The fourth Force Pack in the Alliances cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game!

With sixty new cards (divided between two copies each of five different objective sets), Swayed by the Dark Side continues to explore the bonds of friendship, duty, and honor that drive many of the galaxy's pilots and soldiers, as well as the fear, hope, and greed that compel others to take action.

Among these new objective sets, you'll find new units and tactics for the Sith, Imperials, Scum, Jedi, and Rebels. You'll find cards to carry you from the Imperial strongholds of the Core Worlds to the forested moons of the Outer Rim. You'll find new enhancements, events, and Fate cards that support decks built around multiple affiliations. And you'll find a number of recognizable, high-impact characters taken straight from the films and Marvel comics, including Biggs Darklighter, the Ewok Logray, and the notorious Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan!

Unsavory Contracts
After making his debut in Marvel's Darth Vader comics, Black Krrsantan has quickly become a fan-favorite, and he makes his Star Wars: The Card Game debut in Swayed by the Dark Side.

Tall, dark, and deadly, the black-furred Wookiee bounty hunter (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-2) has been seen most frequently in tow with the notorious Doctor Aphra (Allies of Necessity, 263-2). But their partnership isn't driven by the sort of loyalty or friendship that has long kept Chewbacca united with Han Solo. The primary bond between Doctor Aphra and Black Krrsantan is a matter of credits. Aphra owes Krrsantan a great number of credits, and the Wookiee has elected to keep her safe in order to guarantee his repayment.

In the comics, the adventures these treasure-seekers share are marked by chaos, cunning, and violence, and Star Wars: The Card Game allows you to explore new adventures for the duo when you play with Doctor Aphra's objective set, Rogue Archaeology (Allies of Necessity, 263-1), and Black Krrsantan's set, Unsavory Contracts (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-1).

Just as in the comics, Black Krrsantan makes an ideal enforcer to serve alongside Aphra. Even though Aphra's ability and objective set appear geared more toward realizing the destructive potential of Droids like 0-0-0 (Aggressive Negotiations, 267-2), BT-1 (Aggressive Negotiations, 267-3), and IG-88B (Solo's Command, 188-2), they can just as easily contribute to the defensive potential of a dark side deck built around using Black Krrsantan's Targeted Strike and Tactics icon—as well as those on Aphra and other characters—to establish an unassailable late-game.

In such a partnership, Aphra's Rogue Archaeology objective can generate valuable shields, even during an engagement—provided you can play a BX-series Droid Commando (Allies of Necessity, 263-3). And Black Krrsantan provides the muscle, taking down enemy units with his Targeted Strike and the extra unit damage provided by Aqualish Arms Dealer (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-3) and Allies of Necessity (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-6).

Krrsantan can even enable Doctor Aphra to conduct her Droid Reconstruction (Aggressive Negotiations, 267-5). Since Krrsantan's objective set contains a point of Influence on its Underworld Contact (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-4), and since the Underworld Contact is a Mercenary, you could extort the Contact for a point of damage with Unsavory Contacts to remove a focus token and make the resource available to play another event. In this way, you could potentially surprise your opponent with the timely play of an event as disruptive as Reversal of Fate (Edge of Darkness, 81-6) or Springing the Ambush (Lure of the Dark Side, 106-5).

Finally, the Unsavory Contacts objective set contains another pair of cards that lend a great deal of strength to any deck that pairs Black Krrsantan with the members of another affiliation—whether those are Aphra and her Droids or other units like Vader, Stormtroopers, or Star Destroyers.

When you have an engagement with units from at least two different affiliations, the set's copy of Allies of Necessity (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-6) is, as World Champion Mick Cipra previously noted, effectively as good as both Heat of Battle (Core Set, 169) and Target of Opportunity (Core Set, 170) combined. Sure, it's a bit trickier to pull off, but it gives you both the extra unit damage and blast damage you'd normally get out of the other fate cards, and with Black Krrsantan's Targeted Strike, that extra unit damage is arguably more valuable than the one point of damage you'd apply directly with Heat of Battle.

And the second of these cards, Alliance of Evil (Swayed by the Dark Side, 279-5), functions similarly—although at action speed. As with Allies of Necessity, Alliance of Evil forces you to target two of your units that don't share an affiliation and then grant a bonus to each of them. One gains a point of shielding; the other gains edge (1). And both keep these bonuses until the end of the phase.

The biggest difference between Alliance of Evil and Allies of Necessity, however, may be the fact that the units don't both have to be part of the same engagement. Accordingly, even though it may feel counter-intuitive to wait until after an edge battle to play Allies of Necessity to give edge (1) to one of your units, you can give it to the unit you've held back for a second engagement, especially if you need the point of shielding to keep Black Krrsantan, Aphra, or another key unit from being destroyed or being suppressed by your opponent's tactics icon.

Wookiee Rage and Rebel Wingmen
With all the tricks and destruction that Black Krrsantan and his Unsavory Contracts bring to the Scum and Villainy affiliation, all the support the Rebel Alliance gains from Biggs Darklighter (Swayed by the Dark Side, 276-2) and Red Three (Swayed by the Dark Side, 276-3), and all the other options provided in the Force Pack's other objective sets, Swayed by the Dark Side promises to make it difficult to choose between the affiliations.

So it's a good thing the Force Pack furthers the Alliances cycle's efforts to make it easier to play two or more affiliations in the same deck!

Honor the Ewoks and their sacrifices. Advance the Sith agenda under the cover of Night. Terrorize nearby star systems with your Star Destroyers and bombers. The game's affiliations are no longer as divisive as they once were; the only truly enduring conflict is between the light and dark sides of the Force. Will you stand with the armies of light, or will you be Swayed by the Dark Side?

• The fourth Force Pack in the Alliances cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Introduces two copies each of five different objective sets—for the Sith, Imperials, Scum, Jedi, and Rebels
• Features such notable characters as Biggs Darklighter, the Ewok Logray, and the notorious Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan
• Offers new synergies for Night, Ewoks, Pilots, and Imperial fleets with both Capital Ships and Fighters
• Continues to develop the cycle’s focus on multi-affiliation decks

The fourth Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

The Rebel and Imperial fleets meet in deadly interstellar battle above the Sanctuary Moon of Endor. A few noble heroes infiltrate the palace of Jabba the Hutt in a desperate attempt to rescue their captured friend. In the darkest places of the galaxy, evil things stir. In So Be It, you can continue to relive the most iconic moments of Return of the Jedi.

Like the other Force Packs of the Endor cycle, this Force Pack introduces new mission cards to shake up the conflict phase, new fate cards that increase the tension of every edge battle, and new neutral objective sets to expand your deckbuilding options. Here, you’ll find iconic characters such as Admiral Ackbar and Lando Calrissian in disguise as Tamtel Skreej. Whether you’re helping the Empire complete the second Death Star or leading a Rebel assault on the shield generator, So Be It welcomes you into the most thrilling moments of Return of the Jedi.

Turn to the Dark Side
Countless alien species inhabit the galaxy, shaping the growth of their civilizations and advancing to the stars. Yet some creatures were created for far darker purposes. They have no purpose other than a mindless devotion to their evil masters. With So Be It, you can summon more Sithspawn creatures to join your forces and serve the dark side!

Since this objective set centers on creatures twisted and formed by the dark side, it’s fitting that the set contains three copies of the Sith Wyrm (So Be It, 995). This Sithspawn unit can be a formidable fighter on attack or defense, and your opponent will never be able to get rid of your Sith Wyrms forever. As an Action, you can focus any one of your Sith objectives to return the Sith Wyrm from your discard pile to your hand! Not only does this ensure that you always have a good defensive unit to play, you may even use this ability to boost your strength in crucial edge battles. By gaining an additional two-Force icon card before the edge battle, you just might be able to turn defeat into victory. Furthermore, you can commit your Sith Wyrms to edge battles without fear, knowing that you can always bring them back to your hand if you need them later.

With three Sith Wyrms in your deck, you have a good chance of finding one early on, but you can also call these dark Creatures to your side with Fearsome and Foul (So Be It, 994). After you reveal this objective, you can search your deck for any Creature unit and put it into your hand. By summoning your Sith Wyrms from your deck, you can unleash these loathsome creatures on the light side. Alternatively, you could search your deck for a different powerful Creature like Jabba's Rancor (Imperial Entanglements, 902).

Of course, as you further your cunning plans throughout the galaxy, you’ll want to get the maximum advantage from every Creature you play. To that end, you may house your Sith Wyrms in a Dark Lair (So Be It, 996). This enhancement provides an additional resource, but more importantly, it reads, “Reaction: After you play a Creature or Sithspawn unit, draw 1 card.” With the Dark Lair in play, you can draw additional cards easily, whether you play a Sith Wyrm or Sithspawn warriors like Gorc (Imperial Entanglements, 896) and Pic (Imperial Entanglements, 897). When you can play terrifying Creatures and Sithspawn and draw more cards in the same breath, you’re already halfway to crushing the light side’s pitiful efforts to destroy you.

Finally, your Sith Wyrms need a way to surprise your light side opponent and turn the tide of battle suddenly in your favor. You can accomplish this goal easily with Feeding Frenzy (So Be It, 997). This event is free to play, and after one of your Creature units damages an enemy Character or Creature unit, you can destroy that enemy unit instead! Even the smallest scratch from a Sith Wyrm can prove deadly, letting you take down your opponent’s most dangerous units with a single blow.

Fight for Your Cause
As Sithspawn monsters slither through the shadows and the Imperial Navy musters its martial might, the Rebel Alliance struggles desperately against the power of the Empire in the skies above Endor. Choose your favorite affiliation and join the fight for your cause in So Be It, the fourth Force Pack in the Endor cycle.

• The fourth Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Continue through the events of Return of the Jedi or weave your own tales
• Play with iconic characters like Admiral Ackbar and Lando Calrissian in disguise
• New fate cards add tension to every edge battle
• Includes ten new objective sets (one copy each of two “limit one per objective deck” sets and two copies each of four normal sets)

The fifth Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

After meeting and forging their alliance with the Ewok tribes, the brave Rebel heroes prepare to lead their elite strike team in the final assault on the shield generator. If the Rebels succeed and accomplish their goal, the shield that protects the Death Star will fall, leaving it open to an interior assault by Rebel fighters. If the Rebels fail, however, the Death Star will be impregnable and its fully operational superlaser will combine with the Imperial fleet to inflict massive losses on the Rebel Alliance.

As part of the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game, Press the Attack invites you to experience the climactic events of Return of the Jedi as you reenact the movies or create your own stories. Within this Force Pack, you’ll find a renewed focus on Endor objectives as the Ewoks join the Rebellion’s efforts to infiltrate and sabotage the shield generator. You’ll also gain the aid of additional Ewoks with C-3PO or battle your foes as the dark side Force user, Maw. As the Battle of Endor intensifies, lead your forces forwards with Press the Attack.

Protecting the Shield Generator
As a commander of the Imperial forces on Endor, you have been tasked with protecting the ground-based shield generator at any cost. Though you have a legion of the Empire’s best troops at your disposal, your task will not be easy. The Rebel assault will be determined, and they may have gained the help of the Forest Moon’s indigenous species. Fortunately, you have your own tools to use in the defense of your Endor objectives.

The Imperial Navy objective set in Press the Attack begins with Protect the Generator (Press the Attack, 1020). This is an Endor objective, making it useful for triggering other cards, but more importantly, it helps you ensure your opponent pays the price for attacking your objectives. Protect the Generator reads, “Reaction: After the first enemy unit is focused to strike during the first engagement against an Imperial Navy objective this turn, place 1 focus token on that unit.” By adding additional focus tokens to the first unit to strike against an Imperial Navy objective, you may be able to reduce the light side’s effective attackers during their next turn. Even if your opponent plays around this effect, he may need to strike in a less-than-ideal order, making it easier for you to cut down enemy units with your own defenders.

For the Imperial Navy, a significant part of your defense relies on a solid offensive. To that end, this objective set includes two copies of the Endor AT-ST (Press the Attack, 1022). Although these units can defend, they’re best suited to attacking enemy objectives, and in addiiton, you can focus one of your Endor objectives or enhancements to remove a focus token from the Endor AT-ST, potentially letting them strike twice or more in a single engagement. You may even be able to pay this cost with an Endor mission like Ground Support (Solo’s Command, 910) that your opponent has played as an objective under your control.

Whether you’re defending your own objectives or taking the fight to your enemies, you can benefit from recruiting Colonel Dyer (Press the Attack, 1021). Colonel Dyer always boasts a normal tactics icon that he can use to neutralize an enemy unit, and he gains a unit damage for every Endor objective you control and a blast damage for every Endor objective your opponent controls. Ultimately, Colonel Dyer is determined to control Endor, whether that requires you to attack or defend.

This objective set also introduces a new enhancement, the Endor Command Post (Press the Attack, 1023). In most respects, this enhancement is fairly standard—it costs one resource, provides one Imperial Navy resource, and bears the limited keyword. However, it differs in one key aspect: you can take an Action and focus an Officer unit to remove a focus token from this enhancement. In some cases, this may allow you to play more units during the deployment phase, but perhaps one of the best ways to use the Endor Command Post is in conjunction with Grand Moff Tarkin (Imperial Entanglements, 872). Blanking enemy cards repeatably with the Endor Command Post and Grand Moff Tarkin can be a powerful asset in your battle to defend the shield generator.

Finally, the Protect the Generator objective set concludes with another new enhancement: Promotion (Press the Attack, 1024). You may give Promotion to any of your Imperial Navy Officer units, and after another Imperial Navy unit is focused to strike, you can focus Promotion to have the striking unit gain the combat icons of the enhanced unit! In other words, if you enhance Colonel Dyer or Grand Admiral Thrawn (Chain of Command, 807) with Promotion, you can take advantage of their powerful combat icons twice every round. You may even hold the threat of their combat icons over your opponent’s head, forcing him to account for them, then only triggering Promotion when it’s most effective for you. Ultimately, Promotion can greatly increase the threat of your units in combat, whether you’re attacking to claim more of Endor or defending the shield generator.

Continue the Pursuit
The Rebels are preparing their strike teams to attack the Imperial shield generator, but with your troops and the might of the Imperial Navy at your back, you can withstand their assault. Take command of the greatest military power in the galaxy!

• The fifth Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Continue through the events of Return of the Jedi or weave your own tales
• Play as iconic characters like C-3PO or the dark side Force user, Maw
• New fate cards add tension to every edge battle
• Includes ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets)

The first Force Pack in the new Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game!

The Heroes and Legends Force Pack begins an epic journey through the Echoes of the Force cycle, exploring the power of the Force and its impact and effects on the galaxy. As the Heroes and Legends Force Pack opens the cycle, you’ll find Imperial forces working to complete the Dark Trooper Project and Imperial War Droids that can count their icons for the Force struggle without a Force card. At the same time, you’ll find the bold intelligence agents of the Rebel Alliance and independent Smugglers and Spies slicing in to sabotage the operation. Meanwhile, on the planet Ruusan, Jedi and Imperial Inquistitors clash over the power of the Force nexus hidden inside the Valley of the Jedi.

In the Echoes of the Force cycle, Star Wars: The Card Game experiences dramatic changes taking shape as both sides learn to better channel the power of the Force. Its balance has implications that reach far beyond damaging dark side objectives or advancing the Death Star dial. The living Force binds all things, and it may soon permeate every part of your decks, drawing strength from the new cards included in Heroes and Legends and other Force Packs from Echoes of the Force.

To talk more about the development of the Echoes of the Force cycle, here’s the cycle’s lead developer, Nate French.

A Word from Lead Developer Nate French:
While we were working on the Echoes of the Force cycle, we adopted a vastly different approach than our approach to The Hoth Cycle. Instead of creating an environment-based set that focused on a single location in the movies, we aimed for a more conceptual focus, with the goal of exploring the concept of “the Force” in the game.

Given this focal point, the thematic “stars” of the set are the Jedi and the Sith. A number of new Force User and Force Sensitive units hit the scene, with a handful of new Force powers at their disposal, and cards like Mara Jade, Force Storm and My Ally Is the Force.

The Jedi and Sith are not the only beneficiaries of the new cycle. Alongside the introduction of new Force Users and Force powers, the struggle over the balance of the Force takes center stage, and both light side and dark side factions find new ways to contest and manipulate the struggle. The Dark Trooper Project and the Phase I Dark Trooper give the Imperial Navy a unique means of swaying the balance to the dark side, while Green Squadron Deployment allows the Vehicles of the Rebel Alliance to bring the balance to the light side.

Introducing new fate cards helps to craft an environment for the cycle. These cards, which appear in multiple objective sets across all factions of the game, help create a synergistic backdrop for a number of other effects in the set. This cycle introduces two new fate cards for each side, Seeds of Decay and Echoes of the Force. These new fate cards help their owner contest and influence the game as the Force struggle starts to heat up.

May the Force be with you!

Echoes of Greatness
The Heroes and Legends Force Pack invites you to participate in events stretching across the galaxy. With the menace of the Dark Trooper Project and new War Droids, the battle for the Force takes on new dimensions, as the Rebels collect the intelligence they need to maintain freedom in the galaxy. In other parts of the galaxy, Imperial Inquisitors are striking out for Ruusan, attempting to harness the power of the Force within the Valley of the Jedi, leaving only one untested Jedi to stand in their way.

* In this first Force Pack, the Heroes and Legends objective set gives you some of the tools you need to use the power of the Force. It begins by introducing one of the new fate cards: Echoes of the Force (Heroes and Legends, 636). The fate card provides Force icons, but it also gives you the opportunity to commit a unit to the Force struggle or remove a unit from the Force! By using this card, you can commit an enemy unit covered in focus tokens to the Force, meaning that your opponent has one less Force card to work with on his side of the Force struggle. As another option, you could use this new fate card commit an enemy unit in an engagement to the Force, causing it to focus twice. No matter how you use the new fate card, the power of the Force can tip the balance of battle in your favor.
* The benefits you can reap from the Force hardly stop there. This objective set also includes Ataru Training (Heroes and Legends, 498) a new Lightsaber Form that can enhance any of your Force User units. While the enhanced unit is participating in an engagement, they gain the ability to destroy a participating enemy unit whenever you win an edge battle by at least two Force icons. The ability to destroy enemy units before any strikes are exchanged can be invaluable, making units with the Edge ability, such as the Millennium Falcon (Edge of Darkness, 332) more valuable than ever before.
* The objective of the set, Heroes and Legends (Heroes and Legends, 496) gives you another option you can use to maximize the potential of your units. By focusing it as an Action, this objective allows you to reveal a unique Character unit from your hand, and swap it out with a target unit of the same name that you have in play. In the past, a duplicate of an unique unit you already had in play was best used in an edge battle, but with the advent of Heroes and Legends, there’s a new option for play. For example, perhaps your Obi-Wan Kenobi (Core Set, 101) has become exhausted and damaged in conflict. Provided you have a duplicate of Obi-Wan in your hand, you can focus Heroes and Legends to swap the two, giving you a ready, undamaged Obi-Wan, fully prepared to attack a new dark side objective or defend your own objectives.
* Of course, the question is, how are you going to get a duplicate of a unit into your hand to use Heroes and Legends? The objective set also includes Rahn's Guidance (Heroes and Legends, 499), a zero-cost event that allows you to search the top five cards of your deck for any Jedi unit and put it into your hand. With Rahn’s Guidance, you’ll be that much closer to swapping your units in and out of battle.
* But if you want just a bit more benefit from the power of Heroes and Legends, look no farther than the mercenary-turned-Jedi Kyle Katarn (Heroes and Legends, 497). Kyle Katarn’s ability to refresh your own forces or shut down your opponent’s when he comes into play cannot be overestimated. He also pairs naturally with the Echoes of the Force fate card, allowing you to manipulate units committed to the Force across the battlefield, and use the Force to bring victory to the light side. Because there are two copies of Kyle Katarn in the objective set, you can use Heroes and Legends immediately. If you include two copies of the objective set in your deck, you will have four copies of Kyle Katarn throughout your deck. With that many copies of one unit, you can be almost guaranteed to find at least one pair, especially when using Rahn’s Guidance. If you have one pair of Kyle Katarn cycling through your playfield with the help of Heroes and Legends, any more copies you draw into can be used for Force icons in an edge battle, helping to trigger the power of Ataru Training. With the help of a few more Jedi Knights, such as Luke Skywalker (Core Set, 92) and Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’ll be ready to take on the whole Empire!

Train in the Ways of the Force
With the Heroes and Legends Force Pack, the Echoes of the Force cycle is just beginning, and you can uncover new options for using the Force!

• The first Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Explores the power of the Force and its impact on the galaxy
• New characters join the struggle, including Kyle Katarn, Mara Jade, and other fan favorites
• Two new fate cards bring even more strategic depth to the Force struggle
• Supports decks that utilize entirely new strategies

The third Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game! Yoda told Luke during his Jedi training that a Jedi never uses the Force for attack. With this new Force Pack, you can explore the Force and draw upon its powers more deeply than ever before.

The ten objective sets (two copies each of five different sets) in this Force Pack mark a return to Hoth for the Rebel Alliance, even as the Scum and Villainy of the galaxy explore the highly lucrative slave trade. The Force is strong with every faction, and even the Smugglers and Spies will find a way to achieve their goals through knowledge, defense, and a little back-door smuggling.

Another Lucky Run
In Knowledge and Defense, the Force will help the Smugglers and Spies of the galaxy, beginning with the new objective set, Along the Gamor Run (Knowledge and Defense, 552). This objective possesses a powerful Reaction. Each time the Force phase begins, you have the opportunity to reveal the top card of your deck, and count its Force icons towards that Force struggle. If you lose the Force struggle, the card is discarded, but if you win, the revealed card is added to your hand, giving you the cards you need to maintain your defenses or plan your future attacks.

Winning the Force struggle has implications far beyond damaging dark side objectives, however, with the addition of new cards like Deneba Refueling Station (Knowledge and Defense, 555). At first glance, this card may appear to be just another resource-providing enhancement, but the Deneba Refueling Station has its own Reaction, allowing you to remove a focus token from the enhancement whenever you win a Force struggle. Even if you only win one Force struggle each round, this station will be ready to provide resources again after you refresh on your turn.

A refueling station like the one on Deneba might be an ideal place to pick up some Hired Hands (Knowledge and Defense, 554), and this objective set has two of them. These units have a good spread of combat icons, making them equally useful for a deadly attack or for solid defense. Their combat icons become even more of a bargain when you combine them with three damage capacity for only one cost! Unfortunately, Hired Hands are often fickle. Whenever you lose a Force struggle, you must discard the Hired Hands, forcing you to make the most use of them while you can. If you can hold onto them, the Hired Hands may prove to be a critical part of your operations, but even if you can’t keep them, all is not lost.

Even if your Hired Hands desert you temporarily, they’re likely not gone for good, especially when you have the Hyperspace Marauder (Knowledge and Defense, 553) on your side. Hyperspace Marauder is the personal vessel of the renowned smuggler Lo Khan, and although it’s a useful attacker or defender, its best use may be to commit to the Force, counting its icons towards the Force struggle. When you have committed Hyperspace Marauder to the Force, it also gains the text: “Reaction: After you win a Force struggle, put a unit of printed cost 1 or lower into play from your hand or discard pile.” With this ability, you can make sure that your Hired Hands keep returning to you, or you can restore C-3PO (Core Set, 21) to play after he has been sacrificed.

Sometimes, even your best efforts are not enough to keep the dark side from seizing control of the Force struggle. At times like that, you may need to take a Gamble and Make Your Own Luck (Knowledge and Defense, 556). When a Force struggle begins, you may target a friendly, Force-committed unit with this event. Until the end of the phase, that unit gains three Force icons.

Make Your Own Luck neatly highlights the objective set’s other synergies. With it, you can ensure that you win the Force struggle by playing this event correctly, triggering Hyperspace Marauder and Deneba Refueling Station, making sure your Hired Hands stick around, and keeping the card you revealed with Along the Gamor Run. With the cards in this objective set, the Force will aid the Smugglers and Spies of the galaxy, opening a path to victory and giving you the opportunities you need to destroy the dark side’s objectives.

A New Darkness Rising
While the Smugglers and Spies look for ways to make their own luck, a dark power is rising in the person of the Sith Prophetess, Sariss (Knowledge and Defense, 558). Raised by the sinister Prophets of the Dark Side, Sariss is a deadly foe. Her combat icons allow her to be used for attack or defense, but the Prophetess is at her most dangerous when committed to the Force.

Sariss possesses the Elite keyword, as well as a Reaction that allows you to commit a target enemy unit to the Force after Sariss is committed to the Force. From there, the deadly schemes of the dark side can unfold in many ways. If you choose to commit an enemy unit covered with focus tokens, or one with only a few Force icons, you can make sure your opponent doesn’t get the upper hand in the Force struggle.

With some of the other cards in Sariss’s objective set, however, you can ensure a more grisly fate for enemy units devoted to the Force. With The Plan of the Prophetess (Knowledge and Defense, 557), every enemy unit committed to the Force loses one Force icon, and with Deadly Sight (Knowledge and Defense, 561), one unit loses two Force icons and is destroyed if it has no Force icons. With these dark schemes, you can bring your opponent’s most important units to utter destuction.

My Ally is the Force
The Echoes of the Force cycle continues with Knowledge and Defense, the third Force Pack in the cycle. Will you use the Force according to the precepts of protection and self-defense? Or will you turn to the dark side and use the Force for your own personal gain? Whichever side you support, Knowledge and Defense will give you the tools you need.

• The third Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle
• Ten new objective sets (two copies each of five different sets) open the way for new player strategies
• Two new fate cards bring new strategic depth to edge battles and the Force struggle
• Players explore the power of the Force and its impact on the galaxy

The battle for Hoth begins!

The first Force Pack for Star Wars: The Card Game is inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back. The Desolation of Hoth brings you iconic new creatures, droids, snowspeeders, and characters like Wedge Antilles and Darth Vader. As Rebel forces and their allies establish their defenses, and the Empire scours the galaxy for signs of their hidden base, the frozen wastelands of Hoth set the stage for the game’s future battles.

• The first Force Pack for Star Wars™: The Card Game
• Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back
• The Hoth Cycle focuses on developing a strong sense of location
• Light side players gain powerful advantages when they control Hoth objectives
• Introduces iconic new characters, creatures, droids, and snowspeeders

The battle for Hoth begins in The Desolation of Hoth! The Rebels and other light side forces have established a new base on the barren ice world where the extreme cold offers protection from detection, even as it poses a constant danger. Hoth’s cold can easily exhaust or kill anyone caught exposed, and its driving winds and snow can jam sensors and blind characters, leaving them vulnerable to the planet’s fierce, native predators.

Still, in The Desolation of Hoth, the cold strikes in both directions. The Rebel Alliance and their allies have spent time adapting their equipment to Hoth’s harsh environment, and these preparations pay off in times of need. While the light side controls more of the planet than its foes, their new Hoth objectives grant them protection from dark side assaults, advantages in edge battles, and other benefits.

Of course, there’s a lot more to this first Force Pack than ice and snow! Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back, The Desolation of Hoth brings you new creatures, droids, snowspeeders, and iconic characters like Wedge Antilles and Darth Vader. The frozen wastelands of Hoth are normally as desolate as they are vast, but as they set the stage for the future battles of Star Wars: The Card Game, they fill with action and life!

Senior LCG Designer Nate French looks at what The Desolation of Hoth and the subsequent Force Packs of The Hoth Cycle will bring to Star Wars: The Card Game:

The first expansion cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game draws its inspiration from one of the most iconic sequences in the classic Star Wars trilogy, the Battle of Hoth. It opens with the Rebel Alliance establishing their new base on Hoth and braving the planet’s harsh conditions. The cycle then progresses through the arrival of the Imperial forces, the assault on Echo base, and culminates with the evacuation and aftermath of the battle.

As we ventured into the design of this set, we wanted to invoke a powerful sense of location, and create a sense that the players are fighting over a specific place – in this case, Hoth. We want the light side player to feel besieged. He should feel as if he has to draw a line and hold off an assault. Conceptually speaking, in this cycle, the light side player is asked to establish and defend Echo base. On the flip side, we wanted to give the dark side player extra incentive to go after specific light side objectives. His assaults are essentially attempts to drive the Rebels from Hoth.

The most natural means of pursuing these goals was through the objective cards, which are the focal points of attack and defense in the game. A number of objectives in the cycle have the Hoth trait. A number of light side effects, like that on the Hoth Operations card, are dependent upon the light side player controlling more Hoth objectives than his opponent. This encourages the light side player to both establish and defend his base on Hoth. The dark side player is encouraged to contest his opponent’s control of Hoth, both by establishing his own Hoth objectives, but also to aggressively seek out the destruction of his opponent’s. Additionally, both sides receive units that are particularly suited for this conflict, as well as enhancements like the Hoth Survival Gear that are completely dependent upon the emerging environment. And the new Fate card, Battle of Hoth, presents an interesting twist to the edge battle, one that can be used either offensively or defensively, depending on your intent.

The end result is an environment in which players will find dynamic battles for the control of Hoth. As the cycle advances, additional Force Packs will introduce more Hoth objective sets to the environment for both the light side and the dark side, escalating the battle towards its peak.

In addition to the narrative arc that follows the Battle of Hoth, this cycle also features a number of objective sets that expand upon core themes for the Jedi, Sith, Scum and Villainy, and Smugglers & Spies affiliations. Not everyone was as deeply involved in the Hoth confrontation, and we made the important design decision to expand a number of options for the various themes introduced in the Core Set even as we presented an engaging struggle for Hoth. In the weeks ahead, we’ll look more closely at a number of the cards and objective sets that are on their way in The Hoth Cycle.

The fourth Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game.

As Imperial walkers begin their march against Echo Base, the Rebel Alliance and its allies prepare to mount a desperate defense of their frozen refuge. Will the Rebel shields hold against the Imperial onslaught? Will the Rebel defense of Hoth buy enough time for light side forces elsewhere to gather recruits and spread hope throughout the galaxy? Or will General Veers lead the Empire’s walkers and troopers to a commanding victory while bounty hunters and Black Sun mercenaries chase down the remnants of the light side resistance?

Assault on Echo Base adds complete playsets of six new objective sets to Star Wars: The Card Game, opening up all-new strategies based around Walkers, Troopers, Droids, manipulating shield tokens, and removing damage from objectives. Meanwhile, two new objective sets feature powerful effects that trigger while their objectives are undamaged, encouraging players to center their strikes and defenses around them.

Prepare for a Surface Attack
One of the Empire’s greatest military leaders comes to life in the objective set built around The General’s Imperative (Assault on Echo Base, 267). Assault on Echo Base gives dark side players the chance to bring the renowned General Veers (Assault on Echo Base, 268) to the table, as well as the troopers and walkers under his command.

* A fantastic objective set for dark side players committed to winning the Battle of Hoth, The General’s Imperative offers an impressive mix of units, combat icons, trait-based synergies, and powerful card abilities. Centered around the strengths of General Veers and its objective, this set is likely to become a first choice for all Hoth-based dark side decks and a strong consideration for any Imperial Navy deck.
* While undamaged, The General’s Imperative increases your reserve value by one. In Star Wars: The Card Game, an increased reserve – or hand size – is invaluable as it leads to greater potential card draw and more options throughout the course of the game. It also means more cards in hand for the game’s critical edge battles. By combining two copies of The General’s Imperative in a deck with a copy of Reconnaissance Mission (Core Set, 36), you stand a good chance of playing with an increased hand size, and an off-chance of playing with as many as nine cards in your hand!
* Depicted holding the range finder of his AT-AT, General Veers is a highly skilled Officer, capable of organizing any array of Walkers and Troopers into a fearsome invasion force.
* Naturally, the objective set provides players with Walkers to make the most of Veers’ talents. Two copies of the Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base, 269) can keep the pressure cranked up high against the light side, especially if they can wreak havoc with early attacks.
* On the other hand, the Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base, 270) makes a great late-game play as it can potentially undercut the light side’s resources once the dark side seizes control of the tide of battle.
* The final card in the set, Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base, 271), combines nicely with the set’s other cards. Used aggressively, it can help Veers and his Blizzard Force AT-ST’s quickly eliminate opposing objectives. Used defensively, it can remove damage from The General’s Imperative and help to bolster your reserve.

Life in the Trenches
Assault on Echo Base is coming. With Imperial AT-STs marching across the frozen waste and snowtroopers rushing toward the trenches, there’s little time remaining for the Rebels and their allies to build their defenses, heal their wounded, and establish their battle plans.

• The fourth Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Advances the Battle of Hoth as Imperial walkers march across the frozen ice planet
• Introduces six new objective sets built around walkers, troopers, droids, and shields
• Supports strategies that encourage players to strike against specific objectives
• Continues to develop the cycle’s focus on the Hoth trait and the sense of location

The fifth Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

In The Battle of Hoth, massive and heavily armored Imperial AT-ATs march forward in inexorable waves while Rebel snowspeeder pilots employ daring group tactics to slow their advance. Meanwhile, the desperate fight on the desolate ice planet of Hoth is destined to have tremendous repercussions throughout the galaxy. Will the Empire’s AT-ATs and stormtrooper legions surround, siege, and destroy the last remnants of the Rebellion? Or will the valiant sacrifices of the Rebel Alliance’s rearguard hold the lines long enough for their allies to find safety?

Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back, the five new objective sets in The Battle of Hoth allow players to recreate the movie’s events or to imagine alternate outcomes. This Force Pack could witness the end of the Rebel Alliance, or it could open an opportunity for its noble spies and smugglers to conduct critical espionage while the Empire’s eyes are turned toward Hoth. With the fate of the galaxy on the line, can Rogue squadron’s snowspeeders actually win the day and strike a massive blow to the Empire’s aspirations for galactic domination?

Outmanned, Outgunned, and Resilient
Few of the light side’s weapons are powerful enough to punch through the thick hull plating of an Imperial AT-AT (The Battle of Hoth, 296). Accordingly, when those monstrous, mechanized engines of destruction start to stride the battlefields of Hoth, the Rebel Alliance and its allies need to adopt new tactics, and the light side gains one such valuable tactic in The Battle of Hoth.

Coordinated Strike (The Battle of Hoth, 290) can change the shape of an entire engagement by allowing two light side units to strike as though they were one: “After you resolve a strike, immediately strike again with another ready participating unit you control.” This is a powerful trick to keep up your sleeve when your Speeders need to confront a powerful dark side unit, such as the AT-AT.

As an example, if your opponent commands a ready and undamaged AT-AT when you launch Rogue Two (The Battle of Hoth, 281) and another Snowspeeder (The Battle of Hoth, 185) against his objective, he may choose to defend. Even if he loses the edge battle, your opponent might expect his Walker to survive the initial strike by Red Two, after which he could destroy your Snowspeeder and prevent two damage to his objective – one from the Snowspeeder’s edge-enabled icon and one that you would have gained had he let the attack go undefended. Furthermore, your opponent may view his chance to defend your attack as a chance to gain a swing in momentum; by destroying your Snowspeeder, he gains an advantage in the number of units on the table. However, by winning the edge and employing a Coordinated Strike, your Speeders can fire in rapid succession. Together, they can destroy your enemy’s AT-AT before it can retaliate and deal four total damage to your opponent’s objective. Furthermore, since your opponent can no longer retaliate, both your units will survive the engagement.

Maximum Firepower
Look for the AT-AT, Rogue Two, Coordinated Strike, and the other cards from The Battle of Hoth to give shape to the dramatic engagements inspired by this fifth Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle once it arrives at retailers everywhere. Hoth will never be the same!

• The fifth Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game
• Continues to support the cycle’s focus on location, built around its Hoth trait
• Five new objective sets add new Rebel snowspeeders and Imperial AT-ATs to the game
• Allows players to recreate the early scenes of The Empire Strikes Back or imagine alternative outcomes

The sixth and final Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

It is a desperate time for the Rebel Alliance. The Battle of Hoth has turned against the Rebels and their allies. Their base has been breached by Imperial snowtroopers while a fleet of Star Destroyers waits to make sure no ships slip free of the Hoth system. While General Veers pilots his massive AT-AT walker against Echo Base’s primary shield generator, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa seek to buy time – and hope – for the Rebel evacuation...

The balance of the Force turns to the dark side in Escape from Hoth as it gains three of the Force Pack’s five new objective sets, including one that introduces the Super Star Destroyer, Executor. However, even as the dark side looks to deploy this incredible Vehicle and hunt down the rag-tag remnants of the Rebellion with hired bounty hunters, the light side isn’t defeated yet. Light side players can take hope from the arrival of several iconic new units, including a new Rebel Alliance version of Han Solo!

At the end of The Hoth Cycle, the siege on Echo Base and the cycle’s focus on the Hoth trait come to a dramatic close. Will this Force Pack see the end of the Rebel Alliance and its allies? Or will Luke, Leia, Han, and the light side’s other key champions escape from the frozen planet to plan their next strike and keep the fires of freedom lit?

The Executor Arrives
Escape from Hoth is a Force Pack loaded with iconic characters and starships, including the greatest Star Destroyer from the original trilogy, Executor (Escape from Hoth, 308).

Because it costs eight, playing the Executor requires a definite investment into your deck’s economy, but if you can manage to get this behemoth to the table, it’s sure to strike fear into the heart of your enemy. While the Executor is undamaged, it is immune to your opponent’s card effects, including the effects of such cards as Han Solo (Core Set, 64) and Heat of Battle (Core Set, 65) that would be able to deal it damage. This means the light side will have to stop the Executor by damaging it in an engagement or by striking with their icons to bury it under focus tokens. However, burying the Executor under icons is easier said than done, both because it can strike down attacking units with its three icons and because its Reaction ability makes the Executor its own best defender: “After a card is sacrificed, deal 1 damage to a target enemy unit or objective.”

Currently in Star Wars: The Card Game, the “sacrifice” mechanic is owned primarily by those noble heroes of the Rebel Alliance who are willing to pay with their lives to ensure greater victories. Cards like Heroic Sacrifice (Core Set, 47) and You’re My Only Hope (Core Set, 167) reward light side players with tremendous benefits from their units’ timely sacrifices. Several other light side cards support this theme, but the Executor allows dark side players to twist and corrupt this mechanic. If light side players want to use any of their sacrifice effects while the Executor is in play, they’ll have to pay twice. They’ll pay the standard sacrifice, and then they’ll suffer as the Executor deals a targeted point of damage to an enemy unit or objective.

Even better, the objective set in which the Executor appears also introduces several cards that the dark side player can sacrifice. One of them, the Sith Holocron (Escape from Hoth, 310), can even help the dark side player get his Super Star Destroyer into position far faster than the light side might anticipate. Another card in the objective set, Aggression (Escape from Hoth, 311), not only allows the dark side player to sacrifice its own unit, it forces the light side player to sacrifice a unit, too. And the Executor, hovering ominously above the battle in space, will make the light side suffer for both sacrifices.

At nineteen thousand meters long and loaded with more than five thousand weapon emplacements, the Executor is an impressive personal flagship for Darth Vader, and its icons and abilities ensure that it will be as feared and respected in Star Wars: The Card Game as it was in the movies.

Hoth Under Siege
The Force Packs of The Hoth Cycle introduce objectives with the Hoth trait and other cards to develop the ice planet as a real location in the game. Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back, they depict the establishment of the Rebellion’s Echo Base and the subsequent siege staged by Imperial forces. With their Star Destroyers, AT-ATs, snowtrooper legions, and vast resources, the Imperials look to snuff out the Rebellion once and for all.

Against the vast Imperial armada, the Rebels have their bravery and cunning, their snowspeeders, and their heavy transports. Soon, players of Star Wars: The Card Game will be able to decide their own battles for the fate of Hoth, and Escape from Hoth is the exciting conclusion to this series of expansions!

• The final Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• Offers a climactic conclusion to the cycle’s focus on the Hoth trait
• Heralds the arrival of the Super Star Destroyer, Executor
• Light side players gain several iconic new units, including a Rebel Alliance Han Solo
• Inspired by the early scenes of The Empire Strikes Back

The fourth Force Pack in the Opposition cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

Throughout the saga, Star Wars has been defined by rivalries and conflict. Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, is opposed by Darth Vader, one of the Dark Lords of the Sith. Han Solo, a smuggler from the Outer Rim, is tracked by Jabba the Hutt and his teams of bounty hunters. Princess Leia Organa is taunted and questioned by Grand Moff Tarkin. These enmities and threats bring the characters to life, and now, you can bring some of these rivalries into your games of Star Wars: The Card Game with Scrap Metal, the next Force Pack in the Opposition cycle.

Like the other Force Packs of the cycle, Scrap Metal comes with ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets), each challenging the way you view the battles between the factions of Star Wars: The Card Game. Here, you’ll find a host of new versions of iconic characters, including Jabba the Hutt, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Jek Porkins. With plenty of new fate cards to bring new tension to every edge battle, the rivalries that exist between factions are about to become more explosive and dangerous than ever before!

Crime Lord of Tatooine
Among the criminal elements of the Outer Rim, few command as much power as Jabba the Hutt. From his palace on Tatooine, Jabba can order a death mark on anyone in the galaxy, instantly dispatching dozens of professional hunters to fulfill the contract. Now, with a new version of Jabba the Hutt, you can orchestrate the rise of your Scum and Villainy from behind the scenes.

Most of the stats on the new Jabba the Hutt (Scrap Metal, 2011) are instantly recognizable from the earlier version of Jabba the Hutt (Edge of Darkness, 375). Across two versions, Jabba the Hutt has the same cost, damage capacity, combat icons, and the text, “This unit cannot be targeted by enemy events.” Still, the new version has gained the elite keyword, keeping him from being focused for long, and an ability that can give you a significant economic advantage: you automatically reduce the cost of the first Bounty Hunter unit or Scum and Villainy event you play each turn by two!

Imagine playing a powerful Bounty Hunter like Boba Fett (Between the Shadows, 666) for just two resources—or paying a single resource to play Captured (Edge of Darkness, 373) on any enemy unit. With Jabba the Hutt, you can easily save enough resources to make up for his cost, even as you use his tactics icons to control the battlefield. In fact, if you play Jabba the Hutt early enough, your resource superiority could give you a crippling advantage over the course of the game.

As you might expect, Jabba’s objective set comes with both another Bounty Hunter unit and a Scum and Villainy event to make use of his special ability. The Freelance Hunter (Scrap Metal, 667) can be played for free if you have Jabba in play, giving you another unit that’s well suited to attack an enemy objective. Or, you could play Hutt's Hospitality (Scrap Metal, 2014), an event that simply allows you to destroy any Character or Droid unit with a printed cost of two or lower. Best of all, this event has almost no restrictions on when it can be played, allowing you to potentially tip the balance of an engagement in your favor at a moment’s notice.

The crime lord of Tatooine has considerable resources at his disposal, and two of the other cards in this objective set give you ways to ensure you always have the events you need in your hand. Twi'lek Sycophant (Scrap Metal, 2012) allows you to search the top five cards of your deck for an event card and add it to your hand. Then, after you’ve played your events, you can bring them back to your hand with this set’s objective, His High Exaltedness (Scrap Metal, 2010). This objective reads, “Interrupt: When an objective is destroyed, return a Scum and Villainy event card from your discard pile to your hand.” Whether you’re recurring Threat Removal (Jump to Lightspeed, 837), Shadows of the Empire (Between the Shadows, 674), or Show of Force (Between the Shadows, 687), this objective can quickly prove worthwhile when it’s paired with Jabba the Hutt.

Once you’re playing most of your events for free with Jabba the Hutt, the biggest remaining downside to your Scum and Villainy events is the restrictions that come on each card. Fortunately, with Jabba’s criminal empire at your disposal, you can put a Death Mark (Scrap Metal, 2013) on anyone. This enhancement is attached to an enemy Character or Droid unit, and the enhanced unit now counts as matching the targeting requirements of all Scum and Villainy events. With Death Mark, you can now use Hutt’s Hospitality to destroy nearly any unit in the game, or Springing the Ambush (Lure of the Dark Side, 541) to quickly capture your enemies. No matter which events you use, a Death Mark makes your entire deck run more smoothly.

Build an Empire
Whether you support the Galactic Empire or seek to tear it down, you can find your place in the galaxy among the new objective sets from this Force Pack. Experience the rivalries and conflicts of the Star Wars galaxy with the newest expansion for Star Wars: The Card Game!

• The fourth Force Pack in the Opposition cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game
• New cards enhance the rivalries between specific factions
• New fate cards add tension to every edge battle
• Play as iconic characters such as Jabba the Hutt, C-3PO, and R2-D2
• Includes ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets).