Hey everyone,

Tonight I'm going to be playing my first game of Imperial Assault (as the Imperial side) along with 3 other players who are also playing for the first time and I had a question about the allies that the rebels can start with. I bought the base game and it came with a Luke Skywalker as a bonus. From what I understand, the rebel players would first have to play the mission that came along for him to unlock him, right? What happens in a subsequent game - can he replace one of the original six rebel heroes that are available? He didn't come with a big character card like the others did, hence my confusion.

Thanks for your time!

Hey everyone,

Tonight I'm going to be playing my first game of Imperial Assault (as the Imperial side) along with 3 other players who are also playing for the first time and I had a question about the allies that the rebels can start with. I bought the base game and it came with a Luke Skywalker as a bonus. From what I understand, the rebel players would first have to play the mission that came along for him to unlock him, right? What happens in a subsequent game - can he replace one of the original six rebel heroes that are available? He didn't come with a big character card like the others did, hence my confusion.

Thanks for your time!

First off, enjoy the game!

Second, to answer your question, you're correct that the rebel players need to win the green side-mission that came with Luke in order to unlock him as an ally. Once you've got him the rebels can choose to bring him along as an ally in addition to the heroes that they're already controlling, but the downside to that is that if they do then the imperial player gets threat equal to that ally's deployment cost to balance things out (which in Luke's case is 10).

Have a look at the "Ally" section in the Rules Reference Guide, it explains all the nitty-gritty there.

Hey everyone,

Tonight I'm going to be playing my first game of Imperial Assault (as the Imperial side) along with 3 other players who are also playing for the first time and I had a question about the allies that the rebels can start with. I bought the base game and it came with a Luke Skywalker as a bonus. From what I understand, the rebel players would first have to play the mission that came along for him to unlock him, right? What happens in a subsequent game - can he replace one of the original six rebel heroes that are available? He didn't come with a big character card like the others did, hence my confusion.

Thanks for your time!

First off, enjoy the game!

Second, to answer your question, you're correct that the rebel players need to win the green side-mission that came with Luke in order to unlock him as an ally. Once you've got him the rebels can choose to bring him along as an ally in addition to the heroes that they're already controlling, but the downside to that is that if they do then the imperial player gets threat equal to that ally's deployment cost to balance things out (which in Luke's case is 10).

Have a look at the "Ally" section in the Rules Reference Guide, it explains all the nitty-gritty there.

Aha! Excellent thank you for the information!

See Allies from the rules reference guide.

Heroes have hero sheets, allies and villains have deployment cards.

Once earned as allies, the rebel heroes can choose to take upto one ally into a mission with them. They first hear the mission briefing and can see the map, then they decide. The ally will then be one extra rebel group in addition to heroes. If the rebels choose an ally, the imperial player gets the corresponding amount of threat and can perform an optional deployment.

Regarding the lack of a "big" card- he has a smaller one, like your Imperial units. The reason for this is that, in activating, he behaves a little more like an Imperial unit (at least in what he's able to do during an activation). He cannot double attack, rest, etc. In games with less than 4 heroes, he still only gets one activation per turn.

Allies can attack more than once as long as they only perform one action containing attacks.

Allies can attack more than once as long as they only perform one action containing attacks.

Right, so for instance, Jedi Luke can perform one action to attack and use his free attack in the same turn. Same goes for Imperials if they have an ability that allows it, I just worded that poorly.