Rebalanced Imperial Assault Skirmish Tournament [RIAST] Rules

Designer Journal

Introduction

Imperial Assault Skirmish is the miniatures games with the best core rules out there. Sadly, the Skirmish game is (more or less) discontinued and game balance is (in my opinion) in a bad state right now. The Rebalanced Imperial Assault Skirmish Tournament Rules (RIAST Rules) document was compiled with the intention to have some more years of Rebalanced Imperial Assault Skirmish and to share this with the community.

This document is an unofficial Fan Creation. I'm not affiliated to or sponsored by FFG.

Approach

First of all, we wanted to define an approach or guideline:

Many Deployment cards are either underpowered or overpowered and therefore there is only a small number of Deployment cards actually played competitively. The plan was to make as many figures playable as possible. (But priority is on the characters from the original trilogy.)

In most cases the Deployment cost is just either too high or too low. In these cases the Deployment cost was changed.

If a Deployment card is too expensive, it will not be played, which would be sad, but not a real problem for the game as a whole. But if a Deployment card is too cheap, it will be the only card that's played (e.g. 4x4 or Spectre Cell), and that would be a catastrophe. To avoid this, Deployment costs have been reduced carefully.

Only Deployment cards that couldn't be rebalanced by just changing their costs got new rules. The plan was to make as few changes to Deployment cards as possible.

Deployment cards should not get banned (with the exception of Upgrade cards).

In general, we wanted to buff before nerf, just because it feels better. But then we saw that in some cases it was the decision to either make like 40 Deployment Cards cheaper or 3 Deployment Cards more expensive. So we decided to go with the least disturbance or the least amount of changes necessary.

FFGʼs game designers said in an interview, that there are reference deployments used to balance the costs of the other deployments correctly. Elite Stormtroopers are one of those reference deployments, Elite Probe Droids are too. Therefore, these should not be changed.

There are certain baselines in this game that should not be ignored. E.g.: There is a maximum number of figures per army of twenty. The game designers achieved that by making the cheapest figure cost 2, e.g. regular Stormtroopers. Therefore, reducing the cost of any figure to less than 2 points per figure is not an option. Elsewise swarms could become too powerful.

Darth Vader is the chosen one, he who brought balance to the force. Therefore he should have the most expensive Deployment card in the game (including Driven by Hatred) . No other Deployment card should be more expensive.

Command cards are a whole different story. For many reasons, it is impractical to change a Command card's text. Furthermore, game-winning Command cards cannot be rebalanced by just raising their costs, as they will be played anyways. For some overpowered Command cards it is possible to raise the Deployment cost of the figure(s) to achieve balance (e.g. all Hunters have been made more expensive, because the Hunter cards are so good). Other truly overpowered Command cards have to be banned.

This is quite a lot of text, and most of it is "we evaluated that unit and came to the conclusion that no change is needed, here is why ...". So actual changes are marked in red.

In my opinion, everything marked in blue will need further attention. The rest is already OK. But this is just my opinion. So what do you think?

First Step: The biggest and/or most obvious problems

To identify the biggest and/or most obvious problems, that had to be addressed, I just read EVERY comment on the official FFG forums (and some on other forums), to find out, what the community thought were the biggest problems at any given time. Some problems were already solved (passing rule, 4x4, victory points for figures instead of units etc.), but some problems were still there and still had to be solved. Some of these problems disappeared over time because of changes in the meta. But these problems had to be addressed, because the process of rebalancing could bring them back up. Everything in this post describes actual changes.

"Take Initiative is too powerful"

This one was the toughest nut to crack. The topic came up like on day one and came up again and again and again ... and I absolutely disagree.

In my opinion Take Initiative actually balances another broken game mechanism, that is too powerful in the first place: Having the first activation in round 2 is really powerful. Round 1 usually (depending on the mission) is used to set up your figures, to power them up with focus and stuff like that, and to try to control some mission objectives. But usually there is not much violence going on in round 1. Drawing first blood is quite powerful, as games sometimes snowball from there, and quite often the player having the first activation on round 2 is able to draw first blood. As I said, this is quite powerful, but a good player will have means to cope with it.

But it becomes ridiculously overpowered, when the same player, that had the last activation in round 1 also has the first activation in round 2 and knows that for sure . Then he is able to run his best figure(s) up to the enemy without cover or whatever, without having to worry about any form of harm at the end of round 1 and then those figures strike first in round 2 and then move back to safety.

The only thing you have to do to achieve that, is having more activations than the opponent to have the last activation round 1 and have fewer Deployment points (or Devious Schemes) to not have initiative round 1. I still remember the arms race about having more activations than anyone else.

But you have to be 100% sure, that you actually have initiative in round 2 to make this work. This is where Take Initiative came in. If a player isn't 100% sure, that the opponent doesn't have Take Initiative, he can't pull that trick off.

But then we had the situation, where the player with Take Initiative knew for sure, that he'd have initiative in round 2 and this was even worse. As that player didn't have initiative in round 1, he didn't need to have more activations than the opponent to have the last activation in round 1.

To rebalance that mechanism, Negation was introduced. But then, a player with Initiative and Negation did know for sure, that he'd go first in round 2.

Then some Spy cards were introduced to rebalance that.

I actually like the current mechanism, as the chance to have the last activation in round 1 and to know for sure that you have the first activation in round 2 became much smaller. But I have to admit it is still there.

Especially in the german community, this topic came up a lot. And first and foremost, RIAST is not a one-man-show, so I tried to find a solution, even though I disagree with the topic. Because just banning Take Initiative wouldn't work, we tried different options, and the one that most players seemed to be OK with, was that the player, that has the last activation in one round, doesn't have the first activation the next round. I sincerely feared, that this wouldn't work, because we were missing something important. But we did a lot of testing especially on this topic, and actually it worked better than I thought. But to make it fair, Take Initiative as well as I Make My Own Luck were banned then.

Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker

Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker are undisputedly two of the strongest Command Cards in this game. First and foremost, Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker give you an additional activation, which is really strong by itself, because you always want to have more activations than the opponent (see "Initiative" above). Additionally, Luke Skywalker and IG-88 are amongst the most powerful figures in the game. Therefore, granting one of these figures an additional activation is very powerful. Assuming, that the other changes of RIAST didn't happen, Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker give you the opportunity to activate Luke or IG last in round 1, then immediately activate him again, and then activate him first in round 2. In that case, one of the most powerful figures in the game was able to activate three times in a row without the opponent being able to react in any way. This is a game winner and therefore way overpowered.

Additionally, the changes to the basic initiative mechanism were made to prevent a figure to activate two times in a row, without the opponent being able to react. As Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker can be used after an activation resolves, they originally could be used after the opponent resolved his last activation of round, so the opponent cannot react. If the player with Luke or IG already has the last activation of the round, he can at least activate that figure twice in row without the opponent being able to react. This contradicts our changes to the basic initiative mechanism.

Whilst Debts Repaid and Furious Charge also ready a Deployment card, the opponent can react to or planned by both of them, because of their preconditions. New Orders is a different story, because you don't get an additional activation but trade the activation of a Leader against the activation of another figure. Rally the Troops is somewhat in between, as it always is played during one of your own activations and therefore always gives the opponent the chance to react. Furthermore, you have to waste an action of Kayn, who is very powerful by himself, to reactivate the other Deployment Card. This isn't always worth it.

As we absolutely didn't want to change the text on any Command Card, we had to introduce a general rule to solve that problem (see "Ready a Deployment Card").

To give the opponent the chance to react to either Blaze of Glory or Son of Skywalker, we introduced the rule, that cards like Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker may only be used after a friendly figure's activation resolves.

To stop Blaze of Glory and Son of Skywalker from messing with the last activation in a round and therefore with initiative, we introduced the rule, that Blaze of Glory, Rally the Troops and Son of Skywalker may not be used during or after the last activation of a round.

Attacking Objects with a Surge for Focus or Interrogate

Figures with a Surge for Focus were a problem, when most tournament legal maps had doors or other objects that could be attacked, e.g. elite Snow Troopers on Nelvaanian Warzone. The tactic was to power up a unit of these figures in round 1 and then to have a nuclear first strike on round 2, that in many cases decided the game. Another problem was, that it just sounded stupid to have Agent Blaise "Interrogate" a door. To solve that problem, FFGʼs designers reduced the amount of maps used in tournaments that included doors or other objects that could be attacked. As we reintroduced older maps into tournament legality, another solution to that problem was needed. Therefore, we errataed "Attacking Objects" in the Rules Reference Guide to disallow these interactions.

SC2-M Repulsor Tank should be a Heavy Weapon

I believe FFG's designers just forgot to give the Tank the Heavy Weapon Trait. So we corrected that.

The Rebel Care Package in Mercenary Army Lists

The term "Rebel Care Package" (RCP) is used for Rebel figures granting Focus or similar bonuses, e.g. Gideon Argus, C-3PO, and Hera Syndulla, especially when used in Mercenary Army Lists. Creating a Mercenary Hunters List most often started with Temporary Alliance, Gideon, C-3PO. When Wave 9 was released, an Elite Jawa as well as Hera Syndulla and R2-D2 or Chopper were added to that list. These were 16 points, 12 of them Rebels, fixed in almost any given Mercenary List. These lists were boring to create, didn't really make sense fluff-wise, and were extremely strong crunch-wise. The tactic was to power up a unit on round 1 (Elite Weequays or something comparably strong) and then to have a nuclear first strike on round 2, that in many cases decided the game. Focus not only buffs the damage output, but the range, too, so the Weequays could stay out of range of the enemy. Therefore, a counterstrike was not possible in many cases. And with Jabba, Gideon and C-3PO, Mercs had more access to Focus than any other faction.

I found several suggestions to should solve that problem, most of them were: "Make the figures of the RCP more expensive.", "Ban Temporary Alliance." or "Buffs should affect figures of the same faction only (like Jabba does).".

Making the figures of the RCP more expensive would not just affect Mercenary Army Lists but Rebel Army Lists, too. And whilst Mercenaries have access to other strong forms of support, e.g. Jabba and Hunter Command Cards, the Rebels don't. Therefore, Rebels would suffer under that change more than Mercenaries would. And making a figure more expensive, that is not overpowered, is not a good idea. And we did aim for making as few figures more expensive as possible, and rather make other figures cheaper. Therefore, we didn't use that approach.

Banning Temporary Alliance would have been an easy fix, but this would ban lists, that we didn't want to ban, e.g. Lando with Wing Guards. And this wouldn't have stopped the Elite Jawa from bringing e.g. C-3PO to Merc lists.

Therefore, we decided, that Buffs should affect only figures of the same faction. We could have written Errata for every figure affected, but we feared to miss something (e.g. a rebalanced Ko-Tun being the next staple in Mercenaries). And I thought it was more simple and elegant to have one general change of the rules instead of several changes to cards. So we tested that rules change, and were quite happy with the results (see "All deployment cards and command cards").

Ugnaught Tinkerer

The Junk Droid doesn't look too powerful on the first glance, but it delivers the death by a thousand cuts. And if your opponent kills the Junk Droid, he wastes an attack without gaining any VP. In some Missions like Nal Hutta Swamps - Raining Freight the Junk Droid is able to score insane amounts of VP without to ever risk a figure that costs VP. But the biggest problem is, that according to the official FAQ each Ugnaught is able to first activate the existing Junk Droid, then Spot Weld a new Junk Droid (that hasn't been activated yet), and then to activate that new Junk Droid. An Ugnaught swarm is really overpowered when each Ugnaught is able to activate the Junk Droid twice. Therefore we changed the "Spot Weld" ability to "Put the Junk Droid companion into play in an adjacent space. If a Junk Droid has activated at the start of this Ugnaught Tinkerer's activation, exhaust the Junk Droid's Companion card immediately after putting the Junk Droid into play. " The Junk Droid is still powerful then, but not overpowered anymore.

Jet Packs are (no) Vehicles

Boba Fett has a jet pack, but is no Vehicle, but Sabine Wren and the Jet Troopers are. This just doesn't make any sense.

We could have either given Boba Fett the Vehicle Trait or removed it from Sabine and the Jet Troopers.

Some Vehicle Command Cards (e.g. Overrun) are very powerful on a small and mobile figure crunch-wise, and just donʼt make sense fluff-wise for someone just wearing a jet pack (instead of having a real vehicle). Furthermore, Sabine and the Jet Troopers are already overpowered. Therefore, we removed the Vehicle Trait from Sabine and the Jet Troopers.

Jabba's Nefarious Gains is too powerful

Nefarious Gains is overpowered and was developed by FFG to weaken the Ugnaught Swarm and the Trooper Swarm alike. But we found other means to stop the Ugnaught Swarm, and we think that Stormtroopers cannot be viable while the opponent could have Nefarious Gains. We tried to just make Jabba more expensive, but our playtesters reported that Nafarious Gains brings 5 to 14 points per game (depending on the opponent's army list). How expensive should Jabba be to balance that? Therefore, we decided to have Jabba lose Nefarious Gains, but also to become 1 point cheaper in return.

On The Lam kills all the fun

Yeah, what should I say, that's correct. After rolling dice and especially after using Command cards and other boni, On the Lam just negates the attack, all cards and boni used, and gives the target a move action. This is extremely frustrating for the attacker, a big part of the Hunter-/Smuggler-Meta being overpowered and Han Solo being too powerful. This card had to be banned.

Devious Scheme

If all figures in all factions would be perfectly balanced, I'd always create a list around Devious Scheme. Anchorhead and some other missions can be won just by using this card. And Devious Scheme interferes with our new initiative mechanism. It just had to be banned.

"Hunter Command Cards are too powerful"

I disagree with that statement. I have to admit, that the Hunter Meta was extremely powerful. The Rebel Care Package, Devious Schemes, Nefarious gains, undercosted Hunter/Smugglers (eWeequays, Vinto ...), On The Lam, lots of missions that give you one turn to power up (Focus, Hide) AND the Hunter Cards ... that was too powerful.

But the Hunter Cards by themselves are not too powerful. E.g. Assassinate is a good card, but you can a lot more damage with Grenadier, Son of Skywalker and cards like that. Still we bore the Hunter cards in mind when we recosted the Hunters.

Therefore, after nerfing the Rebel Care Package, Devious Schemes, Nefarious gains and On The Lam, as well as recosting the Hunters, we decided to leave the Hunter cards untouched.

Advanced Com Systems for General Sorin and Kayn Somos

General Sorin and Kayn Somos absolutely need Advanced Com Systems for free to be viable at all. The Imperial Officer does not. Therefore, if Advanced Com Systems is attached to General Sorin or Kayn Somos, the Deployment Cost is 0.

Saska Teft

This has never been an issue before, because Saska was too expensive to be used. But when her cost was reduced, figures like Boba, Bossk or Jabba fought alongside Han Solo, and that didnʼt feel right. Therefore, Saska's Deployment card was changed to be able to ally non-unique Mercenary Deployment cards only.

Spectre Cell

This card actually started this project. Before Spectre Cell was nerfed by FFG, it was more powerful than 4x4 back in the days. Something had to be done about that, and we actually didn't believe, that FFG would do that nerf anymore. Still, our playtesters don't think that FFG's nerf is hard enough, therefore we nerfed the card even harder.

Plot Armor (New Rule)

S ome figures' offensive and defensive power are just not on the same level, making it very hard, to rebalance these figures correctly. Originally, we started to raise the health of these figures, but we realized, that we're changing to many cards there and then tried to find an easier and or more elegant way to achieve some similar effect. So figures, whose health is too low compared to their offensive power and figure cost, gain Plot Armor. After deployment, a figure with Plot Armor may gain a number of Block Power Tokens . For example, a figure with "Plot Armor 2" may gain 2 Block Power Tokens after deployment. The figures, that gain Plot Armor, can be found in the Rebalanced Deployment Costs Lists.

Inspecting the factions

All three factions (Rebels, Mercs and the Empire) have certain strengths and weaknesses, that have a big influence on the overall balance of the faction.

Rebels have lots of strong support.

At first, they have some pretty good Command Card shenanigans, and Command Cards win games. R2-D2 and Rebel High Command both grant additional Command Card draws. They have some spies, that are equally cheap and efficient, that mess with the opponent's Command Cards. Leia even allows to recycle own Command Cards, and with e.g. Son of Skywalker, this ability can win games. Mak's Critical Hit is not bad either. Heroic Effort is pretty good, too, especially because it's free.

Furthermore, they have the best access to Focus with Gideon and C-3PO. And some figures can even focus themselves, e.g. with Get Into Position. And their access to other boni, that are equally good, stands out, too. Ko-Tun can do a lot with her Power Tokens and Hera just gives straight boni, just when you need them.

And the rebels have some good tricks to boost their speed, too. Gideon and Hera come to mind here at first, but abilities like the Smuggler's are great, too. This can win games on some mission, where speed is key.

And because Gideon always grants boni instead of attacking on his own, On A Diplomatic Mission makes him even more efficient.

But when balancing figures from this faction, you always have to keep that in mind. A unit may seem to be balanced at first glance, but in the overall context of the faction it might be overpowered.

Mercs do not have that many options on the support side.

Temporary Alliance and the Elite Jawa gave them access to all those shiny support pieces of the Rebels, but that was as overpowered as can be, and therefore we changed that.

Their only real support figure is Jabba, who basically has the best rules of R2-D2 and C-3PO, but he can use them across the battlefield and without line of sight, so he can stay out of harms way. Jabba's Nefarious Gains granted like 5 to 14 extra VP per game and was extremely overpowered in that context, especially vs swarm armies. Therefore, we removed this rule, but to compensate that loss, we reduced his cost by 1. So in reality he became even more efficient for those other abilities.

As Jabba has a very high Health, he is a good target for that Strain damage from Black Market, which is a staple in Merc lists, too. All three factions have Upgrade Cards that grant additional Command Card draws, but Black Market is the best one of them.

Mercs have no real access to figures granting movement boni, but Beast Tamer is so powerful, that it has to be mentioned here. The Loth-Cats have to be mentioned here, too, as they give out some nice Power Tokens to fellow creatures. The combination of Loth-Cats and Beast Tamer allows for some pretty good combos.

Devious Scheme was one of the most powerful Upgrades in the whole game (depending on the Missions in rotation), and had to be banned. E.g. on Anchorhead, the player with Devious Scheme nearly always won the game.

The Ugnaught Tinkerer stands out in their support portfolio, because the Junk Droid is able to mess up the opponents plans badly by either controlling the Terminal on the opponent's side of the board or controlling a mission objective. Then the opponent has to waste an attack on the Junk Droid, but get's no VPs in return.

The Empire is different when it comes to support.

Their main support figures are the Officers, which grant a movement bonus for 2 points and are the cheapest figures with access to the very powerful Leader Command Cards.

Their other support figures are mostly strong attackers, that have some support side effect. And most of them are pretty expensive when compared to the support figures of the other factions. This the Emperor himself, Thrawn, Blaise, Kayn, Sorin, etc. And none of them just grants focus like Jabba, 3PO or Gideon. You shouldn't use them just for their support role, as they are all too expensive for that. But still they are all pretty good.

Agent Blaise and Cross-Training allows the Empire to have some spies, that are equally cheap and efficient, that mess with the opponent's Command Cards. Agent Blaise even enhances this effect with his own abilities. And Thrawn messes with the opponent's Command Cards, too

But the best support for the Empire is the combination of Rule by Fear and Zillo Technique. RbF grants an additional Command Card draw at the start of the game and Zillo boosts the defense off all figures in your army. If the Empire didn't lack all the good and cheap support options, that the other faction have, I would think, that Zillo is overpowered. But in the overall context of the faction, Zillo seems to be OK.

Inspecting the Troops

For 2 points per figure Deployment cards, 3 points per figure Deployment cards and 4 points per figure Deployment cards alike, there is a certain correlation between the role of the figure (melee specialists / brawlers, mid-range / allrounders, long-range / snipers) and their health per point.

Melee specialists / brawlers usually have 2 points of health per point of figure cost, e.g. the Regular Royal Guards have Health 8 and a figure cost of 4.

Allrounders have 1 point of health less than that, e.g. the Elite Stormtroopers have Health 5 and a figure cost of 3.

And snipers have another 1 point of health less than that, e.g. the Elite Weequays have Health 6 and a figure cost of 4.

As a result of this correlation, more expensive figures have a better ratio of health to figure cost. E.g. a regular Stormtrooper has Health 3 and a figure cost of 2 points which results in a ratio of 1,5 health per point, an Elite Stormtrooper has Health 5 and a figure cost of 3 points which results in a ratio of 1,666 health per point, whilst an Elite Death Trooper has Health 7 and a figure cost of 4 which results in a ratio of 1,75 health per point. To compensate that, most of these more expensive figures should deal a little less damage per point.

2 points per figure Deployment cards

All 2 points per figure Deployment cards have a lot in common (except for C-3PO).

Their functions are: cannon fodder, open doors, control Terminals, control mission objectives (or carry them around) ... every task you need a figure for, but don't care what that figures abilities are, as long as it's a cheap figure!

Additionally, the 1 figure for 2 points Deployment cards raise your activation count. This is very strong when playing missions that bring lots of points for controlling objectives at the end of the round, because you might want to have the last activation in any given round to get these points or to deny them to your opponent.

The 3 figures for 2 points each Deployment cards are very strong when playing missions that bring lots of point for controlling objectives at the end of the round, because then your last activation gives you control over up to 3 objectives.

In most cases figures for 2 points are dead after one attack. Therefore, their defense is less relevant. (There are exceptions to this.) The white die at least has an 1/6 chance to dodge, whilst 3 blocks on a black die are often not enough to save a figure with Health 3 from being killed with one average shot.

Their offensive power is less important too, because those figures are not in your list to kill hostile figures (see above). Nonetheless most of these figure are able to deliver 1 or 2 damage when needed.

The reference figures for all 2 points per figure Deployment cards are the Regular Stormtroopers :

3 figures per Deployment card

Deployment cost: 6 points (2 per figure)

Figure cost: 2 points

Speed: 4

Health: 3

Offense: Blue-Green, Surges: 1 DMG / 2 ACC, Squad Training Reroll

2 points per figure / 1 figure groups

Rebels may field the Regular Alliance Smuggler . Having a white die and Slippery (opponentʼs Accuracy -2), his defense is really good for 2 points. Having the Smuggler trait, he can use some really good defensive Command cards too. Smuggler's Instincts grant 2 movement points after he interacts, so he is made for opening doors or interacting with mission objectives. But there are many missions without any possibility to interact, so this is ability is quite situational. His attack even has a Surge for Stun, but it often doesn't deal enough damage to apply that Stun. His attack is his biggest weakness, but he is not in your army to attack anyways, so that's not a real problem.

Mercs have the Regular Jawa Scavenger . Having a white die and Take Cover, his defense is really good for 2 points. Having the Smuggler trait, he can use some really good defensive Command cards too. He is the only 2 points Deployment card, that doesn't get or grant any movement boni, and that makes him the weakest figure in this group. But with Harass and Utinni! he has an outstanding attack (for 2 points), so he seems to be OK.

Ever since the core set was released, the Empire has the Regular Imperial Officer . Having a white die and Cower (Reroll), his defense is really good for 2 points. When heʼs not focussed, his attack is more or less irrelevant. But being a Leader with the Order ability, he is able to significantly speed your other figures up, to either control mission objectives or to get into the fight faster (Vader!). On top of that, he is the cheapest and therefore most efficient figure to use Leader cards like Inspiring Speech or New Orders. Before he was nerfed by FFG, he was too powerful, but now he is, where he should be.

Each faction has one 1 figure group for 2 points. All factions have a good representative in the " 2 points per figure / 1 figure groups" category. None of them is over- or underpowered. All of them are played quite regularly. Therefore, all three remain unchanged.

2 points per figure / 2 figure groups

Originally, Rebels werenʼt represented in this category at all.

The Regular Rebel Saboteurs were quite good before they were nerfed by FFG. But I don't think, that they ever were overpowered. When they still had Speed 5, they were great for controlling mission objectives. After the nerf, they were as underpowered as can be, and something had to be done about that. Therefore, we reduced their Figure cost by 1 . And therefore, they are in this category.

Mercs are represented by 3 very different units in this category.

The Regular Hired Guns have one big strength: Speed 5. Depending on the mission, this one can be a game winner. But they have some obvious weaknesses: Their attack is one of the weakest in the game and their defense really sux because of Disposable. Parting Shot let's them shine at least a little bit, because they will have the chance to attack, when their inevitable death comes. Because of their obvious weaknesses they are not overpowered at all, but being the only 2 point per figure group with Speed 5, they still really shine.

The Regular Loth-cats are less ideal for opening doors and things like that because of Curious. But the Strain for damage is less relevant for them, because they die by one shot anyways. Because of Beast Tamer their movement can be extremely good. Pounce makes them even more mobile / flexible. Their offense is better than that of most other figures in the 2 points category. But they really shine because the Rat Catcher Block Power Token makes them excellent support figures for a Rancor or Bantha. In my opinion they are at the border to being overpowered because of Rat Catcher and therefore they are on my watch list .

Furthermore, this category has the Regular Tusken Raiders . The Deployment card costs 5 Points, and therefore they are one point to expensive for being just cannon fodder. Their offensive capabilities are better than those of most other 2 point figures, because they have both a good melee attack as well as an OK ranged attack. But in melee they are weaker than the pure melee figures (Riots, LOLcatz) and their ranged attack is not great either. Still they are better than the other pure melee figures, because they actually have a ranged attack. And they may use Jundland Terror, which is great too. So they are way too strong to reduce them to 4 points per Deployment card. And Mercs actually don't need another 2 points per figure / 2 figure group for 4 points, so they remain unchanged.

The Empire is represented by 2 strong units in this category.

The Regular Jet Troopers have a good defense because of Agile, but their real strength is Mobile. In some missions this can be a game winner. Their offensive "power" is their weakness, but that way they are neither over- or underpowered. They lost the Vehicle Trait, but that has been discussed above.

The Regular Riot Troopers are 1 point more expensive, but absolutely worth it. Having Health 5 and a Shield (Block Power Token), they are the toughest 2 point figures und even tougher than most 3 point figures. Furthermore, they are able to deal a relevant amount of damage. With these skills, they are perfect for controlling mission objectives where things go violent. Till now, I haven't heard anyone complain about them being overpowered, but they are on my watch list .

2 points per figure / 3 figure groups

The 3 figure groups are the weakest of all 2 point figures. Therefore, they have the great strategic advantage, that you are able to send in 2 cannon fodder troopers all over the map as your last activation in a given round. That way you are able to control up to mission objectives without giving the opponent the opportunity to do anything about it.

Rebels have the Regular Rebel Troopers . With a white die, they have a 1/6 chance to survive an attack, which is more than the other figures in this category have. Blue-yellow and a Surge for Pierce 1 instead of a Surge for 1 Damage makes them the weakest attacker in this category. Aim makes their attack significantly more powerful, but this is quite hard to set up and therefore doesn't happen that often. Their attack could be stronger, but being the only 2 points per figure / 3 figure groups having a white die is their true right to exist. Therefore I don't think, that they need a change.

Mercs have the Regular Wing Guards , who are quite similar to the Regular Stormtroopers. Because they don't have a Surge for Accuracy, they lack the range of a Stormtrooper. They have a Surge for Recover instead that is irrelevant in practice, because they die by one shot anyways. Keep the Peace makes sense only if you also have Under Duress. I'd have preferred the Reroll oft the Elite Wing Guard. As with the Regular Rebel Troopers, being the only 2 points per figure / 3 figure group in Mercs is their true right to exist. Therefore I don't think, that they need a change.

The Empire has 2 representatives in this category. The Regular Stormtroopers are the reference in this category, so what should I say. The Regular Snowtroopers are one point more expensive. They are more than worth that additional point, but still this breaks their neck. When you are searching for the cheapest 3 figure Deployment card, it's not them. An additional point of Health, the ability to heal others, a Surge for weaken ... all that is great. But the Surge for Pierce 1 instead of a Surge for 1 DMG and the lack of a reroll relativises their strengths. Making them cheaper would make them plain better than the Regular Stormtroopers, so I donʼt even consider that.

3 points per figure Deployment Cards

The reference figures for all 3 points per figure Deployment cards are the Elite Stormtroopers :

3 figures per Deployment card

Deployment cost: 9 points (3 per figure)

Figure cost: 3 points

Speed: 4

Health: 5

Offense: Blue-Green, Surges: 2 DMG / 3 ACC, Squad Training Reroll, Last Stand Focus

The Elite Stormtroopers defined the Meta for a long time. Then there was a small errata and they disappeared completely. That errata changed that you don't get VP for defeating complete deployment cards, but for defeated figures. At the same time, Reinforcements was changed so that the reinforced figure may be scored a second time by your opponent. The Bantha and Jabba's Nefarious Gains did their best to make them unplayable. The Errata was good and right, I wouldn't change that. But I'd like to see more Elite Stormtroopers on the map. The Jabba Nerf was a first step. The Bantha nerfed itsself, because it is not good against anything but a swarm-only Meta. Actually, I like the Elite Stormtroopers the way they are right now. Still they aren't played. Maybe they will see a change in Command or Upgrade cards in the not so far future. Maybe they will see more playtime, when everything else is rebalanced correctly...

3 points per figure / 1 figure groups

Rebels have Loku Kanoloa and Mak Eshka'rey in this category . Both are snipers with a good range, both have the Spy trait, both have a white die, both have great special abilities, nonetheless both are underpowered. Let's start with Loku's original Deployment cost of 4 points. Thatʼs just ridiculous, he is even underpowered at 3 points. That's why he is in this category, as we started rebalancing Loku by reducing him to 3 points. But both Loku and Mak can't be reduced to 2 points, as they are just too good for that. Therefore , both of them need a buff. Both have a Health of only 4, which is pretty much standard for a 3 points sniper (see Inspecting the Troops above), but not good at all. It equals 1.333 Health per point, and no figure should have less than 1.5 Health per point, or it will not be played. Therefore, we gave both Mak and Loku Plot Armor 1. Except for their great special abilities (and range), both have slightly below average offensive stats. Loku deals about as much average damage as an Elite Stormtrooper before rerolling, Mak deals even about 0.5 less. As I said before, both have great abilities. Mak has a great range, Priority Target and Critical Hit, and therefore wants to finish of figures, that already got some damage and hide behind their friends. Critical Hit is really good vs strong traits like Hunters as well as against Zillo. Mak is especially happy about getting Focus, that rebels are more than able to provide. Then he is able to kill figures, that havenʼt recieved any damage, and to use Critical Hit. Shadow Ops is really good, too, but a little bit expensive. Both Mak and Loku are the cheapest Spies in the game, which is great, too (Com Disruption etc.). Lokus Set Your Sight is pretty strong, but nearly impossible to use, because he canʼt move during an activation he uses Set Your Sight. Maybe we should think about making Set Your Sight cost only 1 action instead of 2. Lokuʼs Coordinated Attack doesnʼt look great on first sight, but itʼs got a lot of potential, when Leia is the second attacker and able to use Military Efficiency that way. When she recycles Coordinated Attack, then she can do this trick multiple times per game. Both are absolutely playable for their points, but both would be better, if they didnʼt have Plot Armor, but an offensive buff instead.

Mercs only have the Elite Jawa Scavenger in this category. He is kind of a special case, because Scavanged Stock should be 1 point when compared to Temporary Alliance. Since we banned the Rebel Care Package from Mercs, this ability became far less relevant, as the best allied droid was C-3PO, but still it is worth something. And he has very good stats for a 3 points figure. He deals about as much damage as an Elite Stormtrooper with Squad Training, and with Bargain and Utinni! he has an outstanding attack (for 3 points). With Take Cover and a white die he even has a better defense than an Elite Stormtrooper. Having the Smuggler trait, he can use some really good defensive Command cards too. And he is the cheapest Leader Mercs have (the other 2 Leaders are Jabba and Hondo, both of which have better things to do than using Leader cards.). This makes him very strong and in my opinion he should cost 4 points. On the other hand the elite Jawa is the only cheap Leader Mercs have, and I don't really want to restrict this. I'm undecided on this one.

The Empire has the Regular Probe Droid , that is really strong, when you either want to field a Droid- / Vehicle-List or when you want to have as many activations as possible. Speed 3 made him unplayable, so we gave him Speed 4 , and that made him very efficient, especially with Mobile. He has the same defense as an Elite Stormtrooper plus a Surge for Recover. His attack is slightly stronger than that of an Elite Stormtrooper, too, but he has no reroll and therefore he is able to really botch an attack. His real disadvantage is, that he is a 1 figure group. You'd usually prefer a coordinated attack of several figures in one group. Only because of that fact I don't think he is overpowered. Furthermore, the Empire has the Regular Death Trooper , who is incredible in Trooper-Lists. He has the same defense as an Elite Stormtrooper, and an attack that is comparable to an Elite Stormtrooper, too. He just has no reroll and therefore he is able to really botch an attack. But this is his only real disadvantage. And Field Tactics cancels the disadvantage of being a one figure group. Regarding our new Initiative system, this is extremely powerful, because in some cases it gives you the choice, if you want the last activation this round or the first activation the next round. Field Tactics is just restricted by the fact, that the Empire doesn't have that many good 6 points Deployment cards. Security Detail finally takes him to the point, where I ask myself, if he is overpowered or not.

3 points per figure / 2 figure groups

The Rebels only have one Deployment card in this category, the Regular Echo Base Troopers and they are not good at all. As a melee-/ranged-hybrid they are jacks of all trades, but they don't really shine at anything. Having a Surge for 1 DMG and no reroll, their ranged attack is remarkably worse than that of an Elite Stormtrooper, the close melee attack is a little better but not good enough when compared to other similar figures. And whilst many melee-/ranged-hybrid are Brawlers, the Echo Base Troopers are not. To be competitive they had to be either 1 point cheaper or gain 1 point of Plot Armor. We decided to make them 1 point cheaper , but I'm not sure, if that was the right decision. The Elite Echo Base Troopers stand out because of their good defense, so maybe Plot Armor would have been more consistent with that concept . But they won't excel either way, because the concept of melee-/ranged-hybrids doesn't really work in general.

The Elite Rebel Saboteurs were slightly overpowered before they were nerfed by FFG. I have to admit, a Surge for Blast 2 in combination with Overload was a game winner, and something had to be done about that. But after the nerf, they were as underpowered as can be, and something had to be done about that, too. So we reduced their Figure cost by 1 , and therefore, they are in this category now, too.

Mercs have lots of choices in this category. The Regular Trandoshan Hunters are in theory on of the best units in the game, but in reality itʼs hard to make them show that. They have one point of Health more than an Elite Stormtrooper (standard for a melee unit), and the same dice combination, but they have no reroll, a Surge for Pierce 1 instead of a Surge for +2 DMG and most importantly no Surge for Accuracy, so their effective range is a lot shorter. Their attack gets better the closer they are to their opponent. Within 3 spaces they apply 1 Strain, even if they don't hit or don't cause any damage. Adjacent they even add an additional 1 damage. This is really strong. Our playtesters said, that they are too good for 6 points (especially with Under Duress), but not good enough for 7 points. Something has to be done here.

Whilst their elite counterparts fulfil their duties as tough melee monsters as good as possible, the Regular Gamorrean Guards basically suck. Reportedly, they were designed for campaign use only. Melee figures with little punch (OK for their deployment cost) and not enough defense. We reduced them to 5 points , so they should be perfectly balanced. Still, I don't expect to see them on the table. In melee you just want more punch and more defense and usually you are willing to pay a little more for that. Arguably, they could have been given Plot Armor instead of been made cheaper, but I donʼt think, that they will see much play anyways.

The Elite Tusken Raiders are ideal melee specialist with 7 Health and a good attack … and they have a ranged attack which is OK, too, and takes care of all those figures, that try to stay out of range of their melee attack. Jundland Terror makes them even better, therefore they are very strong, but (in my opinion) not overpowered.

The Regular Weequay Pirates only have 4 Health, but this is absolutely standard for a 3 points sniper. All in all they are really good, but donʼt see much play, because the Elite weequays are a lot more efficient for just a couple of points more.

The Elite Loth-cats are just great in every ascpect. We will have to talk about them in the future.

The Empire has Regular Sentry Droids . They have the same defense as Elite Stormtroopers and their Charged Shot is very similar to a shot of an Elite Stormtrooper. The Targeting Computer is better than Squad Training, because you don't need adjacency, in return they don't have Last Stand. But the best thing about them is their Multi-Fire. Depending on their target, Multi-Fire deals a lot of damage. The range of that attack is not that good and therefore they have no real synergy with Sorin, who likes to stay away from every opponent as far as he can. And they don't like to be given attacks from Sorin or Officers, because they can't use their special attacks then. All in all they are as good as Elite Stormtroopers and therefore don't need to be changed.

Two Regular ISB Infiltrators are too cheap for 5 points. First, they are very cheap Spies, so something the Empire needs. With Coordinated Raid they deal more damage than two Elite Stormtroopers for 6 points. But it is very hard to pull that one of, without to lose one them, so they don't see much play. In theory, they are overpowered, in practice they are not played. I'd rather not change them, as this just will go wrong.

The Regular Heavy Stormtroopers ʼ Speed 3 is their biggest problem. Actually the idea is good. They have high defense and should have high firepower, so there has to be some kind of disadvantage. But Speed 3 just made them unplayable, because they couldn't use the typical "move 2 out of cover, shoot, move 2 back into cover"-tactic. So we gave them Speed 4 , and that made them very efficient. But I still don't like their design concept. They have a higher defense and a weaker attack than Elite Stormtroopers, whilst they should be normal Stormtroopers armed with a T-21 heavy blaster . In my opinion, we should be looking at Speed 4, Health 5, no defensive abilities, but lots of firepower, but we actually are looking at a lower Speed, more defense and a below average firepower. With Speed 4, Composite Plating is too much, so in the next version of the RIAST rules, they will lose that. As long as they have a better defense and the same speed as a normal Elite Stormtrooper, they canʼt have a better firepower, cost the same, and still be balanced. Therefore, their complete design should be changed (starting with Deplyment cost +1 and more firepower in return). But as they actually are in balance right now, I'd rather not change them any further right now.

3 points per figure / 3 figure groups

All units in this category are Troopers and very similar to each other in all regards.

Rebel have the Elite Rebel Troopers , which in fact should be called Fleet Troopers . With blue-yellow instead of blue-green, Surge for Pierce 2 instead of Surge for 2 DMG and no reroll, their standard attack is just worse than that of the Elite Stormtroopers. But with either Aim or a focus from Get Into Position, their attack immediatly becomes becomes better. If you are able to apply both, their attack is really strong. But you shouldn't forget, that Get Into Position usually only happens once per game, and that Aim is so hard to set up, that it often sees no use at all. But the Elite Rebel Troopers' biggest problem are the far easier to play Regular Alliance Rangers . They really shine because they are Troopers AND Hunters. With their blue-blue +1 Accuracy combination, they have a better range than all other Troopers. Furthermore, their reroll and their additional Surge for Pierce 1 compensate, that blue-blue normally deal less damage than blue-green. Their Hide by Guerilla makes them the best Deployment card in this category. The only real problem of the Regular Rangers is, that the Elite Rangers are even more efficient.

Mercs only have the Elite Wing Guards in this category . I believe, they were supposed to be an answer to the Trooper meta, when they were designed. But when they were released, the Trooper meta already was nerfed by a certain errata. Therefore, they never had the chance to shine. They a very much the same as Elite Stormtroopers with few differences, that donʼt really make them worse or better. Their biggest disadvantage is that they are Troopers. In contrast to Elite Stormtroopers, who are often used in all Trooper lists (add some leaders to taste), the Elite Wing Guards don't have any real synergies in Mercenary armies.

The Empire has two contestants in this category, first are the Elite Stormtroopers , that are the reference unit as described above. They are good, but don't see much play anymore, just because some 4 point figures are just more efficient, but we are already working on that topic. I'd like to make an upgrade card, that brings them back on the map, but that's a project for the future.

Furthermore, the Empire has Elite Snowtroopers . Plus one Health, Environmental Recovery Gear, Surge for Focus, Efficient Travel ... I'd say, they are pretty good. They aren't played anyways. I donʼt like them, because they donʼt have a reroll and rolling dice is not amongst my skills. I'd still rather not reduce their cost, because at 9 points theʼd just outclass the Elite Stormtroopers , and I wouldn't like that.

Inspecting the 4 points per figure Deployment cards

Amongst the multi-figure Deployment cards, these are the true heavy weights, the real elites, the kings of the hill. Many of them were overpowered, when they were released, some of them even were nerfed by FFG (e.g. the Regular Royal Guards), and some of them are still overpowered. E.g. when everyone was talking about the powercreep of the Hunter meta, they basically meant the Elite Weequays, the Elite Rangers and the Elite Jet Troopers - and all of them can be found in this category.

There is no real reference unit in this group, it's more or less the Elite Stormtroopers x 1,333 (3 points per figure x 1,333 = 4 points per figure).

The Regular Wookie Warriors have the best ratio of health to figure cost (Health 11 and a figure cost of 4). And their attack is quite good too. But with Speed 4 and no Reach, it's quite easy to stay out of their range. They prefer hanging around where you just can't stay out of their range like on mission objectives and they have the toughness to stay there for a while. So, they are quite good, but not overpowered at all.

The Elite Echo Base Troopers are quite tough with Health 8 and Combat Suit, but not as tough as the Wookies. With Front Line they have kind of a melee attack, but it doesn't count as melee and they aren't brawlers, so they don't have access to those nice Command cards. Therefore, even thou their "melee" attacks looks good on first glance, it's not as good as the Wookies'. With Efficient Travel, they are a little bit more mobile than the Wookies. And they have a regular ranged attack, that is the same as the attack of a 3 point Elite Stormtrooper (but without the reroll), which is not that good for a 4 point figure. Still, their big advantage is, that is much harder to stay out of their range, than out of the range of a Wookie. Therefore, in my opinion they are quite well balanced.

The Elite Alliance Rangers are the only 3 figure group having a figure cost of 4. This alone makes them stand out, as they are the most flexible and powerful single Deployment group in the game. Even though their range screams sniper, they have Health 7 (standard for a mid range unit) and can Hide themselves, a combination, that makes them really hard to kill. And their attack is incredibly strong, because they are Hunters. In my opinion they are overpowered and something should be done about that.

The Elite HK Assassin Droids are really good, but they are not worth the 11 points for a unit of 2 (figure cost 5). They have Health 6, pretty much the standard value of a sniper with a figure cost of 4, and no bonus to enhance that. Their attack has quite a long range, but no Surge for Accuracy. If they didn't have these nice rerolls, their range would be very unreliable. Their best Surge is +1 DMG, which is not much for a 4 point figure (and remember, originally they cost 5.5 points each). The ability to reroll an opponent's Dodge and their Priority Target is where they really shine. But the Elite Rangers as well as the Elite Weequays both deal way more damage than they do. Therefore, a deployment cost of 8 (for 2) and a figure cost of 4 seemed quite fair.

The Regular HK Assassin Droids have more or less the same basic stats, they just lack Priority Target and 1 point of health. Health 5 is OK for a sniper unit of two figures, that costs 7 points, therefore their deployment cost was reduced by one (to 7 points). So both the regular and the elite HKs have a figure cost of 4 now.

The Elite Trandoshan Hunters are a tough nut to crack, just talking game balance. First, the are too expensive. So we reduced their Deployment cost to 9 and their Figure cost to 4. They have Health 8, which is pretty much standard for a melee figure with a figure cost of 4. They have the same dice combination like an Elite Stormtrooper, but they have no reroll, a Surge for Pierce 2 instead of a Surge for +2 DMG and most importantly no Surge for Accuracy, so their effective range is a lot shorter. Their attack gets better the closer they are to their opponent. Within 3 spaces they apply 1 Strain, even if they don't hit or don't cause any damage. Adjacent they even add an additional 2 damage. This is really strong. And they have a Surge for Focus, that makes them very dangerous in the late game, if they survive that long. Our playtesters reported, that they are too good for 8 points (especially with Under Duress), but not good enough for 9 points. Something has to be done here.

The Elite Gamorrean Guards are one of the best melee units out there. They have a great attack including a Reroll and Reach. And their defense is really good with a situational additional block on top of their Health 8. They are close to being overpowered, but not really over the edge. Therefore, they weren't rebalanced.

The Elite Weequay Pirates have Health 6, so pretty much the standard value of a sniper. But their Defense gets quite a boost by Prowl (granting them a Hide). Green-Green with an inherent Accuracy +2 and a Surge for +2 DMG and a Surge for Pierce 1 is quite strong already. Usually, they have a Hide for +1 Surge on their attack, and because of their strong Surges, they are a good target for Focus. And they are Hunters, which gives them access to some of the strongest Command Cards in the game. On top of that, the Raider Reroll is very strong, because it allows them to reroll an opponent's Dodge. Their only weakness are missions, that don't give them the chance to hide in turn one. For 7 points, they are one of the most overpowered Units in this game and something had to be done about that. We started by raising their Deployment cost by 1 (to 8) , but I'm not sure, if this really is enough of a nerf. Just following the numbers, they should be even more expensive, but the playtesters unanimously reported that 8 points are OK.

The Elite Death Trooper is pretty good in a trooper list. His defense is pretty much standard for a 4 point Allrounder (Health 7 / black die). Even though he has the potential for a pretty bad attack roll every now and then and no reroll to mitigate that, his attack is absolutely OK and his range is extremely reliable. Field Tactics compensates the disadvantage of a typical 1 figure group, but is limited by the fact, that the Empire doesn't have that many good Deployment cards for 6 points. Squad Captain is a powerful ability, especially when giving a Heavy Stormtrooper an extra Surge. Actually that ability nearly makes him overpowered.

The Elite Heavy Stormtroopers ʼ Speed 3 is their biggest problem. Actually the idea is good. They have high defense and should have high firepower, so there has to be some kind of disadvantage. But Speed 3 just made them unplayable, because they couldn't use the typical "move 2 out of cover, shoot, move 2 back into cover"-tactic. So we gave them Speed 4 , and that made them very efficient. But I still don't like their design concept. The Elite Heavy Stormtrooper's attack is very similar to that of an Elite Weequay or of an Elite Ranger, but without their Rerolls, without Hide, without the Hunter Trait and without any real access to Focus. Especially their Surge for Blast 2 could be great, but with Blue-Red and all the above, they don't have that Surge reliably. In other words, even IF an Elite Heavy Stormtrooper's target has an adjacent figure (for the blast to work), then he still deals a little less damage than an Elite Stormtrooper, if you factor the Squad Training reroll in. Additionally, having a red die instead of the green one, no Surge for Accuracy, no reroll, but an inherent +2 Accuracy, the Elite Heavy Stormtrooper has a shorter average range than a normal Elite Stormtrooper. Therefore, their attack is underwhelming, whilst they have an unreasonably high defense, especially for a sniper type of trooper. In my opinion, this contrast of high defense and weak attack is a design flaw for a Heavy Stormtrooper, who (in theory) is a normal Stormtrooper armed with a T-21 heavy blaster . The T-21 heavy blaster is described to deliver massive damage at long ranges but at a low rate of fire and without optics. So we should be looking at Speed 4, Health 5 to 7, no defensive abilities, but lots of firepower, but we actually are looking at a lower Speed, more defense and the firepower of an average figure that costs 1 point less. We already changed their Speed to 4 to make them playable at all, but they will lose Composite Plating in the next version of the RIAST rules and gain some kind of bonus to their firepower, like a reroll, another attack die, or an inherent Pierce 1, +1 Damage or +1 Surge or something like that.

The Regular Royal Guards were absolutely overpowered before they were nerfed by FFG. I have to admit, Protector was a game winner back then, and something had to be done about that. But after the nerf, they were really underpowered, and something has to be done about that, too.

The Elite ISB Infiltrators attack really hard for a 7 points team, just because of Coordinated Raid. But in practice it is quite hard to pull that trick of, therefore they don't see much play. On top of that, they are cheap Spies, and an Empire player can never have enough of those. So in theory they seem overpowered, in practice they donʼt see much play. Anyways, I'd prefer to not change them, because that will go awfully wrong.

The Elite Jet Troopers are REALLY strong. Their defense is pretty much standard for a 4 point Allrounder (Health 7 / black die), but with Agile it's comparable to the defense of a good melee unit. Their standard attack is that of an Elite Stormtrooper but without the reroll, so it's pretty bad for a 4 point figure. What makes them stand out is Mobile and Fly-By. They gain an additional blue die when they are at close range, and then they deal more damage than most 4 point figures. Therefore, if you want to use them efficiently, you have to play them more like melee figures. Their defense is OK for a melee figure, they gain that blue die on range 2 or less, so it feels like having Reach. Mobile and that movement bonus granted by Fly-By makes them pretty fast for a melee figure, too. They just don't have that nice Brawler trait, but therefore they are able to use their standard attack for figures, that are out of Reach of their "melee" attack. Therefore, the enemy cannot stay out of range, which is a typical weakness of other melee figures. And because of their jet packs they had the Vehicle trait, which let them use Overrun and other great Command cards. To compare them to another very strong unit of the same Deployment cost of 7: They are more mobile than the Elite Riot Troopers, hit harder, have "Reach" on their "melee attack", have an additional ranged attack and have the same health, but Agile is more effective than Shield in most situations. And in my opinion, the Elite Riot Troopers are already on the border to being overpowered. Therefore, the Elite Jet Troopers had to be nerfed. At first we removed their Vehicle trait, because Boba Fett has a jet pack, but is no Vehicle and some Vehicle Command Cards just donʼt make sense for someone just wearing a jet pack. Therefore, we removed the Vehicle trait . But then, they still were overpowered, so we raised their deployment cost by 1 (to 8). In our testing phase, they still proved to be pretty strong even at 8 Points.

5 to 7 points per figure Deployment cards

More to come.

Uniques, big creatures and Vehicles

More to come.

New Deployment and Upgrade Cards

This section describes new ( RIAST exclusive ) Deployment and Upgrade cards .

Raiders of the Death Star (Regular)

This most iconic team just had to be playable.

Disintegrations (Regular)

Boba's offensive power was not on the same level as his defensive power, making it very hard to rebalance him correctly. Therefore, Boba needed a fix.

AT-ST Upgrades (Elite)

General Weiss' AT-ST and the AT-DP are not Awkward, but the standard AT-ST is? The standard AT-ST has a Targeting Computer but General Weiss' pimped AT-ST does not? The AT-DP's single cannon has Assault, but General Weiss' and the AT-ST's multiple weapons do not? All that makes no sense and therefore had to be changed.

So Please tell me, what you think ...

Very interesting thoughts. Thanks for the insight. Will take some time to digest.

On 9/3/2019 at 7:04 PM, DerBaer said:

... So we decided to go with the least disturbance or the least amount of changes necessary.

....

A huge respect for the amount of time and thoughts you’ve put into this.

I’ll admit that I initially just skimmed the text, but did read the above quote and thought: “well, I actually like where IA is at without any changes. Perhaps RIAST is onto something...”. Then came the wall of text and changes.

Most of it is actually "We did NOT change that, because..."... and there are long explanations for minor changes ... yes, it is quite a wall of text.

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 5:08 AM, DerBaer said:

Most of it is actually "We did NOT change that, because..."... and there are long explanations for minor changes ... yes, it is quite a wall of text.

For the ease of reading, maybe highlight actual changes in Red and put a note at the start saying; Red text is indicating the only changes?

I appreciate the effort that you have put into this. However, it seems to me that the community will benefit best from RIAST and Continuity Projects working together in one direction rather than splitting into two schools of thought.

Is it possible for you to join forces with IACP?

Personally I like the more minimalistic approach of the RIAST a lot better then the more re-style approach of the IACP. I feel that they may well live side by side. I think they are both great.

7 hours ago, Majushi said:

For the ease of reading, maybe highlight actual changes in Red and put a note at the start saying; Red text is indicating the only changes?

It will take some time, but that's a good idea. I will do that.

6 hours ago, robertpolson said:

I appreciate the effort that you have put into this. However, it seems to me that the community will benefit best from RIAST and Continuity Projects working together in one direction rather than splitting into two schools of thought.

Is it possible for you to join forces with IACP?

I tried, but sadly it didn't work.

9 hours ago, DerBaer said:

I tried, but sadly it didn't work.

This is a misrepresentation of what happened. You didn't try to join forces with IACP: you consistently criticized the direction of IACP and elected to make your own changes.

I'm glad that you are enjoying running your own project. But please do not misrepresent what happened in the past. Thanks.

I would strongly hope that the different initiatives and active resources could work together. To be honest I don’t see that much difference outside the whole Take Initiative approach. How/ what is being adjusted or altered to different deployments will always be subject to change and have lots of different opinions.

Off course some will have to compromise in these sort of things.

And this is not a discussion you should have on these forums.

Actually, I didn't say a word about whose fault it was or what happened. I just said, that it didn't work. And I would have preferred to keep it that way. Let's just say, I have a different point of view on what happened.

22 minutes ago, Doowa said:

And this is not a discussion you should have on these forums.

Agreed.

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 1:09 AM, Majushi said:

For the ease of reading, maybe highlight actual changes in Red and put a note at the start saying; Red text is indicating the only changes?

Done.

quite a wall of text, I didn't discover this designer journal until today, but just wanted to say everything you wrote above will not go unnoticed

as a suggestion, would it be possible for RIAST to have ready-made cards? you can build those using

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/282009-imperial-assault-tools-list-builder-card-editor-more-now-works-on-windows-7/

This way we can have a quick glance of "oh, what's does the new figureX looks like now?"

edit: I'm unsure if this has already been thought of, but these are my go-to posts whenever I try to make any houserules or adjustments or new units, imo all of them have already done some amazing analysis on units:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/206889-the-costs-of-unique-figures/

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/250722-grand-tier-list-for-ia-skirmish-to-be-updated-as-new-waves-emerge/

http://boardwars.eu/ally-and-villain-packs-for-star-wars-imperial-assault/

and I use http://mattyellen.github.io/imperial-assault-calculator/ for damage calculations and https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1631857/ability-resolution-order-during-attacks as a rule checker

some abilities could be tricky to figure out with the damage calculator however (ex. eStorm's reroll means their power curve is probably higher but Farmboy Luke's reroll buff would be a lot tougher to measure)