Fantasy Flight Games - Imperial Assault Base Set - Board Game

Product Information

Following on from his wider thoughts on future expansions for Fantasy Flight games, Navaro responded to specific questions about why Star Wars: Imperial Assault had stopped receiving content, citing “business reasons” but suggesting that Imperial Assault had reached a natural 'completion'. 2. Is Imperial assault still supported? 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. 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.

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). Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game and Star Wars: Armada A tactical recreation of Star Wars' epic space battles. As you complete campaign missions, your options for future missions change based on the outcomes of past missions, ensuring that you’ll never play the same campaign twice. You may be forced to take unexpected side missions when your ship is impounded, or if you’re captured during a raid on an Imperial base.

Narrative Campaigns

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. In every skirmish mission, you clash with your opponent in a battle of tactical skill and combat. Both players alternate activating a single deployment card and taking actions with the associated figures as they battle to complete conflicting objectives. Whether you’re competing to steal a valuable T-16 Skyhopper, or collecting contraband on behalf of the Hutts, the skirmish game offers tense, tactical battles in the Star Wars universe. The success of this tactical space fighting game has spawned imitations across the hobby. But X-Wing has two things its mimics do not. First, it's Star Wars. Second, the figures are pre-painted to a high standard, so you can have amazing-looking games for zero effort. And if you collected Star Wars toys as a kid, the nostalgia appeal is impossible to ignore.

How about taking your Star Wars immersion a little further by playing one the tabletop roleplaying games based on the franchise? There are a selection of Star Wars Roleplaying titles to choose from - including a The Force Awakens starter set designed for beginners - but our money is on the two RPGs that focus on the quintessential elements of the Star Wars experience: Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny.There’s an introductory mission to help you figure out the basic game mechanics and it’s worth playing that. Not to mention some useful tutorial videos that can be found online. Star Wars games tend to focus on the epic struggle or the details of one battle. Outer Rim fills the wide gap between with a strategic story of the lives of the scum and villains who ply their trade on the galaxy's edge. Except since they're your scum and villains, it's up to you how villainous you want them to be. 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. 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. Destiny may no longer be actively supported by Fantasy Flight, but it’s liked enough that it could see a fan-supported afterlife similar to the one experienced by departed living card game Android: Netrunner. Regardless, there are still plenty of ways to get your hands on cards and dice for the time being, so Destiny isn’t quite dead and gone yet.

In Rebellion, up to two players can assume control of the Empire’s forces as they attempt to crush the Rebel Alliance with legions of stormtroopers, Star Destroyers, TIE Fighters and even the Death Star itself. Whilst up to two other players can command the armies controlled by the Rebels, whose drastically smaller might of troopers, Corellian Corvettes and fighter squadrons are no match for the Empire’s swarm. However, the Rebels aren’t looking to battle the Empire’s forces directly - instead, the Rebellion seeks to unite the sympathetic peoples of the galaxy and recruit them to their cause. Essentially, the Empire wins if they wipe out the Rebel forces, whilst the Rebels win if they survive long enough to successfully inspire the galaxy to full revolt. In the campaign game, you and your friends take on the roles of one of six heroes of the Rebellion, such as a smuggler, a veteran soldier, a Wookiee warrior, or even a Force user. Throughout the missions of the campaign, you continue to play one hero, gaining experience, new skills, and upgraded weapons and armor as the campaign goes on. You play these heroes throughout a campaign, even working with iconic characters like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in some missions. Of course, some of them are undeniably awful - Trivial Pursuit DVD: Star Wars Saga Edition has incredibly strong 2005 vibes, and 1977’s Escape from Death Star set a poor standard from the off. Others are simply straight-up copies of existing board games, such as the many, many versions of Star Wars Monopoly out there. However, some are prime examples of how to make excellent movie franchise board games to fill in gaps in the narrative or to let players live out their Jedi or Sith fantasies. Although the franchise has always revolved around battles between good and evil, Star Wars usually focuses on the characters at the center of it all. Not so with Legion. Although major heroes and villains are featured, this is a miniatures wargame like Warhammer or The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms. That means it emphasises rank-and-file troopers. 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.The third miniatures game on this list is one that focuses more on ground combat than X-Wing and Armada’s starship warfare. Star Wars: Legion is a miniatures game in the vein of Warhammer 40,000 designed to recreate iconic battles from the original trilogy, from the standoff at Hoth to the scuffle at Endor, in impressive detail. Including classic Star Wars infantry like stormtrooper units and iconic characters such as - you guessed it - Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, Legion gives fans a lot to play around with. 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. This involves odd jobs and cargo runs aplenty where you ferry items from one planet to another, not to mention story-driven events that offer you a choice. But things get really interesting with the reputation system. A faction's opinion of you will wax and wane depending on your actions, and this can confer bonuses (like helping you avoid conflict with patrols). Be careful who you offend.

Star Wars: Dark Side Rising An espionage-adjacent experience about thwarting the construction of the Darth Star. 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. What’s more, it looks like this board game actually includes imagery from the new trilogy of Star Wars films - which makes a nice change from most of the other games on this list. (Not that the original trilogy of films is a bad source of inspiration to take from, of course.) Three resources contribute to the sense of progression between missions. Both the Empire and Rebel players will receive XP for completing missions. Beyond that, Rebel players will receive Credits and the Imperial player will receive Influence. While all three are awarded after every mission, the rewards for the side that reached their goal in the mission will receive more numerous rewards. Players may also receive Reward cards for specific mission victories.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.