Star Wars Trading Card Game: A Quick Review

180 card set. Available in a Basic Starter (30 light side cards, 30 dark side cards, 6 dice, rulebook, playmat and counters), 2 different advanced starters (40 card lightside or darkside deck), 11 card boosters and 5 card boosters (1 rare in every 3 packs)..

Not bad. That sums it up really. Very reminiscent of the Battletech CCG, without the multiplicty of targets that made battletech so interesting to play. Alot more dicerolling, and the game is fundamentally more random. (What is it with CCG designers that when it comes to Star Wars they insist on putting in mechanics that add a huge amount of luck to the proceedings..) Pet peeve: That you have to roll for build points at the start of each turn. This has a huge effect on the game and can basically lead to game losses on it's own..

The game feels like the end of any of the more recent Star Wars outtings at the movies, with a 3 pronged battle being fought, in space, on the ground and character vs character. There is some interaction between each arena, though not a huge amount from what I have seen so far. I imagine that atleast initially constructed deck play will have players focusing on 2 of the 3 arenas, and playing cards that allow them to interact. There is a deck-building mechanic however that forces you to play atleast 12 or each unit type (space/ground/character). There is a building penalty as well for completely ignoring an arena.

The game starts well with players getting to put a ton of stuff in to play. At a guess, about 60% of the forces that get deployed in the game get deployed at the start. Assuming a maximum roll of '6' plus 1 bonus point for having a unit in each area, it would take 5 turns to overcome the initial 30 you start with. My limited experience of the game suggests that 5 turns will actually a pretty long game, and that rolling 5 6's in a row only happens 1 in every 7776 games (I counted :-). This is generally a quick game with alot of luck often deciding some of the arenas very early. I think a large part of the strategy is knowing when to retreat and what arenas to stick out.

The foils in the set are pretty cool. The basic starter comes with 2 cool ones (Anakin Skywalker and Jango Fett), and each of the advanced starters comes with one (Padme Amidala in the Light Side starter, and Darth Tyrannus in the Dark Side starter). There seems to be a high proportion of foils in the 11 card boosters too. (1 in every 3 at a guess.) Because they are photographic images they are superior to the L5R or magic foils, but they lack the subtlety of the current batch of Decipher foils in Lord of the Rings, as the Star Wars foils are almost fully foiled. Time will tell if they warp or not, though I suspect that if they do the warping will be alot less apparent than in the early Magic and Young Jedi foils.

As I said, not bad. Hopefully an expansion set will broaden the game alot. I am generally reticent about small beginning sets, and lots of dicerolling just isn't everyones cup of tea. However, I expect that this game will sell well as there are more than a few of us who will buy anything with Star Wars printed on it.. Only time will tell however if it as good a game as we all hope.