Star War: Unlimited gives us a new TCG for the Star Wars Universe. But don’t think for a moment that means you know this game. Fantasy Flight leans hard into the “Unlimited” in this game’s title. As a little taste of what we’re talking about, you can use any card in the game, no matter what “side” you’re playing. So you can totally arm Jyn Erso with Darth Vader’s lightsaber so she can defend the Catacombs of Cadera while being covered by a Disabling Fang Fighter in orbit. After you pick your jaw up off the floor, let’s take a deeper dive into this game.
The goal of Star Wars: Unlimited is fairly standard stuff: reduce a target (in this case, your foe’s Base) to 0 hit points. Most Bases have 30, but a few have fewer hit points combined with special abilities. You’ll also have a Leader who can, under certain circumstances, transform into a Unit you can use directly in combat.
Cards in Star Wars: Unlimited are flavored with Aspects, of which there are six: Heroism, Villainy, Vigilance, Cunning, Aggression, and Command. You can kinda think of these as being similar to the colors of Magic: the Gathering. In Star Wars: Unlimited, however, your Resources are colorless; so you don’t have five different pools of resources like you do in Magic. That said, the Aspects dictate how easy it is to play a card from your hand onto the table.
Let’s take the Disabling Fang Fighter as an example. This card has a cost of 3 (as seen in the upper-left yellow box) but below that, we see a red Aggression symbol. Jyn Erso’s symbols are the gold Cunning and the khaki Heroism. So by herself, Jyn doesn’t match the Fang Fighter’s aggression. Playing the Fang Fighter would then cost 5 Resources (+2 for the missing Aggression symbol) to put into play.
But wait! We look at both the Leader and the Base for alignment! And the Catacombs of Cadera do have the red Aggression symbol; so we only have to pay the 3 Resources to put the Disabling Fang Fighter into play. Spent Resources are tapped (Exhausted), but are refreshed at the end of the round.
Where do these resources come from? Your hand of six cards. In addition to your Base and Leader, you start the game by drawing six cards from your deck. You pick two of these and play them face-down as Resources. When you spend Resources, you tap these face-down cards for a single Resource each. At the end of each round, you’ll draw two more cards to add to your hand, and you can then put any card in your hand face-down as a new Resource.
A round has two phases: the Action Phase and the Regroup Phase. During the Action Phase, you and your opponent will take turns playing cards, attacking each other’s Units and Bases, and using the special abilities on your cards. If you want to be certain to go first next round, you’ll need to Seize the Initiative. But if you do that, you can’t do anything in the rest of this Action Phase except Pass. When you and your opponent both Pass in the same turn, you move to the Regroup Phase. However, do note, that just because you Passed last turn doesn’t mean you can’t do something else this turn (unless, of course, you Seized the Initiative).
Unit cards, the soldiers, heroes, and vehicles you use to attack with, come in two flavors: Ground and Space. Usually, Ground units can’t attack Space units and vice-versa, but both can attack your base. So you need to be careful not to leave yourself too vulnerable in either theater.
And that is the surface skimmed of Star Wars: Unlimited. If you’re curious about the cutting edge of CCGs or just love Star Wars, you’ll want to run to your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® to see this game in action. If the idea of building stories using ALL THE TOYZ in the Star Wars toy box thrills you, Star Wars: Unlimited is the game for you.
All Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® locations are independently owned and operated by local folks. Not all stores will carry all games but will be willing to attempt to special order any that they do not carry. (And they’ll carry most.)
