Star wars Rebellion

Today I'm going to be reviewing Star Wars Rebellion. This game is my current favourite tabletop game, and if you're a Star Wars fan and a tabletop fan (the latter is not strictly necessary), it is a must-have. It is especially good that you only need a minimum of one fellow fan (or conscripted fan) to play!

The box is one of the tallest boxes I've seen, at over five inches tall! This ensures that everything fits, without too much wiggle room. The board is very big, it is actually two boards put side by side. You can see a picture of the game below.

As you can see below, there are just about enough pieces. 😀 Also visible below, the star destroyers and Death Stars (I, II, and under construction) will need some assembly before they are fully operational.

Image taken by Raymond Fowkes 

In Star Wars Rebellion one player takes the side of the Alliance to Restore the Republic (better known as the Rebels), while the other player takes the Empire. The Empire player has many more troops, which is why the picture above is more grey than beige. Because of this, the Rebels rarely win by an all-out attack, instead they will have to be devious to emerge victorious.

The game starts with the time marker on zero, and each turn it moves forward one space. At the same time, the Rebels have a victory point marker on the other side of the time track, which they can move backward by completing objectives. When the two markers meet, the Rebel Alliance wins! In order for the Empire to win, they must find the Rebel base and destroy all opposition there. The Rebels will pick the base at the start of the game, and can change it later by performing a special mission.

The token on the left is the time marker, on the right is the Victory Point marker

To play this game, you will need your leaders. Leaders are essentially characters from the star wars universe, like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and you need them to move your armies and complete missions. Leaders can also attempt to stop enemy leaders from completing missions by opposing them.

This game is played over multiple rounds, with each round consisting of the following phases:

• Assignment Phase: In this phase, you assign each leader to do a mission this round. If they are not going to attempt a mission, you just leave them in the leader pool.

• Command Phase: This is the phase where most of the game gets done, starting with the Rebels, each player picks a leader and then does it's mission. If the selected leader didn't get assigned to a mission during the Assignment phase, you may instead move troops with it.

• Refresh Phase: When this phase begins, you return your leaders to the leader pool, recruit new units and leaders, and increase the turn track. The Rebels can also complete an objective in this phase.

Missions are (according to me) the most enjoyable part of this game. Each mission has one of four icons and a number on it, a leader can only attempt the mission if he/she has the number of that icon on their leader token. When you attempt a mission, if the opponent still has leaders in their leader pool, they can pick one to oppose, placing it in the system that the mission is being attempted in. When there is an enemy leader in a system, you have a chance of failing the mission. 

The units available are varying, both sides have ground and space units. Ground units cannot move on their own, and require a space unit that can carry units to transport them. The Empire also has access to superweapons like the Death Star(s) and Super Star Destroyers, which can only be built via special mission cards.

The Rebel player's objectives have three levels, getting progressively easier the longer the game plays. This means the longer the game goes, the more likely the Rebel player will win. 

In order for the Empire to find the Rebel base, the Rebels need to have a Rebel base! They can pick them using probe cards at the start of the game. However, as the game goes on, the Empire draws the probe cards out of the probe deck, which means that later if the Rebels need to move the base, they have less choices. Eventually, the Empire can deduce where the Rebels are simply by looking at where they aren't!

Combat in this game is played over multiple rounds until one player is defeated or retreats, combat will occur both on ground and in space separately. Combat can be a bit long, which can get kind of annoying. Luckily, this happens only rarely, when the Rebels and the Empire are meeting for the last battle(s).

Another thing I love about this game is that there is a team option, allowing you to play with 3 or 4 players. Each player will take on the role of either General or Admiral, getting half the leaders each. This version of the game is still balanced, and works great! It also feels really nice to have a teammate to win with! (Or lose with... In which case you have someone to blame!)

The quality of this game is excellent, with only the very thin pieces of plastic slightly bent. However, I've got two warnings for you:

1. Sometimes some tiny bits of strange grey gunk can start to accumulate on the cards, it might be worth getting some cards sleeves to protect against this.
2. There have been multiple reports of this game being bought with too little figures, however Fantasy Flight Games is supposed to be very helpful about this, sending replacement parts pretty quickly.

I loved this game so much, I'm making a (fanmade) prequel to it! You can see more about that on Friday 7th on this blog. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it! Below I've made a preview of one of my favourite characters.

General Grievous, created by me!

You can purchase Star wars Rebellion here.
If you want to get some card sleeves, here are the ones I got. You may need to get two copies.

What was your opinion with Star Wars Rebellion? Did you love it as much as I did?

Also, would you be interested in the prequel game?