Yeah, the act of making iconic characters appear at the highest rarity is a low point. There is no reason Vader and Han Solo should appear at the highest rarity in the first set. I would hope with them using the sub-name system on the cards that they’ll appear in future sets at regular rarities.
I also hope once they get some supply actually out there the crazy singles prices will drop so I can grab a couple of them for less than their current price of half a booster box.
Ran into Hyperloop for the first time today. Gawd, that’s an annoying deck.
http://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/6147/topgunsakathehyperloop-3.0
Yeah, it is not beloved exactly. How’d the game go?
It did not go well. I don’t remember how many rounds it took to beat me, but it was never really that close. The ability it has to make you re-roll at will is fucking aggravating. Seems like FF should have caught that one and mitigated for it. Sloppy design work…no-one ever likes lockdown decks.
After they processed a refund for my booster box I opened the six boosters I did receive. Only one character, but lucked into two legendaries (Poe Dameron and Commanding Presence).
Pretty happy with that.
That’s cool. I still think they probably jacked your box to sell it for the higher price. Game dealers are shady.
And now that word is there’s only one more wave of Awakenings boosters being printed before the expansion, finding boosters is going to be really really tough for quite awhile.
At least you didn’t get stuck with a bunch of loose boosters.
Opened 20 packs tonight and scored a Luke, Luke’s Saber, One With the Force and Vader. I also got the second Jango I’d been hunting. Feels good, man!
Bunch a junkies… ;)
Even better, I found another retailer with booster boxes in stock and they’re cheaper and have free shipping!
I have one on the way (though it’ll take a week or two). ☺️
Seems I was rather optimistic with my last comment!
The second retailer took my money and then…nothing. After waiting almost a week with no shipping notification I emailed them asking for an update and they replied saying there’d been some mixup between the ebay-like auction site I’d purchased through and their own order system. Not to worry, they said, we’ve now processed it through and the goods should be on their way shortly.
Another week passes…and still nothing. I ping them again and, after a day to chase the warehouse team, they respond somewhat sheepishly saying that they no longer had stock and were unable to fulfil my order. Sigh. They promptly refunded my money but the wait meant my choice of retailers was narrowing.
I picked another site and, after my order (and money) was accepted, I got an automated email informing me that due to the sale they had on I should expect a slight delay. After four days of nothingness I asked for an update and was told it would be sent within the next five days. While settling in for the wait I noticed that the booster box had changed to out of stock. Uh oh, deja vu all over again…
The five days came and went. Another email and another reply indicating that things are simply taking longer than normal.
My resolve breaks.
I look at the one remaining retailer with stock and decide to pick up a box from them as I can sense things are going south with the other order. Although the cheapest shipping option they offer is significantly dearer than any of the other stores I’d dealt with, they do get the product out the door promptly and I spend this week tracking its travels from their country to mine. The extra expense pays off as the shipment arrived, cleared customs, and was delivered to work today (Friday) just in time for the weekend!
As I walked to my car for the commute home I noticed an email on my phone. It was the customer service rep from the next-to-last retailer I ordered from. Good news he said, your order has shipped! Oh, I thought, I…never actually cancelled that order. Mmmm, I’m sure my wife will be pleased…
My 8 y/o son certainly was when I walked in the door with the much anticipated booster box this evening though. He wolfed down dinner and then asked if he could crack a few boosters while I did the dishes. Three packs in and he cries “Dad, I got Vader!”, holding up a dice. I put down the tea towel and wandered over, expecting to point out that just because it has a picture of Vader it could be something else eg Force Choke (still very cool!). But no, he’d pulled the man himself and was already tallying up the points to see if he could field the Sith Lord and Kylo Ren from the starter deck (he can).
Dishes quickly forgotten I sat down and said it’s Dad’s turn to have a go. Three to four packs later and I saw the purple legendary symbol appear. Leaning in towards my son I said “It’s on”…and dropped Luke Skywalker on the table! :)
As it was nearing bed time I agreed to opening up half the box tonight and the rest tomorrow after his morning sports. If the first eighteen packs are anything to go by, I think we’ve done more than okay:
Darth Vader
Luke Skywalker
AT-ST
2x General Grievous (my 7 y/o daughter was particularly excited when these dice came out as she’s been watching the Clone Wars animated series with us and the general has featured heavily in recent episodes)
Sith Holocron
Bala-Tik
Nightsister
Tusken Raider
Leia Organa
Hired Gun
Force Protection
Scout
Force Training
Outpost
Diplomatic Immunity
IQA-11 Blaster Rifle
Infantry Grenades
To be fair, this wasn’t a cheap exercise (note that I was ordering from overseas):
First box (only sent 6 boosters) - US$132 - was refunded the difference, so total cost US$22.
Second box - US$108 - the cheapest price and free international shipping(!), but no stock after an order mixup and a two week wait. Refunded.
Third box - US$136 - two week wait, and was dispatched today (no tracking, so who knows when it’ll turn up).
Fourth box - US$164(!) - yikes, crazy expensive but I was desperate and most of the price difference was purely down to the mad shipping option I had to pick.
If I’d known it’d end up costing this much I might’ve considered stumping for a Team Covenant saga set (US$300 playset of all cards sans a second copy of legendaries) instead but I was much too late to the party (only discovered the game at Xmas) and even then shipping would add on another US$66.
Only a couple of our local retailers listed the game (with no stock when I started looking) and their prices for the booster box were in the US$130-140 range (without shipping), so I don’t feel I was gouged by store owners raising prices due to the global stock shortage. That’s just normal pricing down this way…
Plus the game’s great. It’s mostly me and my son, but my daughter likes to join in as my designated lucky dice roller and hands out the resource tokens when acting as the ‘banker’. Games are quick so we can usually squeeze one in after homework and before bed, and it strikes a nice balance complexity-wise - enough to keep me engaged, but not so much that my son can’t figure out good plays on his own. And everyone loves rolling those dice! :)
Isn’t it a great game? I got a game in on Wednesday, my Luke and Rey vs. a four man team of two Stormtroopers, a Nightsister, and Bala Tik. I won on the last possible action by using Riposte to remove my two shields and clown the final trooper standing. One action less and I would have been gunned down. It’s pretty amazing how fine the balance is.
Funny you should play that matchup as the first game we played after opening the booster box was my Luke, Rey, and Rebel Trooper vs my son’s General Greivous, Bala-Tik, Stormtrooper, and Nightsister. Yes, we both just exceeded the 30 point limit but my son was keen to see as many of the new characters as possible.
The Stormtrooper went early, followed by the Nightsister, but when Bala-Tik got rolling with dual F-11D rifles and a flamethrower Luke was cut down and Rey shortly after. My plucky Rebel Trooper did what he could but even a late Launch Bay couldn’t save him as I was already down to two or three cards at that point.
The second half of the booster wasn’t quite as impressive as the first, but we pick up the following dice:
Commanding Presence
Launch Bay
Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber
First Order Stormtrooper
General Veers
Nightsister (a second one)
Tusken Raider (a second one)
Flame Thrower
Admiral Ackbar
Rebel Trooper
Scout (a second one)
BB-8
Padme Amidala
DH-17 Blaster Pistol
Force Training (a second one)
Black Market
2x Jetpack
Did you remember to use the Rebel Trooper’s Guardian ability? Carefully used, that can help a lot! And hey, you got two jet packs- that forms the core of many yellow decks both Hero and Villain.
I used it once to extinguish a 5 damage attack by absorbing the only non-modified damage die but it didn’t occur to me till later that simply using it keep damage off Luke in general is its strongest play.
Funnily enough when I read your reply I was watching the Team Covenant video where they played with Phasma (who gives non-uniques guardian). That opened my eyes to how holding the guardian characters back until there was damage on the board before activating was what kept Phasma and her attachments alive.
was just shown this game today… man… what fun. A shame that it will be incredibly difficult to get in to it at the typical retail pricing though.
It is a lot of fun, though supply issues have dampened my enthusiasm somewhat.
There’s apparently another wave of reprints coming soon, right after the expansion drops. After the next reprint, though, they’re discontinuing Awakenings and expansions are only getting one printing. Hopefully these printings are big enough.
My 2 starter packs turned up yesterday. Shall give it a run out at the weekend.
What should I buy to top up the Ren and Rey packs?
Jump on any reasonably priced boosters you see with both feet. If you dig it enough that you think you want to play more, put in a pre-order for the next reprinting. Boosters and starter packs is all there is at the moment.
yea a pre-order but where at a hobby shop - ugh .
Having played this just once today - I’d think that you’d have to buy quite a few boosters just to get going with 2 decks! IF you could find a a starter set (or two) you’d be all set - but those from what I hear are even harder to find!
If you don’t mind learning the UI, the Destiny plug-in on Tabletop Simulator really is quite good, and there’s a huge number of games going on all the time.