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Shatterpoint – What Do We Know?

Be a part of well-known conflicts in Star Wars: Shatterpoint!

Few months ago Atomic Mass Games announced a new system – Star Wars: Shatterpoint. It is obviously located in the Far Far Away galaxy and features battles between small groups of heroes and soldiers on a 40mm scale.

But what do we actually know?

Release date & what we get in Core Set and 1st Wave of expansions?

The game will be released in Summer 2023 and will have two Clone Wars factions at its very beginning. Republic will feature characters such as Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rex, Cody and even Mandalorians, led by Bo-Katan Kryze. On the other side of the conflict we got a bunch of droids, led by Assajj Ventress, Lord Maul, Gar Saxon, Dooku and (in)famous Bounty Hunter, Jango Fett.

Building a squad

Building a squad follows a simple set of rules, giving players the freedom to either create a themed team or select their favorite characters from across different Star Wars eras.

Each squad must consist of exactly one Primary Unit, one Secondary Unit, and one Supporting Unit. A Unit is composed of one or more miniatures that share a common Stat Card, with abilities that can either affect the entire Unit or just a single individual miniature.

The Primary Unit is the central character around which the narrative of the game revolves. They are the big characters that define the theme of the squad. Choosing the Primary Unit is a critical decision, as the SP value listed on the back of their Stat Card determines the number of points that can be spent when selecting Secondary and Supporting Units.

The more powerful the Primary Unit, the fewer SP points they will provide for the rest of the squad. This means that players will need to carefully balance their choices to create a well-rounded team.

Missions

In the games of Shatterpoint Missions are called Struggles. During the game your target is to win 2 out of 3 Struggles by gaining momentum on the Struggle Track (shortening their own side of track) and accomplishing objectives (moving token step by step closer to their end of track). After the first round is completed, the player who lost the first one may choose how objectives will be placed on the board. If after 2 rounds there is a draw, third and last round begins.

Gameplay

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.

In Shatterpoint, like many tabletop games, dice are used to determine the outcome of actions, especially attacks. There are two types of dice in Shatterpoint: eight-sided Attack Dice and six-sided Defense Dice.

Opposite to other tabletop games – in Shatterpoint there is no hard division for rounds.

During a player’s turn, they get the chance to activate one of their Units. When a Unit activates it can make up to two actions. The basic actions in Shatterpoint are:

Move – Each character in the Unit may advance, dash, or climb.

Focus – The next attack made by each character in the Unit this activation adds 1 die to its attack roll.

Combat – Each character in the Unit may make an attack.

Ability –The Unit may use an ability that requires the use of an action.

Recover – Each character in the Unit may Heal. When a character Heals it may remove one Condition or 1 Damage from itself or another allied character within Range 2 of it.

Take Cover – Each character in the Unit is Pushed and gains a Hunker Token which improves its defense against Ranged attacks.

In addition to its standard actions, many characters have unique abilities that they can use during play.

At the start of the game you prepare your order deck – shuffling your order and shatterpoint cards together. At the start of a player’s turn, they draw the top card of their Order Deck. The card drawn determines which Unit the player can activate that turn. The greatest commanders in Shatterpoint will be the ones who learn to adapt quickly to the chaos of battle and make the most of what fate gives them to work with.

While the player has little control over the activation of each Unit in Shatterpoint, there is still some agency given to the player. When a player draws an Order Card, they have the option to place it in Reserve. If a player chooses to do so, they must immediately draw the next Order Card and activate that Unit instead. On future turns, the player can choose to activate the Unit in Reserve instead of drawing the top card of their Order Deck. However, a player can only have one card in Reserve at a time, so careful consideration is necessary to use this ability effectively.

In addition to the Reserve mechanic, players also each have an extremely powerful Shatterpoint card. The Shatterpoint Card acts like a wild card, allowing players to activate the Unit of their choice, even a Unit that has already Activated with its own Order Card previously.

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.

This is the spotlight of our state of knowledge for today. The game promises to be a very dynamic, fast-paced and interesting skirmish-type wargame. It’s like Kill Team in the universe of Star Wars and we’re waiting for more details!

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