Gaarkhan over Gideon really handicapped your players, they must be either new or wanted a challenge with that decision. A lot of what you described works well against newer players, but having played multiple campaigns against the same group now I've had all of that countered. Fenn's blast is only a small fraction of his abilities, being able to assign or use 2 movement points every turn is just out of hand. Move 2, strain 1, recover with lone wolf, 2 actions left.. ya. Gideon's command is really where Fenn's massive Blue/Green/Yellow attack shines though, 4 shots and 7 total movement points between the two in 2 turns is a little OP. Add in trench fighter and/or some add ons for his weapon and he can basically take anything down and in a hurry. Diala isn't necessarily meant to be a power house offensively, her best abilities come in the utility. Movement and being able to pass through players/difficult terrain, re rolls for attacks, defense and ability tests for herself and others. This is where she shines. If your team was trying to play her as an all out damage dealer then they definitely wasted potential, especially with Fenn and Gaarkhan on the squad. I am also guessing that your Jyn didn't take or know how to properly use Trick Shot? But overall the game is 100% tilted towards the Imperial player, so you should definitely always feel in control. But good Rebel players will make you have to think and will adapt to your play style as you try to adapt to theirs, sounds like your players were stumped by a few movement patterns. Ya you missed the point. High single target damage means little when your fielding cheap stuff. Assuming that my players are bad is just low class.

I like the idea of using an ally at a higher deployment cost if you havent won the reward mission yet. However, I am not in favor of lowering deployment costs so much. A few allies need to be tweaked certainly but most do not. For instance, luke and rebel sabtoeurs are great but Han is weak for his cost. I did a house rule with him that he gets one reroll on defense each time he is attacked (made sense being a smuggler). Also gave him the ability ~: recover 2dmg. An important thing to remember with allies/villians is to always try and shield them. If you jump them out front and leave them there, you will be very dissappointed in the results. Better to spend 2 move pts to come from behind cover to shoot and then 2 move pts to get back behind cover. Exception is vader if you see a good opportunity for brutality.

Your first card with military might should be Assault Armor. Speaking from core game experience only Show of Force - Great. A focused attack each round is excellent. Riot Grenades 1xp - fair. I tried these for a good while but found them to be only useful against gaarkhan. Value will depend on the insight die pool of the rebel team Comat Medic 1xp - decent. Can be great in the right situations. However, great care needs to be taken around a Fenn player. Assault Armor 2xp - Awesome. May be the most valuable card in the deck as its often the difference between getting killed in one attack or 2. Forcing the rebel to use another action. Remember that you can use attachments on initial groups as well Endless Ranks 2xp - Just ok. The reason being that most of your troopers are going to come from initial groups, events (reserved groups), and reinforcements. Shock Troopers 3xp - Just ok. The problem is that stormtroopers only get one +dmg surge ability. They dont need more surges. Ewebs already roll plenty of surges as well. It will have a little more value with snow troopers or heavy troopers from the expansions. Sustained Fire 3xp - decent. Being stunned means not moving after attacking so its usually a suicide move for the trooper. Useful in the right situations Shock and Awe 4xp - horrible. For 4xp....jyou get +1dmg on 1 attack per round. Show of force is much better. Combat Veterans 4xp - awesome. Best used on elite stormtroopers in conjuction with assault armor. Turns them into a very cheap wrecking crew. my 2cents

I just finished a campaign as an Imperial player. I played with imperial might against Fenn, Jyn, Gaarkhan, diala. To be honest I felt like the game was mine to win or lose the whole time. In other words, unless I turned my brain off I was going to win. Biggest thing was planning what I was going to deploy when. For example, knowing that you will have enough for an elite eweb deployment on the same turn that has event spawning some other units. I say that as a preface to a counter about Fenn's value. While he is very powerful, I found him very easy to counter. Just dont clump up your units. Sometimes that takes a little creativity but its almost always doable. I had him figured out about 3 missions in and he was never a problem from then on. I still would often target him first just so I wouldnt have to worry about it. He does however make imperial gaurd not useful for their price. Diala was slightly more tricky to counter. IE not leaving a hole in your formation that she can move to and sarlaac everyone. Mostly I could just hug corners with my guys, pop around and shoot, then move back. Forcing them to spend movement to go after you. For jyn, it was simply a matter of moving guys in her line of sight last. Or if Fenn had already gone, moving a unit that wasnt in her LOS directly in front of the ones that were. The end result of using these tactics was to turn all the heroes into single target characters. That meant that cheap units like stormtroopers had a lot more value. Which in turn fell into the advantages of imperial might class deck. Havent played the expansions so I cant speak to those heroes.