Star Realms
Some Background:
I have to preface this with the fact that
Star Realms is the first deckbuilding game that I can remember playing,
unless you count card games played as a kid (think: War, Slap Jack,
Egyptian Ratscrew). I had never heard of Dominion, for instance, and
had no idea what to expect when we went to play this game. Please grant
me your graces for being a noob to hobby board gaming!
In the
game store, my husband was super excited when he saw there was one box
of Star Realms left; it was something he had read about online and
wanted to try out. The price was right so I didn’t complain (too much)
when he bought it. He sold me on the fact it was a 2-player game,
though nothing about it appealed to me in any way. I watched him play
with friends, and while they enjoyed it and told me it was a great game
and the artwork was stellar (pun intended), it took a lot little bit of
coaxing to get me to play with him.
The thing is, I’m not a huge
fan of space themes (unless they’re cutesy, like Star Munchkin). I like
Star Trek well enough, and have seen Star Wars, Stargate, and lots of
other things because my husband is so into it, but after giving up the
dream of being an astronaut at 8 years old the theme lost its appeal for
me. I’d rather play a game of Sid Meier’s Civilization than Galactic
Civilization, for instance, even if GalCiv has better mechanics and
whatever else my husband tries to explain to me. That being said, I did
finally play Star Realms with the hubby after a bit of kicking and
screaming, and to my surprise it’s become one of my favorite games!
Gameplay:
The
point of the game is to whittle your opponent down from 50 Authority
(I call this hit points) to 0, and you do this by attacking your
opponent with space ships (I call them cards). You and your opponent
use outposts (which I call outposts) as defense so you don’t get hit so
hard.
All cards represent one of 4 factions: the Blobs, which
seem to be mostly interested in shooting; the Trade Federation, which
seems to be interested in money and increasing Authority (which I call
healing); the Star Empire, which also seems to focus on shooting but
with less power than the Blob, offset by more actions such as your
opponent discarding cards or you getting to draw cards; and the Machine
Cult which focuses on defense and being able to remove cards from your
hand or discard pile, with a little shooting thrown in. Factions work
together, so if you have two or more of one faction in your hand you get
extra actions; it’s in your best interest to build your deck with
specific factions in mind to maximize the odds that you’ll get a hand
with > 1 of the same faction.
There are 3 types of cards,
spaceships, bases, and outposts. As noted, outposts are mostly for
defense since your opponent must attack them first, though they do have
actions associated with them which make them useful for more than just
defense. Bases are similar to outposts in that you have actions
associated with them, but your opponent doesn’t have to attack them
first or at all if they don’t want to. Outposts and bases stay on the
playing field after your turn is over and don’t get sent to the discard
pile until your opponent destroys them, which makes them different from
spaceships, which are the majority of the cards. Although spaceships
get sent to the discard pile at the end of your turn, they allow you to
do some cool things: some are combat cards that let you attack your
opponent (I call this a “pew,” as in the noise laser guns make in the
movies – and yes, I do make this noise for every attack though I might
just say “thirteen pews” instead of making the noise 13 times since my
husband seems to tolerate that better); some spaceships allow you to use
extra trade, or heal up (increase Authority), or draw more cards, or
have your opponent discard cards, or… well you get the picture.
Each
opponent starts the game with a deck of 8 Scouts (spaceships that have
the value of 1 trade, which I call coins) and 2 Vipers (spaceships that
have 1 combat each, or 1 pew if you’re playing with me). You shuffle
your deck and draw 5 cards, which become your hand (for the very first
round, the first player draws 3 cards for their hand instead of 5). The
rest of the cards are shuffled and placed in a pile face down to create
the trade pile, and 5 cards are pulled from the top and laid on the
table face up to create the trade row.
The 5 cards in your hand
determine what you’re able to do this round. At first the only cards
you’ll have in your hand are small attacks (again, 1 hit each) and
coins. You’ll use these coins to buy cards in the trade deck – you can
only buy cards that have a purchase value equal to or lesser than what
you have in your hand. If you have enough coins, you can purchase 2 or
more cards as long as their total purchase value doesn’t exceed the
number of coins in your hand. Once you purchase your cards you’ll lay
them face up in your discard pile along with the cards in your hand and
draw another 5 cards from the top of your deck, ending your turn. When
you can no longer draw cards, you shuffle the discard pile and this
becomes your new deck. As the game progresses, the cards you’ve bought
become part of your deck and your deck gets bigger (hence
“deckbuilding”). This then allows you to use the ships, outposts, and
bases you’ve bought to attack your opponent or defend yourself (or other
actions as noted on the cards).
Of note, there’s a lot of
shuffling in this game (and any deckbuilding game really). That’s fine
with me because I’m good at shuffling, but it drives my husband crazy
having to shuffle so much, especially at the beginning of the game.
He’d rather focus on gameplay.
The game takes on average 15 – 30
mins to play, which is great if you don’t have much time or you want to
get in several rounds of play in one sitting. The hubby and I usually
play where the winner is the best of 3 or 5 games, which takes an hour
to an hour and a half.
Components and Rules:
It’s a
deck of cards, there’s not much to it. The game comes in a thin
cardboard tuck-box which will wear out quickly, so you’ll want to get
something better to hold your deck. The cards are pretty well made, no
issues with warping or anything like that, but they will start to show
signs of wear over time (they’ve held up for over 50 games so far with
signs of wear on the edges from shuffling, but no wear on the card
face/back itself). Card sleeves are recommended if you really want to
protect your cards, but I’m not that worried about it and the price of
the game is reasonable enough that I’d rather just get a replacement
deck than deal with card sleeves.
The thing that really makes
this game for me is its portability since you can take it pretty much
anywhere. While it won’t fit in your pocket, it easily fits in a normal
sized purse (or a backpack, or whatever else). It doesn’t take up too
much space on a table since most of the cards will be shuffled back into
your hand, so you can play almost anywhere. You’d be limited playing
next to each other on an airplane, but a table bigger than a couple of
those tray tables would suffice.
The game also comes with a set
of folded rules which were mostly straightforward and understandable,
but there were some things that we had to look up online. For instance,
some cards will say “scrap a card in your hand or discard pile” while
others might say “you may scrap a card…” and we quibbled over whether
you HAD to scrap a card if it didn’t say “may.” [Google says you have to
if there’s no “may”] We also quibbled over the rule that says primary
actions are resolved immediately, since it didn’t specify which order
they’re resolved in. If you have a card that lets you scrap another
card in your hand, can you use anther card’s primary ability first and
then go on to the action of the card that lets you scrap and scrap the
used card? [Google says no, so I guess scrapping comes first] Some of
our questions were also resolved by playing the Star Realms app, which
acts as an excellent tutorial and is highly recommended for that
function.
Theme:
For a space themed game, Star
Realms pulls it off well enough. Again, I’m not really into space
themed games, but the artwork is nice enough to look at. It’s not super
serious artwork with a billion details that almost looks
photo-realistic (think EVE Online), but it’s also not cartoonish.
Others, including my husband and an artist I know, absolutely love the
artwork in this game and I can see why they love it. Personally, I
would have preferred something more cartoonish along the lines of FTL,
but that’s just my preference (and those who do love the artwork have
warned me never to say that again!).
In general the theme is
well thought out, the factions work well with and against each other and
the actions each faction take are consistent, and I get the feeling I’m
in a real space battle when I play. Your bases and outposts staying on
the playing field invoke the thought of space stations floating out
there in the void, which is a well-done mechanic for this game.
On
the other hand, there are a couple of things that just strike me as
silly. Spaceships as money, for one, but this integrates well with the
rest of the game. Authority as hit points is another. In a space
themed game you’d be getting hit by physical guns on the ships attacking
you, but they’re hitting a concept (authority). I guess this is
resolved by the developers calling the attacks “combat” so you’re doing
“combat” and losing “authority” as you lose the war, but that’s a
stretch I have trouble with (same with calling the coins “trade” since
they look exactly like coins). Also, you aren’t associated with any of
the factions, you’re just buying their ships. While you can think of
this as hiring them to fight for you, I would feel more invested in the
game if you were associated with a faction and got some minor bonus from
getting cards of that faction. None of this detracts from the
gameplay, though, I’m just nitpicky. As you can see, I call it what I
want and have just as much fun as players that take the game seriously.
Strategy:
I’m
sure there’s some kind of deeply involved strategy to this game, and
others have picked it apart to come up with the best combinations of
what to buy and when based on what your opponent is doing, which
combinations of factions are best, etc., but I’m not that into it to
care about that kind of stuff. My husband will try to figure out the
best combos and agonizes over what to buy if he only has so much trade
and the cards he wants aren’t available/affordable, but I find myself
simply reacting to what my husband buys, either trying not to get
pummeled or trying to be the first to strike (eg, he buys a card that’s
going to hit me for 8 and I’ll stock up on outposts or healing cards, or
I’ll go for big money at first to be able to buy the expensive stuff
early on hoping he doesn’t kill me before I get there, or I’ll just buy a
card I know he really wants/needs because, well, I can). Reaction
alone isn’t the best strategy, but even with the little thought I put
into it, I’m still able to win a decent amount of the time. There’s
enough luck involved in what cards you draw each round and what’s
available for purchase that even the “no strategy” strategy can win you
the game sometimes (it doesn’t work against the Star Realms app, though,
that jerk beats me on easy every time - we’re not friends anymore).
The Verdict:
Rating: 4/5 - I like it.
*originally posted on BGG*
Once
I got past the theme, I realized I absolutely love this game. The
gameplay is fast and fun. There are enough cards that each game feels
fresh and the luck factor means even if you (or your opponent) have a
strategy going in, you’re constantly adjusting based on the options at
any given time. There are lots of different things the cards do, and
lots of combinations to be made, so it doesn’t get stale playing game
after game. And the playing time is short enough you CAN play game
after game (and you’ll want to)!
The portability factor is also
great. This game is a camping staple and we even took it with us on
vacation to Europe. It’s something you can play on lunch breaks at
work, or while waiting at the DMV (no, I haven’t done that… yet).
I
think I may have even wore my husband out of this game for a while,
which is crazy for a game I refused to touch for weeks after he bought
it. I liked it so much we bought all of the expansion packs and Colony
Wars too!
I am now sold on deckbuilding games and looking forward to playing more of this type of game.
Rating: 4/5 - I like it.
*originally posted on BGG*
**Full Disclosure: I paid for this game with my own, hard earned money**
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