Star Wars Imperial Assault

Hello guys. New member here.

I have lately developed the need to play board games again.

Has anybody played Imperial Assault at all? It's an expensive board game so I was wondering whether they'd be anybody to play it with.

I've only played outside of the club setting but there is a group or two who generally have a game on the go.

So somebody owns this already?
Any opinions on the game itself? People say its fun. How would you compare the enjoyment to Talisman, for example.

Aneurin owns it and several of us have played it to pretty much universal acclaim, I think. 5 of us have played through almost 2 complete campaigns now and I'd recommend it to anyone, it's great fun and has plenty of replayability.

Yeah great game... I own all of it... Return to Hoth and the latest figure wave turned up yesterday. So we will be kicking off a new campaign fairly soon - but also happy to start the base campaign again if there is interest.

My base game is in the post right now and I'll get it in a week or so.
I was tempted to go on a crazy shopping spree and buy allies and expansions but I dont know if I'll be able to play this game too often if I dont have anybody to play with
It makes me jealous that you've played this game already.
I am not British, so I dont know if this game requires me to be a bit of a GM as an Imperial if I was to play one.
I'll have to see how I can join you guys and have a go at it

I'm happy to start again with you... I can GM as the Imperials so you get to experience the game as a rebel! Just don't read the scenario book when your game turns up .

How about we start a base game (Aftermath) campaign on Tuesday 26th Jan and perhaps run a session once a month at the club? Would anyone else be interested? We can use my fully painted set and people can pick from any of the 11 heroes.  

1. Aneurin (Imperials)
2. Yakito (Rebel)
3. Paul C (Rebel)
4.
5.

Ok, but I won't be able to not read the Imperial book for an entire month

Aneurin wrote:I'm happy to start again with you... I can GM as the Imperials so you get to experience the game as a rebel! Just don't read the scenario book when your game turns up .

How about we start a base game (Aftermath) campaign on Tuesday 26th Jan and perhaps run a session once a month at the club? Would anyone else be interested? We can use my fully painted set and people can pick from any of the 11 heroes.  

1. Aneurin (Imperials)
2. Yakito (Rebel)
3.
4.
5.

Go on then, but if I love it and end up buying it I'm blaming you!

Got the base. The game looks so beautiful that I feel like buying something extra.
Would Twin Shadows add anything to the base campaign?
I know you'd have 2 extra classes.
Are ally packs useful for the campaign as well?

Aneurin wrote:I'm happy to start again with you... I can GM as the Imperials so you get to experience the game as a rebel! Just don't read the scenario book when your game turns up .

How about we start a base game (Aftermath) campaign on Tuesday 26th Jan and perhaps run a session once a month at the club? Would anyone else be interested? We can use my fully painted set and people can pick from any of the 11 heroes.  

1. Aneurin (Imperials)
2. Yakito (Rebel)
3.
4.
5.

Checked my shifts (which are very random) and I finish at 8pm on 26th. When would you normally start the game?
I finish at 5pm on Wednesday and I am off on 30th and 31st.
The bad thing about my shifts is that I can never have regular games every week at the exact same time and exact same day because I may have an evening shift till 8pm etc.

I could give you my entire shift schedule for this month and the next if that would help.
I think I may have 2 people to join us.

PaulC wrote:

Aneurin wrote:I'm happy to start again with you... I can GM as the Imperials so you get to experience the game as a rebel! Just don't read the scenario book when your game turns up .

How about we start a base game (Aftermath) campaign on Tuesday 26th Jan and perhaps run a session once a month at the club? Would anyone else be interested? We can use my fully painted set and people can pick from any of the 11 heroes.  

1. Aneurin (Imperials)
2. Yakito (Rebel)
3.
4.
5.

Go on then, but if I love it and end up buying it I'm blaming you!

Woot! Just buy it now and save the months of agony.

Me, Andy, the other Andy (I'll let the Andys work out who is who) and a Mark (who I don't think has come to the club before) are playing a campaign (I think it's Return to Hoth but not sure) with an Andy as the Imperials, and he is kicking our butts around like it's a life ambition. He has considered that many players see the Imperial player as a GM who is there to facilitate good times among the rest of the group. I think these many players must be wusses and I'm not willing to capitulate to sympathy. Therefore I need your help in my/our quest for revenge.

I think we're about halfway in. I'm Loku Kanoloa, Andy is MHD-19, Mark is Biv Bodhrik. Imperial has offered to give us another character explaining that the game isn't well balanced for three players anyway. So I'm thinking we choose Diala, Fenn or Gaarkhan, because the internet considers them pretty powerful.  Also, we also already have two support characters (we only took the shitty karaoke robot for Andy as diss because he didn't show up on time to the first session — not a great strategic decision), and we don't seem to be doing enough damage, so a heavy hitters seems like a good option.

Other things I will be considering in our next session:

Get to the objectives quickly.

Only shoot things if you can kill them and killing them messes with the Imperial's threat economy.

Maybe get the chests sometimes, they might be useful?

Don't open doors or complete objectives at the end of a round if possible.

Other tips appreciated.

I think you're on the right lines with your strategy above. Concentrating on the objectives is key. Getting caught up in trying to take out every enemy when you're against the clock is never going to work (we've made that mistake a few times).

It sounds like your team is definitely short on firepower. I'd say Fenn is probably the best all-rounder and his abilities can make him into a real tank. Gaarkhan is strong and great in melee but can get overwhelmed and wounded quite quickly without support.

In terms of strategy I'd also add that you should take note of Imperial activations. Try to limit the number he gets by taking out damaged groups first thing, and don't worry so much about groups that have already activated in a round. MHD-19 is actually not a terrible character (I'm playing him in our current campaign) but your need to make full use of his abilities. You should generally be getting a medical card one round and making a kill with a focus the next. Those medical cards can make quite a big difference in saving rests, etc.

Crates are kind of a mixed bag. You'll be getting the medical stuff anyway with the droid, and the other stuff is situational, but the extra credits you get from them can be a big help in getting the important equipment upgrades.

I've played a few games where the rebels don't utilise their special abilities much - or forget that per action you can take 1 strain to move 1 space. Also you can always use 1 surge to recover 1 strain. You need to balance that perfectly - synergise with the rest of the team and you should ace the Imperials (ask Karl).

Aneurin wrote:I've played a few games where the rebels don't utilise their special abilities much - or forget that per action you can take 1 strain to move 1 space. Also you can always use 1 surge to recover 1 strain. You need to balance that perfectly - synergise with the rest of the team and you should ace the Imperials (ask Karl).

Ok, so we've been playing that wrong...

Presume you also know that if you don't have strain you recover hits?

Come watch us play a couple rounds next time we play it. We're a well oiled machine these days
Sometimes you might not be aware of stuff. A while back, I jumped in to a game of descent with some people mid way through a game. It has the same basic rules but there are a few differences. It took me a little while to work out the differences but I was able to point out quite a few incredibly useful strategic tips they weren't using because they weren't totally up on the rules. Point is, a couple of small things can make a really big difference if you aren't using them correctly/at all.