[SolemnGolem]

The game is very complex, and there are numerous edge cases (often addressed properly if you read the rules in full, although there might not be a specific tidy paragraph that solves the issue head-on). There were many rules that I misunderstood when playing this game, and if you add them all up, it actually unbalanced the game a lot and my gaming group kept losing with the Empire.

So, to help out others who might be struggling to find the "balance" in the game, here are the things we messed up, and the correct rules that govern them.

1. The Advanced Tactics Cards from the expansion ROTE are not drawn randomly at the start of each combat round. (That's what the normal Tactics Cards from the base game do.) Instead, with ATCs, you pick them all up and look at them and choose one to play at the start of each combat round, rather like the House Member cards in Game of Thrones 2nd ed. Once used, an ATC becomes discarded and cannot be used again until all of that side's ATCs have been used up, whereupon the whole deck is picked up again except for the card just played (which becomes the first card in the discard pile).
2. The Rebels can reveal their base, but doing so does NOT make the planet automatically Rebel-loyal. (This misunderstanding caused one game with Rebel Cells objective to become grossly lopsided against the Empire.)
3. In the ROTE expansion, the attacker MAY use the cross-saber die results to remove existing damage from the proper unit type. However, because of the way that combat turns work, units with 1 hp will not survive to the next round if they take any damage, so this de facto only works for units that have at least 2 hp. The defender does not have this limitation. (Note: damage inflicted before the attacker rolls dice, e.g. via card powers, can be healed.)
4. You may send ANY leader to oppose a mission, even one who lacks the skill color necessary to roll dice. In that case, the leader rolls 0 dice, but it then forces the attacker to roll at least 1 success, since the defender wins ties.
5. Ozzel's Action Card "Take Them By Surprise" functions during the Assignment phase, basically allowing the Empire an earlier-than-usual unit move order. This function is implied but not explicit on the card. The card does not give any other special powers, e.g. it does not allow movement out of a system that's been immobilized by a friendly leader.
6. When calculating number of skill icons for dice rolls in opposed missions, you count the specified skill icon from ALL friendly leaders who are already present in the system (except those who are captured or frozen in carbonite) for each side. For special missions that target a specific leader (and usually say "count all skill icons for this attempt") you also total up all skill icons of friendly leaders regardless of skill color. This second scenario can rapidly reach the hard limit ceiling of 10 dice for both sides (or 13 dice if you're using the expansion), if there are a lot of leaders milling around in the system.
7. You can activate a system with a leader (provided that they have combat ratings) and then do nothing with that leader. This is totally valid and is often a helpful operation, for example if you anticipate a mission in that system later on and you want that leader's skill icons to contribute to a later leader's total. (Imperials can send in Tagge with his one red skill first, then send in Vader with his three red for a total of four.)
8. Rapid Mobilization is very complex and both players should read the rulebook for this, rather than rely on the mission card. The base relocation power of this card does not take place until the start of the refresh phase, so the Rebel player cannot safely wait until the Imperial fleet is adjacent to the Rebel base before playing the card. (The Empire will still get their full Command phase, which includes fleet actions.) The other power of this card, which is to move up to five units to the unrevealed Rebel Base space, ignoring adjacency restrictions, does NOT ignore transport restrictions or leader-presence "freezing units" restrictions. Therefore, in order to move ground units via this method, the Rebels must have some transport vessels ready and cannot have a leader in the system. (I had incorrectly assumed that Rebels could "teleport" up to five units without any transport restrictions to the RB.) Thus, Medium Transports are still useful for moving Rebel Troopers to the base in anticipation of a ground battle.
9. Certain cards affect "ships", which in this boardgame includes starfighters and starships alike. This is especially important with the Nebulon-B advanced tactic card, which allows that unit to block hits inflicted on ships. During a DSP run, the Neb-B can block hits scored against X-Wing and Y-Wing units too, because they are counted as ships. (This may surprise other players like myself, who were raised on numerous Star Wars starfighter video games and the computer Rebellion game, all of which clearly differentiated between fighters and ships.)