Star Wars: Imperial Assault review

Fantasy Flight Games | Adventure | £109.99 | 2-5 players | 90 minutes | www.fantasyflightgames.com 

Star Wars: Imperial Assault is actually two games in one – first you’ve got a skirmish game in which you all get access to a certain number of Star Wars-themed troops and then there’s a far more in-depth Campaign mode in which one player acts as the dungeon master, while everyone else chooses their favourite Star Wars hero ready to duke it out.

It’s great that there are two ways to play because, let’s face it, that price tag isn’t exactly cheap! Then again, that impressive box does include 34 figures, including the likes of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, along with more generic Stormtroopers and other Jedi, plus there are 59 double-side tiles. The latter are particularly useful when you’re creating your campaign games because they add a lot of variety and give you plenty of options. If you’re fairly tabletop gaming savvy then you’ll be interested to hear (or most likely already know) that Imperial Assault is based on the hugely popular Descent. However, unlike Descent, this is more accessible for newcomers and the appeal of Star Wars means that more people will be happy to give it a go – based on the theme alone. 

The theme helps to ensure that many characters have their own unique abilities (although incredibly Stormtroopers are capable of shooting straight in this) that tie in with the films, e.g Darth Vader’s excellent Force Choke, while Jyn Odan basically has an overwatch ability. Abilities can also be upgraded adding some superb variety to the longer campaign mode. Meanwhile, if miniatures are your thing then that’s certainly a huge appeal of this game, Fantasy Flight has done a superb job in capturing the look of the iconic characters and, even if you don’t fancy painting them, they still look top notch on the tabletop.

Buy a copy here

Sometimes we may include links to online retailers, from which we might receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate links do not influence editorial coverage and will only be used when covering relevant products.