Victory! By destroying the Death Star, the Rebellion has given hope to a galaxy living in fear. The Empire races to recover from their crushing defeat and the loss of their ultimate weapon as the Rebel Alliance works to solidify their advantage. When an Imperial distress beacon begins to broadcast from an remote outpost on Yavin 4, a small team of elite Rebel operatives is dispatched. Their mission: to silence the signal at all costs…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Imperial Assault, a Star Wars board game of cinematic adventure and tactical combat for two to five players!

Imperial Assault casts you and your friends into the climactic events following the Death Star’s destruction above Yavin 4, and offers two full game experiences within the Star Wars universe. In the campaign game, you and up to four other friends play a series of thrilling missions woven together in a narrative campaign, and in the skirmish game, you and your opponent muster your own strike teams and battle head-to-head over conflicting objectives.

Two Games in One

The first game included in Imperial Assault is the campaign game, which allows up to five players to enter the Star Wars universe through a narrative story composed of linked missions. One player commands the armed forces of the Galactic Empire, while up to four others play as heroes of the Rebellion, engaging in covert operations and missions. Both the forces of the Empire and the Rebel heroes gain new skills and items throughout the campaign, allowing characters to develop and grow as the story unfolds.

Imperial Assault offers a completely distinct game experience in the skirmish game. Skirmish missions allow you and a friend to compete in head-to-head, tactical combat. You’ll muster your own teams of Imperial, Rebel, and Mercenary forces, and build decks of Command cards, which you can play to gain an unexpected advantage. Each skirmish mission has its own objectives. Whether you recover lost holocrons, or battle to defeat a raiding party, you’ll find danger and tense, tactical choices in every skirmish.

As an added bonus, the Luke Skywalker Ally Pack and the Darth Vader Villain Pack are both included within the Imperial Assault Core Set. You’ll find sculpted plastic figures inside these figure packs alongside new campaign and skirmish missions that highlight Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader within Imperial Assault.

Lead Your Strike Team

Imperial Assault’s campaign game offers you and your friends a narrative campaign with over thirty possible missions. Every mission in Imperial Assault is constructed using some of over fifty double-sided interlocking map tiles, depicting a massive range of Star Wars environments, from the jungles of Yavin 4, to the dusty wastes of Tatooine, to the metallic corridors of an Imperial base.

When playing a campaign, one player commands the limitless forces of the Galactic Empire, including stormtroopers, Imperial officers, AT-ST walkers, assorted mercenaries, and iconic villains such as IG-88 and Darth Vader. The power of the entire Empire is at your fingertips as you outwit, entrap, and exterminate Rebels wherever you find them. Whether you hunt down the Rebel scum with Trandoshan mercenaries, or defend strategic strongpoints with the Royal Guard, the forces of the Empire pose a dire threat to the Rebel Alliance.

Up to four other players oppose the might of the Empire during the campaign game, each playing as an elite Rebel operative and sometimes fighting alongside well-known characters like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. You might take on the role of a smuggler, a Wookiee warrior, or even a Force user as you strive to defeat the Empire’s schemes. Every hero also features his own Class cards, allowing your character to learn new skills and abilities over the course of the campaign.

Campaign missions test your skills to the limit as the heroes and the Imperial player battle to dominate the mission with the figures they control. Whenever you activate a figure, you may take two actions. You can move, attack with melee or ranged attacks, open doors, investigate crates for useful items, or rest to recover strain and damage. The actions you choose and the way you execute them are crucial to the success of every mission. For more information on actions, visit the description page, and check back for future Imperial Assault previews.

When playing the Rebels, you and your fellow heroes must coordinate your actions and work as a team to defeat the superior numbers of the Imperial player, scorching the air with blaster fire as you strive to complete the mission’s objective. The heroes must move quickly, however, because the Empire’s reserves are limitless. When you play as an Imperial player, every round increases your threat dial. Threat can be spent to replenish squads and summon reinforcements, bringing you closer to crushing the Rebel strike team beneath your armed forces.

During a campaign mission, only the Imperial player has access to all of the mission’s information, meaning the heroes never know exactly what traps may await. The Droid you’re looking for may be behind a door, but you don’t know if it’s unguarded, or if you’ll see the ominous figure of Darth Vader when you open the door.

All is not lost for the brave heroes of the Rebel Alliance, however. Both the heroes and the Imperial player have a chance to prepare for surprises during the campaign by using their experience to learn new skills, and their credits to purchase new weapons and survival gear.

Choose Your Missions and Your Gear

You’ll find a host of different missions, objectives, enemies, and allies throughout the Imperial Assault campaign. As the campaign progresses, your available missions can change dramatically based on the outcomes of past missions. With the variety of side missions included in Imperial Assault, you’ll never encounter the same campaign twice. You may be captured while investigating an Imperial base, or an old friend may suddenly call in some favors. Whether your mission is stealing data from encrypted Imperial consoles, silencing an Imperial distress beacon, or helping Han Solo settle his debts, every mission puts you in the center of the action in the Star Wars universe.

An armory of items and class cards for both Imperials and Rebels adds further replayability to your games of Imperial Assault. Whether you’re playing as a smuggler, a renegade, or another hero of the Rebellion, you can continue to grow and gain skills and abilities that match your specialization. You can also earn credits over the course of the campaign to buy items ranging from blaster pistols to vibroaxes, complete with modifications such as a tactical display or a spread barrel. As the heroes gather equipment and experience, the Empire is not idle. Throughout the campaign, the Empire also has the opportunity to enhance its military might, technological superiority, and subversive tactics.

Battle Head-to-Head

In addition to a campaign of missions, you’ll be able to take on your friend in one of six two-player, head-to-head skirmish missions by mustering your own squads of Imperials, Rebels, or Mercenaries. Each of the skirmish missions included within Imperial Assault thrusts you and a friend into direct combat.

In a standard skirmish mission, you and your friend separately assemble teams of soldiers with iconic heroes and villains from the classic Star Wars films, and build decks of Command cards to give your warriors unexpected advantages in battle. Between choosing heroes, villains, and squads from three distinct factions, and building a command deck out of dozens of possible command cards, you’ll have plenty of options for customizing your strike force.

During the mission itself, you and your opponent battle over conflicting objectives. Whether you’re racing to escape with a deadly T-16 Skyhopper, or collecting contraband for the Hutts, you’ll find high stakes and tense, tactical combat in every Imperial Assault skirmish mission. You’ll be able to learn more about the skirmish game in future previews of Imperial Assault.

Father and Son

As an added bonus, the Luke Skywalker Ally Pack and the Darth Vader Villain Pack are both included in the Imperial Assault Core Set. Each pack contains a sculpted plastic figure, alongside an additional campaign side mission and two new skirmish missions using a common map. Together, these two figure packs give you a total of thirty-two campaign missions and six skirmish missions within Imperial Assault! These packs bring added life to both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and they mark the beginning of Ally Packs and Villain Packs that will expand and support your games of Imperial Assault.

For more information on Ally Packs and Villain Packs, visit the Imperial Assault description page.

Imperial Troops Advancing

Imperial Assault offers a wealth of Star Wars action, split across two full games with dozens of missions. Will you lead your elite team of Rebel operatives to the heart of the Imperial plan in the campaign game, or will you compete with a single opponent over crucial objectives in the skirmish game? For more information on gameplay in Imperial Assault, visit the description page and look for previews in coming weeks.

Find Imperial Assault at your local retailer early in 2015!