Geeking Out – A Celebration of Star Wars!
With Star Wars Celebration in full swing (*vzhwing*), we thought that this month we’d take a look at the gamut of the galaxy’s greatest games with a rundown of all the Star Wars flavoured geekery we could get our hands on. Now, yes, we did this last year, but the galaxy continues to spin onwards, and there’s always something new to spend your credits on.
And, thanks to the lovely bunch at Zatu Games (thanks Lexi!) we’re giving you a chance to win your own copy of Love Letter: Jabba’s Palace and Dobble: Mandalorian Edition – read on!
Also, it’s worth mentioning that all of the games listed below can be found at bargain prices at Zatu Games, the UK’s biggest independent gaming retailer. Not only are the prices AT LEAST 10% off RRP but you get discount for buying 3 or 5 items (with discount codes ZATU3 or ZATU5) at once AND can earn loyalty points! Clearly, the force is strong with them.
CARD GAMES
Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
(RRP: £37.99)
Our featured game last month, this fast-playing card game uses familiar mechanics with a Star Wars twist: defend your bases from increasing threat from the evil empire or ruthless rebels with capital ships, hiring scum and villainy to limit your opponent’s options, and tailor your deck to get the most efficient balance of resources, attack and – of course – the force.
Read our full review HERE.
Dobble Star Wars Mandalorian
(RRP: £13.99)
Dobble is one of those great games that draws in all ages and all levels of enthusiasm, crossing smoothly into the family fun, non-gamer space with ease. It’s also surprisingly easy for non-SW fans to get into shouting “helmet”, “frog”, and even “MANDO”, making it an enjoyably raucous time for all! Honestly, I am far too competitive to play it. Dobble has become ubiquitous, as much a part of the everyday family game landscape as Uno, Cluedo, or (shudder) Monopoly.
But rather than the themed variants on the game feeling like saturation, they are genuinely refreshing: because you don’t immediately know what to look for, it levels the playing field. It’s most comparable to the Harry Potter version, where you still have to take a minute to figure out which bobble-headed wizard is which (witch), and as a result makes for hectic, noisy family fun. Another great addition for long journeys, whether in the car or on the Kessel run! And read on to find out how you can win a copy of your own!
Star Wars Jabba’s Palace: A Love Letter Game
(RRP: £16.99)
Love Letter games are a game-night staple: portable, quick, and often a great warm-up to the main event. They also are great pub games being pocket-sized and minimal table space required. Jabba’s Palace is my favourite iteration of the game, especially as a two-player (I like the Marvel version, but JP is smoother). It’s a sure-fire winner and crosses all ages and levels of experience (and interest) I could, quite simply, write a love letter to this game.
In this highly thematic reskin, the secret admirer becomes a hidden character (though R2 can peek at them); you simply draw a card each turn and essentially try to outthink your opponent based on what’s already been played. It’s very quick, retaining the charm of the original game’s mix of luck and logic – but with 4 distinct game modes for victory, it’s never dull. Great component quality – chunky tokens, lush cardstock, lovely bag and compact rulebook – make it an absolute modern portable classic.
BOARD GAMES
Star Wars: Outer Rim
(RRP: £74.99)
What might just feel like a simple pick-up and delivery game is given a very Star Wars feel as you navigate a path between the Hutts, the Pykes, Empire and Rebels, hunting down targets, upgrading your ship and even selling out your crew for the right bounty! Whilst it has echoes of GF9’s Firefly, this is an altogether slicker, smoother package and a game – possibly even THE game – we come back to time and again
Read our full review HERE.
Pandemic: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
(RRP: £59.99)
More than a simple reskin, the familiarity of the Pandemic engine feels fresh in this Clone Wars themed take on the classic game. With some interesting card/hand mechanics, and a heavy emphasis on co-op, can you defeat the Separatist hordes – or at least survive long enough not to meet your fate at Order 66?
Read our full review HERE.
Star Wars: Rebellion
(RRP: £109.99)
The biggest, baddest game in the galaxy, Rebellion is a huge – and hugely satisfying – experience, fully immersing you in either the role of scheming, all-conquering Empire or desperate, scrappy Rebels, telling your own version of the classic saga. One of the very best games out there – of any variety, not just SW – although at the upper end of middle-weight, this is a tremendous game for the more experienced gamer or devoted SW fan.
Read our full review HERE.
Star Wars: Imperial Assault
(RRP: £109.99)
A Star Wars dungeon crawl that can be played versus or co-op through an app? Heck yeah. IA is a tremendous, accessible, Descent-adjacent game of telling your own stories through the classic SW era (with a dash of Rebels for good measure), with a clever branching narrative and many, many expansions covering everything from the streets of Coruscant to the inside of a Star Destroyer. There’s a huge amount of content, so how about checking out the full review and campaign expansions HERE.
CASUAL/ALL-AGES
Unlock! Star Wars Escape Game
(RRP: £33.99)
Who doesn’t love an escape room? Well, me, actually. Or at least, generally speaking, I’m not a big fan of the whole “Escape Room in a box” – however, Unlock! is an exception, and especially their Star Wars version, which integrates the app meaningfully whilst providing an entertaining set of puzzles whether you’re Rebel, Scum (Mouldy Crow!) or Empire.
Read our full review HERE.
Pictionary Air Star Wars
(RRP £25.99)
There’s something just ridiculously fun about frantically trying to make pictures in mid air as they appear on screen behind you, and who wouldn’t want to do it wielding R2D2 (ok, a lightsaber would’ve made more sense, but still).
Star Wars: Rory’s Story Cubes
(RRP £13.99)
Now, as an English teacher, I can’t speak highly enough of these. If there’s anything we rely on for long journeys and family holidays, it’s sets of Rory’s Story Cubes. And for sparking kids’ imaginations, making up their own stories in the SW universe can be a fun (and frequently hilarious) way of mixing up the regular narrative dice mix. And of course, there’s nothing to stop you adding in a set of actions, questions or other dice also.
Star Wars Dice Set
(RRP £7.99)
Of course, you can just change up any game night with a set of SW Dice. Themed dice are many and varied these days, but you could do a lot worse than a set of these chunky, satisfying SW versions.
MINIATURE GAMES
X-Wing
(RRP: £81.99)
It’s a great time to be revisiting one of the stone-cold classics of modern miniature gaming: X-Wing, home of a thousand memes. Now it can always be a bit intimidating to try to get into a game that’s been around for a while, but luckily there’s two new entry-level Starter Squadrons for the game coming which give you absolutely everything you need at a bargain price! Time to start shooting down some rebel scum. I suspect that mistakes will be made once again…
Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Set
(RRP £164.99; Zatu pric)
Well, now, I couldn’t talk Star Wars without mentioning the game that’s setting the Galaxy aflame: Shatterpoint.
Read our full preview HERE.
Plus, straight out of Adepticon we have the news that we’re getting Republic Era Rebels (Jabba’s Palace infiltrators) , Vader (plus the 501st), the Crew of the Ghost (Rebel scum) and even EWOKS (Yubnub!) – oh, and of course, a certain ubiquitous space dad. This is the way.
GIVEAWAY TIME
So as ever, we have the results of last month’s Everybody Wins giveaway (thanks to Aconyte Books) but to win your own Star Wars bundle thanks to Zatu, just comment below with your favourite Star Wars game – listed here or from elsewhere!
And remember to Like, Comment and Share across your socials (FB, Insta, Twitter and/or Mastodon) tagging us @bigcomicpage & @games_with_graven to bag yourself a bonus entry! UK only unless you’re willing to fork out the postage, alas.
Don’t forget to swing later by for the mid-month Marvel update, where we’ll be looking at Rogue and Gambit for Marvel Champions along with more Adepticon previews for MCP – and a whole lot of Marvel in the May giveaway (#spoileralert).
And finally, it’s the results of our Everybody Wins giveaway, and the winner is… Paul Grindrod! (at last, you won one!)
Congratulations! Remember to get in touch with admin@bigcomicpage.com within 30 days to claim your prize!
The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter and Instagram
BIG COMIC PAGE 
Assault on Hoth by West End Games.
X-wing is by far my favorite star wars game, I’ve Recently purchased the 2.0 core set but I’ll have to pick up an empire conversion and a rebel conversion to get back into it, but it’s something to look forward too. Picked up quite a bit of legion and it’s fun but not for me. Looking forward to shatterpoint, downloaded the rules the other day so I’ll have a good read and see what’s what!!
Woohoo!
Had to happen eventually!
I knew there was a reason I liked this page!
I played through the Unlock game with my sister and brother-in-law a few weeks ago and it was good fun. Surprisingly difficult in places too!
And I’ve played most of the others in that list too. Turns out I’m a Star Wars fan. Who knew?
Really looking forward to Shatterpoint. not so much teh damage to my wallet, but the game looks very cool! I’m going to hold out for as long as possible, but once the Ghost crew comes out, I won;t be able to help myself. I blame Chopper!
Congratulations! Don’t forget to fire us your address!