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FFG's newest Star Wars licence was just announced.  It looks like a boardgame version of the 90s era PC game of the same name.

Quote
"The more you tighten your grasp, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
     –Leia Organa

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Star Wars™: Rebellion, the board game of epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance for two to four players!

Experience the Galactic Civil War like never before. In Rebellion, you control the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. You must command starships, account for troop movements, and rally systems to your cause. Featuring more than 150 plastic miniatures and two game boards that account for thirty-two of the Star Wars galaxy's most notable systems, Rebellion features a scope that is as large and sweeping as the Star Wars universe deserves.

Simultaneously, it is intensely personal, cinematic, and heroic. Your forces are led by iconic heroes or villains. Including such characters as Leia Organa™, Mon Mothma™, Grand Moff Tarkin™, and Emperor Palpatine™, these leaders and their individual talents drive everything you do. As civil war spreads throughout the galaxy, these leaders are invaluable to your efforts, and the secret missions they attempt will evoke many of the most inspiring moments from the classic trilogy. You might send Luke Skywalker™ to receive Jedi training on Dagobah™ or have Darth Vader™ spring a trap that freezes Han Solo™ in carbonite!



Ultimately, your games will span multiple star systems. Many fighters will be lost. Many troopers will fall. Planets will join the Rebellion before they are overrun by the Empire and subjugated. Imperial officers may capture Rebel spies and interrogate them for valuable information. A hotshot Rebel pilot may land a one-in-a-million shot against the Death Star™ and destroy it. In Rebellion, you and your friends decide the final fate of the galaxy. Will it remain under tyrannical rule, or will a select few manage to liberate it?

It Is a Period of Civil War

Rebellion packs an astonishing amount of the classic Star Wars trilogy into a relatively compact ruleset. Each game round encompasses just three phases, yet as you play through those phases, you will encounter massive fleet battles, desperate attempts at espionage, Jedi training, political maneuverings, and even the possibility to lure important Rebel heroes to the dark side of the Force.

One of the most important ways that Rebellion evokes the original trilogy is through its asymmetry. The Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance are vastly different forces, and they come with different play styles and win conditions.

The Galactic Empire
As the Imperial player, you can command legions of Stormtroopers, swarms of TIE fighters, Star Destroyers, and even the Death Star. You rule the galaxy by fear, relying on the power of your massive military to enforce your will. To win the game, you need to snuff out the budding Rebel Alliance by finding its base and obliterating it. Along the way, you can subjugate worlds or even destroy them.

The Rebel Alliance
As the Rebel player, you can command dozens of troopers, T-47 airspeeders, Corellian corvettes, and fighter squadrons. However, these forces are no match for the Imperial military. In terms of raw strength, you will find yourself clearly overmatched from the very outset, so you need to rally the planets to join your cause and execute targeted military strikes to sabotage Imperial build yards and steal valuable intelligence. To win the Galactic Civil War, you need to sway the galaxy's citizens to your cause. If you survive long enough and strengthen your reputation, you inspire the galaxy to a full-scale revolt, and you win.

The game's asymmetry—and the distinctive feel of each faction's play style—extends beyond these differences, however, and into the very nature of the missions that either side can attempt, the projects the Imperial player can undertake, and the Rebel Alliance's military objectives. As the Rebel player, you might send your leaders to Establish Trade Relations or Incite Rebellion , but as the Imperial player you're more likely to keep the local systems in line with a Display of Power . Of course, you might simply tighten your security in order to capture Rebel leaders and then use them to lay your own traps, such as deploying a Homing Beacon .

 

As the Imperial player, you will even have the opportunity to eliminate entire worlds with your Death Star. But if you do, the Alliance may later be able to inspire sympathy among those who fear befalling a similar fate.

The result is that even as your missions, projects, and objectives help you shift the balance of power, they also immerse you more deeply into the mindset of the forces you are commanding, as well as the larger themes and conflicts of the classic Star Wars trilogy.

Keep the Local Systems in Line

While the focus of Rebellion is often on the iconic characters serving as your leaders, they are certainly not the only characters involved. In fact, your games are bound to affect the lives of billions of individuals spread throughout the galaxy. After all, it is the fate of the galaxy that is at stake in Rebellion, and that galaxy has a very real presence on your table.

Rebellion is played over two game boards that you place next to each other to form one play surface with thirty-two systems divided into eight regions. In your games, you will battle over these systems with capital ships, starfighters, troops, speeders, and walkers. You will attempt to win their people to your cause, and if you do, they will share their resources, allowing you to recruit more troops and build more vehicles and starships.

Accordingly, while Rebellion is in many ways a game about the critical changes a handful of individuals can affect, it is also a game about conquest, dominion, and logistics. As the Rebel player, you might expect to command a smaller military, but you cannot afford to fall further and further behind in the economic aspects of the war as the Empire secures the loyalty of entire regions and accelerates its production of Star Destroyers and AT-AT walkers.

The loyalties of the various systems are key to your ability to maintain a viable military force whether you are commanding the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Certainly, as the Imperial player, you will start with an imposing military advantage – one that the Rebels will be hard-pressed to overcome. Still, most of the galaxy's thirty-two systems can generate resources, and if the Alliance can win the loyalty of those systems to take advantage of their resources, then they may slowly be able to generate a fleet and a military that can stand toe-to-toe against those of the Imperial Navy.

For this reason, the Imperial player is almost certain to act swiftly to snuff out the sparks of rebellion among all systems within range of its fleet. To this end, the game board does more than indicate the systems for whose loyalty the players can contend, it also serves as a map of the various hyperlanes your fleet might travel. Narrow borders indicate the spaces between adjacent systems, while thicker, orange borders hold together those systems clustered within a region. Meanwhile, there are no serviceable hyperspace lanes between some of the systems that appear to be adjacent, and the red areas between those systems indicate that no space travel is possible.

Throughout your games of Rebellion, you will move your forces from system to system. As the Rebel player, you might risk a ship and a few squadrons every now and again to orchestrate key military strikes. As the Imperial player, though, your expansion through the galaxy is critical to your success. The more systems you probe and subjugate, the closer you come to identifying the location of the hidden Rebel base. At some point, your movement may even bait the Rebel fleet into action...

Your Moment of Triumph

Battles are inevitable. The Rebel Alliance cannot hide forever. At some point, it will need to win a military action in order to rally the galaxy's citizens, or the Imperial forces will simply locate its base and close in from all sides before beginning their bombardment. Whenever Rebel and Imperial forces both occupy the same system, they must fight, and while these battles seldom decide the war outright, they always have a tremendous impact.

Your military forces in Rebellion are represented by more than 150 detailed plastic miniatures, including Stormtroopers, Rebel troopers, X-wings, Y-wings, TIE fighters, AT-AT walkers, Star Destroyers, and more. There is even a Death Star and a partially constructed Death Star for you to place on the map should you begin construction on a second technological terror. All these forces have their combat statistics – attack dice and hit points – listed clearly on your faction sheet.



During engagements, these forces clash over multiple steps, using custom dice to resolve their attacks. If both players have starships in a system, they engage in a space battle before opposing troops engage in a subsequent ground battle. In both cases, any leader you have in the system may allow you to draw tactics cards, which you can use to deal more damage, block damage, or surprise your opponent in other ways.

After you have fought both the space and ground battles, you then have the opportunity to retreat, provided you have a leader in the system who can coordinate the effort. However, if neither side retreats, your engagement continues through additional space battles and ground battles until one side has eliminated the other's forces.


These combats can have far-reaching consequences. For starters, whenever the Galactic Empire is able to wrest a planet away from the Alliance, it can subjugate that system, and its residents cannot afford to show their loyalty to the Rebels. Even if that system is loyal to the Rebels, it cannot give them its resources, but instead must provide its resources to the Galactic Empire.

Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance also stands to gain much from initiating strategically chosen battles. Beside the obvious benefits they derive from reducing the forces available to the Empire, the Rebels can fight battles to achieve a number of different objectives, each of which can win them more loyalty in the galaxy. You do not even need to win all your battles to achieve your Rebel objectives. Some merely require you to destroy a specific Imperial unit or a certain number of Imperial units, and many others reward you for winning either the space or ground battle and keeping your Rebel unit in the system, even if it remains loyal to the Empire.

     

In the end, combat in Rebellion ultimately serves to reinforce the game's asymmetry, its themes, and the characters of its two factions. As the Rebel player, you simply cannot conquer the galaxy by brute force; you need to choose your military actions carefully and execute them for maximum impact. As the Imperial player, though, your superior military might is a powerful asset and one that you will need to use to your advantage as often as possible.

The Ultimate Power in the Universe

From the tallest buildings on Coruscant™ to the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim, Star Wars: Rebellion presents you a chance to reenact the conflicts of the Galactic Civil War that is unmatched in its scope and cinematic grandeur. Rich with personality, replete with strategy, Rebellion is a massive, epic game and one that fully captures the spirit of the classic Star Wars trilogy.

Look for your chance to decide the fate of the galaxy when Star Wars: Rebellion arrives at retailers in the first quarter of 2016!

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Oh damn.

I still haven't picked up their WH40k one, Forbidden Stars. 

This looks like it uses somewhat similar mechanics to that one.  Which may be both good & bad.  The big complaint I've heard about Forbidden Stars is that it's best as just a 2-player game due to combat taking so long and the other players sitting around twiddling their thumbs for long stretches while that happens.

I really don't need to read the whole article, I'm buying this game no questions asked.  Thanks for sharing this news SDR.


Nefaro I have Forbidden Stars and I agree with your assessment.  Forbidden Stars is definitely a fun game to play.  For me the issue of the game taking a long time to play with two or more players is moot.  I game alone.

I'm definitely more likely to pick this one up.  It just looks more .. clean(?) to me.

Yeah, this one will be on my list as well.

Welp, I pre-ordered (with help) this bastard from Amazon today. It comes out next Thursday and I should have it sometime by April 9 or so.

I've been going over the rules while editing the latest GrogCast and I'm liking how it works.



'Learn to Play' Rules PDF: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/0b/07/0b07601a-6ac3-4333-ac41-b6d1b9a979da/sw03_learn_to_play_web.pdf

I'm going to hold off and try out someone else's copy before committing.  Armada has really died off here and it's getting hard to find anyone who wants to play.  The lackluster Wave III announcements didn't help.  X-Wing is pretty much all anyone here wants to play and that's fine with me.  I just wish there'd be more willingness to break away from the 100 pt competition games in order to play some of the epic or cinematic scenarios.  I do think that will happen if FFG goes ahead with their ill-advised plan to force players to use a specific ship in all 100 pt matches.

Post impressions of Rebellion!

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 26, 2016, 06:22:08 PM
Post impressions of Rebellion!

+1 !

I'm kind of glad to hear Armada is dying but X-Wing is still going strong. Sorry to hear it in your case, SDR...that's gotta suck to invest in it and have nobody want to play. I'm glad I didn't get it myself. I still have a sh*tload of X-Wing Minis still in packaging.  :-[

I'll definitely do impressions of Rebellion. Maybe a review, like what I did with Star Wars: Imperial Assault (http://grogheads.com/?p=8286).

I pre-ordered it. Three friends were pretty eager, and the multiplayer rules actually don't seem too bad.

Should be releasing and shipping on the 31st.

Quote from: Arctic Blast on March 26, 2016, 07:41:28 PM
I pre-ordered it. Three friends were pretty eager, and the multiplayer rules actually don't seem too bad.

O0

Quote from: Arctic Blast on March 26, 2016, 07:41:28 PM
Should be releasing and shipping on the 31st.

Here's hoping.

I love FFG, but their prices just make it prohibitive to own, expand, and play multiple games.  And I still need to get Imperial Assault for crying out loud.

Imperial Assault has so many expansions now it makes my head swim. It takes discipline to not get any of them when we haven't even finished the main campaign with IA.

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on March 27, 2016, 08:10:25 AM
Imperial Assault has so many expansions now it makes my head swim. It takes discipline to not get any of them when we haven't even finished the main campaign with IA.

I was in the same situation with it's predecessor, Descent. 

Fortunately I had already experienced, and came to terms with, the FFG Expansion temptations by the time Imperial Assault came out.  While I have two or three Descent boxed expansions (and a couple little ones), I still only have the original IA set. 

Broke my expansion purchasing addiction for that system, while still having plenty left to do with my current stock, awhile back.  :)

Same can be said for some of the other FFG expansion-tastic lines.  Such as Eldritch Horror.

I'm staying away from that older stuff, at least for now. IA has not just the expansions, but the character packs too, which I've done my best to resist getting.

I'm not sure if Rebellion can have expansions, but I wouldn't put it past FFG to do so, especially if it's as huge a seller as I think it'll be.

I'm pretty sure it'll have expansions.  They're recycling the minis from Armada so I expect to see some packs with B-Wings, A-Wings, TIE bombers and the like.

A lot of the guys who had been playing Armada here have been getting back into Imperial Assault.  I've played it a few times but that one's never really clicked with me.

Quote from: Bison on March 26, 2016, 10:38:01 PM
I love FFG, but their prices just make it prohibitive to own, expand, and play multiple games.  And I still need to get Imperial Assault for crying out loud.

Yep, so you have to pick your poison.

I unloaded Eldritch Horror. It wasn't getting played enough to be worth the continued expansion churn.

I've got the base of the Star Wars LCG, and I'll be picking up 2 expansions that boost it to a 2-4 player game and flesh out the 5th and 6th factions. I MIGHT get the other big box expansions, but I'm staying away from the monthly force packs. And I'll be grabbing the base of the 2nd edition Game of Thrones LCG. If people like it, I may grab a second core set, make 8 permanent faction decks, and probably add nothing to it from that point forward.

I don't really own any other FFG stuff except a few one-off games.

For Star Wars: LCG, I'd skip the Imperial Entanglements expansion.  The Imperial Navy cards in there are insanely powerful and really screw up the game balance.

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 27, 2016, 10:53:40 PM
For Star Wars: LCG, I'd skip the Imperial Entanglements expansion.  The Imperial Navy cards in there are insanely powerful and really screw up the game balance.

Good to know. For now, I'm getting Balance of the Force and Edge of Darkness. I'll stay away from Imperial Entanglements. Between the Shadows will require further research.

Balance and Edge are nice expansions.  The other thing with SW is that you really need two base sets, but the rest of the expansion a single box if you want to have complete sets of certain cards in your deck.

Well, I got my notice today that my SW : Rebellion pre-order is in and shipping out tomorrow...so I promptl;y added the Game of Thrones LCG core sets to it...and the Sid Meier's Civ expansions.  ;D

I was playing X-Wing at the FLGS today.  They already had Rebellion out on the shelves with a "not for sale until midnight" sticker on them.

That's weird, because Amazon texted me yesterday (Thursday 3/30) to say Rebellion and the other two things I ordered were on their way and would be here tomorrow.

I guess technically that's okay as far as the release date is concerned, but I was somewhat ??? that the game was technically released a day early for shipping. But whatever.

The only thing is I won't get much of a chance to paw through it because my wife's b-day is this weekend and we're going to a friend's house in Dallas to celebrate. And no, none of them are gamers. :(

It's common for Amazon to ship items prior to release so they arrive on the release day. I've had it happen with pre-order video games.

^ Good to know, though that would mean it needs to arrive today then, right? I have to wait until tomorrow.

That might be because of the two packages of filters for my dog's water bowl I bought, but it's not like I'd have any more time to check it out tonight as opposed to tomorrow...gosh darn it.

You buy water filters for your dog's water bowl? 

^You don't?  :o

Quote from: Bison on March 31, 2016, 07:21:07 AM
You buy water filters for your dog's water bowl?

Yeah, sounds a little too first world, I know. Thing is, ever since we got our Pit Bull, and my mother-in-law had to follow suit and get herself a little Terrier, keeping the water dish full with three dogs was an issue; our Pit especially is like a sponge and sucks the bowl dry. About a year ago I was over at someone's house for a game night and they had this water bowl that was quiet, circulated water, and was pretty large:

http://www.amazon.com/Dogit-Design-Drinking-Fountain-Original/dp/B004OHQUUY?ie=UTF8&keywords=dogit%20fresh%20and%20clear&qid=1459428196&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

I bought it last August and it's awesome. Instead of having to fill the normal, large water bowl six or seven times a day, I only need to futz with it once a day. The filters are necessary, at least with my Bagel (Bassett/Beagle mix), because he slobbers so much he can clog up the pump. The filters help with that a lot.

I'll bet that would work great with young kids too :P

If you train them properly, anything is possible.  ;D

I caved.... :-[

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 31, 2016, 11:42:12 PM
I caved.... :-[

Pfft...weak!  Post pics please.

Next thing BC will confess to is owning and using a bidet and attempting to train the dogs to use it as well.

Quote from: Bison on April 01, 2016, 09:07:47 AM

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 31, 2016, 11:42:12 PM
I caved.... :-[

Pfft...weak!  Post pics please.

I didn't do much other than punch counters and assemble some pieces so far.  One of the TIE fighters had a wing broken off but that was easily fixed with some glue.  For some reason, the star destroyers come in two parts and need to be snapped together.  I have one that doesn't quite line up properly but the others are all fine.  There are three Death Star models (2 complete and one partial) that also need to be assembled.  The two complete Death Stars are composed of two hemispheres.  Neither of mine went together very well as the halves had been slightly deformed at some point during manufacturing or transport.  I glued them together as well but I can see that they've separated a little overnight.  There are several cardboard chits that represent leaders in the game.  Each one slots into a plastic stand so the the chits will stand upright during play.  It's a tight fit and I'd recommend being very careful when inserting the cardboard into the stands. I managed to tear the bottom of three of the chits while inserting them.  Poor Wedge.  He is already battle scarred. 

That's a bit disappointing to hear that there maybe some quality control issues with the components.  I'd expect better quality given the premium they ask for the game.

It's not too bad.  I was able to glue everything together and paint over the distressed plastic bits. 

Here's one of the Death Stars.  I used some grey paint to cover over a few patches where the plastic was distressed and looked whitish.  I did the same for the Star Destroyers as they all had a little spot where the mold break point was.

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Here's where my spastic nerd hands managed to rip the base of Wedge's chit when I inserted it into the stand.

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Here's the game board after initial set up using the advanced rules. (The table's pretty cluttered with some LOTR cards as well)

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Close up of one of the Imperial detachments on Rodia.

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Rebel detachment on Wookiestan.

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Imperial player's reference sheet and leader pool.

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I honestly would have preferred a hero clix style hero over the pog, but overall the game looks nice.  Great pics.

Yeah, the stands aren't the best idea.  There are several rings that are meant to be affixed to the bases of the stands during play but they don't quite fit from the bottom of the stand so in order to place them, you have to remove the leader chit from the base, slide the ring onto the base, and then reattach the leader chit.  This is going to cause more wear and tear than necessary.

Anyway, I played both sides through a few rounds of gameplay in order to familiarize myself with the rules.  It looks like it's going to be a fun game.  Lots of decisions to be made each turn and there's a definite risk/reward element to each decision.  I went with the advanced rules setup which is randomized and I can see this being a problem.  It the game I set up, two of the three Rebel planets started right next to Empire ones so it was very easy for the Empire to subjugate one of them and wipe out 25% of the Rebel's production strength in a single turn.  It didn't help that one of the very first missions the Empire went with was production and the very first production card they pulled turned the Death Star operational on the next turn.  That took care of another rebel planet and they were quickly down to 50% of production strength.  Vader captured a rebel general the same turn and it looked like the Rebels were pretty much backed into a corner only two turns in.

And it's here! Of course, it came with a few other games...and showed up on the same day as a box of 6 games I picked up in a BGG auction. So I'll get to it...sometime.  :o

I tried out the 4 player game at the FLGS tonight.  I didn't really care for it as it made the game drag out quite a bit longer and it was hard to come up with an overall strategy as you needed to discuss things with your teammate which meant the other team could hear you as well.

I don't think I'll try a 4 player game again any time soon.  The game flows much nicer when played with just two players.

I haven't even opened mine yet, but I intend to this weekend as I wanted to do an unboxing article for the site.

I've heard the 3/4-player variant is pretty good thus far. I've read the rules online, but the multiplayer rules struck me as exactly as you call it, SDR - how do you discuss strategy without stepping away, or making the other players step away? That's awkward and a PITA. I figured the 2-player version would be a lot more fun.

As for bidets, that's nowhere on the radar. I'd be happy if my Pit Bull would stop chewing on the window ledges. :(

I saw a copy in the FLGS yesterday and I'm not going to lie this was my thought process:

1. Holy F$#king Shit $100
2. What the f&$k is wrong with FFG? 
3. Why is every f#$king FFG product priced $100?  Do they think the world of gamers is made up of millionaires who can shell out $100 and then an additional $15 for every additional plastic figure?
4. Looks cool.
5.  $100 WTF?!?  Hey look there's Imperial Assault!  Huh that price looks suspiciously familiar...oh right it's a $100 f%&king dollars too.
6. F&#k FFG.  Oh look a copy of Star Wars Age of Rebellion core rulebook!....Hey this similar a reasonable price at $60 f#$king dollars...wait a minute there's 3 damned rulebooks...DAMN YOU FFG!

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Amazon is selling it for $75, but you should get free shipping with that. I paid somewhere around that for it; I want to say it was cheaper, but not by much, when I pre-ordered it.

I've broke free of WotC MtG.  I'm afraid of FFG's equally painful pricing model.  Besides I've blown my gaming budget on D&D 5e books, which by the way D&D is an awesome RPG system again. 

You people and your value-retaining currency.   Thanks to our falling Canuck-buck (hooray for PM Zoolander!), I paid $126.89 plus tax for mine.

Yes, but you have free health care!

Quote from: mirth on April 08, 2016, 08:09:33 AM
Yes, but you have free health care!

We need the secret to spontaneously sprouting health care.

Quote from: mirth on April 08, 2016, 08:09:33 AM
Yes, but you have free health care!

Yes...free....

I saw an headline from a US webpage yesterday decrying the horrid taxation level in whatever state if was from and complaining that tax freedom day there was now 100 days into the year.  Got a good chuckle out of that one.

We're at 157 days in my province and we're one of the "fiscally conservative, low tax" ones.

Oh well, 157 days is still a lot fewer days than one has to wait to see a medical specialist here so there's that....

Back to the topic at hand.  The price really made me wonder why the character pawn decision even more.  Seriously.

What's the consensus on this? I was toying with the idea of getting this for me and my daughter to play - but I'm a bit concerned she might not play for long and so I'd be stuck with an expensive two player game with no-one to play

She did like Memoir '44 and was sad when I passed it on (I know - horrible dad!)

It's good as a two-player game (doesn't work well for 3 or 4) with quite a bit of replayability thanks to the random nature of available leaders and missions in a given game.  It is a bit of a time sink (3.5 hours after setup seems the norm for my games). 

Thanks SDR

New expansion has been announced.  I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  I thought they should have done the prequels and the Ep 7 stuff with completely new maps, units, leaders, etc.

Looks like they're just adding this Rogue One stuff into the main game with this expansion.  I'll still pick it up but I wonder it it'll just lead to a longer game with more board clutter.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/5/rise-of-the-empire/ (https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/5/rise-of-the-empire/)



"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.

I still haven't played this. Kind of don't want to spend the money and it does look like one of those mammoth games that will require a lot of time.

Still, it's basically a board-game version of the old Rebellion/Supremacy videogame and that hits me right in the heart of hearts.

I (at last) pulled the trigger on this one. Should be with me next week some time.

I've literally got 1 maybe 2 years of play out of it though as my daughter (who wanted to play it) is growing up fast. 16 now - so I might get the summer out of her and maybe a new impetus when the Rogue One expansion is released...then she'll be doing grown up stuff with her pals and dad will be resigned to solitaire gaming.

I doubt very much my wife will play - so a 2 player game won't be much cop for me (unless they do what CoH did and manage to somehow wangle some solitaire "house rules" into the game.

Re: the expansion.

SDR:  What market did you imagine there would be for a game based on the sequels?

Pace "Queen's Gambit", nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing good has come from I-III.

This took quite a while to setup last night - and it needs some real estate!

And I agree and in fact the Rogue One expansion pushed me to buy  :bd:

Quote from: Cyrano on May 17, 2017, 09:07:42 AM
Re: the expansion.

SDR:  What market did you imagine there would be for a game based on the sequels?

Pace "Queen's Gambit", nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing good has come from I-III.

The millennial types at my local nerd stores for one.  They were all young kids when the prequels came out and all want prequel stuff for X-Wing and Armada.  (They prefer Rebels and Clone Wars to the movies.   Damned kids....)

Quote from: JudgeDredd on May 17, 2017, 10:30:30 AM
This took quite a while to setup last night - and it needs some real estate!

And I agree and in fact the Rogue One expansion pushed me to buy  :bd:

Yeah, desk space is why I won't get to set this game up for a long, long time.  :buck2:

I'n betting you can get a few folks at Origins to set up an evening game with you :D

Bring it and it will be played!

:D

No, no, no! My goal is to bring home games from Origins, not take them to Origins!

Quote from: bbmike on May 18, 2017, 06:07:34 PM
No, no, no! My goal is to bring home games from Origins, not take them to Origins!

You can do both!

Started playing this tonight with my daughter. Very much enjoying the mechanics. Still fumbling through the rules - but they're getting there with gameplay.

Really enjoying it so far  O0

But remember, if you come to Origins and convince someone to buy a game they hadn't planned on purchasing...

PUNCHINTHEFACE!!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game JD.  It really is fun.

So - quick question...

...is it just me or does the Rebel Alliance have a bugger of a job in this game?

• They don't get loyalty automatically when activating a system whereas the Empire does (well - subjugation)
• They start off with only one system with units on it whereas the Empire has MANY
• If they want to transport units out of their Rebel Base, they have to do it in an adjacent system - giving up the base (just about) - unless they get a Mission card that helps them
• Because of the layout - the Empire gets lots of units - initially at least

Watching a video of two people playing, and the Rebel player is really struggling and the Empire player is letting her off with a fair bit



They just seem a bit hobbled - in terms of startup and numbers. I guess that's how it is in the universe though.

It's supposed to be asymmetrical.  You've got to husband your units until you've built enough to do some hit and run raids against weaker systems.   The main thing is that, beyond the starting leaders, Rebel heroes tend to be much more capable than the Imperial ones.  Use them to conduct missions that get you closer to being able to play objective cards and which tie down Imperial units by forcing the Empire to respond to your missions by playing one of their leaders in a system with a lot of Imperial units so they can't move.  And remember if the Impies get too close to your base, you've always got access to the card that lets you relocate to another planet.   

Thanks  O0

My daughter is playing the rebels and I have to be honest, doing a better job than the rebel player in that game - though we are 3 turns in, haven't engaged in combat yet AND been playing wrong (when she activates a system, she's been putting a Loyalty marker down - giving her more units each "even" turn).

She might be a bit disheartened when she finds out how carefully tactical she has to be - she likes battles  ;D

7 turns in and I found the rebel scum...Dantooine.

Unfortunately, I had the Death Star, 1 AT-ST and 2 Tie Fighters against 2 Rebel Troopers, 2 Y-Wings and an X-Wing and her leader had better Tactic cards.

It ended with me just having the Death Star in the system and her having the X-Wing - so it's still in Rebel hands!

Dantooine?!  Dantooine's too remote for an effective demonstration.

(Blow up Naboo.  You know you want to.)

I want you to blow the hell out of the that planet.

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:15:52 PM
I want you to blow the hell out of the that planet.

Uranus?

Quote from: mirth on June 05, 2017, 07:17:38 PM

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:15:52 PM
I want you to blow the hell out of the that planet.

Uranus?

That's not cannon.  What do you work for Disney now?

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:18:39 PM

Quote from: mirth on June 05, 2017, 07:17:38 PM

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:15:52 PM
I want you to blow the hell out of the that planet.

Uranus?

That's not cannon.  What do you work for Disney now?

Uranus Cannon is the super weapon in the next movie.

Pervert.

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:24:31 PM
Pervert.

Nerdvert.

I hope they make an Ice Pirates expansion.

Quote from: Bison on June 05, 2017, 07:28:14 PM
I hope they make an Ice Pirates expansion.

Hell yeah 👍

Done it - destroyed the Rebel base.

She's right into it (my daughter) and as soon as the base was gone, we were clearing the board and setting up another game and playing two turns - right up until midnight when I insisted I had to go to bed!!

Quote from: JudgeDredd on June 07, 2017, 12:13:21 AM
Done it - destroyed the Rebel base.

right up until midnight when I insisted I had to go to bed!!

You Know You're Getting Old Fun Fact #7

On our 3rd game. She beat me this time (she was rebels). I was "conceding" some moves and also letting her away with quite a bit of "minor" jiggling of rules. Example - she would change one of her leader missions part way through and several times she wanted to re-role dice.

I let her because - well, we're still learning.

However, 3rd game, I am Rebels and the rules are being fully implemented.  :knuppel2:

It's very difficult to change from Imperial to Rebel due to the different mind set required. Going from Rebel to Imperial isn't much of a problem because you get a ton of troops and get to stomp about. Rebellion requires a complete rethink...protection and decoy of your base is paramount.

In other words - it's not going well for me. I pretty impressed with how she took to the Rebels.  :notworthy:

^That's awesome JD! 

So my daughter has now beaten me twice! Once as the Rebels and once as the Imperials.  :clap:

Now on our 4th game...she's taking the Rebels again.

Man she's kicking my arse on our 4th game. I'm about to go play Phantom Leader!!

LOL

I still want a game with SDR via TTS. Did you get Table Top Simulator, JD?

Yes I did - but I didn't know Star Wars Rebellion was on it - which I now have  O0

Is this game suited for solo play at all?

I read someone over at BGG created an app that allows for solo play but I didn't read through the 20 pages of responses  :o

Quote from: acctingman on January 04, 2018, 01:26:50 PM
Is this game suited for solo play at all?

I read someone over at BGG created an app that allows for solo play but I didn't read through the 20 pages of responses  :o

I only ever played this game solo.

A good approach is to just play it solo as it stands now. I know that means 'both sides' know where the Rebel hidden base is, but you can go through the motions of several turns to get a feel for it.

The app, I think, is browser-based, and sets the Rebel base to a location that is not revealed until, as the Imperial player, you find it either through using Probe droids, or invading the system. (I could be wrong, it's been a few weeks since I last read that very thread.)

I've got Gloomhaven coming to me in a couple weeks, then I think I'd like to try SW:Imperial Assault before I get Rebellion, but I WILL get it  O0

Thanks for the info gents

Damn, Gloomhaven?  :o How much did that set you back, if you don't mind me asking? It was on Amazon for $250+ a few months back.

Quote from: BanzaiCat on January 06, 2018, 10:29:30 PM
Damn, Gloomhaven?  :o How much did that set you back, if you don't mind me asking? It was on Amazon for $250+ a few months back.

$136

Pre-Order from a game store here in town. They are giving 10% off if you pre pay.

The deal with the $250 on Amazon was a store in NY over charging on Amazon. Here is the link to the story about it from BGG

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1914082/course-action-gloomhaven-scam-amazon-brooklyn-toys