Star Realms Tournament

Most of you that have been attending KD Games Night will be are aware that tomorrow we will be holding our first ever Star Realms Tournament...

There will be no extra fee (other than the normal entrance fee) to take part in this event and there will be participation prizes (promo cards) for everyone that takes part.

We aim to get started at about 6:30 and hope to finish by no later than 9pm. The number of rounds will depend on the amount of players. For this first event I will not put a time limit on the games (unless they run to an excessive time length) and these games will be played as a one v one using either the basic Star Realms core game or the Colony Wars Expansion (without and expansions added).

I have got a copy of both of these but I would ask that players could bring their own decks as well. The rounds will be swiss, with the winner of each round getting 3 points. At the end of a predetermined amount of round the winner will be the one with the highest points.

There will be a play mat for the eventual winner and a storage box for second place...

If anyone wants to play please let me know as soon as possible.

Star Realms Expansions

New in today are two new expansions for Star Realms ...

Colony Wars is a deckbuilding game in the Star Realms series which is both a standalone box set for two players (featuring an 80-card trade deck, as in the original) and an expansion for the base Star Realms set that allows it to be played as a four-player game.

In Colony Wars, as in Star Realms, players will start with a fleet (deck) of 10 basic ships, and can spend Trade to acquire more powerful ships and bases from a central trade row of 5 cards. This row is continuously replenished by random draws from the trade deck. Many ships and bases deal Combat damage which you can use to attack your opponent and/or destroy their bases. When you reduce your opponent's Authority to zero, you win.

We will also have ...

Includes 15 new cards; 1 Rules Card, 13 Gambits, 1 Base.

The gambits in this set function differently than the original Gambits, including entering play hidden. Some actions / bonuses trigger when revealing the Gambit, most have an additional function when scrapping.

Gambits are dealt face down to players at the beginning of the game. You can choose a number of Gambit cards each player will get, or you can give some players less Gambit cards as a handicap. The extra (unclaimed) Gambit cards are set aside in a face down pile. Secret Outpost is kept separate and not shuffled in with the Gambit Cards or the Trade Deck.

Players keep Gambit cards face down in front of them until they choose to reveal them. Gambit cards never go to the trade deck, your hand or personal deck. They have silver borders to make it easier to keep them separate from your other cards. Players may reveal Gambits at the start of the or during their Main Phase.

At last it is on its way!

For those of you that have purchased Star Realms and enjoying playing what is simply a great game the wait is almost over for the first expansion.

I have today placed our initial order and it should be with us for 10th February. Given the popularity of the original game I expect this to sell out fast. I will be adding it to our website next Friday (6th) so that you can place pre-orders, it will be a case of first come first served. I hope to have it on sale at KD Games night on the 10th as well (depending on pre-orders obviously)

Following on from that there will be some organised events/tournaments as we should be getting our prize support kits before the end of February. I will post more details of prizes and formats in the coming weeks, so if your interested then watch this space!

If you have not played Star Realms yet or have not been able to get hold of the game as it has been out of stock for a number of weeks then the core game should be back in stock as well - let me know if you want one ordered/reserved.

Announcing Star Realms Expansion: Crisis

If there’s one question I have been hearing more than any other, it’s “when is there an expansion for Star Realms?”  So I had a look in to it and I am very please that they have announced the game’s first official expansion, Star Realms: Crisis, which I have put on pre-order but as yet I have no confirmed date or price.

The expansion comes as three seperate parts each consisting of 12 cards, let’s take a look at what Crisis has to offer:

Crisis: Bases & Battleships

   

If you like to close out your games with big beefy battleships, this expansion pack is for you! Bases & Battleships includes a powerful new ship for each faction, along with eight additional ships & bases to add even more variation to your trade deck.

Here we see Mega Mech, one of the few cards in the game with the awesome ability to return bases to hand. Sometimes you’ll want to bounce your opponent’s Outpost to let your fleet slam in for big damage, but even cooler is returning one of your own powerful bases to hand so you can play it again!

Crisis: Fleets & Fortresses

Fleets & Fortresses is for those players who like to stock their side of the board with behemoth bases. The expansion pack is loaded up with a powerful new base for each faction, as well as eight new ships with a variety of cool abilities.

Death World will definitely be a favorite for Blob players, not only adding a massive four combat, but letting you remove off-faction cards from your deck in return for card draw. Very awesome.

Crisis: Events

Our first new card type, Events, add some serious fun to the Star Realms experience. When an event enters the trade row, it’ll immediately shake up the game, destroying bases, letting players draw extra cards, and more!

Supernova is a great example of how an Event can impact the board, sweeping the trade row clear while blasting each player for five authority. Events really are a ton of fun, especially in multiplayer!

Crisis: Heroes

The Heroes booster adds our second new card type to the game. Heroes are unique, because unlike other Star Realms cards, they immediately enter play when purchased! Each hero has a scrap ability which provides both a specific effect, as well as turning on ally abilities for the turn.

CEO Torres is a great buy for any player, letting you turn that extra 2 Trade into a quick 7 Authority. However the Trade Federation player will also get to activate their fleet’s ally abilities, and really put this powerful business-commander to good use!

Again, I don't have much more about Star Realms: Crisis at this point but I will post more info as soon as I have it!

Last Sunday at Gambit Games

Last weekend at Gambit Games we hosted another Lords of War Tournament which saw Will become the first two star general of the year. It was pretty close but he kept the pressure on all of his opponents and never lost a game. The final result was ...

Will 76 point and 3 wins (gets an extra 25 points for winning)

Gary 76 points and 2 wins (gets an extra 15 points for second)

Olly 63 points and 2 wins

Tobi 53 points and 1 win

Kevin 50 points and 1 win

Alex 41 points

We also had a lot of games of Star Realms which was by far the most popular game of the day. It is really easy to play but great fun, its well balanced and caters for 1 one 1 as well as multi-player. More details on how to play can be found here ... http://kidsdreamsgames.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/how-to-play-star-realms.html

Another very popular game was Space Cadets ...

Space Cadets: Dice Duel pits two star ships against each other in quick-paced combat. The players are divided into two teams, each team playing the crew of their ship. The team will win or lose together. The game ends when one side destroys their opponent by causing four points of damage through torpedoes or mines.

Each ship has six Bridge Stations:
Engineering generates power for the other stations.
Helm maneuvers the ship on the map.
Weapons loads the torpedo tubes to attack the enemy.
Sensors locks onto the enemy so torpedoes can hit, and uses jammers to stop the enemy from locking on.
Shields helps protect the ship from enemy torpedoes.
Tractor Beams can grab the powerful crystals, move the enemy ship on the map, and launch Mines.

There are no game turns in Space Cadets: Dice Duel. The game continues with players acting as quickly as possible until one side wins.

Each player will be in charge of one or more of these stations, or have the overall roll of Captain to coordinate everything.

Here is some of the action from Sunday ...

This game is available to order, so if you are interested please let me know.

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)...

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.

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!