Tips & Strategies (17)

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Tips & Strategies (17)

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8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel
21 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“An equal but opposite reaction”

Counter your opponent’s buys with some savvy purchasing of your own. Is your opponent buying all of the cheap red cards and going for the ultimate thin-deck? Buy some yellow discard ships to make them regret losing anything at all from their hand. Are they buying towards a heavy economy (Freighter, for instance)? Buy cheap green for extra damage, and an inexpensive Base or two to fend off the damage they attempt to do to you. If they buy some powerhouse bases, counter with cards that can “Destroy a base”. If they’re all-in with the green damage cards, prioritize bases wherever possible, and maybe supplement with some blue Authority gain.

Paying close attention to what your opponent buys can help you play around whatever strategy they may be attempting to inflict upon you.

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8
Professional Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
Silver Supporter
Sentinels of the Multiverse fan
20 of 20 gamers found this helpful
“ Overlooked cards”

Ram, Blob Wheel, and Space Station are overlooked by some people particularly if focusing on a different faction. They seem a little weak compared to others, but their scrap abilities allow you to reclaim your investment for some quick cash to buy those cards you really want. Don’t underestimate them.

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8
Canada
Z-Man Games fan
I play red
Indie Board & Cards fan
20 of 20 gamers found this helpful
“Seeing Red”

The Red faction is all about culling. Getting your deck down to be trim and maximize the faction abilities. But what happens when you eliminate the starting cards?

In some games you will be able to cull down your deck quickly off of cheap Red cards. Often, this leaves you with not a lot of Outposts or Bases. If you see this is happening there are two things you need to do:

1 – Only Buy Cards of Another Colour
2 – Cull the cheaper Red cards from your deck

Some folks may not be OK with trashing cards they paid for, but a deck of only Red cards will make it very hard to acquire new cards. To make sure you stay in the game long enough to end as the victor, discard as many Reds as you can.

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7
Gamer - Level 7
Explorer - Level 4
Novice Reviewer
20 of 20 gamers found this helpful
“Purchasing, Drawing, and Card Play Order”

Making purchases that put ships on the top of your deck is a game-changing strategy if you play your cards in the correct order. Cards can be played in whatever order with any combination of attacking and purchasing during your turn. Make sure to play “Draw 1” cards AFTER you purchase a card to the top of your deck, that way you can draw that card immediately on the turn you purchase it and play it.

For example, let’s say you have a “Blob Fighter” in your hand a “Blob Carrier” in play with it’s faction bonus active- “Acquire any ship without paying its cost and put it on top of your deck.” You see that there is a Blob “Mothership” in the trade row, an expensive purchase but with a “Blob Carrier” it’s no problem. Use “Blob Carriers” ability to put the the “Mothership” on the top of your deck, then play your “Blob Fighter” which has the faction ability of “Draw a card.” You will immediately be able to draw the “Mothership,” then of course play the “Mothership” allowing you to draw two more cards with its faction ability! This works with similar cards that purchase to the top of your deck like the Federation “Freighter.”

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8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel
28 of 29 gamers found this helpful
“Diversify your portfolio... for the right value”

As the game progresses, you may be tempted to stick with your main colors to try to achieve total deck synergy. But the high-end Outposts and Ships can be worth the investment regardless — would you pass up a yellow Dreadnaught or a blue Command Ship if your primary focus was green and red? As long as the deck is relatively efficient in its function, buying an off-color high-end ship is only going to make the punch of your turns more fearsome.

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3
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
30 of 32 gamers found this helpful
“Bases - The key to a win”

As you discover in the app tutorial, bases can mean the difference in getting a win. Many are solid for defense, for sure, and can better assure you of card combos if you focus on a just a few of the factions – but sometimes buying a base just to sacrifice it for buying power early on or delivering the final blow at the end can make all the difference.

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7
I'm a Real Person
Smash Up Fan
I play yellow
Comic Book Fan
20 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“authority ”

My wife and I usually start with 60 or more authority for longer games. It changes strategy since it gives you more time to gain a fleet that will work. It doesn’t make it too much longer though because at least one person usually is doing a ton of damage at the end of the game.

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8
Canada
Z-Man Games fan
I play red
Indie Board & Cards fan
20 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“Picking Your First Faction.”

As many others have said, the basic strategy of Star Realms is to build up a single faction quickly. That being said, you are never going to get ALL the cards of one colour, and there is no guarantee that your colour of choice will be available.

With that in mind, I recommend that when buying your first card you make sure there are 1 or 2 cards of the same colour that will likely be there on your next turn. This way you can start getting the Ally bonuses early and often, and maximize the cards that you have.

Gamer Avatar
8
Canada
Z-Man Games fan
I play red
Indie Board & Cards fan
20 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“All Traded Up, and Nothing to Buy”

You started off great, picking up 3-4 cards of the same faction. But now the Trade Row is full of over priced cards and cards of a Faction you don’t need.

So what do you do when there is no obvious pick?

Consider buying an Explorer card. You may think this will set you back a hand, but the 2 Trade is useful. Odds are the extra Trade will come in handy to get a bigger card faster…or will allow you to get two cards from the same faction.

That being said, do not hold on to these cards. Unless your Combat is too low to eliminate an Outpost with the 2 extra Combat points, trash Explorer cards.

This will help take away your opponents Authority, and keep your deck slim and on track at the same time.

Gamer Avatar
8
Canada
Z-Man Games fan
I play red
Indie Board & Cards fan
20 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“A Match Made In The Stars”

The basic strategy of Star Realms is to focus on one faction, combo up cards, and enjoy your victory. But There are only so many cards of each faction to go around. Because of that it is important to know which factions work well with others so you can start building your 2nd faction.

Red: The Culling Faction

Red cards let you pull a card from your discard pile or hand and trash out of the game permanently. This is really great for for having a slim, compact hand. The red faction has a lot of good Bases and Outpost, and will help with your Combat.

What they need is extra purchasing power.

Pair with: Blue. Plenty of Trade value here. Plus if you take a beating while culling your starting cards, being able to regain some Authority is a great bonus.

Yellow: The Hand Management Faction

The Yellow faction has some great Outposts, some high end Combat cards, and best of all, they make your hands have more cards while often shrinking the hands of your foe.

This is a faction built for speed, so what they need is some fire power.

Pair with: Green. No other faction can deliver as big of Authority hits to a foe faster than the Green team. Plus their limited card drawing ability can help you build up the really big hands when paired with the Yellow faction.

Blue: The Regroup Faction

The Blue faction has a lot of Outposts, and the ability to regain Authority. But to maximize them, you need to ensure you have other Blue cards to combo with.

How do you ensure you can combo cards for Ally bonuses? Cull as often as you can

Pair with: Red. Keeping a Blue faction deck slim and on point will allow the cards to work together for big recoveries, big purchases, and big wins.

Green: The Army Faction

The best defence can sometimes be an unstoppable offence. The Green faction has some hard hitting cards. Some that reply on the Ally ability, some that are just big and nasty. What they don’t have is outpost.

Pair with:Blue. Both the Yellow and Red factions have Outposts that combo well with the Green factions might. But the Blue faction has cheap outposts. As an added benefit, the Blue faction can help you stay in the game in the event your game has turned in to a might vs might fight with both player gobbling up the Green cards.

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8
Professional Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
Silver Supporter
Sentinels of the Multiverse fan
20 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“Goto cards that help any faction!”

Here’s a list of my “goto” cards that I almost never pass up if I can get them. These are not listed in any particular order.

Recycling Station
Nothing is nicer than being able to discard some weak cards to potentially draw the juicy ones. Also, cycling your deck faster is always better. Provides a decent 4 protection as an outpost. Super Combo: Pair it with Brain World (discard weak cards to draw two, then scrap the weak to draw two more – a veritable one-two punch!

Brain World
Probably one of the most awesome outposts in the game. Six protection as an outpost, and the scrapping ability to draw for what you scrap twice is a great way to streamline your deck.

Trade Bot
Come on? Replaces the scout for money and helps you thin your deck..and cheap.

Cutter
All around good card. Heals you and gives you decent money.

Command Ship
The most awesome ship in the base game IMHO. Draw 2 cards. Do 5 damage and heal 4… awesome!! Bonus is that you can destroy a base with another blue.

Freighter
Basically allows you to streamline your economy by turning 4 scouts into one card (4 gold) particularly if you can later scrap the scouts. You don’t lose your investment, and it helps you get those expensive cards you want to buy no matter the faction.

Trade Blob
Again, like the freighter, helps you streamline your economy with 3 gold.

Stealth Needle
Allows you copy a card and all it’s abilities! Really can open your strategic options when you get this. It really is factionless in some ways, because it can become any faction. Helps you trigger ally abilities.

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5
Video Game Fan
Explorer - Level 3
Book Lover
28 of 30 gamers found this helpful
“Don't be afraid to scrap, scrap, scrap!”

After playing quite a few games, it seems that scrapping scouts and vipers out of your discard (sometimes hand if necessary) is VERY important . You can do this by picking up some of the Red faction cards that offer this ability. The more you scrap these basic cards out of your deck, the more of a punch you can throw with interactions between cards. Obviously the deck as a whole is important but scrapping should definitely be a part of your strategy.

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8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel
26 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute”

Recycling Center is a simple 4-drop yellow base that lets you choose to either gain 1 Trade or discard up to 2 cards to redraw that many. This is a very powerful ability by itself, letting you ditch your Vipers and Scouts for (hopefully) better cards, but it can also be combined with red cards for the annoying situation in which you have just reshuffled your deck, and aren’t sold on the idea of scrapping cards in your hand. Instead, discard those starting cards to draw new stuff, then scrap from the discard pile.

The ability to burn through the lesser cards in your deck to get at your better stuff by itself is strong, but this base has more potential. Pick it up when you can!

Gamer Avatar
8
Professional Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
Silver Supporter
Sentinels of the Multiverse fan
32 of 35 gamers found this helpful
“Try the free app for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows to see if you like it!”

There’s a free digital version you can try to see if you like this game. Really good introduction to the game and plays very well.

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7
Canada
Advanced Reviewer
Rosetta Stone
21 of 23 gamers found this helpful
“Keep a secondary faction in mind.”

Obviously the key to gaining power quickly in this game is have a handful of the same faction cards coming up in each hand. Unfortunately, your chosen faction may not be available and may have cards buried deep down on the trade deck. Overcome this by buying up cards in 1 other faction. This small diversity can still lead to the use of faction powers and opens the doors to you when making purchases out of the trade row.

Gamer Avatar
7
I'm a Real Person
Smash Up Fan
I play yellow
Comic Book Fan
28 of 32 gamers found this helpful
“Keeping score”

My wife and I use the app “mutility” to keep score during our games. It’s supposed to be used for Magic, but it works really perfectly for Star Realms, and is free! It also makes it a lot easier to start with more Authority.

Gamer Avatar
7
Gamer - Level 7
Explorer - Level 4
Novice Reviewer
42 of 50 gamers found this helpful
“Playmats for Score Tracking”

Star Realms is great because of it’s compact size, but if you’re not a fan of tracking authority using the cards then BGG has a couple of different playing mats for tracking Authority.
This one is my favorite: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/101510/85-x-11-playmat-stat-and-hp-tracker

Just download and print! I cropped off the deck/discard pile portion and printed them a little smaller in size. I then got a couple of little LEGO pieces for markers. I love these because not only is it great for tracking your Authority but it is also good for keeping track of your Trade and Combat for the turn, in case the numbers get difficult to keep track of.

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