Greetings. Me and 3 of my friends will be starting a Jabba's campaign soon. Imperial player is the most experienced of us, hands down, I have played one campaign before (core set). Other two players haven't played IA before nor they have meaningful board game experience. Since the last time I faced this Imperial player was a total loss, and I'd like my two new buddies have slightly more encouraging experience, I'd like to pick the strongest characters for myself at least (I'll be controlling two). We have agreed that Imperial player may ban 3 Heroes, and we may ban 1 Imperial deck. Expansions we have access to are Core, Jabba's, Twin Shadows and Return to Hoth.

On my last campaign I faced Military Might, which felt fairly strong, but then again skill difference on that campaign between us and Imperial player was so large that it might have been just that. He has banned Gideon, Shyla and Diala.

If your Imperial is that much more experienced, why are they banning anything? Seems like you players should get to ban 3 Imperial Classes and call it a day, imo.

Military Might is very good, so if I had to choose it would be in my top 3 choices; also Subversive Tactics and Power of the Darkside.

Military Might is strong, but it's very straight forward so I wouldn't worry about this one.

Subversive Tactics is the "No-Fun Deck," so if you're looking for new players to have a good experience then it shouldn't be used (If you're IP wants them to have a good experience then they shouldn't pick it anyway).

Hutt Mercs has probably been called out as being the strongest deck most often.

As for your heroes, you still have a lot of strong choices. Personally I don't think he should "ban" any of them so much as picking three or four and saying you can only have one of them, but I digress. Among the top level heroes you still have Fenn, Vinto, Verena, MHD, Mak... I think as long as no one insists on taking Biv you'll be fine.

48 minutes ago, pheylorn said:

If your Imperial is that much more experienced, why are they banning anything? Seems like you players should get to ban 3 Imperial Classes and call it a day, imo.

Military Might is very good, so if I had to choose it would be in my top 3 choices; also Subversive Tactics and Power of the Darkside.

The banning is more of a habit we have had to give both sides the change to eliminate whatever they think is the most broken thing other side could bring, but it is indeed out of proportion. I actually talked about this with the Imperial player, and he agreed to let us ban 3 decks because our players are new. Thinking of banning Subversive, MM and Hutt Mercs.

As a frequent Imperial Player, the only hero that has ever really scared me was Verena, particularly late in the game. We had quite a few discussions about how her abilities work, however, so make sure to read up on her here on the forum (or just google questions you might have); I'm about 90% sure we played her 100% correct, heh heh.

Fenn is good but for some reason, we have never managed to make him shine as he should (Fenn having featured in 2 ordinary and 1 app campaign in my group); we're probably playing him wrong and/or misunderstanding something.

MHD underperformed severely in the one campaign we have used him in so far; again, we might be playing him wrong...

We also really like Gaarkhan, although I think he has fallen a little out of favor in the community?

Finally, I agree with people here objecting to your more experienced IP placing restrictions on you less-to-no experienced Rebel players. I understand that you have a tradition for doing this, but still, it is a weird thing to do. If anything, the most experienced players should place a handicap on themselves and/or play leniently toward the lesser experienced players, to make sure the game is as fair and fun for all as possible

1 hour ago, Quintus515 said:

Thinking of banning Subversive, MM and Hutt Mercs.

When I played as an imperial, I absolutely wrecked a savvy group of rebels with technological superiority. If the Imp has a take-no-prisoner attitude, he may put more hurt on your team with that deck vs. the more straightforward military might (especially once he gets into the 3 and 4 xp cards).

Also, in terms of painful agenda cards, the "means of production" mission gives the imperial the most powerful attachment in the game (imperial industry), especially when combined with TS. Beware that one. "High value target" is another, devastating imperial agenda.

Good luck! And dont let him play subversive tactics. I think TS may be stronger in late than MM.

Unstoppable gaarkhan could be good aganist hutt mercenaries as to refresh the tokens he would have to give him +2 damage for a mission.

A way of helping the rebels our group has found fun is not discarding supply cards beetween missions (unless they are something that explode or heal) There is no sense in throwing a grappling hook away after using it, for example.

Seems a slightly strange approach, but whatever works for your group... Subversive Tactics is a fun-killer and Hutt Mercenaries is a hero-killer, I'd be happy if everyone in the world literally set fire to their copies of those decks. Otherwise, there's so many variables, go nuts.

16 hours ago, NagyLaci said:

A way of helping the rebels our group has found fun is not discarding supply cards beetween missions (unless they are something that explode or heal) There is no sense in throwing a grappling hook away after using it, for example.

Interesting. Do you put limits on how many supply cards a model can carry? I have visions of the heroes spending 9 missions just picking up crates and using ALL THE TOYS in the finale.

1 hour ago, Bitterman said:

Seems a slightly strange approach, but whatever works for your group... Subversive Tactics is a fun-killer and Hutt Mercenaries is a hero-killer, I'd be happy if everyone in the world literally set fire to their copies of those decks. Otherwise, there's so many variables, go nuts.

Interesting. Do you put limits on how many supply cards a model can carry? I have visions of the heroes spending 9 missions just picking up crates and using ALL THE TOYS in the finale.

Didn't limit it but as we concentrate on winning the mission and making beautiful grenade kills as soon as possible it hasn't been an issue yet.

We play HotE and at half the campaign now we only have a total of 2-3 supply cards. Though we didn't spend much time on getting crates beause most missions were quite close.

I will post if it breaks the game but as we are not competitive its basically a free shieldpack and grappler arm now.

I'd say Subversive Tactics, for sure. Even though it's not necessarily the best, it does suck the fun out of the room.

Alternatively, if your Imperial player is so good, could they agree to play a "fun" deck instead? Nemesis is always a ringer for a good time, and Reactive Defenses seems pretty cool.

And I hate to criticize how you guys are doing things, but it seems odd that the Imperial player gets to ban any heroes at all, and the fact that he gets 3 while you just get 1 choice is extra bizarre. But hey, maybe your group is just more competitive than mine and I can't properly relate.

10 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

I'd say Subversive Tactics, for sure. Even though it's not necessarily the best, it does suck the fun out of the room.

Alternatively, if your Imperial player is so good, could they agree to play a "fun" deck instead? Nemesis is always a ringer for a good time, and Reactive Defenses seems pretty cool.

And I hate to criticize how you guys are doing things, but it seems odd that the Imperial player gets to ban any heroes at all, and the fact that he gets 3 while you just get 1 choice is extra bizarre. But hey, maybe your group is just more competitive than mine and I can't properly relate.

IAWTP

If the goal is fun, then ban ST. If the goal is *real* fun, as Subtrendy said, lift the ban on heroes, have the IMP choose a fun deck, and limit the # of agenda cards in any one mission (4 is a good target). That way, the newbies will have a blast (particularly with Fenn! Lol), the imperial will have a challenge (if he's good at this game, he should embrace a challenge), and most importantly, THE NEWBIES WILL WANT TO PLAY AGAIN. Which is the best outcome of all, no? ?

On 10/17/2018 at 3:24 PM, TeethAlmighty said:

If the goal is fun, then ban ST. If the goal is *real* fun, as Subtrendy said, lift the ban on heroes, have the IMP choose a fun deck, and limit the # of agenda cards in any one mission (4 is a good target). That way, the newbies will have a blast (particularly with Fenn! Lol), the imperial will have a challenge (if he's good at this game, he should embrace a challenge), and most importantly, THE NEWBIES WILL WANT TO PLAY AGAIN. Which is the best outcome of all, no? ?

I agree but would maybe impose even more strict limits. A good Imperial player can mop the floor with inexperienced Rebels even when using the "weakest" Imperial class deck.

Some ideas:

• Allow the IP to own up to 4 total agenda cards but only bring up to 2 agenda cards per mission.
• You may also want to discuss if the IP is open to reducing the threat level after X missions (-1 threat level after half-way point in campaign)
• XP respec
• The ability to ban one open group deployment card per mission.
• Starting with some bonus credits (maybe 400?) or sell items at full value.

Lots of possibilities depending if your Imperial player wants everyone to have fun or just wants to crush Rebels (which is actually no fun for anyone).

37 minutes ago, machfalcon said:

Lots of possibilities depending if your Imperial player wants everyone to have fun or just wants to crush Rebels (which is actually no fun for anyone).

Well, I did enjoy crushing the rebels on Hoth. But, in my defense, those rebel scum had it coming...

Ban the NO FUN subversive tactics deck, easy.

Gideon is good to restrict players from, if nothing else because he leads to min max delays.

If you're concerned about snowballing, just do the "lose 2 in a row, receive victory rewards anyway" common house rule. That tends to cut down on feeling a need to restrict things.

Another possible angle: if you have a large enough pool of heroes and a regular crowd? Ban all heroes used in the last campaign started... simple way to force variety

6 hours ago, machfalcon said:

I agree but would maybe impose even more strict limits. A good Imperial player can mop the floor with inexperienced Rebels even when using the "weakest" Imperial class deck.

Some ideas:

• Allow the IP to own up to 4 total agenda cards but only bring up to 2 agenda cards per mission.
• You may also want to discuss if the IP is open to reducing the threat level after X missions (-1 threat level after half-way point in campaign)
• XP respec
• The ability to ban one open group deployment card per mission.
• Starting with some bonus credits (maybe 400?) or sell items at full value.

Lots of possibilities depending if your Imperial player wants everyone to have fun or just wants to crush Rebels (which is actually no fun for anyone).

I like the limit on Agendas. It at least mildens the cheese where one brings all one time use agendas to last mission and bursts them there. I believe he'd be open to that, since he was fairly responsive for our concerns when I brought them up earlier, and he himself said agenda cheese is dumb last time around.

Bans are something that has been usually fairly well recieved with our group, as it gives the opportunity to remove something that you believe would not be fun to play against. If someone really wanted to play one of the banned heroes, I believe that'd be up for negotiation too, but so far neither of the new players has expressed interest to. One of them wants to go Gaarkhan, and the other doesn't know yet, but probably Mak or Loku given that he expressed interest in playing a sniper. I'm thinking of two of Fenn/Verena/Diala. I'd like to pick a support in Diala, but 2 melee is kinda hazardous, then again, Verena is sorta melee too, so maybe I should go Fenn + MHD or something along the lines.

1 hour ago, thinkbomb said:

If  yo  u  '  r    e   concerned about snowballing, just do the "lose  2 in a row, receive victory rewards anyway" common house rule. That t  e  nds to cut down on feeling a need to restrict things   .         

The rule was two story missions to be specific. It’s more about the XP and money/influence.

5 hours ago, thinkbomb said:

Another possible angle: if you have a large enough pool of heroes and a regular crowd? Ban all heroes used in the last campaign started... simple way to force variety

My group rules follow this principle mostly;

- No more than one repeat hero between campaigns

- No player can play the same hero twice

- no re-use of Imperial class deck

- max 1 Agenda deck can be re-used

the above means we always see at least 3 new heroes, 5 agenda decks and 1 new imperial class each campaign.

15 hours ago, Quintus515 said:

One of them wants to go Gaarkhan, and the other doesn't know yet, but probably Mak or Loku given that he expressed interest in playing a sniper. I'm thinking of two of Fenn/Verena/Diala. I'd like to pick a support in Diala, but 2 melee is kinda hazardous, then again, Verena is sorta melee too, so maybe I should go Fenn + MHD or something along the lines.

Fenn/Mak/Gaarkhan and Diala in full support mode looks like a pretty kick *** group to me.

Honestly I agree to the restriction of no Gideon, I tend to place an emphasis on not picking Gideon in our campaigns. I've played with Gideon in the app campaign, and he's just a character that has a phenomenal force multiplier which makes rebels incredibly efficient while being a completely unfun hero to play. I happily picked Ko Tun in our recent Hoth campaign even though I was making a suboptimal choice just because I knew I'd actually make an attack role and maybe even get a new weapon.

The only legit reason I can see for a hero ban is if the more experienced Imperial player is simply sick and tired of seeing the same heroes in their campaign every time. In that scenario I would agree with the ban for the sake of the IP having fun by having a new experience against new heroes and skills they aren't used to seeing.

On 11/4/2018 at 8:16 PM, LegoMech said:

The only legit reason I can see for a hero ban is if the more experienced Imperial player is simply sick and tired of seeing the same heroes in their campaign every time. In that scenario I would agree with the ban for the sake of the IP having fun by having a new experience against new heroes and skills they aren't used to seeing.

I had to do that for our upcoming campaign for that exact reason. Getting tired of seeing Shyla and Vinto 3 campaigns in a row, not interested in having them in a 4th.