Star Wars Unlimited, the TCG set in a galaxy far far away, has announced a major rules overhaul ahead of its next set. Fantasy Flight Games explained on January 14 that the wording of card abilities would be made more consistent and the attack process would be simplified. The team said in a YouTube video (see below) that the tweaks were being made to reduce confusion.
"One of the areas that was the most unclear-even to many experienced players-was the timing around triggers during and after combat", FFG says in a blog post about the rules changes. "Between "When this unit is attacked", "When this unit deals combat damage", "When this unit attacks and defeats a unit", and "When this unit completes an attack", there were so many different ways that abilities were presented that it was hard to keep track of what each one meant." "And even more confusing was the fact that some of these abilities had their own distinct timing points, while others were simultaneous with each other", the publisher adds.
Star Wars Unlimited's approach to solving this problem is twofold. Firstly, phrases like "When this unit is attacked" have been changed to "On Defense", while "On Attack" covers many other situations. Additionally, the three-stage combat phase has been reduced to two stages. "On Attack" and "On Defense" abilities trigger in the first stage (declaring an attack). Meanwhile, dealing combat damage and completing the attack have been combined into a single phase.
Star Wars Unlimited will also introduce 'resourcing a card' as a verb. This wording will be consistent on all cards from A Lawless Time, the set releasing in March, onward. Fantasy Flight says all past cards have been internally updated to meet these new standards, though with the goal of "minimizing as much as possible how these cards change". These card updates will be shared on Star Wars Unlimited's website closer to the release of A Lawless Time.
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