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Six Rules To Remember
What you have learned from a single planet game is still the core rules for the
3-planet game. The six additional rules described below give you an idea of the
richness the 3-planet games brings!
1: Planet Victories and Deck Victories
In the 3-planet full game, the PLANET VICTORY condition is for you to win
2 of the 3 planets. The first player to win 2 planets wins and the game ends.
Remember: controlling
the current planet - when you have characters face-up there, and your opponent
has none (and no face down cards) - is checked at the END of every turn. That
is, after evening up.
Also worth remembering is that you only fight over one planet at a time -
called "the current planet". You battle on this planet until someone wins it or
someone surrenders (or someone runs out of cards and ends the game). Once decided,
the current plant is pushed to one side and all the characters and weapons there
are moved with it - they are considered "stranded".
The player who lost that planet then chooses which planet should be the next current
planet (it must be a planet not fought over yet) by getting that location from
anywhere in his cards (deck, discard pile or hand) and then takes the first turn.
The new planet begins the same way as your first planet - the hidden cards rule
must be observed for the first turn.
The DECK VICTORY conditions are still
the same for a 3-planet game. As soon as you draw your last card, your game ends
immediately - in a loss!
2: Stackable and Diamond 
Characters
Have a look at a normal Battle Droid or Royal Guard. Most of them have a diamond
before their name. This means each is one of many of this type. These characters
can be on all 3 planets at once as there are considered to be lots of them in
the universe.
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Now find a character without a diamond, like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Maul.
Have a look at the icon in the top left corner - see how it looks like a small
stack of cards - this means they are "stackable." They are considered to be unique
in the galaxy, and basically this means they can only be on one planet at a time.
Thus, if Obi-Wan is stuck on Tatooine and your game moves to Coruscant, you won't
be able to deploy another Obi-Wan card on Coruscant. Not unless you can evacuate
the one on Tatooine (explained below, rule 5).
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You can have more than one copy of a stackable character on the same planet.
This just means they get to fight more than once in a battle, kind of like having
multiple strikes. Thus if you have a copy of Obi-Wan on the current planet, you
may deploy other copies of him there. This is how they make a stack.
Characters and weapons
can be stackable. Remember - the only real difference this makes is whether you
can deploy them or not. |
As long as all other copies of that character or weapon are on the current
planet, then you can deploy more copies to the current planet. Once deployed though,
all the copies just fight and act like separate characters. They can be stacked
in the battle plan separately, they can use different weapons or battle cards,
and they are lost and take damage separately.
3: Changing The Scene
In the demonstration game, you may have
seen your opponent "change the scene" by placing his or her Tatooine location
on top of yours during their deploy step. This can be a strategic move if your
characters rely upon the location bonuses at a specific place.
You can only do this with a different location of the current planet. For
example, if you are battling at the Naboo: Gungan Swamp, then you may convert
it with Naboo: Theed Palace, but you CANNOT place a Tatooine or Coruscant (or
indeed another Naboo: Gungan Swamp) location on top of it.
4: Surrender
Sometimes, things just go badly for you. Like when you have one character
on the current planet while your opponent has a small armada of characters and
weapons smiling smugly at you from the other side of the table.
At the end of your turn, after you even up, you have the choice to "surrender"
the current planet. This awards the planet to your opponent, moving it and all
characters and weapons there to one side (stranded). Having surrendered, you get
to choose the next planet you wish to fight on. You also get the first turn there.
Surrender is a strategy that can work to your advantage. It lets you avoid
a large amount of breakthrough damage, traps a selection of your opponent's stackable
characters, and can be done so you can move to a new planet because you have all
the right characters in hand to win it quickly. Thus, strategic surrender can
be a game turning point if done correctly. Just remember not to surrender two
planets in a game! :)
5: Evacuation
So you have characters and weapons stranded on a decided planet. If they are stackable
characters or weapons then you may not be able to deploy the other copies you
have in your hand to the current planet. This can severely hamper a theme deck
(for example, an Obi-Wan and Anakin deck that relies on multiple copies of the
same characters). Or maybe your deck is getting dangerously low on cards.
Getting
these stranded characters and weapons back into your deck is where starships come
in. During your deploy phase, you may play a TRANSPORT starship to any planet
for free. This means that you are attempting to evacuate all characters and weapons
from that planet back into your deck. You can only play one transport to do this
and it must resolve before you can play any other card. You may attempt one transport,
resolve it, and then attempt another transport on a different planet in the same
deploy step though. Playing a starship is free (no deploy cost) | 
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When an evacuation is declared, your opponent has one opportunity to blow
that transport out of the sky before it escapes. If he or she is holding a STARFIGHTER
in their hand, then they may play that immediately. Starfighters are different
from transports as they have a "destiny draw" icon (Watto's Chance Cube) in their
power box.
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If a starfighter has been played, the space battle now resolves. From the Menace
Of Darth Maul set, the transports are power 5. Starfighters from that set are
power 2 + destiny draw or 5 + destiny draw. The starfighter player draws destiny
and compares the total starfighter's power against the transport's power.
If the transport's power is less, that transport and all characters and weapons
aboard are placed in the transport players discard pile.
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Also, the transport was lost in battle, so the transport player must take
the transport's damage number by losing cards from the top of his or her deck.
If the transport's power is greater than the starfighter's, then the evacuation
was a success. The starfighter is discarded, and the starfighter player takes
the damage listed on the starfighter card. The transport is discarded (it is like
a battle card, only one use) but all evacuated characters and weapons are shuffled
back into the transport players draw deck.
If a tie (or if no starfighter was played to stop the evacuation), then any
starship is discarded and the transport player shuffles characters and weapons
back into their deck (successfully evacuated).
Transporting is risky! But the benefit gained can be great. Note also
that even when you fail an evacuation, it still removes those characters and weapons
from the planet - so that may solve your stackable character dilemma anyhow!
6. Options Before Evening Up
Immediately before evening up on your turn,
you have two options. (a) Discard any locations in your hand. (b) Discard your
entire hand. These options both clear up room to allow you to draw more
cards in your even-up step. Sometimes only a whole new hand will do!.
These six rules are really all you need to know to graduate form the one-planet
game to the full strategy of the 3-planet game. They are all described in your
rulebook also. Go forth and protect the galaxy Young Jedi (or conquer the galaxy,
Dark Sith Lord!). Our next strategy article will focus on some of the
themes and strategies for building your own deck. Stay tuned!
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