Star Wars: Imperial Assault Campaign - Part 3

Uh-oh...

And we're back with some high adventure from a galaxy far, far away! With only four(?) missions left of the core campaign the heroes are getting more powerful at the same time as the Empire is deploying more of its elite troops. If you need to catch up please check out part one and part two of the campaign.

I only needed to paint one additional model for this session - Carnor Jax, I mean the Royal Guard Champion. Yes, that really is Carnor Jax as can be seen on the cards from the Imperial Assault beta playtesting phase. For some reason they felt they had to change it, probably because of what Disney let FFG do (and don't do) with established characters. However it's just as obvious as General Sorin really being General Veers. Anyway, on to the reporting!

As always, there will be SPOILERS for the core campaign below so keep that in mind.

After one win and two losses in our last session the rebels were hungry for getting one back on the ole' Empire. Unfortunately for them things didn't go according to plan and they found themselves being sucked into an imperial stardestroyer! There was a small chance of escape though, if they could destroy four critical terminals controlling the tractor beams and then get back to their ship. It looked a little hairy from the get go though...

I have a bad feeling about this!

While the stormtroopers didn't pose that much of a threat the E-web blaster cannon and the elite officer directing its fire proved a deadly combination! Diala moved toward the closest door and tried to open it to access the terminal beyond but rolled badly and lost a complete turn just getting it open, even with Gideons help! Jyn blasted stormtroopers left and right while ducking and weaving her way toward the other door. Fenn charged toward the E-web but quickly got pinned down and soon had to retreat back from the heavy fire. Finally, Gideon was so busy ordering people around that he forgot to move out of the line of fire and soon found himself wounded. And to make matters worse the door Diala had (finally!) managed to open shut close again!

I got to say that during the first two or three turns my dice were hot as hell while the rebels couldn't even open their doors. If it hadn't been murder it would have been funny how I just kept rolling four damage with my stormies and double that with the E-web while the rebel return fire proved mostly ineffective. Fenns assault on the heavy gun was beaten back and he and Jyn instead went the other way around, through the control room.

Charging an E-web with support is brutal!

Diala did finally manage to get in and destroy her terminal and Jyn and Fenn destroyed their closest one, while in a fierce battle with my elite stormtrooper squad just around the corner, close to the E-web. At that time the Carnor Jax spawned from a Doom-esque door behind them and proceeded to cut down poor Gideon. As more troops kept pouring in we had a little discussion about their chances and while they had managed to destroy two terminals and had one more nearby, the rebels simply didn't see how they could possibly take out the fourth and get back to the elevator back to their ship without all of them getting wounded. At this time Diala was the only unwounded hero but Carnor Jax was closing in so instead of drawing it out they held up their hands and let themselves be take captive.

Another Imperial victory! After this we should have played the forced Escape mission but after some discussion we decided to simply skip it in favour of getting on with the campaign. It's not that we didn't want to play the mission as such, but it would have meant the need for an extra session to finish the campaign, and it's not like the Escape mission has any juicy rewards you miss out on.

Instead we went to the next side mission and since Fenn's character mission, Brushfire, was available the heroes decided on that rather than trying to recruit Han Solo. It's a pretty fun mission where the heroes have to run around and disarm six bombs while avoiding fire from a huge AT-ST. It was of course extra fun since we got to use the painted model for the AT-ST which hadn't seen play yet!

*Gonk-stom, gonk-stomp, gonk-stomp!*

They again brought their meat shields, getting me enough Threat to deploy my veteran elite stormtroopers who are... pretty scary at this point! I gave the Assault Armor to the AT-ST for some extra durability as I knew both Diala and Fenn could put out some nasty damage. The heroes raced forward and quickly took out the probe droid and the closest bomb. Fenn then rushed ahead toward the red bomb behind the AT-ST! A bold move indeed. While he did manage to disarm that bomb he had to retreat before using it on the AT-ST as the fire from the elite stormtroopers and the walker itself was overwhelming.

A squad of heavy stormtroopers caught the clumped up rebel forces in a crossfire and put some light damage on almost all of them. Diala ran after Fenn, trying to cover him as well as getting the other red bomb, while Jyn ran pas the walker and down toward the blue bomb. Gideon and the troopers stayed behind and Gideon got the other yellow bomb in the corner.

It was at this point that Claes, who plays Jynn, realized she had made the noblest sacrifice!

Jynn's dash didn't go unnoticed though and soon the AT-ST had shifted its attention to her. Backed up by another probe droid the wounded smuggler was running head over heels, with trees blowing up around her! A wounded Fenn barely managed to take out the E-web and then slowly tried to make his way through the muddy water to the blue bomb in the corner. Diala bravely used her Way of the Sarlacc to figh of the elite stormtroopers but was soon wounded simply because of the superior numbers!

I really liked this little vignette! Two grunts firing away at each other while their superiors take all the glory.

The heavy stormtroopers took out the last of the rebel troopers and the walker again shifted its focus back to Gideon - the only still healthy hero in the group! Fenn just managed to disarm the next to final bomb and the Diala avoided enough damage to move close to the final bomb and... disarm it! Which was in the nick of time as the AT-ST would have moved and fired twice on Gideon in the next activavion - probably giving the win to the Empire. As it was the rebels stood victorious instead, having driven the Imperial presence off Onderon! A great close-fought game - much more even and fun than Drawn In had been.

We finished with the regular post-mission book keeping of buying weapons and skills. All the heroes now have one of their top 4xp skills and Diala and Fenn are using Tier III weaponry (Fore Pike and Pulse Cannon respectively) while Jynn is still holding on to her DL-44.

The next two missions are The Source followed by the Finale! However, with birthdays and christmas coming up it will probably have to wait until the beginning of January. Until then, may the Force be with you!