HeroCard Galaxy, by TableStar Games, is actually two games in one; as such, this review is going to be broken into two distinct parts. Part 1 will cover the basic HeroCard card-battle game, while Part 2 will cover the tactical board game. So, without further ado . . .

The HeroCard Game
The card-battle system present in HeroCard Galaxy is, by all reports, present in all of the HeroCard games. In this game, each player takes control of a hero, and gets that hero’s corresponding action deck. The action deck contains 33 cards, three of which are attributes for your hero, which start in play. There are three different attributes (Body, Mind, and Attribute X), each with a rating (typically between 4 and 9). To launch an attack you play a base attack card along with attack mods and special attacks, while your opponent defends with a base block card, block mods, and special blocks. Each of these cards uses up a certain number of attribute points, and is keyed to a specific attribute. There’s a significant resource management aspect to this game, as the total number of action cards that you have played on a given attribute can’t have a total cost greater than that attribute’s value. So, for example, the Mechagen deck’s Body attribute is Robotics, which has a value of 8. If you were to play the base attack Iron Arm Saw, which has a cost of 2 Body, that would leave you with 6 Body points to play other cards with. The trick comes in with the fact that, once you’ve played through an entire attack/block sequence, those cards stay in play but have no effect on the game other than to use up your attribute points. You can clear up to three cards away from your attribute stacks each turn, before your action phase (which is when you play cards), but it’s conceivable that you’d have to launch an attack or block an attack with some of your attribute points already used up.

A card battle involves the players taking turns going through the four phases: Discard, Draw, Clear, and Action. During Discard you can discard as many cards as you want to from your hand, while Draw allows you to draw up to three cards from your deck, provided you don’t go over the seven-card hand limit. As mentioned before, Clear allows you to clear away up to three cards from your attribute stacks, while Action is where you actually play attacks, blocks, and specials. In addition to having a hand limit and a limit on how many cards you can have in play at a time, you have to worry about what type of action a particular card is. A card could be a Fast (play as many as you want, during anyone’s Action phase), Restricted (as many as you want on your own Action phase), or Exclusive (one per turn, on your Action phase) action. Since most base attacks are Exclusive, this means you can only really launch one attack per turn, with a few exceptions for specific heroes. To win, you earn victory points by successfully attacking an opponent. The first one to the victory point limit wins.

HeroCard Galaxy comes with two heroes. The Cosmic Cult are psychic zealots who spread the word of God, by force if necessary, while the Mechagen are a hive-mind of robots who want to assimilate everything. In addition, there are two expansion heroes you can buy: the Crab is a giant mutant-cyborg crustacean, while the EGG (Energy Garnering Gyrosphere) is a space probe infected with electronic parasites. All four heroes have their own play styles; the Cosmic Cult is probably the most basic and easiest to play, with only a few special rules, while the EGG is probably the most advanced and hardes to play, with lots of special rules that depend on the actions of other players.

Opinions
Now, all this explanations is all well and good, but what do I actually think of the game? I like it, quite a lot. The basic card game is easy to learn and play, but requires a fair amount of strategy to succeed. As I mentioned before, there’s a fair amount of resource management in this game, and it’s very important to manage your resources effectively in order to succeed. When you’re playing a card battle, you really have to weigh the value of attacking during a given turn versus defending. Do you pour all of your resources into a massive assault to earn a victory point, possibly ceding a victory point to your opponent in turn when you don’t have enough attribute points left to block? Do you discard that extra base block card in the hopes of getting something that will help with an attack? Do you attack now, or do you wait until you’ve got more attack mods, and can mount a more effective offense? These are the decisions that the game forces you to make, and they’re often very hard decisions. In my experience, there can be a fair amount of hand-wringing involved, and launching an attack is often a gamble.

It should be noted that the two-player game is significantly different (and shorter) than the three-player game (though I didn’t get a chance to try it with four). A two-player game is straightforward and fast-moving, and is generally over in about a half hour. There’s plenty of strategy, but you only have to adjust your strategy to account for a single player, and you can afford to take more risks with your card plays. In the three player game, though, there’s a lot of opportunistic attacking. What do I mean? Let’s say Player A attacks Player B. Player A has then used up a fair number of his cards and attribute points attacking, while Player B has done the same with his blocking. Player C can the swoop in, attack whoever is the the worst shape, and score a victory point. This often has the effect of one player being the ‘whipping boy’ for a turn or two. To the game’s credit, though, the whipping boy usually recovers after a turn or two, and the role often shifts to someone else afterward.

That said, the game isn’t perfect; there are a few rough edges. For example, there are some typographical errors on some of the cards (colons where there shouldn’t be any, or a card referred to as a ‘Block’ rather than a ‘Base Block’). There are also some cards that are open to different interpretations, and you have to figure out whether the spirit of the rule is different from the letter of the rule. The manual, too, has a few problems; for example, I had a really hard time trying to figure out how many cards are in your hand at the beginning of the game. As it turns out, it’s seven, but you don’t find this out until page 23 of the 27-page manual; you’d think it would be at the beginning, under ‘Setup’. Most of these flaws are easy for me to forgive, though, and don’t really change the fact that I do recommend this game pretty highly. Aside from the typos and occasionally unclear rules, the game’s presentation is quite nice. The cards are sturdy and high-quality, the pieces (which are only used in the board game) are very nice, plastic pieces, the manual is attractive and glossy, and I rather liked the art (though this is very much a matter of taste, and I can see why some people wouldn’t like it).

What I Liked
The game is easy to learn, takes about ten minutes to explain to your friends, and doesn’t take too long to play with two players. However, the game’s got a good depth of strategy, and forces lots of hard decisions, which I like a lot. It’s a great combination of heavy and light that I find very appealing. I also like the space sci-fi theme, and even the sheer geekery of the game. Let’s face it, any game that has a card called ‘Cybernetic Space Crustacean’ has to be good, right?

What I Didn’t Like
The typos and unclear rules are a strike against the game, though not a big one. In addition, the rulebook inexplicably repeats a lot of the rules for the basic card-battle game. Finally, some cards make reference to terms like ‘waste a card’, which make no sense until you look through the glossary at the end of the manual and find their definitions.

The Bottom Line
HeroCard Galaxy’s card-battle system is a well-designed, fun game, and I enjoy it thoroughly every time I play it (even though I usually lose). It’s easy to learn but takes some effort to master, and has a nice, modular component that I find appealing. Finally, if you’re not too fond of the sci-fi theme, there are other HeroCard games available from TableStar: Rise of the Shogun, Cyberspace, and Champions of New Olympia. Each game uses the core HeroCard rules and comes with its own, unique board game component and two heroes.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.