FIRST CUT
By Tom Lischke, Decipher Product Development

Death Star II: Fully Armed and Operational

Well, I was thinking about what I could do for an introduction to this article: talk about the climactic space Battle of Endor, or the final confrontation between Luke and Vader; but you've all waited long enough for Death Star II, so let's just go look at the new cards, alright?

Emperor Palpatine leads the list of big hitters in the Death Star II Expansion. This guy is pretty tough, with some features that match Yoda, such as total immunity to attrition and a bonus Force icon. There are some differences, though. Where Yoda played the role of stay-at-home mentor, Palpatine has an Empire to run, and the tools to do it.

He can lay back at the Throne Room while you deploy the Emperor's Power. This keeps him relatively safe, and provides battle enhancements across the galaxy -- a true cornerstone for the Bring Him Before Me objective. But the Emperor isn't afraid to go and oversee things personally, either. Once the Royal Guards have prepared the way for him, Palpatine and his advisors are willing pay a visit to a battleground site. His personal shuttle is just the ship to make sure he gets there safely, being immune to attrition and letting you add a battle destiny while the Emperor is aboard.

This expansion has the story moment that we've all been waiting for, when Luke becomes a Jedi Knight (like his father before him). We've given you a few tools to ensure this story is satisfying on a gameplay level. First, the new versions of Luke and Vader sport the biggest numbers in the game. They are also pretty stable once on table -- when armed with their lightsabers, which are also in Death Star II, both of them have an increased defense value and huge immunity, and there isn't a whole lot that is going to stand up to them. Both sides have objectives that revolve around the confrontation in the Throne Room. To turn your opponent's Jedi, you'll have to win battles with the rest of your deck as well, though.

Big Blue never had so many options as it does in Death Star II. Even the Executor makes another appearance as the Flagship of the Imperial Fleet at Endor. With a variety of ISDs, and even a Victory-class Star Destroyer thrown in for spice, the fleet can bring more power to the table than ever. Officers such as Commander Merrejk and Admiral Chiraneau open up a few deck building avenues by downloading systems and enhancing Force drains where you have a Star Destroyer. Admiral Piett, commander of the fleet (check out his Rebel counterpart, Admiral Ackbar), lowers the deploy cost of capital starships, and allows you to take an Admiral's Order into hand (more on Admiral's Orders later). Dust off the old TIE deck too, as the TIE Interceptor makes its debut. Designed to counter X-wings, this ship is ready for battle. Readers of the Rogue Squadron publications will be pleased to meet Wedge's nemesis, Baron Soontir Fel, and his 181st Imperial Squadron. ?

Another star of the expansion will be the Death Star II system itself. The most obvious use of this card is to build a deck based on the Endor Operations objective, and use the starting interrupt Operational As Planned to quickly grab Moff Jerjerrod, the system and an effect of your choice. Before you know it, you'll have a "fully armed and operational battle station" which acts in a similar manner to the Special Edition Occupation cards, but with a little more juice and a battle bonus thrown in for good measure. The unique Scythe Squadron TIEs make ideal defenders of the second Death Star.

The Alliance finally lets its big boys come out to play for real in Death Star II. After the original Mon Calamari starships were somewhat (cough) underappreciated in their original form, we upgraded the apparatus a bit. The Star Cruisers can now form the backbone of a Light Side deck ("Big Squid"?). Of course, the strength of the Rebels has always been its starfighters, and Death Star II builds on that strength with A-wing, as well as several squadrons of unique starfighters. An effect available to both Light and Dark allows you to show either a pilot or unique starfighter from hand and get the match from the Reserve Deck. No more waiting for the other half of the combo to come up. Finally, a couple of Rogue Squadron favorites show up, and Hobbie finally gets his very own X-wing. Check out the markings on the side of Wedge's X-wing, one of my favorite parts of the set!

With all of the starships in the set, it seemed only appropriate to bring out a new card type to both enhance battles in space and tie them more closely to what is happening on the ground. Welcome to Admiral's Orders! Each side of the Force gets five of these cards in the Death Star II expansion, with functions that vary from enhancing unique starfighters to a reward for decks that combine capital starships with snub fighters. Many of these cards give a bonus at sites related to the systems that you occupy (or control) as well. I also think they are also the best looking cards in the set.

Finally, there are plenty of metagame cards as well. Both sides have a starting interrupt that allows you to deploy a variety of primarily defensive effects at the beginning of the game. You want Battle Order and Imperial Arrest Order? You got it. You want Combat Response too? And all of them at the start? What the heck, we're easy! A couple of the top decks for each side are going to be forced to retool as well, by cards such as You Cannot Hide Forever and Honor Of The Jedi.

All in all, Death Star II is an interactive set that dovetails neatly with the Endor expansion for both Sealed Deck and constructed play. Now go out there and build yourself a battle station. And remember, Skywalkers is right around the corner!