Last week saw an update to the Star Realms app released. Which saw the 18th expansion Command Decks introduced to the game for £6.99.

“Each Legendary Commander has a unique starting deck (that replaces the normal hand of Scouts and Vipers), and has two unique Gambit cards. They also have different starting Authority values and hand sizes. Each Command Deck has a powerful 8-cost ship that gets added to the trade deck at the start of the game.” (https://www.starrealms.com/star-realms-command-decks-now-in-star-realms-digital/)

This is the first time that I will have played with the Command Decks, despite owning the physical decks. The only time I seem to get to play the game in real life is with Nathan. And that hasn’t happened for a long time. So I’m pretty excited to be able to play with them now.

As stated in a recent post I’ve played over 10k games with the app now, and the expansions have helped keep the game fresh. Although I tend to play with every expansion selected, which allows for some crazy starts and plays. Sometimes it’s refreshing to play with just the core set, or with only a couple of expansions selected.

The least used, ok not used at all, side of the expansions for me is the campaign missions. So I can’t speak for that side of things. It could be argued I’m not getting maximum value out of my purchases. But the campaign side just doesn’t interest me.

What isn’t obvious when selecting the Command Decks expansion when making a challenge to another player is how to select which of the seven Command Decks you play with.

When you select the Command Deck expansion in the bottom left corner an avatar of the current selected Command Deck appears (shown above).

If you click on that avatar you are taken to the Command Deck selection screen (see below) where you can select the deck you wish to play with.

On that screen pressing the little question mark and you get the specific rules for that Command Deck.

It should be noted that which ever deck you select will be the default Command Deck you get whenever you accept or issue a challenge until you change it.

Compared to the other expansions and the cost of the full game this expansion is on the expensive side. But as with the others this is buy once and have everywhere! Which takes the sting out of it for me. This is one of my favourite things with Star Realms that my games in progress and purchases follow me to which ever platform I’m using. No need to buy again.

I’m sure that there will be one or two Command Decks that I will prefer over the others. But that’s something to discuss for another day (once I’ve played them all for starters).

Right I’m off to take my turns…