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70 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment, April 25, 2005
Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars
I really loved the Lord of the Rings Trilogy edition of Risk, and so I was looking forward to the Clone Wars edition. Physically, the game is about the same quality--overall pretty nice but I'm not crazy about the little plastic pieces, which seem even flimsier than the Trilogy game, and much more likely to tangle up together. But that's not a big issue. It's the gameplay.
First off, in a 4 player game, 2 players are good (Republic) and 2 are evil (Separatist), and you are not allowed to attack your own ally. (Gosh, there goes half the fun of Risk right there!) I've yet to come up with a strategy that lets the good side win. During the game, the Separatists have a one-time opportunity to invoke "Order 66". When this happens, each and every planet (territory) in the Republic is checked against a die roll, and a losing roll means the planet becomes Separatist. In every game I've played so far, this wipes out the Republic. Not only have you lost the territories themselves, but all their troops turn against you. It's maddening to be playing the Republic, building up for a great crushing attack and blip, here comes Order 66, bye bye lovely troops. Once issuing Order 66, the Separatists must then place the Emperor (a special piece) on a planet, where he must remain, and the Republic will automatically win the game if they take this planet. But I have yet to get the Republic to recover enough to strike at the Emperor.
The dark side just has too many advantages to make this game fun to play. In the LOTR Trilogy edition, evil starts out stronger, but with good strategy, good can still win. But I just can't figure out the strategy here to make things even.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good game!, August 16, 2005
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars
Let me start by saying I'm a big risk fan. I'm also a large starwars fan.
I love this game, but it requires a level of skill...more so than normal risk. This is due to Order 66...
There are two factions rebellion and separatist the separatist after 11 turns get the ablity to roll for every single planet in the universe and they get every single one, unless they roll a 1 for one of them (on an 8 sided die, so basically you do a "check" on every single planet one at a time, if you roll a 2 3 4 5 6 7 or 8 you get it and the armys on it)
This of course, is VERY powerful.
Now, I saw a reviewer mention they tried "every strategy" to win as the republic and failed...sorry to say they must not very good strategys.
The very first time I played, I played separatist...I held strong, gained ground mid game but then was getting pushed back by rebpublic finally around the 10th turn..I called order66 on the 11th turn and took every planet in the universe but 2...so it became 40vs2 and of course I won
I will admit, I felt like I was cheating rolling for all those planets. I checked the rule book to make sure this really was supposed to happen...it seemed so unfair and we even considered changing the rules to modify it.
I insisted however that we give it another go, with me as the republic...since I am the risk champion (I have yet to be beaten in any risk game here)
I wanted to get a strategic feel for the republic...to see if this really is possible. I knew that if I could not win, or even get close to winning...that maybe we need to modify or even REMOVE order 66.
So we start playing, Republic start with more planets than separatist do...they also get to place thier first ones anywhere they like(with an extra army on each to boot)
Also, every separatist turn they have to place a token and if you capture it you get cards...1 2 or 3..card can be exchanged for units or for ships or special powers.
I went into the game knowing:
1: I have to be VERY fast and VERY aggressive to avoid order66
2: Cards are my advantage, capture tokens.
3: don't buy ships, don't use special powers...trade in your cards for UNITS (you need to PUSH FORWARD AT ALL COST..within reason..don't fight against silly odds of course or thin yourself out too much)
By the 6th turn I had the separatist player debating using order66 early...he had only 9 planets left between his two teams
idealy he wanted to wait untill his 8th turn, where order66 has 5 6 7 8 chance of capturing planets(on the 1d8), on turns 5, 6 and 7 it's 6 7 8 (I believe)
he managed to hold out untill his 7th turn, on that turn he made the choice that if he held out for another turn he might not have any more armys left (in which case he'd lose before he could call order66)
so he called it, made his rolls...he did about as was expected for 6 7 8 odds he went from having 6 planets to having 21 planets after order66 which is half of the board...it hurt, bad, he got some of my front line armys which were pretty nice sized...
But I was content with half, I still had more cards (and as the republic your cards seem to be better as well)
two turns later, I killed his sidious piece (which he has to place after declaring order66) and won the game instantly...it was fun, and fair all around.
I do advise though that the more skilled player plays republic...becuase it's far too easy to win if the republic player is not VERY aggressive (intelligently mind you)
capture lots of regions, trade in for lots of units, push forward those front lines...don't overdo it or he'll push back...don't let him get cards or strongpoints..capture all of his tokens
You have a huge advantage at the start as republic but if you don't use it, you're basicly even teams with an 11 turn limit untill separatist wins automatically.
I love this game.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give it a chance!, August 23, 2006
I'm a Risk fan, but don't get many opportunities to play. I find this version to be a fun and fascinating variation. It integrates very well with the movie theme and provides a dramatic twist where one side gets to automatically take random territories at a certain point in the game. ( It's order 66 if you remember that from SW Episode III. )
The rules are pretty well laid out and easy to understand if you already know the risk rules. All the new rules are all in blue so you can skim quickly through them. If you aren't familiar with Risk, I recommend skipping all the blue rules to play a classic game first. Just keep in mind that it will be more fun with all the rules.
Some new variations from the original include:
1. Cards with special thematic actions you can take for an advantage
2. Powerful Anakin cards which become useless to the republic player after Order 66.
3. The ability to turn in collected cards for space ships that lend bonuses to your rolls (for instance, roll an 8-sided die rather than a 6 or re-roll any ones.)
4. Special thematic characters that the Republic can catch (and the separatists have to hide) to earn bonus cards.
5. The dramatic Order 66 dynamic which gives the Seperatists a chance to convert territories (and armies) to their side. The longer they can hold out against the card advantage of the Republic the more damage they can do.
6. A two player game is actually fun unlike most other Risk variations.
The low point of Star Wars Risk: Clone Wars is the ugly, ugly board. You might expect something gorgeous since it's based on such a visually oriented movie franchise, but the board is definitely function over form. At least it doesn't get in the way of the game play.
I highly recommend this game to Risk fans as a more dramatic and shorter variation. After playing a few times and when everyone gets the rules, you might even get in a game in under 3 hours. That's very short for Risk.
For those who compare variations, I find the theme and artistry of the Lord of the Rings variation to be far superior and it introduced some of the game play ideas that this game use. However, I find Star Wars Risk: Clone Wars to be much more fun overall.
I've heard that the more complicated "hardcore" variations of Risk like Godstorm and 2210 A.D. are better games, but I haven't played those.
P.S. Another review here suggested that the Separatists always win. That hasn't been my experience and I've seen discussions on forums that have had opposite situations where the Republic always wins. It's all in the strategy... and the die rolls. :)
Later this year (2006), there is supposed to be a Risk game based on the Original Trilogy of Star Wars movies. I'm very much looking forward to that.
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