Hi all, back here after a long while.
(There might be some tiny spoilers below, but nothing beyond the mission setups.)
We're playing the Heart of the Empire, I'm using the Power of the Dark Side while my heroes are Wildfire, Drokatta, MHD and Davith. I won the first mission but lost the next two and the last one we played (On the Trail) wasn't even close - they won on turn 4, with 2 of them wounded. Now, they hit a huge power spike, with both Drokatta and Davith buying their XP weapons and MHD buying the Bacta Radiator. They also got a ton of good rewards and items: Intercepted Plans, Covert Operative, High-Impact Guard, Nova Cell Leader, and Bacta Pump.
The next mission is Drokatta's side mission and it looks like it's going to be a blowout. The way my figures are set out at the start means Drokatta can probably kill one of the Trandoshans and an Officer + put two damage on my remaining figures with the first activation. Davith does 5-6 damage with each attack against a black die. Wildfire can kill a Trando in 2 attacks with his basic weapon around 60% of the time and stun+weaken two more. MHD can spend every second activation picking up explosives and have an awesome attack when he doesn't. They're also very fast and will strain at will thanks to the Bacta Radiator.
I have some tricks of my own, with Dark Resurgence, Personal Shield Generators and a free Dewback Rider from Influence. I can also buy a 4 XP card, but I'm thinking of going with Power of Passion because their attacks aren't good enough to spend 2 threat on just yet. My plan is to try and stall them as long as possible, bringing in Heavy Stormstroopers (they're the cheapest unit that's likely to actually survive an attack) and maybe some Hired Guns in the mid-game to make sure some damage goes through.
However, it still feels like the mission won't even be close. I did some practice runs and they can basically clear my board on turn 1 and the things I throw at them afterward will barely stop them. I don't mind losing but I feel that if they get another good support card, the campaign might quickly snowball.
So anyway, does anyone have any ideas? Is it even worth using the Dewback Rider card as a final effort or should I just save that for the next mission?