The Star Wars universe has some incredible heroes. However, what makes them great are some very evil villains. In fact, some of the greatest science fiction villains of all time are those from “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” Six years ago, a new game was released that let players take on the roles of Disney villains. Then in 2002, Star Wars Villainous was released where players could play as one of five iconic villains as they competed to be the most… villainous. Since that time, an expansion was released to add an additional three villains to the mix. Now two more villains make their villainous debut, Darth Maul and Captain Phasma, in Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last.
What Is Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last?
Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last is a stand-alone expansion for the card-based Star Wars Villainous strategy game. It is designed for 2 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 40 minutes to play. With other Star Wars Villainous games, up to six players can take part in a game. In the game, players take on the role of one of two villains and work to achieve their unique objectives before the other villains. The game includes a hand management mechanic with some “take that” elements as well. It’s currently available from Target, your friendly local game store, as well as Amazon with a suggested retail price of $19.99 for a copy of the game. Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last was designed by Mike Mulvihill and published by Ravensburger, with illustrations by Johnny Morrow and Yuri Cameirana.
Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last Components
Here is what you get inside the box:
- 2 Villain movers
- 2 Villain decks (30 cards each)
- 2 Fate decks (15 cards each)
- 2 Sector boards
- 2 Villain guides
- 2 Reference cards
- 25 Credit tokens
- 25 Ambition tokens
- 15 Strength tokens
- 15 Pauldron tokens
The villains are represented by their own sculpted movers which are used to show the location where a villain is on their realm. Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last includes two unique movers.
Each villain has their own sector made up of locations from their story. The sectors consist of four locations, each with four symbols for actions which can be taken by the villain when at that location. There is also a deep space location where space ships can be played. The sector boards also list the objective for the villain to help remind you what you must do to win the game.
The villain cards are what you use to take control of your realm and work towards your objective. There are four basic types of villain cards in Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last. Allies are characters who help you and can attack heroes that other villains may play on your realm. The number in the bottom left corner is their strength. Items are also placed in your realm and provide lasting effects. Effect and Condition cards are played immediately and then discarded. The number in the upper left corner of a villain card is the cost you must pay in credits or ambition in order to use that card.
Fate cards are unique to each villain and are played against you by other villains. Effect and item cards function similarly to those types of villain cards. Hero cards are similar to ally cards in that they represent characters. However, unlike allies, heroes are trying to prevent you from achieving your objective. They also have a strength number in the lower left corner.
There is a villain guide included for each villain that explain in greater detail how that villain can win the game. It also offers tips to help you win and descriptions of how some of the cards in the villain deck work or interact with other cards. It is a good idea to read through the villain guide before you start playing. There is also a QR code on the back with a link to a quick video on how to play that specific villain.
The reference cards are useful reminders to use during play. One side lists all the action symbols from the sectors and explains each action. The opposite side lists the objectives for each of the two villains to remind you what your opponents must do to win.
Credit and Ambition tokens are used to represent two different types of currency in the game. There are also pauldron tokens used by Captain Phasma, and strength tokens which can be placed on allies or heroes to represent a modification to the strength listed on their cards due to effects during the game.
How to Play Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last
Ravensburger has created a video to quickly describe the rules for the Star Wars Villainous series. It can be found here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to be the first to fulfill your villain’s objectives.
Setup
At the start, each player chooses a villain and takes that villain’s sector board, mover, villain deck, fate deck, villain guide, and a reference card. Open up the villain board and position it in front of you. Place the mover on the portrait of your villain on the left side. Shuffle our villain deck and place it face down to the left of your realm board. Draw four cards from your villain deck to form your starting hand and place them face down in front of you. Now shuffle the cards in your fate deck and place it face down above your villain deck. Place the four types of tokens in separate piles in the center of the table so all players can reach it. Each player takes two power tokens for the start. Choose which player will go first, and then each player reads aloud their villain’s objective to the other players. You are now ready to play the game. Once they have done this, it is now the next player’s turn.
Gameplay
Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last is played in turns. During each player’s turn, they go through three main steps. First the move their villain move to a different location in their sector. They cannot stay in the same location. Next they perform as many actions as they wish that are available at that location. Finally, if the player has fewer than four cards in their hand, they draw cards from their villain deck until they have four in their hand.
Each location on the villain’s sector has four action symbols. There are seven different types of actions. The Gain Power action lets the player take a number of power tokens from the cauldron equal to the number in the symbol. The Play a Card action allows a player to play one card from their hand. They can play one card for each symbol of this type they have in their current location. First a player must pay the power cost in the upper left corner of the card by returning that many power tokens to the cauldron. Ally and item cards are played to the bottom of the realm at any of the four locations. Effects and condition cards are played and then discarded immediately. The Fate action lets you choose another villain to target. Draw two cards from their fate deck. Choose one to play and then discard the other. If you play a hero card, place it on the top of one of the locations so that it covers and blocks the top two action symbols. While blocked, the villain cannot take an action at that location. Move an Item or Ally lets you take an item or ally already in your realm and move it to another location. Move a Hero lets you move a hero from one location to another in your realm. The Vanquish action lets you defeat a hero at a location where you have one more more allies. The ally must strength equal or greater than the hero in order to remove them from your realm. You can also must multiple allies at the same location as the hero and combine their strength to defeat the hero. Any allies whose strength was used to defeat a hero are discarded. Finally, the Discard cards action lets you discard any number of cards from your hand. This is a good way to get rid of cards you don’t need so you can draw new ones at the end of your turn.
Game End
The game ends as soon as one villain achieves their objective. That player is the winner.
Why You Should Play Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last
The Star Wars Villainous series is one of my favorite games along with Disney Villainous and Marvel Villainous, separate Villainous lines which are not compatible with each other or Star Wars Villainous. First off, the Star Wars Villainous games look incredible and have a cool table presence. The art on each card is original, but based on the movies and television shows from the Star Wars universe. I like how each villain has different objectives and as a result plays a bit differently. The villains in Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last are no exception. Darth Maul plays differently from any other villain. To win as this Sith apprentice, you must attack a hero to weaken them, then make them your apprentice and build their strength back up so you can use your new apprentice to defeat another hero. Unlike other villains, Darth Maul does not defeat heroes with the vanquish action. Instead, he lowers their strength when he would normally defeat them and remove them from his sector.
Captain Phasma also has a unique way to win. This player must deploy stormtroopers to Captain Phasma’s sector and then promote them so there is a First Order stormtrooper officer at each location in the sector. There are four ranks of stormtroopers in the villain deck so some will not need to be promoted while others will need to be promoted three times so that you have a stormtrooper with a red pauldron at each location. Captain Phasma also has some villain cards for bring stormtrooper cards back into your hand from the discard pile.
Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last also has a great way for players to interact with one another. In keeping with the Star Wars timeline, Captain Phasma will never send Stormtroopers to attack Darth Maul and Maul will not try to require BB-8 as an apprentice. Instead, the use of fate cards is a creative way for players to hinder each other’s progress. When you take a fate action, you play cards from your opponent’s fate deck against them.
While Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last comes with only two villains, they are compatible with all of the other Star Wars Villainous games and expansions. These two bring the total number of villains in the series up to 10! By adding more villains, you can also bring the number of players up to six for a single game.
I really enjoyed playing as both Darth Maul and Captain Phasma. They are great additions to the line-up of villains and have some very unique ways to play and win. That is one of the reasons I like all of the Villainous games–each villain is unique and has their own way of playing and winning that reflects them. If you have never played Star Wars Villainous, then Revenge at Last is a great place to start. It is considered an expand-alone game since you can play it with two players by itself or use it to expand the series. If you already have some of the series of games, then I highly recommend adding Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last to your collection.
Click here to see all our tabletop game reviews.
To subscribe to GeekDad’s tabletop gaming coverage, please copy this link and add it to your RSS reader.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
