Like many other skirmish games, Shatterpoint focuses on its heroes and villains (Image credit: Will Salmon) The Sith Lord Darth Caedus used this ability to destroy the beskar-forged armor of the Mandalorian Protector Roegr. By tapping the breastplate lightly with the hilt of his lightsaber, Caedus was able to completely shatter the armor. When Caedus was still Jacen Solo, he destroyed the blasters of several Centerpoint guards merely by exerting Force pressure in the weak points. Luke Skywalker revealed that he too could perceive shatterpoints, and taught this to Jaina Solo. [2] [9] It isn’t just these, however. An early expansion includes Magnaguard which also have the Battle Droid keyword giving Kalani even more flexibility and expanding the overlapping aura of benefits. Again in the core set you can pair the Light Side Bo Katan with Dark Side Gar Saxon and all the Mandalorian Support Units to find yourself tossing buffs and out-of-sequence movement all over the place. Combat Crunch Further on, Mace and the party encounter Kar Vastor, a dangerous lor pelek (lord of the jungle) and volatile Force-user who leads a cadre of elite men known as Akk Guards. After a conflict, Vastor allies with Mace, and the Master rendezvouses with Depa Billaba, who has fallen to the dark side of the Force. He arrests her after learning that she has been responsible for several atrocities. The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground for the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba—Mace's former Padawan—to the planet to train the local tribesmen as a guerrilla resistance force to fight against the Separatists. But Depa has vanished. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording that hints of madness and murder…a recording in Depa's own voice.

It’s not all Light, however. Combat is also where my biggest complaint about the Shatterpoint system exists. Line of Sight and Cover are clunky and despite overly technical descriptions, often boil down to “everyone almost always has line of sight to everyone else” and “everyone almost always gets cover”. Primary units (your big name heroes) have double sided cards that allow them to shift stances, typically between offence and defense or melee vs ranged focus. All other units have 1 side, but it all works the same. The Combat Trees offer not just a way to differentiate between named pieces and support troops but also give players tactical decisions to make after a hit. It comes down to two choices based on the trees but sometimes that can mean the different between dropping a ton of damage and triggering useful abilities for your character, such as healing or pushing an opponent away from an objective point.

Rules & Organized Play

Shatterpoints were perceived like faults in a Corusca gem. In relation to events, a single "strike," or action, could cause events to transpire completely differently than they might otherwise have. Often, shatterpoints existed for only brief moments, as they could be affected by even the smallest actions. [5] Shatterpoints could also be discovered in the physiology of living beings. Cade Skywalker was able to perceive shatterpoints in Darth Talon and Nyna Calixte, whom he had previously healed from mortal injury. By focusing through the Force on where the healing had taken place, Skywalker was able to see where her old wounds were, and reopen them. [6]

The game features loot in the form of runes, cosmetics, weapons, and armor that can be found in lootable chests. In each season of content, player progress will be reset by The Shattering. Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, skilled diplomat, and devastating fighter. But he is also a man of peace—and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war. Combat is my favorite system in the game, though it isn’t without it’s pitfalls. It makes the most sense to explain it via an image, so take a second to look at Darth Maul’s double-sided combat card. Of course, the biggest factor in determining if a skirmish game is any good is in how it handles combat. Happily, Shatterpoint's system is an absolute doozy. Shatterpoint does not have “true line of sight” which is any system where you bend over and try to see what your miniature can see. It’s a system that has its own pitfalls, particularly when attempting to define cover or obscured models, but it’s at least typically intuitive.

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Both sides have access to Force points which allows for more opwerful effects and special abilities to fire off. This is where most of the acrobatic Jedi stuff lives like dashing across the battlefield or jump up to the top of a bit of terrain. The longer a battle runs on the more these abilities cost so this mechanic is a subtle push not to get too defensive in play.

Star Wars is all about balance, about the push and pull of light and dark. So is Shatterpoint. Matches are divided into Struggles; winning a game of Shatterpoint means winning 2 out of 3 Struggles. Rather than scoring points Struggles are won through an objective focused game of tug of war. Shortly prior to the First Battle of Geonosis, Mace Windu perceived Count Dooku to be a shatterpoint capable of ending the war. His attachments let his old friend live, however, and so Dooku was able to go on and initiate the Clone Wars. In only a short span of time, the shatterpoint that made Dooku the heart of the war disappeared. [5] Eventually Mace realized a number of shatterpoints connected with Anakin Skywalker, prior to Anakin's fall. Mace was also able to sense the Shatterpoint of Darth Sidious; his trust in Skywalker. [8] In the same way that you don’t have full knowledge of every mission card you’ll play, you also don’t have full control of your Strike Force’s sequence of activations. Shatterpointrequires a mastery of reactive tactics. Your strategy must be flexible, you have to ride the winds of the Force.Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Rules on static1.squarespace.com ( April 12, 2023) (archived from the original on May 31, 2023)