Boots on the Ground
Once a mission begins, players alternate activating a single figure or squad of figures. Each figure receives two actions to move, attack, open doors, investigate crates for useful supplies, or rest to recover strain and damage.
When you choose to move a figure, it gains an amount of movement points equal to its speed, and can spend them at any point during its turn, allowing your figures to open doors and keep running, or fire a blaster before ducking behind a corner. In addition to gaining movement points, heroes in campaign missions can exert themselves by taking strain. Taking strain allows your hero to move additional spaces or trigger special abilities.
Positioning is crucial, but decisive attacks lie at the heart of both campaign and skirmish missions in Imperial Assault. Figures attack and defend by rolling attack dice and defense dice and comparing the amount of damage rolled against the number of blocks rolled. Surge icons on the dice represent impressive feats of combat prowess that allow you to trigger your figure’s powerful surge abilities, but these surges can be cancelled by your opponent’s evade icons. An attack might even miss entirely if you roll the dodge result! Different weapons allow you to make ranged and melee attacks, and roll different attack dice.
As you move and attack in the campaign game, crates located around the battlefield can provide your heroes with a variety of helpful items. You may find grenades to throw at encroaching Imperial squads, bacta infusions to heal your wounds, or comlinks to radio false alarms. If you can’t find the healing equipment you need in crates, however, your heroes may need to rest. Resting removes strain and damage, but it takes precious time away from battling Imperial soldiers and attaining your objective. You must balance the necessity of rest against the need to push on before the Imperial player brings new squads of enemies against you.
Narrative Campaigns
In the campaign game, you and your friends take on the roles of one of six heroes of the Rebellion, such as a smuggler, a veteran soldier, a Wookiee warrior, or even a Force user. Throughout the missions of the campaign, you continue to play one hero, gaining experience, new skills, and upgraded weapons and armor as the campaign goes on. You play these heroes throughout a campaign, even working with iconic characters like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in some missions.