How to play Star Realms

So I have been playing Star Realms over the weekend and it is a simple but enjoyable game, it has potential for more complex strategy as you get used to the cards which gives it real re-play value. I will be bringing the demo copy along tonight for those that want to play it. For now though here are the basic rules...

'Star Realms is a space combat card game, pitting players against each other in a fight for dominance over the entire galaxy. To accomplish this, players must steadily grow their deck’s weak starting fleet into an armada powerful enough to overwhelm the opposition.

The following rules are a basic overview. For the full comprehensive rules, view the full Star Realms rulebook:
Two Player Rules | Two Player Rules (Continued) | Multiplayer Rules

GETTING STARTED

Each player starts the game with a Personal Deck composed of 10 Ships: eight Scouts and two Vipers.

Scouts provide one Trade. Trade is used to acquire Ships and Bases from the Trade Row to add to your deck and make your deck better. Vipers provide one Combat. Combat is used to attack your opponent’s Authority and win you the game. It can also be used to destroy enemy Bases.

TRADE

Trade is used to acquire Ships and Bases.

COMBAT

Combat is used to destroy Bases and to attack your opponent’s Authority.

AUTHORITY

Each player starts the game with 50 Authority. The goal of the game is to reduce your opponent’s Authority to 0.

INITIAL SETUP

The players use one Trade Deck composed of Ships and Bases. The top five cards of the Trade Deck are turned face up and used to form a central Trade Row of cards between the players. These cards can be acquired using Trade. When a card is acquired, it’s immediately replaced with the top card from the Trade Deck. In addition to the five cards in the Trade Row, players can also use Trade to acquire Explorer class ships, which are kept in a separate pile next to the Trade Row.

BUILDING YOUR DECK

There are two types of cards: Ships and Bases. Ships are used to generate effects and supply resources that help you win the game. This is also true of Bases, but when you play a Base it’s placed face up in front of you and stays there until if and when your opponent destroys it. As long as a Base stays in play, it offers its benefits to you every turn.

As you acquire Ships and Bases from the Trade Row, they are placed into your discard pile. When your Personal Deck runs out of cards, you’ll shuffle your discard pile into a new Personal Deck. In this way you’ll gain access to the powerful Ships and Bases in the Trade Row and be able to determine the strategy and direction for your Personal Deck to attack and defeat your opponent.

WINNING

In order to win the game, you need to attack your opponent’s Authority using Combat, which can be generated with Ships and with Bases. Each player starts the game with 50 Authority. If you reduce your opponent’s Authority to zero, you win!'

This video gives you a fairly good overview (it is using the online version of the game but it is pretty much the same thing)...

Tabletop Season 3

To start the week I have been watching the first video in the new season of Tabletop.

If you have not watched these before then you are really missing out, Will Wheaton plays some of his favorite table top games with fellow celebrities and friends.

This week we see a game of Tokaido...

This weeks guests are Jason Wishnov, J. August Richards, and Chris Kluwe

Star Realms - Factions

With Star Realms in the shop from this weekend I thought it might be nice to have a look at the different factions in the game...

Each of the cards in the 80 card Trade Deck is a Ship or a Base belonging to one of four factions: The Trade Federation, The Blobs, The Star Empire or The Machine Cult.

In the far future, the more traditional governing bodies of the human race have been replaced with corporate leadership. The earth and its surrounding colonies are ruled by a group of corporations called the Trade Federation. The Federation’s policies are focused around trade and growth, but especially in profit and prosperity for those at the top of the corporate ladder. While they prefer to deal with other star realms using trade and diplomacy, they have a large defense branch dedicated to protecting the Federation’s trade and other interests.

​In Star Realms, the Trade Federation specializes in generating large amounts of Trade and in gaining Authority (increasing your score).

​These mysterious creatures are the first alien life forms encountered by the human race. Most of the initial encounters consisted of human colonies being completely obliterated. On the few occasions that a Blob ship has been recovered somewhat intact, the only biological remains found inside have consisted of a gelatinous mass, thus leading to the moniker, “The Blobs”. While for several years all encounters between humanity and the Blobs have been extremely violent, there is currently some limited trade between various Blob factions and some of the more daring human traders.

​The Blobs are best at generating massive amounts of Combat and at removing undesirable cards from the Trade Row.

The Star Empire consists primarily of former colonies of the Trade Federation. These colonies were on the outer edges of the Federation. Not only did they feel used by the corporations, but they felt the Federation failed to give them adequate protection from the Blobs. As a result, one ambitious colonial governor was able to unite several colonies into an independent empire under his control, one with a strong military, both for warding off the Blobs and for discouraging the Federation from trying to reclaim their lost colonies.

The Star Empire is a combat oriented faction that draws lots of cards and makes the opponent discard cards.

​A cluster of industrial mining worlds were completely cut off from the Trade Federation by the Blobs. With the threat of annihilation by the Blobs always looming and no contact with the rest of human space, these worlds were forced to take drastic measures. Soon a cult of technology arose, focused on using advanced technology, robotics and computerization to create strong defenses and a powerful military that belied their relatively small population. Since their leaders believed their salvation lay in technology, technology soon became their god and their religion.

​The Machine Cult gains most of its power from being able to remove undesirable cards from your deck and from having a large number of Bases designed to defend your Authority from attack.

A Letter to Santa

If you want all of your Christmas wishes brought by the big guy, you’ll need to make sure your letter makes it to him. The closer you get the letter to Santa, the more likely you are to win! But watch out for the wily Krampus, out to dash your yuletide dreams!

Letters to Santa is a Christmas edition of the award-winning Love Letter coming to KD Games this Christmas season. This simple but elegant card game is easy enough for even the youngest players, and engaging enough for adults.

Star Realms

Due in tomorrow is the new deck building game...

Star Realms is a spaceship combat deckbuilding game designed by Magic Pro Tour Champions and Hall of Famers Darwin Kastle and Rob Dougherty (developer and cofounder of the Ascension Deckbuilding Game).

The game offers all the thrills of traditional trading card game style combat, combined with the fun of a deckbuilding game. Play powerful ships, destroy enemy bases or blast your opponent directly on your way to victory!

Tonight at Young Guns

This week other than the usual casual MTG and Pokemon we will be holding a small Heroclix Event.

Jake has been keen for a while to run a sealed event but these can be costly depending on the format, so we are going to try in with two single figure boosters and see if that works.

Each player will get two packs which they will open, they can they use them to play the other players in a series of games to find the overall winner who will get a special Batman figure.

Once all figures are open a maximum points value will be agreed and then we will note down each players total point value. Games will be played to a time limit and at the end of the this time points will be awarded for each model that has been knocked out. The player with the highest points at the end wins.

We are looking for at least 4 players but no more than 6 for this event and because it is a trial event it will be free and each player will get to keep the figures that they open.

D&D Attack Wing - Expansions

Last week we had the first stock of the new D&D Attack Wing delivered and on Tuesday we will be having the first few games.

For those that have played X-Wing or Star Trek Attack Wing you will be familiar with the basic rules.

This weekend I will be getting the stock for the first wave of expansions which are ...

These should make the game a lot more interesting and really develop the flying/ground mechanics in the game.

Items should be in stock by Friday of this week, please let me know if you want any reserved.

D&D Attack Wing

Its here and it is awesome! The models are pretty big and look great.

Is anyone up for a game tomorrow? Will have to be the quick start rules, but should be able to get to the full rules by Tuesday's KD Games Night.

For this Saturday only the Starter set will be just £35 instead of £40!!!

Next week I will be getting the wave one blister packs which will give the game a bit more flexibility in unit selection.

Vanguard Sneak Peak

The new sneak peak kit from Bushiroads Cardfight Vanguard has arrived today.

We will be holding this event along side our normal Vanguard League.

Please let me know if your interested.

Loot Letter

In today is Munchkin Loot Letter, which is essentially the vey popular Love Letter but with different art. It of course has all the sense of fun you get from Munchkin, so if you a fan of either at just £9 it is a must for Christmas or maybe just because you want it!

Somewhere closer to home.

For a while I have been looking at various locations to run our weekly KD Magic Night and this week I am going to try something a little closer to Shoreham Town Centre. We will be hosting the event from...

The Royal British Legion Club

9-11 Buckingham Rd, 

Shoreham-by-Sea 

BN43 5UA

The event will start at the usual time of 7pm and I will be there from 6pm rather than the usual 5pm at the Royal George.

The venue is much closer at the station and still on the number 2 bus route, although it is close enough to the seafront to travel by 700 as well.

With the shop at number 8 Tarmount Lane becoming a permenant location from December it will allow me to trade on a Friday until 5:30pm and is close enough if I need to get any stock for players.

If the venue is a success this week, it is hoped that it will become a regular venue for KD Game events.

Lords of War Tournament

Today at KD Games we will be holding our second Lords of War Tournament for the younger players. Starting at 4:30pm we will see if Tobey can defend his title in a three round 'mercenary' event.

A 'mercenary' event means that players are free to change their decks to include cards from any of the three races, Elves, Lizardmen, Drawfs, Orcs, Undead and of course the mighty Templars.

Just how many Palisades will we see if uncertain, but I expect a few!

This event will give all the players to have a real mess about with their decks and hopefully we will see some well thought out armies competing for the chance to be a one star or maybe even a two star general.

Jake has asked me to take his deck along a bit later for him, so I thought I would have a little look through to see what direction he has gone. Jake has gone for a Lizardmen and Undead mix, keeping it to just two races. He is using a similar strategy to me in that he has used the cards he likes the look of and will enjoy playing. With only an hour until the event, hopefully I will not spoil his chances to much by showing you what he is using...

Still Dreaming

It was a year ago today that my store in Shoreham High Street closed its doors for the final time. On the 12th I asked the question on my old blog site, 'Is it the end of a dream?' and twelve months later I am very pleased to say that I am still dreaming.

That is because although our weekly gaming clubs have managed to continue and we have regained our Friday Night Magic, there is still a lot more to come in the next twelve months.

Tomorrow I will be confirming the venue for this weeks FNM and hopefully a return to the town center which will be much better for those that travel by bus or train and in the coming weeks I hope to be in a position to confirm the plans for continueing to trade at No 8 Tarmount Lane.

To be in a position where I can even think about the future of KD Games is very much thanks to everyone that has attended one of my events this year. I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone that has supported us and I hope to see you all at the events we will be holding in the next twelve months.

COMMANDER: Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath

The second of the new commander decks that I want to have a quick look at is the black
commanded by Ob Nixillis...

Obviously his last ability is pretty good but it is going to take a few turns to get to and it will
mean that you will have to spend some time simply draining and gaining a bit of life, rather
than creating Demon creatures. Of course the ability to recast from the command zone will
mean that in his initial appearances on the battlefield can build up a flying army and then once
in a position to defend himself he can start on his journey to his ultimate ability.

Creature (27)1 Skirsdag High Priest1 Nantuko Shade1 Vampire Hexmage1 Burnished Hart1 Flesh Carver1 Crypt Ghast1 Disciple of Bolas1 Evernight Shade1 Abyssal Persecutor1 Liliana's Reaver1 Nekrataal1 Magus of the Coffers1 Raving Dead1 Shriekmaw1 Bloodgift Demon1 Demon of Wailing Agonies1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief1 Ghoulcaller Gisa1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel1 Morkrut Banshee1 Grave Titan1 Phyrexian Gargantua1 Pontiff of Blight1 Reaper from the Abyss1 Butcher of Malakir1 Overseer of the Damned1 Pestilence Demon

Sorcery (13)

1 Sign in Blood1 Read the Bones1 Victimize1 Syphon Mind1 Dread Return1 Mutilate1 Infernal Offering1 Æther Snap1 Promise of Power1 Necromantic Selection1 Black Sun's Zenith1 Profane Command1 Dregs of Sorrow

Instant (8)

1 Spoils of Blood1 Tragic Slip1 Malicious Affliction1 Sudden Spoiling1 Tendrils of Corruption1 Annihilate1 Skeletal Scrying1 Wake the Dead

Artifact (9)

1 Sol Ring1 Charcoal Diamond1 Jet Medallion1 Mind Stone1 Swiftfoot Boots1 Commander's Sphere1 Unstable Obelisk1 Worn Powerstone1 Lashwrithe

Enchantment (1)

1 Bad Moon

Land (40)

1 Arcane Lighthouse1 Barren Moor1 Bojuka Bog1 Crypt of Agadeem1 Everglades1 Ghost Quarter1 Myriad Landscape1 Polluted Mire32 Swamp

Other (1)

1 Xathrid Demon

99 Cards