Star Wars: Imperial Assault – Heart of the Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component List
• Before You Play
• Expansion Setup
  • Expansion Icon
• Missions
  • Campaign Missions
  • Skirmish Missions
• Expansion Rules
  • Skirmish Attachments
  • Power Tokens
  • Companions
  • Deployment Card Restrictions
  • Figure Cost
  • Class Cards
  • Rubble
  • Energy Shields
  • Rebel Upgrade Stage
  • Negative Deployment Cost
  • Form Cards
• Four-Player Skirmishes
  • Game Modes
  • Setup and Gameplay Changes
  • Special Rules
  • Conflicts in a Four-Player Skirmish
• Rule Clarifications and Rules Reference Additions
  • Abilities Box
  • Attacks
  • Special Situations Regarding Attacks
  • Attribute Tests
  • Clawdite Shapeshifters
  • Distribute
  • Figure Cost
  • Hidden Information
  • Interior Spaces
  • Keywords
  • Text Box
  • "You"
• The Heart of the Empire Campaign
  • Time Period
  • Agenda Cards
  • Hidden Information
  • Progression
  • The Campaign Log
• Transcription Notes

Component List

• 16 Plastic Figures
• 43 Map Tiles
• 1 Skirmish Map Sheet
• 3 Hero Sheets
• 22 Deployment Cards (3 decks)
• 11 Story Mission Cards
• 4 Side Mission Cards
• 4 Skirmish Mission Cards
• 6 Agenda Cards
• 27 Hero Class Cards (3 decks, 9 in each)
• 18 Imperial Class Cards (2 decks, 9 in each)
• 10 Command Cards
• 14 Reward Cards
• 9 Item Cards (3 decks, 3 in each)
• 3 Supply Cards
• 4 Condition Cards
• 3 Form Cards
• 2 Companion Cards
• 28 Power Tokens
• 3 Ally and Villain Tokens
• 5 Condition Tokens
• 2 Companion Tokens
• 22 Rubble Tokens
• 12 Energy Shield Tokens
• 8 ID Tokens with 24 ID Stickers

The card art and card text printed on the Component List page are not transcribed.

Before You Play

If you are new to Imperial Assault, make sure to read the Learn to Play book found in the core game. There you will find a tutorial mission and all the information needed to begin playing both Imperial Assault and Heart of the Empire.

Expansion Setup

Each Imperial Assault expansion is designed to seamlessly integrate into your collection. Before using this expansion for the first time, carefully punch out all tokens and map tiles from the cardboard frames. Then, perform the following steps:

• Add the Agenda, Command, Side Mission, and Skirmish Mission cards to their respective supplies. Players may choose these cards when building each of these respective decks when playing a campaign or a skirmish.
• Add the Condition, Class, Deployment, Item, Reward, and Supply cards to their respective decks. Set aside the Companion and Form cards.
• Assemble the AT-DP figure as shown. Add the Hero sheets, plastic figures, tokens, and map tiles from this expansion to their respective supplies. (The assembly diagram is not transcribed.)
• Set aside the new Story Mission cards. These will be used in the Heart of the Empire campaign.

Players should finish any active campaigns before incorporating the components from Heart of the Empire into the core game.

Note: In a campaign, players are limited to the number of figures and Deployment cards included in this expansion. For example, the Imperial player is limited to simultaneously using two Sentry Droid groups and only one of those groups can be elite, even if he owns multiple copies of this expansion.

Expansion Icon

All cards, sheets, and map tiles found in this expansion are marked with the Heart of the Empire expansion icon to distinguish these components from those found in the core game and other expansions.

Missions

Heart of the Empire features sixteen new campaign missions and four new skirmish missions for Imperial Assault.

Campaign Missions

The new campaign missions can be used in one of two ways.

• Missions corresponding to a Side Mission card can be incorporated into any campaign as a side mission.
• The story missions are featured in the Heart of the Empire campaign and are used exclusively in that campaign.

Skirmish Missions

Heart of the Empire contains four new skirmish missions to be shuffled into your Skirmish Mission deck. These missions use the "30th Floor Plaza" and "Temple Gardens" maps, found on the included Skirmish Map Sheet. One of these maps allows four players to compete in a skirmish at once. Rules for four-player skirmishes can be found on page 6.

Expansion Rules

The following sections describe the new rules featured in the components of Heart of the Empire.

Skirmish Attachments

Some skirmish upgrade Deployment cards list the word "Attachment" above their abilities. These cards can be attached to other Deployment cards as follows:

• When deploying units during skirmish setup, if a player has one or more "Attachment" cards included in his army, he places each of these cards on one of his non-upgrade Deployment cards.
• Each Deployment card can have only one "Attachment."
• Abilities on "Attachment" cards apply to all figures in the corresponding group.
• Many attachments require the group to have a specific trait, such as "Trooper." Attachments with these restrictions cannot be played on a group that does not have the trait.

When a group with an "Attachment" card is defeated, the opposing player scores VPs equal to the deployment cost of the "Attachment" card in addition to the VPs he scores from the defeated group.

Power Tokens

Various cards and abilities in Heart of the Empire allow figures to gain power tokens. These tokens represent a variety of things that increase a unit's effectiveness in battle, from enhanced armaments to affinity with the Force.

When a figure with a power token declares an attack or is declared as the target of an attack, that figure may discard 1 of its power tokens. If it does, apply +1 of the symbol on that token to that attack's results. For example, if a figure spent 1 [power token], that figure's player would apply +1 [icon] to the defense results.

(Image caption: A power token showing a damage symbol.)

When an ability instructs a figure to gain a specific power token, that figure's player claims one token of that type from the supply and places it either near that figure on the board, or on that figure's deployment card or hero sheet if that figure is the only figure in its group. When an ability instructs a player to gain any number of [power token icon], that player gains that number of power tokens of his choice.

Each figure cannot have more than 2 total power tokens. If a figure would gain more than 2, its player must choose tokens to discard until the figure has 2. A figure cannot spend more than 1 power token per attack.

Companions

A companion is a new type of support figure that is put into play through various game effects and is associated with a hero or a group. The companion shares that hero or group's affiliation and activates before or after the corresponding activation.

When a companion is put into play, place its Companion card faceup in the ready position near its associated Deployment card or Hero sheet. Then, place its token on the map as indicated by the effect putting it into play.

A companion follows all normal rules for figures with the following exceptions:

• A companion does not block line of sight, and a hostile figure does not spend one additional movement point to enter a space containing a companion.
• A companion can end its movement in a space containing another figure, and another figure can end its movement in a space containing a companion.
• A companion is adjacent to each figure and object in its space, and each of those figures and objects are adjacent to the companion.
• A companion cannot interact and cannot use abilities on Class, Item, or Supply cards.
• A companion has a figure cost of 0 (see "Figure Cost" on pg. 8).
• If a companion performs an attribute test, it automatically fails.
• When a group that is associated with a companion leaves play, the companion remains in play but can no longer activate unless a game effect allows that companion to activate as part of a different group.
• During a campaign, only one companion of each type can be in play at a time. During a skirmish, each player may have one companion of each type in play.
• When a companion is put into play under a player's control, if that companion was already in play under that player's control, it is removed from the map first.
• During a skirmish, abilities that affect a specific companion can affect only your copy of that companion.

Deployment Card Restrictions

Some Deployment cards can be used in only one style of play in Imperial Assault. A Deployment card marked with a Campaign Deployment Icon ([campaign deployment icon]) can be used only in a campaign, while a Deployment card marked with a Skirmish Deployment Icon ([skirmish deployment icon]) can be used only in a skirmish.

Figure Cost

Each figure in Imperial Assault has a figure cost that may be referenced by abilities and game effects. A figure cost is one of two values:

• If a deployment group has a starting group size of 1, that figure's figure cost is equal to the group's deployment cost.
• If a deployment group has a starting group size of 2 or more, each figure in that group has a figure cost equal to the group's reinforcement cost.

Class Cards

Some heroes, such as Drokkatta, have a Class deck that includes Item cards with an XP cost. These cards can be purchased with XP like any other Class card and are used like other items of the same type. If a player wishes to sell any of these items after purchasing them, he may do so for 50 credits like any other Item card without a listed credit cost.

Rubble

In Heart of the Empire, there are two new token types that alter the terrain of the battlefield of Imperial Assault: energy shields and rubble. When an ability or effect requires the placement of one of these elements, the player takes one of these tokens from the supply and places it in the space directed by the ability or effect.

A space can contain both rubble and an energy shield.

A space containing rubble is considered to be difficult terrain, in addition to its other terrain types. The effect of rubble does not stack with the effect of preexisting difficult terrain.

(Image caption: A rubble token.)

Energy Shields

A space containing an energy shield blocks line of sight, but does not block movement, adjacency, or counting spaces. The diagonal intersection of a space containing an energy shield and either a wall, blocking terrain, or another energy shield also blocks line of sight. Line of sight can be traced to a figure or object occupying a space containing an energy shield.

(Image caption: An energy shield token.)

(Image caption: Line of sight cannot be traced through a space containing an energy shield.)

(Image caption: Line of sight cannot be traced through the diagonal intersection of an energy shield and either a wall, blocking terrain, or another energy shield.)

Rebel Upgrade Stage

When one or more expansions are incorporated into an Imperial Assault campaign, Rebel players follow a different procedure during Rebel Upgrade Stages.

Rebel players no longer draw six cards from each Item deck listed in the campaign log. Instead, players should make note of the total number of cards in each Item deck at the start of the campaign. Then, during each Rebel Upgrade Stage, Rebel players draw a number of cards from each of the appropriate Item decks equal to half that number (rounded up) for the respective deck.

Negative Deployment Cost

Some Skirmish Upgrade cards in Heart of the Empire feature a negative deployment cost. When a player includes a card with a negative deployment cost in his army, it modifies the total deployment cost of the rest of the Deployment cards selected. So, if a player includes a card with a cost of -4, he could include additional Deployment cards with a total cost up to 44.

If a card with a negative deployment cost is an attachment, the other Deployment cards selected for the army must include at least one eligible card onto which it can be attached. When a group with an attachment with a negative deployment cost is defeated, the VPs scored are modified by that card's negative cost.

Form Cards

Form cards are a new card type used to represent different shapes, styles, or forms a figure can assume. In Heart of the Empire, a Clawdite Shapeshifter uses these to represent its transformations. A Form card adds its text box and abilities box to a Deployment card.

When a Form card is gained, place that Form card, oriented horizontally, below the relevant Deployment card. All text on the Form card is treated as though it were text on that Deployment card.

A Deployment card can only gain a Form card with a subname corresponding to that Deployment card's name.

(Image caption: A Scout Form card adds its abilities box and text box to that of a Clawdite Shapeshifter card.)

Four-Player Skirmishes

The "Temple Gardens" skirmish map, found on the Skirmish Map Sheet, allows four players to compete in a massive Imperial Assault battle. Depending on which mission is played, the players could all compete against each other in a Free-For-All or combine forces with another in a Team Battle.

Game Modes

There are two different modes of play for four-player skirmishes:

Free-For-All: When playing a Free-For-All skirmish, all other players are opponents, and all of their figures are hostile figures.

A Free-For-All skirmish ends immediately when at least one player has gained 40 or more VPs, at which point the player with the most VPs wins the game. The game will also end when three players have been eliminated, at which point the remaining player wins the game.

Team Battle: During a Team Battle skirmish, the players on your immediate left and right are your opponents and the remaining player is your teammate. All figures belonging to opponents are hostile, and all figures belonging to your teammate are friendly.

A Team Battle skirmish ends immediately when one team has collectively gained 60 or more VPs, at which point the team with the most VPs wins the game. The game will also end when a pair of teammates have both been eliminated, at which point the remaining team wins the game.

Setup and Gameplay Changes

During a four-player skirmish, apply the following changes to the rules of setting up and playing a skirmish, found on page 4 of the Skirmish Guide in the core game:

• In step 3 of Skirmish Setup, "Determine and set up Skirmish Mission," players do not use their standard Skirmish Mission deck, but rather, use a deck that includes only Skirmish Mission cards corresponding to four-player skirmish maps.
• Two additional deployment zones, yellow and green, are available for players to deploy figures. In step 4 of Skirmish Setup, "Deploy Units," the player who has initiative chooses one of the four available deployment zones and deploys all of his figures in this deployment zone. The player to his left does the same, choosing from the remaining deployment zones, and so on until all players have deployed.
• During the Activation Phase, instead of play passing back and forth between two opponents, each player in clockwise order activates a group.
• During the Skirmish Status Phase, all players ready all of their Deployment cards and the player who has the initiative token passes it to the player on his left.

Special Rules

In a four-player skirmish, some special rules come into effect.

• When a card effect targets your opponent (such as "Shadow Ops"), you must choose one available opponent.
• If a player would claim the initiative token out of turn, such as by playing "Take Initiative," that player receives the first activation on that turn, but does not claim the initiative token. After the first activation resolves, play passes to the player with the initiative token and then proceeds normally.
  • The player with the initiative token cannot also use effects that would claim the initiative token.
  • If multiple players use effects that would claim the initiative token, each of those players gain an activation that they may use before the player with initiative resolves his first activation. These activations are resolved in order of initiative.
  • A player cannot use more than one effect that would allow him to claim the initiative token in the same round.
• When the last figure in a group is defeated, the player who defeated that figure gains the VPs for that figure's group.
  • When the last figure in a group is defeated, but was not defeated by an opponent, such as when a Probe Droid becomes defeated after using "Self-Destruct," that figure's player chooses one available opponent to gain the VPs for that group.
• If all of a player's figures are defeated, that player is eliminated. He can no longer play cards, and his Skirmish Upgrade cards no longer have any effect.
• If more than one player includes the Skirmish Upgrade card "Devious Scheme" in his army, then all copies of "Devious Scheme" have no effect.

Conflicts in a Four-Player Skirmish

During a four-player skirmish, mission rules are resolved first, followed by effects from the player with initiative, and then effects from each other player, proceeding clockwise around the table.

Also, when playing a team battle skirmish, conflicts that arise during an attack resolve slightly differently than in other missions. Mission rules are resolved first, followed by effects from the attacker and the attacker's figures, then effects from the defender and his figures. After both the attacker's and defender's effects have resolved, the attacker's teammate may resolve effects, followed by the defender's teammate.

Rule Clarifications and Rules Reference Additions

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen." -Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi

This section introduces new combinations and clarifications of existing rules that are not included in the Rules Reference Guide in the core game, particularly with relation to new components found in Heart of the Empire.

If an entry in this section has the same title as an entry in the Rules Reference Guide, treat the information in this section as augmenting that entry in the Rules Reference Guide.

As in the core game, if a rule in this section contradicts a rule in the core game Learn to Play booklet or Skirmish Guide, the rule in this section takes priority.

Additionally, if a rule in this section should contradict a rule found the core game's Rules Reference Guide, the rule in this section takes priority.

Abilities Box

The abilities box is the portion of a Companion, Deployment, or Form card that includes keywords, passive abilities, and surge abilities.

Attacks

• During an attack, if a figure ends its movement such that the attacker no longer has line of sight to the target, the attack misses. If the target of a melee attack ends its movement such that it is no longer adjacent to the attacker (or within 2 spaces if the attack has Reach), the attack misses.

Special Situations Regarding Attacks

• Some abilities allow players to perform an attack with a hostile figure. To resolve such an attack, the player resolving the ability controls the hostile figure for the duration of that attack.
  • The player resolving the ability chooses the target of the attack. All non-neutral figures are considered hostile and no figures are considered friendly while performing this attack. The figure cannot target itself.
  • During a campaign, while a Rebel player is attacking with an Imperial figure or the Imperial player is attacking with a Rebel figure, that figure is considered to be both Rebel and Imperial by mission rules.
  • A figure that uses such an ability does not count as having performed an attack.
  • When a player performs an attack with a hostile figure, that player may spend one of that figure's power tokens.

Attribute Tests

• Some abilities give a figure the option of whether or not to perform an attribute test. If that figure chooses not to perform the test, it counts as not having succeeded at that test.

Clawdite Shapeshifters

If there are multiple Clawdite Shapeshifters in play, only 1 copy of each Clawdite Shapeshifter Form card can be in play at the same time. During a skirmish, only 1 copy can be in play in each army instead.

Distribute

Some effects allow a player to distribute a number of identical elements amongst various figures. When doing so, that player gives a number of those elements to each of those figures such that the total number given out is equal to or less than the amount designated to be distributed. Each figure amongst those to whom the elements are to be distributed may receive as many as the total number or as few as zero.

Figure Cost

• If a figure does not have either of the costs listed in the main definition of "Figure Cost," such as the captive from "Imperial Hospitality," (pg. 29, Campaign Guide, core game) it has a figure cost of 0.

Hidden Information

• When a mission event provides a choice to the Rebel players, the Imperial player reads only the portions of that mission event that corresponds to the option chosen.

Interior Spaces

In Heart of the Empire, tiles 01A–12A are composed of interior spaces and those tiles have the interior tile type.

Keywords

• The following keywords are included in Heart of the Empire, in addition to those found in the core game: Weaken.
• The Weakened condition is also used as a keyword to apply the corresponding condition.

Text Box

The text box is the portion of a Companion, Deployment, or Form card that includes specifically worded and named special actions, surge abilities, and passive abilities.

"You"

Many cards use the word "you" to refer to a figure instead of the player. For example, if a Deployment card reads "While attacking, you may reroll 1 attack die," any figure belonging to that card's group may reroll one die while it is attacking.

• If an effect corresponding to a figure instructs "you" to claim a token, gain VPs, or manipulate cards, or refers to "your" army or figures, "you" refers to that figure's player.

The Heart of the Empire Campaign

The Heart of the Empire campaign is a new full campaign for Imperial Assault. This campaign will play out similarly to the campaign found in the core game; heroes will fight through a series of story and side missions as they, and the Empire, grow stronger.

Time Period

In order to allow a more open-ended play experience, the Heart of the Empire campaign does not include a time period. Missions of all time periods may be included when playing this campaign.

Agenda Cards

During the Heart of the Empire campaign, the Imperial player may only have a total of four Agenda cards between his hand and his play area. If, at the end of an Imperial Upgrade Stage, he has more than four Agenda cards, he must choose cards to discard until he has four.

Hidden Information

During the Heart of the Empire campaign, the Imperial player may be given the option to make narrative choices as the result of mission rewards. For that reason, in the mission guide portion of this rulebook, the Imperial player is not allowed to read beyond the story mission whose card is currently in play as the active mission.

Progression

Following each Story Mission other than the Introduction and Campaign Finale in the Heart of the Empire campaign, each player will receive 2 XP and the winning side will receive a reward based on the narrative implications of the preceding mission.

The Campaign Log

As in the core game campaign, players utilize a campaign log to track and record information relevant to the progression of the campaign.

The campaign log for the Heart of the Empire campaign is found on the back of this rulebook and is used in a fashion identical to the campaign log in the core game.

Players can print out additional campaign logs online at: FantasyFlightGames.com/ImperialAssault

STOP!

Only the Imperial player is allowed to read information contained in the campaign portion of this rulebook. Rebel players can ask the Imperial player to repeat any rules previously read, but they are never allowed to look at or read any of the mission information beyond this page.

Transcription Notes

• Source: the official English Heart of the Empire Rulebook (Fantasy Flight Games / Lucasfilm), 12 pages, InDesign PDF with a text layer on pages 2 to 10. Page 1 (cover) and page 11 (back cover) carry no rules text. Page 12 is the Campaign Log form, which is not transcribed.
• Icons: power-token types and dice-result symbols are printed as font glyphs that the text layer does not name. They are left in brackets, such as [power token icon] and [icon]. The caption "A power token showing a damage symbol" is quoted as printed.
• Melee symbol: the symbol before "attack" in the Attacks section is a sword icon in the page image; it is rendered as "melee attack".
• Card images: the card art and card text shown as examples or on the Component List page (pages 2, 5, 8 and 9) are not transcribed, except for the captions and the component counts. Hero-sheet ability text (for example, the Ko-Tun Feralo abilities shown on page 2) and Skirmish Mission card text are not in this file.
• Not transcribed: the AT-DP assembly diagram (page 3), the Campaign Log form (page 12), and the credits block (page 9).
• Not in this file: the sixteen story-mission briefings and the four skirmish mission cards. The Skirmish Map Sheet is in the companion file.
• Repeated headings: "Figure Cost" and "Hidden Information" each appear twice in the source, once in the Expansion Rules and once in the Rule Clarifications section, and both are kept as printed.