Hey everyone,

Our group is about to start our 5th IA campaign. We'll be doing Hoth. I'm playing as the imperials and the rebel players just informed me of their choices:

Gaarkhan, Verena, Gideon, and CT.

We're all pretty experienced players, and I'm honestly not sure if there's a way for me to counter this. I don't have to win every mission, I just want to at least be competitive.

Any advice? Class deck? Agenda cards? I'm at a loss here.

Ouch, they're not pulling any punches with that selection.

Two of your Agenda sets will undoubtedly be Agents of the Empire and For the Right Price, simply for Imperial Informants and High Value Target/Hired Help.

That's definitely a pretty tough set.

Considering it's Hoth, though, consider yourself lucky MHD wasn't chosen.

Yeah, I don't really want to use ST, but I feel like it's my only choice IF I want to be competitive. Any other ideas?

Also, quick rules clarification: if Gideon commands CT to attack, can CT than use his barrage ability? I know that Gideon can command Fenn, who can then use havoc shot during the attack. but the wording on CT's barrage ability is different than on fenn's havoc shot. CT's says after an attack is resolved, while Fenn's says use during an attack.

Thanks everyone.

2 minutes ago, SpeeVan said:

if Gideon commands CT to attack, can CT than use his barrage ability?

Yes, the limit is once per activation, once per CT's own and once per Gideon's activation. Provided CT is able to suffer the strain cost.

5 minutes ago, a1bert said:

Yes, the limit is once per activation, once per CT's own and once per Gideon's activation. Provided CT is able to suffer the strain cost.

That's what I thought too. Once per activation. Thanks.

This will be painful 😋 .

One more question concerning possible combinations here (Sorry if someone has posted this before, I just want to see if this is being ruled correctly in case it comes up):

As I understand it, CT and Gideon could pull off the following combo with the following XP skills:

CT: Pin Them Down, Strafing Run, Wildfire

Gideon: Masterstroke

Round 1 of a mission: Gideon activates first, command on CT who uses Wildfire for the first barrage. Masterstroke on CT who can then barrage again. CT can also gain 4 movement points because of strafing run. CT also stuns 2 and weakens two.

2nd Activation, CT (readies all his cards) can do four more attacks, stun/weaken two more, and gains 4 movement points using the same abilities.

That's 8 attacks, 4 stuns/weakens, and 8 movement points in 3 actions, if I'm ruling this correctly? I know that's a ton of assumptions (there are that many targets in LOS, CT uses surges to recover strain every attack, etc.)

Is subversive tactics my only hope?

You see the reason to not use Gideon outside of an app campaign (where Masterstroke is only available for the finale). It's going to take a lot of XP though. (Fortunately Pin Them Down is less useful later in the campaign.)

In addition, you'll have Verena with Endurance 6, performing a number of Close Quarters attacks when CT defeats figures. (And why you probably want to avoid 3-health figures.) The first round is going to be rough. (Well, at least the white die can swing.)

Subversive Tactics is more "unfun" for the rebels than powerful. It works against beginner rebels, but with some of the new Tier I items from Jabba's Realm it can be worked around, and experienced rebels can avoid skills that need strain.

There are threads around comparing the class decks. Military Might is the quickest-starting deck with the best 0 XP card (Show of Force). Hutt Mercenaries and Power of the Dark Side would probably work well, the latter because the more powerful the heroes become, the more powerful attack you can make using Embrace Suffering (at the cost of 2 threat).

(Even the 'below average' Inspiring Leadership would work well in some of the Hoth missions, but I don't know if gaining an early lead would help.)

Once you have picked the class deck, then look at the agenda sets. You probably want the "standard ones" Agents of the Empire and For the Right Price, the rest are highly influenced by the class deck.

52 minutes ago, SpeeVan said:

That's 8 attacks, 4 stuns/weakens, and 8 movement points in 3 actions, if I'm ruling this correctly? I know that's a ton of assumptions (there are that many targets in LOS, CT uses surges to recover strain every attack, etc.)

It's not that bad. Your rebels would need 4 actions to pull all that off. Now you can sleep easy! 😓

On 1/9/2019 at 6:42 PM, SpeeVan said:

Hey everyone,

Our group is about to start our 5th IA campaign. We'll be doing Hoth. I'm playing as the imperials and the rebel players just informed me of their choices:

Gaarkhan, Verena, Gideon, and CT.

We're all pretty experienced players, and I'm honestly not sure if there's a way for me to counter this. I don't have to win every mission, I just want to at least be competitive.

Any advice? Class deck? Agenda cards? I'm at a loss here.

First, I’m not a great IP / tactician. You can get advice from great players on this forum (a1bert, subtrendy2, tvboy,etc), but I’m just going to give a pep talk of sorts!

One positive? All black dice heroes! So load up on figures with access to Pierce and that +2 damage surge. Any timed based mission, roll out the royal guards who can stun Verena and hopefully slow her down, or maybe stun CT to prevent Gideon driven attacks.

If you have access to Heart of the Empire, maybe using Tech Superiority class deck along with a Droids theme? Sentry droids with some attachments have Pierce 2 , and a surge +1 which would hit pretty hard. I also used HK droids with the starter card (in Tech Superiority) that gives focus, they can hit pretty hard as well. The attachments which give all droids a speed boost is huge to help stay out of range, plus you can use the Jawa to get an extra +1 speed on top as well.

For Agenda cards I like When they least expect it from the Grand Inquisitor pack, also the Hired Guns have a card - Final Blast which is a deplete and allows for a parting shot from any non unique figure, which is super annoying (to the rebels)!

Good luck, have fun and long love the Empire!

Similar situation here.

My rebels are playing Gideon, Mak, CT, and Vinto. One has played a full mini-campaign. Another has played about a mission and a half. The other two haven’t played before but all are gamers with some table top experience. I’d love some advice as well.

We start Jabba’s Realm next Friday. I own all the expansions and most of the boosters. I’m not interested in a few class decks for various reasons. I’ve recently used Inspiring Leadership and Overwhelming Oppression and Subversive Tactics seems a bit punitive for the two noobs so I’m skipping those three.

My top choices are Military Might, Technological Superiority, and Hutt Mercenaries, but I’d like to hear suggestions.

Not much for strength on those heroes. You could have a lot of success with Arc Blasters from Tech. Sup. against that group.

16 hours ago, player678037 said:

Not much for strength on those heroes. You could have a lot of success with Arc Blasters from Tech. Sup. against that group.

I disagree. The worst in the group are Gideon and Verena who are both BG, which is a 66% chance of passing.

I was responding to Bdgolish's post directly before mine. The heroes in that campaign are Gideon, Mak, CT, and Vinto and Tech. Sup. was one of three classes that there was interest in.

Strain seems to be a precious commodity for the group. Everyone of them have a 2 strain ability they want to use a lot, only Verena has 5 endurance. Trandos seem like a good choice to have, as well as bleeding.

Ouch. They’ve got 2 (maybe even 3) of the best Heroes in the game. That will not be easy at all.

I ditto the strain comment. All of these heroes are strain-heavy. Riot Troopers might be a good pick every once and awhile to help with this.

22 hours ago, player678037 said:

I was responding to Bdgolish's post directly before mine. The heroes in that campaign are Gideon, Mak, CT, and Vinto and Tech. Sup. was one of three classes that there was interest in.

Sorry, I don’t know how I missed that. In that case, I completely agree.