Risk: Star Wars : The Clone Wars

"Only as good as those who follow thier plan Risk is." and so Yoda passes on another piece of Jedi wisdom.

Risk :Star Wars :The Clone Wars, now there is a title for a game but is it any good?

Well lets get one thing sorted from the beginning I got this from EBay and including P&P it cost less than £10, so a bargain it is. That said, it is one of the many, many Risks on the market and more are on the way. Is it better than the original? well I think so it plays quicker, you never get to build up massive armies and have tons of dice throws before you can move on. Also it adds a couple of variations to the game play.

What you get in the box is 2 Armies the Republic and the Seperatists this allows 2,3 or 4 players to change the course of the very bad films that Mr Lucas put out. You also get a bunch of cards that are relevant to each faction and a Darth Sidious figure. A Huge CHEER!!! goes out to the game designers for not putting in Ja JA Bings.

Game play follows standard Risk play, each player claims Planets by placing one of thier figures on it in turn until all have been claimed then you reinforce those planets you feel give you an advantage of some sort.

Once that is done on with the game.

Cards are won by winning battles in the normal way, but the cards differ from original risk in that you can turn them in for Reinforcements, or a ship or play the powers that the card gives you. These will always give you some advantage for example a fighter allows any 1 on a dice you throw to be re-rolled until it is a number other than 1, or you may be allowed to use an 8 sided dice instead of a 6 sided one. Sometimes a card will stop Darth Sidious moving down his track and so delaying Order 66 being called.

Now for Order 66, this is a game changer. Until it is called the Republic player(s) must try to destroy all the seperartist players armies in order to win the game, once it is called and is enacted then the balance changes. Darth Sidious is placed on the board and the only way the Republic can win is by destroying him. Seperatists still have to destroy all the Republican forces as per normal. Also when called some Republican units will switch sides, now the game ramps it up a gear.

The strategy in calling of Order 66 at the right time is crucial, too early and not enough advantage is gained, wait too long though and you may never get the chance to call it and so lose the Galaxy. This forces the Republic player(s) to push hard at the beginning of the game, no sitting back to build up a unbeatable force in this game.
After Order 66 is called the game is over very quickly, an average game is around 2 hours and that is a big + in my book.

The playing pieces are adequate for the game, the board is a little boring I think its meant to represent a tactical display on a space ship, if so then its fine. The addition of Order 66, and the way the cards are played throughout the game is an excellent idea. All in all a good game and for those of you who fancy a game of Risk but have'nt got 4 or 5 hours to play one then this is a great game, and like I said at the start it can be picked up for a great price from EBay.

7/10