Star Wars: Rebellion (2016)

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About The Game

Star Wars: Rebellion is a 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. Given the differences between the Empire and Rebel Alliance, each side has different win conditions, and you’ll need to adjust your play style depending on who you represent:

As the Imperial player, you can command legions of Stormtroopers, swarms of TIEs, 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.
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’ll find yourself clearly overmatched from the very outset, so you’ll 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’ll 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.

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 any Star Wars game before it.

How To Play Star Wars: Rebellion

Yet for all its grandiosity, Rebellion remains intensely personal, cinematic, and heroic. As much as your success depends upon the strength of your starships, vehicles, and troops, it depends upon the individual efforts of such notable characters as Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Emperor Palpatine.

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!

Characters

The Rebellion begins in Episode III, which is the first book in the new trilogy. Leia Organa is a strong hand for the Rebellion. She was raised by royalty, but was more interested in hand-to-hand combat than in learning how to govern her people. After escaping the Death Star, she helped Leia rescue her sister and return Rebel ships to Lothal. She also managed to secure plans for the destruction of the Death Star.

The cadet Zare Leonis is an important character in the Rebellion. Her sister has disappeared, and she stays at the Imperial Academy as a spy to feed rebel information to her family. However, when the plan fails, she is captured by the Grand Inquisitor, who is determined to find her. Ultimately, she is rescued by the rebels. The Rebels are not without their enemies.

Leader system

In the game, players take turns activating systems and revealing missions. As each player completes missions, he places his leader into one of the adjacent systems. If his unit is successful, the other system can move towards him, causing combat. Players can also choose to keep the same leader in each system. Then, as each player completes missions, they can increase their reputation and be rewarded with a higher amount of coins.

To move a fleet, the player must move its leader to the adjacent system. All units that are assigned to that system must move with it. A player cannot retreat unless their leader is in a system with his own units or the loyalty marker of the enemy. Once a leader has been moved to an adjacent system, he must roll a success and move all his units into it. If the opponent’s unit is in the system, he cannot retreat.

Space and ground combat

When you first pick up Star Wars Rebellion, you’re going to be excited about the upcoming game’s dual space and ground combat. The opposing player controls both the Empire and the Rebellion. Your objective is to destroy all Rebel units before they can escape to another galaxy. But be careful! This game is both ahead of its time and behind the times. So, how does it stack up against other games of its genre?

The main difference between space and ground combat in Star Wars: Rebellion is that players will only be able to engage in combat in the same theater of operations. However, they can retreat and move units to nearby systems to avoid conflict. A win in ground combat will help you balance out a loss in space. You can also retreat and move your units to other theaters, such as the Rebel base. If you lose all of your units, the game ends.

Star Wars: Rebellion setup

Before starting the game, you’ll want to make sure that you have the proper equipment for the role you’re playing. You will also want to organize your card decks for the game. The first setup of Star Wars: Rebellion is skewed towards the Imperial player. You’ll want to arrange your troop locations and place the objectives cards in their appropriate spaces. Then, select four leaders for your fleet, placing them into the Leader Pool.

The game’s gameplay allows players to control iconic characters from the Star Wars saga. The game’s story revolves around the epic battle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Players lead their forces in battle across the galaxy, commanding the strength of their starships, vehicles, and troopers. As you advance in the game, you’ll be able to take over planets and influence their citizens to join your cause.

Star Wars: Rebellion setup | Source: shop.asmodee.com

Star Wars: Rebellion Review

“Rebellion feels like a Star Wars goodie box stuffed full of cards and leaders and ships. The game’s length, combined with the many options, led everyone I played it with to tell me later that the game had stuck with them; days later, they were still reflecting on the experience or pondering alternate strategies.

When playing the Empire, I loved the wide variety of devious missions and the plans they allowed me to concoct; when playing the Rebels, I appreciated the objectives that could be achieved in surprising ways and with very few ships. Those are certainly marks of a good game, and Rebellion has a vibrant game system at its core.”

Nate Anderson, arstechnica.com

“If you are willing to invest a lot of time and brain power, Rebellion captures the tension and atmosphere of the wider Star Wars story better than any game yet. The asymmetrical struggle of the factions is masterfully woven into the mechanics. If you love Star Wars and hard core strategy games then you need this in your life…”

tabletopgaming.co.uk

“Because of all the thoughtful choices every turn, players are constantly engaged with the game. There’s no downtime even when it’s not your turn. That’s because each player has choices to make based on what their opponent is doing – like choosing whether to oppose the mission they’re attempting. And in the hunt for the Rebel base each player is also trying to decipher the moves of their opponent as well. As a Rebel player, how can you keep your location secret yet also safely protected? As the Imperial player, can you infer the location of the Rebel base from some of the choices the Rebel player is making?

It’s a big cat-and-mouse game that’s loads of fun.”

Okie, theboardgamefamily.com

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek and whattheboxgame.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.