This game, specifically the FRONTIERS box with the co-op villains, is the best deckbuilding teacher I have ever owned. It's simple and straightforward and since you are working cooperatively, the new players can see the benefits of : themed buying bringing more actions and power, why a deckbuilding player cuts cards from a deck (especially Vipers), and why even if you pick a theme for your strategy, you might splash a little of another group in for added synergy. I played this game this morning with my 87 year-old mother, who likes the cooperative nature and understands buying for thematic strength. She also loves the Smashbots villain, one of the BGG fan-generated villains.
I played the app several times to understand the hype, but I never quite grasped the suite bonus mechanic because I didn’t read the rules (yes you can call me dense). My main critique of the gameplay is that it felt like you draw 5 cards and slap them on the board with little thought (at least that's how I played) because holding cards between rounds is not an option. The real decisions seemed to revolve around what to purchase.
Sad that most deckbuilders copy this autopilot gameplay. Along with the cloggy market and narrow set collection "hard synergies" instead of soft synergy combo like dominion
Yes. The decisions are about what you purchase and remove (or skip). That's pretty much in the nature of deck builders. Tuning your deck via purchase and removal decisions to get a mean machine going. There's still some decision making in what you attack and sacrifice during your play. And the exact sequence you play your Star Realms hand can also matter.
@oerthling SR is literally a card dumping game. Very rarely do you not play your whole hand. It’s blind luck whether the cards you buy come out when you need them.
@@BoardGameBollocks very sad that the blind luck cloggy market + card dumping is what most deckbuilders copy, not even with the somewhat self-balancing market like Century and Dale of Merchants use
Having previously owned two copies of this (in order to get it to play four players), I think Shards of Infinity is a better game. Shards has a mechanic called mercenaries so one can buy and immediately execute a card from the offer without becoming part of the deck which eliminates deck bloat and still makes money cards useful in late game. And it has a power up mechanic called mastery where card effects become more powerful the higher the mastery level.
I like Both SR and Shards a lot. But shards is the better game, having iterated on SR to create multiple competing end games. That said, multi-player SR with the right buying deck is a complete blast.
i got shards of infinity and played it with 4 and didn't love it. What is the player count you prefer? I have heard that people like it more than SR, but for a 1st deck builder, which is what I think SR is, I think Shards can be a bit much for brand new gamers.
I much prefer Star Realms. More streamlined and plays quicker. The champions and shield defense mechanism all add more time and complexity to the game... Not what I'm looking for in a quick head-to-head dueler.
I use this in my game shop to teach Deck Building so when they want more they can play Tyrants of the Underdark, or maybe even Dune Imperium after playing a worker placement game. I think it does it what it does well since a lot of people i teach it have never played a deck builder before. solid review. the end game comes very fast, for sure.
Star Realms is not a dumb game. There is such a nuance to how you adjust your tactics throughout the game and react to / prevent the purchases of your opponents. To each opponent you need to create a specific balance in your deck and for that you need to be aware of basically all the cards in the deck. Timing / pacing is also essential. Dominion as a reference is nice but Magic the Gathering is just as much of an influence on this game and in my opinion, this is much more fun to play than the referenced games... It's like you have the best of both worlds. After a couple of hundreds of games and owning the base set, Frontiers and Colony Wars as well (we have these three shuffled together into a big pile of deck), I highly recommend giving this game a chance and not letting be discouraged by this review.
@falsestuff Star Realms is a card dumping machine…you literally empty your hand every turn regardless of what’s in it. You can’t react to your opponent as your hand is random each turn. It’s largely blind luck.
Can highly recommend Eternal: Chronicles of the throne to anyone enjoying these types of deckbuilders. One of our most played games ever (also thanks to it's size). And the one expansion it has is great as well, mitigating bad draws.
I played the app version online about 1500 times. There's depth there but you can eventually start to bang up against the skill ceiling with enough practice.
They have come out with a Star Trek re skin of the original which was disappointing as I was hoping for new mechanics to adhere to the Star Trek universe. In its present form one has contradictory alliances appearing with the Federation allied with even the Dominion much less the rest. There is a 1 vs many mode which could reflect the Dominion War however I doubt it would be feasible as the Dominion player would not have enough cards to draw from their own faction. In addition, the time periods stretch from the Original Series into the "Discovery" era. Wasted potential it appears unless anything is changed in the future.
i just got my copy of Star Trek Star Realms. i wish the art in that version was as vibrant as the original. I definitely like how easy it is to teach and that it's nice and small. that and the fact that it plays so quick, means i can forgive some of its flaws.
I taught my 7 year old Star Realms today and by changing the amount of authority that we have, we can have a long or short game, and I can handicap myself for a satisfying challenge. Not a great game, but it is very good within its niche.
Board game geeza. So good to see a straightforward review video with some comedy and not delivered by a neck bearded American that spends more time in the rule book than he does in his parent’s basement. Legend.
I loved it so much I sfoiled my package. The Nova set is ridiculous, but i filled it with all the regular expansions and my little package has remained just that.
Leaving while watching but I love this game. Warts and all, it’s good for new players or very casual players. Always a good time every time I’ve played it.
I agree with your comments. SR is a fast pacing minimalistic deck building game. It was released short after Dominion, which created the genre. It let aside the way Dominon used victory points which constitutes the pivot decision of seach game... when do i trigger the rush on provinces ? too soon but it will hinder the building of my engine, and too late can be I'm dead... In starRealm there is no time management.. it's just a takedat game. No need for expansions.. SR is just what it is. You buy it, you played some tenths of games.. and that's it. The other assumed difference with Dominion is the random availability of cards in the river. And this can be frustrating.. but IMO it was chosen on purpose. Luck can be frustrating or can bring a shot of adrenaline when the exact type of cards you wanted appears in the river. This being said, we've played around fifty + games with my wife, and she must have 75 - 80% of victories. So luck can't explain all... Although i usually go with : yeah, if you did not draw that blue card that restored your points, i would have won ...
Yes, its mostly just another deck builder. Not that much innovation. But it still murders Dominion and various other deck builders by being more interactive, very compact (even the 4 player "Frontiers" edition is just roughly double the size of the box shown at the end if the video) and much less expensive. Its doing the usual deck building thing - but way more efficient than a lot of the competition. That's whete the value is here. Also the deck design in the newer Frontiers edition is more interesting than the 2 original prints. It's far from being a top game for me - but for a quick game in between or late night qdter dinner and drinks or while travelling it fills it's niche nery well. That you can see you're going to lose in 1 more round is really not that mich of an issue. First, that's true for most games. And mainly its a quick game, that round is nit going to take long. And if you somehow surprisingly turn it around suddenly - all the more fun. Amd I cam play it with people who wouldn't play first edition Pax Porfiriana (similar sized game).
@@BoardGameBollocks Base Dominion is a multiplayer solitaire. You play your deck to get more VPs, then compare at the end. Interactivity is extremely low. Base Dominion is already much bigger and more expensive than Star Realms Frontiers. Somebody will argue "but Dominion expansions ...". Ok, but then you have to add a lot of shelf space and cost to try to get interactivity closer to a regular basic Star Realms box. (Going into my flameproof bunker ....) Dominion can't win this. It needs a lot of space, money and paper to get to where Star Realms starts. Very inefficient. (... Closing bunker vault door before incoming Dominion fan missiles arrive ... ;) )
@@BoardGameBollocks In base Dominion? It's been a long time since I played it, but it was mostly tuning your own deck to get more VP. But even if it is a bit more interactive than I remember it to be - it's still a bad deal size and price -wise compared to SR - which also is highly interactive from the get go. Can't win without interacting with your opponents.
Star Realms.... where it all startet :D For some time I really enjoyed it, especially the App Version. But even with expansions it felt very samey pretty quick. SR established the flowing Center Row Market which is a mechanic I like. But over time there came many many games that did it better and added new mechanics. I'd play a quick round at any day if you'd ask me, but you'll never hear me asking to play it.
@@mattiamodena5791 really? I always thought Ascension came after SR. Thx for clearing that up ;) I like Ascension more than SR, especially when some of the Expansions really change gameplay.
@@SaschaW82 Agree. SR to me is too straightforward and bare bone to be interesting. My major critique for this genre of games is the "dump your whole hand on the table, sum up values and apply" type of card play that eliminate a ton of player agency, makes the game feel like it's constantly in auto-play mode. Two games pretty much kill SR: Star Wars the deckbuilding game and Shards of Infinity (made by the same company that made Ascension).
The main reason why I haven’t gone in on Star Realms is that I think the graphic design looks cheap. I need to check out The Star Wars Deck Building game, it has high production values.
i often read comments artwork in games. I start to think that this is juste a trick from editors to counterbalance the not that high level of interest of a game... or just to give a reason for the price... When unboxing you can go.. wow, beautiful.. and hesitaite between playing the game and hanging the box against the wall of your living room. the artwork of most of the greatest games i have are objectively at best lame but usually plain ugly. castles of burgandy ? euphrate and tigris ? when i look at any mat gerndt cover boxes, my eyes pop out of my head, screaming.. who cares ? is the game great ? are the info you need clearly readable ? that's all matters.. if artwork is a "plus".. ok.. but a not so good game with beautiful illustrations (knarr or harmony) are still not so good games.
The box size is zero. The iOS implementation is great. Every board game should be an iOS game or a visionOS game. Physical objects are a waste of space and material.
playing against an actual competitor, seeing his hopes ruined, as the game progresses, of tryig hard to wipe out his smile when you are loosing the game, is, imo what constitutes the core of this hobby.
This game, specifically the FRONTIERS box with the co-op villains, is the best deckbuilding teacher I have ever owned. It's simple and straightforward and since you are working cooperatively, the new players can see the benefits of : themed buying bringing more actions and power, why a deckbuilding player cuts cards from a deck (especially Vipers), and why even if you pick a theme for your strategy, you might splash a little of another group in for added synergy. I played this game this morning with my 87 year-old mother, who likes the cooperative nature and understands buying for thematic strength. She also loves the Smashbots villain, one of the BGG fan-generated villains.
What do you think of Hero Realms variation?
@MAK08299 not tried it matw
@@MAK08299 It's okay, but the bosses and scenarios are fiddlier. It's also harder to teach concentrating on a theme.
@@MAK08299I've played both ruins if thandar enough to also get Lost Village. For two players it's a great experience and my wife loved it.
Best $20 I have spent in games
We still play all the time, base and frontiers
I played the app several times to understand the hype, but I never quite grasped the suite bonus mechanic because I didn’t read the rules (yes you can call me dense). My main critique of the gameplay is that it felt like you draw 5 cards and slap them on the board with little thought (at least that's how I played) because holding cards between rounds is not an option. The real decisions seemed to revolve around what to purchase.
More often than not you just play everything
Sad that most deckbuilders copy this autopilot gameplay. Along with the cloggy market and narrow set collection "hard synergies" instead of soft synergy combo like dominion
Yes. The decisions are about what you purchase and remove (or skip). That's pretty much in the nature of deck builders. Tuning your deck via purchase and removal decisions to get a mean machine going.
There's still some decision making in what you attack and sacrifice during your play. And the exact sequence you play your Star Realms hand can also matter.
@oerthling SR is literally a card dumping game. Very rarely do you not play your whole hand. It’s blind luck whether the cards you buy come out when you need them.
@@BoardGameBollocks very sad that the blind luck cloggy market + card dumping is what most deckbuilders copy, not even with the somewhat self-balancing market like Century and Dale of Merchants use
Having previously owned two copies of this (in order to get it to play four players), I think Shards of Infinity is a better game.
Shards has a mechanic called mercenaries so one can buy and immediately execute a card from the offer without becoming part of the deck which eliminates deck bloat and still makes money cards useful in late game.
And it has a power up mechanic called mastery where card effects become more powerful the higher the mastery level.
I like Both SR and Shards a lot. But shards is the better game, having iterated on SR to create multiple competing end games. That said, multi-player SR with the right buying deck is a complete blast.
i got shards of infinity and played it with 4 and didn't love it. What is the player count you prefer? I have heard that people like it more than SR, but for a 1st deck builder, which is what I think SR is, I think Shards can be a bit much for brand new gamers.
I much prefer Star Realms. More streamlined and plays quicker. The champions and shield defense mechanism all add more time and complexity to the game... Not what I'm looking for in a quick head-to-head dueler.
I use this in my game shop to teach Deck Building so when they want more they can play Tyrants of the Underdark, or maybe even Dune Imperium after playing a worker placement game. I think it does it what it does well since a lot of people i teach it have never played a deck builder before. solid review. the end game comes very fast, for sure.
Star Realms is not a dumb game. There is such a nuance to how you adjust your tactics throughout the game and react to / prevent the purchases of your opponents. To each opponent you need to create a specific balance in your deck and for that you need to be aware of basically all the cards in the deck. Timing / pacing is also essential. Dominion as a reference is nice but Magic the Gathering is just as much of an influence on this game and in my opinion, this is much more fun to play than the referenced games... It's like you have the best of both worlds. After a couple of hundreds of games and owning the base set, Frontiers and Colony Wars as well (we have these three shuffled together into a big pile of deck), I highly recommend giving this game a chance and not letting be discouraged by this review.
You’re saying Star Realms is a deep strategic experience? Good lord…
@@BoardGameBollocks Nah, come on, that's not what I said . There are levels between plain dumb and deep strategic experience
@falsestuff Star Realms is a card dumping machine…you literally empty your hand every turn regardless of what’s in it. You can’t react to your opponent as your hand is random each turn. It’s largely blind luck.
Can highly recommend Eternal: Chronicles of the throne to anyone enjoying these types of deckbuilders. One of our most played games ever (also thanks to it's size). And the one expansion it has is great as well, mitigating bad draws.
Yes, Eternal is solid.
I only found out about Star Realms last year. We think it is fantastic. We have the Frontiers version.
I played the app version online about 1500 times. There's depth there but you can eventually start to bang up against the skill ceiling with enough practice.
Speaking of small portable card games, have you had a chance to try Compile?
No mate
it just came out. most places are sold out. I hope by end of year it will be in stock again.
I've made house rules for pitting Realms vs SFBF/ star fleet battle force. Ranges make it interesting.
I am considered selling our copy. We tried a few custom rules and changing the cards used but it still is quite random very often.
They have come out with a Star Trek re skin of the original which was disappointing as I was hoping for new mechanics to adhere to the Star Trek universe. In its present form one has contradictory alliances appearing with the Federation allied with even the Dominion much less the rest. There is a 1 vs many mode which could reflect the Dominion War however I doubt it would be feasible as the Dominion player would not have enough cards to draw from their own faction. In addition, the time periods stretch from the Original Series into the "Discovery" era. Wasted potential it appears unless anything is changed in the future.
i just got my copy of Star Trek Star Realms. i wish the art in that version was as vibrant as the original. I definitely like how easy it is to teach and that it's nice and small. that and the fact that it plays so quick, means i can forgive some of its flaws.
Frontier deck is brutal!
Yes! My kids had a meltdown…
I taught my 7 year old Star Realms today and by changing the amount of authority that we have, we can have a long or short game, and I can handicap myself for a satisfying challenge. Not a great game, but it is very good within its niche.
Board game geeza. So good to see a straightforward review video with some comedy and not delivered by a neck bearded American that spends more time in the rule book than he does in his parent’s basement. Legend.
I loved it so much I sfoiled my package. The Nova set is ridiculous, but i filled it with all the regular expansions and my little package has remained just that.
The best 1 vs 1 deckbuilder imho. ❤ it!
Leaving while watching but I love this game. Warts and all, it’s good for new players or very casual players. Always a good time every time I’ve played it.
Love your reviews!
👍🏻
I agree with your comments. SR is a fast pacing minimalistic deck building game. It was released short after Dominion, which created the genre. It let aside the way Dominon used victory points which constitutes the pivot decision of seach game... when do i trigger the rush on provinces ? too soon but it will hinder the building of my engine, and too late can be I'm dead... In starRealm there is no time management.. it's just a takedat game. No need for expansions.. SR is just what it is. You buy it, you played some tenths of games.. and that's it.
The other assumed difference with Dominion is the random availability of cards in the river. And this can be frustrating.. but IMO it was chosen on purpose. Luck can be frustrating or can bring a shot of adrenaline when the exact type of cards you wanted appears in the river. This being said, we've played around fifty + games with my wife, and she must have 75 - 80% of victories. So luck can't explain all... Although i usually go with : yeah, if you did not draw that blue card that restored your points, i would have won ...
Star realms was released 5 years after Dominion
Still waiting for that Voidfall review; as the former owner of the copy ;)
Havent played it yet mate
@@BoardGameBollocks sure, I am just really curious about your upcoming review (hopefully this year!)
@kamilkuklo4225 The rules put me off
I enjoyed the game a lot with my kid but it got old with a lots of plays, maybe with some expansions. Greetings from Mexico bollock man 👍🏼
Bollock man 😂
@@BoardGameBollocks Theres a song about that isnt there, having only one bollock :P
German isn’t is?
Yes, its mostly just another deck builder. Not that much innovation.
But it still murders Dominion and various other deck builders by being more interactive, very compact (even the 4 player "Frontiers" edition is just roughly double the size of the box shown at the end if the video) and much less expensive.
Its doing the usual deck building thing - but way more efficient than a lot of the competition. That's whete the value is here.
Also the deck design in the newer Frontiers edition is more interesting than the 2 original prints.
It's far from being a top game for me - but for a quick game in between or late night qdter dinner and drinks or while travelling it fills it's niche nery well.
That you can see you're going to lose in 1 more round is really not that mich of an issue. First, that's true for most games. And mainly its a quick game, that round is nit going to take long. And if you somehow surprisingly turn it around suddenly - all the more fun.
Amd I cam play it with people who wouldn't play first edition Pax Porfiriana (similar sized game).
Not sure how it’s far more interactive than Dominion when it has far more options…
@@BoardGameBollocks Base Dominion is a multiplayer solitaire. You play your deck to get more VPs, then compare at the end. Interactivity is extremely low.
Base Dominion is already much bigger and more expensive than Star Realms Frontiers.
Somebody will argue "but Dominion expansions ...". Ok, but then you have to add a lot of shelf space and cost to try to get interactivity closer to a regular basic Star Realms box.
(Going into my flameproof bunker ....) Dominion can't win this. It needs a lot of space, money and paper to get to where Star Realms starts. Very inefficient.
(... Closing bunker vault door before incoming Dominion fan missiles arrive ... ;) )
@oerthling it’s not actually. There are plenty of cards that attack other players and influence what they/you buy/play.
@@BoardGameBollocks In base Dominion? It's been a long time since I played it, but it was mostly tuning your own deck to get more VP.
But even if it is a bit more interactive than I remember it to be - it's still a bad deal size and price -wise compared to SR - which also is highly interactive from the get go. Can't win without interacting with your opponents.
Yes…curses and militia are a couple of examples
This game rules
Period
And no monetary predatory cash grabs like a TCG
But what about Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth? I have started buying all the copies i see.. is that a mistake?
trashing means removing it from the game - I refer to Realms nomenclature a lot when playing other games
I look up star realms and I see a dozen different games and dlcs
Choose the one called “Star Realms”.
Star Realms.... where it all startet :D For some time I really enjoyed it, especially the App Version. But even with expansions it felt very samey pretty quick.
SR established the flowing Center Row Market which is a mechanic I like. But over time there came many many games that did it better and added new mechanics.
I'd play a quick round at any day if you'd ask me, but you'll never hear me asking to play it.
The flowing center row in a competitive 1v1 deckbuilder was first implemented by Ascension 4 years before Star Realms.
@@mattiamodena5791 really? I always thought Ascension came after SR. Thx for clearing that up ;)
I like Ascension more than SR, especially when some of the Expansions really change gameplay.
@@SaschaW82 Agree. SR to me is too straightforward and bare bone to be interesting. My major critique for this genre of games is the "dump your whole hand on the table, sum up values and apply" type of card play that eliminate a ton of player agency, makes the game feel like it's constantly in auto-play mode. Two games pretty much kill SR: Star Wars the deckbuilding game and Shards of Infinity (made by the same company that made Ascension).
@@mattiamodena5791 Yes, Shards is superior to SR in all matters, its my goto Quick-Deckbuilder.
The main reason why I haven’t gone in on Star Realms is that I think the graphic design looks cheap.
I need to check out The Star Wars Deck Building game, it has high production values.
The art isn't exactly the greatest I agree.
i often read comments artwork in games. I start to think that this is juste a trick from editors to counterbalance the not that high level of interest of a game... or just to give a reason for the price... When unboxing you can go.. wow, beautiful.. and hesitaite between playing the game and hanging the box against the wall of your living room. the artwork of most of the greatest games i have are objectively at best lame but usually plain ugly. castles of burgandy ? euphrate and tigris ? when i look at any mat gerndt cover boxes, my eyes pop out of my head, screaming.. who cares ? is the game great ? are the info you need clearly readable ? that's all matters.. if artwork is a "plus".. ok.. but a not so good game with beautiful illustrations (knarr or harmony) are still not so good games.
dont like deck builders way too luck of the draw based...i like dice more for that and dont need to shuffle like a maniac...
Boards of sleaford 😂
The box size is zero. The iOS implementation is great. Every board game should be an iOS game or a visionOS game. Physical objects are a waste of space and material.
You need physical objects to use digital implementations.
playing against an actual competitor, seeing his hopes ruined, as the game progresses, of tryig hard to wipe out his smile when you are loosing the game, is, imo what constitutes the core of this hobby.