8 hours ago, Xindell said:

Don't count on Thrawn being in this. If you reread the article, it really only mentions Rebels once, briefly, with this sentence, " Inspired largely by the characters and events of Rogue One , Rise of the Empire introduces a plethora of new heroes, villains, starships, troopers, and vehicles from that film, alongside other characters, ships, and events from Star Wars: Rebels and the classic trilogy, plus new missions that add more drama and intrigue to your games." Seems to me this is saying, the majority of what you are getting is from Rogue One, but we tossed in a few things from Rebels along with more content from the original trilogy as well. I suspect that Rebels reference was put in there largely to explain the existence of the Interdictor in this expansion (perhaps some mission cards as well). I suspect that what we are seeing here is simply the first expansion to this game. The next one will be a Rebels based expansion and we will see people like Thrawn, Minister Tua, Admiral Konstantine and the Grand Inquisitor against Hera, Sato and whoever else they deem "leader" enough to make their way in (Kanan, Sabine?). Now that we know they are willing to make expansions, there is no reason to believe this will be the only one. Rebels will get it's day, after season 4 (and the show) is over and we know who everything that happened and who the best "leader" options will be.

I think that could happen but I prefer more filtering and thinking. An example, Thrawn is a very important figure, not just because he is Thrawn but because he is a Grand Admiral too. On the other hand someone like Konstantine or Tua are random characters, they are not important in itself, they don't have an important role in the narrative, they don't have a real story to themself. I rather have expansions with less "let's take property XY and make it into an expansion" as "let's take a topic and put in what makes sense and what people would like to see". So a more thoughtful process. It was so weird in Armada to get a card with the Interdictor that featured Commander Aresko, who was just a forgettable, stereotypical, badly written and designed character. I get that the new canon doesn't have that many characters but it's not like can't use the new books and comics, invent something new or even use the old EU. Either you get someone people don't know or someone people like, both options that are more attractive than something that doesn't fit or is just plain bad.

I also think it's a bit weird to have someone like Jabba be called an agent of the empire as if the underworld would be controlled by the Empire. I rather like to see the underworld as being their own faction. His introduction in the expansion is as weird as Chirrut.

@IrishCyborg I like that possibility, actually -- good thinking! Making use of the new dice in missions seems like a really obvious thing to do. The green dice aren't as strong as the standard ones (especially in missions, since it doesn't look like they can score any double-successes) so may help balance the extra symbols. I would still be worried about the new leaders being a tad too strong.

@WolfStark I agree that a Rebels themed expansion for the sake of including any and all Rebels material would be disappointing, in the same way that Chirrut is a strange inclusion. I'm not sure an Underworld faction would really work in the game (as a third player? What would be their victory condition? How would they interact with loyalty, or the Rebel base?). Jabba is such an important character (both in terms of the films, and also in terms of his political power in the Outer Rim) that I'm glad he was included in the game somehow. While he may not be a conscripted officer in the Imperial military, recent media (specifically the Vader comics) have depicted him as squarely in the Empire's pocket. They have a mutual relationship going on, where the Empire turns a blind eye to his criminal activites and in turn he "rules" the Outer Rim to the benefit of the Empire.

Definitely hoping the expansion is modular. Love the idea of more units and faction specific tactics card. Not really keen on adding characters as leaders that don't really fit.

Did anyone get the implication on the Rogue One card?

Looks like Lightsabers can be used to block/remove damage in the new rules. Wonder of they could be used for other effects as well (causing damage).

Edit: Wait, you don't roll dice on defense, this may be a bigger deal than I thought (or maybe not).

2 hours ago, Jobu said:

Did anyone get the implication on the Rogue One card?

Looks like Lightsabers can be used to block/remove damage in the new rules. Wonder of they could be used for other effects as well (causing damage).

Edit: Wait, you don't roll dice on defense, this may be a bigger deal than I thought (or maybe not).

Forgive me if this is just a pre-coffee moment for this, but isn't the lightsaber symbol the "special" side used to activate abilities on combat cards? If so, this would mean that Imps can't save their units using special card effects, that's all.

1 hour ago, ArbitraryNerd said:

Forgive me if this is just a pre-coffee moment for this, but isn't the lightsaber symbol the "special" side used to activate abilities on combat cards? If so, this would mean that Imps can't save their units using special card effects, that's all.

But if that was the case, its more likely they would have mentioned something about playing cards. Besides none of the cards that block damage trigger off of light sabers. You either just play them or play them and discard another card. Key thing, this implies some changes to the combat system.

1 hour ago, ArbitraryNerd said:

Forgive me if this is just a pre-coffee moment for this, but isn't the lightsaber symbol the "special" side used to activate abilities on combat cards? If so, this would mean that Imps can't save their units using special card effects, that's all.

This is different. The card says "remove damage", not "block damage" so I guess this expansion will bring a way to remove damage already on a unit

54 minutes ago, Jobu said:

But if that was the case, its more likely they would have mentioned something about playing cards. Besides none of the cards that block damage trigger off of light sabers. You either just play them or play them and discard another card. Key thing, this implies some changes to the combat system.

Good call -- we tend to avoid combat as much as possible during out games, so I've actively not seen all the combat cards, despite 5 plus plays.

54 minutes ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:

This is different. The card says "remove damage", not "block damage" so I guess this expansion will bring a way to remove damage already on a unit

I thought that was language based on how damage is assigned/dealt at the same time, but I will admit I wasn't reading it very critically.

I actually like the idea that the special dice results have more use, and removing damage sounds interesting to me.

Not sure if this expansion will 100% fix combat, but I like that they're looking into it. I still want someone to adapt Forbidden Stars combat to Rebellion (might look into it myself, if I ever get a more consistent play schedule down for the game).

Doesn't the crossed lightsabers stand for Tactics though? I read it as the Imperial player can't use tactics cards to stop damage when this card is played.

11 hours ago, tin_snips said:

Doesn't the crossed lightsabers stand for Tactics though? I read it as the Imperial player can't use tactics cards to stop damage when this card is played.

Crossed light sabers just stand for crossed light sabers, which has different effects depending on what type of roll you are making. There are no symbols for Tactics.

A lot of the mission cards have the crossed light saber symbol next to the picture showing whose signature mission it is. That means +2 successes, not tactics.

2 hours ago, Jobu said:

Crossed light sabers just stand for crossed light sabers, which has different effects depending on what type of roll you are making. There are no symbols for Tactics.

A lot of the mission cards have the crossed light saber symbol next to the picture showing whose signature mission it is. That means +2 successes, not tactics.

I think that he means the Tactic cards that require a crossed lightsabers to use like Unstoppable Assault for example that doesn´t let the defender block damage that combat round.

But still there are no tactic cards with crossed lightsabers that lets block damage as when you need to block is your opponent who rolled the dice, not you, so you couldn't have any crossed lighsabers at that instance.

I think that with this expansion will be a rule to remove damage markers on units (which is something that until now can't be done, you can only block damage assigned, not remove damage). Maybe you can choose to spend one crossed lightsaber to remove a damage marker instead of using it on a tactic card or draw a new tactic card

On 5/7/2017 at 7:49 AM, WolfStark said:

I also think it's a bit weird to have someone like Jabba be called an agent of the empire as if the underworld would be controlled by the Empire. I rather like to see the underworld as being their own faction. His introduction in the expansion is as weird as Chirrut.

I don't think Jabba is that odd. He fits the same bill as Boba Fett -- if you can afford the bill, they'll work for you. There's no way the Rebellion could afford their services, and there isn't an altruistic, uh, bone in that slug's body.

Would I have preferred a more realized "Scum and Villainy" group? Sure. But I don't think it's a large leap to see Jabba working for the highest bidder.

On 10/05/2017 at 1:42 AM, ArbitraryNerd said:

I don't think Jabba is that odd. He fits the same bill as Boba Fett -- if you can afford the bill, they'll work for you. There's no way the Rebellion could afford their services, and there isn't an altruistic, uh, bone in that slug's body.

Would I have preferred a more realized "Scum and Villainy" group? Sure. But I don't think it's a large leap to see Jabba working for the highest bidder.

Jabba has bones?

By the way, there's some more images of this expansion of BGG here .