New to the game, Imp help?

By cdavis89, in Army Building

Finally getting around to assembling my minis, but I have no idea where to go with building. Could anyone suggest a build with what I have? And any suggestions on what to buy next?

I own:

Core Set x1

Snowtroopers x2

Imperial Specialists

Deathtroopers x1

General Veers

Boba Fett

If you can find them, Shore Troopers. Other than that, get a copy of vital assets, as it gives you more missions to run. Snows with an Officer is decent in hostage exchange.

I recommend either a second coreset or shoretroopers.

Iden Versio is essential as well I think. Shes incredibly versatile both as a commander and an operative. And works especially good with Veers who you already own.

Edited by Khobai

Get a couple scout trooper sets. The snipers are very important to keeping standby tokens off units so your snows can get close enough to flame everything.

I would hold off on buying scouts until you see how they get nerfed

2 hours ago, Khobai said:

I would hold off on buying scouts until you see how they get nerfed

Since when are they getting nerfed...? I never see anyone using scouts aside from the strike teams

Honestly, if you're looking for essentials then a second starter set is always a good buy. I'll echo the Shoretroopers as well. I've been waiting to get more of them myself once they come in stock again!

Otherwise, I'd grab Bossk, Scout Troopers, and Iden. I also really like Krennic, personally, and the new Inferno Squad plays well with Iden from what I have seen and you can use Hask and Meeko with the Snow Troopers to play pop-up with LOS!

"Fun" takes (less necessary, but ones I just enjoy) are Dewbacks, E-WEB, and the Occupier Tank. Again, those are not what I would suggest buying first, but I have gotten personal enjoyment out of them (despite not always being good by competitive standards)

Go build a few lists in your builder of choice and see what kind of "dream list" you want to cook up and go from there, that's what I tend to do.

4 hours ago, bllaw said:

Since when are they getting nerfed...? I never see anyone using scouts aside from the strike teams

Exactly, 2-3 Sniper strike teams in every single competitive list. People have been baying for a nerf for 2 years, which may or may not happen.

4 hours ago, bllaw said:

Since when are they getting nerfed...? I never see anyone using scouts aside from the strike teams

why wouldnt they get nerfed? they got nerfed last time and theyre still a problem. theres no reason to believe they wont get nerfed again. I think strike teams getting nerfed is one of the things you can actually count on happening.

i dont think rushing out to buy scouts is the best idea. I would hold off until you know for sure.

I think shoretroopers, iden versio, and a second core set are all solid purchases.

23 minutes ago, arnoldrew said:

Exactly, 2-3 Sniper strike teams in every single competitive list. People have been baying for a nerf for 2 years, which may or may not happen.

It already happened. They got nerfed last summer with a slight points increase. But theyre still very much a problem. I expect to see them get nerfed again.

Edited by Khobai

2 x Shoretroopers -> 2 x Scouts -> Krennic -> Iden and E-WEB (or two - ) -> second Deathtroopers or ISF (ISF for Meko to scouts/storms improvment, Hask for Snowtroopers improvment + independent unit) and you got something to working on, possibility to little experiment with list, and then what you like, what you feel.

To avoid any unnessecary argue this is only my POV on Empire faction upgrade.

Cheers

Edited by Thaureg

Alright, with what you've got now, you can run this list, minus a few upgrade cards:

790/800
Darth Vader (Force Choke, Force Reflexes, Saber Throw)
Boba Fett (Hunter, Offensive Push, Recon Intel, Emergency Stims)
Snowtroopers (Flametrooper, Imperial Officer Upgrade)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Snowtroopers (Flametrooper)
Imperial Death Troopers (DLT-19D Trooper, Offensive Push, Recon Intel, E-11D Focused Fire Config)

With two more stormtroopers, you can run this:

799/800
General Veers (Improvised Orders, Strict Orders)
Boba Fett (Offensive Push, Hunter, Recon Intel)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Snowtroopers (Flametrooper, Imperial Officer Upgrade)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Snowtroopers (Flametrooper)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)
Imperial Death Troopers (DLT-19D Trooper, Offensive Push, Recon Intel, E-11D Focused Fire Config)
Neither list is particularly great, but you can start to get a feel for what you like, and what suits your play style. I would recommend more stormies and Shoretroopers, Scouts, as well as possibly an AT-ST. Those will likely give you the most bang for your buck, or at the very least give you a taste of how other unit types work. I'm fond of E-Webs, but I know most people aren't, so your mileage may vary on a lot of that.
11 hours ago, Khobai said:

It already happened. They got nerfed last summer with a slight points increase. But theyre still very much a problem. I expect to see them get nerfed again.

Yeah, but even if the increase the price to 52 or even 54, You will still see 2-3 in each team. They are too worth it for back line objective capture, and they are even more important now vs clone armies that standby farm. I think we will see a point increase, I jut don't think that will change anything

I could see them nerfing snipers because yes they are in most every army, but since every faction has one, why would they need to get nerfed? at this point they're just a part of the game and since they're not creating an imbalance among factions I doubt it's FFG's priority to nerf them as of rn. Just my two-cents though I wouldn't be surprised if they do get nerfed in the near future

1 hour ago, weebaer said:

Yeah, but even if the increase the price to 52 or even 54, You will still see 2-3 in each team. They are too worth it for back line objective capture, and they are even more important now vs clone armies that standby farm. I think we will see a point increase, I jut don't think that will change anything

That's why I (and, it seems, many others) think the solution isn't really a points increase but a rules change/addition. They already did a points increase once (along with the range decrease, which was huge) and it barely even slowed them down. The main thing I hear people advocating is making them a Detachment for the full-sized units. Unfortunately I think that all that would do is totally eliminate them from competitive play, since the full-size units of Scout Troopers and Rebel Commandos are probably less competitive than the Airspeeder (though I've definitely tried to make the full-size units of Commandos happen pretty much since they came out, never to any success).

Edited by arnoldrew
20 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

That's why I (and, it seems, many others) think the solution isn't really a points increase but a rules change/addition. They already did a points increase once (along with the range decrease, which was huge) and it barely even slowed them down. The main thing I hear people advocating is making them a Detachment for the full-sized units. Unfortunately I think that all that would do is totally eliminate them from competitive play, since the full-size units of Scout Troopers and Rebel Commandos are probably less competitive than the Airspeeder (though I've definitely tried to make the full-size units of Commandos happen pretty much since they came out, never to any success).

The solution would be to bring down the price of the full units to go with this change.

21 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

That's why I (and, it seems, many others) think the solution isn't really a points increase but a rules change/addition. They already did a points increase once (along with the range decrease, which was huge) and it barely even slowed them down. The main thing I hear people advocating is making them a Detachment for the full-sized units. Unfortunately I think that all that would do is totally eliminate them from competitive play, since the full-size units of Scout Troopers and Rebel Commandos are probably less competitive than the Airspeeder (though I've definitely tried to make the full-size units of Commandos happen pretty much since they came out, never to any success).

You'd see no Strike Teams on Empire and Rebels, but the CIS and GAR would be laughing all the way to the bank because their equivalent in the ARCS and BXs are arguably better in the full squad, and they still get to have the cheap Strike Team detachment.

Maybe if they made it a detachment to any special forces slot, so if you are taking DTs or ISF you can take 1 Scout Strike Team that might balance out with GAR and CIS.

Edited by Nithorian

2 hours ago, costi said:

The solution would be to bring down the price of the full units to go with this change.

Not a bad idea, but the point decreases don't always do the trick, as we've already seen.

2 hours ago, Nithorian said:

You'd see no Strike Teams on Empire and Rebels, but the CIS and GAR would be laughing all the way to the bank because their equivalent in the ARCS and BXs are arguably better in the full squad, and they still get to have the cheap Strike Team detachment.

Maybe if they made it a detachment to any special forces slot, so if you are taking DTs or ISF you can take 1 Scout Strike Team that might balance out with GAR and CIS.

I was going to bring that up but forgot to. It would probably actually be a boost to Republic and CIS strike teams, which are already pretty good. I like the last fix you proposed even though it would help Empire WAY more than Rebels since their SF options have always been good. Also, both factions would be able to infiltrate a full unit of something and then bring in a strike team near the infiltrated unit. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Probably a good thing given that it would boost Saboteur strike teams. The more I type the more I like that idea.

On 9/29/2020 at 11:02 AM, bllaw said:

I could see them nerfing snipers because yes they are in most every army, but since every faction has one, why would they need to get nerfed? at this point they're just a part of the game and since they're not creating an imbalance among factions I doubt it's FFG's priority to nerf them as of rn. Just my two-cents though I wouldn't be surprised if they do get nerfed in the near future

Because they are creating an imbalance. The fact you have to take them in every list is an imbalance.

Strike teams need to be detachments of the full units. And I agree the full units should come down in cost. More specifically the sniper rifle and sonic charge should cost less while the base strike team should go up in cost by the same amount. Make the sniper rifle and sonic charge cost 5 points less but then also increase the base cost of the two-man strike teams by 5 points. That way theres more incentive to use the heavy weapons in the full sized units while the cost of 2-man strike teams remains the same.

But I would still hold off on buying scouts for another month or so just to see how they change.

I think theres plenty of other things you can buy in the meantime.

Another thing I forgot to mention is if you want to use Vader I think Royal Guard are essential. Vader is way too vulnerable to getting shot up and Royal Guard help with that tremendously.

Edited by Khobai

Back on track to the original post...I think Iden is essential as that's already been stated and Krennic can be really nice too with your death troopers. Palpatine and guards are also loads of fun. And even if they do get nerfed, I'd still advise getting at least one scout trooper unit. Until they do get this alleged nerf, they're super fun to use as a cheap extra unit. The full squad isn't very competitive at all, but for casual games I've had a blast with them throwing all those black dice at a poor enemy squad and watching my opponent cry them self to sleep in the corner

In my opinion I would pick up shores and an eweb. I know a lot of people say that the web is bad but if you put a barrage generator on it it has a pretty decent pool especially with veers giving them the free recovery.

the e-web is definitely less bad with both the barrage generator AND veers. but unfortunately veers doesnt make it any less awkward to use. range 3 and cumbersome sucks.

sadly I cant see the e-web being good unless it gets a way to become range 4 for a turn or gets a way to remove the cumbersome for a turn.

E Webs have a role in certain list. They work well with Veers and Shire Troopers. Shores have "Coordinate:Enplacement Trooper" which E Webs count as. Veers has a command card that specifically gives activations to supports. For the points in gun line list, E Webs are good localized area denial weapons.

ewebs dont really do area denial any better than stormtroopers though.

their survivability is worse than a 5 man unit of stormtroopers. their firepower is also about the same as a unit of stormtroopers.

stormtroopers cost a few more points but are speed 2 and lack the cumbersome keyword which is HUGE. cumbersome is so debilitating on the E-Web.

the problem with the Eweb is that it doesnt really do anything unique for the imperial army. thats why it needs a way to get upto range 4. I like the idea of the generators giving range 4 when theyre exhausted. because that incentivizes using the generators more. And doing a recover action and an attack action to do a range 4 attack wouldnt be the worst thing for the E-Web.

the only reason I take e-webs with veers is if I already have 6 corps units and 3 special forces and want another cheap activation. it makes for a cheap 10th or 11th activation. I feel like the e-web has potential to be more than just a cheap activation but they need to give it access to a way to get range 4.

Edited by Khobai

Well in most the list I take ewebs, I take with 2-3 Shores and 2-3 mortars. When I don't run 3 and 3, I tend to run 2 snows that work with royal guard. For.some reason most games I find myself playing have a lot of area terrain, great for moving snows up in cover.

RBBWW with surge to crit is definitely not about the same as a unut of stormtroopers...