Hi all - many of you may have noticed the following text at the bottom of page 2 of the campaign guide (the last paragraph before the "stop!" At the bottom of the page):

"TIME PERIOD

Each campaign in Imperial Assault is associated with a time period, represented by a number. This corresponds to time period numbers found on certain Side Mission cards.

During campaign setup, do not use any Side Mission cards that do not include the range number associated with the campaign. For this campaign, the time period is 3, and none of the Side Mission cards contained in the core game need to be set aside."

By now we hopefully should all have read the opening scrawl which makes it clear we are right at the end of episode 4 on Yavin 4 immediately after the destruction of the Death Star by the rebels.

So if this is time period 3 then firstly does this indicate we are not at the beginning of the story as FFG wishes to tell it?

Secondly - how big are these time periods going to be? Will time period 2 be the clone wars or do you think that FFG is going to put the time periods around key points in time so The Battle of Yavin itself will be Time period 2 up until the destruction of the Death Star?

Clone Wars is definitely out, because the side mission enabling the Imperial player to recruit Vader can be played in time period 1. This means that it can't start any earlier than the end of RotS.

The best way to gauge the time periods is to look at the mission cards that have time periods on them. I would give examples, but I am at work. For example, the cards that give you luke, han and chewy have tie periods that you can use them in. Those are the time periods that those heroes are around.

Time Period 2 is definitely not the Clone Wars, not just because of Vader, but also because of Han, who is a 2-4.

Rifling through my cards;

Story: No time frames listed

Agendas:

• All Core Set Agendas have no timeframe. Note that "Imperial Industry" has no timeframe, which to me implies that the scope of this game will encompass the Galactic Empire as seen through Episodes IV-VI, leaving potential inclusion for Episode VII if the plot is relevant, but that's just a big "if" that I don't want to editorialize here.
• "Dark Obsession" is 1-6 (Reward: Darth Vader(Lord of the Sith) Villain)

Side Missions:

• Hero-specific missions are only restricted to having that specific hero in the party
• "Sorry About the Mess" is 2-4 (Reward: Han Solo(Scoundrel) Ally)
• "The Spice Job" is 2-7 (Reward: Chewbacca(Loyal Wookiee) Ally)
• "Homecoming" is 3-4 (Reward: Luke Skywalker(Hero of the Rebellion) Ally)
• "Sympathy for the Rebellion" is 3-4 (Reward "The Ways of the Force" Reward Card)

So with that being said, here is how I'm interpreting this;

The numbers are part of an as-yet undisclosed timeline of Star Wars canon. By canon, to get this out of the way, I'm assuming that FFG is working with some kind of roadmap from LFL on what is/isn't canon, and let's not get into that here. I'm just going to spitball some ideas for clarity's sake.

So Vader starts at 1, and so does Chewie. We know that Darth Vader (as depicted in the game) and Chewie appear in Revenge of the Sith, which is coincidentally also when the Galactic Empire forms. "1" will refer to this period of time, at the earliest.

EDIT: Looking again, I realize Chewie starts at "2" but my above point about "1" being Revenge of the Sith's conclusion at the earliest (ie-no Clone Wars) still stands.

Luke doesn't appear until "3", which is when this game starts, which is right after the Battle of Yavin, so that is basically consistent with A New Hope.

From this I conclude that "1" and "2" are periods of time between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. How close or far from the beginning of A New Hope is up for speculation, but if we establish that Han is 29 in A New Hope (according to Wookieepedia), then "2" can't likely be too far before A New Hope, as Han's age has to be considered.

So the first thing to ponder is, let's say "2" is probably at most ,5BBY and "3" is BY, how far back is "1"?

Next, you'll notice that Vader and Chewie both make it to "6", with Chewie going on to "7". We can imagine "6" is the conclusion of Return of the Jedi, where Vader dies.

From this, let's assume that the original trilogy of movies runs from "3" to "6" in terms of the Imperial Assault campaign timelines.

Now, let's also take a peak at Luke and Han's side missions and note that they specifically cap at "4". I would assume in Han's case, this is to represent the time he spends in carbonite, and that another "General Solo" version of Han will surface somewhere along the way, possibly at the "6" mark, since he is thawed out just in time for the big finish where Vader dies.

In the case of Luke, I can see "Hero of the Rebellion" capping out at "4" which we can assume is the events of The Empire Strikes Back, where he will grow into a stronger user of the Force, so expect to see an "Empire" version of Luke that starts in the "4" band and goes to "6", just in time to become a Jedi, like his father before him, at the "6" band.

I think it's a no brainer to imagine later expansions/Ally packs with Luke as he appears in Empire and Jedi, with appropriate Deployment cards and side missions.

Speaking of timelines, can we look forward to a Ben Kenobi in the "1" and "2" band? It would sort of break the idea of the story since he's chilling in a hut this whole time, hiding from the Empire, but he does appear on at least two of the included cards in the game.

Will Lando appear in the "4" band?

With all this brewing in my head, here's my hope; a Shadows of the Empire expansion, probably starting at the "5" band. Xizor, Guri, Dash, Leebo. Toss in Leia if she isn't out by then, some more scum groups and it writes itself.

Based on the above speculation

1: Pre "A New Hope"

2: "A New Hope"

3: Between "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back"

4: "Empire Strikes Back"

5: Between "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"

6: "Return of the Jedi"

7: Post "Return of the Jedi"

Based on the above speculation

1: Pre "A New Hope"

2: "A New Hope"

3: Between "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back"

4: "Empire Strikes Back"

5: Between "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"

6: "Return of the Jedi"

7: Post "Return of the Jedi"

I feel like "2" will pre-date A New Hope, since "3" is when Luke becomes useable in the game, and shows up in the movie. Han being at "2" could account for any shenanigans that he and Chewie get up to on behalf of the Rebeliion before A New Hope begins.

For "2" to be A New Hope, you're not accounting for Luke's adventures against the Empire; escaping Mos Eisley, infiltrating the Death Star, then getting into a dogfight above the Death Star before ultimately blowing it up.

Otherwise, yes, I'm with you on that;

1-2: predate "A New Hope" for an unknown time, no longer than "Revenge of the Sith"

3: "A New Hope" time, plus or minus a few months on either side?

4: "The Empire Strikes Back", with some time before the movie begins

5: Time between "Empire" and "Jedi", the above-referenced "Shadows of the Empire" era

6: "Return of the Jedi"

7: Whatever comes after "Return of the Jedi"

It would be interesting if FFG would elaborate on the timeline more, but realistically, when the next expansion releases, we should know more, as we'll have new agendas and stories to flesh out those ideas with.

By "next expansion" I obviously don't mean the Ally/Villain pack releases they currently have on deck.

I'm hoping period 1 or 2 is the Rebels cartoon, and that the Ghost crew will actually be the playable heroes of that campaign and not just allies like Luke & co.

I'm hoping period 1 or 2 is the Rebels cartoon, and that the Ghost crew will actually be the playable heroes of that campaign and not just allies like Luke & co.

That's sort of what I'm feeling as well, in terms of timeline, but bringing in the crew of the Ghost has its own complications;

• They would have to change the art style from Rebels to match the more realistic tone of Imperial Assault, which could be either good or bad, depending on the individual
• Would FFG even be allowed to change the art style from a branding perspective, for instance giving Aladdin Ezra a cure for his Disney Eyes?
• This theoretical product would surely have to be entirely contained in one SKU, rather than sprinkling the characters throughout other expansions. How would this impact sales?

Personally, while I enjoy watching Rebels over some coffee and breakfast in the morning, I'm not exactly doing cartwheels for it either. If the next Imperial Assault announcement was that they were making a Rebels expansion, I probably wouldn't be terribly excited. Sure, the Inquisitor would be cool to have, to flesh out the Empire more with some interesting thematic missions/agendas, I just don't dig on the idea of having too many "exiled Jedi" running amok in my Original Trilogy era tales.

I give Diala Passil a free pass, because obviously they had to market this game with a Jedi Hero character clearly visible on the box. Even though this takes away from the impression we get from the movies on the status of Jedis in the galaxy, ESPECIALLY with the Rebellion, I also recognize that a happy medium between verisimilitude and lightsabers had to be reached.

Having said that, I like how they handled it; you can level up into some basic Force powers, and if you draw into it, you can even go on a quest to reclaim her master's lightsaber. That, and that alone, should be how a non-Luke Skywalker character in this game (on the Rebels side) should come to have a lightsaber in the campaign. It's not even a sure-thing that you could make this happen in a given campaign;

You'll have 8 side missions, plus however many number of Hero characters there are, giving you a 1 in 10-12 chance that it will come off the deck at the start. Obviously your odds improve for drawing into it each time, but with only room to play out 5 Side Missions, and accounting for the Imperial player hitting you with those Agenda Side Missions and making hard choices about tackling them, it's good to see that running Diala in a campaign doesn't mean an automatic lightsaber, but that's getting off-topic from what we were originally speculating on, which was the timeline numbering system for the game.

Based on the above speculation

1: Pre "A New Hope"

2: "A New Hope"

3: Between "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back"

4: "Empire Strikes Back"

5: Between "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"

6: "Return of the Jedi"

7: Post "Return of the Jedi"

I feel like "2" will pre-date A New Hope, since "3" is when Luke becomes useable in the game, and shows up in the movie. Han being at "2" could account for any shenanigans that he and Chewie get up to on behalf of the Rebeliion before A New Hope begins.

For "2" to be A New Hope, you're not accounting for Luke's adventures against the Empire; escaping Mos Eisley, infiltrating the Death Star, then getting into a dogfight above the Death Star before ultimately blowing it up.

The problem is that the Luke card is "Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion" and he doesn't become a hero of the rebellion until after "A New Hope"

darthjeff81

The problem is that the Luke card is "Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion" and he doesn't become a hero of the rebellion until after "A New Hope"

That's the thing though, as far as thrilling heroics go, and especially as it pertains to the Rebels, he's not doing anything before that either. I doubt they're going to make a "2" band Luke Skywalker, Farmboy just to fill in that niche. To further support this, take a look at the artwork on his Deployment card/token, and the sculpt of the model. Luke is depicted in his classic "A New Hope" look, complete with Stormtrooper rifle, which he is firing on the Death Star. Even the alternate art promo card for the tournament kit shows him in the stolen Stormtrooper costume, so I stand by my assertion that the "3" band, while obviously covering events after "A New Hope" (per the campaign book), also covers at the very least the content of "A New Hope" and perhaps a little bit before.

• They would have to change the art style from Rebels to match the more realistic tone of Imperial Assault, which could be either good or bad, depending on the individual
• Would FFG even be allowed to change the art style from a branding perspective, for instance giving Aladdin Ezra a cure for his Disney Eyes?
• This theoretical product would surely have to be entirely contained in one SKU, rather than sprinkling the characters throughout other expansions. How would this impact sales?

Art style changes aren't something Disney has a huge issue with . Breaking up characters aren't a huge issue either; it would likely be a larger expansion similar to what was done in Descent with up to 4 heroes (basically Ezra and Chopper being chopped out and sold in different smaller expansions as heroes/allies). Essentially the only issue is Kanan starting with a lightsaber, which could be worked around - side mission to find special parts to repair the lightsaber, lightsaber being hidden away and needs to be retrieved, etc.

But anyways. 2 is likely to be some time before A New Hope, and I doubt anything would take place directly during it since the events of that movie probably just lasts a week or so at most and the events create such a drastic change that it'd be weird; that and 3 seems to take place particularly close to being right after the Death Star goes up, so it seems unlikely for 2 to be in-between the very small gap of A New Hope and 3.

Something just occurred to me that throws all this conjecture out the window;

Look at the Agenda card from the Vader pack, the one that lets you run him as an ally if the Imperials win. It's in the "1-6" band. Now peruse the flavour text on the card; blah blah blah, finding Obi-Wan's pupil. Okay, so we could allow that in theory, in the alternate universe of an Imperial Assault campaign, Vader happens upon Luke a lot earlier than in the Death Star trench?

Obviously, the campaign that comes in the box is taking place in the "3" band, as the book states, but that Agenda can get dropped in the "1-6" band, which means in theory, there's a campaign coming somewhere down the line in the "1" band, which still allows for a mission to take place that has flavour text in the setup, wherein you're working on some Imperial sabotage with Luke?

I feel like some kind of contradiction just took place here. The setup specifically says that you cannot bring Luke to the mission, but the flavour text also says, "You accompany Luke Skywalker on a secret sabotage mission. The target is an Imperial stronghold, and your task is to guard the Rebellion's hero " (emphasis is mine).

So Luke's not along for the ride as an Ally in a mechanical sense, which follows everything we talked about above, but the mission's story still calls him out as being involved. My whole theory has tumbled like a house of cards.

Wow - so much info cleared up! I had hoped for a slaughter at the jedi temple using Vader in Era 1 but he does not have his black suit then so I guess the cut off really is the end of Episode 3.

• They would have to change the art style from Rebels to match the more realistic tone of Imperial Assault, which could be either good or bad, depending on the individual
• Would FFG even be allowed to change the art style from a branding perspective, for instance giving Aladdin Ezra a cure for his Disney Eyes?
• This theoretical product would surely have to be entirely contained in one SKU, rather than sprinkling the characters throughout other expansions. How would this impact sales?

Art style changes aren't something Disney has a huge issue with . Breaking up characters aren't a huge issue either; it would likely be a larger expansion similar to what was done in Descent with up to 4 heroes (basically Ezra and Chopper being chopped out and sold in different smaller expansions as heroes/allies). Essentially the only issue is Kanan starting with a lightsaber, which could be worked around - side mission to find special parts to repair the lightsaber, lightsaber being hidden away and needs to be retrieved, etc.

To be fair - it is quite easy to justify him not having a light sabre early on as you can only take 1 weapon in the campaign so he has to choose to take either his pistol or his lightsabre each time he goes out. This also means that you can just start him with his pistol and have his lightsaber as an xp upgrade later with a title like "remember who you really are!"

"Forced to hide his Force-sensitivity, he took the name " Kanan Jarrus" and kept his lightsaber locked away and forsook the Jedi ways for a long time ," -Wiki info.

Something just occurred to me that throws all this conjecture out the window;

Look at the Agenda card from the Vader pack, the one that lets you run him as an ally if the Imperials win. It's in the "1-6" band. Now peruse the flavour text on the card; blah blah blah, finding Obi-Wan's pupil. Okay, so we could allow that in theory, in the alternate universe of an Imperial Assault campaign, Vader happens upon Luke a lot earlier than in the Death Star trench?

Obviously, the campaign that comes in the box is taking place in the "3" band, as the book states, but that Agenda can get dropped in the "1-6" band, which means in theory, there's a campaign coming somewhere down the line in the "1" band, which still allows for a mission to take place that has flavour text in the setup, wherein you're working on some Imperial sabotage with Luke?

I feel like some kind of contradiction just took place here. The setup specifically says that you cannot bring Luke to the mission, but the flavour text also says, "You accompany Luke Skywalker on a secret sabotage mission. The target is an Imperial stronghold, and your task is to guard the Rebellion's hero " (emphasis is mine).

So Luke's not along for the ride as an Ally in a mechanical sense, which follows everything we talked about above, but the mission's story still calls him out as being involved. My whole theory has tumbled like a house of cards.

Hmm - that might be a massive oversight right there... we will have to wait and see how the time line progresses - maybe they will change the text or release a replacement era mission where a different rebellion hero is involved or even a different mission to give a nice big of change?

I think your theory is a good one but this little bit does kind of put some ripples in it.... a big part of me is sad that we will probably not see any clone war official campaigns but there is still hope - creating a group of clone war commando's who gain xp in a campaign could be a great way to do it if we get the decent mission builder for Imperial Assault - among other idea's

Heck - I would not mind seeing the republic as the enemy for a change with some of Palpatines agents out messing with the war

To be fair - it is quite easy to justify him not having a light sabre early on as you can only take 1 weapon in the campaign so he has to choose to take either his pistol or his lightsabre each time he goes out. This also means that you can just start him with his pistol and have his lightsaber as an xp upgrade later with a title like "remember who you really are!"

Actually, you can take two weapons into any mission (though you can own more). So in later missions, he could bring the lightsaber and the pistol. But I like your idea of having it as a class card that you have to spend experience for. It would be neat to see other items beside the starting weapon as part of a class deck.