Review - AH's Star Wars Queen's Gambit

Well, I've still not gotten to play my copy of Black Ops or the Growing Hunger expansion to LNoE. Rÿchean is nothing if not consistent and Geddy hadn't gotten to play Heroscape in a long time. So Thursday night was all about 'Scape. Three different three-way games. All were intense and right down to the wire. I'd say the three of us were evenly matched, even if it did take both of you guys teaming up on me to take me down. :P

Iron Man on Friday night was great! I took my son and we met Geddy and sat with a guy who is the judge at the Heroclix events my son and I play in.

Saturday was all about Free Comic Book Day. My son and I made a haul. We met Fat Momma (my boy's second time and my third). We got tons of free stuff!

Today was all about Avalon Hill's hard to obtain game from about 8 years ago, Star Wars, the Queen's Gambit. This is the mega cool set up game with two game boards on either side of a three level tower. I got this as a steal from our own theGuru. He had an extra copy, so I traded him a copy of Memoir '44 for it. I offered to give him more, but he's such a stand up guy, he said, "Naw."

So my son and I played today for the first time. The set up is pretty intensive and tedious. The game is a recreation of the final battle in The Phantom Menace that is simultaneously taking place on the plains of Naboo, in the Palace, and in space as Anakin tries to shut down the droids.

The board details where each figure begins. Obi Wan is trapped between the force fields as Qui Gon fights Darth Maul. Anakin is taking off in his starfighter to assault the Trade Federation's ship that controls the droids. The Gungans (God I hate Gungans - since I played the bad guys, I got to kill a lot of them ) are behind their shield wall and facing off against the droid army. Nute Gunray and the other Trade Federation Ambassador are in the palace throne room, and the palace guards are with Captain Panaka and two different Padmes (one of which is fake).

You have to watch all elements of the game. If Anakin makes it to the Federation Ship, he shuts down your droids and your army disappears from the board. If the bad guys kill too many palace guards, jedi, and Padmes you will lose. If you are playing the good guys, you must have three good guys at the end of the game to control the palace throne room. If you don't, you lose.

On the plains, the battle can be just as important. There are tanks that provide some major fire power, but are useless until you take out a Fambaa that is carrying a shield generator. The Gungans want to destroy the droids' troop transport that can constantly provide droid reinforcements.

One of our favorite game designers, our own Craig Van Ness had a hand in developing this game. I have to say, he did an awesome job. This game reminded me of a combination of Heroscape and BattleLore. My son is only 8, so he did not get some of the deeper strategy involved, but he was able to mostly function on his own. The recommended age is 10, but I've also seen this listed as 12.

You can play with 4 players, but I couldn't get anyone else over to give it a shot. We had fun today and I will try to get some pics up later. I'd like to play this against someone in my local group who will give me a run for my money with strategery.

If you can get this game, do so. If you know someone with this game, pester them into getting a game in. It was lots of fun and I look forward to my next play.

Until next time.