Along with the much-anticipated film (Attack of the Clones) will come a massive deluge of Star Wars based merchandise. WOTC must have desired to be among the first to seize the opportunity to cash in on this enterprise so they called in their most successful game designer. Richard Garfield (of Magic: The Gathering fame) was called upon to design the new Star Wars Trading Card Game. Garfield and his team opened themselves to the light side of the force and designed a quick-moving action game.
Before I jump further into the review I have to clear the air about an important matter. Question: Do you know where the surest place to be alone is? Answer: At a meeting of the Jar Jar Binks fan club. Good news for fans of Jar Jar is that he made it into the card game. The Good news for all of us Jar Jar haters out here is that according to the card list offered by Wizards of the Coast (www.wizards.com/starwars/aotc/aotc_checklist.txt) Jar Jar Binks is only a rare card so we won't be seeing tons of those common cards junking up our collections, being used as bookmarks, toothpicks, etc.
There are only five types of cards in the entire game. Each type of card has a unique color assigned to it.
The purple-bordered cards are character cards that feature some familiar characters as well as some new characters from the upcoming film. Some of these characters have special combat abilities. They all have speed, power and health stats.
Ground unit cards have a green border and feature droids, walkers, infantry units, etc. The same stats are repeated on the ground (and space) units.
Blue borders represent the outer space units. The Naboo and Droid Fighters are quick, but only do a minor amount of damage, while the slower larger units do the largest amount of damage.
The orange trimmed Mission cards can be “built” during a special phase. Removing damage counters or searching your deck for a card can be the results of completing missions. Each mission varies in its cost and effectiveness.
The battle cards are red trimmed. Many of them deflect or increase damage. Most cost “force points” to play. Each turn, each player gains four such points. Unused force points roll over into the next turn phase.
The basic two player-starter set is intended to be a simple introduction to the game. It is exactly that. Players can use the included playmat and play a simple version that is just a touch more complex than “Go Fish” or some other childhood game. The simplified version of the game focuses on simple combat which is just dice rolling and card turning. It was a good method of learning the combat system, but I quickly became bored with it.
The combat system is short and sweet. Between the two players are the three distinct arenas: space, ground, and character arenas. Beginning with the Space arena, both players compare the speed statistic of each unit card in that particular arena. The fastest unit is permitted to attack first. (If there is a tie, the Dark Side Player gets to do his attacks first). The attacking player taps his card and declares a target card on the opposing side. He then rolls a number of dice equal to the power statistic of the attacking card. Each four, five, or six that is rolled counts as a hit. The attacked player places damage counters equal to the number of “hits” that were rolled on the attacked unit. If the number of “hits” is equal to or higher than the attacked card’s “health statistic” then that card is considered destroyed and is discarded. Play moves on to the next attacking unit (in order of the speed statistic) until all units in that arena are already tapped. Then all battles in the ground arena are fought, followed by all battles in the character arena. When all of the units present are tapped, the turn is over. If a player has units in an arena where the other player has no units then he controls that arena. When a player controls two of the three arenas the game is over. Some units have a special “critical hit” ability. This critical hit ability allows players to do extra damage is at least one six is rolled. For example, a character with Critical hit: 2 on his card would do two more “hits” should his attack roll contain a six. This is not cumulative, you can only earn one such bonus per attack. That is all there is to combat and it is a shame that there is not more. Players get the opportunity to “build” units in hopes of getting them into play. Each turn, the light side player rolls one die to determine the number of build points which both players will have to use. A player can lay these cards down, face down, in the build “zone” by placing a build point on it. This game mechanic serves as an equalizer because both players will get the same amount of build points in sort of a yin-yang/good-side-bad side balancing act. Any time a unit has a number of build points applied to it that is equal to its cost it is placed in the appropriate arena. If it is a mission, its effects enter play. Building decks is always the challenge for any trading card game. Wizards of the Coast offers Booster two different sized so that players may expand their collection at their own pace. One booster packs has 11 cards and retails for $3.29 while the other booster packs contain 5 cards, but are offered for suggested retail of $1.49.
Players may only opt to build light side or dark side decks. Each deck may not include decks from the opposite side, though there are a number of neutral cards which fit into either deck.
The two-player starter set comes with two decks which have thirty cards each, colorful playmat, six small six-sided dice, cardboard damage and force counters, and an especially nice rulebook. It is likely that players will quickly lose the tiny damage counters or just opt to use counters that don’t blend into the artwork on the cards. Overall, the set is designed to ease the player into the rules with a minimal amount of effort and it certainly accomplishes that.
While the game itself is fast-paced and exciting, for this reviewer it fell far short of capturing the swashbuckling adventure feel so prevelant in the films. I never felt that Anakim was particularly strong (in fact, I killed him easily in just about every game). No light sabers flash, (except the battle card “Padawan’s Deflection”) no blasters singe my hair, and I don’t leap out of a moving speeder. I was disappointed by the lack of weapons to attach to characters to protect them or make them stronger. The game is a cut above mediocre, but comes across like a sputtering light saber that refuses to light. It falls short of the glory because it fails to adequately capture the excitement, humor, and true spirit of adventure. I cannot recommend this game for anybody except the collector who wants the photo film-based images from the cards. BELOW are some sample card images.
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