Infiltrate the Alliance

“You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.”
   –Darth Vader, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The Imperial Security Bureau works tirelessly throughout the galaxy to crush sedition and destroy the so-called Rebel Alliance. ISB agents are legendarily dangerous, and some move beyond mere observation or targeted raids. These agents create false lives for themselves, giving themselves reasons to hate the Empire—and then they join the Rebellion. Once inside, these operatives can cause irreparable damage: leaking information, battle plans, and vital data to the Empire. Entire Rebel cells may be caught and executed because they chose to trust the wrong person. Yet if the Rebels trust no one and live in fear, the Empire has already won.

Infiltrate Cloud City and bring down the Rebel strike team with the ISB Infiltrators Villain Pack for Imperial Assault! Like other figure packs, this expansion contains two sculpted plastic figures as well as new missions for both your campaign and skirmish games. Between new Deployment cards, new Agenda cards, new Command cards, and a new Reward card, you’ll find plenty of content to shake up any game.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the might of the Imperial Security Bureau as we preview the ISB Infiltrators Villain Pack!

Deadly Spies

Whether you’re recruiting some ISB Infiltrators for a campaign game or a skirmish game, you can expect the same highly-trained, dangerous operatives. In combat, ISB Infiltrators boast a wide array of surge abilities that you can use to gain the upper hand—you may spend a surge to gain the Hidden condition, to deal more damage, or to improve your accuracy in a firefight. 

The ISB Infiltrators can also benefit from their training with the Coordinated Raid ability. By spending an action, an ISB Infiltrator allows another figure in his group to interrupt his turn and perform an attack targeting a hostile figure in the first Infiltrator’s line of sight. This type of coordination boosts the number of attacks you’ll be able to make per activation and makes the ISB Infiltrators very dangerous, but it also means they rely more on keeping their team together: if one ISB Infiltrator falls in battle, Coordinated Raid is useless for the surviving agent. 

For just a couple more points, you may choose to invest and bring in the elite version of the ISB Infiltrators. These elite warriors benefit from higher health and they maintain the Coordinated Raid ability, while also featuring dramatically improved surge abilities. An elite ISB Infiltrator can surge for more damage, and whenever he spends a surge to Hide or gain accuracy, he also gains the capacity to pierce enemy armor. Best of all, elite ISB Infiltrators can spend a surge for the Deadly ability, which allows them to cut straight through enemy dodges. If your opponent’s figures rely on the white die for their defense, like many Rebel figures, elite ISB Infiltrators can quickly dispel their illusion of safety.

As his first action, the ISB Infiltrator attacks Lando Calrissian. Then, he uses his second action to trigger Coordinated Raid, allowing the other ISB Infiltrator to attack Lando!

Covert Infiltration

A new three-card Agenda set also gives the Imperial player some more tools to harry the Rebels over the course of your Imperial Assault campaign. Whether you’re stopping the Rebels from invading the ISB facility on Bespin in a new campaign side mission, or you’re taking your adventures to another side of the Star Wars galaxy, you can take advantage of cards like Trip Mine.  This Agenda card can be unexpectedly revealed at the beginning of any mission to force the heroes to take damage, strain, and the Bleeding condition. 

Or, you may help your Infiltrators enter the scene unnoticed with Quiet Entry.  This card can be kept secret until you choose to deploy a Trooper or Spy figure group. Then, you’ll play Quiet Entry and each figure in the deployed group gains two movement points and the Hidden condition—ensuring your figures are in just the right position before you make your move. Finally, you may suddenly recall your figures to an active deployment point with Misdirection.  By spending a threat point at the start of an Imperial group’s activation, you can place all of the figure from that group as close as possible to a single active deployment point. You may use this quick movement to retreat out of danger or to unexpectedly surround a hero who thought he was safe, but either way, your opponent will never see you coming. 

Undercover Attacks

The ISB Infiltrators can be equally dangerous as part of an Imperial strike team during a skirmish. Coordinated Raid gives you access to more attacks per turn, making it much easier to destroy your opponent’s strike team and gain points in that way. With the elite ISB Infiltrators, you may even slice through your opponents’ dodge results, ensuring that your damage connects when it needs to. 

If your strike team is based around units with the Spy trait, your other units could benefit from a little Cross-Training.  This new skirmish upgrade can be attached to any Trooper figure group, and when one of those figures is defending, you may choose to replace one die in your defense pool with a white die. Although the black defense dice feature a greater distribution of blocks, the white die offers more evades and the all-important dodge, which negates all damage and potentially saves your figure from an untimely destruction. 

Cross-Training also gives the attached figure group the Spy trait. Although this may initially seem unimportant, the Command cards included in this Villain Pack quickly prove the opposite. With the four new Command cards introduced in this expansion, you’ll be able to attack your opponent’s hand of Command cards and shatter his plans. 

You may use one of your Spy figures to introduce a Strategic Shift at the crucial moment. This card allows a player of your choice to shuffle his hand of Command cards into his deck and draw two cards. You could use this card to dash your opponent’s plans, of course, but you could also use it on yourself to gain new Command cards that could be more useful in your current situation.

Rather than reacting to your opponent’s potential options, you might directly counter his plans with Comm Disruption.  This Command card reads, “Use when a Command card with a cost of X is played, where X is equal to or less than the number of friendly Spy groups on the map. Discard that card and cancel its effects.” Canceling your opponent’s Command card gives you an unexpected advantage—you only need to make sure you have enough Spies in play. Finally, you can actually use your enemy’s Command cards for yourself with Data Theft.  This allows you to choose any Command card in your opponent’s discard pile, and once during the current round, you can play that card as if it were in your hand! Although this card does depend on what your opponent plays, chances are good that there’s at least one card you can use in his discard pile.

An Insidious Threat

The Imperial Security Bureau will never stop working against the Rebellion—infiltrating its members, sabotaging its operations, and terrorizing the people of countless worlds. Throw your lot in with the ISB Infiltrators when you pre-order this Villain Pack at your local retailer today.

Join us next week for a preview of one of the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunters: Bossk!