On a whim I went ahead and purchased this game the other day, in addition to pre-ordering the expansion as the reviews suggest that the rules enhancements make the overall game better, outside of the new expansion content. My question is how accessible is this game to a first timer? I am not new to board gaming and we have lately been spending time with Eldritch Horror and Mage Knight. This game is a departure for us, but my fiancé loves Star Wars and wants to do some 1v1 games and I have heard this is a great title for that.

How many goes does it take most folks to "get" this one? It took us about 1.5 times to really become comfortable with Eldritch Horror in our group and I am hoping this isn't one of those games that takes 4-5 plays before you really get it down. Any opinions? How much of this is straight combat versus other strategy and cards? Any advice would be appreciated in advance. This will let me know how many "how to" and play through videos I need to sit through and focus on.

Haven't played the expansion yet, but the base game isn't complicated. It's difficulty comes from there being no rote list of things to do. People that suffer from decision paralysis often find it frustrating because there's a huge variety of options to choose from -- what missions do I want to do, what leaders do I send vs. hold back for response, what troops do I want to move, what objectives am I going to try to complete, etc. The rules and turn sequence will come easily, but it takes a couple games played on both sides (IMO) to really 'get' what you should be trying to do. Assuming you're both starting from scratch, that's not a big deal. I think the Rebels have it easier -- an inexperienced Empire will have trouble finding the base quickly unless they get lucky -- but after you've both played each side once, things should be fine. Even without the expansion, I think this is the best two-player game to come out in the past several years.

The biggest difficulty in this game (as with any FFG) is the very fine wording in the rules and on the cards. Very specific things can only happen at very specific times, and missing a single word when reading a card can change the meaning drastically. My wife is a pretty solid gamer in her own right, but FFG stuff tends to trip her up and causes her to make mistakes. Due to this, I prefer to play FFG products as those little rules end up saving my bacon where I usually lose at other games. lol

I'd say 2 games to really get the hang of it. 1st game you will likely be focusing on the basics without too much planning and foresight. The 2nd one you will start to see how everything falls together. 3rd game you should be totally up to par. But that's not to say you will be totally lost in the first game. It's not a hard game to play, there is just a lot of stuff to keep track of. It's fun from game 1 instead of frustrating till you understand.

I think this is a great game for people who are great at games; much less so for people who are not into games as much.

My wife is also a Star Wars fan, but when it comes to games, Rebellion is probably on the opposite side of the spectrum than the one she'd prefer. @kmanweiss (above) has a very good assessment of it.

Hey thanks for that. My fiancé, who I mistakenly assumed was just doing the boardgame stuff to appease me is a force to reckon with all on her own. After mistakenly trying to "show her the way" with Eldritch horror, she promptly ran the board and won our first game for our group. So I think she will pick it up quickly, just trying to gain a feel for the reality of the game. Watching folks play the game, looks easy because they understand it. Trying to play the first time is often daunting. I have some time actually because I forgot we have Game of Thrones second edition board game to try next as well, but I am anxious to get this bad boy going. I even picked up those Zen plastic inserts for the game as they look like the best way to not only fit all the pieces in the box, but also they are design to keep all Empire stuff together and all rebel stuff together. That and I totally love these inserts for my boxes. The one we got for Eldritch Horror was amazing and the Dead of Winter one I just got also makes it easy to get to. Wish the games just came with working inserts.

If you're playing the Mage Knight board game you should have zero issues with Rebellion.

6 hours ago, pkreynolds said:

If you're playing the Mage Knight board game you should have zero issues with Rebellion.

Cool, glad to hear it. I suppose anything can be picked up and worked through eventually, I just always try to do what I can to lessen the impact involved.

2 hours ago, hengst2404 said:

Cool, glad to hear it. I suppose anything can be picked up and worked through eventually, I just always try to do what I can to lessen the impact involved.

Rebellion is much less complicated. It might seem like a lot at first but once you play a couple of rounds you realize how easy and smooth the mechanics are. There aren't a lot of fiddly little rules to remember, and a great deal of what you're doing round to round is printed on the cards you're playing.

If you have any question check out the BGG page. We've answered almost every conceivable rules question and if we haven't we're happy to do a new post.