Star Wars Minis: Revenge of the Sith

Overall score:

Revenge of the Sith (RotS) is the third set for Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars miniatures line, and unlike the last two sets it is based on a single movie rather than multiple sources. Considering that Clone Strike, the previous set, only came out in December, and RotS hit stores in March, you may think that this set was rushed, but that’s not really the case. Wizards designs these sets months in advance, and the next two sets (Universe and Powers of the Force), are already done. There are four factions in this set: Separatist, Republic, Fringe and Imperial. If you're unfamilar with the game itself then you might want to read the original review, becaue I won't be covering any rules here.

Like the previous two sets, the sculpting and paint jobs are very well done. There are also lots of diverse figures here despite being based on a single movie, but several of them are repeats from Clone Strike (some with new stats, others identical). If you haven’t read my Clone Strike review let me reiterate one of my concerns with this game--the constant possibilities of repeats with commons. With RotS you get five repeated figures: clone trooper, clone trooper officer, battle droid, super battle droid, and destroyer droid; on top of that there are multiple sculpts for the three common figures, each filling a separate slot, so in total there are actually eight repeated figures in the set (with one, the sestroyer droid, being a rare). The sculpts for these units are different than the sculpts they got in Clone Strike, but the stats are the same. On one hand this can be nice because it helps you build up big armies of fodder such as clone troopers and droids, but ont he other hand I'm getting really sick of pulling these guys out of boosters. While I’m curious on what will, if anything, replace the common faction troops down the line I'm sure it will be cosmetic only, because there’s really only so many things you can do with five to ten point figures in this game.

In addition to exact repeats, this set has lots of new versions of existing characters: there are three versions of Grievous and two of Darth Vader, which makes four of each in the game now; there’s also been three versions of the Emperor and three of Anakin. Now that they’ve covered all the core movies, though, maybe we’ll start seeing fewer repeats from here on out.

Like both previous sets this one comes with a starter, though Wizards decided to do something different and release it in a standard board game box size instead of the flimsy small cardboard box, with the map mounted much like a board game as well (boosters are still the same as before). The figures included in the starter are another Obi-wan (just as in the Clone Strike starter, but with different stats) and General Grievous, plus a four regular commons. I really think Wizards could have come up with a better figure instead of Obi-Wan, since he was the last starter figure; he’s also got a lame commander effect which only applies to Anakin, and it's kind of disappointing to get a starter figure who can only be used to pull potential if you pull a specific rare or very rare figure. Grievous is a nice addition, though, and because his commander effect applies to all droids it will allow people to actually start making decent droid armies. Regardless of how good the figures are, though, you’re getting fewer of them in this starter than in previous starters, and it costs five dollars more. The extra cost is made up by the map, which is very nice to play on and fairly well-designed, but has a few problems of its own: it is smaller than the maps in previous sets, there is no reverse side, and there are no tiles for changing the map around--these losses seriously cut down on your options when it comes time to play. The map is tournament legal, though, so that's nice (for some reason the four maps from the Ultimate Mission books cannot be use in tournaments).

One of my complaints from the last set that seems to have been somewhat addressed in this expansion is that there wasn’t enough of a difference between factions--each faction played more or less like every other one. What little difference they have now is happening with the rares and their commander effects. Sadly the Separatists got the shaft in this set with only seven rares, one of which (the destroyer droid) is a repeat from a previous set; the Republic, on the other hand, got thirteen rares. Even so the Separatists did get some useful team-building abilities, such as Grievous's previously-mentioned commander effect and Darth Tyranus’s ability to grant an additional defense bonus to another figure with a force rating. They also have two reinforcement figures: one that allows for additional droids at the start of the game, and one that allows for additional units (of any type) whenever you roll a one on initiative. The Separatists have also become a much more mobile faction, with several units that can move more than six squares and still attack.

On the Republic side you’ve got one reinforcement figure, which grants extra units on an initiative roll of twenty; another commander effect grants you a bonus to hit and damage fringe characters. Unlike Clone Strike, most of the Jedi in this set do not have commander effects--only Yoda, who turns Wookies into bodyguards, and Obi-wan, who gives Anakin a bonus to attack--that doesn’t make the other jedi any less useful. There have been a lot of new and very cool powers added to the Jedi, such as Mace’s Shockwave attack (which activates your opponent's units so they cannot take an action this turn), or Shaak Ti’s crowd fighting ability (which grants her a bonus to attack for every unit adjacent to her). While the Separatists are more mobile and mostly ranged, the Republic is much more diverse in what you can do, making it more of a superior faction.

Well, superior for a moment, until you see what the Imperial forces have, which more or less ruined the set for me. The new version of the Emperor has an ability called Execute Order 66, which (Spoiler Alert, sort of) allows you to build armies with clone troopers regardless of faction, and makes it so no clone trooper from this or any set can attack him. In effect, this one unit can destroy the usefulness of an entire faction's primary soldiers, and makes many figures useless. While this follows the movies accurately (gross imbalance and complete unfairness is how Palpatine becomes Emperor, after all) it really hurts the game, especially in the tournament scene. Not many people are going to be playing with clone trooper armies now that their entire team can be all but nullified by a single figure. The balance between little guys and jedis has always been a little off in this game, and something like this has me a little worried about what other possible things they might be willing to do in the future.

Despite my complaints I like Revenge of the Sith overall. The game is finally allowing for more complex team builds, and I really hope that the faction identities get further developed. But the silliness of Order 66, plus all of the repeats and multiple-version figures in this set, really show the dark side of the game's occasionaly poor design. We know that we’ll inevitably have repeats of little thugs and different versions of popular characters (there’s another Chewbacca coming out in the next set, which will make three), so lets hope they find something interesting to do with them instead of repeat the same old stuff forever.

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Written by Spriggan on May 02nd, 2005