Battle of Hoth

Imperial forces have discovered the rebel base on the ice planet of Hoth. Can the plucky rebel fighters and their speeders hold off the massed stormtroopers and mighty AT-ATs long enough for the base to be evacuated?

Yes, this is Star Wars. Game designer Richard Borg has applied his simple, clever wargame system (as seen in the 'Commands & Colors' family of games) to the battle from the early part of The Empire Strikes Back.

The basics of the game are the same as the others in the family. Players use their Command cards (one a turn) to manoeuvre and attack with their forces (models) on the board, rolling dice to resolve combat. They win a battle by destroying enemy units and achieving other goals. A variety of scenarios provide different set-ups and challenges for the players.

The Star Wars setting provides the atmosphere and backdrop that history does in other C&C games. And a nice touch is the campaigns provided – playing a series of scenarios, where which one is next depends on who won the last one and players can gain extra resources for the next scenario before achieving the final victory.

It's a quick-playing crash, bang, wallop of a game like its progenitor, Memoir '44 (from the same publisher), that is good fun to play.

If you're a Commands & Colors fan, this is a smaller, simpler, faster game without the subtleties of its cousins. But hey, it's Star Wars! If you're not, this is a good place to start, especially if the Force is with you!

For 2 players, aged 8+, playing time 30 minutes

Battle of Hoth was designed by Richard Borg and is published by Days of Wonder

Find out more:
    Battle of Hoth on BoardGameGeek
    Pevans's first impressions of Battle of Hoth are in To Win Just Once issue 254 (PDF, 1 Mb)