Review: Star Wars – Rebellion

Introduction & Overview

We find ourselves in a period of civil war. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away; the entire galaxy is subjected to the Empire’s reign of terror. Its newly constructed combat station, the Death Star, is powerful enough to destroy anyone who opposes its dictatorship. But a new hope has emerged. A group of brave individuals has decided to fight against imperial tyranny. From their hidden base, these rebels plan to overthrow the Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy. Star Wars: Rebellion allows players to reenact the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Players take control of iconic characters from the Star Wars saga to undertake secret missions or lead their troops into battles across the galaxy.

This is how Star Wars: Rebellion is presented to us, a new title by Corey Konieczka, the designer behind games like StarCraft: The Board Game, Battlestar Galactica, or Eldritch Horror. The game was published in 2015 by Fantasy Flight Games. The artwork does not bear the signature of any specific illustrator; instead, the publisher pulled from archival images already used in numerous titles set in the galactic franchise.

In our country, it is published by Edge Entertainment (as expected) in perfect Spanish, since the cards contain quite a bit of text. It allows for games of 2 to 4 players, with a minimum suggested age of 14 and an approximate duration of 180 to 240 minutes. The recommended retail price is €99.95. For this review, a review copy of the Spanish edition from Edge Entertainment was used.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 29.5×29.5×13.3 cm (a standard rectangular box like Ticket to Ride but with much more depth than usual), we find the following components:

• 153 Miniatures (plastic):
  • 89 Imperial Miniatures
  • 64 Rebel Miniatures
• 25 Leaders (cardboard):
  • 12 Imperial Leaders
  • 13 Rebel Leaders
• 25 Stands (plastic)
• 32 Damage Tokens (cardboard):
  • 24 Single Damage Tokens
  • 8 Double Damage Tokens
• 7 Status Modifiers (cardboard)
• 95 Small Cards (41×63 mm):
  • 31 Probe Cards
  • 34 Action Cards:
    • 16 Imperial Action Cards
    • 18 Rebel Action Cards
  • 30 Tactic Cards:
    • 15 Ground Tactic Cards
    • 15 Space Tactic Cards
• 83 Large Cards (56×87 mm):
  • 15 Rebel Objective Cards
  • 68 Mission Cards
    • 39 Imperial Mission Cards
    • 29 Rebel Mission Cards
• 3 Destroyed System Indicators (cardboard)
• 2 Faction Boards (cardstock)
• 1 Game Board (split into two halves) (cardboard)
• 10 Special Dice (bakelite)
  • 5 Black Dice
  • 5 Red Dice
• 12 Rebel Loyalty Indicators (cardboard)
• 27 Subjugation/Imperial Loyalty Indicators (cardboard) CRUSHING
• 10 Sabotage Indicators (cardboard)
• Time Marker (cardboard)
• Reputation Marker (cardboard)
• Learn to Play Guide
• Rules Reference

How to Play

Star Wars: Rebellion is a game set in the universe imagined by George Lucas, where one player takes the reins of the oppressive Galactic Empire and the other leads the Rebel Alliance from the underground. At the beginning of each game round, during the assignment phase, players plan their strategy by secretly sending their iconic leaders to perform various missions from their hand. Following this, players alternate turns in the command phase. On each turn, the active player can reveal one of these missions to execute its special abilities or activate a star system to move fleets of ships and ground troops, leading to intense combats in space and on planets that are resolved using tactic cards and special dice rolls. Actions and missions allow players to expand diplomatic influence to win the loyalty of new worlds, subjugate populations by force, sabotage enemy manufacturing, capture leaders, or launch probe droids to rule out locations. Finally, in the refresh phase, characters are retrieved and a chronological production queue is managed to build and deploy new forces in loyal systems. The game continues in this manner until one faction meets its victory condition: the Imperial player claims victory if they locate and militarily conquer the system where the Rebel base is hidden; meanwhile, the Rebel player wins the game immediately if they keep their refuge safe and fulfill secret objectives that raise their galactic reputation until it meets the time marker on the track.

Key Concepts

The Board consists of two four-panel pieces that together form the map of galactic systems. Let’s describe it briefly:

• Planets are organized across 8 regions with 4 planets per region.
• Planets can be populated (showing a hexagon to indicate affiliation, as well as one or two production symbols and a step in the queue) or remote planets without population (no hexagon and no production symbols).
• On the right margin, the two production queues are shown, featuring 3 levels. When a planet produces units, they will be of a specific type and placed in a certain position in the queue. At the end of each round, queued units progress one level until they leave the queue to be deployed onto controlled planets.
• On the left margin, besides the round and Rebel influence track, we find 3 spaces for the probe decks, imperial projects, and Rebel objective cards.
• Next to these spaces, there is an area for the Rebel base. While the Rebel base remains hidden, this space represents the system indicated on the card. When the base is discovered by the Imperials, all units in this space “teleport” to the corresponding system.

The Probe Cards form a deck containing all the planets represented on the board, except for Coruscant. In addition to the planet and its name, a layout simulating the board appears, highlighting the region to which the system belongs so it can be located quickly. They can also show the logo of the Empire or the Alliance. These will serve to set up the game as starting planets. During the game, they will have two uses. On one hand, they allow the Rebel side to establish the location of their base, while the Imperial side will draw cards from this deck, eliminating possibilities when searching for said base.

The Rebel base will be the target for the Imperials. They will win the game if they locate and destroy it before the opposing player can relocate it. As we have seen on the board, there is a dual representation: a virtual one with no name and the actual system where it is hidden. The Rebel player will be able to transfer units between these spaces, keeping in mind that, except for missions, they must do so from systems adjacent to the actual system (providing vital information to the Imperial player).

The Leaders are the heart and soul of the game. Each character, in addition to their illustration and name, displays a series of symbols reflecting their skills to carry out missions. Additionally, characters with military command display tactical values in the bottom corners for space combats (blue background) and ground combats (orange background). These leaders will execute missions and activate systems to allow the movement of units.

The symbols shown on the characters and mission cards are:

• Diplomacy (Republic symbol on an orange background): associated with missions that affect system loyalty.
• Intel (eye on a blue background): associated with missions focused on obtaining objective cards (Rebels) or searching for the Alliance base (Imperials).
• Spec Ops (fist on a red background): operations that allow acting against rival targets.
• Logistics (report on a gray background): missions focused on movements regarding the Rebel base (Alliance) or accelerating production (Imperials).

The Status Modifiers are rings that snap onto the character stands to indicate a specific circumstance, such as having been trained by Yoda, being captured, or having been seduced by the Dark Side of the Force.

The Mission Cards are the most important cards in the game, as they represent one of the two action possibilities for characters. These mission cards specify a type of skill required from the character, indicated by one of the four possible icons in the upper-left corner. They also specify a minimum number of these symbols, which must be provided by the one or two characters assigned to the mission. In turn, there are two types of missions: those that resolve immediately, without any possibility of rival opposition, and those that are attempted, which can be opposed by the opponent. Except for the starting mission cards, the rest are single-use and will be discarded after their attempt, whether successful or not.

The Project Cards are a special type of Mission Cards available exclusively to the Imperial side. Most of these cards allow for the development of powerful infrastructures that are not obtained through the normal flow of the game, such as Super Star Destroyers or the second Death Star.

The Action Cards grant Leaders certain special abilities at specific times (specified on the card). They are single-use cards and mostly require the intervention of a specific leader. They will also be used to recruit new leaders during the game.

The Objective Cards form an exclusive deck for the Rebel Alliance. These cards determine conditions to try to fulfill at a given moment (indicated on the card), increasing the reputation of the rebellion.

The Faction Boards serve as an organizer and a quick reference sheet when evaluating combat. Both boards feature two side slots to place the mission and action card decks, a space for the leader pool, and a summary of their side’s units, displaying the symbol associated with building them on planets, the dice each unit rolls, and health points in one of the two colors. A small link symbol may appear over the unit’s icon, indicating that this unit must be transported to change systems, along with a numerical value indicating the transport capacity of that unit (regardless of the type of unit being transported).

The Loyalty Indicators serve to show the affinity of a given system to one of the sides. System affinity is interpreted across a 3-value system: loyal to the Empire, neutral, or loyal to the Rebellion. When one of the factions gains loyalty points, the system’s state evolves. For one point, a system loyal to the rival side becomes neutral, and a neutral system becomes loyal to the current player’s side.

The Dice are used when resolving missions undertaken by players (regardless of color), as well as combat (where dice color does matter). The dice feature 4 possible faces:

• Hit: a success in missions and a hit in combat (depending on the color of the die).
• Critical Hit: a success in missions and a wildcard hit in combat (independent of the die color).
• Lightsabers: double success in missions, and in combat it is only used to draw or play tactic cards (they do not apply damage directly).
• Blank face: a miss in all cases.

The Tactic Cards provide various advantages in combat. There are two types of tactic cards: blue for space combat and orange for ground combat. Some tactics can be played directly, while others require spending a die with the lightsaber symbol.

The Miniatures represent the forces of both sides across the systems. There are three types of units: ground, space, and structures.

Ground Units, which are placed on planets. The Rebels have troops and airspeeders, while the Imperials have stormtroopers, AT-STs, and AT-ATs.

Space Units, which are placed in the space surrounding the planet. The Rebels have X-Wings, Y-Wings, Transports, Corellian Corvettes, and Mon Calamari Cruisers, while the Imperials have TIE Fighters, Assault Carriers, and Star Destroyers, plus Super Star Destroyers and Death Stars (the latter being special units).

Structures (Rebel side only), which are placed on planets but cannot be moved. These are Shield Generators and Ion Cannon Batteries.

The Death Star is a special unit that cannot be destroyed in space combat unless the Alliance possesses the plans that allow them to find a weak point. Furthermore, the fearsome battle station has the ability to destroy systems, wiping them off the map.

Combat is resolved through combat rounds. In each round, all units will have the opportunity to fire (rolling the corresponding dice) and assigning damage to enemy units. Additionally, leaders can spearhead the attack to have access to tactic cards right from the start.

That is enough to get started.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a side and receives all corresponding components: board, loyalty markers, units, mission card deck, action card deck, and leaders with their stands.
2. The mission card deck contains 4 starting cards (with an arrow at the bottom) that will form part of their starting hand. The remaining cards are shuffled to form a deck, and 2 are drawn and added to the previous four to complete the starting hand.
3. Starting leaders (those that do not show the recruitment symbol) are placed in the personal board’s pool. The rest are set aside.
4. Out of the action cards, several do not show the recruitment symbol. Each player receives 2 of these at random. The rest are left in the box.
5. The two parts of the board are deployed in the center of the table.
6. The round marker is placed on the first space of the track, and the Rebel influence marker is placed on the space with a value of 14.
7. The Imperial Project card deck is shuffled and placed in its space on the board.
8. The Rebel Objective deck is formed. Each small group of cards is separated (they have an I, II, or III on the back) and shuffled. Then, they are stacked with the stage III cards at the bottom, followed by stage II, and finally stage I on top.
9. The probe card deck is shuffled, and cards are revealed until 3 Rebel systems and 5 Imperial systems have been shown (if the target number for either faction is reached, further revealed cards for that faction are set aside). An Imperial loyalty marker is placed on the first 2 Imperial cards, and a subjugation marker on the other 3. The Rebel player places a loyalty marker on their 3 resulting systems. All cards are gathered back into the deck.
10. The Rebel player now takes the probe card deck and chooses one to place the Rebel base, putting it in their hidden zone under the board. After this, the probe deck is shuffled and placed in its position.
11. The Imperial player starts with 3 Star Destroyers, 3 Assault Carriers, 12 TIE Fighters, 12 Stormtroopers, 5 AT-STs, 1 AT-AT, and 1 Death Star. The Rebel player starts with 1 Corellian Corvette, 1 Rebel Transport, 2 X-Wings, 2 Y-Wings, 6 Rebel Soldiers, and 2 Airspeeders. These units are distributed among the planets with loyalty markers of the corresponding side (in the Imperial’s case, both loyalty and subjugation). At least one unit must be placed on each planet.
12. The tactic card decks are shuffled and placed to one side of the board.
13. The dice are also left nearby.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Star Wars: Rebellion consists of an indefinite number of rounds (though never more than 15) until one of the two endgame conditions is met. Each of these rounds plays out over three phases.

Phase I: Assignment

Starting with the Rebel player and continuing with the Imperial player, players secretly place mission cards and assign 1 or 2 leaders to them. Each mission card requires the associated leader or leaders to possess the skill symbol matching the mission type and, between them (if there are two), add up to the number of symbols indicated on the card.

Leaders not assigned to missions will remain in the pool to activate systems for moving troops or to attempt to oppose missions undertaken by the rival.

Phase II: Command

In this phase, starting with the Rebel player, players alternate turns in which they must choose one of these options:

• Reveal a Mission Card: The player reveals one of the mission cards with assigned leaders and follows the instructions written on it:
  • If it is a “Resolve” type mission, it is carried out with no option for a rival response.
  • If it is an “Attempt” type mission, the rival player can send a leader whose skills contain the symbol indicated on the card:
    • If they don’t, the mission is resolved successfully.
    • If they do, both players make a roll for each symbol of their assigned leaders. The mission succeeds if the current player rolls more successes than the rival. Otherwise (a tie or more rival successes), the mission fails.
  • If it is a starting mission card, it returns to the player’s hand. Otherwise, it is discarded, regardless of the mission’s outcome.
• Activate a System: The player places a leader with military command (having values in space and ground tactics) in a system. The player may move units from neighboring systems into the activated system, respecting the units’ transport restrictions.
  • Units located in a system that already contains one of the player’s leaders cannot be moved.
• Pass: The player stops taking turns, although they can still oppose rival missions or send leaders to combat.

If rival units find themselves in the same system during a turn, combat occurs. Space combat is resolved first, followed by ground combat. Both combats are resolved in the same way:

1. If a player does not have leaders in the system, they have the option to send a leader with military capabilities from their pool to the system.
2. Draw tactic cards. Each player draws as many space and ground tactic cards as the highest value among their characters in the system.
3. Combat rounds. Combat is resolved in a series of steps, where space and ground combats take turn (first a step for space combat, then another for ground combat). Combat rounds continue until at least one side runs out of units involved in the fight. First, the space combat step is resolved, followed by the ground combat step. Each round is resolved as follows:
   • Starting with the attacking player, each player rolls dice based on the units involved in the combat and assigns damage. If units are not destroyed, damage tokens are placed on them to keep track. A unit is destroyed if the number of hits is equal to or greater than its health. Even if a unit is destroyed, it will always get a chance to attack during that combat round before being removed. Additionally, players can trigger effects from tactic cards.
   • Once both contenders have attacked, starting with the attacking player, players have the opportunity to retreat, moving their leader and all units to an adjacent system (if there is no leader, there is no option to retreat). If a Death Star is involved in the combat, retreating is not possible. The player must attempt to retreat to a system with friendly units or a loyalty marker, and cannot retreat to systems containing rival units or to the system from which the units that started the combat originated.
   • If both players still maintain units in at least one of the combats, a new combat round begins. If not, combat ends.
   • If the Imperial player gains access to a planet with ground units, the Rebel player must indicate whether the Rebel base is located on that planet or not. If so, all troops from the hidden space transfer to the “real” system, and combat ensues. Otherwise, as long as the Imperial player has troops on the planet and it is a populated system, they place a subjugation marker, regardless of whether the system is neutral or loyal to the rebellion. If they leave the planet, this marker is discarded, and it returns to being neutral or loyal to the rebellion.

The phase ends the moment both players have passed.

Phase III: Refresh Phase
The following steps are taken:

1. Players retrieve their leaders and return them to their pool (unless they are captured or have undertaken a mission that forces them to remain in the system).
2. Both players draw two new mission cards. After this, they check that they do not exceed the 10-card hand limit, discarding if necessary.
3. The Imperial player draws 2 new probe cards, looks at them, and places them in their exploration pile.
4. The Rebel player draws a new objective card and adds it to their hand.
5. The time marker advances one space, and players act according to the symbols displayed on the new space:
   • Recruitment Icon. Each player draws 2 action cards, chooses one, and places the other at the bottom of the deck. From the chosen card, they take one of the characters shown and place them in their leader pool. The action card can be used from this moment on.
   • Build Icon. Each system with a loyalty indicator of one side produces units (unless there are rival units in the system). A subjugated system only produces the first unit indicated.
6. Units in the production queue advance one level downwards, even if there is no recruitment phase. Units leaving the production queue can be deployed on the board in loyal or subjugated systems. The Rebel player deploys first, followed by the Imperial. No more than 2 units can be placed per system.

If none of the endgame conditions are met, a new round begins.

Game End

The game can end in two ways:

• The Empire conquers the system where the Rebel base is located, meaning that among the Imperial units, there is no Rebel unit left.
• The round and Rebel Alliance influence markers meet in the same space.

Variants

3/4 Player Mode. The game allows one or both sides to be controlled by two players, dividing the responsibilities (the side of the personal board indicating “Team Play” is used). There are two roles: Admiral and General. The former will control those leaders displaying a blue stripe at the bottom of their standee, while the latter will do so with those showing an orange stripe. In the activation phase, players take turns following the order indicated by their roles, being able to act only with their own characters (though they can move units of their faction, which do not belong to any specific role). The specific responsibilities of each role are:

• For the General: management of the mission card hand (they must agree on missions the admiral wants to carry out, with the general holding veto power), ground battles, probes, and objectives (in the case of the Rebel side).
• For the Admiral: recruitment, space battles, and the construction and deployment of units.

Personal Opinion

Well, folks. A long-awaited moment has arrived. Ever since the announcement back at the end of 2015 regarding the publication of a title set in the greatest galactic franchise of all time (forgive me, Star Trek fans) that captured the essence of the original trilogy, expectations did nothing but skyrocket. Furthermore, to the misfortune of Spanish fans, Edge Entertainment’s edition couldn’t join the international printing, so we couldn’t enjoy the game at the same time as a large part of the world (much like the movie premieres of yesteryear, which took 3-4 months to arrive). But the time has finally come. It’s time to see if the wait (and the price tag) was worth it.

What does Star Wars: Rebellion offer us? Well, as a quick summary… ha! You wish! You’ve got quite a bit of reading left. But I have to start somewhere, so…

In essence, Star Wars: Rebellion proposes that we take the story we all know from its starting point and, in a way, relive it, even if it might undergo diverse and radical variations. Each player will stand at the helm of one of the sides, the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, with a clear objective for each: the Imperials must find and destroy the secret Rebel base, while the Alliance must, in addition to preventing the destruction of its base, gain enough support to trigger an uprising against the evil regime of Emperor Palpatine.

All of this will be done mainly through the most representative characters of both sides, who will be in charge of executing various missions or moving troops across the immense board that gathers the planets on which the game takes place. These missions allow players to recall key moments from the films, though not necessarily with the same outcome as on the big screen.

In this way, a cat-and-mouse game is established in which the Empire, with an overwhelming military capacity, will try to locate the secret Rebel base, either through occupying systems or sending probe droids, while the Alliance will have to play a game of misdirection and engage in guerrilla warfare to try to slow down, as much as possible, the Empire’s development in order to buy time and gather enough support to achieve victory by fulfilling certain key objectives.

Mechanically speaking, we could say that Star Wars: Rebellion is the result of a wild summer night between Mr. Jack (here is its tocho-review) and Twilight Struggle. A geeky lovechild that inherits traits from both.

From Cathala and Maublanc’s design, it takes the cat-and-mouse game, where the investigator must figure out which of the characters on the board is Jack and prevent his escape, while the player controlling the killer tries to prolong the game long enough to position themselves on the board to escape. Thus, the player controlling the investigator must act in a way that allows them to rule out characters until Jack feels the circle closing in on him, and the player controlling Jack will try to torpedo these actions, so that on each turn the discarded options are kept to a minimum.

In this sense, the way of approaching the match in Star Wars: Rebellion is identical. The Imperial player must, round after round, rule out the maximum possible number of planets to locate the Rebel base as soon as possible, while the Alliance will have to hinder this deductive process, whether by depleting the military capacity of the Empire or bluffing through certain movement choices on the map.

What is clear in both games is that one of the sides wants a “short” game, while the other wants a “long” game. The more the round track progresses, the higher the probabilities that the Alliance will achieve the necessary support. It can be interpreted that, for every round the Alliance is not destroyed, it gains followers automatically, as the distance between both markers decreases—unless the Empire carries out some action that implies a loss of Rebel influence.

From Twilight Struggle, it inherits, primarily, the concept of card decks that significantly affect the development of the game and that one must know to anticipate what to expect, both from the opponent and from oneself. However, unlike Gupta and Matthews’ design, each faction’s cards are separated into their own decks. A deep knowledge of each side’s capabilities is necessary to know what to expect, but these will always benefit their owner.

The board can also, in a way, be reminiscent of the game sitting highest in the BGG ranking among those published by GMT, since controlling specific systems provides key production capacities for a victorious ending, and knowing how to position oneself properly in these systems, as well as protecting them by controlling surrounding systems, will be fundamental.

Furthermore, both games also share the detail that the events on the cards, while being “real” (meaning they happened in the movies), do not have to turn out the same way. What’s more, some events might not even occur. You can find yourself in a game where the Empire destroys Tatooine, Luke Skywalker never joins the Rebellion, or Obi-Wan Kenobi is frozen in carbonite. The events and characters are there, but it’s the players who decide how the story unfolds.

This last paragraph is the key to the success of Star Wars: Rebellion. It lays out a starting scenario for the players but allows them to enjoy a sort of parallel reality in which we forge our own story. And this gives rise to truly epic moments. Successfully pulling Luke Skywalker over to the Dark Side when playing as the Empire, or conquering Coruscant when playing as the Rebels, is proof of what this design delivers.

In turn, its greatest virtue is its biggest flaw. It is a game for fans of the saga. Without a passion for this story, the game turns into a relatively bland deduction game where things happen that you couldn’t care less about. Let’s break this down because it’s important to avoid disappointment. From this point on, I am going to analyze certain aspects of the game as if I didn’t love Star Wars and, back in the day, didn’t have a display case packed with books, assembled Lego ships (Imperial Star Destroyer included), or a huge number of action figures.

Let’s start with combat. This has been simplified to absolute extremes, to the point where, in the end, it all comes down to seeing who has the bigger guns. Combat rounds are resolved through opposing dice rolls, which can yield a success of a specific color, a success applicable to any color, or a symbol that we can use on tactic cards. Each success of a specific color can hit a target of that color. Damage points keep accumulating until one of the contenders retreats or is completely destroyed. This usually results in the player with more units in combat emerging victorious.

It is true that unit characteristics are important, since attacking units whose health points are in the other color with dice of a certain color is practically suicidal, as it requires quite a bit of luck to destroy them if they are capable of attacking us back in the appropriate color. Thus, for example, trying to bring down an AT-AT (the four-legged walkers) using solely troops is madness, as they use black dice and the walker’s health points are red, while the walker rolls dice of both colors, so troops won’t last many combat rounds.

I mentioned that we can play some tactic cards, but they are relatively light in terms of effects (preventing/adding damage points and a few other things), potentially making a significant difference in evenly matched fights, but remaining irrelevant in combats where one side is clearly superior to the other.

The decision made in this regard is understandable, since these combats barely interrupt the game and lend it some excitement through opposing dice rolls. But, as I said, if the theme doesn’t grip you, at a mechanical level it falls short. If what you want is to play with opposing rolls, it’s better to bring out Dice Masters (here is its tocho-review) which offers exactly this, but with more substance and in a fraction of the time. Perhaps I would have added a variant allowing the use of formations or something similar, like “if you have 3 soldiers and 1 AT-ST you inflict 1 additional damage.” At least that way you would try to assemble attack groups with some weight, which would lead you to try to control planets that produce those units.

Another drawback is the deduction system. The Rebel Alliance’s influence when it comes to slowing down the Imperial player’s elimination process is practically zero. Virtually the only thing they can do in this regard is slow down the Imperial production level, as it is vital for the player controlling Palpatine and Vader’s forces to inject as many units as possible onto the board to scatter them across planets and narrow down the location possibilities. A bit poor.

As if this weren’t enough, the Imperial player automatically rules out 2 planets at the end of each round, something that simulates the probe droids sent by the Empire in Episode V. In theory, each of these droids will remain on the planet until the end of the game, meaning that, with absolute certainty, the Rebel base is not and will not be in that system. However, a new secret base can indeed be established on a planet where the Empire has already placed ground units and subsequently abandoned. And this is a bit strange. That is to say, if the Imperial player enters Tatooine and the Rebel base is not there, they will likely abandon the planet, as occupying it yields nothing (since it is a remote system). If this happens, the Rebel player can later move their secret base to Tatooine if the corresponding probe card is still in the deck and they are lucky enough to draw it at the right time. In other words, probe droids stay forever, but a planetary exploration by land does not. A bit weird. But aside from that, it can happen that probe cards are drawn for planets currently occupied by the Empire, which really doesn’t add up. It provides no information, and the only thing that happens is that the deck is reduced for a future relocation of the Rebel base.

Furthermore, the unit production system is somewhat tedious. Not because it is complex, but because it requires you to be orderly. The best approach is for one player to read out the opponent’s planets, state the production symbols, and the queue level where they are placed. With the Rebel player, it is relatively straightforward because they don’t usually control many systems. However, with the Imperial player, it is a true nightmare every time production comes around. Too many planets, too many symbols, too many units…

I’m not thrilled about the planning system either. Having the Rebel player, who is the “weaker” side, plan out their moves while giving clues on how they will act during the round doesn’t seem right to me. First of all, because it gives the Empire the opportunity to plan accordingly, besides increasing the downtime considerably, since the Imperial player’s assignment phase won’t start until the Rebel player indicates they have finished theirs. I would have preferred parallel and secret planning, but hey, the experts know best.

Thus, if we stripped the theme away from the design, we would find ourselves with an asymmetric deduction game where one side limits itself to scattering units across regions and wiping out enemy units, while the opponent tries to drag out the game as long as possible without taking too many casualties and dealing blows that slow down the rival. All of this with a combat system of opposing rolls in the purest Risk style (with a few minor details).

Do I recommend Star Wars: Rebellion? Well, it depends. As I’ve already said, if you are a fan of the saga, it seems like an essential game to me, with a streamlined design that allows you to reconstruct the original trilogy in an alternative way. However, if the theme matters little or nothing to you, or you won’t have anyone to play it with who shares that same passion for the saga created by George Lucas, your best bet is to pass on it, since you’ll be buying a huge, expensive box just for it to gather dust on the shelf. I want to remind you that this is the view of a eurogamer who is a fan of the saga, especially the original trilogy.

In this sense, replayability is also affected by this. Wanting to see it on the table will depend on how previous games unfolded and a desire to explore potential events and deduction patterns. But at a mechanical level, the game doesn’t offer much. Without love for the saga, a couple of games with each side would be enough. Something similar to what happens with Mr. Jack. It turns into an ultra-juiced-up Cat and Mouse, but little else.

Regarding the variants that allow more players at the table, to me they seem like a patch to try to attract more players. It is a design meant for two opponents, and the variant that splits one side into two appeals to me somewhere between zero and nothing. Basically, two roles are generated among which the responsibilities previously held by a single player are divided. That is to say, twice as many people can enjoy the game, but with half the fun for each. Fair, but insufficient.

Let’s move on to the production. Fantasy Flight Games is synonymous with quality when it comes to productions with miniatures. And Star Wars: Rebellion is no exception, though it has some notable low points. Let’s start with the praise. The miniatures are absolutely amazing. They are the core of the game and what allows you to dive deep into the setting. Seeing and handling those Destroyers or those Death Stars is an absolute delight. Wet dreams for board game and saga fans alike. But, even with a considerable number of miniatures included, I think in some cases they fell short. Only 3 Mon Calamari cruisers are insufficient, since the Rebel Alliance is capable of controlling Utapau and Mon Calamari (the planets with enough capacity to generate these behemoths), in which case 2 would be generated per production round. If control is maintained over both planets for 2 more rounds, there wouldn’t be enough ships in the reserve to queue. In the case of the Empire, this also happens, but the sheer quantity of miniatures is overwhelming by comparison, so it’s not worth complaining too much. The cards come in two sizes (as is usual with FFG). Good quality, good thickness, good snap, and a pleasant linen finish. No complaints on this front. The cardboard components use the typical extremely porous finish that I am not crazy about, as it doesn’t seem particularly durable. In fact, the status modifiers are elements that, if not handled with care, will get scuffed from the very first game. The recommendation is to lift the character token from the stand and slide it in from the top. Forcing it in from the bottom will damage the surface. And speaking of characters, it’s true that including miniatures for so many characters could have driven the price even higher (plus, there are characters whose figure wouldn’t be at all recognizable). I find the use of tokens with stands to be a wise choice. The box size is highly exaggerated for its contents. A box with half the depth could have been used, and there would still be plenty of room left over. And here the excuse “it’s for future expansions” doesn’t quite fit (although you never know). Lastly, the rulebook is an absolute marvel. Two manuals are included: one that is a sort of accessible tutorial to play your first game, and then a rules reference guide that clarifies each concept in detail. With this system, the first game will practically be a tutorial, but after that, we can play again without problems and without having suffered any trauma.

Regarding the artwork, the folks at Fantasy Flight Games don’t complicate things and pull from their archive, using images already shown in other titles. What’s more, no artist is credited in the game for this. I don’t mind it, especially since I don’t own any other game from the publisher set in Lucas’s universe. But for those who do have more titles with this setting, seeing the same images over and over might get a bit tiresome.

And let’s wrap this up. Star Wars: Rebellion presents itself as a great asymmetric game of space cat-and-mouse and tactical positioning guided by missions and leader assignments. The dramatic tension at the table is unquestionable, immersing players in a stimulating cat-and-mouse game where bluffing and guerrilla warfare intertwine to rewrite history, delivering truly epic moments that stick with you. However, behind this imposing narrative facade, the design reveals evident mechanical seams: a combat system simplified to the extreme that is resolved by pure dice brute force, a tedious production process that demands milimetric order, and a planning phase that penalizes the weaker side while creating unnecessary downtime. All in all, the strength of its setting is so powerful that it makes up for these flaws, making it an essential experience if you live the theme with passion. For all of this, I give it a…