Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 45-60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: minimal

Starfighter is a 2-player game in which you send wave after wave of fighters at your enemy to take out their fighters and their capital ship.

Starfighter Rules Description:

Starfighter is mostly a card game but the boards do matter. Both players start with a board that shows their capital ships damage track and the columns they can place fighters in. Each column has from one to four rows for cards. Your player boards are placed directly across from each other and you are ready to start.

Each round is broken in to three phases, Reinforcements, Deployment and Combat. Your player board has a symbol with a hand drawing a card in the bottom row. During the Reinforcements phase you draw one card for each of these symbols on your player board that are showing.

In the Deployment phase players alternate placing fighter cards onto your board. Cards may only be placed in specific rows on your board. So you may only place level one cards in the level one row on your board. And you can only place a higher level card if there are cards in the levels below it. Level zero cards may be played in any free space. The back of the cards are always have two fighters and are always level zero. When you play a card you resolve any icons on it. These effects can rotate cards, move cards, or even destroy an enemy card. As you place a card it overlaps half of the card that was played below it. A placed card’s orientation matters but moreso in the Combat phase. The first player to pass may no longer play cards and gets the initiative marker. Once both players have passed the Deployment phase is over.

To start the Combat Phase the player with the initiative marker may shift their player board one column to the right or left. Then they decide the order, from left to right (or vice versa), that combat in the columns are resolved. Combat is resolved by taking damage tokens equal to the number of your opponent’s fighters showing in the column being resolved. Then the player with initiative places a damage token on each fighter in their row starting at the highest level. If a card has all of its fighters covered with damage tokens that card is destroyed and removed from the board. If you remove a card to reveal an effect symbol you immediately resolve that effect. Any damage that does not hit a fighter hits your opponent’s capital ship. Then the other player does the same until you have resolved all columns that align with another one.

If your opponent’s capital ship reaches zero or less on the damage track, you win.

Quick Review of Starfighter:

Starfighter has a lot going on but plays fast and has different ways it can be played. Training Mode only uses some of the cards and is suggested for new players. While Skirmish Mode adds more cards and a few new effect symbols. Total War Mode lets players bring pre-built decks and use their own draw deck instead of a common one.

The components in this game are pretty good. The cards are good quality and the rules are well written with lots of examples. But the art is just ok.

The way effects trigger when placed and again when revealed is interesting. Especially when you consider you can reveal symbols by rotating or moving cards. Or even strategically place them when you know they are going to be destroyed by enemy fighters.

The game move quickly and there is not a lot of downtime. Since you only draw up to five cards deployment is resolved swiftly too.

I mentioned there is a lot going on in this game and is not hard to learn, but it I more of a gamer’s game. Non-gamers might be overwhelmed with the amount of symbols and effects.

I like the different modes as they add some replay value. So do the different player board. Different ships have different layouts and health so you’ll wat to try them all.

Starfighter is a card game and you can only play with the cards you draw. So it is pretty random. And making cool combos is fun but you’ll need the right cards to do them.

This game is really good for a couple of friends that want to invest some time into it. You could learn how best to utilize effect combos. You might even enjoy the Total War variant with pre-built decks.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6