“You should have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba’s put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you.”

–Greedo, Star Wars: A New Hope

There are always those in the Star Wars™ galaxy willing to fire a blaster in exchange for a handful of credits. The life expectancy for these thugs and mercenaries is low, but every cartel leader or underworld kingpin can pad his armies with the addition of some more hired guns. Now, you can bring these disreputable lowlifes to your games of Imperial Assault with the Hired Guns Villain Pack!

The Hired Guns Villain Pack, like other Ally Packs and Villain Packs, features two sculpted plastic Hired Gun figures along with new missions and cards for your campaign and skirmish games. Unlike other figure packs, the Hired Guns Villain Pack has no corresponding expansion, which means that the Hired Guns enter Imperial Assault for the first time in this expansion.

Today, we’ll dive into the underworld and discover exactly what makes the Hired Guns such an important addition to your army.

Dangerously Disposable

Hired Guns are not the great warriors of the Star Wars galaxy. They don’t fight with lightsabers or command squadrons of troopers. Their place is to fight on the front lines, dealing as much damage as possible before they’re destroyed.

Whether you’re playing the campaign or the skirmish, the Hired Guns are excellent for accomplishing this task. They’re not hard for your opponent to kill – each Hired Gun has only three health, and although they roll the white defense die, the Disposable ability subtracts one dodge from their defense results. The Hired Guns can also pack a punch, however. For only four points, you gain two Hired Guns that can strike at range and spend surges to increase their accuracy, deal additional damage, or pierce your enemies’ armor.

If you’re willing to invest a little more in your most disposable warriors, the elite Hired Guns offer several advantages. Elite Hired Guns automatically gain an evade and extra accuracy, which can help them stay alive a little longer and cause more damage. Finally, and most importantly, all Hired Guns have access to the Parting Shot ability. When your opponent finally does defeat a Hired Gun, the figure can interrupt to perform an attack before it’s defeated, giving you one last chance to cause damage before your Hired Gun leaves the board.

Blocking the Heroes

The Hired Guns Villain Pack has plenty to offer to your Imperial Assault campaigns with a new three-card Agenda set: Nefarious Dealings. The Back-Room Bargains Agenda mission challenges the heroes to stop an alliance between the Empire and the mercenaries of the galaxy, and even outside of this new mission, this Agenda set allows you to engage in skulduggery and devious tactics to undermine the Rebellion. Final Blast allows a non-unique figure to make a final attack before it’s defeated, similar to the Hired Guns’ Parting Shot ability. Trade Routes Disrupted allows you to discard the Supply cards drawn when a hero interacts with a crate, hindering the heroes in their quest for more supplies and equipment.

No matter which mission your Hired Guns participate in, you can use them to bring down the heroes. Many missions end in an Imperial victory if you can successfully wound all of the heroes, and the Hired Guns’ Parting Shot ability allows you to make more attacks, even when your figures are defeated. What’s more, in a campaign you can simply pay the low reinforcement cost to bring the Hired Guns back to the board, setting up a cycle of damage and destruction.

An Opening Onslaught

The Hired Guns are no less effective in your Imperial Assault skirmish games. For only four points, a unit of Hired Guns gives you two cheap, disposable figures that you can hurl into the fray without worrying about giving your opponent too many victory points for their demise. Your opponent will want to mitigate the number of attacks the Hired Guns can make, but if he destroys them, his gains are minimal – he only gains four points, and he spent crucial attacks destroying your least important units.

A new skirmish upgrade in this expansion makes the Hired Guns or another figure even more explosive when they’re finally destroyed. For just one point, you may equip a group with the Last Resort skirmish upgrade. When a figure in the attached group would be defeated, you may deplete Last Resort before that figure is defeated to roll one red die and force all adjacent figures and objects to take damage equal to the result. For maximum damage, you could equip your Hired Guns with Last Resort and rush them straight into your opponent’s army, making a dangerous alpha strike before the battle truly begins.

The Command cards in the Hired Gun Villain Pack offer extra ways to make the most of your Hired Guns and the other figures in your army. You may use Slippery Target when a hostile figure enters a space adjacent to a Smuggler or Spy to immediately gain movement points equal to your speed, allowing you to potentially escape from a melee figure. Smuggled Supplies can give a Smuggler character a boost when you need it, either recovering damage, gaining a surge, or gaining an evade. Finally, when your opponent inevitably does destroy one of your non-unique groups, you can play Of No Importance to lower the VP value of the Deployment card!

Hire a Mercenary

When you fight for the Mercenaries of the galaxy, underhanded tricks and devious exchanges are your way of life. You’ll gain plenty of tricks and ways to undermine your opponents when you swell your army with disposable Hired Guns.

Fight for the highest bidder and pre-order your Hired Guns Villain Pack at your local retailer today!