Post by Fadril Adren on Sept 7, 2016 16:38:43 GMT -5
“If I told you half the things I’ve heard about this Jabba the Hutt, you’d probably short circuit.”
–C-3PO, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Jabba’s Realm, a new expansion for Imperial Assault!
Imperial reprisals have swept the galaxy, targeting not just the Rebels, but their families and loved ones as well. In desperation, you and a team of other Rebel operatives have gathered as many refugees as you can in hopes of shepherding them to safety in the Outer Rim. Your escape is discovered, however, and you’ve been shot down on Tatooine. Here, the power of the Empire is not as strong as elsewhere—but that doesn’t mean you’re out of danger. This is the domain of Jabba the Hutt, and you’ll need to play by his rules if you want to survive.
Jabba’s Realm is a new expansion for Imperial Assault that offers a wealth of new content for your campaigns and skirmishes. You’ll find an entirely new full-length campaign that challenges you to survive among the desert wastes and criminal underworld of Tatooine, even as new skirmish missions invite you to battle in the Nal Hutta Borderlands or around the fabled Pit of Carkoon.
Eighteen new double-sided map tiles evoke the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi, giving you access for the first time to Jabba’s palace, his pleasure barge, and iconic locations like the sarlacc pit. Meanwhile, sixteen brand-new plastic figures offer new warriors and heroes for the Imperials, Rebels, and Mercenaries, even as new Command cards, Deployment cards, Agenda cards, and Class cards give you countless ways to customize your game. With characters like Jabba the Hutt, the Rancor, and Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Knight joining the game, this expansion draws you into the Star Wars saga like never before.
What’s more, four new Ally Packs and Villain Packs arrive corresponding with the Jabba’s Realm expansion, highlighting the expansion’s most famous characters and offering new cards and missions for your campaigns and skirmishes. Whether you learn the ways of the Force with Luke Skywalker, launch an unexpected ambush with the Alliance Rangers, lead Imperial forces with Captain Terro, or build a criminal empire with Jabba the Hutt, you’ll find the figures you need within these expansions. For more information on these figure packs, visit the announcement here!
Hero by Necessity
Your games of Imperial Assault gain an entirely new, full-length campaign with the addition of Jabba’s Realm, challenging a brave team of Rebel heroes to survive after they’re shot down on Tatooine. These heroes will soon learn that Jabba the Hutt may be willing to protect you from Imperial forces, but his protection comes at a price. You and your fellow heroes will need to decide just how far you’re willing to go in the service of an underhanded crime lord.
Three new heroes join the Rebellion in this expansion, each ready to fight the Empire in their own unique way. Shyla Varad is a Mandalorian warrior, renowned for her skill with blade and whip, and eager to practice her warrior traditions against the Empire. Vinto Hreeda, on the other hand, is a reckless vigilante and gunslinger—an expert sharpshooter who has plenty of grudges to bear against the Empire. Finally, the Rebels gain the allegiance of Onar Koma, a hulking Aqualish bodyguard with an almost unmatched strength in battle. The Imperial player will need to work his hardest to take out three heroes as well-equipped as these. Of course, each of these heroes comes with a completely unique deck of Class cards, and we’ll look at these heroes in much more detail in a future preview.
The Imperial player gains plenty of new campaign tricks as well. New sets of Agenda cards and two brand-new Imperial classes—one focused on villains and one featuring the Mercenaries faction—give you countless ways to customize your forces, ensuring that every campaign is different, no matter how many times you play. With an assortment of new Supply cards, new Reward cards, new Companion cards like the Pit Droid, and new Item cards such as the Hand Cannon, you can bring your games of Imperial Assault fully into the treacherous dealings and back-alley gunfights of the Tatooine underworld.
My Kind of Scum
You’d expect the Mercenaries of the galaxy to hold a strong foothold on a planet like Tatooine, and you wouldn’t be wrong—there are twelve new Deployment cards belonging to the Mercenaries faction in the Jabba’s Realm expansion. You may launch raids with Weequay Pirates, defend your holdings with Gamorrean Guards, or unleash the ferocity of a Rancor as you scheme behind the scenes with Jabba the Hutt. What’s more, although the three new heroes from Jabba’s Realm are Rebel-aligned during a campaign, their skirmish versions belong solely to the Mercenaries faction!
Naturally, there’s an Imperial detachment on Tatooine as well, and most recently, they’ve chosen to equip their Stormtroopers with jet packs. A new figure group— Jet Troopers —joins the Imperial faction in Jabba’s Realm. These fast and mobile warriors are experts at darting in for an attack and blasting away out of range, so Imperial commanders on Tatooine are sure to take advantage of these unique Troopers.
The new Command cards introduced in Jabba’s Realm also provide an exceptional starting point for customizing your skirmish strike team and gaining the upper hand in a tense battle of wits against another player. For instance, with On the Lam, you can interrupt your opponent’s attack to perform a move with your figure, potentially running out of range or ducking behind some protective cover! Either way, it’ll be much more difficult for your opponent to land a successful shot while you have On the Lam at your disposal.
With four brand-new skirmish missions on two distinct maps, including two missions that support up to four players, your skirmish games enter an entirely new range with a host of new figures, missions, maps, and Command cards. We’ll take a closer look at all of the new Mercenaries and Imperial units introduced in Jabba’s Realm in a future preview!
The Battle For Tatooine
“You can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power.”
–Luke Skywalker, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce four new Ally Packs and Villain Packs for Imperial Assault!
- Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Ally Pack
- Alliance Rangers Ally Pack
- Captain Terro Villain Pack
- Jabba the Hutt Villain Pack
The galaxy’s last Jedi Knight. The Rebel Alliance’s crack commandos. The ruthless Stormtrooper commanding Imperial cavalry. The crime lord who rules Tatooine’s underworld. You’ll find each of these famous characters in the four new figure packs arriving to Imperial Assault! Whether you’re engaged in a desperate skirmish or playing through the full-length campaign from the newly announced Jabba’s Realm expansion, these four expansions give you the chance to fully immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away.
Together, these four figure packs offer detailed, beautifully sculpted plastic figures that you can use to replace the tokens found in the Jabba’s Realm expansion. Of course, there’s far more than just new figures in these expansions—you’ll also encounter brand-new missions for your campaigns and skirmishes, as well as the Deployment cards, Command cards, and Agenda cards to customize your games and make every adventure completely different from the ones you’ve played before.
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Ally Pack
For centuries, the Jedi Order endured as a symbol of truth and justice in the galaxy, with hundreds of Jedi Knights working to protect the innocent and safeguard the galaxy. The Galactic Empire gutted the Jedi Order, however, and by the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker may be all that remains of that once legendary order. With the Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Ally Pack, you can bring a new version of Luke Skywalker into your Imperial Assault campaigns and skirmishes.
A Jedi Knight with the skills of Luke Skywalker would be an undeniable boon to any Rebel strike team in a campaign. You might end up using Luke’s knowledge of his homeworld to infiltrate an Imperial base on Tatooine, or you may bring him into one of your other missions as an ally, whether you’re playing the new full-length campaign in Jabba’s Realm or any of your other adventures across the Star Wars galaxy.
It’s instantly apparent that Luke Skywalker is a formidable warrior as part of your skirmish strike team as well, with or without the new Dune Sea skirmish map. Luke’s lightsaber can pierce through most armor without difficulty, and his skills have progressed, allowing him to deflect blaster bolts back at your enemies. You may even use Parry to further increase your defensive power, perhaps preventing the last few points of damage that make the difference between victory and defeat.
Alliance Rangers Ally Pack
The soldiers of the Rebel Alliance are utterly devoted to the cause, willing to venture into even the most hostile terrain if it means helping to bring down the Empire. Although all of these soldiers are trained in battle, a few truly excel at guerrilla warfare and long-range attacks. These renowned snipers are known as the Alliance Rangers, and they can join your campaigns and skirmishes with the Alliance Rangers Ally Pack.
They may help a small team of Rebel heroes survive among the dunes of Tatooine, or they may battle Imperial Stormtroopers under the canopy of a mighty forest, but wherever they’re deployed, the Alliance Rangers are among the most deadly long-range fighters in the game of Imperial Assault. With two blue dice and an inherent accuracy boost, Alliance Rangers can reach almost unprecedented distances with their attacks, and the Sniper ability gives them a further benefit from choosing to make their attack far from enemy reprisal. Add to that the ability to become Hidden after defeating an enemy figure, and your Alliance Rangers may pick off your opponent’s troops long before they come close enough to fire their own blasters.
This Ally Pack comes with plenty of other ways to alter your campaign missions or skirmish games as well. You may travel to the planet Ithor to assist a strike force of Alliance Rangers in silencing an Imperial recon facility. Or, you may move deep into the Nal Hutta Swamps, carrying out a covert and silent battle against another strike team in the backwaters of the Hutt homeworld. No matter which way you prefer to play, the Alliance Rangers are a powerful asset for the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Captain Terro Villain Pack
Imperial forces on Tatooine may not have the same sway as Jabba’s gangsters, but they can still be dangerous and violent—especially if their authority is not respected. Several Stormtroopers have adopted the native dewback as a mount and organized a cavalry division under the command of the vicious Captain Terro. A Stormtrooper mounted on a powerful creature like the dewback is not to be underestimated, and the Galactic Empire gains a new tool in its arsenal with the Captain Terro Villain Pack.
The heroes may come into contact with Captain Terro himself or just a Dewback Rider from his command, but either one would be a dangerous opponent during a campaign game. The dewback mount gives these warriors a prodigious amount of movement, and by striking from the creature’s back with shock lances or flamethrowers, a single Stormtrooper can cause a massive amount of carnage or split a hero party in two. With a new three-card Agenda set that challenges the heroes to stop a Stormtrooper reprisal against Anchorhead, the Imperial player will find plenty to enjoy in this Villain Pack.
Captain Terro and the Dewback Riders may also join the Galactic Empire’s cavalry during one of your skirmish games, in which case, they would be potent warriors. Perfectly able to quickly close the distance between models, these riders can charge at enemy positions and break through before the Rebel scum have even had the chance to fire back. You may even equip your Creature units with the new Feeding Frenzy skirmish upgrade, which boosts your damage and allows you to recover your own health in the midst of battle!
Jabba the Hutt Villain Pack
The Galactic Empire may technically control Tatooine, but on the planet’s surface, the rules are seldom determined by laws made light-years away. Crime is the closest thing to government that Tatooine has, and all crime on Tatooine feeds back to Jabba the Hutt. Jabba has spent decades establishing his criminal empire and crushing all competitors. Now, he can help to guide your Mercenaries strike team to victory with the Jabba the Hutt Villain Pack.
Three new Agenda cards invite you to spread the might of Jabba the Hutt across the Star Wars galaxy, even when the Rebel heroes venture beyond Tatooine itself. A new Agenda mission may draw the heroes into an unexpected conflict in Mos Eisley, but wherever they move in the Outer Rim, the heroes can never be certain that they’re safe from a group of Mercenaries acting On Jabba's Orders. Jabba’s word carries significant weight in the underworld, and you can be sure that any Mercenaries working for Jabba will fight even harder than usual.
Jabba the Hutt offers a formidable presence on the battlefield of your campaign or skirmish game. Though he prefers to stay out of direct combat and his great bulk makes it difficult for him to move quickly, Jabba excels at ordering his minions into battle and subtly undermining your enemy’s plans. With a total of five different special abilities, your options for using Jabba the Hutt to gain control of the crime world are nearly unmatched.
Find the Highest Bidder
With the Jabba’s Realm expansion and its corresponding Ally Packs and Villain Packs, every faction gains something powerful. You can pursue the ways of the Force with Luke Skywalker or engage in guerrilla warfare with the Alliance Rangers. You can enforce Imperial justice with Captain Terro. You can build a crime empire from the ground up with Jabba the Hutt. You make all the choices, and you determine the outcome of the fast-paced tactical combats that define Imperial Assault.