Classic Risk sees players deploying their forces to conquer different territories of the game board, rolling dice against their opponents whenever they engage in combat with their infantry and gaining control of that territory should they win. The Star Wars edition includes an unusual TIE Fighter-shaped game board featuring the different control points of the Empire and the Rebels, with players choosing to command the forces of either side. The board game plays much the same as the original Risk, but the novelty of controlling Star Wars soldiers and ships to either destroy or defend the Death Star makes the experience stand out enough on its own. Imperial Assault also has another issue of, frankly, being massive. There are dozens of small character expansions and a few larger ones. This is a completionist’s nightmare. I’m not the kind of person to criticize business models like this if the base game is enjoyable by itself (I’ll just ignore the extras), but even I think this is excessive. It feels like microtransactions in board gaming.

The missions are more consistently well-made than with Descent. There’s an imbalanced stinker in there every once in awhile, but most of the missions at least seem attainable by both sides (with 4 heroes; no matter what your player count you should use the full complement of 4 Rebel heroes). The imbalances, of course, come in over the campaign itself because of the built-in snowballing notorious in both this and the Descent games. The winners get stronger between missions by getting more XP and better abilities than the losers. Following on from his wider thoughts on future expansions for Fantasy Flight games, Navaro responded to specific questions about why Star Wars: Imperial Assault had stopped receiving content, citing “business reasons” but suggesting that Imperial Assault had reached a natural 'completion'. 2. Is Imperial assault still supported? So it was that we found ourselves on Yavin. We were in search of a special lightsaber for the Twi’lek. Another small board with two route options, one guarded by the bitey, jumpy animals; the other by what appear to be elite Imperial Guards. Who knows what they’re doing there?Although adding him to your team means that the Imperials get a hefty reinforcement bonus. It actually went rather smoothly until, as occasionally they are wont to do, the Imperials said, “hold up”. This kind of phrase is invariably followed by some kind of teeth clenching as they, probably deliberately slowly, read out the appropriate section of mission text. In this specific instance, for example: as the door opens in front of you, you see several stormtroopers and… Darth Vader!

Star Wars Imperial Assault is a game where 1-5 players aged 14 years and over will play as imperial or rebel forces and fulfil mission objectives. This strategy board game of missions and tactical combat offers two games of both battle and adventure set in the Star Wars universe!

Best Star Wars board games

As the game progresses both sides gain new skills to give their characters and further their individual objectives, eventually leading to some grand standoff between Rebels and Empire that you get to play out. These alternative story elements - as well as the strategic mechanics offered by the gameplay - are what make Imperial Assault one of the best Star Wars board games out there. How about taking your Star Wars immersion a little further by playing one the tabletop roleplaying games based on the franchise? There are a selection of Star Wars Roleplaying titles to choose from - including a The Force Awakens starter set designed for beginners - but our money is on the two RPGs that focus on the quintessential elements of the Star Wars experience: Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny. For a tabletop experience brimming with tension and fan service - in this case, the board game recreates a key element of A New Hope’s plot - then Star Wars fans could do a lot worse than giving Dark Side Rising a go. Spaceship combat in Star Wars is spectacular, but it's not where the real heart of the films is. That's in the unfolding story, the Jedi powers, the blaster battles. It's in Han and Leia, Luke and his father. If that's where you are with the movies, Imperial Assault is your game.

Good movie board games should be about skillfully recreating cinematic moments from the films they’re based on, which Star Wars: Imperial Assault accomplishes with absolute flourish. Set after the events seen in Episode IV: A New Hope, Imperial Assault has its players facing off against one another in an epic clash between the mighty Galactic Empire and scrappy Rebel Alliance. Well, each mission can take a different length of time. But combining set-up and set-down you probably need at least 90 minutes per mission. But that doesn’t tell the whole tale of commitment. In the campaign game, Imperial Assault invites you to play through a cinematic tale set in the Star Wars universe. One player commands the seemingly limitless armies of the Galactic Empire, threatening to extinguish the flame of the Rebellion forever. Up to four other players become heroes of the Rebel Alliance, engaging in covert operations to undermine the Empire’s schemes. Over the course of the campaign, both the Imperial player and the Rebel heroes gain new experience and skills, allowing characters to evolve as the story unfolds.Star Wars: Rebellion Stay in the stars as you fight in one of the best Star Wars board games, period.

In the campaign game, Imperial Assaultinvites you to play through a cinematic tale set in the Star Warsuniverse. One player commands the seemingly limitless armies of the Galactic Empire, threatening to extinguish the flame of the Rebellion forever. Up to four other players become heroes of the Rebel Alliance, engaging in covert operations to undermine the Empire’s schemes. Over the course of the campaign, both the Imperial player and the Rebel heroes gain new experience and skills, allowing characters to evolve as the story unfolds.

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Armada extends the scope of X-Wing to a larger scale, with players assuming command of an entire fleet of ships - either Rebel Alliance or Galactic Empire - in an epic starship battle. Using a manoeuvre tool, players can steer their ships through the battlefield and engage with enemy units with the hope of shooting them down. The manoeuvrability of each ship entirely depends upon its size, with larger vessels being slower and more unwieldy but ultimately chunkier. Alternatively, you could play Star Wars: Force and Destiny, a roleplaying game more concerned with the struggle between the Sith and Jedi than the two major armies. In Force and Destiny, players can choose between following the dark or light side of the Force as they develop their very own Force-sensitive character. Join the Rebellion, become part of the Empire or ignore the conflict altogether and go your own way - Force and Destiny lets you decide. The game became a victim of its own popularity, bloated with confusing expansions. But a second edition has cleaned things up and added a bunch of cool rules tweaks. Now, as well as the squad building and hidden movement tactics of the original, you can deploy force powers to aid your cause. Existing players can get upgrade kits with new dials and cards for their collection. We landed on a planet, destroyed some probe droids, opened some doors, did some things to terminals, and discovered that having Luke along wasn’t as useful as we thought. He more or less ended up as probe droid and nasty beasties cannon-fodder, but it was fun for a while to control him. This mission proved challenging only so much as it had a strict time limit before we lost.