Star Wars: Battle of Hoth FAQ
105 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setting Up the Game
- Can I mulligan a poor starting hand of command cards?
- How do leader cards work, and can I use them in standalone scenarios?
- How do 4-player games work?
- Does an Epic scenario need two decks of command cards?
- Are unit counts limited to the miniatures in one box?
- Can figures that were already destroyed be deployed again as reinforcements?
- Can the Imperial player deploy a reinforcement unit with fewer than four figures left?
- How many miniatures does an elite Snowspeeder unit start with?
- When the German and English rulebooks differ, which text governs?
Object of the Game
- How do you earn victory medals?
- Does eliminating a probe droid or Rebel artillery unit earn a victory medal?
- In scenarios 1 and 3, do the scenario medals for eliminating certain units stack with the normal unit medals?
- What happens to a temporary medal when the unit holding its hex leaves or is destroyed?
- Is a medal earned for occupying a hex in Scenario 9?
- Do Rebels still earn elimination medals in Scenario 6?
- In Scenario 13, do Imperial units brought in later count toward the three exits?
- In Scenario 17, does the game end when one side has no units left, and who wins?
Play a Command Card
- Must you play a command card each turn, or can you pass?
- If every card in your hand orders no unit you can use, what do you do?
- Does Rebel Spearhead let an infantry unit move two hexes and still attack?
- What does the Rebel Spearhead card let units ignore?
- Can you activate a different unit with Walker Attack when you have fewer than three walkers?
- When Artillery Barrage is played and you have no Artillery unit, does the chosen unit get the card's bonus or a second order?
- What does Precision Fire do if you have no vehicle to activate?
- How many hits does Orbital Strike score on each chosen unit, and do extra matching symbols add hits?
- Does Orbital Strike destroy Rebel Artillery units on a rolled retreat symbol?
- Can Orbital Strike target the Ion Cannon or Shield Generators?
- Does Orbital Strike's 'three different units' mean three different unit types?
- Does Imperial Assault's 'order 3 units of the same type' allow mixing infantry, vehicles and special units?
- Can Han Solo's Diversion choose a unit on a section border together with a unit in one section?
- Does Imperial Discipline order all units in an Epic game?
- Does a Scout card's extra infantry activation require that infantry was already ordered with the command card?
- Does Deploy the Fleet! permanently increase your hand size?
Order Units
- Must a command card order exactly the number of units it lists, or can you order fewer?
- Does setting an E-Web token back to Deployed cost an order?
- If a tactic card's special action names a specific unit, does it apply when you do not control that unit?
- Must all attacks be declared before any unit acts?
Move Units
- Can a unit move through seracs, crevasses or other impassable terrain when a card ignores terrain movement restrictions?
- Can a Snowspeeder end its move on a crevasse hex?
- Can probe droids or scout droids move over or stop on crevasses?
- Can a Snowspeeder fly over other units or move through occupied hexes?
- Do seracs always block movement and line of sight, or is the word 'always' a missing errata?
- Does entering a rocks hex end a unit's movement, even when it has an extra hex of movement?
- Can Vader's Determination let a unit move onto rocks and then be ordered again?
- Must a unit stop on an exit hex to leave the board in scenarios with exit hexes?
- Does moving onto a ridge cost two movement points?
- Can units move in any direction, or only forward?
- If a card adds one hex of movement to an infantry unit, can it move two hexes and still attack?
Attack
- Can a unit shoot past other units, rocks or buildings to a target behind them?
- Can a unit on a ridge shoot over units or rocks on lower ground?
- Do units standing in a trench block line of sight?
- Do crevasses block line of sight, and can a unit attack across one?
- Do terrain hexes under the attacker or the target block line of sight?
- Do terrain protections apply to an AT-AT, and does terrain block line of sight to it?
- Do AT-ATs have a firing facing, or can they fire in all directions?
- Must a unit attack an adjacent enemy before shooting at a more distant one? Is close combat mandatory?
- Does attacking an adjacent unit (close combat) give any extra benefit?
- Can any unit take ground or overrun a target in close assault, like in Memoir '44?
- Can an Assault unit break through onto a ridge from a valley hex after eliminating a unit?
- Does attacking a unit on a ridge cost an attack die, including for Snowspeeders?
- Does the rock defense penalty still apply when the attacker is also standing on rocks?
- If modifiers reduce a unit's attack dice to zero or less, does the attack still roll at least one die?
- When a reroll ability lets you reroll dice, can you reroll one die, see the result, and then decide whether to reroll another?
- Does terrain protection apply against every attacking unit, including Snowspeeders?
- Do special units such as probe droids and artillery count as vehicles or infantry when attacking a unit on rocks?
- Can Snowspeeders get the trench protection bonus?
- Do probe droids take the -1 die or the -2 die penalty against units in buildings or wrecks?
- Does a card that ignores attack restrictions change how many dice a unit rolls at range?
- Does ignoring attack restrictions with a card also ignore a target's terrain protection?
- Does a card that ignores attack restrictions let a unit attack without line of sight?
- How is an AT-AT destroyed, and how many dice are re-rolled on its confirmation roll?
- Does a retreat symbol rolled on an AT-AT confirmation roll force a retreat?
- Does the attacker still get a medal when retreat losses eliminate a whole unit?
- Can an E-Web unit that moved this turn still attack?
- Can an E-Web re-roll its confirmation roll when attacking an AT-AT?
- How many dice does an E-Web re-roll when it attacks?
- Does Scoundrel's Support count friendly units adjacent to the target hex?
- What does 'attack restriction' mean on the terrain chart?
- What do the Shield Generators do, and how many blasts or hits destroy one?
- Does an extra attack die from a command card still apply to a Breakthrough attack?
Retreat
- Can a retreating unit end its retreat on a steep ridge or other rough terrain, or pass through rocks?
- If a unit cannot complete a retreat move, does it lose a figure, and how many figures does two retreat icons cost?
- How do the Special Retreat Rules change where a retreating unit moves?
- Can a unit at its baseline retreat sideways along the edge instead of taking losses?
- Do Probe Droids and Snowspeeders retreat like infantry, and what happens when no retreat path is open?
- Can an infantry unit in a trench ignore a retreat?
- If a unit's first retreat moves it into a trench, does the trench let it ignore the second retreat?
- Can Final Assault be played when an enemy has no legal retreat move and loses a figure instead?
- If an enemy attack forces a Rebel infantry unit standing on an exit hex to retreat, does it count as exiting the board or earn the evacuation medal?
- Does Final Assault count retreat results as hits?
Draw a Command Card
- When is the discard pile shuffled back into the command draw deck?
- Does the Recon card's draw ability trigger if you order no units in that section?
- In Scenario 7, does the Rebel player draw an extra command card on the turn they deploy the two Snowspeeders instead of playing a card?
- How does the extra card from holding the marked ridge hex in Scenario 16 work?
Scenarios and Campaigns
- In the Campaign, can the Rebel player have both the Han Solo and Leia leader decks in the deck at once?
- If a second command card is allowed by a campaign result, can the player play two command cards every turn?
- Does the losing player in a campaign scenario still get the secondary objective award?
- In Scenario 7, does Air Support add two Snowspeeder units or just two figures?
- Can the Rebel special forces in Scenario 7 be elite Snowspeeders?
- Does the Rebel officer token move with a unit that carries it in Scenario 8?
- If you skip your turn to fire the Ion Cannon, do you still gain the end-of-turn charge?
- How many charges does the Ion Cannon need before it fires?
- In Scenario 18 with two players per side, how do the Ion Cannon charges and skipped turns work?
- How many support cards can you play per turn, and are they shuffled into the command deck?
- How do eliminated Imperial infantry respawn in Scenario 6?