Category Archives: imperial assault

imperial assault

Some Suggestions For The Star Wars Fan

imperial assault, star wars, tabletop

Tomorrow sees the release of the new Star Wars movie, and yes I'm going to see it.

We in the “hobby” gaming world are a bit luckier than those that get their games from mainstream outlets. How? Well we have been over the last three or more years been lucky enough to have some really great Star Wars games to play.

Fantasy Flight Games have done a really great job of releasing great games, that look amazing, and give a really enjoyable experience.

Capture the feel of dogfights between squadrons of rebel and imperial ships from the Star Wars universe. The base set gives you the two fan favourites of an X-Wing and two Tie Fighters to battle it out. The base set gives you everything for two players to fight it out. Currently there are two versions of the base set. The newest version gives you versions of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter based on the new movie.

There are a lot of expansions for this game, that give you more ships from the Star Wars universe like Tie Bombers, Y-Wings, A-Wings, the Millenium Falcon, Slave 1 to name a few.

I will warn you this game is like crack, once you play you get hooked and start buying more and more ships.

The models look stunning in this game, and when played on a playmat (usually of some awesome star field/space image on) this game takes your breathe away.

Based on the Descent system, Imperial Assault moves its mechanics to the Star Wars universe.

The amazing thing about this game is that you get two games in one! You have the campaign mode, where one player plays as the Empire while the other players play as the rebels. Plus you also get a two player skirmish mode, where two players go head to head with their teams fighting it out.

The miniatures are super amazing in this game. But then so do all the components for the game.

There are expansions for this game, introducing fan favourite characters like Han and Chewy.

So they are the two I have played. I still have the Carcassonne Star Wars edition to get to the table. But I'm a fan of Carcassonne so I'm hoping this is a match up that works.

Also from FFG you can get the following Star Wars games, which I don't own and haven't played. So I'll apologise now for the rubbish coverage of them. However these have had some good reviews. And if I had the budget I'd definitely be buying Armada.

  • Star Wars Armada – this is gives you the big ships from the Star Wars universe like the Imperial Star Destroyer and allows you to recreate epic space battles between the Empire and Rebels.
  • Star Wars LCG – a two player card game using the FFG living card game model.
  • Star Wars rpg – if you like Star Wars and role playing games, nuff said.

From the mainstream market there is the new Star Wars Risk, which apparently not being as good as the fabled expensive out of print Queens Gambit, is still from reviews I've seen a decent game, that is similar to Queens Gambit and not actually Risk.

So I hope that's given you some ideas for games to play with the Star Wars fan in your life. Or even buy (although some of these are not cheap) for that special Star Wars fan.

 

Twin Shadows

expansions, imperial assault, star wars

I'm wrapping up the coverage of the wave two expansions for Imperial Assault with a look at the first expansion for the game Twin Shadows.

The contents of the box

 

So now you have seen the contents before they have been unpacked. Let's take a more indepth look at what we get for our money.

Tokens

Naturally we get more tokens for the game. These tokens are made up from:
  • ten damage tokens (four fives, six ones)
  • Six device tokens
  • Six strain tokens
  • Five weaken tokens
  • Four ally and villain tokens (just in case you haven't bought the villain and allies packs that also came out at the same time).
  • Eight ID tokens

The game also comes with twelve more map tiles.

Sculpts

In this expansion we get ten new miniatures. Two rebel characters called Saska Teft (below left) and Biv Bodhrik.

There are also four Tusken Raiders.
And four Heavy Stormtroopers.
As usual these sculpts are up to FFG's usual high standards, and begging to be painted. And before you ask I haven't made any progress on the Stormtroopers I painted with primer.

Campaign

For the campaign side of the game Twin Shadows comes with two hero sheets for the rebel characters.
There are nine cards that make up the hero class deck for Saska (below).

Followed by another nine cards making up a hero class deck for Biv.

There are also nine Imperial class cards for use by the Imperial player.
Two supply cards have been included.
You also get five reward cards.
Plus six item cards.
Four side mission cards also come with the expansion.
We also get six agenda cards.

Skirmish

Naturally the game comes with a skirmish map sheet detailing the map to use with the skirmish mission cards.
The two skirmish mission cards that go with the map sheet.

There are eleven deployment cards. However five of them are also found in the Ally and Villian packs that came out at the same time (these are used with the tokens if you don't have them). So I've just included the new deployment cards here.

And as expected there are deployment cards for the two new rebel characters also.

There are four weaken status cards (these are also used in the campaign).

We also get three command cards.

Summary

I like this expansion it adds new content to the base game. The expansion lives up to the FFG reputation for providing beautiful looking high quality games.

As a noob skirmish player I'm not sure I'd be playing with the new rebel characters. But that is mainly because I still think that the rebels are grossly under powered compared to the Empire. However the Heavy Stormtroopers I can see being used. I'm going to have to think about the Tusken Raiders.

Right I now need to play this more, get sleeve for the cards, and push on with my painting.

 

These aren’t the droids you are looking for

expansions, imperial assault

In this post I'm going to look at the contents of the third expansion that makes up the second wave. This time it's the Allie pack R2-D2 and C-3PO. Yep we get two miniatures for our money in this pack.

I have to admit when they announced this as an expansion I was puzzled. Then again I was trying to think just how useful would they be in a skirmish game. I couldn't see them being in many squads. Yeah if I was playing campaign maybe it would be nice to have them instead of the tokens. But still didn't the Rebels need some more options other than these two droids?

So in this expansion we get two sculpts one of R2-D2 and the other of C-3PO, the rule sheet with the skirmish map and campaign side mission, three deployment cards, a side mission card, five command cards, a condition card and two skirmish mission cards.

Let's look a bit more closer at the two sculpts of everyone's two favourite droids. I really do like the sculpts, they are up to the usual FFG high standard.
In this expansion there are two deployment cards for R2. One for skirmish games (left) and one for campaign play (right).

C-3PO only gets the one deployment card.

Here are the two skirmish mission cards.

Here is the side mission card.

Like Boba Fett this expansion comes with a Weakened status card, and these five command cards.

I can see “Hard to Hit” and “Single Purpose” making a command deck. They are nice general cards. I'm not too sure about the specific ones and how useful they would be.

Then finally we have the rule sheet, with the skirmish map, and the unshown campaign mission.

After looking at the expansion I can see a use (just about) for the droids, but would they make a rebel skirmish squad for me? No. I do feel that the rebels are getting the short end of the stick in the expansions. It looks like the Empire and Villiany groups seem to be getting all the love.

As a completionist I had to get this expansion. It's nice to have the extra skirmish map. But I think this is a weak expansion for me and wouldn't have been one I would have made available.

 

Painting Stormtroopers Part 1

imperial assault, painting

So finally I've got round to start painting some of my miniatures that come with my games. I'm starting off if you hadn't guessed by the posts title with the Stormtroopers that come with Imperial Assault and also Kayn Somos Trooper Commander the just released Villians expansion.

These posts will be documenting my first efforts in painting miniatures, something I've never done before. Capturing my successes and my many failures. Hopefully you will enjoy watching the trainwreck happen.

Today I've done the easiest part of the whole thing, and the quickest part also. What am I doing? I'm applying the primer coat to the miniatures.

For this stage I'm using Elmer's Tack, and Citadel Corax While model paint. In total I will be priming nine Stormtroopers and Samos, so a total of ten miniatures.

Before applying the primer using the Elmer's Tack I attached the miniatures to some cardboard. In my case it's some old Amazon packaging. This allows me to hold the figures and turn them around as I spray on the primer.

Next I went out side and sprayed the primer coat onto the models, turning them so that I covered them from all angles. While applying the primer coat I was trying to make sure that I wasn't applying it too thickly, so that I didn't cover up any detail on the miniatures.

Finally I left them to dry ready for stage two – applying a base coat. Naturally during this stage I made sure that the dark destroyer of plastic miniature figures Loki was safely relocated round my Nans.

Lo lo as I also call him, may look all cute and innocent. But I must remind you of the damage and expense he has inflicted to three of my Zombicide figures.

Right now I need to go “research” what base coat colours to use.

This series of posts are dedicated to my great friend, mentor and Scottish version of me! Duncan. Who I know will continue to nag me to get these done, and offer advice and tips.

 

Boba Fett Infamous Bounty Hunter

imperial assault

And here we go, and here we go, another character from the Imperial Assault Wave Two expansions. This time it's a Villian pack and is Boba Fett, Infamous Bounty Hunter.

Now I think Boba Fett is a cool looking character. However! I just don't get all this fandom for him. I mean in Empire all he does is ferry the frozen carbon body of Han back to Jabba the Hutt. He didn't even capture Han, Darth Vader did all the hard work there.
Then in Return, he stands around looking cool at Jabba's Palace, first bit of action he ends up in the belly of that sand pit monster after a nearly blind Han takes him out by accident! Hardly the stuff of legends

Anyway as the photo above shows the sculpt for Boba Fett is pretty cool looking. Ok that's an understatement it's bloody amazing. It really does capture the coolness that is Boba Fett.

Below shows the two new skirmish mission cards that come with Fett.

Fett gets three new command cards, one specific to him. Plus there is a new status introduced Weakened. There are no new tokens (yet – maybe Team Covenent will release some) for this new status included with Boba Fett. FFG suggest using coins or whatever is to hand at the moment.

Boba Fett has the following character card, six movement! Then look at his abilities. I can easily see Fett being a skirmish favourite.

Below is the mission sheet showing the skirmish map. Continuing my self imposed ban I haven't shown the campaign side to maintain some mystery for the campaign player.

Once again I present the campaign cards that come with Boba Fett, but remember I don't (or haven't yet) play the game as a campaign.

I think with Boba Fett, and IG-88 a bounty hunter skirmish squad is going to start becoming a thing. Boba Fett is a very strong addition to the game. I may not understand his following but that doesn't stop me appreciating how cool this figure is.

 

Kayn Somos Trooper Commander

imperial assault
As regular readers know I've just got the expansions that basically make up wave two for Imperial Assault. So I thought I'd do a series of posts looking at each of the individual expansions that go to make up this wave.
The first expansion we will look at will be the Villian pack Kayn Somos Trooper Commander.

Below is the Kayn figure. I really like this sculpt. I think it really captures a commander in its pose. I really should get the stuff in to paint the miniatures, or at least attempt to paint them. My friend Duncan keeps dropping big hints to me on Twitter about getting my act together on this front. And I have to say he is doing a good job of painting his zombies for Run, Fight or Die!

Below are the two skirmish cards for those that play skirmish games.

Kayn comes with the following three command cards. As a Team Covenent always say (it's almost a catch phrase for their Imperial Assault players), “Command cards win games”. As expected these command cards are all related to manipulating stormtroopers. Boy do they beef up Stormtroopers.

Next we have the two deployment cards for Kayn. Once again on the Kayn card we see actions that are aimed at manipulating Stormtroopers around him. Will Kayn make a Stormtrooper Storm a thing? I'd like to see a Stormtrooper only squad with Kayn in a skirmish game. How well it would do I don't know. Besides I think for me to try it out I'd have to buy another base game to get the figures! Ok that's not as crazy as it sounds, I've been toying this over for a month or two. Especially if I can get others playing the game locally on a regular basis. Oh how cool would that be to have a skirmish league running?

Now we have the Agenda cards that are used in the campaign game. I can't comment on these because I've not played the campaign side yet.

Finally there is the rule sheet that has a new skirmish map, and a campaign side mission. I won't show the campaign side so not to be too much of a spoiler.

I have to say I like Kayn. This expansion keeps up the high quality that FFG are known for. He will be a definite inclusion in any squad that uses Stormtroopers. I don't see how Kayn wouldn't be included. A great addition to the Empire forces.

 

Another off the wish list

game of thrones, imperial assault

I tell you this that Facebook group for selling and trading games is like crack.

Sometimes there are some good deals on there that are fair to both the seller and the buyer. Sometimes the seller is completely unrealistic in their expectations in the asking price. They actually think that a used game (even if it is only played once) should get them a price that is only a quid or two less than getting the game new!

So what has this got to do with me? Well I've managed to find one of those fair deals on there today that has landed me a copy of the Game of Thrones boardgame (hence the logo at the start of the post).

It won't be here until next week, then I have the problem of getting it to the table.

The game needs a minimum of three to play, and those three people need to have a large spare chunk of free time. It's my understanding that the game takes a bit of time to play like two to three hours.

So any one in the Wisbech area that would like to play the game with me drop me a line in the comments below.

The wave two expansions for Imperial Assault have started to hit the stores yesterday. I was hoping my order would have made it to me today. But after contacting the store, it appears that it was like a teaser batch that the stores have been sent. With the main shipment hitting next week!

So if I'm lucky I think I will have the expansions middle of next week. Exactly when I'm away for a friends wedding. But they will be (touch wood) in time for my next visit to see Nath over the bank holiday weekend.

 

My Awesome Weekend

imperial assault, netrunner, new arrivals, tabletop
Saturday saw me driving up North to the shadow of Kinder Scout to visit friends. As the photo below shows I took the odd game with me. I had ordered some new games that I was hoping would make it before I set off. Unusual for the Royal Mail they actually attempted to deliver my parcels, and they did it at half eight. Which meant I got them on time for once.
But I still had no idea what time DPD would be arriving with the one game I actually did want to take with me specifically for the weekend. Then a text message arrived letting me know they would be delivering the game Castle Panic before ten fifteen. Score I'd have everything before my planned leave time. For once the stars aligned for me.

Once at my destination for the weekend it was Netrunner time with my guru Todd. Todd was using his newly constructed HB Cybernetics Division deck against my Noise deck. Two games, two loses. But I did score some agendas so it wasn't a white wash. Then we swapped I played Todd's HB corp deck, while he played my Noise deck. I think this was maybe my third time playing corp. I haven't really looked at trying to construct a corp deck yet. I'm not really sure which corp is me yet.

I won this role reversal game, and then had feedback from Todd on where he thought my short comings were for my deck. I basically need to look at my economy (there wasn't really enough being generated), while there was also not much synergy going on in my deck either.

After a break, Todd constructed a runner deck that he wanted to test. So I played his corp deck again (well I don't currently have one) it was a tense game. But in the end Todd ended up winning.

While we were playing the last game it was getting near to the bedtime for his boys, and they wanted to play a game with me. So before they went to bed we had a couple of quick games of Batman Love Letter.

Tea for us grown ups had been an awesome homemade chilli made by Todd. It was just right, not over hot, but not bland like the chilli at work. There was a really nice heat to it. Perfect.

Sunday morning after breakfast was a quick game of Batman Love Letter with the boys. Then with the table in the middle of the room it was time for a game of Zombies! a favourite of the boys.

I hadn't played Zombies! before, so this was a new experience for me. My initial impression of the game was it was a lot of fun. Building the map as you go along was a nice mechanic. The game has a lot of opportunities for player interaction, well a take that interaction. It was very easy to screw over another player, forcing them to skip a go, stop them moving, surround them with zombies etc. One of the boys was really getting into this side of the game. That did add to the enjoyment of the game.

Run,Fight or Die! Fails

I tried to teach the youngest age seven Run,Fight or Die! However it didn't really grab his attention, especially with Cartoon Network on the TV.

How unfit I am?

After lunch we all went for a walk. The weather was hot, and the route took us over a hill to a conviently placed pub that used to be a mill. The hill was hard work, I'm so out of shape. Well more than usual. Luckily the return journey didn't have as much up, which was welcomed. The boys were amazing, not a single word of complaint, they really enjoyed themselves. It warms my heart to see kids enjoying the outdoors.

But boy was I knackered and sore afterwards. I really must get back into shape for the outdoors.

With the car packed it was time to say my good byes. I'd had a really great weekend. Great hosts, a great time. 'Nuff said.

Chris Shaner GenCon Star Realms Champion

Well the subheading says it all. A really big congratulations to Chris on becoming the champ. I don't think I'd be wrong in saying this competition is the nearest the Star Realms has at the moment to a world championship.
For an amazingly long time Chris was the top Star Realms player online however due to his alterism (he is no longer actively trying to push up his ranking since hitting level 40) he has been over taken and currently sits at number 4 on the all time league table. So really when you are that good at the game is it a surprise that Chris did so well in the GenCon competition?
Chris regularly thrashes me at Star Realms online. Sometimes I even make him work hard for his victory. Even more rare is the below photo, a victory for me. It just happened I managed to score this ultra rare win yesterday on the day I find out about Chris's well deserved title win.

Imperial Assault Wave 4 Announced

At GenCon this years big Imperial Assault announcement from Fantasy Flight Games was details of the wave four expansions. Wave four will have another big expansion which will return us fanboys back to Hoth.

Above photo taken from The Dice Tower stream from GenCon iirc ^_^

My favourite GenCon coverage from the week has been from Team Covenent and their unboxing and looks at the Wave Two expansions for Imperial Assault and the next big expansion for Android:Netrunner Data and Destiny. The videos give a great look with initial thoughts on the expansions, the enthusiasm for the contents, and the games really does come across in the videos. It's infectious and makes the videos a delight to watch.

The other coverage I have enjoyed is the MeepleWorship Instagram feed. This has been a great personal view of the show. Some great photos from the show floor, including loads of selfies with industry figures, celebs from the bloggersphere and of purchases.

New Arrival To The Pile Of Shame

The Recon expansion for Arctic Scavengers arrived this morning. It comes in a pretty big box. But there is a reason for that. The box is designed to hold not just the Recon expansion but also the base game and the HQ expansion (the right half of the photo above shows this). Apart from adding 140 new cards for the game, it also comes with the rules for using the Recon expansion, plus an updated rule book for the base game and HQ expansion. Now to just get the game to the table! Which is easier said than done.

 

New Imperial Assault Skirmish Rule

imperial assault, marvel legendary

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) purveyors of addictive Star Wars related miniature based games (some other company has the rights for boardgames) has released some rule “tweaks” for the super amazing game Imperial Assault. Which would explain why I've put the logo of the game at the top of this post.

The main change they talk about is for the two player skirmish mode of the game.

“The new rule is: “During a skirmish, if your opponent has more ready Deployment cards than you, you may choose not to activate a group and pass play to your opponent.” This rule goes into effect on August 15th, 2015, and will not be used at the Imperial Assault National Championships at Gen Con Indy 2015.“

The new rule hasn't been added to the PDF of the rules yet. I'm assuming it will be around the 15/8/15. But I suppose for casual games we might as well assume the new rule is live.

The Tournament rules have also been tweaked also. There is some gibberish about their software TOME. But the main thing that will affect tournament players is the following:

“In addition, with a new season (National Championships) comes a new set of legal skirmish maps, starting July 29th, 2015. We are keeping the Moisture Farm map from the core set and rotating out the other two. To fill the gap, we are adding the Kuat Space Station and Ord Mantell Junkyard maps.”

Plus FFG have changed some of the language so that it's consistent between all the tournament rules for Imperial Assault, X-Wing and Armada.

There is also an FAQ update, and also talk of monitoring certain characters (which they don't name). So I'm waiting with baited breath to find out which characters and what the outcome of their monitoring is. If I hazard a guess from stuff I've seen on line they are going to focus on the imperial officer.

You can read the full announcement here.

Like a lot of my games I just need to get Imperial Assault to the table more.

Upper Deck have been previewing some of the cards from the impending Marvel Legendary expansion Secret Wars Part One. Yep Upper Deck has soooo much stuff that they had to split it between two expansions! Or maybe they like to milk us fans of the game for even more money. Either way they are getting my money.

Yes I've blatantly ripped off their images from the Facebook page so that you dear reader can get excited about this new expansion as I am.

I have to admit that Zombie Mr. Sinister looks nasty. I can't wait to duke it out with him. I'd be half tempted to let him escape so there are two Masterminds to fight at the same time. That will be awesome and suicidally stupid at the same time.

You can read the new rules and see the information sheet for this much anticipated expansion here

 

Weekend Regrets

imperial assault, star wars

Can you believe after being so adamant that I would get to play Star Wars Imperial Assault on my visit to see Nath last weekend, guess what?

Yep, we didn't get to play it. Well I guess some of you may have worked that out from the couple of posts over the weekend from said visit down South.

However just before leaving yesterday I did get a chance to at least show Nath the awesome, nah amazing miniatures that are used in the game.

Nath was impressed with the miniatures, especially the AT-ST models. And then rightly so he asked if I had considered painting them. Der! Yep but at the moment that is not where I have any skills.

For those with a better memory than me, will remember painting miniatures is one of the skills I want to develop this year. Which to my shame I haven't made any progress on yet.

I agree with Nath that the miniatures would look good painted. In fact I think they would be taken to an even higher level of awesome painted. Which has been proven online with all the painted ones I have seen.

Now I just need to get this game to the table again, and hopefully on a regular basis.