To assist with the community vote, the IACP Steering Committee presents these summaries of the Playtest Survey. Based from our playtest results, the Skirmish Committee enabled a few figures to become more powerful and fun to play, but we also missed the mark on others. These results are current as of Friday, June 28th.
Kanan Jarrus (cost reduced from 8 to 7)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 2; Balanced: 14; Underpowered: 2 |
| Fun Ratings: Neutral: 5; Fun: 7; Very Fun: 1; |
We reduced Kanan’s price down so that he could more easily pair up with Rebel Force Users. Our playtesters didn’t find him as inspiring to use as Ahsoka or Jedi Knight Luke, as we received the least amount of feedback about him. What we did receive was mostly positive.
If this version of Kanan is accepted as part of IACP official, you might be wondering what happens when IACP implements the fixed Spectre Cell. Kanan’s price drop would give 2 Deployment points for Spectre Cell players to use for Skirmish Upgrades or attachments. Nothing has been decided for certain, but given that the fixed Spectre Cell no longer grants the strong static +1 BLOCK and +1 DAMAGE abilities, the Steering Committee may allow Spectre Cell players the extra Deployment point to further buff their squad.
Ahsoka Tano (cost reduced from 8 to 7)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 8; Balanced: 21 |
| Fun Ratings: Neutral: 5; Fun: 20; Very Fun: 9; |
Ahsoka’s point cost drop should be considered a massive success. Our testers told us that having Ahsoka jumping around the board for her new reduced cost felt good and fun. Like other Force User melee units, she can be too easily removed from play before impacting the game in the way players want. But that is an overall issue with melee figures in Imperial Assault, and the IACP will be evaluating potential solutions for future Seasons.
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (cost reduced from 12 to 11)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 7; Balanced: 16; Underpowered: 2 |
| Fun Ratings: Neutral: 8; Fun: 8; Very Fun: 1; |
The idea behind Jedi Knight Luke’s cost reduction was to increase his pool of potential teammates and reduce the penalty you pay once Luke is defeated. Our playtesters found that Luke is better at this price point, but he is still dependent on 1) drawing and playing Son of Skywalker in order to perform enough in a game to be worth 11 Deployment points, 2) his attack pool can still be disappointing & 3) when playing against Hunters, he often is still removed by 3 strong attacks, which limits the amount his Deflection ability can impact the game. We believe this is why a significant number of playtesters gave Jedi Knight Luke a lukewarm fun rating.
Future IACP Seasons may be looking to improve melee figures & Force Users. We’ll monitor how Jedi Knight Luke benefits from those first before addressing any further modifications to his card.
Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion (cost reduced from 10 to 7)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 7; Balanced: 13; Underpowered: 8 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 2, Neutral: 3; Fun: 9; Very Fun: 3; |
At first, IACP reduced Farmboy Luke’s cost from 10 to 9. Feedback we received from playtesters indicated strongly that Luke’s abilities and stats did not meet the criteria of a one-point price drop.
The Steering Committee adjusted by dropping Luke’s cost down to 7. This finally got Luke in the right price point range for his abilities. Luke still struggled with producing enough ranged attack damage on his own — a few of our playtesters wondered if Luke should be able to use Inspiring on himself. However, our playtesters really appreciated having Luke’s Inspiring ability back on the board to buff other unit’s attacks.
Overall, the point reduction may not put Farmboy Luke into high-tier competitive play. But it seems from our playtesting feedback that it is a good starting point for improving this Deployment card. One of our playtesters was happy that they could finally play a squad containing all of the A New Hope heroes who were brought onboard the Death Star.
Ko-Tun Feralo (cost reduced from 7 to 6)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 3; Balanced: 13; Underpowered: 8 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 3, Neutral: 8; Fun: 9 |
Rebels have a real need for good ranged Unique figures in the 5 to 6 Deployment cost range. With Professional and a 3-die attack, Ko-Tun Feralo would seem to fit this mold once her cost was reduced to 6. Our playtesters found that it was still not enough.
While most of our playtesters found her abilities balanced at the new price point, they told us that she still has limited impact on the game. They found her ability to finish off wounded figures lacking. This was partially due to her attack stats and partially because she cannot give herself Power Tokens. They also mentioned that giving out just 1 Power Token per round doesn’t do enough when compared to a figure like Thrawn. One of our testers summed it up by saying Ko-Tun can’t decide whether she wants to be Hera or a proper secondary attacker.
Some of our testers would like to help Ko-Tun make this decision, by either dropping her to 5 points or modifying her Arms Distribution so that it gives out 2 tokens & potentially one to herself. Either of those options may be selected for a future IACP Season.
Leia Organa (cost reduced from 8 to 7)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 2; Balanced: 14; Underpowered: 12 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 1, Neutral: 5; Fun: 15; Very Fun: 4 |
Leia is a tricky card to fix. Battlefield Leadership and Military Efficiency are powerful abilities that can enable some game-swinging combos; if a player is good enough to utilize those abilities regularly, what cost should that player pay? The Skirmish Committee elected to reduce her cost by just one point and see if that brought her back into viability.
Our playtesters enjoyed having her back on the table. However we received reports that outside of Leadership and Military Efficiency, Leia’s abilities are still lacking. Some said that her attack is still too weak, and minimizes the effectiveness of Military Efficiency. Many others lamented that her Health and defense stats were not strong enough versus Hunters and other figures adjusted for the post-Jabba’s Realm skirmish meta. (Both she and her brother, the Jedi Knight, rely on a static +1 EVADE and a white die. This combination is especially weak to Hunters that can add red dice or use Assassinate to pile on the damage.)
Our playtesters suggested increasing Leia’s Health as a next step. That could be a solution implemented in a future Season.
Elite Wookiee Warrior (cost reduced from 11/6 to 9/5)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 3; Balanced: 5; Underpowered: 8; Very Weak: 1 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 5; Neutral: 1; Fun: 3; Very Fun: 3 |
When the Season 1 suggestions were announced, some of the first feedback the Steering Committee received was concerns about our price reduction of the Elite Wookiee Warriors: that these figures are now inexpensive enough and have such a high Health that they will dominate objectives.
That prediction didn’t seem to take shape. Playtesters told us that the Wookiee Warrior’s attacks made them nearly unplayable. The WW’s green/red die pool doesn’t trigger enough surges when attacking, thereby causing disappointing attack results. When a WW has enough damage to trigger Fury, the opponent is aware and easily focus-fires that figure off the board. Other playtesters were concerned that any further price reductions of these figures would cause an especially unbalanced Health pool to figure cost ratio.
Potential fixes to melee figures overall may help this deployment in the future. However it may be that the Elite Wookiee Warrior is revisited in a future Season, with a proper reworking of the Deployment’s attack math and Deployment cost relative to its high Health.
Elite Echo Base Trooper (cost reduced from 8/4 to 7/4)
| Power Ratings: Strong: 1; Balanced: 8; Underpowered: 7 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 4; Neutral: 4; Fun: 4; Very Fun: 1 |
Reducing the Elite Echo Base Trooper Deployment card cost was to enable more usage of Troopers for Rebels by making it the same cost as Elite Jet Troopers. Our playtesters found that the Echo Base Troopers are not nearly as efficient as the Jet Troopers due to their outdated abilities. One of our playtesters said that there is nothing fun listed on the Elite Echo Base Trooper card; we can’t argue too much about that.
Like the Elite Wookiee Warriors, it may be that the Elite Echo Base Trooper card needs a proper rework. However, many older non-Unique Trooper deployments need assistance, so the IACP may investigate ways to improve those deployments without modifying every card directly.
Elite Rebel Trooper (cost reduced from 9/3 to 7/3)
| Power Ratings: Overpowered: 1; Strong: 2; Balanced: 6; Underpowered: 7; Very Weak: 1 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 2; Neutral: 5; Fun: 6; Very Fun: 1 |
Reducing the cost of certain 3-figure non-Unique Trooper deployments was a late addition to Season 1. For the Elite Rebel Trooper, our playtesters found that the figures were better than expected, but still disappointing. When Focused, performing an attack with Aim and rolling especially well, these figures do a surprising amount of damage. However the figures can be played around by not giving them a target they can shoot before moving. Without any rerolls or other modifications for their attacks, two bad attack rolls puts the Elite Rebel Trooper player too far behind in damage production.
Concerning all of the Deployment cost changes to 3-figure Trooper deployments, our playtesters did not like giving up 9 VPs for a deployment that costs 7. The IACP has been discussing several ways to improve Trooper deployments for future Seasons; when this deployment is revisited, the VP disparity will be addressed.
Diala Passil, Exile Redeemed (new Deployment card)
| Power Ratings: Overpowered: 1; Strong: 12; Balanced: 9; Underpowered: 6; Very Weak: 1 |
| Fun Ratings: Not Fun: 4; Neutral: 4; Fun: 10; Very Fun: 9 |
We enjoyed reading your excitement generated by our Diala Passil rework. After our initial release of Diala, we had concerns about the strength of her deployment, which led us to increase Diala’s cost to 8 and slightly weaken her defensive reroll.
Our testers found that we swung too far in the opposite direction. With only 10 Health, Diala was too easily focus-fired off the board once she had committed to attacking. Increasing her cost to 8 caused more difficulty in pairing her up with other Rebel Force Users. Most suggested dropping her back down to cost 7 and/or increasing her Health. We also received comments that Diala has too many surge abilities.
Diala is second only to Kayn Somos in total amount of “Very Fun” votes received for a deployment card. Many of our playtesters raved at how her Force Throw ability opened up new possibilities for play. In Season 2, the Skirmish Committee will likely tweak Diala so that she remains an exciting new piece for your games.