“The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line.”

–Grand Moff Tarkin, Star Wars: A New Hope

The grasp of the Galactic Empire has spread far across the galaxy, even to the near-lawless planets of the Outer Rim. On many planets, there’s nothing more than a small garrison—but the fear and brutality that those garrisons spread is more than enough to quell sedition and rebellion before it can take root. As an Imperial officer, you can’t afford to have anyone question your authority, and when you’re trying to maintain control, it’s easy to turn to a threatening enforcer like Captain Terro.

With the Captain Terro Villain Pack for Imperial Assault, you’ll be able to bring a vicious Imperial cavalry officer into your campaigns and skirmishes. In addition to including a massive, carefully sculpted plastic figure, this Villain Pack offers new missions for your campaigns and skirmishes, as well as the Deployment cards, Command cards, Skirmish cards, and Agenda cards that you need to bring the Rebels to their knees. Today, we’ll take a closer look at what you can find within this Imperial Assault expansion!

Mounted Warriors

The Empire imposes its own laws and ordinances on every planet, but that doesn’t mean they’re above adopting a good idea when they see it, especially if it can supplement their fearsome arsenal of weapons. Riding the reptilian dewbacks of Tatooine is just one more way for Imperial Stormtroopers to gain a threatening advantage over their opponents.

From this Villain Pack, you may introduce a Dewback Rider or two to your games of Imperial Assault. These mounted warriors offer powerful ranged attacks as they shoot from atop their dewbacks, and with additional surges, they can deal more damage or pierce straight through Rebel armor. Though the Dewback Rider’s attacks can reach quite far, it may be better to push him into the midst of combat, where he can use a Shock Lance to dangerous effect. With this ability, you can choose any figure within two spaces and roll a yellow die. Your target suffers damage equal to the result, and if you rolled a surge, it becomes Weakened.

As you’re considering these riders for your strike team, you may also notice that the Dewback Rider only has a movement of four spaces. Don’t underestimate the power of the dewback and the Mounted ability, however—at the start of each activation, the Dewback Rider gains three movement points for free! In many cases, this frees you from spending an action to move, allowing you to use your actions attacking or skewering Rebels with your Shock Lance. And when you do need to move, Mounted ensures that you cover the maximum amount of ground with a single move action.

By spending just two more points, you may choose to field Captain Terro himself—the dreaded commander of Imperial cavalry on Tatooine. Captain Terro boasts higher health and movement, improved surge abilities, and the Leader trait, which can prove essential for the Agenda cards or Command cards that you have at your disposal. Captain Terro maintains the Mounted ability introduced by the Dewback Rider, but in place of a simple Shock Lance, he wields a Flamethrower. Rather than targeting a single figure, Flamethrower targets a space—and each other figure on or adjacent to that space automatically suffers one damage, one strain, and becomes Weakened! Anytime you can deal damage without rolling dice, it’s worth paying attention, and Captain Terro may soon have an important place among your Imperial forces.

Wasteland Patrol

In your campaign games, a Dewback Rider or Captain Terro could prove to be a terrifying ally as you lead the Empire against the Rebel heroes. The Flamethrower ability in particular can be effective against a tightly massed group of heroes, spreading damage and weakening them—just in time for your other figures to launch their own attacks.

The Captain Terro Villain Pack also features a new three-card Agenda set, which includes a new side mission challenging the Rebels to make a stand against Imperial brutality in Anchorhead. The other Agenda cards in this set offer more ways to inflict trouble on the heroes. You may surprise them with a Dewback Patrol, deploying a Dewback Rider from your hand without spending any of your threat. Or, you may equip a new group with Flamethrowers, inspiring fear with an weapon identical to Captain Terro’s Flamethrower. Before too long, any band of aspiring Rebels will learn to fear your Imperial cavalry.

Lead the Charge

Dewback Riders and Captain Terro are no less deadly in a skirmish game as you battle to destroy your opponent’s team and claim victory. Gaining three movement points with the Mounted ability at the beginning of an activation makes these figures uncommonly maneuverable, giving you free rein to spend your other actions making attacks or using your Flamethrower. And of course, you can deal even more damage if you equip your Dewback Riders or other figures with the new skirmish upgrade from this Villain Pack.

For just one point, you can add Feeding Frenzy to your skirmish team as an attachment for any Creature unit, such as the Dewback Rider, the Bantha Rider, or the Nexu. Feeding Frenzy rewards you for preying on the weak—when you’re attacking a figure that’s already suffered damage, you can just exhaust Feeding Frenzy to add another damage to your attack results! What’s more, it also gives you a way to recover your own health. While attacking an adjacent figure, a figure with Feeding Frenzy attached can spend a surge to recover two damage. Obviously, this is especially useful for units like the Bantha Rider, which rolls no defense dice and is sure to suffer plenty of damage.

The Command cards included in this expansion are also uniquely suited to aiding your attacks. For instance, you may play Feral Swipes, allowing one of your Creatures to perform one melee attack with a single red die for each die normally included in its attack pool. Or, you may use Battlefield Awareness to let a friendly figure reroll a die, ensuring your own attacks hit or a critical defense holds up under pressure.

Finally, you’ll find Captain Terro’s personal Command card, Cavalry Charge. As you charge straight into the enemy position, Cavalry Charge gives you a way to inspire your fellow soldiers—until the end of the round, all friendly Troopers within two spaces gain a free surge while attacking. Of course, by charging the enemy troops, you’ve likely painted a target on Captain Terro. Fortunately, this Command card also gives him an inherent block, reducing the damage dealt by all attacks and protecting you from enemy blaster fire.

A Brutal Attack

The Galactic Empire will maintain control of its systems, at any cost. Become part of the Imperial forces and crush any hopes of rebellion with the Captain Terro Villain Pack. You can join the discussion in our community forums, and come back next week for our preview of the Jabba the Hutt Villain Pack for Imperial Assault!