Star Wars: Imperial Assault Campaign - Part 2

Pew pew!

Time to chronicle the next part of the campaign! With time being quite limited for a few of us we have only managed to play another three missions, but we're still having fun and this means that there is (probably) only three more missions to go before the grande finale! If you need to catch up, part 1 of our campaign chronicles can be read here.

As I've finished everything from the core box (except the leftover heroes) my painting has slowed somewhat and now I'm painting what is needed for the upcoming mission instead. In other news I have started assembling my new Yu Jing miniatures from the Red Veil starter, so my focus might shift. However, I did paint the Heavy Stormtroopers from Twin Suns and two Hired Guns simply because I love the miniatures and they seem are fun. No nice close ups of them at the moment though, so you'll have to spot the in action.

Again, there might be slight SPOILERS below so if you are sensitive to that, stop reading.

After having lost the last mission, trying to retrieve Diala's lightsaber, the Rebels were eager to throw themselves back into the fray and go look for Han Solo who had gone silent after leaving for a mission on Tattooine. The mission was Fly Solo, where the heroes don't have much information up front and are simply told to go open a door, preferably as soon as possible.

The Rebel Troopers really didn't do much this time around. Jyn with her sneaky snap shot on the other hand!

They decided to bring their Rebel Trooper allies with them again, which allowed me to beef up my defences. And although they definitely made headway toward the door, I think the resistance was more than they had anticipated. They didn't manage to reach the door by the end of turn three which meant that Han Solo had to make a daring escape by himself, blasting at his pursuers even with his hands tied!

Han rescues himself!

Now the objective became to protect Solo and get him to the entry point to win the mission. Problem was of course that I had spawn points at the two corners close to the entry point and there was soon a large number of Imperial troops (and their hired guns!) bearing down on the heroes and Han. Also, to add insult to injury, IG-88 made his first appearance and started relentlessly stomp toward the Rebel hero!

"Great rescue, guys!"

The Rebel Troopers were long gone at this point and the Heavy Stormtroopers now had the distance to make the best use of their guns. After much consideration and many a deep sigh the heroes decided to risk it by sending Solo out alone, and I agree that it looked like their only chance (as he was surrounded by Stormtroopers at this point). He did manage to dodge a couple of shots, but in the end the attackers simply swamped the smuggler and he went down from a nasty shot by a Heavy Stormtrooper.

In the end accurate heavy blaster fire brough Han down.

Victory to the Empire!

Next up was another side mission and I had put Means of Production into play, as it would give me a juicy attachment if they didn't do that mission next, or if the did it and lost. After looking at the alternatives the heroes decided to try and prevent me from bolstering my forces and went after the secret R&D facility to try and shut it down.

Having learned a valuable lesson last time, the heroes were quick out of the starting blocks in this mission!

Reading through this mission I was fairly confident that it would be an easy win for me, as I had the ability to strengthen a number of critical doors that the Rebels had to get through. But in the first round they already rushed ahead and blew through the first door! While this gave my newly placed E-Web some free shots at the heroes (inflicting nasty damage!) it also meant that the Rebels had seized the momentum of the game.

Diala and Jyn racing ahead.

While Jyn and Diala ran ahead to take care of the computer console they needed to access, Gideon and Fenn stayed near the entrance to hold off the reinforcements. This was another mission that really came down to the wire as there were several moments that were critical to the eventual outcome. All heroes but Fenn were wounded a the end and I just failed my chance to wound him as well. Back near the access terminal I actually did make three rather huge errors - 1) I failed to spawn my elite stormtroopers earlier (and instead spawned a probe droid. Bah! What was I thinking), 2) I moved one of the Stormtroopers clumsily which prevented me taking a shot with another trooper which would likely have won me the game, 3) I applied the wrong defence to the door in the penultimate round (the stun defence mechanism would have also won me the game).

Elite Stormtroopers and automatic defences put Jyn out of action, but Diala just managed to complete the objective.

So in the final turn Jyn blasted open the door but was wounded a second time as she did it, leaving Diala with just one or two health left to go in and access the terminal, winning the game! It was a fun little scenario and it was about time the Rebels got a win in.

The next side mission was a choice of either trying to receive Han as an (expensive) ally or help Luke Skywalker with some recruite for a very situational ability card. In the end the heroes decided to go for the card and so we played Sympathy for the Rebellion.

It's nice to be able to use the big damn heroes now and again. Go get 'em, Luke!

This is a pretty interesting scenario where the heroes, and Luke, have to try and save as many recruits as possible as their meeting has become compromised and Imperial troops are storming the compound. The Imperial player has the opposite mission of trying to grab as many of the recruits with his Stormtroopers for interrogation. I was mostly excited to play this mission since Big D would show up in turn four to look scary!

Tricky position for the Heroes. Will Luke's inspiring presence be enough?!

It felt very thematic to have a couple of Trandoshan Hunters joining the Imperials and they started close to Luke and the heroes and during the first couple of turns proved a real thorn in the Rebel's side. In the second turn they gunned down Luke, point blank range, and once the heroes finally dispatched them I had enough threat, from grabbing recruits, to respawn them again immediately!

This picture was taken mere seconds before the demise of Luke Skywalker at the hands of some dirty, dirty Trandoshans!

In fact it was quickly apparent that the heroes were in a real pickle as they had only managed to get out three recruits, with one more being carried by Gideon. They needed to save one more to win, but each time I wounded a hero I got to remove one of the recruit tokens still available on the board. I had made a beeline for the recruits with my Stormtroopers as well, almost ignoring the heroes, which meant there was only a single recruit left on the board. I had my Heavy Stormtroopers attack Gideon, but even after three attacks (using some Agenda Card magic) he was left standing with one health away from being wounded! However, I had earlier spawned an elite Probe Droid, just for kicks since I had so much Threat at the time, and for the first time since the campaign started I had an opportunity to use its self-destruct ability! It simply sidled up next to Gideon, Fenn and Jyn and went boom, wounding Gideon and allowing me to take away that last recruit and making the mission unwinnable for the Rebels.

This brave probe droid, VP-44, gave its life so that the loyal soldiers of the Empire would prevail this day!
We will remember.

Another Imperial victory, and at the end of round two! Both me and the hero players were a little taken aback at how quickly it had escalated. And I hadn't gotten to use Vader! Well, hopefully in a future mission.

So there we are, another three missions down with one Rebel and two Imperial wins. To continue our 50/50 statistics the Rebels should win the next story mission - Drawn In - which we might get to play by the end of the month.

End SPOILERS.

I don't really know what you're doing down here as there really isn't much non-spoilery to talk about down here. Hmm... well, thanks for scrolling down anyway. Oh, I know, I'll put a picture of the Hired Guns here!

Hired Guns, baby! Lots of fun to paint and play with. I used the cover of Beyond the Rim for inspiration as the clothes and pose are almost identical to that Rodian.