Empire vs. Rebellion
Announcing an Upcoming Card Game of the Galactic Civil War
“Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they have obtained. This station is now the ultimate power in the universe!” –Admiral Motti, Star Wars: A New Hope
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Star Wars™: Empire vs. Rebellion, an upcoming card game for two players that pits the villainous plots of the Galactic Empire against the heroes of the Rebel Alliance.
A massive civil war shakes the galaxy. On one side of this struggle, the men and women of the Rebel Alliance plan for the day when the Empire will be overthrown. The Rebels are unafraid to use their military might, but clever diplomacy and reconnaissance may accomplish what displays of strength cannot. Opposing the Rebellion is the unlimited power of the Galactic Empire, under the command of Emperor Palpatine. Whether conducting reconnaissance and searching for Rebel spies or crushing insurgents beneath the heel of the Imperial Navy, all the galaxy knows to fear Darth Vader and the Empire.
Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion puts in you in command of the Empire’s unlimited reserves or the heroes of the Rebellion and challenges you to tip the outcome of key events in your favor. Every round, you must extend your might and commit your resources towards taking control of the Galactic Civil War, whether you use military power or diplomatic aplomb to achieve your goals. If you can outwit your opponent’s schemes and claim victory in crucial events, you can shape the future of the entire galaxy!
Take Command
To overthrow the Empire or crush the Rebel Alliance permanently, you will need to demonstrate your superiority by ending several key events in your favor over the course of the game. You win the struggle for an event by employing all the resources at your disposal, whether political connections, military forces, timely reconnaissance, or the Force itself.
At the beginning of each round, Imperial forces clash with the Rebels over a newly revealed event card, such as Escape from Tatooine. On your turn, you will continue the struggle for the revealed event card, utilizing all the contacts, tricks, and martial force at your disposal. When a struggle for an event card first begins, you must establish your forces in the event by drawing the top card of your resource deck and place it in your play area.
Cards in your play area contribute their resource value, shown in the upper left-hand corner, to the current struggle. For example, the Rebel Alliance military resource card shown to the right has a resource value of five. Every event card has an objective value in the lower left-hand corner; Escape from Tatooine, for example, has an objective value of eleven. Your goal is to use your resources and connections to bring your total resource value as close to this event’s objective value as possible without going over. If your resource value surpasses the event’s objective value, you have overcommitted your forces and your opponent easily claims the event.
Ultimate Power
Each turn, you must decide your faction’s best strategy for gaining the upper hand in the current event. You may choose to call for the support of your faction and put another card from your deck in play, but your ability to tip the event in your favor is limited. The number of your cards in play cannot exceed the event’s capacity, shown to the right of its objective value. Likewise, if the total resource value of your cards exceeds the event’s objective value, your efforts are discovered, and the opposing faction wins the event.
Alternatively, you may put your resources into action by using the special power of a resource card currently in play. To trigger a resource card’s power, you must exhaust the card by rotating it 90 degrees clockwise. While a resource card is exhausted, it contributes its exhausted resource value, which is located in the lower-left hand corner of a ready card. Activating your resources’ powers gives you several ways to control the outcome of the event.
A card’s special ability varies based on its type: military, diplomacy, recon, or the Force. Engaging in a military show of force allows you to discard one of your opponent’s resource cards, potentially depriving him of his most useful card. Diplomacy helps you manage your own resource cards by inviting you to discard the exhausted card or one of your other resource cards. Engaging in timely reconnaissance of Empire or Rebellion activities filters your resources or your opponent’s, allowing you to look at the top two cards of a resource deck – discarding one and replacing the other on top of the deck. Finally, drawing upon the Force helps you keep your opponent’s options at a minimum by exhausting one of your opponent’s ready resource cards.
An exhausted card cannot use its power again, but if you’ve already used a card’s power, you may wish to use that power again. Fortunately, the Rebellion has contacts and connections that span the countless worlds of the galaxy, and there are always those willing to sell information to the Empire. Influence tokens represent these connections, and they can be called upon to help you in the struggle for an event. By spending an influence token, you may ready one of your exhausted resource cards, letting you use that card’s power again.
When both the Empire and the Rebellion have completed their operations around a current event, their total resource values are compared. The player who came closest to the event’s objective value without surpassing it claims the event, along with its victory points and extra influence. The player who claims seven victory points from events first is victorious!
Strategies for the Future
Your struggles in the Galactic Civil War gain added depth from the presence of iconic characters and overarching strategies. Key characters like Leia Organa or Boba Fett provide a higher resource value than other resource cards while ready, but if they are exhausted, the resource value they provide plummets to one. Sometimes, however, a lowered resource value is worth the cost of triggering a character’s powerful effect. A single hero can make the difference between a lost cause and a triumphant victory.
Strategy cards offer another way to tip a struggle into your favor. Before a struggle begins, both players secretly choose strategies for their faction in this event. These cards determine your faction’s approach to their operations surrounding the event, and they can drastically change how you choose to play your cards during the struggle. At the end of the struggle, both players reveal their strategy cards, and they take effect, potentially allowing the Empire or the Rebellion to snatch an unlikely victory!
Claim the Galaxy
Your struggle for supremacy may take you to the heart of the Empire, or to the very reaches of the Outer Rim. Wherever the Empire finds the Rebellion, however, a strategic battle must occur. Take command of one faction’s resources in Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion, an upcoming two-player card game! Head to the Empire vs. Rebellion description page for more details, and look for this game of galactic struggles at your local retailer in the third quarter of 2014.