Asmodee Star Wars: Rebellion Board Game - Epic Galactic Empire vs Rebel Alliance Conflict, Tabletop Miniatures Strategy Game for Adults, Ages 14+, 2-4 Players, 3 Hour Playtime

Star Wars Rebellion is without a doubt the crowning achievement from Fantasy Flight Games, and that is saying a lot. I've played many of their titles including Twilight Imperium, Forbidden Stars and X-wing Miniatures. Rebellion combines elements from these games into an all-new play style that feels streamlined but not overly simplistic and that allows for lots of unique game play strategies. Most importantly, it feels like Star Wars thanks to the excellent execution of thematic elements.One element of the game that makes it very intriguing is the asymmetrical objectives of each side. Just like in the films, the Imperial player will have unmatched military power that it is able to rapidly deploy in the early game. Their objective is deceptively simple: find and destroy the Rebel Base. I say "deceptively" as deception is the key tool the Rebel player must deploy in order to keep the Empire guess as to the whereabouts of this base. At any time, the Rebels can move their base and undo some of the search efforts of the Empire. Furthermore, many of the Rebel missions are designed to harass the Empire and distract them from their goal. To win as the Rebels, you complete objectives listed on objective cards drawn at the end of each turn. Each objective gives you influence points, which effectively reduce the number of turns the Empire has to find and destroy the base. The Rebels need only survive long enough for the turns to expire in order to win, as this means their influence will have grown large enough for the galaxy to rise up against the Empire in a full-scale Rebellion!Since I mentioned the missions, let me give an overview of game play, which occurs over three stages: Assignment, Command and Refresh. During Assignment, you will choose which of your leaders you will deploy on missions during the Command phase, which are chosen from a deck of cards with the mission details printed on them. Unassigned leaders remain available to move units an oppose missions of the other player (i.e. force them to roll, with a chance that mission might fail). During the Command phase, players take turns either revealing missions or moving units. In this phase, players can gain influence over planets to increase their resources for ship deployment, capture and rescue leaders, launch surprise attacks on their opponent or engage in direct combat by moving units it a system occupied by the units of another player. In the Refresh phase, you do a number of actions to prepare for the next round including retrieving units, building/deploying units and recruiting new leaders. Rebel players will draw objective cards, while the Imperials will draw two probe droid cards, revealing two locations where the Rebel Base is NOT hidden.I can't imagine a more thematically on-point Star Wars board game experience. The missions of each side feel true to the things we see the Rebels and Imperials do in the original trilogy films. Some of them mirror major plot events of the series, including the sudden appearance of Imperial Troops on a remote system where they believe the Rebel Base is hidden (like Hoth), the training of Rebel leaders in the ways of the force by Yoda, freezing important Rebel heroes in Carbonite or seducing them to the Dark Side, and the noble sacrifice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Each game has a chance of unfolding just like them movies, or it may yield an entirely new combination of plot events. There is a lot of Nerd-tastic satisfaction to be had in each play through, which will be dramatically different as you switch between Rebels and Imperials across consecutive games.As a fan of Fantasy Flight Games, I wanted to throw in a few notes of comparison here. First, I think this game fills an important niche in the Fantasy Flight library. It provides some excellent 4X game play that is tailored specifically a 2-player experience (although you can team up in 2v2 games), which sets it apart from Twilight Imperium (minimum 3, recommended 4+ players) and Forbidden Stars (possible with 2, but much better with 3 or 4). I also appreciate that it balances the combat styles of those two games, which feels a little too light in Twilight Imperium and perhaps too cumbersome in Forbidden Stars. At the same time, Rebellion is sufficiently unique from them both that it doesn't feel like a clone of either experience. Each game provides its own spin on the 4X genre. That said, I may be playing a lot more Rebellion in the future simply because it is much easier to find just one other person with 2-4 hours on their hands rather than 3-5 other people with 6+ hours.Altogether, I can't recommend this game enough to Star Wars fans and tabletop enthusiasts. It's unlike anything else out there and fills many unmet needs among tabletop game collections. Find your childhood friend with whom you used to make-believe Star Wars with and play this with them. I can guarantee you will have a blast!

Star Wars: Rebellion, from Fantasy Flight Games, is a two-to-four-player tabletop game that pits the evil Galactic Empire against the heroes of the Rebel Alliance. The game is based on the original Star Wars trilogy and contains two game boards that fit together, a mountain of cards, and many, many, minis.The game is asymmetrical. The Empire wins if it can successfully locate and destroy the hidden Rebel base. The Rebels win if they can score enough objective points to gain popular support throughout the galaxy, (if the round marker and the objective marker, which start out on opposite sides of the track, come together). At the beginning of the game each player has several systems that are loyal to them, and the Rebel player will choose a system to be the location of the secret Rebel base.Both sides start with four leaders, iconic characters from the Star Wars movies. Beginning with the Rebel player, both sides begin to assign their leaders to missions- cards that allow the characters to do fun and interesting things. For instance, the Imperial player may attempt to capture a Rebel leader, attempt to narrow down which worlds the Rebel base is on, or build projects like the Death Star or a Super Star Destroyer from a special mission deck, and more. The Rebels missions include attempts to bring neutral systems over to the Rebel cause with diplomacy, sabotage of Imperial production, foment uprisings, and more.Players will not want to assign all of their leaders to missions, however. Leaders can also be used to oppose the other player's missions (both the leader assigned to the mission and the leader opposing it have to have skill icons that match the mission profile). Also, leaders with tactic ratings can command fleets, moving ships and units from one system to an adjacent system. When ships from one faction occupy the same space as their opponents', combat ensues. Both mission oppositions and combat are resolved with special dice rolls on custom dice. Tactic cards, based on leaders' tactic numbers, are also used in combat.After the command phase, in which missions and combat occur, players take care of housekeeping where they may also recruit new leaders from their action decks, and they may also place new units on a production track (the systems they control that allow them to build units specify what units and where they are placed on the track). Units then move down on the track and are deployed to the game board. This phase also sees the Imperial player draw two cards from the probe deck, telling him/her two systems where the Rebel base is not every round. The Rebel player will draw an objective card which gives him/her more ways to score victory points.Star Wars: Rebellion is a grand strategic game set in the Star Wars universe. I've wanted to see a Star Wars board game on the “Axis & Allies” model for years, and Fantasy Flight Games has finally given it to us. While I don't like this game as much as Fantasy Flight's Twilight Imperium, 3rd Edition, which is my favorite game of all time, it comes close. They are, of course, very different games other than the Sci-Fi theme. Tom Vasel at the Dice Tower had said that he hoped that Twilight Imperium 4th Edition would be based on Star Wars- I think this game is as close as we'll get to that idea.I really like the asymmetrical play in Star Wars: Rebellion. Both players are playing a very different game. For the Imperial player, the game is one of cat and mouse, almost like a hidden movement game on par with Fury of Dracula or Letters From Whitechapel. For the Rebel player, its a game of hitting a much larger and stronger opponent with a series of pinpricks, knowing that over time they will add up. It's a game of bluff and double bluff, as the Imperial player tries to guess at where the Rebels are, and the Rebel player has no idea what systems have already been ruled out with his/her opponent's access to the probe deck.There is also an interesting worker placement element here, as you must match your leaders with specific icons to go on missions, but must also hold some in reserve, not knowing what missions they will be able to oppose with their icons. It also means that timing is crucial. Sending a Rebel leader out on a raid while Darth Vader is still in reserve is a bad idea- sending an Imperial leader out on a diplomatic mission while Mon Mothma has not yet been played can really cost you as well.The game, however, is not simply about its mechanics- solid as they are. Rather, this game is dripping with theme- and that's why you love it. The Death Star might be destroyed at Kessel. Princess Leia might be frozen in carbonite. Lando Calrissian might train with Yoda to become a Jedi. Boba Fett might capture Chewbacca at Mon Calimari. The combinations of your own thematic Star Wars adventure are endless.Star Wars: Rebellion is a solid game from a mechanics stand point. But it is a tremendously fun game because of its theme. The four player mode, in which players split the duties of admirals and generals is fun as well, but at its heart this is a two player game. If you like Star Wars tabletop games, you will LOVE Star Wars Rebellion.Review copy provided.