There’s a lot of Star Wars merchandise around at the moment. Seriously you can’t swing a Ewok without hitting over a stand of light sabres. This is also true of Star Wars themed boardgames and there are a tonne out there. Some are absolute garbage, *cough* 6 in 1 *cough*, but some of the boardgames are fantastic. Like Star Wars Risk…. but is it Risk as we know it?
Risk is a turn based, area control game where armies face off against each other. Add a tonne of dice rolling and you have a game that’s been around for ages. Now add a small amount of Star Wars theme and you have Star Wars Risk, Right?
Not quite. Gone is most of the mechanics you think of when you play Risk and they’ve added a Death Star sized dollop of theme. It also doesn’t take place in the new film which surprised me, but it’s set at the final Death Star assault in The Return Of The Jedi.
The Board
The game board is shaped like an Tie Advance when viewed from the front with a massive space battle in the middle and smaller mini games to the left and right.
On one side we have Darth Vader dueling it out with Luke Skywalker on the Death Star.
The other side has the Rebel player assaulting the shield generator on planet Endor. The Imperial player tries to stop the Rebels steady march by throwing Storm Troopers under the wheels of the bus as fast as possible.
In the middle we have a mass of ships battling it out. Rebel ships are attacking the Imperial Tie Fighters until the shields of the Death Star are disabled. Once the shields are down they can then assault the Death Star which has been taking pot shots at the Rebels ships from the centre of the board.
The Boardgame
It’s not Risk, lets start with that. It’s something else, something new and that’s not a bad thing.
There’s a lot of choices with this game as there are so many areas to focus on.
As the Imperial player your trying to defend the shield generator, while also trying kill Luke… bugger you’ve forgotten about the Rebel ships killing off all your Tie Fighters, Dam it!
While on the Other side the Rebel player is trying to do his own thing and panicking as much as you are. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
The dice are still there and there’s a lot of dice rolling to be done.
Versions
There are two different version of this game, the Standard and the Black Edition. Go for the Black Edition you will be glad you did. You get a foam insert to store the boards. Miniatures for the Death Star, Millennium Falcon and the Destroyer instead of cardboard tokens. Better quality cards and game board. It also comes in a fancy clam shell box which is all black and sexy.
Final Thought
Luck plays a big factor in this game and if you haven’t got any there is nothing you can do about it. The Dice don’t go your way, your doomed. Don’t have the card you need, your doomed.
I also feel the game is weighted for the Rebel player and if they get a few luck rolls the game can be over in a blink of an eye.
But even with these slight faults the game is fantastic and really gives you the feeling of the massive battle at the end of The Return Of The Jedi.
Can I FORCE any of you to play again? FORCE… get it? – Mike
Tamz – Now I have played both sides, Imperial and Rebel, it does feel weighted towards the Rebels. They did win in the film, so I guess it adds to the theme. There really is a lot going on, I just found it was best to focus on the fight on Endor and move ships around. Darth & Luke could just get on with it!! The battle in the middle is the only part that resembles the classic Risk games, however like Mike said, once playing you forget this and get immersed in an epic game you will want to play again and again.
One problem we found was hunting through the rule book every 5mins when we forget something. So, problem solved, we came up with a player guide – Star Wars Risk – black edition – player guide
A5 in size, there is one for the Rebel player and one for the Imperial player, feel free to print off for your personal use.
NB, we also changed out some of the cardboard tokens for pewter miniatures from the Star Wars Monopoly – Collectors Edition. Just seemed better to have characters rather than tokens.
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