With Star Wars busting all the box office records it stands to reason that board games would get in on all the hype. There are several Star Wars games that have been released in recent years that cover all kinda of gaming styles. Some of them use miniatures like Imperial Assault and the X-Wing miniatures game. Some games are just re-themed versions of old games like Monopoly or Stratego. But occasionally you get a game that is not quite like anything else.
Risk: Star Wars Edition is a 2-4 player game from Hasbro that totally changes that way you might perceive the game of Risk. Players make up 2 teams the Rebel Alliance and The Empire. Turn order is such that one team takes all of its turns before giving the turn to an opposing player. The action selection phase of a turn uses cards specific to each team. Each card will have 2-3 different actions icons depicting what options are available. It may be that one option has played out and very rarely will both or all actions be closed.
Once actions are selected play happens on three different areas of the board (which happens to look like a TIE fighter).
The center area has piles of plastic ships battling around the Death Star space. B-wings, X-wings, Y-wings, and the Millennium Falcon swarm against a fleet of TIE fighters and the Executor star destroyer. But the death star is safe until the shields are destroyed. Some of the actions for this area include fighter combat, deploying more little ships, and firing the Death Star.
The shields protecting the Death Star are brought down when the rebels make their way through the Endor forest to blow up the shield generator. The Empire is hassling the rebels at every turn with stormtrooper squads. This area of the board is not quite as active as the others with the frustrating slog up the track trying to roll dice high enough to bypass stormtroopers and get to the end. It is however a very necessary part of the strategy.
The third area of the game board is where Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader duel in front of the Emperor. A number of hit points are assigned to each side and when these actions are selected dice are rolled to determine results. If one of the side loses, then the winning side gets a bonus for one round of having extra action cards. Very powerful.
Most of the game mechanics are handled with cards and dice. The variety of options the cards present allow players tons of flexibility and lots of strategic choices. The dice handle combat results and are pretty much the only resemblance of the original Risk game.
Risk: Star Wars Edition is fast playing in only about 30-45 minutes. It is easy to pick up and really fun to play. The graphic design is amazing and immersive. It has great components with lots of pieces. The Black Edition adds metal versions of the big ships and variant packaging.
Overall I would highly recommend this to any Star Wars fan or anyone looking for a quick battle type game that is easy to learn and plays quickly.
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