It is a desperate time for the Rebel Alliance. The Battle of Hoth has turned against the Rebels and their allies. Their base has been breached by Imperial snowtroopers while a fleet of Star Destroyers waits to make sure no ships slip free of the Hoth system. While General Veers pilots his massive AT-AT walker against Echo Base’s primary shield generator, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa seek to buy time – and hope – for the Rebel evacuation…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Escape from Hoth , the sixth and final Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars ™: The Card Game !

The balance of the Force turns to the dark side in Escape from Hoth as it gains three of the Force Pack’s five new objective sets, including one that introduces the Super Star Destroyer, Executor . However, even as the dark side looks to deploy this incredible Vehicle and hunt down the rag-tag remnants of the Rebellion with hired bounty hunters, the light side isn’t defeated yet. Light side players can take hope from the arrival of several iconic new units, including a new Rebel Alliance version of Han Solo!

At the end of The Hoth Cycle , the siege on Echo Base and the cycle’s focus on the Hoth trait come to a dramatic close. Will this Force Pack see the end of the Rebel Alliance and its allies? Or will Luke, Leia, Han, and the light side’s other key champions escape from the frozen planet to plan their next strike and keep the fires of freedom lit?

The Executor Arrives

Escape from Hoth is a Force Pack loaded with iconic characters and starships, including the greatest Star Destroyer from the original trilogy, Executor ( Escape from Hoth , 308).

Because it costs eight, playing the Executor requires a definite investment into your deck’s economy, but if you can manage to get this behemoth to the table, it’s sure to strike fear into the heart of your enemy. While the Executor is undamaged, it is immune to your opponent’s card effects, including the effects of such cards as Han Solo ( Core Set , 64) and Heat of Battle ( Core Set , 65) that would be able to deal it damage. This means the light side will have to stop the Executor by damaging it in an engagement or by striking with their  icons to bury it under focus tokens. However, burying the Executor under  icons is easier said than done, both because it can strike down attacking units with its three  icons and because its Reaction ability makes the Executor its own best defender: “After a card is sacrificed, deal 1 damage to a target enemy unit or objective.”

Currently in Star Wars : The Card Game, the “sacrifice” mechanic is owned primarily by those noble heroes of the Rebel Alliance who are willing to pay with their lives to ensure greater victories. Cards like Heroic Sacrifice ( Core Set , 47) and You’re My Only Hope ( Core Set , 167) reward light side players with tremendous benefits from their units’ timely sacrifices. Several other light side cards support this theme, but the Executor allows dark side players to twist and corrupt this mechanic. If light side players want to use any of their sacrifice effects while the Executor is in play, they’ll have to pay twice. They’ll pay the standard sacrifice, and then they’ll suffer as the Executor deals a targeted point of damage to an enemy unit or objective.

Even better, the objective set in which the Executor appears also introduces several cards that the dark side player can sacrifice. One of them, the Sith Holocron ( Escape from Hoth , 310), can even help the dark side player get his Super Star Destroyer into position far faster than the light side might anticipate. Another card in the objective set, Aggression ( Escape from Hoth , 311), not only allows the dark side player to sacrifice its own unit, it forces the light side player to sacrifice a unit, too. And the Executor , hovering ominously above the battle in space, will make the light side suffer for both sacrifices.

At nineteen thousand meters long and loaded with more than five thousand weapon emplacements, the Executor is an impressive personal flagship for Darth Vader, and its icons and abilities ensure that it will be as feared and respected in Star Wars : The Card Game as it was in the movies.

Hoth Under Siege

The Force Packs of The Hoth Cycle introduce objectives with the Hoth trait and other cards to develop the ice planet as a real location in the game. Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back , they depict the establishment of the Rebellion’s Echo Base and the subsequent siege staged by Imperial forces. With their Star Destroyers, AT-ATs, snowtrooper legions, and vast resources, the Imperials look to snuff out the Rebellion once and for all.

Against the vast Imperial armada, the Rebels have their bravery and cunning, their snowspeeders, and their heavy transports. Soon, players of Star Wars : The Card Game will be able to decide their own battles for the fate of Hoth, and Escape from Hoth is the exciting conclusion to this series of expansions!

Look for Escape from Hoth to arrive at retailers early in the third quarter of 2013.

The characters, starships, and situations of the original Star Wars trilogy come to life in Star Wars : The Card Game , a head-to-head Living Card Game ® of tactical combat and strategic planning that allows two players to wage cinematic combats between the light and dark sides of the Force.

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