So some speculation given the revealed cards so far.

Different 'zones' to play cards in some of which modify game basics like we see on Ackbar giving you +2 draw in the reserve zone

Devastator has Resolve without Discussion. Something limiting table talk in a co-op game for specific cards definately makes for harder decision making.

Missions are time limited much different than the Lotr quests

Seems to be more a large battle type of game, perhaps not putting as much focus on Jedi conflict as previous Star Wars Games have

Eh, Threat serves as a "time limit" in a lot of ways, and I could see there being cards/effects to influence the amount of time left to complete a mission. *Shrug*

The concept of Threat makes perfect sense in LotR, in that the darkness of Mordor is spreading and threatens to conquer Middle-earth. The same isn't true in Star Wars: the Empire has already conquered much of the Galaxy, and the danger is instead that they will discover the Rebel Base before the Alliance is able to accomplish their mission.

So I think, instead of Threat in LotR, what they will likely have is some type of resource limit that is placed on the tota value of cards that can be played during each round of the game, but these will not directly affect the time limit. After all, playing somebody important like Yoda doesn't bring the Empire any closer to victory. It just means that Yoda figures into your strategy for bringing down the Empire, and sending someone to Dagobah to fetch him means that you can't go to the other end of space and get Mon Mothma on the same turn. But you might be able to do so later.

It's not clear if you have starting leaders like in LotR, but given that Han Solo has no indicator that he is one, I would guess that means no. He's sort of a major character.

Yes thats another thing Adam, so far nothing indicates starting cards for rebels or at least not specific ones so it is possible you start with a random starting hand and go from there.

Also one thing they said about the Imperial deck seems like they might actually have fixed starting cards and only use tactics for the randomness.

I didn't catch that, about the Imperial starting cards. That would be interesting. I think it mentions the Imperial fleet gradually amassing though. I read it this afternoon and have been in a Star Wars dreamland ever since, so I could be imagining things. Or maybe that is just an abstract concept, a fleet gradually amassing around the base but basically just a timer in the game.

They show us multiple cards and several paragraphs, but there's way too many details for me to guess how the enemy might work. Can't wait to find out.

"Players are opposed by an Imperial encounter deck, unique to each mission, which follows a plan dictated by a handful of strategy cards. The strategy deck determines the actions that the Imperial forces will take against the players each round, providing the game with a built in AI to run the powerful Imperial military. Each strategy card dictates which Imperial forces strike in the round and which targets they attack."

This is what makes me think that the imperal decks might start with at least some starting cards and that the random strategy cards will determine which of the 'unit' cards attack each turn. I could be totally wrong.

I just hope this SW card game doesn't involve dice!

The WotC SW card game used dice as a big part of it's game play and it stank!

The Decipher SW game was much better, as you just need the cards.

PLEASE NO DICE!!!!!

I suspect the timing thing will come in with the individual missions. Something along the lines of 'complete this mission in 3 turns'. If mission is completed move on to next mission. If mission is failed move on to next mission but remove 5 from the reserve pool... or some such penalty.

I just want to play as a Sith Lord.

pocoyo_joe said:

I actually thought the WotC game was pretty good. The dice element was manipulable with stuff like Accuracy, Shields, and careful use of Force points, and the outcome of games usually came down to one's skill in deck-building, not die-rolling. Still, some people just can't roll dice worth a ****. Obi-Wan should play a dice game; he might change his views on luck then.

boardgamegeek.com/thread/682751/a-review-of-the-demo-gencon-2011