Imperial Assault
So we plowed through five of the 11 (!) missions that comprise an Imperial Assault campaign. It’s pretty neat to watch the characters advance and the Imperial side evolve.
Gameplay is nice! It’s a lot like Descent, and it’s fussy and edge case-y just how FFG likes it. So even after 11 hours of play we were still discovering little rules that turned out to be essential. There’s some fatal flaw in FFG’s teaching methodology because their games are not especially difficult in practice. But dammit it’s hard to get them right on the first try.
I have some doubts about the repeatability of the campaign. There are just a few ways the core story missions come together, and then there are little side missions that are drawn from a deck built out of player and Imperial choices. But it’s definitely cool how organic the play feels the first time through.
The fiction connecting the campaign missions is terrible. I mean it’s just completely disposable. In that way it feels like it indulges the worst of traditional dungeon rpgs, but it’s so firmly a board game (and my needs and tastes in roleplaying are so particular) that it never really feels like IA is making a real attempt at being an rpg.
So, anyway, looks like about 90 minutes per mission, and we have six missions to go, so perhaps one more long day or a couple more normal evenings will finish this campaign up.
I have been tempted by this. But I have concerns.
I bought descent 2nd edition and then sold it. Because I ended up playing the overlords and I felt it was the suck ass role in the game.
I felt it was way more fun to be a hero than the villain. It felt like it was mostly too easy for the good guys.
Now I know that my group are generally quite crafty and sneaky. So it can be tough going up against a collective. But it drained the fun for me.
I love the theme of this a lot more but fear that the above issues will replicate themselves.
Any thoughts?
I only won one of the five games, playing the Imperials. But I made some errors and once I saw how to play stronger,I felt like it was a much tighter balance.
Most of our missions were down to the wire. Very close wins or losses.
Yes! Ours too.
The one I won was an Imperial side-mission (they didn’t want me to get the goodie). They lost by a single surge.
Mice & Mystics has truly terrible fiction and is pretty fun, so if I can handle that, maybe I should try this out.
Mice & Mystics is high on my get list to play with the monkey someday. As much as I lust after a fully painted IA, I would deeply adore painted mouse heroes.