Shatterpoint: A Star Wars Story

I just finished painting the Real Quiet Like and Today the Rebellion Dies squad packs for Shatterpoint, so naturally we’ve got to try them out against each other.

Wanting to take advantage of abilities that Han, Chewie and the Rebel Commandos have that rely on the Rebel Alliance tag, I decided to team them up with the Fearless and Inventive squad pack, consisting of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, Pricess Leia disguised as Boushh the bounty hunter, and Lando and R2-D2 rolled into one support unit.

My opponent opted to color outside the lines a bit, swapping in Boba Fett as her secondary unit to back up Iden Versio and the Imperial Special Forces, and taking The Mandalorian, Bossk and IG-11 as her second squad. Boba Fett and Bossk both have the ability to take on additional tags, so they’ll be able to sign up with the Galactic Empire to take advantage of Iden Versio’s The Empire Sends its Regards ability, which adds extra conditions and benefits when Galactic Empire units inflict wounds.

We’re playing with the original Shifting Priorities mission, which I like the best out of the three currently available mission packs. It arranges potential objective points in a 3×3 grid works well with the Shatterpoint terrain, and I like the focus on controlling objectives rather than wounding units.

First Struggle: Locate the Asset

My opponent won the roll for first player. The initial struggle card created a line objective points across the middle of the board, plus one near each of our starting areas. This should have made it anyone’s game, but my opponent’s forces proved to be a lot more mobile than mine, and she was able to get a stranglehold on all three center objectives early on. Versio was able to move the Imperial Special Forces support unit into a good position early on, and Boba Fett has two different abilities that allow him to jump, which got him to the center of the board very quickly.

My units, on the other hand, seemed to suffer from a first-turn problem of not being able to attack even after a move action. The Rebel Commandos are able to start the game farther than usual from the board edge, which has helpful in securing an objective right away, but it wasn’t quite enough to stop my opponent from winning the first struggle.

Second Struggle: We’re Going to Need a New Exit

The layout of objective points on the new struggle card was especially good for me, with two out of the three on my side of the board, and all of the objectives my opponent was controlling rendered inactive. In Shatterpoint, during the second and third struggles there are only three active objectives, but one of the three, which changes randomly every turn, is worth double points.

I was able to secure one objective very easily, with no opposing units anywhere near it, and I managed to get a pretty good lock on another, with Han and the Rebel Commandos successfully beating back Iden Versio and her Imperial Special Forces, thanks to a choke point on a bridge and a successful attack that shoved Versio off the platform. One of the things I really like about Shatterpoint is the variety of effects that successful attacks have. Rather than just whittling away at your opponent’s hit points, successful hits can push enemy characters away, inflict conditions like disarmed or exposed, or even allow the attacking unit to move or heal.

Between starting out with my units in good positions, and pure luck with the rolls for which objective was worth double points each turn, I managed to win the second struggle pretty quickly. We had each won one, so we would need to go to the third and final struggle.

Third Struggle: Hack the Security Network

As the loser of the previous struggle, my opponent got to choose the pattern of active objective points, with this card offering a choice of either straight across the middle of the board, or right down the center in a column. She chose the latter, which worked very well for her as she already had the center objective locked down and I didn’t have any units anywhere near the one closer to her side of the board. I had units nearer to the third objective, but not close enough to control it, and my opponent had Boba Fett, who has a rocket pack.

My opponent managed to move Iden Versio, who had been shoved off the tower in the previous struggle, over to the objective at the opposite end of the board, securing control of it. I managed to move Boushh, Lando and R2 within control range of the objective closer to my side of the board, but as predicted, Boba Fett jumped over to give them trouble.

Meanwhile, the Mandalorian and Bossk had secured the center objective. Luke was my most mobile unit so I moved him in to try to fight them off, with the Rebel Commandos jumping down from the tower to assist, but it wasn’t quite enough. I couldn’t get both commandos close enough to contest the objective, and to make matters worse, my opponent managed to wound Luke, Chewie, and Han (wounded units can’t help with controlling objectives).

Boushh might have given Boba Fett a run for his money, but the game ended before she had a chance to activate.

Conclusion

Iden Versio has a reputation among tournament players for being particularly good, and she did seem to be one of my opponent’s MVPs. Boba Fett was no slouch either, with his enhanced mobility enabling him to get wherever he needed to be. I don’t know if Mando or Bossk really got a fair shake either way, as they were pretty far from the action for most of the game.

As I mentioned earlier, my problem seemed to be in the early turns, when I just couldn’t seem to do much with the likes of Luke or Han. In a game where most units will only activate at most two or three times, you can’t afford to have any of those activations be ineffective.

With the new Wisdom of the Council squad pack adding Ki-Adi-Mundi and Shaak Ti to the game, we have to do our own version of the battle at the end of the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars micro-series. I’ll be fielding the new Jedi Masters along with their padawans, and supplementing my strike team with Plo Koon, Ahsoka Tano, and a supporting unit of Wolfpack Clone Troopers. My opponent has settled on General Grievous, who will be assisted by Count Dooku, Jango Fett, and a slew of B2 Battle Droids and MagnaGuards led by Kraken, Super Tactical Droid.

We’ve chosen to use the Sabotage Showdown mission pack, which arranges 7 potential objective points in a hexagonal pattern around the center of the board. I tried to arrange the terrain so that a majority of the objectives will be elevated, to keep the movement interesting and prevent too many units from clumping up in one area. It’s not as easy as it seems, but I managed to get all but the center objective up off the ground.

First struggle

After setup, we flipped Shut Down the Alarms as our first mission card, which activates all but the center objective point. With so many active objectives, our first few rounds were a mad scramble to secure as many of them as possible. My opponent went first, activating Jango Fett and taking advantage of his extra movement abilities to jump him to an objective in the center row of the board.

Normally you would be looking at the objectives that are closest to your starting area, so this is a bold move that will give my opponent a head start on controlling multiple objectives. What’s more, she is then able to use the MagnaGuards’ reactive ability to advance for free and out of turn, as long as they’re moving closer to an allied Separatist unit that’s just completed a move action. This allows my opponent to move the MagnaGuards close enough to both control another objective point, and also back up Jango if needed.

My opponent now controls two objectives, which is a strong start but unfortunately for her, you don’t get points on the first turn of the game.

My first activation is the Jedi Padawans – not ideal but they are here for on-the-job training so let’s see what they can do. I’m able to move them so that one is controlling a nearby objective and the other is in position to challenge Jango. My hope is that I can move either Ki-Adi-Mundi or Shaak Ti in to help on a later turn. For now I control one objective, which moves the struggle marker closer to my side.

What follows is a lot of positioning from myself and my opponent, which demonstrates the real meat of this game: the synergies between the characters. Even though you won’t activate each individual unit more than two or three times over the course of an entire game, nearly all of your characters are going to have reactions that allow other units to do things like move and attack out of turn. On Ki-Adi-Mundi’s activation, for example, I’m able to move him into a better position where he’s closer to the action, and also move one of the Padawans in to snatch control of an objective away from Jango Fett.

We do get into a little bit of combat, with the Jedi Padawans taking some lumps from the MagnaGuards and later Count Dooku. Meanwhile, my opponent’s General Grievous and Kraken, Super Tactical Droid have the other side of the board fairly well locked down. I’m trying to move Ahsoka, Plo Koon and Shaak Ti in to respond, but they’re just not moving fast enough. Taking full advantage of her early lead, my opponent wins the first struggle.

Second Struggle

Our second mission card is Didn’t Expect a Welcome Party, which gives me (as the loser of the previous struggle) two different options for which three struggles will be active. I don’t really have a great option, so I go with the one that has objectives near my units, which isn’t as good as it sounds because my opponent has a lot of units near them as well.

The previous struggle went for five turns, so not all of my units have activated – by process of elimination I know that my remaining activation cards are the Wolfpack Troopers and the Shatterpoint card, which is wild. This means I could conceivably activate the Clone Troopers twice in a row, which I do in order to take the objective at the center of the board.

In the second and third struggles, one randomly chosen objective point is the Priority Objective, which is worth double and changes at the start of each unit activation. Neither of us has much luck with this, as it seems that on my turn it’s always the one my opponent has Grievous sitting on, and on my opponent’s turn it’s always the one she doesn’t have any units near. For some reason, we’ve both decided that the center objective is the one to fight over.

We end up with something that is relatively rare in Shatterpoint: a huge melee at the center of the board. This results in a lot of combat, with several units wounded including my Padawans and Clone Troopers and my opponent’s B2 Battle Droids. Dealing wounds adds Momentum to the struggle tracker, which makes it easier to win the struggle. We have a bit of a stalemate with regard to controlling objectives, so this struggle will almost certainly be won via momentum.

I just manage to win the struggle, but the scrum at the center has gotten pretty ridiculous – most of our units barely have any room to move, but no one wants to move away for fear of losing control of the objective. Wounded units don’t contribute to objective control, so one thing we both should have done differently is use reactive moves to get the wounded units (especially the B2 Battle Droids, whose large bases take up more space) out of the way.

Third Struggle

We’ve each won a struggle, so we’re on to the third. It’s also getting late and we’re a little tired – we even have a slight mishap with Kraken’s head, but it’s easy to imagine Grievous expressing dissatisfaction with his underling’s performance.

Our absurd melee at the center of the board continues, but the new positions of the other two objective points are in my favor. Plus I’m able to get some good wounds in on Jango Fett and the MagnaGuards, while keeping my own units relatively free from harm. As a result, I win the third struggle, largely thanks to the Momentum I gained from wounding enemy units.

Final Thoughts

The third struggle was a bit of a slog, but it was a slog of our own making. I think we both learned a lot about letting our forces get too clumped up – it’s important to remember that there are three objective points on the board in the second and third struggles, and it may not be a great idea to focus too much on just one of them.

We were both using squads right out of the box, and they seemed to work pretty well. Kraken and Grievous were great at getting the battle droids and MagnaGuards moving, and Grievous is pretty devastating in melee, making him a good opponent for the Jedi Knights.

I can see why early chatter has Ki-Adi-Mundi being one of the game’s better Primary units. He’s great at keeping the other Jedi and Clone Troopers moving, he has a great reactive ability that deals damage to his attackers, and his Force Push ability is very useful for pushing enemies away from objective points. Plo Koon and Ahsoka were less effective, but that could well be user error on my part.

All in all, this was another great game. We’re getting Shatterpoint to the table more regularly, which is helping to get the rules and rhythm of the game more ingrained. Our main issue now seems to be that we still have squad packs we haven’t played with – neither of us has ever played the same squad more than once, so we’re always on a steep learning curve as we learn each new unit’s abilities.

Too little, too late…

For my next turn I decide to activate the reserved Wing Guard, moving one of them into control range of the uncontrolled objective (which I should have done on my last turn). I move the other closer to the center of the board, where the bulk of the action is taking place. My opponent follows up by activating Chopper, moving him into range thanks to a Rocket Booster that gives him extra movement, and then firing off a shot at the Wing Guard who’s sitting on the objective. The attack does him 4 damage (halfway to being wounded) and shoves him, but not quite out of control range of the objective.

Lando finally gets his turn to activate, but honestly it’s a little disappointing. His abilities are entirely focused on adding and removing conditions from other units. This would be generally useful, but my opponent has been using her attacks for damage and shoves wherever possible, so I don’t really have any units with conditions that need removing, so Lando does an anticlimactic move and hunker.

My opponent then draws her Shatterpoint card, a wild card that she uses to activate Zeb again. He makes a devastating melee attack on the Pirates and then moves to the top of the tower at the center of the board. As luck would have it, I draw my Shatterpoint card, which I use to activate Gwarm. He moves into range of Lobot’s Battlefield Calculations ability, which is especially good for Gwarm since he is a Sharpshooter, which gives him more extra dice from the free focus action. He then unleashes a massive eight dice ranged attack on Zeb, wounding him and knocking him off the tower. So at least I get the extra objective point for wounding a unit with one of my secondaries…

My opponent then draws Hera’s activation card, using her Tactic ability to move Chopper closer to the objective he’s fighting with the Wing Guard over. Hera then moves close enough to make a ranged attack against the Wing Guard, wounding him so he can’t control the objective any longer. Chopper is close enough to take control of the objective, giving my opponent 4 objectives total, easily enough to win the first struggle.

The second Struggle isn’t much of a struggle

At the start of the second struggle, we draw a new mission card that rearranges the active struggles. Since I lost the first struggle, I get to choose between two possible arrangements, both of which are terrible for me based on where my opponent’s units are positioned. I choose the option that seems like it will put more active objectives within easy movement range of my units, but my opponent’s units are much better spread out, so no matter what I do she’ll gain control of at least two of the objectives on her next turn.

My next activation card is Gwarm, who has been singularly focused on Zeb for the whole game. Earlier, when Zeb was wounded, he used one of his special abilities to recover from the wound more quickly, at the expense of losing some of his wound capacity. What this amounts to is that if I can wound Zeb again, He’ll be out of the game after his next activation, so I move Gwarm in for the kill, once again taking advantage of Lobot’s amazing support abilities. It’s a good shot, but not quite enough to inflict another wound.

My opponent and I each have one activation card remaining: her Ezra Bridger followed by my Hondo Ohnaka, amusing considering their oddly warm relationship on the Rebels TV show. Ezra moves into control range of the only objective my opponent doesn’t already control. In the second and third struggle, one randomly chosen objective is worth double points, and now my opponent controls all three objectives, giving her four points and putting her halfway to winning the second struggle (and the game). With a final Hail Mary, I move Hondo in to try to shove Ezra out of control range of his objective, but the attack completely backfires on me – I deal him a little damage, but his defense roll gives him a dash, moving him closer to the objective and into melee range of Hondo.

Since I didn’t gain control of any objectives, my opponent will score four more points on her turn and win the struggle. That will give her two, so we decide to call the game here.

Final Thoughts

One of the things that I find most interesting about Shatterpoint is the low number of activations each indivdual unit gets in an average game. You really are relying on units granting themselves and especially each other extra moves and attacks – synergy between the units in your strike team is critical. This game ended a few turns into the second Struggle, and by that time each of us had only just shuffled our activation decks, meaning that each unit had only activated once, with one unit having activated twice using the Shatterpoint card.

Lobot was without a doubt my MVP. His astoundingly useful support abilities only work on Scoundrels, but as you might imagine all of Hondo’s crew fit that bill. In particular, the free focus (which adds +1 die to the unit’s next attack) was useful again and again, especially for Gwarm, who as a Sharpshooter gains 3 extra dice instead of just one when focusing.

Lando, on the other hand, was kind of a disappointment, with abilities that seem a little too focused and specific. Lobot was clearly the brains behind the whole operation…

I just finished painting the What Have We Here? squad box featuring that ol’ smoothie Lando Calrissian and his stalwart assistant Lobot. I haven’t really gotten into mixing and matching characters from different squad packs yet, I normally just pick two and play them “out of the box.” Hondo Ohnaka seemed like a pretty good partner for Lando, in terms of both synergies between the squads and just being a fun combo.

My opponent has elected to play the two squad packs that make up the cast of Star Wars: Rebels, so she’ll have a dream team of Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Zeb Orrelios, Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Chopper facing off against my criminal consortium of Hondo, his lieutenant Gwarm, some Weequay Pirates, Lando, Lobot, and the Cloud City Wing Guard.

It seems that Lando and Hondo are engaged in some petty crime that has run them afoul of the Spectre crew. I’m sure once the dust settles we’ll realize that it was all just a terrible misunderstanding…

Table setup

Shatterpoint is all about controlling objective points, and it uses mission cards to determine where those are placed on the table. We decided on the Never Tell Me the Odds mission set, which gives us nine possible locations for objective points. I tried to set up the game’s multi-level terrain so that the possible objective points would be split up into different levels as much as possible, to make moving between objectives challenging and fun.

And Away We Go

We start by revealing the first mission card and flipping over the indicated objective markers. These will be the active objectives for the first struggle. The game is played over two or three struggles, during which players score points for controlling objectives. After a player scores enough to win a struggle, the points are reset and a new mission card is revealed, which changes the number and locations of the active objectives.

This mission set seems to encourage more direct confrontation, rather than just sitting on objectives – each during each struggle, a particular type of unit (either Primary, Secondary, or Support) can score an extra objective point when they wound an opposing unit (not as easy as it sounds). For the first struggle, Secondary units can score this bonus, which puts the spotlight on Ezra and Sabine for my opponent and Lobot and Gwarm for myself.

My opponent is the first player and draws Kanan Jarrus as her first activation card. Jarrus has a Tactic (start of turn) ability that allows another unit to make a dash move. In this case, She moves Zeb Orrelios, who is able to dash into control range of one of the active objectives. The same ability gives Kanan himself a free dash, which when combined with a regular move action, gets Kanan a good distance across the board and within range of another active objective. My opponent now controls two, but unfortunately for her, you don’t score objectives on the first turn of the game. Still, she’s off to a very strong start.

My first activation card is Lobot, which is great for me as he has a lot of abilities that support my other units. I start by using his Security Network ability, which gives another Secondary or Supporting unit a free dash followed by a 5-dice attack against an enemy that is contesting an objective. I move Gwarm into position and take a shot at Zeb, dealing him 5 damage and the Exposed condition, which will make his next defense roll less effective. Then Lobot continues his activation, moving to control a nearby objective and then hunkering down, and action that gives him a free short move and a hunker token, which will add to his defense until he next activates.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the board…

My opponent’s next activation card is Sabine Wren. Like Kanan, Sabine has a Tactic ability that gives another unit a free dash; in this case, Hera moves into control range of an objective, and gets a free hunker as well. Sabine then moves up to the objective and hunkers as well, which will make it very difficult for me to wrest control away from them (I’ll need to have more units in control range in order to take control of it myself). My opponent now controls three objectives.

I draw the Wing Guard next, and here is where I make my first of two major tactical blunders. Instead of activating the guards, I put them in reserve to use later. This is a huge mistake as they would have been able to take control of a currently uncontrolled objective, but I’m focused on wounding an enemy unit for the extra point, and Zeb is my target.

So I draw again and get the Weequay Pirates, who do at least make a somewhat effective move. They use their Raiding Party ability to jump up onto a gantry, then Lobot’s Battlefield Calculations reactive ability to gain a focus token, which will give them a bonus when they next attack. They move along the gantry to line up their shot, and then the first one launches a ranged attack against Zeb. The result is only 1 damage but also a shove, which pushes him off the platform he’s on and out of control range – unfortutately, my opponent retains control of the objective until I can move someone in to take over.

With Zeb now out of range, my other Pirate fires off a potshot at Kanan, which is my second tactical blunder. I deal him 2 damage, but Kanan’s defense roll includes a reposition, which allows him to jump up onto the gantry and into lightsaber range of my pirates. They shouldn’t have attracted his attention…

To add injury to insult, my opponent’s next activation card is Zeb, who uses one of his special abilities to get a free move towards Kanan, followed by a regular move action to climb up the gantry and into melee range of one of the Pirates, giving them a whomp. My opponent still controls three objectives to my one (with one still uncontrolled), so she’s scoring more objective points each turn and is much closer to winning the struggle.

To be continued…