After the enthusiastic response to the debut of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, there was a strong desire to see more content for the Empire and Rebel factions. Fans immediately began speculating about future expansions and started filling online forums with lists of what they wanted to see added to the game. That was both exciting and encouraging to me because I already had a wish list of my own, and it included all the names that kept appearing on the different forums: R2-D2, C-3PO, Emperor Palpatine, Yoda, Home One, the Executor, and many, many more. There are so many iconic characters and starships in the Star Wars setting that coming up with additional content was never going to be a problem. However, determining the best way to seamlessly integrate that content into the game would take some imagination, and that creative process is what led to the new mission card type.

Now, to understand the important role of missions in the game, we must first outline the specific problem they were created to solve: Each faction is set to receive an additional 25 galaxy cards, but we can’t just add 50 cards to the galaxy deck. Not only would that upset the carefully constructed balance of the game, but it would swell the galaxy deck from an already impressive 90 cards to an unwieldy 140. At that size, the galaxy deck would be in genuine danger of falling over during the game and spilling cards everywhere, especially if sleeved. What we needed was a way to give each player access to their faction’s 25 new reinforcement cards without adding them to the galaxy deck, and that is where missions come in.

Mission cards are the means by which you add your faction’s set-aside reinforcement cards to your deck. Each mission is linked to a reinforcement card and must be completed in order to unlock its corresponding unit or capital ship. To complete a mission, its controlling player places resources on that card equal to its mission point value. This value is highlighted in gold and found at the bottom of the card frame. Missions stay in play until they are completed, and resources placed on them persist as well so that players can invest in them over a series of turns. When a mission is completed, it is added to its controller’s victory pile and its corresponding reinforcements card is placed on top of its controller’s deck.

For example, the Empire mission, Hyperspace Trap , has a mission point value of 9, which means it is completed when there are 9 resources on it. Once completed, the Empire player adds the mission to their victory pile, searches their set-aside stack of reinforcement cards for the capital ship, Interdictor , and places it on top of their deck. That card is now a part of their deck for the rest of the game.

But how do we get missions into play? Before the game begins, each player shuffles their faction’s 25 mission cards together to create their mission deck and places it facedown next to their base deck. Then, each player examines the top 2 cards of their mission deck, chooses one to put into play faceup on top, and places the other one facedown on the bottom. If a player does not have a mission in play at the start of their turn, they repeat this process until they have completed the maximum number of missions for that game. The maximum number is equal to the number of bases required to win the game, so if the players are playing a standard game to 4 bases, then each player can complete up to 4 missions.

During testing, players responded very positively to mission cards, with most noting how easy it was to add them to the game. This was critical to me because a key feature of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game has always been how quickly you can set up and play a 1v1 match, and I didn’t want missions to complicate that. Fortunately, testers said they didn’t notice an increase in setup time or game length when playing with missions, especially after their first couple of games with them.

Something they did notice, however, was how much they enjoyed having somewhere to invest their unspent resources each turn so they didn’t feel wasted. Testers also reported how much they liked the way missions guaranteed them access to a card of their faction even when there were none in the galaxy row. The fact that the unlocked reinforcement card was placed directly on top of their deck as a result of completing its mission was viewed as icing on the cake. Testers consistently commented on how much they enjoyed having immediate access to the cards they had invested in.

But by far the most common piece of feedback testers shared after playing with missions was: “I don’t think I’ll ever go back to playing without them.” I literally could not have asked for a better response than that! I hope that our players feel the same when they get their copy of the Rebel & Empire Reinforcements expansion.

Written by Caleb Grace