OVERVIEW
Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a strategy board game for 2-5 players. Based on the popular series of science fiction movies it is named after, players battle in the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire.
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GAMEPLAY
Setup
Begin by assembling the map using the map tiles, doors, crate token, and terminal tokens as shown on the right side. Players will then decide who will be the Imperial player in the game. All other players will be Rebel heroes. Next, each player will choose a hero out of Fenn Signis, Diala Passil, Gaarkhan, and Jyn Odan. Each hero player will take the corresponding Hero sheet, figure, and class deck. The weapon marked on each player’s Class deck will be located and placed next to their Hero Sheet. Each hero will claim one activation token and place it with the green side facing up on the Hero sheet.
The Imperial player will then take one Stormtrooper, E-Web Engineer, Probe Droid, and Imperial Officer card. All figures will be placed on the map on the indicated spaces on the diagram. Place all dice, condition and supply decks, damage tokens, strain tokens, and condition tokens in the middle of all players.
Goal
The goal of the game is to complete your mission objective before the opposing player or team fulfills theirs.
Player Actions
Missions in Star Wars: Imperial Assault are played in several rounds with two phases in each. There are a variety of missions that can be played including a tutorial mission for first-time players. Both opposing teams will earn experience and credits throughout the game.
Activation Phase: Play will alternate from Rebel players activating one of their figures followed by resolving 2 actions. The Imperial player will activate all figures corresponding to one Deployment card after these actions are complete. This will continue until each figure has resolved an activation. Activating a figure consists of 2 steps. First, you will ready all of the figure’s exhausted Class and Item cards by rotating them. Then, you will perform any combination of 2 actions with the figure, which can include moving, attacking, interacting, resting, and recovering. To perform an attack during this phase, players will roll the action dice to determine the range of damage, and the enemy will try to evade the attack.
Status Phase: After all activations are resolved, players will perform cleanup steps. This will consist of readying all Deployment cards by rotating them upright as well as activation tokens by flipping them over to display the green side.
After the completion of the Status Phase, the game will continue to the next round beginning with the Activation phase. This is repeated until the mission ends.
How to End the Game
The Imperial player and Rebel players will have their own objectives for each mission as indicated in the rules. Whenever each side fulfills its objective, the game will end in their favor.
Variations of the Game
Star Wars: Imperial Assault includes additional printings in various languages including the Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, and French Editions.
How the Game Changes Depending on the Number of Players
The basic rules of the game do not change when there is a number of players anywhere from 2-5. However, if there is only one rebel player in the game they will choose 2 heroes instead of 1 in the beginning of the game. This will only happen in a 2-player game.
Common House Rules
When choosing the Imperial player in the beginning of the game, it is common to select the most experienced player for this position since they will be playing solo against everyone else.
QUICK INFO
Time to play: 60-120 minutes
Alternative titles of the game: Star Wars: Assalto Imperiale, Star Wars: Assaut sur l’Empire
Manufacturer suggested player age: 14+
Community suggested player age: 12+
List of expansions: Star Wars: Imperial Assault – Coruscant Back Alleys Skirmish Map, Star Wars: Imperial Assault – Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus Ally Pack
Community rating: 8/10
Popularity: Rank 34
Difficulty: Moderate
Designer credits: Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, Jonathan Ying
Published year: 2014
Awards: 2016 Goblin Magnifico Nominee, 2015 UK Games Expo Best Boardgame with Miniatures Winner
If you like this game you’ll also like:
Star Wars: Rebellion, Star Wars: Armada, Star Wars: Destiny