2. Playing a Mission - GlowPuff/ImperialCommander2 GitHub Wiki
Missions
During a mission in Imperial Commander, players resolve a series of rounds, performing actions in an effort to explore the map, defeat Imperial figures, and pursue the mission’s objectives. Much of this is assisted by the app, including the figures that are deployed, the tiles that are used, and how the mission is won.
The Imperial Rule
Sometimes during mission events or activations, a situation might arise where no clear course for the Empire can be determined from the app. If that is the case, use the Imperial Rule: Choose the option that is worst for the Rebel players. This also applies to situations where a solution is available, but makes no sense or worsens the Empire’s situation. If that is the case, use your best judgment and apply the Imperial Rule to determine what course of action the Imperial takes.
Winning and Losing
To win a mission, the heroes must complete the mission’s objectives. A mission may have numerous objectives, but the players are only shown the current objective. The players can see the current objective at the top of the window. How a mission ends depends upon that mission’s rules. Usually, the players need to complete the objective to win, and they lose after a certain amount of time or when all heroes are wounded. However, this differs from mission to mission.
Rounds
Missions are played over a number of game rounds in which all figures, including heroes and Imperial figures, move around the map, resolve attacks, and make progress in the mission. Each game round consists of hero and Imperial group activations. First, the players collectively choose a hero to activate, and that hero performs two actions. Once the activation is complete, players select the Next Imperial Activation icon. The app then automatically instructs players how to activate a randomly selected Imperial group. This continues, with the party choosing another hero to activate, followed by a group of Imperial figures activating, until every figure has activated. After all figures have activated, the players select End Round. Then, a new round begins, and this process repeats until the mission ends.
Activations
Hero Activations
When a hero is activated, the player controlling the hero resolves the following steps:
- Start of Activation: Ready all of the hero’s exhausted Class and Item cards.
- Perform Actions: Perform any combination of two actions with the hero. Possible actions include:
- Move: Gain movement points to move on the map.
- Attack: Attack a hostile figure or object.
- Interact: Open an adjacent door or crate, or interact with another token allowed by the mission’s rules.
- Rest: Recover (strain) and (Damage).
- Special: Resolve an (action) ability listed on one of the hero's components. Each special action can only be performed once per activation unless otherwise indicated.
After the hero resolves two actions, its activation ends. The players then tell the app to activate the next Imperial group by selecting the Next Imperial Activation icon.
Action options (for example buttons) presented in the app with the action arrow () are not considered special actions, and are not limited to once per activation unless otherwise indicated. They are only there to indicate that choosing this option requires spending an action.
Imperial Activations
Mission Setup
To play a mission, players perform the following steps.
- Select Mission: Consult the campaign log to decide which mission to play next.
- Prepare Dice, Cards, and Other Tokens: Place all dice, the Condition cards and Supply deck, damage tokens, strain tokens, and condition tokens within easy reach of all players.
- Gather heroes: Gather all Hero sheets, Hero Class cards, Item cards, Reward cards, and any other cards in the heroes' possession.
- Open App: Open Imperial Commander, select the game mode and select New Game. See below how to set up and start a mission in Imperial Commander.
- Deploy Rebel figures: Places all hero figures in the space indicated by the app or as close to it as possible. The players choose the order in which their figures are deployed. Before placing their figures, they choose the Item cards that they will bring to the mission. Each hero may bring up to 1 Armor, 2 Weapons, and 3 Equipment.
- Deploy Allies: If the Rebel players chose to deploy an ally, deploy it as close as possible to the deployment space.
Then the mission starts with the first Rebel activation.
Starting a Mission
To start a mission, simply click / tap New Game on the start screen to open the mission selection screen.
Mission Selection
On the mission selection screen, you can choose the mission to play as well as apply all necessary settings.
| No. | Description | Mouse control | Touch control |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | The left side shows the mission details, including the mission description | - | - |
| (2) | Select difficulty. | Click | Tap |
| (3) | Choose whether or not to use Adaptive Difficulty. This makes the game more challenging based on your performance. | Click | Tap |
| (4) | Set the threat level. | Click to open controls or use mouse wheel | Tap to open controls |
| (5) | If you want to start the mission with additional threat, set it here. | Click to open controls or use mouse wheel | Tap to open controls |
| (6) | Select ignored groups. Ignored groups will never be added to the deployment hand at the beginning of a mission. You can only deploy them manually during a mission. Use this, for example, to avoid having Tusken Raiders spawn on snow maps (this is already pre-set in most missions). Figures with a green border are selected, i.e. added to the ignored list. | Click | Tap |
| (7) | If the Empire has already earned villains in your campaign, select those villains here. | Click | Tap |
| (8) | Select which ally to bring with you. Some allies might be banned for a specific mission. Those are shown with a red outline, but can still be manually selected. Threat is added automatically when manually selecting an ally. | Click | Tap |
| (9) | Select which heroes to use. | Click | Tap |
| (10) | Click the folder icon to return to the previous folder. | Click | Tap |
| (11) | Select which mission to play. | Click | Tap |
| (12) | This opens a list of tiles used in the mission so you can prepare them in advance. | Click | Tap |
| (13) | Switch whether you want to use official missions (made by the Imperial Commander team and included in the app) or custom user-made missions. | Click | Tap |
| (14) | Once you're done, to start the mission. | Click | Tap |
Mission Start
Once the mission has started, simply follow the on-screen instructions of the mission.
Main Gameplay
| No. | Description | Mouse control | Touch control |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | The Rebel heroes as well as any deployed allies are shown here. Withdrawn heroes / allies are dimmed. You can use the activation icons to track activations. | Click to mark / unmark a hero / ally as wounded / withdrawnDrag up / down or use mouse wheel to scroll the listRight-click to show deployment card (allies and custom heroes only) | Tap to mark / unmark a hero / ally as wounded / withdrawnSwipe up / down to scroll the listDouble-tap to show deployment card (allies and custom heroes only) |
| (2) | The current objective you need to fulfill. | - | - |
| (3) | This is the main deployment screen, showing you all currently deployed enemy groups. Exhausted groups are greyed out. | Left click: Exhaust / DefeatRight click: Display deployment cardLeft click colored circle: Change assigned color | Tap: Exhaust / DefeatDouble tap: Display deployment cardTap colored circle: Change assigned color |
| (4) | The green circles show the number of figures left in a group. When the last figure is defeated, the whole group is defeated. | Click to defeat /reinforce a figure | Tap to defeat /reinforce a figure |
| (5) | This is the main map screen where you interact with the mission and any map entities. Any time a window is opened, you can use the Eye icon in the lower left to temporarily open the map. | Click & drag to pan cameraRight-click & drag to rotate cameraUse mouse wheel to zoom | Drag to pan cameraDrag with 3 fingers to rotate cameraPinch to zoom |
| (6) | Trigger the next Imperial activation. | Click | Tap |
| (7) | An overview over your medpacs (see Rules Changes: Healing and Resting). You can open a window to keep track of your medpacs and read the rules changes. | Click | Tap |
| (8) | Opens the context help. Once it is open, click on any part of the screen to get an explanation. | Click | Tap |
| (9) | Open the Mission Overview* (see below) | Click | Tap |
| (10) | Open the Imperial Menu (see below). | Click | Tap |
| (11) | Open the screen to display settings and to exit the mission. | Click | Tap |
| (12) | The current round number. When a round limit is active, the round limit is shown behind the dash in red if the mission ends with the round limit (Round Limit: On) or in orange if threat is increased (Round Limit: Dangerous). | - | - |
| (13) | End the current round and initiate the Status Phase. | Click | Tap |
Activation Phase
In the activation phase, Rebels and the Empire take turns to activate their groups. Perform hero activations as usual. Once a hero finishes the activation, click / tap the Imperial symbol in the lower left to trigger the next Imperial activation. The app determines which group to activate and displays the instructions. For details, see section 4.
Status Phase and End of Round
When all activations have been resolved, click / tap End Round. As usual, the players ready their activation tokens and exhausted cards. The app increases threat and handles deployment and reinforcement (see section 4).
Mission Overview
In the Mission Overview you can get information about various aspects of the mission. Use the icons on the left to switch between Mission Info, Fame and Awards and the Mission Log.
Mission Info
The Mission Info provides you with general information about the specific mission, constantly updated throughout the mission.
Fame and Awards
Fame and Awards gives you the amount of Fame and the number of Awards you have won so far in the mission (only relevant when using Adaptive difficulty, see below
Mission Log
The Mission Log saves all prompts and text messages from the mission. You can use it to re-read information you have already closed.
The Imperial Menu Window
The Imperial Menu window shows information that is usually hidden from the players, like the threat level, the deployment modifier, and the deployment hand, and allows players to manipulate the Imperial side of the gameplay. In most cases, players do not need to use the Imperial Menu. It is only used if you want to finetune the experience.
| No. | Description |
|---|---|
| (1) | Click/tap the eye icon to reveal the cards currently in the deployment hand. |
| (2) | Click/tap to increase or decrease the current threat. |
| (3) | Click/tap to pause or unpause deployment. |
| (4) | Click/tap to pause or unpause threat gain. |
| (5) | Click/tap to have the app immediately perform an optional deployment. |
| (6) | The current threat and the Deployment Modifier (for details see Mechanics: Deployment Events). |
Adaptive Difficulty
Adaptive Difficulty is a setting that gives you a bigger challenge, adjusted to your performance during a mission, inspired by the "Fame" mechanic of "Legends of the Alliance". You can add Adaptive Difficulty to all difficulty settings. Switching Adaptive Difficulty on makes the game more challenging, but potentially gives you better rewards: You gain reputation and support with the Alliance, but the Empire tries harder to stop you.
Please note: This is an experimental feature that still needs balancing.
When Adaptive Difficulty is switched on:
- Every time you defeat an enemy group (not a figure) in the app, you gain Fame.
- At the same time, threat is increased by a certain amount based on the group's threat cost.
- The more Fame you accumulate, the more Awards you gain. Awards can be exchanged for certain boons after the mission.
- You only gain Awards if you manage to finish the mission before the end of Round 7. (It doesn't matter if you win or lose.)
At any time, click / tap the Fame icon to open the Fame window and view your Fame and Awards.
Awards
After the mission ends, the Awards can be exchanged for the following boons:
- Draw an additional Item card from an Item deck of your choice during the Rebel Upgrade stage (cost: 1 Award per card).
- Draw an additional Side Mission card and put it into play as an active mission (cost: 2 Awards per card, maximum 2 cards).