Hey. I got my son Rebellion for his birthday. Yesterday we tried to play. This game was near impossible for us due to all the reading and having to look every phase up over and over. Then arguing about what each can and can't do for combat etc.

We played for NINE hours and had to quit because it was 11PM on a school night.

Does anyone have a streamlined reference for playing? That reference book is almost dog-eared after one game because of having to look everything up over and over.

Also, a couple of questions if you have the time.....

When there is going to be combat, and the opponent chooses not to send in a hero to oppose, do they still get to pick up air/ground tactic cards when the light sabers are rolled? We ended up playing it that yes you do, but it didn't make any sense to me. I send in a hero and draw two air and one ground card. He chooses not to send a hero. So now I have 3 cards to his none. Then he rolls 2 light sabers and takes 2 cards. Why? He doesn't have a "commander" to play those cards. Who is doing the assessment for the strategy part of the battle? A tie fighter pilot? I understand it may be "the player" making the decisions, but logically, these are tactic cards. I have my hero in the battle organizing strategy and calling tactics. He's got nobody but the mythical "eye in the sky" which the player is.

Didn't make sense to me.

Also, when pulling action cards and there are 2 heros on the card, are both auto-activated to your pool at that time then?

Thanks for your time. We really struggled with any kind of "strategy" in this game. I managed a grand total of one sabotage and only because it wasn't contested. Being a FIST mission, the rebels are crazy weak. Most of the time I was rolling one or two dice vs. 2 or 3 dice when contested and lose all ties.

Ugh. Lastly, sorry. One last question. He destroyed a world with his Death Star. It was the only thing in the system. I had the "destroy Death Star" objective card and moved my mon calamari ship into the system for a battle. Every time he rolled his 4 red dice, didn't do 4 damage, so I was able to shake my 3 dice to try to destroy it. Then we repeated and repeated and repeated until I finally destroyed his Death Star.

Is damage to a unit cumulative? So if he hits my ship for 2 damage, does that mean the next turn I can only take 2 more damage or does all damage need to be done in one turn?

And, can units take more damage than the health they have? That is, if 3 ground troops attack one ground troop and do 3 damage, is that one ground troop at -2 health, or can he only take ONE damage, as that's his health, so I can then play a tactic card to block ONE damage and keep him alive?

Thanks and sorry for the LONG first post.

Re: an "order of play"

There's an appendix at the end of the rules reference that lists phase order as well as setup. I find it helpful for remembering everything you need to do in the Refresh phase.

Re: tactic card without a leader

Yes, you still can draw and play tactic cards if you roll a lightsaber during combat even if you don't have a leader in the system. Being able to draw two or three at the beginning of combat is still a powerful ability and makes it worth it to assign leaders. If it bothers you that you can use cards without a leader in the system, remember that the Rebels and Empire had a whole hierarchy of officers and commanders that we never see in the movies and aren't represented by standees.

Re: action cards with two leader portraits

You get a choice of recruiting one or the other when you take that card. The action card can be used with either leader (since you might recruit the leader you don't pick with a different action card).

Re: Sabotage

Use Sabotage as your last action after your opponent has run out of leaders to oppose and can't use R&D. If he's holding back leaders specifically to oppose Sabotage, it's a weak play for him because leader actions for the Empire are tight, he has a lot of ground to cover to both look for the base and stamp out Rebel loyalty.

Re: Damage persisting.

Damage persists until the end of the entire combat. He doesn't need to roll it all at once. There's little explosion markers on the box to help you track it. After the combat has been resolved then you remove damage.

Re: Death Star

Did you have a Starfighter in the system with the Death Star? Read the Death Star Plans card closely. You need an X-Wing or Y-Wing to actually perform the trench run.

Re: assigning more damage than a unit's health.

The ground troop in your example would need to block 3 damage in order to survive.

Thanks so much! I figure we were playing a lot of it wrong.

I found the reference at the back of the rules only after I posted. I had the reference book, my son the rule book. He didn't tell me until AFTER we played that there is that flow chart on the back of the rules. Kids. Would have saved a lot of time.

So damage is cumulative, which makes sense. Where is that spelled out in the rules?

The Death Star plans card only says "If you have at least 1 fighter". Since the calamari ship can "fight" that's what we assumed. It should be more specific, unless the definition of "fighter" is somewhere, but it's also in line with the movie.

We played a lot wrong and did a lot of arguing. The next time will be much quicker, and likely more FUN.

Thanks for for the clarifications!

Second time through, only 4.5 hours this time. A lot less questions, but we were both playing the same teams. I'm the rebels.

The main disagreement this time was around the millennium falcon ring. How and when does that get played?

I do a mission of Wookie Uprising with chewbacca and succeed. He's in kashyk. He then plays Vader to capture Chewy. I bring in Leia to oppose. So I have leia and chewy there. I have the "action card" that allows the falcon ring. Since chewy is on the action card, can I then put the falcon ring on chewy? Then when he fails his roll and gets captured, take the ring off and go free?

I guess I don't get it and am likely misremembering some of the details.

Thanks for any help.

Action cards will have a few words printed in italics that tell you when you can play them. For example, " Start of Battle", "Assignment", "Special".

The Millennium Falcon action card says " Immediate ". That means as soon as you select the card during recruitment the ring goes on either Chewie or Han. In your example, Millennium Falcon would do nothing to protect you, and if Vader succeeded on the capture, the Millennium Falcon ring would be discarded and replaced with the Capture ring. (Leaders can only have one ring at a time)

Btw, I've gotten games down to 2.5 - 3 hours. I think this is a reasonable expectation once you get more familiar.

Thanks so much for your answer. It really helps.

I'm sure I'll have more questions then next time we play. Most of the time is taken up at the start of the round, playing the rebels, trying to form a strategy each round for the constantly changing cards in my hand.

That and arguing about rulings.

How about setup? Does the game always have to be setup that way or can it be done differently?

I'm still trying to figure out where to go and which way to build. And I constantly screw up my strategy even as the round unfolds.

Thanks for the help!

There is a nice rules and turn order guide at the esoteric order of gamers. http://www.orderofgamers.com/games/star-wars-rebellion/ . Under their main site, go to board games then Star Wars rebellion if the link doesn't work. It helps cut down on time when the summary is right there.

Re: Setup

There's advanced setup rules at the end of the "Learn to Play" guide. The fixed setup is really only intended for your first game. At the start of the game you shuffle the probe deck and start revealing cards off the top of the deck. The first three cards that you reveal with a Rebel symbol start with Rebel loyalty. The first two cards you reveal with an Imperial symbol start with a subjugation marker, the next three start with Imperial loyalty. The five Imperial systems you draw are removed from the probe deck and returned to the game box.

Empire then must divide thier forces between thier six starting systems (the five cards you reveal + Coruscant) with at a least one ground unit per system.

After the Empire has deployed, the Rebels get to select the location of the base and divide thier starting forces between the base and any one system on the board without Imperial presence. Note that the system that Rebels initially deploy to does not have to have Rebel loyalty.