Star Wars: Rebellion is a near-perfect expression of the original Star Wars trilogy in board-game form. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Star Wars: Rebellion is an asymmetric two-player game in which one of you plays the Rebels, the other the Empire. The Rebels have to get enough support to kick off a full Rebellion, and do this by blowing up Death Stars, raising the support of worlds and beating up bad guys. All the Empire has to do is find the Rebel base and destroy it. And the Empire has all the best toys, loads of troops and the ability to make Death Stars. It’s a fun game and a really good way of expressing the original trilogy in table top format.
However, since it came out, the movie Rogue One added some additional elements to the storyline. Which is a perfect excuse for Fantasy Flight Games to produce an expansion and add extra elements to an already amazing gaming experience. Stars Wars: Rebellion – Rise of the Empire is adds characters from Rogue One to the game, as well as streamlining the games conflict mechanics, adding new units and mostly just adding more to the game.
It fills in some of the gaps that the core game has. This expansion not only adds Jyn and Cassian from Rogue One, we also get the likes of Jabba to play with. It adds new units as well, ones that, games wise are mostly weaker but cheaper to field, or have more punch but are more vulnerable. Do you as the Rebels field a U-Wing instead of X-Wing? It’s weaker, but it might let you move just the right number of troops out of doomed Hoth in time to fight the Empire elsewhere? Or do you stick to the old reliable tactics? The expansion adds an additional dice-type to reflect this flexibility. Unit combat is more streamlined and cinematic. Combat was never a major element of Rebellion, but with Rise of the Empire, it becomes more fun.
Rise of the Empire also changes the various tactics either side can deploy. With the vanguard units, Rebels can pack more punch, whereas the Empire now has dirty tricks available to it similar to the Rebels. These are balanced, however; the Rebels feel like Rebels (they just fight a bit more dirty) and the Empire can be sneaky and evil bullies at the same time now.
Rise of the Empire is worth it for the improvements in the games combat mechanics, but to be honest, like most good expansions, you’re expected to select the various optional rules to suit your tastes. A solid expansion for a solid board game, but we do hope that expansions won’t be too common for Rebellion; this one adds just enough change to make it worth your while.
STAR WARS: REBELLION – RISE OF THE EMPIRE / DESIGNER COREY KONIECZKA / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
