What is that I hear? A call from a map long forgotten, yet rarely unloved.
That’s right! The one and only Mos Eisley Back Alleys is RETURNING INTO ROTATION on November 22nd! Loved by many as one of the most balanced, fun and competitive maps in Imperial Assault OP’s history, this legendary board will make its way to the tabletop again very soon! But for anyone newer to the world of Imperial Assault, let’s go over once more exactly what the map involves:
Mos Eisley Back Alleys (The instructions to which are found in the Jawa Scavenger villain pack) will be replacing Chopper Base Atollon in the competitive IACP rotation.
Formerly in rotation for the 2018 World Championships, Mos Eisley Back Alleys has been hailed by many as the best map in Imperial Assault tournament history due to several factors, from the symmetry of the tiles minimising deployment zone advantages to its ability to give highly flexible options to both melee and ranged lists with many long corridors, and plenty of small hiding spots for melee figures to sneak around in. But if that wasn’t good enough, even the missions themselves are excellent:
Mission A: Stashed Away is a very simple mission, where 6 stashes are scattered throughout the map, providing 2 points each at the end of the round if controlled. Historically this mission provided players with great tactical depth and choice, as they had to balance both running out and capturing these points, while also having enough options in reserve to threaten their opponents from taking and contesting those very same objectives (I’ve found that 3x Focussed Alliance Rangers hiding around the corner are very capable at performing such a feat).
A clear winner in this mission was the trusty Jet Trooper, who has the defensiveness to take a hit or two and survive to contest the stash, while also bearing the firepower to blow any of the usual objective runners (Alliance Smugglers or Jawa Scavengers) off the board in a fell swoop (Pun very much intended).
On the other hand, Mission B: Concealed Treasures functions in much the opposite way; favouring mobility and speed over defensive stats. In this mission, 10 retrievable crates are scattered around the map, offering the player a whopping 4 points each when returned to a point in the player’s deployment zone. Choosing what figures to shoot with, and what figures to dedicate to picking up crates and moving the entire game was always an intriguing decision, where most of the choice was made during list building, ensuring that if you were to run up against an opponent on this mission, you didn’t have to sacrifice your expensive characters’ valuable attacks to be able to retrieve mission objectives.
The clear winner on this mission was, obviously, the humble Alliance Smuggler. Bring able to move 6 spaces when picking up an object, and moving 2 after surviving an attack meant that there was no other figure in the game quite as effective as scoring these objectives as the Alliance Smuggler, with three copies often appearing in Rebel lists back in 2018 for that very reason (In addition to many others. #bringbacksmugglers). With Alliance Smugglers being rarely seen in IACP, it will be interesting to see if they make a return with this map re-entering the competitive scene.
With the return of this truly legendary map, we will see how the meta changes to adapt and capitalise on the new competitive options provided by this map. be sure to get many a game in with your friends, for this map once mastered is notoriously devious!