Star Wars: Rebellion – Rise of the Empire

Star Wars: Rebellion – Rise of the Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Component List

This rulesheet
44 Mission Cards (24 Imperial, 20 Rebel)
12 Objective Cards
32 Advanced Tactic Cards (16 Imperial, 16 Rebel)
16 Action Cards (8 Imperial, 8 Rebel)
8 Leaders with Stands
2 Attachment Rings
5 Target Markers
3 Green Dice
2 Unit Reference Sheets
36 Plastic Figures (18 Imperial, 18 Rebel)

Expansion Cards

All cards in this expansion are marked with the Rise of the Empire icon.

When using this expansion, remove the following cards from your base game and instead use the replacement cards provided in this expansion:

Sabotage (Rebel mission card)
Son of Skywalker (Rebel action card)
Good Intel (Imperial action card)
Construct Super Star Destroyer (both copies of this Imperial mission card)

These replacement cards have the same name as the base game card and the Rise of the Empire expansion icon.

Using This Expansion

Before using this expansion, shuffle all action and mission cards into their respective decks and use the other cards as listed below. Mix all tokens, dice, figures, and leaders into the supply of unused components.

Setup

When using this expansion, players need to make the following changes to setup (page 15 of the Rules Reference):

Choose Factions and Gather Components: After each player has gathered his faction components, he places his unit reference sheet below his faction sheet. The units shown on this sheet can be built following normal game rules.
Prepare Objective Deck: Replace step 4 of setup with the following rules:
1. Sort the objective cards into three piles according to the number shown on each card back (I, II, or III).
2. Build a stage III deck with 1 "Death Star Plans" card and 4 random stage III cards. Then shuffle this deck.
3. Build a stage II deck with 1 "Death Star Plans" card and 4 random stage II cards. Shuffle these cards and place them on top of the stage III deck.
4. Shuffle the stage I pile and deal 5 random cards onto the top of the stage II deck. Then return all unused objective cards to the game box without revealing them.
Tactic Cards: Remove all of the original tactic cards from the game. Instead, use the advanced tactic cards found in this expansion and the new rules listed in the "Cinematic Combat" section.
Prepare Mission Cards: This expansion includes a new set of mission cards. For your first game using the expansion, players should build their mission decks using only the mission cards that have a Darth Vader icon or a leader icon on the left side of the card.

In future games, players choose which mission cards they wish to use (see "Choosing Mission Sets" on page 02).

All starting mission cards and project cards are used during every game. The Rise of the Empire project cards are shuffled into the project deck.
Place Starting Units and Loyalty: After placing starting loyalty during step 8 of setup, players must agree on whether to use the starting unit list from the base game or the Rise of the Empire starting units (see next column).

Target Markers

Target markers are used by objective cards and mission cards. The artwork on the marker matches the artwork on the corresponding card.

Each target marker is placed in a system as instructed by the card.

Removing Target Markers

When a player has a ground unit in a system containing a target marker and his opponent does not have any ground units there, he can remove the marker. Return the marker to the supply of unused tokens. The marker's card will specify if there is any special effect to resolve as a result of removing the token.

When a system is destroyed, all target markers in the system are also removed and the effect for removing them is resolved.

Green Dice

Some units and leaders roll green dice. These dice have 2 direct hit icons on them and no other icons. During combat, this icon can assign damage to any unit in that battle as normal.

There are only 3 green dice in the game. A player cannot roll more than 3 green dice when attempting a mission or rolling dice in combat. These dice can be used in addition to the maximum of 5 red dice and 5 black dice rolled in combat or a mission.

When an ability asks a player to roll dice, always use red or black dice unless specified otherwise. For example, the Rebel player rolls red or black dice when resolving the "Death Star Plans" objective card.

Minor Skills

Some leaders have minor skill icons. Minor skills are represented on leaders by small skill icons.

Each minor skill icon allows the leader to roll 1 green die when involved in a mission. For example, when Jabba the Hutt resolves an intel mission, he rolls 2 regular dice (red or black) and 1 green die.

Minor skill icons count toward fulfilling skill requirements on mission cards. For example, Jabba the Hutt can attempt missions that require up to 3 intel or 3 diplomacy.

Jabba the Hutt has 4 normal skills and 2 minor skills.

Leader Pool Limit

If a player ever has more than 8 leaders in his leader pool, he must choose 8 to keep and eliminate the excess (remove them from the game).

When playing a team game, each team is limited to 8 leaders. If a team has more than 8 leaders in their pools, they must choose 8 to keep and eliminate the excess. If one player has more leaders than his teammate, the excess leaders must be chosen from his pool.

Immediate Objectives

Some objective cards have the word "Immediate" in bold at the top of the card. When one of these cards is drawn into the Rebel player's hand, he immediately reveals and resolves the ability. The card will provide reputation at a future time, as explained on the card.

An immediate objective stays in play while at least one of its corresponding target markers is on the board. When all of its target markers are removed, discard the objective card.

Unit Abilities

Some of the units in this expansion have special rules that apply to them.

Shield Bunker

Shield bunkers provide a number of different benefits:

Death Star Protection: Death Stars and Death Stars Under Construction cannot be destroyed, dealt damage, or assigned damage while in the same system as a Shield Bunker. This makes them immune to the "Death Star Plans" objective card. As soon as all Shield Bunkers in a system are destroyed, this ability no longer applies.
Easy Deployment: In addition to normal deployment rules, a Shield Bunker may be deployed to any system that contains at least 1 Imperial ground unit and does not contain any Rebel units. The planet's loyalty does not matter.
Local Reinforcement: When a Shield Bunker is in a remote system that does not contain any Rebel units, the Imperial player may deploy units to that system as if it were a loyal system. This cannot be used during the build step in which the Shield Bunker is deployed. Note that deploying a Death Star to this system counts toward the limit of deploying 2 units during the Refresh Phase.

Interdictor

Rebel units cannot retreat from a system that contains an Interdictor. Rebel abilities that provide additional ways to retreat cannot be used in an Interdictor's system. As soon as all Interdictors in their system are destroyed, this ability no longer applies.

Building Units

Both players now have more options for the units they can build. If players encounter a timing conflict when choosing which units to build during the refresh phase, the Rebel player chooses which units to place on the build queue first, followed by the Imperial player.

Destroying and Moving Structures

All immobile ground units are structures. Normally, if a player's only remaining ground units in a system are structures, and his opponent still has ground units in the system, these structures are destroyed. However, if a player rolled at least one die in this theater's battle this round, his structures are not destroyed and another round of combat is resolved.

Some abilities allow a player to move his opponent's units or force his opponent to move units. These abilities cannot be used to move structures.

Preventing Hits

Some tactic cards prevent hits or direct hits. These abilities take effect at the start of the "Assign Damage" step. Before assigning damage, the opponent must remove dice matching the icons shown.

Example: The Imperial player plays a card that prevents 2 black hits. The Rebel player rolls his dice and gets the following results: 3 black hits, 1 red hit, 1 black direct hit. Two of his black dice that rolled hits are removed. The Rebel player is left with 1 black hit, 1 red hit, and 1 black direct hit.

Destroying and Damaging Units

Some tactic cards destroy units. When a unit is destroyed by a tactic card, it will not roll dice during this round. This unit is removed after both players have resolved their tactic cards. This means that the unit can be used to match the unit requirement on the player's tactic card.

When using cinematic combat rules, skip the "Destroy Units" step of attacks. Instead, units are destroyed if they have damage equal to or exceeding their health at the end of that round of battle (after all units in that theater have attacked). Use damage tokens to track how much damage has been assigned to each unit.

If a player's card deals damage, he places a damage token on a unit of his choice. If a color is specified, the damage must be dealt to a unit whose health matches that color. If a card deals more than one damage, it can be split among multiple units unless the card specifies one unit.

Removing Damage

A player may spend a die with a special icon as a combat action to remove one damage from one of his units. To track this, remove a damage token from the unit. The damage must be removed from a unit whose health matches the color of the die. Special icons cannot be spent to draw or play tactic cards.

Since units are not destroyed until the end of the round of battle, a player may be able to save a unit from being destroyed by removing damage.

Example: A unit that has 1 red health is dealt 1 damage. Later in the battle, a player spends 1 red special icon to remove 1 damage from the unit and prevent its destruction.

Canceling Cards

When a player's tactic card is canceled, he cannot resolve any of the abilities on it. Although the current player usually resolves his tactic card first, if the defender's card uses the word cancel, the defender resolves his card first.

If a player has the ability to play an additional card, the additional card cannot be canceled and cannot be used to cancel another card.

Cinematic Combat

This expansion includes new combat rules and advanced tactic cards that have thematic and exciting effects. The Rebel and Imperial players each have their own ground and space tactic decks which allow their units to resolve unique effects.

When using this expansion, players use the advanced tactic cards instead of the tactic cards found in the base game. These cards are used as follows:

Advanced Tactic Cards

During the "Draw Tactic Cards" step of combat, each player picks up his tactic decks and may look through them. These decks are never shuffled; a player has access to all of his cards, except for those in his discard pile.

Before the first step of each round of space battle and each round of ground battle, resolve the following steps:

Each player simultaneously chooses 1 tactic card from his deck that matches the current theater and places it facedown.
After both players have chosen their cards, they simultaneously turn their cards faceup.
Starting with the current player, each player chooses and resolves the top or bottom ability of his tactic card.

Some abilities are preceded by a unit icon. These abilities can only be resolved if there is at least 1 unit of that type in the system. (The top ability requires a TIE Fighter.) The "Swarm Tactics" card's top ability reads "If there are more Imperial fighters than Rebel fighters, deal 2 damage." Its bottom ability reads "Deal 1 black damage."

Players then continue resolving the battle as normal, starting with the current player rolling dice to resolve his attack.

Players cannot play advanced tactic cards during an attack. Advanced tactic cards are only played at the start of each round of battle as described above.

After a player resolves an advanced tactic card, he discards it faceup next to its deck. Tactic cards in a discard pile are not shuffled back into the deck at the end of the combat. Instead, after a player uses the last tactic card from his deck, he returns all cards from that card's discard pile to his deck (except for the card he just resolved).

Any player can examine tactic cards in a discard pile at any time.

Leader Reroll Action

When using cinematic combat rules, leader tactic values do not dictate the number of cards players draw at the start of combat. Instead, as a combat action, a player can choose to reroll a number of his dice up to his leader's tactic value in that theater.

All dice are chosen and rerolled at once. Each die can only be rerolled once per attack using tactic values. If a player has multiple leaders in the system, he uses only the highest ground and space values of his leaders in the system. A player can use this action once during each of his attacks.

Additional Cinematic Combat Rules

Players obey all combat rules from the base game except as listed below:

If an ability lets a player draw tactic cards, he retrieves that many cards of his choice from his discard pile and returns them to his deck.

The Shield Generator's unit ability to draw one card is resolved immediately before players choose their ground tactic cards.
Advanced tactic cards only affect units in the card's theater that are in the system in which the combat is being resolved unless specified.
Advanced tactic card abilities last until the end of that round of battle.
Each player must play one advanced tactic card each round of battle. A player may choose not to resolve any abilities and discard the card.
Some cards change the order in which players attack (e.g., make the defender roll dice first). This effect lasts until the end of the combat or until an effect changes the order again.

Choosing Mission Sets

After playing their first game with this expansion, players can choose whether they wish to use the Rise of the Empire set of mission cards or the set of mission cards from the base game.

At the end of step 7 of setup, the Rebel player and Imperial player each choose any one card from their mission decks and place them facedown. Players simultaneously reveal their cards.

Each player that revealed a card that has a Darth Vader icon on it will use the Rise of the Empire set of mission cards this game. They remove all cards from the deck that do not have a leader icon or Darth Vader icon.

Each player that revealed a card that has a leader icon or no icon is using the base set of mission cards this game. They remove all cards from the mission deck that have a Darth Vader icon.

The mission card icons are used as follows:

Leader Icon (always use): Attempt against a captured leader. If successful, the Rebel player must reveal his hand of objective cards. Choose 1 of these cards to place on the bottom of the objective deck.
No Icon (base game set): Attempt against a captured leader. If successful, this leader is rescued. The Rebel player must place this leader in any system in the Rebel base's region.
Darth Vader Icon (Rise of the Empire set): This is the icon that identifies a card from the Rise of the Empire set of mission cards.

All removed cards are returned to the game box and are not used during this game.

All starting mission cards and project cards are used during every game.

When playing a team game, the General chooses his faction's mission set during setup.

Card Clarifications

A few cards in this expansion break base game rules and need additional clarification as explained below:

Subversion Mission

Unlike other missions, the "Subversion" mission is never attempted. Instead, a player reveals and resolves this card when his opponent attempts a mission (during the "Send Leaders to Oppose" step). The leaders assigned to this mission will oppose the opponent's mission.

Up to two leaders can be assigned to this mission.
Unlike other missions, players can reveal their "Subversion" missions after passing in the command phase.
A player can oppose a mission using both a leader from his leader pool and leaders from a "Subversion" mission. A player can only resolve one "Subversion" mission per opponent's mission.
When a player uses a "Subversion" mission, it does not count as that player resolving his turn. (It is used during his opponent's turn.)
"Subversion" missions can only be used against missions that are "attempted," not missions that use the word "resolve."
Leaders assigned to a "Subversion" mission are unaffected by the Rebel "Misdirection" mission.

Sweep the Area and Secret Facility

These action cards use the probe cards that the Imperial player has acquired during the game. These action cards remain in play until the probe card is revealed and their abilities are resolved.

These action cards do not require the matching leader to be in the system to resolve them.