This review can also be found on our website: Star Realms Review

Hi!

Today we are reviewing Star Realms. It’s a card game with a space theme that is playable with 2 players. It’s designed by Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle, both known because of their place in the Magic hall of fame, and published in 2014 by White Wizard Games. The game started as a Kickstarter campaign in 2013.

The base game consists of 128 illustrated cards and a rulebook and that’s all that you need. Because the game is contained in a small box, it’s easy to take it with you on vacation and it doesn’t take up too much space on your shelf.

Gameplay
The game is quite easy to learn/play, but still gives you many decisions that can give you the edge above some other players. Every player starts with the same deck of cards and 50 authority. Authority is your life in this game. Every round you draw 5 cards and you get to play them on the board. The cards can, when played, give you any of the following effects:

Trade: used for buying new cards from the trade row

Combat: used to damage your opponent

Authority: used to gain more authority

There are 2 types of cards in the game. There are ships and bases. Both those cards can give you the effects that are listed above, but could also give an additional effect. Ships go away after your turn, but bases stay on the playground until they are destroyed.

There is also a trade row in the middle of the playground consisting of 5 cards. You can buy new cards from the trade row with the trade you get that round. You cannot keep trade through your turns, so it’s usually smart to spend most of it. New cards go into your discard pile along with the cards that you played that turn. When your deck is empty, you shuffle your discard pile and use that as your deck. So you are always improving your deck.

Some cards that share the same faction have a separate effect. So it’s good to base your deck around at least one faction. There won’t always be enough cards to build your deck with only one faction, so experiment with different combinations and see what works best for you.

The core of the game is basically to draw cards, play cards and expand your deck. Doesn’t sound too difficult, right?

Factions
There are 4 different factions in the game and they all play very differently. They all follow a certain theme, so they are fairly easy to distinguish on the cards.

Trade Federation:
The trade federation focuses on trade and growth. They are not very aggressive, but they do have a defensive branch to protect their trade from other factions. In the game, they specialize in generating large amounts of trade and gaining authority.

Blobs:
The blobs are the first alien life that the human race encountered. Ever since humanity met them, they have been very aggressive. The blobs specialize in generating large amounts of combat and removing cards from the trade row.

Star Empire:
The star empire consists of former colonies of the trade federation. They felt like the federation failed to give them enough protection from the blob, so they decided to unite and create their own empire. The star Empire specializes in drawing cards and discarding cards from the opponent.

Cultmachine:
When the industrial mining worlds were completely separated from the federation due to the blobs, they decided to take measures in their own hands and advanced their technologies. Soon the technology became their religion and god. The machine cult specializes in removing cards from your deck and have many bases.

Factions just bring so much more to the game in the way of playing. Sometimes you’ll only be using one faction but usually, your deck will consist of multiple factions that all work together to make sure that you win.

Our opinion
This. Game. Is. Amazing. For the price (around 15 euros), you get so much content that’ll definitely keep you going for quite some time. The base game supports only 2 players. You can also play with 3-4 players, but then you need to buy another copy of the game. The different factions really play differently and you will usually need to combine them together for your own deck. We do think some faction combinations are very strong. And sometimes this can be difficult to beat due to the trade row being random. But usually, this balances itself out quite well.

Card games come with a bit of randomness due to drawing the cards. Sometimes this can be annoying, but it’s not too bad due to you buying your own deck. Sometimes you’ll get unlucky and help your opponent to get a card that helps him to beat you later on, but the games are quick so you can quickly beat him in the next game.

Should you get it?
If you are a fan of quick 2 player games that appeals to either casual and competitive players, then yes, go get it right now! Honestly, for this price, you can’t quite go wrong. Even for 3-4 players, I think this game is worth it. If you want to buy 2 sets, make sure to buy the base set and the expansion one. This way you get even more fun out of it!

Maybe if you are really competitive and don’t enjoy the randomness of card games, then this game won’t be for you. Or maybe the theme isn’t something for you. If you want a different theme. The makers of this game also created a game like star realms, but with a fantasy theme called Hero Realms.

Happy playing!

Gameplay
Each player starts with an identical 10 card deck. The person who goes first gets to draw 3 cards from his/her deck. The other player(s) draw 5. A card can contain one or more of the following symbols:

Health Icon: Add the number to your total health

Combat Icon: Choose a player or their champion to deal damage to. The player has to subtract the damage from their health, if you target a champion, you have to make sure you can take them out or they will heal themselves before the next turn!

Gold Icon: Use the gold to buy more actions and champions from the market

On top of these symbols, a card can have an effect written on it. They are pretty self-explanatory.

When you played all the cards you had in your hand and used their effects, you put all the cards, except the champions, in your discard pile. The cards you bought from the market you bought also go there. You now draw 5 cards from your deck. If you don’t have 5 cards in your deck you take the cards you do have and shuffle your discard pile so it becomes your deck.

If you plan your strategy well you will take out your competition and win the game.

Our opinion
The game is easy to play and quick, which makes it very nice to play if we need to kill some time or aren’t feeling like a heavy game. The mechanics are very solid although the rules about preparing a champion can be kinda confusing as the rules don’t go into it enough.

With how the mechanics of the game work it can be difficult at times to draw what you need, or even to find something in the market. This especially happens when high-cost cards dominate the market early in the game.

But all by all, it’s an amazing game that you should definitely give it a try for the cheap price it’s selling for.

Should you get it?
If you are a fan of quick 2 player games that appeals to either casual and competitive players, then yes, go get it right now!

If you rather play this sort of game with a space theme then go check out Star Realms. We will do a review of star realms soon so stay tuned!

Trust us, you won’t go wrong with any of the 2 games.

Happy playing!
The full review can be found on our website: Hero Realms Review

Up front I will say this: I absolutely loathe co-op games. I turn into the annoying general alpha gamer whenever I play them, I am awful at stopping myself from doing so, and therefor I avoid them. Yet I played this anyway

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle flies in the face of the traditional co-op, in that 2 people who both despise co-ops played through the entire thing and LOVED it

Gameplay/replay

It plays as a team deck builder played across 7 game sessions. You start with an easy adventure where your only 3 goals are defeat Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle, and Professor Quirrell before all the locations are corrupted by the dark arts. Each turn you gain coins, damage, hearts, and possibly more cards and use them to damage the villain, remove corruption, heal yourself or your allies, ad buy new cards to add to your growing deck. However the villains strike back every turn and can stun you if you take enough damage, disrupt key abilities like healing, removing corruption, drawing cards, or sometimes even buying new cards.

The interesting thing about the game was like the young Hogwarts heroes I was also learning how to more effectively battle Voldemort’s minions with each new game, and once the later games open up new mechanics, you have to fold these into your playstyle and work together playing to each other’s strengths. For example, whoever plays Neville gets to use healing cards more effectively, so him purchasing more healing cards like ‘essence of dittany’ is a good idea. As the new scenarios get harder, we got better at the game so that by the end, we were able to win, but just barely. The challenge by the end is extreme, but the way you learn from your mistakes and successes is satisfying.

The Bad

The challenge ramps up rapidly. Maybe too rapidly for younger players. Also, fans of the books will notice that villains who die in certain places keep reappearing in each subsequent scenario which will make no sense whatsoever to said fans.

In Conclusion

Story confusion aside, this was an extremely fun co-op deck builder. I was glad I played it, and you will be glad you played it too