We are happy to announce that the Uscru Entertainment District map from the Ahsoka Tano expansion pack will be rotating back into tournament play effective immediately, replacing Lothal Spaceport’s place in the tournament map rotation and joining Mos Eisley Back Alleys and Devaron Garrison maps in rotation.
Uscru has a long history of tournament play during a period of the game that many players look back on fondly, considered by some players to be the best tournament metagame in the game’s competitive history under FFG, following the release of Heart of Heart of the Empire.
The Uscru map first rotated into tournament play back in 2018, less than a month before the 2018 Worlds tournament, and players were left scrambling to learn the map’s secrets. It was the first skirmish map to use tiles from the recently released Heart of the Empire expansion.
Uscru has not been a tournament legal map since February 2019, having rotated out right before the final Worlds tournament under FFG’s watch (aka Spectre Bowl). Now players will get to relive the wall-to-hall battles once again in Season 7 and Season 8 tournament play.
Uscru is a large sized map that uses tiles from the Core set and Heart of the Empire expansion. The brightly colored purple, green, and orange map tiles from the Heart of the Empire expansion give the map a unique character among tournament maps and features landmarks such as the Booth and the Fountain on each end of the map, as well as the Pillar which makes the red deployment zone so desirable.
Uscru is also progenitor of the term “Uscru doors”, a nickname for any map with 4 locked doors that open 2 at a time at the end of each round. These locked doors create an S-Shaped map at the start of the mission which keeps early fighting to a minimum, but as the turns progress the doors open and the battlefield opens up to allow multiple lines of sight to be drawn. These doors give both missions a great deal of tactical depth and strategy and allow games to unfold differently each time you play them.
Missions
Priority Message has players battling out while courier droids spawn one at a time and have to make it from each player’s deployment zone to their opponent’s in one piece to score 6 VPs. Due to the length of the map, it’s impossible for a droid to score before round 3, and since they are not figures they cannot be moved or pushed by abilities. This mission had a reputation for being heavily focused on combat due to the droids not really coming into play until the mid-to-late game in round 3, giving combat-focused lists an edge over lists that focus on board and objective control. Watch out for those late-game attacks on your courier droids though!
Lost and Found brings back objectives in a clean and satisfying way with the classic 2 VPs per objective controlled at the end of each round. With 6 total objectives on the map, players will be rewarded for finding a way to control the center room with 2 objectives, though doing so often means taking fire from multiple directions, so good timing and keeping an ace in the hole for the right moment can win the day here.
We hope players enjoy playing on this classic tournament map from the game’s past and find new ways to make use of it’s tight hallways and unlocking doors with the new figures introduced by IACP.
If you’re new to IACP or Imperial Assault skirmish and want to learn how to get started and get connected with the Skirmish community, visit our Training Grounds page to get answers to these questions and more.