Next week sees Twilight of the Republic, the third set for Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) released to the world.
Obviously I’m keen to try the new starter decks, and start building Twin Suns decks with the new cards, or even upgrading my existing decks.
With Twin Suns being our preferred format for SWU. Allowing Dave, Marcin, and myself to play a multiplayer game. It is the SWU Commander.
However one thing I’ve noticed from our games is how they rarely go pass round seven.
Which means that it’s hardly worth even including any cards that cost seven or more. You won’t get to play them.
I’ve nearly arrived at the opinion that even six cost cards, possibly even five cost are dead cards in the deck. That the space in the deck taken up by anything that costly should be filled by lower cost options (if there are any).
I’m finding that these more expensive cards are more often when drawn placed face down as resources.
On rounds five and above being able to play two or three cards on the current phase is massive. You have options. Hopefully you have the cards in hand to respond to what your opponents are doing.
Do the Twin Suns rules need a tweak? Maybe double the health of the base, or add ten to the base health so the games (maybe) last a round or two longer.
If you have played SWU Twin Suns what are your experiences? Do your games last longer?
It’s Saturday morning. I’ve been awake from bloody early a.m. on my day off.
The status update of my McDonald’s breakfast seems stuck on “picking up my order”.
I’m just too knackered after my seven day tour of duty at work.
I’ve come out of it feeling battered emotionally. I won’t go into details but the frustration levels have been through the roof.
So I feel I’ve earnt this lazy start to my day off.
Yesterday Mini Rails arrived from Zatu without any problems. Which has been my experience with them every time I’ve ordered from them. That will shock some. But for me my experiences have been positive.
Also through the letter box came the new Zelda game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Where I think for the first time you can actually play as Princess Zelda. Another entry in my long to play list.
Last night was a “get it to the table” night for Fenland Gamers. Which saw Marcin, Anthony, and myself play Marcin’s copy of Coimbra. Which frankly I’m shocked he owns based on its theme alone! It’s not exactly post apocalyptic.
However it’s a fun game that has dice drafting, and then using those dice to do something, with the value of the die being used determining the cost of what you purchase. Plus the colour of the die comes into play in a later stage of the round.
Each round player order changes based on number crowns each player has accumulated that round.
You have a bit of engine building going on with the cards you purchase. Add in also trying to move a pawn round a map to collect bonus tiles, and racing up four influence tracks to try to have the most in each. This a lot to try and do with the three dice you draft.
It’s also only four rounds and plays very quickly.
It is a fun game.
History will record Marcin won on a technicality.
Along with Mini Rails the final cards of my two new decks arrived.
Those two incomplete decks got an outing on Tuesday just gone when Marcin and I play Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) using our Twin Suns decks. I suppose you could say that this was the SWU equivalent of the popular MtG singleton (one one copy of a card) format Highlander.
The two incomplete decks worked well. Or I should say as intended. So I have three Twin Suns decks. Marcin has two. Which means if we have a fourth player join us we can lend them a deck if they have no deck of their own.
Two weeks ago was our first game of Star Wars Unlimited using the Twin Suns multiplayer rules and decks we built.
As my little announcement video below shows I was playing my Sabine Wren and Jyn Erso deck (you can see the deck list here).
I was up against two decks by Marcin. They were
The Mandalorian/Bo-Katan Kryze/Security Complex
Boba Fett/Cad Bane/Command Center
Dave and Marcin took turns playing the decks.
None of the three games we played this first time went beyond the seventh round. So very short games. Expensive cards to play were resources. There would be no chance to play them.
I won the first game, with my deck seemingly working to plan.
Marcin won the remaining two games.
Reflecting back I think although my base Jedha City with its ability while very handy to nullify a threat or reduce the impact. With its health being 25 instead of 30, I felt left me feeling a little more vulnerable.
Although I’m happy with the cost curve it felt I was lacking answers to the threats Marcin and Dave were posing in the two games Marcin won.
This week we once again played Twin Suns games. Dave had his own decks this time (I forgot to make a note of his leaders).
The two games we played this time were longer games. I got the Krayt Dragon out! It won me the first game. I was surprised I got to play the card.
But I had no right winning that game. I was no able to keep a presence on any of the battlefields. It was mainly Dave and Marcin duking it out trying to position themselves for the win. I was just a bystander. Both couldn’t finish off the game by killing me because the other player would win. So they had to concentrate on getting slightly ahead on damaging the other players base.
Dave won game two with some great tactical play especially utilising his leaders to deliver a winning blow by knocking out Marcin. I had sat on cards that dealt with upgrades from my initial hand because of Marcin’s Mando deck.
I am really enjoying our games of Twin Suns.
I think now after five games I might look at what ramp I can possibly introduce to the deck.
As an exercise I might try and classify the cards in the deck by use, such as removal, etc. That might help me identify better areas I’m weak in.
I now have two decks nearly built. I’m just waiting for a handful of cards to arrive. Whilst the third deck that I was inspired to build is 60% complete.
Upon his return from doing some uncle duties first thing. Nath and I spent our last morning together playing a couple of games of you guessed it Star Wars Unlimited.
The first game went the same way as the previous evening. With me getting a comfortable win.
But our second game saw me in a position where if Nath had no answer I was going to win on turn seven. I had enough units in either battleground to deliver the winning blow.
Nath tapped all eight of his resources and defeated all my units! I had no cards in hand. I never recovered from this board wipe. Two turns later Nath just picked me off unable to defend myself to get the win.
Afterwards I started packing ready for the journey home.
The time always goes fast when I’m visiting Nath. Parting is always so hard. Even with Nath being an adult and towering over me, he’s still my little boy.
But part we must. At least I will be back in November and updating our decks or building new ones.
Waiting for me when I got home were the final two cards needed for my twin suns deck. That’s ready now for Tuesday.
Plus the board game Tribes of the Wind, which has a very Naussica Valley of the Wind vibe just from the box art alone. Can’t wait to try it.
Apparently Nath and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki have one thing in common. That’s that they don’t like going out in the rain.
With the heavens pouring down Nath was adamant he would not be going for a walk in the rain. Despite me pointing out we have coats, and I have a tarp/poncho that could be used to keep us dry during the coffee stop. Nath remained unconvinced.
Instead we went into town.
Yes it was raining.
No Nath didn’t take a rain coat with him.
Yes after we had lunch at Burger King and made our way to the game shop he “borrowed” my umbrella.
Somehow at the game shop another booster box for Star Wars Unlimited Shadow of the Galaxy ended up in my possession.
After checking another couple of possible stores that on the off chance sold singles we headed home to crack open some packs.
We got some good pulls that went to building my Luke/Hera Twin Suns deck (details soon).
However as we were cracking open packs and sharing the cool cards we’d pulled (like foils, full art etc) I thought how cool it would be to do a mandalorian themed deck for Twin Suns. I think this would qualify as a tribal deck as we’d call it in MtG. Just the thought of the possibility was getting me excited.
Next thing I know I’m sorting out all of the mandalorian cards we’d pulled. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with a post about it in the near future too.
Earlier in the day (before we went to town) I taught Nath Dice Masters using the X-Men Forever campaign box. These campaign boxes are aimed at two players, and meant to give them everything they need to play.
Using the suggested cut down setup recommended in the included rules book I taught Nath how to play. I should say it’s impossible without the aid of a phone camera to work out what the setup is. The image is just too small and unreadable.
Nath won this first learning game.
I then separated the character cards into two piles. Villians in one, and X-Men in the other. Nath was then given the choice of which he’d like to play. He went bad guys.
We then built our 8 character teams, got the appropriate dice (another fault with this campaign box they got away with the bare minimum they could get away with).
After a very tactical game I managed to get to the position of being able to deliver a winning blow.
Later before tea (a roast dinner) and just chilling watching The Retirement Plan. Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
These were comfortable games for me with Nath not really able to mount any real defence to hold in and get back in the game. It wasn’t one sided my base took damage. It’s just I was able to smash face before Nath found any answers.
Despite the disappointment of not going for a walk. We had a great day.
Yesterday I travelled south to visit Nathan for a couple of days. After unpacking I realised what I had forgotten to pack.
On the drive down I knew I had forgotten something. Everybody has that nagging feeling when they set off somewhere.
It wasn’t until I had unpacked and was getting the Star Wars Unlimited stuff out to show Nathan when I realised I had indeed left something at home.
Sitting back at home are the four starter decks from the two starter kits.
Luckily I hadn’t forgotten the prerelease kit and two booster boxes.
But what were we to do?
Opening the prerelease kit we chose a leader each from the promo Luke and Vader cards that were in it. Nath went Vader, which left me with Luke.
We then cracked open the six boosters in the prerelease kit, followed by opening the Spark of Rebellion booster box, and cracking open the packs inside.
Nath really enjoyed opening the packs and discovering full art cards, foils, or foil full art cards. He had caught the habit most MtG players have. That crack addition of opening packs and seeing what is inside. It’s so addictive.
Afterwards we separated the cards by their aspect and then built decks for our respective leaders.
It was a great evening sharing the experience of cracking open packs and building a deck with our pulls.
Later I went through the remaining cards to see if I had any that I needed for my Luke and Hera (I now have a rather sweet full art card of Hera) Twin Suns deck. I found 22 cards that I needed. Cutting down on any imminent purchases to finish the deck off.
This morning once Nath had gotten back from his babysitting duties for his baby niece I taught him Star Wars Unlimited.
After meeting up with my aunt and uncle in Guildford, Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
This time my deck worked and I was able to get two comfortable wins.
Between games Nath wanted to crack open the Shadows of the Galaxy so I caved and let him. Although I didn’t get a Mando card that I needed for the Twin Suns deck I did get another Krayt Dragon (I did purchase my other copy).
Which means I pulled a £40 odd card. Which I definitely plan to use in the Vader/Tarkin deck.
We ended up playing a fourth game. Nath wanted the opportunity to pull things back.
It was a very tense game with Nath hanging in by the skin of his teeth before grabbing victory from the impending jaws of defeat.
I think it can only be said that we’ve had a great day.
So here we are with my first Twin Suns deck, and also my first ever deck for Star Wars Unlimited.
Unlike building a Commander deck where I have a rough idea of the number of cards of each type I need to have in a deck, such as the amount of removal, ramp, etc.
I have no idea what is optimal for a Twin Suns deck.
Just under half (22 cards) of this deck are events. It has a single upgrade. Only seven space units, and twenty ground units.
Oh before I go any further I do need to issue a boiler plate DISCLAIMER. At no point should this post, the deck, be taken seriously. I have no idea whatsoever if the deck is any good, or even works. I’m still in the process of getting the cards needed. I then need to play it a few times. Contemplate on how the deck did, make changes. Rinse and repeat. In other words like all other decks I’ve built in other games, it’s a living deck.
Let’s start with my two leaders for this Twin Suns deck and the base.
So the theme of this deck is trying to get as much secondary value out of an attack as possible. Particularly targeting opponents bases. Sabine gives me that. Jyn and the base I hope works well with her by allowing me to keep Sabine (and other attackers) out doing their thing for longer by reducing or even eliminating the damage taken in attacking another unit. So I can remove threats and whittle down the bases health.
Let’s get started with the showing you the initial cards that make up this deck. I’ll start with the ground units.
Ground Units
I’m not expecting to get a chance to play the Krayt Dragon. But if I do it’s going to be hilarious. Especially if I bounce back everyone’s battlegrounds to their hands before hand. But there is no ramp in this deck. So eight rounds before I get to play it.
Space Units
If there is an area I think I’m light on it’s here.
Events
I like that there are “board wipes”, and “targeted removal” cards. I have both types in this deck. I can’t wait to combo Evacuate with The Chads of War. That will be hilarious. I’ve also got a little discard action going on with a card or two. The shenanigans these cards will cause are me, and the sort of thing I like to do with my decks.
The basic idea is disrupt my opponents enough to put my plan into action.
Upgrades
My one and only upgrade, and it’s a bounty.
Obviously the idea is to play it on an opposing unit.
Card Cost Curve!
All cards
I’m happy with this curve. With over half the deck being cards I can play turn one, by turn four approximately ninety percent plus of the deck is playable. By turn four also it’s possible to play up to three cards depending on the hand I have.
It should come as no surprise that breaking the cost down by the three card types that the spread matches roughly the overall pattern.
Ground Units
Space Units
Events
I have high hopes that this is a good basis to build from. But only actual games with the deck will prove that now.
I’m waiting on six cards to arrive and then the deck will be ready.
Well that’s the way it felt playing Star Wars Unlimited last night.
I’d finally sleeved the starter kit decks. I used the Gamegenic matte sleeves. Which to be honest about I felt a little underwhelmed by the quality of them. They were no Dragon Shield sleeves. But they were cheaper than the Dragon Shields. I used my usual Mayday Premium sleeves for the leader and base cards.
Obviously we had official Gamegenic playmats, a two player and single player. These have the various play areas used in the game marked out on them. Great for teaching the game. But also handy for more experienced players too. Cuts out any confusion.
Finally after what seems like an age we no longer had to play using the bloody awful tokens/counters from the starter kits. Instead we had the much much better official acrylic tokens from Gamegenic. So that I have enough for our sessions I did buy three sets.
I also have two extra acrylic tokens that I got off Etsy from a UK seller, a Blast and Plan token. These two tokens are used when playing Twin Suns. Something we plan to do. However as you will read further down also useful for last night.
Once again it was Marcin, Dave, and myself playing the starter kit decks as if they were from a Game Night Kit.
Obviously we used the same Twin Suns rule for the game ending as last time. But this time we added in the Twin Suns counter rule.
With the Twin Suns counter rule “the “Take the Initiative” action has been replaced with the “Take an Available Counter” action.” taken from FFG Twin Suns counter pdf.
So how does this work? “a player may still take the Initiative counter in order to go first at the beginning of the next action phase. However, two new counters provide additional options. You may put your opponents on notice by taking the Blast counter, which deals 1 damage to each enemy base. Or if you need to dig a bit deeper in your deck, take the Plan counter, which allows you to draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your deck. Remember, you can only take one counter, but you may choose any of the three which haven’t been taken yet. Choose wisely! Taking a counter means you are finished taking actions for the round.” taken from FFG Twin Suns counter pdf.
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere, and for the life of me I can’t remember where. That when setting up with the counters in Twin Suns for a three player game it was suggested that you only use one of the counters. That during setup players vote for the one they want to keep.
Dave had a cunning plan last night. Let Marcin and I beat crap out of each other, and then as one of us lay bloodied on the floor swoop in and deliver the winning blow. It was a pretty successful plan really because he won all three games that we played.
Playing with the acrylic tokens really did enhance the whole experience. It’s a tactile thing.
The two extra counters were a great addition. They worked really well. End your turn in a phase now had a meaningful decision attached to it.
Finally I did spend yesterday afternoon putting together a Twin Suns deck for the Sabine and Jyn deck. I’ve no idea if the deck is good or works. I won’t find that out until I play it. I’ve ordered the majority of the cards for it from Magic Madhouse. There were about ten they didn’t have in stock. I might just use proxies for the missing ones until I can get them. There will be a post about this with the deck list etc in a day or two.
In my previous post I gave my impressions of the two-player starter set from FFG for Star Wars Unlimited.
So continuing on from that post I’m going to share my thoughts on playing Star Wars Unlimited using the two starter decks included in the starter set.
Both Diego and myself have played other competitive collectible and living card games such as Magic the Gathering, Android Netrunner (not sure if Diego has played this) and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.
Obviously for this starter set to be playable by two-players as its name suggests, it has to come with two preconstructed decks that can be played straight out of the box. You’ll find the deck lists for both decks at the end of the post.
Every deck built for Star Wars Unlimited has to have a leader and base. They determine the cards you can play in your deck. You can play out of faction cards but there is an extra cost in doing so.
In this two-player starter the two leaders you get are Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
I love that the art for both is from the duel between them on Cloud City at the end of Empire.
I’ve not looked at all the cards in the decks. But there is one that ties in with this called “I am your father”.
Even the way the card works (above) is so thematic. Love it.
Luke’s base is the Aministrator’s Tower, and Vader’s is the Commander Center. Both 30 health, and add a third faction symbol.
Luke’s BaseVader’s BaseThe two bases
Obviously the game shares mechanics common to all ccgs. Such as exhausting cards (tapping in mtg), units coming in exhausted (summoning sickness), spending resources to play cards. You get the idea.
So coming from a ccg background it was very easy to pick up the game.
I did like that you draw two cards at the end of the round, and may play a card from hand face down to be used as a resource.
This for me this is a major difference to other games I’ve played. It also introduces a hard decision because once a card has been played face down as a resource there is no getting it back. Which card becomes a resource? Which do you hold on to? If you don’t play a resource it delays when your leader can come out, it limits what cards can be played. It has such big implications. Especially early on.
I also like the back and forth of actions. And the gamble of passing. On your turn you can pass, waiting to see what your opponent does. However if your opponent seizes the initiative, or passes also. That’s it the round has ended. Even if you wanted to do more! That’s the gamble.
Diego and I played a game with each deck.
The decks seem fairly evenly matched. Our first game was pretty close.
Although our second game was more one sided. But that was more down to the draw of cards. You get games like that. You just have to put the game behind you, and move on to the next one.
I liked playing Star Wars Unlimited with these decks. They were fun to play. Great decks to play casually with a friend over the kitchen table.
I’ll definitely buy the next sets two-player starter set. Hopefully they too will be as balanced.
Finally here are the two deck lists for the decks.
Deck list for both decks
It should be noted there are some cards in this starter set that are only available in the starter set, or in the op kit promo kits.
Last night I got to play the two-player starter set for Star Wars Unlimited with Diego.
I have some mixed thoughts about the whole experience.
Let me just say up front I really like the game.
However I do have some issues with the quality of this product.
First up is the flimsy very thin card tokens included for tracking damage, first player, etc. That’s my issue they are so flimsy. I hate them. If you intend to get into the game you will want to upgrade these as a priority. Maybe that’s what the aim was. To “encourage” you to buy the GameGenic acrylic tokens. That’s if you can find anywhere that has them.
I was also very disappointed with the quality of the cards themselves. They too are very thin. You will be sleeving the cards. You have to. These are boarding on unusable. This means that opening boosters will be a bitter sweet experience. On one hand I’ll be excited about opening the packs, and the cards I pull. On the other repulsed by the poor quality of the card stock used.
The two folded paper playmats were as expected quality wise. I like they have the play areas on them. Plus act as a player aid with setup, what you can do on a turn, end of a round summary, plus keyword summary. All very handy for learning the game, and teaching it.
The quick start/learn to play booklet is nice and does the job well. We hardly had to refer to it.
The two cardboard deck boxes a nice touch that don’t need assembling. They are large enough to hold the cards sleeved.
Overall I think value wise this is a great starter set. However quality wise of the cards and tokens it feels cheap and that FFG are cutting corners to cut costs and maximise profit.
In another post I’ll talk more about the play experience of Star Wars Unlimited using this two-player starter set.
