I have all of the big expansions, and ~50% of the ally/villain packs. I am staring a new campaign with a diverse group, and some of them are nowhere near as good at tactical games then the others. I play with this group a lot and we have rules about trying to only provide vague instructions, or thematic in-game callouts; so that the people with more skill don't just hijack someone else's turn. Because of this they will not always play optimally, and will generally have more fun. I also try to play less optimally and more thematically so I'm more "Dungeon Master" than "opposition".

The problem is that I really like tactical games and am quite good at them, so if I am intentionally playing poorly to avoid steamrolling the players they know that I am doing that and can find it condescending.

Is there a collection "bad" or "weak" class and agenda cards that I could take, so that I can give myself a intrinsic disadvantage? This would allow me to give the impression that I am playing to win (I would still largely play a thematic game) so that the players feel like there is always a real threat of them losing, which I think will make the game more satisfying.

I don't think any of the classes are particularly weak, they just have different play styles that may be harder or easier to play. Like our imperial player in one campaign used Inspiring Leadership to devastating results, but then she is a bit of a tactician that considers exactly how she places her figures and in what order they activate. Whereas I would be terrible with a class like that and rather prefer something that just pounds the rebels outright.

You could try something like Reactive Defenses which requires you to work a little bit harder?

As for agenda cards, just pick the fun ones and maybe stick to the ones that bring out villians for a one shot, or new missions/forced missions. Stuff that might be more fun for the rebels to play against but is less effective overall.

Yeah, I'd say Inspiring Leadership is probably among the worst classes but as neosmagus said it's still not terrible. Often how bad a class is also depends on which heroes the rebels choose (i.e. subversive tactics is known for being absolutely devastating against heroes who use a lot of strain, but against some of the newer heroes who don't it can be hard to get anything going with it).

I'd also echo the above that the villain agenda decks are probably your best bet. They offer missions that you probably haven't played before, they give the rebels fun choices (should we try to stop the imperial from earning the villain or should we try to earn an ally from a different side mission), and with a few exceptions (looking at you, Greedo!) the villains aren't generally cost-effective enough to be super helpful to the imperial player even if they're earned. Plus, if you do earn a villain, it makes for a fun little antagonist that the rebels will have to work against in addition to the main story.

The bigger thing with agendas is that there are some that you'll probably want to avoid - generally those that came with the code set. E.g. Agents of the Empire, For the Right Price and especially Imperial Industry all include some pretty nasty effects that can make life difficult on the Rebels.

Also re: classes, maybe the easiest way to handicap yourself would be to choose some of the weaker choices when you spend your XP. Unless your rebels are playing reeeeeally close attention they probably won't notice, and it should still offer you a better chance to go all-out during the missions without making things one-sided.

7 hours ago, neosmagus said:

I don't think any of the classes are particularly weak, they just have different play styles that may be harder or easier to play. Like our imperial player in one campaign used Inspiring Leadership to devastating results, but then she is a bit of a tactician that considers exactly how she places her figures and in what order they activate. Whereas I would be terrible with a class like that and rather prefer something that just pounds the rebels outright.

You could try something like Reactive Defenses which requires you to work a little bit harder?

As for agenda cards, just pick the fun ones and maybe stick to the ones that bring out villians for a one shot, or new missions/forced missions. Stuff that might be more fun for the rebels to play against but is less effective overall.

Everybody kinda thinks that Reactive Defensive is a weak class, but the truth is that it isn't unless you decide to pick cards which synergize badly between them.

I just played Return to Hoth as Imperial using this class, and given the fact that my players (who are generally good tacticians) decided to do not waste actions trying to kill 88-Z I could easily dish out 2-3 extra threat per round.

It didn't end well for the rebellion.

On 1/15/2021 at 7:13 AM, Ico83 said:

Everybody kinda thinks that Reactive Defensive is a weak class, but the truth is that it isn't unless you decide to pick cards which synergize badly between them.

I just played Return to Hoth as Imperial using this class, and given the fact that my players (who are generally good tacticians) decided to do not waste actions trying to kill 88-Z I could easily dish out 2-3 extra threat per round.

It didn't end well for the rebellion.

Yes, but the Military Might deck can dish out 2-3 extra threat per round during deployment just with the 2xp Endless Ranks card. Sure, that means just using Death Troopers, but there is no droid that can be killed to stop that generation and it only takes 2xp vs 9xp that Reactive Defenses would need to yield 2-3 threat.

Every deck can do great things, but some need more setup and more xp to do it, so they are weaker.

That said, I think Overwhelming Oppression is the weakest. Everything is telegraphed and planned way too far ahead for the benefits you get with the deck. The only thing I like about the deck is Personal Flagship.

If you want to play more as a DM, that would highlight playing thematically. In my opinion nothing is more thematic (and fun!!) than the Nemeses deck. Choose villains that they know, and bringing those villains out tormenting them is a ton of fun! Villains , often aren’t great tactically , and CAN be focus fired down - particularly mid campaign and later. But having Bossk or Greedo or if they are rebels fans maybe Hondo or Thrawn or Grand Inquisitor is super fun.

People usually love seeing characters they know - so I would really consider that deck for theme. If the mission is more about an Imperial base - then bring in the Imperial villain. If it’s more of a bounty hunter type of mission bring in the Merc. It works really well

Thanks for the suggestions, I definitely like the idea of just choosing to spend my experience on (what I consider to be) the bad choices.