Fantasy Flight Games - Imperial Assault Base Set - Board Game

Product Information

First, line of sight has been clarified and simplified, and it largely makes sense to how you think it should be. That’s always important with line of sight rules. They should both be simple and intuitive, or everyone’s going to be scratching their heads with the logic of it all. Star Wars: Imperial Assault gives the Imperial player a choice of three ways to play. It ranges from straightforward to dastardly with a midway point somewhere in between. The Rebel player will always control at least two heroes depending on how many people are playing, with scope for a team of four to take on the Imperials. If there are less than three Rebel players then the heroes get a boost to their stats. In the campaign game, Imperial Assaultinvites you to play through a cinematic tale set in the Star Wars universe. One player commands the seemingly limitless armies of the Galactic Empire, threatening to extinguish the flame of the Rebellion forever. Up to four other players become heroes of the Rebel Alliance, engaging in covert operations to undermine the Empire’s schemes. Over the course of the campaign, both the Imperial player and the Rebel heroes gain new experience and skills, allowing characters to evolve as the story unfolds. Now we were off to Tatooine to see Luke Skywalker. You never quite know until the Imperial player/DM reads out the mission details but either way it would involve sand. And, as it turns out, Darth Vader. What Are All These Figures For?

Talking of starship combat, it’s now time to talk about perhaps the greatest Star Wars board game in existence: Star Wars: Rebellion. Endorsed by Dicebreaker’s very own Wheels, Rebellion is an asymmetric board game featuring miniatures that allows players to experience the conflict between the Empire and Rebel forces in an incredibly well realised fashion. Publisher Fantasy Flight Games just recently called an end to its Star Wars: Destiny line of products, just three years after the collectible dice game first launched. Which is a damn shame because Destiny is actually a rather remarkable entry in the genre, with some interesting mechanics that made it more than just a card and dice game featuring classic Star Wars characters. Looking for something more lighthearted? Love Letter is already an excellent board game for 2 players, so sprinkling a Star Wars theme over the top makes this rework ideal for fans of a galaxy far, far away. Although it puts a sci-fi spin on the formula, Jabba's Palace keeps hold of the mechanics that make its predecessor such a classic. The mission itself plays out on a small board around which you need to hightail it to a console, open a door, get to a space cruiser, and most importantly, not let Luke die. Due to the confined nature of the board, it’s quite a fun mission because you have to balance the fact that the many, many stormtroopers will almost always have a line of sight to you. If you win, then the rebel players get to keep Luke as an additional character that they can choose to take on missions.

Ally and Villain Packs

In the campaign game, you will play through a cinematic tale which is set in the Star Wars universe. One player will command the armies of the Galactic Empire and threaten to forever put out the flame of the Rebellion. Other players will become the heroes of the Rebel Alliance and engage in operations to undermine the Empire. Both the Imperial player and Rebel heroes will gain new skill and experience which allows their characters to evolve. Star Wars Imperial Assault is a game where 1-5 players aged 14 years and over will play as imperial or rebel forces and fulfil mission objectives. This strategy board game of missions and tactical combat offers two games of both battle and adventure set in the Star Wars universe! Needless to say, we were about to lose until the Imperials took great pity on us and flooded the map with reinforcements. This meant that Darth Vader changed from being the world’s strongest man to roughly the same strength as your elderly grandmother struggling with a large Ikea parcel. It didn’t seem fair. Despite the inordinate amount of trash that populates the Star Wars board game galaxy like a drifting asteroid field, there are actually quite a few decent - nay! - even excellent examples of tabletop experiences set in the classic sci-fi universe. Whether you’re looking for a co-op board game filling in the gaps between Episode IV and V or a storytelling RPG where players can become powerful Jedi, here are the ten best Star Wars board games to play this Star Wars Day. Best Star Wars board games The actual set-up of any mission for Imperial Assault is quite fun. Using the mission manual, the Imperial player slots a board together out of the handily numbered pieces. There is a specific deployment point that the rebels must place their figures next to, whilst the Imperials have designated starting positions, and then it’s game on.

The campaign also invites both the heroes and the Imperial player to gain new skills and abilities. The Imperial player can focus on maximizing the Empire’s strengths, such as military might, technological superiority, and subversive tactics. The heroes, on the other hand, can learn new skills and abilities by spending experience to gain Class cards. Your heroes can also invest in powerful weapons and equipment with the credits they collect. You can battle with a vibroblade or an A280 blaster rifle, and add modifications to give your weapon a personal touch. That creates a sort of contradiction, though. I want a lighthearted adventure, but I also want to make tactical and strategic choices. I want to roll a bunch of dice, but I also want to analyze the grid my characters are on like a chess board. Imperial Assault does a good job at providing both experiences. Plus it has a “skirmish” game mode for those who want to play a one-off fight rather than a campaign. Picture it: the Death Star has just exploded over the surface of Yavin 4 and the Empire is desperately seeking the Rebels responsible. Meanwhile, a team of courageous Rebel soldiers are currently infiltrating the Empire’s base in search of a way to further undermine their regime. It’s pretty gripping stuff. This translates into dungeon-crawling gameplay by having a group of players assume the roles of Rebel heroes as they attempt to complete a series of covert missions, before trying to flee the Empire base without being eliminated by enemy forces. An opposing player (unless you’re using the game’s companion app to make things fully co-op) controls the armies of the Empire in their quest for dominance and the destruction of the Rebellion - in other words, kill all the Rebel units before they escape.

That's because they're in control of each scenario. Broadly speaking, anyway. From setup to game-end, team Empire is responsible for controlling all enemies, narrating the plot, and deploying any twists that come up during each mission. However, this doesn't give them too unfair an advantage. Despite being undeniably powerful, Imperial units can't hold a candle to the Rebellion's best and brightest. This hardened team will make short work of the average Storm Trooper, and our playtest featured a wookie warrior that was able to carve through their ranks like butter (all while shrugging off blaster fire like a furry Terminator). We landed on a planet, destroyed some probe droids, opened some doors, did some things to terminals, and discovered that having Luke along wasn’t as useful as we thought. He more or less ended up as probe droid and nasty beasties cannon-fodder, but it was fun for a while to control him. This mission proved challenging only so much as it had a strict time limit before we lost.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a strategy board game of tactical combat and missions for two to five players, offering two distinct games of battle and adventure in the Star Wars universe!Imperial Assault also has another issue of, frankly, being massive. There are dozens of small character expansions and a few larger ones. This is a completionist’s nightmare. I’m not the kind of person to criticize business models like this if the base game is enjoyable by itself (I’ll just ignore the extras), but even I think this is excessive. It feels like microtransactions in board gaming.

The game became a victim of its own popularity, bloated with confusing expansions. But a second edition has cleaned things up and added a bunch of cool rules tweaks. Now, as well as the squad building and hidden movement tactics of the original, you can deploy force powers to aid your cause. Existing players can get upgrade kits with new dials and cards for their collection. Just don't be put off by the game's simplicity. Even though the rules are straightforward, it's not as easy as it sounds. That's because the illustrations are mixed up on each card, and they also come in varying sizes. This makes it satisfyingly challenging to find a match. In fact, there's nothing better than getting the answer a split-second ahead of your rivals. An adventure board game for one to four players, Outer Rim takes place over a series of turns in which players select their missions, upgrade their ship and search for renown; the ultimate goal of the game is to gather enough fame to be remembered for centuries to come. Each player character has a unique personal goal they can fulfill, as well as general activities such as smuggling illegal goods and taking on jobs from warring factions that’ll increase your infamy. Every new job that players take on could mean more money and renown, but it could also mean an equal amount of danger and potential death. In Dark Side Rising two to four players must work together to thwart the evil machinations of plastic Darth Vader - his disembodied torso perches in the middle of the game board - as he attempts to build his ultimate weapon. Each player assumes control over a different Rebel cell - intelligence, leadership, support or tactical - as well as their own base of operations: Tatooine, Alderaan, Yavin 4 or Lothal. With resources and allies at their disposal, these players must strategically coordinate their efforts to defeat enough Imperial agents before it’s too late. As new threats arise, players will also be able to call on iconic Rebel allies like Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker for help. Opposing the Rebel players, a single player commands the forces of the Empire, including stormtroopers, probe droids, massive AT-ST walkers, Trandoshan mercenaries, and terrifying villains such as Darth Vader. As the Imperial player, you can draw upon the limitless resources of the Galactic Empire, increasing your threat every round and summoning reinforcements to keep the heroes from reaching their objective. In addition, Imperial Class cards allow the Empire to expand its power and gain new abilities over the course of the campaign.Which led us nicely into buying equipment (we didn’t), buying new abilities (we did), and heading off to our next campaign mission where we decided to try taking Luke along with us. Luke Isn’t That Useful The campaign element makes it sort of like an RPG. You’ll level up Rebel characters whilst the Imperials will get more, and better, reinforcements as the war rages. The map changes each mission by combining tiles to create a board (a tiny bit like legend of Dr’izzit). After a set number of missions, you’ll reach the end of a predetermined story. Then you can choose to play skirmish missions (one-off battles). Or you can work through the campaign again by swapping roles, changing characters, or taking a different approach. For those who haven’t played any of the games in this line, Imperial Assault is a 1 vs. many dungeon crawl campaign game where one person takes on the role of the Imperials, against 1-4 other players who control individual Rebel heroes. The game progresses through individual scenarios which usually have the Rebels attempting to discreetly acquire some kind of information, only to find themselves confronted by way more Imperial forces than expected.