Wise Wizard Games Star Realms: Deckbuilding Card Game

Star Realms is a well designed space themed deck building game where two or more players compete to be the last person with authority points. Note, one deck supports two players, two decks supports up to four players, and three decks supports up to six players.The basic idea of the game is to purchase cards from the trade row of six shown cards (five are random and one is static) to build a deck which can be used to: buy more cards, attack opponents, and draw more cards among other actions. Each player starts with 50 authority points, and when attacked will lose authority, and may gain authority from actions on purchased cards or events (if using the events expansion). The last player with authority wins.With this base version of the game (no expansions) if there are more than two players are several variants which allow for co-op play. One where players team up with other players to beat the other teams, and another "hydra" version where all players are working together to destroy one more powerful player.Unlike many other build-a-deck style games, this game allows players to do most actions in any order. For example if a player has two cards that allow them to draw a card and other cards to spend 10 coin, they can draw a card, buy a some cards, then draw their other card. Or they could draw their two cards first, then spend their money. Or they could spend their money then buy two cards, and soPros:-Easy to learn. The instructions are fairly minimal and most cards to a good job describing themselves without additional explanation.-Quick games. Once all players have played several games and understand the basic game mechanics a two player game tends to be about a half hour or less.-High quality cards with beautiful detailed graphics-High replay valueCons:The only downside that I have discovered with this game is by the end of a game it can be difficult to keep track of which parts of each card have already been resolved and which parts can still be activated.Personal thought: It seems that there are enough trade cards to support more than two players with one deck but there are not enough authority or starting hand cards (money an attack) to support more so it wouldn't be too difficult to just reduce the number of starting hand cards and count authority via dice or some other means to support more players with one deck.I also own all expansions which each add something worth while to the game if you like the base set. If I had to pick two to buy (hard to pick just one) I would get Events and Gambit.Events adds... you guessed it... event cards to the game. They are shuffled in to the trade deck and randomly pop up during game play. When an event card is revealed its effects are immediately executed. Some hurt everybody, some help everybody, but all effect everybody.Gambit adds solo variances, co-op variances, and cards which can be given to players at the beginning of the game to give them an edge. My wife and I like to use gambits to help players who have been in a slump. On the first game we each start with one random gambit. Every game after the player who most recent won only gets one gambit, but the other player gets one card for each game in a row they have lost since last winning. So if my wife has won the last three games in a row she gets one gambit card and I get four. There are countless ways that these gambit cards can be used like this.Overall I feel that this game is well worth a try. If you are looking for a highly rated inexpensive game definitely give this one a look.

Wow. I can't say enough good stuff about Star Realms. The game is so simple yet so competitive. The card art is simplistic but perfect. The play is fast and understandable. The setup is quick but meaningful. I think Star Realms has gone down in my personal hall of fame as a top 5.One of the things I like is how different the different races (colors) play from each other. Do you want to be a healer? Do you want to be a minimalist? A card drawer? A Brute? Each has it's own flavor and its own weaknesses and I think that all of it was done to perfection.Game play is extremely simple. Pick some cards, play them, resolve them, and buy some more cards. Next player. What makes the game so wonderful (aside from not being a CCG) is that those few steps, while always being the same, feel so different game by game. I also like that each person will develop a favorite style that you can kind of expect from one player to the next. Makes it feel like you have a "character" and not a group of random cards.Also, the portability is awesome on this game. It's about twice the thickness of a box of bicycle playing cards. This means that you can always throw a copy in with you when you travel. Games are fast with expert players (We can easily get a game in 10 minutes) but it feels tense.I also like that you can expand the number of players by simply buying another deck of cards. We've played with up to 6. I don't think we'd go any more.In conclusion, I think that if you are considering this game, just go for it. Certainly at this price point it's a no brainier. I will say that I think you should get two copies, meaning some other games come up for the decision process in that price point, but in general, I don't think many games can hold up in terms of longevity and overall fun to Star Realms.Games I Love to Play- Galaxy Trucker, Resistance Avalon, Small World, Istanbul, Warhammer Invasion, Caylus, Space Cadets Dice Duel, Eclipse, Caverna, Dead of Winter, Summoner Wars, Sheriff of Nottingham, Seasons, and Cosmic Encounter.Games I'll Play-Settlers of Catan, Dominion, 7 Wonders, Agricola, Mice and Mystics, Race for the Galaxy, Mage Wars, Takenoko, Ticket to Ride, Game of Thrones LCG, Arkham Horror, Splendor, and Smash Up.Games I Won't Play-Power Grid, Memoir 44, Android Netrunner (I know, this one will hurt people), Robinson Crusoe, Lords of Waterdeep, Mage Knight, Pandemic, Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity (I'd list that one 10 times), and Battlelore.