Fantasy Flight Games

Deckbuilding and Wallpapers

Published 6 March 2023 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

Deckbuilding and Wallpapers

Check Out These Wallpapers for Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game

Get ready for Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game by downloading these exclusive wallpapers! Utilizing the stellar artwork from the game depicting iconic characters and ships, these wallpapers make the perfect backgrounds for your mobile device.

To download on an iPhone/Android phone, first click on the thumbnail. When you see the full image, press the image and hold until you see "Save Image/Download Image". Once the image has been saved, you'll need to set it as a wallpaper in your device's settings.

Click here for a higher resolution, here for Android, and here for iPhone.

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Available Now: March 3

Published 3 March 2023 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

Available Now: March 3

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is Now Available

Check out the latest product from Fantasy Flight Games, now available in the United States at your local retailer or online through our web store!

Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game

The Rebel Alliance fights valiantly against the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. Each new victory brings the Rebels hope, and each heroic sacrifice strengthens their resolve. Still, the Empire’s resources are vast, and the firepower of its Empire Navy is unmatched. With neither side willing to accept defeat, their war rages across the galaxy…

In Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game, a new head-to-head game for two players, the galaxy-spanning war between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance comes alive on your tabletop. In this easy-to-learn game, you and your opponent each choose a side, playing as either the Empire or the Rebels, and as the game progresses you both strengthen the power of your starting decks and work to destroy each other’s bases. The first player to destroy three of their opponent’s bases wins the game!

You can pick up your own copy of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (SWG01en) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!*

*Available in the US and select markets. To find updates on this product's release in your territory, please follow this link.

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Building Conflict

Published 27 January 2023 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

Building Conflict

Check Out Some Designer Insights to Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game

In just a couple short months, Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game will hit store shelves. As we rapidly approach the game’s release, we’d like to take a moment to share with you all some insights from the game’s designer, Caleb Grace.

Take it away, Caleb!

Caleb Grace Shares His Thoughts

I still can’t believe I got to design Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game. I love Star Wars, and I love deckbuilding games, so the whole endeavor was a dream come true. I got the idea when I realized no one had ever published a Star Wars deckbuilding game. Given FFG’s great relationship with Lucasfilm, I thought we had an incredible opportunity.

I brought this idea to our Executive Game Designer, Nate French, right around the time he was introducing his “design sprint” initiative. The purpose of his initiative was to give employees at FFG the opportunity to explore exciting ideas and develop their design skills. And that was exactly what I wanted to do with my Star Wars deckbuilding idea. Thankfully, Nate was also excited about the idea. He asked me to write a short pitch to get approval for the design sprint.

The pitch was only three paragraphs, but it encompassed everything that the final game would become. Upon revisiting the original pitch in preparation for this article, I was a little surprised at how precise it is. It outlined all the essential elements of what would become Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game.

Here were the main points:

Easy to learn, fast-paced deckbuilding game.
Head-to-head competition between Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire.
Players win by destroying their opponent’s base.
Players cannot purchase cards belonging to their opponent’s faction, but they can discard them from the galaxy row by attacking them.
Some cards provide a Force value that can move the balance of the Force to your side, boosting some card abilities.

For the rest of this design journal, I will walk us through each of those elements to discuss how they are implemented in Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game.

For starters, I wanted to make a game that was easy for players to get to the table. I have a lot of great games in my collection at home that rarely ever get played because of how long they take to set up. When you’re a busy person like me, you simply can’t afford to spend an hour setting up a game or learning to play. That’s why I wanted to make a game that anyone could set up and learn in a matter of minutes. That meant keeping the rules of the game fairly simple and relying on card abilities to create the kind of strategic depth that I enjoy in card games.

The next point on my list was the first one that connected Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game directly to its source material, and that was the decision to make it a competitive game between an Empire player and a Rebel player. As someone who grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy, this was the conflict I wanted to bring to life through my game. The opposing factions are so clearly defined in those films, that designing their cards used as much intuition as imagination.

The Empire rules the galaxy through the might of their Imperial Navy and faceless legions, so their cards focus on controlling the galaxy row and overwhelming the enemy’s defenses with sheer numbers. The Rebels on the other hand rely on heroic leaders and daring raids to win their fight for freedom, so their strategy revolves around recruiting unique characters and discarding cards from their opponent’s hand. This makes playing each faction a unique and fulfilling experience.

The third point on my list brings us to an essential question: “How do you win Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game?” To answer that question, I had to ask myself another one: “What is the central conflict in Star Wars?” There are obviously a lot of good answers to that query, but the last thirty minutes of Star Wars: A New Hope™ are what inspired me. The Rebels want to destroy the Empire base before the Empire destroys theirs. The tension throughout the last act of Star Wars: A New Hope created some of the greatest cinema of all time, and I wanted my game to evoke those feelings too.

My original pitch only mentioned destroying one opponent’s base, but as I started developing the game, I realized that would be a mistake. In the original Star Wars trilogy, the Rebels establish a new base on Hoth after their headquarters on Yavin IV was discovered, and the Empire establishes an outpost on Endor after the first Death Star was destroyed. Thinking about this made me realize that players should have the opportunity to choose a new base after their first one was destroyed. That idea got me thinking about how bases could be an answer to a common problem in deckbuilding games - the snowball effect.

For those who aren’t familiar, the snowball effect can happen in a deckbuilding game when one player is able to purchase a really good card on their first turn, and that card allows them to purchase even better cards on subsequent turns. Before long, their deck is much stronger than their opponent’s and the outcome is inevitable. When this happens, players lose interest and the game stops being fun. Bases in Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game help counteract this phenomenon with their powerful abilities.

When your base is destroyed by your opponent, it is not immediately replaced. Instead, you wait until the beginning of your next turn to choose your new base from the cards in your base deck. This prevents your opponent from being able to destroy more than one base per turn, and it gives you a chance to boost your strategy by selecting the base that best suits your needs. This makes base destruction an exciting event for both players, because one player is closer to winning and the other player gets to activate a powerful ability.

The fourth point on my list came out of a commitment to making Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game as thematic as possible. I didn’t want the Rebel player to purchase Empire cards or vice versa because that might take players out of the story. This restriction created an interesting design question: What do you do if the galaxy row is full of enemy cards that you can’t buy? The challenge of staying on theme by keeping the factions separate ended up driving me deeper into Star Wars lore with the answer: allow players to bounty hunt / sabotage enemy cards from the galaxy row!

If I am playing as the Empire and the galaxy row is full of Rebel cards, that could be frustrating, except that every Rebel unit in the row has a target value on it. These values are conveniently orientated to face me as the Empire player while the rest of the card faces the Rebel player. Using the information facing me, I can attack that card in the galaxy row. If I commit enough attack to meet an enemy unit’s target value, I will discard that card from the row and replace it with the top card of the galaxy deck. This is called “bounty hunting” when playing as the Empire and “sabotage” when you are the Rebels.

Bounty hunting / sabotaging an enemy unit not only refreshes the galaxy row, but also denies my opponent the opportunity to purchase that unit. To make it even sweeter, each unit has a reward next to its target value. If I defeat a target in the row, I gain the reward in addition to discarding the card. The reward might grant me enough resources to purchase a card in the row, turning disadvantage into advantage. The decision of when to attack enemy units in the row versus attacking my opponent’s base is a big part of what makes Star Wars: The Deckbuilding game so thematic and fun to play.

The last item on my list is something quintessential to Star Wars, and of course that is the Force. I knew Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game needed to include the Force as a third value found on cards in addition to resources and attack. But while resources would be used to purchase cards, and attack would be used to destroy your opponent’s base, I wasn’t sure how the Force would work.

At first, I imagined each player would have their own Force track that started at zero and was capped at ten. As players gained or lost Force, they would adjust the value on their track. Players could determine if the Force was with them by comparing values on their Force tracks. If the Force was with you, it would power up some of your card abilities and swing the game in your favor. This sounded fun in theory, but constantly comparing Force values proved to be tedious and interrupted the flow of the game.

Fortunately, I work with a lot of inspired people at FFG, and my coworker, Tony Fanchi, suggested merging the two Force tracks into a single Balance of the Force track shared between both players. This way, as players gain Force, they simply move the Force marker toward their side of the track. If the Force is in any of the three spaces on your side of the track, then the Force is with you. Now you can tell if Force dependent card effects are active just by glancing at the Balance of the Force track.

With all these ideas clear in my mind, I was able to create a playable prototype by the end of my five-day design sprint. That’s when Nate and I sat down to play Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game for the first time. The galaxy deck wasn’t yet a full ninety cards and my hand-written text was barely legible, but we still had a great time. We purchased ships, sabotaged units, used the Force, and blew up bases. Afterwards, Nate recommended we continue to develop the game with the goal of getting it onto our release schedule, which it did! And I can’t wait for it to hit stores in March so everyone can join in the fun.

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FFG Live in January

Published 4 January 2023 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

FFG Live in January

Announcing the FFG Livestreams for January

It's FFG Live! Join us this month for more awesome livestreams for our current and upcoming games and expansions. Read on for more information on what livestreams you can look forward to this month!

January 11th at 1PM CST

Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game Gameplay

GAMEPLAY

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is almost here! Come join us as the game's designer, Caleb Grace, walks us through how the game is played and shows off the unique strategies this awesome game has to offer.

We announced this game back in November, but this stream will be the first look at the game in action, so be sure to tune in!

Check out the stream !

Click for more information on Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game.

January 25th at 1PM CST

Angmar Awakened Campaign Expansion Gameplay

GAMEPLAY

To celebrate the anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Revised Core Set, join game designers Tyler Parrott and Jeremy Zwirn as they take on a scenario from the Angmar Awakened Campaign Expansion.

What enemies will they face? What dangers will they overcome? Join us for a stream full of adventure.

You can check out the stream !

Click for more information about The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.

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Battle for the Galaxy

Published 3 November 2022 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

Battle for the Galaxy

Announcing Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game!

This new head-to-head game for two players brings the galaxy-spanning war between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance to your tabletop. In this easy-to-learn game, you and your opponent each choose a side, playing as either the Empire or the Rebels, and as the game progresses you both strengthen the power of your starting decks and work to destroy each other’s bases. The first player to destroy three of their opponent’s bases wins the game!

A Duel Between Decks

At the beginning of the game, both players start with a ten-card starter deck themed after their faction (Empire or Rebels). These starter decks don’t have a lot of firepower, with seven of the ten cards being unable to do anything but generate resources. The goal of the game is to destroy three of your opponent’s bases before they do the same to you, so you’re going to need a bit more power. Thankfully, that’s where those resources come in.

In the center of the table are the galaxy deck and the galaxy row. The galaxy deck is made up of Empire cards, Rebel cards, and neutral cards, and there are always six cards laid out face-up next to the deck to form the galaxy row. Empire cards in the galaxy row are turned to face the Empire player while the Rebel cards are turned to face the Rebel player (neutral cards are turned sideways so both players can read them easily). During your turn, you can use the resources you generate to purchase cards belonging to your faction or neutral cards.

In this example, the Rebel player spends 6 resources from their resource pool to purchase Princess Leia from the galaxy row.

When you purchase a card, it goes into your discard pile, which means you won’t actually be able to use the new card until your deck reshuffles. That said, as you continue to purchase more and more cards, your deck will grow stronger and stronger.

Stay on Target

Once you have acquired some cards with decent attack power, it’s time to go on the offensive. You can use your cards to attack your opponent’s base (which you will need to do to win the game), but you can also use them to attack cards of your opponent’s faction in the galaxy row. This is called either “bounty hunting” or “sabotage,” depending on your faction.

In this example, the Rebel player is using their Mon Calamari Cruiser to attack the Empire base and using their Rebel Commando to sabotage the Scout Trooper in the galaxy row. Both of these Rebel cards have an attack power of 3.

Each Rebel and Empire unit card in the galaxy row has a “target value” and a reward, which are displayed upside-down so that the opposing faction can read them. If you commit an amount of attack power to an opposing unit equal to or greater than its target value, then that card is discarded from the galaxy row and you get to claim the reward!

Director Krennic has a target value of 5. If the Rebel player manages to sabotage him, they claim his reward of 3 resources and 2 Force (we’ll explain the Force mechanic later in this article).

In addition to units, players can also find capital ships in the galaxy row, such as the Rebel Transport or the Imperial Carrier . These are special cards for a couple of reasons; first, unlike unit cards, capital ships stay in play and are not discarded at the end of the round. Second, before your opponent can deal damage to your base, they must destroy each capital ship you have in play. With abilities that help you on your turn and some protection for your base on your opponent’s turn, capital ships are always worth the investment!

Of course, the bases themselves are also a factor in your strategy. The Rebels always start with Dantooine and the Empire with Lothal , neither of which has any inherent abilities; however, once your base is destroyed, you can choose a replacement from your base deck. Each base (other than the starting bases) has its own special ability, which means you’ll need to choose your second and third bases carefully in order to maximize their potential. Just remember that if your third base is destroyed, you lose the game!

Use the Force

The balance of the Force can tip the scales between the Empire and the Rebels. In Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, this is represented by a Balance of the Force track.

In this example, the Force is currently with the Rebel player because it is on one of the three light side spaces.

Several cards have abilities that say: “If the Force is with you…” These abilities can only be used when the Force marker is on your side of the Balance of the Force track. Each time you gain Force, the force marker is moved toward your side of the track by the indicated amount. If the Force is all the way to your side at the start of your turn, you gain one additional resource to use for that turn, which means it’s always worthwhile to tip the balance in your favor.

The Force begins the game all the way on the Rebels’ side, but the Empire gets to take the first turn. Regardless of which faction you play as, what you choose to do in those opening moves can have a lasting impact on the rest of the game.

A Galactic Struggle

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is fast-paced, easy-to-learn, and fun for everyone. Can you emerge victorious from this galactic conflict? Find out when Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game arrives in March of 2023!

You can pre-order your own copy of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (SWG01) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!

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