Review: Imperial Assault

 "The Fool Doth Think He Is Wise" - An Imperial Assault Review

The Basics

For my first review, I decided to pick the first campaign game I ever played: Star Wars Imperial Assault. My friend John introduced me to it, and though it was the Star Wars skin of the game that first attracted me, I really fell in love with the campaign model. I did a lot of role-playing in college (Vampire: The Masquerade, Rippers, a couple of others), and then after college, I did a lot more of it. I played in an on-going D&D 3.5 campaign, I ran Scion for a long while, and I happily RPed just about every week. I moved to St. Louis and met a random group of people, some of whom ended up becoming some of my closest friends, and ran a weekly Changeling: The Lost campaign for 9 months. But as my life became more full with work and my company and my relationship, I just didn't have the time or energy for a weekly game anymore. My son was born, and I basically stopped role-playing altogether.

Now, I was introduced to Imperial Assault before most of this. It came out in 2014, and I'm guessing I started playing in 2015. Basically, the model of the game is this: each player selects a hero in the Star Wars universe, then plays through a series of missions during which a story unfolds. During that story, the characters level up and gain new abilities and new gear. There are actually two ways of playing this game, now - with 1-4 players playing as Rebel heroes, and 1 player playing as the Empire (basically operating as a Dungeon Master, wherein they control every Imperial character, know the story arc, and handle anything not directly related to the heroes, such as map or mission-specific rules, map setup, etc.), or with 1-4 players operating as Rebel heroes while playing on the free Imperial Assault app (in which case the app controls the Imperial figures on the board as well as shares the map setup and mission-specific rules and objectives).

Here are some basics about the game:

The Specs

Player count: 1-5 (specifically, 1-4 with the app, and 2-5 without the app)

Playing time: 60-120 minutes (this is basically a bald-faced lie, but I'm not mad about it; I'll get into why a bit later in the review)

Age: 14+

The Expansions

Most of them are great! You absolutely don't need them to play the game, as the base game has a decent amount of content, especially with the app. I should note that there are a large number of expansions, some of which are rather difficult to get. There are the small box expansions (Twin Shadows, The Bespin Gambit, and Tyrants of Lothal), and these each include a sort of mini-campaign featuring somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 missions. Everyone starts the campaign with a little experience to make up for the fact that there isn't as much time to level up as in the major campaigns. The big box expansions (Return to Hoth, Jabba's Palace, and Heart of the Empire) each include a major campaign, which usually have in the neighborhood of 10 missions (with side missions). Both of these types of expansions include new missions, new minis (for both Rebels and Imperials), new heroes, and new upgrades for both Imperials and Rebels. In addition to these, there are "blister packs," each featuring figures that may have been referenced in the box expansions, but only came as tokens rather than as minis (such as Emperor Palpatine in the Heart of the Empire expansion). You don't need to pick up the blister packs to use these characters, as the expansions in which they're named include tokens that represent said characters. However, the blister pack comes with a side mission and some upgrade cards (both for campaign and skirmish mode, which I'll explain later) in addition to the mini. So it's not *just* a question of game aesthetic. However, it depends on how deep you want to get. You should play the game without the blister packs to see how often you plan on replaying it. If you plan on getting a lot of mileage out of it, then the blister packs (if you can find all of them!) are totally worth it. If not, you're really not missing out by not having them.

Cool, right?! I mean, they don't come painted, so this would take some work. But still, I love the minis.

Honestly, I like 5 of the 6 box expansions. The only one about which I have complaints is the Heart of the Empire expansion. That's because it introduced a mechanic that I thought was extremely lazy and not particularly thematic: power tokens. Basically, you can hold on to up to 2 or 3 of these, and there are 4 different types (damage, block, surge, surge block - different combat mechanics I'll get into a bit later). Basically, it just adds one of whatever it is to a roll of your choice. There's no in-game descriptor or anything, it's just a new mechanic they introduced. It feels so stapled on without any attempt at theme integration that I just found it incredibly disappointing. For anyone who knows the game, you might say, "But Saska (a Rebel hero) hands out Device tokens, and they can add surges or do other stuff in the middle of the game." This is true; they can. But at least there was an attempt to incorporate these tokens into the game and the character, and the tokens also served another purpose. As small as it seems, the notion was that these were little devices that Saska cobbled together. The tokens introduced in Heart of the Empire don't even pretend to be anything other than stored game-mechanic bonuses. It was just disappointing, given that I often credit Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) with doing a great job of integrating story and theme with their games. As a result, I thought the Rebel and Imperial figures based around these tokens were weaker than previous choices (not necessarily in game play, just in thematic and storytelling feel). But otherwise, the expansions are worth purchasing if you like the game and like having choices.

Skirmish Mode

I won't be talking much about this mode of the game, as I didn't play it much and Organized Play for it no longer exists. Basically, it's a two player mode of the game in which each player assembles a team using different characters and upgrades within a set point limit, and then players send their teams against one another on different maps to see who can win. I tried it once and wasn't interested enough to try again. I know plenty of people were, but to me, the appeal of the game was in it being a campaign game rather than a minis game.

Gameplay

Gameplay alternates between the Rebels and the Imperials. Basically, each round starts with the Imperial player changing the round counter, gaining Threat based on circumstances dictated by the mission being played, and then uses that Threat as currency to deploy different groups of enemies. Each group of enemies or enemy villain has a point cost, and so the Imperial player must pay that much Threat to deploy the selected enemy or enemy group to a deploy point (determined in advance based on the scenario and printed on the map used by the Imperial player to move the story along). It might be a group of Stormtroopers, it might be Jabba the Hutt, it might be a dreaded AT-ST. Depends on what the Imperial player is allowed to bring and how much Threat they have to spend. Then a Rebel hero will activate and go, followed by an Imperial group (which may be a single villain, or may be a group of 3 Stormtroopers, depending on the Imperial players choice), and the turn continues like that, alternating, until all players have activated whatever characters they control. Then the turn ends.

Heroes: 1-4 Rebel heroes can play the game. On each hero's turn, they get two actions which they can spend in any way they like. The actions from which players can choose are Move, Attack, Interact, Rest, Special Action. Any of these actions can be repeated during the turn so long as the player has an action remaining. Movement is based on a value printed on the hero's character sheet. Attacking an enemy or an object is picking a target in Line of Sight, rolling attack dice based on the weapon being used, adding any bonuses from abilities, and then resolving damage after the defender has rolled defense dice. Interact varies depending on the scenario; Interact may mean opening a crate to find items and credits (used to purchase gear between missions), opening or closing a door, or using a terminal to make a test to advance the mission, or whatever else a mission deems an Interact. Resting means recovering Strain equal to your Endurance. If your Endurance value exceeds the Strain you removed, then you may also remove damage until your Endurance value is equaled by the amount of Strain and damage you removed. Finally, special actions are usually on your character sheet or character ability and are denoted by an arrow. Special actions cannot be repeated in the same turn.

Imperials: The game says that 1 player plays as the Imperials, but we've actually found that it can be successful and make for a more balanced experience with 2 players controlling the Imperials. It often ends up being 1 against 3 or 4 otherwise, which can lead to some crappy feelings in-game if it swings hard one way or the other. It's easy to feel as though the Rebel players are teaming up against the Imperial player because that's, in fact, what is happening. Logically, we know that getting into the game, but it can still feel like a tougher beat. Plus, the Rebels have the advantage of multiple sets of eyes on things, whereas a single Imperial player has a LOT to track. It helps to have another brain and another set of eyes to even things up a bit. Imperial figures get the same actions as Rebel figures, but cannot Attack twice unless they have an ability that specifically says they can.

My Thoughts on Game Play: Overall, I think game play is sharp! Imperial Assault is the successor to Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and one can really see where they learned from mistakes in Descent, because the changes in game play from Descent to IA are fairly small and few, but very effective. Rather than being able to miss with an attack die (as in Descent), there is a Dodge side on one of the defense dice in IA (which negates an entire attack). It seems a small thing, but it feels way worse to roll a miss in Descent than to have an opponent Dodge in IA. Also, in Descent, bigger models would "shrink" down and then "re-expand" on the other side of their movement, which let dragons and other huge models do some really ridiculous things. They did away with that in IA. There are other changes between the games that, again, show the evolution of the model. As much as I love Descent, I'm appreciative of that. I think the game design is really sharp and I like it a lot! My only real complaint isn't necessarily gameplay as much as design.

In Descent, each hero player picks a character, and each of those characters belongs to an archetype (Fighter, Healer, Spellcaster, or Scout). Within each of those archetypes are class decks, and so for each character you choose, there are nine classes from which to choose (which include cross-classes with the other archetypes). Which translates into a TON of different ways you can build characters, and thus, a ton of a different ways you can build parties. Party-building is so much fun in Descent: Journeys in the Dark! We lose a lot of that in Imperial Assault because when you pick a character, they come with their own experience deck. So the only abilities you can buy come from that particular character's deck. The ability cards are tiered from 1xp to 4xp, and there are two cards at each level. So there's some flexibility in how you spend your experience and what upgrades/abilities you purchase, but not much. Especially because some abilities are straight-up better than others. So for some characters, there is a "right way" to build a character, so why would you bother picking anything else? That limit in choices does mean that replayability may be limited for some people depending on how much they've bought into the game. Without the box expansions and new heroes with which to mess around, I believe I'd have maxed out at around something like 3 plays. At that point, I'd have tried the heroes I wanted, I'd have seen how the other characters played, and I'd be ready to move on from the game. So I think it's a pretty big flaw, but it's not something that sinks the game. It just makes the expansions that much more needed to get a lot of replayability out of the game.

Components

The components are really nice! The map tiles that fit together to make different maps for different missions is a design that is carried over from Descent, and I really like it. It would've been easy enough for them to use fewer tiles and just try to make the missions feel different based on specs rather than aesthetic, but I've played Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth enough times to know that it does make a difference when the maps all basically look the same. Don't mistake me - I like LotR! But the map tiles get really dull and do subtract from the game. In IA, the map tiles add to the game, and I appreciate that. The minis are details and a lot of fun. They can also encourage one to start painting minis, which can be time-consuming, but also a really worthwhile endeavor. There's no way I'll ever paint ALL of IA, but I've painted some of the heroes, and I feel like it adds a little to the game. Plus, it's a way to relax my brain and indulge in my hobby before bed. The materials on which all the tokens, map tiles, and cards are printed are solid. No flimsy cards in this game! Basically, I got the components in this game that I expect from FFG. When I think of FFG games, I think of quality. I may not like everything they put out, but I like a lot of it, and my complaints are very, very rarely about the quality of their components.

The App/Solo Play

The app is good overall. It gives you a way to play the game solo, too, which I appreciate. There are a couple of campaigns, so it's not like it offers a TON of content, but it's also free to download. It allows all the players to play on the same team as the Rebels, so there need not be resentment toward another player if the contest turns one-sided. Also, again, you can see how they learned from the Descent app and implemented those lessons in the IA app. The AI of the Imperials is stronger than that of the Overlord (equivalent position in Descent) in that it lists priorities more clearly and intelligently. That said, my friends and I abide by a rule when we're playing against the app: we make the choices we would make if we were playing as the Imperials and let the app be the tie-breaker when we're undecided. For instance, if one of our heroes only has one health, but the app suggests that the active Imperial figure should attack the hero with the most health, we evaluate the situation and often decide to have that figure knock down a hero because that makes more sense. The AI of the app is well-designed, but again, without knowing how much health our heroes have and without knowing where all of our heroes are, it is limited in how it can function. So we help it along to give ourselves more of a challenge. It's definitely worth exploring and adds value to the game.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, I really enjoy Imperial Assault. It doesn't hit the table as often as it used to, but periodically, I really feel like busting this out. I'm currently in the middle of a campaign and really enjoying it so much that it inspired me to paint my group's heroes. I really haven't had time to roleplay regularly since my son was born in 2017, and I miss it. I've tried getting back into it, but I just don't have the time and reliability of schedule to do it since becoming a stay-at-home parent. Campaign games like IA have really helped fill that void! These tabletop games obviously don't go quite as deep as RP games like D&D, and they're not nearly as flexible. But honestly, games like IA make it so I rarely miss RPing, and I'm grateful for that.

If you like campaign games in general, this is a good fit. If you like Star Wars, this is a good fit. If you don't like campaign games, you're not going to enjoy Imperial Assault. If you already have one or more campaign games that you enjoy, then it's worth trying IA to see how they compare. But I also won't claim that IA is the best of the campaign games. I will say that if you're going to buy in, components are getting hard to find, so it might be worth buying in now! If you don't like the game much, you can always resell it. But I think if you enjoy campaign games and enjoy Star Wars, this game should absolutely be in your collection.