Session Report
By Kordos– January 21, 2013
I love the Imperial forces in the Original Trilogy and I love the amount of Vehical the Imperial Navy can field in a deck, so after much deliberation after picking up a second core set I settled on the following for my first Deck Build and I finally got the chance to test it out today
Imperial Navy Affiliation
Defense Protocol x 2
Imperial Command x 2
The Endor Gambit x 2
28 units – 16 of those vehicles
6 fate cards
and most importantly 4 x Death from above, 4 x Tallon Roll and 2 x Orbital Bombardment to help all those vehicles really stick the boot in
My opponent was running a Rebel Alliance Affiliated deck and with plenty of resources and 2 x Mission Briefings in play he had the card advantage all game
While my deck can swarm it took awhile to get all my units in place, resource management may be an issue with my deck and of course the force struggle is not the strong point of the Imperial Navy cards either, I already knew this would be an issue but to then find my hand full of units I couldn’t play yet was a blow I was not really expecting
Despite this the game swung back and forth and when the Death Star ticked over to 8 the Light Side only needed to destroy one more Objective to win the game while they were trying to stop me from finishing off 2 heavily damaged Objectives and destroying one or preferably both would have netted me the game .
The Light Side narrowly avoided losing one Objective and just neutered my final assault and thus on their turn took their third Objective and won the game.
Notes:
- Will have to play some more with this deck and see if resource management turns into a continual problem
- Rebel Assault is crazy good and he had 4 of these!
- I underestimated Admiral Ackbar , never again!
So I had -
A Hero’s Journey x 2
In you Must Go x 2
Jedi Training x 2
My opponent chose an Imperial Navy Deck, mainly focused on Troopers with cards like Orbital Bombardment and Superlaser Blast to enhance and project his power - unfortunately for him the game did not last long enough for Superlaser Blast to come into play or for enough units in play to really get a good run from Orbital Bombardment
My opponent captured a card at the start but it didn’t hinder my play, I got enough Guardians of Peace, Believers in the Old ways and Jedi in Hiding out in the first two turns I could bring out Luke Skywalker with no worries of him dying from being constantly targeted by my opponent. My opponent suffered a similar problem to myself with my Imperial Navy deck in that he just couldn’t get his units out fast enough
The Death Star had only ticked to 4 and with my constant force presence coupled with my control of the play area I netted my 3rd Objective. The early arrival of Skywalker, coupled with his ability to engage in both players turn (Reaction: After your opponent’s turn begins, remove 1 focus token from this unit.) Removed Grand Moff Tarkin from play, helped hold the Force Struggle firmly in my favour and kept punishing the enemy Objectives, the game was over before it really started.
Notes:
- We played two games in about an hour, even with some rules checking and card discussion, I’m pretty happy with the speed of play
- The Imperial Navy does seem to have a tempo problem and takes awhile to build up, further playtesting is required
- The Jedi Objective sets are far more versatile than I thought, you can really push the attack with them, you have force icons a plenty for edge battles and their survivability is impressive, again, especially thanks to Guardians of Peace
Sounds great! I always felt slow with the Imperial Navy as well, but I recently played a version with some Sith thrown in. Between the Sith Libraries and Control Rooms, I had tons of resources.
It was very tempting for me to throw the Black Squadron Objective set in there but in the end I went with Affiliation theme over just a Vehicle theme. I’m not going to change anything up just yet, gonna give it a few more games first. Also the Hoth cycle packs may cover any shortcomings allowing me to keep the theme of my Imperial Navy deck intact but more competitive.
I haven’t put my head to a DS deck yet, but I’m glad to hear that the LS deck we separately came up with (Great minds often think alike!) did as well as I’d have expected. Glad that you pulled x2 Forgotten Heroes in favor of something else… I was actually thinking x2 Questionable Contacts (and S&S affiliation) for that spot, since Han Solo plays similarly well to Luke and that pod provides a slew of nice cards. I’m not sure x2 Jedi Training is doing much for you.
I don’t suppose you’d be willing to throw together the rebel/jedi LS list I had during group-think, because I’m curious how it would perform “off paper”.
(Rebel Fleet affiliation)
x2 Decoy at Dantooine
x2 Draw Their Fire
x2 Secret of Yavin-4
x2 Last Minute Rescue
x2 A Hero’s Journey
Jedi Training did help me keep the Force on my side right from turn 1 but the game didn’t really last long enough for most of my Objective sets to really come into play, I got such a strong board presence early on I was throwing away good cards in edge battles because I could afford to and it kept control of the game firmly on my side.
I’m not sold yet on Questionable Contacts, Han is a nice card but don’t think the overall set fits with the theme of my Jedi deck (shield/protect bubble and surgical strike)
I think the Forgotten Heroes set is overrated, would only include it if I knew my opponent was running an Emperor/Vader Sith deck and be live my deck is a better overall deck without it
I don’t currently have any plans to change up my decks at this stage, I want to get some more games in with them as is before Organised Play starts so I can fine tune them but I will keep your deck in mind
Allow me to sell you on Questionable Contacts.
Cloud City Casino is a resource, always good but especially useful to a deck looking to roll out quickly.
Crossfire is effectively 1 damage to whatever. It’s a tactics icon or a blast icon on Luke, on Yoda, on whomever.
Han Solo is possibly killing 2 units of his choice every time he attacks, one of them before defenders are even declared. You already have the infrastructure to protect him the same way you protect Luke.
Swindled can be used to bounce an enemy unit before hits are exchanged, or it can bounce a Guardian of Peace to keep it alive, or it can just fill the DS hand a bit to cramp their draw into new cards. Bounce operates offensively well when it also denies a card draw… it’s good within these game rules where it isn’t in most games because of that.
You might have me on Twi’lek Smuggler. It’s cost 2 for a squishy unit with so-so icons. Pushes well but is likely to die pretty much immediately.
Then there’s the objective itself — a 2 damage swing and you can often protect this objective with The Secret of Yavin-4.
What I do like about Jedi Training is It Binds All Things, which is a pretty great card. The card selection there isn’t terrible by any means… it’s just that there’s no way that a DS deck can answer both Luke and Han Solo, all but guaranteeing you have an ace in play quickly and nearly every turn. In a way Solo plays like extra copies of Luke.
And I just noticed that second icon on Twilek Smuggler is tactics, not blast. QUALITY UNIT.
@Theorist
Hmmm you have certainly given me much to think about, I’ll admit I have spent far more time tinkering with DS builds to get my two current DS decks than I have for the LS. I’ll have to see how my Jedi deck stacks up to a Emperor/Vader Sith deck.
Also don’t forget about Jedi Mind trick!
@Theorist: that deck is still on my radar to build and try out too. I find it intriguing.