Board Game Review: Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit

I’m going to front-load this review: The Queen’s Gambit is my favorite board game.

Released in 2000, long out of print, and based on a fairly reviled Star Wars movie, it doesn’t seem like it should have much going for it. But Avalon Hill had an incredible idea on their hands: Take the final battle from The Phantom Menace and depict all four battles playing out simultaneously. Players must choose how to split their resources, stacking cards to determine what order their actions will go in.

On one end of the battlefield, the Gungans work to repel the Trade Federation army from pushing through their shields and wiping out their forces. Within the palace, Queen Amidala, her decoy, and Captain Panaka, along with a whole host of Palace Security Forces, attempt to fight past the droid troops and seize the throne room at the top of the three-dimensional board. Anakin, on a separate board and represented by a Naboo Starfighter, flies through swarms of Droid starfighters to destroy the Droid Control Ship. Finally, the Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, fight Darth Maul over the ventilator shaft.

At the beginning of each turn, players refresh their hand of cards, then choose which four cards they’ll be playing, and in which order. Cards are split into two categories: Those dealing with the Gungan Battlefield and Anakin’s Space Adventure, and The Palace and Duel of the Fates. The decisions you make have to be planned four moves in advance, because both players will reveal their chosen cards one by one until they are spent. Now, I love programing games. Robo Rally and Colt Express both come to mind. I love being forced to think multiple moves ahead, and then being devastated to realize you didn’t plan for a certain situation and getting screwed, so I really love it here. Luckily, each card usually has a couple of options on it, so you’ll never be completely screwed over by your choices.

Destroying complete units on the Gungan Battlefield side will give you extra cards to play on the following turn, meaning you’re now playing 5 or 6 cards in the subsequent turn rather than 4. It can be pretty devastating to watch as your opponent gets in three extra attacks with Darth Maul on the Jedi with no way for you to fight back.

Within the Palace, the Queen and her troops can use window ledge movement to skip whole floors of the battle and try to secure the throne room early. There are two identical queens, differentiated in color (purple and red). The Naboo player knows which is the real queen and which is the decoy. Killing the real queen causes the troops in the palace to half their movement as they’re demoralized, so keeping her safe is priority.

The Duel of the Fates is an important battle to keep track of, because when either side wins, whoever remains gets to move into the battlefield to assist. All three of the combatants are devastatingly powerful, so you want their help. In my most recent game, Darth Maul slaughtered both Jedi, with barely a scratch, so he ended up mowing through the palace guard Darth-Vader-In-Rogue-One-style. If both Jedi manage to defeat Maul, the Trade Federation doesn’t stand a chance. Usually, only one Jedi escapes alive to assist.

Finally, in Anakin Skywalker’s Let’s-Try-Spinning-That’s-A-Good-Trick Adventure, Anakin works as a timer on the game. There are multiple spaces he must move through, with the Trade Federation player placing droid swarms in his way to slow him down. Time is on the TF’s side, so keeping Anakin from getting to the end track is key. If Anakin gets to the end, all droids are removed from the battlefield. The Trade Federation can only win if they have a majority or equality in the throne room. There are two Niemodians in the room, meaning that if three or more Naboo Forces are alive in the palace when Anakin shuts down the Droid Control Ship, the Naboo win. The TF’s best bet is to overwhelm the forces within the palace, make Darth Maul win, and keep the Naboo out of the throne room.

I rarely spend 700 words simply describing a game, but this one’s worth it. I absolutely love the game, with all the detail, the strategy and planning. There are a ton of minis, all well detailed. Over the years, my board has become a little warped, but I don’t mind. You can rarely find the game for less than $200 online, so it’s definitely worth playing on Tabletop Simulator on Steam if you have that. I’ve also heard that the new Star Wars Risk is a good imitation of it, mimicking the Battle of Endor, with some Risk die-roll elements thrown in. That version’s pretty cheap, so I’ll be picking it up in the next couple of months and giving it a try.

If you happen to find this one in a thrift shop, or manage to make a good trade to get a hold of this game, do it immediately. You won’t regret it.