I plan to get one of each expansion/pack for campaign play. If I later would like to play skirmish with friends using my game components is there any reason to get duplicates of any packs?

Some campaign suggestions from the latest thread: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/2158429/just-got-ia-going-through-lota-app-and-have-questi

You generally need only one of each expansion. Maybe another Captain Terro pack for a Dewback Rider if you care about tokens, and/or paint and want to glue Terro and Dewback Rider permanently. Just my opinion though, other people suggest some of the non-unique packs, but they are mostly for skirmish - although for most non-unique you can use both deployment cards, ie. two packs worth of figures, you don't generally want to have two in the same campaign mission.

For skirmish - any or all of the non-unique packs to get figures for two groups. If you have everything, for "friendly" skirmish you won't need second copies, although if/when you supply both/all players, extras will be good.

Thanks for the input, I will for sure not compete so one of each might be sufficient for skirmish with friends. Since I miss experience of skirmish I wanted some input . I have no clue if some models will lead to a better game or the lack of some makes it feel broken.

I have two Jawa packs, cause that is a unit where I sometimes want to use a regular and elite at the same time. I've thought about a second hired guns or ISB infiltrator pack, but I never had the need to field two of those units at the same time.

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

I have two Jawa packs, cause that is a unit where I sometimes want to use a regular and elite at the same time.

Truth

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

I've thought about a second hired guns or ISB infiltrator pack, but I never had the need to field two of those units at the same time.

Dropping 2 hired guns groups (1 regular, 1 elite) down on heroes that like to one shot everything has never been a bad choice for me. It's unlikely that they kill all four in one activation. Whichever group has both units left can get 2 attacks off, then get 2 more when they're destroyed. That's 6 attacks for 10 threat, and both unit types have a decent dice pool with better than average surge abilities.

As for ISB infiltrators, I agree with your assessment.
The elites can have a place, especially against white die heroes. But they need to be deployed in such a manner that they both stay alive until their activation, and that is often easier said than done.

14 hours ago, thestag said:

Dropping 2 hired guns groups (1 regular, 1 elite) down on heroes that like to one shot everything has never been a bad choice for me. It's unlikely that they kill all four in one activation. Whichever group has both units left can get 2 attacks off, then get 2 more when they're destroyed. That's 6 attacks for 10 threat, and both unit types have a decent dice pool with better than average surge abilities.

Well, as I'm not happy with the paint job of my hired guns, you probably sold me on an extra blister.

15 hours ago, thestag said:

Dropping 2 hired guns groups (1 regular, 1 elite) down on heroes that like to one shot everything has never been a bad choice for me. It's unlikely that they kill all four in one activation. Whichever group has both units left can get 2 attacks off

Why would they defeat both figures of one group if they can defeat one figure from each group?

No need for dual squads of rebel units like rangers or saboteurs? I am aiming for fun games. Have also seen the recommendation of both jawas on bgg.

Dual rangers or saboteurs can be useful, not sure. To be honest I primarily play campaign mode.

In the campaign you can only have upto one of each rebel ally, whether unique or non-unique.

For friendly skirmish - there are better alternatives than rebel troopers and rebel saboteurs, and I would assume restriction of one each in general would also create more varied armies because you can't "min-max" as well as multiples.

On 4/20/2019 at 10:37 AM, a1bert said:

Why would they defeat both figures of one group if they can defeat one figure from each group?

Defeating both figures of one group eliminates the group and thus the Imperial Player cannot reinforce the group again but instead has to deploy the whole squad. That might make a difference in certain plays, since the imperial player may not have enough threat to deploy the entire group again but enough for a single figure to keep the pressure up. Especially with hired guns as that means you (almost) definitely get one shot in for your reinforce cost.

2 hours ago, JayDestroyaC said:

Defeating both figures of one group eliminates the group and thus the Imperial Player cannot reinforce the group again

Defeating one from each group in one hero activation will make the next imperial activation less powerful (only one figure activating), and then the next hero can defeat the both remaining ones. It doesn't mean you are leaving the figures on the table, just the order in which you do things.

The difference is 1 less attack targeted towards the rebels.