer (HK) Droids and they are raaad!

2 hours ago, angelman2 said:

Jabba's Realm have the best story, I find (but note: I haven't played Bespin yet), but I'm also really enjoying Return to Hoth these days. If you're not keen on JR, then I'd definitely go for RtH; you also get the Hunter Killer (HK) Droids and they are raaad!

Oh yeah, the hi droids make rth a real tempter. I mean I lean towards the small boxes due to their lower entry prices, but I haven’t heard much about their heroes?

ok let’s say I have it narrowed down to Bespin Gambit and return to Hoth. The former I like the theme, and it goes for a nice low price. But I also really like a number of the units in the latter. So which would be the better choice, and which has the most interesting heroes? I guess we can throw in twin shadows too

In my opinion the heroes from Bespin are better than he ones from Hoth, and all are better than the ones from Twin Shadows

On 3/23/2018 at 8:51 AM, subtrendy2 said:

Ironically, if you're into campaign, you're going to want both small boxes first if you want to get any use out of Boba or Bossk... You gotta get figure packs that correspond to the boxed waves you have.

That is not correct in the case of Boba, his campaign mission is playable with Core tiles only.

Twin Shadows should probably be the last expansion somebody picks up tied with Bespin, depending on whether they like Jedi or Heavy Stormtroopers more.

I would say Jabba's Realm is the correct answer without knowing anything about OP's preferences. Great new campaign structure, strong heroes, really good troops for the Imperial player that fill specific threat holes at 4 and 5, and you get a friggin' Rancor. Also really helps to fill out the scum faction in skirmish which is unplayable out of the core box.