Star Wars: The Card Game
I picked this up a week and Friday and I have played a few games.
Star Wars: The Card Game is one of those card games where you don't have to purchase boosters or individual cards. It's all pre-constructed decks. The core set comes with two light side decks and 2 dark side decks with the option to mix and match cards if players are tired of the starter decks and and options to do a third lightside and darkside deck with deck customization.
Players each play objectives which give them resources, various card advantages, and something to protect. The lightside's player main objective is to destroy and collect three of the darkside player's objectives. The darkside palyer's objective is to run out the game clock (there is a maximum of 12 turns, the darkside character can run the clock out faster depending on how they play).
Either player losses if they can't draw from their main deck or come up with an objective to replace another. Running out of cards in your main deck is actually a potential scenario. Friday got within 3 cards of running out our last game (though, this is partially because you have a dozen less cards if playing the starting sets). You draw up to a full hand at the start of each turn. This is usually 6, but some cards increase your hand size. If you manage to empty your hand before your next turn begins and have some extra draw mechanisms, you could end up loosing.
Something I need to get out of the way:
Where the FUCK is Chewbacca? How the HELL do you release a core-set without one of the main characters?! The lightside has Mon Mothma, MON FUCKING MOTHMA, but no room for Chewie?! What the fuck?!
It's already been revealed his coming in a later faction, but STILL...
Anyhow, the game is rather similar to MTG is you basically have a a pile of things giving you resources and all your units are in a single area. This differs from the original Star Wars: Custimizable card game were players fought over territory.
This also made the learning curve a bit less for Friday and I as we had something to compare it too. Contrast the new Net Runner (another Fantasy Flight game) which was almost utterly unlike anything either of us have played.
Also, maybe it's because of the similarities to magic, but this was the first Fantasy Flight game I've played were the instructions didn't make me want to tear our my hair.
One thing I like is that each objective comes with a set of cards. You pick 10 objectives and their corresponding cards when creating a customized deck. So instead of fielding a deck with the absolute best cards for your strategy, you need to pick objectives combined with their sets that help your strategy. This makes it unlikely that a player would field a deck of just Darth Vaders and Emperors.
You can have two of each objective (which makes for a clever way to get people to buy the core set twice). This is probably not a bad idea if you want to play often. One of the main problems is that the deck is completely inconsistent with only one of each set. This could make for rather short games if say your opponent fields the Emperor or Devastator or in the early turns and you're Obi-Wan or Home One is not coming up for a while...
I notice the game has positive, but not perfect reviews. I think the mechanics and deck-building are top notch, but the core set leaves much to be desired. Friday and I have played around with the different decks and the darkside seems to have a pretty solid advantage in that it has an easier time strait up murdering units and fielding units capable of murder. The lightside is, in turn, is a bet better at at protection and returning cards to the field, but this is sort of not as helpful given that any game that goes on long enough is the darksides. That is unless the darkside player decks themselves.
The way the resources rules are "Spies and Smugglers" and also "Scum and Villainy" are difficult to field out of the core while staying competitive. So, despite Han Solo and Boba Fett being in the core set, you'd basically have to build a major portion of the deck around making sure you'd be able to play them if you drew them, denying yourself of some of the better objective sets.
All that considered, Friday and I decided to order another core set and the three expansion sets that have come out. We're hoping this will address the games short-comings and make a well designed set of rules even more enjoyable.
Star Wars: The Card Game is one of those card games where you don't have to purchase boosters or individual cards. It's all pre-constructed decks. The core set comes with two light side decks and 2 dark side decks with the option to mix and match cards if players are tired of the starter decks and and options to do a third lightside and darkside deck with deck customization.
Players each play objectives which give them resources, various card advantages, and something to protect. The lightside's player main objective is to destroy and collect three of the darkside player's objectives. The darkside palyer's objective is to run out the game clock (there is a maximum of 12 turns, the darkside character can run the clock out faster depending on how they play).
Either player losses if they can't draw from their main deck or come up with an objective to replace another. Running out of cards in your main deck is actually a potential scenario. Friday got within 3 cards of running out our last game (though, this is partially because you have a dozen less cards if playing the starting sets). You draw up to a full hand at the start of each turn. This is usually 6, but some cards increase your hand size. If you manage to empty your hand before your next turn begins and have some extra draw mechanisms, you could end up loosing.
Something I need to get out of the way:
Where the FUCK is Chewbacca? How the HELL do you release a core-set without one of the main characters?! The lightside has Mon Mothma, MON FUCKING MOTHMA, but no room for Chewie?! What the fuck?!
It's already been revealed his coming in a later faction, but STILL...
Anyhow, the game is rather similar to MTG is you basically have a a pile of things giving you resources and all your units are in a single area. This differs from the original Star Wars: Custimizable card game were players fought over territory.
This also made the learning curve a bit less for Friday and I as we had something to compare it too. Contrast the new Net Runner (another Fantasy Flight game) which was almost utterly unlike anything either of us have played.
Also, maybe it's because of the similarities to magic, but this was the first Fantasy Flight game I've played were the instructions didn't make me want to tear our my hair.
One thing I like is that each objective comes with a set of cards. You pick 10 objectives and their corresponding cards when creating a customized deck. So instead of fielding a deck with the absolute best cards for your strategy, you need to pick objectives combined with their sets that help your strategy. This makes it unlikely that a player would field a deck of just Darth Vaders and Emperors.
You can have two of each objective (which makes for a clever way to get people to buy the core set twice). This is probably not a bad idea if you want to play often. One of the main problems is that the deck is completely inconsistent with only one of each set. This could make for rather short games if say your opponent fields the Emperor or Devastator or in the early turns and you're Obi-Wan or Home One is not coming up for a while...
I notice the game has positive, but not perfect reviews. I think the mechanics and deck-building are top notch, but the core set leaves much to be desired. Friday and I have played around with the different decks and the darkside seems to have a pretty solid advantage in that it has an easier time strait up murdering units and fielding units capable of murder. The lightside is, in turn, is a bet better at at protection and returning cards to the field, but this is sort of not as helpful given that any game that goes on long enough is the darksides. That is unless the darkside player decks themselves.
The way the resources rules are "Spies and Smugglers" and also "Scum and Villainy" are difficult to field out of the core while staying competitive. So, despite Han Solo and Boba Fett being in the core set, you'd basically have to build a major portion of the deck around making sure you'd be able to play them if you drew them, denying yourself of some of the better objective sets.
All that considered, Friday and I decided to order another core set and the three expansion sets that have come out. We're hoping this will address the games short-comings and make a well designed set of rules even more enjoyable.
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Comments
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
There's a metaphor in this.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Of course they won anyway because power of friendship or something
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis