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The Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon reveals were seen this weekend, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised–but still concerned.
I have two issues with Star Wars Shatterpoint, both of which were addressed, but only one convincingly so.
The first issue I have with Star Wars Shatterpoint is that I have been afraid, given the promotional images we’ve seen, that the game is going to be based around Star Wars Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, the two Star Wars series that I am least familiar with (and least interested in). There have been a lot of shots of Ahsoka, which is great, but for someone who was raised with the original trilogy, I have my favorites and that’s not it.
Fortunately, I’m pleased to see that in the Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon reveals, they showed that there was going to be significantly more to the game than just the periphery series–and there’s even a couple of shots that hit right at the heart of what I want.
But let’s take a look at the Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon reveals. (Forgive the grainy images–they’re taken from the livestreaming Twitch event at Adepticon.)
Now, we’ve got Mace Windu and his retinue, which is awesome because we can all use a little more Mace Windu in our lives. And they even do a very good job of recreating Samuel L. Jackson’s face, which is more than I can say for what they do for Luke Skywalker a little later on.
Now, I have to admit that as someone who missed A New Hope in the theaters, but have very clear memories of watching Empire Strikes Back at a drive-in at age four, I am not nearly as familiar with these new characters as I should be. Fortunately, I had my son to help me through it, and he identified this as Darth Maul’s brother and the Night Sisters. All of which is cool.
I’m a little dismayed that Darth Maul’s Brother’s lightsaber isn’t perfectly straight in a promotional image, which makes me worry about what the less polished mass-market models will be like, but maybe he was just a limited run resin model, which are finicky.
Now, this one (well, one of them) I knew, because Cad Bane makes an appearance in the Book of Boba Fett. And he seems very cool. And I like that they’re expanding not just into the animated Clone Wars and Rebels but also into the Disney+ series. Good stuff here, even though I don’t know all of it.
Still, when are we going to see something from the movies? I was beginning to think they didn’t have the rights to the movies.
Now this is cool, because I really loved Kenobi, and I like the Inquisitors. These are the first models out of all the models that we have seen so far that I am eager to guy and to paint. I’m hoping to see more like them, and the Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon reveals were eager to provide.
This is more of what I wanted to see: Padme Amidala and her retinue of handmaidens. While they are not exactly painted like the handmaidens of Phantom Menace, They do still look like a TON of fun to paint, and we’re finally getting something from the movies to sink our teeth into.
But still I had to think: is this all? Periphery characters?
I was wrong.
That, my friends, is Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, which means we are firmly planting our feet into the galactic rebellion. Which is great, in my book. This is what we wanted to see. I want characters from the movies, from time periods that take place during the movies. (Though, spoiler, there is still no sign in either Star Wars Shatterpoint or in the Adepticon reveals for Star Wars Legion that they’re touching the sequels.)
Yep, there’s Darth Vader and he looks good. And the Stormtroopers look better than the smaller-scale Star Wars Legion Stormtroopers. (While Star Wars Legion’s scale is between 32mm and 35mm, Star Wars Shatterpoint’s is supposed to be 40mm to 50mm.)
But, there’s more from the movies, and not who you’d expect.
Yes, Ewoks! And, judging from what we know of the multiple figures on a single bases (something they’ve also done for Droid Troopers) these are really easy to kill. (They showed off Ewoks in the Star Wars Legion preview as well, and those seemed to be easy to kill, but also came with a lot of ambush and trap cards, which seems flavorful and cool.
And yes, I love Return of the Jedi and teddy bears fighting AT-STs, so don’t @ me.
This is exactly what I wanted to see. Not only do we have characters from the movies, but we have character from specific scenes in the movies. We have Leia and Lando in disguise. We have R2-D2 serving drinks. We have Luke with a face that really doesn’t look like Luke’s (see my above note).
If Star Wars Shatterpoint is going to continue with this, then I will be all in on this game. Sure, the prequels are fine, but bringing it to the OG characters is what I want to see.
We also got teases for the future, including Han Solo and Iden Versio among others.
Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon Reveals: The Real Question
So the question that I’ve been struggling with most over Star Wars Shatterpoint is: why? They’ve already got a Star Wars miniatures game in Star Wars Legion, and do we really need a new one? We can see that that Star Wars Legion has tended to stick more closely to the movies, though they do dabble in Clone Wars and Rebels. You can still get Cad Bane in Star Wars Legion. Is it just a question of “large army vs small skirmish”? Because that’s how it seems to be framed, but… Star Wars Legion has never struck me as large army. It’s large skirmish. Sure, you can have vehicles, even AT-STs, but you’re not generally playing ship-to-ship combat.
Of course, Atomic Mass Games have kind of made a business of squeezing everything they can get out of Star Wars: There’s X-Wing, which is dogfighting. There’s Armada, which is capital ships. There’s Star Wars Legion, which is ground combat. And then there’s Star Wars Shatterpoint which really seems to be “Marvel Crisis Protocol but in Star Wars.” (There’s also Imperial Assault, which seems to be the board game version, all of which seems like cannibalization.)
Still, the Star Wars Shatterpoint Adepticon reveals were enough to get me interested. I’m not ready to invest $169 in the basic set, but I am willing to give it a chance when it comes out.
Honestly: the Jabba’s Palace shot is what did it for me. I wasn’t on board until then, but now I’m ready to play.