Fantasy Flight Games

Our Best Solo Board Games

Published 27 March 2020 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Our Best Solo Board Games

Find Your Next Tabletop Game to Enjoy While Social Distancing

No matter where you live in the world, chances are good that you’ve been engaging in some social isolation. And for tabletop gamers like us, that level of separation can make it hard to engage with the hobby we love the most. Fortunately, even if you’re alone in your apartment, there are dozens of games that you can play on your own, offering hours and hours of entertainment!

You can find amazing solo games from almost any tabletop games studio, but in this article, we’ll just run down seven titles from Fantasy Flight Games—each one packed with enough replayability to get you through a quarantine on its own.

If you’re interested in getting one of these games for yourself and your family, local tabletop game retailers near you may be offering curbside delivery—otherwise, all of these games are also available through online channels! So without further ado, let’s get into the list!

1. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Step back to a 1920s steeped in Lovecraftian horror with Arkham Horror: The Card Game! This Living Card Game invites you to become an intrepid investigator, peering past the veil of human understanding into dark cults, unspeakable rituals, and an unfolding adventure.

Before your first game, you’ll build a deck, using cards that represent your investigator’s allies, weapons, tools, and skills that they can call upon during a game. Once you’ve built a deck, you’re ready to leap into a story of creeping terror from beyond our dimension, unfolding across multiple scenarios, with choices that you’ve made early on reverberating throughout the entire campaign.

The Core Set is the perfect place to start, and from there, you simply choose the deluxe expansion that suits your interest—whether that’s the ethereal dreamlands of The Dream-Eaters, the slow descent into madness of The Path to Carcosa, or another tale. If you want to see us play the first scenario of The Circle Undone, you can find the video here, or you can catch some tips for building an investigator deck in this video.

Player count: 1-2 (3-4 with two Core Sets)

Price: The Core Set is $39.95.

2. Descent: Journeys in the Dark

The definitive dungeon crawl experience, Descent: Journeys in the Dark opens the fantasy realm of Terrinoth for you to explore as a daring hero. You’ll delve into ancient dungeons, pass through primeval forests, and do battle against countless monsters and other forces of evil across dozens of scenarios and epic campaigns. As you advance through any campaign, your victories and defeats in each scenario change the evolving story, granting experience, powerful weapons, and the chance to learn new skills.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark also boasts two distinct ways to play. If you’re playing solo, or if you’d prefer a fully cooperative game, you can download the free Road to Legend app, which controls the monsters arrayed against you and the unfolding scenario. Or, if you have at least one person isolating with you, you can play the game competitively, with one player commanding the heroes and one player leading the dreadful monsters.

Building off of the Core Set campaign, Descent boasts a wealth of expansions, each offering new scenarios, heroes, monsters, hero classes, items, and more. If you’re just looking to add more monsters and heroes to your game, a full assortment of Hero and Monster Collections can supplement your collection. Best of all, both regular expansions and Hero and Monster Collections can be seamlessly integrated into your games, whether you’re playing solo with Road to Legend or with other players.

Player count: 1-5

Price: The Core Set is $79.95.

3. Eldritch Horror

Few board games can match the sheer wealth of content poured into Eldritch Horror. Like Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Eldritch Horror takes place in the same universe—an alternate history 1920s that’s assailed by the monstrosities and Ancient Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. This game, however, takes you to the global scale, and each of the game’s eight expansions pack in more content, bringing new scenarios, investigators, items, spells, conditions, monsters, and much, much more.

You may travel to Antarctica in the Mountains of Madness expansion or the tombs of Egypt with Under the Pyramids, but even if you just stick with the Core Set, you’re still embarking on a global adventure that will take you to abandoned old bookshops, ill-fated islands, and bustling cities as you fight to stop a horrifying Ancient One from consuming our reality. As a way to adventure around the globe without leaving your home, there’s no game quite like Eldritch Horror.

Player count: 1-8

Price: The Core Set is $59.95.

4. Star Wars: Rebellion

It’s true that Star Wars™: Rebellion requires two players—so you’ll only want to get this game if you’re social isolating with someone else—but the replayability is too high to leave this game off the list. No other board game offers the entire classic Star Wars trilogy in a single experience.

This asymmetrical board game pits the scrappy Rebel Alliance against the overwhelming might of the Galactic Empire. The Rebels must stoke the fire of rebellion and gather enough support to overthrow the Empire, while the Imperials are tasked with finding and destroying the hidden Rebel base. Over the course of the game, you’ll have countless chances to recreate iconic moments from the films. You can stage a daring attack to destroy the Death Star, imprison Rebel heroes in carbonite, and play out your battles among the stars. If you want to come as close as you can to experiencing Star Wars without watching the movies, then Star Wars: Rebellion is a perfect fit.

Player count: 2

Price: $99.95

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

If you’re looking for another cooperative card game to fill your time away from others, look no farther than The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game! This Living Card Game pulls you into the world of Middle-earth. You’ll play as some of the trilogy’s most memorable heroes and embark on new quests in every game, taking on the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron and traversing across the open wastes, old ruins, and towering mountains of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic world.

The Core Set is the perfect starting point for this game, but from that point, you can take on dozens of adventures. Deluxe expansions and Adventure Packs each introduce new cards that you can add to your deck, as well as new scenarios for you to test your mettle. If you’re looking for a single game with enough content to get you through quarantine on its own, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game has enough expansions to keep you entertained for months.

Player count: 1-2 (3-4 with two Core Sets)

Price: The Core Set is $39.95.

6. Mansions of Madness

Where Eldritch Horror takes your investigations to a global level, Mansions of Madness focuses in on the horrors lurking in the gambrel manors and slumping townhomes of Arkham. Whether you’re walking the gloomy streets of Innsmouth or attending a glittering masked ball, your investigator is about to come face to face with shambling deep ones, hooded cultists, and extradimensional entities intent on destroying our world.

Using a free companion app to run the scenario and control the monsters, Mansions of Madness frees you to investigate the strange happenings unfolding in each new scenario. You’ll find four such scenarios available in the Core Set, and each of the multiple expansions available for Mansions of Madness unlocks new scenarios, as well as introducing new investigators, monsters, and more.

Player count: 1-5

Price: The Core Set is $99.95.

7. Star Wars: Legion

It’s true, you may find it difficult to get a full game of Star Wars™: Legion played in your home—but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place on this list! Every Star Wars: Legion expansion is packed with highly detailed, finely sculpted miniatures spanning the entire Star Wars saga, ranging from Count Dooku, to Han Solo, to a strike team of Phase I Clone Troopers or an honor detail of Imperial Royal Guards. These miniatures come unassembled and unpainted, which means that bringing them to life with paint can be the perfect way to spend some time at home.

Even if you aren’t familiar with miniatures painting yourself, our paint sets specifically created for Star Wars: Legion make an easy way to start your collection. And for painting tips and tricks for every level of painter, you can find an assortment of our painting tutorials with painter extraordinaire John Shaffer on YouTube.

Player count: 1 for painting, 2 for gameplay

Price: The Core Set is $99.95 and contains components required to play, but if you’re just interested in painting, you can pick up a paint set and a unit expansion for about $59.95.

Enjoy Your Gaming!

Hopefully these suggestions for tabletop games you can play on your own has helped you figure out some ways to stay entertained as you’re staying healthy! As we mentioned above, many local retailers may still be offering a curbside delivery service, otherwise all of these games are available through online channels.

Happy gaming!

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14 Years

Published 26 July 2019 | Star Wars: Outer Rim

14 Years

A Retrospective Journal from Corey Konieczka

I started working at FFG on July 1, 2005. Before then, I had designed games as a fun hobby, so being able to do it as a career was (and still is) an unbelievable privilege. At the time, FFG had twenty or so people, and we had no idea that the company (and the hobby games industry) was about to grow in leaps and bounds.

It doesn't seem that long ago until I do math and realize that I’ve been doing this for fourteen years. While I still have much to learn, I have experienced much through my years at FFG, and I thought it might be fun to examine my career through the lens of the games I've worked on.

World of Warcraft: The Board Game – 2005

I started my career at FFG designing bosses and equipment for World of Warcraft: The Board Game. I remember spending an afternoon solo-testing boss fights that went roughly like this: roll a handful of D8s on my desk with a clatter. Record data. Scoop and repeat.

Warrior Knights – 2006

We had the rights to republish Derek Carver's Warrior Knights, and my boss wanted more than just a new coat of paint. Bruno Faiduitti and Pierre Cléquin took a stab at a redesign, and I was asked to take it even further.

When testing the game, I vividly remembered one piece of advice from Christian T. Petersen: "Your game is too short." This really caught me off guard. The game was already three hours long, and I'd been doing everything I could to shorten it. I didn't heed this advice, and when the game was released, the fan feedback was: "The game ends just when it's getting exciting." Luckily, I got to fix this in an expansion, but this greatly shaped how I evaluate feedback from others.

This was also the first time I worked with Andrew Navaro on a project. The gorgeous graphic design and cardbacks were made by the man who would one day become the head of FFG studio!

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire – 2006

I'm not going to talk about expansions in this article, but I have to make an exception for this one. The third edition of Twilight Imperium was the game that introduced me to Fantasy Flight Games.

Before working at FFG, my friend Gary and I created a small homebrew expansion for the game. Months later, when I applied to work at FFG, I included a copy of it with my resume. Luckily, they liked my additions, and I was hired. A year later I was given the opportunity to work on a Twilight Imperium expansion, and some of my fan content ended up in it!

While working on Shattered Empire, I vividly remember writing hilarious backstories for the new planets. I soon found out that Twilight Imperium is a serious universe, and I had to start over. In hindsight, this was pretty obvious.

Tide of Iron – 2007

My name probably shouldn't be on the box of this game. I designed a few scenarios and helped out, but I didn't design any of the core mechanics. Fun game though!

StarCraft: The Board Game – 2007

I was introduced to the StarCraft videogame at a LAN party in high school. I was hooked immediately, and I sank way too much time into that game and its awesome map editor.

Needless to say, I was over the moon when I was given the opportunity to design the board game. Christian proposed zooming out the scale of the game to show multiple planets, as well as the idea of using A Game of Thrones: The Board Game-style order tokens (but stacking them). With those mandates I dove into my first "from scratch" game design.

Looking back on it, I still like most of the individual mechanics, but holy cow, is it complicated. A 48-page rulebook? Was I crazy?

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game – 2007

The goal was to create a simpler World of Warcraft game that could be enjoyed by both casual gamers and hobby gamers. In the end, I learned that trying to appeal to everyone meant that it appealed to no one. Except one guy. And he really liked it.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – 2008

I spent the next six months working on game expansions, and then came the opportunity of a lifetime: we had secured the rights to do a Battlestar Galactica board game.

After my first playtest of the game, I knew that we had something special. Instead of needing to strong arm people into playtesting my game, I had people approaching me to ask when my next playtest was. To top things off, some of these people had never even seen the show!

I think what made the game successful was not in how it recreated the events of the show, but how it made people feel. The game exudes an intoxicating mix of deception and mistrust, which was rare among board games. When you secretly look at your loyalty card and see that you're a Cylon, your heart rate immediately picks up. As much as you want to smile, groan, or shout, you have to pretend that your card is blank. It's exhilarating.

Middle-earth Quest – 2009

I was tasked with creating an asymmetric game that had one player taking on the role of Sauron and the other players embodying heroes of Middle-earth. It was a unique design challenge in that I was really designing two different games: Sauron was playing a strategy game, while the heroes were playing an adventure game. I love a challenge.

My most vivid memory for this game was spending a week at Christian's house rewriting the rulebook in his home office. I learned more about rulebooks in that week that I had in my first four years at FFG.

Space Hulk: Death Angel – 2010

The moment that sticks with me about this game was when the late Harald Bilz (in charge of our partner Heidelberg at the time), played my game and said: "It is good, but not great." He then listed the issues with the main card mechanic and how it did a poor job of capturing the theme. He was right. The original mechanic was shelved and would later find its way into the Gears of War boardgame.

I really appreciated the frank feedback, and I think it was instrumental in making this game a great success.

Runewars – 2010

Back in 1998, FFG made a fantasy take on Twilight Imperium known as Battlemist. I was tasked with making a spiritual successor that lived in our Terrinoth universe (used both in Runebound and Descent: Journeys in the Dark).

While the premise of the game was the same, the mechanics were designed from scratch. This was definitely one of my heavier designs and included everything from huge strategic battles to heroes sent on personal quests. In hindsight, it was probably trying to do too much, but perhaps that was part of the charm?

Mansions of Madness First Edition – 2011

My most vivid memory of this game was a discussion with Tim Uren that went something like this: "If we tell players to not, under any circumstance, go into the freezer, do you think they'll listen?" "Hard to say. Let's make players lose the game if they ignore the warning."

The answer is that when you tell players not to do something, it jumps to the top of their wish list. Many people died because of my curiosity, and I learned a lesson.

Rune Age – 2011

This one has a special place in my heart. It was my attempt to add direct player interaction to a deckbuilding game. While it wasn't a huge hit, it still has some dedicated fans and I'm proud of the game.

Gears of War – 2011

I had dipped my toe in the "co-op" design pool with Death Angel, but this was my first deep dive into a fully cooperative board game. I'm most proud of the AI system I designed to control the Locust enemies, and this design later became an inspiration for AI in apps like Road to Legend for Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

My favorite memory was visiting the Epic Games studio to play my prototype with the Gears of War dev team. It was great to show them my game and meet everyone, including the great Lee Perry, who would later help design a little game called Fortnite.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition – 2012

The planned amount of content in this game was staggering, with more hours of scripted playtime than I'd ever been a part of. Luckily, we had a big team (including myself, Adam Sadler, and Daniel Lovat Clark). The plan was to draw on Kevin Wilson's first edition, but to include a campaign from the start. I learned how to split up design tasks among big teams and gained a new appreciation for this style of game.

Eldritch Horror – 2013

I was tasked with building a world-spanning Lovecraftian adventure that borrowed heavily from Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson's amazing Arkham Horror Second Edition.

Nikki Valens came in halfway through the design process and asked some hard questions about this game. She was a key proponent in streamlining the mechanics to what it is today. Before that point, there were probably twice as many token types (including money tokens).

Star Wars™: Imperial Assault – 2014

A Star Wars version of Descent: Journeys in the Dark? Sign me up!

The biggest challenge with this game is that we wanted to have two distinct games in the same box: a traditional dungeon-crawling campaign and a two-player head-to-head skirmish mode. I spent most of my time working on the skirmish game, and I got to geek out and design abilities for this little-known character called Darth Vader.

Star Wars™: Rebellion – 2016

Christian was a fan of the old Rebellion video game, and he thought it would be the perfect inspiration for a board game. Although I had only played that game once growing up, I loved the idea of the game.

I focused my design on what I enjoy most about two-player games: bluffing and mindgames. It's a game about outthinking your opponent and living out Star Wars fantasies in a unique way. If you've ever wanted to blow up a planet, this game is for you.

Star Wars™: Destiny – 2016

In my youth, the Decipher Star Wars CCG was one of my favorite games, so to have an opportunity to work on a new Star Wars collectible card game was a dream come true.

Lukas Litzsinger was the lead designer on this, and it was a pleasure to work with him on this one. From the start, we knew that we wanted to use unique printed dice, and that presented a huge challenge. CCGs with dice have a notorious history, so our first goal was to find a way to integrate them in a fun and novel way. I am super proud of the end result, and I think we created a unique CCG that is engaging, fun, and accessible.

Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition – 2017

This project was weird in that I played the role of guide and overseer, while the actual development work was done by the talented Dane Beltrami. I helped identify the best parts of third edition that we wanted to keep, and I also provided ideas to try and improve an already great game system. My favorite contribution was the new trade system and how it provided even more opportunities to form and break alliances.

I could talk for hours about the development of Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition, and if you want a glimpse into this, be sure to check out the wonderful mini-documentary that Shut Up & Sit Down created.

Discover: Lands Unknown – 2018

I first pitched this game idea in 2014 as my homage to exploration and survival video games. It later was combined with Christian and Eric Lang's brilliant idea of creating a board game in which no two copies in the world are the same (the full history of which is cataloged here).

I feel like this game was a little lighter than many people expected, but I'm really proud of how it turned out, and I think it deserves a second look (especially if you haven't seen the fully cooperative rules).

Star Wars™: Outer Rim – 2019

This game is inspired by space exploration videogames from the mid ‘90s, like Wing Commander: Privateer.

My goal was to create a game that wasn't about delivering colored cubes from one space to another, and instead lean into the flavor of the universe. My fondest game memories always revolve around the people and the stories, and I think we've provided all the tools scoundrels need to tell emergent stories in the Star Wars universe.

....................................................................................................................................................................

Looking back on fourteen years makes me realize how malleable memory can be. Did we have the concept meeting for Battlestar Galactica on a plane ride to visit Blizzard? I think so, but I'm not sure. Human memory doesn't work like a computer, it flows and rewrites itself to make sense of the world. Memory is built from impressions, feelings, and snippets of conversation—our mind fills in the gaps, but I'm never quite sure which bridges are fabricated.

I do know one thing for certain though: this long list of games are not my accomplishments; they are the accomplishments of hundreds of people. They only exist because of other designers, producers, artists, graphic designers, editors, licensors, playtesters, and more.

I was born in the right place and in the right century, and I have had the pleasure of working with wonderful people to craft fascinating games. The future beckons, and my journey continues.

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No Turning Back

Published 31 August 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

No Turning Back

The Rise of the Empire Expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion Is Now Available

"You give way to an enemy this evil with this much power and you condemn the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now!"
–Jyn Erso

It is a dark time for the galaxy. The Old Republic is dead. In its place, the Galactic Empire has seized control of the galaxy, subjugating worlds with unprecedented speed and ruthlessness. Every day, the Imperial flag spreads to new worlds. And worst of all, there are rumors that the Emperor has been developing a new superweapon, one with the power to destroy whole planets.

What do these rumors mean? Is this the death of freedom? Or is it the first spark of a war that will shake the galaxy? The time has come for you to decide.

The Rise of the Empire expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion is now available!

What Is Rise of the Empire?

Largely inspired by the characters and events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Rise of the Empire is an expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion that adds new depth and intrigue to the game's epic conflicts between the tyrannical Galactic Empire and rag-tag Rebel Alliance.

With its wealth of new heroes, villains, starships, troopers, and vehicles—as well as its new rules for Cinematic Combat—Rise of the Empire allows you to send Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor to recover the Death Star plans. As the Imperial player, you can seize command of Director Krennic and his finest death troopers, then set traps for the Rebel pilots and soldiers, luring them away from their base and into massive battles. You'll even find new characters and units from other Star Wars materials, as the Empire gains access to Admiral Motti and the Interdictor. Even Jabba the Hutt makes an appearance, feeding his prisoners to the Sarlaac.

Altogether, Rise of the Empire introduces eight new leaders, thirty-six plastic miniatures, five target markers, two attachment rings, three new dice, and more than one-hundred new cards. You'll find U-wings, TIE Strikers, Nebulon-B frigates, and assault tanks. You'll gain new ways of subverting your opponent's plans, and you'll discover a whole new chapter in your ongoing Galactic Civil War!

Learn More from Our Previews

Since its release, Star Wars: Rebellion has quickly established itself as one of the top-rated and best-loved boardgames of all-time. Its asymmetrical, star-spanning conflicts combine with iconic heroes, villains, and their secret missions to offer an experience that is unquestionably Star Wars in both its scope and tenor, and Rise of the Empire carries this balance forward, even as it introduces new mechanics and possibilities that have early reviewers hailing it as a "must-have expansion," (Dice Tower) and saying, "I'd heavily recommend this. If you like Rebellion, I don't see any reason you wouldn't want to pick this up." (Ding & Dent)

In our first preview, "Single Reactor Ignition," we looked at many of the expansion's new missions and projects and saw how they reinforced the importance of your leaders and missions, even as they lent new color to your games, setting them more fully within the time period and conflicts of Rogue One.
We got a look at the new leaders and their minor skill icons in "Daring Heroes and Dastardly Villains."

"A Galaxy at War" then offered an in-depth look at the expansion's new units, its new tactics decks, and how they worked together with the new rules for Cinematic Combat to present a more fully integrated, thematic, and strategic combat experience designed to appeal to veteran gamers.
The expansion's new target markers and their impact on your games took center stage throughout "Stay on Target."
We turned our gaze to the expansion's new action cards in "Take Action," paying attention to the ways they distinguish the new leaders and explore new design space within the interactions with the probe deck and for actions that aren't associated with a specific leader.

Finally, in "A Rebellion Built on Hope," we made the rulebook (pdf, 1.4) available for download and looked at the Subversion mission, a new mission that arrives for both Imperials and Rebels and permits another layer of bluffing beyond that available in the core game.

Pick Up Your Copy Today

The early reviews are in, and the Rise of the Empire expansion looks poised to conquer the galaxy. Now you can see for yourself what the reviewers have already praised.

Rise of the Empire (SW04) is available now. Head to your local retailer to pick up your copy today!

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A Rebellion Built on Hope

Published 10 August 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

A Rebellion Built on Hope

The Rules for Rise of the Empire Are Now Available for Download

"That's it. The Rebels are there."
–Darth Vader

Imperial probe droids have found signs of Rebel activity. The Imperial fleet has been deployed. And the ensuing conflict will soon send tremors throughout the galaxy…

The Rise of the Empire expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion is nearly here, and in anticipation of the new, action-packed conflicts and narratives it will soon allow you to enjoy, we are happy to make its rulebook available for download (pdf, 1.4 MB)!

A Dark Time. A Time for Subversion.

Heavily inspired by the characters and events of Rogue One, Rise of the Empire carries us back to one of the galaxy's darkest hours. And while the expansion's rules may grant you a better appreciation for how you'll wage your conflicts in this new chapter of the Galactic Civil War, they simply cannot illustrate the full scope of your upcoming struggles.

The Republic is no more. The last remnants of the Senate have been swept away. In their place, the Galactic Empire looms across the galaxy. Palpatine, its tyrannical, self-appointed Emperor, exerts his will via Star Destroyers, Stormtroopers, and TIE squadrons. These machines of war inspire fear and keep the local systems in line.

Still, all hope is not lost. Even under the crushing weight of Imperial oppression, small bands of insurgents have come together to form a fledgling Rebel Alliance. Driven by little more than their dreams and ideals, these brave freedom fighters risk their lives on daring secret missions and surgical military strikes. Bit by bit, they hope to chip away at the Empire's aura of invincibility and inspire the galaxy to open rebellion.

After ridding Sullust of Imperial forces, the Rebels play Raid Imperial Factory to advance the reputation marker by one.

And these are the struggles at the heart of Rise of the Empire and Star Wars: Rebellion. Confronted by the Empire's overwhelming military might, the Rebel Alliance must play a shrewd game of cat-and-mouse—striking whenever it recognizes a moment of Imperial weakness, and then retreating to the safety of its hidden base. And to prevent the Rebellion from inspiring systems to open revolt, the Empire must quickly uncover the Rebel base and destroy it.

The game plays out over the course of secret missions, political excursions, and military confrontations. And while much of the game's Star Wars feeling comes from the asymmetrical nature of this lopsided struggle, a good deal more comes from the flavor of its missions and battles.

While our other previews pay a good deal of attention to the new missions, leaders, action cards, and cinematic combat coming in Rise of the Empire, we've withheld one key mission for just this moment— Subversion .

Keep Them Guessing

A mission worthy of its own preview, Subversion presents a whole new level of bluffing.

As the game's veterans already know, most of the action in Star Wars: Rebellion is driven by its leaders. If you want to attempt secret missions, you need to assign leaders to them. If you want to move your troops or your fleet to engage the enemy, you need a leader to direct that movement. If you want to prevent your opponents from completing their own missions, you need leaders available to respond.

This means that, until the introduction of Subversion, you were limited in your ability to disguise your response to an enemy mission. Either your leader was assigned to a mission, or it was held in reserve in the leader pool. Either way, your opponents would have knowledge of that leader's status.

Now Subversion allows you to mislead your opponents in ways you previously could not. Instead of keeping Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor in the leader pool to oppose your opponent's mission, you can assign them to Subversion. This way it looks like they're assigned to a mission and unavailable to oppose a critical Imperial mission—such as when Jabba the Hutt attempts to Make an Example of Mon Mothma by feeding her to the sarlaac. Then… surprise! Jyn and Cassian are suddenly able to oppose, relocating to Jabba's system, and bringing all their skills to Mon Mothma's defense. More than that, Subversion even grants them an extra die!

These are the sort of bluffs—and cinematic moments—that live at the heart of Rebellion, and they've earned it a place among the highest-rated, most acclaimed board games of all time. They also illustrate how the game and its themes are intricately woven through not just its rules, but also its lopsided setup, secret missions, and character-specific action cards.

Finally, Subversion is such a rich and effective part of the Rebel response in Rise of the Empire that the Empire has adopted the tactic itself . Both sides are able to make use of this new card. More than this, the expansion doesn't just make the mission available for the games you play with the new Rise of the Empire missions, it also makes it available for the games you play with an enhanced and redefined set of core missions.

Launch Your Strike

Strike to crush the Rebellion. Or fight for the cause of galactic freedom. Either way, you'll soon have your chance to explore the newest chapters of your ongoing Galactic Civil War.

Rise of the Empire (SW04) is scheduled to arrive at retailers by the end of the month!

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Take Action

Published 4 August 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Take Action

A Look at the New Action Cards from Rise of the Empire

"Your father… He said I could get right by myself. He said I could make it right, if I was brave enough and listened to what was in my heart."
–Bodhi Rook to Jyn Erso

In Star Wars™: Rebellion, your main characters—your leaders—are defined largely by their names, art, skill icons, and tactic values. At least, these are the aspects of your leaders that you and your opponent can see on the table, and they speak to your leaders' potential as they sit atop unrevealed mission cards or lurk within your leader pool, waiting for the right moment to thwart an enemy's mission or lead your fleet to battle.

But the Star Wars films are full of heroes who surprise us by rising to the challenges they face, and they're full of villains who surprise us with their depth, cunning, or cruelty. The movies force characters into situations that leave us room to be surprised, and we find stunning instances of courage and compassion and betrayal.

Similarly, the leaders of Star Wars: Rebellion—and the new Rise of the Empire expansion—can surprise us with their hidden depths. There's more to these characters than you can find on their standees. You'll also find them given life by the missions with which they're associated, and you'll find their unique talents represented by their action cards.

Make a Fresh Start

In Star Wars: Rebellion, you start the game with four leaders. As the game progresses, however, your leader pool will change. It's possible that your leader pool might shrink as some Rebel leaders are captured and frozen in carbonite or turned to the dark side, or as an Imperial leader is defeated in an epic Confrontation .

However, it's more common for your leader pool to grow—at least as the game moves through its early stages and both sides are focused on amassing their forces for the battles to come. At the end of several predetermined rounds, both the Rebels and Imperials are able to recruit new leaders and add them to their leader pools.

Whenever you have the chance to recruit a leader, you draw two action cards and can select any one of the leaders shown on those cards. You can then take the selected leader from your supply and add him or her to your leader pool. And the action card's text then reinforces that leader's impact on the game by introducing a unique effect.

Some of those effects are Immediate, meaning they're resolved as soon as you add the leader to your pool. This is the case with such action cards as Saw Gererra's Rebel Extremist card, Cassian Andor's He Means Well , and Director Krennic's card, Lord Vader's Orders .

These abilities tend to reflect aspects of the character inherent in his or her background. Their impact can be significant, but they tend to be less surprising. After all, they arrive to the table between periods of activity, rather than in the heat of combat.

Other action cards, like Trust in the Force , play during the Assignment phase and present new ways to make use of your leaders. Since they fall outside the standard back-and-forth of the game's standard framework, these abilities may be somewhat surprising, but when you're using a leader like Jyn Erso or Chirrut Îmwe to trigger your action card's effect, that leader is no longer able to attempt a mission, oppose a mission, or move your fleet.

In the end, you trade one surprise for another, and you'll need to make your decision whether to trigger the action card or assign the leader to another task based upon the information available.

Other abilities, however, are marked by the Special or Start of Combat keywords, allowing you a whole range of options to lay traps or avoid them, to win combats, or to place bounties upon the enemy leaders who have thwarted your ambitions.

These action cards generally require a little more effort to trigger since you need to have the matching leader in the right place at the right time, but the effects of action cards like Post Bounty and Baze's Loyalty are well worth the effort.

Similarly, Special action cards like Something to Fight For and Ambitions of Power can change the game at critical moments—even if they don't directly interfere with your opponent's plans. If Jyn Erso participates in a winning combat, she can play Something to Fight For to reclaim an objective that you've already scored and will be certain to score again. And given how important your leaders are to the whole of your strategy, a card like Ambitions of Power can make a huge difference in the number of systems your Imperials can subjugate in any given round.

No matter the type of effect, though, you need the matching leader to play an action card, and that means your actions are always rooted in the personal narratives and cinematic dramas that evolve over the course of your games.

Well, almost always…

Full of Surprises

If an action card has a leader icon on it, you need that leader in the appropriate situation at the appropriate time in order to play it. And in the core game, every action card either had a leader or an attachment ring to which it was keyed.

In Rise of the Empire, however, this changes. Each side gains a single action card that doesn't require a specific leader.

The Rebels gain False Orders , which can be played at the end of the assignment phase. It reads, "Choose 1 Imperial leader that is on a mission by itself. Return that leader to the leader pool and return its mission card to the Imperial player’s hand."

Since you play False Orders at the end of the assignment phase, the Imperials are, therefore, prevented from both attempting the mission to which they had assigned the leader and from using that leader to attempt a mission. The leader can still oppose your mission or direct fleet movement, but there are times you'll gladly allow those possibilities in order to deny a mission.

For example, if you draw False Orders early in the game, when the Imperials are likely to send Darth Vader to Capture Rebel Operatives , you might return Darth Vader to the leader pool in order to prevent him from capturing Jyn Erso as she goes on a Heist to remove the target marker that is preventing your ships from using their Death Star Plans to destroy the Death Star.

When the Rebels suspect that Darth Vader intends to hunt down Jyn Erso and capture her during her mission on Nal Hutta, they can use False Orders to return his mission to the Imperial player's hand and return Vader to the leader pool.

Darth Vader would then be available to oppose Jyn, but since he doesn't have any intel icons, he wouldn't roll any dice. Jyn would only have to roll a single success.

Alternatively, you might play the card at a time you fear a dramatic, game-changing play. Perhaps you suspect the Emperor intends to use Lure of the Dark Side to convert a captive Saw Gererra to the Imperial cause. If so, your False Orders could serve as a distraction, allowing you an additional round to free Saw Gererra before he caves into temptation.

The Imperials, however, are not to be outdone, and they gain a powerful, predatory ability to counter the Rebellion's elusive stall tactics. Track Them is playable whenever a Rebel unit retreats from combat, and it allows you to choose an Imperial leader in the combat's system and return it to your leader pool.

At its very minimum, then, Track Them effectively grants you the use of an "extra" leader to oppose enemy missions or move your fleet. You might be able to pull Director Krennic back from a combat to oppose the Rebellion's Reconnaissance . Or you might recover the use of Admiral Piett and send him, fresh from one victorious space combat, to lead another fleet to battle.

More than this, if Admiral Piett was your only leader in the battle he just won, Track Them would allow you to use Piett to pursue the retreating Rebels. While you cannot normally move a fleet twice, this is only because you cannot move your fleet away from a system in which you've placed your leader. Once Piett has returned to your pool, if there's no other leader in that system, the fleet is free to continue its pursuit—and complete destruction—of the Rebels!

After the Rebels retreat from Admiral Piett's forces at Utapau, the Imperials play Track Them to return Piett to their leader pool, meaning he can then pursue the Rebels to Dagobah.

Scour the Galaxy

Even as the new action cards from Rise of the Empire provide us with a greater sense of the characters they enhance and surprising new tactics, they reinforce the ways your leaders involve themselves in the larger Galactic Civil War.

After all, whether you play Rebellion as an Imperial or a Rebel, you have a goal, and that goal is in some way related to the Empire's search for the Rebel base. As the Imperial player, you want to find the base as quickly as possible, probing system after system for signs of Rebel activity, so that you can destroy the base and the Rebellion in one fell swoop. As the Rebels, you want to elude the Empire's detection and hinder Imperial search efforts wherever possible.

Either way, the game brings this hunt to life as the Imperials move their fleets from system to system—and through the use of the probe deck.

When you're the Imperial player, the probe deck helps you narrow down your search. Each system you draw from the probe deck is a system that doesn't house the Rebel base. And since the Rebels don't know which cards you're holding—and which systems you've probed—the probe deck provides you a bit of hidden information that you can use to power your bluffs or lure the Rebels into your traps.

However, in the core game, the cards, themselves, do very little once you've drawn them. And this leads to one of the opportunities that Director Krennic and Krennic's Finest can exploit in Rise of the Empire.

These leaders come with a pair of new action cards that allow you to put your probe cards to new uses.

Secret Facility allows you to place one of your probe cards facedown beneath it, then reveal that probe card later to gain an assault tank or Stormtrooper unit along with a shield bunker. And you can then use these new Imperial units to lead your surprise assault against the Rebels who just stumbled into the system. You don't even need Director Krennic or Krennic's Finest to be there. In fact, you don't need any leader at all. The card's effect is triggered—and your trap is set—as soon as you recruit Krennic or his Finest. From then on, it's up to you whether or not you spring the trap.

The Rebel troopers deployed to Bespin find themselves in for a cruel surprise when they stumble across Director Krennic's Secret Facility.

Similarly, Sweep the Area triggers Immediately whenever you recruit Krennic's Finest and requires that you place a probe card facedown beneath it. Instead of triggering the production of new units and the initiation of a combat, however, the card allows you to capture a Rebel leader. Whenever you spy a Rebel leader in the system associated with the action, you can reveal your probe card to capture that leader and move it to the closest system that has an Imperial unit.

These powerful effects help the Empire maximize its use of probe cards, but the Imperials aren't the only one to benefit from action cards that relate to the probe deck. The Rebels gain their own set of tricks with Under the Radar , which allows them to steal a probe card from the top four of the probe deck. Not only can they steal the one probe card, but they can manipulate the other three they viewed, placing them on the top or bottom of the probe deck as they see fit.

The result is that Under the Radar allows the Rebels to create a new degree of uncertainty. Now there are two systems the probes will never find. And only one of them is the Rebel base. If you're lucky, as the Rebel player, you might be able to create a tension that leaves the Empire torn between two possible bases—at opposite sides of the galaxy.

And there's even one more benefit hidden in this action. It reads, "At the start of your turn in the Command Phase, you may return the probe card to the top of the deck." But if you can keep the Empire torn between two mysteries, why would you ever return the probe card to the top of the deck? The reason is that once the Imperials have sent their fleet to the system, they'll no longer wonder if that's the one in which your base is hidden. At this point, then, the ability to return the card to the top of the probe deck is a stall tactic that prevents the Empire from drawing another, more useful probe card.

After the Imperials subjugate Mygeeto, the Rebels may use Under the Radar to place the Mygeeto probe card back atop the probe deck, momentarily slowing the Imperial's ongoing search.

And if you're lucky, that one beat of misinformation might be the last you need, allowing you just enough time to gain your last point of reputation and incite open rebellion through the galaxy!

The Search Draws to a Close

After our explorations of the expansion's missions, leaders, units, combats, target markers, and actions, we've nearly come to the end of our previews for Rise of the Empire. Only the rules have managed to elude us!

Help us widen our net and track down the Rebel base by sharing this article on Facebook or Retweeting it @FFGames. The Rebels can't hide forever, and once we get 500 shares or Retweets, we'll uncover the expansion's hidden rulebook, making it immediately available for download. Otherwise, you'll have to wait one more week…

In the meantime, make sure you've pre-ordered your copy of the Rise of the Empire (SW04) expansion. Talk to your local retailer today!

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Stay on Target

Published 28 July 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Stay on Target

A Look at the New Target Markers from Rise of the Empire

"Squadron up. Target: Eadu."
–General Draven

With its new leaders, missions, units, and rules for cinematic combat, the Rise of the Empire expansion will soon add whole new chapters to your games of Star Wars™: Rebellion.

We've already explored much of what these chapters may reveal in our earlier previews, but as you'd expect from any gripping narrative, there's yet another twist. In fact, you'll find several more twists—including those reflected by the expansion's new target markers.

The Deal Has Been Altered

Star Wars: Rebellion isn't just a game of intergalactic conflict; it's also a game of operatic drama set in the Star Wars universe. And while the game's asymmetrical setup and win conditions play into the tenor and arc of the narratives you discover over the course of play, the details all emerge from the missions your leaders undertake, along with all the action cards, projects, and objectives that further steep your contests in the excitement you've come to expect from Star Wars.

Many of these events and actions are easily played and resolved. Their consequences may be far-reaching. They may allow you to draw extra cards. They may change the board state. But once these events have been resolved—and you've drawn your cards or altered the board—you no longer need to track them through ensuing rounds.

Other events, however, introduce situations that need to be tracked from round to round. If you send Krennic's Finest to capture Chirrut Îmwe, you need some way to indicate that the Rebels can no longer benefit from Chirrut's guidance. And the game allows us to track these sort of developments with the use of attachment rings.

After Krennic's Finest capture Chirrut Îmwe, the blind Rebel is placed in the "captured leader" attachment ring and can no longer lend his guidance to the Rebel cause.

In the core game, we find attachment rings for captured leaders, leaders who have been frozen in carbonite, and leaders who have been turned to the dark side. There are attachment rings that allow you to track whether or not Luke Skywalker has completed his Jedi training and that account for the positive contributions made by the Millennium Falcon, C-3PO, and R2-D2.

There are attachment rings in Rise of the Empire, too, and they let you place a bounty upon a Rebel leader or secure the loyal assistance of the droid K-2SO .

But what about the events that change the course of your Galactic Civil War and don't tie directly to a leader?

That's where we get the new target markers from Rise of the Empire. Like attachment rings, target markers indicate an altered game state that doesn't correspond directly to the number or placement of units, the Rebellion's reputation, or the number or type of cards that you hold in your hand. And the game state alterations they indicate don't track with any specific leader.

Instead, these target markers are manipulated by missions, action cards, and objectives that tie them to location-based effects like that on Secure the Plans . Once in play, the Secure the Plans target marker prevents the Rebels from playing the Death Star Plans objective and attempting to destroy the Death Star.

Forced to Choose

Given the massive impact such target markers can have upon the game, it's only natural that your opponent will want to remove the markers you put in place. And it's likely you'll want to defend them.

To remove your target marker, your opponent needs to plant a ground unit in the marker's system and clear out any units you might have on the planet. Accordingly, if you can land a couple of AT-ATs to Secure the Plans on Dathomir, your opponent is going to have a much harder time destroying your Death Star than if you've only guarded your target marker with a single unit of Stormtroopers.

Alternatively, you can remove a target marker by destroying the system in which the marker was placed. This distinction becomes more important when you consider that the majority of the target markers in Rise of the Empire can only be assigned by the Rebels and that they can anchor the effects like those on Raid Outposts and Rebel Cell .

Given the power of the effects these target markers represent, it's only natural that you and your opponents will want to remove each other's target markers as swiftly as possible. And this is where the twists come into your unfolding narratives.

Imagine that you've narrowed your hunt for the Rebel base enough that you suspect it's on either Hoth or Felucia. You've directed fleets and ground forces to move toward both systems. But now the Rebels have revealed a Rebel Cell in the Rodia system. This open show of rebellion stands to win the Rebels at least one point of reputation per round unless you crush that cell, so do you reroute one of your fleets? Or do you proceed toward the systems you believe—and now desperately hope—are secretly housing the Rebel base?

The galaxy is vast, and not even the Empire can send its soldiers everywhere at once. How will you proceed when the Rebels reveal a Rebel Cell between the two systems where you expect you might find the Rebel base?

At their core, the target markers from Rise of the Empire serve as physical reminders of the pressures mounting against you—and the difficult choices you must make as time is running out. And these are the situations and choices that lead toward rich and dramatic narratives.

The Target Is Within Sight

Every passing day draws us closer to the release of Rise of the Empire, and we continue to press forward in our hunt for the Rebel base… How might you use the expansion's new target markers to redirect your opponent's efforts? Head to our community forums to share your best ideas.

Then keep your eyes open for our next preview of Rise of the Empire (SW04)!

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A Galaxy at War

Published 21 July 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

A Galaxy at War

A Look at the New Units and Cinematic Combats from Rise of the Empire

"Despite what the others say, war is inevitable."
–Mon Mothma

After following its cast of characters through a web of events that spanned the galaxy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story built toward its climactic battle on and above the planet Scarif.

With nothing less than the fate of the entire galaxy at stake, Rebels and Imperials fought in the jungles, in the heavy guarded Citadel Tower, in the skies, and even in space. It was the first major battle of the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the fledgling Rebel Alliance, and were it not for the Rebel victory, the Rebellion—and the galaxy's hopes for freedom—would have been swiftly eradicated.

But the battle almost didn't take place. At an earlier council meeting, Rebel leaders voted against confronting the Imperials at Scarif. It was only because a few brave individuals disobeyed the council's wishes and risked their lives—sacrificed their lives—that the Rebel Alliance ended up with the Death Star plans and survived to continue in its fight.

Likewise, in Star Wars™: Rebellion, you won't find your Rebel Alliance eager to engage the evil Galactic Empire in military engagements. The Empire is far stronger. Its tools of war are far more devastating. But there are times that key individuals and key engagements can change the course of history.

In the long run, war is inevitable. Combat is inevitable. And with the new units and advanced rules from the Rise of the Empire expansion, that combat is far more nuanced, dynamic, cinematic, and dramatic than ever.

No Retreat

There are a total of thirty-six plastic figures in Rise of the Empire, and these are divided between a total of eight new unit types—four for the Rebels and four for the Empire.

Like the new leaders we explored more closely in an earlier preview, these units all use the expansion's new green dice, which notably only boast icons on two sides—but both are direct hits. In turn, this makes the new units less reliable and specialized in combat than core units like X-wings, TIE fighters, and Stormtroopers.

But it also makes them better able to perform some tasks that similar core units might find more daunting. A Rebel vanguard unit, for example, might not be quite as good at combatting Stormtroopers as a Rebel trooper unit would be, but it matches up better against an AT-ST or an Imperial assault tank.

Similarly, your TIE Strikers aren't quite as effective against Rebel X-wings as your TIE fighter squadrons may be, but they can adapt more readily to the challenges of downing a Rebel transport or Nebulon-B frigate.

Because they roll green dice, TIE Strikers cannot roll as many hit results as TIE fighters, but their hits are just as effective against ships with red health values as they are against fighters with black health.

But the new units' reliance on green dice isn't the only thing that's notable about them. Whereas the core game offers the Rebel Alliance a couple of units—the ion cannon and shield generators—with unique game abilities, the only satisfaction it offers the Empire is the one that comes from knowing you wield superior firepower. With Rise of the Empire, the Empire still claims the advantage of superior firepower, but it also gains a couple of units with unique abilities.

Even if they never hit their targets, the shield bunker and Interdictor can win you battles simply by being a part of them. So long as your shield bunker remains intact, it grants your Death Star complete protection. Even a well-timed trench run directed by a careful analysis of the Death Star Plans won't avail the Rebellion. And while the shield bunker forces the Rebels to commit to the ground, your Interdictor can trap the ships they'd hoped to retreat after dropping off their troops. Wherever you have your Interdictor, the Rebels simply cannot escape. Their efforts to jump to hyperspace are denied.

Advanced Tactics

In addition to its new units, Rise of the Empire introduces new advanced tactic cards and rules for cinematic combat that can dramatically reshape your battles.

For starters, you remove the ground and space tactic decks from the core game and replace them with the four tactic decks in Rise of the Empire; both the Rebels and Imperials gain their own ground and space tactic decks.

The fact that these new tactic decks are divided by faction is important because each card has two different abilities—one above a dividing line and one below it—and most of the top abilities are associated specifically with one of that faction's units. This allows units to showcase their unique abilities as seen in the films. For example, the Tow Cables card can allow an air speeder to destroy an AT-AT, and TIE fighters can use their greater numbers and Swarm Tactics more effectively in space battles. Or if the Rebels have a transport in the same system as their ground battle, they could play Escape Plan to effect their immediate retreat.

But the changes introduced by these advanced tactic cards and cinematic combat rules go far beyond the additional tactical value they assign to specific units.

When you use them, the whole flow of combat changes. No longer do you draw a number of tactic cards associated with your leader's tactic values at the start of combat. Instead, at the beginning of each round of space combat and each round of ground combat, you look through your tactics deck and choose any one card to place facedown before you. Your opponent simultaneously places his or her own facedown card, and then the cards are revealed and their effects remain in play throughout the combat round.

These cards are then discarded and unavailable to you until after you’ve played the other seven cards in your deck, meaning that each of your choices in one battle will have repercussions in other, future battles.

Naturally, these rules changes necessitate further changes, as your leader's tactic values no longer function as they do in the core game, and the icon on your dice no longer functions as it does in the core game.

Cinematic Combat

First of all, it's worth noting that the rules for advanced tactic cards and cinematic combat provide you tactical decisions at the beginning of every round of combat whether or not you have a leader in the battle. But the changes don't diminish your leaders' impact; they simply alter the role they play. No longer the key to all of your tactics, your leaders, instead, inspire your forces toward better results by allowing you to reroll a number of dice each combat round equal to that leader's ground or space tactic value, whichever is appropriate.

Accordingly, your deployment of three Rebel vanguard units can deal far more consistent damage under the direction of a leader like Saw Gerrera. And your Interdictor is more likely to be a force of destruction—and not just a key tactical instrument—when you have Admiral Motti directing the combat.

Admiral Motti's space tactics value of "2" allows him to reroll as many as two of your results during space battles.

Meanwhile, since the icon no longer triggers your ability to draw or play tactic cards, it is repurposed with these new rules, and it allows you to remove damage from some of your more durable units. In fact, since units are not destroyed until the end of a round of combat, you could even use the to remove the only point of damage dealt to a Stormtrooper unit to keep that unit in play.

Finally, the expansion assigns greater stakes to each of your battles through the introduction of such far-reaching tactic card abilities as those on Support of the 501st , Deployment , Tractor Beam , Superlaser Blast , and Confrontation . By spiking targeted damage so severely—and by tying your leaders' fates to the consequences of your battles—these new card effects more fully center your combats in the game's overall narrative and cinematic appeal. And they add greater weight to the careful timing of the cancellation effects provided by Air Superiority , Outrun Them , and similar advanced tactic cards.

Signal the Attack

We haven't yet located the Rebel base, but we are closing in with every passing day.

Where should we look next? Where should we send the Imperial fleet? Head to our community forums to share your thoughts on the expansion's new units and cinematic combats.

Then be sure to keep your eyes open for our next preview of Rise of the Empire (SW04)!

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Daring Heroes and Dastardly Villains

Published 14 July 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Daring Heroes and Dastardly Villains

Preview the New Leaders from Rise of the Empire

"Suddenly the Rebellion is real for you. Some of us live it. I've been in this fight since I was six years old."
–Cassian Andor to Jyn Erso

Every great story needs a great protagonist. And every classic struggle needs a villain worth your time.

We've said before that the Rise of the Empire expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion adds a whole new chapter to your Galactic Civil War, and it does. The expansion brings new rules for cinematic combats that you'll be able to play out with several new units. You'll be able to undertake dozens of new missions, construct brand new technological terrors, pursue new Rebel objectives, and surprise your opponents with a wealth of new advanced tactic and action cards.

And you'll have eight new leaders to drive all this action—four each for the Empire and Rebel Alliance.

Imperial Discipline

Two of the Galactic Empire's new leaders from Rise of the Empire exemplify the ideals of Imperial discipline.

Director Krennic's intelligence, ambition, and dedication saw him rise through the ranks to manage one of the Empire's greatest experimental weapons projects, and he rewarded his masters' faith by delivering them the ultimate power in the galaxy.

In Rise of the Empire, he stands ready for recruitment as an Imperial officer with ground and space tactic values of two each, plus an impressive total of five skill icons—one logistics, one spec ops, and three intel. Notably, two of these intel icons are the new, smaller icons that appear on all the expansion's new leaders. These are "minor skill" icons.

While minor skills fulfill mission requirements the same way that standard skill icons do, they don't grant you access to red or black dice in opposed missions—the way standard icons do. Instead, they grant you access to the expansion's new green dice.

Unlike the red and black dice from the core game, these green dice count only two direct hit icons. And, as a result, they are slightly less reliable than the core dice, making the expansion's new minor skill icons extremely useful for completing missions—until that leader is opposed.

The other tried-and-true Imperial officer from Rise of the Empire is Admiral Motti. Young and ambitious, Conan Antonio Motti may be remembered by fans primarily for daring to question Darth Vader in a meeting of the Empire's Joint Chiefs, but the fact that he was subsequently Force choked tends to overshadow the incredible accomplishment Motti's very presence in that room signified.

As the head of the Imperial Navy, Motti commanded enough power to terrorize the galaxy. Accordingly, in Rise of the Empire, he comes with the logistics icon one might associate with a leader dedicated to coordinated fleet movements, plus minor skill icons for both intel and diplomacy. Fear is a strong motivator.

You don't need every skill icon in the game when you have the might of the Imperial Navy at your disposal!

And although Motti's screentime in A New Hope was limited, you might be able to get greater use of him in Star Wars: Rebellion.

While you can see more about the game's other action cards in another preview, it's worth noting that the action card associated with Motti, Ambitions of Power , makes him a uniquely desirable Imperial leader. Because Rise of the Empire comes with so many new leaders and powerful action cards like Ambitions of Power, the expansion also introduces a necessary cap on the number of leaders you can keep in your leader pool. Normally, this new rule restricts you to a maximum of eight leaders, but Ambitions of Power makes it possible for you to keep the Admiral in play even if he's your ninth leader.

Yes, Motti—like Jabba the Hutt—is ambitious and resourceful enough to keep himself in play, even when his presence would otherwise violate the game's core rules.

The Spirit of Rebellion

While the expansion's Imperial leaders may boast careers decorated by success and accolades, its Rebels tend toward more checkered backgrounds.

Thieves, spies, militant extremists, and the broken guardians of temples that no longer need guarding, the Rebel leaders from Rise of the Empire share difficult pasts—histories full of challenges and disappointments—and they may view your recruitment of them as a chance to aspire to a higher purpose. But the ways these leaders may view that higher purpose can differ tremendously.

Saw Gerrera, for example, arrives to the game as a battle-scarred commander with a long history of warfare, loss, and suffering. After fighting alongside the Jedi in the Onderonian Civil War, Saw was among the very first to take arms and rebel against the Galactic Empire. But his ruthless tactics eventually won Saw the reputation of an unrepentant military extremist, forcing him—and those who fought alongside him—to work in isolation from their base on Jedha, without the formal support of other Rebel leaders.

Even so, Saw's rebels continued their fight against the Empire, launching numerous attacks to disrupt the Empire's collection of Jedha's Kyber crystals.

To match his history and abilities, then, Rise of the Empire presents Saw Gerrera as a leader with a logistics icon and three spec ops icons—one standard and two minor. He's a dedicated combatant, and you'll find few leaders better able to coordinate your troops on the ground.

Since even the Rebels view Saw as a Rebel Extremist , you might suffer a point of reputation when you recruit him, but you can put him to use immediately. Since he goes straight to your leader pool, Saw can either contest an Imperial mission or help you Prepare for Battle, putting you in a good position to win your ground combats. His high ground tactic value of three may even help you defy the odds and win battles in which you find yourself outnumbered and outgunned—whether you play with the core rules or the expansion's new rules for cinematic combat, which we'll explore in another preview.

Of course, Saw Gerrera isn't the only Rebel to have suffered under the Galactic Empire. Both Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso had their childhoods and their lives ripped apart by Imperial cruelty.

After he lost his parents at an early age, Cassian Andor fought against the Galactic Empire as a member of an insurrectionist cell until he was recruited into the Rebel Alliance by General Draven. Steady, quiet, and intelligent, Andor proved to be one of Draven's most capable agents—providing reconnaissance, gathering intelligence, and even assassinating targets when called to do so, justifying his actions by weighing the evils he committed against the greater good of the Rebel cause.

Rise of the Empire reflects Andor's exceptional talents by bringing him to life as a leader with one logistics icon and a whopping four intel icons, of which two are minor icons.

Finally, we have Jyn Erso, the protagonist of Rogue One, whom the Imperials separated from her mother and father when she was a child. She was raised for a time by Saw Gerrera and inducted into his band of rebels, but when he feared that others would realize she was the daughter of Galen Erso—the scientist working on the Empire's new weapons project—he abandoned her, leaving her with only a small blaster and the need to fend for herself.

And for years, that's what she did. But after she was captured by Imperials and rescued by Rebels, she was given a chance to make a meaningful impact on the galaxy. Her father had sabotaged the terrifying weapon he had created, building a fatal flaw into the Death Star's design. Spurred by the knowledge of her father's secret work, Jyn chose to risk her life in order to secure the Death Star plans for the Rebel Alliance.

In Rise of the Empire, then, Jyn Erso appears as a supremely capable leader with Something to Fight For , and if you can recruit her to your cause, you might be able to win not just one Decisive Victory , but two. Or you might hold a Defensive Position two turns in a row. Either way, the ability that Jyn grants you to take an objective back from your discard pile means that you'll almost certainly be setting yourself up to score it twice. Additionally, her six skill icons make her exceptionally versatile, even as they reflect her cleverness, her military training, and her decision to join a cause greater than herself. Jyn's minor diplomacy icon doesn't so much reflect the trained politics of a leader like Mon Mothma as it reflects her ability to inspire those around her with the strength of her conviction and the example of her actions.

There Will Be No Escape

Which new leader are you most excited to recruit into your games of Star Wars: Rebellion? Share your thoughts with the other members of our community forums, and keep your eyes open for our next preview!

Remember to head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy of Rise of the Empire (SW04) today!

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Single Reactor Ignition

Published 7 July 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Single Reactor Ignition

A Look at the New Missions from Rise of the Empire

"Target Jedha City. Prepare single reactor ignition."
–Director Krennic

Inspired heavily by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Rise of the Empire expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion adds a whole new chapter to the game's dramatic take on the Galactic Civil War.

With new leaders, units, and missions, Rise of the Empire thrusts us deep into a dark time for the galaxy. The oppressive rule of the Galactic Empire spreads from system to system, destroying all peace and hope. And there are rumors that the Empire is constructing a secret battlestation of unimaginable power…

Over the course of our previews, we'll explore how the expansion's new leaders, units, action cards, dice, and cinematic combat give life to such iconic characters as Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, Director Krennic, and Jabba the Hutt. We'll look at the dramatic narratives and tense tactical decisions it introduces to your games. And we start today with a look at its missions.

Secret Missions and Stolen Intel

As fans have discovered, Star Wars: Rebellion is a deeply thematic and dramatic game of cat-and-mouse that plays across multiple turns and star systems as the Imperial player attempts to find and destroy the Rebel base before the rag-tag Rebellion can stir the galaxy toward full-scale revolt.

The beauty of the game is that its design simultaneously accommodates personal heroics and the fleet-level wargaming one might expect from a game about the Galactic Civil War.

You can command Star Destroyers and AT-ATs alongside whole battalions of Stormtroopers. You can launch surgical strikes against key Imperial strongholds with squadrons of X-wings and Y-wings, supported by T-47 airspeeders and Rebel troopers. And you can send iconic characters like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader on secret missions that can change the whole balance of the war.

Rise of the Empire ensures this balance of personal heroics and galactic ambitions remains as tight as ever, but its new missions allow you to recast your adventures in a new light. Instead of sending the Emperor to Address Delays in Imperial production lines while Darth Vader conducts an Interrogation of Han Solo before Carbon Freezing him, you might reinforce the Imperial Might by deploying an assault tank to Kashyyyk before you Exploit Weakness in the Rebellion's position there.

Alternatively, if you're playing as the Rebellion, instead of Planting a False Lead and then moving your Hidden Fleet to Incite Rebellion , you might leave your Safe Haven to perform some Reconnaissance before going Behind Enemy Lines .

The first time you play with Rise of the Empire, you'll use only your starting missions and those missions that have either a leader icon or the Rise of the Empire expansion's new Darth Vader icon. In future games, you'll choose whether you use the core missions or these newer ones, and both sides—Rebel and Imperial—are able to make this choice independently.

Altogether, there are twenty Rebel missions in Rise of the Empire, plus nineteen Imperial missions and five projects. Altogether, these cards and their game effects alter your games in small—but notable—ways.

With Rise of the Empire, the stories you discover are more likely to be characterized by an Empire that extends its reach swiftly, planting its flag on planet after planet, and promoting new leaders to organize them. You'll find the Empire can more swiftly inspire loyalty—or subjugate systems. Imperial players will also be able to further capitalize upon this early momentum by discrediting the Rebellion and using Rebel captives as bait to draw their soldiers into the different traps they set across the galaxy.

On the other hand, the Rebel player can use the larger military afforded by its Safe Haven to build toward a potent late game. This is fueled further by the objectives we'll explore in future previews, as well as by the Promotion of new Rebel leaders and the Secret Missions they can undertake as you Prepare for Battle . Under your shrewd command, these Rebels can then launch surgical Assaults when and where they're needed most to slow the Empire's unyielding sprawl.

A Statement, Not a Manifesto

While there are a number of important differences between the core missions and the new Rise of the Empire missions, there are also several important differences between the Empire's core projects and those you'll find in the expansion.

These include the addition of another way to use your Death Star— Single Reactor Ignition .

In Rise of the Empire, the Death Star remains every bit as lethal as in the core game. Your project deck will still contain all three copies of Superlaser Online, but there are times you may want to make a statement, not a manifesto. Perhaps you've cornered a contingent of Rebel forces on Mon Calamari, and you want to eliminate them—without eliminating the planet's ship-building resources. Or perhaps you simply wish to rid the planet of Rebel influence without endangering the ground forces you've withdrawn beyond the limits of the blast radius. In either case, a Single Reactor Ignition provides more than enough power to make your point.

Of course, the project does one more thing: it evokes the chilling interchange between Grand Moff Tarkin and Director Krennic that leads immediately to the obliteration of Jedha City.

What better way is there to illustrate your Galactic Empire's cold, cruel, and uncaring disregard for life than to eradicate millions just to wipe out a small band of Rebels—all while sneering as you command your minions to dial down the Death Star's destructive powers?

And the best part? Your blast won't Inspire Sympathy for the Rebels the way it would if you destroyed the whole planet. The project offers you a new measure of tactical nuance that begs to factor into your overall strategy for galactic conquest.

Where Is the Rebel Base?

Are you excited by the new missions from Rise of the Empire? Are you curious about the new leaders and their new icons? Do you want to learn what the expansion offers for new units and cinematic combat? If so, we want to hear about it. Share your thoughts with the other members of our community forums, and let us know what excites you most about the expansion.

In the meantime, head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy of the Rise of the Empire (SW04) expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion!

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Rise of the Empire

Published 5 May 2017 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Rise of the Empire

An Expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion

"There's an Imperial defector in Jedha. A pilot. He's being held by Saw Gerrera. He's claiming the Emperor is creating a weapon with the power to destroy entire planets."
–Cassian Andor

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of the Rise of the Empire expansion for Star Wars™: Rebellion!

Inspired largely by the characters and events of Rogue One, Rise of the Empire introduces a plethora of new heroes, villains, starships, troopers, and vehicles from that film, alongside other characters, ships, and events from Star Wars: Rebels and the classic trilogy, plus new missions that add more drama and intrigue to your games.

You can send Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor to recover the Death Star plans. You can confuse Imperials with false orders and assaults behind enemy lines. You can command Director Krennic and his finest death troopers. And you can set traps for the Rebel pilots and soldiers, luring them away from their base and into massive battles with more fully cinematic combat and tactics. Even Jabba the Hutt makes an appearance, offering his services to the Empire and feeding his prisoners to the Sarlaac.

Altogether, Rise of the Empire enhances your games with eight new leaders, thirty-six plastic miniatures, five target markers, two attachment rings, three new dice, and more than one-hundred new cards. You'll find U-wings, TIE Strikers, Nebulon-B frigates, and the Interdictor. You'll gain new ways of subverting your opponent's plans, and you'll discover a whole new chapter in your ongoing Galactic Civil War!

A Rebellion Built on Hope

It is a dark time for the galaxy, and it is growing darker. With every passing day, the Galactic Empire spreads its oppressive rule to new systems, destroying all peace and hope. Worse yet, however, are the rumors that the Empire is constructing a secret battle station of unimaginable power. Against this overwhelming threat, the only hope for freedom lies with the group of unlikely heroes who have banded together to complete a series of dangerous secret missions.

With Rebellion, you gain full command of one side of this struggle or the other. You command the full leadership and military of the burgeoning Galactic Empire, or the brave and desperate heroes of the fledgling Rebel Alliance. In either case, you must balance all your military strength, resources, and political alliances against the secret missions you undertake to advance your cause. You must keep an eye to the loyalties of whole systems while directing your forces to victory in battles or guiding them to success on missions.

The result is that your game becomes a sweeping tale of individual heroics with far-reaching consequences, and this story turns largely upon the outcome of the missions you attempt. Accordingly, Rise of the Empire introduces brand new mission decks for the Empire and Rebellion that pluck your games of Rebellion outside the timeframe of the original Star Wars trilogy and allow you to begin with the Death Star under construction and Director Krennic eager to see it fully developed and tested.

Desperately outnumbered and outgunned, the Rebellion's very survival, then, hangs upon the surgical precision of its missions. As the Rebel player, you'll need to consider your options carefully. Will you attempt a Secret Mission alongside Cassian Andor? Will you fight Behind Enemy Lines with Saw Gerrera? Or will you focus on developing your forces, offering a Promotion to a leader like Admiral Ackbar or Wedge Antilles? The wrong decision may spell doom. The right one may save millions of lives.

Cinematic Combat

It's only natural that a Rebellion expansion inspired by Rogue One would feature a good number of daring heroes, scheming villains, and critical missions. But, of course, there's more to the film than its desperate, covert operations and spy work. The film just wouldn't be the same without its superlaser blasts and its climactic battles in space and on the ground.

Similarly, Rise of the Empire wouldn't be the same without its new combat units, tactic cards, and the new rules it introduces for bringing them all together in massively cinematic confrontations in space or on the ground. You'll have Rebel vanguards launching rockets against Imperial assault tanks. You'll find TIE Striker pilots weaving past Rebels entrenched with their Golan Arms DF.9 turret placements. And if you're the Rebel player, you may watch in horror as you realize the Imperials have developed gravity wells on their Interdictor that can prevent your Nebulon-B frigates from escaping into hyperspace.

With Rise of the Empire, you can use advanced tactics cards to bring a new dimension to combat. The Rebellion and Galactic Empire each gain their own tactic decks, filled with surprises that allow their units to use their unique strengths to change the course of combat. When you play with these advanced tactic cards, you don't just change the cards you play in combat; you change the whole nature of the combat itself.

When you play with the cinematic combat rules from Rise of the Empire, you and your opponent each secretly choose one of these advanced tactic cards at the start of each round of combat. When the cards are revealed, their effects can have potent repercussions, many of which relate directly to the units you're fielding in the battle. There are others that may even reach beyond the theater of battle.

For example, if you play Rogue One in a combat where you have a U-wing and then retreat a unit in the round you play it, you can rescue a captive leader. Suddenly, your round of combat gains a bit of the story element usually associated more closely with your missions. Or if you arrange a winning Confrontation , you can eliminate one of your opponent's leaders!

A Perfect Fit

"Our Rebellion is all that remains to push back the Empire. We think you may be able to help us."
–Mon Mothma

New leaders. New missions. New tactic cards that lead to more fully cinematic combats. Rise of the Empire isn't just inspired by Rogue One; it follows the movie's example, adding new depth and story to the Rebellion game experience just as seamlessly as Rogue One provided new insight into the Galactic Civil War presented in the original Star Wars trilogy.

What will you become when the galaxy erupts into an epic series of conflicts? Rise of the Empire (SW04) is scheduled to arrive at retailers in the third quarter of 2017!

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What of the Rebellion?

Published 1 July 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

What of the Rebellion?

Download the Star Wars™: Rebellion FAQ and Revisit the Rebellion: Week One Results

"The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped. They’re more dangerous than you realize."
–General Tagge

Do you like Star Destroyers, Death Stars, and Jedi? Do you like X-wings, TIE fighters, AT-AT Walkers, and dramatic battles for the fate of the galaxy? Of course you do!

Star Wars™: Rebellion has been out for scarcely more than two months, but it has been hard at work during that time, staking its claim as the definitive "Star Wars in a box" gaming experience. Still, it could hardly earn a reputation for presenting a faithful and powerful take on the Galactic Civil War if there were not a number of battles—a LARGE number of very big and tremendously impactful battles.

Immediately after the game's release, we encouraged you to share the reports of your battles during Rebellion: Week One. You did, and we inspected that data for any potential weaknesses. We found very few… apart from a small thermal exhaust port that has a shaft leading down to the main reactor.

There were, nonetheless, a few things that showed up on our technical readouts that we decided we could improve, so we did. Designer Corey Konieczka provides clarification to a number of your questions—and introduces some errata to clean up a few edge-case scenarios—in the game's official FAQ (pdf, 3.7 MB).

Beyond these, however, your games revealed tremendous balance between the two sides, Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance, despite their hugely asymmetrical starting positions and objectives. They revealed hotly contested battles fought around the globe, filled with exploded planets and Death Stars. And, most importantly, they revealed your true feelings about the game's epic Star Wars-themed gameplay.

An Official Star Wars: Rebellion FAQ

What changes did Corey make in the FAQ? Just a few modifications that ensure the game remains the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

Download the Star Wars: Rebellion FAQ

As Corey points out, the response to the game has been overwhelmingly positive, and there is no call to change anything that is not already broken:

"Over the past month and a half, I have been overwhelmed by the positive response that Star Wars: Rebellion has received. Our team started crafting this game eighteen months ago, and it is very rewarding to see that all our hard work has paid off.

"Since the game's release, I’ve been carefully collecting and collating rules questions. While many of the questions I've received are addressed in the Rules Reference book, there have been a few minor points of confusion. In addition, our super fans have found some rare and strange situations that are not directly covered in the rule books.

"To address these situations, I have created an FAQ document to answer the most frequently asked questions.

"Thank you so much for your support!"

The Results from Rebellion: Week One

Meanwhile, if you still wonder whether or not this is the game you're looking for… we are happy to report the results of our Rebellion: Week One campaign. In the days immediately following the game's release, we allowed players to report the results of their battles, and we were overwhelmed by novels' worth of gameplay stories from around the globe.

At the event's close, the Galactic Empire managed to retain a hold on the galaxy, but only just by the slimmest of margins. The Galactic Empire won just under fifty-one percent of all reported games, while the Rebel Alliance had fought valiantly to win just over forty-nine percent.

Meanwhile, even though players had scattered their Rebel bases all over the galaxy, more of them had been placed on Dantooine than on any other planet. Tatooine was a close second, and Ilum and Ryloth stood as two of the more surprising systems to see heavy representation.

While the results of leader recruitment do not account for the popularity of such leaders as Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine, they do show that players recognized the importance of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo by recruiting them to the Rebel Alliance more often than they recruited any of the other leaders. On the Imperial side of things, Boba Fett edged out all of the various admirals and generals, apparently owing to his reputation for success. Admiral Piett ranked second, largely thanks to his tactical acumen in space battles.

Week One also saw the destruction of countless planets, chief among which was Kashyyyk. Fittingly, Alderaan was destroyed more than any of the other planets, but all in all, it was a dark time to be a Wookiee.

Realizing that they could not afford to allow the destruction of even more planets, Rebel players responded by blowing up as many Death Stars as they could. The destruction of a Death Star is no small matter, so we received many reports of the drama inherent in the Rebel ace's final approach… the roll of the dice… and… the miss! Followed by a miraculous second attempt and a direct hit!

All told, we saw 568 Death Stars destroyed, and many of them resulted in the final two reputation points that the Rebel players needed to score to inspire the galaxy to rise up and resist the Empire.

Finally, we posted updates of your battles throughout Week One and watched as states, provinces, and nations were subjugated by the Galactic Empire or liberated by the Rebel Alliance. Players commented on how much these maps looked like political heat maps, and of course they did… Star Wars: Rebellion is a game of Galactic Civil War waged across a massive galaxy by two sides with opposing ideological viewpoints. You will find more than battles in your matches; diplomacy, subterfuge, and sabotage all play their parts as well.

The results of the Galactic Civil War as they appeared in North America at the end of Week One.

The results of the Galactic Civil War as they appeared in Europe at the end of Week One.

What You Said About Star Wars: Rebellion

Still, for all that the numbers showed us about how balanced and engaging the game can be, the highlight for those of us at Fantasy Flight Games was being able to read what you wrote about your experiences. What did we find as common themes? The epic nature of the gameplay, the last-minute gambits taken to claim victory, and the way the game was bursting with classic Star Wars themes. And, of course, many of you shared the full arcs of your games, demonstrating how they transformed your decisions at the table into an engaging narrative.

While it was no simple matter (we had to read through more than a novel's worth of hundreds of responses), we selected a few, representative quotes:

"My nine year-old loved it and stayed invested in the game for the entire four-plus hours of play. He did good… Well done, FFG."
–Nevada

"Amazing game… soaking in Star Wars theme. Big hats off to the FFG team who put this together."
–Alberta

"With two players and two spectators, the Rebel player wouldn't let the spectators see where the base was to make sure they didn't accidentally give the location away. One then said, 'I bet it's on Dantooine,' (it was) and the Imperial player responded with, 'No way. It's too obvious. He'd never do that.'"
     –Ontario

[The highlight was] "…capturing Mon Mothma and holding her hostage on Sullust for three rounds, then freezing her in carbonite after interrogation. Oh, and blowing up Toydaria and unleashing a Super Star Destroyer. Aaand everything else. Absolutely love it!"
    –Europe

"A thrilling game that came down to the last turn."
     –Michigan

"The Imperial player was at the turn where he could Superlaser blast the Rebel base, but the Rebel player played Death Star Plans. He did not have One in a Million but managed to roll the success naturally, and that two points of reputation gave him the win right before the blast went off! What a way to end the game! I wasn't even mad as the Imperial player—more superbly impressed! Great game, FFG!"
     –New Jersey

"We played our first game yesterday. Loved it. In our game, the Empire captured Luke, whom Han then rescued only to find himself taken by Boba Fett and Vader as a consolation prize. The Emperor figured a Han in hand was good enough and turned him to the dark side (I'm assuming with gossip about Leia & Lando, or—ew—Leia & Luke). Dark Han was a useful tool for the Empire on missions going forward. On the military and political front, the Empire had two Death Stars, but fell one turn short of destroying the base on Dantooine after being faked out to head for Nal Hutta—which the Empire blew to smithereens just for not being the Rebel stronghold. The Rebel fleet there was also wiped out by two Super Star Destroyers and other ships, but it bought the Rebels crucial time to shift some more systems' sympathies and move their reputation to a victory threshold. It was a great first game nail-biter."
     –Pennsylvania

"Chewie kept running Sabotage missions, so out of pure spite, the Empire blew up Kashyyk."
     –Minnesota

"Great Time! Best board gaming experience ever."
     –Tennessee

Not Too Late to Play Your Part

"The Force will be with you… always."
–Obi-Wan Kenobi

Rebellion: Week One has come and gone, but there is still time for you to play your part in the Galactic Civil War. The Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance are fighting desperately for the fate of the galaxy, and the results are still too close to call. But the next battle might finally tip the scales forever in one direction or the other. Where will it fall?

Head to your local retailer today to pick up your copy of Star Wars: Rebellion, download the FAQ, and take matters into your own hands!

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The Rebellion Begins Now

Published 31 March 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

The Rebellion Begins Now

Star Wars™: Rebellion Is Now Available

"The Emperor has made a critical error and the time for our attack has come."
–Mon Mothma

Experience the thrills, heroics, and dramatic tension of the original Star Wars trilogy. Deploy fleets of Star Destroyers, battalions of AT-AT Walkers, and Stormtroopers. Conduct secret missions in the heart of enemy territory. Battle for the fate of the galaxy like never before…

Star Wars™: Rebellion is now available at United States retailers. Your rebellion begins today!

The Classic Trilogy in a Single Box

In Star Wars: Rebellion, you and up to three friends seize control of the entire Galactic Empire and the fledgling Rebel Alliance, only to engage in an epic series of conflicts that will ultimately determine the fate of the galaxy.

At the center of these struggles, you have a tense game of cat-and-mouse as the Empire searches for the location of the Rebellion's hidden base, intending to deploy there in force and end the Rebellion with one decisive battle. The Rebellion, meanwhile, must deflect the Empire's attention and fleet movements away from its hidden base in order to buy time. It must then use this time to strike against the Empire through covert missions and guerilla warfare; each of its successes exposes the Empire's weaknesses and moves the galaxy one step closer to open revolt.

Deeply inspired by the classic trilogy, these asymmetrical struggles burst with Star Wars flavor at every turn. You can enjoy massive fleet battles. AT-AT Walkers can march against Rebel emplacements. Mon Mothma may convince the galaxy's citizens to join the Rebel Alliance; Darth Vader may cow them into quiet submission. As you wage your Galactic Civil War, you will battle over planetary systems, compete for their resources, and make desperate runs at secret missions that can turn the game on its head.

Take another look at the epic scope of Star Wars: Rebellion with our teaser video.

Will Luke Skywalker become a Jedi? Will Boba Fett capture General Dodonna and freeze him in carbonite? Will Wedge Antilles destroy the Death Star, and will the Empire construct a second Death Star in time to obliterate the Rebellion's hidden base? Every game of Star Wars: Rebellion is full of dramatic tension that hearkens straight back to the classic trilogy, even as the game allows you to discover your own take on the Galatic Civil War.

The Year's Must-Have Star Wars Board Game

If you love Star Wars, and you like board games, Star Wars: Rebellion is a must-have purchase. No other board game comes close to its blend of epic, large-scale conflict and cinematic personality. You can learn more about how the game works by heading to our Star Wars: Rebellion website and reading through the previews and the rules, but what do others have to say about the game? Early reviewers have all taken different approaches, but they have been fairly unanimous on three points: The game is fun, it is truly epic, and it is distinctly Star Wars.

"Star Wars: Rebellion works because it nails that unmistakable Star Wars feeling, in which pulp action meets sci-fi grandeur, and larger-than-life heroes play out their relationships against a galactic backdrop."
     –Game Informer

"One of the biggest board games in Star Wars history."
     –Polygon

"This was a grand slam from Fantasy Flight. They are doing the Star Wars IP much justice. Very well done."
     –The Dice Tower

"Star Wars: Rebellion is beautiful, it’s big, it’s tense, it’s interesting, and it is unquestionably Star Wars in a box. And perhaps most importantly, it’s just really fun."
     –Shut Up & Sit Down

"If you like Star Wars, or are looking for an interesting game to play with one or more of your friends, this has got to go on your list."
     –Geek & Sundry

Join the Rebellion Today!

Star Wars: Rebellion is available now at retailers throughout the United States, and there is no better time to play your part in the Galactic Civil War!

This week is Rebellion: Week One. Throughout the weekend and through all of next week, we invite you to play your games and share your results on our Rebellion: Week One website. Tell us which side won, where the Rebel base was hidden, which planets were destroyed, and how many Death Stars exploded. We will take your information and share it with the world. More than that, we want you to share your experiences. Help us envision the scenes of your battles, and we will highlight some of our favorite moments later on.

Click on the map above to enter the results of your Rebellion: Week One games.

The first shots have been fired. The senate has been disbanded. The Death Star is in motion. The fate of the galaxy is at stake. Star Wars: Rebellion is now available at retailers throughout the United States. Availability in other regions may vary. Pick up your copy today!

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Fully Operational

Published 21 March 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Fully Operational

The Rules for Star Wars™: Rebellion Are Now Available for Download

"That blast came from the Death Star! That thing's operational!"
–Lando Calrissian

Star Wars™: Rebellion is nearly here, and it is coming fully armed and operational!

If you had ever hoped to find the whole Galactic Civil War condensed into a single game and a single box, this is it. Star Wars: Rebellion is scheduled to arrive at retailers a week from Thursday, and when you pick up your copy, you can take command of either the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. More than that, by picking up an early copy of Star Wars: Rebellion, you gain the opportunity to take part in the action of Rebellion: Week One. All week long, when you play your games, you can report your results and see how they help to shape the ongoing struggles between Imperial and Rebel forces.

First, however, you will want to learn the game, and to that end, you can now download the rules!

Witness the Firepower

"Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station."
–Emperor Palpatine

Star Wars: Rebellion is a big game. You have fleet battles, secret missions, and political gambits. You have two rival militaries vying for the hearts and minds of citizens throughout the galaxy and calling upon the resources of dozens of planets. You have Death Star Plans and Jedi training. You have probe droids scouring the galaxy to find the hidden Rebel base.

Over the course of our previews, we saw how these many different concerns play out over the course of a game round. Although we also demonstrated how everything traces back to your leaders and their influence, the Galactic Civil War is still massive, and there is still a lot to absorb. Accordingly, for your convenience, the rules for Star Wars: Rebellion have been divided into two separate rulebooks.

	The Star Wars: Rebellion Learn to Play booklet (pdf, 17.2 MB) serves as your introduction to the game. It is intended to lead you quickly into and through your first battles.
	The Star Wars: Rebellion Rules Reference (pdf, 5.8 MB) is not intended to teach you the game, but it serves as an indexed resource that addresses and clarifies all rules questions that might arise over the course of your games.

Once you download these documents, it is recommended that you read through the whole Learn to Play booklet before you play your first game, and then you may find it best to use the prescribed First Game Setup and save the advanced rules for a later session. In this way, you can focus less on the additional rules and more on the heated conflicts at the heart of your battles for the fate of the galaxy!

Advanced Rules

"The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet."
–Darth Vader

Once you have played a few games and mastered the basic rules, you will likely appreciate the ways in which the game's rules and its flavor work together to weave deeply engaging play experiences, loaded with narrative drama. Some of these experiences may line up with the films; others may lead your Galactic Civil War in other directions. For example, you might discover the Rebel base on Hoth, only for the Rebels to fire their ion cannon and make their escape. Or you might witness Emperor Palpatine successfully luring Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force. Either way, you are almost certain to be swept up by the tension and the larger-than-life stories that all begin with your assignment of your leaders.

The advanced rules outlined in the Learn to Play booklet carry these thrilling, narrative moments even further and lend further distinction to each of your heroes or villains. While the advanced setup challenges you to respond to the task of starting with different systems each game and permits you to make tactical decisions about the deployment of your units from the outset, the main adjustment in advanced play is the way that you handle action cards.

You use action cards in the basic game, but only in order to recruit new leaders. Then, after you have recruited your leader, you remove the action cards that you drew from play, placing them back in the box. However, each of these cards also features an ability that you can use in advanced play. Instead of putting them back in the box, you hold onto them and can play them at the appropriate time. Accordingly, if you choose to recruit Han Solo with The Millennium Falcon card, you can immediately trigger the card's ability to attach the Millennium Falcon ring to Han, which provides him the ability to rescue a captured leader after he succeeds at a mission.

Most action cards, however, do not give you attachment rings, and only a small percentage of them need to be played immediately. In fact, there are four triggers for when an action card can be used: Assignment, Start of Combat, Immediate, and Special.

Assignment: The card is used during the Assignment Phase. Instead of assigning a leader to a mission, a player can flip the card faceup and resolve its ability.
Start of Combat: The card is used immediately after step 1 (Add Leader) of combat.
Immediate: The card must be used as soon as the player gains the card, either during setup or after choosing it when recruiting a leader. The card is immediately revealed and resolved.
Special: The card is used when specified on the card.

Notably, because your action cards only provide their benefits when used in conjunction with one of the leaders they depict, the action cards that you draw in the advanced game may very well end up influencing the leaders you recruit. For example, if the opportunity arises to recruit a new leader and you draw Good Intel and Proceeding as Planned , your first instinct may be to recruit Colonel Yularen for his three Intel icons, space tactic value of two, and ground tactic value of two. But recruiting either Yularen or Soontir Fel would leave you unable to target one of the leaders shown on Proceeding as Planned, meaning you would not be able to play it and would lose the ability it grants you to search the project deck for the Construct Death Star mission.

On the other hand, if you recruited Moff Jerjerrod, you could play Proceeding as Planned in the next activation phase to take the Construct Death Star mission into your hand, use it the next round to place the Death Star Under Construction miniature in a system of your choice, and begin building a second Death Star.

In the end, the use of the game's advanced rules and the addition of its action cards serve to further reinforce the thematic and cinematic aspects of Star Wars: Rebellion, even as they further enhance your leaders' uniquity and importance. After all, Luke Skywalker is not just a Rebel leader with three mission icons and two tactics in both space and ground battles; he is the Son of Skywalker who can Seek Yoda to receive his Jedi training, and he is the Rebel ace who struck a One in a Million blow against the Galactic Empire by firing the shot that exploded the Death Star . In the advanced game, these elements make an even greater impression, even as your action cards provide you even more tactical options and sneaky ways to disrupt your opponent's best laid plans.

Play Your Part in Rebellion: Week One!

"Impressive… most impressive."
–Darth Vader

The Galactic Empire needs you! So does the Rebel Alliance!

Star Wars: Rebellion is scheduled to arrive at retailers next Thursday, and we invite you to celebrate the first shots in the Galactic Civil War by jumping in, playing with your friends, and reporting your results. From Thursday through Monday April 10th, we will collect your results and add them to our constantly changing heat map. See which areas have fallen under Rebel control. See where the Empire has asserted its might and established order.

Over the course of Rebellion: Week One, we want you to be a part of the greatest board game battles in the history of the Star Wars galaxy, and at the end, we plan to report which leaders and which missions saw the greatest success, as well as how many planets the Death Star manages to destroy. We also want to share some of your favorite moments, so be sure to report the most exciting and fateful moments from your games. How will the galaxy come to life on your tables? We want to know.

So get ready! Thursday the 31st, the Rebellion begins!

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Rebellion: Week One

Published 9 March 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Rebellion: Week One

Watch the STAR WARS™: Rebellion Video Teaser and Join the Special Launch Event

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope."
–Leia Organa

March 31st is just around the corner, and that means Star Wars™: Rebellion is nearly here!

With Star Wars: Rebellion, the fate of the galaxy is in your hands. You control the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. You deploy your fleets, assign your leaders to vital missions, allocate planetary resources, and battle for control of multiple star systems.

More than that, Star Wars: Rebellion allows you to explore thrilling new narratives in the Star Wars galaxy. These may echo the original trilogy or diverge drastically from the established events. Luke Skywalker may go to Dagobah and train with Yoda to become a Jedi, or he may be captured by Boba Fett and frozen in carbonite. Princess Leia may deliver the stolen Death Star plans to the Rebellion, or she may be lured to the dark side of the Force and inform the Emperor of the location of the Rebellion's hidden base.

Take another look at the epic scope of Star Wars: Rebellion with our teaser video.

Play Your Part in the Galactic Civil War

We at Fantasy Flight Games are so excited by Star Wars: Rebellion, its epic gameplay, and its emergent narratives that we have decided to launch a special release-week event, Rebellion: Week One!

Throughout the game's first week at retailers, we will invite you to report your games, and your results will help decide the course of the Galactic Civil War! Whether you play head-to-head or as part of a team, the outcomes of your games will be added to those from around the world, and we will present maps showing where the different sides have gained an advantage.

Will our maps be dominated by Imperial blue, or will there be enough Rebel red to spread hope throughout the galaxy? We will also present information about the most effective Rebel and Imperial leaders, and once the week has concluded, we plan to share some of our favorite moments from your games!

Want to be a part of Rebellion: Week One? Make sure to talk to your retailer and pre-order your copy of Star Wars: Rebellion today. Then keep your eyes open for more news, as well as your chance to download the rules!

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I'm With You, Too

Published 29 February 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

I'm With You, Too

A Look at Star Wars™: Rebellion Team Play

"I'm with you, too!"
–Luke Skywalker

Throughout our previews of Star Wars™: Rebellion, we have explored the game's mechanics in great depth. We have also looked at how the game's rules work in conjunction with its various missions and the fantastically rich Star Wars setting to create game experiences that are rich with dramatic, narrative action. All this time, though, we have heard the fans who have been asking, "But how does the game work for more than two players?"

Well, ask no more! Today, as we draw closer to the game's debut and the galactic warfare of Rebellion: Week One, we take a look at how the game functions with three or four players. Moreover, our exploration of the team experience goes beyond a mere exploration of the adjustments in the rules, and carries us toward what is ultimately most important: how it feels to play Star Wars: Rebellion as part of a team.

How It Works

"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy…"
–Darth Vader

In a multiplayer game of Star Wars: Rebellion, you and your friends become part of the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance. You then assume the role of either Admiral or General—along with all of its powers and responsibilities. Additionally, all of the game's heroes and villains are divided between the two roles, and you start with command of two of your side's starting leaders.

Each leader standee is marked by a color at the center of its base. All blue leaders follow the Admiral's command, while the orange leaders follow the General's command.

For the most part, the game's mechanics remain untouched, and players are meant to work together through the different phases, alternating turns as the leadership roles dictate.

During the assignment phase, the Admiral decides how to use the blue leaders, and the General decides how to use the orange leaders.
In combat, the Admiral rolls dice and plays tactic cards for all space forces, while the General rolls dice and plays tactic cards for all ground forces.
In the refresh phase, the General draws missions (and chooses which to discard, if any). Additionally, the Imperial General launches probe droids while the Rebel General draws and maintains the Rebel Alliance's objectives. Meanwhile, the Admiral recruits new leaders and builds and deploys new units.

The division of powers and responsibilities continues into the command phase, where the team game makes its main mechanical change from the two-player game. In the team game, the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire do not alternate actions one-for-one. Instead, the multiplayer side of your faction sheet indicates your initiative order, and when the phase arrives at your initiative, you must activate one of your leaders or pass.

The multiplayer side of the Rebel Alliance faction sheet.

As a result, the command phase moves a touch differently in the team game than in the two-player version. The Rebel Admiral plays first, followed by the Imperial Admiral, the Imperial General, and the Rebel General. After the Rebel General takes an action, play goes back to the Rebel Admiral, allowing both sides the opportunity to take back-to-back actions. This is true even in a three-player game; in such a game, the solitary player plays the Rebel Alliance but still uses the team side of the Rebel faction sheet, dividing the leaders between the Admiral and General leader pools.

Finally, team members are able to consult with each other and share as much information as they wish. You can show cards to your teammate and discuss any topic you want—whether addressing it overtly, whispering, or even speaking in your own code. The only rule about the sharing of information is that it must happen in front of your opponents. This is not an arbitrary point; it is an important and deliberate matter as it leads directly into the idea of the experience of playing Star Wars: Rebellion multiplayer…

How It Feels

"Your overconfidence is your weakness."
"Your faith in your friends is yours."
–Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine

The changes in the rules between the two-player and team versions of Star Wars: Rebellion are intentionally minimal, but the difference between the play experiences is immediately noticeable. Where the two-player game takes on a more calculating and strategic tone, the team game is far more a social event.

Star Wars: Rebellion team play is a highly collaborative experience. The different roles and division of labor exist less to restructure the game than to ensure that all players enjoy a certain set of responsibilities for which they have the final say. You and your teammate may discuss the missions to which you want to send your leaders, and if all goes well, you will reach a harmonious consensus. Sometimes, however, you may find dissent within the ranks of the Galactic Empire—or even among the Rebel Alliance's high command—and the fact that you have final say for each of your leaders means that you are guaranteed your own decisions, even though you want to be as unified a team as possible.

Even though Wulf Yularen reports to the Imperial General, when he leads an Imperial fleet to battle, both members of the Galactic Empire team are fully invested. The Admiral resolves the space combat, drawing tactic cards and rolling dice, and the General resolves the ground combat, again with both tactic cards and dice.

Meanwhile, the game's bluffing elements take on another dimension as you now have to succeed in your bluffs against two different opponents, not just one. More than that, you have the opportunity to bluff as a team. You can discuss matters with your teammate that are entirely fictional, trying to speak in a poorly worded code as though you want to keep your discussions secret from enemy ears. You can whisper to each other when you know your opponents are trying to listen. You can ask each other questions and watch your opponents' faces for any signs of tells.

Here, we begin to see how the Star Wars: Rebellion team game offers more than a slight revision to the basic rules; it combines two collaborative processes that tend to play to different individual's skill sets—the discussion of your team's best strategies and your team's efforts to bluff your opponents and call their bluffs. The former requires a more analytical mind, and the latter rewards a more intuitive mindset.

Finally, the division of labors and the collaborative nature of Star Wars: Rebellion team play boost your game's energy levels. Whereas you might not want to shout and cheer and clap in the two-player game, lest you offend your rival, these things are common in team play. You might cheer if your teammate can hold back the Imperial ground assault after the Galactic Empire stumbles across your hidden base. If you play as the Imperials, you might share a smirk as you draw Superlaser Online and whisper giddily about which planet you most strongly desire to destroy. Alternately, as the Rebels, you might high-five each other when your fleet somehow manages to destroy a Super Star Destroyer.

After the Imperial General assigned Boba Fett to Retrieve the Plans from Princess Leia, play continued until the phase arrived once more at the Imperial Admiral's initiative, and his Emperor Palpatine revealed Lure of the Dark Side . Desperate to keep Leia from turning against them, the Rebels agreed that the Rebel Admiral would send Han Solo to oppose the Emperor's designs. After the Emperor and Boba Fett rolled a total of nine successes and added two for Palpatine's presence, the Rebel General rolled an astonishing seven success for Leia! Now, the whole of the Rebel Alliance may depend upon the Rebel Admiral's decision to send Han Solo to the rescue…

In short, because Star Wars: Rebellion is such an immersive and narrative game, it blasts you forward through a story that will often gain emotional resonance. In team play, these elements are heightened. You share your joys, sorrows, and surprise with another human being, and this sharing of your emotional reactions serves to amplify them. The two-player game may be the more calculating version, offering a play experience that might better appeal to an individual like Emperor Palpatine who prides himself on his foresight and wants to manipulate everything into position by himself. But the team version is for those who trust their friends, and like Luke Skywalker, you will almost always find your faith in your friends rewarded in the end.

Muster Your Forces

"I can’t keep the vision out of my head. They’re my friends. I’ve got to help them."
–Luke Skywalker

In the end, Star Wars: Rebellion offers rewarding experiences in both its head-to-head and team play variants, and you will want to explore them both. Will you play your first games of Star Wars: Rebellion head-to-head with one opponent or with a larger group? You will soon have the chance to decide, and your answer may depend simply upon how many of your friends want to join you for an evening of galactic warfare!

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Pivotal Moments in the Galactic Civil War

Published 15 February 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Pivotal Moments in the Galactic Civil War

The Developers of Star Wars™: Rebellion on Its Emergent Narrative

"You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?"
–Luke Skywalker

Begin the countdown. Star Wars™: Rebellion is on schedule for a March 31st release!

An epic board game that encompasses nearly everything you love about the classic Star Wars trilogy and the Galactic Civil War, Star Wars: Rebellion places you in command of either the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. You gain unparalleled control of your side's military forces, as well as its most renowned leaders.

Over the course of our Rebellion Week previews, we explored how you can use these leaders to attempt secret missions, maneuver your fleet through the galaxy, and contest your enemy in heated battles. We also explored the game's asymmetrical win conditions and the intricate layers of bluffing that they promote, as well as the game's mechanics for influencing (or subjugating) systems and harnessing their resources to increase your military might.

Still, as we noted in our final Rebellion Week preview, the game is never an even contest. The Galactic Empire has the far stronger military, and savvy Imperial players will never lose that edge. Instead, they will be able to leverage their early military strength and political influence in order to extend those advantages as the game plays out. So as much as Star Wars: Rebellion is a game of bluffing, political influence, military skirmishes, and your heroes' desperate attempts at missions, it is also very much a game about a tone that is immediately and uniquely Star Wars.

In today's preview, the game's creators Corey Konieczka and Steven Kimball offer a look at how this tone, combined with the game's many astonishing twists and turns, can lead to the emergence of a thrilling narrative that is as much a part of the game as any of its components and mechanics.

The Emergent Narratives of Star Wars™: Rebellion

From the start, the vision and scope of Star Wars: Rebellion was, in a word, epic. This game needed to depict the Star Wars universe in all its grandeur, even while preserving the character-centric focus of the original trilogy that made its primary heroes and villains so memorable. Despite the galaxy's immensity, the actions of these select few always had a significant impact, and we believed this theme would be essential to capturing the Star Wars experience in our game.

Another aspect of Star Wars: Rebellion that we felt was critical to capturing the Star Wars spirit is its tone. We wanted to make sure that the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance felt true to the source material. In the films, the Rebels were always outgunned, outnumbered, and on the run. Even though they were the galaxy’s best hope for defeating the Empire, they were always a hair's breadth from defeat, and the game's asymmetry really pushes this idea to the fore.

At the start of the game, it may look like the Empire has already won. Fleets of Star Destroyers and battalions of Stormtroopers have established control over vast portions of the galaxy. Things look bleak for the Rebels. Still, they don’t need to conquer the galaxy; they need to liberate it, and they are not alone. The people of the galaxy yearn to be free. In the films, the Empire never lost its military advantage, but the Rebels were able to win by destroying a couple of Death Stars, eliminating the top Imperial leaders, and convincing the populace to rise up and overthrow the Empire.

Likewise, in Star Wars: Rebellion, the Rebels will likely never possess the stronger military, and this means that while Imperial players can and should use their military strengths to their advantage, the Rebel player will want to focus on missions first and fleets second. In turn, the importance of these Rebel missions, in the face of such Imperial domination, sets the stage for any number of pivotal moments and the emergence of some truly thrilling narratives.

These narratives were easily among the things that we enjoyed the most during our early playtests. Each game effectively allows you to find a new way through the Star Wars saga, and due to the variety of decisions that you will face throughout the game, it is exceedingly rare that any two games will play out the same way.

To give you a better of idea of how the game leads you through its own, uniquely satisfying Star Wars narratives, here are just a few snippets from a few of our early games:

Example One: A Dark Time for the Rebellion

A daring Han Solo led a Rebel strike team to his homeward of Corellia, where they successfully sabotaged the Imperial starship factories that were stationed there. However, the smuggler still had a hefty bounty on his head, and he was unaware that the bounty hunter Boba Fett had tracked him to Corellia. Although Leia had learned of the bounty hunter's movements and rushed to Corellia to warn Han of the impending danger, she was too late, and Solo was captured.

Meanwhile, Grand Moff Tarkin was busy assembling a massive blockade over Saleucami, hoping to isolate the Rebel forces on Mon Calamari. Recognizing the threat, the Rebels assigned newly promoted commander Wedge Antilles and his Rogue Squadron to launch a risky attack against the blockade. There they were met not only by the Empire's capital ships but also by Soontir Fel and his elite 181st Squadron. Still, the Rebel's desperate gamble paid off. During the Battle of Saleucami, Wedge and the Rebels managed to deal the Empire a severe blow by taking down a Star Destroyer before retreating safely to their rendezvous point on Kessel.

Shortly afterward, an assault team led by Jan Dodonna and General Rieeken rescued Han from the Imperial prison on Corellia. But Han was only free for a short time—Darth Vader and Boba Fett caught up with him on Mandalore, and the smuggler was once again in the clutches of the Empire. They took him to an Imperial base where he was questioned about the Rebel base, but Solo valiantly resisted the interrogation droid's truth serum.

Meanwhile, under pressure from the Emperor, Moff Jerjerrod doubled his team's efforts and expedited the construction of a second Death Star, and the news of its completion caused ripples of fear to reverberate throughout the galaxy. The Rebels had won a few sorties, but with the Empire relentlessly probing the galaxy, Han Solo still in Imperial custody, and two “technological terrors” ready to destroy any unruly system, their hopes for victory hung desperately upon the success of their next few missions…

Example Two: Help Us, Obi-Wan Kenobi

As a demonstration of Imperial might, General Tagge mobilized the Death Star over Kashyyyk and fired the Superlaser, obliterating the planet and all the Wookiees who had called it home. In response to this act of terror, Jan Dodonna, Mon Mothma, and General Rieekan convened at Geonosis to determine their next move and rally more troops to their cause.

However, the activity on Geonosis led Imperial agents to report rumors of unrest, and Grand Moff Tarkin ordered an Imperial fleet there to investigate—and his efforts uncovered the Rebel base! A vicious battle ensued, but the Rebels won the day. The Imperial fleet lost all but a crippled Star Destroyer that was forced to limp back to Naboo for repairs.

Upon its arrival, the Star Destroyer was met by a special forces unit led by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Rebels landed their troops beyond the Imperial blockade and routed the occupying Imperial troopers quite handily. Even though the Rebel space forces were destroyed in the process, Obi-Wan's leadership led to another crippling blow against the Empire, and the Naboo and Gungans celebrated their liberation from Imperial occupation.

Still, Obi-Wan's efforts did not come without a cost. When he came out of hiding, Darth Vader sensed his presence on Naboo, hunted down his former master, and captured him. Fortunately, Rebel command devised a plan to free the incarcerated Jedi, and Leia Organa led a strike team to Naboo, managing to rescue Kenobi before Vader could enact his vengeance upon the Jedi.

Nonetheless, the Rebel base was now exposed on Geonosis, and more Imperial troops were en route. Under the guidance of General Rieekan, the Rebel Alliance made preparations to establish a new base on Alderaan while Jan Dodonna journeyed to Nal Hutta to forge an alliance with the Hutts.

At this point, the Rebels had won a few critical battles, but Empire's fleets were still continuing their inexorable progress across the galaxy—with Admiral Ozzel launching probe droids to the different systems, Admiral Piett subjugating Ord Mantell, and General Tagge laying Imperial claim to Cato Neimoidia. The Rebel Alliance had established a considerable momentum, but with the Empire's probe droids scouring the systems and its terrifying battle station now fully armed and operational, it was too early for either side to be confident of victory…

Example Three: It's a Trap!

With the Death Star plans firmly in hand, Admiral Ackbar led a Rebel attack against the Death Star looming over Hoth. Although the two fleets appeared to be evenly matched at the system, the Imperials' true strength had been disguised. They overpowered the Rebels, and Darth Vader captured Ackbar at the battle’s conclusion.

Sensing that the Rebels had launched their desperate assault because the Empire's fleet had drawn near their secret base, the Imperials began to charge the Death Star's Superlaser. As Ackbar sat in one of the battle station's detention blocks, the technological terror slowly advanced on Endor—where the Imperials discovered the Rebel base!

As the Death Star moved into firing position, Grand Moff Tarkin summoned Ackbar from his cell, strapped him to a chair, and propped his eyelids open, forcing him to watch as the Superlaser obliterated Endor, along with the remaining Rebel forces…

These are the exact sort of stories that you might discover in Star Wars: Rebellion, full of twists and turns and heroic recoveries—just like the classic trilogy. The fact that different players have different information can also lead to gut-wrenching moments of drama. There are times that the Empire looks like it is absolutely going to find the Rebel base, and in their hearts, the Rebel players are freaking out. They can only think, “Please, don’t land on Yavin.” But on the outside, they have to remain calm. In these moments, if the Rebels maintain their bluff, the Imperial players could be completely oblivious that their fleet is just one movement away from the Rebel base.

We find it fascinating that Star Wars: Rebellion allows the different players to live through such different, intense emotional states at the same time, and the bluffing aspect is a critical part of the game. It gives emotional resonance to the narratives you will create, and it allows the game to get better with age. The more that you play, the more you will find opportunities to try and exploit your opponent's psychological tendencies. The mind games start right away during setup: “Clearly, she won’t put the base on Hoth because that would be too… well, obvious. And she has already put the base on Nal Hutta twice, so there’s no way she’ll put it there again. She always hints at sticking the base on Alderaan, just cause it would be right under my nose, but it’s such a ridiculous notion that I never take her seriously… I wonder if she’ll try it this time?”

As Star Wars fans ourselves, we hope you will appreciate what Star Wars: Rebellion does to recreate all the tension and drama of the classic trilogy. Not only is the game deeply thematic, but there are all kinds of different strategies for you to explore on both sides. Planetary blockades, daring rescues, ground assault, political intrigue—they are all here. We hope that you enjoy experiencing the Star Wars galaxy on your tabletop as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life. Whether you ignite the spark of rebellion or aim to snuff it out, may the Force be with you!

Fight for the Galaxy in Star Wars: Rebellion

"Great shot, kid. That was one in a million."
–Han Solo

Corey and Steven are not the only people at Fantasy Flight Games who are excited by the emergent narratives of Star Wars: Rebellion. We are pretty much all excited for the opportunity to battle for the fate of the galaxy with our heroes, villains, fleets, and ground troops. Will you also be swept up by the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance? Make sure to talk to your retailer and pre-order your copy of Star Wars: Rebellion today!

Then, keep your eyes open for more news, including a look at how the game functions in multiplayer!

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The Ultimate Power in the Galaxy

Published 22 January 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

The Ultimate Power in the Galaxy

A Look at the Projects, Objectives, and Asymmetry of Star Wars™: Rebellion

"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station."
–Emperor Palpatine

Welcome to our final Rebellion Week preview of Star Wars™: Rebellion!

Over the past several days, we delved into the different phases of Star Wars: Rebellion, looked at many of its mechanics, and reflected on how they simultaneously convey the heroics and grandeur of the Star Wars universe. However, even though we have hinted at some of the different asymmetries in the game, we have not yet truly given the game's asymmetry the attention it deserves.

After all, the Galactic Civil War that we see in the classic Star Wars trilogy is not a balanced fight. Far from it. The Galactic Empire enters the war with nearly every possible advantage. Its military boasts countless troops, ships, and pilots, and then it adds to these the unmatched firepower of its Star Destroyers and AT-AT Walkers. Where the Rebel Alliance has a secret base, the Empire has a weapon that can blow it up in an instant—along with the entire planet that houses it. By contrast, the Rebel Alliance starts as less than an underdog; it begins as a mere blip. Even by the time of A New Hope, General Tagge appears like a worrisome pessimist as he addresses the threat that the Rebels pose. His worries about the Rebel Alliance's increasing strength are met with disdain by Admiral Motti and summarily dismissed by Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.

It is in the spirit of this extreme disparity between their strengths that we explore more of the differences between the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance in Star Wars: Rebellion.

Entire Legions of Troops

"Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon are walking into a trap. As is your Rebel fleet! It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them."
–Emperor Palpatine

While it is entirely possible you may not feel the disparity between the two sides until you sit down to your first game, the thrill that you take away from setup as the Imperial player—or the punch in the gut that you will suffer as the Rebel—is an important part of the game's drama. Suddenly, it becomes clear that the Rebels are not about to win by conquering the galaxy; they can only hope that the galaxy will rise to support their fight for freedom.

To help illustrate the point—and to begin conveying a bit of the game's astonishing narrative arc – we have created a few helpful diagrams.

Imperial vs. Rebel – Starting Units

The Empire's military is not only larger than the Rebel Alliance's, it is also stronger. The Rebels simply have no counter to the firepower the Imperials gain from their Star Destroyers, AT-AT Walkers, and Death Star.

Imperial vs. Rebel – Starting Positions

NOTE: These starting positions are for the basic game. Games that use the advanced rules will feature the same number of systems, though the locations of your starting systems will likely change. Systems loyal to the Rebel Alliance are shown in red. Systems loyal to the Galactic Empire or subjugated by it are shown in blue.

These first two diagrams help to illustrate the tremendous military advantage the Empire enjoys at the game's outset. However, you should not mistake this focus on the Empire's early advantage as a suggestion that the Rebels are bound to catch up. In fact, the truth is that they are more likely than not to fall further behind in the production of additional military units.

Imperial vs. Rebel – Starting Resources

The Empire begins not only with superior military might and more systems at its command, but those systems come with resources that will also push it even further ahead of the Rebel Alliance – unless the Rebels can find some way to sabotage the Imperial build yards.

Overseeing Your Empire

"We’ve learned that the Emperor himself is personally overseeing the final stages of the construction of this Death Star."
–Mon Mothma

Of course, your starting units, positions, and resources are only the beginning of the stories you will weave over the course of your games of Star Wars: Rebellion. Still, in many ways, they set the tone for the action that will follow.

One of the ways that you can take advantage of your starting advantages as the Imperial player is to build upon them. You can mobilize your military aggressively to subjugate new systems, you can attack Rebel worlds to shut down Rebel resources, and you can attempt a special subset of missions that belong only to the Empire – your projects.

The Empire's projects are mission cards that feature a blue and white projects icon in their lower right corner, require the logistics icon, and "resolve" automatically, denying the Rebels the opportunity to oppose them. Moreover, the majority of these special missions relate to the creation or activation of powerful weapons, including both the Super Star Destroyer and the Empire's signature Death Star.

Oversee Project not only accelerates the deployment of your units in the build queue, but allows you to take advantage of them in the same Command phase.

Construct Super Star Destroyer allows you to start building a powerful starship that can annihiliate enemy ships with its two black dice and three red dice.

Construct Death Star grants you the ability to replace a Death Star that the Rebels might have destroyed… or to terrorize the galaxy with two. Either one can punch holes through enemy ships with four red dice, but if you bring the Superlaser Online , your Death Star can actually blast straight through a whole planet!

By completing these projects as the Imperial player, you extend your military strength. That may not win you the game directly, but it puts you in a much stronger position to move through the systems and land your troops as you scour the galaxy for the hidden Rebel base.

Accordingly, you will want to decide how much you wish to emphasize your development of these technologies; the sooner you begin your work on any of them, the more impactful they will be over the course of your game. If you decide to commit heavily to your projects, you will want to resolve your Research and Development mission early and often. Along with two copies of the non-basic mission Secret Weapons Research , Research and Development is the only way for you to access your projects and all the possibilities they permit you.

A Desperate Alliance

"Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!"
–Grand Moff Tarkin

As the Rebel player, you should by now be wondering how in the name of the Force you are supposed to topple an Empire whose military might so dramatically dwarfs your own. The answer is that you cannot. In Star Wars: Rebellion, the Rebel player never truly wins the Galactic Civil War. Instead, you aim to rally the rest of the galaxy to join you in your fight. If you succeed, you do not win the war immediately, but you turn the tide decisively in your favor.

As a result, of your fifteen objective cards, roughly half reward you for simply establishing a presence. So long as they resist the Empire, your leaders, your units, and the planets that are loyal to your cause represent a new hope for the oppressed, and your objectives reflect the support they earn you throughout the galaxy.

If you can keep your units alive at five or more systems, you can Establish Outposts that earn you a step toward victory.

If you can place your sabotage markers or your units at three or more systems to deny the Imperials their resources, the galaxy will recognize your ability to Cut Supply Lines , and it may begin to hope the Empire can still be defeated.

And if you can accomplish the truly outlandish feat of wresting Coruscant free from Imperial control – even temporarily – your cut into the Heart of the Empire will resonate through the populated systems, and you will leap a couple of steps forward in your effort.

Of course, you may very likely need to win a battle or two to seize control of a system like Coruscant, and your military accomplishments – even in defeat – constitute almost all the rest of your objectives.

We have already seen how the Rebel Alliance can analyze the Death Star Plans and find a way to destroy the Empire's greatest technological terror, but it is worth noting that if it can do so, it will inspire countless measures of hope among those who had long since abandoned hope.

Even if your fleet suffers terrible losses in battle, if you expose the Empire's weaknesses to those hesitant to lend you their aid, you may score your effort as a Major Victory in the larger war.

Finally, in keeping with the game's ability to balance the sweeping nature of the Galactic Civil War with the heroic efforts of a few iconic characters, you can strike directly at the Empire's leadership with Return of the Jedi . If you succeed, you strike the Empire a major blow, and if you succeed with the Jedi version of Luke Skywalker, that blow can even result in the permanent loss of one of the Empire's leaders.

As the Rebel player, there is almost zero chance that you can withstand Imperial bombardment long enough to win the game without accomplishing any of your objectives, so it is imperative that you incorporate them into your strategy. However, there is room to play around with how you use them.

Will you score your objectives immediately, one by one, as soon as you can? In this way, you avoid any chance that you let a valuable opportunity slip away from you, but it also makes your efforts slightly more predictable. You advance your cause in smaller increments, granting the Imperial player time to wake up to the threat.

Alternatively, you can build toward a time at which you can swing the momentum hard in your favor by scoring a pair of powerful objectives in the same round – one during combat and one in the Refresh phase. It may be harder to pull off, but such an approach may allow you to catch the Imperial player completely off-guard. Whereas he may have thought he had three or four rounds to find your base, if you can score a pair of big objectives, you can suddenly cut that timer down to one final round.

After Elaine, playing as the Rebels, scores Return of the Jedi to gain two reputation during the Command phase, she turns the Empire's strength against it in the Refresh phase, scoring Inspire Sympathy to advance her reputation marker another two spaces for the two systems Karl's Imperials previously obliterated.

Begin Your Rebellion

"You'll find I'm full of surprises."
–Luke Skywalker

Your enjoyment of Star Wars: Rebellion does not end with Rebellion Week. This is only the beginning. We have more previews coming, including a look at the game's emerging narrative written by its creators, Corey Konieczka and Steven Kimball.

If you love Star Wars and board games, this is the game you're looking for! Make sure you don't miss out. Talk to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!

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The Imperial March

Published 21 January 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

The Imperial March

Gaining Leaders and Building Your Military in Star Wars™: Rebellion

“I assure you, Lord Vader, my men are working as fast as they can.”
–Moff Jerjerrod

Over the past few days, our previews of Star Wars™: Rebellion have explored the decisions you have to make in the game's Assignment phase, the ways that you and your opponent trade actions during the Command phase, and the combats that can erupt.

Today, we continue our previews with an overview of the game's Refresh phase, in which you can build new starships, recruit new troops, deploy new vehicles, and call upon the talents of new heroes willing to commit themselves to your cause.

The Refresh Phase

“We shall double our efforts."
–Moff Jerjerrod

The Refresh phase stands apart from the other phases of Star Wars: Rebellion. All the player actions from the Assignment and Command phases can be summarized in just two sentences, but the decisions that you make lead to all sorts of action, adventure, and battles with far-reaching consequences. On the other hand, the Refresh phase features a half-dozen different steps, but they tend to flow very quickly.

Launch Probe Droids: The Imperial player draws two probe cards.
Draw Objective: The Rebel player draws one objective.
Advance Time Marker: The time marker advances one space along the track. If it lands on a space with a recruit icon, you draw two cards from your action deck and recruit one of the leaders shown on those cards, adding it to your leader pool. If it lands on a space with a build icon, you generate new units based upon the resource icons in the systems that are loyal to you or that you have subjugated, and you add those units to the build queue.
Deploy Units: All units slide one space down the build queue, and all units that slide off the "1" space are deployed to loyal or subjugated systems. The Rebel player deploys first.

In many respects, the Refresh phase can feel somewhat automatic, and its action often seems more fated or inevitable than the action of the Assignment or Command phases. Nonetheless, you will also be required to make some monumental decisions in the Refresh phase – even if those decisions might not feel monumental at the time – and its seemingly automatic actions owe directly to the choices that you made in previous rounds or phases.

Retrieve Leaders

The first thing you do in the Refresh phase is retrieve your leaders, and while it may sound exceedingly simple, there are a number of notable complications.

First of all, the Galactic Empire has access to a number of missions, including the basic mission Capture Rebel Operative , that permit the capture of Rebel leaders. When the Imperial player successfully captures one of the heroes of the Rebel Alliance, that leader is slotted into the Captured Leader attachment ring, one of several rings that define specific game states and rules for the leaders within them.

There is only one Captured Leader attachment ring, so the Empire can only hold a single Rebel leader in the Captured Leader condition. However, it is possible for the Imperial player to freeze that leader in carbonite or even turn that leader to the dark side. In such a case, the leader receives a new attachment ring, corresponding to its new condition, and the Captured Leader attachment ring once again becomes available.

Notably, then, a captured leader is not returned to the leader pool during the Refresh phase.

During the Command phase, Elaine sent General Rieekan to Sabotage the Imperial resources on Bespin. She succeeded, but Karl, who had assigned Darth Vader to Capture Rebel Operative, then sent Vader to Bespin and captured General Rieekan. Karl slots General Rieekan into the Captured Leader attachment ring, and Elaine is not able to return General Rieekan to her leader pool during the Refresh phase.

Note that the capture of one of your leaders has consequences that go far beyond whether or not you can return all your leaders to your leader pool in the Refresh phase. Given how important your leaders are to your strategy, you cannot afford to lose them and fall behind in the number of actions you can take each turn. Accordingly, if your Rebel leader is captured, you will want to rescue that leader as quickly as possible by completing a Daring Rescue or a similar mission.

Draw Missions

The fact that your hand of missions caps out at ten creates a small measure of tension as you consider if and when you want to attempt some of the game's more challenging missions.

At the beginning of the game, you start with six missions – your four basic missions and the top two cards from your mission deck. This means that even if you choose not to attempt any missions, you do not have to worry about discarding missions until your third Refresh phase. However, if you allow yourself to draw past your cap, you may lose out on some valuable opportunities.

For example, the Galactic Empire can attempt a number of different missions against a captured leader, including Homing Beacon , Interrogation , and even Lure of the Dark Side . However, all of these require that you first capture a Rebel leader, and if you have not captured a Rebel by the time you need to discard mission cards, you might consider discarding one of these missions.

But if you did, would that decision come back to haunt you? You would potentially lose the ability to narrow down the location of the Rebel base to a single region of space, to view all of the Rebels' objectives, or even to strike a massive blow to the Rebel Alliance by converting one of its leaders.

Launch Probe Droids and Draw Objective

Every Refresh phase pushes the game closer toward its climactic conclusion. As it draws probe cards, the Galactic Empire narrows down the number of systems in which the Rebel base could possibly exist. And each objective card offers the Rebel Alliance a new way to make itself heard.

The result is that both sides are likely to feel the pressure mounting, but in drastically different ways:

As the Rebel player, you watch the Imperial player's hand of probe cards grow ever larger and follow the Empire's movements through the galaxy, realizing that your window of opportunity is rapidly shrinking.
As the Imperial player, you recognize that every turn you do not eliminate the Rebel base is another turn that the galaxy's citizens continue to whisper about freedom. You also realize that each of the objective cards in the Rebel player's hand constitutes a different sort of threat. No one of those threats can break you, but the more your opponent is able to aim toward the completion of objectives, the greater the chance that you might watch the Rebel Alliance suddenly earn five reputation points by scoring Return of the Jedi during combat and then scoring Inspire Sympathy for two more reputation in the subsequent Refresh phase.

Again, the hidden information of Star Wars: Rebellion plays heavily into the game's experience, even as it takes a different role on the different sides. Every time you draw a probe card, or every time you draw an objective card, you are adding to the amount of hidden information existing within the game, and that means the stakes are always rising.

Advance Time Marker

Each Refresh phase, you advance the time marker one space along the time track. In addition to bringing the Rebel Alliance incrementally closer to its victory condition, this Refresh step offers you two different important choices, at intervals defined by the time track's iconography.

Whenever the time maker ends on a space with the recruit icon, you and your opponent both gain the opportunity to recruit a new leader. You draw two cards from your action deck and choose one of the leaders shown on either card to move from your reserve to your leader pool.

Notably, you recruit new leaders in each of the first four Refresh phases. Then you are done recruiting. This means that you will not recruit all of the possible leaders for your side in a given game, and though many of the heroes, such as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, feature on multiple action cards, if you pass on a chance to recruit a given leader, there is a very real possibility that you will not have another chance to recruit him.

When the time track advances to "2," Elaine draws two action cards from the top of her deck, Undercover and The Millennium Falcon . There are four leaders shown on the cards – Lando Calrissian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. Elaine gains the choice of any of the four leaders. Knowing that she might not have another chance to recruit any of these heroes, she decides to recruit Han Solo.

In the learning game, these action cards are discarded after you recruit your leader. In the advanced game, you hang onto these action cards and have the opportunity to use them later on for heroic, once-per-game abilities.

The time track also features a second icon, the build icon.

Whenever the time marker ends on a space with the build icon, both players gain the opportunity to build new units. For each resource icon associated with the systems loyal to your faction, you take new units from the supply and place them on the build queue, setting them atop the space corresponding to the number to the left of the system's resource icons. The units that you can build are indicated on your faction sheet, sorted by their resource icons.

For example, when the time track proceeds to the "4" space, the Rebel Alliance has managed to earn the loyalty of both the Nal Hutta and Toydaria systems. Since the "4" space features the build icon, Elaine gets to build new Rebel units and decides to start by building the units she gains from Nal Hutta and Toydaria.

Toydaria features a single blue circle resource icon, which corresponds to only one Rebel unit – the Corellian corvette – so Elaine takes one Corellian corvette from the supply and places it on the "2" space of the build queue indicated by the "2" to the left of Toydaria's resource icon.

Next, she looks to Nal Hutta, which features one orange triangle resource icon and one blue triangle resource icon. Again, the orange triangle corresponds to only one type of Rebel unit, the Rebel Trooper, so she takes one Rebel Trooper unit and places it on the "1" space of the build queue. Now she has a choice to make as she considers which of the different starships she would like to build with her blue triangle resource icon. She could build an X-wing, a Y-wing, or a Rebel transport. In order to gain more red dice with which to combat Karl's capital ships, Elaine opts to build a Y-wing and adds it to the "1" space of the build queue.

In addition to the resource icons it gains from loyal systems, the Galactic Empire is able to harvest the resources of the planets it has subjugated. However, the planets that the Empire has subjugated do not build as efficiently as those that are loyal to its cause. For each subjugated system, the Imperial player builds only the left-most icon.

There is one final, important consideration during the build step. You cannot build units from a system that contains an enemy unit. Insurgents on the ground can disrupt your supply chain just as well as blockades in space.

Deploy Units

In the final step of the Refresh phase, both sides advance their build queues. Each unit slides one space down, from "3" to "2" or from "2" to "1." Units that slide down from the "1" space are immediately deployed to systems that have matching loyalty or, in the Empire's case, that have been subjugated. During this step, the Rebel player may treat the Rebel base space as though it were a system.

Just as you cannot build units from a system that contains an enemy unit, you cannot deploy to a system containing an enemy unit. Thus, as you see the build icon coming on the time track, you might consider invading your opponent's system when you suspect you might be able to hold either the ground or space theater and deny your opponent the opportunity to build with that system's icons or deploy to it.

After their battle at Kashyyk, Elaine still holds the ground, and the system remains loyal to her. However, because Karl won the space combat and kept his Star Destroyer in the system, Elaine is unable to use Kashyyk's build icons or deploy to the system.

Finally, after both sides have deployed all available units, you enter a new game round, returning to the Assignment phase.

You Will Meet Your Destiny

"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design."
–Emperor Palpatine

Both sides in Star Wars: Rebellion wage the Galactic Civil War according to the same rules, but their methods could scarcely be more different.

The Rebel Alliance fights to inspire hope, conducting desperate secret missions and using its meager military presence to conduct surgical strikes. Its unpredictability is key.
The Galactic Empire, on the other hand, has a navy that stretches across the galaxy, resources to burn, and penchant for torture and terror. If you play as the Galactic Empire, you are likely to feel a swelling of confidence as plant your boots firmly on planet after planet, but your overconfidence can be your weakness if you fail to give the Rebel threat its proper due.

In our next preview, we will explore more of these differences, focusing largely on how they come to life through the game's projects and objectives. Along the way, we will also get a better sense of the game's asymmetry and learn how it helps invoke the spirit of the classic Star Wars trilogy!

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Prepare for Ground Assault

Published 20 January 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Prepare for Ground Assault

A Look at the Combats of Star Wars™: Rebellion

“Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy shield and deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off that system.”
–Darth Vader

Yesterday's preview of Star Wars™: Rebellion explored the various ways that you can make use of your heroes in the game's Command Phase. We learned how you can use them to attempt missions, oppose your enemy's missions, and activate systems to move your starships and ground troops.

We also learned that whenever you activate a system to maneuver ships into a region of space occupied by enemy ships, or to land ground troops on a planet already occupied by enemy ground troops, the result is the immediate instigation of combat. Today, we look at the rules for combat in Star Wars: Rebellion and the ways that the game's battles might play a part in your larger strategy.

Theaters of War

“Everybody to your stations. Let’s go!”
–Major Bren Derlin

Every battle in Star Wars: Rebellion features two theaters—space and ground—and combat only initiates when both sides have units in the same system if those units also occupy the same theater. Then, the opposing units within each theater battle each other independently of the other theater; starships only battle enemy starships, and ground units only battle enemy ground units.

If either theater is occupied by only one side, the combat within it is ended, even if the other theater is still contested. Among other things, this means it is possible win a ground battle, even as you lose your starships to the battle in space.

In most cases combat begins when a player uses a leader to establish a military presence in a system that already contains enemy units. For example, after the Rebel player, Elaine, unsuccessfully attempted to have Mon Mothma establish an alliance with Mon Calamari, Karl decides to activate Kashyyk with Grand Moff Tarkin. From the adjacent Malastare, he moves one Star Destroyer, one TIE fighter, one AT-ST Walker, and two Troopers. Because Elaine has an X-wing and two T-47 Airspeeders at Kashyyk, the players enter combat.

Immediately after combat begins, if a player does not have a leader with tactic values in the system, that player may take one leader from the leader pool and place it in the system. In the case of our example, Karl cannot add a leader because he already has Grand Moff Tarkin in the system, having placed him there to activate it. Elaine, however, has no leader on Kashyyk and two in her leader pool, Princess Leia and General Rieekan. She decides to add General Rieekan to the battle, hoping that his leadership may inspire the Wookiees who had just committed to the Rebel Alliance.

After players have had a chance to add leaders with tactic values to the embattled system, you draw tactic cards. The tactic cards you draw are based on your leader in the system. If you don't have a leader in the system, or that leader has no tactic values, you draw no tactic cards. Otherwise, you draw space tactic cards equal to your leader’s blue space tactic value and ground tactic cards equal to your leader’s orange ground tactic value.

If you have multiple leaders in the system, such as you might if you use one leader to activate a system where another leader had previously attempted a mission, you use only the highest space and ground tactic values. You do not add your leader's tactic values together.

The tactic cards you draw can potentially have massive impact on your battles, so it typically pays to enter combats with your leaders with the highest available tactic values. However, fate also plays a part, and you may not always be able to make use of your tactic cards. In fact, to play some of the most powerful tactic cards, you need to roll a result of during battle. When you do, though, you can often emerge victorious from a battle in which the odds were otherwise a million to one.

In our example combat, Grand Moff Tarkin has a space tactic value of two and a ground tactic value of one, so Karl draws two space tactic cards and one ground tactic card. He enters combat with a hand consisting of the tactic cards, Unstoppable Assault, No Escape, and Take It Down. Elaine's General Rieekan, meanwhile, features a space tactic value of one and ground tactic value of two, so she draws one space tactic card and two ground tactic cards. She enters combat with Defensive Formation, Brilliant Strategy, and Dig In.

After you and your opponent have drawn your tactic cards, which you draw only once per combat, you then enter a series of combat steps that repeat until one side either retreats or completely destroys all enemy units.

Space Combat

First, you resolve the space battle. The active player creates a pool of dice and rolls them. To create your pool of dice, you consult your faction sheet and add the appropriate number and color of dice for each of your units, adding them all together.

In our example, Karl assembles his dice pool first, adding two red dice and one black die for his Star Destroyer, and one more black die for his TIE fighter. He rolls them all and gets a result of two results from his red dice and and a blank result on his black dice.

After rolling dice, the active player has a chance to take combat actions. These include playing a tactic card or spending a result from the dice pool to draw a tactic card. Some tactic cards require you to spend a result to play them, but since Karl's dice did not yield a result he cannot spend one. Accordingly, he cannot play his Unstoppable Assault. Likewise, he cannot spend his result to draw a tactic card. He can, however, play his No Escape and does so, ensuring that even if it survives the first volley, Elaine's X-wing will not be able to retreat.

Next, Karl assigns his damage. Each counts as one damage that you can assign against a unit with a health value of the matching color. Each counts as one point of damage that you can assign against any unit, regardless of the color of its health value. In this way, you find that capital ships have an easier time attacking other capital ships, while starfighters have an easier time penetrating the shields and hulls of opposing starfighters. Each unit is capable of attacking other foes, but not as efficient as when it can apply its damage toward the type of foe it was meant to combat.

In our example, Karl's dice allow him to assign only a single point of damage to Elaine's X-wing – from the black result. We imagine, here, that his red results originated from a pair of turbolaser batteries that were too slow to catch the X-wing on its attack run.

Now, before Elaine's X-wing is removed, she has the opportunity to do two things. First, she can use any tactic cards in her hand that would allow her to block the damage her ship is being dealt. Accordingly, she plays her Defensive Formation to block the point of damage her X-wing has been assigned. Next, she has an opportunity to fire back, which is the second thing she can do after her opponent assigns damage and before her ship is removed.

Elaine's X-wing contributes a solitary black die to her dice pool, and it comes up , which she can apply either against the Star Destroyer or the TIE fighter. Since the single point of damage would only scratch the Star Destroyer, she applies it to the TIE fighter, which will be destroyed unless Karl can block the damage. As he does not have a card that would block the damage, his TIE fighter is destroyed at the end of the first space combat step.

Ground Combat

After the players resolve the first combat step in space, they turn their attention toward the ground and resolve the first ground attacks. Again, as the aggressor, Karl goes first. Altogether, his Imperial AT-ST Walker and two Stormrooper units generate a dice pool of three black dice and one red die. His black dice come up , , and blank. His red die comes up .

Since Karl has now rolled a result on his black die, he decides to spend it to trigger Take It Down. Furthermore, after he saw Elaine block his damage in the space combat step, he focuses on a single T-47 Airspeeder, assigning it both the two damage from Take It Down and the point of damage from his red result.

Nonetheless, Elaine is able to prevent two of the damage with Dig In, discarding her Brilliant Strategy to do so. This ensures that her Airspeeders with both survive the first combat step. Then she retaliates, rolling two black dice and two red dice. The black and , along with the red and are enough to take down both Stormtrooper units or one Stormtrooper unit and the AT-ST Walker. She opts to assign the damage to the AT-ST Walker and one Stormtrooper unit. Moreover, she spends her result to draw another tactic card and finds Defensive Formation.

Retreat

After both the space and ground combat steps have resolved, the players can decide whether or not they would like to retreat.

To retreat from combat, a player moves his leader and all of his units from that system to an adjacent system, following normal movement and transport rules. If you do not have a leader in the system, you cannot retreat. If you do not have a way transport your ground troops, they cannot retreat. Furthermore, if you are able to do so, you must retreat to a system that either contains some of your units or has one of your loyalty markers. You cannot retreat units to a system that contains your opponent’s units nor to a system from which your opponent moved units to initiate the combat.

Up in space, Elaine knows she would like her X-wing to retreat, but as Karl's tactic card, No Escape, removed that option, she resolves herself to the task of surviving another of the Star Destroyer's volleys. Meanwhile, Karl's ground assault appears to have backfired, and he has to decide whether or not he would like to retreat.

Because Karl has no loyalty or units in any of the systems adjacent to Kashyyk, he could retreat his Stormtrooper unit to any adjacent system.

Unfortunately, in order to retreat his remaining Stormtrooper unit, Karl would need to provide them transport, meaning he would have to retreat his Star Destroyer. As that would concede the system to Elaine's X-wing, he decides not to retreat, abandoning his Stormtroopers to their fate.

After both players have had the opportunity to retreat, they proceed to another combat round, starting with the space combat, then going through the ground combat, and again to the chance to retreat. The combat will continue to pass through the various steps in each of the two theaters until their are no opposing units in the same theater.

Using Battles to Reshape the Galaxy

"Fear will keep the local systems in line."
–Grand Moff Tarkin

The battles of Star Wars: Rebellion reshape the galaxy and the course of your Galactic Civil War in a number of different ways.

First of all, they can bring about an Imperial victory. As we mentioned earlier, the Galactic Empire needs to find the Rebel base in order to win, but more than just find the base, it needs to eliminate it. This means that the Imperials need to destroy all the Rebel Alliance's ground units at the Rebel base, and that means they need to win one ultimate, decisive ground battle.

However, even before they move in for the kill, the Imperials can use battles to good effect to conquer and subjugate planets. Whenever the Imperials establish an uncontested ground presence on a populous planet, that planet is subjugated – even if it was previously loyal to the Rebel Alliance—and it contributes the first of its two resource icons to the Empire during the build step of the Refresh phase. (We will explore the Refresh phase and build step in more detail in tomorrow's preview.)

After Darth Vader leads his Imperial forces to Corellia, they subjugate the system, and it contributes the left-most of its resources (the blue triangle) to the Empire.

Of course, since combats typically result in the destruction of units, either side can initiate combats strictly to limit the opponent's available units.

For example, the Rebel alliance begins the game with only two ships capable of transporting ground units—one Corellian corvette and one Rebel transport. If the Imperial Navy is able to eliminate either of those vessels before the Rebel Alliance can build more capital ships, the Rebels will be hard-pressed to oppose the Empire in battles at distant planets.

Conversely, the Rebel Alliance may initiate a combat to prevent the Empire from moving units toward the Rebel base. If the Rebel base is secretly on Mon Calamari, the Rebel Alliance might launch ships from Mon Calamari and Yavin to intercept an Imperial Star Destroyer and its TIE fighter escorts when they move to Felucia.

And there's at least one Imperial unit that can never be ignored. Since the Death Star is capable of blowing up whole planets in a single shot, you cannot allow it to draw too close to your Rebel base. Otherwise, there may not be a combat on your Rebel base—simply a bright spark and millions of voices crying out at once… and then nothing.

With its health value of "–" the Death Star is impervious to normal attacks, so any attack your Rebel forces launch against it is only a desperate gamble that you will be able to get a single fighter through the space combat step and can reveal the Death Star Plans objective to roll three dice in search of a result.

Late in the game, things are looking bleak for Elaine's Rebels, so she takes a tremendous gamble. She assigns Luke to lead a squadron of starfighters in a desperate bid to destroy Karl's Death Star.

The Force is with her! After the first space combat step resolves, Luke's wingmates have been destroyed, along with Karl's TIE fighters. Luke fires his proton torpedoes, rolling three dice, and scores a direct hit. The Death Star is destroyed!

The effort is likely to cost you a number of starships, but if you succeed, not only do you spare your base from the threat of immediate obliteration, you can earn the respect of countless civilians through the galaxy—moving your reputation tracker two spaces toward victory.

Gathering Strength

“This bickering is pointless. Lord Vader will provide us with the location of the Rebel fortress by the time this station is operational. We will then crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke.”
–Grand Moff Tarkin

Because combats are immediately initiated whenever a player activates a system to move his military units to oppose enemy units, they can resolve before or after the missions that your leaders attempt during the Command phase. In many respects, the threat of combat can make it difficult to decide whether you should use a leader to activate a system or oppose an enemy mission, or if you should hold that leader in reserve to oppose your rival in battle, should one erupt.

Even when you gain more leaders, the question is never easily resolved, especially since your opponent also gains more leaders.

Tomorrow, we will look at how you gain additional leaders and how you add to your fleets and ground units during our review of the Refresh phase!

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Assume Command

Published 19 January 2016 | Star Wars: Rebellion

Assume Command

Explore the Action in the Command Phase of Star Wars™: Rebellion

"Once the shield is down, our cruisers will create a perimeter, while the fighters fly into the superstructure and attempt to knock out the main reactor. General Calrissian has volunteered to lead the fighter attack."
–Admiral Ackbar

Yesterday, we jumped into the gameplay of Star Wars™: Rebellion with a look at its leaders, their abilities, your missions, and the choices you need to make during your Assignment Phase. Of course, we also mentioned that several of the different actions your leaders can take do not really come into play until the game's second phase, the Command Phase.

Today, then, we continue our previews with a look at the Command Phase and the ways that you can use your heroes to activate systems or oppose your rival at missions or in battles.

The Command Phase

After both the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire have finished assigning their leaders to missions, the game proceeds to the Command Phase. In the Command Phase, players take turns resolving missions or using the leaders they have remaining in their leader pools to coordinate the movement of their units, possibly initiating combat.

As in the Assignment Phase, the Rebel player acts first in the Command Phase and can either reveal a mission or activate a system.

Reveal a Mission

When you decide to have one of your leaders attempt the mission to which he or she was assigned, you reveal that mission, flipping it faceup, and read it aloud.

Most mission cards require you to attempt them in a system and often dictate qualifiers for the systems in which the mission can legally be attempted. For example, Stolen Plans can only be attempted "in any system that contains an Imperial unit" while Gather Intel can only be attempted "in any Rebel system." After you reveal your mission, then, you must declare where your leader is going to attempt it, and you place your leader on the matching system on the game board.

In the Assignment Phase, Elaine had assigned Mon Mothma to Build Alliance and General Rieekan to Sabotage . At the beginning of the Command Phase, she decides to reveal Build Alliance, hoping to sway the citizens of Mon Calamari to the Rebel cause. She states that she plans to attempt the mission on Mon Calamari and places Mon Mothma atop the Mon Calamari system on the game board.

Here it is important to note that missions function differently if they use the term "resolve" than if they use the term "attempt." If you have a leader with a the appropriate skill icons assigned to a mission, such as Research and Development , that uses the term "resolve," your opponent cannot oppose that mission, and it automatically succeeds. On the other hand, if your mission uses the term "attempt," then after you place your leader on the system where you intend to attempt the mission, your opponent has the opportunity to oppose your effort.

Oppose a Mission

After you declare where you are attempting a mission, your opponent can send any one leader from his leader pool to oppose that mission.

If your opponent chooses not to oppose you, then you automatically succeed, as you need to be able to meet the mission's skill requirements in order to reveal it in the first place.
If your opponent chooses to oppose you, he places his leader in the system where your hero hopes to complete your mission. Then, you and your opponent roll dice to determine the mission's outcome. Each matching skill icon adds one of the game's custom dice to your pool.

You score one success for each and result, and each result counts as two successes. If you score more successes than your opponent at your mission, you succeed at that mission.

For example, after Elaine declares her intent to establish diplomatic relations between the Rebel Alliance and the citizens of Mon Calamari, Karl decides that Emperor Palpatine should intervene. He moves Emperor Palpatine from the leader pool to Mon Calamari. Accordingly, Elaine must now test Mon Mothma's diplomatic influence against that of the Emperor.

Having long foreseen the Rebels' interest in Mon Calamari's aid, Emperor Palpatine rolls and for a total of three successes. Mon Mothma also rolls well, scoring , , and for a total of three successes, but because she did not roll more successes than her opponent, Elaine fails at the mission.

It is also worth noting that every leader at a system contributes their matching skill icons to any mission attempt at that system, which means you may be able to increase your chances of succeeding at a critical mission by attempting it in a system where you have already committed a leader to attempt an earlier mission. Conversely, it becomes much harder to to complete a mission if you send your leader to a system where your opponent has already placed a leader, meaning that your attempt may potentially be opposed by multiple enemy leaders.

Finally, as we saw yesterday, a number of missions feature the image of a specific leader. If that leader is ever opposed at the mission, you automatically add two successes to your total.

While she is assigned to the mission Stolen Plans, Princess Leia is guaranteed two bonus successes in case the Empire opposes her efforts.

Activate a System

Also during the Command Phase, you have the opportunity to move your fleets. You do this by using your leaders to activate systems.

To activate a system, you remove one of your leaders from the leader pool and place it in a system on the game board. You are then able to move any of your ships from adjacent systems into the system your leader has activated. The exeception, however, arises whenever two otherwise adjacent systems are separated by red areas that indicate there is no navigable hyperspace lanes between them.

When Grand Moff Tarkin activates Corellia, he allows the Empire to strike at Corellia with any of the units from adjacent systems, including the Star Destroyer, the TIE fighters, and the ground units on Sullust. However, because there is no servicable hyperspace lane between Corellia and Bespin, Bespin is not considered adjacent, and its units cannot move to Corellia.

You can also move ground units when you activate a system, provided the ships that you move have sufficient capacity to carry them through hyperspace. The carrying capacity for each of your ships is indicated in the lower left corner of the ship's icon on your faction sheet. Imperial players should also note that because TIE fighters do not have hyperdrives of their own, they also require other ships to transport them, just like ground units.

The difference between space units and ground units is reinforced by their deployment on the board. The ground units that you transport from one system to another are placed above the planet art on the game board, while the starships remain in the space around the planet.

If the Galactic Empire relocates ground units to an unoccupied neutral planet or one affiliated with the Rebels, that planet is subjugated, it is unable to supply resources to the Rebel Alliance, and it will direct a share of its resources to the Galactic Empire.

If Darth Vader and the troops under his command are able to gain military control of Corellia, it becomes subjugated, and the subjugation token is placed on the planet's loyalty hex.

This distinction between the space and planetary sections of a system informs more than the subjugation of planets. Opposing forces can reside in the same system side-by-side if one has only space units and the other has only ground units. However, if you ever move a starship into a system with enemy starships or transport a ground unit to a planet with enemy ground units, you move immediately to combat, which we will review in tomorrow's preview!

A Board Game of Epic Confrontation

"Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon are walking into a trap. As is your Rebel fleet! It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator."
–Emperor Palpatine

Throughout the Command Phase, you and your opponent take turns sending your leaders across the galaxy to undertake secret missions and coordinating the movement of your starships, vehicles, and troops. You can build alliances with the citizens of distant planets, launch daring raids, subjugate planets, and engage your enemy in combat.

Most importantly, though, you will begin to see a larger narrative emerge, and the mechanics of the game begin to melt away, leaving in place only the epic nature of the Star Wars galaxy and the urgent call for tactical adjustments that ensure your strategy remains intact, even in the face of military losses and cruel twists of fate.

Join us tomorrow for a look at the game's combats and an exploration of how your leaders' heroic intervention can change the course of battle!

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3. Eldritch Horror

4. Star Wars: Rebellion

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

6. Mansions of Madness

7. Star Wars: Legion

Enjoy Your Gaming!

14 Years

14 Years

World of Warcraft: The Board Game – 2005

Warrior Knights – 2006

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire ­– 2006

Tide of Iron – 2007

StarCraft: The Board Game – 2007

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game – 2007

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – 2008

Middle-earth Quest – 2009

Space Hulk: Death Angel – 2010

Runewars – 2010

Mansions of Madness First Edition – 2011

Rune Age – 2011

Gears of War – 2011

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition – 2012

Eldritch Horror – 2013

Star Wars™: Imperial Assault – 2014

Star Wars™: Rebellion – 2016

Star Wars™: Destiny – 2016

Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition – 2017

Discover: Lands Unknown – 2018

Star Wars™: Outer Rim – 2019

No Turning Back

No Turning Back

What Is Rise of the Empire?

Learn More from Our Previews

Pick Up Your Copy Today

A Rebellion Built on Hope

A Rebellion Built on Hope

A Dark Time. A Time for Subversion.

Keep Them Guessing

Launch Your Strike

Take Action

Take Action

Make a Fresh Start

Full of Surprises

Scour the Galaxy

The Search Draws to a Close

Stay on Target

Stay on Target

The Deal Has Been Altered

Forced to Choose

The Target Is Within Sight

A Galaxy at War

A Galaxy at War

No Retreat

Advanced Tactics

Cinematic Combat

Signal the Attack

Daring Heroes and Dastardly Villains

Daring Heroes and Dastardly Villains

Imperial Discipline

The Spirit of Rebellion

There Will Be No Escape

Single Reactor Ignition

Single Reactor Ignition

Secret Missions and Stolen Intel

A Statement, Not a Manifesto

Where Is the Rebel Base?

Rise of the Empire

Rise of the Empire

A Rebellion Built on Hope

Cinematic Combat

A Perfect Fit

What of the Rebellion?

What of the Rebellion?

An Official Star Wars: Rebellion FAQ

The Results from Rebellion: Week One

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire – 2006