Heart of the Empire - Expansion Review

The Heart of the Empire Expansion was announced on May 4, 2017 and released on October 12, 2017. As one of the bigger boxes, it features a full campaign (kind-of... it's actually 2 missions shorter than most full-length campaigns) and 16 miniatures. Taking place on Courusant, this campaign is fast-paced and quite fun.

Imperial Assault Wave: 10

MSRP: $64.95

# of Missions: 8

# of Miniatures: 16

Additional Deployment Cards: 3

Rebel Upgrade Rank: 2

Imperial Upgrade Rank: 4

Overall Rank: 3

Heart of the Empire features a lot for both the Rebels and Imperials. For the Imperials, you'll get Emperor Palpatine. The Emperor is one of my favorite designs - he is a commander who can really hurt you if you get close. Also, for the Skirmish side of things, this expansion include 3 skirmish upgrades that "fix" older deployment cards. These are Driven By Hatred for Darth Vader, Rouge Smuggler for Han Solo and Wookie Avenger for Chewbacca. Out of all of these, I think Rouge Smuggler is the best. For -2 points, you only lose Distracting - an ability I didn't really like anyway. And, Han gains a reroll while attacking, a free end of the round attack, and the ability to use Return Fire when he suffers damage. Next, yes, Darth Vader's is amazing. He loses Brutality, but gains sooooooo much. This makes him really competive and puts him at the 13 point price range. Chewbacca's is okay, but he loses Protector - one of my favorite abilties. Nevertheless, it's -4 points so, you really have to take it .

For the Rebels, you get Jarrod Kelvin - one of my favorite heroes - as well as Ko-Tun Feralo and Drakkota. All three of these heroes are quite good and I think you should try all of them. Additionally, Ahsoka Tano is included (no miniature) in this expansion. This helps in skirmish immensely. Ahsoka is so good and really helps in a force-user build.

Overall, I think this should be one of the first expansions you get. It is really well-rounded and helps in both campaign and skirmish. It doesn't offer some of the flair that other expansions do, but this one is definitely solid.