(Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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Chaz
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Chaz »

How would you get the bonus without giving away the location of the base? I guess it'd potentially be an interesting choice to have to decide between taking the bonus and narrowing down your location, or staying secret and not getting the bonus, but I bet that the right answer would almost always be don't take the bonus.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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Just got my copy yesterday and spent the evening drooling over it. Now comes the complicated part...schming to find time to play it.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by MythicalMino »

Another game of Rebellion last night. This was right at 2 hours 30 minutes.

Rebels won, though, once again....very close. The base was in Kessel to start. Han was captured, then released with a Homing Beacon, giving the Empire a good hint as to where the base was at: either Nal Hutta or Kessel. Fortunately, he thought Nal Hutta first, allowing the Rebels to move the base....but where to? I settled on Endor, while still building up on Mustafar and Mon Calimari.

Luke destroyed a death star, but was then captured and frozen in carbonite. Leia and Lando made a Daring Rescue.

Another great time....
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

My weekend is way too busy for me to be able to get a game in, much less find a partner to play. I'm going to try and get my boy to play this one with me, but he's pretty indifferent to many boardgames. I'm hoping the theme might work for him.

Regardless, I'm hoping to get a game in on Monday with my old pastor. He's dying to play.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Zarathud »

Resistance...about to fail.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Scoop20906 »

MythicalMino wrote:Another game of Rebellion last night. This was right at 2 hours 30 minutes.

Rebels won, though, once again....very close. The base was in Kessel to start. Han was captured, then released with a Homing Beacon, giving the Empire a good hint as to where the base was at: either Nal Hutta or Kessel. Fortunately, he thought Nal Hutta first, allowing the Rebels to move the base....but where to? I settled on Endor, while still building up on Mustafar and Mon Calimari.

Luke destroyed a death star, but was then captured and frozen in carbonite. Leia and Lando made a Daring Rescue.

Another great time....
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by MythicalMino »

Right around 7 or 8.

The last 2 games have only taken us 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 hours.

Three hours seems to be the average, but Christian and I are starting to be able to take turns quicker now that we have some games under our belt.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by wonderpug »

Got in a four player game last night and I really really like the game. They captured the theme of the original trilogy just perfectly, and the game naturally lends itself to creating alternate history pivotal story moments that feel just like the movies. Early in our game, Han Solo got captured and was being held in the Death Star (in the same system as the Death Star), and Leia ended up leading the mission to rescue him.

I love how well they set up the asymmetrical objectives. The Empire really feels like a high production war machine sticking loads of units in the production queue while the Rebels only produce a small handful. The Empire is slowly marching across the galaxy planting ground troops everywhere and winning loyalty through fear, while the Rebels are darting around trying to stick to opportunity attacks where the Empire spread itself too thin or to achieve a specific objective.

Scoop mentioned on the last page that a review thought combat was cumbersome, but I didn't feel that way at all. Combat seemed really quick and elegant, and the tactic cards did a pretty good job mitigating the downsides of dice roll based outcomes. In most of the fights in our game, the first salvo of 4 dice rolls (or often just 2) was followed up by an immediate retreat or a second round of combat made much simpler second due to all the units that died in round one.

The most cumbersome part I found was in figuring out mission assignments in the 2 vs. 2 team game. You have a hand of up to 10 cards -- which you can't just lay out on the table since you want them secret -- that you have to try and discuss with your partner without audibly revealing your plans, while also trying to point at the map and plan your movements without revealing your tactics or your hidden Rebel base location (or thoughts about the location).

I'd also recommend printing out a system map or system listing of some sort like this one. Our Empire players found it very difficult to use their ever growing pile of location cards to keep track of the places they've probed or visited in search of the Rebel base, especially for a first game when so many of the names and locations were unfamiliar.

I thought the 2 vs. 2 mode went fine, but that's more just because it's a fun game and it's fun to play with more friends at the table. I'd say the team rules are more "here's a way to accommodate 3 or 4 players" and less "the game is designed for 2 - 4 players".
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by wonderpug »

Oh, and I also highly recommend having the more experienced player go on the Empire side, or maybe even have a first time Empire player do a quick scan of all the cards in the Rebel objectives deck. I think for first time players, Rebel players can more or less react to the cards and opportunities as they discover them, but the Empire has a big handicap in not knowing the sorts of things Rebel players can exploit.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

Game set up for Monday. Now to find time to figure out the rules...
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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Willpower failed. Now we'll see if Miniature Market can deliver by Wednesday.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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Zarathud wrote:Willpower failed. Now we'll see if Miniature Market can deliver by Wednesday.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by baelthazar »

You bastards. I will likely never get to play it, but I ordered it when I saw there was one left on Amazon with free prime shipping at $83. I had $27 in Amazon credit, so I managed to get the game for $56.
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(Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Zarathud »

I figure hepcat is buying Star Trek Ascendancy, so it brings balance to the Force.

I'll play with my sister and her husband. It should be their Christmas gift, but none of us will stand waiting that long.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
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“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Scoop20906 »

Had my first match today. Rebellion won (I played Empire) but I learned a lot from the game.

The early game was spent spreading our ships out to scour the galaxy for the hidden rebel base. When we stumbled upon it on turn four we didn't have the forces to take it down and the Rebels were able to relocate to Endor. By the time we located it again our fleets were our of position for proper assault and Wedge and Solo had been sabotaging our production hard. We never truly had the fleets we needed to patrol the sectors and Endor was too remote for our one large fleet to get there before the Galaxy rebelled against us.

A few things I learned...
  • Ion Cannon hurt: The rebels had two ion cannon ast their base which removed 2 red dice each (4 total) from space combat. That effectively knocked out our star destroyers.
  • Sabotage is a bitch
  • One Death Star is not enough: Unless you get lucky you are going to need two Death Stars on opposite sides of the galaxy
  • Hold your production boost cards until you find the rebel base. Trust your Probes to do their job. You will need to be able to move fast once you locate the rebels.
  • Deny Rebels any kind of production: They might not seem like much but a fortified Rebel base can cause you to lose the game unless you are lucky enough to have Death Star near by.
I have to say the leaders and missions mechanic is awesome and really makes the game work. You have to make tough choices on how you use your leaders. You have to use them for movement and forces can really only effectively move to one adjacent system per turn. You are not going to be zooming around the galaxy.

Loved the game and can not wait to play again!
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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I... Cannot wait to play this game... Why oh why did I include it on a pre order with quadropolis...
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by MythicalMino »

My son and I just finished an interesting game. Things were moving along...and then I recruited General Veers (I was Empire). I had already received the Planetary Conquest mission (attempt in any system, if successful, I can move up to 1 AT-AT, 1 AT-ST, and 2 Stormtroopers to the system. If there are rebel ground troops there, start a combat.)

I targeted Mon Calimari (goal was to take away their Mon Calimari Cruiser production). Unfortunately for him, the Rebel Base was also there. Easily took out the ground troops, but I did not have control of space (he had a Y-Wing and a Transport there). My closest space fleet was in Mandalore, 2 moves away. I move my fleet, consisting of 3 TIEs and a Star Destroyer into Saluecami, ready to clear out the space in the system. On the next round,in the assignment phase, he uses Ambush to take out the three TIEs. His first turn, he then launches a strike with his Y-Wing, hoping to draw a leader into the battle and locking the Star Destroyer in the system. I don't fall for it, but he does get 2 tactics cards in the battle. No damage is done on either side...so he retreats. My Star Destroyer then moves into the Mon Calimari system. A short battle takes place, with the Empire taking the win and ending the Rebellion.

The very odd thing in this game was the end of it. I was not suspecting Mon Calimari at all. But there he was...an interesting end, very lucky on my part. He played a good game, even at the end. Funny thing, though...he was only one turn away from drawing the 2 cards he needed to keep going, destroy the Star Destroyer, and give him time to relocate the base. But time was just not on his side.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

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My son and I played our first game yesterday. It was very slow going introducing the game to him (would help if he'd glance over rules himself first but he doesn't) but we kept playing between short breaks to get some weekend work done and he was the one to ask to continue so that's always a good sign. I wound up winning as the Rebels on turn 10 but it might have ended as soon as turn 8 if I'd have had more success completing objectives. He figured out, but didn't reveal, my base (Endor) until turn 8 but he didn't have enough troops nearby to take it. He managed to land some troops there on what was the last turn but I was heavily fortified.

By the end of the game he realized he'd waited too long to start spreading out and searching but I told him by keeping his forces concentrated it made it very difficult for me to accomplish my objectives. I earned 5 points from Objectives and those were mostly late game, but lost a point when he froze Luke.

Standout moments:

- I gave Mon Mothma C3PO and she was spreading the Alliance like mad (also my first Objective of having all populous systems in a region pro-Rebel). My son was reluctant to oppose her since early game he was short on leaders and he knew I could discard C3PO to succeed anyway. After 3 systems he had enough (and leaders to spare) so he started opposing her and making me use C3PO. He frequently sent Palpatine to shut her down after that and was often successful.

- Kashyyk became the focal point for much of the mid-game. It all started when the Empire hit Kashyyk hard and captured Lando there. At the end of the turn fate seemed to smile on me as I drew the Wookie Uprising mission AND was able to recruit Chewbacca plus get the Millennium Falcon. I figured I'd send Chewie and Luke (freshly promoted to Jedi standing w/ Yoda) on the mission, then discard the Falcon to rescue Lando. Even though he countered that mission with Darth Vader, I was able to complete it... then he played Darth Vader's action card that lets him capture someone who just carried out a rescue.

I blew 2 missions trying to rescue Luke (without him I was short on espionage leaders and the Empire had strong ones), the Empire failed trying to turn him to the dark side thanks to a really bad die roll, then they froze him in carbonite.

- Wedge was my MVP, leading a small force I had on the board to pick off a Star Destroyer for 1 objective, and shortly after destroying the Death Star (thanks to the One in a Million card) for another 2 points.

- Shortly before realizing where my base was, he started building his second Death Star on Endor! I tried not to freak out and let on that was where my base was but fortunately Endor was 2 turns away from his nearest fleet and troops. I had a cruiser and 1 x-wing on my base and so, knowing I'd have a few turns to get ready, I "moved" those ships from the base to Endor to take out the under construction Death Star. Didn't officially reveal the base but the gig was up. It looked like an easy kill since it has no attack but I was happy my son remembered we'd still go through combat steps and he had a chance to move a leader there. "Technically true" I said, "but even with a couple good tactics cards I don't think you can save it." He picked Jerjerrod as the leader and played "Fully Operational", destroying my cruiser :shock: He also drew a tactic card to deal 1 damage to my lone X-Wing but luckily I'd drawn a card to block it. So he lost his 2nd Death Star but it was very close.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by MythicalMino »

In our game yesterday, Luke was trained on Dagobah. But right after (same round), I began building the 2nd death star there. Then, Vader & Soontir Fel captured Luke, then Palpatine lured him to the Adak side. Was a pretty devastating blow. The end came when the Empire (me) made it to Ryloth and after several rounds of battle, the Rebels fell.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

Got in my first game yesterday, it was was a pretty quick game, all told. I was playing as the Rebels and I was having trouble getting anything going for me. The Empire was pretty much walking over any planets they came to and had me constantly on the run. By not anticpating how quickly the Empire could advance across the board, the Death Star was one sector away from my Rebel base by the end of turn 2. Bad placement on my part, unfortunately. So beginning of turn 3 I relocated the base to...some planet I can't remember the name of. We play through turn 3 and start up turn 4. Empire player on his first turn played a card that let him investigate a system for the base, and sure enough he guessed where I had it. I had all of my actions played out, leaders assigned, and could do nothing other than watch him go and take my base with a small force of Stormtroopers.

Really fun game. Amazing number of choices. Can't wait to play again.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Scoop20906 »

That sounds like an incredible amount of good luck for the Empire. You mentioned how quickly the empire advanced across the board. I'm worried you played the rules wrong for movement. Once a leader activates and draws forces to his system those units can not be moved again for that round. Did he follow that rule?


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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

Scoop20906 wrote:That sounds like an incredible amount of good luck for the Empire. You mentioned how quickly the empire advanced across the board. I'm worried you played the rules wrong for movement. Once a leader activates and draws forces to his system those units can not be moved again for that round. Did he follow that rule?


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No, we did the movement rules correctly. I was in Mygeeto and hadn't noticed that very small link from Mygeeto to Mandalore. He had a small force of stormtroopers, an AT-ST and one carrier in Mandalore that he was able to just pop over after he discovered the location. I only had a single trooper and a speeder in my base, so there was no contest. I did take down the AT-ST though, so I didn't let it go unbloodied.

We did come up with a question around loyalty though. it appears that you can drop multiple loyalty points on a system. Is that just used to completely swing a system in one turn? Or can you have more loyalty on a system to make it harder to convert?
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by wonderpug »

hentzau wrote:We did come up with a question around loyalty though. it appears that you can drop multiple loyalty points on a system. Is that just used to completely swing a system in one turn? Or can you have more loyalty on a system to make it harder to convert?
You can have one loyalty max, there's just Rebel - Neutral - Empire. The "gain 2 loyalty" powers mean that you can turn a system from your opponent's loyalty to your loyalty in one step.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Daveman »

There's some funny "what if" scenarios being talked about on BGG. Think my favorite is if the Empire converts Jedi Luke to the dark side, if he's later present in a battle with Vader and/or Palpatine and loses, the Rebel player could use "Return of the Jedi" to kill an Empire leader... Luke would be a valid choice as he's considered an Empire leader at that point :)
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by baelthazar »

Got my game yesterday and have read the rules. Not sure when I will get a game in, but from the rules I think I can tell this is going to be brilliant. I was frankly surprised at just how streamlined the rules are for a heavier game like this. The mechanics are fairly straightforward (although I suppose the complexity is in the cards). What I was particularly excited about was how it contains aspects of a lot of games I love, but leaves behind some of the overly convoluted stuff. For example, it has the battles and unit movement of Twilight Imperium (and the mission cards are sort of like TI), but all of the info you need is available and easy (e.g. transport capacity). The loyalty system reminds me of Twilight Struggles a bit, and the build and deploy feels like Axis and Allies. I am impressed, as I feel like it takes the best mechanics from a lot of notable games.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

I've been following the various discussions on BGG about letting the empire keep a cheat sheet of all of the systems explored by their forces and probe droids with a bit of disbelief. Now I've only played one game, and I played that as the rebels, but it just seems wrong to let the empire keep track of this using anything but the cards and memory. How are you guys playing it? Am I off base here?
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Scoop20906 »

I haven't thought about it. I know the galaxy map player aid helps a lot. The rules don't explicitly say no cheat cheat sheets.


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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by El Guapo »

I like how the rules limit the Empire to one captured leader at a time. I get that the Empire blew its entire appropriation budget on the Death Star, but maybe just hold a bake sale or something for the money to build a second jail cell.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Daveman »

hentzau wrote:I've been following the various discussions on BGG about letting the empire keep a cheat sheet of all of the systems explored by their forces and probe droids with a bit of disbelief. Now I've only played one game, and I played that as the rebels, but it just seems wrong to let the empire keep track of this using anything but the cards and memory. How are you guys playing it? Am I off base here?
We played our one game with a "cheat sheet". Drawn probe cards are open information for the Empire player so we don't see much harm from using an aid. If probe cards were drawn and then discarded I could see where an aid would be wrong, but we don't like memorization much in games and I imagine a lot of people would house-rule it.

The one gameplay catch is the Rebel "Plant False Lead" mission. That lets him take 4 random probe cards from those the Empire has drawn and place them back in the probe deck, on the top and/or bottom. The card also mentions not showing them to the Empire player. There's some debate if this means don't show them where you put them back in the deck (my thinking) or you don't let them see what was taken and the effectiveness of that would depend on the memory of the Empire player, or if they're using an aid.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by El Guapo »

Daveman wrote:
hentzau wrote:I've been following the various discussions on BGG about letting the empire keep a cheat sheet of all of the systems explored by their forces and probe droids with a bit of disbelief. Now I've only played one game, and I played that as the rebels, but it just seems wrong to let the empire keep track of this using anything but the cards and memory. How are you guys playing it? Am I off base here?
We played our one game with a "cheat sheet". Drawn probe cards are open information for the Empire player so we don't see much harm from using an aid. If probe cards were drawn and then discarded I could see where an aid would be wrong, but we don't like memorization much in games and I imagine a lot of people would house-rule it.

The one gameplay catch is the Rebel "Plant False Lead" mission. That lets him take 4 random probe cards from those the Empire has drawn and place them back in the probe deck, on the top and/or bottom. The card also mentions not showing them to the Empire player. There's some debate if this means don't show them where you put them back in the deck (my thinking) or you don't let them see what was taken and the effectiveness of that would depend on the memory of the Empire player, or if they're using an aid.
Don't drawn probe cards remain on the table? I would assume that the empire player (or the rebel player) could flip through those at will to confirm what's been drawn already.

As for systems checked by ground troops, I'm more inclined to think that the Empire player should rely on memory for that.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Daveman »

Rules for the refresh phase state "The imperial player keeps these cards secret." So it's certainly not open information for the Rebel player. After our game my son told me that, when he played a certain action card (Colonel Yularen?) that forced me to name 3 systems, one of which has to be the Rebel base, one of the systems I'd named was one he'd probed so he knew that was false right away. It's also important as the Rebel player doesn't know what he'll draw when he attempts to relocate his base.

We didn't mind marking planets off as troops landed either, knowing that information is much less reliable than a probe card if the planet is abandoned and the Rebels move their base. I think my son put an X in probed systems, a / in ones he landed troops on.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by AWS260 »

Dammit people, you're making me want this game so much!
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Scoop20906 »

After thinking about it maybe cheat sheets violate the spirit of the hunt.


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wonderpug
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by wonderpug »

I don't see the issue with the cheat sheets, although people were divided in our group. After our first game we had 2 in favor, 1 against, 1 abstain.

The way I figure, most of these deduction type games give you a method of tracking what you've learned, either publicly or privately. In this game, it just seems clunky to have to shuffle through a probe deck to double check certain systems, especially as the deck gets bigger. It also seems like a lot to ask of new players to make sense of a lot of system names they've never heard of and have to learn their positions on the map.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

I just don't like the idea. I don't have a solid reason other than the fact that it just seems wrong, especially since the rebels have actions that allow them to manipulate the probe droid deck.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by wonderpug »

hentzau wrote:I just don't like the idea. I don't have a solid reason other than the fact that it just seems wrong, especially since the rebels have actions that allow them to manipulate the probe droid deck.
How would the cheat sheet interfere with the probe droid deck manipulation?
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Zarathud »

IMO it limits the AP for the Empire.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by hentzau »

wonderpug wrote:
hentzau wrote:I just don't like the idea. I don't have a solid reason other than the fact that it just seems wrong, especially since the rebels have actions that allow them to manipulate the probe droid deck.
How would the cheat sheet interfere with the probe droid deck manipulation?
I don't know. :D I haven't really played enough to really have an opinion, as stated it just feels wrong, like it gives the Empire an advantage. I need to play from both sides a couple of times to really understand. But from the one time playing, I do know that I would prefer to play without an aid other than the cards.
Last edited by hentzau on Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Daveman »

The drawn Probe cards are open info for the Empire player at all times. You can sort through them anytime you're plotting where the Rebel base might be. An aid is simply the same info, just displayed more efficiently.

IF the Rebels draw and play the one card that lets them put 4 drawn Probe cards back into the deck, an aid will help memory-deficient players, but it's all still the same information.
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Re: (Boardgame) Star Wars Rebellion by FFG

Post by Archinerd »

hentzau wrote:
wonderpug wrote:
hentzau wrote:I just don't like the idea. I don't have a solid reason other than the fact that it just seems wrong, especially since the rebels have actions that allow them to manipulate the probe droid deck.
How would the cheat sheet interfere with the probe droid deck manipulation?
I don't know. :D I haven't really played enough to really have an opinion, as stated it just feelswrong, like it gives the Empire an advantage. I need to play from both sides a couple of times to really understand. But from the one time playing, I do know that I would prefer to play without an aid other than the cards.
I'm with you, sounds like cheating to me.
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