While Tyrants of Lothal, the newest expansion for Imperial Assault, sees players teaming up to take down the Imperials, not all battles can be won through cooperation. Accordingly, this expansion also offers new options for fans of the skirmish game mode. The wastes of Lothal are a battleground, and they're the perfect place to pit your strike team and your tactical mastery against your opponent in the Star Wars galaxy!

Tyrants of Lothal presents skirmish players with a new map, fifteen new deployment cards, five new command cards, and more, as you bring the new heroes of Tyrants of Lothal to your skirmish game with deadly new tactics and ways to play! And of course, joining these heroes is the cast of Star Wars: Rebels, ready to join the fight in the Rebel, Imperial, and Mercenary factions!

We'll take a closer look at the heroes and villains of Star Wars: Rebels in our future previews of their Ally Packs and VIllain Packs, but you can join us today as we preview the skirmish options found in Tyrants of Lothal!

The Lothal Wastes

The skirmish sheet found in Tyrants of Lothal sees you navigating the Lothal Wastes as you try to outmaneuver your opponent in head-to-head combat. Lothal is a center of automation and industry in the Empire. But as its inhabitants slowly begin to fight back, the Lothal Wastes are more and more often becoming a battlefield.

Tyrants of Lothal includes two skirmish cards for you to use with the Lothal Wastes skirmish map. One of the missions you may take on sees the game changing before it even begins, while the other sees fluctuations of power enhancing your units on the battlefield.

The Blitz skirmish card forces you and your opponent to alternate deploying groups before the game begins. As soon as a figure is deployed, they can immediately race into the battlefield to take up position, moving up to eight spaces! This advanced movement lets the game start in the middle of the action—your groups will be closer to their enemies, and can dive into battle immediately.

Of course, there's a reason you'll want to rush forward so recklessly and pick up as much ground as you can. At the end of each round, each player gains two VPs for each critical position they control. These critical positions are scattered across the map, and ultimately, Blitz throws you directly into the action. You must be prepared to stand your ground when the game begins.

Fluctuations, on the other hand, is a more traditional skirmish game experience, letting players gain one VP for each fluctuation they control across the map at the end of a round. However, there's an important twist—every fluctuation grants your figures a corresponding power token to enhance their groups! The more fluctuations your figures occupy, the more powerful they become!

With these two skirmish cards, the Lothal Wastes become your personal battlefield! And, of course, while you can construct the skirmish map from tiles found in the Imperial Assault Core Set and the Tyrants of Lothal expansion, the Lothal Wastes Skirmish Map is a 26” by 26” slip-resistant mat that features the map printed on the sheet, allowing you to skip setup and dive right into the action.

The Faces of Battle

Even setting aside the brand-new skirmish map and missions, Rebels, Imperials, and Mercenaries all get new cards to assist them in their skirmish games. While the cast of Star Wars: Rebels will be receiving support both in this expansion and their figure packs, today, we're looking at content that can be found exclusively in Tyrants of Lothal.

For seven points, CT-1701 brings his Barrage ability to your skirmish games, allowing you to make two attacks for one action, at the cost of giving the second target an additional white die. Unique to his Skirmish Deployment Card is the Pin Them Down ability, which allows you to discard a condition or power token from your target, provided you did not miss.

As you might expect, this ability is especially handy in the Fluctuations scenario, which can see power tokens being placed on figures fairly frequently. When that happens, CT-1701 can lock them down and make sure their tokens don’t get out of control.

While CT-1701’s second attack gives your opponent an extra white die, a new command card in Tyrants of Lothal can eliminate that risk, and more. CT-1701 can use his personal command card, Wild Fire, to remove up to two dice of your choice from the defense pool. This can not only negate the Barrage drawback, but lower the target's defense even further, opening them up for big damage.

Command cards like Wild Fire can throw a wrench into your plans and impact the game in big ways. Luckily, Tyrants of Lothal gives you a new way to fight powerful command cards. Signal Jammer is played at the start of a round, and can be discarded to cancel the effects of a command card. Just having Signal Jammer on the field can disrupt plans and give you an edge in the tactical combat of Imperial Assault.

Not one to be outdone, the Imperials also get some backup in the form of skirmish Death Trooper squads. Loyal to the Empire, the Death Trooper provides a friendly leader with a block power token after deployment, or a token of your choice during your activation if the Trooper is elite. Furthermore, after the Death Trooper’s activation, you may activate any friendly Trooper or Leader with cost six or less. By activating two of your units in quick succession, your Imperial forces can remain coordinated and overwhelm their opponents with superior numbers and firepower.

A New Battle

With new objectives and characters, as well as a fresh skirmish map, your skirmish games of Imperial Assault are about to change forever. The beautiful planet of Lothal has become your battlefield: create your team and join the fight today!