My group just started a new Jabba's Realm campaign, with me as the Imperial. I chose Reactive Defenses as my class, mainly because our group hasn't played it before and I wanted to try something new. The Rebels are Vinto, Drokkatta, Mak, and MHD.

I'm trying to figure out a good build. We've only done the intro mission so far, so I'm completely open to any options. I only have 1 XP at this point, due to losing the intro. I'm just counting on 10 XP for the campaign, but of course hoping for more. Here's what I have in mind for his build, looking for criticism...

Mechanical Protocol : This seems like the best value for the XP. Two surges can be worth 2-4 damage and/or the ability to apply a negative condition. And then the extra damage from a droid helps too (although I've found 88-z to be pretty worthless so far on attacks). Overall, seems like a great value, assuming there are enough surge opportunities, which I may be overestimating.

Infrared Scanners : One thing I've learned in the nearly 5 years that I've been playing this game is that more movement points is always a great thing. A free movement point for every figure is awesome. The top part of the card is a nice bonus, I would probably pay 3 XP for the 1 MP bonus alone.

So those two are definite buys. Everything else is up in the air.

For the 4 XP card, I'm not sure which one to buy. If I hadn't read any other people's comments here, I would lean heavily towards Overclock . However, I have been reading through people's comments about Reactive Defenses and everybody seems to favor Targeting Sensors , which I would probably favor too if those cards had to stand alone.

However, Overclock would have really good synergy with the other two skills above because they both require actions to use the bonus action. Overclock gives you 6 actions instead of only 2 actions. Seems awesome, combined with the other cards. Targeting Sensors is probably going to average 3 damage a turn and I think I could get that out of Overclock, but Overclock would give me a lot more flexibility. Yet most people still seem to favor Targeting Sensors over Overclock even while choosing Mechanical Protocol and Infrared Scanners. (For example, A1bert did that when he played Reactive Defenses in PBF campaign.)

I'll want to get a 1 XP card at some point. I'm leaning towards Blaster Emplacements , but only slightly. On one hand, I think the guaranteed +1 defense from Shielded is better than the unknown 0/1/2 damage from Blaster Emplacements. But on the other hand, I think that the ability to pick any Rebel figure at the end of round and possibly get up to 2 damage with no chance to block is really going to mentally torture the Rebels and force them to make awkward decisions.

I'm also not sure what build order to use. I'm currently thinking Mechanical Protocol and then Blaster Emplacement for the first two. I'm not crazy about Blaster Emplacement, but I feel like I need some minor buff to keep me competitive while I save up for a 3 or 4 XP skill. And that skill would be Infrared Sensors or Overclock, depending on whether or not feel like I've been missing out on surge opportunities during a theoretical second activation. I will want both eventually, but I'll wait to see which seems like a better choice at the time.

That's 10 XP so far, and then Shielded or Remote Activation after that if I'm lucky enough to have the XP to spare.

Sound like a plan?

I remember there has been a discussion around Reactive Defenses when HotE initially came out, the keypoints were:

1. it's a relatively weak deck compared to others, you can see the votes on the BGG forum

2. there's 2 major builds for RD: one around 88-Z and the other one without

The 2nd point matters because HotE introduces new Rebel equipment that pretty much gives guaranteed -dodge: 1 and 2 so if Rebels draws them your xp class cards will be useless if 88-Z is removed, that's on top of watching out for Cleave and Blast but then there's the debate on whether it's worth Rebels always spending their action on a droid that can be redeployed for free next round

Around 88-Z I might go Mechanical protocol -> Infrared scanner -> Targeting sensors -> Remote activator

Without 88-Z (knowing 88-Z might be removed) I might go Infrared scanner -> Targeting sensors -> Mechanical protocol -> Blaster emplacement -> Shielded

Notice I wouldn't take Overclock regardless of build, the problem with Overclock is that it doesn't override the Imperial restriction of "may only perform 1 attack action"

I personally would houserule it and only play Reactive Defenses if the above 2 Rebel equipments are removed from the item deck, otherwise I'd pick another Imperial class

First thing; With Drokkatta and Vinto, don't count on 88-Z staying alive long.

I played a campaign with Drokkatta, Vinto, Jarrod and Ko-Tun. It was brutal.

Shielded was the Imp's ( @a1bert ) first pick, and I feel he regretted it.

Infrared Scanners is exactly as good as you think it is. Definitely grab it.

Targeting Sensors are good, if 88-Z is alive. Which he will be at times, so its worth it in my opinion.

Also, I was relieved not to see Blaster Emplacements in play

On 7/11/2019 at 1:18 AM, ricope said:

Notice I wouldn't  take Overclock regardless of build,     the problem with Overclock is that it doesn't override the Imperial   restriction of "may only perform 1 attack action     " 

I ask not having played with or against this deck: is this really a big problem? I wouldn't think an Imperial Player would be leaning on 88-z as an attacker. Overclock looks like it's intended as a way to crank out more of the special actions on the other cards and allow them to be done twice a round.

It's still not great unless the rebels have a hero with poor insight and you can get 2 extra threat and hand out 4 surge tokens per round consistantly.

The gain a damage token special action is pretty useless. And, as you point out... it's all useless if you can't keep 88-z alive anyway.

On ‎7‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 2:21 AM, Uninvited Guest said:

It's still not great unless the rebels have a hero with poor insight and you can get 2 extra threat and hand out 4 surge tokens per round consistently.

They have to pay a strain to test also, so a strain heavy character or one that is fully strained out becomes free Threat...

Thanks for all the comments on my post. Reactive Defenses does seem like one of the weaker Imperial classes, but it also looks like it will be a lot of fun to play. I played as Jarrod Kelvin in a previous campaign and I had blast having an extra droid to move around and attack.

I'm still leaning towards Overclock, even after the comments arguing against it. It'll be few missions before it's even an option, and I'll likely decide my path based on what I feel like were missed opportunities.

I think I know my endgame: Mechanical Protocol (MP) + Infrared Scanners (IS) + Overclock (OC). However, I'm still not sure what order to get them. I'll probably go for MP first and then IS second so I can delay the decision on OC vs Targeting Sensors. You guys did at least convince me of that.

Having both MP and IS with no OC seems like a waste. I'm going to need to move sometimes, and then that means you can only do one of the special actions between MP and IS. But maybe once I play a few missions with MP and IS, I'll realize that no OC isn't as bad as I think.

I am playing against Drokkatta and Vinto, but I bet the Rebels are going to pretty reluctant to put any dedicated effort into taking 88-Z out, knowing he'll just come back the next round. Incidental collateral damage might take him out for a round, but I think he'll be around most of the time.

I'll make sure to update this thread after the campaign, which will likely be months because we're fathers with young children and average about 2 missions per month at best. I spend more time thinking about this game than actually playing it!

With only two heroes and those two specifically, you are going to have an uphill battle.

No, I didn't mean to imply those are the only two heroes. The other two are MHD-19 and Mak. I'm more worried about Vinto than Drokkatta. Drokkatta will be a good target for 88-Z's Harass and Infrared Sensors because he rolls black and he's so strain heavy. I think I'll be fine as long as I don't make 88-Z an easy target (i.e. don't leave him close by other figures to get hit by Demolish). And that's another reason why I favor the extra movement I'll have with Overclock.

The Most Hated Droid. Even worse for you once MHD-19 gets Bacta Radiator.

Drokkatta makes it very hard to have any figures far enough to not be reached by Blast, because 2 spaces is not far enough for Drokkatta. Vinto can finish the stragglers, with MHD-19 heroes don't need to spend their own actions to rest, and the rebels have a "dummy" activation which they can use to force the IP to make a decision they can react to. And Mak is a well-rounded tech / interact / ambusher, naturally made better with jeswandi Training.

Ko-Tun, Drokkatta, Jarrod, and Vinto were unstoppable in this HotE campaign: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1885240/capital-attractions-swia060-finished-20180810 (even with the +1 Threat Level adjustment).

I hope your rebels are not quite as good as mine..