 |
| By Fantasy Flight Games |
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...
In 2014, Fantasy Flight Games launched a dream come true for Star Wars fans and board game fans. They introduced us to Star Wars Imperial Assault. This was a campaign driven skirmish style miniatures game where one player assumes the role of the Galactic Empire, while up to four other players control a group of forgettable ripoffs of the characters you ACTUALLY want to play. They're all here. There's Princess Leia as an old black dude. Girl Han Solo. Chewie, but not Chewie. And who can forget about Luke if Luke were the belly dancer in Jabba's palace?
 |
| Yeah, that's the one... |
The players would take these characters through battle after battle, leveling up, going on side missions, and sometimes recruiting the REAL characters to help you in your fight against the Empire. And if you got bored with that, there was even a built in 1v1 skirmish mode, where each player took control of their own team in a fight for dominance.
This game was insanely popular. This game IS insanely popular. There are a dizzying number of expansions which add new locations, new characters, new bad guys, new campaigns, and I'm not even going to cover the villain or ally packs (there are 40 of them!).
But none of these fixed some of the biggest issues that I had with this game. There is a TON of bookkeeping involved. For the Rebel players, you had to keep track of which upgrades you've purchased, what equipment and rewards you've gotten and so forth. For the Imperial player? Well, let's just say "Damn". They had to track their own upgrades, the sidequests, the main quests, their own rewards, the gross national product of Coruscant, and I could go on. To be fair, Fantasy Flight gave us a sheet to keep track of all of that stuff. A SHEET. There is no single piece of paper in the WORLD that is big enough to track all that information. Not to mention that finding any single player who wants to fill that role is difficult, nigh impossible. It's like asking someone to take the meeting notes of your game, while the rest of you play.
 |
| You wanna play Imperial Assault? Hold on, let me see where we are... |
That's not even mentioning the issue that always arises with these overlord style games. It simulates the relationship of a dungeon master and players from pen and paper style RPG's. But in those games, the dungeon master isn't trying to WIN. They're trying to tell a story that the players can appreciate. So, are you trying to win when you're the Empire in Imperial Assault? Or are you supposed to take it easy on the Rebels sometimes, in order to make sure that your Rebel players keep coming back to finish the Campaign?
It's kind of an existential question for all of these types of games. But Fantasy Flight is trying to address this with Legends of the Alliance, a companion app for Imperial Assault that takes the role of the Imperial Player and turns the experience into a complete cooperative one.
Do. Or Do Not. There is No Try.
 |
| You still need all of this... |
The game is still played on a table, which means you still need the base game to enjoy this, and you're still rolling dice and moving figures in the real world, but this app becomes a dedicated Imperial player. No more fighting over who's most likely to be a space Nazi (it's Blake by the way). When you first begin a campaign, the app gives you the option of playing as any of the heroes that are included, and as you buy more of the expansions, more playable character options become available to you. Interestingly enough, Legends of the Alliance still only supports four Rebel players, when there is potential for up to 6 in the base game alone, but WHATEVER...
 |
| There are TWO MORE characters RIGHT THERE! |
Once your characters are chosen, you're treated to a prompt which gives you a story to read, along with whatever tiles, tokens, and doors you need to build the map. The thing that immediately jumped out at me was the fact that the first mission in the app was NOT the first mission that came with the original game. I had to double check my Campaign guide! This was a new mission, and there was a DOOR. A door without anything on the other side. No map tiles, no preexisting Imperial figures, no crates to open, NOTHING but blank table. So, like a moth to a lightsaber, I was drawn to that door. I was pulled to find out what secrets lay behind it! And I think that's the point!
 |
| Schrodinger's door... |
That's the amazing thing about Legends of the Alliance that you don't get from playing just the base game. There were real surprises behind that door. Sure, the Campaign book was "Secret" from the Rebel players in the base game, but there was nothing to stop them from beating you up and taking a good look through it. Sure, you could tell them to stop, or that it was against the rules, but they're Rebel players. That's what they do! They rebel!
Here, Fantasy Flight has taken that option away from the Rebel players, and the only way to find out what was next was to experience it! Map tiles and enemies wouldn't appear until I opened that door, and who knows what else?!? And there were definitely surprises, even in the first mission. I won't spoil anything, but I was unprepared for who showed up...
Here, Fantasy Flight has taken that option away from the Rebel players, and the only way to find out what was next was to experience it! Map tiles and enemies wouldn't appear until I opened that door, and who knows what else?!? And there were definitely surprises, even in the first mission. I won't spoil anything, but I was unprepared for who showed up...
But besides just being the Imperial player, the app also does all your bookkeeping. It keeps track of your rewards, your inventory, which missions you've failed and which missions you've demolished! Interestingly enough, it also keeps track of your Fame. You earn Fame for defeating bad guys (I got 10 for smashing up IG-88), and winning missions. I'm not sure what purpose it serves other than bragging rights. I mean, this isn't Imperial Assault Idol, where you're competing with Sy Snoodles or the Cantina Band, trying to make it big on the Tatooine music scene. You're trying to overthrow the damn Empire! The game claims it is to balance which bad guys and how many items you get, but I don't really know. But for some reason, it is enough of a visual trigger that it is spurring me to get as much Fame as possible! I'm like a Kardashian,addicted to Fame. Who knew?
 |
| If there is some form of XP bar, I will find it, and I will fill it... |
One of the many pleasant surprises was the appearance of Encounter missions. These missions are not played out on a map, but are more narrative based. Maybe you're smuggling some contraband to the Rebellion, or maybe you're trying to infiltrate an Imperial recruiting office. The app will present you with choices, and depending on your choices (and subsequent rolls of the dice), you will succeed or fail, gain resources, lose resources, or find new allies. It is a very cool feature, and one that is completely exclusive to playing Imperial Assault with Legends of the Alliance.
 |
| Something tells me I'm gonna go with "Stay out of this" |
The Force is Strong with This One
Legends of the Alliance runs really well. It doesn't drain your battery too much, and really enhances your experience. My one complaint is that the game itself does not keep track of the figures on the board itself. When an Imperial unit activates, the app presents a list of actions, and the players are supposed to make the unit complete the first 2 actions it is able to.
Overall, it works fine, but it can get really complicated with NINE Stormtroopers prancing around the map. Would it have really been that much harder to show where the Stormtroopers should be and tell us what they're going to do, instead of this weird flow chart?
My favorite aspect of the app's UI is actually the collection feature. When you start the app, you have the option to add to your collection. This is a list of ALL THE EXPANSIONS that have been released for Imperial Assault. Each one that you select adds more options, more Encounters, more Equipment, more villains, more allies, more, more, more...
 |
| I want all the things... |
Buy It!, Try It!, or Fly It!
My ratings system is as follows:
Buy It! = Go buy this, right now! It is fantastic and worth your hard earned money!
Buy It! = Go buy this, right now! It is fantastic and worth your hard earned money!
Try It! = Play it with a friend or at your local game store. You might like it or you might not.
Fly It! = %&#! this game!
Before the app, I always kind of felt like Imperial Assault was a little overrated. I mean, it was a good game, and I liked it a lot, but it wasn't one of my top 10 of all time or anything like that, mainly due to the issues detailed previously. But now... Now...
Wow.
This game. This freaking game. So good. As of the writing of this review, there are currently only two campaigns available on the app, the tutorial, and Flight of the Freedom Fighter. That alone is plenty of content. Content that is brand new and not just a digital version of what you find in the box. Content I would have paid for, but don't have to because Legends of the Alliance is FREE!
 |
| There is no better price than FREE |
If Imperial Assault uses the same model that Descent did for their companion app, and there's no reason to think they won't, then additional campaigns will be released with a $5 price tag. It is still quite an investment to get this, however, if you do not have Imperial Assault already (Amazon has the base game with a $80 price tag and I've seen comparable elsewhere), but even if you do have to shell out that kind of cash, this is an easy one for me...
Comments
Post a Comment