The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Okay, so there I was at midnight of March 3, 1999. Yes that's right, the Great Star Wars: Episode 1 Toy-Rush was about to begin. The doors opened and in surged a tidal wave of foaming-at-the-mouth fanboys. My job -- being only an occasional collector -- was to hold all the stuff my friends managed to snatch from the fingers of unshaven twentysomethings. What's a gamer to do? I spied a game buried among all the plastic playthings and pounced on it.

Clash of the Lightsabers is a cardgame that allows you to "Recreate Qui-Gon Jinn(tm) and Darth Maul(tm)'s Epic Duel to the Finish!" This, of course, means absolutely nothing to me since the film isn't going to be released for another three weeks. For your $14.00 you get two 60 card decks, two pewter miniatures (not in the 25-29mm scale unfortunately), and the rules. The miniatures are well done and the cards are easy to read. The photos on the "special" cards are a little unimaginative, but adequate.

At its heart Clash of the Lightsabers is a "trick-taking" card game. From the rules it's obvious this isn't a simulation of sword fighting. Each turn a "round" of three "battles" are fought. From their hand each player lays down three cards, upside down, to represent the first card in each battle. Battles are then fought in order with players flipping over the initial card and adding more cards from their hands. The player with the most points wins the battle but the loser may concede at any point. The player who wins the majority of the battles wins the round. If the player wins all the battles he wins two rounds. After the round is completed seven more cards are drawn and added to any remaining in the player's hand. The first player who wins four rounds wins the game.

The strategy lies in using the special cards and knowing when to concede. Special cards such as "Block", "Use the Force", and "Retreat" allow a player to negate, draw more cards, or return played cards to their hand. This last is very useful, especially since unplayed cards are retained for the next round. Sometimes the most canny strategy is to deliberately concede the round to build up a stronger hand.

I really like this game. It's simple but encourages a lot of stategic gameplay. I suppose the highest recommendation I can offer is to point out that my friends played it until 2:00 AM the other night. $10.00 will get you a single deck card game from some smaller companies and $15.00 will get you one of the bigger WotC non-collectible card games. $14.00 is a pretty reasonable price. This is a good buy for gamers and/or Star Wars fans.

Now ... if only someone would come up with four-player rules. Hmm...

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Clash of the Lightsabers
Author: Hasbro Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Hasbro Line: Star Wars Episode 1 Cost: $14.00 (I think) Page count: n/a Playtest Review by John Fu on 05/05/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction	Okay, so there I was at midnight of March 3, 1999. Yes that's right, the Great Star Wars: Episode 1 Toy-Rush was about to begin. The doors opened and in surged a tidal wave of foaming-at-the-mouth fanboys. My job -- being only an occasional collector -- was to hold all the stuff my friends managed to snatch from the fingers of unshaven twentysomethings. What's a gamer to do? I spied a game buried among all the plastic playthings and pounced on it. Clash of the Lightsabers is a cardgame that allows you to "Recreate Qui-Gon Jinn(tm) and Darth Maul(tm)'s Epic Duel to the Finish!" This, of course, means absolutely nothing to me since the film isn't going to be released for another three weeks. For your $14.00 you get two 60 card decks, two pewter miniatures (not in the 25-29mm scale unfortunately), and the rules. The miniatures are well done and the cards are easy to read. The photos on the "special" cards are a little unimaginative, but adequate. At its heart Clash of the Lightsabers is a "trick-taking" card game. From the rules it's obvious this isn't a simulation of sword fighting. Each turn a "round" of three "battles" are fought. From their hand each player lays down three cards, upside down, to represent the first card in each battle. Battles are then fought in order with players flipping over the initial card and adding more cards from their hands. The player with the most points wins the battle but the loser may concede at any point. The player who wins the majority of the battles wins the round. If the player wins all the battles he wins two rounds. After the round is completed seven more cards are drawn and added to any remaining in the player's hand. The first player who wins four rounds wins the game. The strategy lies in using the special cards and knowing when to concede. Special cards such as "Block", "Use the Force", and "Retreat" allow a player to negate, draw more cards, or return played cards to their hand. This last is very useful, especially since unplayed cards are retained for the next round. Sometimes the most canny strategy is to deliberately concede the round to build up a stronger hand. I really like this game. It's simple but encourages a lot of stategic gameplay. I suppose the highest recommendation I can offer is to point out that my friends played it until 2:00 AM the other night. $10.00 will get you a single deck card game from some smaller companies and $15.00 will get you one of the bigger WotC non-collectible card games. $14.00 is a pretty reasonable price. This is a good buy for gamers and/or Star Wars fans. Now ... if only someone would come up with four-player rules. Hmm... Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)