Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with a new board game review. Today, we’re talking Star Wars. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters puts gamers in the role of bounty hunters, trying to get the best contracts and the highest valued targets. Players have three goals which will help them earn points: capturing targets, completing contracts, and purchasing droids and crates at the Jawa market. Can you be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy?
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a light and quick strategy game. Since it uses the closed drafting and simultaneous action selection mechanisms, it takes little time to play. It’s great for a younger audience and Star Wars fans alike. Before we get into the game flow and the review, let’s get some of the technical jargon out of the way first.
The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Frederic Henry
Publisher: Zygomatic
Date Released: 2024
Number of Players: 2-6
Age Range: 8 and up
Setup Time: Less than 5 minutes
Play Time: 20 minutes
Game Mechanisms
Action Points
Card Management
Closed Drafting
Set Collection
Simultaneous Action Selection
Game Setup
1) Place the four Zone cards (that are decks of Targets, Bounty Hunters, Contracts, and Jawa Market). Sort the cards into four decks according to their color and shuffle them separately. Place them down above the matching Zone cards. Leave a space for a discard pile below each Zone card.
2) Place the Imperial Credits conveniently nearby.
3) The player who watched a Star Wars movie becomes the “Guild Master” and receives the Player Aid Card. The Player Aid denotes the flow of the game. All players may refer to the Player Aid during the game. Honestly, and this is Kyra speaking, not the rulebook, I prefer to forgo the Guild Master role and allow every player to refer to the Player Aid. I don’t know why the game doesn’t have more than one copy.
4) Each player draws one card from each of the four decks to form a starting hand of four cards. Never show the cards in your hand to another player.
Game Flow
Each game turn is divided into three consecutive steps. All players perform each step simultaneously:
Step 1: Draw a card
Draw a fifth card from any of the decks and add it to your hand.
Step 2: Choose a card
Choose a card from your hand and do one of two things: Sell a Card, or Play a Card.
A. Sell a Card
Discard the chosen card (placing it face-up on the discard pile below the matching deck’s Zone card) and collect 1 Imperial Credit.
B. Play a Card
Place the chosen card in front of you, face up.
If no cost is shown on the card, activate it immediately by placing it upright (vertically).
If the card has a cost (Jawa Market card), you must pay that cost to activate the card. If you are unable to activate the card immediately, or prefer not to, reserve it by placing it on its side (horizontally).
Step 3: Pass Your Hand
Give the remaining four cards in your hand to the player on your left and collect the four cards passed to you by the player on your right. When all players have completed these three steps, a new turn begins. Repeat the three steps in sequence until the last turn of the game.
Game End
The game end triggers when one or more players capture four targets. Players finish the current turn, then play two more full turns, and finally tally up their scores. The player with most points wins.
Review
I love the small amount of control Star Wars: Bounty Hunters gives its players. Most closed drafting games deal all the cards of a deck, and players will then pass the cards around until all the cards run out. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters adds a simple twist. Players draw a card from any of the four decks. If you need a target, draw a target. If you want another bounty hunter for extra firepower, draw from the bounty hunter deck. Do you already have a lot of captured targets in your display? Start drawing from the contract deck. It’s simple. Clean. And I totally stole this gaming aspect with one of my latest designs, Monster Chef.
Ultimately, this simple twist doesn’t give players enough control. You still need to draw into the card you want. But it gives players the feeling of more control. It’s psychological, and sometimes, that’s all that counts. I’d love to see more closed drafting games include a draw mechanism. Clearly, I do. The rest of the game plays out like a standard closed card drafting game. Nothing too complicated. This makes Star Wars: Bounty Hunters a good game for newer and/or younger board gamers. But I still think more seasoned board gamers won’t turn up their noses to Star Wars: Bounty Hunters. If you love Star Wars, this is a solid Star Wars game.
I also like how the game splits its cards into four categories; those would be the four draw decks. While some of the joy of stiffing the person you’re handing your old hand to with bad cards wanes, the option to draw into what I need is invaluable. It’s more forgiving. But you will, most likely, run out of cards in a deck or two and will be forced to draw from other decks. Again, this isn’t the worst thing. Players can sell a card to the bank, and every Imperial Credit a player has at the end of the game is worth a victory point. If you don’t find what you want, sell a card.
I mentioned this in the setup, but it bears repeating. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters needs more than one Player Aid. The “role” of “Guild Master” is unnecessary if everyone has a Player Aid. The game already has well over 200 cards. Why do you not print out five extra Player Aids? This is a small thing, but it left me baffled.
I enjoyed my time with this title. I may not break out Star Wars: Bounty Hunters all the time, but it’s a good filler plus game. I’ve played this game the most while waiting for others to show up for game nights. It provides enough strategy, functions as a warm-up game, and we can finish the game in under twenty minutes.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters is a great introductory card-drafting game with a slight twist. While I may want to play another card-drafting game over this one, I’ll gladly play Star Wars: Bounty Hunters if someone brings it to the table. It’s great for new gamers and a good Star Wars game.
