After more than a year of tweaking, Fantasy Flight Games has finally released Star Wars: The Card Game. First announced and demoed at Gencon 2011 as a cooperative game, it has apparently been revamped to be a competitive two-player game, where players use strategy to battle for galactic supremacy in the original trilogy era.
Unlike the previous constructed deck Star Wars card games (such as from Decipher, Wizards of the Coast, and WizKids) that were sold in packs, this game comes as a single box set, and from the box contents, it seems that there’s a lot of tokens for this Living Card Game.
But is it any good? Designer Nate French does have a good track record – three of his other Living Card Games are in the top 20 in the Customizable category on BoardGameGeek, while Fantasy Flight has a few other titles in the top twenty (including their Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game).
While the main set (retails for $40) may be coming out a little late for the holiday season, Fantasy Flight does have its eye on future expansion, with two Hoth-themed supplemental sets due in early 2013. Meanwhile, check out the rules of the game online or listen to a fan-produced podcast.
So I’m confused. From the description, it sounds like you still have to buy more cards to really be able to play.
Because I’d be willing if I don’t have to keep trying to get additional cards. Future expansion set purchases would be fine. I just hate the process of buying more cards.
Nope – you can play with just the core box that is out today. From the cards in the box, one player can build a light side deck, and the other can build a dark side deck. (And thus two people can play with the one box of cards, and not each have to have their own box)
Think of it like Dominion (if you tried that out at Jadecon), where there are lots of cards to use, but you don’t use all of them in one game, but they all come in one box.
But, like Dominion that has expansion sets, they are making expansion sets that introduce more cards for more fun. You don’t need them to enjoy the game, but they add new mechanics and strategies.
It doesn’t appear to be like the old model of trading card games (like Star Wars CCG or Magic or Pokemon), where you buy starter decks and lots of boosters filled with randomly assorted cards, hoping to chase down rare cards for each expansion.