Star Wars: Unlimited is the best chance to be part of the Star Wars story with some brilliant gameplay! The game company is Fantasy Flight Games who has experience since its first board game, Twilight Imperium (1997). The Living Card Game line with pre-constructed starter decks include The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Marvel Champions: The Card Game, and previously Star Wars: The Card Game that started in 2012 to 2018. The lead designer is Daniel Schaefer, kudos to him, for creating a fun, innovative game! The first set, Spark of Rebellion, was released on March 8, 2024. It had the conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire that was in the Original Trilogy. The second set released in July of that year, Shadows of the Galaxy, brought in bounty hunters. This had a starter deck with Moff Gideon and The Mandalorian.
On November 8, 2024, the third set, Twilight of the Republic, featured the Clone Wars. The latest set, Jump to Lightspeed, is set to drop on March 14th of this year. It features the pilots and starships of Star Wars. The fourth set to be released in July, I was told, has lightsaber battles! I did get the first set, but was unimpressed about the art and the game set up. This is wrong because game play is essential and the artwork once I got the chance to actually play the game is first rate. There are standard cards that have good artwork, but there are cards with some stunning artwork. Also, the artwork is for game play more than collectibility. I was used to the first Star Wars: The Customizable Card Game that used photos for every card. This game's artwork makes the cards consistent and fun. So in the two player game, using Spark of Rebellion, there are two pre-constructed decks with Imperial and Rebel forces.
You set up a Base card, I had the Administrator’s Tower from Cloud City with 30 Hit Points. This is how much damage it can take from space and ground units. Some Bases have lower HP, but have abilities. Destroy the Base to win! This is like the Death Star, the Rebel Base on Yavin, and Echo Base. It is similar to the Planeswalker represented by the player in Magic: The Gathering. Below it is your leader, I had Luke Skywalker: Faithful Friend, he had the Action, spend a resource and exhaust by turning the card, to put a Shield token on a unit you played. The best part is Epic Action, in Luke’s case, if you have 6 or more resources you deploy Luke onto the ground arena flipping the card! This makes Luke into a unit with Power (attack) 4 and HP 7, a good defense. In comparison, the Fleet Lieutenant has 3/3. You don't have to hope that Luke shows up randomly in a deck, or never show up, he is there. Once you set up your Base and Leader, shuffle, and draw 6 cards.
Two of the cards will be used for Resources, this is like Ink in Lorcana. It could be high cost cards 1-3 is average, and 4+ is for later in the game. Obi-Wan Kenobi: Following Fate costs 4 Resources. You determine who has the Initiative marker, who acts first, and only one action is taken before the next player takes their turn. So you can play a card like a unit, Leia Organa: Defiant Princess with a cost of 2, and the unit is Exhausted, can only act the next turn. She has the action that when you play her on the ground arena, you can ready a Resource or Exhaust a Unit, stop a readied opponent! I wasn’t worried about my opponent damaging my Base so much as focusing on ground units at the time. The order is put down one Resource, play a card, or attack. An attack can reduce the HP of a card, so Luke can be hit with an attack of 4, but have 3 HP left shown with tokens. I like this mechanic similiar to Lorcana, and superior to Magic: The Gathering having the same defense after every combat doesn’t make sense.
Still, I was used to attacking with more than one card, but Star Wars: Unlimited is only one action so only one unit can attack. I had Leia and later R2-D2: Ignoring Protocol, 1 cost and when played you can look at your top card and may put it on the bottom. Knowing which cards you draw is a plus. I like the card effects that match the characters. I also brought down Chewbacca: Loyal Companion, 3/6 with Sentinel. His ability means the opponent has to attack him and not other units or the base! I had enough Resources to bring out Luke and my Imperial opponent countered with Darth Vader: Commanding the First Legion, 5/7. He has Ambush so he can attack once he is played. He has the ability once played to search the top 10 cards and play units 3 or less for free! Chewie wounded him, but was finished!
I sacrificed Luke to take out Vader, this was a fun part of the game. The other cards you can play are Event cards, I used the trick, Asteroid Sanctuary to exhaust an enemy unit, then give a Shield token to a friendly unit that costs 3 or less. The Shield protects a unit from damage, but then the token is removed. Another Event card is the supply card, Repair, which heals 3 damage for a unit or base, I wasn’t able to use it effectively and probably needed more such cards. My enemy used the event card twice, I Am Your Father which deals 7 damage to a unit or I had to say, “Nooooo!", so this allowed him to draw 3 cards. I later played Alliance X-Wing, 2 Resources, 2/3, which goes to the Space Arena. It can’t attack ground units. Kinda strange because we did see this in later films, same with TIE Fighters, it would make sense if it moves to the ground arena to attack them.
My opponent started to deploy a number of TIE Fighters and space combat began. I had to really work to stop my enemy’s Blizzard Assault AT-AT, 9/9! It has the effect that excess damage goes to another ground unit! The game changer was when I played Han Solo: Reluctant Hero who had a 7 Resource cost, 5/6, but he had Ambush! Then, I armed him with the Upgrade card, Luke’s Lightsaber, +3/+1. Then, further added, the Upgrade, Resilient, +3 HP! The 8/10 Han Solo crushed and then destroyed my opponent’s Base! There are ways to wound and discard units, but there were no such cards in his hand! I lost almost all of the main characters with Han Solo as the hero who won the day! I got a pack of Twilight of the Republic for playing and got the Leader card, Nala Se: Clone Engineer, and Base, KCM Mining Facility. Base and Leader cards are in every pack so you can build a deck with the 50 card minimum with at least 4 packs of 15 cards.
Other games need 50 packs or starter decks to build a deck which is an expense. For playing the game, I got an Event Exclusive card, Grogu: Irresistible, 0/5! I asked a number of questions and was told that yes, Teek, was considered. In fact, Ewoks and Jawas are the most requested. Everything in Star Wars can be made into cards; comic books, video games, I mentioned Galaxy's Edge, and I hope Star Tours, which was in the "Lightsaber Lost" (2010), GLC-CW2/11, episode of Clone Wars could be a card. It is available at game stores and I saw it on Amazon which is great because it is for playing first besides being a Star Wars product. I was told that this would at least be for the first year or so and this is also terrific so there is no sold out product from non-gamers. I can’t wait to buy more of the sets and build decks! Star Wars: Unlimited is a great Star Wars Experience, where I felt like I was part of the story, building the story, and playing the game was fun, the play went back and forth, not overwhelmed by one player!
Five+ Resources out of Five!
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