After exploring cards and finally having learned the rules (thanks FFG for posting rules of all their games freely, it makes choosing games much easier), we can start make some analisis on diferences of factions in Star wars LCG. This here is my take on Imperial Navy (more might follow if this one is well acepted)

Strenghts: quite lot of resouce generating units and enchancements (control room, duty officer and like). Has a good synergy for Vehicle units (Kuat reinforcements, Endor gambit). Death star dial manipulation.

Weakneses: might lack targeted removal and combat tricks compared to sith, very low on fate cards, you need Recon mission, or something along these lines to improve that. Has two themes - vehicles and troopers, but trooper theme still needs more cards to work.

Few words on each Imprerial Navy objective in core set:

Ultimate power - very very good, both objective itself and cards it comes with. Moff Tarkin and superlaser blast makes destroing LS objectives fast and easy, each in diferent way, and every new objective makes your death star dial turn faster. Good reason to buy second core set (well Ill have to wait half a year for at least first one to reach me, curse those local retailers)

Endor Gambit - great synergy betveen objective and cards, gives imperial navy some shielding and card draw.

Death and Despayre - defence upgrade on Ultimate power will make light side sweat, as taking doing 9 damage if you can use only two units for attack takes time, and with imperial Officer and devastator making death star dial move faster time is your ally (two of this and Ultiamte power seems very solid core for Imperial navy deck).

Defence Protocol - solid filler, few of everything, and twist of fate to negate your oponents stack of fate cards. Need to know game better to tell if reducing your handsize (ok, reserve, someone has copyright on handsize it seems ) is very crucial in this game.

Imperial command - another filler, this could work as a start for trooper themed deck with Take them prisoners. Orbital bombardment deserves special mention as fits well into "kill those objectives" theme with Tarkin.

Kuat reinforcemets - another great Vehicle theme objective, it makes those devastator fleets posible. Mention of honor goes to Backstabber, for even more ways to destroy light sides objectives.

Take them prisoners - feels kinda out of place in current Imperial navy lineup, as trooper theme is missing cards, works great with Corporate explotation and Imperial Command for some "horde of troopers" kind of deck, will wait for future releases to see how it develops.

Lets hope some of you find it usefull.

Great analysis/overview.

The Imperial Navy deck is my favorite to play thus far.

It looks to me like the navy is hard pressed for force icons overall. It seems like they will have a hard time maintaining control of the force, but I think they make up for it in their damage output potential.

@Redblock: Nice overview, but I disagree with you on some points:

Navy's not low on fate cards. In fact, Imperials can have as many fate cards as any other faction (not counting Smugglers and Bounty Hunters). They have fewer force icons than the Sith or Jedi, though. They may be more fate cards-dependent due to a random effectiveness of TIEs.

Here's my subjective IN objectives review: (haven't played this game yet, so that's only a theory) ;-)

Ultimate power: For me - not the best one at all! It's expensive set full of support cards. Tarkin's OK, but a bit… disappointing? (He's my favorite SW character - I wish he was the one who survived Death Star explosion, not Vader). Laser's awesome. Stormtrooper? Good blocker.

Endor Gambit: Synergizes well with 3 other objectives. Every card is good in this one.

Death & Despayre: unsurprisingly, the set with the most powerful unit has some mediocre cards. On the other hand, Devastator, bonus dial advancements and some extra resources make it worthwhile.

Defence Protocol: It has Twist of Fate card so it's important. If you use a pair of those in your deck, make sure you also take sets that bolster up rest of cards in the set: more fate cards to use both TIEs effectively, plus more fighters for great tallon roll.

Imperial Command: offers resources, some OK blockers and a global blast icon buff. So, it doesn't offer anything unique.

Kuat Reinforcements: Imperial vehicles are expensive, so anything that helps you put that Star Destroyer into play is good. Plus the Backstabber - IN response to lack of scheme-breaking events. It has Tallon Roll, too. Synergizes well with Defence Protocol.

Take them Prisoner: It's the most underrated set in your overview. It has enchantment removal (no other IN set has) direct character removal, plus 2 great cheap blockers. Keep in mind that most of time in the early game IN has 4 resources only. Almost every good combat unit cost 3 (Backstabber, Attack Squadron, AT-ST) - here are 1 point fillers you were looking for. Cheap and Reliable.

I want to throw in my own opinions, for no good reason, because I haven't played the game yet and I'm still getting a handle on the rules.

Death and Despayre is a strange spelling and I don't get that spelling. I'm also not quite sure about the appeal of more than one available resource, if it has to be exhausted longer afterwards. More resources should always be a good thing, but I wonder if this game will present more of a problem of having enough cards in hand than resources for cards. Devastator, meanwhile, was my first "big name rare" in the Decipher CCG, and I look forward to putting it in my deck once again. This one is probably a "must add" for the dial enhancement and increased defenses. Might not add two copies, though.

Defense Protocol features awesome McQuarrie artwork, and I want to add it to my deck for that alone. I still think hand size will be important, so reducing it just to damage a unit might not be a fair trade. It might be nice to have the option in case of a dead card draw, but you'd need a lot of unique cards in your deck to make that likely. If you want TIEs, this seems to be the block to choose. That Twist of Fate card can also be a real killer. Light side, beware.

Imperial Command has more of that great McQuarrie artwork, and is another card with multiple resources accessible if ready. Motti seems like a really versatile card, but the artwork makes him look like Billy Dee Williams. If I find that I am struggling with resources, this will be my go to block.

the Kuat Reinforcements objective has a power I feel that I would never use. When would +1 resource be worth more than +1 card in hand? I'm not convinced that the value of those two things is the same. A cheap first turn Devastator is a tantalizing thought. The rest of the cards in this block make vehicles look oh so enticing. They still seem a bit too attacky, so I might swap it out for more defense when deckbuilding.

Take Them Prisoner has an extra health point, 6 instead of 5, Capturing is an awesome mechanic, character denial feels so very annoying. Plus, there's a bit of looking ahead at your opponent's next card draws involved there. I am very interested in trying this Objective and Detained, to see how it affects my opponent's gameplay.

Endor Gambit has At-ST, and that makes me want it. I remember how thrilled I was when At-St was added to the miniatures game and how dismayed I was at how rare it was. Anyway, the artwork on that objective is really nice. Very evocative of the Empire as I like to envision it. I don't know how annoying focus tokens will be, but I can see this objective being a boon in a potentially frustrating lockdown situation. The At-St lets you draw, that's exciting. Shield units also seem like a good thing for the defensive nature of DS play.

The Ultimate Power seems like a no-brainer must-add for any and all decks running the Imperial affiliation. 2 attackers max, so nice. I do wish Tarkin was a little more useful in a fight as well, but the artwork is so very Tarkin and 2 resources per turn will pay off his steep cost quickly. Superlaser seems fun, and I suspect will become more valuable when more vital/powerful Light Side objectives are released.

That was fun. Please do more affiliations. Like Scum and Villainy!

DrNate said:

It's the name of the planet where the first Death Star was built.

DrNate said:

Despayre is the name of the planet around which the original Death Star was constructed. It earned its name (it was Horuz originally, according to Wookieepedia) from being a brutal penal colony, and from the Dark Side's cartoonish habit of giving everything super-evil-sounding names.