Ally/Villain House Rule

[Ally/Villain House Rule]

On 3/31/2017 at 1:52 AM, Pie Golem said:

We have already seen IG-88. They are doing an attachment that changes his rules. But frankly I'm not sure it makes him better. It takes away his recovery for starters and that is one of the few things that makes him worth while.

IG-88 is quite broken in campaign's final mission if you are tech superiority for 10 threat(if you have reduce hunters by 2 which you will ofc).  Double the surges you can do on all droids for that mission, give him experimental arms so he can heal for 5-6 every attack or do +4 dmg if they dont focus him, with white dice for good defense, with superior augments and technical support for +1 dmg and +2 speed, and save 2 threat for Failsafe if they try to burst him so he can survive with 1 hp and heal to full hp in two attacks. You can also additionaly support him with 2 regular HK droids which cost 6 since they are also hunters.

[How do we fix A New Threat and Fly Solo?]

Rebels can win a New Threat by ignoring all enemies. First hero activates to go the door past Nexu so Nexu cant block him, best to do it with Fenn since he doesnt take strain to do it and has balanced attribute tests. Then the second hero goes near the second door past two probe droids with double move strain, again best if its balanced attribute tests hero like Verena or Mek, and the remaining two heroes go to the elite probe droid but dont open the door to avoid reinforcements in end of round 1. Then they open all doors in round 2 and they should be able to get 1 shot at all terminals, it is important for Fenn and lets say Mek to do theirs first, so the group near Elite Probe droid knows which is the third attribute required so one of them can open the door and second one can move and try to the the test which they are good at. Try to give good weapons to your solo players i.e Fenn and Mek so they can open the door in one attack. Then round 3 just rush to do all the terminals and with some luck and preferably Diala, you can do it. 

[can an imperial figure use the same surge ability more that once on the same turn?]

You can with this only http://cards.boardwars.eu/Ally-and-Villain-Packs/Wave-1/IG88/Agenda Deck/Firepower+Upgrade.jpg and only droids for that mission. 

[Imperial Campaign - what is a winning strategy?]

You need to read and prepare missions. You should realize that your advantage is knowledge of mission. You wont make mistakes if you are prepared, while rebel might, even really good rebel players. 

First rule is, defense is more important then offense for IMP player. If you troops survive longer, you will eventually overwhelm rebels. So if you are facing Fenn, you should deploy your troops out of his reach, sometimes maybe for 1 havoc shot if they don't die from it, but never ever EVER deploy 3 or more figures into Fenn's double attack, thats suicide.(here you should be aware he can move 4 squares for 2 strain and attack twice). If your deployed units dont get to attack the rebels that turn, that is not nearly as important as them spreading out and not dying to blast. If your mission has small starting area and you cant do deployment without avoiding blast, then consider saving threat for later when you can.  If you can avoid giving Mek movement then dont move just shoot, and focus from Jeswandi as well. Sometimes it is more important that you don't shoot at all at Garkan rather than doing 3 dmg and giving him focus, because again Defense > Offense. If shooting is free then of course do it, if you give rebels something while shooting or moving, then think twice about it is it worth it.  

Offense becomes much better with deplete cards. The one where you get threat level when wounding is key, and also Fire at will, which will help you a lot to get there. 

On a larger map, often it is better to use officers first so you can do "empty activation". This is quite important. You should seldom try to rush to rebels, let them come to you. You spread out with officer and wait. If you move to them they will strain and shoot you twice. If they come to you they might need to use move action, and only shoot once, which makes your troops survive longer. Again, defense > offense. Of course this changes as the missions progress, and you get stronger and better units with more deplete cards.

Don't always poke around, its often better to focus on one guy, maybe even wipe him from board if you can, at least force rebels that they use their precious first activation every turn on one guy healing in fear of being wiped out of the map. 

For these purpose, it is best to calculate your dmg burst, and also how much rebel will kill your stuff depending on their weapons http://mattyellen.github.io/imperial-assault-calculator/     

Example of combo(you can do this with Elite Stormtroopers as well, is still really strong, I just played Hoth so its in my recent memory): you Deploy Elite Snowtroopers, and for example play Military Might. (http://cards.boardwars.eu/Expansion-Boxes/Return-to-Hoth/Deployment Cards/Imperial/Elite+Snowtroopers.jpg

If you have Fire at will, Sustained fire(3xp) and have on your Snowtroopers Assault Armor(2xp) and Combat Veterans(4xp). You can do with only one Snowtrooper from your group 3 attacks instead of 1 averaging 14 dmg on a black dice rebel and easily wound or wipe him off the board with the remaining troopers from your group with following example combo.

Use move to position yourself.  First attack use Show of Force to give Snowtrooper focused. Snowtrooper attack with 2xGreen and Blue Dice and has +1 dmg from Combat Veterans.  It is highly likely that he will get surge against black dice, and use that surge for Focus/weaken, priority over pierce 2. Then use Fire at will, you again attack with  2xGreen and Blue Dice and you have +1 dmg and + 1 surge so you can refocus yourself and do pierce 2 almost for sure. Then you use Sustained Fire for third attack again with 2xGreen and Blue Dice + 1 dmg, and use pierce 2 over refocus for maximum Burst Dmg.  And you still have two remaining Snowtroopers, which means that if a rebel figure(stats max 12hp, black dice) is not wounded but has like 5-6 dmg on him, you can wipe him off the board with good attack sequence in one activation. 

This combo, which you can also do in core with Stormtroopers can wound easily which gives your Threat lvl with deplete card and gives you instant strong reinforcements(Royal Guards for example) and force rebel to think twice about continuing to focus only on killing your stuff. If they activate first to heal that one guy, you use Royal Guards to stun those who didn't activate. If they attack instead of healing, you wipe that guy off the board. Its win-win situation for IMP player.

Lastly, in Core, Technical superiority is the strongest IMP deck(take the OP white dice after Technical support and then Superior Augments with attachments over Adaptive dice), Subversive is good overall, but gets countered by some rebel heroes(Gideon's 3xp talent counters your 3xp talent) and usually doesn't scale that good into Finale because its main Strength are the strongest 1xp Cards, while Military Might is strong and easy to use but overall not as strong as Subversive and Tech.