Star Wars: Shatterpoint – Gameplay Rules First Look
Atomic Mass Games has unleashed the first look at the actual gameplay rules for Star Wars: Shatterpoint.
Fans have been wondering how the actual gameplay of Star Wars: Shatterpoint would be handled. Once the scale of the minis was sorted out and the bases were roughly the same as Marvel: Crisis Protocol there was a lot of hope that it would use the same ruleset. Crossplay would be pretty epic. But with those two universes being very different (although both ultimately owned by Disney) it was a long shot.
We got a look at how the Missions would work and today we’re finally getting some concrete details on the gameplay. So how does it shake out? Well, we don’t have all the info but we have some major mechanics covered. Let’s dive in!
Star Wars: Shatterpoint – Gameplay Rules
Movement and Measurement
“The game uses 5 range tools for measuring things like abilities and attacks: 4 range tools numbered 2-5 and a shove tool. Range 1 abilities can be measured using the short end of any of the Range tools or either end of the shove tool. Movement in Shatterpoint uses just two movement tools. The long movement tool is used when a character makes an advance, while the short movement tool is used for a number of different movements like dashing, jumping, and climbing. “
To kick things off we have a look at the movement and measurement tools as you can see in the image above. This isn’t new for AMG or even the other Star Wars miniatures games. If you were hoping for generic movement and measurement with inches and a tape measure you haven’t been paying attention. So, while it might not be my personal favorite way to do movement/measurement it’s not unexpected here.
Dice Mechanics
If you caught our breakdown of the Star Wars: Shatterpoint unboxing that AMG did you might have caught a look at the dice in the game. Here’s what AMG says about the dice in the game:
“There are two types of dice in Shatterpoint. Attack Dice which are eight-sided and Defense Dice which are six-sided.”
Unfortunately that’s all the info we have on these mechanics at this time. It’s interesting we’re getting different dice for attack and defense as this can skew the odds of success or failure quite a bit. We don’t know what the icons mean but clearly the attacker is going to get to roll those D8s and the defender is going to get to roll D6s. So there will be some interaction in the attack/fighting steps.
Player Turns
For Star Wars: Shatterpoint AMG is using an alternating player turn system. You’ll get to activate one of your units and then your opponent will get to activate a unit. More on that below. But when you do activate a unit you’ll get a familiar set of options:
There’s also special actions that units/characters can take. You’ll be able to choose two of those standard actions to execute. It’s unclear if you’ll be able to repeat a basic action or not. I would guess that if you could repeat the same action you might be limited to only doubling movement or combat twice. Again, that’s speculation and I’m hoping we get more info later.
Unit Activation
Here’s where we get to an interesting design choice. Shatterpoint uses a special deck to determine when your units can activate. This Order Deck is composed of your Unit Order Cards and a special Shatterpoint Order Card.
You’ll shuffle this deck at the start of the game and then at the start of your player turn you’ll draw a card from the top of the Order Deck. This is the unit that can activate for this turn. Now, if you can move that card to the Reserve state for the cost of Force Points (more on that below). If you choose to do that, you’ll have to draw again and that new card/unit has to activate.
“On future turns a player with a card in reserve may choose to activate that Unit instead of drawing the top card of their Order Deck. A player may only ever have one card in Reserve at a time, so players must choose wisely when to use this ability. “
The Shatterpoint card is special in that if you draw that card it acts more like a wild card. It can allow you to activate a unit of your choice — even a unit that has already been activated this turn. That sounds like it could be a fairly potent card to draw for the wide range of tactical options it could provide.
“At the end of a player’s turn, if they have no Order Cards left in their Order Deck or reserve, they Refresh their Order deck by removing any Order Cards for defeated Units and then shuffling the remaining cards from the Order Discard Pile together to form a new Order Deck. “
I’ll be honest, this entire section surprised me. You might want to read it all for yourself if you’ve got any other questions about the “why” they opted to use an order deck mechanic.
Force Points
“At the start of the game players determine the Will of the Force by adding Force tokens to their Force pool equal to the combined total of all Force stats on their strike team’s Unit Stat Cards.”
The Force will be used for things like activating specific abilities on units and also for putting cards in reserve. It doesn’t seem like the Force Points come back either. A strike team’s Force pool is a resource that you’ll have to use accordingly. Will you spend it all quickly to get an advantage or will you meter it out over the course of the game? That’s up to you and a good player is going to manage this resource wisely.
That’s our first look at the gameplay rules for Star Wars: Shatterpoint. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
