Edited to copy the below in from a later post, so that the decklists and this walkthrough are easily accessible and you do not need to scroll down the thread
Walkthrough for the 40 card Beginner Decks
Introduction
These
Beginner Decks are ‘a first step into a larger world’, teaching you the basics of Star Wars CCG in a balanced environment. Using mostly cards with only one purpose or concept (i.e. not too much game text or references to other cards that are not included in these
Beginner Decks), these decks introduce new aspects of the game step-by-step so that the learning curve is less steep. In these decks, Dark Side is the aggressor and Light Side the more resourceful Side with tricks and retrieval. Most cards in these decks serve a didactically justified purpose: to make the player aware with commonly played strategies/cards and to get acquainted with utility cards that have the same concept as the more expensive cards, so that they will recognize such concepts and get used to utilize them. This walkthrough describes the first two turns for each Dark Side and Light Side in a game with the 40-card decks of Step 1 and from there on, you should take your destiny into your own hands…
As preparation, you should have the two
Beginner Decks ready as well as the
Beginners’ Rulebook. Remember: the Rulebook provides the framework for the game, but each card can influence the rules ever so slightly. You could be surprised by an unexpected interrupt by your opponent that can turn the tables.
Start of the game
At the start of the game, each player reveals either a starting location or an Objective at the same time (please note that locations deployed by your objective are technically not considered ‘starting locations’). Since both players have an Objective, reveal your Objective and deploy it with the front side (with a destiny number of 0) on table. The Premiere Rulebook stated that Dark Side begins because “Sometimes it pays to be the bad guy”, and that rule is still valid. Therefore, Dark Side resolves its Objective first, and deploys Tatooine with Devastator there, and a Tatooine battleground site (Mos Eisley). Now it is Light Side’s turn to resolve its Objective, and deploys Tatooine (because the Dark Side version of Tatooine is already on table, the Light Side version is placed on top of the Dark Side Tatooine; this is called ‘converting a location’, and from now on, only the game text on the Light Side version of Tatooine is used), with Tantive IV at Tatooine with R2-D2&C-3PO aboard and the Stolen Data Tapes deployed on R2-D2&C-3PO, and the Dune Sea is deployed too. The locations form the ‘game board’ and should look as follows:
Devastator
|
Tatooine – Mos Eisley – Dune Sea
|
Tantive IV
R2-D2 & C-3P0
Stolen Data Tapes
After resolving the Objectives, each player is allowed to play a Starting Interrupt and again, Dark Side goes first. Play Twi’lek Advisor and one Effect, in this case An Entire Legion Of My Best Troops. Light Side plays The Signal and A New Secret Base (V). The Starting Interrupts go to the respective Lost Piles as stated in their game text. Each player subsequently shuffles their remaining cards which form their Reserve Deck. Each player then draws an opening hand of 8 cards and then Dark Side begins the game.
Let’s assume the following opening hands:
- Dark Side: Officer Evax, Chief Bast, Elite Squadron Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper Cadet, Blaster Rifle (V), TIE Interceptor, Black 6, and Overload.
- Light Side: Jek Porkins, Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Beru Lars, Leia (V), Slight Weapons Malfunction, Houjix, Out Of Nowhere, and Proton Torpedoes.
Turn 1 – Dark Side
Activate Phase:
Count the Dark Side Force icons on all locations on table, add one for yourself. It should be 5 Force (1 for Tatooine that was converted by the LS version, 1 for the Dune Sea, 2 for Mos Eisley and 1 for yourself). Activate that much Force, by taking the top card of your Reserve Deck, one by one and face down, and place them on top of your Force pile. You now have activated 5 Force for this turn. Please note that you activate Force one by one, so each activated card counts as one separate action (this can be important later if you or your opponent would like to play an interrupt during your activation phase in-between cards activated).
Control Phase:
Review the board and see at which locations you have
presence. Currently, both you and your opponent have presence at Tatooine system from the permanent pilot in either Devastator and Tantive IV, so there is no location that you
control where you could initiate a Force drain. Also, please note that if you should be able to initiate a Force drain at Tatooine system, the front side of your Objective would prevent the force loss for your opponent.
Conclusion, you do not control any locations in your control phase, so there is nothing to do. However, please mentally train yourself to be aware of the control phase. It happens quite often that someone is so anxious to battle, that they forget to force drain and start deploying right after the activation phase, thus skipping the control phase and so missing the opportunity to make your opponent lose Force.
Deploy Phase:
With your Objective, you’re allowed to deploy a Tatooine battleground site for free from Reserve Deck (the \/ symbol means to deploy from Reserve Deck and since no cost is listed, it is free. After deploying, you should shuffle your Reserve Deck, cut, and replace). Your deck contains 2 sites, so there should be at least 1 in your reserve deck. Deploy it on table next to the Dune Sea, in between the Dune Sea and Mos Eisley (the board should look like this: Tatooine – Mos Eisley – Dune Sea – Site; or Tatooine – Mos Eisley – Site – Dune Sea). You cannot deploy it on the other side of Mos Eisley, because some Tatooine sites deploy in a specific order, such as Mos Eisley: it should deploy on one end of all sites together with Docking Bay 94 and Cantina (both in the 60 card decks) as follows: Tatooine – Cantina – Docking Bay 94 – Mos Eisley – Site – Site – Site [etc]. Please refer to the Rulebook for more information.
Should you have a site in your opening hand, you can deploy that as well. Locations deploy for free, so you should still have 5 Force in your Force Pile. The advantage of deploying your sites as quickly as possible is that (i) it increases the amount of Force you can activate next turn and (ii) you remove a card with a destiny number of 0 (zero) from your Reserve Deck, so the chances of drawing a 0 for weapon or battle destiny are getting lower, which is a good thing! The downside of deploying locations is that (i) they usually provide Force Icons for your opponent as well, so he activates more too and (ii) they make you more vulnerable to Force Drains from your opponent.
Ideally, you want to have at least ability of 4 or higher at a location so that you draw a battle destiny in battles. Since the Devastator has a permanent pilot with ability of 2, all you need is a pilot with an ability of 2 or higher. So, if you have a character with ability of 2 or higher in hand with the
pilot icon, and its deploy cost is 4 or less, you can deploy it to Devastator by ‘using’ the Force by taking the top card of your Force Pile, one by one and face down, and place them on top of your Used Pile (save at least 1 Force in your Fore pile to initiate battle in the battle phase). If you don’t have a pilot in hand, you could deploy characters to a site and deploy weapons on them (for the cost listed on the card), deploy passengers (and weapons on them) or a Turbolaser Battery to Devastator, or not deploy characters at all and save the Force in your Force Pile for the Draw Phase.
In the assumed opening hand you have Officer Evax and Chief Bast in hand. Each has a deploy cost of 2, but Evax has a higher forfeit value so you deploy him as a pilot to Devastator for 2 Force (refer to the example in Light Side’s battle phase in their turn 1).
If you have an Effect in hand, you can deploy that too. Deploy costs for Effects are listed in their game text, so if no cost is listed, the Effect deploys for free. Effects have a lasting ‘effect’ on the game, so it is usually a good strategy to deploy them as soon as possible. Note, however, that some Effects can be a double edged sword, for instance: First Strike (in the 60 card deck) allows you to retrieve Force for initiating battle, but if it turns out that your opponent keeps initiating battle later on in the game and you do not, then you have to lose Force as a result from your own card.
Battle Phase:
You can initiate a battle at a location where both you and your opponent have presence (ability of at least 1 or higher). At the moment, the only location where you can initiate battle, is Tatooine system. Use 1 Force to initiate battle. If you have no Force left, you cannot initiate battle. Since your opponent has not had a chance yet to deploy anything, his cards that participate in the battle are Tantive IV, R2-D2 & C-3P0 (with the Stolen Data Tapes deployed on them). Your cards participating in the battle are Devastator and any pilots or Turbolaser you deployed to Devastator.
So you deployed Officer Evax as a pilot to Devastator in your Deploy Phase. You should have 2 Force left in your Force Pile: 5 activated minus 2 to deploy Evax minus 1 to initiate battle. Each battle has three consecutive segments: weapons segment, power segment, and damage segment:
-
weapons segment: there are no weapons, so no actions during this segment;
-
power segment: both sides total their power and if you have ability of 4 or higher, wyou may draw battle destiny (reveal the top card of your Reserve deck and use the destiny number in the top right corner as your destiny). The destiny number is added to your total power. Let’s say you draw Kintan Strider as battle destiny with a destiny number of 3 (the game text of the card you drew for destiny is irrelevant); after revealing your battle destiny draw, the card goes on top of your Used Pile. Light Side has a total power of 5 (Tantive IV has power 5, no other cards add power; R2-D2 & C-3P0 have no ability and are passengers aboard Tantive IV; passengers do not add power to starships) and Dark Side has a total power of 14 (Devastator has power 9, Evax adds 2, plus a battle destiny of 3). Dark Side won the battle!
-
damage segment: the difference in power is 14 minus 5 is 9. Light Side now has to satisfy this damage by losing cards from that location (this is attrition, which is equal to the battle destiny draw) and by losing Force from hand and/or Life Force. So first, attrition is equal to the destiny, so 3. Light side has to forfeit cards from the location for at least 3. Damage can be satisfied by losing cards from hand and/or life force, or forfeiting cards from the battle location for their forfeit value. Light Side chooses to forfeit the card R2-D2 & C-3P0 which has a forfeit value of 7 (note that Stolen Data Tapes is deployed on R2, and is lost when R2 is lost); the remaining 2 damage can be satisfied by losing 2 cards from hand and/or life force, or forfeiting Tantive IV as well. Light Side wishes to keep the starship for later use in the game and loses Beru Lars and Proton Torpedoes from hand and keeps Tantive IV (the Light Side player reasoned that Proton Torpedoes cannot deploy on Tantive IV, so for now he has no use for it, and Beru Lars is the weakest non-pilot character he has in hand now and he needs pilot characters in the coming turn). Normally, forfeited cards go to Lost Pile, but in this case, the game text of each R2-D2 & C-3P0 and Stolen Data Tapes state that if about to leave table (which they do because they are forfeited and thus will leave table to the lost pile), you may relocate them to the Dune Sea. Just like in the movies!
The end result of your battle: Devastator and Evax are at Tatooine, Tantive IV is still at Tatooine as well, and R2-D2 & C-3P0 with Stolen Data Tapes are at the Dune Sea. You have one card in Lost Pile (Twi’lek Advisor) and Light Side has 3 cards in Lost Pile (their Starting Interrupt and the 2 cards lost for battle damage). You still have 2 Force in your Force Pile.
Move Phase:
If you want to move cards, you can do that now. However, Devastator can only move to systems and Tatooine is the only system on table. You could shuttle Evax to a Tatooine site, but that would probably leave you vulnerable: Evax alone at a site has power 2 and ability 2 (no battle destiny!), so an easy target. Devastator alone has power 9 and ability 2 (no battle destiny!) versus Tantive IV with power 5, but you have no idea what the Light Side can deploy in their turn to battle you and you don’t want to lose both Devastator and Evax to attrition from a battle destiny by Light Side. It seems wise to keep your force concentrated at Tatooine and not to move this turn.
Draw Phase:
You have 2 Force in your Force Pile, and in this phase you may draw cards from the top of your Force Pile into your hand, one by one. You can choose to draw 0, 1, or 2 cards and you do not have to announce upfront how many cards you intend to draw. Each card drawn is a separate action, so if you draw the first card and you’re satisfied with it and do not want to draw further, that’s ok. If at that point you want to draw the second card as well, you can do that too. Keep in mind that some interrupts, such as Imperial Barrier, cost 1 Force to play, so you might want to consider to save 1 Force in your Force Pile. If you do not use it during your opponent’s turn, you have 1 extra Force to spend in your next turn (you can’t draw the remaining card in your Force pile during opponent’s turn, only in your own draw phase).
Assume you draw 1 card and leave 1 card in Force Pile. You drew Darth Vader With Lightsaber!
You end you turn by recirculating your Used Pile (place your entire Used Pile under your Reserve Deck as a whole pile (so not card by card). The official rules prescribe that you should also say “The Force is with you” to your opponent to formally end your turn, but most players just say “Okay”, “Your turn”, or “Go”.
Turn 1 – Light Side
You have the following cards in hand:
Jek Porkins, Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Slight Weapons Malfunction, Leia (V), Houjix, and Out Of Nowhere
Activate Phase:
Count the Light Side Force icons on all locations on table, add one for yourself. It should be 7 Force (2 for Tatooine, 1 for the icon that Tantive IV adds (see its game text), 1 for the site that our opponent deployed in his turn, 1 for the Dune Sea, 1 for Mos Eisley and 1 for yourself). Please note that if the Dark Side player deployed two sites in his turn (one with the Objective from Reserve Deck and one from his hand), then you activate one extra force, of course. We’ll assume that this hasn’t happened, so activate that 7 Force.
Control Phase:
Review the board and see at which locations you have
presence. Currently, both you and your opponent have presence at Tatooine system from the permanent pilot in either Tantive IV and Devastator and with Evax aboard, so there is no location that you control where you could initiate a Force drain. Also, please note that if you should be able to initiate a Force drain at Tatooine system, the front side of your Objective would reduce your Force Drain by 1.
Although you cannot initiate a Force Drain this turn, again, make yourself mentally aware of this phase.
Deploy Phase:
With your Objective, you’re allowed to deploy a Tatooine battleground site or Alderaan system for free from Reserve Deck (the \/ symbol). Your deck contains Alderaan and 1 site (Lars’ Moisture Farm), so there should be at least 1 of those in your reserve deck. If Alderaan is in your Reserve Deck, you should deploy it because it will give you 1 Force icon and no icons to your opponent and the less Force your opponent can activate, the less options he has next turn (to deploy, intiate battle, move, draw), and the better it is for you. While you are going through your Reserve Deck to deploy Alderaan, you should check if Yavin 4 is also in your Reserve Deck. If so, you can use A New Secret Base (V) to deploy it for 2 Force. After deploying, you should shuffle your Reserve Deck, cut, and replace.
For this walktrough, let’s assume you deployed both Alderaan and Yavin 4, so that you have 5 Force left in your Force Pile.
If you have a character with a pilot icon in hand, you could deploy it aboard Tantive IV to reinforce it. However, you should plan ahead on what to do this turn and how to spend those remaining 5 Force. If you deliver the Stolen Data Tapes to Alderaan, this will give you the advantage of (i) taking into hand any one card from Reserve Deck (the /\ symbol) and (ii) satisfying a part of the ‘flip condition’ of your Objective. Because if you manage to flip your Objective to the side with the destiny number 7, it will give you a better chance of winning the game.
Back to the 5 Force in your Force Pile and your options. One option is to deploy a pilot to Tantive IV and initiate battle to (hopefully) draw a high enough battle destiny to ‘clear’ the system (clearing a location means that a player has to forfeit every card he has deployed at that location). Evax has a forfeit value of 5, so that would mean that you require a battle destiny of 6 to clear the system (a battle destiny of 6 means attrition of 6, and 5 attrition will be satisfied by Evax and the remaining 1 attrition has to be satisfied too and the only card your opponent has there, is Devastator (remember the choice the Dark Side had in their deploy phase to deploy either Evax or Chief Bast? Chief Bast has a forfeit of 3 as opposed to the forfeit 5 of Evax, so if Bast was deployed instead of Evax you only needed a battle destiny of 4 or higher to clear the system instead of 6! The Dark Side player chose Evax as pilot for this reason). A destiny of 5 or lower will not clear the system and will probably mean that your opponent will battle you on his turn with a new pilot aboard. Besides that, you opponent has a power of 11 and you only 5 at the moment. Option 1 of initiating a battle is too risky at this point in the game.
A second option is to leave Tatooine system to your opponent (remember that your opponent’s Objective prevents him from Force Draining at Tatooine while he is on the 0-side of his objective, so you not have to fear a Force drain of 2 next turn). Running from a battle might not be your style, but remember that flipping your Objective should give you a better chance at winning the game. And running from Tatooine to Yavin 4 would bring you closer to Alderaan and that would help you satisfy a part of the flip condition of your Objective *if* you bring the Stolen Data Tapes along. The Data Tapes are currently in the Dune Sea with R2-D2 & C-3P0, so for this second option, you should shuttle them up to Tantive IV (you can shuttle to capital starships for 1 Force, but you cannot shuttle to starfighers without additional cards) before moving Tantive IV to Yavin 4 which also costs 1 Force.
We’ll go with option 2. This means you have to have at least 2 Force left at the end of your deploy phase. You have Derek “Hobbie” Klivian and Jek Porkins in hand, who each deploy for 2 Force, each add 2 to power of anything they pilots, and each have an ability of 2. However, Hobbie has a blaster as permanent weapon and Jek does not. This makes Hobbie better suited at a site (where he can use the blaster) and Jek better suited as a pilot. Deploy Jek to Tantive IV: you now have a total power of 7 and a total ability of 4 (enough to draw battle destiny!) at Tatooine system. You have three cards left in your Force Pile.
Battle Phase:
As reasoned above under option 1, it is too risky to initiate battle. No actions for you in this phase.
Move Phase:
According to the plan you devised in the Deploy Phase, you shuttle the droids with the Data Tapes to Tantive IV (use 1 Force) and then move Tantive IV from Tatooine to Yavin 4 (use 1 Force). Please note that Tantive IV has a
hyperspeed of 3, so it can only move to another system within 3
Parsecs. Tatooine has a Parsec number of 7, Yavin IV has a Parsec number of 4 and Alderaan has a Parsec number of 2, and therefore, Tantive IV can only move to Yavin 4 this turn and from Yavin 4 to Alderaan next turn (only starships with a hyperspeed of 5 or higher can move from Tatooine to Alderaan in one turn).
Draw Phase:
You have 1 Force in your Force Pile, and you can choose to not draw, or to draw that 1card into hand. Keep in mind that some interrupts, such as Rebel Barrier, cost 1 Force to play, so you might want to consider to save 1 Force in your Force Pile. Let’s assume you do draw that one cards and you drew YT-1300 Transport (the same type of Starfighter as the Millennium Falcon)!
In your hand you have Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Slight Weapons Malfunction, Leia (V), Houjix, Out Of Nowhere, and YT-1300 Transport.
Pro tip for the 60-card deck: Should you have Antilles Maneuver (V) in hand and you have seen Captain Raymus Antilles in your Reserve Deck when you deployed Alderaan in your Deploy Phase, you could save the 1 Force now, to play Antilles Maneuver (V) during your opponent’s Deploy Phase to deploy Captain Raymus Antilles from your Reserve Deck aboard Tantive IV for 1 Force (Captain Antilles has a deploy cost of 2, but his game text states that he deploys for -1 to Tantive IV).
End your turn by recirculating your Used Pile and mumble “The Force is with you”.
Turn 2 – Dark Side
You have the following cards in hand:
Darth Vader With Lightsaber, Chief Bast, Elite Squadron Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper Cadet, Blaster Rifle (V), TIE Interceptor, Black 6, and Overload.
Activate Phase:
Activate 7 Force (1 for Tatooine, 1 for the Dune Sea, 2 for Mos Eisley, 1 for the site you deployed last turn, 1 for Yavin 4, 0 for Alderaan, and 1 for yourself). If you or your opponent also deployed a location from hand in their respective deploy phases, you can activate extra force accordingly.
You left 1 card in Force Pile so you have 8 Force available for this turn. You’re very excited because you have Darth Vader With Lightsaber in hand and you can’t wait to deploy him for only 6 Force! But, please, keep in mind to go through all the phases properly before you make a rash decision.
Control Phase:
Review the board and notice that you have presence at Tatooine system with Devastator and Evax there, and your opponent has presence at Yavin 4 with Tantive IV and Jek Porkins (the droids are also aboard, but they have no ability and thus provide no presence).
Now you control a location where you can initiate a Force drain, but the front side of your Objective prevents the force loss for your opponent. On to the deploy phase because you have Darth Vader With Lightsaber in hand and can’t wait to deploy him.
Deploy Phase:
First, use your Objective to deploy your second Tatooine battleground site from Reserve Deck (shuffle, cut, and replace)in between the sites already on table, or on the far end. If you have characters in your hand, you can deploy them aboard Devastator, or to a site.
Reviewing the board and the cards in your hand, you have several options:
Your first option is to deploy Darth Vader With Lightsaber for 6 Force, look very content, and skip to the draw phase and draw the last two cards in your Force Pile.
The second option would be to deploy and battle in space at Yavin 4 with the TIEs and Chief Bast as pilot (5 Force to deploy, 1 to initiate battle), but then your total ability would be 3, so no battle destiny to increase you power and to have attrition, whereas Tantive IV has a power of 7 plus a battle destiny which would probably result in you losing the battle and forfeiting at least one TIE (depending on Light Side’s battle destiny). Alternatively you could deploy Black 6 with Darth Vader With Lightsaber to Yavin 4 for 7 Force and then battle but that would result in you losing Darth Vader to attrition while your opponent probably only loses Jek and proceeds next turn to deliver the Stolen Data Tapes to Alderaan.
Also, keep in mind that the TIEs have no hyperdrive so they would be stuck at Yavin 4 until they are picked up by a starship that can transport them, such as Devastator.
A third option would be to go to a Tatooine site to Force drain next turn and to work towards flipping your Objective (control 3 Tatooine sites while your opponent controls less than 3 sites). Going over the game text of your characters, please note that the Cadet will deploy for free to the same site as your Elite Squadron Stormtrooper, adds 1 to his power plus the Cadet can be forfeited to cover all attrition at a site. The Elite Squadron Stormtrooper is power +2 with a weapon, and you have a Blaster Rifle in hand. Those 3 cards combined should be able to hold a site for at least one turn. For 2 Force, deploy the Elite Squadron Stormtrooper, give him a Blaster Rifle (free) and deploy the Cadet to the Jundland Wastes to threaten a Force Drain of 2. Please observe that you now have a power of 7 at that site (Elite Squadron Stormtrooper has power 1, plus 2 because he is armed with a weapon, the Blaster Rifle adds 1 to power, the Cadet adds 1 to power, the Cadet has a power of 1, and Tatooine system states that your total power at sites is +1 for each starship provided that you control the system). Also note that you only have a total ability of 3 at that site so not enough to draw battle destiny. However, the Light Side game text of Jundland Wastes states that your opponent requires total ability of 6 or more to draw battle destiny, so that means your Stormtroopers should be relatively save for the coming turn.
In this third option you still have 6 Force left. You should keep Darth Vader in hand to respond to something that your opponent comes up with next turn, and use your remaining 6 Force to reinforce your hold on Tatooine system by deploying Chief Bast to Devastator as an extra pilot, or deploy the TIE Interceptor to the Tatooine system (if you do that, your stormtroopers will gain and additional +1 total power because you have an extra starship at Tatooine). This would cost 4 Force and leave 2 cards in Force Pile.
The fourth option after deploying the Elite Squadron Stormtrooper and Blaster(6 Force remaining and the Cadet still in hand) would be as follows:
- deploy Chief Bast to the site adjacent (left) to the Stormtrooper for 2 Force;
- deploy the Cadet to the site adjacent (right) to the Stormtrooper for 1 Force so that you control 3 Tatooine sites and flip your Objective (note that you do not deploy the Cadet for free to the Stormtrooper’s site because that would mean you cannot flip your Objective this turn);
- move Bast to the Jundland Wastes (1 Force), move the Cadet to the Jundland Wastes (1 Force).
You still have one Force left, and you threaten a Force Drain of 2 at Tatooine and 2 at Jundland Wastes next turn, plus you draw a battle destiny at both locations. This will force the Light Side Player to battle you at either location, or to control more sites than you to flip your objective back (meaning they will have to spread their forces which is exactly what you want because then Darth Vader With Lightsaber can prove his worth!), or take a Force loss of 4 to the Force Drains next turn. If you fear a battle in space next turn, you could shuttle Bast up to Devastator instead of moving him to the Jundland Wastes (in that case, the Stormtroopers do not draw battle destiny though).
Battle Phase:
You can’t initiate battle because there are no locations where both you and your opponent have presence.
Move Phase:
If you went with option 4 you have no Force left to move. Otherwise, you could move Devastator and Evax to Yavin 4 to prevent a Force Drain of 1 next turn (but you can be battled by Light Side by Tantive IV, Jek and any additional pilots/starships they deploy).
Let’s assume you went with option 4 and have one Force left and you decide not to move the Devastator and try to make full use of the flip side of your Objective next turn.
Draw Phase:
You have one Force left to draw but you save it for next turn. In your hand you have Darth Vader With Lightsaber, TIE Interceptor, Black 6, and Overload.
Turn 2 – Light Side
In your hand you have Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Slight Weapons Malfunction, Leia (V), Houjix, Out Of Nowhere, and YT-1300 Transport. You have no cards in Force pile.
Activate Phase:
Activate 11 Force (2 for Tatooine, 1 for the Dune Sea, 1 for Mos Eisley, 1 for Krayt Dragon Pass, 1 for Jundland Wastes, 2 for Yavin 4, 1 for Tantive IV, 1 for Alderaan, and 1 for yourself). You now have 11 active Force (cards in Force pile).
Control Phase:
Review the board and see at which locations you have presence. Currently, you have presence at Yavin 4 from the permanent pilot in either Tantive IV with Jek aboard, so you control this location and you can initiate a Force drain for an amount equal to the number of Dark Side Force Icons at Yavin 4, i.e. 1(per the rules, there is no cost for initiating a force drain so it is free). You opponent loses one card from hand, TIE Interceptor, and places it face up on his Lost Pile.
Deploy Phase:
With your Objective, you’re allowed to deploy a Tatooine battleground site or Alderaan system for free from Reserve Deck (the \/ symbol). Alderaan was already deployed, so you can only deploy the site, Lars’ Moisture Farm. While you’re searching your Reserve Deck for the site, keep in mind that you are able to move the droids to Alderaan this turn to deliver the Stolen Data Tapes. Once delivered, you may take any one card into hand from Reserve Deck (the /\ symbol) so you can already check your Reserve Deck for a card that would be very helpful later in the game. If, however, there is a card that you really need and you do not see it in your Reserve deck, then you might consider waiting a turn with delivering the Data Tapes and have R2-D2 & C-3P0 stay at Yavin IV for a while.
Reviewing the board and the cards in your hand, you have several options:
You first option is to deploy Hobbie and Leia to the Jundland Wastes for 5 Force (total power 5, total ability 6 so you draw destiny there), and then initiate battle in your battle phase, try to hit one of opponent’s characters with the permanent weapon that Hobbie has (read his game text), and then play Slight Weapon Malfunctions to add a battle destiny (so you draw 2 battle destiny in that battle). Normally, you have no idea what cards your opponent has in hand and perhaps he has some interrupt to mess up your plans. And therefore, you have no idea what the outcome of the battle may be. Remember that he also has a weapon present and his Stormtroopers have an armor =4 (thanks to An Entire Legion Of My Best Troops). So this straightforward approach may result in victory for you by clearing the site, or in disaster by him clearing you and keeping a character at the site. And on top of that, your opponent is still flipped after the battle, so he can force drain you for 2 next turn and his objective allows him to take an extra card into hand in his control phase.
Your second option is to try to flip your opponent back to the 0-side of his objective and you can do that by controlling more Tatooine sites than he does. That way, he can’t drain at the Tatooine system next turn and he cannot take a card into hand in his control phase. This is easily done by deploying Leia and Hobbie to two different sites. You could even deploy one of them to Jundland Wastes (now neither player controls a Tatooine site, you each occupy the same site without controlling it) and deploy the other character to an adjacent site (you control 1 site and your opponent controls no site), do not initiate battle because you’re overpowered and you do not draw battle destiny due to the game text of Jundland Wastes. In your move phase you can then consolidate both characters at one site by moving one character to the site of the other. You can choose to consolidate at Jundland Wastes and so block the Force Drain of 2 next turn, but your opponent can initiate battle next turn. Your defenses are quite okay, because you have a permanent weapon and you have Slight Weapons Malfunction to add a battle destiny then. You can also choose to move away from the Jundland Wastes, take the Force Drain of 2 but threaten your own Force Drain at the other site so that your opponent has to come to you next turn (or take the Force drain). Or you could deploy the two characters to two sites where you can drain the most (Mos Eisley and another site) to threaten a combined drain of 3 and if the opponent battles you, you can play Houjix to take no battle damage, no matter what the power and/or battle destiny of your opponent is. As you might have noticed, Houjix allows you to spread your forces thin without risking battle damage at one location (if you opponent sees through your strategy and initiates battles at 2 different locations, you have a problem because you only have one Houjix!).
In the move phase of option 1 and 2, you still have enough Force to move Tantive IV to Alderaan thus delivering the Stolen Data Tapes and take any one card into hand from Reserve Deck. Combined with the cards you already have in hand and on table, the following cards each have their pro’s and con’s for taking that card into hand:
- Red 6, the matching starfighter for Jek and Jek draws a battle destiny if he pilots it (so you do not require an ability of 4 or higher, just Jek and Red 6 do the trick). The downside is that it has a destiny of 6, which is also useful in your deck because your average destiny is higher with the card in your deck than without it.
- an extra rebel character to help your ground forces. The obvious choice would be Luke With Lightsaber because he has a power of 5, and ability of 5 (so he usually draws a battle destiny by himself) and he has a permanent weapon: his Lightsaber! Also, he has a destiny of 1, so removing him from your reserve deck makes your average destiny number higher.
- Rebel Barrier, this interrupt prevents an opponent’s character or starship from battling or moving the turn they are deployed. This can really mess up your opponent’s game plan and turn the tables for an upcoming battle.
- Quad Laser Cannons, to deploy on Tantive IV or the YT-1300 Transport to try to shoot Devastator or other starships that your opponent may deploy. However, because Devastator has an armor of 6, the Quad Laser Cannons will not hit the Devastator by themselves, and you would need a gunner to increase your weapon destiny, such as Kin Kian or Karie Neth. Since you can only take 1 card and note 2, this is not the best choice.
- Old ben, this interrupt lets you ‘revive’ a forfeited character after a battle at Tatooine site. This can be very helpful to keep a powerful character on table, and ideally you would like to use it on Luke or Leia (or perhaps Hobbie with his permanent weapon).
A third option would be to deploy Leia and Hobbie to two Tatooine sites, preferably one of them to Jundland Wastes, to flip your opponent back. Let’s assume Leia is at Jundland Wastes and Hobbie at an adjacent site. That’s 5 Force and you want to move Hobbie to Leia later on to consolidate your forces, so that’s 1 Force you need in your move phase. You have 11 Force active, so that means you have 5 remaining to use this turn for this option. Now take a look at the YT-1300 Transport. It has a permanent pilot and can carry 1 pilot and 2 passengers (it can also carry a vehicle, but there are no vehicles in the
Beginner Decks, so we’ll disregard that text for now). The Transport by itself is not very powerful, but you can use it to carry R2-D2 & C-3P0 and the plans without moving Tantive IV! Why is that important? Because your objective flips if you control a battleground site and a battleground system, and you only flip back if you do not
occupy a battleground site and battleground system, or if you do not control a location -- so that location does not have to be a battleground. So you can have the YT-1300 Transport controlling Alderaan and be relatively safe because the Dark Side has no icons and cannot deploy directly to Alderaan (unless with a spy).
So, deploy the YT-1300 Transport to Yavin 4 for 3 Force, ship-dock the droids with the Data Tapes to the Transport for 1 Force and move the YT-1300 to Alderaan for another 1 Force. Now, the plans are delivered and you may /\ any one card (see above for the different cards you can take into hand). Also, because you now control a battleground system (Yavin 4) with Tantive and Jek, and a battleground site with Hobbie, you flip! The bonus is that your battle destiny is +X, where X is the number of locations you occupy (not control) with a Rebel of ability <4. At the moment, that is Yavin 4 with Jek (and a site with Hobbie. Please note that the Transport is not a Rebel and Leia has and ability of 4, so that is not smaller than 4, so X=2 and all your battle destinies are +2. You used 10 Force (3 to deploy Leia, 2 for Hobbie, 3 for YT-1300, 1 to ship dock and transfer the droids, 1 to move YT-1300 to Alderaan). You have 1 Force left to move Hobbie to the Jundland Wastes to reinforce Leia (you then occupy Jundland Wastes with Hobbie, so your X is still 2). You have no Force left in this option, but you did manage to flip your opponent’s objective back to t he 0-side and you flipped your own objective.
The game board has the following cards:
- Chief Bast, Stormtrooper Cadet, and Elite Squadron Stormtrooper with Blaster Rifle (V) at the Jundland Wastes versus Leia (V) and Derek “Hobbie” Klivian;
- Devastator and Officer Evax at Tatooine;
- Tantive IV and Jek Porkins at Yavin IV;
- YT-1300 Transport and R2-D2 & C-3P0 at Alderaan.
Battle Phase:
You chose option 3, you could initiate battle with Leia vs the Stormtroopers and Bast at Junland Wastes, but you choose not to because you need your Force in the move phase (plus, you’d probably lose that battle).
Move Phase:
You chose option 3, so you moved R2-D2 & C-3P0 to the YT-1300 Transport and then you moved the YT-1300 Transport to Alderaan.
Draw Phase:
You have no cards left in your Force pile to draw.
Remainder of game…
Light Side has the 7-side of its Objective on table and has the following cards in hand: Slight Weapons Malfunction, Houjix, Out Of Nowhere, and the one card it pulled when the Stolen Data Tapes were delivered to Alderaan.
Dark Side has the 0-side of its Objective on table and has the following cards in hand: Darth Vader With Lightsaber, Black 6, and Overload.
On Dark Side’s turn he may activate 9 Force and this is where the walkthrough stops. Good luck and may the Force be with you!
Gosse Z. - Seattle
