Imperial Deck Advice - Tech Superiority

[VryMadHatter 5]

Hi frands, 

Playing through our second campaign, again loving it, couple missions have come down to the final roll of the last round. But I have been tabbed as the next Imperial player most likely playing Jabba's Realm. Any suggestions on a fun/straight forward Imperial deck? Our group has now seen Military Might and Subversive Tactics, so I was thinking about playing Technological Superiority. Any advice on how to play it? Thanks!

[subtrendy 683]

It's a pretty solid deck.  

 

Honestly, I really think the high XP cards are worth it in this one.

 

To start off with something, you might want to pick up Technical Support for 1 XP- however, you'll have to be sure to bring some droids along in the campaign.

 

Then, Arc Blasters can really up your offense, while Cloaking Devices really helps your defense for a group by adding a white die to defense.  Both are 3XP- I'd make one of those your second purchase.  Once you have one of those, Superior Augments is nice for 4XP.  

 

After that, I'd pick up the 3XP card you missed, or maybe the other 4XP card.

 

 

Now, throwing all that out the window, Nemesis seems like a pretty fun deck I've been using in a campaign we just started.  Pretty straightforward, as well- but I probably wouldn't grab it unless you guys have a lot of the villains, or you're planning on earning a few villains as well.

Edited February 21, 2017 by subtrendy

[LegoMech 91]

I just wrote a big post asking for the same advice for my Twin Shadows campaign.  Good to see my first pick and three of the four cards I was leaning towards next are recommended.  I guess I'm on the right track.

[MadFuhrer 530]

When I played tech support (during my first ever campaign) it was a blast... once I got some xp.  I never picked up tech support because the only droids were probe droids at the time.  I picked up cloaking device to start, because two dice defenses with a chance to dodge are completely awesome.  then I picked up arc blasters because the ability to AoE stun was too good to pass up.  at some point they will fail their strength check!  Then I picked up superior augments.  the rebels were rightfully scared of basic troops with all the attached goodies.  I think my last pickup was jetpacks, just so I could get one more attachment.

I loved the deck.  It is a slow starter, but can really pick up!

 

[leacher 91]

Tech Superiority is definitely one of the weaker decks in the beginning but gets very strong as the campaign goes along. In my opinion this deck requires a bit more tactical play and less brute force than other decks such as Military Might.

I would definitely start off with Technical Support as you will get a ton of use out of it from the very beginning. Since it is not an attachment but applies to ALL of your droids this is crazy useful especially when you bring HKs into the mix.

Arc Blasters seem great, but I found them very underwhelming until someone shared this little nugget with me. The true power of the Arc Blasters is not their stun ability which heroes will most often avoid with a successful strength check. The true power is just making them do the strength check which burns a focus condition keeping it from being used on you with an attack. So ALWAYS have your Arc Troopers shoot the focused guys!

Like subtrendy said, the 4XP cards are really worth it, so be careful not to paint yourself into a corner with too many cheap early upgrades. This is especially important since the Tech Superiority deck is somewhat weak during the early campaign and you might find yourself losing and missing out on that extra XP.

[Stompburger 684]

If you go the adaptive weapons route, take Elite Jet Troopers. You can swap the added Blue die from Fly-By for a Red to roll BGR. It's a lot of damage.

[CruzinToVictory 61]

On 2/22/2017 at 10:17 AM, leacher said:

The true power is just making them do the strength check which burns a focus condition keeping it from being used on you with an attack. So ALWAYS have your Arc Troopers shoot the focused guys!

Care to explain this one? As far as I'm aware, focus is only used on attacks, so not sure how forcing them to make a strength check would effect this.

To the OP: I just finished my first ever campaign (I played as the Imperial and used Tech Superiority), and it was both a ton of fun and very powerful. My build was:

Technical Support > Arc Blasters > Adaptive Weapons > Failsafe > Hidden Detonators. I took the Detonators just because I had some XP left over before the finale.

 

Technical Support and Adaptive weapons are absolutely incredible. Regular HK droids become massive threats, and are very efficient at 8 threat when you can focus/heal one another. Couple that with the fact that I was able to heal bosses regularly and keep them alive to win a few missions, and it was very effective.

Adaptive Weapons was also amazing with Elite Jet Troopers. These guys are fast, and hit very hard with B/G/R, for just 7 threat. Arc Blasters is a great card overall because stun is super powerful against heroes, but it wasn't the best against my particular group because most had very good strength checks (Onar and Shyla, plus Diala was there to give rerolls).

The only thing I would have done different would be to drop Failsafe and Hidden Detonators for Cloaking Device.

A few pointers:

• Don't forget to attach your upgrades! Seems silly, but I forgot a few times and it really sucked.
• When a group dies, you can use their attachment on the next thing you deploy.
• Put Experimental Arms on regular Stormtroopers or other units that will die quickly. Of course this is assuming you don't have a unit that needs a lot of surge, but I found that they were dying in one shot each anyway, so might as well damage myself for the free damage.

 

That's all I really have. It's a super fun deck, and my campaign ended up splitting wins/losses right down the middle (although the dirty Rebels pulled it out in the finale at the very last second). I ended up "losing", but even though I'm very competitive I don't view it that way, as this format leads to more fun regardless of who wins. 

[a1bert 4,027]

Focused must be used in the next attack or attribute test.

Focus said:

Focused is a condition that provides the figure with an additional green die the next time the figure attacks or performs a test. The condition is then discarded.

· A figure with this condition must gain the extra die when it  attacks or performs an attribute test. The player cannot choose to save the condition for a later attack or test.

Also see the Focused condition card.

Edited February 27, 2017 by a1bert

[CruzinToVictory 61]

11 minutes ago, a1bert said:

Focused must be used in the next attack or attribute test.

Also see the Focused condition card.

Well dayum. I learned something today!

[Cremate 538]

Arc Blasters on Hired Guns is amongst one of the most annoying value-per-points in the game. Experimental Arms not only increase your chance of getting a stun in (and you can even use it on their Parting Shot), it might even allow you to attack a second time if it kills you off.

Hidden Detonators and you can do even more damage and grief.

...in fact the strength of this combination is so strong that it can create a negative play experience you don't want in the first place, so the best advice might even be to not use this, the most lethal combination with Technological Superiority.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Cremate

[frotes 139]

Yep, with augmented weapons they do that extra +1 and move 6. Or adapt weapons gives them RG attacks at point blank

I really think this deck is the strongest out there as there are a plenty of builds that work with it and it provides you with unique abilities that are strong. It also grows stronger with more expansions as you get more attachment side missions or droid/useful figures

 

The only thing is that is it a little slower to start off compared to the explosive strength of military might, or mortar rush, or mid game Sub tactics vs a strain heavy group. But from mid->late game, this deck is a monster

Edited February 28, 2017 by frotes