“Someone must have told them all about my little maneuver at the battle of Taanab.”
   –Lando Calrissian, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Your pilots are in their starfighter cockpits. Your capital ships are fully crewed and ready for action. Interstellar combat and breakneck dogfights come to the forefront of Star Wars™: The Card Game with Ready for Takeoff, now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

As the Rogue Squadron cycle begins, cutting-edge starships and the ace pilots who fly them take their place in the spotlight. The Force Packs of this cycle introduce the new Pilot keyword, allowing you to play Pilot units as enhancements on Vehicles instead of independent units. Every Pilot brings powerful new abilities and a unique style to the starship he flies, and with two brand-new fate cards introduced in this cycle, your edge battles also reach new strategic depths. Ready for Takeoff invites you to take to the stars, and fly alongside iconic characters like Baron Fel, “Mauler” Mithel, and Lando Calrissian.

Card Player, Gambler, Scoundrel

When Han Solo and Leia Organa encounter Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back, he’s a suave, respected politician and the Baron Administrator of Cloud City. But like many characters who make their lives on the galaxy’s Outer Rim, Lando’s past is full of surprising adventures and encounters. One particularly infamous escapade was Lando Calrissian’s “little maneuver” at the Battle of Taanab. In Ready for Takeoff, you can hearken back to that battle and use unorthodox tactics to defeat your opponents in Star Wars: The Card Game. 

The set begins with Memories of Taanab  (Ready for Takeoff, 703). This objective reads, “Reaction: After a target enemy unit with 1 or more edge-enabled combat icons is focused to strike, focus a Pilot card to place 1 focus token on the striking unit.” Since most units in Star Wars: The Card Game have at least one edge-enabled combat icon, Memories of Taanab can help you quickly lock down your opponent’s units, clearing the way for your own units to attack. To trigger this Reaction, you have to focus a Pilot unit, but like Derek "Hobbie" Klivian (Ready for Takeoff, 699), many Pilot units don’t need to be focused to trigger their abilities, meaning that you can focus them without sacrificing combat tricks.

Even if your opponent’s units have no edge-enabled combat icons, Lando’s cunning can still help you neutralize enemy threats. At the Battle of Taanab, Lando Calrissian disabled an entire pirate fleet by jettisoning his cargo of electrified Conner nets. You can do the same with the Conner Net (Ready for Takeoff, 706). This free enhancement is attached to an enemy Vehicle unit, turning its combat icons into edge-enabled combat icons, forcing your opponent to commit more cards to winning the edge battle if he wants his Vehicle to deal damage.

Of course, your supply of Conner Nets is not limitless, and normal combat icons can always pose a threat. That’s where Lando Calrissian (Ready for Takeoff, 704) himself comes in. You can play Lando as a unit to take advantage of his blast damage and tactics icons, or you can pay two resources to attach him to a friendly Vehicle unit. Then, while this Vehicle participates in  an engagement and you have the edge, each enemy unit loses all combat icons! The ability to strip your opponent’s combat icons when you have the edge forces your opponent to completely reconsider how he approaches engagements and edge battles. Once more, your opponent has much more incentive to invest heavily in the edge battle, giving you the chance to pull your own little maneuver.

A Little Maneuver (Ready for Takeoff, 707) invites you to take advantage of your opponent overcommitting to an edge battle. By playing this event after you lose an edge battle, you can end the engagement without further resolution. All cards in edge stacks are discarded, and you have essentially forced your opponent to spend his edge cards for no benefit. If you play A Little Maneuver after your opponent has overcommitted to an edge battle, it can become much easier to win the edge in other engagements.

Inevitably, some damage will slip through to your objectives. You can neutralize these attacks with the help of two System Patrol Craft (Ready for Takeoff, 705) included in this objective set. These light patrol craft can be able defenders, but they also have the “protect Smugglers and Spies objective” ability. With System Patrol Craft you can keep objectives like Raise the Stakes (Edge of Darkness, 322) undamaged and active, and you can also protect damage from objectives like Questionable Contacts (Core Set, 69) or Trust Me (Edge of Darkness, 327), allowing you to use their abilities more than ever before.

Get to Your Starfighters

The pre-flight check is complete and it’s time for takeoff. Whether you fly a TIE fighter with Baron Fel, or fight for the Smugglers and Spies with Lando Calrissian, you can add new Fighters and Pilots to your deck with Ready for Takeoff.

Pick up your copy of Ready for Takeoff at your local retailer today!