Hello, everyone!

I've just started playing Imperial Assault and I have some questions:

I've read that there was a significant power level rise between the waves 7 and 8. As I plan to play only casual Skirmish and as I will bring the units and material for every player (there is no one else at my boardgame club who has Imperial Assault but several people interested in playing war games and skirmish games) I'm thinking about getting only releases until wave 7. Would that create a halfway balanced "meta"?
I'm planning on buying every release until wave 7 once (excluding the stormtrooper villain pack and General Weiss) - is there anything worth getting twice?
Should I try to get another cop of the base game's command cards or are the command cards of one base game combined with the command cards from the other releases until wave 7 enough to field two armies?
I own the base game, Twin Shadows and the IG-88, Alliance smuggler and hired gun packs once, at the moment. Could anybody help me to build three halfway balanced lists (one Imperial, Scum and Rebels each) with the units from these three packs and two boxes to showcase the game at my board game club, please?
Any other advice for a starting player?

Thanks!

Now I don't recall what wave 8 was, so I can't say for certain - but if it is before Jabba, you'll be hard pressed to field a reasonable scum list.

Yes, Wave 8 is Jabba's Realm - I've read that there was a significant power level increase between the units that came before Jabba's Realm and Jabba's Realm + later releases, but maybe I'm wrong.

Wave 8 and onward has had a tremendous power spike (especially Spectre Cell). However, there are still some good units that came out in waves 2 through 5 such as the Bantha rider and hired guns. If you are trying to get all three factions playable in a skirmish format, I would recommend starting with waves 8, the Jawa pack, and 10. Wave 8 makes mercenaries more a thing, then wave 10 gives us fixes for Han, Chewy, and Vader, then the Jawa pack gives iggy a fix (wave 9).

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