First off is the new starter, which is an interesting change from previous starters (the last one was with Revenge of the Sith back in early 2005) which had started out with Rebel Storm and Clone Strike being simple boxes that were just bigger boosters in look. Then with Revenge of the Sith Wizards moved to making the starters like a board game in look with a very nice box (that I still have and use) and a map on a hard board much like Monopoly or any other board game.

It’s been quite a while since my last look at Star Wars Miniatures and even longer since Wizards has released a starter for the game so with the release of Alliance and Empire, Star Wars RPG: Saga Edition and a new Starter I thought this would be a good time to see how things have changed in the past two years. The rules haven’t changed, which shows how solid the games core rules are, since the first set came out and as I dislike re-reviewing stuff that hasn’t changed I’m not going to cover that in this article, if you’re not familiar with the rules then feel free to read the review of the original set in which I cover that ground.

I’ve been holding off doing single figure reviews for any miniature game for quite some time. I’ve never cared for discussing one single unit out of hundreds because most of the time the figures by themselves aren’t all that cool or interesting--only when you combine them with other figures where each can play off of each other’s abilities can you really see how useful a unit really is.

Constructible Strategy Games are an interesting concept; they combine many elements of miniature games with Collectible Card Games with a, usually, simple punch-out and assemble construction method. The games are relatively cheap and take up very little shelf space, while most miniature-based games are notoriously expensive and take up lots of space. On top of that, CSGs tend to be fairly fun (even Raceday was pretty fun, though it never got a fair shake from the gaming community). So it comes as no surprise that Wizards of the Coast has decided to jump on the bandwagon, however, to this date only Wizkids’ Pirates line has done well in the CSG niche, and unfortunately Transformers 3d Battle-Card Game won’t be doing anything to extend the appeal of CSGs to gamers or non-gamers.

There is just something about Germans and great board games. For a country that lost two world wars you’d think their strategy gaming skills would be a little iffy. Yet somehow Germany got the company of Hans im Glück, which produces some of the best games in the industry. Their games come to the United States by way of the Rio Grande Games company which invested wisely in translators.