At first glance, Days of Wonder’s new Star Wars: Battle of Hoth board game looks like what I affectionately call a toy store game. That doesn’t necessarily mean a game that’s only for children, but rather that it’s aimed at a more general audience than what you normally find in a dedicated game shop. A game you can buy in a toy store or the toy section of a department store. The content can vary wildly, but will often consist of plastic or cardboard components (rarely wooden meeples), and usually comes in a wide, shallow box rather than something square and Ikea-friendly.
A closer inspection, however, reveals that there might be a little more to it than that. The back of the box depicts a game that looks pretty epic, boasting of over 70 miniatures, a double-sided board, full color cards with original artwork, and some nifty-looking custom dice. The components are quite a bit nicer than what you would expect to find in a Star Wars-themed Risk or Monopoly set, and the designers are credited on the front of the box, something most toy store games don’t bother doing. Most telling, though, is that it’s based squarely on a Star Wars film from 45 years ago – toy store games tend to be a bit more timely in their attempts to capitalize on popular culture.
Battle of Hoth uses the Command and Colors system, popularized by Fantasy Flight’s BattleLore and Days of Wonder’s own Memoir ‘44, among others. But you would only know that if you looked the game up on BoardGameGeek – the box only refers to it being part of the Galactic Battles series (the only one so far). In all honestly I’ve never played any of the other Command and Colors games, so I’ll be looking at Battle of Hoth entirely on its own merits.
Imperial Walkers Spotted on the North Ridge
The game is refreshingly simple, with a 12-page rule book that clearly explains the rules and includes numerous illustrated examples of play. The board is a 7×10 hex grid depicting a snowy landscape, with a number of double-sided tiles providing variable terrain features that change from game to game. Each player has three different types of units: both sides have infantry, the Rebel Alliance has snowspeeders and artillery turrets, and the Empire has probe droids and the dreaded AT-AT walkers.
Each type of unit has its own movement, attack, and defense capabilities. Troops are the most versatile, able to move twice in lieu of an attack, while snowspeeders are fast but have short range for attacks, and probe droids are hard to hit but can’t sustain much damage. Walkers are, of course, extremely tough with a lot of firepower, but the slowest unit in the game, and the Rebel artillery turrets have the longest range but can’t move.
Units move and attack using command cards. Each player starts the game with a hand of three or more (depending on the scenario being played); players take turns playing cards that designate a sector of the board where one or more units can be activated, or a specific type of unit, with some cards granting extra movement or additional combat dice.
Combat is resolved by rolling custom dice. The attacking unit and the range to target determines how many dice are rolled, and the defender determines which die faces will score a hit. A unit’s ability to take damage is determined by the number of miniatures occupying the space they are in. It’s a neat way to balance the different units: an infantry unit consists of 3 or 4 miniatures (depending on whether it’s Rebel or Imperial), but is much easier to hit, where a probe droid unit only takes a hit on a 1 in 6, but two hits will clear the unit from the board.
But the game isn’t just about eliminating units – one of the possible die results is a retreat symbol, which forces the unit being attacked to move backwards if possible, or take a hit if it’s backed up against another unit or a board edge.
It’s a Good Bet the Empire Knows We’re Here
The game is scenario-driven, with each scenario detailing deployment and victory conditions, starting with a simple scouting mission to help players learn the basics. There are 18 different scenarios that gradually more complex (but never overly so), and tell an expanded story of the evacuation of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, imagining battles that didn’t make it into the film but certainly could have been going on in the background.
The scenarios are written to take advantage of the game’s simple, elegant rules. The main difference between them is the number of units and starting locations for each side, as well as the placement of terrain features such as ridges, trenches, and ice formations that block movement or line of sight. The victory conditions all tend to be some variation on “destroy X number of units,” but most of the scenarios add a special rule or two that make certain units worth more victory points, or add elements of area control or objective pickup. It’s just enough to keep the game interesting without making it too complicated. An average game takes around 30-45 minutes to play.
Probably the most complex element of the game is the different terrain types and how they affect movement and attacks, but even that isn’t all that complicated. There are only six different terrain types, and their special rules are clearly spelled out on a handy reference card – seriously, why doesn’t every miniatures game do this? Like the scenarios, the terrain is there to spice things up without slowing the game down.
There are two other elements that add an additional level of interest to the game, once players have the basics down. Starting with scenario #6, some units are designated during setup as Special Forces units (using a simple token placed on the board with the units). These units gain an additional ability, generally needed to balance out the scenario conditions. In keeping with the simple yet elegant nature of the game, Special Forces abilities tend to be pretty straightforward, adding one additional element to the game but always stopping short of bogging it down with too much complication.
The other element is an optional rule that adds some of the unique characters of the Star Wars universe to the game, in the form of additional order cards shuffled in to each player’s deck. Players choose one leader (either Luke, Han or Leia for the Rebels, or Vader, Veers or Piett for the Empire) to add to their deck, giving them access to slightly more powerful and versatile ways to move and attack with their units.
We’ve Got to Hold Them Until All Transports Are Away
Once you’ve played through the scenario book (or even before), you still have a few options to make the game more interesting. The final scenario in the book is an all-out assault that requires two copies of the game to play out. The back side of the board is printed in such a way that two of them can be joined together to form a much larger battlefield. The scenario combines all the game elements into one massive mega-game, placing a ton of units on the board and requiring 10 victory points (rather than the usual 4 or 5) for a win.
If that’s not enough for you (or if you don’t want to buy a second copy of the game), there are also two multi-part campaigns. It should be noted that while the scenarios in the game do escalate in terms of complexity, they are all separate games, with nothing carrying over from one to the next. That’s where Assault on Echo Base and Outpost Delta come in. Each of these 4-game campaigns starts by setting up one of the scenarios from the main book and adding a secondary objective for each side that will reward them in an advantage in the next game. Depending on who wins, another scenario is set up with new secondary objectives, and so on.
One of my biggest problems with campaign games is the amount of time they require, sometimes taking up weeks or even months of game time. But at 30-45 minutes per game, it should be possible to play through a whole Battle of Hoth campaign in an afternoon, and the branching nature of the scenarios means that each campaign could potentially be played multiple times without repeating every battle.
I Feel Like I Could Take on the Whole Empire Myself
Battle of Hoth is one of those rare games that has simple rules but gives you a lot to think about while playing. The box says it’s for ages 8 and up, and I believe that is accurate – the game structure is simple enough that kids and families shouldn’t have any trouble playing and enjoying it, but I don’t think I would describe it as a kids’ game. It’s definitely not a simulation; there are several rules, such as snowspeeders not being able to fly over other units, that sacrifice realism for the sake of consistency and ease of play.
Despite the relative lack of granularity, there is a bit more to think about than just “move and attack” – but there doesn’t have to be. You may find yourself weighing your options and carefully considering the position of your units on the board, or you might just be asking “okay, what units can I move and attack with right now?” Either way, the short play time will likely have you wanting to set up and play again after finishing a game. It’s a nice level of scalability which means you can play for an hour or a whole afternoon.
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