There are a few things I don't know and can't find the answer. I only bought the game today, tried a couple of games going over the rules, and we loved it. I'll try giving as much detail as possible so you can help me with what I need.

Death Star.

The way we played it was whenever it is DS' turn, the Death Star rotates once. If the balance is Dark, it rotates twice on DS' turn.

Is this right, or have we missed something? I saw a post saying something about destroying LS objectives equaling one rotation.

Focus Counters.

So we focus counters for resources to deploy. We also used them whenever someone attacked. Whenever we attacked, we added one focus counter per attack. So for example, Red 5 (I think) has 3 Blast Damage, so when that attacks, I'd put 3 focus counters on there. Is this right? (A question links in with Force Cards down the bottom)

Winning

So far the way I understand we win is this:

DS - Death Star reaches 12

OR

Decks LS

LS - Destroy 3+ DS objectives.

OR

Decks DS

Is this right? What happens in the case of destroying the Death Star?

Force Cards.

Apart from their function in Force Phase, with the Force Icons, I have no clue.

I was under the impression the cards linked with Force Cards are removed from the battle field and sat on the sides.

Also, can you link a card if they have focus counters?

Sorry for putting so much into one post, but I couldn't find any luck.

I'll start with the suggestion that you check out the FFG tutorial video (can be found on the support page or on youtube), it's pretty good. To quickly answer your questions:

- You are correct about advancing the Death Star dial at the beginning of the dark side player's turn. In addition to that, it also advances when the a light side objective is destroyed. The number of spots it advances is equal to the total number of light side objectives destroyed (ie advances 1 for the first objective, 2 for the second, etc).

- A card used to produce resources receives focus tokens equal to the number of resources produced. A card striking during an engagement will usually receive 1 focus token for that strike (not one per combat icon). So Red Five only gets 1 focus token from attacking. There are also several other ways to add focus tokens to cards. No matter how they got there, each card only removes 1 focus token during the refresh phase unless another ability allows otherwise (such as the Elite ability).

- Those are the only inherent ways to win the game. There are also a couple of cards that create alternate win conditions (Trench Run and Heart of the Empire). You cannot destroy the Death Star (or the Death Star dial). The closest you can come is the enhancement card Trench Run which allows you to engage the Death Star dial and place damage on it via those engagements. In that case, you would win once the Death Star dial has 10 damage, as defined on the Trench Run card.

- Force cards have a couple of effects (listed on the force cards themselves if you forget exactly how they work). First, during the force struggle you will count the force icons on all of your units that are both Committed and Ready (ie don't have any focus tokens). Second, if a unit that is committed to the force strikes during an engagement, it receives 2 focus tokens for the strike instead of the normal 1. Other than that, committed units may participate in engagements as normal. You also can commit a unit that is currently exhausted (ie has 1 or more focus tokens), but it would not contribute to the force struggle until such a time that it had no focus tokens (again, exceptions for cards that specifically say otherwise, such as the Force Wraiths from the Edge of Darkness expansion).

welcome to the game. to try to help with your questions:

Death Star

when it's DS's turn the dial moves forward during the Balance phase. If the balance of the force is with the dark side then it moves forward an additional time. Also, whenever a LS objective is destroyed (usually by the DS attacking it, but there are ways for the LS to kill their own objective) it goes in the DS victory pile, then the dial moves forward once for every card in the victory pile.

Focus Counters

you do NOT focus an attacker once for each icon they're using. When it's your turn to strike you choose which participating unit you're going to strike with, focus it, and then resolve their icons in any order you wish. Sometimes you may want to use your tactics icons first, sometimes you want to do damage first. The important thing here is that all icons of the same type are applied simultaneously. Another important thing to remember is that striking in combat goes back and forth until all participating units are exhausted. Even if there is "nothing left for your units to shoot" they must focus.

Winning

Getting the dial to 12 for the DS or blowing up 3 objectives as LS is how 99% of games end. Decking is rare, same with winning with Trench Run or Heart of the Empire.

Force Cards

Units that are committed don't have to sit on the side lines! You can still use them for resources as you would normally. The only difference is that when they focus to strike they receive two focus tokens instead of one. So you can use them in combat, but they might not be refreshed for the next combat until two turns later. Unless they're elite...

You can commit an exhausted unit to the force, but it doesn't contribute its icons to the force struggle that turn. You might do this with Luke if you really wanted to win the force struggle during their turn, but committing Luke is almost always a bad idea. I've also seen it done to protect LS's exhausted units from Force Shockwave.

Thank you, that is a massive help. I think I'm ready to have another go.