Star Wars: Hoth (The Duelist)
Star Wars: Hoth is Lester Smith's review of the Hoth expansion in The Duelist #16 (April 1997, pages 86 and 88). A Magic t-shirt advertisement occupies page 87 between the two halves.[1]
Star Wars: Hoth
Braving the Cold reviewed by Lester SmithHoth
Expansion set for Star Wars Customizable Card Game
Decipher Inc.
235 Granby Street, Norfolk, VA 23510-1813
FORMAT 162-card expansion set. 15-card booster pack, $3.00; display box $108.00. For two players. Playing time: 30–90 minutes
CO-DESIGNER Jerry Burns
ART DIRECTION COORDINATOR Dan BurnsJust in time for winter, Decipher released its second expansion set for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. As I sit here, occasionally gazing out my window at the first snow of the season, my desk is covered with cards depicting the Arctic-like wastes of the ice planet Hoth, the subject of this new expansion set.
For those who might not be familiar with the basic game, Star Wars pits two players against each other as the two sides of the Force: Light versus Dark, Rebel Alliance versus Empire. Each player brings into play locations from the movies—worlds and ground-based sites—then deploys starships, vehicles, characters, and equipment to control those locations, in an attempt to drain the opponent of Force. That Force is represented by each player's deck, and the first player to run out of cards loses the game. Because a player's forces can move from locale to locale during a turn, and because individual characters can be targeted by weapon fire, the game has a surprisingly tactical feel, in addition to the strategic nature of card play.
What's New
The Hoth expansion does more than merely add new cards to the Star Wars mix. It also expands the rules of game play considerably. As with the previous expansion (A New Hope), each PoP (point-of-purchase display box) of Hoth cards comes with a supplemental rules sheet detailing additions to and revisions of the original game rules. One of the most significant changes to the game rules is that cards representing exterior locations on a world can no longer be intermixed with those for interior locations. Any exterior sites brought into play are now deployed together in a line next to the world itself, followed by a docking bay location (if any), with any interior sites then deployed on the opposite side of that docking bay. The intent of this rules change is to prevent the illogical juxtaposition of interiors with wastelands, jungles, and the like. Furthermore, the exterior sites for the world of Hoth are numbered—first "marker" through sixth "marker"—to be lined up in that order once played. The first marker is the Rebels' shield generator, which prevents the Imperial player from deploying vehicles and characters inside the Rebel defenses. This shield extends to the third marker, the Hoth: Defensive Perimeter. Until and unless the shield is brought down (an Epic Event card), Imperial forces can infiltrate the protected region only by land assault (as in the movie). For this reason, when the shield generator is deployed, the Rebel player must have marker four, five, or six already in play, or must immediately deploy marker four (searching through the reserve deck if necessary).
In connection with this new separation of exterior and interior sites, vehicles are now prohibited from moving to interiors. In the original rules, they were considered to be parked outside such sites, having no effect on any battle there. Now, however, characters using vehicles must leave them behind if they wish to enter the interior side of a world's line of sites. This can make for a long walk, on occasion.
Nor is that the only change to the vehicle rules from the basic game. There are numerous others. Characters can now remain aboard a vehicle after the movement phase of a player's turn, where they are protected from many events, but are susceptible to being lost with the vehicle itself if it is destroyed. At least that is the case with "enclosed" vehicles (a new distinction in the game); an open vehicle leaves its occupants exposed to such events, but also allows them all to use their abilities and weapons at the vehicle's current site. Some new vehicles are classified as combat vehicles, a new type, which are those specialized for battle. Given that snowspeeders, AT-ATs, and AT-STs are so significant to the battle for Hoth, it should come as no surprise that they feature prominently in this collection of cards, and that they call for a new type of character as well, the "gunner." (Strangely enough, however, while the rules explain that gunner characters can enhance both starfighter and combat vehicle weapon use, the gunner cards themselves note only their use in starfighters.) Vehicles can now be crashed, as well. And starfighters can now land and take off at exterior sites, allowing the use of a new breed of starfighter weapons (such as the Surface Defense Cannon). Finally, starfighters can be deployed not only in orbit around a world itself, but alternatively at docking bays or in capital starships. There are a few other niceties, involving embarking and debarking of characters aboard vehicles, designated drivers and passengers, escape from crashed vehicles, and the like, but the primary rules additions and changes for vehicles have been mentioned here.
Other rules changes and additions include the concept of missing characters and searches for them, underground sites and collapsed ones, artillery weapons, and the placement of mine fields by mining droids (potentially involving a bit of bluff by the acting player). Also, with the addition of many more items of equipment to the Star Wars card mix, characters, vehicles, and starfighters are no longer limited to carrying only one weapon and one device, but can now carry an unlimited number of each, although they can use only one of each at a time. What's more, the backpack card even allows the breaking of this rule, so that a character can use more than one weapon and/or item at a time.
Finally, there are rules for the play of older, wiser versions of the main characters. A player might deploy a Luke Skywalker card early in a game, for instance, then replace that card with a Commander Luke Skywalker later in the game. As is generally the case in the Star Wars CCG, this involves a trade-off of one set of abilities for another, so that, for example, while the Commander version has a higher power rating than the original, it can be deployed only at a Hoth location.
The Analysis
In all, the new rules make a lot of sense. That is to say, not only are they written clearly and engagingly but also they seem natural adaptations of the original rules, designed to represent well the movie battle at Hoth. Of course, they also make the game more detailed and complex. New players are advised to begin with the basic game, adding the expansion rules later, after having absorbed the original rules.
One problem with the Hoth rules (as with the rules for expansion one, A New Hope) is that there is only one copy to a PoP. Considering how significant the additions and changes are, it is important that every player using these cards have access to those rules. Fortunately, Decipher makes them available on the Internet. Still, the game desperately needs a consolidated rulebook, something with reasonably sized type, and with all the expansions and changes incorporated. According to the introduction of the Hoth rules sheet, preparation of such a book is well underway.
Two other complaints commonly heard about the game are that there are so many rare cards that the collector has a difficult time getting them, and that the main characters from the movies are all rare. Both remain true with the Hoth expansion. In the PoP I sampled, there were 127 of the set's 162 cards, and not one was a main character. It's not how I would design a game. But as should be evident from above, I have to admit that it's still fun.
If you have been hesitant about trying the Star Wars CCG, I recommend that you give it a try. The mass-market version, with its two standardized decks, is a good place to start. Then, when you've got that under your belt, pick up some Hoth expansion cards. They definitely add play value to an already satisfying game. ■
In all, the new rules are written clearly and engagingly, designed to represent well the movie battle at Hoth.
Lester Smith was twenty-one years old when the original Star Wars movie first hit the big screen. It seemed to him a landmark in his life, a justification of a boyhood spent in science-fiction books, and offered hope of exciting things to come. Now, twenty years later, he designs games and writes for a living, and plays the Star Wars roleplaying game on a weekly basis. Ask him about his Jedi Knight sometime.
See also
External links
- The Duelist #16, Internet Archive (Wizards of the Coast, April 1997)
References
- ↑ Lester Smith, "Star Wars: Hoth", The Duelist #16 (April 1997), pp. 86, 88. Scan: The Duelist #16, Internet Archive.