Star Wars Shatterpoint: How Turns and Struggles Work

Setup

1. Build a strike team with two squads of three units each. Every squad has a Primary Unit, a Secondary Unit, and a Supporting Unit, all from the era chosen by the Primary.

2. Check the points: the Secondary and Supporting Units’ combined point cost can’t exceed the squad points on the Primary Unit’s card.

3. Each player rolls five attack dice. The most criticals wins the first-player choice; ties go to the most strikes, then the most attack expertise results. The first player chooses a battlefield side.

4. The first player chooses a mission set from either strike team. Shuffle its three struggle decks, draw one card from each, then stack them face down with phase I on top.

5. Place the objective tokens inactive side up as shown on the mission card. Then arrange terrain on a 36 by 36 inch battlefield, mostly in the middle.

6. Each player shuffles their unit order cards with their Shatterpoint card to make an order deck. Add tokens to your Force pool equal to the total Force stats of your units.

7. Set the struggle token to zero. Each player places one momentum token on the eight space on their side.

8. Players deploy squads in turn, starting with the first player. Place the Primary character within Range 2 of your edge, then the rest of the squad within Range 1 of it. Choose stances and flip the first struggle card.

Turn by turn

• Reveal an order card

  Reveal the top card of your order deck, or take the card in reserve. A unit card activates that unit. A Shatterpoint card lets you choose any one of your units.

• Reserve a card

  Once per turn, you may spend 1 Force to put the revealed unit card in reserve. Reveal the next card and activate that unit instead. You can keep only one card in reserve.

• Activate the unit

  A unit can take up to two different actions: move, focus, combat, recover, take cover or use an ability. Every character in a multi-character unit takes the same action.

• Attack

  Choose a melee or ranged attack and a target. Both sides roll dice. Blocks cancel strikes, and each success left lets the attacker choose an option on the combat tree.

• Count objectives

  At the end of your turn, move the struggle token toward your momentum tokens by the number of active objectives you control. Skip this step on the game’s first turn.

• Check for defeat

  After activation, a unit with injury tokens equal to its Durability is defeated, and its characters leave the battlefield. When your order deck and reserve are empty, refresh the deck and your Force pool.

End of the game and scoring

Key rules

• Controlling an objective

  A character contests an active objective if it is within Range 2 and its unit is not wounded. The player with the most characters at the objective’s height controls it. If no characters are at that height, compare the number at other heights.

• Momentum

  Gain a momentum token when an enemy unit is wounded, when the struggle token stays on your opponent’s half after you move it, and, after the first turn, when it lands on the center space. That last one gives both players one.

• Attack dice

  Attack dice have eight sides: one critical face, three strikes, two expertise faces and two failures. Defense dice have six sides: two blocks, two expertise faces and two failures. Blocks cancel strikes, never criticals.

• Expertise charts and combat trees

  Add up expertise results and check the unit’s expertise chart. Each success lets the attacker choose a combat tree option, starting with the orange options on the far left.

• Wounded and injured

  A unit becomes wounded when its damage equals its Stamina, and the opponent gains momentum. At its next activation, it flips to injured and clears its damage. Each wounded or injured token adds 1 Force to an ability’s cost.

• Conditions

  Strained deals 3 damage after the next movement, action or attack. Disarmed removes attack expertise dice, Exposed removes defense expertise dice, and Pinned stops the next movement. Each condition lasts once.

• Will of the Force

  Each player’s Force pool starts with tokens equal to the Force stats of their units. Spend Force to reserve cards or use abilities. The whole pool refreshes when you refresh your order deck.