“Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”

–Darth Vader, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The power of the Galactic Empire lies at your fingertips in Imperial Assault, a miniatures game of thrilling adventure and tactical combat for two to five players! Whether you command armor-clad Stormtroopers or the raw firepower of an AT-ST, it is your responsibility to crush the Rebellion and restore order to the galaxy.

You’ll find two complete games included within Imperial Assault. The campaign game gives you the opportunity to weave a narrative that spans the galaxy, while the skirmish game invites you to muster armies and battle a single opponent over conflicting objectives. In both games, you immerse yourself in the Star Wars universe at the height of the Galactic Civil War!

In our last preview, we looked at some units that the Galactic Empire can call upon to oppose the Rebel operatives. The Empire has far more than legions of troopers and iconic villains at its disposal, though. In today’s preview, we’ll explore the Empire’s ability to summon endless reinforcements, upgrade troops in the field, and pursue its nefarious agendas in the campaign game.

A Growing Threat

A squad of Stormtroopers in Imperial Assault consists of three figures and the campaign game gives you the chance to call for reinforcements if any of your Stormtroopers should perish in battle. In the campaign game, you gather a resource called threat at the end of each round. Threat can be spent to reinforce squads currently on the board or to deploy new figures.

Most missions offer a number of figures that start on the board, and other figures that enter play when a certain condition is met. You’ll also choose a number of figures to supplement the ones already included in the mission. These units can be deployed into the mission by spending the appropriate amount of threat, allowing you to surprise the Rebels with units they’re unprepared for. In this way, new units can enter play through the mission rules or by spending threat to deploy them.

For example, the Stormtrooper Deployment card shown to the right has two numbers in the upper left-hand corner. The larger number is the unit’s deployment cost. By paying six threat, you may deploy a squad of Stormtroopers at the end of any game round, possibly bringing them into play on the heroes’ flank, or even behind their lines. The smaller number to the right of the deployment cost is the reinforcement cost. By paying two threat at the end of a combat round, you can bring a single Stormtrooper figure into play, reinforcing an existing group.

You’re not required to spend threat immediately after receiving it and you can even save threat across rounds, allowing you to field truly impressive units such as Darth Vader, who has a deployment cost of eighteen. What’s more, as the campaign goes on, the amount of threat that you receive at the end of each round increases, allowing you to bring more and more of the Empire’s might to bear in later missions!

Choose Your Tactics

Threat allows you to summon new troops, but you also have access to Class cards to ensure that your soldiers are as effective as possible. At the beginning of a campaign, you select a single class: Military Might, Technological Superiority, or Subversive Tactics. Whichever aspect of Imperial force you choose to focus on, you can spend experience to purchase additional cards from this class as the campaign progresses, expanding your specialty and hindering the heroes.

The Military Might class allows you to immediately increase the power of your units in the field, especially your Troopers. When you choose this class, you begin the campaign with the Show of Force Class card. This card can be exhausted to Focus an attacking Imperial figure, granting your figure an extra green die for its attack. The Combat Medic card allows you to spend one threat and exhaust the card to heal a number of Imperial figures, while Assault Armor can be attached to a Deployment card to grant the corresponding figures additional health and defensive power.

Military Might increases the power of your soldiers, but the Technological Superiority class improves their weapons. If you choose this class, you start the campaign with Experimental Arms, which can be attached to any Deployment card. The unit equipped with this card may add an extra surge to any attack, at the cost of suffering a damage after the attack. Other attachment cards in this class, such as Cloaking Device, can drastically improve your unit’s defense. Adaptive Weapons even allows you to replace an attack die with any other attack die in every attack, inviting you to tailor your attack dice to the situation at hand.

The final class available to Imperial players is Subversive Tactics, which enables you to take full advantage of the Rebellion’s fears. You begin a campaign with the Prey Upon Doubt card, which you can exhaust when a Rebel figure declares an attack. That figure must suffer a strain or apply an evade to the defense results. Other Subversive Tactics cards allow you to take advantage of heroes with strain, or punish those who try to rest. Exploit Weakness allows an Imperial figure to move or attack a hero who rests, while No Quarter grants you an automatic surge when you attack a hero with two or more strain. Since heroes often take strain to trigger abilities and gain movement, Subversive Tactics can be some of your most useful tools against the heroes.

A Pressing Agenda

Your power as the Imperial player is not limited to merely summoning reinforcements and enhancing your units using Class cards. With Agenda cards, you can spread the influence of the Galactic Empire across the galaxy. At the beginning of the campaign, you create an Agenda deck by combining six three-card Agenda sets. At the end of each mission, you have the chance to spend influence and purchase Agenda cards. These cards offer a variety of effects that you can use to bring the Rebel operatives to their knees.

The first type of Agenda card is a side mission. After purchasing one of the Agenda cards, such as Breaking Point, you can put it into play as a side mission that the heroes may choose to undertake. These side missions can prove exceptionally difficult for the Rebels, but if they do not undertake them, you automatically receive a powerful Reward card, such as Supply Deficit. The other type of mission featured on an Agenda card is a forced mission. By playing one of these cards, such as Wanted, the Rebels must battle to escape a deadly Imperial trap: perhaps bounty hunters track them down, or their ship is impounded by local authorities. If the Imperial player wins one of these missions, he also receives a special Reward card, like Old Wounds.

Other Agenda cards do not result in a mission, but instead grant bonuses to you or penalties to the Rebels. Some cards are ongoing and last across missions. Weakness Revealed, for example, allows you to choose a hero, and force that hero to deal one less damage when he attacks and receive one less block when he defends for the current round. Other Agenda cards may be kept secret until the opportune moment, and suddenly revealed. Impending Doom is kept secret until a hero becomes wounded. At that point, you have the chance to choose two Imperial figures to become Focused, setting you up to wound more heroes or force a wounded hero to retreat.

The Resources of an Empire

When you play the Imperial player in Imperial Assault, the massed might of the Galactic Empire lies at your disposal. But even after exploring the Imperial units, and your agendas, Class cards, and threat, there are still more tools that you may employ as you battle to quench the Rebellion. In our next preview, we’ll take a closer look at the Mercenaries that fight alongside the Empire in many missions.

Pre-order your copy of Imperial Assault at your local retailer today!