“We have spotted Imperial walkers!”
   –Echo Base trooper, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The Star Wars galaxy is a place of adventure and danger, a place where anything can happen. Perhaps most of all, it’s a place where you want close friends and allies standing by your side. You can bring the iconic characters of the classic trilogy and Star Wars Rebels together with Trust in the Force, the fifth Force Pack of the Alliances cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game, now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

The Alliances cycle has nearly drawn to its close with the release of Trust in the Force. As it pushed the boundaries by encouraging players to bring their factions together in a single deck, it also turned an eye onto the past cycles of Star Wars: The Card Game. Within the ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets) found within Trust in the Force, you’ll find a copy of Obi-Wan Kenobi that rewards you for working across factions and two other sets that mark a return to the battles of Hoth.

Back on the Ice

In the first cycle of Force Packs for Star Wars: The Card Game, The Hoth Cycle, players were drawn into a thematic journey through the entire Battle of Hoth—from the Empire’s first probing efforts to find Echo Base to the Rebel Alliance’s desperate flight after the walker assault. Now, the Imperial Navy objective set from Trust in the Force gives dark side players a way to make Walker units more dangerous than ever before.

Two towering Walker units lie at the heart of this objective set, starting with Blizzard 1 (Trust in the Force, 2178), the AT-AT that General Veers rode as he commanded the assault on Echo Base. Like all AT-ATs, Blizzard 1 offers high damage capacity and a punishing array of combat icons, as well as the elite keyword. However, like many other Walker units, it also offers you the chance to forfeit your combat icons for another effect. In this case, you can simply discard any participating unit, so long as it doesn’t have an enhancement attached to it. If your blast damage would be useless (such as when defending against a light side attack), discarding an enemy unit outright can be more powerful.

You’ll also be able to punish your opponent’s forces with another Walker, Blizzard 2 (Trust in the Force, 2179). While it’s not an elite unit like Blizzard 1, Blizzard 2 has the edge (1) keyword, making it that much easier for you to win the edge battle. Blizzard 2’s effect is not as openly dangerous as Blizzard 1, but it offers a far more insidious effect. Instead of using Blizzard 2’s combat icons, you can instead set the Balance of the Force to the dark side and skip the Force phase this turn! By guaranteeing that you’ll hold the Force through the entirety of the next turn, Blizzard 2 can help you spread the power of the dark side across the galaxy.

The downside of marching heavy Walkers into battle is their high resource cost. Especially earlier in the game, before you’ve had a chance to establish your economy, investing a large amount of resources to play a single unit could be fatal. Fortunately, this set’s objective gives you a way to reduce the cost of your assault force. So long as you have Blizzard Assault (Trust in the Force, 2176) in play, you can reduce the cost of the first Walker unit you play each turn by the number of Hoth objectives that you control. Potentially playing Blizzard 1 for just two resources makes Blizzard Assault an invaluable addition to your objective lineup—and you can keep it around longer by using Battle of Hoth (Trust in the Force, 202) to remove damage.

No assault on Echo Base would be complete without the Imperial general who led their forces into battle: General Veers (Trust in the Force, 2177). General Veers makes all of your Walker units elite, and you can also play him as a pilot on one of your Walker units. As we’ve already seen, Walker units are known for having an additional, powerful effect, so long as you forfeit your combat icons. With General Veers piloting a Walker, that unit can both trigger its Reaction and resolve its combat icons! This additional firepower may even give you the edge that you need to declare a Decisive Victory (Trust in the Force, 2180), destroying enemy enhancements even as you blow up objectives.

The Force Is Strong

You may be fighting the Battle of Hoth all over again—or you may be forging unlikely alliances across the galaxy, finding new friends, and fighting side by side. Whether you fight for the dark side or the light, you’ll find new cards in the Trust in the Force expansion for Star Wars: The Card Game!

You can pick up your copy of Trust in the Force (SWC41) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!