The Galactic Civil War¶
Star Wars Rebellion drops you into the galaxy four years after the Battle of Yavin—after the first Death Star has been destroyed, but before the Empire has begun its second. The Emperor is furious. The Rebel Alliance is emboldened but still outgunned. Everything is in motion.
The Setting¶
The galaxy spans 200 star systems across 20 sectors, from the densely populated Core worlds to the scattered Outer Rim. Most systems start neutral or loosely aligned. Both factions begin with only a handful of controlled worlds: the Empire anchored at Coruscant, the Alliance hiding its headquarters somewhere in the Rim.
This is not a war of clean front lines. Systems change hands through popular revolt, diplomatic persuasion, and military occupation—sometimes all three in the same week. A system with high Imperial popularity can still harbor a Rebel cell. A world the Empire nominally controls can spontaneously rise in uprising if its people are pushed far enough.
The Timeline¶
The game does not play out in real-time. A game tick represents roughly one day. Fleets take weeks to cross the galaxy. Manufacturing a Star Destroyer takes months. Research into new ship classes can take years. At normal speed the game unfolds over what feels like a year of galactic civil war—longer on huge galaxy maps or if neither side can land a decisive blow.
There are no discrete turns. The game runs continuously at a speed you control: paused, normal, fast, or faster. Events—fleet arrivals, mission completions, manufacturing finishes, uprisings—fire as they resolve, not at end-of-turn.
What Each Side Is Trying to Do¶
The Galactic Empire¶
The Empire wins by locating and destroying the Rebel base—the Alliance's hidden headquarters system. The Empire has superior resources, more starting systems, and access to the Death Star. Its strategic problem is that the galaxy is vast, the Rebel HQ is concealed, and sending a Death Star to a system you've only just located will often give the Alliance time to relocate.
The Empire's secondary path to victory: if it can capture the Alliance leadership (Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar) and break the diplomatic network that keeps neutral systems from joining the Rebellion, the Alliance may simply collapse for lack of popular support before anyone fires the superlaser.
The Rebel Alliance¶
The Alliance wins by capturing Coruscant or, alternatively, destroying the second Death Star while it is under construction. Neither path is easy. The Empire has a much larger fleet and far more garrisoned systems. The Alliance's strength is asymmetric: it is better at diplomacy, espionage, and guerrilla operations. It can win the population of neutral worlds while the Empire is still trying to find where it lives.
The Alliance's strategic posture is fundamentally one of survival and expansion—stay hidden, grow the coalition, strike when the moment is right.
How the Game Unfolds¶
A typical game has three phases:
Early game is about establishing control and production. Both factions are building fleets, assigning characters to missions, and trying to secure key manufacturing systems. The Alliance is recruiting neutral worlds. The Empire is garrisoning the Core.
Mid game is about pressure. Fleets are large enough to contest territory. Research begins unlocking more advanced ships. Mission teams are deep in enemy space running espionage and sabotage. If the Death Star is under construction, the Alliance needs to know. If the Alliance HQ is on the move, the Empire needs to track it.
Late game is decided by the initiative of whoever is ahead. A faction with manufacturing superiority produces capital ships faster than the other side can replace losses. But the game never truly ends by attrition alone—only by meeting one of the three terminal conditions: capture the enemy HQ, destroy the Death Star, or locate and eliminate the Rebel base.
Victory Conditions¶
| Condition | Who Wins |
|---|---|
| Capture the enemy faction's HQ system | The capturing faction |
| Destroy the Death Star | Alliance |
| Fire the Death Star at the Rebel base | Empire |
Once a terminal condition is reached, the game ends immediately with a victory or defeat screen.
The Fog of War¶
Neither faction can see the entire galaxy at once. Systems outside the detection range of your fleets and facilities appear dim—you know they exist, but not what is orbiting them or who controls them. Scout fleets and espionage missions gradually fill in the picture. An unexplored system deep in Rim space may be harboring the enemy's most important shipyard, or nothing at all.
This uncertainty is central to the game's tension. The Empire cannot simply scan for the Rebel base. It must dispatch agents, send probe droids, and read the patterns of Rebel fleet movement.
Next: Factions—what makes the Alliance and Empire play differently.