Those are scanned PDFs. I want real PDFs, i.e. before print stuff most RPGs offer these days. Blackbird has a point though, they don't offer it for the other Star Wars RPGs so probably *cant'* offer it due to licensing... -shnar

Will FFG offer PDFs of these? (please?) -shnar

Not only do I still own these, I still *play* these! Love the old D6 system! -shnar

Wait, political bickering and backstabbing? There were some bickering, but nothing along the lines of backstabbing or intrigue. A political thinking movie the prequels were not. They were pretty straight-forward cringe fests. Anyways, the best thing from these new movies is the hope for even better movies. Didn't really get that from the prequels, as each movie got progressively worse. -shnar

I *liked* Kylo Ren. He seemed like a shadow of Vader, something he was trying to become, and thus kind of a weaker bad guy. There's room for growth with his character in the next movie, unlike say Darth Maul who had potential that was thrown away. I watched it a second time, it's a lot better. And yes, it's reminding me a lot of Star Trek. There are plot holes, bad movie devices, awkward pacing, but dammit, the more I watch it the more I like the movie. The characters are fun, the settings are great, you just have to forget about the sillyness that is Red Matter/Starkiller Base. -shnar P.S. Oh, and my quip about bad special effects? It's in reference to the over-usage of special effects in the prequels. Watched Eps 2 the other day, and a lot of those Jedi 'war' scenes are so obviously bad green-screen, it almost looks fan-made. Some of the Jedi even just look like cosplayers got together to film a "star wars movie". Consider this, not a single set clone trooper armor was made for the movies. Every time you see one on screen, it's computer animated (and it shows. these movies will not hold up well).

I've never heard anyone felt the prequels were "too far from OT". They were just bad movies. Awful scripts, unsympathetic characters, bad special effects, etc. Just bad movies. The new one, it's definitely better than any of the prequels, but the fans are right, it feels too much like a Reboot than a Sequel. Too many similar plot points from A New Hope. The story I *really* wanted to see in Eps 7 is the back story, the fall of Kylo Ren and the rise of the First Order. In other words, why reboot Eps 4 when you could have rebooted Eps 1/2/3 and made it soooo much better? -shnar

I believe Disney told them to. Doubt it, since they have Carnor Jax in X-Wing. Disney didn't make them rename that. -shnar

Utah County has the following places I know of: - Dragon's Keep (Orem and Provo) - The Puzzler (in the Provo mall) - Blakfyre Games (in PG by the Purple Turtle) - Gamers Inn (Lehi, as your heading towards Eagle Mtn) - Game Den (Provo, by Movies 8) They all have 'open game nights', and half have dedicated Star Wars or X-Wing nights (trying to get Imperial Assault going myself at Blakfyre). We even did an X-Wing League over the summer, where we encouraged playing at different stores. -shnar

You're missing the point. The point is that the content of this expansion feels even more "Star Wars" than the core set, and that's a good thing! Whether you like the EU or the Prequels or KotOR or not, they all have a different vibe than classic Star Wars. IA is set in the OT time period, so it should feel OT. This expansion excels at giving a great OT feel. And hopefully it's a great sign of things to come (looking at you, Return to Hoth). -shnar

Sound like to me you need the original characters for it to be Star Wars, and I feel for you on that. Kotor is my favorite Star Wars experience and IA is a great addition to the Star Wars universe for me Was going to comment but its the same. Episode 1 is as much Star Wars as any other (not counting Jar Jar of course). Two Jedis trying to avoid a blockade/invasion of a planet and find a sith on the way... you know the rest. Yeah, the rest is horrible. KotOR was okay, just not great. Hell, I still play SW:TOR (and am pretty excited for this new expansion coming out, looks original yet still retaining a good Star Wars feel), but there are definitely times when it's less Star Wars and more generic-space-adventure. And no, I would /not/ want to play the original characters. I like being new heroes in the on-going saga. But there are missions in the core-set that don't have a very good Star Wars feel. I can't say that about Twin Shadows missions. All of them are really good thematically. It's a great addition to Imperial Assault. -shnar

Well hell, Episode 1 doesn't feel very Star Wars. And yes, KoTOR only kind of feels like Star Wars. It definitely feels more like random-space-adventure. -shnar

Witchriders of Dathomir? -shnar

The farther away from the movies you get, the less it feels like Star Wars. It's the main reason most of the EU is weak at best. With the core set, there are some missions that have a great Star Wars feel, but there are some that just don't. They seem like random-space-adventure more-so than Star Wars adventure. I didn't get that feeling from this expansion in any of the missions. They all felt very Star Wars, and thus it's a great expansion. And of course it's fair to complain that the components are limited to this expansion, because they are! It's not that they won't be used in the 'core set' (and technically you can, through the use of Side/Agenda missions), it's that these components won't be used in future missions. FFG doesn't like making expansions use expansions, so we won't see that Imperial Bridge in any other missions. (sadface) -shnar

The biggest problem I've seen with 2 players is that you can get 4 of a particular activation per round, the worst culprit being Move. With 2 players, being able to move 4 times can get you so far away from the Imps (on certain maps) that the imps can't do much. It's far more than 4 heroes could move. So being able to Move 3x and Open Door or some Interact is very powerful. Is it because of the Moves that your Rebels are winning so much? The only 'fix' I can think of is to limit the number of Move actions to 2 per round per hero... -shnar

I originally posted this over on boardgamegeek.com, felt it was worthy of a repeat here... Twin Shadows expansion Fantasy Flight Games loves to make expansions, and Imperial Assault is no exception. While technically IA has already had expansions, those are miniature expansion, i.e. one or two figures in a box with a mission. That's not a real expansion. Twin Shadows is the first 'box' expansion, the first real expansion FFG has made for this miniature/boardgame. And even though it's considered a 'small box', boy is it a doosey. Now this is Star Wars Twin Suns. Tattooine. Droids. Bounty Hunters. Boba Fett. Boba F*#!king Fett. Twin Shadows expansion, all components laid out. This entire expansion reeks of Star Wars, and that's a good thing. Yes, Imperial Assault is based on Star Wars, and yes FFG got a lot right in the core set to capture the atmoshphere of the original trilogy. However, there are times when I'm playing IA that I lose that Star Wars feeling, usually in some of the side missions that have a don't matter feel to them. It starts to play more like a game than an experience. Some of the epic grandiose space opera is lost in the minutae of the game. Not so with Twin Shadows! First, just about everything inside the box screams Star Wars. The figures are iconic (Stormtroopers with DLT-19s, Sandpeople, no silly Nexus), the Heroes appropriately Star Wars (a rebel soldier with a strong punch, and a techie spy with a new mechanic), the allies and villains are iconic (R2-D2, C-3PO, Boba Fett, and Kayn Samos being the only 'made up' character), and the boards are amazing. They fit seamlessly with the core sets boards, and there is one board in particular that makes the inner geek in me cry with joy: The Cantina. And as a bonus, on the back side of the Cantina is the bridge of a Star Destroyer. A feckin' Star Destroyer! Cantina on one side, Star Destroy on the other. *drool* The overall theme of the expansion is very Tatooine centric, hence the name Twin Shadows, a 'dark' allusion to the Twin Suns of Tatooine. The boards are either interior boards of the same feel as the core set (i.e. the brownish buildings or the blueish Imperial buildings), or exterior boards but all of the exterior boards are desert based, emphasizing the Tatooine atmosphere. There's even a new mechanic to help drive this point home, called Habitat: In addition to the Habitats, they classify all the tiles now as certain Tile Types. There's are only 3 types, Forest, Desert, and Interior (and no doubt the recently announced Return To Hoth will introduce Snow or Ice tiles). The only figures with this new mechanic are the Tuskan Raiders, with the Habitat: Desert[ keyword, but it makes the game feel very Tatooine-y from a mechanical perspective. And you know Ewoks with Habitat: Forest are coming Heroes, Allies and Villains Being a 'small box' expansion, there are only two heroes, but they both have unique twists on the archetype they represent. Biv seems like your usual 'ranged heavy hitter', as he carries a big gun, but his real damage comes from his Up Close And Personal ability, which is a melee attack followed by a free ranged attack on the same target. Basically, he runs up and punches the Stormtrooper, then shoots him in the face! It's a twist on the ranged combat used to seeing from Fenn or Jan. Saska is a support character, but they've introduced a new mechanic for her support abilities. She has eight Device Tokens and she gives them to herself or other heroes. They can then be used in a variety of ways (damaging badguys, helping tests, added defense, even healing) depending on the skills Saska has earned. It's a jack of all trades support character that is a nice twist to the current other support characters, and still maintains the Star Wars feel. She's a techie tweaking devices and letting her rebellious friends use them to take down the evil galactic Empire! For Allies, we gain two of the most iconic Star Wars heroes in the genre: R2-D2 and C-3PO! And they're very well done, with abilities that tie in thematically. R2 can do Tech tests on anything a Hero can do, as well as repair other droids. Threepio focuses other players and distracts villains (+1Evade to all friendly adjacents, similar to Han's ability). And, appropriately, he cannot attack Villains, we have Tuskan Raiders, Heavy Stormtroopers, Kayn Samos (a Trooper Commander) and of course Boba Fett! Having played quite a few missions now, Heavy Stormtroopers are becoming my go-to troopers, more so than Stormtroopers now. And Boba Fett is a beast! Just look at his card, he gets an automatic +1 Block and +1 Evade, in addition to rolling a black defense die! I played a just-for-fun skirmish with Boba Fett, Han Solo and Chewbacca (legal with the Temporary Alliance card), and while I lost, the 3 beefy guys lasts a long time. And with his Battle Discipline, he packs a very strong punch. And in skirmish, his unique command card lets him use all the abilities of Battle Discipline in one attack. Very, very strong punch. All of these villains really add to the Star Wars feel of this expansion. The core set's bad guys, some were great (Stormtroopers, Commanders, Vader), but some were just awkward and felt out of place (Nexus, E-Web gunned by a Scout Trooper, Trandoshan Hunters?). They weren't bad persay, they just didn't help with the overall Star Wars feel. These villains though, spot on! And they really drive home the Tatooine theme Twin Shadows is shooting for. Sandpeople? Sandtroopers? (basically, since the Heavys have the DLT-19s). About the only thing missing is Jawas. On, and Boba Fett?!? Yeah, this is awesome. The Mini Campaign Twin Shadows introduces a new concept, the Mini Campaign. While each of the missions can be integrated into other campaigns as Side Missions, you have the option of playing these missions as a stand alone mini campaign, that plays in less than half the time a full blown campaign would play. I love this! Just as in Descent, the full campaigns if IA take so feckin long that I rarely get all the way through them. My groups tend to fizzle out about 6 missions in. But a mini campign played over 4 missions? Hell, you could do that on a weekend! Plus, you get a much tighter narrative with the minin campaign. While I do like IA's campaign structure with Story missions intermixed with Side missions, the narrative can feel a little weak and even random stretched out like that. In this mini campaign, the story flows from one mission right into the next and creates a fantastic narrative. It also has a branching narrative, with 2 of the missions in the 4 mission arc being different, depending on if the Rebels or the Imperial won or lost. But as with everything in this expansion, these missions are great and have such an incredible Star Wars feel! They use the new villain Boba Fett in perfect Star Wars fashion and combined with the boards to create very memorable experiences. For all you spoiler sensitive fans, the block below details some of the missions, so if you want to be surprised, don't read below: The very first mission not only starts on Tatooine, arguably the most iconic planet in the Star Wars mythos, but it starts in the Cantina, arguably the most iconic set of the Star Wars movies (except maybe the Falcon)! And not only do you start in the Cantina, but you start with Han Solo as an ally! This just gets even better. And to put icing on the cake, part way through the mission, SURPRISE! Boba Fett shows up to rain on your parade. Holy Feckin Star Wars! I really, really enjoyed the atmosphere of the missions. The other missions follow R2 and Threepio through the desert. One mission sends you to Beggar's Canyon. Let me say that again, the Beggar's Canyon, the one that Luke would bullseye womprats in his T-16 back home. And during this mission, Tuskan Raiders are pelting you from a distance. Great fun doing the Sandpeople Scream after every shot! Eventually, you end up infiltrating a Star Destroyer, with some great 'track back' play (go deep into the ship, then have to run back to the entrance to escape, unusual for an IA mission). I just love being on that Star Destroyer. Just know that all of the missions are some of the best and most thematic missions in the series so far. They are very, very Star Wars. The overarching narrative that is the mini campaign is a great story centralized on Tatooine. Find a Weakness? It everything perfect in this expansion? Not quite. There are two things that are not so great in this expansion. Same Old Imperial Assault: While the missions are dripping with Star Wars theme, the mechanics of the missions are very similar to the core set's missions. It's a bit "more of the same". The mini-campaign is different, but if you include these missions as Side Missions in the campaign, they won't seem innovative or special. They'll be cool for the narrative of your campaign, but similar to the other side missions. Most IA players will feel that's a good thing. Nothing wrong with IA, don't fix what ain't broken. My group disagrees. IA encourages a run-to-objective style of play that my group never really liked (coming from its Descent roots). This comes from the never ending spawning that the overly generous Threat level, allowing the Imperial player to constantly spawn (especially if he has low cost Deployment cards). If the Rebels take time to 'clear' a room, they've wasted time they should have spent running past badguys to get to objectives, since the Imperial player can just respawn most of the badguys they just killed. So, if your group is like mine, you won't see Twin Shadows addressing this issue, at all. Content only in Twin Shadows: The *biggest* problem with all the awesome goodness you have in Twin Shadows is that it's just in Twin Shadows. FFG does a good job at not using expansion components outside of that expansion, and what this means for this expansion is you won't see any other Boba Fett missions except the ones in Twin Shadows (and the Boba Fett expansion pack of course). Tuskan Raider missions? Nope. The Cantina? Only in the one mission! And the bridge of a Star Destroyer? So sad. It's a minor gripe really, but a sad one too. I really wish half of the core set's content was taken out and all of Twin Shadows made part of the core set, so we could see much more use out of these parts! Conclusion R2-D2 basking in the rays of the Twin Suns, casting his own twin shadows. The Twin Shadows expansion is an incredible addition to Imperial Assault, and I would argue that it feels more Star Wars than the core set does. Great tile pieces, missions, figures, heroes and villains, all integratable into the core set's campaign, or played as a mini campaign on Tatooine. Buy it now, it's just what the Jedi ordered. -shnar