The Desolation of HothAnnouncing the First Force Pack for STAR WARS (TM): The Card Game
“Echo Base…I’ve got something! Not much, but it could be a life form.”
–Zev Senesca, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Fantasy Flight Game is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Desolation of Hoth, the first Force Pack from The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game!
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!
The Hoth Cycle
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.
–Nate French, Senior LCG Designer
Thanks, Nate!
As the Rebel Alliance and their allies adapt their speeders for the harsh climate of the ice planet Hoth, the Imperial fleet probes the galaxy for signs of the Rebel base. Conflict is inevitable. The Battle of Hoth is coming, and the winner will shape the fate of the galaxy!
Look for The Desolation of Hoth to kick off The Hoth Cycle of Force Packs for Star Wars: The Card Game in the first quarter of 2013!
About Force Packs™
Each Force Pack expands the Star Wars universe and increase players’ deck-building options with sixty new cards. As a Living Card Game® (LCG), Star Wars: The Card Game follows a fixed distribution model, and each Force Pack provides players a complete playset of each new objective, unit, enhancement, event, and fate card it contains.
Because Star Wars: The Card Game introduces a new set-building design to our collection of LCGs, the distribution of cards in each Force Pack also differs from the model used for our other LCGs. Instead of gaining three copies of each new card, you’ll gain ten complete objective sets, including one copy of each “Limit 1” objective set and two copies of each other objective set.
...
Source:
The Desolation of Hoth
