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Imperial Assault – Jabba's Realm Review

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27 Feb 2017 01:44 #244583 by Matt Thrower

Let's start with an admission: Empire Strikes Back isn't my favourite Star Wars film. Return of the Jedi is. And my favourite scene in Return of the Jedi is the beginning, in Jabba's palace and on to the Pit of Carkoon. I like it because of all the things in Star Wars it's by far the most alien and esoteric of all and because it's full of huge, slobbering monsters. So getting hold of the Jabba's Realm expansion for Imperial Assault was like getting to play with my childhood Star Wars figures all over again.

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27 Feb 2017 09:52 #244584 by Egg Shen
Good stuff Matt. Like you I'll always have a special place in my heart for the opening of Jedi. There were so many weird monsters and creatures that left a lasting impression on my younger self.

I hear you on getting this cool material into shorter doses though. With Imperial Assault I've only purchased the small box expansions for this exact reason. However, once the Imperial Assault app comes out I will certainly go all in and gobble up all the big box expansions...starting with this one!

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27 Feb 2017 11:52 - 27 Feb 2017 13:01 #244591 by Gary Sax
I'm with you, Matt. Of all the situations you could choose for an expansion on the SW theme this would be my choice too. Or maybe bounty hunters, which they did.
Last edit: 27 Feb 2017 13:01 by Gary Sax.

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27 Feb 2017 12:49 #244593 by Colorcrayons
I am not a fan of the descent like play of imperial assault, so I am not their target audience for this.

But the 1v1 tactical game play: how has that evolved during the course of these releases? Does it make getting into the breadth of the expansions worth it if one doesn't want to play Star Wars descent?

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27 Feb 2017 18:30 #244625 by Michael Barnes
My only wish is that it was easier to get this material into shorter doses.

This is the #1 problem with Imperial Assault, and it is in fact the reason why I parted ways with it. Focusing so hard on the campaign game was a big mistake. The thing is, the campaigns are ultimately, like most board game campaigns, really shallow and really just wind up being about what avalanche of text-laden cards you get to keep the next time you play moreso than advancing a plotline or a story. When this expansion came out, I asked my two buddies that I played through the rest of the IA stuff with if they wanted to do a new full size campaign and neither were really interested despite this being a cool-looking addition. I was relieved, because I really didn't want the commitment of it all. Ultimately, it's not worth it. It is, after all, Star Wars Descent.

I have no idea why FFG hasn't put out a scenario book or something for one-off adventures, but it really is tooled right down to the text on the cards for campaign play. If you don't like that or your group doesn't get on board with it...you can give this game a hard pass right out of the gate. The small expansions were a step in the right direction because the campaigns were more manageable. Much was made that you could play hour-long sessions of this, but when you are looking at playing 15 hour-long sessions on tiny maps where you are trying to flip switches or pick up tokens...

Colorcrayons, the skirmish game is decent but it's just kind of not really worth it if tat is what you are looking for. There are far more compelling options for this kind of thing, the only thing really going for it is Star Wars. It's pretty fun, if you have people to play with that are into building teams and decks and all of that. But here again, my gang wasn't really feeling that so it floundered. I would much rather play DOOM, TMNT or any number of options out there- much better games, and much easier to get to the good stuff.

The only saving grace may be the solo app, but I just can't be bothered with it at this point. I'm sure it's as good as Descent.

Melted all my IA collection down into sweet, sweet polystyrene sprues from Nottingham.
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28 Feb 2017 04:05 #244636 by Matt Thrower

Michael Barnes wrote: Colorcrayons, the skirmish game is decent but it's just kind of not really worth it if tat is what you are looking for. There are far more compelling options for this kind of thing, the only thing really going for it is Star Wars.


That's the only point on which I can disagree. Everything you said about the campaign game is spot on. It's worth it once, especially if you've got access to a shorter small box campaign, but not more.

Skirmish though is great fun. There are indeed more compelling options for grid-based tactical combat games but not all that many and the Star Wars theme is great. Some of the skirmish maps are excellent. I printed some favourites out onto two sheets of A3 (that's 11.7 x 16.5 inches for you US folk), taped them together and then use them under plexiglass. All the fun and none of the hassle.

I've also found Skirmish doesn't benefit all that much from a regular opponent to build lists against, like X-Wing and Armada do. Without the huge slew of upgrades and options those games have, lA lists tend to be better balanced. So you can just pull two lists of favourite characters together, take them over to a friend's house and spend a couple of hours replaying the best scenes from the films.
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28 Feb 2017 09:34 #244641 by Msample
I agree with Barnes that IA character , as opposed to Skirmish could use some stand alone scenarios with force pools, builds, etc already determined. My usual opponent can be agonizingly slow in building out a force, or doing the character maintenance stuff between missions in IA. Sometimes you just want to just play a mission ( as opposed to Skirmish ) and get right into it. Sure, you could go online and look at what people post. But shit, put it in a booklet and people would buy that. Make it print on demand perhaps. I mean, put out a map and character builds for Jabba's Palace when Luke enters , or the fight over the Saarlac pit. This also allows people to use canon characters like Luke, Han etc that normally don't get used a lot. X-Wing and Armada, esp with the sheer volume of stuff out there now, screams out for some pre built scenarios.
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