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Character Stats
Anakin / Padmé
Han / Chewbacca
Luke / Leia
Mace Windu
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Yoda
Boba Fett / Greedo
Jango Fett / Zam Wessell
Count Dooku
Darth Maul
Darth Vader
Emperor Palpatine
Strategies
Light Side
Dark Side
Advanced Epic Duels
Epic Duels Links
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Advanced Epic Duels
By Sean Jordan
Version 1.0 – released 9-20-02
Introduction
Star Wars: Epic Duels is a wonderfully fun board game from Milton Bradley that simulates the epic battles from the Star Wars movies as well as allowing players to create their own battles with characters who would never fight together. The game is fairly well balanced and offers some interesting points strategically, but it has, in my opinion, one major flaw:
Even with solid strategy and a good understanding of the game, winning is often based on luck.
So, rather than gripe about the problems in the game, I have developed an expanded set of rules for players who want to take the gameplay up a notch. These new rules are not so much a change to the original rules as they are additions and modifications to enhance and strengthen what is already in place. None of these rules require the printing of new players or cards; all of them are can and should be used with the existing materials already included with the game.
New Abilities
The following abilities are available to all characters, except where noted.
Movement:
- Split movement (no cost)
: A green die roll may be split amongst a player’s characters during the movement phase.
- Sprint (discard 1 card)
– A character may discard a card to roll the die a second time before the end of the movement phase. The second roll, however, may only be applied to one character; another discard (and another roll of the die) is required to allow a second character to sprint. Any character may sprint once per turn.
- Charge
(discard 1 card) – A character may ram into another character and knock him or her to an adjacent legal space. Charging characters may not knock characters into occupied spaces or pits (such as the blue mists or ocean).
- Crouch
(discard 1 card) – A character may crouch down to allow other characters to shoot over him / her. Crouching must be declared during the movement phase. A crouching character also receives a defense bonus of +1 against all attacks. If a crouching character moves, he or she may remain in a crouching position until otherwise specified, but movement is halved.
Combat:
- Aimed shot
(discard 1 card; counts as 2 actions) – A character wielding a blaster may aim a shot from any standard attack card and inflict double damage at the cost of 1 discard and 2 actions. The aimed shot must be declared at the beginning of the attack (before the defender is given a chance to play a card). Aimed shots can be evaded, reversed or force blocked. Special attack cards may not be used for an aimed shot.
- Rapid fire
: (discard 1 card; counts as 2 actions) – A character wielding a blaster may fire a spray of three shots towards any enemy within his or her line of sight. Each shot deals 1 damage point and should be treated as separate attacks. The shots may be targeted towards a single enemy or distributed to up to three enemies within a character’s line of sight.
Defense:
- Evasion (discard 2 cards)
: A character may evade any normal attack by discarding two cards. For an evasion to be successful, however, the defending player must roll the die. If he or she rolls a green number, the attack is evaded and the character may move to any unoccupied adjacent space. If he or she rolls a red number, the character takes the full (undefended) damage of the attack.
- Reversal (discard 2 cards)
: A character may attempt to reverse any normal attack by discarding two cards. A reversal effectively avoids the attack damage and returns it to the attacker at one half its value (rounded down). Thus if Han Solo successfully reverses a Sith Speed attack from Darth Maul, Darth Maul takes one point of damage (3 divided by 2 is 1.5, which rounds down to 1). In order for a reversal to succeed, a player must roll a die; a green number indicates success while a red number indicates failure. A failed attempt at reversal means that the defender takes the full (undefended) damage of the attack.
New Jedi Force Powers
The following rules pertain to Jedi characters ONLY. Minor characters and non-Jedi (Han Solo, Boba Fett and Jango Fett) may not use these rules.
Movement
- Force speed (discard 1 card) – After a player rolls the die for movement, he or she may discard one card and move his or her Jedi character up to twice the value of the roll. Minor characters may not benefit from this bonus.
- Jump (discard 1 card) – During movement, a player may jump over an obstacle, character or "illegal" space by discarding one card per space jumped.
- Force push / pull
(discard 1 card) – A Jedi may use the force to push or pull any non-Jedi character with whom he has line of sight forwards, backwards or to the side one space. If a character is pushed or pulled into the blue mists of the Emperor’s throne room or the ocean of the Kamino platform, he or she is considered destroyed. A character who is pushed off a ledge may, however, choose to discard a card for an instant recovery or to roll a resistance roll with the die. Rolling a green number indicates a successful resistance; a red number indicates an unsuccessful resistance and the death of the character. A successful resistance means that the player may move the character to any space adjacent to the spot where he or she has fallen at the end of the moving player’s movement phase.
Attack
- Lightsaber toss (discard 1 plus 1 attack card; counts as two actions) – Any Jedi character may use a standard attack card as a "lightsaber toss" ranged attack. The rules for a lightsaber toss are similar to that of a blaster; the character must have line of sight and can attack over the mists or the ocean spaces. A lightsaber toss does the same amount of damage as listed on the attack card, but costs two actions (due to the fact that the lightsaber is out of the Jedi’s hands for the duration of the turn). Special attack cards may not be used for the lightsaber toss.
Defense
- Force block (discard 1 plus 1 defense card equal or greater to the damage being inflicted) – When a Jedi character is being attacked, he or she may choose not to defend, instead relying on the Force as a defense. If a player does this, before the attacking character reveals his or her attack card, the player must immediately declare a "force block." After the attack card is revealed, the defender must play one defense card of equal or greater value to the attack and discarding another card. Any defense card may be used, but special defense cards may only be used for defense purposes; their special conditions and modifiers become null and void when being used for a force block. Thus if Yoda plays "Serenity" (defense 15, draw a card), he will receive the defensive value but will not be allowed to draw a card.
Note: If the defending player is unable to play a defense card of equal or greater value but has called for a force block, he or she must still discard a card and take the full damage of the attack. In the special case of a card like Darth Vader’s "All Too Easy" where the attack damage defends upon a defense card being played, a Force Block must counter the lower number (in this case, an attack value of 3) rather than the higher number (an attack value of 20). Should the player be unable to defend, he or she will take the higher damage value as specified on the card.
Boba Fett / Jango Fett
Movement:
- Flight
(discard 1 card) – Both Boba and Jango Fett may discard a card during the movement phase to launch themselves into the air, effectively ignoring movement restrictions and allowing them to place their character above any space. Should the character land by the end of the movement phase, he is treated as a normal piece in play (with normal line of sight restrictions). But should the character remain in the air at the end of the movement phase, several new rules come into effect:
1) Because of the advantage of being airborne, the character may execute air attacks and will not be bound by line of sight. This means that any character on the board is vulnerable to attack.
2) Because the character is airborne, any character on the board may attack him with a ranged attack (blaster or saber toss) regardless of line of sight.
3) A Fett may hover over any square on the board, including "illegal" spaces or above characters.
Combat:
- (Airborne) Rocket attack
(discard 1 card; counts as two actions) – When a Fett is airborne, he may fire a rocket at any player on the board. The rocket inflicts 4 points of damage. The attacked player may not defend normally, but may either evade, reverse or perform a force block with a defense card of 4 or more points.
- (Airborne) Dive bomb (discard 2 cards; counts as two actions)
– When a Fett is airborne, he may drop a thermal detonator on any square of the board. A thermal detonator inflicts four points of damage to any character inside that square and four points of damage to any character within an adjacent square. The attacked player may not defend, even with an evasion, reversal or force block. Players in adjacent squares may, however, evade or force block with a defense card of 4 or more points.
- Crippling Shot
(play one attack and discard 2 cards; counts as two actions) – Because of the knowledge required to be an effective bounty hunter, each Fett has the capability to disable a character for one turn. The crippling shot should be played as a normal attack, but it must be announced before the defending player is given a chance to play a defense. If the attack damages the victim, that character is considered "disabled" for the next turn and may not move, attack or defend.
Defense:
- Rocket Evasion
(discard 2 cards) – Played the same as a regular evasion, but the Fett may fly to any space on the board. The downside of this is that until the Fett’s next turn, he is considered airborne and may be attacked by any player with a ranged attack.
Han Solo
Movement:
- Heroic charge (discard 1 card)
- Played like the regular charge. Because of Han’s ability to charge recklessly into danger, he may move any character in the path of his charge 2 spaces as they flee in terror!
- Gambler’s Advantage (instead of movement)
- During the movement phase, Han may opt to use his movement to draw cards. Instead, when he rolls the die, he may draw one half the number rolled (rounded down) worth of cards. (A roll of a 2 = draw 1, a roll of a 5 = draw 2.)
Combat:
- Quick Shot (play 1 attack card and discard 1 card; counts as two actions)
- Han fires off a quick, unblockable shot equal in damage to the value of the attack card played. A quick shot must be announced at the beginning of the attack to take effect. This attack may not be evaded or reversed, but it can be force blocked.
- Unplanned attack (discard 2 cards; counts as two actions)
– Han attacks each enemy he can attack once, inflicting three points of blockable damage to each of them.
Defense:
- Gambler’s Instinct
(Play 1 attack card and discard 1 card): Han may counterattack any attack leveled against him in lieu of defense. If his attack inflicts any damage to his attacker, he takes no damage from the original attack. If his attack fails, he takes full damage.
- Wookie Bodyguard (Play 1 Chewbacca defense card and discard 1 card)
: Due to Chewbacca’s life bond to Han, he may throw himself into the line of defense for his friend by playing his own defense card. Chewbacca must be adjacent to Han in order to defend him.
Minor Characters
Each minor character has at least one special ability.
Chewbacca
Wookie Fury (discard 2 cards; costs 2 actions) – Chewbacca attacks any adjacent enemy characters for 4 points of unblockable damage (though it can be evaded, reversed or force blocked). If Han has been killed, Chewbacca inflicts 6 points of damage.
Leia / Padme
Royal combat training (play 1 attack card and discard 1 card; costs 2 actions) – Leia and Padme can both use their diplomatic tactics and quick reflexes to render any attack card (including special attacks) unblockable. These attacks can, however, be force blocked, evaded or reversed.
Clone Troopers / Storm Troopers / Battle Droids / Super Battle Droids / Imperial Guards
Team Tactics (play 2 attack cards and discard 1 card; costs 1 action) – Team Tactics allows two troopers or droids to attack a character for the cost of one action. Each trooper or droid must play an attack card in order to attack.
Greedo
Sneak attack (play 1 attack card and discard 1 card; counts as two actions) – Having learned the hard way not to wave a gun around unless you intend to use it, Greedo can now fire a quick, unblockable shot. Unlike Han Solo’s Quick Shot, however, Greedo’s shot can be evaded and reversed or, of course, force blocked.
Zam Wessel
Shapeshifter (discard 1 card) – During movement, Zam can move undetected through enemy-occupied spaces as if they are friendly spaces. Only 1 discard is required per turn, regardless of how many spaces she moves through.
Sniper (play 1 attack card and discard 1 card; costs 2 actions) – If Zam is more than five spaces away from a target, she may fire a special aimed shot worth triple a standard attack card’s damage. The sniper shot must be declared at the beginning of the attack (before the defender is given a chance to play a card). Sniper shots can be evaded, reversed or force blocked. Special attack cards may not be used for a sniper shot.
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