Star Wars: Outer Rome Review
Star Wars: Outer Rome Review
Star Wars: Outer Rome is a game about nameless smugglers and mercenaries who build their reputation and shame to become the greatest outcasts of the far corners of the galaxy!
The Star Wars theme combination from the Fantastic Flight Games seems to match the design perfectly and in this review we will see if this is really the case.
A brief overview of Star Wars: Outer Rome
Star Wars: Outer Rome is best described as a “pick up and deliver” game with added elements of gambling , player power and advancement. The game was designed by Corey Konieczka and Tony Fanchi and released by Fantasy Flight Games.
FFG is a well-known company of Twilight Empire , Arkham Horror , and several popular board games based on well-established IPs such as Marvel , Battlestar Galactica, and The Lord of the Rings.
Outer Rome is not a very complicated game, but the playing time of 120 to 180 minutes is unusually long for such a game and may not be to everyone’s liking. However, if you are a fan of Star Wars Universe, you will love it a lot in this board game.
Unpacking Star Wars: Outer Rome
Under the lid of the box, which shows the Millennium Falcon avoiding shots inside the asteroid belt, there are many components you can see:
- 12 ship's sheets
- 4 player boards with 4 plastic glory badges
- 16 reputations and 22 contact tokens
- 16 patrol tokens
- 8-character stands with 8 plastic stands
- 60 credit and 40 tokens for damage
- 1 Reference policy and 1 policy
- 70 meetings and 70 market cards
- 53 data banks and 10 AI cards
- 8 characters and 4 reference cards
- 6 Map tiles
- 6 Cubes
- 12 chips goals
- 2 Map end caps
Starting from the top, we have the FFG catalog, rule reference, and policy. I won’t go into detail about the rules, but both books are well printed and have clear and sharp font text.
Then you have the pieces of cardboard cut out. The direction of the artwork combined with the color palette creates very vibrant and striking images, but the cardboard is a bit thin.
It’s not as noticeable on smaller pieces, but the game and game board seem a bit weak. I don’t think this will affect the long-term durability of the components, but it’s something I’m not a fan of anyway.
Players' advancement boards have a 3D design so that the sliders and pins fit in place and don't slide around. I’m a big fan of these, to the point that I started by 3D printing my own overlay pieces, which I placed on slippery progression boards.
The cards have a reflective glossy surface, otherwise they are well crafted and designed. The cubes are custom made and look really cool, and apart from the artwork, nothing else stands out within the components.
Overall, I would rate Star Wars: Outer Rome components as useful. There are no significant errors, but there is definitely room for improvement, especially in the choice of material for cutting components.
How to play Star Wars: Outer Rome
The goal of the game is to collect enough points of fame to become the new legend of the galaxy. Since the game is FGG, the policy contains more exceptions than rules, but I will explain the main concepts so that you can better understand what the game is for.
Game setup
Instead of being a square, the plate creates an arc that represents the outer edge of the galaxy. Assemble the six pieces of board and create a board, then place the patrol chips in their designated places.
Throw to determine the first player. They are also the first person to choose a character and a ship, and the other players draw clockwise.
Available are: Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, IG-88, Bossk, Doctor Aphra, Jyn Erso and Ketsu Onyo. Each character has a special setting, so follow the instructions on the character cards to determine your starting location and position with different fractions.
When turning
Starting with the first player, the game runs clockwise, with each in turn taking three steps (actions).
The planning step allows you to do one of the following: collect credits, move around the map, recover damages, or use one of the special abilities of the cards. You will often use the move action to achieve smuggling or reward targets.
You can use the action step to trade with other players, buy tickets at the market, drop a prize or a load you have collected along the way, or save an action. Trading is an interesting concept that allows you to share rewards, jobs and even crew members.
To complete trading, both players must be in the same room, currency trading is not restricted and relies on non-binding verbal agreements.
The meeting step leads to a story-based situation where you have to solve one of the available meetings:
- Patrol Encounter - Get involved in the fight against the patrol. If you have a negative position in the faction that controls the area, you need to fight them.
- Meet your space - draw a meeting card that matches the space you are currently occupying.
- You come across contact - an act that usually brings you a new crew member.
- Solve the ability to meet - as the name suggests, simply solve the ability written on the meeting card.
fight
A battle between a player and a player is a rare occurrence, as most fights involve fighting for a prize or against a patrol. Fighting on the ground depends on the attack and health of your character, while fighting a ship uses statistics from your vessel.
The fight is solved by simply throwing the dice, and both the attacker and the defender can be injured. The attacker rolls a number of dice equal to their attack value and adds up the score. The defender does the same, followed by the distribution of damages.
Some battles end after one throw, while others require a winner to be declared before they can end. If both players throw the same amount of damage, the attacker wins.
Skills testing
Star Wars: Outer Rome has a lot of skill tests that your characters have to pass. At the bottom of the character or crew card, you’ll find what skills your crew is good at.
When you come across a skill test, you do it even if you don’t have a specialized crew member, although your chances of success will be less. The skill levels are: unskilled, skilled and highly qualified.
Awards and jobs
At its core, Star Wars: Outer Rome is a “pick up and deliver” game, which means you’ll make a lot of travel between planets to deliver cargo.
The first step to finding a bounty is to remove the card from the market deck . The player must then find a target and fight against it to complete the task. Jobs work in a similar way, but you’ll need to do a skill test instead of a fight. Just like awards, there are also several steps to successfully complete a job and earn fame.
End of the game
As soon as one player earns his tenth token of fame, the game ends and he is declared the winner. In addition to completing rewards and jobs, you can earn fame by fulfilling personal goals, shipping goals, winning a high-level patrol battle, smuggling, and using luxury cards for the market.
Your first game Star Wars: Outer Rome
Writing down all the rules will be a problem for the first players , but if you take things slowly and patiently, everyone will learn by the end of the first session.
As said, it is better to start with only two players and present 3rd and 4th players in separate sessions to reduce downtime. Outer Rome is a long game to start and a group of four players will spend more than 4 hours in the first session.
Star Wars: Outer Rome is not an experience on the tracks, but it will somehow always take you in a certain direction. The best way to enjoy the game (and win) is to play to the advantage of your character. Boba Fett is your bounty hunter, Han Solo is great at smuggling, Jyn is more versatile, which is great for completing quests.
Advantages disadvantages
Advantages:
- Role Playing Aspect
- Well used theme
The biggest advantages of Star Wars: Outer Rome are the theme and the ability to Roleplay your character.
Some games use the theme to the fullest, others use it to increase sales, but Outer Rim is in the middle. The good thing is that playing the role of your character will help you win the game. A smuggler is not good at fighting, so if you’re trying to fight patrols and rewards, you’re setting chances against yourself.
On the other hand, I wish the tool cards were character-specific, as it’s just weird to see Han Solo use Bob’s jet pack or Han’s gun in Bossk’s hands. Nevertheless, there is a lot of interesting knowledge in the game that a serious Star Wars fan can appreciate.
Weaknesses:
- Playing is too long
- Anticlimactic end
- Reliance on luck
We’ve all played board games that you just wish were over, and there are usually those that have only personal goals as a yardstick to end the game. Without some form of time limit, an inexperienced group of players will have sessions that are too long and the ending is nowhere to be seen.
Playing up to 8 points of fame helps to some extent, but the game designer didn’t plan on playing the game after the first session.
There is also the issue of RNG regarding almost everything you do. Performing skill tests depends on dice rolls, fighting depends on dice rolls, and drawing any card depends on luck. Put it all together and as a player you can only improve your overall chances, but you are never guaranteed success.
TL; DR
Star Wars: Outer Rome is not a perfect game, but if you are a big Star Wars fan and want to play another board game inspired by its theme, Outer Rome is a good option!
The game encourages you to play your character and not yourself, and although luck largely depends on your success in the game, playing to the strength of your character should lead you to victory.
The rules may seem daunting at first, but Outer Rim is actually a fairly simple game that won’t burden you with too much mechanics. With a 2-3 hour playing time, it’s the perfect evening game to enjoy with friends who are also fans of Star Wars Space.
Conclusion: a verdict?
Through the review sections, I tried to be as neutral as possible and find aspects that will appeal to most players and fans of the universe. Star Wars: Outer Rome is by no means a bad game, but it’s also not great. Given how generous the community is when it comes to rating board games, a community rating of 7.7 seems appropriate.
Why am I not a fan? I’m not a big Star Wars fan, but other than the theme, Outer Rome does a lot that doesn’t suit my desires.
First, there is a large amount of RNG here and very little in terms of mitigation of happiness-based elements. The fact that with enough preparation you can’t almost guarantee an outcome can quickly become frustrating.
Few will find a problem with the scoring system, but I’ve almost completely lost patience for games that have “scored X winning points” as the only scenario for the end of the game. Some games can be protracted, as luck is not on anyone's side and fame is slowly gaining.
Let me repeat - Star Wars: Outer Rome is a decent "pick up and deliver" game with a lot of content that will be enjoyed by fans of space, but I'm just not selling it.
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We hope you enjoyed our review of Star Wars: Outer Rome. What is your opinion on this sci-fi space exploration game? Have you played any other board games on the theme of Star Wars? Drop a comment in the box below. We would love to hear from you!
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