he best parts of Attack of the Clones is its lightning-fast battles, particularly those raging through the movie's final 45 minutes, as clones smash Separatist droids and Jedi fight against a Sith Lord. Wizards of the Coast's new trading card game based on the movie successfully captures its strongest aspects to create a game that's enjoyable, but not immediately addictive.
The two-player game is divided into Light and Dark Sides, each represented by a deck of 60 cards. The mainstay of these decks is units, which represent everything from individual heroes like Obi-Wan Kenobi to massive antagonists like the Trade Federation battleships. They're each defined by four stats—build cost, speed, power and health—and fall into three categories: character, ground and space.
They're augmented by mission cards—which represent important points on the Star Wars timeline, and give players the momentary ability to break the rules—and battle cards—which offer temporary abilities during combat.
As in the movies that inspired it, the game's battles take place on three fronts (called "arenas" in the game): character, ground and space. Before the game begins, each player draws seven cards from his or her deck. They are then given 30 points to "build" unit's and deploy them to one of the three arenas (a process that's not unlike the build-up portion of the computer game Age of Empires). With the ships, troops and heroes deployed, the game begins.
The Light Side player rolls one six-sided die; the result tells both players how many build points they have for that round. They then use these points to assemble units to augment those already on the field, or to start construction on massive units that cost more points than they have to spend on that round. The points can also be used to "build" mission cards. Players are given force points, which power the battle cards and the Force-sensitive powers of the Jedi and their Sith opponents.
The battle begins in the space arena, with the fastest ships going first, and the Dark Side forces attacking in the case of a tie. Players roll a number of six-sided dice equal to their units attack value, modified up or down by special abilities or "battle" cards. On a roll of 1 through 3, the attack fails, on a roll of 4 through 6 a point of damage is scored. If the amount of damage done exceeds the unit's health, it's destroyed. Not all units must be used for attack: some, like the Coruscant Freighter, allow players to draw additional cards from their decks.
The battle proceeds through each of the three arenas with each player hoping to conquer two of the three battlefields. If either accomplishes that task, he or she wins the game immediately. If not, the entire process begins again.
A good game that could become great
As creators of the phenomenally successful Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon card games, Wizards would no doubt love to have another runaway hit in the form of Star Wars. They're off to a good start with this new game, which may not be a home-run hit in its first release, but has definite potential.
The game's greatest strength lies in its shallow learning curve. Recognizing the innate geek desire to avoid reading instructions, the game's documentation features prominent notices declaring "Stop—if you don't want to read the instructions, do this." The basics of gameplay are then introduced in three stages, the most basic of which involves putting a pre-determined list of units down on the arenas, and then resolving combat between them. Next comes a stripped-down version of the full game, with more units, but no mission or battle cards. And finally there's the full game, which is just a natural extension of the rules learned earlier with the remaining card types shuffled in. An unexpected side effect of these progressive rules is that the game's easily played with kids younger than its "10 and up" designation implies. If they know their numbers, and like to roll dice, they should do fine.
The break-up of the game into three separate arenas works well, nicely mimicking the Endor battle/Death Star attack/Lightsaber duel triple climax in Return of the Jedi, or the similar pinnacle in The Phantom Menace. Another good touch is the ability to stack unique cards. The game includes several versions of Anakin, Darth Sidious and other characters, representing their powers at different points in the movies. Greater incarnations of these characters can be "stacked" atop lesser versions (or vice versa), thus creating an even more powerful version of the character. And yes, characters like Anakin will stack with Darth Vader (when he's released in a future expansion). The resource management aspects—the force and build points—round out the game, and should be appreciated fans of "civilization" type games like CivIII or Age of Empires.
The game's drawback is its limited scope. Although expansions for The Phantom Menace, the original trilogy and the expanded universe will eventually be released, the current edition relies solely on Attack of the Clones. The game shares the movie's shortcomings, featuring impressive weaponry, but lackluster characterization. The almost complete lack of quotable lines in the movie hurts the quotes that accompany each card, forcing the designers to use lackluster quips like Obi-Wan's "This weapon is your life" or Darth Tyrannous' "A thousand more systems will rally to our cause with your support." The game's Episode II roots also mean that players will have to wait for the expansions if they want to add X-Wings, TIE Fighters or Imperial Walkers to their decks.
As is, the game's combination of traditional card tactics with battlefield/resource strategy is a nice mix, and its short learning curve makes it easy for card game novices to pick up. It's a good game now ... but it could be a great game when the original trilogy expansions are released.
Wizards of the Coast isn't the first to publish a Star Wars card game—Decipher published its own version of the game prior to Episode I's release. I never played that game, but one of my playtesters did and preferred the new version because of its easily manageable battlefields and small learning curve.
— Ken
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