Star Wars Unlimited

The Game

Star Wars Unlimited is a 2-player battle card game. It is a collectible card game and you can do deck-building with it. What is most attractive about it is, of course, the Star Wars universe. You get to see all those familiar characters, weapons, and spaceships come into play. Other than that, it seems to me to be pretty much standard fare. That said, I am not an expert in collectible card games, so I might be missing some of the nuances. 

To win the game, you need to reduce your opponent’s health points to zero. Every turn, you draw cards and play cards. You may always play one card face down before you as a resource. There is no limit to the number of resources in front of you. To play a card face up, you need to pay the resource cost, and you do this by turning your resource cards 90°. Your resources are reset at the end of your turn. This aspect reminds me of Hearthstone, the digital CCG. Every round you get more and more resources, which will allow you to play more cards and better cards. In Star Wars Unlimited, the dilemma you have is which card to sacrifice as a resource. This is not always easy.

Other than the resource cost, every card also has an attack value and a defense value. Face up cards can only be used once per turn to attack. You can choose to attack the opponent base to reduce their health points, or you can attack one of their units. There is one restriction regarding unit type. Ground units can only attack ground units, and space units can only attack space units. Both unit types can attack the opponent base. When a unit takes damage, the damage is accumulated as long as it hasn’t reached the defense value. The unit is killed once the defense value is reached. 

Players control a general, and this is the player’s character. The general has a unique ability. It can also be deployed as a unit by paying the cost. When the general dies as a unit, it doesn’t actually die but just returns to being your general. However the general can only be deployed once as a unit. 

My base and my general

Some weapons are tucked under characters to modify their abilities. 

We used dice to keep track of modified attack and defense values.

Units have various icons, and this is something you need to consider when building your deck. Usually cards with the same icon combo well with one another. There are abilities which depend on icons. 

Icons are at the top left, below the card cost. 

The Play

The game starts slow and there is a gradual escalation because of the resource system. In the early game you probably want to play a card face down as a resource every round. Later when you feel you have enough, it might be better to keep and use those cards. The card abilities mostly match the Star Wars theme so that is fun. One interesting dilemma is whether to attack your opponent base or his units. You know the base is your ultimate objective, but if he is building a nice combo which can cause you a lot of pain, you may want to break it up first. 

Cards have interesting abilities. Some characters from the movies combo well, e.g. R2D2 and C3PO, and that’s fun to do. 

The Thoughts

Star Wars Unlimited feels like a pretty standard collectible card game and head to head battle card game to me. It’s on the simpler end of the spectrum so it is easier to pick up for a wider range of players. This will be a game you can use to attract casual gamers because of the Star Wars theme and the relative ease of play.