Star Wars: Rebellion – First Impressions

Intensely personal, cinematic, and heroic. Taken straight from FFG’s blurb, these three key words are the perfect summation of not only what FFG hopes to awaken in players but also why Rebellion has been so hotly anticipated since it was announced last year.

I can understand well why they would choose those specific words, after all is that not precisely what made the original trilogy so successful? The intensely personal battle between Luke and Vader, the cinematic wonder of the Death Star run, the heroism of the Ewoks – those are the moments that crystallize in our memories. It was arguably a lack of ‘intensely personal’ that rendered the Prequels in such gloriously infamous CG, and unfortunately we found it lacking in the game as well. The question is however, just how much does the game suffer for it?

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One giant leap for AT-AT kind…

The initial plan was to write this up as a review, but as Stuart and I discussed what we’d just witnessed after his Imperial forces had all but wiped the Rebellion from the face of existence, we knew that a few games weren’t going to be sufficient enough to speak with confidence as to a recommendation. And the more I dwell on it, the more I feel as if an impression will offer far greater value than a review would – for me there are just far too many moving parts to offer a definitive buy/don’t buy this game.

And by moving parts I’m not speaking to the mechanical complexity of the game (it’s actually rather straight forward), but rather the potential barriers to entry. Even for experienced players, Rebellion is a long game. Set up is long. Explaining the rules to new players takes long. Playing the game for the first few times is likely going to take four hours. It’s expensive – R1900 expensive. Sure, so is the average GW game, but GW’s component quality is also on another level. And Rebellion is a two player game. I’m well aware that it says 2 -4 on the box but don’t let that fool you – this is a two player game.

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Sky rockets in flight, an afternoon’s delight indeed

Let’s get the two objectively inexcusable misfires out of the way first. The rulebook for Rebellion is a hot mess. It’s the Boba Fett of rulebooks – impressive looking but ultimately useless. I don’t actually mind FFG’s latest approach in splitting the learning duties between a Learn to Play guide and the more detailed Rules Reference. It worked fine for Runebound and Game of Thrones: The Card Game, but in this instance it just lacks clarity where it’s really needed. If this had been the plans for the Death Star, Jeff Vader’s chain of canteens would have been far more successful.

Secondly, storage. Now I know this is FFG and we’re all used to FFG’s long running ineptitude when it comes to storage solutions, and I’ve made peace with never seeing a decent insert with their logo on it EVER, but honestly for a game with this sort of price tag and with this sort of component list, the least they could have done was include extra baggies. I can’t recall a single game I’ve reviewed in the last year that didn’t come with a generous surplus of baggies. This is not acceptable and we shouldn’t be prepared to accept the ‘it keeps costs down’ excuse. I can still hear Stuart’s artful subversion of the English language at seeing all those miniatures dumped together in a single bag.

There’s a lot of stuff in this box. How much stuff? Well, let’s just say if Han were transporting this box the Kessel Run would have taken a lot longer than 12 Parsecs. A game board so huge they had to split it in 2, 500 plastic miniatures, 223 leaders and 88 dice and 12365 cards and chits. Or at least, it feels like that. And when at last you’ve sorted and separated and managed to outfit the galaxy so that it is poised on a knife-edge, it’s time to figure out how the pieces all fit.

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You’d need to assign at least one leader with at least one Spec Ops icon to attempt this mission

Rebellion is surprisingly simple in action, once you’ve wrestled with that rulebook. The Empire needs to obliterate the Rebel base, and the Rebels need to survive. The Empire will have at its disposal overwhelming numbers and the fury of the most devastating weaponry the galaxy has ever seen, and the Rebels will have decent life insurance with an option for funeral coverage. You think I exaggerate their predicament? The game even has a time track just so the Empire can enjoy the Rebels’ pain in easily digestible chunks.

Once the board has been set up, the first item on the game’s agenda is to trick the Rebel player into believing they have a chance. You’ll choose from one of 26 systems (planets, there are 32 in total but starting Imperial locations are invalid) to conceal your Rebel base – remove the matching system card from the Probe deck, and place it face down under the Rebel base spot. But wait, this sounds like something out of Fury of Dracula?

Yes, Rebellion has an element of the hidden movement genre, and it is awesome. Choosing a location, and the ensuing game of cat and mouse that takes place is one of Rebellion’s two greatest triumphs. The Empire draws 2 cards from the Probe deck at the end of each turn, which are kept hidden – and what results is this beautiful mind game. They know where you aren’t, with increasing accuracy, and you are trying everything in your power to point them in the wrong direction.

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The Objective deck – completing this one would move the Reputation marker one spot closer to the Time marker

Unless the Empire put boots on the ground, you do not have to reveal the Rebel base location, which leads to some delightfully tense moments. The Empire may have stumbled blindly into your system with a Star Destroyer, but since they haven’t taken any Stormtroopers or AT-STs with to deploy to the surface, they are none the wiser. It’s pretty much the equivalent of having a rancor breathing inches from your face without noticing you.

The bread and butter of Rebellion and also the second great triumph, are the Mission cards and the joyous manner in which they interact with the Leaders (yes Duel of the Fates is playing in the background while I type this). Both Rebel and Imperial players will burn through a deck of Mission cards over the course of the game,  allowing them to touch on a host of story beats from the original trilogy and chiefly the way in which your strategy will play itself out. You can undertake anything from constructing a Death Star or capturing Rebel operatives, to seeking out Yoda or building alliances with Rebel sympathisers.

Each of these Missions (you begin the game with six Mission cards in your hand) is resolved by assigning up to two Leaders – essentially the cast of the trilogy in cardboard standee form. Both sides begin the game with 4 Leaders each and will be able to recruit more on each subsequent turn, and these Leaders all have one or more skill such as Diplomacy or Spec Ops. The mission will list a requirement such as 2 Diplomacy which indicates that the mission requires at least 2 matching icons between the Leaders you assign to it. Certain missions will auto resolve, those that list the attempt keyword can be opposed.

As an example, the Rebel player attempts the Infiltration mission by assigning Princess Leia from the Leader pool. The mission requires 1 Intel skill icon, so Leia’s two easily matches. The mission can take place in an system that contains an Imperial unit so Leia is sent to Coruscant. If unopposed the Rebel player will enact the resolution text, but if the Imperial player decides to oppose the mission (their Leader will also need to match the mission skill icon), players would need to roll dice to see who succeeds.

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All the card artwork is highly evocative

I mentioned the mission resolution was the bread and butter? Well it’s the bread and butter pudding – sweet and delicious and moreish. Since both players have a limited pool of Leaders, and as players will alternate between resolving missions, timing and Leader selection are absolutely critical. Has the Empire captured one your strongest leaders? Ah, but you have a rescue mission you can play this turn. But you notice they’ve left two Leaders in their pool to potentially oppose you with, so perhaps you should play the Sabotage mission first hoping they use one of them to oppose you?

It’s a tremendously satisfying game of bluffing and double bluffing, getting into the mind of your opponent, baiting them into making mistakes. It’s also where the bulk of the familiar narrative takes place, only written by your hand. So instead of seducing Luke to the Dark Side, perhaps it’s Han instead, his heart filled with anger at Leia having been frozen in carbonite. Unfortunately, this narrative potency just felt lost on us. It’s novel seeing destiny unfold with such unfamiliar twists, but we felt as if we were watching from afar with no real investment beyond the loss of a tactical option. That intensely personal experience failed to materialise. You could chalk that up to a lack of imagination on our part, but it’s more likely a case of FFG relying a little too heavily on the nostalgia factor. You’re never playing as Luke and there’s not enough coherence to your actions – on one turn Luke succeeds in sabotaging an Imperial system, promptly hops back to your Leader pool and the next turn he’s activating Mon Calamari to move units there from an adjacent system.

Yes, let’s talk about the units shall we? You will be grinning in-Sidious-ly if you’re playing as the Imperials – fleets of Star Destroyers and Tie Fighters and Death Stars in various states of operation await your command. A glance at the game board from turn 3 already conveys a sense of imminent, inevitable failure for the Rebels. But as the Rebel player you still have your courageous Rebel ground units, Speeders and X-Wings and Y-Wings and Shield Generators. The miniatures are all pretty solid and nicely detailed, but in a move so obviously tuned toward pushing a later expansion it leaves a bitter aftertaste, the Millennium Falcon is nothing but a ring token that fits around the standee of whichever Leader it’s assigned to.

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Brilliant Administrator? That’s not how I remember it…

When units from opposite factions are in the same system, combat ensues. All units are classified as either Ground or Space and combat is also divided by those designations. Space battles occur first, then Ground battles between ground troops only. It’s a fairly simple system, dice are rolled depending on which units are participating and all units attack regardless of order – i.e. if the Imperial AT-AT attacks with sufficient damage to destroy a Speeder, the Speeder will still initiate its attack before leaving the board. Any Leaders present in a system engaged in combat will draw Tactic cards according to their Tactic values, Grand Moff Tarkin for example would draw 2 Space tactic cards and 1 Ground tactic cards, which add a level of complexity by either providing additional damage, blocking damage or special abilities activated by rolling a particular side.

Combat is one of Rebellion’s weakest mechanics, mostly due to the fact that it’s almost always weighted heavily against the Rebels. In fairness this is in keeping with the game’s desire to make the Rebel player experience a genuine sense of fighting against all odds, but in practicality it means that combat just isn’t deep, nuanced or all that strategic. When the Rebels do actually manage to eke out a victory, the rarity of the occurrence is certainly cause for celebration, but far too often the end result is a foregone conclusion and going through the motions is just not all that fun.

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More Objective cards, more grand artwork

I’ve tried, and likely failed, to keep this as rules light as possible and there is a lot I haven’t touched on (constructing new units, the build queue, unit movement rules), but before I hit final thoughts if you’ll kindly tolerate one last rules highlight? Because it’s an important one – just how do the Rebels win this game? At the start, and on subsequent turns, the Rebel player will draw Objective cards. If they manage to successfully complete them, the Reputation marker will move a number of spaces toward the Time marker. Should the two ever meet, instant Rebel victory. These Objectives range from sabotaging a certain number of systems or destroying Imperial units, to winning a battle against Darth Vader or destroying a Death Star. They help to focus strategy for each turn, but there’s an element of situational good fortune that will make certain games thrilling and others more of a drudge.

When all is said and done, I think that’s my biggest gripe with Rebellion – I’m not convinced the consistency is there. There will absolutely be games that live up to the grandest of Star Wars stories, the Rebels just doing enough to stymie the Empire, an exhilarating mixture of hit and run tactics and smart diplomacy all culminating in a nail-biting final turn with the Empire on the verge of victory but thwarted at the last second. But for the Rebel player, there will also be games of frustration, games where completing objectives seems constantly out of reach and combat is a never-ending Force Choke.

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Rebel player mat provides all the info for combat and constructing new units

I’m also not sure Rebellion has much to offer beyond the fourth or fifth play. Combat isn’t getting any better until an expansion and though there are certainly ways of combining Leaders and missions and actions that are more effective than others, those combinations are pretty clear. You’re not going to break out the game for the tenth time and see combos you’d never considered before. If I want the hidden location and bluffing aspect, I’d rather play Fury of Dracula. If I want asymmetrical area control and strategic combat, I’d rather play Kemet. If I wanted to relive the narrative richness of a beloved tale, I’d rather play War of the Ring.

And yet. And yet in spending so much time this week analysing the game, breaking it down into its constituent parts, poking for holes and reliving my moments spent with it, I have this overriding need to play it again. Because damn the Empire, those emo pseudo-goth bullying brash jerks. I really want to outsmart their smarmy helmeted faces, I really want to see how audacious I can be when choosing a location for the Rebel base. I really want to blow up a Death Star.

Perhaps my next playthrough will be the one. The curtain will rise and in place of that sense of disconnection, I’ll hear the crackle of Red Leader’s voice in my ear and see the vastness of space unfold beyond the glittering facade of a Star Destroyer under attack. Rebellion wants to love me – it wears exuberance and earnestness on its hallowed sleeves. I just don’t think I love it back.

Thank you to Skycastle for providing a hands-on copy