Gen Con News:  Fantasy Flight Games announced a new big box two-in-one Star Wars board game that includes elements of both an adventure RPG and a miniatures skirmish game.  The game is planned for early 2015 release.
 
"It represents a miniatures game, and adventure board game, and is probably the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken," said Fantasy Flight CEO Christian Petersen.  "As a character-driven RPG board game, it uses some kernels of the game system of Descent: Journeys in the Dark.  It’s basically acontinued development of that game engine, but of course customized and completely redone for Star Wars."

"What’s particularly exciting about Imperial Assault is that it’s actually two games," Petersen continued, "an adventure RPG with lots of missions and story-driven content, but it’s also a head-to-head competitive miniatures game where you would assemble a squad of Imperials or Rebels, and you have a deck of cards that go with them, and you play head-to-head, about a half hour game on a number of different, determined tabletop battlefields." 
 
The game takes place after the climactic events of the Death Star’s destruction over Yavin 4.  Players choose to command either heroes of the Rebellion or the limitless armies of the Galactic Empire.  In the campaign game, up to five players adventure through a series of narrative campaign missions.  In the skirmish game, two players mount strike teams and battle head-to-head over conflicting objectives.
 
The core box contains: 34 detailed plastic figures, 59 double-sided map tiles, over 250 cards, over 150 assorted tokens, 11 custom dice, a learn to play rulebook, a rules reference, a campaign guide, and a skirmish guide.  The core box will also contain the Luke Skywalker Ally Pack and the Darth Vader Villain Pack, which are the first expansions for the game, and each contains a sculpted plastic figure and new campaign and skirmish missions.
 
The game is for 2-5 players ages 10 and up and plays in 1 – 2 hours.  MSRP is $99.95.