Star Wars: Shatterpoint Review
boardgamequest.comFans of Star Wars have been playing fighting with the characters of the series since the early 80s. Every child who had the Star Wars action figures would reenact battle with Luke, Obi Wan, Darth Vader, and others on their beds, carpets, or dining room tables. I remember when the prequels were released in the late 90s when I was in college. We made a special trip to Meijer just to buy a ton of Star Wars toys for the new movies. Did I need them? No. Did I buy way too many? You know it.
Up until now, the biggest Star Wars skirmish game out there (on land at least) was Star Wars: Legion. It’s a great game in its own right but is more about control squads of unnamed units (stormtroopers, rebel saboteurs) with the occasional named leader unit. But 2023 flipped that on its head as Atomic Mass Games brought us Star Wars: Shatterpoint. It’s a duel among iconic Star Wars heroes and villains for control points on the map. Is this the game that fans have been waiting for? Let’s find out!
As you might expect, Star Wars: Shatterpoint has a lot going on, so I’m just going to give you a high-level overview of the gameplay. If you want the full rules, you can download a PDF of the rulebook here.
To start the game, players must first assemble a strike team of two squads. Each squad has a Primary character, a secondary unit, and a supporting unit. The primary gets points to spend on secondary and supporting units. But for the most part, you’ll have 1 primary, 1 secondary, and 1 supporting unit (made of 1-2 characters). Do that twice and you are good to go.
On your turn, you’ll draw the top card for your order deck to see what unit gets to activate. You can take two actions with that unit (no repeats).
To attack, you roll dice equal to your combat value, and the defender rolls dice equal to their defense value. For each hit the attacker scores in excess of the defender’s blocks, they gain one step on their “stance” track. These will cause damage, move enemies around the battlefield,
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