This was our very first time playing, and while we had a cursory understanding of the rules we were basically feeling out rules and units as we went.

We started with an 800 point game with the contents of two core sets (4 trooper units, 2 support, 1 commander each). Battle deck resulted in the Major Offensive deployment with the objective to end up in the other side's deployment zone (limited visibility condition).

Our board had a large piece of bunker terrain dead center of the map, with some scatter around the rest. We both saw the tactical value of holding the bunker, and due to the Major Offensive deployment we deployed all of our units so that were both within a single move from entering. Combat started immediately, rendering the condition of limited visibility moot. While there was a single entrance to the bunker trench, the terrain piece was scaleable from the outside as difficult terrain.

The result was a furball slog that decimated the Rebels (me) and played right into Vader's hands. The objectives were moot as I was taken out after 4 rounds, but for good measure the terrifying speeder bikes were zipping about unharried in my deployment zone at the end. It came down to a roll off when we both revealed a 1-pip to decide whether Vader would finish Luke off and panic my army, or if Luke would activate with Son of Skywalker and clean out the entire trench of Imperials--I lost the roll.

Thoughts:

• I can't believe how thematic this game is with just a fairly light ruleset. The unit design is dead on, and the battle deck system is incredible at delivering a dynamic, somewhat unpredictable experience. Suppression seemed like a non-issue, until Vader popped Master of Evil and subsequently killed Luke. But Vader is terrifying as he should be, and Luke is the only one you want to face him as it should be. Of course there are other ways to take him down, but generally you should be running from him if you don't have Luke nearby.
• Laser cannon seems a bit useless on the AT-RT unless you're against an AT-ST
• Flamethrower is amazing and a great value--use that AT-RT to serve as a tank for your troopers (it provides cover) and keep it close to the fight--just watch out for Imperial rocket troops. I took a lot of damage but was able to one-shot an entire squad of stormtroopers by rolling 12 black attack dice.
• Speeder Bikes are where it's at. Attack/Defense surges, cover 1, effectively 3 actions each activation with the compulsory move. Having two minis in the unit seems to be an advantage too.
• The Battle Card scenario combined with our terrain led to an all-out slugfest, but the Rebels generally should play smarter based on objectives. In this case, I should have held up near my deployment and waited for the fight to come to me, trying to pitch a shutout on Imperial Victory Tokens and trying to win based on destroyed unit value.
• Barricades seem so boring to me, but cover is the name of the game. Do anything you can to get some terrain without resorting to placing rows of barricades against each other. If you have a barricade wall, it turns into WW1 trench warfare where you take turns going over the top. A well-placed barricade here and there should be enough to be interesting.
• Targeting Scopes weren't as good as I thought they'd be for Rebels, as I was mostly trying to take the dodge action and scopes require Aim tokens.

Way too little terrain. You should definitely make use of area terrain as described in the rulebook. Look up tables made for games like Bolt Action, a WWII game, but since Star Wars was created with a WWII feel in mind, it works.

6 hours ago, Vertrucio said:

Way too little terrain. You should definitely make use of area terrain as described in the rulebook. Look up tables made for games like Bolt Action, a WWII game, but since Star Wars was created with a WWII feel in mind, it works.

On the contrary, it looks like there's enough terrain to cover about 25% of the board, which conforms with the suggested amount on page 9 of the Rules Reference guide, under "Competitive Terrain." Granted, it looks like most of the coverage comes from the two large pieces, but to me it looks like a fun and interesting set-up, especially considering it's OP's first time playing the game.

6 hours ago, Vertrucio said:

Way too little terrain. You should definitely make use of area terrain as described in the rulebook. Look up tables made for games like Bolt Action, a WWII game, but since Star Wars was created with a WWII feel in mind, it works.

I've got some grass area terrain in the works, and this terrain as is was about 1/3 of the board. Also just about every action in the game interacted with a piece of terrain, mostly due to the features of the bunker and trench. I will definitely want some variation though and don't worry, I've definitely caught the terrain bug.

I've always felt like calling sloping hills terrain for the purposes of the 1/4 board thing a little like cheating. They tend to either have not enough height to actually obscure things, or require so much space to get that height (while still being able to place minis) that there's no real room for things to be on either side of it to get cover from each other -- the space might technically be there, but it's so small and near the edges of the board that it's just dead play area with no tactical value, especially in an objective-based game.

Which isn't to say hills shouldn't be used, but if I'm going to use hills, I want to over-shoot the 1/4 board metric by a generous margin.

On 24/03/2018 at 7:55 AM, Big Easy said:

Suppression seemed like a non-issue, until Vader popped Master of Evil and subsequently killed Luke.

Keep in mind that the commander's courage only stops panic. It does not stop suppression.

On 3/27/2018 at 9:00 PM, kaffis said:

I've always felt like calling sloping hills terrain for the purposes of the 1/4 board thing a little like cheating. They tend to either have not enough height to actually obscure things, or require so much space to get that height (while still being able to place minis) that there's no real room for things to be on either side of it to get cover from each other -- the space might technically be there, but it's so small and near the edges of the board that it's just dead play area with no tactical value, especially in an objective-based game.

Which isn't to say hills shouldn't be used, but if I'm going to use hills, I want to over-shoot the 1/4 board metric by a generous margin.

Agreed on this.

I don't remember if there's height advantages in this game, and that hill isn't line of sight blocking unless you declare it so. So chop off at least half of that bunker's area as actual gameplay effecting terrain.

The original poster should think of it this way. He describes the match as starting and ending as a one sided furball that benefited the Empire. Well of course it'll benefit the empire if you have a bunch of rebel troops that synergize well with being in cover no longer have cover to be in. What if you had placed more terrain, and that terrain was in a good flanking position to the side of the bunker, able to get angles on unis approaching the bunker. What if there was a rout completely out of Line of Sight to the enemy for one side, unless an enemy sent a unit even further to the side to get LoS around that blocker.

Suddenly, you're forced away from a furball in the center. That unit parked in the cover to the flank can sit there in cover firing to suppress units. A rebel Z6 can fire at two different targets, all they need is one hit to suppress. Your opponent is going to have to send something its way to deal with it.

Try a table packed with terrain, instead of what you consider 1/4, try a full 1/2 or 2/3 of the table covered in terrain. Play on it even if it seems like too much. Then adjust.

Needs more trenches

Oh, should also mention that the Rebs are bit short on points. With two starter boxes, they should get an extra (third) ATRT, or the Imps need to down-size quite a lot to be fair (they need to go to 3 squads, pretty much, or drop a lot of gear). That can make quite a difference in getting shot down (three ATRTs with rotaries can chew through a lot of stuff, and remember they count as cover for the troopers, too).

A couple of things I disagree with after my first 2 games.

-Suppression was a massive part of both of my games so far. I walked one of my troopers off the board (took me 3 turns of forced retreat) god **** the condition that won't let you do the suppression removal at the end of the round. In my other game, I was able to force a retreat on a rebel trooper unit in full cover taking dodge actions with a captured objective thus allowing me to kill it and thus get the objective.

-The flamethrower was garbage in my games, it was used in both games and in both games the at-rt carrying it died before it ever got to use it. Both the stormtrooper heavy weapon upgrades are great at taking out at-rt's, especially if you cant thin their numbers from range and are just walking up to try and get range one. Let alone an infantry with impact grenades. The rotary cannon is enough dice that if you can just aim and fire the rotary 2 turns in a row you are probably going to do way more damage then trying to close with the flamethrower. The only way I can see the flamethrower working is if you can use large terrain to close in and use there climbing ability to get close before you get shot down. plus it sucks against speeder bikes.... and against other at-rt's and really you need to take out the speeder bikes asap. (limited visibility probably makes the flamethrower way better)

-both games we had a lot of barricades but flanking, grenades and suppression countered them pretty well. Cover only cancels 2 hits if you toss a ton of dice at a trooper unit you will widdle it down even in cover it's not a super safe, you roll 3 hits on any trooper even in cover you are likely to do a damage and start taking them out. a speeder bike unit with aim is going to still **** kick a trooper unit in cover.

After my first games, I dropped the targeting scopes, after my second game I wish I owned more than 2 copies of grappling hooks. So agree with you on this point.

I actually think you picked probably the worst combination for deployment and objective. a slow march with your armies in big balls.