I’ve just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever.
Use the force Universal Head! Unbox that copy of Star Wars: Imperial Assault!
Well I put it off for a while, but you knew it was inevitable didn’t you—I would be getting a copy of Star Wars: Imperial Assault. After all, we have the excellent foamcore insert by David Acton and the amazing series of painting tutorial videos by Sorastro here at the EOG to tempt me.
It’s an impressive box full of gaming goodness, but I must admit that FFG are fine-tuning a few marketing tactics that, well, cause a disturbance in my force. For some reason they’ve packaged the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures and their cards as they would appear if they were supplied as separate expansion packs (but without the separate packaging). This is just marketing hooey—they’re part of the base game and aren’t available as separate packs, so it’s just a way to introduce and reinforce the concept of buying more figure packs. FFG have taken the concept of expansions into the realm of high art, selling individual figures separately to feed the obsessive collector that lurks within every gamer’s breast. Secondly, I don’t like their recent habit of supplying the minimum amount of dice and then selling more dice as a separate purchase. Finally, we all know that the Star War licencing fees must be punitive, but the prices are getting pretty punishing, especially for us overseas buyers.
With that rant out of the way, the figures are very nice indeed, the artwork is great, and overall it’s an impressive package. But you don’t need me to tell you, let me show you instead—check out the video above!
Even though Imperial Assault is costly, it’s content highlights the horrific price point for Star Wars Armada in my opinion.
FFG do seem to be pushing the limits of what the market can bear, but then they’re also more successful than ever before, so from a business point of view who can blame them?
It essentially is two games in one box: a campaign based dungeon crawler in the Star Wars universe and a competitive skirmish game so the high price can be justified. Can’t wait for the next expansion which has Boba Fett and takes place on Tattooine. Also the next wave has Fett, c3po and r2d2 so more fun is on the way! Armada looks fun but I can only afford one so IA it is.
Nice unboxing, but it lacked any views of your cool house which I liked seeing in your other vids!
Well, that’s a point, and I know production costs are always increasing, but FFG games seem to be consistently pricier than other games with the same amount of stuff. There’s been much online whinging about the cost of the new Star Wars: Armada, for example, and the fact that you really need to buy two sets to experience the game fully. It’s interesting that you say you can only buy one of their new Star Wars games – the prices may be forcing a significant number of people to make a similar decision, meaning less revenue for FFG, so the higher pricing models may backfire.
As for the house, we’re in a new one, not quite as nice but still with a great view. You’ll see it in the next batch of battle reports, which are being filmed late next week!
Normally I’d be all over a high quality Star Wars product, but without someone else equally invested in Armada it will never hit the table. IA provides me with everything I need and no dependence on having another gamer invest.
I went a bit nuts with X-Wing initially. Buying one of everything at least for first few sets, including the Corvette and Transport. Now I shop for what I want as I seldom get to play (but do use ships as RPG props).
Armada was just too similar for my liking (although the mini Slave 1, Falcon etc in latest expansion intrigue me.
Anyway, back to Imperial Assault. Again it’s RPG props and not had chance to play it as a game yet. I think the map pieces are a bit small (prefer the Brimstone ones), but to me the biggest let down is the Allies. I was hoping for more PC’s, not henchmen! I know they announced an expansion with more characters, but Han Solo and friends would be more fun as PC’s rather than allies.
Yeah, not sure why they did that. Perhaps it’ll be in another expansion …
UniHead! You finally pulled the trigger and fulfilled your destiny! Or is it just acquisition disorder?
So now do you see what I mean by the quality of the minis vs. what we get with Descent?
Hope you get a chance to play the campaign someday and see how enjoyable it is to play with a group of 4 or 5.
Enjoy!
Acquisition disorder. I also have 2 copies of Armada on the way. But I’m pretty good at controlling myself when it comes to getting expansions.
As in only one copy of each expansion not two ?