Hey guys we just had our first session, 8 hours, and although we've been back and forth through the rule book I was hoping you could help me clarify some rules.

1. Can you move units farther than to an adjacent system? ie. Like in Risk, moving your whole army so long as you have a path of connected systems. Or is the only way to move units through placing a Leader in a system and then moving allied units in adjacent systems via transports?

2. If you have a leader who has finished a mission in a system, can that leader then activate the system? participate in combat or other missions?

3. Can you have a subjugated system with no imperial units there? ie. After completing a mission, and returning the leader, the system is left empty but subjugated.

4. Can you have two leaders of the same faction in systems adjacent to eachother?

5. Can all leaders of the same faction and who have the required skill participate in a mission combat? ie. add their skill points to the dice pool.

6. Once a leader is on the board and completed their loyalty/subjugation or quest, can they move to another location to particpate in ie. combat? Mission "combat"?

7. Is the maximum amount of dice in combat (space and ground) 5? If you have loads of units, how do you decide which dice to use?

8. Palpatine tried to convert Luke to the Darkside. The mission stated "Count all skill icons during this attempt". Palpatine had an auto +2 plus 3 dice. Luke Jedi (with Yoda) used "all skill icons" to oppose, 5 dice. Is this right?

9. For the Empire player, how to you convert a subjugated system into a loyal system, hence opening up both units as opposed to only the farthest to the left. (most AT-AT's are the farthest to the right)

10. In order to initiate a mission, must you place the leader on that mission face down, and then place them in a system to do the mission? If you choose not to use a Leader for a Mission what can you do with them, apart from saving them to oppose the other factions missions?

I know it's a lot, but I've read the rules front to back, and I'd love to have these cleared up before the next session. I got crushed by my 9 year old Imperial in round 5 when he discovered my rebel base on Endor.

Hey guys we just had our first session, 8 hours, and although we've been back and forth through the rule book I was hoping you could help me clarify some rules.

1. Can you move units farther than to an adjacent system? ie. Like in Risk, moving your whole army so long as you have a path of connected systems. Or is the only way to move units through placing a Leader in a system and then moving allied units in adjacent systems via transports?

1A. Correct on the second, wrong on the first.

2. If you have a leader who has finished a mission in a system, can that leader then activate the system? participate in combat or other missions?

2A The leader cannot activate the system. The leader can use tactics. The leader contributes icons to missions in system.

3. Can you have a subjugated system with no imperial units there? ie. After completing a mission, and returning the leader, the system is left empty but subjugated.

3A A system is only subjugated when imperial ground troops are moved to that planet (they must first defeat any rebel forces present.) Should the leader which activated the system leave, and ground troops remain, the system is still subjugated.

4. Can you have two leaders of the same faction in systems adjacent to eachother?

4A Of course. You can even have two leaders of the same faction in the same system (sending two on the same mission, sending a leader to attempt a mission in a system where you already have a leader etc...)

5. Can all leaders of the same faction and who have the required skill participate in a mission combat? ie. add their skill points to the dice pool.

5A You can send up to two leaders on one mission, and any friendly leaders in the system of said mission which has the required skill, may add their icons (dice) to the mission to a maximum of 10 dice (likewise enemy leaders already in system with appropriate skill icons may oppose. Any enemy leaders already there do not prevent the enemy from sending a leader to oppose from the leader pool.)

6. Once a leader is on the board and completed their loyalty/subjugation or quest, can they move to another location to particpate in ie. combat? Mission "combat"?

6A Only if they have a very special card. Once a leader lands in a system they almost always remain there until the beginning of the refresh phase.

7. Is the maximum amount of dice in combat (space and ground) 5? If you have loads of units, how do you decide which dice to use?

7A Your player board tells you how many dice each unit in the battle contributes. Tie fighters = 1 black dice. Assault Carriers = 1 black & 1 red dice. Star destroyers = 1 black and 2 red dice. Different units take damage according to color. Fighters take black damage. Capital ships take red damage. Maximum number of dice is 10. As units are destroyed your dice pool will shrink.

8. Palpatine tried to convert Luke to the Darkside. The mission stated "Count all skill icons during this attempt". Palpatine had an auto +2 plus 3 dice. Luke Jedi (with Yoda) used "all skill icons" to oppose, 5 dice. Is this right?

8A I believe all icons means all icons for both sides.

9. For the Empire player, how to you convert a subjugated system into a loyal system, hence opening up both units as opposed to only the farthest to the left. (most AT-AT's are the farthest to the right)

9A The Empire's starter mission "Rule by Fear". Send Palpatine/Vader/Tarkin to subjugated system with "Rule By Fear" mission and roll as many dice as you have yellow icons. If successful, you gain 1 loyalty in this system. If system is neutral + Subjugated, it becomes loyal. If system is Rebel aligned + subjugated it becomes neutral + subjugated.

10. In order to initiate a mission, must you place the leader on that mission face down, and then place them in a system to do the mission? If you choose not to use a Leader for a Mission what can you do with them, apart from saving them to oppose the other factions missions?

10A During assignment phase the Rebel player lays down as many missions as he/she would like, placing leaders on top of each mission. Then the Empire player does the same. In command phase you can decide which mission to do first, second and so on. If you decide not to do a mission, you pass and those leaders will not be used this round. Leader still in the leader pool when you pass can no longer activate a system, but they may still oppose a mission or lead troops in a defensive battle.

I know it's a lot, but I've read the rules front to back, and I'd love to have these cleared up before the next session. I got crushed by my 9 year old Imperial in round 5 when he discovered my rebel base on Endor.

Hey guys we just had our first session, 8 hours, and although we've been back and forth through the rule book I was hoping you could help me clarify some rules.

1. Can you move units farther than to an adjacent system? ie. Like in Risk, moving your whole army so long as you have a path of connected systems. Or is the only way to move units through placing a Leader in a system and then moving allied units in adjacent systems via transports?

1A. Correct on the second, wrong on the first.

2. If you have a leader who has finished a mission in a system, can that leader then activate the system? participate in combat or other missions?

2A The leader cannot activate the system. The leader can use tactics. The leader contributes icons to missions in system.

3. Can you have a subjugated system with no imperial units there? ie. After completing a mission, and returning the leader, the system is left empty but subjugated.

3A A system is only subjugated when imperial ground troops are moved to that planet (they must first defeat any rebel forces present.) Should the leader which activated the system leave, and ground troops remain, the system is still subjugated.

4. Can you have two leaders of the same faction in systems adjacent to eachother?

4A Of course. You can even have two leaders of the same faction in the same system (sending two on the same mission, sending a leader to attempt a mission in a system where you already have a leader etc...)

5. Can all leaders of the same faction and who have the required skill participate in a mission combat? ie. add their skill points to the dice pool.

5A You can send up to two leaders on one mission, and any friendly leaders in the system of said mission which has the required skill, may add their icons (dice) to the mission to a maximum of 10 dice (likewise enemy leaders already in system with appropriate skill icons may oppose. Any enemy leaders already there do not prevent the enemy from sending a leader to oppose from the leader pool.)

6. Once a leader is on the board and completed their loyalty/subjugation or quest, can they move to another location to particpate in ie. combat? Mission "combat"?

6A Only if they have a very special card. Once a leader lands in a system they almost always remain there until the beginning of the refresh phase.

7. Is the maximum amount of dice in combat (space and ground) 5? If you have loads of units, how do you decide which dice to use?

7A Your player board tells you how many dice each unit in the battle contributes. Tie fighters = 1 black dice. Assault Carriers = 1 black & 1 red dice. Star destroyers = 1 black and 2 red dice. Different units take damage according to color. Fighters take black damage. Capital ships take red damage. Maximum number of dice is 10. As units are destroyed your dice pool will shrink.

8. Palpatine tried to convert Luke to the Darkside. The mission stated "Count all skill icons during this attempt". Palpatine had an auto +2 plus 3 dice. Luke Jedi (with Yoda) used "all skill icons" to oppose, 5 dice. Is this right?

8A I believe all icons means all icons for both sides.

9. For the Empire player, how to you convert a subjugated system into a loyal system, hence opening up both units as opposed to only the farthest to the left. (most AT-AT's are the farthest to the right)

9A The Empire's starter mission "Rule by Fear". Send Palpatine/Vader/Tarkin to subjugated system with "Rule By Fear" mission and roll as many dice as you have yellow icons. If successful, you gain 1 loyalty in this system. If system is neutral + Subjugated, it becomes loyal. If system is Rebel aligned + subjugated it becomes neutral + subjugated.

10. In order to initiate a mission, must you place the leader on that mission face down, and then place them in a system to do the mission? If you choose not to use a Leader for a Mission what can you do with them, apart from saving them to oppose the other factions missions?

10A During assignment phase the Rebel player lays down as many missions as he/she would like, placing leaders on top of each mission. Then the Empire player does the same. In command phase you can decide which mission to do first, second and so on. If you decide not to do a mission, you pass and those leaders will not be used this round. Leader still in the leader pool when you pass can no longer activate a system, but they may still oppose a mission or lead troops in a defensive battle.

I know it's a lot, but I've read the rules front to back, and I'd love to have these cleared up before the next session. I got crushed by my 9 year old Imperial in round 5 when he discovered my rebel base on Endor.

Right on all counts. And in regards to cards that say "count all skill icons" you roll dice equal to all skill icons involved. So jedi luke would roll 5 dice 3 for intel and 2 for spec ops.

The only item I will clarify is:

7. Is the maximum amount of dice in combat (space and ground) 5? If you have loads of units, how do you decide which dice to use?

7A Your player board tells you how many dice each unit in the battle contributes. Tie fighters = 1 black dice. Assault Carriers = 1 black & 1 red dice. Star destroyers = 1 black and 2 red dice. Different units take damage according to color. Fighters take black damage. Capital ships take red damage. Maximum number of dice is 10. As units are destroyed your dice pool will shrink.

The maximum number is 5 black AND 5 red (for 10 total). There is no choice here. If I have 6 TIE Fighters (6 black) and a Death Star (4 red) I would be rolling 5 black dice and 4 red dice.

Great summary, very helpful!

I do have two questions.

Can a leader abandon their mission (I.e. I have that leader on a mission card yet to be executed), to oppose a mission by your opponent?

If I send a leader to a system for a mission and my opponent opposed that mission, is that system activated? And therefore he cannot move units out of that system?

thanks!

8 hours ago, flightmaster101 said:

Great summary, very helpful!

I do have two questions.

Can a leader abandon their mission (I.e. I have that leader on a mission card yet to be executed), to oppose a mission by your opponent?

If I send a leader to a system for a mission and my opponent opposed that mission, is that system activated? And therefore he cannot move units out of that system?

thanks!

Hi.

For your first question, no, the leaders assigned to missions cannot be sent to opose missions that turn. If you don't want to do that mission, the leader stands there until the end of the turn when he comes back to your leader pool and the missions goes back to your hand.

If you send a leader to a system for a mission, that system is not activated so you cannot move units from adjacent systems there. Also you (or your oponent in case he/she sends one of their leaders to opose) won't be able to move units from that system for the rest of the turn as there will be one of your leaders in the system.

Hope this helps.

4 hours ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:

Hi.

For your first question, no, the leaders assigned to missions cannot be sent to opose missions that turn. If you don't want to do that mission, the leader stands there until the end of the turn when he comes back to your leader pool and the missions goes back to your hand.

If you send a leader to a system for a mission, that system is not activated so you cannot move units from adjacent systems there. Also you (or your oponent in case he/she sends one of their leaders to opose) won't be able to move units from that system for the rest of the turn as there will be one of your leaders in the system.

Hope this helps.

Awesome thanks!

we couldn't find a clear definition of leader pool so we've been abandoning missions to oppose, but this will add another layer of strategy now.

question 2 is like I thought, because I had purposely been doing missions in high volume systems to trick my opponent into locking his own system down. We of course had a disagreement when he wanted to oppose then invade using that systems fleet.

thanks!

3 hours ago, flightmaster101 said:

Awesome thanks!

we couldn't find a clear definition of leader pool so we've been abandoning missions to oppose, but this will add another layer of strategy now.

question 2 is like I thought, because I had purposely been doing missions in high volume systems to trick my opponent into locking his own system down. We of course had a disagreement when he wanted to oppose then invade using that systems fleet.

thanks!

I leave you the quoutes from the RRG in case your friends doesn't believe you

RRG, page 2:

"To assign a leader to a mission, the player takes a mission card from his hand and places it facedown near his faction sheet. Then he chooses one or two leaders from his leader pool and places them on top of that card ."

When you do this, the leader is no longer in the Leader Pool, so:

RRG, page 9:

"Send Leader to Oppose: The player’s opponent may choose one leader in his own leader pool to place in this system (even if he already has leaders in the system)."

For the other question:

RRG, page 2:

"A system that already contains a leader can be activated. However, a player cannot move his units out of a system that contains one of his faction’s leaders ."

i feel like this thread really illustrates my one problem with Rebellion ( which, i was glad i was aware of beforehand from having read a number of reviews ): For as absolutely TOP NOTCH as everything else is; The miniatures, the board, the art, the cards, the pieces, even the box ~ MAN, the rule book is terrible. I don't know that they could have written the Learn To Play guide in a more confusing manner (pretty sure i spent more time the first game flipping through the two rule books then we did actually playing it)

I mean, once you kinda get the groove and understand things (and many thanks for these forums being here to read through), it's great, but in years and years of tabletop RPGs and board games i've never come across a more opaque/confusing rulebook.

3 hours ago, artiepants said:

i feel like this thread really illustrates my one problem with Rebellion ( which, i was glad i was aware of beforehand from having read a number of reviews ): For as absolutely TOP NOTCH as everything else is; The miniatures, the board, the art, the cards, the pieces, even the box ~ MAN, the rule book is terrible. I don't know that they could have written the Learn To Play guide in a more confusing manner (pretty sure i spent more time the first game flipping through the two rule books then we did actually playing it)

I mean, once you kinda get the groove and understand things (and many thanks for these forums being here to read through), it's great, but in years and years of tabletop RPGs and board games i've never come across a more opaque/confusing rulebook.

I think once you are familiar with the two book style, and FFGs style in general, it is MUCH easier. I love FFG and own a LOT of their games. And now, the rules seem incredibly clear and coherent. But, yeah, if you aren't used to it, it can be confusing. So, my suggestion to people who have issues with the FFG rulebooks is BUY ALL THE FFG, THEN and ONLY then, will things become clear Grasshopper

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for the answers! I think we've got this down now, all fine tuned.

Just one last question and we'll be playing at 100%.

-If I move in to ACTIVATE a system which has ENEMY units: I can draw in UNITS from adjacent systems so long as there is no leader of mine in these systems and I have transports.
-My question is, can the DEFENDING PLAYER bring in UNITS from surrounding systems when placing his battle leader, or does he just have to fight with the army currently in that system. (ie. "You have to fight with the army you have, not the army you wish you had.")

Thanks again for all the feedback, the game runs really well once you know all the rules and can use the perks (like action card abilities) and what have you.

All the best,
-The Wretched

Wretched, I have a question for you about your answer 5a. You mention a limit of ten dice for the leader skill check. I'm curious about this, as in the combat rules it is explicitly stated that there is a limit of five of each color dice. But in the mission rules, I don't see anything. I understand that there are only ten dice in the game, but if the rules don't limit the number rolled, rerolling some would take care of the problem. Unlike in combat, you don't allocate the dice to particular targets or spend them to enable cards or buy cards, so once a tally is made a particular die roll doesn't need to be preserved.

In my last game played, we actually ended up with 11 leaders in a hotly contested system, and the Imperial side actually was eligible to roll twelve dice. If we played this wrong, I'd like to know. However, my initial search supports no limit of dice.

Nevermind, I went back and re-read the rules and found the section that does limit the dice to 10. I guess FFG really wants to eliminate any bookkeeping procedures for dice combat. It also explains why they never bithered to put out dice sets as a supplement, although it would be nice for each side to have their own dice.

Quote

MAN, the rule book is terrible.

I've been playing games for 35 years starting with Avalon Hill games - I totally agree with this statement. I've seen worse rulebooks, but the Learn to Play guide is really confusing and poorly written.

Once you grok it, though, man is this a great game. Thanks for the answers to these questions as we had them, too.