Review: Star Realms

Star Realms Review

Players: 2

Publisher: White Wizard Games

Year: 2014

Deckbuilding games are played for quite some time. One of the most popular games in this genre, is Star Realms, released by White Wizard Games. Read the review to understand a bit about why it’s so popular.

Part of the game, the traderow at the top and the personal cards at the bottom.

Star Realms puts you in charge of a small fleet and your goal is to annihilate your opponent. A turn consists of playing your cards and acquire new ships or bases or dealing damage to your opponent. The trick is to scrap unwanted cards, so that the good cards come by frequently.

The space ships generate trade (coins), authority (life), or combat (damage). The bases do the same, but remain in play, while the ships go to the discard pile at the end of the turn. The bases and ships are divided across four factions: the Trade Federation (blue), the Blobs (green), the Star Empire (yellow), or the Machine Cult (red). A turn will consist of playing the cards in your hand, spending the trade on preferred ships and/or bases, and dealing damage to your opponent. The ships or bases that can be bought are laid out in the traderow.

The game is swift and brutal. Sometimes matches can be unbalanced, due to a couple of bad draws or because no suitable ships are in the traderow. Matches can be battles of attrition or curbstomping victories. We have played battles where the victor had 75 authority remaining, while others were won with just one life left. The luck of the draw has a huge influence. However, because it’s so fast, a new game can quickly be played.

What I like about this game is that it has a huge community. There’s even an app where people can play online. The physical game is cheap and portable! Expansions to tweak the game are available for a small price. While they are not mandatory, it’s nice to have the option. Even better is that it can be taught to others easily and so new players are quickly to grasp the game. Also, the game involves a lot of strategy. You need to manage your own deck, keep an eye on the cards in the trade row and make the maximum use of the cards in your hand. The game fits together nicely.

A downside is that the starting set is only playable with two players. Three or four would have been nice, but another set (or another expansion) is necessary for this. However, the game can be played with more people with a few rule modifications. Sleeves for the cards are recommendable. You’ll be doing quite a lot of shuffling and it detracts from the game if cards become marked. The biggest detractor to me personally are the authority cards. There are 18 of them, numbered 20, 10, 5, 1. They are unwieldy and take up a lot of space, which could have been used better in my opinion. However, many solutions are available.

Overall, I like this game a lot, because it’s so quick and easy to learn, while still being complex enough to remain interesting. It’s a small game that remains interesting. Although our deck has gone through a dozen of play already, it will go on to play quite a lot more.

Mechanics review: Dead of night, the Long Winter

Review the Long Night

As I have reviewed Dead of Winter before here, I will not go into depth about the gameplay and the components, which are largely similar. Rather I will discuss a few mechanics and how they change the game. Let’s start minor changes, then the bandits, followed by the Raxxon institution and finally a few thoughts.

There are a few minor tweaks, such as explosive traps and despair, which change the game slightly, but not dramatically. Despair tokens serve as an alternative to physical wounds and symbolize mental injuries, while the explosive traps can take out zombies. Improvements can change the base of the survivors, which can help with morale or managing zombies. Helpless survivors can become unruly, which means they require more food. Starting players can be determined, rather than passing the first player token along. Overall, they are nice and add a set of options or complications to the game. However, the game can also be played without them.

Bandits:

The bad guys. The stands all look the same and now they have their own hide-out. Like the survivors, they search places and take up the limited available spaces, while sometimes they may attack the players or the colony if they want something. Their location can be visited and their supplies stolen at a risk. At least you know what you are getting, so it’s a choice to make. The exiled player can also become the leader of the bandits.

Raxxon:

The Raxxon module allows two things. First of special, horrible, zombies can be released, while at the same time also new powerful weapons or modifications can be acquired. These powerful zombies have their own distinctive themes and attacks, as well as special stories behind them. These beasts are tough to kill as well. The zombies can be contained with dice, but it if you are playing with a just a few players, this can be quite a burden on the group. On the other hand, the rewards that can be gained at Raxxon will turn your timid survivor into familiar heroes from videogames. Special weapons and addition upgrades, such as pills, can be gained there. The trade-off seems fair to me.

So what are my thoughts? Well, the game is nice and it certainly is good to have more options. The improvements and minor tweaks are welcome additions to the game and can easily be implemented. The Raxxon module is my favorite for what it adds to the game. The bandits are an okay addition, but they can just as easily be ignored and make no difference on gameplay. However, that’s just my opinion. Overall, the game can easily be played without the modules, which leaves me in favor of Dead of Winter, which represents the physical struggle and the post-apoc drama that is featured in movies. The Long Night seems to be more of a videogame, such as Resident Evil or Left for Dead, with end-bosses and special powers that you can acquire. Both games are still brutal and great fun. Personally, I’m more in favor of Dead of Winter, due to the realism, but the additions of improvements.