Epic Duels is a light, fun romp for two to six players, playing alone or in teams. The object is to eliminate the opposing major characters. In the box you will find 2 double-sided game boards, 12 character charts, 31 small figures and a whopping 378 cards (6 reference cards and a deck for each major/minor character pair in the game).

Each player controls one of 12 sets of characters (Yoda and 2 Clone Troopers, Obi-Wan Kenobi and 2 Clone Troopers, Mace Windu and 2 Clone Troopers, Luke Skywalker and Leia, Anakin Skywalker and Padme, Han Solo and Chewbacca, Darth Vader and 2 Storm Troopers, Darth Maul and 2 Battle Droids, Boba Fett and Greedo, Jango Fett and Zam Wesell, the Emperor and 2 Royal Guardsmen, Count Dooku and 2 Super Battle Droids). You get your character pawns, chart, damage markers and deck of cards. Pick one of the four boards and let the duel begin!

Each major character has a predefined start space on each board, and minor character(s) start adjacent to their major one. A character chart records the number of hits that character has taken - too many and the character is out of the game. If it is your main character, you lose. You start the game with four cards in hand and on your turn you move (optional) and use two actions. Movement is accomplished by rolling the die, which will show 3, 4 or 5 and possibly the word "all". You may move your character orthogonally up to the number of spaces shown. If "all" appears with the number, you may move all your characters. You cannot move through obstacles or enemies, but you can move through friendly characters. You cannot finish on an occupied space. You then take your two actions, chosen from a list of three - draw a card, play a card or heal a character. Cards form the heart of the game - the actual attack and defense of the duel. There are three types of cards: Combat cards, Power Combat cards and Specials. Combat cards have either a major or minor character pictured on them as well as an attack and defense value. They can only be used by the character pictured on them. The Power Combat cards will have only an attack or defense value on them as well as some special action that can be taken. The Special cards have no attack or defense value, but have instead a powerful action that can be taken. For example, the Yoda deck has 10 Yoda Combat cards, 9 Clone Trooper Combat cards, 5 Power Combat cards and 7 Specials. Four of Yoda's Power Combat cards allow him to draw a card after playing them, a powerful benefit since cards can be tight in this game. This is in addition to the attack or defense value. Yoda has three types of Specials: Insight(2) allows Yoda to look at an opponents hand and pick a card that must then be discarded; Force Push(2) allows Yoda to move an enemy to any space on the board and gives that enemy 3 damage; and Force Lift(3) which places an enemy on his side - he can no longer attack, defend or move until he discards 3 cards.

So back to taking actions. Drawing a card is just that, adding to your hand up to a maximum of 10 cards. Healing a character applies to your major character. After a minor character has been eliminated, their Combat cards are useless and as an action may be discarded one at a time for healing your major character one point at a time. In practice this doesn't happen unless these are the only cards in your hand, as it's better to attack when you can. The third action is playing a card and attacking an enemy. Unless you have a ranged attack (as indicated by a gun on your character chart), you must be adjacent to your enemy. You announce your attack and play a card face down, say my Yoda Attack 4. Your opponent then has the option to defend by playing a card face up, a Storm Trooper Defend 1. You then reveal your card, subtract the defense (if any) from the attack number (4-1) and if positive, mark up that much damage (3! One more hit and that Storm Trooper is eliminated!). Ranged attacks are only allowed orthogonally or on the diagonal. And that's it. Keep dueling until the winner is left standing. A two-player game lasts about 15 minutes, multi-player games 30-45 minutes. There are additional rules for team play and a "Master" version (for 2 or 4), whereby you control two major characters.

The components are up to the usual Hasbro standards and I think this is a good game for the money and what it is. A bad card draw, can see you eliminated without ever having a chance to defend or strike back, but so what? It's over in a matter of minutes. Shuffle the deck and play again. Unlike Jedi Unleashed, this one will hold the attention of adults and kids.

Epic duels, in my opinion, is one of the most under acknowledged games ever. I was introduced to this game back in 2004 by a few buddies of mine and I have been addicted to it ever since. Even after purchasing and playing about fifty other highly rated games on Funagain, it is still my favorite hands down. Sadly, this game is not manufactured anymore. My girlfriend and I actually had to buy it off of Ebay for about seventy bucks, but it was well worth it. My friends and I enjoy the simplicity of the game all the while having enough strategy as well as luck to keep just about everyone involved. While most games only last about a half an hour, it’s fun enough for everyone to want to play a few more.

I've honestly clocked over half a thousand games on it already in a two-year time span, and it's still a blast to play. While people may believe the dark side characters are over-powered a few of my buddies and I have proven this concept to be false. Three friends of mine and I decided to pair off using the same partner for a full semester, playing over 80 games in this time span, switching between the dark and light sides after each victory. We found out that we were deadlocked with the same amount of victories, thus proving this assumption to be false.

If you have a chance to purchase this game I would highly recommend it. It’s simple. It’s fun. It requires a level of strategy. And it involves enough luck to keep you coming back for more and more and more and more and more.

- L.T.

All the reviews do a good job of describing the pros and cons of the game system and its components. ...But I can't resist adding my .02, so here's a summary:

SYSTEM:

• GOOD POINTS:
  • Easy to learn and play.
  • Duels take only 15-20 minutes to play, on average.
  • Can support 2-6 players (more, if you want really long games).
  • Robust system offers open-ended possibilties for scenarios, house rules, and new characters.
  • FUN!
• BAD POINTS:
  • Can take hours to play if 6-8 players run a single character deck apiece.
  • Some characters (like the Fetts) can't seem to shake their movie fate (let experienced players handle these characters).
  • Dirt-simple rules and turns of fate that hearken to simpler children's games a turn-off for some.

COMPONENTS:

• GOOD POINTS:
  • 31 Reasonably well-painted and molded figures for the price. Star Wars RPGers and miniatures gamers rejoice!
  • Excellent board and card art that support the theme well.
  • Pieces in scale to those of The Queen's Gambit (for anyone desirous of making new, custom decks for Epic Duels using those pieces).
  • Parts and pieces encourage gamers to 'kit-bash' their own figures and boards.
• BAD POINTS:
  • Cards and boards may not stand up well to repeated plays (but repalcement games can still be had relatively cheaply. A second set for your collection wouldn't hurt, and you still save money over most Euro titles).
  • Flimsy box and inserts. (Picky, picky!)

I've been playing this game for over a year now and it's still fresh, engaging, and fun. If you're a gamer that loves Star Wars, 'fight' games, and chances for light-hearted fun in the process, this game will be the summer blockbuster of your collection.

As a side note, many fans of this game have been busy since the game first appeared designing new boards, decks, and either digging up their old RPG miniatures or creating custom ones for their new creations. Some have built 3-D game boards, borrowed figs from other play sets, or even 'super-size' their games by playing with 3.75" action figures. All this testifies to the joy that the game brings to many of its fans. It seems that if you like this game, you LOVE this game.

In fact, a search of the internet will bring up a few fan sites for the game as well as various reviews and catalog entries. There's is even an active group on Yahoo! Groups for the truly fanatic. So, lots of support for this game exists and is being created by its fans, even though the game is often listed as out of print. If that's important to you, the game is a remarkable bargain.

Get a copy or two for your collection before it's too late!

First of all dont listen to Jonathan he obviously isn't good enough to play as the dark side. Both sides are perfectly balanced...but who really cares? The whole point of the game is to try out any possibility you can think of. The best part of the game is that you can play teams of mixed light and dark. You can even attach 2 boards together in a 3 vs. 3 game. Some characters cant really defend, others cant really attack. Some are ranged and some aren't. It's using these differences along with the cards you draw, that allows you to win. These characteristics are especially important in 1 vs. 1 games. The artwork is also amazing but it doesn't really enhance the game.