Imperial Assault: The Bespin Gambit Review

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Apparently Cloud City's Wing Guards and Ugnaut scavengers belong to the Empire faction? One might have though that Mercenaries or Scum...

Those two groups do belong to the Scum faction. The only Imperial generic troop was in an expansion pack.

Jarvis wrote: Those two groups do belong to the Scum faction. The only Imperial generic troop was in an expansion pack.

Ok, basic journalistic fact-checking fail. Apologies, everyone and thanks for flagging.

Thanks for the review! Love to see expansions covered as they never seem to get enough love. I think the mini expansions are the only way to play Imperial Assault. I really dislike the crazy long adventure in the base game.

I'd be perfectly happy if they just released these smaller, cheaper expansions from here on out.

My MM review this week is for this...they have GOT to get a Road to Legend style thing going for Imperial Assault. I do not think I will get another expansion that requires an Imperial Player.

Michael Barnes wrote: My MM review this week is for this...they have GOT to get a Road to Legend style thing going for Imperial Assault. I do not think I will get another expansion that requires an Imperial Player.

Yep, I think you're likely right. If RtL has been developed sensibly, it ought to pretty much be a matter of just re-skinning it.

On the other hand, RtL is the only reason left to play Descent over IA, really. So they may be unwiling to hammer the final nail into its coffin.

If they came out with an IA app, they would sell a truckload .

Another thought occurred to me. And this may be an IP/licensing issue. But remember how they came out with the Arkham Horror painted minis ? Why not do the same for IA ?

Yeah, I was just thinking it may have some kind of weird licensing issue in there since it would be an app with SW content.

We did the whole campaign, me and my two IA friends, but we all agreed that we kind of didn't want to do another...and these are two guys I had done Road to Legend with, and the whole time we were thinking about how much better it would be.

If they do go with an app, I hope they just do smaller campaigns too. These long-ass Descent-style campaigns are fucking pointless. There's no real development in terms of story or character. You get new skill cards, the Overlord/Imperial player gets more stuff...there isn't any true change over time. It's just a way to drag it all out and make people feel like they are progressing toward an overall goal. It's an illusion. And I think this is the case in most campaign-driven board games, barring the legacy stuff.

TL;DR- I don't like campaigns.

Yea, I'm pretty much done with campaigns in general too. I get that some people like to invest in one product and go nuts. Over time I've learned that I'm not one of those people. In fact if I find out that a game only offers a campaign style of play I'll likely pass. Doing one shot adventures is way more fun. I like being able to reset, try a different character next game etc... Plus in most campaigns it's the same damn thing...nothing matters until the final mission. The whole thing is building towards this finale. Well, like Barnes said, it's bullshit. The Legacy style games sort of correct this by making big ass changes from game to game. However, one thing that is dumb as shit in these games (but unavoidable) is that again, losing doesn't matter. In Pandemic Legacy you could lose the first six times you played and you just keep pressing forward to the next month. The world doesn't get engulfed in Devil Syphilis or anything cool. You just repeat the fail mission rules, get what you get, pop open a box or two and pretend that the whole world ISN'T itching it's crotch to death.

I understand why they're designed this way, but it gives campaign style games this artificial sensation that really rubs me the wrong way. The only reason I like the Imperial Assault Expansion campaigns is because they're relatively short. I only like Descent RtL because I can solo that shit at my leisure. Or we can spend a day and crank out the mini campaign on a Saturday if so inclined.

The ironic part is that for many years I lamented the fact that there weren't any games that focused on campaigns. Now that they're here I'm sort of realizing that, yeah, I don't really want em.

(Phat phingers on the phone there. I like ya, Egg but about to disagree with you and Barnes. )

I sort of hear where you guys are coming from. There so much more to gain from an rpg campaign over a board game one. The differences just don't compare and I think that desire for that same sort of narrative and meaning is why we keep banging at these tabletop dungeon crawlers.

Either way, campaign play actually provides the ultimate in tabletop experience. I'm talking league play with the likes of Blood Bowl, Dreadball, etc.

No gaming experience can compare to a well run league. The injuries, the star tracking, the between match trashtalking and newsletters, the anticipation of a rival game or facing a surging team. It can be an amazing experience that simply can't be repeated in one and done play.

I should clarify and say that I'm specifically talking about campaigns in boardgames. RPGs, Blood Bowl...yeah those are a different story. I get the appeal of those and think they are A-OK. I don't think the code has been cracked in the boardgame world. The primary culprit is certainly the Dungeon Crawler genre which in recent years has seen a glut of campaign style boardgames.

That one's for realz.